Organize Your Home Office and Increase Productivity
March 30, 2008 – 1:35 pmIf 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.
First, take heart. Every office - home or otherwise - has to figure out how to deal with paper, pens, and clutter. Creating and maintaining an organized space is just part of the job.
So, how do you regain control of the paper monster that is cluttering up your business?
Space to Organize 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.
Try to clean out and throw out enough to have a quarter or a third more empty space so that when you implement your new system, there will be space to expand. You may need to tweak your system, and having the extra space will encourage you to continue to organize.
This system includes everything from architectural drawings to products and documents you accumulate in the course of doing business.
Adding home office desks and storage organization items will go a long way towards making your organization implementation successful. Set aside time to get rid documents that are no longer relevant. This will allow for more space. Invest in a scanner and make PDF files out of things that can be stored electronically.
Simple 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.
Maintenance
A good filing system will only work if you work at it. While you may find a smaller system easier to handle, it does not matter the size if you do not work with every day. Keep important, ever-changing items near you, then when they are no longer critical, transfer them to a permanent home in your filing cabinet.
This also works for items that you need nearby such as current project information or price lists etc.
Style of Filing
Consider if you can realistically maintain a filing system. Perhaps labeled boxes would suit you better (especially if you tend to pile papers). The key is to find something you will feel comfortable maintaining. If papers are sorted and occasionally purged, your system will work.
Everything Needs a Home
Everything MUST be assigned a home. By giving each item a place, you will not loose pens, cell phones, glasses, and so on. Do not crowd the items or you will get frustrated. Recognize that all of your efforts will help you run your business more efficiently and thus productively. Reward yourself for keeping the system working!
Tags: Computers And Technology
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