How To Organize Your Workspace With Better Systems & Processes

This post is currently being updated to reflect industry changes. If you’d like the workbook, please reach out to us at support@aprilandco.co

This post comes with a free workbook!

In the workbook, you’ll learn how to organize your home office or workspace with better systems & processes so that you can be more productive and spend less time looking for stuff.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from my clients is that they don’t feel like they’re being productive enough, and things feel like a waste of time. I’ve felt this so many times! There are many times my desk is completely covered in papers, notebooks, ideas scribbled on post-it notes, books I’m pretending to read, and piles of stuff to do.

When my desk is cluttered, it’s a reflection of my brain cluttered with ideas & plans.

Creating an organized home office workspace will take time and effort, but you’ll love how it feels when you’re done and have a system in place to keep it up over time. The time you spend looking for things or feeling uninspired because of the clutter will be yours to enjoy. Bye-bye frustration!

The steps in this post and the free workbook address various elements of an organized home office or workspace. You’ll declutter, develop new systems, organize paperwork, drawers, and desktops.

Take your time. If it’s feeling like it’s too daunting, go through the workbook step-by-step for the entire process. Try not to skip something unless it’s completely irrelevant to your situation. If you’re already semi-organized, skim through and implement any new strategies that resonate with you.

When you decide to create and maintain an organized workspace, you’ll experience fewer distractions and get more work done. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Declutter Like Crazy

The first step to an organized workspace or home office is to start a massive decluttering session. This will set up a solid foundation for creating and maintaining an organized office.

Here’s how it works: Gather up everything in your office that is not where it belongs or is otherwise cluttering up your space. This includes books, supplies, pieces of paper, stuff your kids left out, and in my case, dog toys.

Depending on how much stuff you have, you can put everything in one big pile on the floor, table, or desk. Then go through each item. You can “Kon Mari” it if you want, but I just put things in three piles:

1. Put Away – Don’t worry about finding the best spot for these things right away. It’s just a pile or box of the stuff you know you want to keep in your home office or somewhere else in the house.
2. Throw Away – Don’t overthink this step. Anything you’re not using and couldn’t be used by someone else needs to go.
3. Donate – Office supplies, decor, and things you don’t like or need anymore but aren’t falling apart are all things you should be donating.

As you go through your big pile, be selective about which things make the final cut. If there is something you haven’t used in a while and can’t think of when you’ll need it, let it go! Put those items in either pile 2 or 3. I used to hold on to stuff that I wasn’t using with the intention of using it again later, but those same things almost always seem to end up back in the pile!