The Office Gal

Just a quick tip: Large companies do it, small businesses do it, one-person teams should too. What is it? Have a weekly meeting with yourself. Why? Because even though you are a one-person team, taking time out to review and update will keep you on top of things and in check.

Yes, I do have a weekly meeting. On Friday, I pull together my calendar, notes, projects, and sit down with the phone to voice mail to concentrate on my review and follow-up.

Current Week:

• File completed projects
• Update timelines on open projects
• Layout timelines for new projects
• Update dates on my calendar
• Review any notes
• Rewrite sticky notes into my notebook

New Week:

• Begin To-Do list for new week
• Prioritize projects
• Highlight priority follow-ups
• Highlight priority e-mails
• Highlight priority calls

Yes, there will be things that might need to be updated throughout the week, but you should never miss a week without a complete sit down and review. Regardless if it is 30 minutes to two hours, it will be the best time spent of the whole week. You never know what you might have missed during the week. This is definitely the catch time!

Do you have any tips on a weekly meeting? How do you review your week? We would love to hear your tips - let us know!

This is an original The Office Gal post.

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Every size office will have interruptions. You can be a one-man team working out of your home and have just as many interruptions as a counterpart in a large manned corporation. From the telephone, walk-ins, to unexpected meetings that pop up, interruptions are a part of the office scene.

At one point, you will reach the level of no return. You will need to control the urge to accept the interruptions and put a stop to them. Rephrase that. It might not stop them, but it will limit them to allow you the time to carry on with your business.

The following tips may work alone or in a combination of several together to help you control your office. Not every tip will fit every office and some might not work at all for you. Give them a try and let us know which ones work!

Slash the e-mail. Funny thing is the largest interruption is actually your own e-mail. Some people are e-mail junkies and will check it every five to ten minutes. Slow down! Many e-mails have pop-ups that will show you a snippet of the e-mail. If it’s not important right now, leave it. Optimally, set up three times per day to check your inbox.

Set up office times. If you work out of your home, set up specific office hours for meetings and phone calls. Having this allotted time makes sure your remaining work hours are spent being productive on projects. Don’t allow calls and pop-ins to happen. Once it is accepted, people will begin to take advantage.

Close the door. If you work in an office with many others, walk-ins can be disastrous to your projects, especially if you have Miss Gossip that loves to visit, and visit often. Create a sign stating you are working on a project and hang it up - on your door, cubicle, or wall. Give yourself a a specific time window, like two hours, before you will begin seeing people again. Use your voice mail and e-mail to your advantage!

Set meet-up times. Of course you will have a handful of people that are “must” meets. An assistant, or fellow team leader, or your own team leader if you work in a home office. Set specific times to meet with these people daily or weekly. This will allow everyone to be prepared to meet and breeze through instead of dropping in and forgetting what you had to ask or say.

Do you have a tip or suggestion when it comes to avoiding office interruptions? Share it with the readers of The Office Gal. Leave a comment or contact me and I will add it to our list!

This is an original The Office Gal post.

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Sounds easy enough. Open your e-mail and start going through it, right? Wrong. That is why your e-mail is on overload now, you hate the thought of cleaning it out. Old e-mails, forgotten e-mails, and the e-mails you forgot to read. Time to go through it!

Now your e-mail is your land. You make the rules, but I have a few suggestions that might become habit-forming. My first suggestions - take care of it as it comes in. Don’t read the e-mail when it first comes in and then get back to it later. No, do it now.

Timing. The easiest way to tame the lion is to choose two or three set times during your work day to check your inbox. At that time review e-mails, reply where needed, and process any work that needs to be done. Control the e-mails now, so they don’t get out of hand later.

Think. When you are going through your e-mails, think before replying. Does the e-mail really need a reply, or is it more for informational purposes? Not everyone needs a nice e-mail saying “Thank you.” This takes your time and the receivers time. Always think before replying to make the most use of your time.

Quick. Replying to e-mails doesn’t have to be lengthy and windy. Be straight forward and to the point. Always be kind with an opening, but then get to the purpose of the e-mail. Save small talk for a weekly lunch with the colleagues.

File. I know it is easy to just file away because you never know what you might need, right? Well, honestly, 99% of what you file, you may never need again. This is important because you take up time searching through all of those e-mails to find the right one. Think about what you truly need to file for work purpose - otherwise get rid of it.

Do you have a tip or suggestion when it comes to taming the e-mail inbox? Share it with the readers of The Office Gal. Leave a comment or contact me and I will add it to our list!

This is an original The Office Gal post.

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Anybody who files in a busy office knows that papers are constantly coming across their desk, and if those papers are not organized on a regular basis, messy piles can accumulate…resulting is misfiles, or even worse, lost documents.

An easy and smart way to keep constant track of paperwork as it mounts, particularly documents that relate to ongoing projects, is to create what’s called a tickler file. In addition to making it easy for you to manage the continual stream of papers you have to deal with, a tickler file helps simplify the process of determining what to save and what to throw out by allowing you to temporarily store papers for future use.

To set up your own tickler file, here’s all you do: Just place a hanging folder in your drawer with five interior folders inside the hanging folder. Label each interior folder with a different day of the week. As the week progresses, drop papers for review into the respective interior folders and review at each days end. When Friday rolls around, sort through the entire file for the whole weeks worth of papers and you’ll be able to easily decide what to save and what to
discard…or, what to transfer into a more permanent file.

Tickler files are perfect for projects that you work on over long periods of time. Indeed, many projects tend to take on a life of their own, accumulating mountains of papers some of which are not needed right away. Its those papers that can clog up your days and weeks and rob you of filing efficiency as well as productivity.

Using a tickler file can alleviate the challenges of paperwork build-up, making your entire office and your life more organized every day!

This article was originally posted at and written by Leslie Servenio of American Folder Company.

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