How to organize work in the office

HOW TO ORGANIZE WORK IN THE OFFICE

Raise your hand if you have not found yourself at least once in your working career under stress. because overloaded with projects import anti to follow. Specifically, two projects, which for the boss or whoever was acting on his behalf were both of vital and indispensable importance. Perhaps even with two different referents e two different working groups. In the era of the multitasking and the proliferation of the work stress this and more can happen.

On paper, there are dedicated times for each project—for example, Monday through Wednesday should be the focus of one, while Thursday and Friday should be the other—but meetings, deliveries, and emergencies often overlap. How to best organize office work, without wasting time and health and how not to be overwhelmed by anxiety?

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HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR TIME AT WORK

We asked for practical help from Irene Novello, which helps people to better manage their work time and therefore to be more happy: she is in fact the vice-president of Apoi, the association of professional organizers (born as a professional association in 2013 and recognized by the Ministry of Economic Development as a professional association), which Saturday November 7 to the Open space in Milan organizes a day open to the public e free, “Learn to organize yourself…while having fun!” where you can meet professionals who will offer tons of tips for learning how to better organize your work-life balance.

“This is a very familiar topic for me: I personally find myself managing the association and all the activities it entails alongside my freelance work,” Irene Novello explained to us, and for the readers of Non Sprecare she has this advice:

• SCHEDULE ALL ACTIVITIES

“To survive well on two or more projects, the fundamental thing is to be able to schedule all activities which both entail. One tool very useful is the Gantt chartA planner with the project's timeframe in the horizontal section: hours, weeks, months, where all the deadlines are placed. In the vertical section, I enter all the project's activities and phases, the phase-by-phase deadlines, and who does what (if I have people working on this project, I'll enter them here). If I fill everything out correctly, I can see where I am at any given moment in the project. This allows me to: manage emergencies without being overwhelmed by them, because once the emergency is over, I have a planning basis that allows me to get back to where I was before I was distracted from the schedule. Obviously, a diagram is effective when shared with multiple people."

• AVOID JUMPING FROM ONE THING TO ANOTHER

By scheduling your tasks, you should avoid constant interruptions and the need to constantly switch between projects. For example, at the end of the morning and at the end of the day, you can check your emails from the other project to catch up with your colleagues. You should respond, selecting only the tasks that depend exclusively on you. You don't have to be overwhelmed by communications, but select only the essential ones”.

• THE KANBAN METHOD

“Another possible organizational strategy to be used when working with multiple people on different projects is the method Kanban, A kind of very simplified diagram that the Toyota has been in use for several decades. It consists of using a split table in 'things done – things to do – things in progress': everyone applies some post it with the various activities, and moves them around depending on the progress of the work. This way, we can also keep an eye on each other. The key is that the planning is shared: this way, we work much better and live much better.

• SMALL TIPS

“If you are continually interrupted, it is difficult to proceed linearly in your activities: in Germany it is customary to put a sign on the door of everyone's office cartel which indicates the concept 'I am working'. In Italy, it is already more difficult to apply, but it is a question of protecting your health. Continuing to work in a confused way (as too often happens) with too many inputs, at the end of the day I arrive exhausted and I have completed the 20% of the activities I had to do. Being focused on just one thing helps both yourself and others; self-regulating yourself from interruptions is of fundamental importance.”

• TEN MINUTES A DAY TO TAKE STOCK

“When working, the ideal is silence all notifications on your phoneA lot of time is wasted keeping up with all the updates. For example, if I read an email as soon as it arrives, I waste a couple of minutes reading it, and I waste just as many minutes trying to refocus. At this rate, I waste a lot of time throughout the day. The ideal is, when you get home, to dedicate ten to fifteen minutes to reading all the pending notifications and organizing the next day's activities: anticipate emergencies so you don't get overwhelmed.

ALSO READ: Do one thing at a time: five ways to defeat multitasking.