Keeping everything organised

[Animallover2325]

Are there any secretaries, specifically medical but secretaries who can offer some of your best methods for keeping yourself organised at work during the weeek?

I’m in management but in this area. Are you a solo worker or part of a team? It can be simultaneously easier and harder to work alone depending on the type of work you do.

What are you trying to organise? Papers are different to mugs of tea.

Of course that’s what secretaries do all day, make tea 🙄

I’m a PA, though not medical.

I rely heavily on lists and reminders. I have a to-do list in Word split into categories like travel, finance, and also a reminder of the usual things I have to do each morning. I colour code it red for urgent, orange in progress. I refer to it each morning and make a shortlist of what I intend to do that day and also note any meetings I have to attend.

Regular weekly or monthly things to do I also put as a reminder in diary in case I miss it on the to-do list.

I have a catch up with my boss weekly and prepare any questions beforehand I need answered, slack him anything urgent inbetween (we aren’t in same office).

I don’t make mugs of tea…

Use the 4 quadrant method.

Book time in the diary for everything and do it in that time.

Write things down

Have checklists of repetitive things, plan monthly things in, delegate when you can.

I didn't say that. It was just a silly comparator. I could have said teddy bears or lollipop sticks.

But you chose to be insulted instead.

No, you chose to reinforce a stereotype. Unconscious, or conscious bias.

How on earth did you get that from what I wrote?

Do you go out of your way to be offended in everyday life?

If someone offers you a sweet do you complain they are trying poison you?

Oh well you obviously don't want help from me no matter how much I know or could have helped. Enjoy being offended by normal life.

Its quite simple, the OP says she is a secretary, you immediately jump to cups of tea.

No I don’t get offended easily, hardly at all, just prefer to call out biased sexist behaviours.

Hi I work in a team but responsible for certain doctors. I try to keep up with waiting lists and emails but they end up all over the place as I seem to spend the majority of my time typing.

Bullet journals

I use Trello!

Sorry, you are seeing something that is not there.

I have yet to meet a secretary who makes tea and I have been working since the mid 1980s.

Anyway you live in your little bubble where everything is an insult and I'll be over here in real life.

I flag everything into outlook todo. Then put due dates etc on them so I can follow up.

What is trello this may be an upgrade that I didn't know I needed @TootyPahooty

Trello looks like Solitaire game on the screen. I have no idea how it works.

I have an admin in a large NIHR-funded project. NOT a secretary but lots of admin across a diverse team. I wouldn't mind making cups of tea but I don't want to do anyone's washing up.

I use my email inbox as a toDo list, plus actual weekly toDo list that I update as the week goes on. I put reminders in my outlook calendar about following up on things. I'll cc myself on an email where I need a reply so I can follow up. Some items in the calendar tend to move thru. I try to block out time for bigger tasks. I try to prioritise quick tasks over long ones to keep the ToDo list shorter, let me focus better, but sometimes some specific task is more urgent.

Some sub-projects we have a live GANTT chart in Excel, I can add updates in the far right column. Doing that is about making it possible for me to get quickly back up to speed when I haven't looked at something for weeks and need to work on it.

I apply hierarchical directories and subdirectories for keeping emails organised & mostly delete all emails to me. Am grateful not to have a shared inbox. I only keep old versions of files for a little while; my file organisation is as simple and hierarchical as I can make it.