Home Office - Tips for Better Organization
More of us are working from home than ever before, and the effectiveness of our workspace has a huge impact on how we feel. Get it wrong and you may feel tired, stressed and unproductive. Get it right, however, and a well-organized home office can go a long way in securing your work from home success. Here is everything you need to know about the importance of a tight home office.
Concentration
Clutter can make a huge difference to our levels of concentration. It can draw our attention away from important tasks but it can also affect us on a subconscious level. Even if you think that mess doesn’t bother you, some studies have found that when people clear clutter from their workspace they are better able to concentrate on tasks. This is because our brains are hard-wired to like order, and so visual cues for disorganization can reduce our ability to focus.
Productivity It may surprise you to learn that working in a messy space can increase your chances of procrastinating. Motivating yourself when working from home is a challenge for many people, so decluttering your space is an easy fix to increase your chances of a productive workday.
A properly organized work space can also save you time. When you know where everything is you won’t waste precious time on finding that document you need or searching around for a pen. They may sound like small tasks, but together they soon add up. One study suggests that workers lose an average of 2 hours a week on these kinds of activities. Once you get those hours back you can spend them on the things that matter most.
Mood Clutter is intrinsically linked to stress, which over time can have a devastating effect on our mood. It can increase our anxiety, make us feel tired and even, in extreme cases, make us feel depressed. We spend much of our lives at work, so you owe it to yourself to make your working environment as clean and organized as possible. Keeping tidy may take some getting used to, but it’s a commitment well worth making for your long-term happiness and wellbeing.
Tips For Organizing Your Home Office
So we know the importance of a tight home office, but how exactly can you achieve it? Here are some quick tips to help you on your way.
Tidy regularly instead of letting mess accumulate.
Organization may not come naturally to everyone, but by tidying little and often you are transforming an overwhelming task into something that’s easy and manageable. Why not set a timer for 10 minutes at the start of each work day? It’s enough to sort out any mess and will put you in a great frame of mind for the rest of the day.
Use drawer organizers to separate your items out into easily identifiable sections.
We’ve all had that one drawer that just seems to turn into a secondary trash can. There may be some truth in ‘out of sight, out of mind’, but when it comes time to find something you may run into some trouble. Using drawer organizers is a great way to see where things are at a glance. You could even use a label maker to clearly mark which drawer contains which items.
Separate your living and working area.
When you work from home it can be easy for your work and home life to blur into one. But when you start eating at your desk or doing other tasks in your workspace, it doesn’t take much for it to start looking messy. Carve out a dedicated space in your home that’s only for your work, whether it be an entire office or just the corner of a room.