Back to the post that I was talking about at the very beginning of the video
where one of my subscribers was talking about the fact that she just keeps
forgetting what people are asking her to do.
This is actually a perfect opportunity for her to leverage technology.
Now I shared this of course in my Facebook group,
but I wanted to share it here as well.
So here is how you could leverage technology to help you with something as
simple as forgetting what people are asking you to do.
Well, hey there,
welcome to Mak Tv where we of course believe that the transformation from
manager to leader is such a crucial one.
And that's because they change lives and they are having a profound
effect on today's working environment.
So today's video is actually inspired by a post that was in my Facebook group,
the awesomesauce new manager crew. Now in the post,
she's actually talking about the fact that she's feeling really frustrated over
the fact that she keeps forgetting what people are asking her to do.
But at the core, really what this is is an issue of organization, right?
Because when you're organized, you don't feel so flustered or overwhelmed,
by all the things that are coming at you. So in today's video,
I'm going to be talking about five things that you can do or start implementing
that will help you instantly feel this sense of relief and to obviously get
yourself organized.
Now I will say you don't have to implement everything that I mentioned in the
video. You know,
just pick a couple that really resonate with you or kind of fits your vibe.
The goal here is that you take some sort of action and actually make progress.
And so I don't want you to feel overwhelmed by trying to apply all the things.
Just pick one or two,
maybe at the max three that really makes sense for you and take some
action. So let's get started. Tip number one is really simple,
but it is my biggest tip ever.
So I'm going to actually whisper it because I don't want anyone else to hear.
Okay,
so here's the secret tip number one is to not work in
clutter. Yeah, it's that simple. Just don't work in clutter. Now,
I know I mentioned this in my previous video right here where I was talking
about the fact that it's really important to set up your environment in a way
that allows you to focus. Well the same thing goes for this as well. You know,
if you are in a messy environment then you're going to feel messy both
physically and mentally as well.
So it's really important to set yourself up for success by setting your
environment up for success.
So what you want to do is clear out your desk once a week take,
give it a good wipe down, make sure everything is nice and clean.
Make sure that things that don't really need to be hanging around on your desk
are in your drawer. Take down sticky notes,
do whatever it is that you can to make sure that your area is clean.
And then the second part of that is to make sure that your digital space is
clean. So you don't need to have 50,000 tabs open, right?
Close down a few tabs and only use what you actually need.
It's incredibly important to make sure that your physical space as well as your
digital space is clear of clutter so that you can actually feel like you're
in control of what you're doing. Tip number two is to plan your week.
You know people that are organized plan their time.
Now if you do not have an agenda or a calendar of some sort,
then I highly suggest you do that.
Having some sort of agenda or calendar will help you to feel far less frazzled
about what you have to do because you will know what is coming up.
So here's what you want to do with your agenda, your calendar,
or if you use something digitally, this is what you want to do.
You want to spend 20 minutes at the beginning of your week just planning out
what you're going to do for the week.
Now I tend to really like planning out what I'm doing in terms of outcomes as
opposed to like all the really small tasks.
I just like to think that way in terms of, okay,
what is it just very high level that I have to do and I work towards doing that.
Some people like writing down like every little thing they have to do,
which if that's you,
then that's totally fine as long as you're putting it somewhere so that you know
that you know you have to do it.
So another thing that's really good to do just as a little side point sub point
is to actually build in cushion time into your week for when priorities change
or when unexpected changes happen. Just so that you're not feeling, like I said,
flustered when something does happen that you weren't necessarily expecting.
And then at the end of the week,
what you want to do is block off 20 minutes of your time for thinking time.
Now this is my absolute favorite time of the week,
not necessarily because it's the end of the week,
but because I get to do thinking time.
Here is why thinking time is so important.
Now a lot of us fall into the trap of being busy bees.
We're super busy doing all the things.
But sometimes in some instances we're busy doing the wrong things.
So if we don't stop to think and reflect about what we're doing and if it makes
sense to be doing it,
then we're going to constantly be in that cycle of being busy and doing busy
work that's actually wrong. This is why thinking time is so vital.
So all you really need is about 20 minutes,
20 solid good minutes at the end of the week to reflect on your week. Now,
of course, I think it's important to reflect on the good things, right?
Reflect on your achievements. That's really important.
But it's equally as important to think about the things that aren't really
necessary for you to be doing, right?
Think about things that need to be adjusted.
You know the goal here is to get you out of the weeds, right?
Because that's what makes you feel overwhelmed and frustrated, right?
Being in like the minuita type of stuff.
You want to get like higher level than that.
You want it like elevate yourself out of that and the only way that you can do
that is through thinking and reflection time.
So schedule that in because if you don't schedule it in it won't get done.
Tip number three is to leverage technology to set up systems.
Now I talked about this a little bit in my video right here where I was talking
about time management tips and how you can use systems to really like regain
control of your time. The same goes for staying organized.
The two really go hand in hand.
You always want it to be looking for ways that you can do things in a far more
productive manner and you want to be using technology to help you do that.
So going back to the post that I was talking about at the very beginning of the
video where one of my subscribers was talking about the fact that she just keeps
forgetting what people are asking her to do.
This is actually a perfect opportunity for her to leverage technology. Now,
I shared this of course in my Facebook group,
but I wanted to share it here as well.
So here is how you could leverage technology to help you with something as
simple as forgetting what people are asking you to do.
So something that I tested for myself that actually worked really well is using
a Google doc and a zapier integration.
And you're welcome to use this as well and just like amend it to however it fits
to you. So here's how it works.
What you first want to do is create a master Google sheet, right?
So you name it, whatever you want to name it,
name it something that makes sense to,
obviously you and the people that you're going to be sharing it with.
So in my case, I named it Maks request.
So what I did was I opened up this Google sheet and in one column I had name and
in the other column I had requests. It was as simple as that,
two simple columns.
And then what I did was I obviously edited the doc so that whoever I was sharing
this link with would be able to edit it.
So you want to be able to give everyone that has access to the link editing
rights. The next step would be to share it like crazy. Share it with your team,
share it with your boss,
share it with basically anybody that you wouldn't be collaborating with or
anybody that might be asking you to do something for them. And here's why.
When you are walking down the hall and somebody says, Hey, um,
I was wondering if you would be able to do this, this, this, that, the other,
here's what you can say. Sure I can do that for you.
Would you be able to just put that in my request doc for me?
I want to make sure that I really understand the details right?
Cause oftentimes that's when people are asking you to do something when you were
like almost on the way to the bathroom.
And that's how you know that's a good chance for forgetting what they're asking
you to do. Or when someone like sends you,
like if your office has some sort of inner office messenger or something like
that and someone asks you to do something, you can send them back the link.
Now I will say that this is one of those cases where you need to explain the why
behind the what.
I mean I think in a lot of cases you should be explaining the why behind the
what, but especially in this,
because I think that people who you are sending this to might feel kind of like,
well, why is she sending me this link? Well,
the truth is you don't want to forget and you want to make sure that you're
doing it the right way, right? So it's important to explain that, Hey,
I've created this because of the fact that you know,
I get a ton of requests a day and I want to make sure that I prioritize what
needs to be priority on my list. As well you know,
things get lost in translation very easily.
So I want to make sure that I clearly understand what you're asking me to do.
And the best way for me to clearly understand is if you, you know,
dictate exactly what it is that you're asking for.
And if I have any questions I'll come back and ask you. Right?
So you want to clearly explain the reason behind having this doc.
And now you can keep it pretty simple and just check this Google doc every day
to see if anybody has asked you to do something that needs your attention right
away or you know, that you can plan for.
Or you can take it a step further like I did and integrate it with Zapier.
Now Zapier is a workflow automation tool. Okay.
So it's a workflow automation tool and it's basically designed in a way to
trigger an action that you want. So in this case,
what would happen was every time someone entered something into the doc for me,
what Zapier would do is actually trigger an alert to my email.
That's how I had it set up to say, Hey, there is a new entry in your doc.
That way I didn't have to check it every day.
You can actually also integrate it with like maybe your project management tool,
so if you're using Asana or Trello, Trello is my favorite.
What it'll do is automatically update your card for you and let you know that
there is a task. Again,
that way you're not having to constantly check on what's being updated.
It's like doing the work in the background for you.
Now Zapier is free for up to five zaps,
so that's five workflows or five sets of automation.
So in this case the Google doc would be considered one workflow.
So you could actually use Zapier for four other things that you might be
thinking in your mind, huh, that's an interesting tool.
I would like to use that to automate this or automate that.
You can use it up to five times.
So I'll leave the link for Zapier in the description box below.
Tip number four is to cut out applications. Now,
I know I just literally said that it's important to leverage technology to help
you.
But you know technology is one of those things that it's like really good in
some areas but too much of it causes like an upset,
bad stomach kind of situation.
You want to be able to use technology in the right way and sometimes if you're
using too much of it,
it can cause a ton of distractions or you're like looking in a ton of places for
one thing and that actually causes disorganization.
It's a good idea to look through everything you're using and see if there's any
sort of overlap or if there's things that you don't necessarily need to be using
and just cut it out.
It is far better to be using a few really good applications than a
ton of applications that fit like kind of fill small gaps.
Tip number five is to set a specific time for checking email.
Nothing to me is more irritating than email.
Email is so annoying.
I mean instantly with a fly in or some sort of notification,
somebody else's problem becomes your chaos.
And it is so easy to get sucked into that hole and so if you
make it an aim to just block off a little bit of time in your calendar each and
every day checking email,
then you're not like going through your day basically reacting to everybody
else's problems.
Now if you're looking for more tips and advice in terms of how to manage your
time more wisely and how to be productive and increase your focus levels,
and then I highly suggest you check out these videos right here. Now,
if you're a new manager and you're looking to accelerate your learning and you
want to network and gain a community of people that you can actually talk to you
about what you're experiencing, the struggles that you're experiencing,
then feel free to join my free Facebook group called the Awesomesauce new
manager crew. I will put the link in the description box below.
If you like this video,
I do suggest that you hit on the subscribe and notification bell so you don't
miss out on other videos that I share here only on Tuesday.
Thank you so much for watching. It was a blast to be with you today.
I hope you have a fantastic rest of the week.
Don't forget to keep smiling and I'll see you in the next one.