Office Organizing and Layout

Having an organized office with proper layout is tantamount to productivity. A properly laid out office is also necessary to alleviate stress. Attention to ergonomic issues like lighting and seating will help reduce stress and fatigue. Ventilation is crucial to both humans and electronics. These are a few important considerations when assessing your office space, and furniture and equipment choices.

Clean and Clear

Start your organizing task by clearing your desk and give it a good cleaning. You want to minimize dust around and on your computer keyboard, screen, printer, scanner, etc. This is especially true if you will be working with photographic films, papers, and scanners. Dust can be very problematic when trying to produce clean pictures, especially true for those who work with slide transparencies.

Sort and file papers as a part of the cleaning and clearing process. See my article on Organizing Personal Files.

Ergonomic Considerations and Assessing Your Space

Once your desk is clean and your papers are in order size up the area you have chosen for your office or rethink your existing space to determine an efficient layout. If you already have a desk great, if not consider the size you will need to accommodate your needs and equipment and that will conveniently fit within your selected space.

If you need more desk space consider getting a credenza or add a table. When planning your layout consider the location of windows, electrical outlets, phone line hookup, and ventilation.

Proper lighting is important to reduce eye stress. You don’t want reflections interfering with your view of the computer screen. You will likely need artificial lighting in addition to the existing lighting currently in the room.

Take air conditioning vents into consideration when locating your desk. You may want to control how air blows on you. Your chair should be comfortable and with height and lumbar adjustments. Placement of your keyboard with wrist support should be decided upon based on personal comfort to help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. Keyboard pads have been designed for such support.

One of the most important issues regarding office layout pertains to reach and how accessible equipment like printers, telephones, fax machines, etc. are. This holds true for frequently used files as well. If these are out of reach they can be time stealers.

Organizing Products and Furniture

Browse an office products store or website to see what accessories are available for organizing your office items like pens, pencils, paperclips, papers, files, etc. Caddies, stacking trays, small plastic and wire bins, and tiered file sorters are a few of the products that can help save space and keep order on your desk. Desk drawer trays are also good for storing items out of the way.

Also browse for furniture like bookshelves for storing books and manuals, cabinets, or other furniture for storage which will save space on your desk. I recommend checking on garage sales for these and accessories as above to save a few bucks.

You will likely want to have a bulletin board for tacking messages and notes to as well as a calendar to mark dates.

Other Considerations

To avoid eye strain from frequent computer screen viewing it is recommended that one take frequent breaks from looking at the screen by focusing on objects at a nearby distance from the screen. Hanging photographs or art on the wall gives you something to view and they double as office decoration.

Frequent stretching exercises are recommended too after lengthy periods of sitting at your desk. A brief walk will help with circulation.

Place computer power units(CPU’s) and other electronic equipment that produce heat where they get good ventilation. Laptops should not be placed on soft surfaces that can block air vents. Excessive heat buildup can be harmful to electronic components.

Also protect your computer and other electronic devices from electrical damage by using surge protectors. Keep computer and electronic equipment cables and wires organized by bundling them with tie wraps and route them to avoid tangles and pinching.

For easy identity of cables and wires label them using tape or heat shrink color coded tubing. You may even want to diagram the connections to and from each device to enable quicker setup when you replace them after returning from a shop repair or after a move.

Have a place to deposit paper for recycling and reuse. Reuse the back side of previously printed on paper for drafts. This will save you a bundle on paper.

I hope these ideas will save you some trouble as you layout your office space and set up equipment for productivity and comfort.

authored by Lon Britton

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