Organize Your Home Office and Increase Productivity
Posted on August 13, 2008
Filed Under Computers and Technology |
If you are fed up with your office space, have to hunt for a pen like you are on safari, and spend more time hunting for documents than working on them, this article is for you. As you forage through the “one week ago” pile, and try not to topple the whole thing into an unworkable mess, read this article for tips on how to reverse and improve your home office world.
Every office deals with an excess of paper and whether large or small, your business is suffering when you are not operating in an organized space.
So, how do you regain control of the paper monster that is cluttering up your business?
Space Is Essential
The biggest problem with staying organized in an office is that people set up a system and do not give themselves enough room to grow.
If you clean out a drawer, organize it, and then put all the stuff back into that same drawer, you might feel good to get the dust bunnies out. However, you have not realistically done much. By squeezing all, that stuff back into the drawer simply means it is cleaner. If there is no room for anything new, it won’t help with the pile of un-filed papers and the new papers that will be generated in the future.
Be certain to have at least a quarter to a third (more if possible) of growing room when implementing a system. You may need to change over at some point, but having some extra space will encourage you to keep up with the organizing.
This also goes for items such as architectural drawings or other products or documents you may accumulate.
Purge unnecessary papers. It will allow for more space, and help you avoid scrambling through miscellaneous paperwork looking for important documents.
Implementing a Filing System
Filing systems do not need to be hard, confusing, and complicated. In fact, the simpler the better. The easier it is to setup and maintain, the more likely you will be to keep up with it. Some of the most effective systems are as simple as three or four categories like “Expense’, ‘Correspondence’, and ‘Projects’ or something similar.
When filing large groups of projects, clients, or invoices, try utilizing a single draw for each group of like files. Get a tall filing cabinet that can be divided into either chronological or alphabetical systems.
Another class of things you will need to make room for are the things that you refer to daily or even hourly. A posting board or corkboard near your desk would be in order. You can hang things like phone lists, ‘To-Do” lists and appointment calendars in one central location for easy reference.
Maintaining Order
A filing system is only as good as the upkeep. You may find it easier to have a small system of files located on or near your desk and daily or weekly transfer the items into their permanent home.
This also works for items that you need nearby such as current project information or price lists etc.
Style of Filing
Take a realistic look at how you file and consider the filing system. It might work better if you use labeled boxes or storage boxes if you tend to pile papers. This might be in addition or replace the standard filing cabinet. You need to find something that makes you feel comfortable, something you want to work with so that you continue to maintain it.
All Things Need a Place
It is an old saying, but all too true. Everything must have someplace to go back to. Avoid loose pens, pencils, papers cell phones, glasses and so on. Find a place to put them when you are finished with them, then put them back when you are done. Do not forget to reward yourself for a job well done, and keep your system going!
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