Develop These 5 Habits For A Clutter Free Office
Offices can be one of the most cluttered areas. Whether you work from home or go to an office each day, it’s so easy to accumulate clutter, which affects your productivity. Here are a few simple habits to adopt to keep your office clutter free.
The one touch rule
This is an easy rule. When you touch something, act on it. You can delegate it, toss it, file it or recycle it but if you can follow one rule, this is the one. This simple rule alone can eliminate future accumulation of clutter. ClutterBGone has implemented this rule many times.
Set times for daily tasks
Your email, the snail mail that comes in, filing. All of these daily tasks need to be done but don’t necessarily need to be done as soon as they come in. Schedule to look at your email at 2 or 3 set times per day. Schedule to open your snail mail at the same time each day (and remember the one touch rule). You have several tasks that you take for granted and perform each day. By scheduling these you’ll be more productive and accumulate less clutter.
Limit computer distractions
Just having a cluttered looking desktop can cause distractions. Keep your screen wallpaper simple and keep any icons to a minimum. Email notifications are the worst. Turn them off unless you are waiting for a life or death email to arrive. It’s too much of a temptation to look at your email too frequently. Things get left undone, you start working on something pertaining to the email and before you know it you have a cluttered desk full of unfinished work.
Keep a clear, unobstructed work area
You know what you use several times throughout the day. Keep these handy and put everything else away. Files you aren’t working on should be filed away. Unless you’re an artist you don’t need 10 pens on your desk. Staplers, coffee mugs, personal photos, newspapers, etc. all add to the cluttered look. With a cluttered work area it becomes too easy to add to the clutter and greatly reduces your productivity.
Set aside time at the end of each day
Set aside just five minutes to clear your desk or work area and prepare it for a clean start the next day. Your office will stay more organized, there will be less clutter and you will feel more productive the next morning. We implement this at all offices we work with.
Adapt as many of these 5 habits that you can for a clutter free office. Contact us to see how we can reduce the clutter in your office.