My Organised Life Series - Creating a Home Workspace

Welcome to 'My Organised Life Series'.  Over the next four weeks I will be looking at various ways to organise yourself and streamline your life.  By the time January 1st rolls around, you will be ready and raring to take on the New Year.

Week 1: Creating a Home Workspace

As a writer, I have developed a knack for writing anytime, anywhere.  It can be in a coffee shop a la J.K. Rowling, or on the train during a commute.  I’ve even been known to take a pad and pen into the bath with me!  But, nothing compares to having a desk for my creative pursuits.

Most office workers will have a desk that they call their own, and they can become highly territorial about it.  It’s a place to house your potted plant, family photo, folders, files, a collection of coffee mugs, and somewhere under the mess, a laptop or computer.

Having a desk at home is vital to your wellbeing and sanity.  This is where you can plan, organise and streamline your life.  A dedicated workspace allows you to stay prepared, and be on top of the household comings and goings.

So how can we use our home workspace? 
Here’s how I use mine - aside from my writing projects, my desk has a diary (week to view) with all my appointments and the children’s social activities, parent-teacher meetings, and various clubs.  I also have a notice board to keep my current vouchers on (Tesco Clubcard vouchers ready for the next Clubcard Boost), together with the children’s timetables. 

I send all my emails from here and have a small filing cabinet where I can store my bills once paid.  On my desk, I have a stack of filing trays for bills, receipts and school related letters.   

Once I’ve finished my writing projects for the day, I clear the desk down so it’s ready for the children to do their homework, or for me to sit at and write Christmas cards, or sort out my household budget.  I will go through my bank statements here and then file them away immediately so I don’t have copious amounts of ‘paper’ cluttering the house. 

It helps me to stay on track with running a home, a business and coordinating three teenagers.  Everything has a place and I know that I can put my hand on what I need fairly quickly.  If I didn’t have a workspace at home then I wouldn’t have a clue what was going on in my life!

No post about organising workspace would be complete without a quick shout out to my favourite past-time – de-cluttering!  It’s great to have a dedicated area to sort bills, send emails or schedule family activities, but clutter breeds and it needs to be sorted out on a regular basis, otherwise your beautifully well thought-out desk space will become another stress point. 

It’s so important to have something at home that you can use as a control centre, or a home hub.  It doesn’t have to be a huge desk, or take up a lot of room.  Before I was able to use one of the rooms in my house as an office, I had a small desk tucked into the corner of my kitchen.  It worked well.

Think about where you could base a workspace in your home if you haven’t already got one.  If you have, then what could you do to make it more organised?  Pen pots, filing trays, noticeboards are all helpful items to keep the flow of positive, organised energy moving. 

If you wanted to be spiritually organised then why not try arranging your desk to the rules of Feng Shui?  It involves placement of certain items within particular areas of the desk to bring about positivity in that area of your life.  For example; you would place a family photo in the top right corner of your desk to boost your relationships.

I would love to hear about your organised workspace, be it at home or in an office.  Do you have any tips you’d like to share?