Staying organized is a vital way to maintain a healthy, working professional and personal life. Nothing positive comes from a disorganized desk space or cluttered desktop on your computer. Check out what Chron has to say about the importance of staying organized: “Efficiency is perhaps the greatest advantage of organizational skills. An organized professional will spend less time correcting mistakes, searching for information and fixing any clutter. More time saved means more time doing productive things. Aside from a positive impact on time management, organizational skills will make it more convenient for employees to share any information with each other, thus working better as a team.” If you read that quote or even took a look at our title and felt like you want to be a more organized worker, but just don’t know how, don’t worry. Today, we’re bringing you 7 Helpful Tips for Becoming Organized and Staying Organized.

• Clear out Unnecessary Clutter- Before you even begin to re-organize or add anything more to your office, clean out all of the unnecessary clutter! If you’ve worked in the same office for years and years, it’s incredibly easy to accumulate junk that needs to be purged. Old notes, files, post-its, etc do not need to take up that space in your drawers or bins. It’s time to purge. Yes, purge. If you have too many personal items--purge those too. Anything that you feel as though is unnecessary to your everyday working life--purge. Unsure of what to toss? Refined Rooms has an awesome list of unnecessary items to get rid of such as:

  • Paper

  • outdated tech/software

  • mystery cords/cables

  • broken equipment

  • broken pens

  • excessive supplies

  • empty printer ink cartridges

  • old books

  • excessive knick knacks

  • any other items that don’t belong

• Invest in Organizational Containers- If you don’t have much that you’re able to purge, consider investing in organizational containers. Nowadays it’s so easy to search on Amazon or even head into your nearest Container Store for easy organizational items to help organize your desk, drawers, and whatever else you’ve got going on in your office. Consider a pen holder, or filing system, or even little clear trays to fill up that top drawer. It’ll make your life a whole lot easier and will leave everything looking organized. It also cuts back on all that rummaging that we know you do when you can’t find something...it’s okay, we rummage here and there as well.

• Put things Back Where they Came From-Sorry to sound like your mother, but put your items away when you’re finished using them! Yes, those tips from your mother and kindergarten teacher still apply as an adult. When you remove a pen...put it back..if you open your drawer and took out a file...put it back. It’s really that easy. If you find that you’re too busy to clean up after yourself then schedule some time to clean up your office during the week. Don’t act like you don’t have the time, we know you take those hour long lunch breaks...you can easily come back 10 minutes early and spruce up the place. You won’t regret it. Make it apart of your morning or evening routine as you come in or as you leave. The best time to do this would honestly be before you leave for the evening so that when you return to work in the morning or on Monday, your desk and office space is all nice and tidy and ready for the day.

• Labels...Labels Everywhere-Yes, buy a label maker. Especially if you have important files, folders, or tons of paperwork. You can find them online for low costs and they will definitely complete that organizational to-do list you’ve been making. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to work. Amazon has a label maker right now on Prime for under $20. That’s not a bad deal and it’s something that you can use forever. Consider it if you have a lot of bins or a large filing system.

• Organize your Desktop- Today, everything is digital. We mean everything. If you don’t work on a computer for most of the day, you’re one of the rare ones. Your desktop on your computer is a huge source that is prone to virtual clutter. We understand that your computer may have more on it than just work related content. What better reason to organize? It doesn’t have to be too grueling, just separate out the content for work and the content that’s personal and pile it all into a folder. If you’re a client-focused worker, consider a folder for your clients. Or, consider a folder for leads, a folder for blogs, a folder for images you make - whatever it may be, you can make a folder for that. Another way to organize your desktop, just as point #1 mentioned, purge. Delete old files or anything else that takes up space on your computer.

• Limit What You Bring into Work- This is for all of you that love to decorate and love to add knick knacks to every open corner ...stop! There’s nothing wrong with decorating your office, but just like anything else, too much of anything is a bad thing! If you bring something new in, consider removing something. Basically, replace the old, don’t keep bringing in the new. It becomes too junky and then when you’re reaching across your desk you knock all of it over and now you’re mad - I may be speaking about myself here...But that’s beside the point, limiting what you bring means limiting the clutter.

• Ergonomics is your Friend- Time for a vocab lesson! Have you heard of the term ‘ergonomics’ but just don’t know exactly what it means? No problem. Here’s a quick definition from Humanscale: ergonomics is “the science of fitting a workplace to the user’s needs, ergonomics aims to increase efficiency and productivity and reduce discomfort.” Basically, ergonomics allows for the best use of your space to help you work to the best of your ability. This can come down to the height of your desk to the size of the lamp. Ergonomics helps you stay organized while also promoting efficiency. Read more about it and research useful tips to help your space become more ergonomic!

What did we miss? Do you have more ways that help you stay organized in the workplace - we want to know. Let us know if you’re a messy worker or tidy.