Organize Your Office In No Time - Softcover

Professional organizer Monica Ricci helps people simplify their chaotic lives through her company Catalyst Organizing Solutions in Georgia. She teaches people how to simplify their lives by de-cluttering their homes and streamlining their office spaces. She has been showcased as the expert organizer on several episodes of HGTV's MISSION: Organization. Monica has been a speaker at National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) conferences and moderates two popular online forums. As a motivational speaker, she presents seminars on time management, overcoming procrastination and getting organized. Some of her clients include Earthlink, Longhorn, US Court of Appeals, and GE Capital.

Introduction

Whether you work in a plush, high-rise corner office, in a cube, or out of your home, chances are you spend a great deal of your life in your office. Creating a work environment that fosters productivity is important. If you find yourself overwhelmed, procrastinating, mired in paperwork, ineffective, unproductive, and not nearly as successful as you know you could be, office chaos has taken over. You're not alone, however. Many business people complain of feeling the same way you do and disorganization is a common challenge that crosses all boundaries.

What Organize Your Office In No Time Can Do For You

The In No Time series of books is designed to help you tackle any challenging task, using a step-by-step approach to accomplishing your goal. I've written this book in a straight-forward, simple style, and I've included plenty of photos, illustrations, and specific recommendations so you can move through the process of organizing your office quickly and efficiently. Organize Your Office In No Time will help you determine what kind of office organization will work best for you, how to quickly customize your office to match that organization, and how to keep it organized without sacrificing your day to maintenance. You'll get simple, practical solutions without being told that there is one "right" way to organize your office. And I offer you several organizational options, so you can choose the ones that best fit your personality and work style.

This book will teach you

• How to identify your own organizing and working style
• How to choose the organizing methods that work best for you
• How to take the overwhelming feelings out of organizing your office by approaching the task in small, manageable chunks
• Fundamental concepts and organizing principles you can apply in other areas of your life
• Techniques to help you make faster decisions to keep your office organized
• How to maximize the storage space in your office
• Simple maintenance routines to keep your office organized

Who Should Read This Book

Many people say, "I wasn't born an organizer", which might be true, but you weren't born knowing how to walk, either. Like walking or any other skill, the ability to organize is something you can learn. And like any other skill, parts of it will come easily to you and some other parts might not, but in the end, you will have learned something new and valuable. This book is for you if

• Your office environment is so chaotic you just can't focus on your work.
• You frequently miss meetings, lose important information, or find yourself re-creating the same documents over and over again.
• You know you could be so much more effective if you were more organized.
• You have lost a job or a promotion because of your lack of organizational skills.
• Your disorganization has eroded your self-confidence.
• Your disorganization is causing problems in your relationships with your boss or colleagues.
• You are busy and you think you don't have the time to get organized.

You might already be effective and productive at work and have organizational systems in place that work for you, which is terrific! Even if that's the case, however, chances are you have a few areas where you know you could improve and you just need some ideas to get you there. If so, this is the right book for you, too.

How This Book Is Organized

To help you quickly find the areas you need most, Organize Your Office In No Time is divided into four main parts.

Part I, "Getting Started," is a 30,000-foot view of your organizing project. Taking this big-picture, overview approach in the beginning will help you create a plan to work from that will ultimately result in your creating the office you desire. You'll learn your primary work style, decide your goals for your office space, learn how to create the framework for the space, and some time management tips to increase your effectiveness.

Part II, "Organizing Your Files," teaches you how to store, retrieve, and manage information—both paper and electronic—to keep you organized and in control. This section will also give you a range of filing system ideas and product reviews that will not only give you a jump start before you purchase, but will reduce your research time considerably.

Part III, "Organizing Your Desk," explores many viable options for organizing your desk, computer, and email; managing your contacts; and staying organized when traveling. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to use technology to become and remain organized.

Part IV, "Simple Storage Solutions," delves into helping you find the overlooked but useful storage spaces in your office, such as the vertical space on walls, doors, and furniture. You will also learn how to make effective use of offsite storage facilities for archival records and nonessential items and information.

How to Use This Book

This book won't take you long to read and you should feel welcome to skip around to the chapters that interest you most. It is designed so you can use the table of contents to pinpoint the areas you are most interested in learning about. I do recommended that you read Part I so you can have a starting point to create your organizing plan. However, if all you need are tips on filing or email management, you can certainly single out those sections to read first so you can get right to work and see results quickly. In addition, each chapter in Parts II and III of this book is a self-contained unit of information, so if a certain topic doesn't apply to you or you already have a handle on that part, there is no need for you to spend time on that chapter.

When you organize one area of your life, other problem areas often improve on their own. For example, when you unclutter and organize your space, you might find that your time management improves because you don't waste time looking for things. And when your time management improves, you're better able to focus on your priorities because you aren't so rushed. And when you focus on your priorities, you become more productive and effective! And when you're more productive and effective at work, you can be less stressed and more happy at home. So you can see how improving just one area of your life can directly affect other areas in a positive chain reaction.

Also, when you begin to organize one area of your office, your results motivate you to continue the process.

You can certainly read this book from cover to cover, but what I really want you to do is use it as a how-to manual for organizing the various aspects of your office. You might find that after you read Part I, have determined your primary work style, laid out the overview for your office, and begun thinking about the end result, you are so excited that you just want to dive in and get started before reading any further. Go for it!

Special Elements and Icons

I've done my best to arrange the material in this book so you can zero in on what you need. So, I've added some special elements to help you spot information:

• Some sections begin with a You'll Need list. This list will let you know whether you should have any supplies on hand as you read the section. If you have what you need as you read the chapter, you can complete the recommended steps right away, and you won't have to come back to do them later. To-do lists at the opening of many sections step you through the major steps of the sections' tasks.
• I've highlighted some information as tips. Tips indicate ideas, tricks, simple things you can do, or new ways for you to think that will help you as you move through the process of organizing your office.
• There are also cautions that give you a heads-up on what to watch out for in certain situations.
• Notes give you little tidbits of interesting information about the topic being discussed in the main body of text.
• At the end of each chapter, you'll find a chapter summary that summarizes and puts the major ideas of the chapter into a nutshell for you.

I've also included four special icons to help draw your attention to specific types of information:

• The Client Success Story icon indicates a real-life story about a client with a particular organizing challenge and how it was solved. Just as in that old television show, all names have been changed to protect the innocent.
• The Fundamental Concept icon precedes any reference to a key piece of information that can be applied in many areas of your life. For example, grouping like items with like items is a fundamental concept that applies whether you're organizing your kitchen, toy room, or office.
• The It's Your Style icon indicates a special note that offers a suggestion or idea for one of the four specific work styles identified in Part I.
• Staying organized for the long haul is all about maintenance. The Maintenance Tip icon appears next to examples of how to maintain systems, create habits, or make things run smoothly for the long term.

Our Goal

I know that if you are reading this book, you are probably overwhelmed by your current situation. This book is designed to help you get over the stumbling blocks that have been in your way until now.

• If you've tried various systems without success, this book will show you how to take control of your office space and organize it so you can be productive and feel successful.
• If you think you're too busy just getting through the day to find time to organize your office, that's a clue that you really need to! If you had extra time, you'd probably already be more organized.

My goal is to change your situation from harried, stressed, and drowning in paperwork to focused, organized, and more productive than ever!

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