organise your officeWhen was the last time you cleaned up your office or decluttered your work place?  At first this may appear to a boring an unproductive process to go through and you may not want to find the time to do it but it can bring some great benefits.

The sense of organisation you get when everything is in order, you know where it is, and documents and files are easy to find, is second to none.

Here are some simple ideas to consider:

  • Does everything in your office should have a purpose?  If not then get rid of it.  This may apply to a piece of office equipment that you may not have used for a while or it may be broken.
  • Is your desk clean and neat or do you have papers, files, staplers, folders, documents, magazines or other items all over it?  Try and arrange your desk space such that it has only the items you are currently working on.
  • Organise your desk space with in trays and out trays if needed.  This may help you to separate and better manage documents, invoices, mail or even project related documents.
  • Review your filing method and try to set up a system.  This can include your filing cabinets or the use of folders.  Make sure files are properly labelled and easy to find.  Keep current files in the office and consider archiving old file.
  • Try to organise your drawers in your desk with useful items you will use on a regular basis.  This may be the stapler and staples, a hole punch, paper clips, photocopy paper, notepads or phone charger.  Try to avoid the drawers being the place to put anything and everything as it just creates more of a mess.
  • If you have lots of cable lying around that may be for your computer, printer or other equipment try to organise them such that they don’t become a tripping hazard.

These are just some ideas but there are many more.  The main point of this was to highlight how by cleaning and decluttering your office space you can gain the benefits of being more organised and productive.  Also, once you have good control over the office environment then at the end of the day you may only need to spend 1 or 2 minutes just to do a quick tidy up so everything is organised and ready to go when we come back into the office the following day.