How to Organize Your Home Office for Maximum Productivity

Whether you're a seasoned work-from-home expert and have mastered this skill for many years, or are new to the world of working from home, every home office can use a refresh in organization. When it comes to organizing a home office, it's important to keep productivity and efficiency in mind to help guide your organization efforts. Think about what you need from your environment to foster this productivity, and design your home office space accordingly.

If you find yourself in a rut, or just in need of some inspiration, read on for four easy and effective ways to help you organize your home office.

Feature: The Boreal Desk

How to Declutter Your Home Office & Organize Your Desk

While organized chaos can be stimulating for some, some structure is key to avoid unnecessary clutter and wasting time searching for the materials you need. If you're partial to some clutter, make it work for you. For example, rather than having piles of various items sitting atop your desk, organize the piles, or stacks, with purpose. Try creating one section for bills, another for invoices, one for grocery lists, and so forth. If you're someone for whom clutter negatively impacts your productivity, you may need to put in a little more effort to create a streamlined space. For example, if you find that paper is piling up, switch over to a paperless filing system, or keep a filing system (such as filing cabinets) near your desk so you can quickly sort documents into their respective folders as soon as they land on your desk. While paper is one of the largest clutter culprits when it comes to desk space, it's not the only one of which to be mindful. Pens, paperclips, thumb drives, books, calculators, and more can all take up valuable desk real estate. To avoid this, make a habit of culling these items once a week and store them in easily accessible spots. This may be containers, such as pen cups or paper clip holders, or even within the drawers of your desk.

Some general desk organization tips include:

• - Keep related papers in folders, and only keep relevant folders on your desk. When you're done with these folders, place them back in your filing cabinet, or other storage space.
• - Ensure you keep your monitor at eye level and at arm's length away, reserving this desk space specifically for your computer.
• - Keep your phone on your dominant side to avoid reaching across your body, and ensuring it's easily accessible.
• - Also maintain a paper-size space on your dominant side to make reviewing, signing and organizing papers and files easier.
• - Only keep the supplies you use on a regular basis on your desk.

In addition to your home office desk, you'll also want to be on the lookout for clutter that accumulates in other parts of your office. Consider incorporating bookcases as additional storage and to display personal effects, and even a chair or two to provide additional seating for loved ones who drop in for a visit, or for a change in where you sit. Simply ensure you also take the time to free these spaces of clutter.

To best streamline your space, consider splitting it into two zones: one for your computer work and one for non-computer work. The first zone should be dedicated to your traditional desktop or laptop set-up where you may do most of your work, while the second is a space clear of wires and chargers for you to focus on analog tasks.

Featured: The Roco Desk

Ensure Comfort is Your Top Priority

There is perhaps nothing that can more negatively impact your productivity than discomfort. Whether it's from a poorly designed chair causing you back pain, or improper placement of a computer near a window causing glare and eye-strain, ensure you assess your workspace to ensure it meets the levels of comfort you require. For starters, a quality ergonomic chair and well-lit space are crucial to your comfort and health. Ensure you adjust your chair and monitor so that you're looking straight ahead to avoid neck and back issues. As sitting for long periods of time can have negative effects on your health, ensure you get up and move around every so often, or consider investing in a standing desk or adjustable shelf for your monitor that allows you to sit or stand as you need.

Ideally, your office should have a mix of natural and artificial light. Natural light is best during the day, so long as you avoid glare, while adequate artificial lighting is best for when it gets darker outside. Consider investing in quality window treatments for any windows you may have in your home office to ensure light levels adhere to your comfort, as well as a few side or desk lamps that you can place on your desk or bookshelves.

Featured: The Roco Desk (with USB Dock) 

Keep Essential Items Nearby

Constantly searching for materials or having to get up to reach something can be distracting. Any materials you use on a regular basis should be kept nearby and may include anything from your phone, reference books, a planner, files, a printer, and so forth. If you find that the number of essential items you have is high, you may consider investing in a larger desk, a desk with built-in storage space and shelving, or reconfiguring your layout to include side tables that flank your main desk. This creates a U-shape that makes it easy to swivel around to get what you need. Consider including shelving units, a desk with built-in storage, filing cabinets or repurposing a bookshelf to store items that are still important but not used on a daily basis, and remember to keep a garbage and recycling bin nearby to prevent clutter from accumulating. 

You can also consider creating a "catch-all" space within your office, dedicated to those items that you may not immediately know what to do with. These can include: certain documents, items you need to keep (such as a jacket, umbrella, travel mug), and trash. This catch-all space should be set-up in a convenient location, such as near your office door and can include a credenza or tray for documents, a shelf or hooks for miscellaneous items, and of course, a trashcan.

Surround Yourself with Motivation & Inspiration

Undoubtedly, the biggest perk of working from home is the opportunity to set-up and decorate your home office in the way you like. There are virtually no rules when it comes to decorating your space, and in fact, you may find that you can maximize your energy and productivity by decorating your office in ways that bring you joy or foster inspiration. While you should strive to strike a balance between inspiration and distraction, you may consider the following to decorate your work space:

• - Consider painting your walls in a colour you like, and find soothing.
• - Hang personal photos, posters or pieces of art on your walls, or in frames for your desk and other surfaces.
• - Use decorative or kitschy office tools and supplies that match your personality.
• - Place decorative pots filled with greenery around your space.

You can also consider maximizing your vertical space by hanging pieces of art or other visuals, adding floating shelves, or installing cabinets along the length of your walls. Open cabinets, for examples, can be a fun approach to practical storage whilst also displaying sentimental baubles. Remember to surround yourself with items that inspire you, as your surroundings play an important role in encouraging productivity and motivation. 

Home office furniture plays an integral role in shaping your work-from-home set-up. Whether your home office is in need of a total overhaul, for which you may consider a home office package, or a simple refresh, ensuring your space is conducive to your comfort and productivity will ensure you're able to work seamlessly and enjoyably.