Vacay time is over. I am back from Greece and the struggle over the weekend was real to get back on track and into my daily working routine. After being away for over 2 weeks, you can only imagine the gazillion emails that were waiting for me. That’s why I love weekends and having some down time to catch up on things with a little refresher of course. As you recall from a couple of months ago, I have now introduced tea into my lifestyle and I am still going strong. Pure Leaf Iced Tea just gets me. It is real brewed tea, made from real tea leaves and I like to celebrate my real moments in life, with authentic flavours. Nothing more refreshing than a nice iced tea during the hot afternoon. I usually alternate between two flavours. The Unsweetened Lemon and Green tea with Honey. The peach flavour is always out of reach for me because Kamiran loves it so much he finishes it before I ever get a chance to drink it.
The best time in your life is when you can celebrate the real moments in life, in order to do so your mind needs to be clear and consequently your to do list as well. This is how I optimize my work during the weekends and clear my to do lists.
1. Organize Your Home Office
Keep your desk organized and clean. Leave on your desk only items that you need to get your work done. The only items I keep on my desk are my pencil holder, agenda, holder of paper clips, and my working documents and books. You want your desk to be clutter free so that it will make your working flow more efficient. I have a pretty small desk so I have to keep the items on it on the minimal side. If your desk surface is bigger you can arrange accordingly.
2. “First Aid” Basket
Chances are there are certain documents that you need all the time in order to move forward with your tasks. Instead of filing them away into their own file folders, I always keep these documents into one file folder at my desk for rapid retrieval. This minimizes the need to keep pulling out the files each time I need them.
3. Categorize Your Errands
Divide the tasks or errands you need to complete into categories. This is extremely helpful on a busy weekend. The last thing you want is to be going back and forth between locations because you have forgotten something. Create a list of all the things you need to complete and then categorize them depending on the nature of each task and the location of each errand. For example, if I need to go to the grocery store, I think of all the things I need to complete that are near the grocery store. Like going to the post office or dropping off dry-cleaning. Categorizing your tasks, especially if you are a busy bee is extremely important for having an efficient day.
4. Start By Smaller Tasks
My number one advice to getting things done is to tackle the small things first so that you can get them out of your way quickly. Then move on to items that are more time consuming and projects that are much bigger. Always evaluate what to do now and what to do later. This sounds like a no brainer, but you would be surprised how often we forget about this.
5. Do It or Pass It On
The best thing about not living alone is that you got help. When it comes to completing tasks that are not necessarily requiring me to do it is that you can get someone else to do it. Like a personal assistant except it’s your boyfriend or your sister etc. When I have too much on my plate, Kamiran is always there to lend a hand. Whether he is the one that calls to book Margot’s vet appointment, or helps me out by picking up some things from Shoppers for me, it definitely helps to pass some items on and have someone else take care of them when I don’t have the time.
*Thanks to Pure Leaf for Sponsoring this post
Welcome back, Eleni!Great post. I love these tips! Desk organization is so key for a productive day.xx Gabriellapastelsandpastries.com