It goes without saying that a well-organized clean workspace has a tremendously positive impact on your productivity. With no mess lying around on your desk, you also find that your mind is less cluttered as a result.
This means that you can fully focus on the task at hand, saving you time, getting more done, and feeling way less stressed.
That being said, getting round to cleaning up your workspace, and maintaining a tidy, clear desk can be quite difficult – in some cases daunting.
The key is to be consistent in your tidying, and not to let it get on top of you before it’s too late. Your clean workspace should be treated no differently than your kitchen table, you wouldn’t sit down to eat a meal with pens and paper clips everywhere, would you?
So, without further ado, to help you stop it ever getting to that stage, here are some tips on how to maintain a clean workspace and generally keep things organized within your workspace.
Start with a bang
The first thing you need to do is declutter your workspace. Get rid of every bit of waste paper, pen lid with no pen, broken pens – you get the idea. If necessary, you can even take this chance to get rid of any broken or worn-out office furniture you might have.
Try to imagine the perfect clean workspace, somewhere you would dream of sitting down to work at. Once you know what you are trying to achieve, you will start to feel much more relaxed about the process, trust us!
Label and order things properly
What better opportunity to get all of your physical paperwork in order? It can be a daunting and time-consuming task, but you will feel much freer in the mind once this is done.
The key is to ensure that things don’t get out of hand again, and the best way to prevent that is to color code, and label things. If you take something out of a file or a drawer, make sure you put it back in its place afterward!
This part of the workstation trying up process helps you get your things back in their places and heavily reduces the risk of losing important documents. If you have extra time to spare, why not consider scanning some of your physical documents? This will also create more space, and is another easy way of decluttering your workspace.
Get some proper storage solutions
Storage boxes for your papers and files are a must if you want to keep your clean workspace.
Even getting yourself a small pen and pencils holder for your desk is a smart way of ensuring that you don’t end up with things strewn across your workspace – it also means that you should never be confused as to where your stationery and other necessary office supplies are, whenever you need to use them.
Keep your computer’s desktop tidy
So far, we have only discussed keeping the physical elements of your desk tidy. Having a well-organized workspace also means keeping the digital side of things tidy as well.
You need to set some time aside to purge files from your desktop, arrange them into folders and subfolders – generally keep everything on your computer just as tidy as you are now doing with your actual desk.
Digital sticky notes and calendars are your friends here as well, there really is no excuse not to have everything in order – after all, your daily work is done on your computer, and there is no point tearing your hair out because you can’t find important documents on your hard drive.
This is something that you have to maintain, and to do so, you need to give your computer a once over at least once every two weeks. Once you get into the swing of things, you’ll never look back – your brain will certainly thank you for it! This is probably the easiest of all changes, and can have a huge impact on your daily productivity levels.
Sort out your email inbox
Having a tidy desktop is one thing, but you also need to think about sorting out your emails. Lots of handy information can be easily buried in the mire if you don’t.
As with all the pointers in this article, doing these little things are the steps that bring you the biggest gains. When everything is properly organized, you can focus your mind on getting as much work done as possible, with few distractions.
Don’t let yourself slack off!
As with any new habit, the office workstation organization takes a lot of practice and dedication. Before you actually sit down to work or knock off for the day, take a few minutes to tidy up your workspace and put your things back where they live. It’s probably best to do this at the end of each day, so that you have a shiny, tidy spot to work when you come to sit down the next day.
Having your workstation in tip-top shape before you start work will do wonders for your mood, so what better way to start the working day than to give yourself a pat on the back for keeping up with your tidying up? All that can possibly lie ahead is a fully productive day!
To round up…
As you can see from the advice given above, it’s clear that maintaining a tidy desk and a professional workstation is key to keeping your productivity levels high. Once you master the art of keeping a clean desk, you won’t look back – even imagining working in an untidy spot will be enough to turn your stomach.
If you still find yourself struggling, an easy way to stay on top of things is to put up little notes around your now tidy workstation which remind you of how well you are doing in keeping everything organized. Maybe even a photo of what your desk looks like when it really is tidy!
Hopefully, once you have got to grips with organizing your workstation, you will see other changes in the way that you generally organize your work and personal life – the benefits to keeping things neat and tidy far outweigh any negatives! So, what are you waiting for, get started and make use of our desk tidying ideas!
BONUS TIP:
Background noise can have a drastic impact on productivity and concentration, whether you are working remotely from home, or in the office. Now that you have a tidy workstation, why not go a little further and block out these pesky distracting noises?
If you regularly use (or plan on using) noise-cancelling headphones when making calls over the Internet, then you should definitely check out Krisp.
This nifty noise cancelling app filters out all background noise at both ends of calls, leading to a significant boost in the quality of your calls. It works with over 600 conferencing, messaging and streaming apps as well as any headphones of your preference.
How do you go about keeping your workspace clean? Share your best tips on Twitter and tag us!
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Next section: How To Be Productive Working From Home In 7 Steps
