Almost everyone wants their workspace to be clean and organized properly. But we rarely have the time that could be invested in making our offices neat and well-ordered, especially if you’re someone who works from home. The sooner you realize the importance of an organized working system the faster you’ll free-up time to fix up your workspace.
When you are surrounded by clutter, whether it is physical or digital, you are more likely to get distracted. Your attention shifts towards all the other things that you are supposed to do like getting rid of your office's paper waste or deleting unimportant emails. The shift of focus and attention causes you to lose precious time and energy that could’ve been directed toward more important tasks.
There are countless benefits of being organized. From the point of view of mental well-being, staying organized frees up your mental bandwidth so that you can focus more easily on the task at hand. Other than that, here are some tricks that will help you make your workspace neater, de-cluttered, and organized:
1. Clean Your Inbox
As a worker, your inbox is a place that you have to visit more than 20 times a day. Most of us have an inbox that is cluttered with unimportant and unread emails. These hoarded mounds of clutter do nothing instead of making us dread the process of going through our emails.
The ultimate goal of organizing your emails is to have an empty inbox. You can start by opening your priority messages and then you can delete the unimportant ones. This way you’ll be able to reduce the clutter from your inbox so that you can find and respond to other messages easily and more efficiently.
You can make a habit of proper email organization by practicing for a few days. This is a great way to improve your efficiency and productivity in the workplace.
2. Digitize As Much As Possible
In case you haven’t noticed, it is much easier to organize and arrange digital documents as compared to physical ones. Digitization of documents also reduces physical clutter from your workspace.
Digitization does not only improve productivity but also protects your organization from sensitive document-related threats such as theft, disaster, human error, lost records, and much more. The more you digitize your documents the more your office becomes efficient and safe. Digitization also helps you take part in the green initiative of cutting down the paper.
3. Keep Everything In Its Place
Do you have a habit of throwing things anywhere you want after using them? Is it frustrating when you can’t find it the next time? Imagine how much time and effort you could’ve saved if you’d have put it back in its place. When you set a place for everything in your office, from pens to your files to the printing paper, you can save a lot of your time and ultimately improve your productivity. Staying organized in terms of material stuff allows you to be more clear-headed giving you more energy to be attentive and focused on important tasks.
You can also get desk converters from FlexiSpot which can help you in terms of improving overall organization of the workspace.
4. De-clutter Your Digital World
When was the last time you digitally cleaned your computer? Does the desktop of your computer look like a dumping ground of documents, spreadsheets, and countless folders? Your mind retains more stress when the clutter is visible, then it doesn’t matter whether it is physical or digital.
The best approach to deal with this problem is to go through everything on your desktop and delete the unnecessary stuff. The ultimate goal would be to have a desk with as fewer icons as possible.
5. Conceal The Wires
Look around your workspace, how many dangling and tangled wires do you see? From your computer desk to your coffee maker, you might be able to count at least 10 different appliances in your office with ugly wires hanging out of them. Not only they are distracting but are also unpleasant to the eyes.
To hide the wires, you can start with the electronics that you don’t need to plug off often, for example, your desk lamp, computer, or coffee maker. So, you can tuck away the wires behind the desk or the table with the help of adhesive hooks. By organizing your wires and cables you can save yourself the frustration of detangling the wires or trying to find the right plug.
6. Get Rid Of The Things You Don't Use
Most clutter is created by hoarding things that we don’t use anymore. For instance, keeping books that you’ve read and don’t plan on reading again.
You can use the minimalist approach to help you get rid of things that you don’t need in your office. Pick something from your stuff and ask yourself if it brings you joy, do you use it often, have you used it in the last year, and finally is it important to keep. If out of these four questions even one’s answer is yes, you can keep the thing you picked. And if not, you can donate it or simply put it in the trash.
Final Word
If you want to increase your productivity, one of the simplest ways to do it is to maintain your workstation clean and tidy. Your desk's disorder might impair your time management, job quality, and even your dependability. Spend the additional time and effort necessary to establish routines and minimize the clutter on your desk.
All it takes is a few minutes out of your day to keep your workstation neat and properly organized. People are unaware of the clutter around them because they have grown accustomed to the environment in which they work. However, the psychological impact of disorganization and chaos on their job is subsequently acknowledged. What may seem odd is that when you tidy your desk, you also clear your mind, allowing it to perform more efficiently. You'll feel better if you can quickly spot what you're looking for and spend your time at work on more vital activities.
