Sure-Fire Tips For Organizing Your Home Office
Following these tips will help you manage your time, increase your productivity, keep the clutter at bay and reduce your stress levels. It's worth spending some time to plan out your home office organization.
Home Office Clutter
A major problem for any home office is clutter. It robs us of energy. Makes it hard to find things. Makes it hard to keep the place clean and free of dust. And sends our stress levels through the roof. Here's a few ideas to help you keep on top of clutter
#1. Take on a small declutter task every week. It could be to tackle a drawer, file or cabinet surface. Little and often is good.
#2. Take on a larger declutter task every month. It could be to tackle a cabinet.
#3. Make sure everything you use and store has a proper home.
For lots of good ideas on dealing with clutter, check out this handy guide.
Organizing Your Work Space
A good organizer will keep their work area clutter free and efficient. Simplify your systems where ever you can.
#1. Daily use items should be within hand reach.
#2. Weekly use items should be within arm reach.
#3. Monthly use items should be stored away from the desk but within the office.
#4. Items used less frequently than monthly can be stored out with your workspace.
Organize Your Work Flow
Everyone needs a system to manage their work and take care of business. The best way to keep organized is to keep it simple but effective.
#1. Get a good planner like a Filofax system. They're great for planning, scheduling, notes and keeping track of ideas. A desktop size one is better than the more portable size.
#2. Set up the following files within hand reach: Work-in, to-do, to-read, frequent-use and pending.
#3. Review, prioritize and schedule the contents of your work-in file every day.
#4. The to-do file is for work scheduled for the day.
#5. The to-read file is for material you intend to read to keep up to date with your industry. If it gets too big, prioritize and discard the less important stuff.
#6. The frequent-use file is for material you use daily.
#7. The pending file is for material that you plan to deal with in the future but it doesn't have a proper place else where in your filing system. When you place an item in this file, you must also schedule in your planner when you will deal with the task.
Home Office Equipment
#1. Use a professional office chair and desk. Domestic furniture is simply not designed for the job.
#2. Consider an L or U shaped desk space. It creates the most surface area and provides an efficient working environment.
#3. Use vertically stacked trays. It saves on space. Use them to store forms and critical files.
#4. Make sure your workspace has good lighting. Scientific studies have shown that improved lighting gives a significant productivity boost.
#5. Go for a large wide screen monitor. It's not uncommon to be working on two documents at the same time. For example, extracting data from a web page and updating a spreadsheet. A large wide screen monitor allows you to have both documents side by side. This makes it much easier to work with and gives a productivity boost.
#6. Most home offices could benefit from a visit by an electrician. With all the equipment crammed into a compact space, we tend to have wires and cables all tangled and too many plugs hanging off too few power points.
Storage Space
There are plenty of storage solutions for any office space, no matter how small. Here's a few things to bear in mind when you are planning your storage.
#1. Cabinets are always better than open shelves. They will look less cluttered.
#2. Always aim to keep cabinet surfaces clear. It's always tempting to put files, folders or magazines on top of cabinets. BUT it will make it much more cluttered and make it hard to keep clean.
#3. Cabinets on wheels make it easy to get behind the cabinet for cleaning.
#4. Go for storage furniture and filing cabinets from the same range if possible. There are many flexible, modular solutions to choose from. It will make your office more pleasant to work in. If you mix and match from different ranges, you'll end up with furniture with different dimensions which will make for a non-streamlined and cluttered look.
#5. If your office is small, make use of closet space elsewhere in your house for storing papers or supplies. The rule of thumb is material that you only access less often than monthly can be stored out of the office.
#6. If your office area is particularly challenging, then check out the professional organizers in your area. A consultation may be just the solution you need.
