Get your Office Organised for Success

Intrinsically, everyone knows that a well organised place of work will be much more streamlined and efficient. This in turn should make it better equipped for success. But organisation is much easier said than done, especially if you’ve let it slip to the wayside.

Piles of paperwork accumulate quickly on your desk, your inbox fills with unread messages, you’re running late for meetings, etc. You get the idea. It’s easy for things to spiral out of control.

Thankfully, the first and most important step in getting organised is recognising your need for it. So if you’ve come this far already, the only way to go is up! Read on for a few helpful tips to get you started.

File Organisation

First off, it’s important to start with a clean work space. Unfortunately this really does mean diving into those old files and folders, sorting things out and really get rid of anything that you don’t need.

This may be a good time to process an office supply order; stock up on things like lever arch files, labels and box files for last year’s documents.

Once you’ve gotten your space cleared out, make a point of taking at least 10 minutes each day to put things away, file and generally keep up your organisation efforts.

Organise your Computer

Once you’ve organised your physical desktop, it’s time to tidy up your virtual files. Go ahead and create the appropriate files and folders for each document so that you can quickly file away each item as it comes up. Store outdated information on external USB drives to save space on your hard drive.

Go through your inboxes and delete any unnecessary messages. Create folders for certain types of emails, and actually use them. You may be surprised how much this can make life easier.

Workplace Furniture Arrangement

Sometimes it’s the actual arrangement of your desk and office furniture that’s not working. Do you find yourself having to squeeze through a small space to get to your desk, or constantly trying to hide your screen from others?

Draw up a rough sketch of the room to see if you can position your desk differently to be more comfortable and conducive to productivity. A fresh new arrangement can help you feel better at work and give you a new outlook on the job you’re doing.

Time Management

One of the worst things you can do is fall behind on projects, show up late for meetings and keep important clients waiting. If your time management is an issue, try to determine what the issue is immediately.

Do you simply not budget enough time for each task? Perhaps you don’t give yourself enough time to get from point A to point B.

Start documenting how long it actually takes you to do each thing. Do yourself the favour of waking up a bit earlier.

You can also make use of as many scheduling tools as necessary- set reminders on your mobile phone and schedule meetings in Outlook. Break up projects into smaller segments and commit to completing a certain segment each day.

With continued effort and focus on staying organised in all aspects of your work life, you can really lay the foundation for success.