Liz Fulghum is a multi-disciplinary creative professional living and working in southern Tennessee. She is currently working as the lead designer at a screen printing company. In her spare time, she often does freelance design/development, illustrates, and writes for various publications. She is also working to finish her time-machine which will give her more time to keep up with her personal projects including www.eastbywest.com.

I work at a screen printing company where, like most production businesses, almost all the tasks and information we manage are job-centric. Customer communication, product, artwork proofs, and scheduling revolve around specific jobs. Unlike a lot of other companies in our industry, our company uses a custom-built online workflow tracking system (unfortunately not available to the public yet) that does a fantastic job tracking what’s going on in each department, as well as what’s coming down the pike.

But what happens to the information that is outside the scope of any one job (or applies to a job that hasn’t been confirmed yet) and can’t fit into one of the neat cubbyholes that our workflow system has?

Like clutter in an unorganized room, the information has no official place to go - no "container"- which makes it hard to immediately categorize and figure out what to do with it. Another problem is that the person who receives the information is often not the person who technically handles that particular aspect of the business.

If we’re lucky, the information eventually makes it way to the correct person, either verbally or through email. But usually, the information isn’t communicated in a timely matter, or even worse, isn’t communicated at all. In the heat of a busy day, it’s easy to jot a quick note down and even easier to forget all about it.

In a small business where lots of people do lots of (sometimes overlapping) tasks this type of information leak can be all too common. When the information is of relatively low-level importance it’s easy to justify losing or forgetting it with excuses like “I was just too busy”. But eventually, larger and more important details will start getting lost, and excuses just won't cut it.

One of my personal goals over the past few months has been to plug the leaks I’m responsible for at my workplace. Ultimately, it comes down to a few core habits that, once established, allow for pretty much anything to be handled or delegated without losing track of it:

• Write phone messages on a sticky note and place them somewhere you cannot miss them. Always put your phone messages there and then train yourself to check that one place every time someone walks into your office. That way you never need to stop and deliver messages. I find it easier, and quicker, to hand-write phone messages, but email may be a better option if you don’t see everyone in your organization on a regular basis.
• If a task is important, stop and do it immediately. This is a biggie. If you can’t do it, grab someone and have them do it. The mentality of "I’ll do it as soon as I finish this" is a killer. By the time you finish what you are working on, a dozen other things may have interrupted you and you may never remember what you had intended to do.

  It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that what you’re working on is more important "at this point and time", but you have to look at the big picture.

  That means you have to prioritize. If you can’t, have a manager do it for you.

  In order to do that, I started by making a list of items that should be red flags - tasks that I need to stop immediately and do. For me, some of the red flags are new orders, changes to quantities in existing orders, due date changes, and artwork changes.

  Most of these are common sense for my job, but when I forced myself to actually identify these items, it took me a while to come up with them. Which means that while I probably knew subconsciously what constituted a priority task, the criteria was never really present at the forefront of my brain. It was part of the reason why they didn’t send up enough of a flag.

  Once I had actually made a physical list, it became instantly easier to cue in on when I needed to stop and take care of something.

• Make notes, date them, and review them at the end of each day. If you did miss something, you've made yourself aware of it and can take care of it before you leave or when you get in the next morning. It only takes 5-10 minutes and it will pay off. Use the computer to store your notes, an actual notepad or a page from your planner.

  I find the tactile nature of a notepad easier to work with, especially if I’m on the phone. The Gold Fibre Classic Project Planner is my favorite, because it provides datable pages and divided spaces, including lined and unlined that are perfect for organizing notes.

• Follow up, follow up, and follow up. Delegation is a necessary part of work. It helps keep you sane and your business moving. However, you’re not done once you've handed the task over to someone else. You still need to follow up on whether or not they've done the job on time and correctly.

  This one is still really hard for me. I’m the type of person who believes that if you delegate something, you should be able to trust that it will get done, and get done right. After all, what’s the point of delegating to someone else if you still have to think about it?

  Unfortunately, the reality is that while you may trust the person you delegate work to, you may not always be able to trust that it will get done on time. Your coworkers have their own assignments, projects and things that get dumped on them unexpectedly. And yes, they even have their own share of information leaks.

  When you delegate a task to someone, make sure they have all the information they need to complete it. Also make sure that they understand the importance of the task and confirm that they have time to get it completed on time. It will save you and them headaches later on.

  And remember, delegation doesn’t free you from responsibility.

• Find a way to organize your email that works, and stick to it. For me, my email client was always a black hole. Actionable items would come in; I would quickly glance over them; and then never see or do anything with them again. A few days later, someone would ask me "What happened to...?", and I would be left in a mad scramble as I quickly scanned my old messages to find out what they were talking about. My first step in getting things under control was to switch to using Microsoft Outlook (instead of Outlook Express), which offers a more robust set of features, including the ability to flag emails. I haven’t converted over to any of the more involved organizational systems out there; I found that just flagging the emails that I need to attend to was good enough. It allows me to corral the tasks I need to do and check them off when they’re complete. And it only takes a few seconds.
• Keep information you learn about potential new jobs, projects, and customers. I keep a running text file with names, phone numbers and brief details of customers who come in but haven’t placed an order yet. When they call back a month later, it’s great customer service to be able to look up their name or event and instantly be on the same page. Even if you don’t technically need to worry about them, there’s a good chance you will in the future. Having the details you’ve already been provided on file allows you to get a jump on the job when it finally does materialize.

I started putting together my thoughts for this article about a month ago, which was about the same time I started on my mission to plug my information leaks. I was surprised by how much of a conscious effort everything was at first. After all, none of my new habits seemed very difficult when considered by themselves. But changing the way you operate is no small feat. I grew accustomed to most of these changes after about two weeks into doing them. It was working.

A month later, most of the habits are ingrained. I still forget to do things occasionally, but I’m better at catching it when I do. I’m also better at catching when other people miss things. Ultimately, without needing to expend energy on recovering from my mistakes and lapses, I have more time and vision to see what goes on around me.