Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Make Your Home Office a More Efficient Work Space



Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Office Space

work at home business, home office
Whether your home office is located in a spare room, corner of the living room or the dining room table, there are some ways to help improve the functionality of any working environment. Work from home professionals are challenged with keeping their personal space separate from their working space and this can sometimes be a challenge that is not easily overcome. By streamlining the way your work space flows, it can make it much easier to become not only more organized by also more efficient.

Take an Analytical Look at Your Workspace

To begin streamlining your workspace, evaluate the area itself. Take a good look at what office space, equipment and resources you use on a day to day basis – this should include any table top or desk space and filing areas as well as pieces of office equipment such as computers, printers, and copiers. Are all of these items used every day? Are they crucial to accomplishing goals? By truly evaluating what space and equipment is being used, it is easier to see what needs to stay and what can go to free up more space. Having an organized working environment can help you relax and get more work done overall.

Going Digital Can Help Reduce Paper Clutter

Invoices, letters, and email printouts – all of these papers can add up to one huge mess, especially in a small working space. Consider cutting down on the paper and becoming a digital office. Converting archived paper documents to digital format will not happen overnight but it is worth the time and effort to free up much needed desk space. Bulky filing cabinets are a thing of the past – with the amount of hard drive and even external storage space available in today’s technology driven business marketplace, it is possible to keep all of your archived information in a single location that is no bigger than a mouse pad.

Organization is Key

There is nothing worse than having a client wait while you try and locate a document to share with them, but the hustle and bustle of modern business makes it completely understandable to not want to waste time organizing paperwork and digital documents. The reality is that business professionals waste more time looking for things that it takes to organize their work space. Take the time to create file folders, inboxes, and outboxes for specific documents and create organization folders within your email box – the time saved when looking for important information will be worth the time taken to organize it.

As many professionals have been told over the years, “work smart, not hard.” A great way to live up to this saying is streamlining your workspace, something that is especially important for work from home professionals. Drawing the line between working and personal space is truly the first step in becoming more efficient, but following these guidelines for organization can take your productivity to a new level. Professionals working from a home office will be amazed at what a little organization can do!

Need help getting your legitimate home business up and running? Perhaps you need to learn about opportunities in your area. If so, Stacy O'Quinn can help! For more information about Stacy and to find out how he can get you started with a real work at home business, click here.

*Photo Courtesy of JodiMichelle via Creative Commons License

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