Guide yourself when the structure is easy to forget
Datum: 2025-08-27 08:47
Creating a good structure is immensely helpful — if you can remember it, that is. A common trap many fall into is that they develop the perfect structure that will do absolute wonders in terms of making your work easier, but when they are about to put it all into action a week later, they have forgotten what they decided to do.
What was I going to name that file to make it easier to find later? Where was I supposed to save this particular kind of document? Who was it that needs to get the draft first and where does it go after they have seen it?
For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the ""Done!"" podcast:
The effort wasted and the structure wavering
When you cannot remember the structure or routine you have established, it not only becomes useless and unused, but the effort involved in creating it will have been for nothing. Things also run a greater risk of becoming even messier than they were before. Why? Well, the remains of your previous structure will resurrect here and there at the same time as you attempt to (in the absence of a clear picture of what you had decided to do instead) try to do things in a way that sort of resembles the new routine. The result is neither here nor there and you might end up with an even greater mess than before you attempted to make improvements.
“This way!”
In any other circumstance when we are unsure of how to find or how to do something, we guide each other using signs, labels, references, and instructions. These sort of things apply to when you have a new set of rules to abide by that you cannot quite navigate (or remember) just yet as well.
When you establish new habits of structure or decide to do something in a new way, spend a little extra time on the guidance you (and others) might need later on so that it becomes easy to do things in the new way you have thought of. You could, for instance:
- Announce what goes where with a sign.
- Paste a note just below the hanger hinting what you should hang there (and what is missing if the hanger is empty).
- Place a README.TXT-file in the folder where it clearly says what belongs here and where the documents that often end up here by mistake belong instead.
- “Pin” a message at the top of the chat so that it remains “at the top of the pile” and so that any newcomer to the thread can get the most important information previous messages contained straight off the bat (a function that is available in many services such as Slack and in Teams).
- Write a few well-chosen and guiding words at the end of a certain step in a routine you occasionally do so that you know with certainty what the next step of the process is and where you need to be to do it.
Do this
Recall a structure, method, or routine you have recently established or created. Could you make it easier for yourself and your colleagues to abide by it by making the “how-to” more clear?
Label it somehow, write a note, create a shortcut or reference, or do something else that will make the structure or routine so obvious that you and others who are supposed to use it cannot help but do it right.
The full effect of your efforts to improve
If you label or guide yourself to or through your recently established habit, structure, or routine you will most likely benefit more from its intended use from now on. You will not have wasted your time and effort on something that is all too soon forgotten but will reap the full benefits and effects of the efforts you have made.
What’s your way?
Tell me about one way in which you have guided and aided yourself in doing something one way rather than in another.
(Not quite on top of your personal structure? Check out these tips for evaluating where you stand!)
Want to learn more?
If you want more tips on how to create good structure at work, there are many ways to get that from me - in podcasts, videos, books, talks and other formats.
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