How To Actually Improve Your Organizational Skills At Work

Learn how to get and stay organized, along with the tools that can help you do so

Having organizational skills means that you can meet deadlines and be efficient in your workflow management. In fact, organizational skills can be synonymous with energy and time management. When you’re organized, you can get things done faster and more efficiently.

Organizational skills are very important in the workplace, especially if you are a solopreneur. For example, effective time management and task prioritization can significantly enhance productivity.

Let’s discuss what organizational skills are, illustrate them through specific examples, and consider how to effectively develop these skills in the workplace.

What are Organizational Skills?

Organizational skills mean you have the ability to use your time and resources efficiently and effectively. You’re able to manage your time, energy, and physical workspace so you can successfully accomplish tasks.

Organizational skills are about building structure, boosting productivity, and prioritizing the right tasks at the right time.

In contrast, procrastination leads to clutter, inefficiency, and miscommunication.

Having organizational skills means you’re able to come up with an effective plan for your work schedule. Many people with good organizational skills break up projects into smaller goals so they are easier to accomplish.

Importance of These Skills

Organizational skills are important because they’ll help you get tasks done on time. These types of skills are important in the workplace because managers will see that you can handle your tasks and have autonomy over your own projects. This will help you get promotions and references if you apply for new jobs in the future. As a sole proprietor, these skills will reflect how your customers and clients perceive your ability to run your business. Being constantly unorganized can turn off customers.

If you don’t have a plan in place for how you’re going to accomplish something, it will be much harder for you to achieve. So you’ll need to be able to anticipate how long a task will take, what resources you’ll need to complete that task, and have the discipline to block out the necessary time to finish it.

Types of Organizational Skills

If you break down organizational skills into specific skills, here’s what they would look like:

• Communication
• Time management
• Delegation
• Attention to detail
• Decision making
• Strategic planning
• Goal setting
• Creative thinking
• Problem-solving
• Productivity
• Managing priorities
• Teamwork/collaboration
• Deadlines
• Scheduling
• Conflict management
• Office management

How to Develop Organizational Skills

Enhance your organizational skills with these tips:

• Own your calendar.
• Make lists.
• Figure out what tools will help you.
• Communicate with your team.
• Declutter your workspace.

Own Your Calendar

The best way to develop organizational skills is to truly own your calendar. Block off time when you need to get work done. Then, create a schedule for yourself that is realistic to stick to. Know yourself and when the best time is for you to get certain tasks done. For example, are meetings better for you in the afternoon or in the morning? If you can run a more effective meeting in the morning, try to avoid them in the afternoon.  It’s hard to stay organized when you have random meetings popping up on your calendar.

Work in 30-minute increments. By keeping a smaller block of time, you know you’ll need to complete a task accordingly and can get more done in the day.

Make lists and prioritize items

When you have a lot on your to-do list, you can make separate lists for what needs to get done and when. Have a running to-do list where you add everything you need to do for the week. Then, break that down into daily to-do lists. You can organize your lists by tasks, meetings, reminders, etc. It also helps to put the top 3 things you need to do for the day at the top. Having smaller lists will prevent overwhelm.

Figure out what tools will help you

Obviously, everyone works differently. Some people like to have a physical calendar, and some like a digital calendar. Find out which works best for you. These days, there’s an app for everything from to-do lists to specialized calendars and project managers. Below is a quick list of physical and digital tools to help you stay organized.

Physical Tools

• Planner
• Calendar
• Notepad
• Folders
• Journals

Digital Tools

• Google Calendar
• Trello
• Asana
• Evernote
• Teuxdeux

Communicate with your team

Another way to develop organizational skills is to communicate with your team. It’s important to communicate your plan of action to any necessary stakeholders. Additionally, communication will help keep you accountable.

If you’re working on a project with several people, you can communicate updates on your part of the project as they occur or at the end of the day. This is a great way to keep the team organized and on task.

Declutter your workspace

Lastly, to truly be organized, your workspace should be free from clutter. While not everyone likes to keep everything neat and tidy all the time, you should still only have necessary items on your desk so you don’t get distracted. Piles of paperwork and unnecessary items will only overwhelm you. When you need to find an item, it’s important that you know exactly where it is and it doesn’t get lost.

Manage All the Things

Organizational skills don’t just mean that you keep to-do lists. It means you manage your time efficiently, you’re productive, can solve problems, and think critically. That’s why it’s important to develop your organizational skills whenever you can. Find blogs and podcasts that can keep you motivated to stay organized and you’ll be successful.

Action Plan: Go From Task Procrastinator To Goal Dominator

By Leslie Radford

**Updated February 2024