Is Your Workspace a Tool in Your Productivity Toolbox?

Although many focus on personnel, processes, priorities and technology as the best tools for fueling desired results, the space in which you work can be another tool in your productivity toolbox. Just as important as what you keep can be where you keep it all, and there are key concepts to consider as you organize your office to support your greatest success.

Consider your current situation. When you look around your workspace, whether a cubicle, vehicle, co-working space, corner office or table in a coffeeshop, what do you see? Are you able to quickly find what you need? Or does the clutter overwhelm you? Is there an established process for how your work flows in and out? If it is not helping achieve your goals, take time now to organize your workspace to reinforce your efforts at attaining each goal.

- Edit the contents of your workspace. The more stuff in your space then the more you must dig through to find what is needed; therefore, utilize delete and discard to boost productivity. Keep only what is accurate, applicable, useful, bringing you joy and difficult to replicate or find later online, always taking into account any legal ramifications. As you purge accumulated excess, think about what can be recycled, shredded, donated, moved elsewhere or consolidated into fewer devices. Particularly for technology, what can be sold via Gazelle, letgo, NextWorth, OfferUp or Swappa?

- Assign homes to what will be kept. As the quote "a place for everything and everything it its place" implies, when you know where something goes, it is easier to find what you need when you need it and put it away after you've used it. Store similar items together, following the mantra of "like with like", and choose zones closest to where items will be used. 

- Separate "active" items from those considered "archive". Similar to the real estate refrain of "location, location, location" for buying spaces, the location of items in your workspace matters for ensuring the most productive organizational structure. Prioritize the space within arm's reach from where you spend most of your working hours, assigning homes to what's in your office based on how frequently you use each of them. The prime real estate should be dedicated to active files that you are using most often while archive files can be stored further away. Move shared tools to common spaces for all team members to access easily.

- Choose solutions for containing what you retain based off your personality and workflow style. Whether files, bins, baskets, drawers, shelves, boxes or cabinets, keep in mind whether you lean towards "out of sight is out of mind" or "visual clutter paralyzes". Utilize the walls and backs of doors in your workspace. Then, train yourself to purge or divide contents once any storage solution gets full, particularly utilizing the organizational concept that it's easier to dig through less stuff to find what's needed.

- Use labels and color to enhance effectiveness. Labels allow you to quickly determine what is housed where in your space while different colors can visually group together similar items as well as drive desired behaviors. There is no "right" or "wrong" verbiage to use when labeling, although "miscellaneous" tends to create a black hole to contain just about anything, but balance carefully between generic and specific labels so you have enough folders for everything while not having so many that you potentially create duplicates or struggle to file anything away. If you struggle to determine where something should be kept, how will you ever be able to find it when you need to retrieve it later?

- Implement systems reflecting how "horizontal is hidden and vertical is visible". Use vertical file holders that will not bury one folder under another, hang an inbox as well as an outbox by your door to get those items off your desktop and avoid piles on any flat surface so contents does get lost under something added later. Whether you are receiving work, completing work and retaining finished work for later reference, it's imperative to have solutions that make it easy to quickly access what's needed as well as return everything when transitioning between functions so work moves along more efficiently and effectively.

With what do you struggle in organizing your workspace? Which of these steps can you use to ensure your workspace supports attaining your greatest successes?

Does Your Workspace Support Your Productivity Goals?

When you look around your workspace, whether it is a cubicle, automobile, corner office or table in a coffeeshop, what do you see? Does the clutter overwhelm you? Can you quickly find what you need? Is there a process set for how your work flows throughout?

If it is not helping achieve your goals, take time now to make your space a tool in your productivity toolbox.

- Take time to review the contents of your workspace. Retain only what is accurate, applicable, useful or bringing you joy... It is easier to find what is needed when there is less to look through. As you are editing, consider what can be easily found online as needed. There is no need to clutter your space with what can be found quickly with a simple online search. Further, always take into account any legal ramifications.

- As you purge accumulated excess, be strategic. What can be recycled? What must be shredded? Particularly for technology, what can be sold via NextWorth or Gazelle and what could you recycle? Speaking of tech tools, what functionality can be consolidated so you have fewer devices?

- Assign homes to what will be kept, storing items in zones closest to where they will be used. Remember the quote "a place for everything and everything in its place" to stay organized. When you know where something goes, it is easier to put it away after you've used it and find it when you need it again later. Also, keep "like with like" in mind as you assign homes, grouping like items together so they can be found at the same time.

- As if you were considering a real estate purchase, when organizing your workspace, think "location, location, location" and separate "active" items from those considered "archive". Things you are using currently or use more frequently should be in the prime real estate closest to where you are situated most often; then, items used less frequently get positioned further out.

- Move shared files and tools into a common space for team members to easily access.

- Determine if your personality is more "out of sight is out of mind" or "visual clutter paralyzes" so you can choose appropriate storage tools, and contain what you retain in the best storage tools to create applicable limits, whether files, bins, baskets, drawers, boxes or cabinets. A great example is how I use document boxes to keep related items together while their project is active and being addressed regularly, but you have to utilize whichever containers best meet your specific needs.

- Utilize labels and color to enhance the effectiveness of organizational solutions. Labels allow you to quickly determine what is housed where within your space; likewise, different colors can group together similar items as well as drive desired behaviors. There is no "right" or "wrong" verbiage to use when labeling, but balance carefully between generic and specific labels to enhance effectiveness. For example, "miscellaneous" creates a black hole to contain just about anything. If you struggle to determine in which file something should be kept, how will you ever be able to find those contents when you need to retrieve them later? It can be an art form to make sure you have enough files for everything you need to keep while not having so many files that you potentially create duplicates or struggle to file anything away.

- Remember "horizontal is hidden; vertical is visible"; I recommend using file holders that will not bury one folder under another and hanging an inbox by your door so those delivering you items won't lay them in your chair or atop what's on your desk.

- Finally, utilize all the walls and backs of doors in your workspace. These areas of your space provide valuable square footage that can be wasted and go unused but will help to give you more options for storage and easily accessing necessary items.

With what do you struggle in your workspace? What steps can you take to make a more organized workspace, which will empower more efficient workflow processes?

Is Your Office Organized as a Tool for Your Success?

While many people focus on team members, processes and technology as the best tools for driving desired results, the space in which you work can be another tool in your productivity toolbox. Just as important as "what" you keep is "where" you keep it all, and there are key concepts to keep in mind as you organize your office for your greatest success. In celebration of today's National Organize Your Home Office Day, let's look at manageable steps you can take to organize your workspace.

First, retain only what's accurate, applicable, useful or bringing you joy. That rule of thumb applies to paper, electronic files, email and physical objects alike. The less you retain then the less you have to dig through in order to find what's needed, which makes it easier to get things done more quickly.

Second, be strategic about the placement of anything and everything to remain in your workspace. Assign homes to what you will keep. When everything has a home and everything is in its home, it's easier to quickly put your hands on what's needed when it's needed. Likewise, group like items together, assigning homes that place any paper, electronic files, email or physical objects near where they will be needed or used.

Third, contain what you retain in appropriate storage tools to create applicable limits. Physical items can go in bins, baskets and boxes. Paper can go in files and folders. Electronic files can go in cloud storage solutions... The key is to train yourself to purge or divide once the storage tool gets full.

Remember that labels and color enhance the effectiveness of your organizational solutions. For example, adding a label to anything helps you more easily determine what it contains and where to put what is newly arrived in your workspace. In the same way, assigning color drives behavior, particularly when you associate a color you like with contents for an action you avoid.

Utilize the mantra "horizontal is hidden; vertical is visible"... Whether you choose a vertical file holder for your desktop or baskets with labels on the front to fill your shelves, focus solutions on avoiding piles. Plus, consider how you can best utilize the walls and door of your office for additional storage space, making it easy to see at a glance what belongs where.

As if you were considering a real estate purchase, think "location, location, location" when organizing your office. The space in closest proximity to where you are most often working should be utilized for what you use most frequently. As you move away from that space, you should start with current, active files and move towards archive files that are less frequently accessed.

Finally, always remember "the power of one". While many folks say that one is a lonely number, I contend that one is a very powerful number when associated with productivity. This means one calendar, one running list of tasks to be done, one daily to-do list, one "data dump" for all your information, one address book, one weekly strategy session and one system for all your filing.

What techniques do you utilize for keeping your workspace productive and how do you maintain your organization?

Back-To-School Helps Stock Your Office

Aah... It's that wonderful time of year when newspapers & TV ads start being flooded by back-to-school specials while inserts tout "huge savings" on office supplies. Although we're still about two and a half weeks away from North Carolina's annual tax-free weekend, during this ritual of back-to-school shopping, a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils could easily replace roses, carnations or tulips, and those of us in the business of organizing workspaces start to drool over great gadgets & gizmos that'll increase your efficiency with incredible savings. It's no coincidence I just wrapped up a public presentation of "Go From 'Where'd I Put That?' to 'Here's What I Need' In No Time Flat", where I was able to utilize props to represent many of those fabulous office supplies that help to quickly locate what you need when you need it. These days, there are so many fantastic options to equip your workspace!

When addressing your need for a functional filing system, the list of necessary office supplies will often start with a DYMO LetraTAG Labelmaker, which enables a mobile solution for easily adding labels to each file folder. Speaking of file folders, I recommend 1/3-cut file folders that are a darker color on the outside and a lighter color on the inside. Color drives behavior so having a task that you don't like too much in a color that you do like a bunch will make that particular task a lot less unbearable; then, having the inside be ligher than the outside will increase the odds that the piece of paper you are attempting to file actually ends up inside the file folder you had envisioned as its destination. As you start to assign homes to each item that must be filed, start with big categories; assign one color AND one tab position to each big category, trying to keep each file folder label general enough that you don't have too many folders but specific enough to provide a home for each item to be filed. For example, all far-left-tab, green folders might be for FINANCES while those individual folders include FINANCES - Budget as well as FINANCES - Reimbursements. Likewise, all middle-tab, yellow folders might be for CLIENTS while those individual folders might be CLIENTS - John Doe as well as CLIENTS - Jane Smith. What naming convention do you use for your files?

Meanwhile, as you continue taking advantage of back-to-school savings by stocking your office supplies, please keep in mind that square or rectangular boxes, baskets and bins provide excellent options for containing related, loose items, including accessories for your tech tools, but you may also want to consider Cocoon's GRID-IT accessory organizer. In addition, clipboards provide an option for client forms or event-related checklists, and document sleeves can help organize meeting agendas, travel documents and reference items, including instructions for company-wide tools or specifics for how you are able to use your business' logo.

Above all else, though, make sure to add an Inbox on or near the entry to your workspace. Giving those individuals bringing items to you a place in which those items can be placed will empower you with control over your workspace, enabling you to address each of those items when appropriate and minimizing distractions from the important work on which you are already working.

What tools do you have in your office that assist in quickly finding what need when you need it, knowing what you should be doing at any given time and getting more done in less time? Please share in the comments below.