by Jennifer Swanson
If you spend much of your day in your office—whether it’s in your home or away—it’s worth taking time to get it better organized and more comfortable. If you spend an hour per day trying to find things (the average for Americans), you lose 6 workweeks per year. Investing time to get organized can result in a variety of benefits, including:
- Efficiency (find things faster and meet deadlines more easily)
- Less stress and illness
- Making better impressions on clients/customers
- Confidence of those who depend on you
- More free time outside the office
The first step is to plan. Set aside uninterrupted time to organize your workspace. Multitasking and interruptions will slow you down because you have to keep trying to figure out where you left off.
Back in my days as a geophysicist at a major oil & gas company, we had one day set aside each year for “cleaning house.” They rolled in huge barrels and bins bound for document destruction. We all got to wear our grubbies and go after those old files and piles. (Who knew I’d have so much fun that I’d make a career out of it?) Ask your employer if your company can implement a similar idea.
Start somewhere. The best place to start is the area that will make the biggest daily difference in your work. Usually that’s your desk. Decide what you absolutely need on your desk, and find other “homes” for everything else. Just watch out for perfectionism, because it will slow you down. I work with a lot of people who won’t even start an organizing project because they’re afraid it won’t turn out perfectly. It’s likely you won’t get the perfect layout the first time. Expect to adjust your systems a little at first, so give yourself some grace in the meantime.
The second step is to sort. “There is a time for everything...A time to search and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away.” (Eccl. 3:1,6)
Pull out a recycling bin, trash can, and container to go to document destruction. Start with the top of your desk, credenza, or any other flat surface currently collecting stuff. Once those are clear and functional, it will free up space to work on what’s hidden inside the drawers and file cabinets. Pick a starting point and systematically work your way around your workspace until you’ve sorted everything that’s already out in the open. Use sticky notes to identify what’s in each pile—especially paperwork, where the piles must ultimately become files.
Possible sorting categories include:
- Incoming paper/mail
- Outgoing correspondence
- Specific projects (further sort these by topic, active vs. completed, etc.)
- Reference materials (dictionaries, company directories...)
- Frequently-used office supplies (pens/pencils, highlighter, letter opener, sticky notes, stapler, note pads...)
- Personal items (medicine, snacks...
- Decorative items (pictures, knickknacks...)
- Writing supplies (stationery, envelopes...)
Common items to “let go” include:
- Old, unneeded magazines (much info is outdated or reprinted in another form in 12 months)
- Old catalogs (they’ll send you a new one before you know it)
- Extra office supplies (move them back to the central supply cabinet rather than hoarding them)
- Rough drafts (keep only the final document)
By setting aside time to get organized, and by getting a good handle on what to keep and what to toss, you’ll be in a much better position to create a system that will give you lasting changes.
Click here for the next steps: how to arrange, label, and maintain the system.
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