If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

If you are fed up with your office space, have to hunt for a pen like you are on safari, and spend more time hunting for documents than working on them, this article is for you. As you forage through the “one week ago” pile, and try not to topple the whole thing into an unworkable mess, read this article for tips on how to reverse and improve your home office world.

First, take heart. Every office - home or otherwise - has to figure out how to deal with paper, pens, and clutter. Creating and maintaining an organized space is just part of the job.

So, how do you regain control of the paper monster that is cluttering up your business?

Space Is Essential

The biggest problem with staying organized in an office is that people set up a system and do not give themselves enough room to grow.

If you clean out a drawer, organize it, and then put all the stuff back into that same drawer, you might feel good to get the dust bunnies out. However, you have not realistically done much. By squeezing all, that stuff back into the drawer simply means it is cleaner. If there is no room for anything new, it won’t help with the pile of un-filed papers and the new papers that will be generated in the future.

Try to clean out and throw out enough to have a quarter or a third more empty space so that when you implement your new system, there will be space to expand. You may need to tweak your system, and having the extra space will encourage you to continue to organize.

Having space to add home office furniture in the form of filing cabinets and storage bins will help considerably with organization. Be sure and have at least one quarter to one third or more growing room when you implement your system. Extra space encourages you to keep up with your organization efforts.

Purge unnecessary papers. It will allow for more space, and help you avoid scrambling through miscellaneous paperwork looking for important documents.

Simple Filing System

Keep It Simple. When it comes to filing, the simpler the better. If you make it too complicated, you will not keep up with it because it is too hard to follow. Consider color-coding, but do not go overboard with the number of categories. Use general topics like “Projects”, “Correspondence” and “Expenses”, or something similar. Not too many of them or you will get lost in your categories.

When filing large groups of things like clients, projects, and invoices use a single drawer for each group of files that are related. Using a four or 5-drawer filing cabinet is good in that it can be divided either alphabetically or chronologically.

Another class of things you will need to make room for are the things that you refer to daily or even hourly. A posting board or corkboard near your desk would be in order. You can hang things like phone lists, ‘To-Do” lists and appointment calendars in one central location for easy reference.

Maintenance

A system is only as good as the person using it is. If you do not keep it up, no system is useful. Starting with a smaller, simpler system of files in a cabinet near you is good. You can then take your daily or weekly items and store them in a more permanent place when you are finished.

This also works for items that you need nearby such as current project information or price lists etc.

Filing Style

Consider if you can realistically maintain a filing system. Perhaps labeled boxes would suit you better (especially if you tend to pile papers). The key is to find something you will feel comfortable maintaining. If papers are sorted and occasionally purged, your system will work.

Everything Needs a Home

Everything MUST be assigned a home. By giving each item a place, you will not loose pens, cell phones, glasses, and so on. Do not crowd the items or you will get frustrated. Recognize that all of your efforts will help you run your business more efficiently and thus productively. Reward yourself for keeping the system working!

Tags: Blogging

Popularity: 8% [?]

Share This