Did you promise yourself big changes in the new year? Now that February's hit, maybe your inspiration has waned — if so, our Project Managers have the right advice to help you stay motivated.
When you’re lacking inspiration, your plans and preparation help you stay on track. As any well-organized person may tell you, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Let’s hear from Infomedia’s project managers on how to get your life back in order:
Prepare to Begin
Do you have a system for keeping track of all your to-dos, due dates and meetings? Real talk: Most of us don’t have the memory of a Vulcan (or Hermione … or insert whatever reference you need here). First things first, you need tools! Leslie, one of our project managers, can always be seen with a cute notebook filled with meeting notes and tasks, while others, *ahem* me, take the digital approach with great task manager apps. Check out Remember the Milk or Todoist. Evernote is also a great option as it allows you to bookmark and upload your notes as well as organize task lists.
When in Doubt, Schedule It
If you have a hard time meeting deadlines for yourself, try dividing your work day into a set schedule for tasks. At Infomedia, we all use Google Calendar and subscribe to each other’s calendars. If Katie, our other project manager, needs at least two hours to work on a project, she can block that time off on her schedule and other Infomedians know not to distract her during that time. (Okay, maybe in a perfect world we wouldn’t distract her during that time — sometimes distractions happen anyway, but at least they’re minimized when the time is scheduled.)
Follow Murphy’s Law
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Scan important documents and put them on an external hard drive or upload them into the Cloud. Allow your To Do app to create a backup copy on your computer. Seriously, stop reading this and go do it! The more you prepare for a digital disaster, the quicker you’ll be able to recover.
Clean It up
January is the perfect time to look through old files and decide to move them off your computer or delete them for good. Why do this? Well, if you have as many projects going on in your life as our project managers, you can’t afford your laptop slowing down due to lack of hard drive space. So go on, Kondo it up!
Everything Has Its Place
Are you always misplacing your keys? What about the super-important proposal for your boss? If you struggle with keeping your work life in order, try designating a place for everything. When you know exactly where you keep active projects or an extra phone charger in your filing cabinet, you’ll spend less time stressing. Invest in some organizational tools like storage bins, file folder racks and drawer organizers — you will come to love these like family.
If you follow these tips, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the universe like our project managers!
