Years ago, business professionals only had one desktop to keep clean—the physical desk space upon which their typewriter, pens, paper, a mug, and a phone was kept. There was no computer desktop to keep organized, because there weren’t computers. The office was almost always located in a traditional office building. Sometimes, people worked a bit at home in the evenings if they were lucky enough to have a typewriter of their own. These heavy, cumbersome items were often kept in closets or on tables and used only occasionally, since most people had to stay at the office for rush work assignments and the occasion of working from home did not present itself very often.
Thanks to technology, we are no longer as tied to our desks as we once were and professionals may work at home, while traveling, in metro stations, on airplanes, and even on vacation. Educated and highly skilled professionals have more mobility in our society than they have ever had in the past. However, this mobility also means that we now have many desktops to keep clean and uncluttered. If you’re working at home some days in a home office, at a shared office space other days, and at corporate headquarters once a month while traveling, you have many desks to keep clean—meaning both physical desks and virtual desktops.
Focus all your workplace organisation efforts into these three areas and you’ll experience a boost in productivity and a decrease in stress.
1. Organise your desk and workspace
Take a look at your desk area. If you’re seeing unsightly piles of papers, scattered devices, random books, or other things like this then your workspace could be decreasing your productivity. According to the principles of Feng Shui, a work desk should be free of clutter to encourage distraction-free working and higher creativity levels. You’ll work more effectively at a tidy, organized desk than a messy one. What do you really need on your desk? What do you need to have at arm’s reach, and what is unnecessary? Do you need some office storage furniture to neatly store away papers and items of importance? Several recent research studies suggest that untidy work environments can inhibit professional success, which backs up the age-old principles of Feng Shui with modern research. If you have multiple locations you work from, you should organize each of these areas for maximum productivity.
2. Optimise your computer desktop for productivity
How many files are jumping for your attention when you open up your laptop or log on to your computer? If the answer is that you have more files on your desktop than you really need to access today, it’s time to start creating folders and get organized. Every time you have to visually sort through files on a desktop, you’re wasting time that could be spent more valuably elsewhere. Make separate folders for photo files, document files, and other major types of files you have. Within these files, create folders for “Working Documents” and “Archived Documents.” Drop files in their appropriate location.
3. De-clutter your phone and tablet/iPad
Does your smartphone or tablet have apps you aren’t really using on a regular basis? Not only are these apps cluttering up your screen (making you swipe through 3 or 4 screens to get to that project management app you need for work), but it’s also taking up memory space on your device. If you haven’t used an app in over a month, and you don’t anticipate using it this month, it’s time to ditch it. There may be some exceptions to this rule (some paid apps you might only use occasionally, such as a ride planning app for when you visit Hong Kong Disneyland, for instance), but in general most of the apps you aren’t using on a regular basis are simply cluttering up your phone. If it’s a free app and you aren’t using it right now, delete it and if you need it again you can download it later and be sure to get the most up-to-date-version.
To maximize productivity, you should keep your workplace environment as clean and uncluttered as possible to minimize distractions, increase your working speed, and enhance creativity. This often means you need to spend some time each week attending to the different “desktops” you use in your workday: your main office desk itself, your computer’s desktop, your tablet desktop, your smartphone main screen, your laptop desktop, your upstairs office desk, and even that occasional workstation you use when you’re at company headquarters in Tokyo. Each area (physical or virtual) that you enter into in order to work carries with it the potential for distraction and a decrease in productivity. Staying organized will increase the time you spend on each task, so you aren’t scrambling for a pen during an important phone call or sifting through a disorganized mess of computer files to get the one you need.
You can rent perfectly organized office workstations at CEO Suite, with flexible contracts ranging from a week to 2 years or more. You can also opt for a virtual office, which gives you a prestigious office address (no more worries about clients dropping by your apartment!) and access to executive VIP lounge and mail services. As the finest multi-national serviced office company in Asia (with locations in 7 countries), we also offer company registration services. Contact CEO Suite today to find out more about renting office space, conference facilities, or reserving a virtual office location for your business expansion.