Tag Archive for: Office Organizing

19 Ways to Organize Your Office

/2 Comments/in /by

 

 

19 ways to organize your office

 

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

  1. 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!

Hugs and Happy Organizing: Office Organizing

/9 Comments/in , /by
home office organizing
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.

Organized Office

/0 Comments/in , /by

Whether it is your home office, your small business office or your corporate office, getting down to business at your desk is a chore if it is piled with papers! Establishing a comfortable area for paper work and other office activities is important for productivity.

Create a Work Zone

As you begin, determine what tasks you are doing in your office and the tools needed for these tasks. By making these decisions at the outset, you are preparing your space for accomplishment. Create areas designating the best access for most frequent activities. As for room arrangement, place your desk in a position that allows maximum use of natural light. Position the desk in a direct ion that allows for direct viewing of all who enter without you having to turn.

Desk drawers should have only what you use at the desk in them. Store your additional office supplies in another area. Keep specific categories of items individually stored in different drawers. One drawer should contain checks and bill paying items, one drawer stationary and note pads, one drawer with a pencil tray holding pencils, pens, tape, stapler and scissors. Again, keep just enough to use and not over stuff the drawers. Place books on book shelves, magazines or reading material in a basket to grab and go. Be sure that your telephone, computer and other essentials are placed easily in reach.

 

A Personalized Paper Plan

A “paper plan” is most important in this work zone. Create an area for “Action” files. This is a temporary home where papers live until either filed away or thrown away. Papers used frequently or that are a “hot topic” need a basket, vertical file, or other space on your desk. Label them according to what actions or terms fit best with your needs. These files can be call, file, mail, or pay. Or these can be named by client name, project name, or other key word that comes to mind quickly. Clearly label your files so you will always know what is in them, and just as importantly, the labels will remind you what not to put in them.

 

Organize with access in mind

 

Arrange for the placement of frequently used files to be placed in the desk’s file drawer. Less frequently accessed files can be placed in a separate filing cabinet. As for filing cabinets, use a low-lying, two-drawer cabinet that can be placed next to or near your desk for the added use of its top for other items that you often need.

 

Your filing system should be simple easy and manageable. Create categories in your files for the different major work/home areas. For work it may be clients, administrative, financial. For home it may be home/auto, personal, and financial. Use general key words that come to mind quickly, and sub categorize as needed. An example would be Car – insurance, Car – maintenance, or Insurance – Car, Insurance – Home. Think about how YOU think about the paper to find it. Color-coding your files makes it faster to find information. Use one color hanging file to easily slip information into a file. Label the file with a tab using a label maker!   Decide when papers go into an archive area. These are papers you seldom access, but need to keep.  Arrange for storage in the least accessible drawer, in a file box in the top of a closet, or at an auxiliary location.

 

Maximize your space to maximize productivity!  A clear desk makes it easy to sit down and get started on your work.

15 Office Organizing Tasks that take 15 Minutes

/0 Comments/in /by
 office organizing

 

Office life tends to be very messy. We have so much going on all the time! We have so much paper and stuff.  It all becomes disorganized very quickly. When do we have time to get organized? 

 

In his book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey tells the story of a woodcutter. 

A man was walking in a forest one day, and he met a woodcutter hard at work sawing down a tree. It was a hot day, and he stopped and engaged in some friendly banter with the woodcutter about the weather and such.  The man continued on his way and a couple of hours later as he came back through the forest he came upon the woodcutter again who was still hard at and sweating profusely from the heat and his efforts. He asked, “Mr. Woodcutter, how long have you been sawing that tree? You haven’t made much progress. Perhaps your saw is too blunt. Why don’t you sharpen it?”  “I could” the woodcutter sighed. “The saw has not been sharpened for a long while.  But I don’t really have the time.”  We have to sharpen our ax too!  With organizing we are more efficient, effective and productive! 

What can we do in 15 minutes?

  •  Eliminate unnecessary paper from a completed project.
  •   Set up a file for the current project.    
  • Get papers back into their files.
  • Organize your top right drawer where your office supplies are. Is it overcrowded with unused items? Return them, donate them, or share them with co-workers.
  • Make a group of all the items that need returning to others in the office and take them to them.
  • Gather your daily resources, such as company phone directories, directions for using products, or other work related items together and place them on an easy to access shelf. 
  • Gather all your personal memorabilia and assess the quantity. Are there too many family photos, small wind up toys, or other items taking space on your desk?
  •  Delete emails from your “Sent” folder.
  •  Delete subfolders in your Inbox.
  •  Return a phone call or make personal appointments for hair, nails or doctors.
  • Review your calendar for upcoming appointments.
  • Enter upcoming dates into your calendar.
  • Add to your master list.
  •  Review and prioritize your master list.
  • End your day with 15 minutes of organizing, getting things back into order.

 

What are you doing with your 15 minutes of office organizing?

 

 

 Want more ideas on office organizing and productivity? Join my newsletter!