How To Improve Your Organisation Skills

Life is, by nature, a huge, chaotic mess. Trying to string them together into some form of coherence can sometimes feel like trying to tame a storm-ridden sea using only a fishnet: stressful, difficult and ultimately futile.

When trying to apply a sense of organisation to our careers, there are certain measures we can take to make the job easier. These measures will make our various career pursuits easier, even if only marginally. They will also help us to stand out to employers, both current and prospective, as being efficient human beings who are capable of breezing through the stresses of life and work with ease.

Here are some ways to get your act together.

Keep records

Being organised is so much easier when the things you have done – and the things you are planning to do – are written down. When matters are in writing, it helps them to feel more tangible than when they’re left to fester in the mind, where they can easily be lost.

This means investing in materials such as diaries and wall planners, where day-to-day plots and schemes can be jotted down. Important details such as places, names, dates and times should be recorded. If they’re to change, this should be written down too. Those notes can be referred to in a tight spot.

Plan ahead

Nobody can ever know for sure what the future holds, but having an idea of what you want to get done is always helpful. When each day, week or month finishes, it can be useful to think about what you wish to achieve in the next.

If other people are involved in your plans, some discussions will need to be had. Make sure you share the relevant details with the right people, ensuring your plans are understood and approved. If things then take a surprising turn, you can then work through it together.

Compartmentalise everything

When you have a multitude of different things on the go (applicable to most of us), making sure they don’t overlap and get mixed up is key to being organised. A pile of edited letters and a pile of unedited letters could lead to trouble if they are not clearly differentiated.

This is another instance in which writing stuff down can come in extremely handy. Labels (often colour-coordinated) can help to keep things separate. When you have separate items in different places, whether they are trays, files, notebooks or online databases, make sure that they are kept secure, that you know where they are and that copies are also available if need be.

Being organised doesn’t mean that you have to be pedantic or, God forbid, boring. Nor does it mean that you have to lose all sense of spontaneity or freedom. It simply means you can approach your career with a little more ease, helping you to find ways to deal with potentially difficult and stressful situations. The people who can do that are the ones who employers will turn to when hiring and promoting.

Inspiring Interns is a recruitment agency specialising in all the internships and graduate jobs London has to offer.