Disorganized at work?

Are you disorganized at work? I often visit clients at their work during off-hours to help them organize their office space. One client felt her office was so messy that she never let people in for fear of papers flying everywhere. But she isn’t alone.
According to a study by the National Association of Professional Organizers, 27% of those surveyed feel disorganized at work, and 91% said they would be more effective and efficient in their workspace if it were better organized. Clutter and disorganization at work lead to extra expense for organizations as well. ARMA International estimates that the average employee waste 3.5 hours a week and approximately $5251 a year in searching for information they cannot find.
Very few people these days have secretaries or administrative assistants. More and more, already busy executives are expected not only to fulfill their regular job duties, but also manage their filing and correspondence. For many people, this is just too much to handle, especially if they have organizational challenges. Add to this the constant interruptions of meetings and people stopping in to chat or ask questions, and you have a perfect storm for overwhelm and poor productivity.
If you find this happening to you, I have a few tips to help you out.

• Try to carve at least half an hour at the same time each day to go through your To Do list and plan out your day. This can be either at the beginning of the day before regular work hours, to plan the day ahead, or the end of the day, to plan out the following day.

• If you have an office door, keep it closed, so that you are not interrupted during your planning time. If you don’t have an office door, put on a set of head phones when you don’t want to be interrupted.

• To decrease the amount of unnecessary paper on your desk, try to keep your printing to a minimum. If you need to save articles for future reference, print them to PDF and save them in electronic folders or into an Evernote notebook.

• Keep all your To Do’s in one place, rather than having them scribbled on multiple pieces of paper. You can accomplish this by either dictating them into your phone using Siri Reminders or any other task management app that has a microphone enabled. If you prefer paper, just keep all your To Do’s in a single notebook or journal divided into different project areas.

When I work with clients in their office space, I make sure to tailor our organizational efforts to meet their needs and styles. Let me know if I can help you with yours!