Now more than ever, people are working from home. For many people this may be a totally new experience, and to ensure it is a smooth one, here are a few tips to help you stay organized at your home office.
Setup your own space at home
Allocate a designated work space for yourself at home and keep your space organized. Keep a minimal and streamlined workspace. Clutter in your work area can cause confusion and mistakes, and cause you to waste time looking for things.
To avoid nuisances and interruptions, identify a workspace that comes with the least potential for noise. If a separate home office is not possible, work out of a nook or corner of your bedroom.
Embrace ergonomics in your workstation setup. Make sure you have a chair that helps you maintain proper posture, keep your wrist at a 90-degree angle to your keyboard, and keep your monitors at eye level.
Install a shelf over your desk
Expand your work space by adding shelving above your desk. This creates room to store extra files, tech items, or books.
Keep your desktop organized with an organization station
Make sure you have enough space on the top of your desk to read, write, and work. You can hang organizers onto your wall. For example, install a bulletin board to keep your calendar, schedule, or to-do list in clear view, and include desk organizers for the office supplies you use on a regular basis.
Use drawer dividers
Use small boxes or acrylic dividers to divide and organize your desk drawer space. Keep small notepads, paper clips, stapler and staples, sticky notes, small cords, memory sticks in their own compartments.
Install a Keyboard Tray
With a nifty keyboard tray, you can keep your laptop or notepad safely stowed when not in use.
Additional storage
A smart looking filing cabinet, drawer unit, or small table storage caddy at the side of your desk provides additional storage to ensure your workspace remains uncluttered.
Digital planners to keep you organized
There are many digital planners to help keep your work tasks organized. Here are a few that are highly rated:
Any.do
To-do lists, reminders and a calendar all in one app. Create lists, take notes, and schedule appointments, all in one interface.
Clear Todos
Clear Todos keeps your tasks organized by color-coding them. Straightforward but visually appealing checklists.
Fantastical
Fantastical is a scheduling app that allows users to organize personal projects, work meetings and family activities across time zones and devices. Includes video link detection for Zoom and Google conference calls, and more.
Microsoft ToDo
Break tasks down into simple steps, add due dates, and set reminders for your daily checklist to keep you on track.
Remermberthemilk.com
Enter your task’s properties in one line, including due date, priority, repeat, tags, and more. Subtasks break your tasks down into smaller, more manageable pieces.
Paper planners to keep you organized
A paper organizer? In 2021? Yes, for many people their phones are almost a constant distraction. Reminders, emails, text messages, news headlines, Instagram, and group chats can keep your phone buzzing and keep you distracted. Having a paper daily planner takes you away from these constant distractions and keeps your tasks and projects organized. Also, it will never freeze up, need rebooting or have other Internet or IT problems.
Here are a few daily planners that have received good reviews:
The Daily Planner from Completist
It is undated, so it’s flexible in case you stop filling it out for awhile. Each weekday has its own page. There is a section for a to-do list, a section for appointments and meeting times, and a box for random notes
The Moleskine XL Softcover
Each left-side page is a weekly calendar with space to mark meetings, while the right is a blank, lined sheet of paper to fill up with notes and tasks.
It has year-long and month-long calendars to write in appointments, work phases, and other important dates. The majority of the pages are set up as weekly spreads, with space to list goals, random ideas, and individual checklists for each day of the week.
Get help from a professional
A professional organizer can put you at ease and help you get and keep your home in order. Renaissance Lifestyles, a Calgary organizer and senior and personal concierge, is fully equipped with the storage solutions and decluttering techniques that will work for your unique needs and living space. Contact us today.