(NC)—With New Year’s resolutions upon us, being organized is an ideal goal. For the 50% of working Canadians who work from home at least occasionally, or maintain a home office, organization is especially important.
Being productive is a direct result of being organized, but the thought of where to start and how to go about it may be overwhelming. The good news is, a few simple steps can make a major difference.
Clear the clutter
Being organized starts with cutting out the clutter. Too often our offices are crammed with machines, supplies and pieces of paper, making our workstations seem completely dysfunctional. When it comes to paperwork, limit the documents you keep in hard copy. Scan your documents and store them on your computer’s hard drive. Shredding the hard copies will make an immediate difference in the amount of space you have. Multifunction centers such as Brother MFC machines can help you do this. They are versatile, easy to use and compact.
Label and file
Once you decide what documents you need to keep in hard copy, make sure they have a designated place. To achieve this, an effective labelling system is a no-brainer. Colour code and label your files so everything is clearly identified and easily accessible. Assign a colour category to your files, such as green for financial documents, and blue for personal papers. Organization also extends to how you manage your contacts. If you tend to do a lot of mailings, investing in a label printer with software that allows you to save your contacts is the way to go. There are some great electronic labellers on the market that can be purchased in most office supply stores or online on websites like brother.ca.
Establish office routines and stick to them
To avoid falling into the “disorganization rut” once again, you need to implement a daily or weekly routine. Take a few minutes each day to sort through every piece of paper that comes into your office. As tedious as this may be, this system will help you stay organized and keep things running smoothly.
An organized mind is a productive mind. At the end of the day, make a to-do list for the next day and set it out on your desk so it’s ready when you come in. Not only will this help you be more efficient, it will help de-clutter your mind so when you leave the office you can focus on things other than work.
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