10 Essential Organization Skills & How To Improve Them

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The organization is extremely important. Whether you are a student, junior employee, manager, or CEO, staying organized will boost your efficiency and productivity. It will help you stay ahead of your competition. However, many individuals are naturally disorganized.

They feel like an organization takes a significant amount of time. In fact, some assume that organization takes so much time, that it actually reduces their productivity!

Plus, it’s generally difficult and sometimes costly to build new skills, so many neglects doing it altogether. But, building organizational abilities does not have to be complex or costly.

In this article, we will help you understand the benefits of organizational skills and how to do it in the most efficient way.

What are Organization Skills?

In general, organization skills are any abilities that help you stay in order, give you structure, allow you to maintain a consistent work output, help you prioritize tasks, and much more. Organization abilities also help you with delegating tasks to employees, preventing doing tasks that are redundant or unnecessary, and much more.

Strong organizational skills help you achieve your goals and stay on top of your schedule. Whether you are a manager, CEO, new employee, or student, you can experience a boost of efficiency after acquiring organizational skills.

Those with great organizational abilities can also make difficult projects easier, decrease clutter, and increase the amount of time they are doing something they enjoy, rather than pointless tasks.

The organization is about more than just a clean work environment. It is also being able to stay organized and focused mentally. Organization skills are crucial if you want to be a dependable team member or leader.

Why Is it Important To Recognize Organization Skills & Their Benefits?

Organizational skills are crucial for any employee regardless of industry, job title, education level, age, or any other factor. They help you in nearly every aspect of your work.

Most of the best leaders also credit their strong organization as one of the reasons for their success. So, even if you are not an employee, pay attention to your organization.

When considering if you should spend time building organizational skills, consider the following benefits:

  • Increases the relevancy of your goal setting (creating goals specific to you) and boosts your odds of achieving those goals.
  • Builds strong planning skills that allow you to stay ahead of the crowd.
  • The physical organization makes your workplace visually appealing, potentially increasing positive emotions.
  • Both physical and mental organization boost your productivity as well as efficiency.
  • Makes you more committed and passionate about your work, reducing your thoughts of giving up.
  • Increase your opportunities for a raise, as you will be generating more revenue and profit.
  • Save you from the frustration that comes from working in a disorganized workplace.
  • Reduces stress and risks of both mental and physical ailments (depression, anxiety, obesity, and more).
  • Give you an advantage over other employees when you are on a job hunt.
  • Can improve your collaboration skills and strengthen relationships with coworkers.

10 Examples of Organization Skills

There are many different types of skills included under the broad category of organization. The types of organizational skills you use in each workplace may also be different.

It is important to be aware of the specific organizational skills you already have and which ones you need to focus on building up.

More specifically, these are some of the top organizational skills to consider building up:

Communication Skills

When you think of organization, you may not immediately see how communication skills are relevant. However, if you are able to communicate with others, your organization can go through the roof.

If you know who can assist you with certain tasks, and you communicate clearly, you can save time and boost efficiency. Organized employees try to prioritize their productivity, which communication can certainly do.

Working When Stressed

Previously, we listed how staying organized can help you reduce stress. However, it is inevitable that you will still encounter difficult situations that bring you some discomfort. Knowing how to effectively navigate these settings can help you save mental space and increase your productivity.

When you work in a fast-paced setting, it is crucial to keep your emotions under control. You must also stay focused. If you understand how to properly plan and stay in control, you can make this type of work much easier.

Being Self-Motivated

Many individuals rely on outside motivation to keep them going. Employees feel like they want to give up, but their leader steps in to re-energize them. But, to truly be organized, you must learn how to get that motivation from yourself.

The best employees know that they can get motivation from setting goals. Some even use deadlines as a way to increase their speed when working. The added stress actually helps these employees. Regardless, if you can be self-motivated, you will see more consistent success.

Detail-Oriented

Generally, it is not ideal to stress over every minute detail. However, being a perfectionist and being detail oriented comes more naturally to those who are highly organized. This is so because they get used a clean environment, so much so that even small changes are noticed and bother them.

Those who are organized would gladly take the extra time to work more and perfect their work. They are committed to achieving perfection, or as close to perfection as they can, in their personal and work lives.

Effective Decision-Making

Some individuals spend hours pondering over what decision they should make. Often, they have to spend even more time trying to find the data and information that is useful for making a decision.

However, organized people already have that information at hand. They can quickly make decisions with more precision that an inefficient and disorganized individual.

Fantastic Planning Skills

Planning is a key part of the organization. Organizers know that they need to be prepared for their work a day or more in advance. This allows them to immediately get started with their work once they enter the workplace.

Individuals that are highly organized often use calendars, notebooks, graphic organizers, and more to help them with planning. They are known for using the ‘reminders’ feature on their cell phones often! This long-term thinking also helps them avoid deadlines and finish tasks quicker than others.

Being Analytical

Critical and analytical thinking is key to staying organized. Analytical thought includes analyzing data, making reasonable inferences, and looking deeper to find hidden information.

Organization can help you with increased efficiency when trying to spot potential problems. Logical thinking also ensures you find the best way to organize your environment or mental space.

Knowing When To Delegate Tasks

No matter how much you wish to do everything yourself, you simply cannot. This is a reality that many leaders come to realize over the course of their careers. Organized individuals know when to delegate tasks and when they should focus on performing a duty.

They are self-aware and understand their own strengths. When a task does not align with those strengths, they know who to reach out to so it is performed to the highest quality. Knowing who to delegate to requires planning and knowledge retention, and high skills of organization.

Time Management Skills

Everyone has 24 hours in a day. The difference between a highly organized person and a disorganized one is how those hours are used.

An organized person knows how to make the most of their time and resources. Their planning and resulting increased productivity allow them to save time and frustration in the long run. This decreased stress and increased time allow them to accomplish more at work.

Setting Clear Goals And Being Goal-Oriented

Many individuals have just one goal each day at work: make it through the day. However, this is not a SMART or useful goal. In fact, it is quite negative and increases negative thoughts associated with work.

Organized people know how to create SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) goals. This helps them stay motivated and increases their productivity.

How To Improve Organization Skills in The Workplace

After taking the HIGH5 test, you will acquire immense insights into your current organizational skills. The next step to self-improvement is building upon these strengths.

This does not mean you have to lose all of your confidence by focusing on your weaknesses, though. In fact, this weakness-oriented approach also reduces productivity and passion, so it is best to avoid it.

However, other strategies are highly effective in boosting your organization. For example, start by focusing on your physical organization.

Do you have your binders, online work, and physical workplace all organized? Do you know where to find the information necessary for your job? If not, consider taking a look and reorganizing your workplace.

Additionally, you should seek to maximize opportunities for using your strengths. If you are a great planner, do not be afraid to plan for smaller events, too.

This can serve as a way to practice the planning process for times when you must plan for large occurrences, such as major conferences or interviews. If you know that strong communication skills and great listening ability are one of your top strengths, volunteer to lead group projects and communicate with everyone on the team.

How To Make an Organization Checklist

Organized employees use numerous strategies to stay on top of their tasks. Reminders, graphic organizers, and schedules are all common.

Another one of the most popular organizational tools such individuals use is the organizational checklist. By using this tool, you can boost productivity and simultaneously build upon your organizational strengths.

An organization checklist is essentially a “to-do” list. First, create a list of tasks that you want to perform. Try to include descriptions if you do not know how to perform the task.

Next, prioritize these tasks. Place the most important tasks at the top of the list. You could also organize tasks by the type of activity they are, or write when you want to complete them.

As you go through the day, look at your organizational checklist. Perform the tasks you listed first, and cross them off as you go. Crossing these tasks off may seem unnecessary, but it gives many individuals a sense of motivation and satisfaction.

Plus, it reminds you that you are capable of achieving your goals. If any new tasks come up, add them to your list in the appropriate position.

How To Highlight Organization Skills In Resume & Job Interview

One of the great benefits of gaining a skill is the increased interest you could receive from potential employers. It makes your odds of acquiring your dream job more likely and boosts your motivation.

The first step to getting the attention of your dream employer is to treat an amazing resume. Try to communicate why you are a high-value employee to this particular employee.

You must show off your strengths but do so in a humble way. Simple saying “here are my strengths:” on your resume will not convince employers you are a well-organized employee.

Instead, you can include examples of times organization help both you and your entire team. Be as specific as you can. You can include your organization examples under your prior job descriptions. Use statistics when possible to give your claims more merit.

For example, you could say: “I lead two remote teams and increased their organization by encouraging communication. We accomplished this by experimenting with a new online communication tool I developed.”

When it is time for the interview, use a similar strategy. Do not simply tell them you have a certain strength. Show them you are organized. Ensure you come prepared and show you understand what the company’s goals are as well as what they need in an employee.

Bring up a few examples of how the organization helps you with ongoing projects, and come prepared with answers to many of the common interview questions. It will show your organizational skills live in action.

Bonus Tip: How to Measure Organizational Skills

Organizational skills can be somewhat difficult to manage. They are one of many different kinds of soft skills. Soft skills are often difficult to quantify, especially when compared to quantifying hard skills. But, there are a few ways to measure your organizational skills.

For instance, you could take a test such as HIGH5 and see how your results change over time. In addition, you could also view productivity metrics.

Productivity is one of the effects of becoming more organized. So, if you can track how productive you are (measure how many calls you make, goals you accomplish, and deadlines you meet) you can see how your organization improves.

You could even track how much time it takes you to find key information. For instance, see how long it takes you to find a certain report or data piece now and compare that time to your time in a month.

Notice the quality of your work, too. See if preparation boosts your test grades if you are a student, for instance.

Organization Skills FAQs

What Is Good Organization Skill?

Good organization is the ability to have a structured and efficient work and personal life. Many different skills are included under the broad category of organization.

All of these skills help you boost your productivity, make the most of your time, and far more. In general, organizational skills are almost always positive. Some great organizational skills include effective communication, planning, delegation, and more.

How Do You Show Organizational Skills?

There are many different kinds of organizational skills. The way you show each of them is slightly different. However, the end result of getting more organized is similar: boosts in productivity and goal accomplishment.

The easiest organizational skill to show is physically organizing your workplace. Next, try to make plans and set SMART goals. By consistently accomplishing these goals, you will show that you know how to stay organized.

How do you say strong organizational skills are on a resume?

Many individuals who have a particular skill would love to show it off on their resumes. However, simply saying that you have a certain skill will not convince the employer that you truly have it.

To show you are organized, include specific examples of how your organizational skills helped you and your prior team under the prior work experiences section of your resume. Include statistics whenever possible and be detailed.

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