Working at a cluttered and disorganized workstation is like driving to work on a busy Monday morning; hardly possible. An organized, minimal simple workstation not only helps you work faster, but it has been proven to be extremely productive and result generating.
Here are few life hacks on how to de-clutter your work space instantaneously.
You may think you need everything on your table. But trust me, evaluating what’s on your table at least once a month will help you decide what you need on a daily basis.
When you initially start the process, you will see that there are documents you haven’t touched in months or even years. Unless, you for sure need it in the upcoming weeks, just go ahead and Shred-It.
You will also be amazed to find used Tiffin tins and cookie packs and even empty lotion tubes just lying around that you can easily part with.
Unless it’s your own wedding invitation, you may be able to even part with old wedding invites and other corporate invites for events that you have already attended.
If you are one of those people who keep all your important documents in office, you may want to either separate them by importance or by their nature. You may even need to separate the drawers for the kind of documents you store. The stuff you use most often go in the closest drawer, everything else goes in drawers further away.
If you are blessed with a scanner at your office, scan the most important documents like passports and agreements, so you don’t have to go in to panic mode when a document is misplaced. Additionally, even day to day bills and other documents could be scanned and saved on your pc to ensure your work station is not cluttered with unwanted paper.
When you get gifts from clients or friends that you don’t necessarily need, they usually always end up on your table top or cupboards. Make sure you donate it to someone who needs it better than you! The feeling of giving something away will be great and the clutter will also be gone. This mechanism also works with things you have two or three of. After all, who needs 3 staplers and 2 printers when most of the work you do is anyway digitalized?
Instead of just filing everything you can get your hands on, make sure your filing system makes most sense to you. If you can’t locate a document in under 40 seconds, it is a good indication that it’s time for you to reconsider your filing pattern.
Labeling – It helps a great deal to have your filing labeled. This will help your colleagues to look for documents without having to tun it upside down!
Personalizing your work-space actually helps stressful work days. Having a photograph or two of someone close to your heart, be it a partner/child or pet will boost your energy levels and give you a sense of purpose. However, over personalizing your workstation may become a distraction when you need focus. Not to mention the clutter!