A few months ago we posted some office decluttering tips from LifeHacker.com (you can see that article here) and this week we wanted to share the second half! We’ve already covered the first 5, so here are the last 5!
From LifeHacker.com
1. Enlarge Your Workspace
If you really have too much important stuff that won’t fit on your desk, the next solution is—obviously—to enlarge your workspace (or at least add some extra storage). There are a few tricks you can use beyond getting a brand new desk. Think vertically to increase your storage space in a small room, raise up your monitor, and make use of the space under your desk. Use every inch of space you have to your advantage, and as long as its organized, you’ll be better off than you are now.
2. Create Hidden Storage
When traditional shelves aren’t your style, you have a few other options. Pegboard, for example, is an incredibly popular (and effective) way to hide cables, routers, and other devices on the back of your desk. You can also hide a lot of stuff on the back of your monitor, or use magnets to mount supplies to just about anything. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
3. Give Everything a Home
Everything that resides on your desk or in a drawer should have a “home” where it stays when your workspace is clean. If things don’t have a home, your desk becomes a home for everything. If you’re having trouble, use the breadbox test to keep things clean: if it’s smaller than a breadbox, hide it away in a drawer or canister.
4. Reboot Your Office Every Evening
No matter how clean you keep your workspace, it’s going to get messy during the day. That’s okay—that means you’re working! It’s when you keep it messy that things start to become a problem. To make sure this doesn’t happen, clean off your desk every evening. All it takes is 5 or 10 minutes to straighten things up, and you’ll come to a clean desk every morning, ready to work.
5. Don’t Go Overboard
While we all need some serious organization time every once in a while, don’t let it get excessive: you begin to waste as much time as you’re trying to save. If something wasn’t wasting your time in the first place, it probably doesn’t need reorganization. Learn to recognize what’s “good enough”, and when it’s time to stop organizing and time to start getting things done. Perfection can be a huge detriment to productivity, and you don’t want to forget why you started organizing in the first place.
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