Organize Your Office Space
Are you frustrated with your office space? Do you hunt for a pen
every time you put one down? Is the search for documents a
half-day event? Is your paper filed chronologically - working
your way down the pile to 'one week ago' and unable to pull out
'four months ago' for fear of a paper flood catastrophe? Every
office deals with an excess of paper and whether large or small,
your business is suffering when you aren't operating in an
organized space. So, how do you clear the clutter and gain
control? SPACE IS ESSENTIAL The biggest problem with staying
organized in an office is that people set up a system and don't
give themselves enough room to grow. If you have spent the
better part of a day cleaning out a drawer and replacing the
items in organized, labeled files, but you can't squeeze a
single extra sheet of paper you've wasted your time and the
unfiled papers will grow again. Be certain to have at least a
quarter to a third (more if possible) of growing room when
implementing a system. You may need to change over at some
point, but having some extra space will encourage you to keep up
with the organizing. This also goes for items such as
architectural drawings or other products or documents you may
accumulate. Set aside time to purge unnecessary documents. Not
only will this provide more space but will save you time that
would otherwise be wasted looking through worthless paperwork.
SIMPLE FILING SYSTEM Do not make your system too complicated or
it will be hard to follow through. Color coding can be the
easiest if you do not have too many categories. This is
effective for systems which only require 'Income', 'Expense',
'Projects', 'Correspondence' or something similar. For filing of
large groups of clients, projects or invoices, use a single
drawer for each group of related files. A tall filing cabinet
can even be divided into alphabetical or chronological systems.
For items you refer to daily or even hourly you might consider a
posting board near your desk. This is a great idea for phone
number lists, 'To Do' lists and appointment calendars.
MAINTENANCE A filing system is only as good as the upkeep. You
may find it easier to have a small system of files located on or
near your desk and daily or weekly transfer the items into their
permanent home. This also works for items which you need close
at hand such as current project information or price lists etc.
STYLE OF FILING Consider if you can realistically maintain a
filing system. Perhaps labeled boxes would suit you better
(especially if you tend to pile papers). The key is to find
something you will feel comfortable maintaining. If papers are
sorted and occasionally purged, your system will work.
EVERYTHING NEEDS A HOME Everything MUST be assigned a home. By
giving each item a place you will not loose pens, cellphones,
glasses and so on. Don't crowd the items or you will get
frustrated. Recognize that all of your efforts will help you run
your business more efficiently, and thus productively. Reward
yourself for keeping the system working!