Without the structure of an office outside our homes, it’s easy to spread anything work-related throughout the house. We have yet to complete our work in a timely and efficient manner. After all, the less time we spend working, the more time we have with our family. An organized home office will make the workday faster and more enjoyable. Here are some ideas to keep you and your home office organized.
1) Do you have a home office? You don’t necessarily need an entire room, but you should have a well-defined space to hold all your files and office essentials.
A desk in your bedroom containing your files, paper, pens, calculator, and of course, a computer will do just fine, especially at first.
If your “office” consists of the dining room table, some of the kitchen drawers, a filing cabinet in the basement, and the computer in the bedroom, you might want to think about organizing everything in one place.
Do you spend a lot of time searching for a particular document, running from room to room to find it? Consider moving all your files and papers to a central location, preferably near the computer if that’s where you’re doing most of your work.
2) Keep your personal files and papers separate from your business stuff.
Eventually you’ll have enough paperwork to deal with without having to mix up your personal bills, magazines, and the kids’ after-school schedule. Create a separate spot for those somewhere outside of your home office space.
3) Create a file system that works for you. Remember, you may be working for someone else, but when it comes to your home office, you are your own boss.
Think about how you search for a particular file or piece of paper. What will be the easiest way to find it? Then create a file system that works for you. Don’t worry, if you don’t get it right the first time, you can always go back and try again. Sooner or later you will come up with a system that is “just right” for you.
4) Take a good look at your work area. Do you have piles of papers, files, mail, floppy disks and CDs lying around? Do you notice something else accumulating? Set aside a few hours and save everything. Use your new file system and find “homes” for anything else.
5) Now that you have your office organized, take a few minutes at the end of your workday to keep it that way. Try to “get off work” for the day with a clean, empty desk. You’ll thank yourself the next morning. This will also prevent you from finding yourself with a huge pile of papers again.
6) Add a personal touch to your office. Bring some photos of the children; add some pretty plants, inspirational quotes, or anything else you can think of that will make your office a pleasant place to work. In addition to putting and keeping you in a good mood every time you walk into your office, you’re more likely to keep it clean and organized if it’s a place you treasure. So splurge a little on some special office decor.
7) Let’s talk about the files on your computer. You can spend as much time looking for a document online as a piece of paper. If your computer is used for both work and personal use, create a work folder and use subfolders for particular employers, projects, etc.
Again, create a file system that works for you, and keep your work files separate from your personal files. This is particularly important if other family members also access the computer. If that’s the case, and you’re using
Windows XP, I highly recommend setting up a separate user account just for work and password protecting it. This will prevent other family members from accidentally changing or deleting your work files.
8) In addition to your regular files, you also want to keep your emails organized. Let’s be honest, we’ve all wasted time searching for a particular email that contained vital information that we needed quickly. Setting up folders for different clients and projects has worked well for me, but again find a system that works for you and stick with it. Sort the email as soon as you read it. It only takes a second or two to put it in the right folder, but it will save you a lot of time if you have to find it later.
9) Now that you have a good filing system (both physical and digital), set aside a little time every few months (or weeks if applicable) to purge your files. We can quickly accumulate a large number of documents both in our filing cabinet and on our hard drive that we no longer need. At a minimum, try to purge your files twice a year.
10) Now that your office is organized, you might also want to take a look at organizing your time. Again, think of a system that works well for you.
I encourage you to start with some of these ideas to make yourself and your office more organized. You’ll be surprised how much time you’ll save by not having to search for files, papers, or the stapler. Before long, you won’t know how you functioned without an organized home office.
