Improve Your Office Day

So today is Improve Your Office Day!   There’s a new one for you!

It makes sense to ensure that the area you work in is light, airy and appealing.  We all know that it is better to work from a clear desk, with the right tools to hand and within easy reach, relevant paperwork filed accurately and in an easy-to-follow system.  If your job takes you out and about throughout the day, you need to have a system in place so that you can put everything you gather up on your travels into the right place pretty much straight away.

Where you work impacts on the work you do.

If your desk is overrun with papers, post-it notes, coffee cups, office stationery, cables, leaflets, food wrappers and so on – it’s time for a clear out.  Not only will you find several items that can be binned or shredded, but you will likely find that a number of ‘reminders’ and ‘to do notes’ will have been actioned already – result!

I worked last week with a large commercial office who wanted to take the opportunity to clear out the workspace of around 130 staff prior to a re-brand.  Everyone embraced the challenge and at the end of the day 17 bins of confidential waste were shredded, 10 bins of general rubbish were removed and a number of then surplus furniture items were donated to a local charity.  The feeling amongst the staff was that of being ‘cleansed’ and ready for action!

This week, I was with a smaller retail business; the shop front felt a little cramped and a desk had been squashed into a corner – becoming a dumping ground for pretty much anything and everything.  Customers who went over to that area to make a payment would have been met with an unsightly mess!  So by making some simple changes to the shop front layout; removing some outdated/irrelevant products and relocating the desk back into the proper ‘office’ at the rear of the building, it meant that customers would be greeted with a more welcoming space.  The paperwork that had previously cluttered the desk to the point of no return, was sorted, shredded, filed, arranged and generally put into an order that suited the Client’s needs.

You don’t have to take a long time to improve your office at all.  Just having a clear idea of what you want to achieve, knowing what you do or don’t need to keep, and where to get rid of the unwanted stuff will go a long way to making your work environment a more pleasant place and allowing you to focus on your work.

If you’re unsure as to where to start with improving your office, why not get in touch to have a chat about how I could help you to re-organise and improve your workspace?  I specialise in helping small businesses to review ‘how they do what they do’ – looking for efficiency and organisational improvements.