Organizing your office is a great way to increase your productivity and generally make things easier to find.
Unfortunately, getting organized is often seen as a major undertaking. This may make you put off really getting organized because you don’t have time to really dive into a big overhaul. Does it have to be that big of a job, though?
The good news is that there are a number of little things that you can do to improve your office organization right now.
Even if you only spend a few minutes at a time on organization, you may be surprised at how quickly you can get things in tip-top shape:
Organize Your Pens and Pencils
Do you have a pen cup or drawer? How many of those pens still write, and how many are dried up?
It only takes a few minutes at a time to sort through your pens and pencils, getting rid of the ones that don’t work and better organizing the ones that do. Not only will it keep you from trying multiple pens to find one that works, but it will also keep you from accidentally spilling pens all over the place when trying to get one out of an overfull cup.
Organize Your Papers
If your office is cluttered, there’s a good chance that you have a lot of paper laying around.
Some of these papers are important, and some of them aren’t. Start sorting through the papers in your spare time, organizing them into piles based on how important they are. Once you have piles, put the important ones into a tray and less important papers into a folder for later consideration. This will keep you organized and give you a quick visual reference regarding what’s most important as well.
Buy a Desk Organizer
Chances are you’ve got a lot of little things just lying around, possibly taking up drawer or shelf space because you don’t have anywhere else to put them.
A desk organizer can help with this, giving you a number of little storage spots that are just perfect for scissors, paper clips, staplers and other items. A small set of free-standing drawers can also help you contain slightly larger items that are currently taking up space.
Tackle Those Cords
Tangled cords make things look cluttered and can make larger reorganizations difficult.
Starting with one cord at a time, separate them from the tangled mess and get them hooked up again. Use zip ties to group related cords together, then label your cords with small tags that you can write on. Once you’ve got all of them organized, you’ll be able to more easily keep them tidy in the future.
Do It Again
Organizing your office can be a big task, but if you do a little bit at a time it’s very manageable.
You can’t stop once you get everything tidied up, though, or the clutter will slowly take over. Establish a regular schedule for small improvements, and then a slightly longer cleaning session every now and then for electronics maintenance, vacuuming and other big tasks. You’ll be surprised at how easy keeping your office tidy will become.