How to Improve Organizational Skills at Work

When you’re working on a new job or trying to get a promotion, you need to be organized. While you might list organizational skills on your resume, it is a little more difficult to put those skills into action.

With organizational skills, you can meet deadlines and be efficient in your workflow management. In fact, in most cases, organizational skills can be synonymous with energy and time management.

All of these skills are very important in the workplace and potential employers want to make sure you keep track of them.

In this post we will dive deep into organizational skills, specific examples of what they look like in action, and how to develop organizational skills in the workplace.

Organizational skills are about building structures, increasing productivity, and prioritizing the right tasks at the right time.

The opposite of organizational skills is procrastination, clutter, inefficiency and misunderstanding.

Organizational skills mean you will be able to stay calm while creating a planned plan. Many people with good organizational skills break projects down into smaller goals to make them easier to achieve.

Importance of organizational skills

Organizational skills are important as they will help you get tasks done on time. These types of skills are important in the workplace because managers see that you can handle your tasks and have autonomy over your own projects. This will help you get promotions and references when you apply for new jobs in the future.

If you don’t have a plan for how you are going to achieve something, it will be much more difficult for you to get it to an end. You need to be able to predict how long a task will take, what resources you will need to get it done, and have the discipline to block the time required to get it done.

Organizational talent in the résumé

When listing organizational skills on your resume, you may want to consider breaking it down into more specific skills. Let’s dive into the following examples.

Example of organizational skills

Some of the best organizational skills to list on your resume include:

• communication
• time management
• delegation
• Attention to detail
• Make a decision
• strategic planning
• set goals
• Creative thinking
• solve problems
• productivity
• Manage priorities
• Teamwork / collaboration
• Deadlines
• Scheduling
• Conflict management
• Office management

1. Own your calendar.

The best way to develop organizational skills is to really own your calendar. Block the time you have to get your job done. Then create a schedule for yourself that is realistic to stick to. It’s difficult to keep track of when random meetings appear on your calendar.

It’s also important to know how best to work. For example, I like holding meetings in a row because it is difficult for me to get work done in 30 minute increments between meetings. I want all of my meetings at the same time so I can block work time and then meeting time.

2. Create lists.

If you’ve got a lot on your to-do list, you can create separate lists of what needs to be done and when. I usually have a running to-do list listing everything I have to do for the week. Then I’ll break that down into daily to-do lists. You can organize your lists by tasks, meetings, reminders, and more.

3. Find out which tools will help you.

Of course everyone works differently. This is why figuring out how to work best is important. Do you like a physical calendar or a digital calendar? Regardless, you need tools to help you stay organized. Below is a short list of physical and digital tools to get you started.

Physical tools

• planner
• calendar
• notepad
• folder
• Magazines

Digital tools

• Google Calendar
• Trello
• Asana
• Evernote
• Teuxdeux

4. Communicate with your team.

Another way to develop organizational skills is to communicate with your team. It is important to communicate your plan of action to all necessary stakeholders. In addition, communication helps keep you accountable.

When you’re working on a project with multiple people, you can share updates on your part of the project immediately or at the end of the day. This is a great way to keep the team organized and on target.

5. Tidy up your workplace.

To be truly organized, your workplace should be free from clutter. Even if not everyone likes to keep everything neat and tidy, you should only have the bare essentials on your desk so that you are not distracted. This will improve productivity and the organization as a whole. Whenever you need to find a list or item, it is important that you know where it is and that it will not be lost.

Organizational talent in the workplace

Now you may be wondering “How can I use these organizational skills in the workplace?” and “How can I highlight these skills?”

The first step is to list these skills on your resume when you apply for jobs. You can say “organizational skills” or list other skills like the ones above, to be more specific.

When you’re in an interview, think of stories and examples of how you stayed organized and how it helped you solve a problem or complete a project successfully. It’s important to discuss how you’ve planned your time, how to handle multiple tasks, and how to delegate tasks.

While a potential employer may not ask specific questions about organizational skills, you can use these stories in questions like. point out “What are your strengths?” and “Why are you a good fit for this role?”

As soon as you work for a company, you can underline your organizational skills in projects or meetings. It is a good idea to use these skills whenever you can as they will impress your boss and move you forward in your career.

Organizational skills don’t just mean keeping to-do lists. That means you can manage your time efficiently, be productive, solve problems, and think critically. That is why it is important to develop your organizational skills whenever you can.