September 22, 2014

De-clutter your office!

With more and more offices and companies converting to a completely digital format when it comes to paperwork, meetings and the like, office spaces are becoming far less cluttered with objects that are no longer needed when everything is available online. However you will still need to keep paper copies of various receipts, meetings, notes and more and it is important to keep these in good order to avoid office clutter.

Nowadays people are far more technology conscious than before, however when it comes to being physically organised we can still fall short, so let us have a look at some great ways you can de-clutter your desk, be it at the office or at your home office desk.

Keep Desks/Tabletops Clear

Often our desks and tables get cluttered by simply placing something down and forgetting about it. Bric-a-brac can quickly build up and suddenly you’re looking at a pile of paperwork and old staples that you forgot were there. Working at a cluttered or piled desk can be stressful and stifling; a clean, open desk feels less overwhelming than a desk full of clutter, so instead of placing something on the desk when you have finished using it, hide it away in a drawer or in a cabinet.

Does it really need to be printed?

Some employers like to have a print out of everything that transpires online as a sort of ‘safety net’. While this is a good idea it is not very practical to print every little exchange out just in case the server suffers a power failure. Only make printouts of the most important documents and keep them well hidden and organised in a cabinet or filing folder. If you are really worried about losing all of your files to a system failure or a power cut, the Cloud can store files and information online and you can always save the files to a backup regularly to ensure that a spare digital copy exists in the event of a power failure. However with a backup, make sure to update it regularly otherwise you may risk losing newer files altogether!

Keep only what you need

Approximately 80% of paperwork we keep is never looked at again. It can be very easy to allow small hand written notes and meeting summaries to be kept in drawers. If you need to keep this information, make sure to type it up and share it on a server where it will be more useful and then dispose of the physical copy. With archived paperwork, generally receipts, instruction manuals and warranties are kept and should be disposed of if they are over 2 years old. The exception is tax and legal documents which should be kept for 7 years although some may be longer. Check your documents!

When you work on a clean desk with little to no paperwork, everything you need is right at your fingertips and you won’t need to go searching through piles and piles of papers just to find one document. Plus, clean and tidy desks help to reduce stress and contribute to a better office atmosphere by creating a clean, open environment. Start to de-clutter your desk today!