How to Organize Your Workplace for Success

A disorganized workplace can be a huge source of stress—and a drain on profitability. According to Forbes ASAP, the average business executive wastes 150 hours per year looking for misplaced information. All this wasted time loses the company money and distracts from their real goals. Imagine, then, how much of a difference workplace organization can make. Here are five tips on how to organize your workplace for success.

Tackle the Piles of Paper

The average office keeps nineteen copies of every document—no wonder so many of our workplaces are drowning in paper! This unnecessary storage makes it difficult to find what you need, when you need it. Begin your workplace organization by getting rid of unnecessary paper so that you only file what is essential.

Use the Seven Information Management Questions™

Knowing what to toss is one of the hardest parts of organizing your workplace, which is why it is so easy for clutter to accumulate. The seven key questions to information management can help. As you consider the documents and information you handle as a business, ask:

  1. What do I need to keep?
  2. In what form should this information be stored?
  3. How long do I need to keep it?
  4. Whose job is it to file the information?
  5. Who should have access to it?
  6. Where can it be found?
  7. How do we back it up in case of emergency?

Armed with these seven questions, you can safely determine what to do with every piece of information that enters your workplace. Design an office organizational system that works for your business, then stick with it.

Stop Postponing Decisions

Clutter is postponed decisions®. Once you have a system of workplace organization for information management, you need to use it. Some executives are guilty of picking up the same document 30-40 times before they decide what to do with it. Reclaim that time by managing the flow of paper and information as it passes your desk every day. Ask yourself: do I need to act on this document, does it need to be filed, or can I toss it now?

Remember Your Digital Workspaces

Companies don’t use 80% of what they store—this applies both physically and digitally! Wading through a disorganized email inbox or file management system can zap productivity. Treat your digital workspace like you do your newly-organized physical one. Act on things that need your attention, file things you need for reference, and delete the rest.

Delegate Document Management Responsibility

Question three on the list of information management questions is often overlooked—how long do I need to keep this information? Clutter often builds up when we neglect reviewing our filing systems to purge information that we no longer need to keep. As part of your new workplace organizational system, delegate who is responsible for the all-important job of weeding out the file cabinet—and when. If you answered question #3 when you filed the document initially, the decision has already been made and the rest is just follow-through.

Professional Business Organizing Services

As a professional yourself, you understand the value of bringing in an expert to get the job done. Totally Organized Founder Traci Olivares is a Certified Productive Environment Specialist (CPES) through the Productive Environment Institute. Along with a team of professional business organizers, she can help you transform your disorganized workplace into a space optimized for productivity and efficiency. Get in touch today to learn more about Totally Organized workplace organization services!