As someone working in maritime recruitment or crew management, you’re busy. Your work days often fly by in a blur of trying to source seafarers to fill your jobs at sea, meet crew changeover dates, file seafarer documents and all of the other endless pieces of paperwork you deal with, arrange flights and travel, coordinate with manning agents, schedule interviews and much more.
The list is endless.
So the billion dollar question is, how can you make your life easier and less stressful, while also taking care of the multitude of tasks on your daily to-do list?
Read more: Make Maritime Recruitment Easier with Martide's My Tasks
Well, if you have a sneaking suspicion that getting a little more organized could help, read on as we take a look at eleven ways to up your organizational game!
Follow these 11 tips and up your organizational skills!
1. Get your least favorite tasks out of the way first
We know that it’s tempting to put off doing the things you dislike doing, but trust us - get them done first thing in the morning and the rest of the day will be a relative breeze.
2. Make a to-do list
Your to-do list can be old school and written down on a notepad, or you could use one of the many Kanban-style apps or software platforms that enable you to create (and share) lists. For example, Trello, Monday, or Evernote. Update your to-do list before you log off for the day so you’re ready to go the following day.
3. Store documents in the cloud
If you’re storing your seafarer documents, contracts, and certificates etc. in folders on your PC or laptop you can only ever access them from that PC or laptop. When you store documents in the cloud you’ll have access to them at any time and from any device, and so will the people you choose to share them with.
Read more: Cloud Computing in Maritime Recruitment
4. Organize your inbox
Email has revolutionized the way we work, but if your inbox is giving you a panic attack every time you log in thanks to the 1,245 emails sitting in it, it’s time to set aside an hour or so and do some housekeeping!
If you haven’t already, create folders and subfolders for mails you need to keep but that don’t need to stay in your main inbox.
And finally get round to deleting anything you don't need: junk or spam emails, old correspondence that has been dealt with, and outdated newsletters.
(Better still, use a maritime recruitment and crew management software solution that lets you streamline your messages and send pre-written templates to save you precious time.)
Read more: How to Make Working From Home Easier with Software as a Service
5. Keep an eye on the time
If you’re guilty of procrastination try placing a clock on your desk or on the wall opposite. When the time is ticking away there in front of you it will serve as a physical reminder to make the most of your day and not waste time.
6. Automate your processes
Workplaces are becoming increasingly digitized and if you’re still managing everything manually you should really think about automating your processes and becoming a paperless office.
Using a specialist maritime recruitment and crew management system will help integrate all aspects of your operations, saving you time, helping you to become vastly more organized, and giving you a massive productivity boost.
Read more: 3 Ways to Simplify Your HR & Maritime Recruitment Processes
7. Sync your tasks with your body clock
Are you at your peak first thing in the morning when you log on? Does it take you an hour or two to warm up and get into the swing of things? Are you a powerhouse after you’ve had lunch? Try aligning the jobs you have to do with the way you typically feel during the day.
For example, if you’re at your most productive mid-morning get the trickier or more demanding tasks out of the way then. If, like many people, you tend to slump in the middle of the afternoon, save that period for the more mundane tasks that you can do with your eyes closed.
8. Discover the joys of delegation
If you’re trying to tackle too much and finding that as a result, things aren’t getting finished on time or are winding up half, or poorly, done, it’s time to practice the art of delegation.
If you’re a manager, head of department or a team leader, take a good look at your tasks and decide which ones can be handed over to one of your people.
For example if you're trying to handle too many aspects of the maritime recruitment process yourself, do you have a reliable recruitment officer working for you that you can hand all or even part of a task off to?
A big part of being organized at work is encouraging good teamwork and collaboration.
Read more: Why You Need to Learn to Let Go and Start Delegating
9. Upgrade your filing system
Paperwork and photocopies are part and parcel of your job in maritime recruitment or crew management. But if those documents aren’t filed properly, you’re wasting time and creating effort.
Take a look at your physical filing system and make sure it makes sense. If you’ve spent years shoving contracts into a filing cabinet drawer or files onto the shelf any old way, you need an overhaul.
And don’t forget to take tip 8 into account - this is a job that is ripe for delegating!
10. Declutter your workspace
Whether you have your own office, a cubicle or a desk, for maximum productivity your working area should be as uncluttered as possible. Searching through endless piles of paper for that photocopy of a seafarer’s passport isn’t a good use of your time.
Read more: Why Being Organized Increases Candidate Engagement
If you’re drowning under a sea of documents, stationery, cables, dying plants, empty coffee mugs, and pens that no longer work, it’s time to declutter.
Have one big clear out and then make sure to leave your desk tidy at the end of each day.
11. Manage your documents more efficiently
We’ve talked about organizing your physical files and about storing documents in the cloud, but you might also want to consider adopting a document management system.
For example, Martide’s maritime recruitment and crew management Software as a Service (SaaS) solution is the ideal way to keep all of your seafarer certificates, documents and other Human Resources materials stored securely in one centralized location.
How to be more organized at work: conclusion
If you’re forever looking at the time on your phone or computer and thinking “where on earth has the day gone?!” it sounds like you might need to be a little more organized.
Read more: 10 Tips to Make Sure Meetings with Your Crew are Productive
We hope that the above tips will help you run your recruitment and crewing operations more cohesively and efficiently. Meanwhile if you’d like to know more about how Martide can help you take your organization skills to the next level by integrating your systems and streamlining your processes, get in touch with us today.
Eve Church
Eve is Martide's content writer, publishing regular posts on everything from our maritime recruitment and crew planning software to life at sea. Eve has been writing professionally for more than two decades, crafting everything from SEO-focused blog posts and website landing pages to magazine articles and corporate whitepapers.
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