It’s 2020, not just a new year, but a new decade, which means it’s probably a fairly safe bet that a lot of people will be thinking about topics such as organization and productivity. These often go hand in hand. It’s not just about superficial neatness.

A tidy desk does not necessarily equal a tidy mind. It is, however, about making sure that you can find what you need when you need it so you get the best possible use out of your time and energy instead of wasting it looking for whatever you need.

With that in mind, here are some tips on getting your office organized for 2020 - and beyond.

Purge your office space

This tip inevitably comes at the top of any list of hints on organization and for good reason. It can, however, be a challenge in office environments as many businesses do actually need to keep items they don’t necessarily use every day. This is particularly true of paperwork, so here is a strategy for addressing the issue.

Grab your paperwork and set aside anything you are 100% sure you need to keep in paper format and anything you are 100% sure you can throw away. Digitize the former (as a back-up) and make sure it is placed into an appropriate storage container.

In other words, if it’s that important, you need it to be stored in a fireproof and waterproof location. Dispose of the latter appropriately. Then digitize all the “in-between” documents and decide if you’re comfortable getting rid of the paper copies. If you are, do so, if you’re not, set them aside for storage.

Move all the documents you need to keep to an off-site storage facility and then work on organizing the digital copies effectively. Then reassess if you really still need to keep the paper copies of them.

(Re)organize your space into work zones

Hopefully, this exercise will have cleared up some space so it’s time to put it to good use. Think about your work processes and (re)arrange your office space so that it reflects the actual flow of your work.

Put anything needed for a specific task as close as possible to the place(s) where that task is performed. Remember to make use of vertical space, even if you can’t drill you can use freestanding wall units and/or command hooks to attach organization tools such as pegboards, whiteboards and cork boards.

Look for ways to pool resources

When items are used frequently it often makes a lot of sense to issue one (or even more) per person, but when items are used less frequently then issuing one per person can just add to office clutter (and costs, which may be small but can easily mount up).

If the reason people want their own item is that they want to be able to use it whenever they want rather than having to queue then see if you can implement a booking system so people can tell easily when a resource is available.

Author's Bio: 

Joe Muddiman is the General Manager at Rads Document Storage, a secure facility based in Nottingham which provides professional document management services.