How do you organise yourself at work?

[FooFooTheSnoo]

I have just started a new job and have a team of 20 people - more than I have managed before. It's pretty busy, lots of meetings, some complex projects to manage et.

I would like some tips on how ther people manage their working days. For example - do you have whole days where you have meetings back to back so you have days with none? Do you designate a time to dealing with emails or do them as they arrive? Do you have weekly/ monthly to do lists?

I am looking for help to make me more efficient - I am just settling in to this job so have a bit of space to think about this issue.

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Obviously all the woth people are, erm, working.

I'm not

I really recommend Mark Forster 'Get Everything Done and still have time to play' and 'Do it tomorrow' (am not on commission I promise, these books just changed my life in terms of time management). I've been doing very busy job for past few years and wouldn't have been able to do it without the help I've got from these books. I follow all of Mark Forster's tips, some of which are quite revolutionary (eg I don't have a 'to do' list at all! Shock horror!), but they really work. Hope that helps & good luck in your new job.

If you don't have secretarial support - make sure you get some. Mangaging that many staff generates some paperwork! Also, make notes of things as you go along. Trying to remember 15 different conversations with actions from all of them leads to confusion if you don't have your own system to remember things!

These are all great.

Those books sound good becster. I got into a habit of being quite reactive in my last job, due to the nature of the work really and just want to be a bit more organised about it all in this new job.

I have got some admin support caveman but that's also quite new to me - I am used to having to deal with a lot of the admin myself (work in public sector so minimal staff levels a lot of the time) so being organised enough to delegate is another challenge!

i have daily, weekly and monthly to do lists

emails are dealt with first thing in the morning as well as any phonecalls/answerphone messages

i try not to have days full of meetings or i can;t actually do anything

good luck

One good piece of advice I got was that every time you booked a meeting, book some time in your diary to prepare for it.

easier said than done, but in the long term it is a nightmare if you end up running from meeting to meeting.

also there is a limit to how many people you can line manage effectively. I think it is about 8. You will be run off your feet with 20. It might be better to restructure your team so you have some intermediate roles who don't report directly to you. Or set up a system of mentors who can give advice to the more junior members when you aren't there.

Hello! (You're Puddle aren't you?)

My tips:

I book time out in my calendar so I don't get meetings booked in that time, i.e. 9am-10am a few days a week to plan.

Towards the end of every week I look at the week ahead and do any prep I need to do for meetings in the following week. So next week I have several meetings and I've already done the preparation so I just have to turn up. I ALWAYS do this, that way you never find you've got hours of prep to do on the same day as a meeting. I already have everything printed out that I need to take. So if the printer doesn't work tomorrow I'm still prepared for my meetings because I did it in advance.

After meetings I always complete my actions (or start them if they're longer) straight away. Then they're done or started and I won't turn up to the next one with actions outstanding. I diarise when they need to be complete by so I'm never the person who hasn't done their actions in the next meeting.

I also try not to get that many actions out of a meeting if possible!

I have a book and I write EVERYTHING down in my book on a daily to do list. I cross tasks off as I go along. If it's not on that list it won't get done. Anything left at the end of the day gets transferred to the next page, i.e. the next day.

I also have a master "task and issue list" which lists my major projects, tasks and issues. Each one has a number, a logged date, a deliverable date, details of the issue, an owner, a status of open or closed and further details of the issue or a link to a separate project plan. It's sorted in date order. This is my master plan and I refer to it weekly to make sure I'm on track. It also means everything is captured and tracked through to resolution. Things never come off here, they are just closed on completion.

Presumably those 20 aren't all direct reports? If they are, sort that out pdq, it's too many. It prob needs 2 managers/team supervisors so you only have 2 directs and delegate to the team via them.

I delegate ruthlessly and well.

If I need a good run at something I close my email and only open it after I've finished my task. OTherwise it's easy to prioritise your time via other peoples email wants.

I use Outlook to remind myself of things, eg if I need to remember a particular thing that isn't on my issue list, like "must have x y% complete by now" then I put a reminder in my calendar.

With emails I do it, delegate it or delete it (having kept a copy if I needed it). MY email inbox only has about 20 emails in it and they're all outstanding items. I get and send 50+ a day so I need to be ruthless.

I book 1:1s with staff in advance so they need to bring items to that rather than coming to me every day. Although they can if they really want to but I don't expect it.

I am trying to train my new team to bring me proposed solutions rather than problems. My old team used to do this , new team need to learn to do it.

HTH. I used not to be an organised person and now I really am.

And my desk is immaculate. I only ever have the one thing I'm working on on it and my notebook.

So again, I bin it or file it or action it, immediately whether it's a piece of paper or an email. Some things are pending but if so they stay either in my inbox until completion or in the back of my notebook until complete.

That number of staff is lots of HR issues too. Get HR input early if you can and make sure everyone (or your managers, who should cascade down) knows the rules re sickness, holiday, etc and that these rules are applied consistently.

I try and set aside the first hour every day to deal with emails, any issues that have arisen.

I have a notebook with a to do list in it - I have to have this - have too many different projects/departments that I have to look after and deal with different time zones so need a list that is with me 24 hours a day!

I start a new list every Monday and items not crossed off get carried over.

I try and set aside one day a week to deal with HR issues (and Health and Safety). I let everyone know that they can come and speak to me at any time if it is an HR/payroll issue but also that if it is complicated, we will set up a separate meeting (like needing to speak to HMRC).

I find that lots of employees want payroll/tax/HR issues solved RIGHT now when they speak to you and I do think you may need to make it clear, from the off, how you will deal with these issues.

I have an optimum time for meetings - for me it is 10am and 2.30pm - I also try not to have more than 2 or 3 a day or I find all I am doing is spending time preparing, going to the meeting, then doing follow up stuff and not getting any of my day to day tasks done. I do try and keep Monday and Friday clear of meetings (other than staff meetings).