5 Tips on Organizing Your Office for Maximum Productivity
The average American spends collectively 2.5 days a year looking for lost items. Not only is that a waste of time, it’s super frustrating! Take back your time- and save on frustration- with these five tips on how to organize your office for maximum productivity.
Maximize your space.
Even the tiniest of spaces can be well organized- and fit more than you think. Add drawers under your desk (even the plastic ones will do), find a monitor stand that doubles as extra organization, and utilize your wall space!
Hang a paper command center to separate incoming, in progress, and outgoing papers. Paint peg board in fun colors and hang them on the wall to organize even more supplies.
Automate recurring tasks.
Organizing also includes our day-to-day tasks. If you’re in charge of anything recurring, such as scheduling meetings, ordering corporate lunch catering, or ordering office supplies, use your resources and automate.
Set up a cloud-based calendar for each conference room so employees can schedule their own meetings. If you’re still responsible for scheduling certain meetings, try to schedule them on the same day at the same time and book the conference room for the next quarter’s meetings.
For corporate lunch catering, ask your caterer if they offer pre-ordering and if they can keep your usual order on file. Bonus points if they have an online system that allows you to do this yourself and set-up weeks’ worth of lunches in advance.
Do you order office supplies? Ask your provider if they have vendor managed inventory (VMI). That means your provider has access to your supply closet and places an order for you when stock gets below a certain point.
Hide and label cords and wires.
Is the cord situation under your desk an absolute mess? Not only are organized cords easier to look at, they save time. Use bread ties or masking tape to label where each cord goes so the next time you dive under your desk you don’t have to spend time reminding yourself where each cord and wire goes.
Docket your day.
Sometimes you just need to write things down. Organize your day with the docket system. Find a daily docket-style pad that allows you to deep dive into everything you need to do in a day from meetings and tasks to errands and grocery lists.
Your daily docket can also be used to chunk your time.
Haul out your inbox.
Even the most organized people can run into trouble in their inboxes. Emails pile up so quickly that the best way to get on top of them is to first unsubscribe from any correspondence you don’t need and don’t want.
Then, bulk delete any non-work-related emails (such as e-newsletters) and create folders to organize emails by client or project. Utilizing folders allows you to keep a record of your emails without them crowding your inbox.
Increase your office’s productivity and happiness by encouraging a couple of hours a week to implement new organization strategies and maintain what’s already been done.
Meet Rootasters:
Meg is a dreamer, entrepreneur, and homesteader based in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She loves her cats, feasting, and road trips in her green VW Bug.