For me, organisation is a key skill not only useful for work; but life in general. Staying on top of things helps us to be focussed, get things done, and allows us to be productive throughout each day. With many of us leading busy lives, it can become overwhelming when our to-do lists pile up and there’s no easy way out of the mountain of tasks we need to get sorted.

Working from home, the pressure to get organised can be even more difficult. It is vital that I keep tabs on my workload, organise my tasks and plan my week effectively to ensure I meet deadlines and expectations.

When I first moved to working from home, I knew I needed something to help me do this.

I’ve always been a fan of a physical pen and paper organisational lists, but it is not convenient to constantly be flicking through pages of notes. For a while, OneNote was my go-to note taking and planning app. It has some great features, but I always found my options limited.

After watching many rave reviews on websites like YouTube and Twitter, I decided to try Notion. Notion is described as "all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.”

At first, I didn’t really get on board with Notion immediately, and it took me a little time to adjust to its features. However, I watched some online tutorials and seeing how others used Notion in ways I’d never thought of gave me inspiration to create my own template - the weekly agenda.

It is a simple template designed to track and log tasks & plan for future weeks, and it also includes a brain dump (for anything else important) and a link to an archive page to log completed tasks on a weekly basis.

Planning for success:

There are a few different tips and tricks I use to help keep myself organised each week.

STRUCTURE YOUR DAY INTO BLOCKS

Having structure in your day is one of the best ways to create routine and get into good habits (see my article on routine here)

By following a simple work block structure, you can allow time for work focussed periods followed by short refreshment breaks, meaning you’re less likely to fall into boredom and procrastination.

My work blocks usually look like this:

9am - 10:30am (Work Block 1)

10:30am - 10:40am (Break 1)

10:40am - 12:30pm (Work Block 2)

12:30pm - 1pm (Lunch)

1pm - 3:30pm (Work Block 3)

3:30pm - 3:40pm (Break 2)

3:40pm - 5pm (Work Block 4)

I try to keep the working blocks to no more than 2 hours, with regular scheduled breaks for around 15 mins to grab a drink, stretch my legs and move away from my desk.

PRIORITISE TASKS USING A SYSTEM

The system I use is the Eisenhower Power Matrix

This method categorises tasks into 4 areas - Urgent & Important (Do), Not urgent & important (Plan), Urgent & Not Important (Delegate), Not urgent & not important (Eliminate).

Its really easy sometimes for us to focus on simple or easy tasks first, by avoiding the things we don’t really want to do, procrastination is more like to set in when we begin to avoid work altogether. By using this matrix, it can help distinguish between those tasks that we need to do, those we can pass along to someone else, and those we can forget about altogether.

In addition, there is a another useful productivity method called “Eat That Frog” that comes from a Mark Twain quote:

“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.”

The method encourages us to find our frog (the most important task for the day) and eat it - do the most important task first thing in the morning. Doing this means we can feel a sense of accomplishment that will motivate us throughout the day, completing more tasks as we go!

ALLOW TIME FOR UNPLANNED TASKS

When I plan my weekly workload for the week ahead (usually on a Friday), I often leave Thursday and Friday completely open (unless I have a specific task like a meeting scheduled for that day) - I always have work to do on those days, but this way I know that I can use those 2 days as I wish once I start working on a Monday. I might have a tasks that I haven’t got around to finishing in the start of the week, so rather than feeling rushed or disappointed that I haven’t got things done, I leave time in my week to either move something else, or to pick back up on the task later in the week. By planning your week without any wiggle room for additions, it means that if something unexpected comes up, or if a task takes longer, you are immediately playing catch up and feeling behind.

SET REALISTIC DEADLINES

For me, the biggest part of working, and particularly working from home, is being able to prioritise tasks and setting realistic goals for them. As I am not working alongside others, I can only do one thing at a time, and at my own pace, and so it is important that I can honestly evaluate how long a task is going to take me. If you’re new to something, or you haven’t done a certain task before, always give yourself twice as long as you expect something to take you - e.g., if you think something will take 1h, give yourself 2h. This way, you have enough time if you run over your own expectations, without feeling rushed or disappointed that you are behind on your own schedule. And if you do finish sooner, then you have more time to move onto the next task!

PLAN FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

No matter what, I use the final 15-20 minutes of my working week to plan the week ahead. I find this so much more useful and productive, in comparison to coming back to work on a Monday morning after a weekend, and spending the first 30 minutes recapping where I was up to from the week before.

KEEP TRACK OF COMPLETED TASKS

If you get asked to do a quick job that doesn’t take long, you might not even see the point in adding it to your to-do list, but by tracking every task you do (even if you can tick it off immediately), it’s a great way to track just how productive you have been in your working day. Within my Notion template, an archive sheet is linked to move tasks completed to. We don’t often remember everything we’ve achieved at work, so this is a great way to look back, which is especially useful when reflecting on projects or to revisit strengths if you are ever applying for a new job or a promotion.

BONUS TIP: If it takes 5 mins, do it now, rather than leaving it until later.

I often have quick and simple tasks won’t take too much time out of my day on my to-do list. Sometimes, requests like this will arrive in my inbox, and whilst it’s easier to leave them until later, a growing list of small tasks will soon end up being a much longer project to complete. So instead, I think about the tasks timeframe - if it only takes 5 mins, pause what you are doing and get that task completed!

Download my template here