A Clean Work Space and What It Can Do For You

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August 29, 2011
Is your desk cluttered? Do you have books and papers stacked up on every available work space? Have you ever missed a phone call because your office phone was under layers of papers? Is so, chances are you aren’t working up to your full potential. Time will be wasted looking for items and simple tasks will take longer to accomplish. You may end up buying duplicate items because you cannot find what you already own. The value of a clean work space should never be discounted. Here are some reasons why you need to get your work area organized today.*A messy work space will distract you. Ideas are harder to gather and organize when you have stuff piled up everywhere as clutter causes confusion. When you go to search for an item, other tasks that need to be completed will attract your attention and take your main focus away from what you are currently trying to accomplish. Cleaning your space will eliminate this problem.*When you have a mess everywhere in your office, you are putting yourself and others in danger. Power cords which dangle can cause someone to trip and loose papers which fly off the desk when the door opens may result in a fall. Extension boards and switch boards can lead to a fatal shock if left on the floor. This does not take into consideration the germs that can accumulate in a messy work space. Clean your area up for the health and safety of yourself and other employees.*When your area is clean, it is easier to prioritize. You can quickly see what must be accomplished right away and what may be put off for a few days longer. Once this has been done, put those urgent items closest at hand. This allows you to take care of them rapidly as you won’t be getting up and down repeatedly to find something you need to finish the job. File caddies that are moveable are very helpful for this purpose as they can be put away at the end of the day and rolled back to your desk when you arrive in the morning.

*Buy a paper shredder and make use of it. Have you ever gone to look for a document only to have to sort through a pile of junk mail to find it? Make it a rule to touch each paper only once. If you need it, place it in the appropriate pile. If it is trash, take care of it immediately. Not only will this keep your work space cleaner, it will also protect your personal information from identity theft along with that of your clients. As this crime is on the rise, taking the time to shred documents regularly has never been more important.

*A clean work space will attract a higher class of workers and clientele. Clients who come in for a meet and greet often see a messy office desk and opt to choose another company. The fear is that you will lose important documents that they provide for you or that you are so disorganized you may not meet deadlines as promised. Most employees also prefer a clean office space. By cleaning up your area, you can attract people who will benefit your company rather than those who would rather do as little as possible while collecting a paycheck.

Clean your work space up today and see all of the benefits for yourself. Once you do, chances are you will never allow things to get piled up again. You won’t mind coming in to work as your work space will be clean and ready to handle anything that arises.

Categories: Environment.

Becoming More Environmentally Aware

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March 11, 2011

Cries of “Save the earth!” may have a nice ring to them and convey a proper sentiment, but unreasoned efforts often produce less than satisfactory results. As example, people who are buying plug-in electric cars often demonstrate short-sightedness. They congratulate themselves on avoiding gas pumps altogether, but never consider that because more than 80 percent of electricity generation in the United States is accomplished with oil or coal, they merely shift their fuel source from a visible one to one that demands their personal attention only when it is time to pay the bill.

Recycling is a wonderful idea, but it is becoming less and less workable for some materials. Many municipalities that sorted and sold recyclable materials in the past to create additional revenue no longer sort items at all and certainly do not recycle them. Two classes of materials that so many local communities have stopped selling for recycling are paper and glass. Paper that contains post-consumer content often is of a quality too poor for much more than egg cartons, and the recycling process for glass claims so much labor and energy inputs that it cannot pay its own way. Particularly concerning these two materials classes, avoidance is the better part of becoming more environmentally aware. There are conservation and avoidance measures that are very nearly painless. Some of these are:

• Work toward developing a paperless office. Some businesses cannot easily go paperless, but others can. Recycled paper is undesirable in virtually every post-consumer use other than utilitarian applications, so it is far better to avoid creating waste paper.
• Rely on electronic file transmission more than on physical delivery of presentations, letters, reports and similar products.
• Choose eco friendly products that include far less packaging. Some items contain layer after layer of throw away packaging that cannot easily be recycled. Avoiding over-packaged products is the better choice.
• Let manufacturers and marketers of over-packaged products know why you now refuse to buy them.
• Offer used furniture, office equipment, clothing and other still-useful items to individuals or groups that may be able to make use of them. A battered women’s shelter assisting a single mom with finding a job and getting an apartment cares little about the styling of clean, useable items that the mother and her children need. The dump does not have to be the first consideration, particularly in a difficult economy.
• Pay attention to the ambient temperature. Most people understand that summer generally is hot and winter often is cold. Homes and offices do not need to be 72̊ at all times throughout the entire year. Remember that nuclear power generation accounts for only about 15 percent of the total electricity used in the United States, and water accounts for far less than five percent. There are some solar and wind applications here and there, but well more than 80 percent of the electricity used in the United States originates with oil or coal.
• Be aware of the true nature of energy tradeoffs. Though a plug-in hybrid car can be totally useless depending on where its electricity originates, a hybrid on the order of a gas-assisted mobile power plant that generates its own electricity while moving is highly beneficial in environmental concerns.

These are only a few of the suggestions that can yield big results, both at present and in the future. Many of the same types of concerns exist for other materials classes as well. As example, some classes of plastics are still cost efficient for recycling. Though plastic grocery bags likely will be buried in a landfill, plastic drink bottles are valuable for their versatile polyester content that is easy to recycle and assign to other uses, with the “plastic” material virtually unchanged in terms of quality and performance. The key lies in learning what is advantageous for processors and resellers, and then avoiding those product classes that are not cost effective to recycle, reform or repurpose.

 

Categories: Environment.