5 effective was to organize your daily life at the office

We spend most of our lives at the office, it is kind of our second home. Disorganized space can lead to a significant drop in work effectiveness, so always aim for a clean and tidy environment around you. As spring (and spring cleaning) is approaching we decided to share some of our every-day tips for creating an organized workspace.

1. Everything starts with e-mailing

A disorganized inbox gives you the feeling of overwhelming. First things first, clear out the mails you do not need or have already taken care of. Use your inbox for what it was designed for, and that is the handling of new incoming mails. Delete e-mails you never want to access again, as you throw out or achieve old mail from your kitchen counter as well. Filter spams, and unsubscribe from unnecessary mailing lists.

Use a system for organizing your e-mails by using different folders for them. Time-based filtering can be a good solution, as it allows you to prioritize e-mails by their importance to you. Under inbox, have folders for “today”, “this week”, “this month”, “FYI” and “done”. This way you will always know where to find the contents you need, and important mails will not get lost.

2. Organize your computer files

Create folders in a logical hierarchy. Think of them as the drawers of your computer’s filing cabinet. Use simple tags to label them, and have a system for consistent naming method. Be specific, give electronic files logical, specific names and include dates in file names if possible. Use nested folders within the folders as well, for separating different chunks of information from each other. File your documents as soon as you create them, put it to the place it belongs from the first time. Also, order your files for your convenience, if there are folders or files that you use a lot, force them to the top of the file list by adding some extra “AAA”-s to the beginning of their names.

3. Organize your surrounding office space

Get a balanced and organized surrounding for you. Start it by creating a system for your office desk. Get loose pens, paper clips, post-its, papers and different documents in order and introduce a system to your work life with this. Office supply stores and chain retailers have all kinds of plastic trays and caddies, including those that are designed to fit perfectly into a desk drawer. Use them to get your office supplies organized. Also, give your eyes something attractive to rest on. A nice plant or a small toy (like a funny shaped stress ball) can help a lot in cheering up your mood from time to time.

4. Create a clean desktop for yourself

It all starts with a lovely wallpaper: get yourself one that motivates you throughout the day and is nice to look at. Then choose a method for organizing all those desktop clutters, shortcuts and folders. Take everything you've got on your desktop and move it into a single folder. It'll be easier to sort and clean up if you can get it off your screen and into a folder that's out of the way. Then organize these clutters in the folder: create 5-6 sub-folders for things that are needed, and belong together, and leave the rest alone. Then cut and paste those sub-folders back to the desktop, and now you have a nice and tidy space there, with all the most important clutters in one place, where they belong.

5. Use the cloud

Online document management systems have been around for quite some time now. They come in handy for every company, as they make accessing files easy, safe and available for all the involved parties. Always use trustworthy cloud-based document management system, make sure the server parks are located inside the EU where strict data policy regulations apply, and also, read their contract to see if they have backdoor channels for your files.

DocuBank is a cloud-based operation, offering both safe and comfortable solutions for sharing and storing confidential data online. Documents are stored in an encrypted form, and no one can access them besides the authorized personnel. None of the uploaded data is shared with a third party and even system operators have no back-door connection to the stored files. Besides storing data, DocuBank also provides a convenient way for managing documents by labeling them for easier search options and making multi-dimension filing system possible for folders. It is easy to set up, and simple to use, getting familiar with the program takes about half an hour.

If you are interested in DocuBank or need further information, you can access it here.

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