118: Organizational Systems and Standard Operating Procedures

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Hello, everyone, this is Dr. Yvette. It's been a while since I did a solo episode. And so I thought now would be a good time to get back to it do a little bit of a shorter episode and talk to you about a topic that has been coming up a lot for me, both in coaching sessions and DMs and emails. And even folks who know me like friends family reaching out asking me for my input on getting organized, like Yvette, can you help me organize my life? Doctora Yvette, can you help me with? You know, how do I work smarter, I feel like my life is a mess, help.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And the reason why a lot of people come and approached me about that is because I've said this multiple times. But it's not unusual for people to tell me that I'm the most organized person they know. And I think that for many years, I didn't realize that that was my thing. I just assumed that everybody did what I did, that everybody managed their time, the way that they did everybody had systems in place, the way that I did. It was, you know, I'll be frank, it was a bit of a, as a way for me to manage my mental health, my physical health issues, it was the thing that was in my control. So when I didn't feel like I had control over, say, you know, dealing with depression or anxiety or dealing with flare ups with my chronic illness and pain, I knew that I could take control of my calendar, of my to do lists, of my tasks. And setting up organizational system, setting up a standard operating procedures, which I'll talk about more, right now.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

All of that has helped me to just manage my life and manage my health, my physical and my mental my spiritual health. And so because I'm having these conversations, again, on the side with other people, and they found them to be very helpful. In fact, I'm in the process of developing a workshop for a group all about this topic on organizing systems and SOPs. So let me kind of get into it. And why I think it's important for you to think about it and consider trying this out as you manage your own workload, both in undergrad and in grad school.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So what do I mean when I say that, it's important to set up organizing systems, when I'm talking about organizing systems, I mean, that can be applied in any aspect in the area of your life, it could literally mean, you know how to set up a system in your home to keep your house tidy, or clean or whatever. But in this case, I'm actually referring to digital systems to systems on your computer, because many of us, our work is virtual, a good portion of our work is on a computer. And when we do our work, we don't even think about it. But we rely on different types of containers, we have systems in place that we don't even realize are there, whether they're good or bad. It's hard to tell because sometimes we don't think twice about how we do the work that we do, and how we organize the work that we do.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

But then we go back to talking about, we have containers, we have ways that we contain and divide and compartmentalize the work that we do. So what's an example of a container. Your email inbox is a container, it contains the messages that you're receiving from a wide range of different people and units and orgs, etc, that are needing to share something with you. So an email is a container, your desktop, your the folders on your computer, that's another container. That's another way that you're containing all of the information that you have on your computer, so your folders.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Then there's also cloud based storage. So if you're using iCloud or if you're using some sort of electronic drive, you could be using Google Drive box. Dropbox is a way for you to contain the information that you save your folders or files or PDFs, your images, etc, that you may need to get your work done. They're all containers and they are all part of your system, the system that you use to navigate your every day work. And so when people come to me telling me, oh my goodness, I need your help. There are a couple of things that might be coming up for them.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

One is maybe their email inbox, it has gotten out of hand, they've got 1000s of unread emails, they have email anxiety, because they don't even know where to start. Sometimes they have trouble keeping track and staying on top of their inbox. Because they don't have a system in place for organizing their emails. And so they just get a bunch of emails, some they reply to some they don't. Sometimes they don't have a method for flagging important emails. And so that's where it's important to set up a system. In my, I have a 15 page freebie gradschoolfemtoring.com/kit. So in my grad school resource kit, I have one handout that talks about my email organizing system. And so this is what I've been doing for a long time without even realizing that that was my system without realizing again that other people weren't doing this.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And so when I get an email, I don't even think twice, I get an email. I read it, I label it. So you know, whatever folder, you know, it might be work related, it might be health related, it might be related to bills, finances, so whatever it is, I label it, then I flag it. So I had a little star. And there's different ways for you to star your emails, if you use gmail like I do. And so I have different icons for each star, there's a red exclamation mark, there's a purple question mark, there is a green checkmark.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And so typically, if something's important, I need to get back to them. I haven't responded or flag it with a red X exclamation mark. If I responded to it, but I still need it in my inbox, because I need to file something that was important there, I need to get to it for some other reason, but I've already responded to it, I usually just flag it with the green check. Like I don't have to worry about about it right now. I've already responded. And if it's an email where I know, okay, I can't answer it right now. I need more information. I'm a little bit confused. Whatever it is, I just can't respond right away, I'll put a purple question mark.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So I label and I flag. After that, I may get back to it later or not. But once I'm ready to respond, after I respond to all of my emails, every single email, I archive it. Yes, there's a button on your email inbox. That's an archive button. No, you're not throwing away the email. No, it's not lost. I've gotten this question so many times, is not lost. You have an inbox on your email, and you have an all mail box in your email. And so if you go to inbox is everything that you see right now, if you go to All Mail, it's everything that you see right now, plus the things that you've archived. So I archive most things unless it's spam or trash, then I throw it away, I send it to the trash. But most things I will archive because you know, I might need to reference it later.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And that's my system, I have an organizing system, I have a way a method of staying on top of my emails, that helps me to minimize my email anxiety. And this steps each step if you know, if you type up the steps that I took to, to address or reply and keep my emails organized for every single email that I get. That's my, my standard operating procedure. Step one, open the email and label it with a folder. Step two, fly it with some sort of star. Step three, respond. Step four, archive, four steps, every single email, follow it every single time. That's my standard operating procedure. And if I were to one day, Delegate my email inbox to someone to help me manage it, I would then give them that those instructions, those standard operating procedures, have them follow it like that, so that it can continue to remain organized. And that's why I don't get too overwhelmed. I do sometimes get overwhelmed with my email inbox, but I don't get too overwhelmed because I have a way of managing it. So I mentioned the standard operating procedures. And I want to go back to it a little bit.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Because what I mean when I say standard operating procedures, I don't think that's a phrase that we use a lot at least I wasn't familiar with it. In the humanities for both my undergrad and my PhD. It wasn't a phrase that I heard a lot. In fact, a lot of people that I worked with okay, were not the most organized people, now that I think about it. But it's something that I came, I became more familiar with once I started working full time, once I became a staff member, once I had to manage, drives different files and folders and lots of information, including federal information, and that had to abide by federal policies and procedures.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And so knowing and setting up, so knowing about standard operating procedures, so having descriptions, having step by step instructions for how you do what you do, every single thing that you do, writing a paper, sending an email, whatever it is, as part of your workload, writing down the instructions, that's one less mental load for you to worry about. Because in the future, if you need to do that thing, even if it feels second nature to you, it's nice to have those instructions to go back to on a day that maybe you're struggling, you can just follow the steps.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And so let me give you an example of another standard operating procedure. So you're listening to this podcast, thank you for being a listener. And you know that, okay, I put one out pretty consistently, every week, sometimes twice a week, it just depends. And sometimes if you know, life happens, it may drop down to every other week. But you can fairly consistently expect to have a podcast for me released a couple of times a month, you know, every week, every other week. And how do I do that? Well, I have my own procedure, I know that I just sit down and physically, you know, record, record on a topic.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

From there, the next step after recording is actually edit the audio. So make sure it sounds okay, and do some minor editing, I'm not a pro. But I do some minor editing, and then producing, producing it like actually putting the episode together with the intro sound with the outro sound. Sometimes I might add, you know, a little memo at the end with you know, if there's an ad in there and making sure that that's on there. So that's all part of producing and my podcast, I have it up on a variety of different audio platforms. But I also put it up on YouTube. So that's another step that I take. And when it comes to uploading the actual file, so there's the recording, there's editing, there's producing, then I have to create a flyer for every single episode. If I have a guest, I'm sending that flyer to the guests so that they have it in advance in case they want to promote it after write a description of the episodes.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So for that, you know, I don't always remember, memorize everything that we talked about. So I may have to listen to the episode again, just to kind of be reminded of what the episode was about. And then after writing the description, I need to schedule my outreach posts, my marketing posts, my promoted promotion posts to social media. And that's across several different platforms. So that can include Instagram, which is where I am the most active. And then it also includes Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. And so it's scheduling those posts to make sure that everywhere where I am visible on social media, they get to see the flyers of my podcast.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

All of that every single step, record, edit, produce, flyer description, schedule the post, that's part of the standard operating procedure. I have it already. I have it memorized, but I also have it written down. So that way, every week, I know, I have a list of steps to follow and steps to check off on my to do list. And now it's pretty straightforward. It's not as difficult as it was when I was starting out and trying to figure out the flow and the motion of these things. So that's why standard operating procedures are helpful.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

You should consider typing them up for your own workload, whatever it is that you do regularly. Are you writing Are you publishing? Are you teaching? Are you sending emails? Are you managing a household? Are you paying your bills, so everything that you do? Try to see if there are ways for you to develop a system so that things become more routine, so that it's easier for you to get them done. Now, when it's when it comes to talking about systems and standard operating procedures, I also think it's important to talk about time management because sometimes along with feeling like this sense of overwhelm, maybe you feel like, your desktop is messy, or your email is out of control. You might also be struggling with time management, maybe a sense of overwhelm at having so many things on your plate, so many aspects to your life, so many roles that you play so many hats that you wear. And for each of them, it feels like none of them acknowledge the other.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So you might be a parent, and navigating your children and their education, you might be a student and trying to figure out how to get a homework assignment done for a class. And then each professor fails to acknowledge that you're a student that has other classes and other professors and other priorities. And you're a parent and you've gotten maybe your own parents that you have to help out financially and a part time job. And you know, like the list can go on and on and on, and all the things all the responsibilities that we have. We are so multifaceted. We have a lot going on. And so it's really easy to get overwhelmed.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And for me, at least in my life, setting up systems, they're not perfect, but even the act of trying. And the act of being intentional with setting aside some time every single week, for my calendaring for my to do list, it helps me to take control of what I can do, and minimize the overwhelm minimize the anxiety. So I do think it's important for you to figure out a calendaring system that works for you, whether it's a planner, an online calendar, figuring that out, and also a to do list system, are you a post it person? Are you someone who likes to use an online app, a lot of people like to use Trello, or they like to use others like Notion or they'll use Evernote or in my case, I use Kanbanflow KANBANFLOW very simple just a way to have different columns and write out all my tasks for my to do list, color code them, add deadlines, that I really like when when it comes to my own tasks, I have different columns according to the different aspects of my workload.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So I have an admin column, I have a podcasting column, coaching, you know, a personal one, and then I have a column that's all the things that I need to get done today. So I make sure that I have every week, a day in the week where I update my to do list and I update my calendar. So what does that mean? That means every Sunday afternoon, or Monday, late morning, when I'm feeling okay, I will sit down and plan out my week. What are the things that absolutely have to get done today. So I go over my to do list, I prioritize my tasks, the things that are high priority that have to get done this week, or I would really like to get done this week. I put it all on my calendar, I put in the time for me to eat my meals, I put in the time that I need to go pick up my son from school, I put in the time, you know that I am going to be taking a walk.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So everything that I know that I want to get done, including the things that might not seem like they're work related, but they helped me. So the keystone habits the things that are habits that I have that helped me to have a good day and to get work done, and feel good. I include that. That means you know having time to get ready. That means having time to listen to a podcast as part of my routine. As I get ready. I listened to a podcast or I listened to an audio book. I put all of the things that I need to get done and want to get done on my calendar. And then I see sometimes there's not enough space for everything.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And so that's when you have to make difficult decisions. What can you let go of, what can you put on pause? What can you delegate or ask for help on. And in some cases, I know like personal close friends who have and students who have had to take time off completely because no amount of organization and systems and time management can prevent burnout if you have too much going on. So I've had students who have had to take a quarter, two quarters a whole year off from schooling to take care of themselves and I deeply respect that. I also have peers, colleagues, friends who have had to take medical leaves to take care of themselves because of the burnout, burnout is not something, it's something that I've personally experienced. More than one occasion, it's not fun.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

It's not something that I, you know, it's just not something that I encourage, I don't encourage working yourself to the point of getting sick, which is what I did. And so when I talk to you about setting up these systems, and why they're beneficial, and I often say, so that you can work smarter, not harder, so that you can do more in less time. And when I say that, I don't mean that I want you to do more and less time so that you have more time for more work. And you can be even more efficient and more accomplished and more productive.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

No, no, no. What I mean by that is do more and less time so that you have more time for other parts of you more time for rest, more time to take care of yourself more quality time with your loved ones more time to try a new hobby. More time to do anything that you want, that may seem fun for you, that will help you because even though most of y'all who listen to this podcast are in, you know, in your journey of pursuing higher ed and you love learning, life is not just about work, there's a lot more to life than than being productive.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So yeah, I just I wanted to have this conversation with you all about setting up systems. So that you can start to think about that about maybe one area of your life where you can try to be a little bit more organized. Maybe you can start with your email. Or maybe you can start with tackling your desktop. And then making a point of scheduling and some time every week, you know, once a week, every week, at the bare minimum once a month. Come on y'all to keeping things organized, because being organized requires maintenance. It's not just you do something once and then set it and forget it. And now it's constantly maintaining.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

It's remembering oh, yeah, I'm supposed to archive that message or, oh, yeah, like I have my desktop starting to get full. Again, I should probably spend, you know, 5, 10 minutes to put these files away in in a folder so that they're not all on my desktop. So it's that maintenance. It's that time every week to check up on yourself to check up on your calendar to check up on your systems that will help you it's a little bit of front loading work right now. That will save you a bunch of time later on.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So yeah, that's that's all I have to say in terms of kind of the basics of setting up organizing systems and standard operating procedures. I hope that you found at least one takeaway from this episode. And if you did, don't forget to share it with me. I will talk to you all next time.