Ready for some quick tips that you can implement today to boost organization and productivity at your office? This could be the most important thing you read all day. Don’t forget to tell your colleagues!

1. Put a sticky note of your top priority task in the most prominent place on your desk at the end of the day, so it’s there when you arrive first thing.

2. Clear plastic storage makes it easier to find stuff.

3. Make lists of tasks you need to do in priority. Do them in priority (not in order of how easy they are to do).

4. Sort, purge and file piles of paper at least once a week to eliminate them. After one week, you’ll never remember what’s in them, anyway.

5. Have a paper-weight or sign on your desk marked “Do Not Disturb”. Use it when you can’t be interrupted.

6. Use hanging files with labels to file papers.

7. Keep a clock radio handy. Alarms aren’t just good for waking up. If you’ve got an appointment you can’t miss, it can provide an extra reminder.

8. Your trash bin should be emptied at the end of every day.

9. Review files regularly. Update, file and purge as required.

10. Reuse, reduce and recycle. They’re not just slogans for environmentalists. It also cuts down on your clutter.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

A big part of automating your business means being tech savvy. Name an administrative business function and you’ll probably find a free, or inexpensive, online tool to get it done. Google alone has dozens of apps you can use to organize, create, promote and network.

A few of my favorite tech tools for business include:

GTDMail

This email service provides simple workflow that transforms emails into tasks, enabling you to process them much more efficiently. Create categories like Follow Up, Read and Action for various types of responses. Create a Snooze folder so you can have the email re-delivered to you when it’s convenient.

Jott

Imagine having a private secretary following you around 24/7, transcribing all your thoughts so you can retrieve your ideas at any time. With Jott, you can record messages on your cellphone and have the messages sent to Outlook as sound files or transcribed and sent to your email.

Sticky Notes

Lots of people still use the paper sticky notes to help remind them of important tasks. Digital sticky notes fulfill the same purpose on your computer, without adding to your clutter. You can insert hyperlinks into them to make them more useful.

Linda Chu
CEO – Out of Chaos, Professional Organizing Solutions
www.outofchaos.ca

With all the rain we get on the West Coast, summer is a time to get out in the sunshine, kick back, and enjoy the temperatures. Entrepreneurs will find themselves in one of two camps:

1. Work through the summer (like they do every other month) and resent their business or,
2. Put the email auto-responder on and head to the beach. The tan looks good, but they carry guilt over what they haven’t done or fear over what is going to happen to their business if they aren’t watching it.

My next few posts are going to focus on how you can kill two birds with one stone. Ways you can further your effectiveness in business while getting some sunshine and being outside. This week, it’s all about books.

Reading are a great way to stimulate business ideas. I’m not talking the trashy novels or People magazine. I’m talking business books. Before you get your back up thinking I’m referring to marketing text books, hear me out. There are many fundamental business books that every business owner should read. Not reading them can have a negative affect your bottom line and more importantly, the valuation of your company when the time comes to sell it. If you are heading to the beach, the pool, out for a walk or bike ride (audiobooks), plug into a book. Every morning I go for a walk. A 7 km circle from my house. I get 75 minutes of business development every morning. I’m doing two things I enjoy at the same time. Talk about maxing out your multitasking! Summer is a good six weeks long. Here are my recommendations for your weekly business development. If I was shipwrecked on a deserted island, these would be the six I’d take with me.

Read any or all and see your business ideas and your bottom line start to move in the right direction.

1. The E-Myth – by Michael Gerber
2. Tribes – Seth Godin
3. The One Minute Millionaire – Mark Victor Hanson
4. The Power of Focus – Jack Canfield
5. Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
6. The Four Hour Work Week – Timothy Ferriss
7. What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business – Don’t remember this author’s name but have heard he resembles Tom Selleck. Innocent good looks, devilish charm, and blunt like the head of a hammer.

Have fun out there. Don’t banish yourself to the indoors all summer. Get out there and get a tan while developing a plan. Next week, we’ll talk about getting into the ‘swing’ of summer business development.

Best,

Chris.

www.GhostCEO.com