Working in a Small Office

Since moving to Fernie I have come into a nice, small office. Now, there are definitely some downsides to working in a small office. If you're claustrophobic it would be a challenge, it's hard to meet with more than one person at a time, and if you're at all like me you could be forever bumping into things. Also, lots and lots of people would look at my office and say that there wasn't any room to get anything done in there. BUT, I say it isn't so. What a small office gives you is a need to be properly organized and efficient, thereby getting a lot done.

You may be thinking of my bumping into things and how I can deal with that? Truthfully I bump into things even in a larger space so that's not really a qualification for me :).

A small office also dictates some creativity and planning. There are pieces of furniture and resources that are useful to have in offices but arranging them to fit the space means thinking, measuring and seeing an image in your head of how you want the office to work for your needs. So when I arrived I thought through a few different ideas, tried out what was there and eventually re-jigged the office a bit to work better for me. This will be different for every person.

Another thing that's important is keeping your paper and supplies under control. My dad writes Ian's Messy Desk and lately he's had a series of One Minute Monday tips - short little articles of ways to keep organized and cut down on excess in your office. The one that caught my eye particularly was Clear Desk Clutter although the others are useful as well. Keeping your desk clear is good no matter how big your office is but in a small area it is imperative. When you have nowhere else to put anything a clear, organized desk is imperative to getting any work done at all.

All in all, working in a small office has been very helpful to me, and this occurred to me on Saturday as I was organizing my paper work and getting things ready for this week. A small office is helping me keep on top of all sorts of projects, correspondence and definitely helping me keep on top of having excess paperwork and stuff around. When you have no space you get to be good at clearing out what you don't need.

Another good idea is to go as paperless as you can. I got some experience in working a paperless model and I still try to maintain a similar model myself. It's not entirely possible but if I keep as much as I can paperless it works better for keeping my space free for other things.

Anyway, there's what I have for today - small offices do not equal bad :).