(ThySistas.com) When you are working from home, whether it be in your home business or just working on projects in a home office, there can be a tendency to leave a lot of clutter in there. An office should be a space where your creativity can thrive, it should be clean and tidy, and have everything at arm’s length.
“Reduce the clutter in your life. Get rid of the things that no longer serve you: past regrets, leftover anger, old plans. Clutter doesn’t just occupy the house in which you live, and it occupies your mind. Learn to maintain your mind. Learn to do a daily clean up. Get rid of those unwanted thoughts.” ― Avina Celeste
Tip One:
Purge. Take a bucket and deep clean your office. If it doesn’t add to your productivity, or you don’t use it, or it’s not in good working order then throw it out. Check in your drawers, odd pen lids, or even shabby notebooks.
Tip Two:
Get your paperwork in order. Purchase some neat storages boxes, and some custom stickers, give each box a category and stick to it. Try and make one of the boxes for old paperwork, often the old paperwork isn’t digitised, so it is worth keeping in case it comes up.
Tip Three:
Get a pin board or whiteboard on your wall. Every morning, use this to list what you have to do, and at the end of the list write the time that you will be finishing work for that day. It is essential to make a distinction between your office space the rest of your home.
Tip Four:
Add some green. Although you might be tempted to have some fake plants around the office, they don’t have the same impact as a real one. Real plants help keep your air a little cleaner, and can be particularly useful if your office has had previous issues with mold and you needed to hire professionals who specialised in mold testing in Leominster, MA (or elsewhere). Even the plants just being there themselves make you more productive. This isn’t a cleaning tip, but it will certainly add something beautiful to your office.
Tip Five:
Your computer is an extension of your office and or you (in so much as it is filled with your details, work, projects and social stuff). It needs to be cleaned up too. If you have problems getting everything in order, then get a high-quality hard disk drive, and put everything on it. This will keep your desktop free from clutter. If you prefer to tackle it head on, sit down and make some folders, put all the files in the right place. It is still a good idea to get an HDD just to keep everything backed up and safe.
It won’t take long to turn your space into something that ups your productivity, keeps you calm in stressful situations, and improves your working from home life.
BONUS: Get a lidless wicker box, and label it as a ‘weekend box’, anything that you don’t deal with in the week put in there and tend to it at the weekend – it will help you stick to your daily to-do lists.
Staff Writer; Latasha Gold