Organizing my daily workflow Apr27 '07

Each day I begin to organize my workflow in the same manner.

In order to be productive, it's important to free your mind of clutter.

Clear out inbox

The email inbox can be overwhelming, which can quickly lower your morale and motivation. It's best to clear it out before you start anything. Don't leave pending items just sitting there. Move them elsewhere. At most, there should only be 5-10 items in your inbox, and those are things you're gonna take care of immediately.

Clean off your desktop

The desktop is typically a haven for miscellaneous documents and files - things downloaded from email or the internet, with no organization or structure.

A clean desktop leads to an uncluttered mind.

If you absolutely need to save each file, get them off the desktop, and more importantly - off your computer entirely. You should have a backed-up shared drive where you can store your documents. If not, there are plenty of web services that offer this type of storage.

Never trust your hard drive to last forever.

Organize top priorities

Your priorities are important to get down on paper. You should be using some sort of "organizational tool," other than just your head. Your head gets distracted easily, so it's best to keep an active list of to-do items. (Just make sure that list is not your email inbox, or your desktop.)

Take care of redundant tasks early

The more the day wears on, the less likely you'll feel like attending to those daily, redundant tasks. Get those things out of the way early - before you start anything. At 5 PM, you'll be glad you can just get up and leave, rather than staying an extra half-hour trying to finish everything.

Reboot to refresh

Sometimes the best way to "refresh your mind" is to reboot your computer. It forces you to close all those lingering applications, and provides you with a clean slate. It also clears out any hanging processes on your computer, that might be slowing things down. A "peppier" computer leads to a more productive user. You're starting from "0." What's most important? Let's do that first.

Links and resources

Check out my Organization entries for ideas and resources on organizing your workflow.

Categories: Organization , Tips , Workflow

Add Feedback (view all)

Leave feedback

Feedback

Input format: The editor controls below will assist with Markdown syntax.

Status

Sub-status

Your info Name: Email (will not show on page):

Follow new comments via email? (You can turn this off any time)

Do you want your comments emailed to yourself?

Home Page (optional):

matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.