It is easy to take for granted office organization practices. With so many tasks we face during the day, we often don’t have the time nor the energy to sort things out in our workplace. We may not notice it easily, but having an organized space helps us be more productive. It also saves us from unnecessary costs in our resources like our time and money.
Here are some ways to organize:
1. Work Zones
One way to help you organize your workspace is to establish the areas where a task or an activity should be done. You’ll have your main work area which is your desk. Then there’s your reference area where you have your shelves and binders. And there’s your receiving or meeting area where you do your collaborative work, like a small war room.
2. Filing System
For your non-digital files, you should know how to catalog and organize those for easy access. The most common and effective ways are filing cabinets, to keep those files and to store them securely. Selecting the right filing cabinet will help you create an effective system that’ll prove to make your business more efficient. Just putting them in a storage cabinet is not enough, you need to have a way to keep track of the things you stored. Here are some ways to organize your file cabinet:
- Meeting folder – Create a folder where you can place the items that need to be discussed, delegated, or submitted. This will prepare you for meetings and save you the time to organize when schedules shift.
- Pending folder – This is for items that await a response. Check them regularly for those that are due and dispose of or move irrelevant items that have already been addressed.
- Archives – When you’re done with a project or activity keep the materials and important files pertaining to that project. Also, don’t mix them with on-going projects so you’d be able to differentiate the urgent folders.
- Regular Filing – Don’t wait for your files to accumulate on your desk. Regularly put them into the file cabinets using the proper system of organizing.
3. Time Management
You should learn to allocate a certain number of hours or minutes for every task you have. Have a prioritized to-do list to keep things in perspective and spend a proper amount of time for each activity. This will prevent you from dwelling on one item while leaving the rest of the tasks unattended.
4. Organize Digitally
Computers, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, are a big part of our work life now. Along with the internet, we can maximize these new tools to help us move faster and bring innumerable things with us wherever we go. If you don’t need a printed copy of documents or data, make use of your digital device to keep things organized. You should also learn how to organize your files on your computer. This is to prevent you from fumbling over your phone looking for a file that you downloaded and did not save properly.
5. Purge
Learn how to declutter your workspace. There’s no need to keep everything you don’t need nor want. Sweep your office for things that weren’t used for a long time and get rid of them or send them for repair. This will not only clear your place, but it also helps you clear your mind.
Doing these simple tips to keep things organized can help you clear space for more work and not waste any more of your time. You don’t need to redecorate your entire office, but you’ll need to maximize your area one at a time. Get ready to be more efficient if you’ve made changes to how you work.
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Interesting related article: “What is Efficiency?“