CLS eBook 12 - 7 Simple Steps For Organizing Your Office Environment To Increase Productivity and Sales
Ask Yourself. Am I Present? Awaken the Observer and Come Present to Now.
With great gratitude, appreciation and praise we welcome you to the creation space of self love, courage, inspiration and the peace of mind that comes from gently balancing and lowering your brainwaves.
Listening to this ALPHA wave will assist you in creating a transformative meditative state, that will quiet your mind, relieve tension in your body, soothe your spirit, and help you remember how good it feels to be fully present in this beautiful moment of now.
Listen to this ALPHA brainwave as you study the following lesson.
Get Organized
Have you ever found a lead on a scrap of paper soon after the hearing that the prospect purchased from your competition? Are you spending time recreating proposals because you can’t find s similar one you wrote a few months ago? Do you run out the door for an appointment at the last minute because you couldn’t find the samples you really wanted to take? Are you feeling over whelmed? If so, here are seven simple steps toward creating the office environment you deserve, and one to help you increase sales and decrease stress:
1-Make a date with yourself for getting your act together. Plan a minimum of three hours when there will be no interruptions. Decide on a reward for yourself when you’re finished! Do anything you can to reduce your stress during the process-put on music, grab your favorite beverage, and get plenty of trash bags and recycling bins!
2- Take everything off your desk except what you must have or do. (A photograph or memento that reminds you of the reason you work is definitely OK!) “Practice the Art of Waste Basketry”. Research shows that 80 percent of what you keep you never use! Tossing or keeping is not a moral issue, but it is a practical one! So how do you decide what to keep? For each piece of paper, ask these questions: Does this require action? Would it be difficult to get again? Is it recent enough to be useful? Are there any tax or legal implications? If the answer to all those questions is “No”, then ask? “What’s the worst thing that could happen if I didn’t keep this piece of paper”? If you can live with the results of your answer, toss it, recycle it, or give it to someone else who can use it.
3-Get the right tools for your business. Half of any job is using the right tool! Put three trays on your desk: In, Out, File. “In” is for new mail and papers you have not yet looked at. “Out” is for items that need to go elsewhere, such as the post office or to another room. “File” is for papers you need to file outside the reach of where you sit. Eliminate paper whenever you can with electronic tools, such as a contact management program and a financial management program.
4-Implement the FAT System: File, Act or Toss. Clutter represents postponed decisions or actions. The good news? There are only three decisions you can make about what to do with any piece of paper: (1) File it in a Reference File in case you need it in the future, (2) Act on it immediately or in the near future, (3) Toss or recycle it.
5-Create an Action Filing System. All of the papers that require immediate attention can be divided into two major categories: 1) tasks that have to be done at a specific time, such as filing a quarterly report, and 2) tasks for which you have not yet identified a deadline, or that are on-going, such as calling on prospects. Use a desktop filing box for current projects/clients/trips. Create individual Action Files for tasks you do over and over again, such as “Projects to Complete,” “Prospects to Call,” “Calls Expected from Prospects,” “Palm Pilot Entry,” “Discuss with Manager/Staff,” “and “Expense Reimbursements.” Out of sight, out of mind? Put a note in your calendar to remind you to look in “Call” for the paper(s) you need to discuss with a prospect, staff or your supplier.
6-Create a Reference Filing System. If your existing filing system isn’t working, don’t fix it – ignore it! Clean out your most accessible file drawer and start over. Keep the old papers, and as you need papers from the old system, merge them into the new filing system. Eventually the two systems will become one, or the old system will become old enough that you’ll feel comfortable throwing it away or at least putting it in a less accessible space. The key to your continuing success with any filing system is a File Index: a list of the names of your files. Use it just as you would a “chart of accounts” to determine which accounts to charge an expense. You can create a File Index as a word processing document or spread sheet. Print out a copy to keep at your desk and another to keep at the filing system itself.
7-Ask Yourself, What is the Best Use of My Time Right Now? While the above system will help in many ways, nothing replaces coming present to what is needed right now to further the work. While having a working file system and an organized work environment creates the right conditions for being able to focus properly on the work at hand, the second half of the equation is to really be clear on the best use of your time in a particular moment or time of day. Asking yourself this question is almost like creating a moment-by-moment filing system for your energy and abilities. Just as it is easier to be organized about leads than it is to randomly write them down on scraps of paper, only to find that they have signed on with a competitor, it is easier to take a few moments whenever you feel like there are too many things to do and not enough time in which to do them to STOP, take a few deep, cleansing breaths, and then quietly and calmly ask yourself what the best use of your time is right now.
When you really know, the same way you know (if you have completed steps 1 – 7) where to find your list of who you have contacted this week, there is an ease and flow to what you do next which will result in it taking much less time and for with much less stress to complete successfully.