How to Get Organized at Work Before Vacation
Believe it or not, there are less than 3 weeks until Labor Day. If you’re like me, you may have taken some long weekends and are now planning to take at least a week off. Whether you’re planning a road trip, getting on a plane, or staying local, you’re probably counting the days! In an effort to have an easier transition out of the office and then back to work in September, I’m sharing these tips. Here’s my plan for how to get organized at work before vacation.
Do a complete sweep. Regardless of whether you’re back in the office or still working from home, schedule time to assess your entire workspace. Remove any items that are cluttering up the space, that don’t serve a purpose, or no longer work. After a while, those items that are cluttering up your space blend into the background and you just don’t see them. However, they’re still there and are a distraction! In my case, there’s a stack of books on my file cabinet that keeps growing. I plan to find a better home for them on the bookshelves or at a local charity.
What’s on your desk? To work at maximum efficiency, your desktop should only contain the essentials that are used daily. Depending on your job, this could include your laptop, phone, in tray, phone and some small office supplies. All else should be stored away until needed, discarded, filed or recycled. The more efficient your workspace, the more productive you will be! In my case, I’ll be filing some paperwork that collected during a busy period and clearing the excess like my personal humidifer.
Plan ahead. Since I’ve been taking some long weekends this summer, I’ve gotten into the habit of planning ahead. This way time for recurring tasks like drafting my weekly blog is blocked on my calendar. As I’ll be taking off the last week of the summer, I spent time earlier this week identifying all the tasks that needed to be done and scheduled time on my calendar for doing them. For example, I wrote this blog on Monday and worked on next week yesterday.
Maintenance, Maintenance. As vacation may still be a few days or week away, getting organized now and maintaining your space for the duration is key. It is so much easier to find 5 minutes to clear your desk at the end of each day than to let the clutter pile up and have to spend an hour or more clearing it. In addition, carefully manage your to-do list and monitor your calendar. This way you’ll be sure that all the must do tasks are completed before vacation starts. This is exactly what I do on a daily basis.
I hope these tips for how to get organized at work before vacation are helpful and that you have a wonderful and relaxing time out of the office. For more office organizing strategies and support, reach out to me today.