How to Organize an Office

Join
Categories: Home & Garden | How Tos

  • A disorganized home office can not only make you less efficient, it can cost you money. Bills that aren't paid on time because you can't find them incur late fees. Client proposals that aren't sent out mean lost revenue. Not being able to find a stapler can lead to purchasing a second. This page will help you learn how to organize a office and take control of your life.

  • A disorganized home office can not only make you less efficient, it can cost you money. Bills that aren't paid on time because you can't find them incur late fees. Client proposals that aren't sent out mean lost revenue. Not being able to find a stapler can lead to purchasing a second. This page will help you learn how to organize a office and take control of your life.

  • Introduction

    • Organizing your office will reduce stress and free your mind to better deal with the your business. Consider the time spent getting organized to be an investment in your productivity.

  • Step 1: Arrange Your Office Furniture

    • Before focusing on what to do with the small stuff, you need to deal with the big stuff. If the pathways aren't clear, or it's difficult to get to your file cabinet, you'll be tempted to put something down and "deal with it later." That's the first dangerous step towards disorganization. Look at your desk, credenza, bookshelves and file cabinets, and arrange your office so that everything can be accessed easily and quickly from your desk chair.

  • Step 2: Throw Things Away

    • If you're chronically disorganized, you have too much stuff. Before setting up an organizing system, you need to get rid of what you don't need.
    1. Go through your office supplies. You don't need four staplers. Select the best, and throw the others out, or donate them to charity. Don't just box them up and move them to the attic in case you need one someday. That's just moving the problem—because when someday comes, you'll forget they're up there and buy another one anyway. Be ruthless.
    2. Most financial data can be discarded after you prepare your tax return each year, but there are a few things you should hold onto longer:
      1. Canceled checks and receipts used to support deductions on a return should be filed with a copy of the return and held onto for seven years after you filed your taxes.
      2. Investment records detailing the date and amount of the initial investment need to be kept until you sell the investment.
      3. Keep all records relating to the purchase of your house, and any major improvements you've made to it.

  • Step 3: Organize the Office

    • There is no one system that works for everyone, But whichever you adopt, you want to minimize the number of times you touch a piece of paper before you act on it, and keep items pending action close at hand so they won't get lost. One way to do this is by establishing three zones— active, current, and long-term.
    1. Your long-term papers should be filed in a filing cabinet. These include any items that you haven't touched within a week. After filing your taxes each year, go through this cabinet, discarding files that you no longer need to keep.
    2. Your current projects should be kept near to where you work, in file folders in a desk drawer. If you haven't touched a folder in a week, move it to the long term file cabinet.
    3. Your active folders should be close at hand. Most people find having them on the desktop is helpful to make sure things aren't forgotten, but if you need a clean desk to work effectively, then these should be in an easily accessible desk drawer. If they are on the desk top, neatly arrange five folders in a desk organizer, labeled as follows:
      1. Do - This folder should be emptied at the end of the day
      2. Consider- Items placed here should be moved to another folder within 24 hours.
      3. Awaiting answer - Review these weekly, to see if you need to place a reminder call to the person who's response you're waiting for
      4. File - Ideally items will be filed immediately, so this folder will always be empty. If you do use it to temporarily hold things, make sure you move them to the appropriate file at the end of the day.
      5. Read - Grab this folder when you leave the office, so you can use travel time to peruse the articles and memos you placed in the folder. Discard or act on the item immediately after reading.

  • Office Organization Tips

    1. Keep a notebook and pen by the phone for messages.
    2. Limit office supplies kept on hand to what will fit in one desk drawer.
    3. Take a few minutes at the end of your work day to keep your desk organized.
    4. Consider going paperless, and scanning documents into your computer.




Featured Pages

Contact Mahalo | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Advertisers | RSS for this page | CC License 2.0
©2007-2009 Mahalo.com Incorporated.
Powered By EdgeCast