If your work space is cluttered, often times you can begin to find that your actual work quality begins to reflect the mess around you. Or, you could even begin to actively avoid the area!

Improve the quality of your work space with these 5 simple tips, and get the boost you need to get to working.

1. Eliminate, Eliminate, Eliminate

Why are you keeping all of those letters on your desk?

If your desk drawers happen to have the ‘printer test pages’ in them get to throwing them away!

Make ‘like’ piles. (Think KonMari method here!) Gather together all of your papers, odds, ends, and baubles and put them in stacks. You see how much clutter you really have and it makes it easier to make the decisions on what to cut and what to keep.

2. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

Your papers probably all have some things in common. Contracts, receipts, letters, bills, invoices, oh my!

These papers should be properly organized and filed away in their own places.

Not only that, but pens and other writing utensils should have their own place, stapler, hole punch, and more! Try to assign everything it’s very own space to live in, that way it gets to be much more difficult for unnecessary clutter to work its way back in to your work life.

3. Get some greenery.

Plants are wonderful additions to the workplace.

Not only do they look great and give your eyes a break from endless black and white on the screen and on pages, but they also improve general air quality.

Some studies have even shown that plants in the workplace have increased productivity up to 15%.

So go ahead and buy that spider plant, your work life will thank you.

4. Embrace the ’empty space’.

Every desk needs empty space.

But in particular your desk is in need of the empty space.

Have an empty space a little larger than a piece of copy paper on the side opposite of your dominant hand. Why?

Well, if you need to set something you’re actively working on down, or if you need to sign a contract or invoice you want that space handy ad not have to move anything out of its assigned place. As for what goes by your dominant hand, it should have all the tools you need to be productive right within reach.

5. Goodbye Notifications!

I bet you’ve never thought of notifications as being part of clutter before have you?

Actually you might be amazed by how getting rid of all notifications besides only the absolute most essential ones can increase your focus and flow.

There is nothing more distracting than having a spam email pop up within view while you’re supposed to be busy working on that important slideshow!

Take these tips and get better flow to your work space today!

If you need someone to take over your social media posting after you get rid of those notifications, APBS has plans to suit every budget!