It’s almost spring. If you are in a cleaning frenzy, why stop at your home? Take some time to spring clean and help organise your office. We’ve 8 tips to get your office organised.
Preparation
Before you even start spring cleaning get some boxes, bin bags and a recycling container. You can then clear and sort as you go.
Clear desk policy
Clean and clear desk? You can start getting organised. Begin by putting back the “essentials” first (computer, phone, printer) then move onto the rest.
Ditch old piles of papers
Growing paper mountains are no good to anyone however before pushing them into nearest recycling bin, take some time to go through those stacks of paper. Do you really need all those papers? Create a filing system and use that in future rather than making new paper mountains – a series of trays (in tray, out tray etc), magazine racks or a month by month concertina file are just three suggestions.
Go Paperless
A “paperless” office should be embraced rather than scoffed at. You can keep all “essential” printouts in pdf form and store them on a cloud based storage solution (such as dropbox). It’s a lot easier to read documents on portable devices (phones, kindles, tablets) than it used to be.
Declutter
Are you a stationery lover? If your desk was previously scattered with staplers, post-its and other bits, have a sort through. Items used on a regular basis can stay on your desk but those infrequently used items should be put away in drawers.
Computer and email
Organisation doesn’t just stop with your desk. Is your desktop background cluttered with icons and shortcuts? Organise them into useful folders.
What about your email inbox? Is it full of EVERYTHING or just new unread items? Create a series of folders and file emails when you’ve read them. By adding the letter A in front of each label of your most used folders and Z to those least your emails will be easier to navigate.
Cables
Do you need all those devices connected to that writhing mass of cables under your desk? Put that printer away if you haven’t used it in the last month. Think about going wireless. There are plenty of good wireless keyboards, printers and mice you can buy these days. Alternatively bind those cables all together with cable ties so they are out of the way.
Saving time
The time spent thinking about and establishing new filing systems, will save you time in the future. You can then spend just 5 minutes each day sorting, shredding, recycling and you will keep on top of things. However, if time really is at a premium, you could always hire a Virtual Assistant, like Red Desk to set up and maintain the systems for you.
mel@reddesk.co.uk
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