Done!

When you just cannot seem to find the document you need anywhere on your computer even though you have looked through most folders, and you are not sure what you named it and hence you can't simply search for it, you will wish that you had one and one one way of naming your files. Having a standardized way of naming our files is more important than you might think and will make it easier to find them and to share them with others This week's Done will guide you through the process of standardizing your naming of files and help you determine which files you need to prioritize.

Sometimes remembering something very important is more difficult than you might expect, and since it is something important, you simply cannot forget to bring it. You can try to remember it yourself, or you can make sure something remembers for you. For these occasions, there is a trick that rarely fails and that will even help you be able to relax knowing that you will not forget. This week's Done! is about setting a trap for yourself so that you will not forget what you need to remember.

Making a plan is one thing. Sticking to it something entirely different. The same goes for when we have meetings - it is easy to plan and set an agenda for the meeting, but it might be very difficult to keep focused and actually discuss what you need to. This week's Done! gives you a method which will make your meetings more structured, coherent and most of all, focused and to the point.

Being able to relax is a skill in itself, especially if we lead stressful and/or busy lives. One very important condition for relaxation is the knowledge that nothing else requires our immediate attention and that we are completely free to let go and relax. This week's Done! therefore helps you to examine your structure to see if you are structured enough to be able to truly relax.

Having an emtpy desk is to prefer for several reasons. For instance, you might need more space to work on a demanding task, or perhaps just need less elements of distraction when focusing on something specific. But having an empty desk is a means to an end, and not an end in itself. It is hence more important to be able to clear it quickly and easily, rather than having it minimalistically empty at all times. Therefore, this week's Done! is about how to make your desk easy to empty.

Being structured does not necessarily mean that you have to be rigid or inflexible in how you approach yourself, your life and your structure. For people with personalities which they believe have no room for what they associate with structure; being strict, firm or inflexible for example, it is important to emphasize that structure need not be what they fear it is, and that it is possible to personalize your structure so that it fits you, your personality and your life. This week's Done! therefore provides you with tips on how to personalize your structure.

Having a positive image of ourselves and our capabilities is necessary for success and well-being. It is the foundation of a healthy self-image and leads to inner peace and faith in ourselves. But not having a realistic perception of what we actually are capable of for instance doing in a certain amount of time, can have the complete opposite effect and induce stress and anxiety. If this is the case, it is reflected in how we lead our daily lives. This week's Done! therefore helps you take a critical look at your daily planning in order to create a more realistic and balanced schedule.

The e-mail. One of the most commonly used and most efficient tools in a world where communication is expected to be instant and accurate. In other words, a terrific tool. At least when those who use it do so with efficiency in mind, that is. When this fantastic tool isn't working optimally is when the users might be unclear on how to use it properly. Then we might need some rules, or at least guidelines. This week's Done! guides you through the process of establishing an e-mailing policy.

Being structured is in some respects simply about being conscious of where you are, where you are going, and what you can do while you are in the situation you are in. Tagging tasks by context might be familiar to many to-do-list-users, so Done! is this week about how to take this method a step further and be just slightly more efficient, but without exerting any extra effort.

When life is hectic and busy, and your work-spaces are cluttered with all kinds of material, you might find yourself in a dilemma. Should you spend your time cleaning or working? There are alternative ways of reducing the amount of stuff distracting you to doing a proper cleaning of the office. This week, Done! presents a cleaning-challange with will save you both time and energy in the long run.

As the world digitalizes and gadgets of all shapes, functions and sizes rapidly get a more prominent role in most people's lives, we can either embrace and take advantage of this progress, or choose not to. I say we should. This week, Done! provides you with eight suggestions on applications which will make your life easier.

Some things quite simply need to get done. But if they require typing in some way, shape or form, you are not alone if you keep feeling that they consume vast amounts of time. Here are the good news: This is a problem with a solution. This week Done! promotes a skill worth learning and the wonders in terms of improved efficiency it unquestionably will bring once you have learned it.

Once again, the concept of "less is more" is a saying that says it all. It can be applied in almost any situation, including the one presented in this week's Done! Done! will this week give you two surprisingly simple but effective methods to clearning out the material you never use almost without making any effort at all.

According to me, the classic saying "Less is more" couldn't be truer. Having too much of anything usually leads to some kind of imbalance, and when it comes to our daily lives, and office-spaces in particular, having too much of something eventually leads to chaos. This week's Done! is about how a single word can guide you towards increased efficiency and less frustration.

Some things are best done in cooperation with others. So one way or another, we need to meet. And in order to do so we need to be able to schedule our meeting. Preferably with ease... But even through e-mails and phone calls are perfectly good ways of communicating, they are sometimes not sufficient as smooth tools of coordinating many people and their individual agendas. But not to worry. This week's Done! is about the various methods you can use to set a meeting time with ease.

Those of us who travel in our work are aware of the possibility that a train breaks down, that we get delayed, that the flight gets cancelled and so on. We also know the frustration that comes from being stalled and not being able to turn the situation into something positive rather than letting it get to us. Bringing material to work on is a good way to make your traveling-time more productive, but taking this a step further is the way to be proactive and avoid potential frustration and aggravation. This week's Done! is about how to avoid the frustration of being stranded and make unexpected delays into productive time.

When times get tougher and we feel as in the midst of the tempest raging all around us in terms of deadlines fast approaching, meetings, tasks awaiting completion and so on, the hectic intensity of our daily doings can appear to be good reason for neglecting our structured ways of working. But this is a deceiving conclusion! It is when chaos is all around that we need our structured routines the most. This week's Done! is about how to preserve at least the most essential structural routines when we are stressed and overworked.

Many have difficulties saying no even though being able to say no is just as important as saying yes. We might have learned that denying people our helping hand is rude, and therefore tend to say yes to every little request others extend to us, regardless if we actually have the possibility, time and energy to help. In actuality, the essence of prioritization is that saying no to one thing is equivalent of saying yes to another. Therefore this week's Done! is about how to say no with a clear conscience and with good reason.

Not getting all the way when attempting to do something, big or small, can be frustrating since we do not get to check it off as completed, and in worst case scenario, it can make us unmotivated or in other ways unable to continue the task. This week's Done! is about a simple method which will make this transition from inertia after leaving the task unfinished into motion as you take up the task again, both smoother and easier.

If we alike our vision of the future to a beautiful forest, and all the activities which lead to its fulfillment as the trees the forest consists of, the following might be true: When we cannot see the wood for all the trees, the trees may appear as aggravating nuisances, as something which is in the way of us reaching our destination, of attaining our goals, rather than what they really are - the means to getting there. In light of this, this week's Done! is about how to make our future more accessible to ourselves in our daily doings, and by doing so, bring meaning to all the numerous tasks and activities we complete to get where we want to go.