Your working environment matters a lot when it comes to focusing on your work and the tasks at hand. If you find yourself constantly distracted while working in your home office, then you should consider looking at your surroundings whether you have a messy office space, noisy background sound, or both. 

2020 had been a crazy year, and 2021 flew by just the same. You may have been stuck in your home office under a work from home setup, which blurs the line between your work life and your home life. Keep these two separate by re-organizing your home office every now and then for a refreshing and productive work space!

Check out our 5 top tips for organizing your workspace, and start cleaning your own home office for pristine and smooth operational workflow. You’ll be more efficient, less stressed, and healthier too!

1. Declutter your work desk.

One of the reasons you may not be able to concentrate well on your tasks is a messy desk. If you have a mixture of work and home files, trinkets, and food wrappers on your desk, your mind wanders off elsewhere with just the slightest distraction.

Organize your work desk by first removing all unnecessary items from your desk. Properly dispose of your food wrappers and crumpled papers, keep your home and work files in separate folders, and keep only the essentials on your desk for easy reach: pens, memo pads, chargers, calculators, tape dispenser, staples, etc. 

By keeping your work desk organized and clean, you can focus better on your work as your desk is conducive to a productive work environment. A clear desk is a clear mind, and a clear mind is up and ready to take on any workload for the day!

2. Organize the books on your shelf.

Any bookworm can relate to the problem of a messy bookshelf. Your home office or library can be filled with books with different genres, plots, and stories, but you may not have had time to organize them all. If you have work books in the mix, then it is essential for you to keep your shelf organized to conveniently find the books you need when you need them.

Keep separate shelves for your personal books and your work books. Your novels should not be mixed up with your legal and marketing books, and your files should not be scattered in your bookshelf. Organize your books by genre, title, or frequency of reading to optimize your bookshelf to the fullest. Keep your files in a separate location in folders.

3. Organize your digital files by importance and date.

Besides your physical files, your digital files can get messy when you rush in making and sending them. The search function can be helpful in finding the location of your needed files, but when you’re pressed for time, and you have multiple revisions of the same file, you may not have labeled your file properly. 

Take time to view and label each file, and place them into their designated folders depending on the project name, date, and type of files. Put together files from the same project into one folder for easy access, and don’t lose your work by backing up your files into a cloud storage or harddrive once a week.

4. Keep your cables in line.

We’ve all encountered intertwined cables and device chargers at some point. No matter how hard you try to keep them separate, these charging cables find their way to get tangled somehow! Take some time to separate your cables, and organize them so they will never again cause you problems with your electronic devices.

Use clothes pins to keep your cables separated and neatly organized on the side of your table, or use binder clips to hook these cables before they intertwine. Label your wires so you can easily find the right wire you need to charge your phone or laptop. 

5. Protect your documents from pests.

A file cabinet is great for storing documents, but in an office setting, these are typically kept in a dry, clean environment to protect them from mold, mildew, and pests. At your home office, you may not be controlling the humidity in the air as offices do, so it is important to keep your documents in good condition while storing them. 

Store your documents in plastic clear folders if applicable, and place chips of cedarwood or cedarwood oil on a piece of cotton to ward off pests from eating your important records. Keep your file cabinet away from any moisture, especially if you have a habit of eating and drinking while you work.