Organizing your home office can be a nightmare. It doesn’t have to be! Just 15 minutes a day can get your home office in good working order.
Once you have achieved a workable space if you continue with the 15 minutes routine you can keep it that way. After all, once something is a habit it becomes easier to do.
Sometimes your home office doubles as a library, living room, kitchen or even a bedroom. To be productive it is important to keep the area separate from other functions of the room. If the space is not ideal, you have to find a way to make it work.
Your office needs to have a desk, storage, filing, equipment and a comfortable chair. one that is free from distraction and clutter. This is your working space and should be used to hold your equipment.
Today we will talk about Stage 1 – setting up your desk.
- an L shaped desk is exceptionally easy to work with (use two desks if you have to and make sure you have a large surface area)
- find a comfortable and ergonomic chair
- clear your desk completely (get rid of distractions – you can leave one or two photos of loved ones)
- place your land line phone (if you have one) on your dominant side hand
- place your monitor, mouse and keyboard immediately in front of your chair
- put the printer on your dominant side hand next to monitor if possible
- put a task light up above or next to your monitor
- keep all the wires, electronics and gadgets out of site
- put up a white or bulletin board up in easy access if you need to post things (calendar and contact numbers)
- put your filing cabinet on your dominant side hand
- keep your necessary tools handy – a notepad, scrap paper, pen, hi-liter and stapler
- if you have lots of reference material (reduce and get a bookshelf with containers to hold magazines and papers)
- use a folder system and avoid blank papers on your desk (keep your papers in the files)
- keep the rest of your supplies in one drawer only
- get rid of all the pens, papers and tools you don’t use
- place tools in proximity to how frequently you use them
- if you need a tray for active and files ready for filing place it on your desk and deal with it daily
- at the end of the day always take 5 to 10 minutes to clear your desk and prep for the next day
Our next 3 articles will look at
Stage 2 – organizing your storage
Stage 3 – dealing with correspondence
Stage 4 – choosing your tools & equipment