Here at KWSM, we know that proper organization is much more than just keeping your workspace tidy. Each member of our team is committed to following and constantly improving regimented systems and processes that keep our ducks in a row (and let me tell you – we have a lot of ducks to corral).
With as many clients and projects as we have, there’s no possible way for us to remember every task on our lists, timely emails to respond to, details from meetings, visual assets to create, etc. without a little help. In order to bring our A-game in everything we do, we put systems in place to keep us “uncommonly organized” – one of seven KWSM core values.
We’ve all heard the saying, “time is money.” According to The Productivity Experts, staying organized improves productivity by helping you keep deadlines, save time, eliminate stress, and more, all of which impact a business’s bottom line over time.
Here are just a few of the tips and tricks KWSM uses to stay organized.
Uncommonly Organized Tasks
Are you having trouble meeting deadlines and prioritizing the right tasks? We use a project management system called Teamwork to assign and keep track of projects in a central place that all team members can access as needed. This allows us to see which deadlines are approaching and fosters efficient collaboration between our content and web departments. Last but not least, the platform allows us to track our time for each task – an essential function for a marketing agency that needs to visualize how much time they spend on each client project.
One of my personal favorite organization tips is scheduling time for each task in my Google calendar. This allows me to visualize the best times to work on each task based on when my meetings are that week, how long I expect each task to take me, which tasks have the most pressing deadlines, and so on. I also schedule each task during the optimal time of day when I’ll be in the best headspace for that type of project. For example, I do my best “deep work” early in the day, while I enjoy more routine tasks as the day goes on. For this reason, I schedule things like campaign creations, brainstorming sessions, and strategy development in the first block of my morning, and then tasks such as content creation, blog writing, landing page copy, and graphic design in the afternoon. This calendering process has improved my efficiency and helped me ensure that no project falls through the cracks by the end of each week.
Uncommonly Organized Meetings
Before each meeting, we prepare detailed call agendas in Teamwork to make sure we walk away with all of the information we need to move projects forward. These agendas include anything from reporting on “wins” since the last meeting, recommendations for improving the strategy, updates on the latest campaigns, questions we have regarding the next week’s content, and so on. During the call, we take notes within that agenda to make note of anything significant that we will need to reference in the future. After the meeting ends, we save the notebook within the client’s Teamwork project so any KWSM team member, including those who may not have been on the call, can stay in the loop and easily find the information they need. This organized communication is one of KWSM’s strengths as a team and as an agency.
Uncommonly Organized Emails
An organized inbox is a happy inbox! One easy way to level up your email game is by creating folders within Gmail to file communication about each client or project. The process that works best for me is keeping every unread email in my primary inbox until I have read and responded to it, and, if applicable, made a plan for addressing the project the email pertains to. Once I have done those three things and the email can be closed out, I move it to that client’s folder.
Depending on the size and scope of each client, I also have subfolders for each client folder. For example, every time I get an email that one of my clients has received a new lead through a form on their website, I put that email into a special “Form Submissions” subfolder rather than into the client’s general folder. Meticulously categorizing emails like this allows me to quickly find the assets and information I need down the road.
The goal by the end of each Friday is to reach “zero inbox” status, where all emails from that week are closed out and in their corresponding folders, leaving my primary inbox empty so I can start fresh on Monday morning.
Are you interested in joining the KWSM Team?
We want to work with people who are uncommonly organized and excited about digital marketing! If you have the ability to keep your projects on task and roll up your sleeves to serve our clients, we might be the work-family you’re looking for!
CLICK HERE to learn more.
