If you have associates, clients or friends who are professional organizers, you know that January is referred to as “GO” month – Get Organized. It’s a natural time to clean up, clean out, and feel that you’re starting the new year with an intention to be more productive. What will you do for GO month? I’ll share just a few things I’m working on improving for getting my own business organized.

Projects and Tasks 

Do you have a place to post your Master To-Do’s – including all things that need to get done, but not necessarily soon? Beyond the daily list or individual sticky notes, it’s  helpful to have a place (whiteboard? Word doc? Anything…) where you are collecting all those “oh yea, I’d better remember to…” items. I don’t have a place for my Master List just yet…still experimenting. I’ve already tried a few items but seriously tempted to get a crayon and start scrawling on my wall… 

Do you have a system where you track your monthly/weekly/daily tasks? If you work with an admin like I do, an app where you can share and comment together makes all the difference. Currently I have surrendered to Asana, and for instant messaging, I am loving Slack. For my own tasks and “brain dump”, I have my paper notebook. I use a plain open format so I can write, scribble, circle, draw arrows and highlight to my heart’s content, basically spilling out my brain’s content. To make it fancy I use my favorite fountain pen. 

Goals and Planning 

For a longer term business planner, I’m loving my Pumpkin Plan Action Planner. It has it all! From big plans and goals to everyday thoughts, it’s a great tool to keep me accountable and focused. My clients are getting one from me, and I’ve already received positive feedback from them. 

My Secret Weapon: Sunday Evening Prep 

Around 4pm on Sundays, I plug in my Instant Pots (I have 2, don’t judge me) and make a couple of batches of “something” that I can build a meal from during the week. A batch of rice, a pot of chicken, whatever — nothing exciting, but keeps me from stressing about cooking on a weeknight when my brain is overloaded. This means I can relax during my afternoon and evening sessions, giving my all to my strategy clients. 

While my instant pots are humming along, I move on to my Inbox Triage Session to clean up any remaining email clutter in my inbox that would otherwise command my time on Monday morning. You may work through a similar process, but here’s a quick review of mine: 

  • I open and read each email. Do I need to DO something with it?  
  • If yes, will it take 5 minutes or less? If yes, then I just take care of it. Done.  
  • If it will take more than 5 minutes to do, then I put it in my task manager (Asana) and let my admin know if she is to play a part in getting it done. 
  • If I don’t need to do anything, I either file it in the proper folder or delete it. 
  • I go through my whole inbox until every item is addressed.
  • Yes, “Zero Inbox” is very possible, I’ve done it on many occasions.  

With a clean inbox and my meals almost done, I check my calendar and my closet. If I need to go somewhere and look presentable next week, I pull out outfits for the events.   

There you have it – my Sunday Evening Prep Process for a productive week ahead. It allows me to wake up on Monday knowing I have a clear handle on everything I could have possibly cleared up and planned ahead.