Conquering Chaos: The Home Office
Here are a few tips to create a calm and welcoming home office:
- Clear your desk of personal mementos. Hang them on the wall or place them on a shelf so that you are left with room to work.
- Keep a few extra office supplies (paper clips, staples, etc.) in your top drawer - no more than a month’s supply.
- Only keep those items that you use daily on top of your desk (stapler, small pencil cup, tape dispenser).
- Store larger amounts of office supplies in one area so you will be able to do a quick visual inventory of what you have on hand.
- Collect all sticky notes and scraps of paper. Add them to your master list and/or calendar.
- When you complete a phone call make a note of the next action required and immediately schedule it in your calendar or place it on your master list.
- Take 10 minutes at the end of the workday to straighten up your desk and make tomorrow’s to-do list.
I have found a great resource on how to organize your desk, workday, briefcase, home office or just about anything. Peter Walsh’s book How to Organize (just about) Everything: more than 500 step-by-step instructions for everything from organizing your closets to planning a wedding to creating a flawless filing system (Free Press 2004) has tons of great ideas.
So take a small step and see where and when you can create a calm home office.
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