14 Ways to Turn a Chaotic Workspace into an Organized Haven
Do you dread walking into your own office? Do you find yourself stressed out after working in your shop for only less than an hour? Are you missing deadlines often? Do you feel overwhelmed at work? If you do experience many of these, then perhaps your workspace may be a bit chaotic? Here are 14 ways to turn a chaotic workspace into an organized haven:
Clear the clutter off your desk. This includes old coffee cups and water bottles, snack wrappers, old tissues, tools that have homes, piles of files, post it notes, and anything else that does not need to be on your desk.
Have a home for everything. Have a place for pens, tools, papers, trash, scraps, proofs, quotes, materials, and so on.
Empty the trash and recycling bins at the end of every work day.
File away old projects that you are no longer working on. There is no need to keep looking at those files when you can be focusing on working on and bringing in new projects.
Remove piles of papers, shop materials, supplies from the floor and place them in a filing cabinet, shelf or storage room.
Schedule your breaks and stick to them, especially if you find yourself missing them. Set an alarm if you need to.
Create multiple workspaces within your space. Perhaps have a desk for your computer work, another desk/table for your non-computer work, a supply area and a discard area.
Train yourself to read a document once and then file it. If you leave it out in a pile, you will pick it up and read it again. Read and file, read and file will save you lots and lots of time.
Keep those items you use the most close to you so you can easily reach them.
Label, label, label. Label filing cabinets, folders, shelves, bins, etc., so that you and others can easily know where everything belongs.
Organize your computer. For example, when naming files, include dates and departments. These can help when searching for them. Also folders can do wonders for keeping your computer organized.
Don't do it all yourself! Sometimes we can't do it all and need to assign tasks to others!
Hang a picture that you enjoy looking at. This can help clear your mind when feeling overwhelmed and help reset your mood and mindset.
Use software like shopVOX shop management software. It can help manage and organize your sales leads, quotes, projects, jobs, customers, staff, materials, products, invoices and resources effectively and efficiently. You can replace your piles of papers and even many of your filing cabinets with shopVOX.
Using these tips will certainly turn a chaotic office into a more organize haven! A year from now you may wish you had started today. -Karen LambSo, make some of these changes today!!! Let us know how they work for you. Also if you have any tips to share, please share them below. Want to learn more about shopVOX? Great! Sign up for a free webinar and you will learn how this amazing shop management software will help you organize your workspace better.