Work organisation: How to keep your appointments under control
The organization of work is a thing in itself. To learn how to master them better, follow these tips:
First strategy: Always plan in writing
An ancient rule that has not lost its validity even in times of smartphones, laptops and tablets. Unfortunately, your brain cares whether you write something by hand or just type on a keyboard with your fingers. Scientists discovered that writing by hand activates different regions of the brain, which makes it much easier to remember what you have written.
The brain, on the other hand, can do much less with typed information. The main thing, however, is that planning becomes second nature to you and a habit of it. Then it will be much easier for you after a while. You can also use this suggestion for your spontaneous ideas or notes. Because once written down, you always have them at hand, otherwise they will be gone from your memory forever.
Second strategy: coordinate daily and weekly planning
Both planning variants have advantages. The advantage of weekly planning: you schedule certain appointments in the way that is best for you (e.g. tricky tasks in your high-performance time). This not only applies to professional goals, but also to your personal priorities. You avoid stress and time pressure because you can devote yourself to your tasks in peace.
This is not so easy with the daily planning, because you usually only have the acute and urgent tasks in mind that you have either set yourself or that have been forced on you by others. But that increases the pressure and regularly leads to mistakes that you have to compensate for later, which takes a lot of time. A coordination between daily and weekly schedule offers you the best solution and time saving.
Third strategy: reduce effort
A problem that often occurs with many of our contemporaries: The planned time for, for example, the e-mail check is far exceeded. Why? Because first the emails are read in order to then process them “properly” later. My suggestion: do what you can do immediately. Because a plan shouldn’t just be on paper, it should help you to complete your tasks efficiently.
So what can be done immediately (within about five minutes), you also work on immediately. This will help you stick to your plan and become more productive. Anything that cannot be done in five minutes can be resubmitted (if you are dependent on the work of others) or set a new deadline for completion. Feed the tray with the rest.