Time Management Essentials Part 4: Organize Your Space
Welcome to the fourth installment of our blog miniseries: Time Management Essentials for Busy Professionals. Join us as we review essential tips, techniques, and methods to organize your space, increasing productivity, and improving customer service for your business.
In previous installments of our Time Management Essentials miniseries, we discussed avoiding time-wasters and dividing your time into manageable blocks to improve your productivity and help you create a client-friendly schedule at the same time. Now we’re going to discuss how you can improve your business, be more productive, and give your clients the best service, all by creating a more organized, less cluttered workspace.
Recent studies have shown that a cluttered environment can have a negative impact on your brain. Clutter can make it a lot harder to focus on the task at hand. This can make it even more difficult to do tasks you would rather procrastinate on, and it can even make enjoyable tasks seem difficult and tiresome.
Furthermore, a cluttered environment isn’t exactly welcoming to your clients. Whether you work out of your home or in a salon, having too much stuff sitting around in a disorganized fashion can make you look unprofessional. It can also take your clients’ minds off of the help you’re giving them and leave them feeling tense when they should be relaxed and calm.
A place for everything and everything in its place
To get organized and declutter your space, start with this old mantra. It might seem silly, but it’s actually incredibly effective. If you have an object sitting out because you don’t have a place for it, consider why that is. Is this something essential to your business? If so, either find or make a place for that object that makes sense to you. If not, get rid of it.
As humans, we tend to collect things, and we have a hard time giving them up. However, our minds are much calmer and more efficient when we aren’t surrounded by clutter. Be honest with yourself as you go through all of the objects and items in your workspace. If something does not belong, it needs to go.
Prioritize the items you use most often
Next, remember that your clients pay you for the time they spend with you. You need to give them all of your attention and care, which in turn means you can’t waste it searching for equipment, accessories, or tools that you need. You must have your supplies ready to go before you meet with your client so that they don’t ever feel like they’re paying you to search for the right bottle.
As you organize the items that belong in your workspace, move the things you use the most to the fronts of cabinets and drawers. Label everything clearly, and make sure that you can easily reach the equipment and accessories you use the most. By keeping things organized this way, you’ll be able to help your clients, even if they ask for an additional service that they don’t ordinarily get. You’ll have everything you need, and you won’t have to shuffle through boxes or drawers of items to find it.
This is especially important if you make house calls for your clients. You may not be able to control the space you work in when you’re at a client’s home or in their office, true. But you can create an organized, mobile workstation that you can easily pack and unpack for efficient, thorough customer service and a good work environment.
Don’t forget about digital clutter!
Be aware of the clutter you keep on your computer, phone, and/or other mobile devices. Take some time one day to go through any backlogs of email messages and notifications. Clean up the desktop on your computer. Make sure that you have a system in place for files and folders, as well.
The more organized you are, both physically and digitally, the faster you’ll be able to transition between appointments and the more attention you’ll be able to pay to your clients while you’re working with them. Better organization leads to better customer service, which leads to more clients as you build your business!
Thank you for reading Time Management Essentials Part 4! If you missed our previous article, we highly suggest you take a look if you are interested!
