Nell Taliercio
Without the structure of an office outside of our homes, it is
easy to scatter anything work related all over the house. We
still need to complete our work in a timely and efficient
manner. After all, the less time we spend working, the more time
we have with our family. An organized home office will make for
a faster and more pleasant workday. Here are a few ideas to get
you and your home office organized.
1) Do you have a home office? You don't necessarily need an
entire room, but you should have a well-defined space to contain
all your office essentials and files.
A desk in your bedroom that will hold your files, paper, pens,
calculator and of course computer will do fine, especially in
the beginning.
If your "office" consists of the dining room table, some of the
drawers in your kitchen, a file cabinet in the basement and the
computer in the bedroom, you may want to think about organizing
everything in one spot.
Are you spending a lot of time searching for a particular
document, running from room to room to find it? Consider moving
all your files and papers to one central location, preferably
close to the computer if that's where you are doing the bulk of
your work.
2) Keep your personal files and papers separate from your
business things.
You will eventually have enough paperwork to deal with without
having your personal bills, magazines and the kids' after-school
schedule mixed in there. Create a separate spot for those
somewhere outside of your home office space.
3) Create a file system that works for you. Remember, you may be
working for someone else, but when it comes to your home office,
you are your own boss.
Think about how you look for a particular file or piece of
paper. What will be the easiest way for you to find it? Then
create a file system that works for you. Don't worry, if you
don't get it right the first time, you can always resort and try
again. Sooner or later you will come up with a system that is
"just right" for you.
4) Take a good look at your work area. Do you have piles of
papers, files, mail, floppy discs and CDs lying around? Do you
notice anything else piling up? Set aside a few hours and put
everything away. Use your new file system and find "homes" for
anything else.
5) Now that you have your office organized, set aside a few
minutes at the end of your workday to keep it that way. Try to
"leave work" for the day with a clean, empty desk. You will
appreciate it the next morning. This will also prevent you from
ever coming across a huge pile of papers again.
6) Add a personal touch to your office. Bring in some pictures
of the kids; add some pretty plants, inspirational quotes, or
anything else you can think of that will make your office a
pleasant place to work in. In addition to getting and keeping
you in a good mood whenever you step in your office, you are
more likely to keep it clean and organized if it is a place you
treasure. So splurge a little on some special office décor.
7) Let's talk about the files on your computer. You can waist
just as much time searching for an online document as for a
piece of paper. If your computer is used for work as well as for
personal use, create a work folder and use subfolders for
particular employers, projects etc.
Again, come up with a file system that works for you and keep
your work files separate from your personal files. This is
particularly important if other family members access the
computer as well. If that's the case, and you are using Windows
XP, I strongly recommend setting up a separate user account just
for work and password protecting it. This will prevent other
family members from accidentally changing or deleting your work
files.
8) In addition to your regular files, you also want to keep your
emails organized. Let's be honest, we have all wasted time
searching for a particular email that contained some vital
information we needed fast. Setting up folders for different
clients and projects has worked well for me, but again find a
system that works for you and stick with it. Sort the email as
soon as you read it. It only takes a second or two to drop it in
the appropriate folder, but will save you a lot of time if you
have to find it later.
9) Now that you have a good filing system (both physical and
digital) in place, set aside a little time every few months (or
weeks if appropriate) to purge your files. We can quickly
accumulate a lot of documents both in our file cabinet and on
our hard drive that we no longer need. At the very least, try to
purge your files twice a year.
10) Now that your office is organized, you may also want to take
a look at organizing your time. Again, come up with a system
that works well for you.
I encourage you to start with a few of these ideas to get your
office and yourself more organized. You will be surprised by how
much time you will save not searching for files, papers or the
stapler. Before long, you won't know how you ever functioned
without an organized home office.
About the author:
Nell Taliercio is the owner and founder of
http://www.TelecommutingMoms.com - which is a leading resource
website with work at home jobs and everything a telecommuting
mom would need. Come visit us today!
|
