An ideal work environment is one that is clean, organized, and inviting.
After all, this is a space where you’ll be spending a lot of your time and energy. You’ll want to make sure that it’s a place you enjoy being in and that it’s conducive to your work.
It’s hard to feel motivated in a messy, cluttered office. And it’s easy for procrastination to set in when our desk is in a state of disarray. Not to mention all the time and energy we expend going through our drawers in search of office supplies. Instead of feeling calm and inspired, we feel frustrated and stressed.
But when our desk is free from clutter and when we know where our essential supplies are, we feel ready to buckle down and take care of business. Our precious energy and mental bandwidth can be used for substantive tasks and creative work.
That’s why an organized workspace is key to helping us be more productive. Visual clutter can create distractions. It’s hard to achieve flow state when we’re fixated on the piles of paperwork on our desk or the random items clogging our drawers. It’s also hard to stay productive if we have to stop what we’re doing to get up and search for supplies.
Ahead, you’ll find tips on how to improve your workspace so that you can stay organized and be more efficient with your time and energy. Plus, these tips will help you maximize the space you do have without sacrificing style.
Do a purge
First and foremost, you’ll want to purge all the clutter that’s taking up space in your work environment.
It’s important to clear and throw away items first before you start sorting and organizing them. One way to tackle the clutter in your workspace is to approach it by “zone.”
For example, the different “zones” in your work environment would be:
- Desk
- Drawers
- Shelves
- Floors
- Cabinet
- Etcetera/uncategorized items
With the zone cleaning technique, the idea is to tackle one zone before moving onto the next one. This method ensures that you are committed to finishing one entire zone, instead of going through all the zones and leaving them all in a semi-finished state.
Another approach is to de-clutter your space according to “category.” For example, clearing out paper clutter or supplies or books or trash, etc.
Remember to tackle small goals at a time. So instead of trying to completely overhaul your office in one go, give yourself some micro goals. Maybe today you’ll clear out your drawers and then tomorrow you’ll do your shelves. Doing it one step at a time will help you to stick with it, instead of feeling overwhelmed and abandoning your office clean-up altogether.
Maximize your space with cute desk organizers
So you’ve done the hard work of decluttering your space. Now it’s time for the fun part: organizing your space with cute desk accessories.
You’ll want to keep your essential office supplies within reach. This way, you don’t have to resort to fishing through your bags or searching through your drawers every time you need a pen or a stapler.
Organizing your supplies doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice style for function. Luckily, there are so many cute options out there to help you keep clutter at bay.
The ideal desk organizer would be cute, functional, and basic. This white accessory tray fits the bill with its sleek and essential design: two tiers that allow you to store supplies while maximizing space. You can keep your post-its, paperclips, pens, scissors, stapler, and other supplies that you’d like to access with ease.
You can even use accessory trays in your bedroom to store jewelry, keys, or toiletries. It would also make a great organizer in your kitchen and help you corral your kitchen accessories like chip clips, fasteners, bottle openers, rubber bands, and more.
If your drawers are currently brimming with junk, a stackable organizer will breathe more room into your space. A stackable organizer allows you to store all the random bits and bobs from your drawers, without taking up tons of counter space.
Another cute storage solution is a desk bar organizer. It’s a great place to store all your essentials in one central location, while also making your desk look put together. You can keep your phone, ruler, stop watch, supplies, and other items that are in regular use.
Give your paper documents a home
After you’ve purged your paper clutter, you’ll want to sort through your remaining documents and organize them into different categories. For example: work documents, bills, house/lease documents, medical/health insurance documents, taxes, etc.
Once you’ve organized your paperwork, put them safely away in file folders. An expandable file folder is a great solution: it can hold tons of documents and the expandable feature makes it so that it occupies very little space.
You can use this file folder to keep your work documents, notes, and even your Ink+Volt notepads all in one hub. The folder is durable enough that you can bring it with you on the go, without worrying about bent corners or messing up your papers.
You can also use this cute binder to store important work documents, notes, homework, etc. A pretty binder would refresh any work space and would actually get you excited about organizing documents.
And for those days when you want a little extra convenience, save yourself an extra step by using these binder pockets instead of hole punching. These pockets are a great “catch-all” and can be used to store items like receipts, airline tickets, to-do lists, and more.
Take 10 minutes to tidy
Of course, our work spaces are bound to get messy. We’re only human beings and it’s only natural that we’re going to misplace supplies and let paperwork pile up.
But even doing something like tidying your desk for 10 minutes at the end of the day can help maintain your office space. Put documents away in their respective folders and put supplies back in their proper home.
Not only will this help keep your space clean and organized, but it will give you a fresh start in the morning.
