You have an Office, You Work from Your Car, & You Work from Home

You work from all these places and spaces. How well are they functioning for you or how well are you functioning in them? It’s hard enough getting one space to function let alone three different yet very necessary work environments. It probably seems like whatever you need is in one of the spaces where you’re not.

Identify the functions that you need to perform in each space. Physically make a list of these functions for each separate work space. Star the functions that you need to perform in more than one space. Give each work space a number and add that number behind the starred functions. In all likelihood many if not most of the functions you need to perform need to be performed from either your home office or your real office with the same level of ease.

Set your home and office work spaces up identically. That simple step alone prevents you from wasting time trying to figure out where you may have stored something that you now need. As you set up each space use a stack basket or folder or some common place where you will put the items you need to take with you to the other work space. Before you leave one work space always check your stack basket to see what needs to go with you.

Your car is your portable office. You need a brief case or some kind of professional bag that goes with you where ever you go. This portable office needs to be stocked with the items from your stack basket that need to be transferred to the other work space, any folders and information you’ll need for your appointments for the day, small sized office supplies, and something you can work on when you have unexpected delays or cancellations. Even if the something you take to work on is just something to catch up on your professional reading that’s ok because you won’t have wasted the available time caused by the delay. Your appointment calendar and To Do list should always be in your portable office that goes with you because you never know when you’ll need to schedule or reschedule an appointment, or when an action idea will come to you that needs to go on your To Do list.

You probably don’t want to have duplicate client folders, so one space will hold any paper folders that you require for clients. At the end of the work day or before your workday starts, whichever works best for you, identify the client folders you’ll need throughout the day so you can have them with you when you need them. Of course, if your information is predominantly stored electronically and you have a lap top that can access your information from any location this is a lot less critical, in that case just plan for any documents or documentation that you’ll need throughout the day. Sometimes you or others will think it would save space if you shared your work space with someone else. This really isn’t a good idea. As respectful as you or the other person(s) may be things tend to get moved or removed and you waste a lot of valuable time. Wherever your workspace is it doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be organized for efficiency. You want the things you need often in ready reach and the things you don’t put away and out of sight. Developing a system to efficiently manage your work spaces will help you to work more efficiently and reduce unnecessary stress.