Control the Time! Project Management with Success

Mindfulness & emotional intelligence, learning anti-stress tricks & composure, solving problems, focus clarity & communication

Simone Janson, Simone Janson, Simone Janson

• Publisher: Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9783965962859
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Économie
• Subtopic: Théorie économique

Home office or office? Better time management through the right work environment
// By Simone Janson

Proper work also requires the right work environment. Of course, the job varies from job to job: one has only one computer teaching others, the third has a workshop, the fourth a shop. However, everything has to be organized by hand: the administration.

This is how your office should be set up

Perhaps you know the saying: "If you have your accounting under control, you also have your company under control!" This can easily be expanded to include the administration of every working person: if you have an overview of dates, addresses, meetings, projects and tax matters, you have your work organization under control. It is therefore important that you have a management center from which you can act and plan. Your strategic center, so to speak.

If you work as an employee, you of course have an office or an office space in the company, which you can design individually depending on the company or not. However, many companies now offer the option of working wholly or partially in the home office, but even if not you have to do your administrative tasks somewhere and if you are self-employed, you will need your own office anyway. Therefore, you should give yourself a few thoughts on this topic.

Your office does not have to be an expensive room, maybe you don't even need a separate room in which you can withdraw to deal with important matters. This does not mean that it has to be the center of your work, as the tax law suggests for the tax deductibility of work areas, but this place should at least become the center of your administration and accounting. Where you set them up largely depends on your spatial conditions and where you do your administrative work.

If you mainly work from home

If you work at home, you will have your own study or office. The office can also consist of just one corner or just a laptop. It is important that the work area is clearly separated from the private area and that you work here undisturbed and in your own work area.

The demarcation does not necessarily have to be spatial: it is enough if you send a clear signal to leave your work area - for example when you turn off the computer. It is important that your entire apartment does not turn into a work area - the danger is unfortunately present in smaller apartments and especially with small self-employed people. It is important that there is room for other things.

If you have rented an extra office

In this case the demarcation to the private area is already given. If you work in an office community, however, you should make sure that you can work here undisturbed.

If you work in multiple locations

If you want to work in the company, in the rented office and at home, you should set up both work areas roughly the same so that the work processes run more routinely. An alternative to this is mobile working:

Then you always have the most important things with you, whether in the office, in the car, at home or when talking to customers. However, you need the right equipment for this: For example a bag for the most necessary files and mobile work equipment such as cell phone and laptop. Here, too, you should have structured your system well - the risk of chaos is particularly high here.

Checklist: basic equipment for your office

Regardless of where you work: You should acquire some work equipment for your administration center that will support you in optimal work and in your organization. This includes:

• Desk with a comfortable, back-friendly chair
• Pens, always ready to hand and functional (sharpened pencil, working ballpoint pen, etc.)
• Tools for time planning or address management (calendar, smartphone).
• Computer with internet access. The computer also helps with archiving: Many documents can be stored here to save space and tidily. You can have a separate folder on the computer for each topic. You are also supported here by a search function. However, you should not create too many subfolders as there can be problems transferring data to storage media or to the cloud. Whether you prefer to store your data on your own computer or in view of possible data loss and data synchronization with other devices in the cloud is an open question.
• Storage container for papers: In this case, papers include everything that gets in the way of your work, from important documents to magazine articles to advertisements and flyers. You need three storage bins: one for incoming, one for outgoing documents, information, letters, etc., and one for material that you still want to look through. Don't be too generous with the shelves: at least once or twice a week, you should go through your baskets and arrange the papers in your system or throw them away. If you collect longer, you will end up garbage and chaos. For this purpose, the shelf should also be clearly visible so that you always have an overview of the work to be done.
• Archiving for papers: This depends first of all on your needs, your personal taste and the storage space: Perhaps you need a folder for bank documents, telephone bills, insurance documents, contracts, work samples or the like? Do you prefer folders and shelves, cabinets with sliding doors and magazine files or filing cabinets with hanging files? The former are cheaper and more space-saving, in the latter you can store and find your papers more quickly.
• It should take you less than three minutes to take something out of the inbox and put it down so that you can easily find it at any time. This requires an appropriate setup - for example, no shelves up to the ceiling where you have to climb into a chair to reach the files. And if you object that you don't have enough space to organize your files in the best possible way: The more storage space you plan, the more you will fill it with things. So only plan as much storage space as necessary.
• Trash into which you rigorously throw what you no longer need and which you regularly empty: Throwing away is still the most efficient way of keeping things tidy. And if you are afraid that you might still need something afterwards: If you do not throw anything away, you will find less and less quickly what you are looking for.
• Notes that are always close at hand and on which you can quickly write something down, as well as a place where you can then store the notes. This shouldn't be the inbox as this is where you can lose your important notes. A pin board or (to save space) a skewer to impale on the desk is possible. Try what suits you best. It is important that you always have an eye on the notes and that you regularly sort appointments, addresses and tasks into your organization system. EDP ​​note systems, such as virtual sticky notes on the computer, have not proven themselves for quick notes (on the phone, for example), because taking notes takes too long and transferring the data is usually cumbersome.
• Printer: Even if a lot can now be done electronically, some things still have to be printed out. Combination devices that function as a scanner and desktop copier at the same time are very practical. Make sure, however, that each color of ink has a separate chamber. With some devices, all cartridges, including the color cartridges, must also be installed so that you can print something. If you print something out frequently, you should leave your printer connected to the power: Every time you connect it, the printer cleans itself and uses ink. It can be cheaper to buy a printer with toner here.

Classification systems

But not only the work equipment, but also an efficient organization system helps you to keep an overview and to work productively. Maybe you created a good system at the beginning with the best of intentions, but after a while the documents pile up on your desk?

This is probably because you are using your system inconsistently. You may find yourself in one or more of the following very typical situations (you will find the solution to the problem in a moment). Or maybe your organization system is not optimal - then you should use the tip below as a suggestion to thoroughly turn your organization system inside out.

Typical order problems and the solution to them

Of course, a good organization system costs time and money. But in the end you save time and get the money back through higher productivity.

Problem situation	Troubleshooting
You don't know where to sort a document, for example with the projects or the letters.	If you create a uniform, preferably alphabetical order system, you will always know where something has to go and where to look for it.
To file a document, you first have to dig out a folder, get into the chair, or go to another room.	You shouldn't need more than 1-2 minutes to take something off the shelf and put it into your system. If you take longer, you lose the desire to sort and you don't do it anymore. Therefore: change something.
As soon as you open the file drawer, a mountain of paper swells towards you and your filing on the desk is also overcrowded. So that the documents don't get lost, put them on the shelf - a new pile.	Throw them away regularly. Go through your “archive” at least once every six months and sort your filing at least once a week. If there is no other way, expand your organization syste...