Do you know that the cleanliness of the workspace also affects employees’ productivity? By cleanliness, we mean the hygiene as well as the way in which an office is organized. Many people think that organizing the office is a time-consuming task. Hence, they avoid doing it.
But, those people will start de-cluttering their workspaces if they will know how much time a messed up office actually waste. In addition, employees remain distracted in a messy workspace because they have to spend time finding various files, documents, etc. in between their work.
Maintaining your workspace is not a big task if it’s done regularly. Of course, it will become a burden if you will try to clear the mess of months on a single day. So, employees, as well as the leaders, should always focus on organizing the workspace regularly. It will only take 5-10 minutes when done daily by everyone.
So, you should start clearing out the mess of your office today in order to boost your productivity. Let’s discuss how you can do it:
- Purge your Workspace:
The first step is identifying the things that are no longer useful to you. This can be a long process in big offices. So, you can do it section by section. Pick up a room or section each day and look around.
Consider each and everything while doing so; be it office furniture, supplies, equipment or old decoration pieces. Remove the things that are either useless or look very old and shabby. Get rid of old art pieces and let the place be empty until you can purchase another art piece to fill it.
- Put Everything Back in its Place:
People usually have a habit of putting things anywhere after work is done. They never bother to keep the pen or stapler or the notepad on the place designated for it. This common habit is the reason of most of the clutter.
So, you should keep all the things in the right place after using them. If you are the leader of the workspace, then you should also motivate your employees for doing so. If you are an employee, then you can advise others by putting general posters about keeping everything at place. Half of your clutter will be sorted like this.
- Create Work Zones:
Work zones assist in keeping the workspace properly organized. By creating work zones, you decide which activities are allowed in which areas of the office. After this division, people become more aware of the accurate places of certain things.
For example, you can organize all the office supplies properly by creating a unique supply area. If you don’t have much space, then you can designate distinct cupboards to store the office supplies. In the same way, you can organize the utensils by creating a pantry, office files by creating storage rooms, etc.
- Store the Things Wisely:
Have you ever thought why people don’t keep the things at the place from where they picked up? Yes, sometimes it happens due to laziness, other times it’s the result of the wrong way of storing things.
For example, an employee needs a stapler 5-10 times a day. Now, it is kept in another room which is situated far away from his work desk. The employee will surely go once to take it, but he/she will never go again to keep it in the same place. So, you should keep the most useful things near the works desks or in drawers of these desks, and the less useful things can be stored in faraway areas.
- Label Everything:
Labeling the drawers, cupboards or other storage spaces saves time while keeping and retrieving the goods and supplies. Anyone new to the office can know where to keep a particular thing and where to find something with the help of labels.
Making labels is not a very time-consuming task. You just have to cut chits of similar size and write the name of a particular thing or group of things which that label represents. You can also use readymade stickers and sticky notes for labeling the drawers, bins, boxes, etc. These labels will eliminate the clutter.
- Improve your Filing System:
Those huge piles of files ruin the office interiors and make it look messy. In this digital era, you don’t need to keep everything in hard copy. Some of the documents can be stored in soft copy only. If you are storing files on your system, then ensure to do regular back-ups.
You can smoothen up your filing system by using the following storage ideas:
- Create a Meeting Folder: Make a meeting folder on your computer to keep all the documents and reports related to upcoming meetings.
- Use Storage Boxes: Put all the archive files in inexpensive boxes and store them away from your regular usage files.
- Use Magazine Boxes: Store the important magazines or catalogs in the magazine boxes or binders. Store only work-related magazines in it.
- Make a Reading Folder: Create a reading folder for documents or printed papers that you want to read but are not urgent.
- Update the Files Weekly: During work, there are chances that you mingle up all the documents that meant to be kept in different files. So, take out one hour weekly to re-arrange all the documents as per the designated files and boxes.
- Keep the Work Desks Clear:
Cleaning work desks is an essential thing. Ask your employees to clean the mess from the work desks regularly. Remove everything and put back only the necessary things in an orderly manner.
Remove the notes that are no longer useful. Throw away the used supplies and things. You can click the images of important pages from the old diaries instead of keeping all of them in your drawers.
You can keep your workspace neat, tidy and clutter-free by following all these steps. Remember that, de-cluttering requires team efforts. So, you should also inspire and motivate others to keep their surroundings clean.