Office Zoning Issues
April 7, 2008 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Home & Living
No, I’m not talking about whether your office is legit – usually, unless you’re working on the roof, or in the front yard, no one is going to comment on your home office zoning. I’m talking about zoning your desk for maximum efficiency.
Your goal when desk or whole home office zoning is to organize in such a way, that you can be more productive, easily find items, and not kill yourself reaching said items.
The best way to zone is to place high need objects nearby, mid-use items semi-close, and items you use once a month far, far, away.
Examples from my home office:
I use my office for work (full-time blogging) and for home issues (paying bills). So I zone items together.
My high-use zone: This zone is the zone I can reach from my desk without getting up. Items in my high-use zone include; a small collection of research books, clips, and articles that relate to all my blog topics, pens, my paper schedule, chapstick, hair clips, highlighters, eye drops, thesaurus, calculator, Advil, extra checks, cell phone, idea folder, and envelopes. Plus my record player and some essential oils. I also have my current box on the floor next to my desk (which I’ll explain in another post).
I can reach all my high-use items with a simple turn of my chair. I have a bookcase next to my desk for my topic books, and the record player/stereo (plus records) is on a shelf right behind me. The point is that when I start working, I don’t have to stop and get up. I also don’t hurt my back or neck reaching because all these items are less than an arms reach away.
My mid-use zone: This zone is stuff I sometimes do need, but the clutter of having it nearby would surely slow me down. My mid-use zone is a bookshelf in another corner of my office, but it used to be in my closet. The only items in my mid-zone currently are extra topic books – books I sometimes use, but not every day, and CDs. I usually listen to vinyl, but sometimes want a CD.
My low-use zone: These are items stored in a file cabinet, that I almost never use like blogging, and other project contracts, home files related to warranties and bills, big mailing envelopes, taxes, paper invoices, and copies of my published work. All of this is important for my work and home, but why have it in my way if I barely use it.
A major problem I see when I take a look at people’s desks or home office spaces is that they think they need to see everything in plain view. Not true. My file cabinet isn’t even in my office, I keep it in the hallway. A lot of people I know do something like this when desk and office organizing:
- Gather anything and everything office related.
- Lay it out all over the office area to get a good look.
- Attempt to fit all of it into that little area where they actually sit and work – usually the desk itself and all the desk’s shelves.
NO! Not every item you’ll ever possibly use belongs in your work area. If you don’t use an item daily, or at least three times a week, it doesn’t belong in the immediate area. It’s guaranteed to create clutter and slow you down.
Now, if you have a job that changes a lot (like me) then you may have some items that you use frequently one week, and then not at all the next. Later I’ll tell you what I do with those items.
How is your office or desk area zoned?
[Cartoon by Dave Walker]
Funny, that looks like my desk! Actually that’s one of my projects for April, my desk area has just gotten out of hand. I tend to neglect it, because it hides behind doors when anyone drops by. Why can I be so organized and efficient in my office at work and not in my office at home?
Jennifer,
I have used my office mainly for home issues up until about a month ago. I have started an internet business involving blogging, writing articles and eBooks, and setting up a website on home organization and decluttering. The blog is up but the rest is a work in progress. Needless to say, my desk has become cluttered with papers, files, books, etc. I need for research and writing. I have been going through many of the old files that were housed in the bins above the desk to declutter the contents and/or move them to a less prominent place. I need those bins to house my work files now since those are what I use daily.
@Barbara maybe because you’re the only person who sees your home office – at work everyone does.
@Janice when I fist started writing a long time ago my desk got clutterful too. I had to really get organized. I actually have a fairly insane file cabinet system. It’s good to have some sort of system, because as a writer, you start to feel like everything is useful for something (or I did), like OMG I can’t recycle this clip! But you can. Once you get those bins done, you’ll feel better, and be more productive.
Wow, how did you get that picture of my desk? LOL. I start out with the best of intentions, but someone everything ends up in the high-use zone…except me, because once it gets super cluttered, I get no work done!
It surprises me that your desk would be messy Kristen. You always seem so darn productive. Maybe you’re one of those who can get stuff done still in mid clutter. Once an extra pen is on my desk I freak.
PS Upcoming I have a way to deal with that stuff that “Just ends up” in your high use zone. It would have been up today had Cedar not fallen ill. But tomorrow for sure
That cartoon just ROCKS! I especially love the “Yesterday’s Mug” because my desk gets into that sort of state too.
I tried to instigate a “High Use” zone on my desk, but my zones sort of merged into a single pile like an all-consuming gelatinous mass. Part of my problem is that my desk is 1. cheap and 2. tight on space due to some of the additional equipment I need. (That, and some of my tech is old so it takes up more space). But I can see how I’ve got some serious zoning issues — my low-use is in my mid-use and my mid-use is… somewhere.
Another concern is organizing my low-use zone because at tax time I spent WAY too much time looking for something that I had tucked away someplace ’safe’. I think some time spent browsing your blog might bring up some answers for how to deal with that stuff.