By now you’ve probably already taken a stab at spring cleaning at home — but what about at the office? Too often we let our desks fill up with clutter, allow our passwords and documents to grow stale and forget we even spent $65 on that lunch bag we left in the office fridge six months ago.
Cleaning out the office probably sounds unimportant and overwhelming, but taking a few small steps will bring you the spirit of a fresh start and might even help you be more productive.
Start out by organizing your computer. Clear those screenshots off your desktop, clean out your email (hit that actual #inboxzero) and organize what’s left using filters and labels in Gmail. Even fans of "creative chaos" can benefit from having a better-organized computer setup.
While you’re at it, you might as well tidy up your online presence, too. Update your LinkedIn with the most recent information about your work — if you ever find yourself sprucing up your resume, you’ll be glad you documented projects and progress ahead of time. And it wouldn’t hurt to show your Built In Colorado profile some love, either.
If you use Salesforce, pop those contacts in — then recycle the giant stack of business cards cluttering up your desk. And if you’ve found your Twitter feed a bit less useful lately, tools like unTweeps can help you clean up the number (and quality) of people you follow.
Get your security measures and tools in check. Update your passwords — you are updating your passwords regularly, right? — and use tools like OnePassword or KeePass to keep them organized. Check with your IT team (or, if you are the IT team, you should probably already be on this one...) to ensure you’re up-to-date with the latest security and antivirus measures. If you have work info on your phone, you should probably have a passcode, too. And if you aren’t already locking your computer when you get up from your desk, now’s a great time to start that habit.
This last section’s for all the freelancers / independent contractors / hustlers out there. Clean. Out. Your. Financial. Docs. Now that you’ve (hopefully) finished your taxes, gather up all those 1099s and receipts and store them somewhere safe. I’m personally a fan of binders or super-complex folder trees for digital docs. If you’re using online tools like Wave to do your invoices, mark your payments so you can figure out your clients’ actual net (because, let’s face it — nobody actually pays net 30.)
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