Any office work can turn into a nightmare with just a pile of papers and writing materials. It may be discouraging to even act on it since you might be receiving another task to work on. However, if an initiative is not made, the clutter will definitely affect your productivity. Here are some ways to organize your desk.
- Schedule your task
Since you will be mostly receiving your instructions via email, it is beneficial to have them organized and filtered out. To have better control of the flow of messages received, set some periods of your day when to check the emails and how many you have to deal with each period until you have completed processing all accordingly.
This is one aspect of the office work wherein leaving something unattended even a day can get messy. There are also other things like updating the file cabinets or filling up records. A to-do list might help but making it a routine is better.
- Set your financial statements and bills to digital
If transactions can be made online, have these financial documents in digital form to save a lot of paper. Additionally, enabling notifications can save some materials used for reminders.
Another alternative would be to capture a clear image of these documents. Some can fade over time, so it will be practical to photograph them first before disposing of them if not needed.
- Rearrange the visuals in the workstation
Non-work-related things like bookmarks, picture frames, or decorative can detach your stress and attach the needed motivation. However, they will become less effective if they become greater in quantity and might become more of a distraction.
To lessen this, better have the images of motivation on your phone gallery and have a look at them when you are at a low point. Minimize the physical reminders of your goals to the most important ones.
- Organize the pens
Sometimes, a pen can be needed during work, and it may be for a brief moment. Unattended pens can lose their ink’s fluidity if either the tip is left exposed to air or dropped to the floor after being placed on an edge.
The next thing you know, the pen will be not working, and you need to find another pen to be used for a brief moment. Without noticing, you have accumulated a lot of pens unintentionally. This can be corrected by having a habit to return the pen to the holder when not used and throw away pens with the tip compromised.
- Clean the work bag
Your work bag may become a dumpsite of all sorts of things. Stuff can be put inside without even thinking, and they will accumulate until you will have a hard time finding your essential things. You can develop a habit of cleaning the work bag either before work or after so that the time spent on seeking the essentials will not compromise your efficiency.
- Make use of old reading materials
You might still be reading magazines and newspapers casually either for downtime or to be informed. Once read, you may be stacking them on the corner of your desk. Instead of keeping them there, especially when they become irrelevant, you can recycle them in many ways: from gift wrappers to company-event props and even donations to a library.
- Arrange your computer’s desktop
A computer is part of your office desk, and you might be developing a habit to store any file you receive into its desktop. This will definitely affect your time management since you will spend time looking for the needed file and have a risk of overwriting them or worse deleting them. Since you will be working with the computer, develop a habit of properly naming and sorting the files according to their uses.
Conclusion
A productivity of an office department or a team lies heavily in the organization of the members. The more mess you create for your self, the more stressful your approach and the more ineffective you will be. It doesn’t need a special skill to learn an organizing skill; only discipline and responsibility.
