Organised - Office #1

As a piece of honesty coming up, please don't hold it against me... I can be disorganised, very disorganised!

I know all you readers are organised and not in need for any practical means of managing this fault, I thought that I would share with you my dear readers some of what I have learnt.  

1. A3 Desk organiser I recommend a A3 desk organiser note pad on the side of your desk to list all your daily actions and new additions, copy across to a new sheet when it starts to get messy and complicated. ALWAYS cross off tasks when they have been completed. I really like the ones Marks and Spencer have been producing recently.

A3 desk pad.

These are great to jott information on and also retain a day task list. Okay also for drawing on while on the phone!  

2. Notepads ALWAYS have an A4 or A5 notebook in your vicinity. I keep a business hard backed A4 note book in the office for meetings and keeping longer term information that might be needed for 1 - 4 weeks duration. Any longer than this, the information needs to be digitised in a word or excell document. However for my personal notes, I keep a smaller handy sized lined A5 moleskine notebook.

Moleskine A5 hardbacked notebook.

Okay, this is the normal black cover one, but my present one is a limited edition star wars version which feels great to use, even when pulled out of my man-bag for a meeting with the bank manager.  

3. Effective Meetings. I strongly recommend drafting an agenda before every meeting and then using this to manage the meeting itself to maximise the meeting outcome. I also try to write up the minutes ASAP with actual action items bolded with relevant parties to avoid confusion. It sounds deeply boring, but it avoids those long winded pointless meetings we all hate that achieves nothing.

Meetings without the pain.

 4. Great pens. I used to use those super cheap pens that everyone uses which made me loathe writing. BUT now I use mid price range pens that seem to flow far easier on the paper and also are easier to grip. I certainly get less hand ache while writing and the only downside I've found is that they can go missing as others covet the precious things.

Uni-ball smooth pens

These Uni ball ones work best for me, but there is a whole world of pens out there. I think that I'll leave the office stationery there and follow up soon with a blog on home organising.