Case Study: The boss’s office needs organising

Case study

Organising an office

  • Office

  • Desk

  • Document control

  • Organising system

  • Filing

  • Archiving

  • Work Zones

  • Professional

  • Boss

  • Workspace

From the client

I asked Christie to help me get some kind of order out of the seeming chaos that was my office.

A tough task I thought, however she helped me tackle the task with ease. She guided me through the process from start to finish – including re-orientating my desk which has transformed my working space beyond belief.

I feel heaps more organised now and it’s great that everything has its place. I find I work more efficiently and effectively. My staff all love the new setup.

I cannot thank Christie enough and highly recommend her to everyone.

My client is the boss of his own business. He has multiple people on his staff, important meetings to get to and a lot of responsibility. Organising an office was not his top priority, until it became too overwhelming.

With running a business comes with a side of overwhelming things to get done. And organising an office sometimes gets over looked. In the photos below, you can see that his desk has accumulated a mixture of important documents, junk, stationary, technology, tea bags, and more.

My client needed help (and fast!) to organise his office. There was no clear system, no designated place for things, papers were everywhere (many were out of date and redundant) and he felt out of control. Because of this, he felt hypocritical for telling his staff to keep their workspaces and work trucks orderly when his was… not the best.

My client wanted to set a good example for his staff while getting on top of his own responsibilities and workload. florandorder worked with him to refresh, reorganise and systematise his office.

Over the course of a Saturday (when the office was closed and there are no distractions), we worked from one corner of the room to the other. Decluttering and sorting all of the office with a systematic approach.

Work Zones

There’s quite a few steps you can take to make your workspace happy, one of them is work zones. During the course of the day, my client shared with me that he often lost his phone amongst his paperwork. I came up with a customised Work Zone solution for him. Dividing his desk into zones that ensured things had their proper homes. We established a phone zone, quoting zone and a dedicated in-tray for staff dropping off material. 

Layout of the office

The biggest change with this project was the reconfiguration of the office layout. In it’s current state, my client would have trouble concentrating. His seat was looking towards the reception area and every time someone entered, he would look up and get caught in the conversation. while the conversation may be lovely, a distraction is well… distracting. He would lose track of his current task and lose momentum. 

By refreshing the layout of his office, my client could feel a difference in how he focused. It could be a meeting or a task, and his focus was directed and unwavering. This increased productivity, professionalism and concentration.

Calendar system

The organising power of a calendar is super-human, but you got to have it done just right. For this client, to help him maintain his focus on tasks and meetings, we worked daily tune-ups into his calendar. This meant that at the end of the day, he got everything back into its place on his desk and in the office, ready for the following day.

Success!

After a florandorder session, my client got rid of about 83% of his clutter. He developed systems to help him be more productive and streamlined. Establishing a personal effects shelf (for tea, lunch things, wallet, deodorant, etc.) set up work zone boundaries. He could create more of a balance between what was work and what was personal.

By using cabinets and drawers more effectively, my client’s folders and filing were easy to resource for when he needed them. His productivity increased because he knew where things were. 

Before (stress, overwhelming piles of paper, out-of-date documents)
After (streamlined, professional, productive)