by Rachel Smith
10 March 2017
As I write this, I’m looking at a home office with papers all over the desk, a wall calendar that’s still on last month’s page, and a desk fan that I’ve yet to unplug and pop back in the attic. There’s no space to do anything, so it’s basically screaming, ‘YOU CANNOT WORK HERE, GO AWAY’ every time I look over longingly at the big, chunky wood desk that I chose and paid a squillion for back when we were renovating. Instead, I take my laptop and work on the couch, the kitchen table, in bed, or at a library or cafe. Which is not really what I intended when I designed my beautiful home office.
So, this weekend I’m going to go all Shaynna Blaze on my office. It’s getting the office blitz treatment so I can pull up a chair and hit the ground running come Monday. Here’s my plan.
1. File, file, then file some more. I can’t THINK surrounded by scraps of paper everywhere. The irony is, all the scraps are mine and they all have important things scribbled on them. So the first job is to de-paper the office – file paid bills, pay those waiting for attention, snap pix of my receipts to pop into Rounded, store clippings in their folder, collate bits of research so they’re all with the other relevant story notes. And… breathe.
2. Get rid of all the unnecessary stuff. Currently there is a pile of my son’s hair (baby hair! Who can chuck out trimmed baby hair?), an empty toner box, a pile of books I’m reading for current stories and a selection of other bits and bobs that I swear, just by sitting there, is dragging down my energy. So all of that needs to go somewhere too.
3. Put up the damn pictures. I have a pile of little pictures that I’ve bluetacked to the wall that have fallen down. Or pictures I’ve been meaning to put up forever. This weekend I am going to get the hammer out and sort that pile out once and for all. There is nothing sadder than a pile of pictures and frames on your desk that by rights belong on the wall but never quite make it there. Shaynna would be so cranky with me.
3. Get some good Feng Shui happening. I truly believe when your desk is in the right position, and there’s space and light and the books are all organised according to height (or however you like it), the good ‘chi’ (energy) and the creativity and the positivity can flow. Surely the Chinese can’t have been wrong for the past 6000-odd years? FYI: Feng Shui practitioners say ideally you should face the door when you sit down at your desk. My desk is in kind of a long, skinny thoroughfare but I face a window, and I figure that’s a good start.
4. Get a plant. I love having greenery around me and in my office, and I think having greenery around you promotes calm feelings (and, some say, ‘growth and decisiveness’). That said, I somehow manage to kill almost every plant I buy. Except for succulants. So I’m off to the nursery to get a beautiful, green money tree. Hey, it can’t hurt.
5. Try a standing desk. I’d love to, but my desk is a built-in and so there isn’t really room for me to try one. I have heard they are great for both productivity especially if you work towards a goal of standing for around 4 hours per day (and alternating with periods of being seated).
6. Buy functional storage that frees up desk space. I just purchased a multi-device charging station which enables you to charge a laptop, ipad and phones all in the one cool box set up – and it hides all the cords. Right now, charging all those things takes up pretty much ALL my desk space so this is a fantastic solution.
What are your best home office productivity tips?
