How To Get Organized To Be Comfortable & Confident At Any Entry Level Job

5-10-2023

Timm’s Two Cents

Þ Doesn’t matter if its complex, simple, boring or dope AF, you can probably smash
any entry level job (or internship) when you look at it the right way.
Þ Don’t worry if it’s the right job for you. It’s the right job because it’s the one you
have, so make the most of it while you are there!
Þ Early success could simply be about organizing things in a way that works best for
your brain so you can spend more time doing the work and being curious versus
scrambling to find things.
Þ Set a clear, repeatable way for you to have a good day, and week, and you’ll be
happier and more successful.
Þ When you feel like you have the below and core competencies of your job on
lockdown, you’ll be ready to get to my 201 content on this topic which is also in my
Dropbox folder.

What To Organize

Þ A SYSTEM FOR YOUR FOLDERS

o If applicable, set up a simply folder structure for your files to save the stuff you
need to save in, here are some thoughts to get you started:
§ Nest them by department within the company
• Sales
• Marketing
• Finance
• HR
• Etc…
§ Within each of those folders start simple subfolders for broad buckets of
stuff like “presentations”, “reports”, “projects”, etc…
§ Build off of this simple setup as you see fit and as calendar years turn
over, start a 2023 folder for each department and put anything nested
within each department there to keep things even more manageable
year to year.

Þ EMAIL FOLDERS
o I live and die by the “one touch system”, and there is another document in my
Dropbox dedicated to this topic.
§ Basic premise of “one touch” is that all emails are either immediately
deleted, responded to, or filed.
§ BUT, you don’t need that system to organize things and keep your inbox
relatively low (when you become more comfortable in your role, then I
can help you get to a zero inbox consistently).
 o Similar to the folder structure I recommend for your files, set up something
similar for email but also keep in mind the key meetings you may have every
week.
§ For example; I have email folders dedicated by the sub-departments
within my team which makes for easy/quick reference of what may need
to be discussed when I am in meetings about those topics.
§ Start with something really simple that makes sense in your own head,
don’t try to force anything if it doesn’t feel natural.
o Make sure to create a folder for “Good Stuff” and just put emails in there that
have good vibes in them, you won’t use it often but every once in a while, it will
be the gold you need.

Þ CALENDAR STRUCTURE
o As an entry level employee, most of your time/meetings is likely to be dictated
to you, but you can set up some reminder/alerts to help “idiot proof” your role
(which is a good thing, because you want the basics on lock-down so you can
start to spreading your wings a bit without fear of missing anything).
§ Set reminders for yourself relative to any
daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/ or annual tasks you are responsible for
(and don’t be afraid to block time to get these things done, but
understand you may need to move those blocks).
§ Make sure to have regular touch points week to week with your boss and
co-workers to stay aligned
§ Consider starting a habit of color coding the different types of meetings
that you have in order to more easily see what’s on your plate on any
given day/week.
• This also helps you start to see larger patterns as to where your
time is being spent.
§ Get in the habit of checking your calendar days in advance so that
nothing throws you off or sneaks up on you.
§ Don’t be afraid to set up “working session” meetings to collaborate and
get stuff done in real time.

Þ PAPER STUFF (AKA Docs To Find, Archive + Print To Reference & Digest)
o Yes, I am advocating for you to print things out but hear me out before you
immediately dismiss this.
o There is likely a lot of baseline information that you are going to need to learn
and having these materials printed likely gives them a better chance of you
reading them (or even just having them on hand for quick reference at your
desk/in your cube) versus just digital copies.
o Print out copies of the following and make sure you start to learn these off the
top of your head; these are the larger puzzle pieces to growing self-awareness in
your role, and your role’s place/importance in the broader organization:
§ Your job description
§ Any formal documentation of your department goals
§ Any formal documentation of your company’s goals
 § Any formal documentation of your company’s values/beliefs
§ High level org charts for your company
§ Detailed org charts of your department
§ Any other onboarding documents like process charts
• PS – You probably don’t need to print out entire employee
handbooks if they are super long, but hopefully after reading this
section you get the broader point and can tweak the concept for
your role and company

Þ NOTES
o It is super bad ass to always be the one that remembers what was said by whom
and when to make sure that you do what you say you are going to do and can
help keep everything aligned.
o When taking notes keep the following in mind:
§ The best system is what works best for your mind brain
§ Obviously listen for “highlights” try to capture then in a way that you
know who said it and why
§ Document action items / to-dos along the way
§ Document questions you may want to ask or come back to
§ Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification, even if the notes are just for
yourself
o Digital note taking or on paper is irrelevant as long as its repeatable and easy for
you to reference.
o I can make an argument that just about every meeting should have a specific
agenda that everyone knows in advance and notes that come out of that
meeting.
§ “Weekly staff meeting” is not an agenda, an agenda would be the very
specific things that need to be discussed in that meeting and the ability to
say at the top something like “when this meeting is over, ideally we will
have ____, _____, _____, and _____”
o FWIW – I used to take all notes in a notebook and transfer them to emails I
would send to myself but now I just use email chains to myself for note taking
which I then pull agenda items from.
§ These emails are organized by meeting type or department as noted
above.

Goals To Set
Þ Make sure to knock out any logistics like setting up health care stuff and getting
access to all sites/files/folders you may need when you have downtime in the first
few weeks. Better to have these knocked out quickly before you get too busy.
Þ First goal should be to fully understand your role, which might require you to rewrite
your own job description in a way that makes more sense conversationally and can
be used when discussing short- and long-term goals with your boss.
 Þ Start creating a 30, 60, 90 plan for yourself. This is a simple, high-level document that
lays out goals in specific increments over your first 90 days. Make them simple, but
make them SMART.
o Specific – specific enough that it’s a real goal but not so granular that it becomes
limiting (PROGRESS ALWAYS BEATS PERFFECTION)
o Measurable – will you be able to look at anything quantitative or qualitative and
say “yup, it worked”
o Achievable – an obvious one, you want to make it real and tangible
o Reasonable – be aggressive but not too aggressive
o Time-Oriented – inherent in a 30-60-90 but worth repeating J

BONUS POINTS
Þ Make sure to download and save any company preferred PowerPoint templates or
other docs you may need to use consistently.
Þ Make at least one friend in every other department.
Þ Take time to poke around what I know is probably the most boring website, but could
be super helpful to you…. Your company’s intranet page…
Þ Keep a running list of questions that you have somewhere (YOU SHOULD HAVE TONS
OF QUESTIONS); make sure you document your questions and the answer to them
along the way.
Þ When you start becoming responsible for presenting or updating others on
topics/projects, get in the habit of sending them the materials the day before the
presentation/update so that anyone can have a chance to review in advance
o This is gold for executives!
Þ Set Google alerts for yourself about the company so that you can easily stay on top of
when it shows up in the news.
Þ Stand out by not trying to stand out and just do your best to help everyone around
you do their best.
Þ Calm, positive curiosity always wins.

WHAT ELSE IS OUT THERE

Þ There is not a lot written about this topic, but I thought this was pretty good…
o “How To Rock Your First Job” – TopResume.com