When you take just a few moments to organize your office space, you'll save time every day, and you may even make more money as your business runs more efficiently and productively.
Here are six simple things you can do today to organize your office:
1. Keep your filing system simple. Everyone's ideal system will look different. Some people work better with tall file cabinets, which hold everything they need. Other people prefer labeled boxes that they can take with them to work with different colleagues and clients. The point is to find something that you feel comfortable with and that you will maintain.
If you are working with a filing cabinet, divide it into chronological or alphabetical groups. Some groups of projects, clients or invoices may require an entirely separate drawer. Many people successfully use a color coded system, which works as long as you don't have too many categories. (If your needs are limited to such categories as "expenses" "income" "projects" and "correspondence," for example).
2. When designing your filing system, make sure you give it enough room to grow. Try to leave at least 30 percent of each file or file drawer empty for additional documents that will need to be added. That way, you won't need to reorganize your system in a few days or weeks.
3. Routinely purge documents you don't need. Find out if you need to be hanging onto inactive files. If not, send them to the shredder or the recycling bin. If you aren't sure, stow them in the archives and not in your immediate office space.
4. Your filing system won't do you any good if you don't maintain it. Make sure to designate a particular part of your day or week to catch up on your filing. The easiest way to do this is often to have a "To Be Filed" folder in your desk or in your file cabinet for those items that you can't file right away. At least each week, make sure to file these items or ask an assistant for help. It won't be long before you find the system that works right for you. The important thing is to maintain your filing so the task doesn't grow out of hand.
5. Hang a simple corkboard near your desk for those items you need to refer to throughout the day, such as phone lists, to do lists, meeting agendas, price lists and so on.
6. Purchase any necessary containers you will need for small items, such as pens, paper clips, and extra staples. There are a number of innovative products on the market today to keep your small office items organized. Give yourself a small budget to make your office as streamlined and productive as it can be.
All of your efforts to organize your office will have a payoff. Your business will be more efficient and productive, and that will be your greatest reward as well as the greatest incentive for continuing to maintain your organized office system.
