Chaos in the office can quickly cause frustration: anyone who is often busy looking for certain documents, files or messages may seem to have lost an overview and should think about implementing a system to their workplace and inbox. Regardless of whether it is digital or analogue - order at work creates structure, spares nerves and ensures efficient work. Tidiness of the desk also influences productivity. Not everyone likes a completely clean or sleek working area, but a certain amount of order should be maintained. Find out here how to tidy up your desk and keep it that way in the future. 

In addition, a large number of emails often reach your inbox during the day. If you lose track of important customer mails, tool updates and tasks, it can create a bigger problem quickly.
With a simple system, we will teach you how to bring order back into your mailbox and systematically process all messages.

Tips for more organizability in the office 

1. Regular tidying makes everyday work easier 
   To avoid major chaos at the workplace, it is advisable to tidy up your desk at the end of each working day. In this way, you avoid mountains of old glasses and coffee cups as well as piles of documents that still need to be filed or possibly a plate with the remaining cake crumbs from your colleague's birthday cake turning into an anthill.  
   Through regular organization you can start the next morning full of energy without having to clean up the mess of the day before. In addition, once a week - ideally on Fridays - you should dust your desk and wipe it down with a damp cloth. Apart from a clean desk this also gives you a feeling of a fresh start once you head into the office Monday morning.
   
   
2. Minimalism is key 
   To prevent chaos in the first place, it can help to focus on the essentials and keep your desk as minimalistic as possible. A small basic set consisting of pens, highlighters, scissors, and staplers is not wrong, but keep the quantities of what is on your desk to what is really needed. In addition, each item should have a dedicated place. 
   Filing trays are also a practical organizational tool, but they bring with them the danger that - in keeping in tune with the motto "out of sight, out of mind" - unneeded items end up there for months, collecting dust and creating even more chaos. Important documents should be filed in folders and binders, neatly labelled, and stored in a roll container. This keeps the pile of paper on the desk as small as possible. In addition, you should always consider which documents need to be printed out at all. Today, many documents can easily be filed digitally and do not need to be printed on paper.
     
3. Handling notes properly for more order in the workplace 
   Post-It notes may be quite practical and look very nice, but - above a certain quantity - they can also contribute to chaos. In addition to practical digital tools, notebooks can also keep the workplace and your mind tidy. So-called "bullet journal to-do lists" are currently enjoying great popularity. These can be created and prioritized on a weekly or daily basis. 
   
   

Order in your inbox for more efficiency at work 

First things first: The basic clean-up 

For an orderly structure in your e-mail inbox, you should start with a basic cleaning, if you have not already done so. Start by deleting outdated messages that you will certainly never need again. To do this, you can either sort the mails by date, mark and remove all mails after a certain date. Or you can sort them by sender, thus filter out and delete unimportant messages. Another strategy is explained below. 

If you find emails that you are not sure are still relevant, you can simply group them by year in a folder and archive them. This way they are no longer in your field of vision but can still be found very easily.  

Make a categorization 

One strategy for optimal order in the mailbox, that has proven successful, is to categorize the mails according to individual topics. For example, if you work in consulting and have contact with several clients, you can create a separate folder for each client. For more extensive projects, it is worthwhile to sub-group them. 

Of course, mails can also be filed thematically (e.g. "internal", "external", "colleague XY"). 

But how can you distinguish which mails still need to be processed and which only serve as reminders or "evidence"? 

Mails that still need to be processed remain in the inbox. 

Under no circumstances should you sort messages to which you still have to reply directly into the corresponding client folders. Otherwise, you would quickly lose track of everything and must search through all the subfolders every day for mails that still need to be processed. Therefore, all emails that still need to be processed remain unsorted in the inbox. 

Don't worry, this sounds more chaotic than it is. Because in this way you not only have an overview of the quantity of messages to which you have to react, but also a digital "to-do list", so to speak, in your inbox. 

As soon as you have processed an e-mail, you can file it in the corresponding folder and refer to it later if necessary. 

Organization and structure make for more efficient work 

As soon as the first step towards order has been taken and a certain basic system has been created, you will quickly notice the first successes. Individual to-dos will be easier for you to handle. Tasks can be started and completed more easily, and if spontaneous queries arise, you can comfortably access the necessary information - after all, you now know exactly where to find it. 

Our bonus tip: Take your time to establish a basic order, check again and again how efficiently you work with it. Because no matter what strategy for tidying up the workplace you use, it is only right for you if it also offers you real added value and you actually use it.