Marrying Tech to Tradition

The choices for organizing and completing administrative tasks are dizzying. Every new electronic gadget from cell phones to smart phones and Blackberries; the IPad, ITouch and a variety of online tools promise to make your life more organized, simple, and stress free. No more missing meetings or frantic searches for important documents. They all work (some better than others) and this is not an article that will tell you which ones you should invest in. What I will suggest is ways to link technology with more traditional organizational methods. Resources vary as do interest and understanding of new technology. Remember, what you may take for fact can be nothing more than good marketing. In order to be organized and run the office efficiently, you need to consider your own temperament, level of technical savvy and the nature of the business itself.

1. Calendars. When I was a new supervisor, my Director gave me my first Daytimer. Now they may be considered a dinosaur in time management, but that little pocket size planner had my whole life in one convenient place. And, it had the added appeal of a black leather case with my initials engraved on the cover. It was attractive, professional and did the job as long as I was faithful in recording everything I needed to write down. That is the common denominator of all calendars. None will work without data entry, whether it’s with a pen, keyboard or touch screen. I have tried putting my life on my Blackberry, but it doesn’t have the same comfortable feel as my Daytimer. The best one for you is the one you will use consistently. Find out what that is and then never waver.
2. Appointments. While my Daytimer has my appointments recorded on the proper date page, it can’t call out and remind me. That’s where I use my Blackberry as a backup. I record my appointments in the Blackberry calendar and depending on the timeframe I set up, I get a visual and auditory reminder to get my act together to get to my appointment on time. If you are in the office most of the time, reminders in Outlook will do the same.
3. To Do Lists. Ah, the ever maddening and constantly growing To Do List. I used to have one so long in Outlook that I couldn’t see the bottom of it. A good reminder, but very inefficient. The Daytimer’s method of recording and then coding and moving events works best for me since I can see the progress or things that need to be done much better than a long list somewhere in cyberspace. Always pair your To Do List with a manual “tickler” file, which has a hard copy of documents, letters, emails (or the date and time and name of sender the email along with the task) so you have the information you need at your fingertips to complete the task. A cardboard expandable file may seem like a step back to the dark ages, but will make you look like a star when you can put your hands on a document in record time. Whether you file the documents by date or alphabetically, a tickler file pair’s technical data storage with real time information to get the job done.


Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a freelance writer, blogger, and workplace consultant. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in "Training" magazine, "Training & Development" magazine, "Supervision," "Pulse" and "The Savannah Morning News." You can read her blogs at www.skirt.com/savannahchick, www.workingsmartworks.blogspot.com/ and on the web at www.mjnhconsulting.com.