Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - Is being organized the MAJOR KEY to job success??

Jan · 11-24-2006, 07:00 PM

Hello there,

I have been at my job for 12 years - too long but that's another story - and I never felt like I was doing the job efficiently. At first I thought it was lack of knowledge about the industry as it's fairly complicated at times (insurance/reinsurance) and I'm sure that was part of it. However as time has gone by and as I improve myself I realize that I have the technical knowledge to complete all the tasks and in fact it is not that hard after all!
I plan to move on to a different area of the industry but in the meantime I want to feel completely competent in my current role which will give me confidence moving forward.

I realize that all my frustrations are based on not keeping track of this e-mail, that reinsurance document to be signed , that person to follow up, that new program, that renewal, that commutation agreement etc. etc. etc. So many different programs, renewals, documents, charts, clients, e-mails, meetings. I think I need to come up with an excellent organization system and I do have the book GTD which if my memory serves me correctly talks about a "tickler" system - but I haven't implemented this or any other similar system. I do make haphazard lists but that's about it. I'm pretty rushed throughout the day then busy at home with kids and so I just get through each day without having a proper system in place. Part procrastination I suppose. However, it's not a comfortable feeling - what if I have forgotten something really important!

We don't get taught this in school but I see the young accountants join our firm, 10 years younger than me, and they juggle more tasks than I do - very competently. They seems to naturally be able to keep track of everything. Is it because they are mathematical and naturally logical??

What really is the simplest most logical way to keep track of everything do you think? For instance, if I were to list my tasks in a daily diary...then at the end of the day five out of eight are done (some needing follow-ups if necessary) should I copy those remaining three to the next day and then flip to a week away to jot down the ones that need following-up (if no reply received)? If I do get a reply later then I will need to find the follow-up notation & cross it out to avoid wasting time looking at the files again. Grrr...I should just build walls for a living, at least you know where you are at the end of the day!!

What do all of the successful folk here do? I will also copy this post into the Career section.

Thanks so much,
Jan

11-24-2006, 07:00 PM	#1 (permalink)
Jan Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8	Is being organized the MAJOR KEY to job success?? Hello there, I have been at my job for 12 years - too long but that's another story - and I never felt like I was doing the job efficiently. At first I thought it was lack of knowledge about the industry as it's fairly complicated at times (insurance/reinsurance) and I'm sure that was part of it. However as time has gone by and as I improve myself I realize that I have the technical knowledge to complete all the tasks and in fact it is not that hard after all! I plan to move on to a different area of the industry but in the meantime I want to feel completely competent in my current role which will give me confidence moving forward. I realize that all my frustrations are based on not keeping track of this e-mail, that reinsurance document to be signed , that person to follow up, that new program, that renewal, that commutation agreement etc. etc. etc. So many different programs, renewals, documents, charts, clients, e-mails, meetings. I think I need to come up with an excellent organization system and I do have the book GTD which if my memory serves me correctly talks about a "tickler" system - but I haven't implemented this or any other similar system. I do make haphazard lists but that's about it. I'm pretty rushed throughout the day then busy at home with kids and so I just get through each day without having a proper system in place. Part procrastination I suppose. However, it's not a comfortable feeling - what if I have forgotten something really important! We don't get taught this in school but I see the young accountants join our firm, 10 years younger than me, and they juggle more tasks than I do - very competently. They seems to naturally be able to keep track of everything. Is it because they are mathematical and naturally logical?? What really is the simplest most logical way to keep track of everything do you think? For instance, if I were to list my tasks in a daily diary...then at the end of the day five out of eight are done (some needing follow-ups if necessary) should I copy those remaining three to the next day and then flip to a week away to jot down the ones that need following-up (if no reply received)? If I do get a reply later then I will need to find the follow-up notation & cross it out to avoid wasting time looking at the files again. Grrr...I should just build walls for a living, at least you know where you are at the end of the day!! What do all of the successful folk here do? I will also copy this post into the Career section. Thanks so much, Jan