It happens to everybody: in spite of your best efforts to keep your work-space neat and organized, eventually you’ll find yourself facing a mess and unable to locate anything. You need to declutter your desk quickly and here are 5 simple tips to show you how!
These helpful tips should allow you to reduce the amount of clutter on your desk and keep everything looking tidy, allowing you to get everything you need to get done completed on time.
1. Create a Filing System
For starters, all that loose paperwork needs a place for quick retrieval later. Create a filing system that allows you to instantly access important paperwork because you’ll know exactly where it is.
Create this filing system based on the needs of your specific job. If you frequently must refer to specific document types but don’t remember the titles well, then a category based system would work best. This way you can remember approximately where it is before you start scrounging the desk.
If you frequently find yourself needing to pull specific documents, then an alphabetical system is ideal. The point is to make sure that when you need something, you know exactly where you put it.
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2. Use Inboxes and Outboxes
Keeping a stack of paperwork you have to fill out, or otherwise requires your attention is a good way to serve as a reminder that there is work left to do. Having an outbox of completed documentation feels good. You are accomplishing something! Be sure to keep the most time-sensitive documents at the top of the stack and set aside a certain time each day or week to tackle your inbox in order to make the most of your time and focus.
3. Create a To-Do List
Rather than simply depend on your memory, only to have it fail and leave you frantically comparing due dates to figure out what needs to be done first, keep a to-do list of tasks that need to be completed somewhere visible on your desk. This could be in the form of a physical notepad or set up on your Outlook or other office applications – even using Microsoft Notepad as a ‘to-do’ list can serve to keep yourself organized and productive. This can also help to save space by preventing all of your urgent work stacking up out in the open lest you forget that they need to be done.
4. Electronic Documents Storage
Reduce paper documentation by using cloud storage systems such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
This method will pay off in the long run by saving time on having to run documentation from one place to another by hand or running off copies on a sometimes faulty office copier.
5. Electronic Fax
Electronic faxing services allow you to fax information as easily as sending an e-mail. Using an electronic fax system saves you time by no longer requiring you to print out the document and then send the fax… or wait in line if it happens to be a busy office fax.
Declutter your desk almost instantly with these 5 tips #tips #organizing Share on X
By taking a little time to organize, and following this basic advice, you can save space and, in the long run, save hours of time that would normally be spent hunting down documents in a cluttered desk or picking up paperwork that got accidentally scattered or waiting on unnecessary print jobs. For those of you who are in management positions – encouraging these practices will also help to improve workplace efficiency and productivity in the long run.
Enjoy!
This is a condensed article taken from an earlier post by Brennen Kliffmueller. From a young age, it was clear Brennen was slightly OCD and now he is an organization king. He is always finding new ways to streamline his daily tasks and work as a content creator for FindAFax.
Ironically, I was trying to organize my desk yesterday and just started reading this today. I have a 3 tier rolling cart like in the pics above for my art supplies but hadn’t thought about getting one for my desk. That would be soooo handy. Might even go get it today! Thanks for always having great tips!