How to organize your workspace?
8 April 2008
Read by 1895 persons
Your desk is overflowing with files? Would you like to find your way around? Here are some tips from Laurence Einfalt, director of the personal organization consulting agency.
Why is it important to organize your desk well?
An American study reveals that a manager loses an average of six weeks a year searching for files and papers. We therefore gain efficiency and speed if the workspace is well organized. In addition, there is a notion of exemplarity: if you enter a manager's office and see it overflowing with files, you will inevitably have doubts about his professionalism.
How should the desk be organized?
When you are sitting at your desk, you should be able to grab everything you use daily simply by pivoting on your chair. The objects you use 10 times a day must be very close. Place on your work surface everything you need to write, cut and paste, as well as the papers and files you are currently working on. If you are right-handed, your pencil holder should be on your right. You should also have sticky notes, essential, as well as a diary and the notebook in which you note everything you have to do (See our tip Manage your time) within reach. For personal items, do as you feel, but avoid the wall transformed into a family photo album, it's not very professional.
What to do with the papers that arrive on the desk every day?
You are only supposed to handle a paper once. With a document that arrives on your desk, you have five possibilities: you throw it away, you redirect it to someone, you file it directly, you put it in the folder of the project you are working on, or you process it immediately. This way, you prevent documents from piling up on your desk.
What types of storage to choose?
To know how to organize yourself, study the number of steps required to store a paper. The fewer there are, the better. Indeed, you must take into account your own laziness: if to file a document, you have to grab a binder, open it, lift the lever, open a plastic pocket, slide the sheet inside then close the binder and put it back in place, the probability that you will file this document is low, because it is too complicated. Simplify your life, and take trays instead. Remember to label everything, whether for yourself or for others. Because we quickly forget which folder the pink folder corresponds to!
Posted on April 8, 2008
france5.fr
Why is it important to organize your desk well?
An American study reveals that a manager loses an average of six weeks a year searching for files and papers. We therefore gain efficiency and speed if the workspace is well organized. In addition, there is a notion of exemplarity: if you enter a manager's office and see it overflowing with files, you will inevitably have doubts about his professionalism.
How should the desk be organized?
When you are sitting at your desk, you should be able to grab everything you use daily simply by pivoting on your chair. The objects you use 10 times a day must be very close. Place on your work surface everything you need to write, cut and paste, as well as the papers and files you are currently working on. If you are right-handed, your pencil holder should be on your right. You should also have sticky notes, essential, as well as a diary and the notebook in which you note everything you have to do (See our tip Manage your time) within reach. For personal items, do as you feel, but avoid the wall transformed into a family photo album, it's not very professional.
What to do with the papers that arrive on the desk every day?
You are only supposed to handle a paper once. With a document that arrives on your desk, you have five possibilities: you throw it away, you redirect it to someone, you file it directly, you put it in the folder of the project you are working on, or you process it immediately. This way, you prevent documents from piling up on your desk.
What types of storage to choose?
To know how to organize yourself, study the number of steps required to store a paper. The fewer there are, the better. Indeed, you must take into account your own laziness: if to file a document, you have to grab a binder, open it, lift the lever, open a plastic pocket, slide the sheet inside then close the binder and put it back in place, the probability that you will file this document is low, because it is too complicated. Simplify your life, and take trays instead. Remember to label everything, whether for yourself or for others. Because we quickly forget which folder the pink folder corresponds to!
Posted on April 8, 2008
france5.fr
