If you work out of your home, you should have a well-planned home office. An organized office leads to an organized way of working too. You can be more productive, and having a well-thought out office would impress your clients also. Not only the physical workspace, but you should pay attention to your digital office too.
Technology has made major advances allowing you to stay on top of your work anytime, anywhere. It has allowed people to become more flexible in their working, streamlining business processes and promoting products and services in innovative ways. Read on to find out what the essential things required to set up your home office:
Physical office essentials
You might be conducting most of your work online, but still you’d at least need a place to sit. And you’d still be receiving some amount of snail mail and have a few pens and pencils around. This doesn’t sound like much, but you’d be surprised how soon and how easily your workspace can get cluttered. Here are a few tips to get your office organized, to have a clean and tidy workspace and boost your productivity:
- Storage
To help you store your mail, you could opt for stylish and functional 2 or 3 level trays. You can mark the different levels according to your needs, for example, those that have been read in the “Read” folder and store the rest of the papers that require your attention in another level. There are many different styles of trays available, and you can buy one which suits your office best, both functionally and aesthetically.
- Wire baskets
You could use wire baskets to sort your mail, and you might still be receiving lots of paper, even though you try your hardest to go paperless. So what do you do with the ton of mail you receive? You could label the wire baskets as “recycle”, “shred” and “file”, which will help you to keep your office clutter free. If you use smaller wire baskets, you’d be forced to clear them in a couple of days, which will in turn make you more organized.
- Hardware bin
A hardware bin is a must have, especially one which has many divisions, as you will be able to store all the office stationery and supplies at one place. Washi tape, markers, pens, scissors, etc, would be easy to grab and you won’t have to waste precious time hunting for these when you need them!
- Printer table
Your office would have a printer, but it’s not easy to hide this piece of machinery. There is a neat solution, however. You can buy a small table which can be hidden underneath your desk. You can take it out when you want to use it, and store out of sight when not required. The extra table can come in handy as an extra worktop too if required.
Virtual office essentials
A lot of your work would be done online and you must keep your digital office organized too. Here are a few ways in which you can do that:
- Internet connection
You should set up a secure and reliable internet connection in your home. There are many service providers these days who give very good deals and you could subscribe to one of these for an uninterrupted connection.
- Peripherals
Extra battery, power cord for your laptop, surge protector and other things which are specific to you need to be always handy, especially if you’re travelling out of town. Regular maintenance of your peripherals is necessary to keep them in top working order.
- System maintenance
Keep your system updated, install antivirus and regularly declutter your system to enhance your productivity. Defragmenting from time to time will make it run faster.
- Easily accessible data
You should be able to access your data easily. You can do that by emailing files to whomsoever you need to, or use USB drives. Online backup is a good option too as it synchronizes and stores your data automatically.
A well-thought out home office keeps you organized and saves you a lot of time, and as we all know, time is money when it comes to work.
