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Home Office Organization

We'd like to share some home office organization tips to help you be more productive in your online business or career. Be prepared to get rid of a lot of stuff, some of which might have been hanging around for years. The reason for clearing out the junk so to speak is because these things may subconsciously be holding you back from thriving in your work life.

Throw Out Useless Items

Let's start with the obvious. Grab two bins, one for garbage and the other for recycling, and throw out any documents (including to-do lists) or items with no apparent value (in other words, 'false' sentimental value). If there's something in the room you truly cherish, keep it... but try to bring down the barrier of psychological attachments to anything that can be deemed useless or even detrimental to your well-being.

A Minimalist Approach

While the contrary might have been true in previous generations, today's successful entrepreneurs don't have much lying around on their desk, let alone in their entire office (or even their home). These are more complex times, and, therefore, call for a more minimalist approach. So, remove any unwanted clutter, naturally cleaning the room, thereafter. Dust particles add up quickly and can potentially interfere in creating a harmonious work environment, and so, regular maintenance of the area is important. Now that we've established a solid foundation, let's move on to the more specific aspects of home office organization.

Your Computer

One of the first points that comes to mind when thinking of home office organization is the desktop, laptop, or tablet computer itself. You don't need to own the most advanced tools modern technology has to offer, but you should be making good use of what you do have. To avoid frustration whenever doing anything on your PC, neatly organize important files (into folders, if necessary) as well as emails, deleting unimportant ones.

Hoarding tendencies, as detrimental as they can be, are not uncommon. Unfortunately, they're also viral and can easily transfer to other aspects of your life such as your digital life. Regardless of where they originated from or how far they've spread, putting an abrupt end to it is an appropriate action, to say the least.

Imagery

Your home office organizational efforts shouldn't be limited to what's on the floor, in your filing cabinet, or on your desk/computer. What's on surrounding walls (or not on the walls, rather) is also of utmost importance. Skipping this step can make focusing on tasks at hand difficult. Even a beautiful painting or your favorite inspirational quote could unknowingly hinder your progress when not in sync (between each other along with your background wallpaper or paint coating). We're not asking anyone to be or become an interior designer, but taking time out of your schedule to choose images, color palettes (which set the mood as they say), and an overall artistic structure that are in line with who you are will help in both the short term and long run. Gut feelings work best for this endeavor.

Workflow

Although not entirely necessary, replacing your to-do lists (whether in paper or digital format) with a whiteboard may solve several issues associated with productivity. Whiteboards are usually obvious (being more prominent and often in larger visual scale), and generally denote what's most important with regards to your business. As forgetful humans, we often need constant reminders of our daily top tasks. Similarly, studies have shown that writing by hand (over the alternative of typing) has a positive effect on prioritizing. It gets us out of our head, serving as a stepping stone towards actually doing what we plan to do. Whiteboards are great for presentations (facilitating the conveying of ideas and/or strategies), and can be used within your home office for that purpose as well (given you will be receiving [potential] customers or filming informative videos, etc).

Conclusion

To conclude this article, we should clarify one point; a few hours of home office organization can save you weeks, months, or, in extreme cases, years of procrastination. In other words, clutter can create a stagnation in your results. Our brains could only sort through so many compartmentalized thoughts, let alone while being exposed to a seamingly-shattered (for lack of a better term) environment, simultaneously.

Last but not least, always remember that the outside is a representation of the inside. There is, however, a caveat. If you feel, at this juncture, home office organization to be a little too overwhelming to deal with, let it go. If this is the case, definitely don't take it as a sign of weakness or of "not having it together". In fact, by avoiding chores that essentially make you miserable, you'll be moving in the right direction. You'll get to it when you're ready.