10 tips to work smarter: tip 8 - Create a tidy workplace

Did you know that the average professional may waste as much as 3 hours a week searching for documents, email and papers? This results in an annual loss to society of many millions of productive hours and billions of euros.

What a waste of time and energy! It may seem like an afterthought, but cleaning up your workplace can give you a lot of extra results and fun.

• Make it a daily habit to make time to keep your workspace and inbox organized. It 'costs' you a maximum of 10 to 20 minutes a day and provides you with a lot of extra overview and peace of mind. A must, especially when you're busy!
• Invest in a simple digital folder structure of up to 10 folders of the most general categories possible. Too much hassle? A simple and quick solution is to use only a general 'archive' folder. The search function of your computer or mail program then does the rest.
• Develop the habit of processing emails by directly deciding WAD to do with them. So: can you Discard, Handle or Forward it? Not yet in the opportunity to deal with the content of the email? In that case, it is preferable to inform the other party that you have received the message, but will return to it at X time. Then save these emails in a separate folder or mark them with a specific color or category so that you can process them efficiently later.
• Despite most information being available digitally, paper is still preferred by many people. Also, keep paper notes and documents together by category as much as possible, so that you can easily find them. An old-fashioned 31-tab term folder or accordion folder will work just fine. Or take a photo or scan the note and add it to your digital note-taking app.

This is the eighth tip in a series of 10 tips to work smarter.

Introduction
Tip 0 Arrive on time
Tip 1 Make a daily schedule
Tip 2 Focus on what you can influence yourself
Tip 3 Keep agreements with yourself
Tip 4 FUN first
Tip 5 Clear your head
Tip 6 Do one thing at a time and finish it!
Tip 7 Cluster activities
Tip 8 Create a tidy workplace
Tip 9 Ban jammers
Tip 10 End the day positively

You too can work smart with more results and fun! Jennefer Boskeljon gives a at Lagant classroom skills training Time management, you can also use this training as self-study Time management Follow.

Do you want to know more? Or would you like to get acquainted first without any obligation? Then sign up for the free inspiration workshop Time management.