Spring "Organize" Your Office!

It’s officially spring! Which, yes, means it’s time for some spring cleaning. You’ll probably feel the urge to tidy up your home, but it’s important not to neglect your workspace. A messy, disorganized workspace can inhibit your productivity and cause unnecessary stress. But spring “cleaning” might be the wrong name when it comes to your office. It should be called spring “organizing”! But if just reading the word “organize” gives you some mild anxiety, do not fret. We’ve laid out 5 easy tips to get you started and you’ll be clutter free in no time!

Digital Documents

While organizing and decluttering your physical workspace is important, it’s just as important to clean up your digital workspace. If your desktop is overflowing with documents, images, and files, it might be hindering your productivity. Organize your files into a system that lets you easily find and access what you’re looking for. For example, if you have different clients, you could organize each file by client name. Or if you have a few different projects, you should keep all the files of each project together.

Whatever you decide, it should make sense to YOU, and it should keep your desktop clear so when you start work each day you aren’t overwhelmed by the number of files staring back at you.

Papers

If you’re anything like me, it can be easy to let papers and files pile up on your physical desktop as well. It starts with one or two files and before you know it, you’re drowning in a sea of paper. The first thing to do is try to eliminate as much paper as possible to begin with. If you use notepads for to-do lists, you might like to try some of the free web-based programs that let you build a to-do list including reminders and more. Evernote and Trello are great options!

For the paper leftover that must stay paper, get yourself a filing cabinet to slide under your desk. You can purchase color-coded file folders and label them. You should have a folder for temporary storage, which you can clean out at the end of each day or week as you need. This will help prevent old irrelevant papers from piling up on your desk and taking up space.

Drawers

If your desk has drawers, you probably have at least one that acts as an “everything” or “catch-all” drawer, where an abundance of random tools, accessories, and supplies come to live. Over the winter, you might have been too low- energy to bother tidying this drawer up, but there’s no better time than NOW! Grab yourself some drawer dividers from your local office supply store, and get to work sorting those drawers.

Keeping your office supplies in a drawer instead of on your desk can also help clear clutter away. The only thing you really need on your desk is things you actually use regularly. A pen, a notepad, your computer etc. If you use highlighters, paper clips, and post-its sparingly, keep them in the drawer.

Distractions

One of the biggest destroyers of productivity is your smartphone. Ironically, the smartphone can be an amazing tool for productivity when you’re on the move. But when you’re sitting at your desk trying to get work done, the pings and buzzes from your various social networks, the messages from friends to make plans after work, and the pull of your latest bejeweled game can be extremely distracting. So make it part of your spring cleaning to find a designated spot for your smartphone where it’s accessible if you really need it, but out of view so you can focus on the important tasks at hand.

Wipe down

Once the clutter is gone, there is one final step to finish it off. Grab a cloth and some cleaning solution and give your desk & chair a good wipe down. You can use a microfiber cloth to wipe your monitor, mouse, keyboard, and other electronics. Keeping your desk clean and dust free regularly will help keep you healthy, and make a good impression on the boss & coworkers. Don’t forget to toss old coffee cups and water any greenery you might have sitting on your desk.

We hope you can find the time to get your workspace clean and organized. Spring cleaning is important for your mental health, especially where you spend the majority of your time!

SuiteWorks is pleased to offer businesses in Barrie and Simcoe County a range of office space, from co-working desks to virtual office package. Call us to find out more. 1.866.967.5711.

Is it time to re-think how you organize your desk? Start with PLACE

When you start work in the morning does your desk give you a clean fresh start, free from clutter, a workspace where you can be highly creative and productive, or does it bog you down and act as friction to getting things done?

If you're like most of us, your desk is probably not optimized for productivity and performance.

Let's start with the benefits.

1. When you have your desk set up well you minimize distractions and resistance to actually doing your work. You want your space to give you energy, not drain it.
2. You will work better when you desk is set up for workflow. Your desk surface is a place to do work, not store it. You'll have the space to spread out current work without overlap with clutter.
3. When the right tools are organized and at your fingertips your productivity increases.

One way to re-think your desk, is to use the PLACE system.

P - purge unnecessary items from the desk surface (this means material you are not working on, archives, junk mail..)
L - like items with like - group all your office supplies together, reference books etc.
A - access - frequently used items and tools need to be at your fingertips, others stored
C - contain loose items using a desk organizer or storage system
E - evaluate how well your system is working, make changes and get it right

After you have your supplies and tools organized - think about workflow. Since we operate processes from left to right, you might want to implement this approach to your desk. Productivity experts recommend keeping your inbox, phone, and diary or agenda (if you use one), on your left side, with work being processed in the middle and work that is complete or needs to be stored on the right. When you stop for the day, always make sure the middle and right side are clear.

It's easier organizing the permanent stuff: equipment, supplies, decoration, and reference.

Transient stuff, input to be processed, action reminders, and project support materials is the challenge, because to improve your productivity you may have to change the way you work.

Input to be processed - goes in your in-box (an old fashioned tray or basket). This unsorted, un-prioritized material, mail, requests, lists, folders - things others leave on your desk..

Action reminders - notes about to-do's go in your task management software or, if you are paper-based, your planner.

Support material - goes in files or, if it is too big to fit in a file, on a project shelf or project area away from your desktop in a binder.

Go through all the papers, books, folders on your desk and file everything away according to these groups.

Now you should have just an inbox and agenda/notebook on your left hand side.

Don’t manage your work from stacks of folders, manage your work from lists. Put what you need to accomplish on your action list and put the supporting materials in the pending files or a project shelf. When you are actually working on something, only then is it time to bring in the files and support materials. Be carefully about working on multiple tasks that require lots of support materials. If you can break down the task and only keep the materials for the task at hand on your desk surface you'll be much more focused and energized.

If you keep the idea below as a guiding principle, you just may find your desk surface not only more appealing, but you may get more work done and feel good about starting fresh tomorrow.

The desktop is for the work you are doing, not for storing the work that you have to do.