DO YOU WANT TO BE MORE PRODUCTIVE AT WORK? ORGANISE YOUR OFFICE!

Here is the simple truth – An organized office is a productive office!

Investing time and money in getting organized may sound unreasonable but like the saying goes “you spend money to make more money”, you can also spend time to make more time. I haven’t seen anyone who doesn’t want more of those.

The state of your office space can be directly related to how effective and productive you are.

Here are some facts on the cost of clutter and disorgnisation in business.

• Studies show that some executives will pick up a single piece of paper from their desk thirty or forty times before acting on it, Michael F. Woolery, Seize the Day
• Time spent mishandling paperwork detracts from the company’s ability to service customers, increase sales, and improve the bottom line, Small Business Administration
• Corporations still don’t understand the value of good document management or the costs of bad, Thornton May, author of Imaging World

See JessylsCharm’s quick-tips to help you get organised and improve your productivity at work.

Consider the following:

1. Your activities
2. Your space
3. Your comfort

YOUR ACTIVITES

Evaluate the activities your type of work involves and determine the office furniture and storage systems required to support them. Your processes may have changed since you first set up the space, or you may have inherited a space that worked for someone else. To be most productive, your office space should be designed and organised so that your responsibilities can be carried out in the most effective manner. That means if you spend a lot of time writing; make sure you have a writing-friendly desk and drawers. If you hold in-person meetings, you will want to create a suitable space for interactions. In my work as a Professional Organiser, I often see paper piles on working desks, or documents stashed away in cabinets, or papers piled up on bookcases. Your desk is your work station, make sure you don’t turn it into a storage area. Areas at arm’s length must be considered prime space. Desk surfaces should be reserved for projects you are actively working on. For easy information retrieval, if you are someone who deals with client data regularly, avoid information pile-up and missing documents by immediately making room for any new information and regularly organising existing ones. Reference materials and seldom-used supplies can be stored further away in filing cabinets, on bookshelves or in storage cupboards. Archived items are used least and can therefore be stored in the most remote locations. Always make use of our triple C rule of space organising Clean, Clear & Classify. Clean out the mess, clear the clutter and classify useful items.

YOUR SPACE

Think about furniture such as desks, tables, chairs and stands for computer peripherals  storage pieces such as drawers, filing cabinets, bookshelves, desktop file folders and lateral sorters functional equipment such as white boards, bulletin boards, coat racks, keyboard trays and footrests. After installing the right organising systems in your space, you then consider what goes where. Just as with regular real estate, with office ‘real estate’ it’s all about location, location, location. Understand where the heavy equipments like Printers, photo copiers, refrigerator, etc should be placed and make sure they don’t obstruct the flow of movement in your office. Also put into consideration the type of office furniture to purchase. Use space-friendly office furniture, if you have a small sized office, get a space-economical desk. Create systems in your space that will allow you reach for supplies and equipments easily. For example, if you do a lot of printing while working, create a system that positions your work desk close to the printer, so you don’t have to regularly walk back and forth while working. Drawer organizers are effective at corraling smaller supplies making them faster to retrieve.

Peripherals such as fax machines, scanners, backup hard drives, routers and their cables should be stored and managed so as not to create a busy environment in your immediate working space. Cable management systems can help create both visual order by reducing chaos, and functional order by making it easy to identify each item.

YOUR COMFORT

A comfortable space is a productive space. It pays to be aware of proper ergonomics when selecting furniture and storage pieces. Ensuring desk surfaces and keyboards are at an ideal height can improve comfort and avoid repetitive strain injuries. Carpal tunnel syndrome and rotator cuff tendinitis are just two examples of injuries which can result from of poorly configured workstations. Not only will you suffer a loss in productivity, you could end up with permanent damage.

Chairs are not one-size-fits-all, so if you spend a lot of time in one, it is worth understanding just how customizable they can be. Look for height and chair back adjustability, a seat pan that fits your body and arm rests that can be moved to best support you.

To make telephone use more comfortable consider speaker phones or headsets. Locating printers a few steps away will encourage more mobility in your work day.

Lighting should also be examined. Don’t position your desk against your window or install systems that block your light and air inlets/outlets. You’ll need free flow of air and you’ll want a mixture of ambient lighting and task lighting for focused work. Natural lighting cannot be over-rated. For every hour of focused work whether it be writing or on the computer, take five minutes and look out a window. Your eyes will thank you.

According to a recent survey on workspace organization, clutter can lead to many unprofessional situations that result in crippled performance, with a large number of respondents reporting

• lost time (47 percent)
• meeting tardiness (16 percent)
• and missed deadlines (14 percent)

Margot Sterns reorganized her office from what she called “chaotic and out of control” to a structured work environment that runs faster and smoother than ever.

As a result of the new system, the Entrepreneur says she’s saved more time, which has allowed her to take on more clients. She’s even has increased her profits by more than 20 percent. “I do believe [getting organized] is worth the investment of time and money, because what you get back, I think makes it more than worth it,” She says. “Getting rid of all that stuff really made a huge difference in my life.”

So go ahead, invest the time and money in getting organized. It’s one investment sure to pay itself back day after day.

For further help on getting your work space organised, you can reach us at www.jessylscharmc.com, info@jessylscharm.com, +2348189012562.