How to power up and get more done

The end of the year is approaching and you want to feel all is in order and you are achieving well, right? So it is time to power up and complete tasks. Can you organise yourself better? Why not mega-charge your working habits right now?

Swoop and shred

Grab the biggest table or flat space you can find. This is your dumping ground for every bit of paper you’ve collected and haphazardly tossed in a corner. You’re going to do a Marie Kondo but rather than questioning whether an old memo or a cancelled job “sparks joy”, you’re simply organising everything into topics. Along the way, there’ll be stuff you can safely discard. Put the shredder to work for things out of date or scanned (unless they’re of sentimental or historic value – and be aware that there’s much to be said for corporate memory). Do this at home and at work.

Clean and categorise

Get your desktop folders sorted on your computer and in the physical space. Clean up loose drives and memory sticks. Get folders or suspension files and devise logical categories. File all loose documents and list what requires your immediate attention. Make sure you label things logically and clearly – be consistent with online and offline. The paperless office is only partly a reality, because when internet outages occur or the building goes up in flames (it happened to me in a high rise in Melbourne CBD!) you suddenly pray for back-ups and hard copies.

So print and store critical documents and have backups on and offsite. The day will come when you’ll give yourself an almighty tick for having done so.

Do the ‘didn’ts’

Write a list of everything you didn’t get done last (financial) year or this calendar year so far. Prioritise and set dates for each and every task. Be realistic about your timelines, but firm. These tasks must be eliminated. Set a clean deadline for before the end of this year.

Decide on the ‘wants’

Write a list of everything you want to do from now on. If you like, divide them into personal, health, financial, social, family and intellectual goals. Remember a goal without a plan is just a dream or a wish. Start planning how you’ll attain these goals and the steps needed accordingly.

Boost your ‘know how’

Decide on something new you will learn for the coming year. There are online courses galore, or choose a reputable course you can physically attend (time and your finances permitting). Choose areas that not only please you but which have some congruence with marketplace needs.

Connect or reconnect

Part of your supercharging is making new connections or rediscovering ones you haven’t seen in a while. The latter tend to work best when you’ve got new things to discuss or ideas for their involvement. Be alert to chance encounters or people who are moving in directions similar to you.

Focus above all on outcomes. What are they? You don’t have to aim for the sky when a tree top could be just as rewarding. Or even the foot of the tree, if there’s a vibrant ecosystem there.

You may not attain all that you set out to achieve but the important thing is that you’re determining a viable path based on what you learned from the past and better still, honing your sense of purpose.

Be excited about the future. It galvanises your very enzymes, puts a spring in your step and a sparkle in your eye.

Eve Ash is a psychologist, author, filmmaker, public speaker and entrepreneur. She runs Seven Dimensions, a company specialising in training resources for the workplace. See the rest of Eve’s blogs here.