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How to Organize Your Home Office for Maximum Success
By Kathryn Bechen
Is your home office a paper prison where you're grueling or a productive garden where you're blooming? Boost your home office and business productivity with these practical office organizing tips:
Space Place. Choose a space in your home that will be comfortable and free from distractions. You may not need an entire room. The empty space under a stairwell, a walk-in closet, or a large table hidden from view by a screen at the end of your living room often work well.
Escapade Desk-a-pade. Find a desk that fits your body and is comfortable for you. This can be anything from a door placed on top of two filing cabinets, to an office armoire with doors, to your grandmother’s antique library table. Likewise, make sure your chair is also comfortable.
Corral Clutter. Use creative containers to store your supplies. Colorful photo boxes with lids work well as a “brain box” to hold the creative ideas you’ve written on scraps of paper, pretty planters work to hold pens and pencils, and wicker baskets can house books and larger office supplies.
Phone-a-Thon. Set up an office line specifically for your business. Purchase a spiral bound phone message pad with carbons from the office supply store to record your phone messages and numbers. Don’t rely on your answering machine to store your messages.
E-Mail Detail. Check e-mail only three times per day. Delete unwanted e-mails immediately. Keep your replies brief and use computer file folders to save reference e-mails you may need later.
File Don’t Pile. Set up action file folders for all work in progress, and label them TO DO, TO READ, TO CALL etc. Sort reference papers and materials by category and file alphabetically in labeled file folders placed in filing cabinet drawers. Create a list/index on your computer of every file folder and update the list as you add or delete files to the file drawer.
Mail Call. Process incoming mail immediately. Open and toss extraneous material. Sort and put the rest in your action file folders. Act on the papers in the file folders every day, or at the least, every other day to avoid not taking action indefinitely.
Book Nook. If your space is small and you need shelving for reference books, place the shelving all the way up to the ceiling. Be sure to secure it to the wall well to avoid injury.
Let There be Light. Install adequate ceiling and/or desk lighting to avoid eyestrain and create a pleasant glow.
The Business of Bliss. Paint your home office space your favorite color and surround yourself with things you love. Fresh flowers, your children’s pictures, business awards, and beautiful art all contribute to creating your very own “bliss business.”
Enjoy!
c Kathryn Bechen & Kathryn Bechen Ink. All rights reserved worldwide. Kathryn Bechen is the founder of Kathryn Bechen Ink, and is a published freelance writer who specializes in writing for the home & garden, interior design/decorating, and professional organizing niches, and for business owners in those fields. Her writing has been featured in newspapers, newsletters, magazines, and on the internet. She is also the author of e-books on decorating and organizing, and she founded her own successful hands-on office organizing and seminar company, Organized With Ease, which she managed for several years. For more information, and to receive Kathryn's free article: It’s Wise to Containerize: 11 Clever Tips to Organize Your Home, visithttp://www.KathrynBechenInk.com.
Space Place. Choose a space in your home that will be comfortable and free from distractions. You may not need an entire room. The empty space under a stairwell, a walk-in closet, or a large table hidden from view by a screen at the end of your living room often work well.
Escapade Desk-a-pade. Find a desk that fits your body and is comfortable for you. This can be anything from a door placed on top of two filing cabinets, to an office armoire with doors, to your grandmother’s antique library table. Likewise, make sure your chair is also comfortable.
Corral Clutter. Use creative containers to store your supplies. Colorful photo boxes with lids work well as a “brain box” to hold the creative ideas you’ve written on scraps of paper, pretty planters work to hold pens and pencils, and wicker baskets can house books and larger office supplies.
Phone-a-Thon. Set up an office line specifically for your business. Purchase a spiral bound phone message pad with carbons from the office supply store to record your phone messages and numbers. Don’t rely on your answering machine to store your messages.
E-Mail Detail. Check e-mail only three times per day. Delete unwanted e-mails immediately. Keep your replies brief and use computer file folders to save reference e-mails you may need later.
File Don’t Pile. Set up action file folders for all work in progress, and label them TO DO, TO READ, TO CALL etc. Sort reference papers and materials by category and file alphabetically in labeled file folders placed in filing cabinet drawers. Create a list/index on your computer of every file folder and update the list as you add or delete files to the file drawer.
Mail Call. Process incoming mail immediately. Open and toss extraneous material. Sort and put the rest in your action file folders. Act on the papers in the file folders every day, or at the least, every other day to avoid not taking action indefinitely.
Book Nook. If your space is small and you need shelving for reference books, place the shelving all the way up to the ceiling. Be sure to secure it to the wall well to avoid injury.
Let There be Light. Install adequate ceiling and/or desk lighting to avoid eyestrain and create a pleasant glow.
The Business of Bliss. Paint your home office space your favorite color and surround yourself with things you love. Fresh flowers, your children’s pictures, business awards, and beautiful art all contribute to creating your very own “bliss business.”
Enjoy!
c Kathryn Bechen & Kathryn Bechen Ink. All rights reserved worldwide. Kathryn Bechen is the founder of Kathryn Bechen Ink, and is a published freelance writer who specializes in writing for the home & garden, interior design/decorating, and professional organizing niches, and for business owners in those fields. Her writing has been featured in newspapers, newsletters, magazines, and on the internet. She is also the author of e-books on decorating and organizing, and she founded her own successful hands-on office organizing and seminar company, Organized With Ease, which she managed for several years. For more information, and to receive Kathryn's free article: It’s Wise to Containerize: 11 Clever Tips to Organize Your Home, visithttp://www.KathrynBechenInk.com.
