When was the last time you organized your office work space?
If you’ve had extra effort to find important documents on your desk, its a sign that you need to tidy it up.
And it’s not too difficult. Neat and organized desk leads to productivity at work. Don’t wait until your desk turns into a mountain of papers—do it now!
Plan
This may seem simple but you really need to cultivate ‘Today I have to organize my work table’ in your mind before you go to work. Still, you need to make sure that you have time to organize it. Don’t let your organizing time tangle with your meeting schedule or your other tasks.
Sort them out
When you’re organizing your desk, make sure that you put important things at the reachable spots on your desk. Hand cream, box of paperclips, or your colorful post-it collection can go to your drawers. Place important documents, pens, notebook, and your agenda on your desk to make them easy to find.
Take a small step
You don’t have to finish organizing your desk on the same day (your main job is not organizing desk, isn’t it?) You can start by throwing things you don’t need today and tomorrow you can continue to sort the documents out. It would be better if you clean your desk routinely than let your papers and garbage heaped on your desk.
Established Your ‘Work Zones’
You must have one particular spot on your desk where you do all your work, right? Clean that area from other things such as paper, stationery, or your personal belongings (lotion, comb, mirror, or your phone charger). Then, established where you store the incoming documents, to-do paper, and tasks you’ve done. It will be easier if you put the to-do tasks on the left spot on your desk, and after you’ve done with it, put the documents on the right side of your desk. This will help you to find your new and old documents. Make sure that the certain spot where you work (usually right in front of your computer) is clean all the time.
When in doubt, throw it out
You will never need nearly 99% of the papers that you are keeping. When in doubt, just throw it out. If you truly need the hard copy, make sure you have a filing system to put it where you will know where you locate it.
Schedule regular cleaning time
Spare a time like once in a week to clean your desk. Don’t wait until your desk looks like a wreck.
Organize the stuff on your computer as well
What’s the point of having a neat desk, but the files on your computer are a huge mess? Start to sort the documents into folders. You can sort the files based on date, name, or type of tasks. It will help you if you name each and every file with the date you make or modify that file.
Keep your email organized
Keep your inbox clean and organized. If you don’t need an email, just delete it. Pick a couple times during the day to sort, answer, and delete the emails at once. Keep your inbox in check and don’t let email overload control your life.
A neat, clean working environment will help you to have a clearer mind. A clearer mind will lead to more productivity at work. Don’t let the opinion that “you work more effectively in a messy working environment” stick in your mind. Organize your desk now!
