Q4 is dwindling down to an end, and before we know it we will be flipping our calendars to 2017. Since the holidays are an incredibly busy time and many people expect to accomplish major goals quickly come the new year, getting organized at this time is essential.
Your business can get on top of these priorities and make life easier for itself overall when you heed the following tips for getting your business organized in time for the New Year:
Put Your Head, and Your Work, in the Clouds
Cloud software is without a doubt the simplest way to stay organized as a business. For one thing, everyone has access to the same system anywhere in the world as long as they have a device and an internet connection. For another, every person accesses the same information every time since each change updates all versions.
Put another way, imagine you were working on a slideshow presentation and you sent it off to three different departments for fact-checking. One department could notice a statistical inaccuracy and correct it, while another department could suggest rewording a few slides. You may correct the statistical error first, then send the file again before opening the word correction suggestions from the other employee. Now you have two versions of the same file, and you need to update all changes. Otherwise, you run the risk of leaving errors unchecked within versions, creating a whole mess of complexity.
With collaborative cloud software, like Microsoft Office 365, each correction is saved and updated as it is made. Each collaborator can also see what the other has done, either through revisions or comment notes made in the margins. In the end, everyone sees the same file and has less worry about juggling documents.
Take Advantage of Chat and Collaboration Software
In addition to editing documents, your workplace can benefit greatly from cloud-based scheduling and organization software that puts everyone in the team on the same page.
For example:
- Trello mimics the kanban system while offering employee chat and task scheduling, all cloud-based to maintain version control and allow easy access as discussed above.
- Diigo is an app that lets people annotate web pages and slides while maintaining all of their bookmarks in a group-accessed folder.
- Microsoft OneNote for Business is a web-based Diigo alternative that integrates with Microsoft Office and offers some project planning features to boot.
- Slack is a chat app that can replace internal business emails through its highly-organized tagging, search and sorting functions.
- Microsoft Teams is a chat-based workspace in Microsoft Office 365 that allows you to keep all of your conversations and projects in one place by providing built-in access to OneNote, SharePoint and Skype for Business.
Clean Up Your Real and Virtual Desktops
Living in a cluttered, unorganized space can make it difficult to get tasks done efficiently. Worse, having a chaotic work environment can make us prone to procrastination and feel overwhelmed.
So clean out the junk by turning your desk drawers and filing cabinets inside out. Scan all receipts and paperwork, and then throw the majority of them away. Eliminate office supplies and tools that have not been touched in the past six months. Simplify your physical space, make it clean, and then repeat the process within your virtual spaces.
You would be amazed to see the results de-cluttering can have on your positivity and productivity after putting a little effort into conquering the chaos.
Consider Outsourcing IT and Other Departments
Departments like internal IT can not only pose organizational clutter for your business, they can also mean an inability to respond flexibly to market changes as well as dramatically increased labor costs.
You can use the same approach to de-cluttering in order to streamline your business model by considering whether you should be outsourcing IT and other departments within your organization. See what benefits you could be obtaining by visiting our “solutions” page and then contacting us today to discuss your needs and goals.