The Foundation of Business Organizing

by Sherry Borsheim
International Association of Business Organizing

Business organizing starts with a well designed, customized workspace. Whether a high powered CEO overseeing thousands of employees or a volunteer at a non-profit working with two other people, everyone needs a workspace designed around the job they do. Fortunately, setting up an efficient workspace is probably a lot easier than you think. If you follow these business organizing tips for setting up a functional workspace, you can turn your workspace into a well-organized, productive environment.

You first need to figure out how you use your office. This might seem pretty obvious at first, but go ahead and take a few minutes to think about the tasks you spend most of your time on. Take the whole day if you need to. You might be surprised by the things that take up the majority of your time. Do you spend most of your time on your computer, or on the phone? Maybe you send and receive a lot of faxes, or do a lot of mailing so you need access to the postage meter.

Once you establish what activities you do most, the next step in business organizing is creating a workspace that allows you to do those activities as efficiently as possible. Start by thinking of any equipment that you use regularly that you have to walk across the office to access. Consider moving this equipment closer to your workstation.

For example, if you send and receive a lot of faxes, try to move the fax machine within arm’s reach of your desk. You could position a printer stand within reach of your desk instead of taking up valuable desk space. You might also want an in-tray and out-tray for incoming and outgoing faxes.

Let’s say you spend most of your day on the computer and filing paperwork, you will want to create a workspace to support those actions. Your computer monitor needs to be positioned according to good ergonomics in order to avoid neck strain. Also keep ergonomics in mind when using your keyboard and mouse. Can you find any filed paper in five seconds or less? If the answer is no, you can and should improve your filing system.

Take a look at the office supplies that you regularly use. If you frequently use small items like thumbtacks, binder clips, rubber bands, etc. consider organizing your drawers with drawer dividers. Drawer dividers not only help you keep your drawers neat and tidy, they also allow you to see at a glance if you need to order any supplies. In addition, try to store your office supplies where you use them. Keep paper near the printer, packing tape near the postage meter, etc.

Many of us have a number of tasks that repeat on a daily, weekly or monthly basis – important phone calls, data entry, mailings to go out, etc. if this is you, one way to make your workspace more efficient is to use a tickler file. A tickler file “tickles your brain” on a daily basis reminding you about those action items so you don’t have to worry about trying to remember. Your tickler file should be within arm’s reach of your desk so that you look at it every day.

Business organizing starts with a well designed, efficient workspace. Regardless of your position or salary, you need a workspace customized to support your job. Taking some time out to think about how you use your workspace and what you can do to make it function better is a worthwhile investment to help you minimize effort and maximize productivity.

Article submitted Monday, June 20, 2011 & read 1 times.

Sherry Borsheim has been creating business organizing systems to help businesses and individuals get organized for over 23 years. She specializes in organizing Microsoft Outlook, and streamlining paper, email, time and space workflow issues. She recognizes that each client’s situation is unique and works with them to create custom, effective organizing systems. Get your free e-kit "7 Ways to Organize Your Workspace" by visiting www.bizorganizing.com now.

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