DETOX YOUR OFFICE

An organised office is a productive office. It doesn't have to take a long time, in fact maintaining an organised office is much more effective if you treat it like an ongoing project, doing a little at a time instead of one big arduous task. Here are my top tips to get your office under control and become more productive.

1. Your Workspace
We all organise our desktop differently and require different tools to get our work done, however every workspace must be clean, tidy and functional.

• Assess how your desk and your file management system ‘works’. Give your desk a left to right workflow so that your workspace is kept clear for whatever comes in next.
• The tools that are the foundation of your work must be within easy reach. Organise your desk drawers by order of importance (the most often used items in the top drawer).
• Everything on your desk or in a drawer should have a home and be within easy reach. A good tip is to remove everything from your workspace (desk & drawers) and put them in a box. When you need that item, put it back on the desk. If there are items left in the box after two weeks, you probably don’t need them (certainly not on your desk, so store it in a different place).
• Give your desk a good clean. The typical workspace area contains more bacteria than a toilet seat, mostly made up of tiny bits of food, dust and dead skin cells. Also check that your chair is comfortable and ergonomic.

2. Tame your Cables
Cables and cords can become really messy, tangled and unsightly.

• Keep all your cables and cords under control with a cable management system that allows them to be hidden from sight and dust, yet are easily identifiable. You can shorten the length of cables to lessen the bulk, or hide them in cable storage boxes.
• Ensure your cords are also labelled for easy identification. Bread tags or Metallic textas are perfect for this, or you can buy proper cord identifiers and cable storage boxes from Officeworks, Ikea and Howards Storage World.

3. Declutter your Computer Desktop
Your computer desktop can get cluttered very quickly. We often save things to our desktop with the intention of moving them into folders later, but this only happens when the desktop gets full.

• Move all your desktop files to the folders they belong eg Business, Personal, Home, Family and then you can sort through each folder at your convenience.
• Only have the essentials on your desktop, which may include frequently opened folders. Pictures, documents, music and digital files can become very quickly disorganised, so ensure you file them regularly in to their relevant folder.
• Allocate some time each month to declutter your desktop, it’ll give you a much greater sense of calm when you turn on your computer each morning.

4. Organise your Computer Files
We all need a good system for organising, maintaining and backing up our files and folders. There are many ways to do this depending on the type of information. It’s important to store them in a central location that is easily accessible.

• Make folders, keep it simple such as Business and Personal, then create sub-folders (School, Photos, Music etc). This makes for easy, intuitive navigation.
• If you don’t have time to file as you go, create a folder called Inbox to use as a central “holding” area for files to be filed. This method will only work if you regularly sort through the files, otherwise it’ll very quickly become cluttered and defeat the purpose of having it.
• Organise your email. Create folders to store messages by topic, sender or date, and delete old unwanted emails.
• Create a backup schedule where you back up all your files (or specific folders) to your computer, as well as an external hard drive or USB. Also do this for all of your devices (phone, iPod, tablet) on a regular basis.

5. Delete Unused Apps and Programs

• Uninstall all the apps and programs on your PC, phone and tablet that are no longer used or needed.  There’s no point having unnecessary programs taking up space on your devices if they’re not being used. Make sure you uninstall them correctly according to your operating system.

6. Clear out Stationery

• Take stock of your stationery supplies and throw out or donate anything you no longer need, use or love. Any redundant or outdated items can be donated to the op shop or local kinder/school. Group like items together and give them a home e.g. a labelled container or shelf space. Standardise your stationery items and keep all ‘current’ stationery (items used daily) within easy reach and your ‘backup’ stationery (items used occasionally) in a cupboard. This may include paper, post it notes, notepads. If you use a lot of stationery, you may want to create a spreadsheet to monitor stock levels.

6. Unsubscribe from Mailing lists (you don’t need)

• Control your inbox by unsubscribing from mailing lists you’re not interested in or don’t use.
• Don’t just delete it, take the extra 30 seconds to click through and unsubscribe from it. You’ll be amazed at how much less ‘junk’ accumulates in to your inbox.
• For newsletters or subscriptions that you decide to keep, form a system of when to read and process them. If you don’t have time to read them immediately, then create a ‘Newsletters/Subscriptions’ sub-folder to store them in so that you can allocate a certain time each week to go through and read them.

7. Filing
As we move into the digital age, the need to store paper files has somewhat decreased. When planning your filing system, consider what can be stored digitally so you can eliminate some of the files and folders you’ve used in the past.

• The mind processes colour filing labels more quickly than black and white, so establishing a colour coded filing system will save you time and reduce stress.
• Always have a Work in Progress, Reading and Filing folder or tray on your desk. When projects are completed file them away.
• Don’t just use filing cabinets. Consider folders, storage boxes or magazine boxes.
• File regularly and make quick decisions. Don't put anything back in the pile, deal with it straight away. Purge any unwanted/unneeded paperwork to free up space in your filing cabinets. Generally, you must keep evidence of financial records for five years, anything older can be shredded.

8. Keep it Simple

• Learn to recognise what’s ‘good enough’ to enable you to be productive. We can often fall victim to perfection, which is a huge detriment to your productivity. If something wasn't wasting your time in the first place, it probably doesn't need to be reorganised.

9. Plan for the Year Ahead (Goals / Vision Board)

• This could be something as simple as a ‘to-do’ list for things you want to achieve this month or this year. Write down your goals, make sure they’re specific, realistic and measurable. You may want to create a vision board, the whole idea around this concept is that surrounding yourself with positive images will attract more positivity. No matter how you do it, setting goals gives your life direction, motivation and helps you to organise your time and resources to make the most of life.

The amount of effort you put in to creating and maintaining an efficient workspace will pay off in a big way. You wont be wasting time shuffling piles around and struggling to find what you need.  Having a clear focus on what you want to achieve is the key to success. Happy organising !