Office Organizing Archives - Ellen's Blog, Professional Organizing for Kingwood & Houston

How to incorporate Self care with the Hybrid Work Model

June 17, 2021/2 Comments/in Office Organizing, Wellness and self care, Work From Home and Work At Home/by Ellen

self care and the hybrid work model

We can tell another transition is underway with work in Houston as rush hour and traffic build. People are returning to the office to work part of the week. When we were only working from home, we had more time because of the lack of commute. We also could wedge in a small piece of self care within the day or week. During this transition, or as your work becomes a hybrid model of home and office, it’s a good time to assess and prioritize self care.

Assess and prioritize

Acknowledge that a variety of feelings are going to emerge during the transition back to work. There may be increased anxiety and sadness. Give yourself time and a way to process these emotions. While we settled into work from home, we are now settling back to work at the office.

Work from home has given us options. Many of us have added walking mid day or specific times for exercise because of available time. Online grocery shopping for healthy snacks and meal delivery have become more of the norm. Decide what is non-negotiable for you. There is less time available because your commute takes time away. Know what is so important to your self care that you must include this in your day and week. Knowing your priorities sets clear boundaries for you.

Baseline for self care

Bedtime is always going to be the first step for self care. Sleep schedule consistency for you and your family are critical. Factors have interrupted our sleep patterns to the point there is a name for this, “coronasomnia.” If you struggle with this, here are a few tips. Remember to set up a central station for charging devices and placing these in their chargers an hour before bed or at 8 pm every night. Create a bedtime ritual that could include a hot bath, reading before bed and cooling down your space. If you feel you have not had enough time for yourself during the day, set aside an hour before bed as time for you to do what you love whether that is a hobby or other pampering.

Organizing as self care

Spend time on organizing for your return to work. Being organized helps us feel confident and take charge. Review your wardrobe and see what’s working now. Work attire puts us in the work frame of mind. Plan your morning and evening routines with respect to the time for your commute. Refresh the organizing in your office. Digitize to access projects, materials and resources at both locations. Plan a weekly time to reset all your organizing for maintenance.

Start adjusting your routine even while you are at home. Prep meals ahead, plan lunches and move your routine into what you will be doing on those days you commute. It will help you problem solve ahead of time.

Oops are going to happen. It may be that specific daily self care does not happen every day or falters entirely. Look for balance as well as obstacles. Is there a creative way to find the time for that activity? Is that obstacle because of lack of preparation? Don’t give up on your self care however be realistic about the time you have and where you spend it.

Adding in time for joy

Laughter and joy have been in short supply while we worked through the pandemic. Now is the time to amp that up. Joy looks like a lot of small things like birds singing or a rainbow. It also feels like sleeping in on Saturday or journaling. Find small things that bring you joy to incorporate in your week as a reminder of your resilience and self care. It may be necessary for you to pause to acknowledge this joy because we are getting so busy again.

Self care is one of the biggest positive take aways from our pandemic time. Prioritizing ourselves and being empathetic with our colleagues brought us through the difficulties we faced. Thinking through your self care will help you create a new system for recharging and self care.

Spring Organizing Office Edition

May 16, 2019/2 Comments/in Office Organizing, Productivity, Technology and Organizing/by Ellen

Offices and office spaces continual to evolve as more of our work becomes digital. There’s lot of digital decluttering to do as a result. This Spring more your office forward to become more electronically organized.

Edit first

All offices are busy and it’s a low priority to eliminate digital clutter. Start a 15 minute daily edit of digital clutter. Look first at email, then documents. In multiple 15 minute time slots you can pare down what is not needed. Now assess your duplicate documents and drafts. You can add these to trash to clear space and clear up confusion of the final document.

Attend to your desk top

We’re talking computer desk top here! Add documents into folders and eliminiate any extra icons. There’s clarity here now. Add a beautiful and serene screen saver for you to see when you are disconnected.

Graphics organizing

If you are a social media maven, it’s your graphics that can also need refreshing. Use a content driven organizing system. Group your graphics and photos by topic in your pictures to easily access and use your items.

Unsubscribe to unwanted

You may have once wanted to learn about a topic, and now you are saturated with email subscriptions. Take 15 minutes to unsubscribe rather than delete your unwanted subscriptions. Less incominng newsletters free up time. If you don’t want to let go of these, or incoming coupons, create an additional email account to directly access this when wanted.

Update your passwords

We change our passwords, hoping to remember then each time. Update your password keeper in order to easily log on. Change passwords if it’s been a while for sensitive sites. Now log in on all your devices so that you have access from your smart phone or tablet.

Control the cords

Technology advances quickly. It’s time to recycle your older devices and cords. Gather these together with the cords to donate. Label the remaining cords to know what goes together. Store the cords at point of use in a drawer if used frequently or in a box under a cabinet if not.

Now you and your office are ready for a productive Spring!

Still cluttered in there with paper? Here’s where to get started!

Spring Organizing Technology Edition

April 25, 2019/2 Comments/in Home Organizing, Office Organizing/by Ellen

Technology tools are an big asset for our day to day living. At the same time these have overtaken our lives. We have devices of all sorts, ranging from cellphones, to smart home lightbulbs, to voice activated assistants. Our tech needs a little spring cleaning and organizing too!

Inventory and edit

Where the heck is the tech in your home? Go through your home and office and find what you have and where it is. Make a list of what you use and what is required of each. Label cords with the tech device name and use. Now you know what’s an older version or a duplicate. Many of us have quickly accumulated older devices as new items come on the market within a three year time frame now. If you have multiple devices that perform the same solutions, think about sending the item on it’s way to someone who can use it.

Plan for recycling

There’s electronic recycling all around us. It’s the right thing to do for our environment. Be sure to clear your device of all your personal information by using the general settings. For older equipment, write the date on your calendar of local recycling. If your device is new, you can sell it and make back some of your investment. Cell phones can be donated to a charity of choice. CellPhones for Soldiers, or local community domestic violence shelters.

Choose central storage

Now that you know what you have and what’s left, it’s time to plan for storage. Choose a central storage spot in your home for technology. Ziplock together the device and cord to store for future use. Organize the devices by use, such as listening devices like airpods and ear buds or reading devices like nook and kindle. A drawer in an office, the bottom drawer of your nightstand or a basket in your office cabinet are common storage spaces.

Set up a common charging spot

Most important is to set up a common charging spot in your home going forward. This spot is where all devices are charged overnight for a great night’s rest. Research proves repeatedly that keeping electronics away from your bedroom improves your rest. Your family will benefit too. There’s no longer the chaos of lost or borrowed cords for last minute charging or where to find your device on the way out the door.

If you are adding a new device this spring, be proactive and get organized with your devices. It’s one small way to be more organized this year!

19 Ways to Organize Your Office

April 11, 2019/2 Comments/in Office Organizing/by Ellen

An organized office is the gateway to more productivity. As in any space, the key is clear areas to work, easy access to what’s most important to use and good routines to keep your space organized.

Start with your desk

Everyone needs a good space to work. Your “desk” may be stationary or mobile.

Clear what’s on your desk and put it in a box. Add back in only the tools you use every day to the desk top.
Gather papers together in an “unprocessed” wall pocket near the door of your office. Drop items in there that have not been reviewed or triaged.
Clear your computer or device desk top by moving documents to the document folder. Start by creating folders to house the documents. Do this 15 minutes at a time and you will feel accomplished as your desk top looks clearer and cleaner.
Not enough space on your desk? Add a file cart to store papers and access these quickly.

Move to the desk drawers

Drawers are not to just stuff away desk top clutter.

Designate uses for each drawer. Top middle or top right drawer works best for immediate access items, such as less frequent tools or checkbooks. Right file drawer can be set up for frequently accessed resources. Left file drawer can be your “personal” file drawer for snacks, lotions, or extra items.
Desk drawers can easily become cluttered. Add organizing trays to your drawers to see exactly where items go. A pencil tray or shallow baskets help you organized these.
Keep the knee space clear under your desk. It’s easy to accumulate stuff that needs to go home. Make a point of taking home items every Friday to keep clutter away.

Resources and bookshelves

Think vertical and think access for your bookshelves.

What resources do you want to keep close and access quickly? That’s what belongs on your bookshelves. Your resources can be stored in attractive, consistent appearance notebooks with labels on the spine.
Use the top shelf for knickknacks and photos. Your desk stays clear and you have a space to host family and memorable keepsakes and awards.
Remember that on organized bookshelves all books are vertical or staged in a decorative array. An overpacked bookshelf means it’s time to cull out what is not useful.

Digital organizing

Organizing inside your computer is critical to your productivity.

Organizing your email by general topics. Think about the areas of your work and create subfolders in your inbox to save these. Areas might be clients, vendors, or resources. These big categories save you time filing.
Set specific times to work your email. Three times a day is sufficient to work through email. Add tasks and project to a task list to keep from cluttering your inbox.

Paper

The word strikes horror, fear, and overwhelming feelings. Paper work takes a plan.

Have a basket, wall pocket or slot for unprocessed papers. It’s the spot where paper comes as it enters the office. Having this spot keeps the paper in one area.
Be deliberate and brutal about eliminating paper. Have a recycle and shred zone in your office.
A To Be Filed spot helps you keep control of paper. This slot is a drop area to keep papers until you file. When the basket or slot is full, it’s time to file (which should be quarterly.)
Paper work builds up quickly. A weekly admin time for one hour helps you keep on top of paper.

Keeping organized

Keep your organizing success by keeping your office organized.

Each evening set a timer to remind you it’s time to close up shop. Remember that time when a shop keeper turned the open sign to closed and took the money from the till to the safe? That’s what we all need to end our day. Make a list of your closing activities to get items back to their slots.
Set time weekly to bring items back home to their original spots.
After your annual strategic planning or at the new year, evaluate what is in your office and if it serves your purposes this year.

Need help with your office? Call me!

Innovative Improvements to your Home Office

February 2, 2017/2 Comments/in Office Organizing/by Ellen

The home office has come full circle as being a prominent part of where we live, work and play. With an increase in telecommuting, the home office is a valuable piece of real estate. There’s basic set up of your home office. Make the most of your home office with these innovative home office ideas.

Standing Desk

The standing desk is a new piece of office furniture. Sitting for long periods of time have health consequences. With a standing desk that’s adjustable, you have the option of movement during the day. This innovation for some of us means we think clearer and have improved productivity. How to choose what desk? Thanks to Reviews.com, there’s great options to consider. A smaller foot print desk will also give you more space, less clutter on your work surface and more organization.

Going wireless or less wires

We all hate all those wires and cords. It’s unattractive and unsafe. There are more options for wireless now for printing, scanning and cloud based document storage. Set up can be DIY or with an expert. Going wireless is affordable with the right tools.

Collaboration tools

Our work together is fundamental and instrumental. Collaboration tools are what we need to work together on projects. Our online tools makes it easier to work together and get our work done. Tools like Trello with boards, lists, and cards help you organize and prioritize projects in a fun and visual way. It’s not a problem not being in the same space with Join.me where you can share screens. FreeConferenceCall.com gives you free phone time together. Check out these easy to access tools.

These innovations make your office more functional and more efficient. Making your space easy to use and easy to collaborate create a productive environment.

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Organizing: Streamlining or Unearthing Treasures

November 17, 2016/6 Comments/in ADD and ADHD, Home Organizing, Office Organizing, Organizing Skills/by Ellen

What’s organizing REALLY about? Working together with my clients I see two different ways we work. I also see the goals of our work in two different ways as well. Organizing while both strategies accomplish what my clients want, each process differs slightly. Here is my concept of organizing as letting go and organizing as unearthing treasures.

Organizing is streamlining and letting go.

You are overwhelmed with stuff. Your goal is to have less, organize it and then keep your space maintained. The first step in your organizing project is to review what you have. Then you assess it’s value. Do you use it or love it? If neither applies, it’s time to eliminate this item. As Marie Kondo says, “To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose.” Working on having less is often the most motivating reason to get organized.

Organizing is unearthing treasures.

Your stuff is overwhelming you, but just culling out is not enough. Your goal is to keep what’s most valuable to you. Organizing can also be about finding and unearthing treasures. You can take the “treasure hunt” perspective where you sift through items to find what is most valuable to keep. In choosing what’s most valuable, only you can be the judge. It may be a long lost trinket or a check. Organizing can be unearthing items that have been buried in what’s not important.

We found this treasure while working together! What treasures have you found while organizing?

When you unearth treasures, whether it’s financial or sentimental, you find real value in organizing.

Join me for fresh perspectives on organizing and productivity. Sign up for my newsletter here!

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Spring into Organizing

March 22, 2016/3 Comments/in Home Organizing, Office Organizing/by Ellen

It’s not been a long winter, but we are already hearing robins chirping, the sun rising earlier and the sensing feeling of change. It’s also the time we feel ready to tackle organizing in our space. It’s time to spring forward into organizing.

There’s a few important spaces that need attention. These spaces require a fresh start with a new perspective. Organizing your office space, laundry room, landing spot and linens help you get a fresh start for spring.

Office space

Your office may have become the dumping ground for anything and everything.

Get this space back to functioning with a mass purge of papers. Check out what to keep and for how long and get down to shredding. Now you know what to keep when papers come in. Keep filing simple with broad categories or just the box for the year. Simple filing makes it easier to file and takes less time.
Reset this space by moving items back to where they belong. Often offices have lots of bags and boxes that simply need to be redistributed.
Recycle your dead technology. Check on Earth.911 to know where and how to recycle items.

Laundry room

Have an overload of clothes taken over your laundry room? Is it impossible to enter? Get a fresh start in this space.

If your laundry room is really your closet, it’s time to move items back.
Set up a system with baskets, laundry sorter or other product that helps you start and finish one load at a time.
Less clothes make laundry easier. Eliminate clothes in your closet you are not feeling joy and make space for what makes you feel fabulous. Organizing your closet is a gift to yourself!

Landing spot

Winters gone and so should your heavy coats! It’s time to get the landing spot ready for spring.

Go through coats, sweaters and boots to see if these are ready to be donated and bless others.
Add a basket for flipflops and other summer shoes that gather in this area.
Add hooks for swim and other summer season bags.

Spring linens

Give yourself an extra gift with sorting through the linen closet. Often we have many seasons of linens.

Are there stained and torn towels or sheets that can be donated? How many sheet sets or comforters do you need? These are sold as rags at thrift stores and used for animal shelters.
Is your linen closet in disarray? Just a little decluttering and straightening can help.
Need a fresh perk in your bedroom? Purchase new linens and let go of your existing linens.

Choose one of these a week to spring into your organizing this year!

Check here for daily light savings time tips.

Hugs and Happy Organizing: Office Organizing

February 25, 2016/9 Comments/in Office Organizing, Paper management/by Ellen

Hugs and happy organizing are client success stories. Here’s a story about a client’s office.

Home offices are cluttered! These spaces are jammed paper, office supplies, books and more. Why not add more vertical storage to create more order.

Each different category of paper needs a “slot.” Create a slot with a basket labelled for each type of paper. These categories can include taxes, small business, utilities, instruction books and other papers.
Create more space by going up! With these additional bookcases, there is a basket for each type of paper.
Keep your desk clear by having a slot for unprocessed, unopened or to be reviewed papers.
Keep papers in notebooks or magazine sorters so these can be orderly.
Editor’s note: Our work together was done virtually!

Check out more Hugs and Happy Organizing stories here.

5 Tips for ADHD Productivity

May 21, 2015/2 Comments/in ADD and ADHD, Office Organizing, Productivity/by Ellen

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort. ~~Paul J. Meyer

Trouble getting started or knowing when to finish up? Easily distracted while working? Easy to do the short term projects but long term projects don’t get started? All these challenges can be part of ADHD. Planning or focus may not be the greatest strength for ADHD, however there are ways to be more productive at work and home.

Tracking and Reminders

Start with trusted tools to be productive. Use a planner that works with your strengths, whether that’s a paper planner or a digital tool. If you are highly visual, a paper planner is most helpful. If you love technology, a digital planner makes a difference. Track all dates and deadlines for both home and work. Add in reminders that are both visual (dry erase board on the wall or large sticky notes) and auditory (alarms or timer) to help you stay on track. These reminders can be to help you know where you start, where you were interrupted or what is most important to tackle that day. A kitchen timer, Any.do app, or the reminder app on your phone can be ways to stay on track. A single notebook keeps all your tasks together in a single place to find these. Track your 5 most important tasks and check them off at the end of the day. Simple tracking and reminders consolidate this information.

Chunk your day and your projects

Long term projects can get lost in the shuffle. A long day without structure can be unproductive. Break your day and your projects into manageable pieces either one hour in time slots or smaller sections of the project. Smaller sections can be just one step forward in a project or several small steps that coordinate together. Structuring your day into parts keeps you from being overwhelmed and less efficient. A typical day can include a morning, early afternoon and late afternoon time frame for work periods. Add in your morning and evening routines at home and you are set up for success.

Partnerships

Collaboration is the key to success. Working with a partner adds interest and accountability. The interaction and engagement with a partner brings energy to every project. Choose a partner who has different skills and abilities to bring about productivity. Your partner can keep you on track with weekly or bi-weekly deadlines to finish a project on time. The most positive partnerships engage and empower you in your work.

Coordination

The most effective plans and projects include meetings for accountability and a time line. Just like when we invite company over, we are faced with an imminent deadline. With deadlines, you will complete tasks and projects timely by that extra surge of energy. Coordination brings this all into being.

Work from your strengths

Your strengths could be creativity, tech savviness, working well with others, and any number of skills and abilities. If you are unsure of your strengths, ask a colleague to reflect these back to you. Create a plan that includes these strengths. Use your strengths by choosing work aligned with these and not dwelling in negativity. Find ways to bring out your strengths in your work as well by choosing parts of the project that engage your strengths.

Get started today! You may be flip flopping between multiple planners. Just choose one and use it for 2 months and assess. It can be difficult to approach your colleagues to get started collaborating and coordinating. However, this difficult step can lead to a rewarding effort that is well worth the effort. Reach out today to start your most productive year ever.

Check out more tips on ADHD here on Ellen’s Blog ADD!

Hugs and happy organizing Office Organizing

May 5, 2015/4 Comments/in Hugs and Happy Organizing, Office Organizing/by Ellen