5 Home Office Organization Habits of Successful People

Successful people understand that their ability to focus directly impacts their quality of work, thoughts & ideas. Usually if you’re working from home, you have a lot going on - maybe you’re the owner of your business or play a very important role that’s more than just getting tasks checked off. It’s very likely that you’re a think-tank and thus, optimizing your workflow and space become a high priority since they indeed affect the end result in some form or another.

So how do you improve your workflow? What are the habits of highly successful people that you can emulate in your home office?

Simplify To-Do Lists

Sometimes, the most difficult part of keeping track of our tasks is knowing how to keep them all sorted and organized in a way that is both functional and sustainable for the long term. In short, you want to separate your lists into 3 main ones and keep with them.

Daily to-do list, Calendar (tasks/events with deadlines/dates), and Cumulative Action List (containing your important tasks). All of your tasks should fit into one of the three. Every morning, you update your daily to-do list to bring over any tasks from the other 2 lists. This way, you’re always up to date and everything is track. But what if your Cumulative Action List gets too long? We’ll cover that in the next section.

Create Actionable Tasks

A big mistake that many people make when adding items to their to-do list is including ones that are difficult to just check off. Have you ever had an item on your to-do list that never gets checked off no matter what steps you take towards it? Well, that’s because there are many subtasks within that one item - something many productivity folks call “Projects”.

If you have any projects, then you’ll want to separate them into another list with all of their subtasks written out that ARE actionable and CAN be checked off. Then all you have to do is to add specific subtasks to your daily to-do list and you’re set!

Minimize & Eliminate Distractions

The number one hindrance to productivity and our ability to focus is our addiction to distractions. The first step to deal with distractions is to understand it. There are a few types of distractions - those you can control, and external ones. It can get a bit deep but if you truly want to master yourself, it’s necessary.

Controllable Distractions are indeed addictions of the mind wanting to be filled. Due to the fast-paced world, it’s easy to get sucked in and constantly want to be updated and informed about many things. Your goal is to notice the impulse before you move your mouse to click on facebook. Instead of attaining perfection right away, allow yourself to gradually improve.

External Distractions can be things like family walking in, phone calls, children, etc. Try to set the expectations of potentially distractors if you can and if you cannot, let all communications start with something like “I’m in the middle of something important so I only have 2 minutes”.

Finish Loose Ends

A lot of what makes successful people successful is their ability to focus. Focus increases productivity and quality of work. A non distracted person can get 2x or more work done than a distracted person. Tying up loose ends is a big factor to our ability to focus. What do I mean?

Well let’s saying you’re working on one project and you get to a certain point for the day. Instead of closing up the project, noting where you left off, updating your action lists and project list, you just leave it all open - whether it’s on a internet browser window, document software, or just on paper spread out on your desk. You move on to something else without tying up the loose end of the previous item. You can quickly see how chaotic your life can easily get. Finish loose ends.

Clear the Clutter

Clearing the clutter applies your computer and desk. Finishing loose ends will help with this. If you take out paperwork, be sure to finish the job and put it away. If you can’t finish the job at that particular time, add it to one of your to-do lists to follow up on it later. Then put away those files in their appropriate location! If you’re finished with something, put it away.

After you’re done in your office, clean it up. Don’t leave things sitting there. Bad habits extend to the far reaches of your life and affects your subtle behaviors and nuances. Your spouse knows what I’m talking about ;) Many times, a custom home office will solve most of your organization needs and make your life a whole lot easier.

Follow the tips above and watch your productivity and organization with getting things done soar. To further simplify your life, Download our FREE Tao of Organization guide to get all areas of your home in order. Conquer to clutter, minimize the mess & maximize your storage. Download the FREE guide below.