How To Stay Organised When You Work For Yourself

When you work for yourself, you don’t have a boss and that’s great, but it also means you have to do everything, from answering emails to booking meetings to paying bills, and, of course, the actual work itself. That’s a lot. And that’s why it’s so important to stay organised because if you don’t have a system, things are just going to get very messy and confusing very fast - you’ll forget things, you’ll run late, you’ll feel stressed… 

The good news, however, is that it doesn’t have to be a chore to stay on top of things, and there are a lot of ways to make sure it happens. With that in mind, keep reading to find out more about how to stay organised when you work for yourself. 

Start With A Routine

If you want to be organised, you might assume you need a totally perfect schedule that you can stick to no matter what and, in some cases, that might work for some people. But most of the time being perfect is a lot of hard work, and it’s going to take time and energy you’d probably rather put into your business. 

So rather than trying to be totally perfect, the best thing to do is to come up with a routine that you can stick to. If you try to start your day the same way most days (with some room for flexibility), it’s going to help you get into organised mode a lot more quickly. And there are various things you might like to do first, like answering emails to ease yourself into work gently, or always tackling the hardest or most unpleasant task first to get it out of the way and so on. You can do it how you want, but when you don’t have any kind of plan at all, it’s easy to drift through the day and really not get much done. 

Keep Your To-Dos In One Place

Some people write on sticky notes, some use apps, some use paper… It doesn’t matter what you use, what matters is that you make a to-do list and pick one spot to keep all the tasks there. Don’t spread them around or write them in various places because you’ll never know where you’re meant to be looking, and that’s how things get missed and forgotten. 

A to-do list or some notes about what needs to be done is an excellent idea, and it’s definitely going to help keep you organised, but if the list itself isn’t organised, you’re already starting off on the wrong foot. Whether it’s one place on your phone, a file on your computer, a notebook by your laptop or anything else you want to use, choose one thing and one place and put everything in it, and that’s how you’ll know you’re achieving something. 

Don’t Let Small Tasks Build Up

Things like replying to emails, sending invoices, or updating your calendar only take a few minutes in reality, but they can also be jobs you put off time and time again, perhaps because they’re small or because they’re boring, or just because you’re busy. But if you keep putting them off, they’re going to pile up, and what might have been a quick job at first turns into a much longer one because there are so many of them that suddenly all have to be done at once. 

That’s why it’s so important to try to deal with the small stuff a little at a time rather than waiting until it’s all urgent and it’s going to take a long time to finish. If you just put aside five or ten minutes a day, that’s usually enough to keep on top of things, and not only will you not have to get stressed over them, but you’ll see you’re achieving a lot, and that’s a good way to stay motivated. 

Use Simple Tools

You don’t need impressive, expensive, high-tech tools to be organised, but a few things can really help. For example, if you rent out properties, property management software for small landlords can save you loads of time because you’ll be able to keep better track of your tenant info, rent, and anything that needs fixing. Everything’s in one place and you don’t have to remember it all yourself. 

Even if you don’t work in property, there are tools for all sorts of small businesses, and the key is to find ones that are simple to use and actually make your day easier, not harder. 

Take Breaks

No matter how busy you are, you’re not a robot and if you try to work all day without stopping, your brain will just slow down and you won’t get as much done as you might think you would. On top of that, you’ll make mistakes, you’ll forget things, and you just won’t be able to run your business well. So taking short breaks helps to rest and reset, and that’s what you need to make sure you schedule in. 

And when we say take a break, that doesn’t mean staying at your desk or using screens - do something completely different like going for a walk, making a cup of tea, staring out of the window if you want, but whatever it is, totally get away from your work and you’ll feel so much better when you get back to it. 

Don’t Try To Do Everything In One Day

Some jobs take more time than others, and that’s okay because you don’t have to finish everything today, even if that’s how it can seem at times. And when it comes to big jobs, it’s far easier to break them into smaller ones and spread them out so they don’t feel overwhelming - just give yourself a deadline to work towards to make sure it all gets done. 

The fact is that if you do this, you’ll still make progress, and you won’t feel so overwhelmed. It’s just better to go slow and finish something well than it is to rush and mess it up.