How To Be More Organized At Work: 34 Organizing Tips
In this new article, you will find out how to be more organized at work.
The clutter around us creates chaos that limits our ability to focus on the job at hand. It also limits our brain function by reducing its ability to process information. Therefore, to function better and be more productive, it is extremely important to reduce clutter.
With competition in the workplace getting stronger, it is even more important to get organized. If you own a business, running it will go much smoother if all your supplies and essentials are properly organized.
In all areas of life, organization helps control chaos and generates space for creativity.
Organizing is more about forming constructive habits than getting pretty containers of diverse shapes to store your things. If you do not do daily cleaning and storage, things will start to fall apart.
Forming habits and changing your entire lifestyle is what will sustain an organized system. To be orderly at work, one must have in order one’s mind, home and each other sphere of life.
In this article you will find tips for cutting clutter and organizing your workspace.
Here you identify the small but life-changing habits that keep you organized. Plus, you will find out how to manage a virtual desk and tips on helpful organizing habits.
How To Be More Organized At Work:
1. Tidy up the table
Clean your desk. Go through all your work papers, save the important ones and discard the rest. Delete and store anything you do not use instantly. Keep dirty or old decor items, old sticky notes, and display cards out of your sight.
2. Organize your Drawers
Drawers tend to be the first place to store straw wire. Use drawer dividers to create different areas for the things you store there.
Group items together based on their use and assign specific drawers for ease of use. For example, notepad, sticky note, and envelope can be combined into one.
3. Keep Important Things Within Reach
Write down the things you generally use to complete your daily tasks. Keep this stuff handy and shut at hand on your workstation or on your computer desktop for quick access. It will also help to keep track of when essential items need to be restocked – in the case of physical items.
4. Choose Quality Over Quantity
It is very difficult for a compulsive hoarder to be well organized. Keep one or up to two samples of office supplies on your desk.
You can do it with one good quality stapler, remove the second one, it is that easy. Remember more than one thing creates chaos.
5. Take a Picture of Your Desk
If you fail to recognize the mess on your desk and feel like you cannot live without any of the items on your table, click some pictures of your table.
An image will help you be objective about your table. Chaos will appear easier if you see it in the picture. Then start the de-cluttering process.
6. Use a Filing System
Whether they’re paper or electronic, archiving your documents gives them an appropriate home so they can be found easily later.
Creating files, labeling them, and storing them in chronological order is among the best methods of getting to useful information, with only a few drags or clicks.
7. Color Coded Files
Color coding your files will help you quickly identify them. You can use coloured tabs or coloured folders for this. But remember to use just a few colours so you remember which color for what.
Apart from helping you easily identify folders, color coding also makes your organized files more aesthetically pleasing.
8. Keep it Simple
Using a complex system means you will use it less. Keep your filing system easy and straightforward to use, allowing you to quickly file your papers to the right place.
A tickler box system with 31 cubes for each day of the month is a proven easy filing method. Put in place your preferred filing system and commit to it.
9. Respond to All Your Emails
Responding to emails is boring. However, there is no way to avoid them either, so it is better to meet them in the morning and get on with other work.
This routine removes one burden from your mind – checking mail, also keeping you up to date with all the happenings in your office and your team.
10. Create a Separate Inbox
Create different folders based on projects or people as you see fit. Program mail to go to related folders automatically so you know at a glance whether the letter requires immediate attention or not.
The instructions for creating this folder are easy enough to enter into the e-mail system and are very helpful.
11. Sync All Your Calendars
Sync all of your calendars at one point of reference. This will help you plan your work around your personal commitments and vice versa.
Remember to add alarms for all important events in advance so you have time to prepare for the meeting or buy gifts for her birthday!
12. Avoid Multitasking
These days we become skilled at multitasking around the clock. But to get the most work done in one time it’s best to focus on one task and get it done.
We may feel that both can be done concurrently but one task at a time will be completed more quickly and more effectively because all of our concentration and energy is focused on that one problem.
13. Stop procrastinating
Instead of spending time thinking about how you’ll organize your space, start doing it. If you keep thinking ideas while sitting in your chair, they won’t ever materialize.
Instead, if you start from a corner and work your way up, you will get more done. So get up and begin moving stuff.
14. Clear Your Desk Before It’s Over
Cleaning your desk every day before going to work is another way to keep your desk organized. It also helps to focus on missed to-do items or calls to return.
This fifteen-minute routine before leaving the office will provide you with time to finish pending work without creating a panic situation.
15. Be Realistic
Keep realistic goals on your to-do list. Break big projects into smaller goals for each day. Add to that fun things to do. You may be discouraged if none of your lists are ticked off on any given day.
16. Create a Time Block
For all tasks set a time limit or target time and stick to it. That will create small deadlines and help you achieve more in the time allotted. It may be difficult at first, but over time, practice will get you to your goal. Use an alarm or timer to help organize your time segments.
17. On Time
Try to be on time or a little earlier for work. This gives you a little bit of time to sort out the day in your mind.
These couple of minutes won’t only provide you with time to relax and get ready for work, but will generate positivity from the start.
18. Find the Best Time To Work
Find out the time of day when you work best. Whether it is morning, afternoon or evening. Set your schedule to do the most significant work that requires your full attention to complete at that time.
Fill the rest of the day with things that require less attention. That will ensure a better quality of work.
19. Delegate Work
Doing all the work yourself may be satisfying but it’s humanly impossible to do it all and do it efficiently. Learn to delegate tasks to others around you.
That will help complete tasks efficiently and on time. You can at all times guide and teach them how you want the job done and then monitor the progress.
20. Clean Up After Project
When you submit the closing report for your current project, sort your table and save or delete everything related to this project. This will help clean up the current job and create space for the next job.
These habits will help you organize project information efficiently.
21. Label Away
Label all of your files, folders, shelves and cabinets. This will help you remember what happened and encourage you to put things back where they belong every time. Labeling also allows others to keep things in the right place for when they use your office in your absence.
22. Assign Functions To Spaces
Assign functions to each area of your office. Mark areas for work, areas for supplies, areas for reading and so on. This will further structure the space within your office and enhance the organization as a whole.
23. Keep the Shredder Easy to Transport
If you use a paper shredder, keep it near your mailbox. When you sort the mail, destroy all the trash. Do that for all the other papers that reach your table. If you do not use a shredder, use the wastebasket and throw away this waste paper.
24. Try Batch Processing
Replying to messages, emails, postings on social networking sites and phone calls is important. However, it should not be what you spend most of your work time on.
Try to batch process these replies every few hours during the work day. That way you will spend some time responding to everything and then get back to work with a clear head.
25. Log out
Social networking sites and numerous messengers in today’s phones are a big distraction to work. Get out of all these places and keep your phone on silent mode while working. You can reply to messages and phone calls after your work is finished.
26. Put Things Back in Place, Now
When you are done with the job, return all tools and related items to their respective places. You may feel lazy at the time and just want to enjoy the undeniable fact that you have the job done.
Force yourself into those moments and go for it, after a while it will become second nature to you to put things in their place and do it automatically.
27. Organize a Little Every Day
Being organized is not a state but a continuous process. Take a little time each day to do a little organizing. A little effort each day will add up to keep things in order.
A place for everything, and everything in its place.
28. Make a Check Out
Find a place in your house, preferably around the front exit, that you make your check-out station. Leave your bag, ID and keys there when you get home.
It becomes easy to go to the office the next day, without having to spend time hunting for everyday items around the house.
29. Get Ready to Depart
Organize all the things you want to do with you for work the next day.
Books to be returned to the library, envelopes to be mailed, application forms to be deposited at the bank or whatever else you need to bring from home the next day.
You’ll save quite a lot of time and possibly forget in the morning to collect everything and pack it up.
30. Prepare Clothes
Get out the clothes you plan to wear to work tomorrow, tonight. That will provide you with time in the morning when you haven’t got to spend time thinking about what to wear and whether all the accessories are in place. You can even plan ahead for the week, if you have the capacity.
31. Plan Your Meals
Plan your meals for the week on Sunday. That will save you the trouble of determining what to cook each day and you can organize your cooking around your work schedule. Print and post the menu on the fridge so everybody can refer to it.
32. Cook Slow Cooker Food
One way to save time cooking dinner is to start slow cooker meals very first thing in the morning. There are many recipes that call for eight to ten hours of cooking time.
It can start in the morning before you leave for work and by the time you get back, ta da, dinner is prepared and waiting! Find links to slow cooker recipes at the end.
33. Quick And Ready Breakfast
There are many quick and healthy breakfast recipes available that can be prepared with minimal effort.
Microwave for weekday breakfast, make your own superfood. You can even use a croc pot for a delicious slow-cook breakfast. Start before bed and it is going to be ready when you wake up in the morning. Find the link to the recipe at the end.
34. End of Day Scout
Just before calling it a day walk around the house and pick up anything that does not belong. Spend ten minutes putting all these things back in place. This will provide you with the opportunity to wake up to a clean home.
This will also remove the concern about cleaning the house from your mind and provide you with time to prepare for work with a positive mind.
I want to thank you for taking the time to read my article on how to be more organized at work. I actually hope that its content has been of good help to you.
