10 Easy Steps To An Organized Home Office
Without the structure of an office outside of
our homes, it is easy to scatter anything work related all over the
house. We still need to complete our work in a timely and efficient
manner. After all, the less time we spend working, the more time we
have with our family. An organized home office will make for a
faster and more pleasant workday. Here are a few ideas to get you
and your home office organized.
1) Do you have a home office? You don’t necessarily need an entire
room, but you should have a well-defined space to contain all your
office essentials and files.
A desk in your bedroom that will hold your files, paper, pens,
calculator and of course computer will do fine, especially in the
beginning.
If your “office” consists of the dining room table, some of the
drawers in your kitchen, a file cabinet in the basement and the
computer in the bedroom, you may want to think about organizing
everything in one spot.
Are you spending a lot of time searching for a particular document,
running from room to room to find it? Consider moving all your files
and papers to one central location, preferably close to the computer
if that’s where you are doing the bulk of your work.
2) Keep your personal files and papers separate from your business
things.
You will eventually have enough paperwork to deal with without
having your personal bills, magazines and the kids’ after-school
schedule mixed in there. Create a separate spot for those somewhere
outside of your home office space.
3) Create a file system that works for you. Remember, you may be
working for someone else, but when it comes to your home office, you
are your own boss.
Think about how you look for a particular file or piece of paper.
What will be the easiest way for you to find it? Then create a file
system that works for you. Don’t worry, if you don’t get it right
the first time, you can always resort and try again. Sooner or later
you will come up with a system that is “just right” for you.
4) Take a good look at your work area. Do you have piles of papers,
files, mail, floppy discs and CDs lying around? Do you notice
anything else piling up? Set aside a few hours and put everything
away. Use your new file system and find “homes” for anything else.
5) Now that you have your office organized, set aside a few minutes
at the end of your workday to keep it that way. Try to “leave work”
for the day with a clean, empty desk. You will appreciate it the
next morning. This will also prevent you from ever coming across a
huge pile of papers again.
6) Add a personal touch to your office. Bring in some pictures of
the kids; add some pretty plants, inspirational quotes, or anything
else you can think of that will make your office a pleasant place to
work in. In addition to getting and keeping you in a good mood
whenever you step in your office, you are more likely to keep it
clean and organized if it is a place you treasure. So splurge a
little on some special office décor.
7) Let’s talk about the files on your computer. You can waist just
as much time searching for an online document as for a piece of
paper. If your computer is used for work as well as for personal
use, create a work folder and use subfolders for particular
employers, projects etc.
Again, come up with a file system that works for you and keep your
work files separate from your personal files. This is particularly
important if other family members access the computer as well. If
that’s the case, and you are using Windows XP, I strongly recommend
setting up a separate user account just for work and password
protecting it. This will prevent other family members from
accidentally changing or deleting your work files.
8) In addition to your regular files, you also want to keep your
emails organized. Let’s be honest, we have all wasted time searching
for a particular email that contained some vital information we
needed fast. Setting up folders for different clients and projects
has worked well for me, but again find a system that works for you
and stick with it. Sort the email as soon as you read it. It only
takes a second or two to drop it in the appropriate folder, but will
save you a lot of time if you have to find it later.
9) Now that you have a good filing system (both physical and
digital) in place, set aside a little time every few months (or
weeks if appropriate) to purge your files. We can quickly accumulate
a lot of documents both in our file cabinet and on our hard drive
that we no longer need. At the very least, try to purge your files
twice a year.
10) Now that your office is organized, you may also want to take a
look at organizing your time. Again, come up with a system that
works well for you.
I encourage you to start with a few of these ideas to get your
office and yourself more organized. You will be surprised by how
much time you will save not searching for files, papers or the
stapler. Before long, you won’t know how you ever functioned without
an organized home office.
About the Author: D. Benjamin is the owner of
iapsales.com LLC - a family business specializing in HVAC products. We
are distributors of
Qmark Heaters,
electric tankless water heaters,
bathroom heaters,
patio heaters , electric heaters,
portable air
conditioners & electric towel warmers. Shop on line at
www.heateroutlet.com for these great home improvement products.
Iapsales.com LLC was established in 2003 and is the sister company to
Innovative Air Products located in historical Exeter, NH. We are a 2nd
generation manufacturers’ rep firm dedicated to providing residential &
commercial heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment. We offer
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