Changing the Ambiance in Your Office for a Stress-free Working Schedule

You spend at least 8 hours a day at the office – sometimes even more than that. The office becomes a second home to you and it should make you feel just as comfortable as your actual home. It should reflect your personality and your way of living among other things, not to mention it should influence the way you organize and complete your daily tasks. Things get even more complicated when, besides the usual documents, materials,and utensils you keep on your desk, you decide to bring in your favorite plant, mugs and other decorations that make the place truly yours. Changing how your office looks will change the way you feel once you start working on it. Here are some tips on how to do that:

Why organizing the workspace helps you in your career?

The first question that comes to your mind related to this topic is “when I am going to have the time to clean up and organize my office?”. Well, you don’t have to invest hours and hours to get visible results, nor do you have to stay a few hours after you finished work. A few minutes each day will give you the expected result in a week and you will shortly become less stressed and more productive.

• You encourage generating brilliant ideas. Whether it’s ideas that you did not have time to apply, emails that you had no time to read, or tasks that are not yet crossed on your list, sorting your workspace will bring all things into clear view.
• It gives you a sense of accomplishment. The end result will definitely give you a state of well-being and productiveness. The more comfortable you feel in the workspace, the better you perform at work.
• Enhances your efficiency.The more you succeed in performing recurring tasks in a shorter time, the more time you will have for bigger projects that last longer.
• Reduces stress. Crowded workspaces, as in any other form of agitation, causes stress and frustration. To avoid that, you need to keep everything organized.

5 steps to efficiently organize your workspace

How can you organize your office as efficiently as possible and create an airy space that increases productivity and helps you focus? Follow the 5 simple steps and get ready to smile every morning when you get to your office:

• Get rid of clutter

All the papers and documents left from previous work, bills, last month’s conference brochures, or the useless notes on your desk must disappear. Try to find some storage place that you use exclusively for storing documents that can’t be thrown away. Also, take advantage of the benefits of technology – you can save a few trees by automating tasks that you need to tackle daily. If you still need to keep something in physical form on your desk, put them in order and place them away from your main work area. Thus, you will not be distracted by anything in your surroundings and you will be able to focus on one task at a time.

• Organize by category and use signage

Using signs may seem like a solution you would give to a kid to sort his toys, but you’ll be impressed when noticing how effective signage can be for your work space. Placing items in boxes, cabinets,and drawers depending on the categories they belong to and using a sign or attaching a label to each one will help you order them much easier and find them even easier when you need them. You will save a lot of time and effort, you will know exactly where you were left without anything and what you borrowed to your colleague last week. Bordenmax can help you with printing personalized signs for your office.

• Organize your files on your computer / laptop

Now that you’re done with the office itself, it’s time to get into the digital environment. Just like the desk, your laptop desktop can create discomfort when it’s messy. You are losing time trying to find files from last month, you don’t remember how you named the folder with your important notes from the meeting that was held a week ago, nor the images received yesterday by mail. Try to organize everything in categories, in separate folders. If possible,avoid keeping files and folders on your desktop. Don’t forget to name everything intuitively.

• Put things that you use daily within reach

Your job involves taking a lot of notes and scheduling tasks? It means that a pen and sticky notes should always be in your immediate vicinity. How about the stapler? Do you use it more than once a week? Ask yourself these questions regarding all the objects you keep on your desk to determine whether you should continue keeping them there or store them away. Also, keep in mind that everything that is dusty must disappear. Bringing in houseplants seems to be very beneficial for the work environment. Choose plants that are not that voluminous or pretentious.

• Invest in the space you work in

Because you spend most of the day sitting on your office chair, buying a comfortable and practical one is a required investment. The same applies to an advanced laptop, a keyboard that suits your needs, a faster mouse or a larger monitor. Depending on each job type, there are certain items that are frequently used for a long time, and they actively influence the level of comfort you experience at work. Even if it can involve a substantial investment, buying objects that fit your own needs will prove useful in the long run. In addition, you can discuss with your boss and see if the costs of these items can be covered by the company. In the end, the more productive you will be, the more you gain – both you and the company you work for.