It does not matter whether you work at home, in a cramped cubicle, or a spacious office that belongs entirely to you – there is one rule for all of them. If they are messy and in chaos, it destroys your productivity. There is a simple logic behind this, here’s why:
- It takes too much time to find anything that’s important to do your job.
- It is discouraging to work in the cluttered environment.
- You give a bad example to your co-workers (and the management won’t put up with that for a long time, that’s for sure)
- You give a bad example to your employees (if you are the manager, and though they probably won’t be able to fire you, you will definitely lose a lot of authority in the company)
- We could go on and on with the reasons but this is not the point here.
After all, we want to give you an advice concerning keeping your office clean and organized, so let’s get to the point!
👉 Read also about home office organization.
Keep it Neat
Your desk is most likely the vital element of your work. That’s why it is essential that you keep it clean at all times. Remove from it all the documents, books, devices and other stuff that is not needed to complete your current task.
Another important thing to do is to appropriately separate all the objects according to the job that you need them for. If you are working on multiple tasks, gather everything that’s required to complete task number one on a separate pile, all that’s needed for task number two on the next one, etc. It does not matter where you keep those things, as long as you know what’s where and what’s its purpose.
Organize your projects basing on their importance, and make sure that while you will be working on one, the others won’t be getting in your way. There are many different techniques for keeping your place neat and clear. It’s great to have an index that will always tell you where a particular document, program, book, or a tool is. Assign folders or drawers (depending on the nature of your work) and always add files to those that are destined for a certain project.
Determine Your Approach
People usually react to chaos in two ways (when we exclude the extremities.) The first group can’t handle the mess as it completely shuts down their productivity. They simply must have their working place organized, otherwise, they are unable to perform the easiest tasks. If feel like you are the member of the group that can’t focus when anything is out of order, you must take care of your office on a regular basis. Dedicate a quarter in the morning, before you start working, and a quarter after you finish to properly clean everything up and organize it. If you won’t, then you may find it much more difficult to do your job properly.
The other group is quite different. Its members are people who are very fond of the saying that “genius controls chaos”. They divide into two types:
- Those, who are actually able to find everything they need at a current moment in a clutter of things that to any other person unfamiliar with their working space would seem like a complete mess. They see a structure and patterns that are only familiar to them. Also, they have no trouble with working in such conditions.
- Those, who made a mess and are too lazy to clean it up, so they look for excuses. However, they can’t find a single thing in their office and waste a lot of time digging through the piles of objects. Â Once they manage to find what they were looking for, they still can’t work efficiently, because everything else is in the way.
Summing Up
Give it a while and try to determine to which group you belong. It will be a good start towards the proper organization of your working space. Don’t try to lie to yourself – if you are chaotic and it ruins your productivity, you have to face it. We shall provide the tips that will help you. If you already are an organized person, our advice will help you become even more effective in controlling your office space. On the morrow, we are going to discuss all the techniques that can turn even the messiest person into a master of neatness. Don’t miss the next article, and check out the related ones below!