Want to Get More Done at Work? Organize Your Office First

A chaotic work area is more damaging to your productivity than you may realize. Picture this: You have an important deadline coming up and you’ve barely started on the project because of other priorities. Since you’ve put off starting, the resources you need are in a pile of papers than you continuously add to. But, you don’t know exactly where they are in the pile…or piles.

So, you frantically pull apart piles of paper trying to find the information you need. Sure, you eventually find the document you are looking for, but in the process you’ve scattered papers all over your work area. Not only have you wasted time looking through a disorderly mess, but you’ve made a bigger mess that now needs to be sorted before you can use your desk. Those are only the physical results of an unorganized office, and they have already taken up several minutes of your valuable time. But, it’s not just the searching and cleaning up that takes time away from what you should be doing.

Studies show that working in chaos and clutter mentally takes its toll on your productivity. More than likely, you’ll be stressed out and frazzled from your frantic search, worrying that you don’t have the items you need. By now, your heart is pounding (and maybe your head, too). It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to just jump right into your work and provide quality output when you’re in this state. Wouldn’t it be better if you could just keep your office organized in the first place? As with any area of your life where you want to increase productivity, keeping a schedule helps. We’ll show you how to work organization into your weekly schedule.

Start with one big cleanup session

Before you can work out a regular schedule for organizing your office, you have to get the jungle under control. Dedicate 30 minutes to going through those piles and throwing away anything that you don’t need anymore. More than likely some of those documents are out of date and have just piled up on your desk. The same goes for any pens or tools that no longer work. Once you’ve got the space cleared, dust the surface. You’ll be amazed how much cleaner and fresh your office looks just from clearing the dust.

Once you’ve tackled the surface, dedicate another 30 minutes on a second day to clean out the drawers in your desk. You’re going to need those for storing items you use for work. Anything that is not work related needs to find its way back out of your office. Throw away any trash that you stored in drawers, and again, get rid of broken or outdated items and documents. When you’re done, wipe down your drawers to remove any dust.

Purchase a few organizational tools

Even if you need to keep things at hand on your desktop, you can make it look much less chaotic by purchasing a few inexpensive desktop organizers. Have a cup for pens, highlighters, and markers. Use a stacked tray or magazine divider to keep current papers. But, only choose the things you’ll use daily to keep out. Anything else can be neatly stored in desk drawers.

Set an organization schedule

Once you’ve gotten the mess under control, you just need to keep it that way. Just like any other task you have, you should put your cleanup days on your task list or calendar. By setting aside 5 or 10 minutes a week to stay organized, you’ll reduce stressful searching and keep yourself mentally prepared to get work done. Doing your light organizing last thing on Friday lets you go into the weekend with a clear mind. Or, you can try organizing first thing on Monday to help yourself get into the mood for work. Choose whichever day works best for you. You may even find that taking care of cleanup in the middle of the week helps you to stay on track.

When your organization day comes up, go through the papers in your desktop organizer. Attend to those that require action. File the ones with information you’ll need later. Throw away those you no longer need. Be ruthless. If the paper has information you can find elsewhere — like online or in your email — then do not save it.

You can organize all your important tasks and set their priority level withEnterprise Productivity Software. Check out the full set of features that can keep your work day running smoothly.