The Key Habits of an Organised Business Owner

By Hayley Mears

There are two types of people in the world. The organised and the unorganised. I’m here to tell those peeps in the unorganised category… “it’s ok, you can be converted”.

I have essentially converted myself. Eventually, life required me to do LOTS of different things at the same time and getting my shit together was the only way to get through it.

I studied and worked full-time simultaneously. Yep. It was messy, stressful and I was an anxious mess. This wasn’t what made me get organised and streamline my life, but it was certainly the catalyst for a huge change.

As we all go through the various chapters of our life, we have the benefit of wisdom. Learning from our mistakes and using a measure of past lessons and gut instincts to navigate our way through.

If you think about the stressful times in your lives when you felt overwhelmed, there is almost certainly an element of life admin chaos, right? Where to start is the hardest bit. It’s all about reverse engineering your life and your behaviour patterns to get you to a place of ease and calm.

Some things finally click in your head. It could be watching Marie Kondo on Netflix for the first time. ‘It could be scrolling through Pinterest and seeing the perfectly organised office you have always dreamt of.

Make sure your lines of communication are current and streamlined.

Easier said than done right? We have SO many platforms for people to connect with us and this can be our undoing. Emails can be easily lost if we don’t clean our inboxes like we clean our houses.

We need to take out the trash, unsubscribe to the unwanted, highlight the urgent and categorise everything else. If this sounds hectic to you - fair enough. You can work with a virtual assistant who can do this for you or watch YouTube tutorials to get familiar with doing this in your inbox.

When communicating with your team it’s best to simplify and use ONE tool only. It could be a WhatsApp group, a Facebook Group, a Messenger thread, or a TEXT thread. Remember to find a tool that has everything you need. If you’re sharing lots of video files, pdfs or high-res imagery WhatsApp is better at preserving file size and allows you to send longer video clips.

Audio messages will change your life. You know those moments when the info you need to share is more than a message or an email, but not a phone call or a meeting? This is where audio messages are the perfect fit.

How can you use your time effectively? When it feels like you have NO spare hours in your day how can you possibly show up more organised? It’s about using the downtime effectively. If you have long commutes in the car or even short car rides, use this time to get shit done.

Make that phone call, record your latest audio, and listen to that podcast. The same goes for the time you spend doing your house admin. Put some earphones in and take advantage of your latest saved podcast, return the missed call, or listen/ record an audio.

Are you sitting in the car at soccer practice? Order your groceries online.

Are you waiting in the Doctors surgery? Start writing some social media captions in your notes folder

Are you meeting a friend who is running late? Start sorting your emails.

It’s all about using the otherwise redundant time.

Hayley Mears

@sixundergroundmedia www.sixunderground.net.au