Get organised, and succeed at work

Whether you work in a cubicle or on a laptop in your living room, your surroundings can have a profound effect on your health and well-being. Experts say even little things; clutter, noise and interruptions can cause significant job stress.

“A chaotic or disorganized workplace makes it harder to do everyday tasks, so you always feel like you’re running behind,” says a research associate professor of psychology.

Regain control over your work life with these tips:

Find what works for you.

A total overhaul of your habits isn’t a prerequisite for getting it together. Ask yourself: How do I prefer to do things? What skills and equipment do I already possess?

Avoid systems or tools that sound appealing but aren’t necessarily right for you (such as a colour-coded filing system). Try to create an organizational system that makes intuitive sense to you, like tracking projects on an erasable bulletin board, so you can get the big picture at a glance.

Declare war on piles.

Sort your papers into four groups: immediate action, file, read, and pass on. Get through the action pile first, and then devote as much time as you can every day to ploughing through the other sections until they’re gone.

Shrink it.

Are you hanging on to an entire letter when all you really want is the address? Save desk space by storing the information on your computer. Similarly, clip articles you want to keep from magazines and newspapers and request digital documents over hard copies so you can save them on your computer.

Avoid e-mail overload.

Set regular times, say, once an hour, to go through your inbox rather than responding to every non-urgent message that comes in. address what needs a quick answer and put off what can wait.

Limit interruptions.

Down out loud sounds by playing soft music. Rearrange furniture so your desk and chair are in a diagonal or sideways position in relation to the door so you can be accessible without being distracted by passersby.