How To Stay Organized In a Chaotic Work Environment

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“Work is so bad you get paid to do it…” A common belief and your place of work can oftentimes be your number one source of stress. This is true especially when you are stuck with subpar management, the lack of effective systems, the never-ending to-do list, a tense work environment, and just work chaos in general. I may or may not have caused you to get stressed even with this opening sentence. However, this is a common situation for many office workers out there. Read on and learn how to stay organized in a chaotic work environment.

Please note that all of these tips don’t just apply to someone in the corporate world, these tips are also for business owners! As a new business owner, you have the opportunity to customize the best system that works for you and avoid creating a chaotic environment for yourself and any one that you may employ on your team.

1. Managing Your Email Inbox At Work

If you work in a corporate job setting, your email is probably the focal point of all your tasks. Managing your email effectively is the key to juggling your tasks and ensuring you meet deadlines. Be sure to take some time to triage your emails in the morning. This means going through your inbox and deciding which emails need a response and which can be ignored. This will help you keep your inbox tidy and organized.

Another way to manage your emails is to use all the resources available to you to help prioritize and organize your inbox. Many companies use Microsoft Outlook as an email provider.

A Quick overview of Microsoft Outlook Functions:

• Use a color-coding system that categorizes your emails. You can personalize each color coding category to help you during your email triage process. I personally like to assign a color to different tasks during the day, for example “open purchase orders”, “customer requests”, and “billing concerns”. Find the right color coding system that works for you.
• Flag your emails whether they need attention today, tomorrow, next week, etc. Personally, I prefer to just flag emails that need attention today but this tool is available to you and can be super helpful.
• For those of you that haven’t heard about OneNote (I know that there are many of you out there), it is the ultimate office productivity tool! You can send emails directly to your OneNote and write a quick note. Additionally, you can save it on one of your OneNote tabs to reference it later. I like to use this tool when I am saving a company communication with important information. You can keep it in an Outlook folder if you prefer but personally, storing it in OneNote allows me to find it faster and reference my notes regarding that email.

Keep Your inbox clean!

Finally, it is important to keep your inbox clean. You decide how you manage your email but too many times, I see coworkers using a read/unread email system where they simply mark their email as read once they have completed certain tasks. This can be both risky and stressful. It can be risky because you can lose important emails. It can be stressful because you accrue so many emails in your main inbox that can be easily stored in other folders once you complete them.

Don’t be afraid to experiment until you find the right email management system that works for you! Follow these simple tips to avoid getting bogged down by your email and make that email inbox work for you, not against you.

2. Plan Your Weekly and Daily Tasks

This step is often overlooked but it is very important to do. By taking the time to map out your week and day, you can stay on top of your tasks, due dates, and reduce stress. Take some time the morning of or at the end of your shift the day before to plan out your work day. There are incredible benefits to using a planner.
Here are some tips for creating a productive work schedule:

1. Start with a master to-do list.
   To get started, make a list of all the tasks you need to accomplish in a week. This can include big projects, small tasks, errands, etc. This is your brain dump, write down anything that needs to be done. Once you have your list, you can start to prioritize and plan your week.
2. Know your deadlines.
   Part of being productive is meeting deadlines. Make sure you know when each task is due and plan your week accordingly. As soon as you know when a task needs to be completed, write it down in your calendar or planner.
3. Use a planner or calendar.
   Once you have your tasks and deadlines mapped out, it’s important to use a planner or calendar to keep track of everything. It doesn’t have to be a full planner, it can be a weekly or daily notepad or deskpad.

Types of Planners to Use at work

• This Large Letter Size Erin Condren Planner can give you the space you need to jot down important tasks. If you want to keep this on your desk, it is a great option.
• If you prefer a portable planner that you can take with you to work and also keep on your desk, this Erin Condren A5 Softbound Planner is one that lays flat on your desk but you can take in your purse with you.
• You don’t necessarily have to use a planner to get organized. You can simply use a notepad like this Erin Condren Notepad to quickly jot down your to-dos.

If you prefer the digital route, these are free digital apps to help you create to-do lists:

• ToDoist is a task manager app that allows you to create to-do lists with ease and prioritize your tasks.
• OneNote from the Microsoft Office Suite is essentially a digital notebook. You can take screenshots, draw, highlight, and create to-do lists. (This app is not free but there is a good chance your company already has the Microsoft Suite and you can make use of it).
• TeamFlow is a Slack app that you can use to create effective to-do lists, assign a deadline and even assign a task to other coworkers.
• Another great way to use Slack to get organized is to set reminders directly through Slack. All you need to do is open a direct message to yourself or Slackbot and type “/remind me to … at [time and day]. You will get a notification at the requested time.
• Google Calendar is my favorite way to time block at work. It allows you to assign a particular timeframe to a task.

3. Theme Your Work Days

Amid all the tasks, projects, deadlines, things get pretty overwhelming. Sometimes, you waste time just thinking about what you need to do next. Well what if you didn’t have to really think about it? This is where day theming can come in handy.

Day theming is a great way to get organized and reduce stress.

By assigning a particular task to a specific day of the week, you can eliminate the need to think about what you need to do next. This can help you save time and be more productive.
Here are some tips on how to theme your days at work:

1. Choose a theme for each day. For example, Monday could be email day, Tuesday could be project day, Wednesday could be meeting day, etc.
2. Stick to your themes as much as possible. Of course, there will be days when you have to deviate from your themes because of urgent matters. But try to stick to them as much as you possibly can to make it effective.
3. Make a schedule and put it up where you can see it. This will help you stay on track and make sure that you are covering all your bases.
4. Be flexible. Things happen and sometimes you will have to adjust your themes. That’s okay. Just be flexible and go with the flow.
5. Lastly, have fun with it! Don’t take it too seriously. If you find that a certain theme is not working for you, then switch it up. The key is to find what works for you and stick with it.

This is a practice that is being implemented by successful people. I am sure that it can help you on your way to staying organized at work.

4. Break Your Tasks Into Smaller Chunks

Indeed, many people feel like they’re constantly swimming in a sea of tasks, never able to get ahead.
One way to combat this feeling is to break your tasks down into smaller, more manageable pieces. This is known as ‘chunking.’
Chunking is a time management technique that involves breaking down a task into smaller, bite-sized pieces. This makes the task feel less daunting, and it’s easier to see how you can complete it.

The Pomodoro Technique

There are a few different ways to chunk your tasks. One popular method is the Pomodoro Technique. This involves breaking down your work into 25-minute intervals, with a 5-minute break in between each interval.
Another way to chunk your tasks is to time block your day. This means you Dedicate certain blocks of time to specific tasks. For example, you may block out 1 hour for emails, 2 hours for project work, and 30 minutes for break.
Whichever method you choose, the important thing is to be intentional about how you’re chunking your tasks. By doing so, you’ll be more productive and less overwhelmed

5. Use a Project Management Tool

Trying to organize large pieces of data can be a constant challenge, but fortunately, there are some great project management tools out there that can help. These tools allow you to organize and classify data, collaborate with your team members, and keep track of deadlines. Not only that, but they also allow you to automate certain repetitive tasks if you take some time to set up automations. By investing some time initially to set it up you can save so much time moving forward.

The Best Free Project Management Tools

Finding the right one for you can be a bit overwhelming so here are my favorite ones.

• Airtable is my go-to tool for organizing anything from small tasks to large projects. You can create Kanban boards, track progress, and collaborate with team members all in one place. Actually, I use it on a daily basis to track all of our open orders at work and ensure that everything is shipped out on time. It is the best for tracking data as it works like a spreadsheet.

• Asana is another great tool for project management. It’s perfect for teams who need to track progress and stay organized. With Asana, you can create to-do lists, assign tasks, and set deadlines. This is probably the best for team projects.

• ClickUp is a great tool for both personal and team use. With ClickUp, you can create to-do lists, set reminders, and track progress. You can also collaborate with team members and see who’s working on what.

• Monday.com is a great tool for managing projects of all sizes. With Monday.com, you can create Kanban boards, track progress, and set deadlines. You can also collaborate with team members and see who’s working on what. It is often recommended as a great tool for brainstorming as a team.

• Notion is a great tool for organizing anything from your personal life to work projects. Honestly, when I started using Notion, I only saw it as a software to create help documents but upon using it to organize my writing projects, I quickly realized that it is so much more. It has such an appealing and easy to use interface.