Time management suggestions
Sorting out your office

These time management suggestions will help you sort out your office.  A badly laid out office will slow you down and make your life harder work.  It doesn't matter if it's a home office or your office at work.  You need to take steps to get your office laid out in a logical manner.  Don't waste hours of your time each week scrambling to find the things you need.

Use these suggestions and aim to save yourself time.  You'll do this even if you just implement a few of them.

Planning

When it comes to your office, one of the best time management suggestions is to make certain you have all of the proper supplies.

There are the obvious items like a desk and chair and then all the stationary to enable you to work.

Take your time when selecting a desk and chair.  Make sure that they will fit in with your personal way of working.  You'll spend a lot of time with them so make sure you like them.

As well as the chair and desk get equipment to help you get organized.  Trays and file folders will help you sort out paperwork while a calendar will help you organize your day, your week and your month.

Make sure your calendar is always accessible so you don’t need to hunt around for it to see what needs to be done.  If you don't have a calendar and would like some thoughts on what to look for have a read of these time management suggestions.

Include a clock somewhere in your office so you can easily check the time helping you stay on schedule.

Remember to think through the time zones you need to see.  Most companies I've worked with operate internationally.  I'm used to dealing with 3 or 4 time zones on projects.

If you deal with different time zones then you should put up several clocks set to the right time in the countries you're dealing with.  It helps if you put under the clock the difference from GMT or UTC.

When you work in an office you'll spend a portion of your time at your computer.  Make the computer environment as productive as possible.  Be certain to have a printer close to your desk and keep spare ink or laser cartridges nearby.

I'm not going to cover all the myriad of software options here but do take some time to explore them.  There are lots of free software packages as well as paid ones.  Many of them will save you lots of time.

If you do use software programs a lot then I really recommend that you get some training in them.  Often this is neglected because most packages are pretty intuitive.  However some of the best time saving tips use some advanced features which you won't get exposure to easily. If you don't want to go to a course buy a book or take one of the online courses.

Setting Up the Workflow

Where you position the items in your office is one of the more important time management suggestions.  If you place things that you use a lot in awkward to reach places then you're making things needlessly difficult.

I now work from home a lot and I have a filing cabinet upstairs.  If I relied on it for my filing you can be sure most of my files would lie on the floor beside my desk downstairs.  Instead I have the papers I commonly use in folders in a shelf behind my desk and I use the cabinet upstairs for things I need to keep but don't use a lot.

To make your office work smoothly you need to take a bit of time to consider what works for you.  Consider your typical workday.  Think through what you do hour by hour and list out the items you use.

I use my computer a lot and paper files with various plans and spreadsheets.  When I thought about my workflow I discovered that I spent a lot of time switching between applications on my computer.  Although I thought this switching was fast in reality it was taking up about 30 minutes every day.  That's 2.5 hours a week and 10 hours a month!

10 hours a month! Yes 10 hours.  Small things add up pretty quickly.  After thinking about it I discovered I needed to switch between applications because I was using one for research (or drawing) and the other for writing.  The solution was pretty simple I bought a second monitor and saved myself the 10 hours.

Working through what you do and making small or even big changes has huge potential to help you save time.

Creating a Filling System

Whilst workflow is one of the important time management suggestions it's certainly not the only one that can return big time savings.  The other one that I think is very important is getting your filing system working.

Creating a logical filing system is one of the most ignored time management suggestions, often because of the perception that it takes too much time to get the filing system set up.

Don't fall into the trap.  Time you spend creating a filing system and filing your paperwork will ultimately save you time.  Just think about the time you waste looking for documents and how much time you could save if you knew exactly where to look.

The biggest challenge with this one of the time management suggestions is the need for self-discipline.  To make it effective you need to archive your files regularly (weekly) and to go through all of the files annually to get rid of the ones you don’t need.

Blockers

A blocker for many people with filing systems is how to set up the index.  Should they file by company, by topic or .... I've found over the years that the best way to file is to file alphabetically.

When you create a new file either call it by topic, by name or by company.  Now you have a really simple system.  If you're ever looking for a file it can only be in one of three places alphabetically listed.

In addition to the files I keep in a filing cabinet I also keep working folders.  These folders are the files I use day by day.  I keep them behind my desk.  I use them all the time.  It makes sense to keep them there since I don't have a filing cabinet in my downstairs office.

Effective time management suggestions involve taking a close look at your workspace.  You need to find ways to make that space more efficient.  The more time you spend getting the space organized the easier it will be.

Implement even a few of the suggestions and you should save time.  You might even reduce your frustration and stress levels.  You'll no longer struggle to find an envelope or a stapler when you need!  Best of all most of these time management suggestions are free.  You don't need to spend anything to make them work!