Today is ‘Organise your Home Office’ day, and as a small business with years of home working under our belt, we thought we would share our top tips.
Tip 1: Work out how you work best
Sounds like a strange starting point, but it is honestly going to make everything else fall into place.
Work out how you work best - by this we mean whether you work best at a certain time of the day or whether you work best in a certain place in your home for example.
This will enable you to focus your work times on those times and locations, any client meetings (especially those you travel to) should take place outside of those key productive work times.
If you haven’t found your sweet spot yet then experiment, it could be something as simple as repositing your work desk or introducing better lighting that boosts your productivity.
Tip 2: Keep your work space clear
An obvious step, but a key one. Keep your work space clear, invest in whatever type of storage you like for any files, hard drives, notes, and cables for any devices you use to keep yourself organised and your workspace clear.
The benefits of this are that you will know exactly where things are, never loosing those important notes again, and you will see your productivity improve.
Tip 3: Consider going digital
Depending on the type of work that you do, think about whether you can transfer anything to digital.
Perhaps your diary, call notes, or even your to do list. Anything that helps to reduce the clutter in your work environment, and ultimately help you access data faster instead of having to trawl through stacks of paperwork to find what you need.
For maximum control you can stick with spreadsheets and word docs. For ease of sharing and accessing across different devices you can use Google Sheets and Google Docs. Or you can take advantage of the many different types of platforms that exist with the aim of organising/automating your work flow and space.
It can be a bit of trial and error, but don’t be afraid to give it a go.
Tip 4: Manage your emails
It is tempting to be checking your emails all day every day, but this is honestly the worst thing you can do.
Set aside a set period each working day to go through your inbox and to respond to any emails as needed. If necessary, close your email platform outside of those times to avoid reacting to every single ping that comes up.
Limiting your email time allows you to focus on your work tasks, meaning that you will be more productive.
Tip 5: Test out Pomodoro
You may have heard of the ‘Pomodoro method’, the idea that you work for 25 minute and then take a 5 minute break.
It is worth trying the Pomodoro method to see whether it helps or hinders your home working. If it helps then great, if it’s not for you then Google ‘time management tools’ and you can see a full list of tried and tested methods that might appeal to you more.
Tip 6: Reduce/Remove Distractions
When working from home it is all too easy to see all of the various household chores that need to be done. It’s easy to be distracted by noisy neighbours, kids, pets, and even your own personal social media accounts.
Try to do your best to reduce or remove those distractions.
If you have a home office where you can close the door to block out the rest of your home then that’s great. If not, then carve out a specific workplace for yourself and make the most of work playlists to help keep your head in the work mindset (with or without headphones to block out external noises).
You may find it helpful to follow household methods such as TOMM so that you allow yourself specific time for housework outside of your work hours. And perhaps even set alarms on your phone for when you need to stop work to collect the children for example so you can crack on without watching the clock.
Why does organising your Home Office help?
The ultimate reason for organising your home office is to boost your productivity.
Better productivity will then give you time to do all of those elements that you said you would do to further your business. Even give you time to discuss your business plans with us so we can help you take that next step.
However you tackle the organisation of your home office, one thing is for sure – you won’t regret it.
Published: 10th Mar 2025