How To Organize Your Workplace To Become More Productive

For most individuals who work they often spend more time in the office than they do in their homes during the week. Your desk can quickly become a collection place where things are just kept and stored and soon it can become an overwhelming mess. The clutter on your desk and in your workspace can quickly begin to spill over to the actual work your produce.

Why You Should Keep Your Workspace Organized

Having a disorganized workspace can be leading to a number of work-related issues you may be having. An unorganized work space just adds to the amount of time and energy you need to complete even the smallest and simplest tasks. Some things that can be cause from a disorganized work space include:

• Additional Stress from not being able to find things when you need them.
• Hinders Productivity because you waste time searching for things you should have easy access to.
• Adds to Distractions. The more things you have cluttering your desk the more chances that you will shift your focus from your work to a mindless object.
• Can Increase The Risk Of Illness. With disorganization there comes even more chances of bacteria, germs and viruses making a home of your work space.

Organizing Your Workspace

• Take an extra ten or fifteen minutes at the end of your work day to organize your desk. You should leave your work space with at least 80% of your desk visible and cleared of clutter. By doing this at the end of your day you set yourself up for a more productive day when you entire the office the following morning.
• Limit the need to reach up for things you use on a regular basis. Try to keep items that you need access to quickly stored in draws or cabinets close to you when you are sitting. Pens, post its, specific forms and other various office supplies should be easy to reach and find without having to constantly get up and down for them.
  

  By limiting the steps you need to take to find these items will increase your productivity throughout your work day.

• Create an organized filing system for paper work. Color code files and have then separated into designated categories. Utilize a visual filing system that allows you to be able to see exactly where you need to look for important information. Keep the most recent files in a hanging file system on your desk and other ones that can be archived in a filing cabinet away from your desk. This allow you to easily looking for the most recent documents you will need without having to search through hundreds of files you do not need.
• Set up an email filter system so you can quickly disregard or save the emails you receive. Many individuals spend hours reading, responding and searching through their emails. To increase your productivity you want to be able to easily find emails that you need to respond to immediately and clear away the ones that are not related to any of the jobs you need to focus on.
• Though you want to make your work space personal you want to limit the items that you have on your desk. Make sure any personal touches you add to your desk are small and not distracting. They should be able to add a little color or enjoyment to your work space but should not be taking away from your productivity.

If you want to be more productive than keeping your workspace clean and organized is one of the easiest ways to solve a number of your productivity issues. The disorganization of your desk can be hindering your time management, quality of work and even your reliability. Take the extra time and little effort to set up systems and reduce the mess on you desk.