Trying to balance personal and professional life can be tough; Stress is a key factor in the development of health problems, but it can be eliminated from your life with good organization. According to experts, time management is the key to success for those who work from home. Working from home can be more stressful at times, and requires more attention to the organization. Working from home doesn't mean you have to give up a professional or productive work environment! It might seem like a challenge to set up your home office away from the rest of everyday living spaces, but all it takes is some time, ideas and creativity. Follow these simple steps to transform your home office into a pleasant, efficient and organized workspace.
Steps
Step 1. Find the perfect place
An important part of being organized in a home office is making sure you have a suitable place to use as an office only. It won't work if you use places here and there, for example the kitchen table or your kids' desk while they are at school. Instead of wandering around the house looking for the perfect place, choose a place that is away from the passage of people, where no noise or other sources of distraction arrive, and which can be the permanent location of your home office. Buy a table or desk (whichever you need) that will only be used for your work.
Step 2. Check that everything is ergonomically suitable for you
It's easy to get discouraged and start messing up when your workplace is uncomfortable. A chair that numbs your legs or a table where there isn't enough space will soon begin to see you wandering around other parts of the house trying to work on it and improve your comfort. If you are doing this, consider your workspace from an ergonomic standpoint and make the necessary changes to be comfortable. You can either ask a professional to come to your home and do it for you, or do it yourself using online guides, for example read: How to set up an ergonomically correct work station
-
If you sell items online or from home, make sure you have enough space to package, sort and store your items, as well as your usual pc and other work related stuff. A high table can be very useful if you have to pack a lot or choose from several items.
Organize Your Home Office Step 2Bullet1
Step 3. Remove the unnecessary
Clutter will make it impossible to stay organized in a home office. By staying at home, you have a greater risk of things migrating into your work area even if they shouldn't be there - for example, toys, clothes, non-work books, things thrown into your work area by others, and things you they accumulate due to your lack of self-discipline. Deal with it by eliminating any items that don't have anything to do with your job. Take a good look at the things that are there and carefully decide what you need and what you don't. And don't keep pens that no longer work; writing articles that don't work can waste a lot of work time if you have to search for new ones. At the end of this fight against clutter, you will have a lot of free space!
-
After removing the superfluous, treat yourself to three beautiful objects to refine your workspace and inspire you. Only three or less, no more. If you rotate the objects that inspire you, go for it.
Organize Your Home Office Step 3Bullet1
Step 4. Organize the cables
You've probably figured out from experience that coiled cables under your desk are great for doing three things: trapping dust, making you look disorganized, getting your feet stuck. Don't be left with that mouse nest made of cables hidden under your workplace; even if you never thought it was possible to tidy up your office cables, give it a try. This project is very easy to tackle (even for beginners) and the results are very rewarding:
- Give yourself time, elbow grease and creativity!
- Try to organize the cables in a variety of ways - each one has its own. If you like things as simple as possible, tie the cables together with tape, or lift them completely off the ground and attach them to the underside of the desk with tape or paper clips. For more complex personalities, there are all kinds of systems for organizing cables that go straight up to your desk or a nearby wall. Ultimately choose the one that works best for you, just fix those cables!
Step 5. Go wireless
Now that you've cleared up the mess under your desk, think about how to get rid of the tangle of threads on your work surface. Wireless keyboards and mice are great gadgets that free up space and give you freedom of movement. Just imagine never having to pull the mouse wire again! Note, however, that the wireless keyboard and mouse need to be recharged and new batteries from time to time, and some have a delay in waking up after a long period of inactivity.
Do not put the printer on the desk or table where you work. Buy or find a table on purpose. If this coffee table or cabinet has shelves for storing paper and ink cartridges, even better
Step 6. Make sure you have adequate lighting
A home office needs lighting that helps you see well at all hours of the day. If you are in the basement or somewhere darker than normal, consider using a daylight bulb to brighten your workspace and to help you perceive the light as more natural. Get enough lamps. To make sure your work is well lit, whether it's computer typing, surfing the net, reading, sewing or whatever.
Step 7. Label everything
Stop ruining your eyes trying to read those scribbled tags with crow's foot writing on your folders and buy a label maker instead. Having one will allow you not only to keep the contents of your lockers tidy and professional, it is also very useful for ordering records, office supplies and storage lockers. Laminated labels such as those made by Brother P-Touch are particularly suitable because they remain clean and intact. Inserting a series of mailing labels into the printer is an inexpensive alternative, especially if you print many labels together, but be careful, printing the labels one at a time and then putting a previously used partially adhesive label sheet in the printer can create a sticky tangle - don't do it with an expensive printer. The labellers that can be connected to the computer save a lot of time since they allow the insertion of data from the keyboard of the PC, which is better, or even from a database or from a file.
Step 8. Use the shelves to store the books
If you use books a lot for your work, having shelves in or near your workstation will give you the space you need to organize them so you can find them quickly rather than stacking them on your desk or floor. Try to fear clean and tidy shelves, always.
Step 9. Choose
Examine the documents and destroy the ones you don't need. We've all done it: the paper mountain that is created when you continually postpone screening junk mail and other business papers. You are able to prevent the piling of paper right away!
- Give yourself a weekly deadline to review the mail and documents that have accumulated.
- Store the things you need, throw everything else away
- It is always a good idea to have a paper shredder on hand, to eliminate cards that contain personal information (you will avoid clutter and identity theft at the same time).
- If the printed material is also found online, throw it away and store the information online. If you are concerned that the site will not hold that information for long, make a copy and save it on your pc or in your space in the cloud.
- From now on use this motto: only deal with it once. Take care of the documents as soon as you receive them, archive them or destroy them. And create a filing system that works for you; no matter what it is, the important thing is that it performs its function, and quickly!
Step 10. Clearly labeled folders in alphabetical order (or other logical order) allow faster access to documents
They should be filed with some space between them so that you don't need to push the other folders away from the one you need. Individual documents can be periodically removed and internally organized or deleted from time to time; make the process easier by adding new material consistently, for example always starting from the bottom. Older material, such as one-year-old logs, can be bundled with staples.
Step 11. Tidy up at the end of each day
Before you finish, do some cleaning. One of the best ways to keep your home office tidy and productive is to take five minutes at the end of each day to tidy up your desk: file documents, put books back on the shelves, pens and highlighters in place; every now and then also dust off the keyboard! By taking a few minutes to put everything back in place, you create a useful transition out of the work day, and ensure that the office will be a more pleasant place to return to the next day.
Advice
- Consider keeping a second chair in your workspace, one that's comfortable and suitable for reading. Put a light on it, and use it for reading breaks. Even if your work from home involves the use of tools for crafts, sewing or other manufacturing jobs, there will be times when resting in a comfortable chair, reading material with ideas regarding your work, will be a pleasant break.
- You can reduce the hassle by designing a comfortable office since you are working from home. The quality of the furniture you put in your home office is beneficial in the long run and will help improve your and your staff's productivity.
- Keep the files and emails on your computer in order as well. It will make your work much more comfortable.
- Add plants to your home office. They purify the air, beautify the environment and give you a sense of well-being.
- Be careful what works best for you; your reaction to the desk you are using or how you set up your workspace should be a guide to how your office should work for you, not against you.
- Optional but nice options to add to a home office include perfumes (use incense, scented sticks, or whatever) and some background music, if it doesn't distract you.
Warnings
- It's easy to overlook the good organization of a home office, but working from home requires the same standards of self-care and attention to work space that are required when working in any office, shop or other. Do not diminish the importance of the quality of the space, furniture and material.
- The cabinets can be very heavy and, due to the pull-out drawers, easy to unintentionally fold over. Make sure they are fixed to the wall well if there are children around. Low cabinets reduce but do not eliminate this danger.
