I used to have a person work for me who managed a small group of
employees. She was great with people, but lacked effective organization
skills. We had been working on these skills, and I had seen
some improvement. I then sat down at her desk one day and looked
behind her. Her credenza had been left open, and obviously was not
intended for me to see.

She was a file hoarder. She had mountains of unfiled paperwork,
personnel files, and who knows what else, hidden in the pile. She said
she would get around to it. So, we set a deadline. I came back the day
after the deadline had passed; her credenza looked very much the same.
She said she’d tried, but it was too much and she didn’t have time.
As stated throughout this book, we do have time; it’s just a matter of
what we do with it. The simplicity of putting the files behind her to
get to them later turned into a pressure-filled ticking time bomb that
still had to be addressed versus a series of quick actions. The mess was
a big concern. Think about the fact that personal information in the
files was accessible, potential follow-up items were left unattended, and
that there were possible audit issues depending on what was in the pile.

She saw a stack of work that became psychologically difficult to
attack. Her strategy was avoidance. I’ve rarely seen this strategy work.
I saw a series of immediate and small tasks that could be completed
quickly, enabling her to gain efficiency in the future. We tackled it
together—in less than thirty minutes. In daily life, we often put off
things that appear to be burdensome tasks, which can take away from
our attention to detail and may even cause our stress to increase. Try
shifting your mindset, so that you approach tasks as they come up with
the same urgency you associate with tasks after you’ve let them build.
If you have always filed and saved immediately, you’re on the right
path. If you don’t, then today is the day to start.

When something needs to be filed, do it immediately—or, depending
on your position, delegate it immediately—whether it is a paper, email
content, or anything online that needs to be saved, recorded, and/
or filed. In order to maximize your efficiency, it’s important that you
know where things are at all times. Knowing that it’s under the third
pile to the left may work sometimes, but this is about consistency. How
you file and where you choose to put things is up to you. The goal is to
have an organized methodology.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

I had only been in the real world working for about six months. I
was doing decently on the phones, and was promoted to a job with
more responsibilities. I was still on the phones, but we had more
meetings to discuss strategies. I showed up to my first meeting without
a notebook, paper, or any other way to retain the information. My
boss called me out on it; I have never gone to a meeting again without
something to keep notes.

According to culturalorientation.net, retention rates for adult
learning varies based on the teaching method, but dips as low as five
percent for lectures. Individuals learn best when they are actively
engaged and taking notes. Culturalorientation.net noted in their article
that, “As Confucius said nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, ‘I hear
and I forget. I see and I remember.’”

Since that day, I’ve been a consummate note taker. What does this
have to do with organization and time management? It has to do with
follow-up, prioritization, and execution; adding everything to your
calendar and ensuring that you’re actually doing what was discussed
right the first time!

If you have not consistently brought something to take notes
with during meetings, start immediately. Always take a notebook to
meetings, and actually use it. The value isn’t the notes staring blankly
back at you. The significance comes into play when you invest the
time to go back and read them—and take action. Just as you would
when taking action on emails, it’s important to do the same with notes.
Go back and refer to them to determine whether any actions need
to be taken. Do you have questions that still need to be asked, or is
clarification or confirmation still needed? Do you know if you were
specifically asked to do something? If yes, mark it accordingly, and
immediately add it to your calendar to get it done. I use markings
for items that require immediate action to ensure that they stand out.
Then, I immediately begin the transfer from paper or even tablet to
a calendar. For those who prefer note-taking directly online, you’re even
further ahead. I prefer actual written notes because I’ve found that the
writing and transferring of information has helped my retention rates
significantly, but use what works best for you. What is important is
that you don’t simply take notes and then ignore them—that would be
a waste of time.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com