Organizing your office is not something too many small business owners do, even those who have a small business office in a professional office business centre. It often strikes you when you cannot find a file or that software license and declare: “where the heck did I put that?”
As overwhelming as it may seem, keeping your office space organized can be as simple as 1, 2, 3. Ok, maybe there are few more steps to organizing your office, but lets start with 5. Purging, clearing the bulletin or message board (better yet, purge it too!), clearing your desktop, and choosing a file drawer to clearing and organizing a desk drawer (one at a time).
When you look around your office space, there must be a few items that are just taking up space. These are things you have acquired and placed in your office space, but they have no relevance to your business goals. They are things that just take up space and are potential distractions, so PURGE Them. Do you really need those promotional items you got for free at some trade show? Probably not; they are just adding to the clutter!
Some small business Guru told you some words of advice and you pinned them to a bulletin board in your office, along with some coupons and other items you collected over time. When was the last time you looked at that bulletin board and took a look into what those quotes or reminders meant? The idea of a board sounds great, but if you don’t keep it updated, just trash it too.
Now you have a beautiful Oak or Glass desk, but when was the last time you actually saw the top of it? Clearing the top of your desk and having a clean work surface can make your office space feel like every day is a new beginning, and you’re not just a catch up from the day before. Make it a habit to clear your desktop every week and make yourself feel that work is accomplished.
Having to add new filing cabinets to your office space starts to crowd things even more, so why not purge or digitize the contents of older files? Yes, it is a big job to go back through old files and decide what to keep and what to get rid of, but doing it one drawer at a time helps to break up the work. Choose a file drawer each week and either toss it or scan the items in it to a digital file. Paper files just take up too much space and digital files are much cheaper to store.
Back to your desk. When was the last time you went through the “crap” that you just threw into your serviced office space desk and said you would look at it later? “Later” still has not arrived, has it? Make a point of choosing a quarterly date of going through your office desk and seeing what you can eliminate. You may actually find a lead or opportunity that you forgot about, or maybe a business card of someone that you should have contacted previously.
Keeping your office space and your desk organized may not seem simple, but planning and scheduling it can make it less of a chore and more of a building block for your small business. Finally, Do not try to do it all at once. Plan it and make the small steps a part of your business regimen, even if is is just temporary office space.