Staying organised at work when you’ve got tons of tasks to finish is not easy. But a neat and tidy workplace promotes greater productivity, so putting time in to clean and organise your desk is one of the best moves you can make to become more efficient.
Here’s how you can take spring cleaning to your workplace.
Devote time to the project
Your decluttering project will not be successful if you don’t devote time to it. If you do it alongside with work, you will only get sidetracked by pending tasks, ringing phones, or unread emails. Set time aside when you don’t have a meeting coming up, or urgent tasks to attend to so that you can really focus on completing the cleaning job instead of ending up with an even bigger mess than before you started.
Create a strategy
You need to decide what you’re going to do with the clutter. Are you going to keep everything? Throw things out? Or recycle? If you want to decrease the amount of hardcopy documents you have lying around, you can scan them and upload to the Cloud or save on your PC or storage device for easier access in the future. Paper makes up a huge chunk of office clutter, so it’s a good idea to start from there.
Buy containers and organisers
You can’t avoid keeping items on your desk. It is, after all, more convenient to leave pens and pieces of paper or a notebook there so you can jot down information whenever you need to. BUT, when you do leave items on your table, try to keep it to a minimum so you don’t start the whole cluttering process all over again.
Buy durable desk organisers and pen holders to keep your stationery and writing materials in. That way, you will have designated places to put your things, encouraging you to put things back where they belong after using them.
Beautify your visual tunnel
When you stretch your back or your arms after working continuously for a good number of hours, where do you look? What do you see? If all you see is a pinboard filled with post-its, scattered notes, and other random stuff pinned rather chaotically on the board, your mind will not be able to relax. And the very reason you’re taking a break in the first place is to allow your mind to take a break and to refocus.
Give your eyes something beautiful to look at by creating a nice visual tunnel that lets you look at an organised, clutter-free place on your desk or wall, such as a nice photo or artwork. It will be more relaxing to look at during your brain breaks throughout the day.
Adopt good work habits
After you have decluttered your desk, start a ritual which will have you clearing out your table at the end of each working day. Put things back where they belong and always leave enough space on your desk to work on.
