Where you work has quite an effect on how you work. Cluttered and disorganized spaces can bring on a feeling of lack of control and competence, which has a negative effect on productivity.
In order to focus your attention on what really matters, you have to make your workspace a tool, not a distraction. If you want your workspace to help with productivity, then you need to organize—and we’re not talking about rearranging the same old piles of paperwork.
If you work in an office, you probably spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen, making it a great candidate for some organizing. As you probably know, a cluttered computer will move slowly. Keep a clean, organized desktop and set of files to keep your computer up to your speed. Also, this should make it more efficient to find files you’re looking for.
Next is your workspace. For simplicity purposes, it’s best to separate your workspace into zones. These may vary depending on the type of work you do, but some good generic examples would be a computer zone, a paperwork zone, and/or a storage zone. The computer zone is pretty self-explanatory; your paperwork zone is where you do any writing or activities that require some space on a flat, empty surface, and your storage zone would be for a filing cabinet or shelves/drawers for storing all important documents and resources.
Working in a decluttered environment is better for mental clarity and focus, organization, and productivity. It’s important to only keep what you need on a daily basis on your desk. That huge binder of paperwork that takes up a whole corner can still be useful—in fact, more useful—when it is stored neatly in a drawer.
Your workspace is your gateway to productivity and success—keep it easily accessible and useful to you.
