1 Organizing Your Work

You should know the following terms:

• Functional workspace
• Ergonomics
• Chrome extension
• Goals (daily/weekly, short-term, long-term)
• Task List
• Master task list

Organize Your Physical Space

Having a functional, organized workspace can significantly contribute to improved productivity and efficiency as well as your own well-being.  A functional workspace is a space that allows you to work at your very best by increasing your productivity.

Materials and all supplies should be laid out in a way that they are easily accessible and easy to find. Create a flow that will make your work quicker and easier. Once set up, some habits that will keep it a functional area include:

• Keep it organized, maintaining the order of your workspace so you can find items without thinking about it
• When you use something, put it away as soon as you finish with it so you won’t need to pick it up a second time. 
• Keep it clean, putting trash in the trash and establishing a designated area for items that need a home still. 
• Before you leave for the evening, reset your workspace so you are ready to go the next morning. 

Your workspace should have good lighting and ergonomically correct chairs and tables. Ergonomics refers to furniture and materials that support the body’s natural posture and functions. Chairs that raise and lower, with adjustable backs and arms, and desks with lowered keyboard trays that allow you to type without having to raise your hands or tighten your shoulders are examples of ergonomically-designed furniture. 

There should be plenty of storage for extra parts, computers that need to be fixed, computers that have been repaired, tools, and supplies. Computers that you take in for repairs should be organized in a way that similar issues are grouped together for batch processing. Because of all this equipment, be sure that you have adequate security and that you lock the door when you are out of your office. In a shared space, everyone should have their own key or access code.

Organize Your Digital Workspace

You will work in both physical and digital workspaces. Consider how to make your digital workspaces as functional as the physical ones.

For example, if your shop uses Chrome browsers the Chrome extension TabCloud, can help make repetitive tasks easier as it allows you to set up groups of tabs, name them, and open them when you need them. This means you can set up a Tabcloud that will open all of the tabs needed at the beginning of the day instantly. View this video to see how TabCloud works. VIDEO

Other Google Workspace strategies to try

Tabgroups: Right-click on the tab and select Add Tab to New Group. Change the color of the tab group so you can tell you are in the group. Drag tabs to the tab group- a colored line appears under all the tabs in the group. To remove tabs, right-click and select remove the tab from the group.

Pinning Tabs in Chrome: Pin the tabs that you are working with and know you don’t want to close. Tabs appear as smaller tabs and must be unpinned to close. 

Google Tasks Video: This is a great place to organize your to-do list. It will add dates to your calendar when assigned.

Collaborating with Google Keep: Sends information to Google Docs. If you routinely schedule time on different campuses, you can set time and place reminders to go off when you get to a new destination. 

Add Shortcut to Drive: Select a file from your shared folder. Right-click and select Share to Drive. Select the location you want to save it. An alias is created. This allows any changes that take place to be updated in your Drive

Coloring Folders: Right-click on the folder and select change color to make important folders stand out. 

Name your folder with an * or _ before the folder name to move important folders up to the top of the Drive list. 

Organize Your "Brain" Space

Being organized starts with setting goals, both as a department and individually. Setting both short-term and long-term goals can help you stay focused and motivated. Your goals can provide a roadmap for your day, your week, and your year as well as for career growth and skill development. The daily goals should help you move towards your weekly goals, which help you reach your monthly goals, and so on. 

Goals come in three categories:

1. Daily/Weekly Goals: These goals are items that need to be accomplished during a specific week or on a specific day. Daily/Weekly goals will help you organize your time and be more efficient but you should always keep your short-term and long-term goals in mind. 

2. Short-term Goals: Goals set to be accomplished in three months to a year. Examples might be to improve your technical skills by learning a new system or software, enhancing your customer service skills, get a certification, or improve the efficiency of a system or process at your school or in your department.

3. Long-term Goals: Goals set to be completed in the next three-to-five years. Some examples may include getting an advanced certification or a degree, obtaining a leadership role, developing policy for the district, or develop a new infrastructure resource for the district.

Revisiting your goals regularly helps to ensure you not only address the immediate needs, but are working towards the larger picture needs as well. 

Organize Your Work

Most organized people establish some type of system to manage their work based on current goals. A task list is critical to successfully managing your work and the work of your team. Your task list can be digital, on paper, or even on a big whiteboard in your office that is easy to see and always in front of you. The most important thing about a task list is that you use it! Follow these tips to make your task list more effective.

1. Set up a routine to make the most of your task list. Tasks you need to create for those long-term goals go onto a master task list. Keep this in full view in your office so you remain focused on these long-term goals. Using a whiteboard is one way to manage your task list. It’s large enough to have daily goals, weekly goals, and short and long-term goals in one place. Erase tasks when you finish and add them to the master list as new things come up.
   
   
2. Weekly Task List. Establish your weekly task list on Friday of each week before you go home. Do a “brain dump” and write down everything you need to get accomplished the next week. Take items that are timely from your master task list and add them to your weekly task list. From that brain dump, select three-to-five tasks that you commit to getting accomplished on Monday when you return. By planning your Monday before you leave on Friday, you are ready to work when you come in Monday morning. Being organized and prepared to start right into work decreases stress levels and lets you enjoy your weekend. 
   Prioritize tasks into three simple categories:

   1. Must do (Priority A or Critical tasks)

   2. Should do (Priority B or Important tasks)

   3. Nice to do (Priority C or Desirable tasks)
      
      If you can’t prioritize a task, consider deleting it or delegating it to someone else.

3. Daily Task List: By creating a daily task list, you are giving yourself a deadline to get things done. Throughout the day, document your progress on your tasks. Identify whether tasks are Completed, In progress, Delegated, Canceled, or Forwarded to a different day.
   
   Plan a time to set your daily task list for the following day each afternoon before you leave school.  As new tasks come in, add them to your master task list. Unfinished tasks are moved to the next day or re-evaluated during planning time.

Here are additional resources you may find useful:

• Physical Weekly Tasks Notepads - examples (Amazon) 
• Digital Weekly Planner templates - examples (GooDocs)
• Creating an Interactive Task List in Sheets

Complete the following task or self-assessment:

Choose one or more of the following activities that best meet your needs.

1. Improving Your Workflow: Assess your current workspace. 
   1. Is it clean and organized? 
   2. Are you set up in a way that you can find things quickly and batch repairs? 
   3. What changes do you need to make to be more organized and make your workflow easier
   4. Reorganize your workspace so it will become more functional.
2. End of Day Reset: Practice resetting your workspace at the end of each day. Observe any changes in your productivity.
   
   
3. Setting Goals: Create a list of short-term (three months to a year) and long-term (three-to-five years) goals related to your work. 
   1. Make sure these align with your school's and district's goals. 
   2. Identify concrete steps you will take to work towards these goals. 
   3. Indicate how you will measure your progress.
4. Create a Master Task List: Create a master task list based on your goals and put it in full view in your office. Categorize your tasks into "must-dos," "should-dos," and "nice-to-dos." 
   1. Weekly: establish your weekly task list for the next week. Include tasks that are timely from your master task list.
   2. Daily: set your daily task list for the next day. Add new tasks to your master list and move unfinished tasks to the appropriate list or day.
      
      Do this for two weeks. At the end of each week, evaluate your progress. Were you able to complete your tasks in the set time? Did the task lists help improve your efficiency?

General Reflection

• What strategies or techniques have you learned that had the greatest impact on your efficiency and productivity? 

• Have you noticed any change in your stress levels or overall job satisfaction since you've started implementing a new strategy?

• Based on your experiences, what advice would you give to a new technician trying to implement any of these strategies for the first time?