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Tips for Organizing Your Workspace

Organization is essential to productivity. The less time you have to spend searching for the things you need, the more time you have to concentrate on getting your work done.

While keeping your files organized is of great importance, it is also vital to keep your workspace organized. A neat desk that has a place for everything and everything in its place helps you work more efficiently. It can also reduce stress, and a well-organized desk makes a better impression on clients.

Different people have different ways of organizing. But there are some things that we could all benefit from keeping in mind.

  1. Small compartments are great for items like paper clips and staples. There's nothing worse than having to dig around in a drawer for one tiny yet vital object. Some desks have compartments built in. If yours doesn't, you can find trays with compartments for small items in most office supply stores.
  2. Supplies should always be close at hand. Pens, staplers, sticky notes and other things that we use regularly need to be where we don't have to look for them. A shelf or drawer just for this purpose would be ideal, but keeping them in a designated corner of the desktop will do if necessary.
  3. Keep paper to a minimum. Storing documents electronically is not only good for the environment, it also reduces clutter astronomically. Organizing computer files is just as important as keeping paper files in order, but it is often easier and always requires less space.
  4. In and out boxes or baskets are a great way to organize papers and files that you need close at hand. It's fine to "think outside of the box" and use these in ways that best suit your needs. It's your workspace, so the key is to organize things in a way that makes sense to you.
  5. Things that you are finished working on do not belong on your desk. Filing them away will reduce clutter and confusion.
  6. A trash can should always be within easy reach of one's desk. If there's no trash can nearby, it's much easier to accumulate unwanted and unneeded items.

Keep in mind that organization is highly subjective. If you gave five people the same items to organize, each person would have his own unique way of organizing it. Neither way is wrong or right. As long as the person using the items is able to find what he needs quickly and easily, that is what counts.

Getting organized allows us to make the most of our time. By following some simple guidelines and coming up with an organizational system that works for us, we can get more done with less effort.