Effective Workplace: 5 Main Life Hacks

2023 Author: Amber Richards | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-22 00:24

The modern rhythm of life and work requires from us maximum efficiency, organization and the ability to do a lot - especially if you are striving not only to make a successful career, but to make it without sacrificing your personal life and precious hours of rest. As a result, we begin to enroll in time management courses, keep endless diaries and lists, and much, much more, often without even noticing one of the most obvious reasons for low productivity - chaos at our workplace.

A poorly organized space around you can become the main obstacle on the way to success and the implementation of your plans: you lose the necessary documents at the most crucial moment, you just cannot start the conceived project, because you simply cannot put all your notes together, and sometimes even completely you refuse to work in a specially designated place, preferring to take work home or go to some noisy cafe. And for external inconveniences, internal discomfort also lingers: an unorganized person, as a rule, feels insecure, dissatisfied, cannot relax - and as a result, working less, only gets tired more.

Alsou Mukhamedshina, a professional space organizer, shared how to make the workplace your most valuable tool in increasing personal efficiency.

Take a picture of your table

A seemingly meaningless way will help you look at the familiar space in a new way. Take a close look at the photo: do you like this place? Do you want to work here? What exactly does not suit you?

The snapshot will show you all the flaws that you did not notice before or to which you are simply already accustomed.

Perhaps the whole problem will lie in a too cluttered table, on which everything is constantly lost (and never is). Or the key to the inconvenience is your old desk lamp, which you have no time to replace.

Write down all the shortcomings on a piece of paper, and next write down the solutions and specific actions to eliminate them. Remember that planning is the key to efficiency?

What steps could these be? For example, sorting out documents and throwing out irrelevant papers, or removing items from your desktop that you haven't used for weeks (someone's flash drive, old lip balm, a colleague's card, etc.) by next Wednesday.

Down with things

Scientists say that every day people at work spend about an hour looking for the right things. Think about it: this is 5 hours a week and 240 hours a year! How many interesting projects could be done during this time. And how many nerves to save.

So, we conduct an audit and get rid of outright rubbish, irrelevant documents and stationery, as well as things of colleagues that have settled on your desk.

As a rule, the most difficult category in the revision is documents.

It often seems to people that sorting things out is a waste of time that they could spend more interesting and productive: calling customers, meeting with business partners, just drinking tea with colleagues. But believe me, the time invested in creating an organized system will pay off in full, because from now on it will take you less than an hour a day to find the things you need (see also: "Where and how to find free time").

We keep the table as free and empty as possible

If you do not have unnecessary things, but at the same time everything you need is piled up on the surface of your desktop, then you will still be distracted by one or another trifle - and, therefore, waste precious time and concentration on the task.

In addition, only a free, "light" table makes you want to work. Of course, in the process of active work or project management, you may have a temporary blockage - the so-called "active phase". But every process must have a logical conclusion, after which your workspace comes into its proper form, ready to accept a new challenge and project.

If the specifics of the work require a large number of things that must be at hand, use the space around the table: walls, bedside tables, drawers, shelves.

We create convenient storage systems

A photo:

And again we return to lost things and lost time. Getting rid of the unnecessary and unnecessary is just the tip of the iceberg called “space organization”. It is important to find its own comfortable place for each category of things.

At the same time, it should be convenient for you not only to take, but also to return the item to its place. Otherwise, after a few days of active work, chaos will await you again. But how do you find these convenient places?

Let me tell you the organizers' main secret: in order to create a working system, you need to follow your “life scenarios”. Dedicate one day to personally studying your movements and preferences in the process of work: what do you use most often and what should be literally “at hand”, and what can be archived and removed from storage? Where do you most often fold papers, and where is it more convenient to get your office supplies?

Spend a little time on this "research", and you will no longer wonder how convenient it is to organize storage for you personally.

According to these "scenarios", arrange frequently used things in the nearest access and in the most basic storage systems.

And one more tip: don't overdo it! Often my clients, carried away by excessive organization, created an overly complicated system, when a separate folder was created for each piece of paper. As a result, logic seems to be present, but convenience is not.

We create an atmosphere

Work takes up a huge part of our life. So let's spend this time as comfortably and with pleasure as possible! Check your chair and table for comfort. Make sure that you have enough light and the lamp is in the right place (for right-handed people set the light on the left, for left-handers - on the right).

Check to see if your co-workers are in the way. For example, sitting in such a way that you are in constant eye contact with someone can serve as a distraction. Think about how you can rearrange furniture or "fence off" others (also read: "Corporate dormitory: why open offices are not for everyone").

In addition, many people think that an organized space is something boring and lifeless. If you are one of them, then creating a cozy and inspiring atmosphere will be an important element for you. Surround yourself with eye-pleasing things: it can be a frame with a photo of your loved ones, your favorite scent, a small flower, a mood board. And to keep things tidy, use brightly colored containers, trays and folder stickers.