Created to fill the basic need for storage and display with beautiful, simple details, these cabinets and cases are a refinement of Nelson’s ongoing research into storage furniture that started with his pioneering “Storagewall” modular concept featured in 1945 in Life magazine. A practical, standardized system of casegoods that can combine and adapt to a variety of uses, the series’ versatile combination of drawers, shelves, and cabinets may stand alone or be securely stacked atop another landmark design: the Platform Bench. One of the most flexible and useful units in the series, the multipurpose piece may function as a high base for deep and shallow cases, as a low table, or as extra seating (always a plus).

To see various configurations of the Nelson Basic Cabinet Series in action, check out the photos below. And for more organizing and storage ideas, visit store.hermanmiller.com.

1. Eames Storage, Charles & Ray Eames - Versatile. Functional. Classic. The Eames Storage Unit solves just about any storage issue with three sizes and a multitude of configurations. Choose from neutral or vibrant colors, and get ready for organizing greatness. Configure yours at Herman Miller.

2. MOS (Magnetic Organization System) - Cable management can be especially maddening. Enter MOS, an attractive – in looks and magnetism – cable management system. Magnetic clips harness your various cords and keep them in place on its sleek base. Available in aluminum, white, and black from Bite My Apple.

3. Nelson Swag Leg Desk, George Nelson - Its modest size doesn’t take up much space, but its captivating design yields plenty of organization. Bright colored cubbies help arrange your desktop while twin drawers keep accessories in their place. Get yours at Herman Miller.

*Add a Setu Chair for the perfect home workspace. 

4. TU Storage - When in need of a solid storage solution, TU is for you. Choose from a range of options including the Mobile Pedestal – a 20″ deep freestanding organizer with 2 and 3-drawer configurations, and a choice of 4 colors. Choose your TU solution at Herman Miller.

*Add the TU Utility Tray for even more organizing potential.

5. Large Wood Desk Organizer, Less & More - They say it’s the little things that matter. If you’ve a lot of them on your desk, try this hold-everything, solid oak organizer. Holds pens, scissors, iPods, mail, and more. Check it out on Supermarket.

6. Nelson Basic Cabinet Series, George Nelson - With multiples sizes and configurations to choose from, the Basic Cabinet Series takes storage to a timeless, sophisticated level. Available in oak or walnut veneer, with or without legs. Configure your Basic Cabinets at Herman Miller.

*Set a Basic Cabinet atop a Nelson Platform Bench for a truly distinctive solution.

Photos linked with text.

Organizing your schedule, both personal and professional, is always a challenge. Tools in the digital space let you create to do lists, communicate timelines, and keep track of your scheduling in integrated ways, but sometimes you still need physical reminders to keep you on task. By consistently color coding the different roles in your personal and professional life using both digital and physical tools, managing your lifestyle at a glance becomes much simpler.

Google offers a great online calendar, which, tied to your Google account, lets you create multiple color-coded calendars in a weekly, daily, or monthly view. I like to use this to track my time, both professionally and personally, and have created different calendars to reflect different roles and tasks I deal with from day to day. To be able to quickly spot what I should be doing through the week, I’ve selected color codes for each calendar, often choosing a color pertinent to the task. Outside of the digital space, I bring the same color coding to life by keeping a set of colorful markers and sticky notes around, matching the colors used in my online calendars for consistency.

As a freelance designer, I often work with several different clients at once, and so I like to choose a color to represent each client (often one which matches a color used in their branding). When outlining a project on bristol board as I often do, I might use a colored marker I’ve associated with a client for headings, or quick fills in mock up sketches, to ensure I can easily spot notes for a specific project or task amongst a pile of others. In setting up a calendar to manage tasks for a specific project, I would again choose a color I can easily associate with the client for quick reference of my schedule through the day.

Outside of a professional workflow, color coding can also be useful for managing tasks around your home. For delegating chores to your kids, or for organizing between you and your significant other, have each member of your household pick a favorite color. Use these colors to create color coded Google calendars to outline and share schedules between each other. Match those colors up with sticky notes and whiteboard markers so each member can make their mark in the real world, sharing easily recognizable color coded messages with each other in a shared space.

Color can also be helpful for managing diet or exercise. Schedule your meals and fitness regiment using a bright color in your online calendar. Leave sticky notes for yourself using a matching color on the fridge or on those cookies in the cupboard for a quick reminder (via color association) of your plan for personal well-being.

Adding a splash of color to your organizational workflow helps bring an eye-catching visual component to task management, but it also helps to beautify and personalize the tools we use to organize ourselves. Maintaining consistency is key, as is choosing colors that have meaning to you in the different facets of your life. Simple associations work great, for example using green for finances or red for things that are high priority. As does picking less obvious associations — for example, you might have a favorite supermarket you like to shop at with a bright purple sign, in which case purple might work well as a color for a quick reminder to pick up a loaf of bread on the way home from work.

Remember to keep things simple; if you find a set of sticky notes that only come in a few colors, try to limit the categories used in your calendar to those colors. This will help you stick to a simple system of organization that is easy to maintain, and quick to reference using just a few bright colors to simply outline how you manage your time.

By Sean Rioux. Used in partnership with Apartment Therapy Tech.

Photos: Sean Rioux

Dayone $9.99
What better time to start a journal than a turn of the new year? Dayone is a deceivingly sophisticated journal app for your computer and mobile applications. One of the biggest issues with keeping journals is making it easy enough to write in. Dayone has covered all the bases by integrating smart features like menu bar quick entry, reminder systems, calendar view, and more. It also has Dropbox integration for syncing.

Sparkbox $19.99
Forget iPhoto. Sparkbox proves to be the next best thing in image management. Some of the handy features includes the Safari Websnap extension integration. If there is a blog page full of images you want to save for later, in a single click you can have them all downloaded and ready to categorize in Sparkbox. There are also color-coded image searches, and a brilliant tagging/highlighting feature which allows you to annotate images with your thoughts. All of this comes packed in clean UI which will fit right in with other Mac software.

BeHealthy Free
BeHealthy is not only concerned with your time spent on your work, but the time spent away from work as well. Using a very simple timer feature, BeHealthy can schedule you eye breaks which you’re able to “postpone” for a minute if you can’t step away at that very instant. The app is very unintrusive (until it needs to be) and does one (important) thing, but one thing well.

Fantastical $19.99
Fantastical is intended to be a supplemental tool to your iCal, Google Calendar, BusyCal, Entourage, or Outlook. What makes Fantastical special is its incredibly fast and intuitive method of inputing new events (and having that input sync easily). Open up Fantastical from your menubar and begin typing a short sentence for your event like “pick up the kids from school at 3.” and Fantastical will parse/input that data into an event for your favorite calendar application. If you’ve been having trouble adding dates to your current calendar because you’ve found it to be too cumbersome, this might be your answer.

Things $49.99
No doubt the priciest of the apps mentioned here but this is a biggie of real importance: a task manager. For a student it can be your homework book, for a professional, your daily tasks at work, and for everyone, your personal checklist for everything from buying flowers for the anniversary to remembering to write that blog post before bed. Things has been around for a little while now and they still seem to be considered one of the top dogs in task management (and for good reason!) We highly recommend giving it a try and seeing if the intuitive task input/management system works for you.

By Mike Tyson.

Above: Eric Karjaluoto‘s at his nearly empty desk.

Above and below: Ryan, one of the designers at SmashLab, has a bit more stuff on his desk but it’s still tidy.

There are many different ways of managing your tasks and lists, but somehow nothing beats the overall simplicity of using a simple text file to get this done. On a Mac, you can use TextEdit. On Windows, there’s Notepad. We’ve been using this type of format for years, and it works well. Naturally, it’s non-specific, but the fact that you can easily store information, paste it in, write quick lists, etc, makes it good for our own use.

For OS X, there’s iAWriter that we like to use, as well as TextMate. We tend to use iAWriter for most of our note-taking tasks on the Mac. It’s partially replaced Microsoft Word, which is saying a lot since we love Word. The minimal and low noise setup of iAWriter does wonders for our creativity.

1. Position on your screen: Our main monitor is a 22″ ViewSonic on our PC, so we like to alway use the same size. We position it on the right of our screen. It’s about the width of an index finger, but spans the whole height of the monitor.

2. Saving your file: We keep the file saved in our document folder, but it can easily be placed on the desktop. Instead of looking for it, we simply search for it in the Start menu.

3. Format of the file: We use the Word Wrap option, to keep things tidy, and a font that’s 12pts. By default, a 10pts font was used, but that was a bit too small. If possible, we like to use Markdown with Unicode (UTF -8).

4. Basic Organization of the file:
We basically use the LIFO (Last In, First Out) system, albeit manually in the case of this file. This means that you can quickly scan the file to find what you are looking for. Keep the items that will stay in the file the longest at the top. Keep the daily lists, text, and information that will get quickly erased at the bottom

5. Don’t forget to save often: Notepad doesn’t have an auto-save feature, so we’ve lost some information from time to time when our computer rebooted after an update (while we were away from the computer), but the nature of this file usually ensures that you never lose anything important. If you’re using iAWriter, then you don’t have to worry, as it has auto-save.

6. Transferring to written lists: We keep a stash of used paper on the side of our monitor, to jot down anything that we need. This makes it very simple when we make a grocery list or to-do list that we want to take with us when we run errands.

7. Managing/Erasing information: Whenever we add something to the list, we make a cursory glance on the file, or what’s near the place where we are writing something. If there’s something that you have accomplished, that can be erased, then erase it! That’s half the fun of using a format like this.

8. Don’t be afraid to cut & paste: Another benefit of using a simple text file, is that you can easily paste information in, from emails, documents, or memos, and erase it when you’re done.

9. Size of file: If you file gets too long, you might have to archive it and start another, but that kind of beats the use of this type of file. If you are diligent in getting things done, erasing and managing the list, just a little bit, whenever you add something to it, you’ll never end up with an extremely large file.

10. Instead of formatting text: We tend to waste time on formatting documents in Word, so when we use text files, it’s a lot simpler. We use simple characters to highlight certain information. For example, each subsection will be underlined using dashes while each section will have dashes that go the whole width of the text file. The star (*), plus (+), equal (=), pound (#), underscore (_) and tilde (~) characters are used to accentuate certain important sections, making them easy to find by simply looking at the file.

By Range Govindan

IrfanView: Great for beginners and experienced users, IrfanView is a freeware graphic viewer that has many unique and interesting features. This application supports a plethora of file types including Adobe Photoshop filters. For the incredible price of free, it’s hard to find a better option for the last majority of your photo needs (pictured above).

VirtuaWin: The vast majority of us no longer work in one application at a time. All too often we find ourselves switching between a few browser windows, an email client, photo editing software, and maybe even word processing documents. If this is the case using VirtuaWin to create virtual desktops is a great solution. Similar to Spaces on Mac, VirtuaWin gives you up to 9 virtual desktops to help reduce clutter on your screen.

Fences: On your PC the desktop tends to get cluttered rather quickly. While some go out of there way to keep their desktops clear, for most this isn’t practical. Instead of trying to remove everything from the desktop, use Fences to keep everything organized. Fences helps you create logical groups of the different icons floating around your desktop.

Force Empty Trash: If you use your computer long enough, you will inevitably run into the problem where you can’t empty your trash because a file is supposedly in use. If you have seen this then you know the frustration that it brings. Fortunately there a nifty little program called Force Empty Trash that overrides your system to empty the trash. Just make sure you know what is in there and that you are not trying to delete important system files.

Alfred: An incredibly useful productivity tool, Alfred allows for you to navigate and search your Mac as well as web apps within seconds. Alfred also allows for quick keyboard shortcuts to increase the speed at which you can navigate your machine. A great replacement for Quicksilver and Spotlight, Alfred is one of the best productivity tools available for Mac.

Laundry: Desktop backgrounds help set your computer apart and give it a unique style. Unfortunately, no matter how awesome your background image, after a while it becomes old and boring. Instead of letting this happen, liven up your desktop by using Laundry to rotate your desktop background in predetermined intervals. Laundry is able to pull from RSS feeds or even from Flickr to keep your desktop images lively and exciting.

When he decided to move outside, Mark decided to do without a lot of his regular office frills. Temporarily transporting your own home office outside will give you the same de-cluttering benefits. Much like The Closet Trick shows you what percentage of your wardrobe actually gets worn, a summer office will show you exactly what tech, tools, organizers and furniture you truly need in your space.

As you work outside, you’ll have to pop back in to your year-round office to grab the necessities as you need them. When the end of the summer rolls around, clear out everything that’s been left untouched in your indoor office space—it shows you really don’t use or need that stuff as much as you thought.

By Taryn Fiol

2. eweBOL, $64.00 This reversible merino-wool felt bowl—perfect for storing necessary knick-knacks—can snap together with other eweBOLs to create larger modular designs. Get it: Perhacs Studio

3. Baby Splash Pewter Bowl, $29.40 Place this unique handmade piece on your desk (or even in the front hallway) to easily keep track of keys or spare change. Get it: Gretel

4. Mini Berry Bowl, $75.00 We like the individually hand-drilled holes of this milky white porcelain bowl, which could double as a business-card holder (or a candy dish—your call). Get it: isabelleabramson.com

5. Good Eggs, $24.00 Hold smaller accessories in these ceramic stoneware containers cast from actual eggs. Get it: Supermarket

Images linked to their sources within the numbered text

The statistic/infographic geniuses over at Hunch polled their readers and discovered 72% of their readers keep their computer desktops tip-top and tidy, an impressive figure considering the average person’s desktop looks like someone spilled mahjong tiles. What was even more interesting was the conclusions they came to with their desktop organization findings, which may or may not apply to Unplggd readers, but gives insight about how we organize our virtual workspaces. Key findings include:

*Men are more likely to have neat desktops, but are also apt to have too many icons on their desktop (a no-no, since it slows down OS performance).

*The older you are, the more apt you are to have a messy desktop. 12% of those belonging to the 35-49 age category had a mess on their computer.

*The more education and more liberal you are, the more likely you are to have a messy desktop. Hunch’s readers tend to skew to the left, as noted in their findings, but it makes sense those who are more conservative and like order would have neater desktops.

*Those who live in urban areas have desktops that reflect their environment: “…users with messy desktops are 42% more likely than those with neat desktops to live in an urban environment.”

*No surprise, neat freaks like ourselves, have desktops that reflect their overall neat and organized tendencies. Neat types also tend to own and use external hard drives.

*Work for yourself? Your desktop is 5% more likely to be messier than the average.

*Math geeks and the scientifically minded have an irrational tendencies to chaos on their desktop, 12% more so!

*And finally, those with neater desktops place their personal priority of overall quality of life over the importance of professional work (well, maybe because the messy ones are still trying to find files while us neat freaks are quicker to find what we need!).

By Gregory Han

[Go over to Unplggd to do their desktop survey. I'd love to see Lifework reader's desktops. Mine is below. It's only this "neat" because my computer was running slow and I thought if I cleaned up it might run faster. Wrong. I think I will have to bite the bullet and get more RAM.]

What I absolutely dread, however, is invoicing my clients.  It takes so much time and effort for me.  And, I have to think about numbers.  This is definitely not my strong suit.

We all have parts of our business and work/life that we dread.  What do you dread in your work/life?  What would be possible for you in your work/life if you could shift the dread to joy? The four relatively easy steps below will help you do just that – turn your work/life dread into work/life joy.

1. List all the things in your work/life that you dread on a daily weekly or monthly basis on one side of a sheet of paper.

2. On the other side shift your perspective and find an aspect of that task that brings you some joy or lights up your heart – even just a tiny bit. Here’s an example:

Dread: I have to send out invoices to clients.

Joy: I get to remind people of the amazing value that I offer them.  I get to collect money for  work I am passionate about. I’ll receive money to help me better live my life.

3. When you engage in that task repeat the “Joy Perspective” to yourself over and over even if it doesn’t quite feel totally true for you yet.  Over time it will feel more and more natural.

4. Post up sticky notes with your “Joy Perspectives” on them everywhere.  Post them in your fridge, in your glove compartment, on your computer screen, on your bedpost – any place that you will see them.  Remind yourself often of the joy that is yours to have!

Have a great month. I’m off to joyfully (and thankfully) go invoice my clients.

llustrations by Jordan Awan

With tax deadlines around the corner we asked Angela to help out Lifework readers with a few key organizing tips. Feel free to add your own tips or questions in the comment section. I know Angela would love to hear from you.

Above: Angela’s home office and her dog, Max.

The key to a stress free tax season is to have a system in place to collect receipts and tax related documents throughout the year. It’s a classic organizing principle of “a place for everything, everything in its place.”

1. Prepare a Tax Folder in January for the year ahead. Place the folder at the front of one of your file cabinet drawers for super easy access. You want to gather all of your tax related documents in one place throughout the year – even though you won’t necessarily be looking at them till the following January. If you make charitable contributions for example, put the acknowledgment letter into your tax folder. Use a checklist to determine if you have all the documents you need. If your accountant hasn’t given you a check list, use your previous year’s taxes as a guide.

2. Collect receipts in a centralized location. A client of mine who works out of her home office simply puts all receipts in a basket on top of her file cabinet. Once a month she enters the receipts into a spreadsheet. She includes income at the top followed by expenses. At the end of the year she totals each of the categories and voila – she has a list of all of her income and expenses. You can also use a software program like QuickBooks to track income and expenses for your business.

3. Don’t wait till the last minute but if you did…don’t panic. Are your receipts and 1099’s buried under mounds of papers with no records of your income and expenses in sight? There’s still time to get organized. Use the quick sort method to locate your tax related documents. You’ll need a staging area – an area to do all of your sorting. Gather all your receipts in one pile. Sort by category. Total all of your categories. Enter into a spreadsheet. Locate your end of year credit card statements. Highlight tax deductible expenses. Add to your spreadsheet. Review your checkbooks. Pull out personal expenses such as medical and education that can be deducted. Add to spreadsheet. Do the same for business expenses. Not sure what’s deductible? Use last year’s tax return as a guide.

If you are like most of the people I know then you’d probably like to have more time for yourself in your busy life.  I call this “Me Time” – you know, that time that replenishes you – that time that you carve out just for yourself to slow down or do something exciting and fun.

How much time do you spend on yourself each day?  Where do you fall on your to-do list – at the top, in the middle or dead-last?  Most people put themselves last and think that they can’t afford to make time for themselves.  They think their work or family will suffer if they take time out of their busy schedules for themselves.

Actually it is just the opposite.  The more rejuvenating time you carve out for yourself the more energy you’ll have to give to your work, family and anything else you choose.  When you fill yourself up first you have exponentially more to give. Here are some Me Time tips to slip into your work-day.

1. Date. Make a date with yourself at least once a day.  Go for a walk around the block, go for tea/coffee, sit on your front or back stoop for 5 minutes and watch the world go by.  Get creative.

2. Connect. Call one friend/family member that you like to talk to during your drive home from work each day (or during your lunch break if you work from home – have a lunch date over the phone).  This can be a great, structured way to stay connected.  Or, email a friend/family member just for fun each day.

3. Breathe. Set a reminder in your calendar once a day to breathe.  Then take 30 seconds to close your eyes, maybe even put your hand on your heart and focus only on the sound of and feeling of your breath.

4. Listen. Put music you love on in the background while you work.  Or, take a break, play a song you like and sing along.

5. Dance. Get up and do a little dance. Get movin’ anytime you want a break or feel really tired.

6. Read. Take 5 minutes and read a chapter from a fun book or a few pages of your favorite magazine.

7. Me-Time List. List any/everything you could possible do during Me Time. List all of the things that you’ve heard yourself say “some day I’d like to (fill in the blank).” Put anything on your list that you’ve seen others do and wish you could do. Then, pick one thing from your list to do each day.

Try it for just one week.  Take some time for yourself every day this week - just 5 minutes will do. See what changes.  I bet you’ll be infinitely more productive.  Just a little Me Time each day will help you live the work-life you’ve been looking for.

llustrations by Jordan Awan

The background: My desk has historically been an impending avalanche. The problem is not only that there is stuff piled on stuff, but I don’t know what to do with the stuff once I want to put it away. Here’s last week’s post.

Since I embarked on Project: Desk a week ago I started noticing some things about myself. Which are not all that attractive. One thing is that I don’t have good follow-through on tasks. Or maybe more accurately, I follow-through, but not in chronological – or even logical — order. So I’ll start an email, then go make a cup of chai, then pick up the living room, and then go back to the email.  My desk is in between the living room and the kitchen, so all kinds of things end up on it while I’m distracted by the next item on the to-do list.

This happens in the kitchen too. The other night, surrounded by salad greens on the floor and all over the counter, I pointed out my realization to my husband, Steve. “Why do you think I call you Edward Scissorhands?”

A change in my behavior that will lead to my redemption. The union of thought and action will help me overcome this chronic disorganization, which puts me in a bad mood and makes me too stressed out to go to yoga.

I learned two major things this week. The first – great advice came in from comments on the first blog entry — is about shredding and tossing things you don’t need. I had dinner with my friend Joanna, who is basically perfect. She’s a brown-eyed blonde beauty, a supersmart former corporate VP-turned-shrink. She has a rich spiritual life and laughs at my jokes and is probably one of the best advice-givers I know.  But the annoying thing is that she is also very well organized. She told me, as she gripped a cilantro-ginger shrimp with her chopsticks, that she normally just puts each thing in its place  when it comes through. She doesn’t even think about it. When she’s too busy, she has everything in a grocery bag that she can stash and then tackles it on Sunday.

The other thing I learned is that I don’t mind cleaning up as long as I have a little reward for myself. I only watch two TV shows, 30 Rock and The Office, which happily, are available online. So I’ve made a new rule: While I’m cleaning my desk off, I absolutely must also be watching something I enjoy. Or the other way around.

So today I’m sitting at my newly clean desk, with some tulips and a Valentine’s Day card in the feng shui relationship area. I have a lot more to do. Empty out drawers. Get rid of adaptors for long-gone electronics. Sort through a giant redwood tree’s worth of clean paper and envelopes.  Figure out where to store the books I need to read and review for 40licious so they don’t get all mixed in with my Latin primer from college. Why am I keeping a Latin primer from college anyway? That is another story that involves books as a cultural shorthand to a person.

What I’m realizing is that I don’t have to do it all in one day. If I break Project: Desk up into phases and really think about what’s next and why, chances are I’ll make some changes that really work.

PS – In case you were wondering, frēti fidē tuā nōn timēbimus means “Relying on your trustworthiness, we shall not fear.”

You know how it’s only when addicts plummet to the bottom that they can begin to rebuild their lives? So it goes with my home office. Which I, over the next many weeks, hope to transform into a beautiful, functioning workspace where thoughts will soar and inspiration will flow in like a spring breeze.

I thought the antique sheet music storage would be good for my paper organization. Apparently not.

Some background: I live in a delightful two-bedroom 1947 condo in Southern California with my über-supportive and well-meaning husband, Steve. We are not terrifically messy people, but we’re not completely compulsive either. What the architect intended to be a dining room is my workspace, open for all to see. There’s a desk and several bookshelves. And in an attempt to be organized, I have purchased many holdy-things: snappy cardboard boxes in attractive colors and prints, a file rack that goes on the wall, desk organizers and under-desk storage. I thought it was a genius move to commandeer a cedar hope chest as a filing cabinet and stick one of those press-on lights to the inside of the lid, but I have not opened it since I tucked away papers I apparently can’t live without two months ago. Steve tried to put up a shelf but ended up with a precarious installation that seems like it’s trying with all its might to escape the wall and go back to Ikea. There is a lot of glue where I think screws are supposed to go.

This shelf is defying all known physical laws as it pulls away from the wall and still stays up. Hopefully there will be no animals or people nearby during an earthquake.

I think I may have all the tools for effective organization, but there is a user-error issue here. My office is where I write magazine stories and work on my blog. There is always an impending avalanche of paper. My tax guy told me to save all my receipts, but I honestly do not think that the IRS cares that I spent $26.29 on sheep’s milk gouda, Valrhona chocolate and lavender-scented laundry detergent at Trader Joe’s.  My desk is covered with menus and brochures from travel story research, “inspiration” pages torn from magazines, photos that are not important enough to frame but too dear to toss, mortgage re-fi paperwork, postcards from the vet reminding me that my dog is due for a dental cleaning – you get the idea. Pretty much everything.

I found this perfectly good inbox in my neighbor’s trash. I put wedding invitation stationary in it. I got married in August so I hope I won’t need it again any time soon.

Once I hired a woman to help me organize my office, and after her two-hour show of folding and tossing and filing, I thought, “Well that was easy enough. I didn’t need to pay anyone, I could have done that.” And then everything went to hell the next week.

These are my desk drawers. I like to play a little game called “find the scissors.”

The issue is that I need a system. I need to know what to do with each piece of paper, each electronic accoutrement, each business card and bank errata that passes my way.

How do you do stay clear and organized in your workspace so that you can actually produce? Welcoming all suggestions, and I thank you in advance.

How long have you worked from home? I’ve been working from home in some form or another for the past 14 years. I’ve stolen hours where I can find them in between sleep and my various day jobs, so home has always been a continuous place of work.

Tell us a bit about your work? I wear a lot of hats around here including graphic designer, painter, boss lady, blogger and interiors consultant. By day I’m a Senior Lead Product Designer at Yahoo! and in all my in-between hours I’m running the studio here producing work for personal clients. Most of my fine art clients reside in New York, San Francisco, London and Sydney with work in both private and corporate collections. Graphic design clients include Taschen, GOOD Magazine and design shops like Rare Device and Renegade Handmade. I produce a wide range of products like interactive user interfaces, paintings, illustrations, logos, and infographics.

How big is your work space? The loft is 2200 square feet on the ground floor where most of the work occurs. Larger art pieces are transported in through the heavy double wooden doors. The living area upstairs has been deemed a no work zone.

Is there any form of technology that really inspires you? I’m a bit old school. Blank paper and canvas still get the best response out of me because that’s where all my ideas start. Technical drawing pencils also get me excited. But if I had to pick a newer item, I’d definitely say high-end audio headphones. I’m a bit of a collector and audiophile when it comes to them and the bigger the better. I love headphones where the modern components are hidden inside retro looking shells.

What desk accessory can’t you do without? My orange flip clock. I can hear the gears grinding and it keeps me on task. It’s a stunning bit of machinery and always gorgeous to look at. When the days and nights blur together as I obsess over another project, it reminds me where and when I am.

Do you have any tips for organizing a home work space? I live and work in basically a large rectangular box. If something is out of place or disorganized you notice it pretty quickly. To stay organized means knowing my limits when it comes to how much I can store. The loft has no built in storage so supplies are kept to the level of what’s necessary to complete the job. Paintings are often hung to maximize the immense wall space and serve as a gallery display when clients come over for viewings. I also tend to group and organize items by colour so that they give the appearance of being part of a related group. My biggest secret is that my vintage lunch box collection serves double duty as a filing system for important papers and business receipts. Finding creative ways to keep organized allows me to keep the space from getting too cluttered.

How long have you worked from home? I’ve been working from home full time as freelance graphic designer for 3 years, I’m working mostly in the fields of institutional and culture communication in France. I am also an illustrator, which I enjoy most and I try to post a sketch as often as possible on my tumblr blog. I would love create children books now! I’ve always had a place to draw where I lived as long as I can remember.

And where is home? Our home is in Lille, in the north of France, between Paris, Brussels, London and Amsterdam. I really enjoy living in one of Europe’s cross roads. We bought our house 2 years ago from one of my partner’s former architecture teachers. I like the idea that the place where I spend most of my days has been a home office for a long time.

Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? The house was built in 1930, we are furnishing it slowly with furniture found in jumble sales or vintage stores from the 30′s to the 50′s. The home office is the place where I feel free to stick any pictures I love anywhere on the walls just because I want to be able to see them all the time (and take it away when I’ve had enough of it). It is full of tins, old books and toys I find everywhere.

How do you keep your office organized? I’m thinking here of the physical space but also your computer. I organize myself with a pen and a paper – everything starts in my big blue notepad (they are always the same, I only change the colors of cover when I buy a new one). All my lifework is in there. I once threw one away by mistake, and had to have a look in the street paper recycling bin to find it… my neighbors thought I’d gone mad that day. When my notepad’s closed my workday is finished. Also shelves! Plenty of them –  so that books, magazines etc. can stand vertically, instead of horizontally in piles. Filling the shelves with the books I love when moving in, it is always a great pleasure.

Are there any particular programs you find really useful? I use Skype everyday, it changed my way of working in team with other freelance graphic designers, they became kind of colleagues in a way!

When you were setting up your home office what did you keep in mind? When we moved into this house the ground floor walls, where I work now, were already covered with bookshelves which was ideal, and the former landlord had given us a beautiful old “double desk”. We just had to refresh the white paint, sit down, and work. We added a big old workshop table where I like to draw because it is far from the computer and a big “cat-approved” sofa to make the place warm and comfortable, friends are always welcome to sit down and have a drink and a biscuit.

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet? Honestly not really…  I might need to find a place on the walls for a proper inspiration board to avoid flyers, articles and post cards everywhere, that’s all I am thinking of for the moment.

What is a desk accessory you can’t do without? My “gigantic” screen, I miss it when working away from home on my portable computer.

What would you change about your own workspace? My workspace is a bit dark in winter, I need better lighting.

What do you most love about your space?  When the sliding glass windows are wide opened in spring and summer I feel like working outside and I love it.

What inspires you? I receive the Grain Edit newsletter every day. I love art and graphic design from the 50′s, I love the clear, simple and efficient style. I admire the way artistes use subtle and bright colors. Charley Harper is one of my favorite illustrator. I also admire japanese illustrators such as Yoshitomo Nara, for the same reasons I guess. Apart from this, I think that if you pay attention around you,  everyday life is always very inspiring.

How long have you worked from home? This is my desk at our country home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. We bought the house in 2004, spent a year renovating it and have been working on the interiors ever since. Being an interior designer, designing my own house is torturous and I don’t think I will ever be finished! If I need to get work done during the weekend and I’m not out on the deck with my laptop, you can find me here. I mostly use the time away from my New York City office to look for inspiration and to come up with new ideas.

And where is home? Home from Monday – Friday afternoon is downtown New York City. I’ve lived in the same loft for over 20 years right on the Hudson River. We work from the loft too. But life is crazy in the city and after my husband and I had our two little girls we decided to get a country house near my sister in Pennsylvania. So Friday evening to Sunday evening our home is in the country. It’s a little old farmhouse that my husband and I lovingly renovated with the help of my sister’s husband, Glenn who is a contractor.

Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? I would say that my style is modern, fresh, clean happy and a wee bit quirky. I like things that can be cleaned off easily, I dont like too much clutter but I like that my home reflects who I am. I get enjoyment out of being surrounded by things I have found around the world or even in my back yard from local garage sales or flea markets.

As an interior designer with multiple clients how do you keep your office organized. The New York apartment pictured above seems typical of your work – strong bursts of color against a fairly minimal backdrop of white? We specialize in one style – we are not an office that does traditional through to contemporary – we stick to simple happy modern – this helps keep our samples to a minimum and has helped clean up things a lot in the NYC office. Over the years I have honed my style so I dont want fabrics or other samples lying around that I dont intend to use.   Two years ago we got rid of all our brochures and binders and it was such a relief to “clean house” Everything is online anyway so we are good at bookmarking our favorite sites and pieces.

We keep all our fabric samples in drawers – there are 16 big drawers all color coded. Our tiles and other materials we keep in drawers too for easy access. We have big boxes that we keep sample in on projects we are currently working on and its always great to see how all the materials start coming together. All other material is kept in giant client binders – these binders contain everything from plans and elevations to color inspiration and specific furniture pieces. The binders are evolving constantly as we work on the projects.

Are there any particular computer programs you find really useful? I used to have interns do weekly color copies of magazine inspirations and I kept them in a giant lateral file but now we use Evernote to organize all my inspirational images as well as furniture pieces that I really dont want to forget. So now when I am looking for something its such a breeze to find.

When you are designing a home office what do you keep in mind? I keep in mind that peoples lives are busy and we dont always have time to put things away – this means that a stack of bills on the desk top may be reality. So a nice paper tray could be a smart investment. I try and reduce clutter by having upper cabinets that are easy to reach from a seated position that can store unattractive real life things you need at your desk. Also essential is a good “box box file” drawer right next to the desk. Top drawer for essentials including check books, good hand cream and lip balm , second drawer for stationary and stamps and the bottom drawer for filing monthly bills. You also need good lateral files for all the other things that need filing like taxes and investment, school and other info.

An attractive trash can under the desk never hurts . Its always nice to have a beautiful cup holder for pens and stationary and a beautiful stapler, tape holder and paper clip holder. Recently I have started working with personal organizers so that my clients can have perfect tabs on all their files holders and just the right drawer dividers.

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet? I love the Airia desk (and seriously not because its for Herman Miller) and I adore the big e15 table especially in yellow (above). I dream of having a giant desk like it. I love my vintage saarinen chair that I have in my PA house. I had it reupholstered in a brilliant magenta – it makes the perfect desk chair.
What is a desk accessory you can’t do without? A cup of coffee in my right hand. I would really love to get a set of “Anything” desk accessories (below).

What would you change about your own workspace? Well, my little spot in PA is kinda perfect for me but my office in New York needs help. In New York we sit at long white counters and although I can look out the window at the river from where I sit, I would love to have a freestanding table to work from. I would love to get a giant table maybe vintage or Baroque looking and have it shop finished in a crazy color – like fluorescent red. Then everything around it would be white. A giant inspiration board is the second thing on my wish list. My little space in PA feels personal and has an aesthetic, my New York space is about function and lacks personal style.

What do you most love about your space? Well, my space in my PA house is very special to me – it’s full of fun little memories because all the pictures on the wall were given to me either by the artist themself or by friends. I love looking out the window and daydreaming. There are always bunnies out there in the spring and summer and it’s so ridiculously idyllic that it makes me smile. I love my comfy magenta chair and the pop of color the rolling file add. I love that I can go out and pick some flowers from the garden and put them on the desk. In the pictures are peonies from my front yard.

What inspires you? Anything bright and happy. I love seeing unexpected color combinations. I love seeing things that are out of scale – an image of something small that has been enlarged or visa versa. I love animal objects. The beach is my favorite place in the world and inspires me. I love my girl’s (Mia Soleil and Saskia Luna) art work. I love designing with my husband Jaime. I am inspired by very smart people who are also creative and who don’t take themselves too seriously. Collaborations with clients get my heart racing. Graffitti and urban wall art is beautiful and surprising.

Images: The PA office: Jaime Vinas, the New York apartment: Eric Laignel

2. Chess Hooks, $105 These sculptural wooden knobs inspired by the game of chess are designed by Malin Lundmark. Made of white lacquered birch from Sweden. Get it: Huset

3. Hang Out Hooks David Zachary, $18 These eco-friendly hooks are handmade entirely in Brooklyn (from sourcing to manufacturing to packaging) from wood that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill Get it: Supermarket

4. Gum Hooks, $15.92 Liven up your space with soft, simple, silicon hooks that are as practical as they are playful. Get it: Curiosite

5. Five Alarm Hook, $14 Bright cherry red wakes up this standard, sturdy hook design (and will also wake up your walls). Get it: Anthropologie

Images linked to their sources within the numbered text

One of the best alarm clocks that is available is the Philips Wake-Up Light. Instead of relying on annoying sounds, it uses light, which triggers a hormonal response in our bodies, which in turn wakes us up. However, the only problem is its price.

A feature that is really neat on this Moshi Alarm Clock is that you control it with your voice. In essence, you can tell it to shut up in the mornings and it will go quiet. While this might not be the best idea for people who talk in their sleep, it will work well for most of us, who just want a bit more time in bed.

This alarm clock lets you do quite a bunch of things with your voice, from programming the alarm, the time, the radio presets, and a few other things. It’s available for $70 over at the Moshi store.

[via Technabob, images via Moshi]”

A future forward faceted plastic rock design cradles a powerstrip inside while also hiding low positioned wall sockets. It even flatpacks for simple shipment and construction. It’s been available in white for awhile now, with the black edition just announced, both for about $50.

[via Design Spotter]

By Gregory Han”

How long have you worked from home? And where is home? I live in Santa Monica Canyon with my husband Steven and our two children. I’ve had this home office for about 8 years, since we built a studio behind our house. I designed the studio in reference to our house, which was designed by Craig Elwood in 1953. I created a small area to use as a home office, off the main living area of the structure. I’m an interior designer, and the nature of my work is very portable.

I have an office in Brentwood where I go when I’m drafting (I design a lot of custom furniture and cabinetry and find drafting by hand is part of the design process), having meetings, and putting presentations together, but my home office is where I spend time on the computer, researching, shopping, and doing paperwork. It’s also where I sketch ideas.

Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic?I have a simple, spare, yet warm approach to interiors, both residential and contract. I enjoy the interaction of modern and traditional, and use the juxtaposition in my work. Whether the space is a 1950s Case Study house or an old Spanish home I like to create a clean backdrop, allowing light and air to set off the spare interior. I use soft natural fabrics that drape well such as heavy linens and have a patina of age the way old velvet does, and make the space inviting with comfortable relaxed upholstery pieces and shots of color.

I incorporate a few interesting sculptural pieces to create interest, and life, and these things may be new, vintage, or antique, but they’re three dimensional pieces that create interesting views. In a space that gets good sunlight I like to work with pale natural colors and in darker environments highly saturated colors, even if they just function as accents, can bring a lot of energy to a room.

As an interior designer with multiple clients how do you keep your office organized? I’m thinking here of the physical space but also your computer. Are there any particular programs you find really useful? There’s nothing like a good file cabinet, which is where I keep my jobs organized in my Brentwood office. However, since I need to carry my files around with me I take the current project files in a tote bag that is always nearby. I just found a new tool that may help with the traveling files; a plain black file portfolio that Moleskin makes. There is something so appealing about their products, this has a very traditional feel, and in the age of technology I like it’s old fashioned quality. As this portfolio is small it may be the perfect thing to carry around. I create files for each job on my computer (a Mac Power Book G4 which is just about ready to be replaced), and I enter all the financial information into Quick Books which is terrific. I keep binders with back up copies of all invoices as well, as I like to have a set of hard copies.

When you are designing a home office what do you keep in mind? It’s important to make the home office a place you want to use, so having favorite things hanging on the wall, or on a nearby shelf is helpful. It’s good to have flowers on a desk…it’s like a gift to yourself when they’re in a place just meant for you.

The office should be of a piece with the rest of the home, designed with the same aesthetic and style. I always find out what kind of equipment needs to be accommodated; computer, printer, fax, phone, and so forth, and design to provide space for those things, and wiring channels to hide all the cables and cords as much as possible. Having enough specifically allocated storage is critical to enable a sense of order, as well as easy cleaning.

If it’s part of a larger room the storage can be disguised if need be. Good task lighting, is essential of course. And finally, a comfortable chair makes it a much more pleasant place to spend time.

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet? I still use an old stool I’ve had since I lived in a very un-renovated loft when I was a student at Parsons in New York, and though I’m sentimental about it I think it’s time to indulge myself! I like to work on a high surface, so that I can stand as I sort through things, but it would be wonderful to have a really comfortable drafting stool. I love the Areon Work Stool in the graphite finish. I especially like the adjustable height foot rest. The airiness of the mesh would prevent a sense of crowding in the small space.

What is a desk accessory you can’t do without? A box of magnets, to add images to the wall over my desk which is covered with magnetic paint.

What would you change about your own workspace? I’d like to have a window seat, but given the case study design of our house it would be completely out of place! I encourage all my clients to include them to give me the vicarious enjoyment! At least with a comfortable chair I could daydream while looking out the window…not an easy thing to do on a wooden stool!

What do you most love about your space? I love the color of the walls…Farrow and Ball “Skylight”. I love having all my favorite books, magazines and art supplies at arms reach. I am almost glad there isn’t more space, because it’s forced me to edit. I love being able to open the sliding door and nearly be outside. I love my magnetized wall over my desk, for an easy way to arrange images that matter to me. And I love still being close to my family when I’m there.

What inspires you? The first thing that comes to mind is color. When I look at any color it brings to mind a whole world that I can envision around it. I’m very much a beach person, so the color and texture of driftwood, all the blues in the ocean and sky, and the feel of natural fabrics that were left out in the sun too long all inspire me. Inspiration can come from so many places…favorite flowers, objects, locations, can all be springboards. I find paintings to be a wonderful source of inspiration, and you can see some of my favorite artists on my blog.

2. Silver Card Index, $40 Get your workspace in order with a timeless silver design. Get it: See Jane Work

3. Letterpress Address Card File with Box, $49 Smart and charmingly handmade—the oak box is even built in the storeowner’s dad’s woodshop. Get it: etsy.com

4. Desktop Business Card Holder, AUD $49.95 This simple acrylic filer allows for quick contact management (and looks sleek while doing it). Get it: Kikki.K

5. Address File, $65 The handcrafted wooden box comes in maple or black walnut and uses recycled papers (good for the earth; good for your desktop). Get it: Lovely Design

Images linked to their sources within the numbered text

How long have you worked from home? Since February 1. And where is home? The Meatpacking district (14th between 8th and 9th.) What do you do? I am an interior designer.  We work on predominantly residential work at the moment but we have also done contract work such as restaurants, retail, and office spaces.  I was an associate at the Rockwell Group for 7 years so I have a strong background in hospitality.

Six years ago I opened a store called Kimberly Hall Kids, specializing in children’s’ furnishings and interior design.  I had a small storefront and office on 21st Street and tried to pull off running the store (which did a lot of custom and one-off work) as well as my interior design business.  It quickly became too much and I tried to expand accordingly.

In the end, one was diluting the other so I decided to close the store and focus exclusively on interior design work. My office remained in the same space until this year when my husband and I bought a new apartment.  We had been living in an 800 square foot rental with 2 dogs, 2 young children, and the 2 of us. It was time for a change.  The market was right to purchase and we found a 1500 square foot apartment.It had a 300 square foot wing at the back that was perfect for my office. It had high ceilings and I knew I could get most of what I needed in if I went vertical (a favorite trick of mine.)  It was a great solution for us as it gave us a way to afford the apartment, reduce my “rent” and I now have more time at home to spend with my family.

I gutted the space, which had been the apartments kitchen (I still do not have a kitchen, for the record) including all of the walls and ceiling.  I really wanted a classic loft feeling and by exposing the brick and all of the thick, old rafters, I have really achieved the feeling I was looking for.  It was also, thankfully, the most economical solution.

Describe your style? My style is definitely eclectic, although I’d love to come up with a new word for that. I love almost all “styles” but get most excited by mixing styles and periods. We have done quite a few traditional homes with very contemporary interiors. I look at each job as a challenge to give the client what they are looking for and to personally challenge myself to come up with ideas and solutions that I have not come up with before.  I tend to use a lot of color and incorporate art and other objects of personal significance in my interiors. Sometimes I have gotten the most exciting results using items that I could never have imagined fitting into a project.

As an interior designer with multiple clients how do you keep your office organized? I’m thinking here of the physical space but also your computer. Are there any particular programs you find really useful? We organize our projects into binders and I LOVE plastic page protectors!  I should buy some stock. We also have a fantastic program that synthesizes all aspects of the design process from a business standpoint.  It is called Studio Designer and interfaces accounting, purchasing, contacts, etc. into a single program.

I currently use a Mac but when I used a PC, I loved Outlook. I wish the MAc version was up-to-snuff, but so far I can’t seem to get it to do everything I want it to.

Regarding the physical space, we have it lined, stacked and otherwise filled, floor-to-ceiling with reference materials.  It is clearly much easier to find information since the advent of the internet but I still like to keep hard copies of many of my favorites. We also have a fantastic materials library that we keep in bins that we load onto Ikea Expedit bookshelves. These are my favorites as I am a big fan of cubbies as opposed to shelves. I just find that it keeps things neater. We have literally thousand of fabric samples that arranged by color and sometimes type which makes it much easier to put schemes together than going shopping every time.

When you are designing a home office what do you keep in mind? I think it is imperative to have good “cord management”, especially in a home office.  Having a jumble of cords is not only unsightly, it is extremely frustrating to problem solve if you don’t know what you are looking at.  We make sure that we always place outlets in an appropriate location in relation to the work surface.  I also find it very important to have a “place for everything” (as my mother used to say.)  I especially like mail sorters which have a variety of slots.  I label each slot with a project name or other type of category and anytime I have something related to that particular subject, I just slide it in there.  It’s sort of an interim holding zone for paper that have not yet been filed into binders or files.

Obviously lighting is extremely important in a home office and I make sure to include adjustable task lighting in every project as well as a sliding keyboard tray which alleviates back and posture problems.

File cabinets are also a necessary evil but I try to make them attractive by choosing all white or even sometimes colored.  Bisley offers the best colors.

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet? I have always coveted a glass-topped desk on horses. Unfortunately, the nature of my work (or perhaps the way I work!) will never allow this but I keep dreaming that someday I will have an impeccable, clean and clear workspace with nothing on it but a computer and a phone.  Also, like in all of the magazine photo shoots, there will be no cords attached to the computer or the phone.

I already have the item that I most covet and that is an Aeron chair. Several years ago I herniated a disc and this was the only place I felt comfortable.  I slept many a night in that chair!

What is a desk accessory you can’t do without? I love low, acrylic trays for organizing small objects on my desk.  I put my stapler, tape dispenser, paperclip cup, electric pencil sharpener as well as post-it notes clustered into these trays so that I always know where something is when I need it and things don’t get scattered all over the work surface.  I also have a tiny stack of plastic drawers that house my binder clips, push pins, extra post-its, and digital photo paraphernalia such as card readers and memory cards.

What would you change about your own workspace? If I had the space, I would like a “return” on both sides of my desk.  This would allow me to keep the center surface clear while allowing me to keep my “piles” organized to either side.  I also wish there was a way to input USB devices into the computer in a neat way besides those “hubs” you get from Staples. I can’t tell you how many of those things I have velcro’d to the shelves above my desk in an effort to alleviate the jumble.

What do you love most about your space? I love the contrast between the rough shell with the brick and wood and the bright, white, minimal, desk surfaces and bookshelves.  I also especially love my FLOR cow-print carpet tiles (below).  It adds the playful touch that I needed in the space and is extremely practical for spills, stains, and possible expansion!

What inspires you? I love to solve problems. For me, being an interior designer is a blessing and a curse. I am able to create wonderful looking, functional spaces but it is very difficult to turn it off. Everywhere I look, I am evaluating what I like, what I don’t like and how I would improve something.

I also love to read and to look at design magazines and books. I am constantly clipping images and creating image files on my computer. By having this comprehensive visual library, I am able to communicate to my client (and to myself) a vision for each particular project. I create concept image boards that are an impression of the vibe of the project. I find that if these are carefully edited, they become a very accurate “visual blueprint” of the project. I may keep a page from a magazine of a room that I hate but it has a fabulous button detail that I will want to remember for a future project. I can sometimes build an entire project out of a detail like that.

As a visual artist (I studied painting and photography) I am especially aware of proportion and composition. Since so may of my projects incorporate disparate items, I use this knowledge to make them look cohesive and balanced.  This is, for me, the inspiration and the challenge. How do you make something successful from nothing?

How would you describe your workspace? What is the design aesthetic? I love my desk (pictured above) which is a wooden top that I had for years when I lived in Japan placed atop some recently acquired French metal industrial trestles.  As much as I consider myself a minimalist and have a house that is fairly clutter free and simple, my desk is usually piled high with magazines and papers. My first job was in a production company in Japan where the way to demonstrate creativity was to have a desk with piles of interesting stuff and images and I don’t think I have ever stopped working that way. Once a week, I go through everything and clear it up then the piles begin again.

Does anyone else use your office? I’m afraid I am quite territorial. My husband works from home a lot and we each have our separate offices and respect each other’s space and it seems to work well.

How do you organize the space? My office is basically my desk and some shelves where I file papers in simple wooden file holders from Ikea. I also use large, natural grass baskets for storing magazines; they look good and can be easily moved around.

What impact do you think color has on a workspace? I spend my day looking at so many images daily, that great light is essential.  I love an all-white space mixed with natural tones, grey stone colors and textures such as rough beige linen. That said, I would like to paint one wall of an otherwise white space this Farrow & Ball’s Down Pipe grey (pictured above).

What desk accessory can’t you do without? My original 1227 Anglepoise “salvaged” from my father’s office. I also love Muji gel ink pen (pictured below) which I stock up on whenever I am in New York or London.

Is there a piece of furniture you’d love to replace? There is nothing I would like to replace however I love coming across a great find whether it be a chair in a garage sale or a piece of vintage furniture in a shop (which is how I found my current desk chair and the trestles). Those are the times I find myself adding pieces to the home.

What inspires you? We moved from the city to the Napa Valley over three years ago and being surrounded by such great natural beauty is pretty compelling. Being able to get on my bike and cycle on a country lane and see the seasons change is very poetic. I am a forager and invariably haul a branch or some fallen lemons ( or whatever is in season) back home to display. It’s a creative outlet in a way.

You see so many great workspaces. Is there one that really stands out for you? I have been thinking about this Japanese house recently by architects, Takaharu and Yui Tezuka and how for me an office really only needs a desk, some bookshelves and good natural light. An office along the lines of this bedroom (with shelving instead of bunks and a window to the ground) would work perfectly for me.

How do you manage a balance between work and the rest of your life? Since I work at home on the computer all day it is very tempting to be online the whole time. Multi-tasking is great but I am making an effort to close my computer when my children return from school even if it is only for 30 minutes so I can give them my undivided attention. The nature of this work is endless so being able to close the computer and do others things is really healthy.

“What does one do if paper challenged? I save papers for reading, papers for filing, papers just in case I need something, papers with medical information…I try to go through these papers, file them in alpha order and then don’t have the room to file them somewhere! Where can I start?”

Peter says “Invest in a color coded filing system like File Solutions which uses both visual and written cues to help you easily and quickly file and retrieve items. If paperwork is overwhelming, invest in a file system like the one I mentioned  and start TODAY with the new system, don’t get caught up in trying to go back and file everything from the past. Start today and move forward maintaining the new system.  Slowly go through old papers or, alternatively, just accept that they’ll never be completely filed, put them in a box and don’t let them stress you.”

The file folders above are from the Container Store. For more ideas check out Amy’s Five Fabulous: File Folders post.