7 Secret Tips For Organizing Your Home/Office That No One Told You
Staying organized is like second nature to some people. While the vast majority of us think of organizing as a simple task, some look at it as a chore. Whether or not organizing is our strength we all usually work better in organized environments. In this article we look at 7 ways you can get your home office organised to leave you stress free.
Staying organized is like second nature to some people. While the vast majority of us think of organizing as a simple task, some look at it as a chore. Whether or not organizing is our strength we all usually work better in organized environments.
It was only yesterday that my boss wanted a certain article number for a blog, and I nervously scanned through my whole system to locate it. The bewilderment that follows when you can’t find the right thing at the right time is crazy. I am usually a very forgetful person and nearly lose something or the else every day. If you are someone who understands my pain, then “we” my dear are sailing on the same ship.
It is only till recently that I started putting conscious efforts into organizing my home and workplace. I did it with the sole intention of being less stressful and more efficient at both places. I researched a lot on the web and took guidance from other “Organized Adults”. And believe me, I am having a great time.
These are the changes I see in my lifestyle since I have begun more organized:
- I am so much more productive because I don’t spend 1/5 of my day looking for things anymore.
- I am so much more sorted; I find the right things at the right place. My stress levels have decreased significantly.
- I am a much happier person and not very nervous anymore.
- I am super-efficient and feel more confident because I have more time to improvise on things now.
I have 2 basic hacks that I keep in mind always, this will help you too. Understand it and get it by heart, you can thank me now!
- Assign a “Home” for everything, see to it that all things go back to their homes once used.
- Always plan multiple things/tasks if you are getting up from your spot. i.e.- If I am getting up to switch off the fan I will fill up all the water bottles that are placed nearby.
By now I am sure even you are convinced to have an organized life for yourself. If you are someone who believes it is a hard task to be organized, please relax. Because it is not a hard task if it becomes a habit.
I am here to help you learn how to make organizing your habit. For that, I will give you my hacks to organize your home and workplace. And for that to happen you will have to keep reading on patiently.
I kept in mind these hacks to organize my workspace:
1.Your desk
It is the digital world, hence making the use of papers increasingly obsolete. It has a certain number of things and your system and is usually makes for the biggest clutter. Allocate a “Home” to each item on your desk. Look at your desk right now, see what are the category of things that you have. i.e.- Files, decorations, Stationery. Decide a convenient location for each category and stick to that location. Remember to keep the things you use regularly within hands reach and the less used items nearby.
2. Organize digitally
The rise of the Internet has brought in numerous changes in every aspect of our lives, even our desktops.. Hence making it very important to be digitally organized too. Make separate folders and subfolders for the different clients and projects you are working with. This will help you to take action more proactively once you receive an e-mail from a certain someone. Try your best to avoid a backlog of emails and don’t keep emails that don’t need any further action. Remember that your email box is a storage unit and should store emails that require action. Make extensive use of cloud-based storage for all your internal documents. Put them in folders and further subfolders.
If you are using a smartphone make sure that it “Talks’ to your system, they should be synced. Having your calendar synced across devices will help you save time and not miss deadlines.
3.Make a routine for your day
I usually plan my tasks on my way to work. I then further allocate an approximate time (+ some extra time for action to emails) and decide how to go about the particular task. This way, when I reach office I know what things I need to do in the whole day. As my day gets over I spend 15 minutes in striking off tasks that were completed in the day. This makes me feel very efficient and relaxed to see lesser jobs on my to-do list.
Hacks that helped me organize my house:
1.Put everything that you see around you in separate categories
For me personally, I see things and categorize it as which room should they go into. And once they go to that room I then make subcategorize them into which locations in the room they go. This way I clean up a messy house faster and effectively. I don’t have to come back to the same again and again to keep different things.
2.Keep a memory box
The number of pictures and souvenirs you collect over the years piles up really fast. Try imagining souvenirs from 4 trips by 4 people in just a year? Remember to only use the recent pictures and souvenirs and store the rest in a memory box.
3.Write your task down
Believe me, this is a real taker. All through the day, you keep remembering some or the other task that needs attention. It becomes easier to perform them when you have a hard copy of the tasks you want to be done. Or you can just hand it down to some other member who can look into matters that need attention. (On a side note, I just remembered that my laundry needs to be dropped off ASAP. I just wrote it down on my Pink Unicorn Notepad)
4. Complete the task once started
“A stitch in time saves 9”. It means it’s wise to spend little time on a task right now rather than keeping it for a later period when it will certainly take more time. For example, I left my bowl of Ice-cream yesterday night on my work table. I had to clean up the ants and the dried up bowl today morning. I could have saved around 5 minutes and the effort of scrubbing if I had done it yesterday itself.
Trust me, I have felt the same sense of panic. That feeling I had every time I saw a messy office and home, was terrible. You might feel a little-overwhelmed thinking where to start, but that’s okay. Take it slow and one at a time. Because an organized and stress-free lifestyle is totally worth it.
- Follow Swaraj Das Mohanty on:
