How do you organize your workday to meet goals?

Setting up SMART goals for your daily work can help you stay focused, motivated, and organized. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Here are a few examples: 1. Specific: "I will complete the report on the sales performance for Q2." 2. Measurable: "I will make at least 20 sales calls each day." 3. Achievable: "I will increase my productivity by 10% compared to last month." 4. Relevant: "I will attend a workshop on time management to improve my efficiency." 5. Time-bound: "I will finish writing the marketing campaign proposal by Friday." Remember, the key is to make your goals specific, trackable, realistic, relevant to your work, and set a deadline to keep yourself accountable.

I start my day by prioritizing tasks that support the CEO’s schedule and priorities. I am very flexible and adaptable, since these are key qualities of me as an EA, as the day may change rapidly based on the CEO’s needs and priorities. Communication and anticipation of the CEO’s requirements are also crucial for success in my role.

Setting up SMART goals daily is vital to achieve both short term and long term goals. We can do this by planning and prioritizing our daily activities and DOING them not just PROCRASTINATING.

To organize my workday effectively, I prioritize tasks, set clear goals, and allocate time blocks for focused work. I create to-do lists, eliminate distractions, and use time management tools. Regular check-ins, flexibility, and self-care are crucial. I learn from experience, reflect on goals, and maintain a long-term perspective, striving for continuous improvement in workday organization to meet my professional objectives.

Working from home like myself, you need extreme discipline. More so when you don't have an office and you tend to work anywhere in the house. I have decided to have a small work station in my living room. That helps. I then every evening write down my tasks to work on the next day. These help me to meet my goals. It is important for me to do every task and complete it. During school holidays this becomes a bit of a challenge as the kids are then all over the house. However work still needs to be done, so I would usually take 3 days and work from the shared office spaces or at a coffee shop. This way you can still get work done.

Set Clear Goals: Start your day by defining your goals and priorities. What are the most important tasks you need to accomplish? Be specific about what you want to achieve. Time Blocking: Allocate specific time blocks for different tasks or categories of work. This helps you focus on one thing at a time and prevents multitasking, which can reduce productivity. Prioritize Tasks: Use a prioritization system like the Eisenhower Matrix (urgent vs. important) to determine which tasks should be tackled first. Focus on high-priority and high-impact tasks.

To prioritise my work and keep on top of my tasks I use Ms planner as the functions keep automatically reminding me what to prioritise each day. Furthermore, I can share my tasks with my colleagues

I work independently. Therefore, I always have a to-do list of my own. I start by tackling time-sensitive tasks. Then, I prioritise the tasks the director needs carried out. It is rather easy to get engrossed in a task and forget to do my daily routine checks and other time-sensitive repeat activities, and that's why I have an alarm set up for all of these. When my alarm goes off at 9:55am, I know I have to round up what I'm doing and go focus on the task listed for 10am. I also do all analytical tasks in the morning and creative ones in the afternoon. I get better results this way. There's a lot more but I hope this benefits someone.

Prioritization: Managers and team leads need to evaluate steps to make a project successful. From there, they’ll set task lists to move teams from one stage to the next, ensuring each accomplishment builds toward completion. Communication: This is a two-fold skill. Your team needs to be capable of communicating project statuses and where they need assistance. Goal setting: Goal setting helps to create realistic expectations for your team. It allows you to allocate resources in a more efficient capacity, allowing you to focus on more manageable goals first. This will reduce stress on your team and help everyone to slowly achieve harder goals in the future.

I start each day by writing down my 3 non-negotiables. 3 things I HAVE to get done that move the needle on important things. The rest of my “to do’s” can fill the gaps and it ensures I’m not focusing on quick wins only!

I agree, I always start the work with a brain dump of all tasks pending and then add any new action items found in my inbox. I purchased a “To-Do List” book from Amazon and it’s amazing! I’m pretty traditional therefore I find something very satisfying from writing things down and checking them off. I start off with a brain dump of pending and new action items and assign them a priority and completion date that week. I continue to add items and remove as I go. As an administrator , things are constantly happening therefore I understand that I will be changing the priority of the items on my list based on needs. I also use tools like Microsoft planner, it is amazing! All these tools help to keep me organized and my areas well serviced.

I absolutely love using my calendar for time blocking tasks, I also do this for those I support. I have a main “to do” list (I use a Notion Task Board for this) and each day I write my 3 non-negotiable tasks and I time block these into my calendar. These are 3 tasks I absolutely must get done.

I love using the beautiful glass whiteboard in my home office to keep my tasks and schedule in front of me at all times while working. I've found that it not only keeps me focused and conscious about what I have set out to do for the day/week/month/routinely, but also gives me a good dose of accomplishment when I check off/erase a task that's been in front of me for a period of time. On the go it's perfectly enough for me with Google calendar and Samsung task list on my main phone and computer screens to stay on top of my responsibilities.

Calendar To-do lists are indispensable tools for tracking tasks and deadlines. Prioritize your tasks within the list to ensure that you tackle the most significant and time-sensitive ones first. This approach ensures that you're making the most efficient use of your time and resources.

I use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Tasks. Since my requests come in via email, Google suite allows me to have my Google tasks as a side bar in Gmail. When I get an email that requires me to take action, I assign it as a task. This way, when I have a lot of tasks, I always have the email there to reference when it’s time to revisit it. When I mark a task as complete, it gets archived as a completed task. Thus, if I ever need to retrieve the task, I can easily find it along with the relevant email and details. This is much better than traditional handwritten methods.

Distractions and interruptions can hinder productivity. To maintain focus, find a quiet workspace, turn off notifications, use time blocking, set boundaries, prioritize tasks, and consider techniques like the Pomodoro Method. These strategies will help you stay on track and achieve your daily goals.

Staying committed to your prioritized to do list and being responsible towards your tasks will help you avoid distractions.

Frequently assess your progress and make necessary adjustments to your plan. This flexibility ensures that you remain adaptable and can reallocate your time and resources effectively as priorities shift. Regular reviews help keep you on track and aligned with your goals.

To Review the task list at the end of the day is important to know if you have finished all your tasks as planned. Try completing at-least 80% of your tasks which you planned for the day. The tasks unfinished or incomplete can be added to the next day to do list and plan your next day accordingly.

Staying adaptable and prepared for unexpected changes or emergencies. Creating flexibility in your schedule can help you handle unforeseen challenges. Remember that effective time management is an ongoing practice. Adjust your approach as needed to optimize your productivity and ensure that you consistently meet your goals.

Gain clarity on priorities ensure the priorities alignment then i evaluate urgency and importance of each task while assessing dependency and potential risks allocate time and resources accordingly.Finally i make informed decisions that makes me manage my workload effectively.