Organisational skills: definition and examples

Need some examples of organisational skills? Or looking at how to improve your organisational habits? In this article, we’ll cover all you need to know about organisational skills, including how to highlight them on your CV when you’re job hunting.

Whether you're working, studying or doing your hobbies, it's beneficial to be organised. Employers love to see applications from people with strong organisational skills as these skills help them complete their tasks on time and with less stress.

Let's look at what exactly these skills are.

• What are organisational skills?
• Examples of organisational skills
• Why are organisational skills important?
• How to improve organisational skills
• How to include organisational skills in a CV
• To sum up

Organisational skills are all the ways that you keep yourself on top of your workload, including meeting deadlines, planning out projects and workflow, and getting to work on time. Being organised is important in any workplace as you'll use your time and available resources more efficiently. Organisation is vital in almost any job role, but it’s especially important in industries like healthcare, law and accounting.

Organisation is a soft skill, so it’s harder to quantify but just as valuable as a hard skill. Having good organisation is a transferable skill that will be useful in any field.

So, what skills should you focus on to develop your organisational abilities? Here’s our top list of examples of organisational skills that employers love to see on CVs.

Time management means planning out your daily and weekly schedule so that all your tasks have an allocated time. You’ll usually do this with planning and timetabling. When planning, factor in flexibility so that unexpected issues don't derail you. You'll also need to think critically about the tasks and figure out which ones you need to complete first. Knowing how to prioritise tasks is especially important in jobs where you handle multiple projects at once.

Making good decisions about how and when to complete tasks is important to stay organised.

Good decision-making skills will help you complete everything on time and adjust to potential schedule changes. Being decisive is useful in any role where you’ll be managing a project or where you’re expected to work without supervision. You’ll work faster when you’re not waiting for someone else to decide your next step.

Communication is vital so that a whole team knows how everyone’s progressing with their tasks, which helps everyone stay organised. It’s important in any job where you work with others.

Good communication skills also require sharing and receiving information accurately and quickly with co-workers and clients. Speedily sharing information identifies – and deals with – issues that will slow down a project’s progress.

Being able to think strategically helps you identify the best way to implement the tasks you’re planning. For example, if you’re working out the best route for delivery, you need to find a way that makes the most of your time, rather than driving back and forth.

You also use strategic thinking to make sure that you complete tasks in the right order, with everyone having the information and building blocks they’ll need for later tasks.

Self-motivation is a vital organisational skill because, without it, nothing gets done quickly.

Once you’ve planned your time, you need to push through to get things done and stay on schedule. Companies are always looking for self-motivated workers who stay on top of their tasks.

Struggling with self-motivation? Think about what drives you. Some people reward themselves for completing tasks. Others think about how they’re helping their colleagues, company or customers. Whatever works for you, the result is the same.

Part of being organised is knowing what you can do and what you can't. Whether you’re working as part of a team or leading one, you need to delegate the tasks you can't complete. Making sure that the right person is handling tasks ensures the smooth running of a project.

To be a good delegator, you need skills like communication, analytical thinking and conflict resolution.

Planning is at the heart of organisational skills.

Planning skills involve logistics and making sure that everything will be handled in the right timeframe. Skills like note taking, critical thinking and prioritising also fall under the planning umbrella.

It’s also important to have a good awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you know you’re weaker in a certain area, you need to plan to give yourself more time to complete those tasks.

Prioritising is looking at what tasks you need to handle first.

There are lots of ways of prioritising tasks. One of the most important is to look at which are most urgent. You also have to consider which tasks you’ll only be able to handle after other tasks. You need good flexibility and adaptability to prioritise, since it’s very common to have new priorities pop up, which you’ll need to fit into your plan somehow. Being able to prioritise is especially important in jobs where you’ll have to handle different projects, like working for an agency with lots of clients.

It’s hard to be on top of your organisational skills if you don’t have the physical organisation to back them up. Some people like a physical planning diary; others prefer digital tools like virtual pinboards for task management. Giving yourself the tools that you find useful will bring out your most organised self.

Being able to look at tasks in detail means that you’ll better assess what needs to be done. Attention to detail is important in every job role, as the more you know about what you’re doing, the better. It’ll also help you avoid nasty surprises from missing something important.

There are plenty of ways to stay organised. Here are some extra organisational skills to think about working on:

• Critical thinking
• Note taking
• Strategic thinking
• Adaptability
• Mental organisation
• Collaboration
• Organisation software
• Self-management
• Goal setting
• Project management

Organisational skills are vital whether you're a student, a worker, or doing a personal project. Having good organisational skills will help you plan your projects ahead of time, keep track of progress and be more likely to succeed.

If you’re studying, it's helpful to have a plan for how and when to complete parts of your assignment. In the workplace, it's a good idea to have systems in place to organise emails and documents as it promotes efficiency.

Looking to improve your organisational skills to help with job hunting or to handle your own projects better? Here are our top suggestions for how to work on building these skills:

Lists are a great way to approach organising. Write lists of tasks, sub-tasks, meetings, etc. Writing lists lets you quickly see all the things you’ve got to deal with. Doing this helps you group tasks into relevant sets.

Once you’ve laid out all your tasks, prioritise and pick the most important parts first. You need to assess which tasks you’re able to complete before others (since some will rely on other things being completed first) and which are most important. If you want to practice outside work, try prioritising your housework tasks.

You should have a rough idea of how long a task will take. With this information, you timetable what you’ll work on and when. The big advantage of timetabling is that it shows you how much you’ve got to do. Plus, you’ll start each day knowing what work holds for you.

If you don't have goals or deadlines, there's no incentive to get tasks finished. Setting yourself goals gives you an endpoint for each task, which will help you stay more organised. Setting goals also gives you plenty of chances to stop and assess what went well or badly.

If you fail to complete a task in time, hold yourself accountable and acknowledge the failure. Then, try to figure out why you failed – was the task too big for the time you allowed? Or were you not focused enough? Whatever it was, work to remedy it next time.

It’s just as important to acknowledge when you succeed, as it keeps you motivated. Analyse what went well and what you can do better. Maybe next time you’ll cut down the time you've allowed for a task, or request information in a more logical order.

Filing isn’t just about paperwork. It’s easy to overlook organising digital items, but don’t rely too heavily on search functions. Create folders for your email inbox and documents, so it’s quicker to find what you’re looking for.

A messy desk or office is demoralising and creates a sense of being disorganised. Plus, it makes it hard to find things. Keep your desk clean and tidy and you’ll have the room you need to work.

Part of being organised is making sure that you’ve got time for emergencies because they always pop up when you hope they won't. Make sure to add contingency time into your timetabling or scheduling. Factoring in for unforeseen things means that one setback won't throw your planning off completely and you’ll have time to catch up.

It’s hard to stay organised when constantly taking on new tasks. If you’re unable to take on any more tasks (which you’ll know if you’ve timetabled and planned out your work), then say so.

If possible, do one task at a time. Of course, sometimes one project has a break and you’ll need to work on other things, but focusing on single tasks is generally more efficient.

Looking at how to write a CV but unsure how to include your organisational skills? There are lots of ways to make sure that employers see your skills. Here are our top tips:

Analyse your skills and see what your strengths are. Then, check what the employer wants and make sure these skills are prominent in your CV.

One of the simplest ways to display your skills is to create a bullet-pointed list. A list helps potential employers see your skills at a glance. Be sure to put the skills they’re most interested in at the top. If you like, split the list into hard skills and soft skills.

Employers like to see how you gained your skills, as it grounds them in real-life experience. Add skills to relevant descriptions of your job experience and education history. Adding further information also makes passages about lower-level jobs more interesting.

It’s particularly worthwhile to mention any experience managing a team, deadlines or a project as well as anything that involves goal setting and decision making.

Organisational skills are how you organise your workflow and workspace. These skills are essential for productivity, especially if you’ve got lots of different tasks to focus on.

Organisational skills are soft skills which are transferable and will be useful in every job you apply for.

Being organised includes time management and planning so it’s one of the key career skills employers look for.

You’ll improve your skills by working on organisational methods and prioritising your workload.

It's helpful to include your organisational skills on your CV, either in a skills list or in your education and employment history – or both!