With the advent of the paperless office, we have to turn to software more and more to keep up with our organisational and time management skills. Here are three ways that technology may save you time.
The tried and tested 'to do' list, whether it's stuck on a sticky note on the fridge or scribbled in the back of your diary - is hard to beat for traditional time management. However, technology is helping us move on from traditional methods in every walk of life, so why not use it to your advantage when planning your time? Here are three ways you can convert from old-school style time management tools, to bring yourself up to date:
Diary keeping
Paper diaries are ubiquitous, however the electronic versions can help much more in our daily lives as we add and take away, edit and delete our tasks. It may be as simple as the calendar and reminder systems that you can set up on Microsoft Outlook, or you can even purchase time management and diary software. Depending on your needs, you can pick one to suit you that surely must be better than endless crossing out and re-scribbling on paper.
Another way of using technology to manage your diary is on a smartphone, PDA, BlackBerry and other similar devices. You can be reminded of a meeting while you're on the move, set up reminders for annual events like AGMs or results forecasts, or even a colleague's birthday so that you can know one day in advance and buy the cake!
Whiteboards of timetables and diaries are still quite common in offices, but what about a digital alternative that doesn't need scrubbing and altering? A laptop and a projector with team details, tied in to other information could be more interactive and more useful than a static whiteboard that usually depends on one person to update it.
Document Management Systems
There is so much organisational software out there; you can confidently throw that plastic in/out tray into the bin. Plus, most offices these days are promoting the paperless, clean, hot-desking style of working, so if everything is digital, you don't need stacks of notes on your desk.
Since most documents we work with on a daily basis now come as email attachments far more frequently than paper envelopes, it makes sense to transfer this to a document management system. It can be as simple as organising your folders on your hard drive instead of lumping everything in "My Documents".
Alternatively, you can even make yourself a simple database (for example, using Access) that will help you store, edit and recall documents faster and with the same accuracy as if it was sitting on your desk in front of you.
Email organisation
Whether it's Lotus Notes or Outlook or any other major email system, very often these have far more organisational tools than you'd realise. Outlook has a sophisticated calendar and diary management feature built in, as well as a comprehensive way of maintaining your contacts rather than having them on paper (or even all stored in your phone where you may lose them all in one go if it gets lost or damaged).
As with any software, a training course would help you to learn features of all these kinds of software that you probably didn't know about. Whatever happens, the new digital, paperless way of organising is here to stay - why not embrace it ahead of everyone else?
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