Office organization speaks to my Enneagram 3 heart. In order to achieve my goals I must have a clear mind. In order to have a clear mind, I must have a plan. In order to have a plan, I must have a clear work space with methods and protocols and routines set in place to make those plans come to fruition.

Don’t get me wrong, there are days that look like a bomb (specifically a two-year-old bomb) has gone off in my office. There are half-filled coffee mugs and colored pens strewn about my desk; there are paper clips littered across the carpet; there are envelopes stuffed in random places on my bookshelf because “I’ll file that away tomorrow.”

But when all my systems are in place AND in practice, that is not the case. And that is when I feel my best.

If that office I just described sounds like yours and that has resulted in overwhelm and not knowing where to start when you sit at your desk…take a deep breath. It’s okay! A very wise woman once wrote (and I’m paraphrasing here): When everything has a place, it’s easier to feel that they belong.

So where would I start with the physical organization of your office? Give everything a place. Designate where your gear belongs. Designate where you keep all of your important business documents (and organize those business documents–legal documents, tax documents, receipts, and profit & loss statements, etc.). Designate where your pens and planner go. Lastly, I also find that cleaning up my desk at the end of the day to enter to a clear work space in the morning does wonders for my productivity.

It sounds simple, but once you take the time to assign everything a place, it will belong.