6 Quick Tips for Office Organizing & Time Management
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by: Guest
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It doesn't matter if you're a mom trying to run a full time business out of your home office, or if you don't have a business to run. The office desk is one of the most disorganized, cluttered, heaps of paper in most everyones home.
The purpose of this article is not to completely organize your office for you, that would take many more chapters than I have available here - lol. What I want to do is just give you a few quick tips and tricks to help save you some time. More information on complete office organization will come later...
It is really easy to get into a rut of bad habits and time wasters. However, once you are aware of them, you can start to change them and create new habits that will automatically improve your productivity.
1. Sort like tasks together. - To give a few examples. Save all your bills and go online to pay them all at once rather than paying each one as you get it If you are running out of paper and need to go to the Office Supply store, check what other supplies you need and get them at the same time. Do you need to go to the post office while you are out anyway, how about the library? Don't run out for one little thing, this is a real time waster - do several things at once.
2. Phone Calls - Set aside a time to do customer call backs, or lead calling. Sit down and do only calling for a certain chunk of time. Then when you are done, move on to the next task. This will really save you time as you are in a "calling" frame of mind, you know what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. If you get too many incoming calls that are constantly interrupting your thought process on other projects, there is such a thing as voice mail. Just make sure you get back to your clients withing a reasonable amount of time.
3. Use a Daytimer - I know lot's of people will tell you to use the daytimer on the computer or a palm pilot. Either of those options are good. I still prefer the old book daytimer that sits on my desk and I can write things in with my pen. I can take it with me if I need to, it is laid out for me to look at the whole week at a glance. What ever option of daytimer you decide to use, the key is consistency. Use it everyday. When you write things down they don't get missed or forgotten. You can put them out of your mind until you need to think about them again and concentrate on other things.
4. Computer shortcut keys & Browser Favorite folders - These save so much time. If you have certain sites that you visit daily, make sure that you bookmark them for easy access. Learn the shortcut keys on your computer to save you key strokes. The more we can automate, the quicker and easier it makes things for us.
5. Surfing the net - It is so easy to want to look something up online "real quick" and still be surfing different sites 3 hours later. Yes, having the wealth of online knowledge at our fingertips is a great tool, but we really need to practice some self control when it comes to how much meaningless surfing we are doing. I am really in need of improvement on this one :-)
6. E-mail - Last but definitely not least checking email and sending replies. I think this can be the absolute biggest time waster of them all. So many friends or business associates will send you mail in a day. DO NOT leave your mail program open and go check it every time you hear the sound. This can waste your entire day. Each time you have to stop what you are doing to go check mail you end up wasting 5 - 15 minutes minimum . Not only do you spend time reading the mail and responding or forwarding it, you then have to re-group and gather your thoughts again.
Following these 6 simple tips can save you hours of time each week. Like I said this is not a total cure for office clutter by any means, but it's a start. For more information and a great tool that contains a huge number of office organization tips you need to take a look http://homewithheather.com/organize-office.html.
In my opinion, it is certainly worth the initial outlay of time to get yourself organized and clear the clutter. When your office is organized so are your thoughts, you can be more productive, spend less time getting things accomplished and more time with your family.
About the Author
Heather Masson is a successful Canadian Work at Home Mom. Her passion and expertise are in the areas of children, special needs, and animals. You can visit her daily blog http://homewithheather.com.
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