 |
At home we put our socks in one draw, our kitchens have each like item organized in cabinets, and our clothes even have closet organizers. Whether we realize it or not, we can be on our way to getting our workplace organized. Yes we are doing it already, or are we?
Take an objective look at your workstation or office. Does it resemble a site recently hit by a tornado! This clutter makes it difficult to be effective. With a little effort and perseverance you can become a model of efficiency and reap the benefits.
Lets start with the premise of a place for everything and everything in its place. Often we are pulled in many directions throughout the workday. Projects are started and stopped, new assignments arrive, telephones ring, meeting interrupt. Before long stacks of paper surround us. Pulling out that document you need immediately can become a hit or miss proposition. Lets stop and take stock.
Set up a specific time that you will do nothing but to get organized. Go through your clutter item by item and establish a place for it. Do not attempt to complete the item at this point except to weed out all those items that can be thrown away. Make good use of the important circular file. Decide which items need to be at your fingertips and those that can be filed for future reference. Decide which items can be removed from your desktop and placed in file drawers and storage cabinets. Make use of indexed files such as, alphabetical, numerical, and date, for easy retrieval of information when you need it again.
The work you need at your fingertips, don't just stack in a pile, select desktop, wall, partition,in-drawer organizers to segment tasks which directly relates to each other. Now another important point, when you get involved in a project but get stopped for a period of time don't just leave things where they are , take a few minutes and put things back where they were before. It will be easier to retrieve them when required. At the end of each day make it a habit to put everything away and clear your workstation. Tomorrow is another day with new challenges.
Following a systematic approach to elimination of clutter will surely result in you becoming more effective, efficient and reduce work related stress. Remember one size does not fit all. Each individual does not organize things exactly the same, so each workstation needs to be flexible enough to accommodate each persons style of organization. However, don't use this as an excuse to avoid elimination of your clutter. Clutter is clutter. Find simplicity out of clutter and you will reap many rewards.
Take control and you'll feel good. Even if you don't fully succeed initially try again you'll be proud of your accomplishment.