After the Christmas break many of us are crazy busy at work, with no chance to “ease into” the new year. The last minute rush to get things done before Christmas can mean you’ve returned to work in the New Year greeted by the chaotic desk of last year. Paperwork askew, last year’s coffee cup (with the accompanying ring stain on the desk) and a plant in desperate need of water, certainly not an ideal situation for a productive start to the year. To help you ease in to 2024 and revive your workspace, we’ve put together our top five tips for getting organised at work.
Clean it Up
It’s amazing how much garbage can collect around our desks, and we’re not just talking coffee cups and lolly wrappers. Think boxes you thought you might use, old presentations and paperwork, full notebooks etc. Don’t take last year’s refuse into a fresh New Year. Throw out any rubbish around your desk, and have a dig around in your drawers, toss any wrappers, blunt scissors, dried out highlighters and old pens (but make sure while you’re getting organised you remember to order new ones!).
By keeping things clean and tidy you’ll feel less cluttered mentally and as an added bonus, you’ll easily be able to put your hands on the things you need. While you’re at it, grab the spray or disinfectant wipes and give your desk a good clean. Once you’ve put in the extra effort to give your desk a good clean and tidy why not vow to keep it up and make it a habit for the New Year?
File and Label
While we’re all living with less paper at work, it’s inevitable that you have documents that will need to be organised. Keeping on top of your filing is a tricky one, we all know it needs to be done but we’re often too busy to do it properly. Take a moment to catch up on filing so that you can start 2024 fresh. We all have our own, favourite method of filing, so choose yours and get going. One thing you’ll definitely need when filing is labels, take those few extra minutes to properly label your files, future you will thank you.
Proper Drawer Organisation
It’s one of the most useful, and most commonly overlooked desk accessories, and yet without one your top drawer would be in complete disarray. It’s the humble drawer organiser, a vital piece of equipment for getting organised and keeping your stationery bits and bobs in order and at easy reach. Handy dividers create designated spots for your essentials like paperclips, staples and thumb tacks as well as sticky notes and your all-important calculator.
Organise those Emails
When you’re done cleaning and clearing your physical surroundings it’s time to move on to your digital work space. Start with deleting junk and old unopened mail. How good it will feel to see that anxiety-inducing number of emails going down! Next, it’s time to get filing, anything you need to keep, file it away in an appropriately named file. Then… just delete the rest, there’s no point going in to 2024 with old, no longer relevant emails from the past. In the words of a certain Disney Princess “Let it go”.
Reduce Distractions
The modern office is full of distractions, constantly buzzing mobiles and chatty co-workers discussing what they did for New Years Eve are impossible to avoid, but there are some distractions you can take control of. Take a quick look around your desk, are there any tempting distractions that are detrimental to your productivity? Your mobile phone could be a culprit, as could any magazines you might have lying around.
Try keeping your phone on silent or tucked away in your bag or drawer to give you some uninterrupted time and tuck any magazines away in a drawer (or better yet, throw them in to the recycling). As for those chatty co-workers, try popping on some headphones and see if that keeps them away, headphones should let your co-workers know that you’re focused and don’t want to be disturbed right now.
Start 2024 right by getting organised and giving yourself the best chance to stay focused, with all the right tools within easy reach. You’ll save yourself a tonne of time and your productivity will soar, just what you need to shake off the inevitable back to work blues.
