I don’t know about you, but at my home, once summertime is upon us, our schedule unravels. The kid’s bedtime shifts from 8:30 pm to midnight, and sometimes even one or two in the morning. As parents, our bedtime stretches from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am, and breakfast is served at 10:00 am instead of 6:00 am. After breakfast, the rest of the day is offbeat, and we transform from a scheduled family into a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants family. In all honesty, a part of me loves the break from a strict schedule; however, come August, I am yearning for more sleep and organization. Well, thank God it’s August! This is the time of year we begin retraining our bodies to get back to the fall, winter, and spring schedule.
As a business owner with four younger children, life in its entirety gets messy. During the summer months, the business operates around the kids, and my well-organized office becomes a bit frazzled. Again, thank God for August, as it is time to clean up the mess and relaunch my high-standards of organization.
I train entrepreneurs in six different countries (and expanding), and I am often left flabbergasted as to how unorganized businesspersons are. In fact, I don’t know how they even function and often wonder how successful they will be. As a young girl at the age of twelve, my parents began training me to own a business. One of the lessons I learned early on (and will never forget) is one about JC Penney. James Cash Penney had an impressive hiring method when hiring his top managers. After interviewing them, he would invite himself to their home. Once at their home he would take a gander at their garage. You see, in 1913 when JC Penney was established it was men who were hired for these positions. JC Penney knew by looking at a man’s garage if the man could successfully run a company. He believed if a man can’t keep his garage well organized with his tools, then he can’t keep a company well organized. This was my first lesson in being organized and has me now living a life where everything has a home, and everything needs to be in its home. For example, your stapler, files, and pens all have a place designated to be stored and should be there when not in use. In this article, I will be teaching you my top three organization tips. These are color coding, file and folder placement, and contact filing.
Color Coding
If you are like most, you use a calendar on your phone to keep track of where you need to be and when you need to be there. When putting an appointment on your calendar, you will notice there are various colors of dots you can choose for the appointment. Below is the color coding system I encourage you to implement into your own calendar to allow your life to operate smoothly.
Color Coding Your Folders
Many people are accustomed to storing all their files and folders as documents saved to their computer. However, there are times when needed to print off documents and store files in a filing cabinet. Below is a recommendation for you to keep your folders organized and easily accessible.
Along your journey of color coding folders, you may find you need more folders and colors. I encourage you to assign a color to each of your categories, so you will immediately recall what is in the folder.
Email Files
I am unsure about how every type of email system on the internet functions; however, I use Gmail and I will humbly assume most email systems function similarly. Have you ever asked someone to forward you an email or recall an email you sent them, and they can’t find it, or it takes them longer than needed to find it? Perhaps, you have even been caught in this position. I challenge you to see how many emails you currently have resting in your inbox. If you are like most, you may have thousands; so, this may take time to clean up. Below you will see the system I use to clear my inbox and quickly access emails I need. When you decide to clean up your email and implement this system, you will save much time, money, stress.
First, recognize the square boxes beside each email in your inbox. Your first step is to click all the emails in your inbox that are from the same person. For example, Julie sent you ten emails. Check the box of all ten.
Once you check the boxes, as shown above, the image below will appear at the top of your email. Find and click on the image circled. When you do, you will see the below image.
If you have never taken these steps, you will not see a list as shown in the photo. However, you will see the Create New tab. Click on Create New. Once you do, you will see the following image pop up.
Where it says, Please enter a new label name you can type Julie’s name, then press the create button. This will begin your list of folders as shown in the previous photo.
The Nest lable under field is so you can first create a folder that, for example, reads Clients, then you can create Julie’s folder and nest it under the folder labeled Clients. If you look back at the previous image, you will see the label Client before each name. This is showing that each client is nested under the Clients folder.
Now when Julie sends you a message asking if you can reference an email from six months ago, all you must do is click on her name to see all of the emails she has sent you. You will then be able to reference the email in seconds instead of many minutes.
Contact Filing
Have you ever gone to a networking event and left with a stack of business cards where you couldn’t recall whose card is whose, and as a result, you don’t want to follow up? Don’t feel guilty, this is typical business practice. When you are ready to get rid of this nonproductive business practice, follow the steps below for better results.
- When you meet someone, take a selfie with them.
- Add their name and phone number to your phone.
- Store the selfie you just took with them as the photo for their contact. (Just click on the camera icon in the contact and add a photo.)
- In the Organization field type in their business name.
- In the Notes field type in a brief description so you remember why you must follow up with them. (What you can do for them and what they can do for you.)
- In the Group field, add them to the group titled Networking. (HINT: You must create a group titled Networking)
- Lastly, be sure to give your Networking group its own ringtone so when someone from that list calls you, you immediately know what type of phone call you are receiving. (HINT: There is an app called Zedge that allows you to download fun ringtones for free.)
I love colour coding my schedule! This is such a great article. Transform Mastermind is such a powerful community full of awesome information to support budding entrepreneurs! xo
Thank you Tammeron! We love having you in the Transform family!
I love all of these tips. Thank you for sharing them!
You are very welcome! I am pleased to hear they are helpful to you! Thanks for your comment!
Love the information/suggestion regarding “Contact Filing.” Never thought of getting good use out of the business cards I accumulate.
Awesome to hear! I am always happy to see someone benefit from my articles! Thanks for commenting!