Organizational & Time Management Skills

by Maggie McCormick, Demand Media
Get more organized and use your time wisely.

Get more organized and use your time wisely.

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Good organizational and time management skills can help you to get your projects done on time, an essential skill for the workplace. While it seems that some people are naturally organized, many others have to actively work at it. A smart business owner will give employees the tools that they need for proper time management.


The person with good organizational and time management skills has a desk that is free from clutter at all times. She takes notes after speaking with project members and sets the next plan of action based on that conversation. She will almost always have some sort of organizational tool with her to keep track of new information. Often, she has a good memory and can quickly recall--or look up--the information that you need.


Being organized allows you to quickly find anything that you need, whether it's a contract you signed yesterday or an email you received two years ago. A time management plan helps you to break down large goals into smaller, easily achievable tasks and forces you to complete those tasks on schedule. It helps you to progress in a linear fashion towards meeting a goal.


For organization, it's helpful to have many small containers that a person can use for filing--paper files or electronic ones. Time management methods consist or taking a goal and breaking it down into smaller tasks, which you add to a task list or to-do list. The ABC method, popularized in the Franklin Covey method, requires you to assign a level of importance to each task. You then list the tasks within each group that are most important and work your way down the list in order of importance--tasks that you don't complete roll over to the next day. On the other hand, the book "Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management" by Mark Forster suggests that it's better to set a finite number of tasks each day and work toward completing them.


Different personalities work better with different types of organizational systems. Someone might organize things alphabetically, while another would organize by date. As long as it doesn't interfere with other team members' work, allow each member to organize and plan in the way that works best for him.

Company-Wide Integration

In some cases, it's effective to utilize a company-wide organizational and time management method, which means that everyone is on the same page. If you are interested in this, you may have to pay for a consulting agency to come in and train all employees in the system. Additional costs may include software or planners for employees. These costs could be well worth the expense if productivity increases.

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