Working from home doesn't mean you have to forego a
professional or productive work environment! While it may
seem like a challenge to set your home office apart from the
rest of your living space, all it requires is giving the
matter a little time, thought, and creativity. Follow these
easy steps to transform your home office into a pleasant,
efficient, and organized workspace.
!! Steps !!
Find the perfect spot. Part of keeping organized in a home office is
ensuring that you have a suitable place set aside to serve solely as
your home office. It's not going to be effective if you're borrowing
space anywhere, such as the kitchen table, or your child's desk
while they're at school. Instead of "nomading" about the house in
search of the perfect space, select one spot that is out of the way
of pedestrian traffic, unaffected by noise or other sources of
interference, and can be a permanent home office base for you.
Purchase a table or desk (depending on your needs) that can be used
just for your work tasks. Unusual but you'll keep fit!
Check that everything is ergonomically suitable for you. It's easy
to become despondent and start making a mess when your working
arrangements make you feel uncomfortable. A chair that makes your
legs feel deadened or a table that just doesn't have the space
needed will soon have you wandering off and trying out other parts
of the house for working in to try and improve your comfort levels.
If you're doing this, have your workspace assessed for ergonomics
and make appropriate changes to ensure your comfort. You can either
ask a professional person to come to your house to do this for you,
or you can assess it yourself using online guidance, for example,
read How to set up an ergonomically correct work station.
* If you're selling items online or from home, be sure to make
adequate space for packaging, sorting, and storing your items as
well as the usual computer and related work required. A table at
standing height can be very helpful if you need to do a lot of
wrapping, packaging, sorting type work.
Remove the superfluous. Clutter will make it impossible for you to
remain organized in a home office. Being at home, you're at greater
risk of things "migrating" into your work zone that have nothing to
do with your work – for example, stuffed toys, pieces of clothing,
books unrelated to your work, things tossed in your workspace area
by others, and things mounting up through your own lack of
self-discipline. Deal with this by getting rid of every object that
is not useful for work. Take a close look at what you're dealing
with and define carefully what you need and what you don't. And
don't hang onto pens that no longer work; useless writing implements
can waste several minutes of time for you a work when you need to
search for new ones. At the end of this declutter, you'll get tons
of spare space!
* After removing the superfluous, permit yourself three _beautiful_
objects to grace your workspace and inspire you. Keep it at three
or less always, no more. If you want to rotate the inspirational
things, then feel free to do so.
The geek's coat hanger Manage the cables. You've probably found
out through experience that the tangled cords under your desk are
great at achieving three things: they trap dust balls, they make you
look disorganized, and they snag your feet, occasionally pulling over
something else in the process! Don't live with that rat's nest of
cables lurking behind your workstation; even if you've never
thought it was possible to straighten out your office cables, give it
a try. This project is super easy to tackle (even for beginners), and
the results are very gratifying:
* Allow for a little time, elbow grease, and creativity!
* Go about your cable management in a countless number of ways –
everyone's different. If you like things as simple and
pared-down as possible, neatly bundle your cords with cable ties,
or completely raise wires off the floor by sticking them to the
underside of your desk with adhesive cord clips. For the more
complex personalities, there are all sorts of cable management
systems that mount directly onto your desk or a nearby wall. The
bottom line is to go with whatever works for you, just so long as
you get those cords organized!
Wireless mouse Go wireless. Now that you've got that mess under
your desk cleared up, think about getting rid of the cord clutter on
your work surface. Wireless keyboards and computer mice are terrific
gadgets that will free up both your space and your movements. Just
imagine not have to tug the cord of your computer mouse free ever
again! If you haven't already gone wireless, invest in it now; all
the extra space is worth it.
* Keep your printer off your workspace desk or table. Purchase or
find a suitable printer table for it instead. If this small table
or cabinet has shelves for storing printer paper and cartridges,
this is even better.
Lamps are useful in a home office environment Ensure adequate
lighting. A home office needs good lighting to help you see properly
at all hours of the day. If you're stuck in a basement or somewhere
that's darker than normal, consider using a daylight bulb to brighten
up your working space and to help you feel that the light is more
natural. Get sufficient lamps to ensure your work is properly
lighted, whether it's typing, surfing, reading, sewing, crafting, or
whatever.
* Label printer Label everything! Stop squinting at the
handwritten chicken-scratch on your file tabs and invest in a
label maker instead! Having a label printer around will not only
keep the contents of your filing cabinet looking neat and
professional, it's also very handy for organizing discs, office
supplies and storage cabinets.
Use shelves to store books. If you use books a lot for your work,
having shelves in or near your workspace will provide the space
needed to arrange them for easy access rather than piling them up on
your desk or the floor. Try to keep the shelves tidy and well
ordered at all times. Sort the papers before you can't
find your way out! Sort. Sort through papers and shred the ones you
don't need. We've all dealt with it: the mountain of paper that
comes from repeatedly putting off sorting through junk mail and
paperwork. You have it in your power to keep that paper from piling
up in the first place!
* Make a standing date with yourself on a weekly basis to sort
through accumulated mail and documents.
* File the things you need to hang onto, and throw the rest out.
* It's always a good idea to a keep a paper shredder nearby, for
disposing of documents that contain personal information (you'll
be preventing clutter and identity theft at the same time).
* If the printed material is available on the internet, throw it way
and store the information online instead.[1] If you're concerned
that the site might not retain the information, make a copy of it
and put it on your computer or into a cloud computing space for
keeping.
* From now on, use the OHIO principle: Only Handle It Once.[2] Deal
with papers as you get them, and either file or throw them away.
And develop a filing system that works for you; it doesn't matter
what filing system it is, as long as it does what you need it to,
and quickly!
* Straighten up at each day's end. Before you call it a
day, do a small tidy up. One of the best ways to keep your home
workspace neat and productive is to take five minutes at the end
of each day to straighten up your desktop: file papers, re-shelve
books, put pens and highlighters back in their proper place; even
dust your keyboard once in awhile! By taking just a few minutes to
put everything back in order, you're making a useful transition
out of your workday, and ensuring that your office will be much
more pleasant place to return to the next day.
!! Video !!
!! Tips !!
* Consider keeping a second chair in your working area, one that is
comfortable and snug for reading. Put a direct lamp over it, and
use it to take reading breaks in the chair. Even if your work from
home is one based on using tools for craft, sewing, or other
manufacturing work, there will still be times when resting on a
comfortable chair, and reading about ideas for your work will be a
welcome break.
* Listen to what works for you best; your reaction to your current
desk or workspace arrangement should be a guide to how you'd
prefer the workspace to work for you, rather than against you.
* Keep your computer files and emails organized too. This will make
a big difference to your working ease.
* Optional but pleasant additions to a home office environment
include scent (use incense, scent burners, or scent sticks), and
background music if it doesn't distract you.
* Add plants to your home office. These can purify the indoor air,
beautify the space, and give you a sense of well-being just having
them around.
!! Warnings !!
* It can be easy to dismiss the importance of a well-organized home
office but working from home requires the same standards of
self-care and attention to workspace needs as working in an
office, retail, or manufacturing environment. Don't belittle the
importance of quality space, furniture, and supplies.
!! Things You'll Need !!
* Paper shredder
* Label maker
* Adhesive cord clips, cable ties or a simple elastic band
* Storage space
!! Related WikiHows !!
* How to Clean out Your Closet
* How to Clean Out Your Home
* How to Find the Perfect Work at Home Opportunity
* How to Organize Your Room
* How to Secure Your Wireless Home Network
!! Sources And Citations !!
!! Article Tools !!
* Read on wikiHow
*
0 comments:
Post a Comment