“Visible mess helps distract us from the true source of the disorder.”
― Marie Kondō, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
At home, I do not typically take the lead on organizing – my husband likes to keep an orderly house. However, after I recently finished reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō, I started thinking about the importance of decluttering and organizing a workspace.
The National Association of Professional Organizations conducted a study that found that paper clutter is a huge problem in businesses: the average person wastes an average of 4 hours per week searching through paperwork. In addition to the amount of time wasted, disorganization adds stress and frustration to an already full workload.
Fortunately, we live in an era of cheap or free electronic space, which can help minimize paper waste and clutter. Cloud storage systems, such as Google Drive and Dropbox, can be huge time- and sanity-savers, allowing you to organize files electronically.
Another big organizational task: organizing your e-mail inbox. Doing so has multiple benefits: not only by giving you a better idea of where your files and deadlines are, but also giving you a greater sense of control, which can make all the difference when running a small business.
Organization or reorganization may seem like a daunting task but you don’t have to implement a new system of organization all at once. Spending 10 minutes a day, step by step, will move you to a cleaner and more user-friendly workspace. Kondō explains in her book, “Tidy a little a day and you’ll be tidying forever.”