How to be more organised with your workload

Want to know how to be more organised? You’re in the right place. We’ll run through our top workload management tips to help you get everything in order – whether you want to tackle your university assignments or your to-do list at your first grad job. We’ll explain how to manage and prioritise your workload and how to stay organised. Say goodbye to starting a planner and never looking at it again, and say hello to your newly organised self.

We’ll take you through our top organisation tips and organising strategies, including advice on how to:

• Nail that task list
• Use your calendar wisely
• Create digital filing systems
• Make a note of the things you’ve done

What do you need to do? Figuring that out is the first step to getting things done.

If you’ve got a lot on, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by everything on your radar. However, writing things down can take some weight off your shoulders – and keep you on track with your organisational goals.

Think about what you need to do and break it down into stages. Instead of “Write my essay”, think of it as “Decide on my essay topic”, “Go to the library and pick up research papers”, “Create my essay outline”, “Write my first draft”, and so on. Looking at the different steps within a bigger task will make your workload more manageable.

It can be helpful to get into the habit of doing a daily to-do list. Before you unwind for the evening, write a list of what you need to do the next day. That way, you’ll be ready to tackle tomorrow when it comes around. If you have a job, jot down anything remaining from your task list at the end of your shift so that you carry everything forward.

So, you now know what you need to do, but do you know when you’re doing it? Or how long you need to put aside for each task? Having time management skills is a key part of being organised.

Using your calendar to map out your day will help you make the most of your time. You can use a calendar app on your phone to keep track of your workload (and your social schedule). So, whether it’s the hours you need for a revision session, an advice slot with your lecturer or brunch, get it in your calendar.

Learning how to work around immovable events and putting time aside for concentration is essential for organising your schedule. You can’t crack on with a large task on a day that’s taken over by team-building activities.

Plotting out everything in a calendar will also help you see if you’ve got room for anything unscheduled – whether that’s doing a colleague a favour or enjoying a spontaneous shopping trip. Your to-do list might look lengthy, but once you allocate time to tasks, you’ll sometimes realise some things will only take five minutes. Equally, if you need to go somewhere, you’ll be able to factor in the time you’ll spend travelling.

Establish a routine of checking your calendar at the start of each day (and, ideally, each night, too). Once you’re used to checking your calendar regularly, there won’t be any nasty surprises. Although you should be familiar with your calendar, always set up meetings, appointments and deadlines with reminder alerts just in case something slips your mind.

For more advice on juggling your commitments, read our guide on how to develop time management and better manage your time.

Filing isn’t all paperwork. To be organised, you need to apply good filing practices digitally. Part of filing involves sorting out how you save files and setting naming conventions. It’ll be hard to remember that you called the last version of your presentation “asdfghjkl1”. So, stick to searchable file names and place items in logical folders.

Another area to organise is your emails – particularly if that’s how you communicate at work. A lot of people recommend an email management technique called inbox zero, which means that your inbox should be empty once you’ve dealt with everything outstanding. To do this, create email folders and file messages there once you’ve replied to them. You can even set up automatic rules to do it for you. For example, you can redirect industry newsletters into a separate folder so that they don’t clutter up your inbox but are there for when you have free time.

When you use the inbox-zero technique, your inbox serves as a backup task list. You can even email yourself reminders if you’d like everything in one place.

Part of being organised is about understanding what you’ve already done as well as what you need to do. It might seem unproductive to look back on the past but the more work you do, the harder it’ll be to keep track of what you’ve done. You don’t want to do a task twice because you can’t remember if you’ve done it or not.

Once you’ve done something, keep a record. It’ll make it easier for you to revisit past tasks and figure out the steps you need to take when something similar comes up again.

Give yourself the breathing space to reflect on what you’ve achieved before you rush off to the next task. You don’t have to be the fastest person to tick off a to-do list. It’s more important that you have a clear picture of what you need to do and an understanding of how you’ll do it. Knowing what you’ve already achieved will help here.

Assessing your workload and thinking about how you’ll tackle it is the first step to becoming a more organised person.

To start your journey to being more organised (and staying that way), you need to begin with organisational basics: nailing that task list, using your calendar to plan your days and sorting your emails and other digital files. You also want to make time to take note of the things you do – partly so that you don’t repeat yourself but also so that you celebrate everything you achieve.

Once you’ve got the hang of the basics, it’s all about finding the organising strategies that work for you. Try to identify your weak spots (ie. losing track of time, forgetting to check your messages) and set up workarounds to keep things in check. Some people swear by physical visual reminders (like post-its). Other people use apps to give them a nudge. So, whether you stick “First lecture at 9am. Don’t go for a morning jog!” on your fridge or automate hourly alerts that say “Check your work inbox”, it’s all about finding the systems that work for you. It doesn’t matter how you stay organised – the most important thing is doing what suits you (whatever organisational hack that is).