Easy Tips To Organize Your Home Office
More and more people are working from home these days, either running their own business or because companies see the value in having their employees work from home anywhere from one to five days a week.
It’s important to have a space designated specifically for your work so you can be productive, efficient and not waste time.
A home office needs to be both comfortable and motivating and should be free from distractions that will allow you to focus on work. Here are a few tips to keep you organized and help you do just that.
Clear surfaces
I am a stickler for clear surfaces. A cluttered surface results in a lot of wasted time looking for that something that you know is “here somewhere”. Keep just the essentials within reach and keep your work area clear for increased productivity.
Stay focused
We all like to think that we can multi task but the truth is we can’t. Once you try to work on two things at the same time we aren’t able to keep the same focus on both tasks.
Stay on course with one task and move on to the next when it is completed or, if something is really important and moves up the priority ladder, put the other item away to give your all to the job at hand.
In and out trays
Put everything that comes in during the day into the in tray and assign a time of day to go through it. Doing this once a day rather than each time something comes in will save you a lot of time through the day. Likewise, with the out tray. Put all of your filing and outbound mail in there and attend to it once a day.
Choose a filing system that works
Filing is not the most interesting part of our day but it will go smoother if you have a system that works for you. Rather than having all my files together alphabetically, I have set up broad categories first like “Utilities” and “Automobile” and then have the files within these categories alphabetized.
This way I know what area I need to go to and don’t have to look through the entire file drawer to find something or put something away. It works for me but you need to find what works for you to save time and be better organized. If you are a highly visual person you may want to consider a colour coded filing system to easily locate a file based on colour. For instance, anything banking related could be a green folder. Any critical documents, like employment records, health records, school records, driver’s license and registration etc., could be assigned a blue folder. Leisure activities and reference files could be assigned a yellow folder. Think about what colour a certain category is to you and then go from there.
A shredder
A good shredder is a must to protect your privacy. You don’t want sensitive information blowing down the street and getting into the hands of someone who can harm your credit score or worse. The shredders that make confetti out of your paper are best as nobody is going to be able to put those pieces back together!
A weekly planner
Pick a planner that allows room to make some notes on each day and has room for priorities and items to follow up on. Planners that show a full week on both sides of the open book in my mind are the best in order to see what needs to be done that week at a glance. I’m pretty visual so that works well for me.
Check completed tasks off so you have that sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.
Printers
Printers have come down in price quite a bit over the years but those expensive ink cartridges have not. If you choose to refill your cartridges take them somewhere reputable rather than doing it yourself. I have had no luck with refiling myself and would hate to hear that you have ink all over your desk.
Unless the document is being presented to a customer or someone of similar importance, set your printing setting to print in black and white only to save on the color cartridge costs. Of course, it’s better to print less than more. When printing a document consider first whether it is absolutely necessary to have it in hard copy. Lots of information is now kept and stored online. Let’s not cut down more trees than we need to.
If you are one of the lucky ones that works from home make sure your office is set up to make the most of your productivity. ClutterBGone has assisted numerous small and home offices to get organized. Contact us here if you would like to learn more about what we can do for you.