Organizing Your Work

Working from home can get messy at times. For exmaple, it can be difficult to define regular working hours when you have to juggle between your home and work responsibilities. Planning beforehand is a good way to get your work organized and get the most out of your home based venture.

Some useful strategies to help you organize your day while you work from home are given below.

Workspace: – You need a good amount of space to work efficiently. Make sure that your workspace is big enough to accommodate a desktop computer and all kinds of files and paperwork. Using a large table can be great but if your home is lacking in space you can always use a small corner and create an L-shaped workstation. Add to it, a good, comfortable chair to prevent backaches and fatigue.

Desktop Management: – You can get cheap and small cases to neatly stack up pens and paperclips. Use sticky papers for reminders by pasting them around your desktop and referring to them at regular intervals. Better yet, set reminders within your phone. Use space saving folders to stack up files. The idea is to keep most of your work place clean for you to make use of.

Waste Management: – You need to stop stacking up waste paper such as printouts, sheets, invoices, letter heads, and dispose them off regularly. If not done, this may create a lot of confusion during later times. Also all useful printed information needs to be filed and marked immediately. Try and manage your file cabinet well. Mark all files clearly. Use bottom drawers for files that are currently not in use and top drawers for files that are active. Files may be organized alphabetically or by date, as per your convenience.
Current work should be well sorted out and filed so as to eliminate any kind of confusion that may arise the subsequent day.

Mail Management: – Be regular with your mails, be it snail or electronic. Be prompt in replying to your mails and they wont pile up on your workstation. Set aside a specific time to tend to your mails everyday, especially bills.

Be Computer Savvy: – Get a computer and learn how to use it. If possible get classes for a few specific programs. Books are mostly available free of cost at various libraries so make the most of the opportunity. Add the power of computing to your home based venture and see the difference. After you are comfortable with using a computer, try using a hand held or a palm top to stay connected and updated on the go.

It is a wise thing to use online help to make the most of your business. Add a scanner cum printer to your business to make the most of the information available over the net.

Lastly, you need to schedule a particular time for phone calls, maybe keep separate phones for home and business. And while you do all this to improve your business, don’t forget to take breaks while you work!