It doesn’t matter if we’ve got an office job or if you work from home, keeping an organised desk and workspace is very important to work efficiently. It’s not always easy to pay attention to cleaning and organisation when we’re worried about important deadlines and a long to-do list, so our workspace can quickly turn into a mess.
Like anything in life, cleaning doesn’t happen by chance, and it takes a scheduled effort to do spring cleaning. Today is such a day. No joke, there is a social media day called: Clean Up Your Room Day (10th May).
I think May is perfect timing too.
Just after individual tax filing and financial audit. Before the peak of self-employed and company tax filing. Clear things up and be ready for the prominent peak period of the year.
During spring cleaning time, take a day or two to concentrate on our workspace. You’ll thank yourself later when you can find everything you need quickly and efficiently!
The person with a cleaner table has a clearer mind.
Zen monk
I am sure you have seen people washing the toilets and cleaning their tables when they are super stressed. Well, I acknowledge; I did the table cleaning thingy.
Researchers theorised that people gravitate toward repetitive behaviours (such as cleaning) during times of stress. Why? It’s all about being in control. “We want to be able to do something when we get anxious, and what we want is to be in control and take action,”
In our case, we are doing the opposite. We are making a conscious effort to prepare and be ready for the time of expected stress of deadlines.
Consider some of the following cleaning tips for your workspace:
File away your paperwork. Paperwork can get out of hand fast. Spend some time sorting through your paperwork. The traffic light approach is helpful. Sort things by : file away (green), throw away (red), KIV (yellow). But do allocate a specific space for KIV, limit the size of storage for KIV so that things don’t get out of hand.
Put all loose paperwork into a filing system and keep folders for any paperwork you’re currently working on. As new papers come in, try to deal with them right away, instead of leaving them on your desk for later.
Clean your work surfaces. Since you’ll finally be able to see the bottom of your desk, you need to take advantage of the opportunity to clean it once and for all. Also, take time to clean all of your desk items such as staplers, pens, and paper trays: less dust, less sneeze, and more health.
Make your business contacts digital. Document a list of all your business contacts somewhere on your computer, such as your address book in your email. Ease of retrieving client’s business name, photos, phone number, mailing address, and email address. Also sync the contact to your phone. This way, you can toss away those old business cards with peace of mind, no more piling on the desk.
Deal with old post-it notes. If you have post-it notes all around the office, filter and throw out those that no longer apply. Reorganise them by priority, or make digital files to keep track of them. Post-its can get disorganised fast.
If you have something on a post-it that’s a long-term project, it’s better to keep your notes on your computer. There is much software which does an excellent job at this, such as google keep, or Microsoft Sticky Notes .
Deal with digital clutter too. Clutter don’t just apply to workspace, it includes digit clutter too. Is your computer’s hard drive cluttered too? Go through your e-mail inbox, delete those you don’t need or file them away.
Clean up your computer desktop and delete old files or back them up to an external drive. Take the time to back up your files, so you never lose important work.
Organise your supplies. Give them a home, gather them into one area of your desk. This will give them a permanent place, so they’re not left out and scattered around your desk at all times.
Clean the areas around the room. Vacuum the space around your desk and wash the windows, baseboards, etc. It’s probably not an area that you often think about, so it’s likely due for a cleaning.
Schedule future cleaning session. If spring cleaning for your workspace was a burden on you, it probably means that you may let things get out of hand this year. You can prevent it from happening again by periodically cleaning your workspace.
Organised and clean office, don’t just helps you be more efficient, productive, and less stressed. It is more inviting to you, your clients, and anyone you work with.
Seriously once you have an organisational system in place, you can spend 30 minutes per week keeping everything clean and organised.
