Jessica Taylor (Legacy Tree Genealogists)
I recently had the opportunity to lecture a group on how I stay sane as an entrepreneur. Many of these practices touch on organization, both for myself and for a team. Organization is relatively easy to dismiss in a company of one, but when you add a team, it becomes imperative to keep everyone on the same page and working as efficiently as they can. At Legacy Tree Genealogists, here are some of the things we do that help.
#1: Shared schedules and files
Fancy project management software has its advantages, but if you want free, Google has done wonders for helping with team organization. We love the shared spreadsheets and calendars Google provides, and spreadsheets are so versatile – you can build them into basically anything you want.
For file organization, it’s tough to beat Dropbox. It’s fast, it’s intuitive, and up to a limit, it’s free.
#2: Weekly to do lists
Once a week, our team members go through a list of items they planned to complete in the previous seven days, mark off what’s done, and create a new to do list for the next seven days. This list is sent to a manager and becomes the employee’s roadmap for the next seven days.
Daily planning time or aimlessness is minimal because next tasks are already all mapped out.
#3: Agendas and recaps
Every team meeting follows an agenda and includes an emailed post-meeting recap with assignments. This keeps us on-task and ensures that stuff gets done as a result of the meeting. I keep pre-meeting topics in Trello by meeting.
As items come up during the week, it’s easy to drop a note in Trello and then quickly create a meeting agenda based on those notes.
#4: Consolidated tasks
Most of us have rather boring, repetitive items to take care of – you know, checking the spam folder, going over audio notes, reviewing stats, etc. I’ve found that what helps me deal with these most efficiently is to consolidate these little items into one big tasklist that I take care of once a week, all at once. That way, the rest of the week I can focus on other things and not think about these repetitive tasks.
A Google sheet, Trello list, or to do list app works fine.
#5: Scheduling
The more you hold yourself and your team to a routine, the less time needs to be spent thinking about when to do something. Holding team meetings on the same day and time each week or month makes it something no one has to think about. Scheduling the way we use our time each day, and holding ourselves as individuals to a routine, can also be helpful. I like to schedule my most complicated projects first thing in the morning, before I hit the inbox or start answering the phone. That way those important things that take more brain power don’t get pushed out of the way by “fires,” and get attention before any late-afternoon drowsiness can set in.
With organization, running a business can be exhilarating without being exhausting.
About Legacy Tree Genealogists: Legacy Tree is a full-service genealogy research company serving clients worldwide since 2004. As the recommended research partner of MyHeritage, Family ChartMasters, and other industry leaders, and the highest client-rated genealogy research firm in the world, Legacy Tree helps clients connect with their past through custom research, DNA analysis, and family history narratives. https://legacytree.com
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