Get Organized...Get Productive!
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STEP 1: Group Like Items Together Start your home office organizing project by taking a good look around! Make a note of what you like and what you don’t like and what you really would like to change about the way that you work in your home office. This quick (take no more than 5 minutes) assessment will give you direction and set priority on where to start.
Start with the most problematic area. For many its the actual desk or work surface. This seems to be the place where the stuff collects and accumulates. Sort through the items on top of the desk or work surface. Put like items together, e.g. unpaid bills or other things that require action, paid bills that need to get filed, magazine or newspaper clippings you want to save, recycling, office supplies, software on CDs.
Next, put these piles away in their homes. If they don’t have homes, that’s part of the problem. Give them a home. Start with a wire in box for your action items, set up a filing system, begin a 3 ring binder for your magazine and newspaper clippings that inspire you, get an empty grocery bag for your recycling, find a drawer or a basket to store office supplies, put the CDs in a CD holder, you get the idea.
Finally, anything that you found that you no longer want or need, either goes in the trash or a donations box. Relocate anything that belongs in another room in the house.
Be proud of yourself. You completed Step 1 and now you have a clear desk/work surface. We really only need about 20% of the papers that we file. Most of it is available online or never accessed again. Average retrieval time for a piece of paper is ten minutes; 3 percent of all papers are misfiled. Really think about whether or not you truly need to be keeping paper that you can access online. The less you have the easier it will be to find what you really need.
For the papers that you really do need and want to file, use a color coding system - green for banking, yellow for bills, red for medical, blue for taxes, you get the idea. Put all of your household user manuals in an accordion file or 3 ring binder.
STEP 3: Utilize Wheeled Furniture Wheels are an organized person’s best friend. You can move the file cabinet or the chair closer together to make the job easier. You can push the file cabinet under the desk or work surface to get it out of the way when you are finished. The best way to stay organized is when its really easy to put everything back in their home. Having the right organizers achieves this and will increase the likelihood that you will stay organized. Put all of your pens, pencils in coffee cups or other upright writing utensil holders. Office supplies likes rulers, clips, binders live happily in a drawer organizer inside your top drawer. CDs will stay organized and easy to locate in a CD holder.
STEP 5: Back Up Your Files We always think that’s it not going to happen, but when it does its a really bad day. If you are in a regular habit of backing up, it might not be so bad. Having a back up system where you are storing all of your data “in the cloud” or on a physical device will save you the heartache of losing your pictures, documents and work. If your device isn’t automatic, schedule an appt with yourself at the appropriate intervals (weekly, daily - whatever is right for your situation) to back up. There are options available like Carbonite.com ($55 per year) to do this automatically. Once your space reaches capacity, and things start overflowing out of their homes, its time for another purge. Donate any supplies you don’t need to a school or shelter. If you buy a new book, donate one you’ve already read. Its the one in, one out rule. That way your space will stay organized and not require to do significant purging and organizing every 6 months. Even in an organized space, a good once over every 6 months or year is a good idea. Go through your files at tax time and purge any document you no longer need. Weed out the books, supplies etc that you no longer need. Donate them to a school (Donorschoose.org). The average teacher spends $659 of her own money on supplies and will be grateful for your castoffs.
STEP 7: Use Space Creatively Be creative if you have limited space. Put your file cabinets under the desk, install shelves on the walls, hang an over the door rack with hooks for supplies, utilize your wall space all the way up to the ceiling. Bookcases and shelves are essential if you want to keep your home office tidy. Move your computer out of your bedroom if that’s where it is now. Find another place like a closet or your dining room. Your bedroom should be your sanctuary and you need to treat it as such. If your computer and papers end up in there, its not conducive to falling and staying asleep.
STEP 9: Utilize your technology Do you really need a fax machine anymore? Use the scanner on your printer and get rid of that piece of equipment. Your rolodex has probably become obsolete with the contacts in your smart phone. That phone that has a cord? when was the last time you used that? Look around your office and discard any equipment that you just don’t need anymore. Disaster recovery experts teach us to clear off our desk every night before we finish our work day. Put your papers away in their files and put the files in a drawer. Cleaning off your desk surface is a great habit. When you come in to start a new day tomorrow, your desk will be clear and all ready for a successful productive day. |