Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hi. I'm Lorie Marrero, creator of the Clutter Diet book and on-line program, and today we're

  • going to talk about having a well-equipped home office. We're going to talk about the

  • flow of things in and out of your office space, and also I want to show you some components

  • of an efficient desk space that help make that happen.

  • First, lets think about how it is when you drive your car. So you're sitting in the driver's

  • seat, you've got all the buttons you need for the radio and for the windows, and you've

  • got your pedals, your dashboard, and your cup holders. Basically you have everything

  • you need to drive a car within easy reach. So think about applying that same concept

  • to your desk. You need to have all of these components within easy reach so that you can

  • efficiently work every day.

  • So first lets talk about how things come into your office and how to process those through

  • these physical components of these different baskets and things that we're going to have.

  • So you have maybe seen me on other videos talking about having an "in" basket. And it

  • can be a basket like this or it can be a tray or whatever you particularly like, but you

  • need to think about this as the parking spot for anything new that comes into your office

  • so that it is to be sorted. It could be mail, it could be other kinds of papers, and it

  • could even be physical objects that you need to look at and make decisions about, maybe

  • something that needs repairs. So you're going to have this as anything incoming and you're

  • going to process this. Now, we've talked in other videos about action, reference, or trash

  • [POP], and you're going to be looking at everything in this with those three things in mind. Now,

  • if those items are action items, you want to have a place to put those. So you may decide

  • to have action files, project files, things for items that you actually need to do something

  • with. So I have this that you can see behind me for bills that need to be paid, for travel

  • arrangements, for urgent items like quick phone calls and forms that need to be filled

  • out. This is how I handle it. I like trays because they're very visible. You can also

  • use folders if you like, or any kind of office supply that makes sense for you and your style.

  • You also may decide that you need to have some other project files for ongoing things

  • that you're planning. I have a drawer here in my desk that I have for those things, and

  • those are actual file folders. If the items in your "in" basket are reference items, those

  • will go in your files, and so you need to have some files pretty close by. These are

  • my reference files. I also have a basket here for things to be filed if I want to wait until

  • a later time to actually put those into file folders. And then if the items in your "in"

  • basket are to be trashed, they may need to be recycled, so I have this basket that goes

  • underneath my desk that's a recycling bin and then I also have a shredder, which is

  • very important, so I think every home should have a shredder to make sure that you protect

  • yourself from identity theft. Then, of course, you're going to have a regular trash can as

  • well.

  • So then you may also have other categories of items that come through that are items

  • that may be for reading. So I have a "to read" basket -- and this also usually goes on my

  • floor -- but these are the magazines and catalogs and other items that I can easily pull out

  • of my "in" basket to make my pile a little less scary to sort through. So that centralizes

  • all of my reading material into one place. Another thing that you might run into when

  • you're sorting is something that goes out to someone else. So you can have an "out"

  • box. Some people like to do that. I just put the things on my desk to carry out on my way

  • out. But some people have a lot of needs for things that are outgoing. And sometimes for

  • clients I've created what I call "destination trays." So there are very common destinations

  • that they're always giving things to certain other people or taking them to certain other

  • places and we have multiple trays that we label for those destinations so they can easily

  • sort what's going out of their offices.

  • So as you think about this inflow and outflow of things through your office, make sure that

  • you have all of these components in place so that you can do your work the most efficiently.

  • I wrote a whole book about how to organize your home office and you can find out more

  • about that at http://www.clutterdiet.com/homeoffice.

  • See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.

Hi. I'm Lorie Marrero, creator of the Clutter Diet book and on-line program, and today we're

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it