Working in any modern office can be a frantic experience, with co-workers darting in different directions, colleagues and clients coming in and out, and various official documents and files to keep in order. For an office administrator, who will often need deal with queries and tasks from across an entire organization, keeping up can be a challenge.

As you re-direct phone calls to the right person, make sure schedules are up to date, and make appointments with customers, staying organized will be the key to keeping your office running smoothly. Here are a few simple tips that can help you stay on top of everything.

Declutter Your Office Space Every Few Weeks

If a customer walks into your office and they see post-it notes everywhere, pieces of paper poking out from every drawer, and five coffee cups beside your computer, they won’t be impressed. It gives off a sense of disorganization, and can cause clients to worry that their business won’t be handled with care.

With that in mind, it can be worth setting aside an hour or two every couple weeks in order to de-clutter your workspace. If there are unnecessary pieces of paper lying around, make use of the shredder and the recycling bin. Any important documents left behind can also often be scanned and uploaded to a hard drive or online cloud, or simply filed away if you need to keep a physical copy.

Keeping things tidy won’t just make your workspace look more professional, it will also make things easier to find and help you work more efficiently. Not only that, but you’ll have a much more pleasant environment in which to get settled in at the start of the day.

Use Technology to Your Advantage

New technology can be difficult to handle at first, but if you persist, it can make your office far more efficient. For instance, students enrolled in office administration training at Discovery Community College will become familiar with industry-standard accounting and finance software such as QuickBooks and Simply Accounting, which can make it easier to automate complex accounting tasks.

Cloud storage platforms like Google Drive can also make your office far more efficient, allowing you to upload files which can then be viewed and edited by multiple other staff from the comfort of their own office chairs. Online to-do list apps, such as Todoist and Wunderlist, are also great ways to organize and prioritize your workload efficiently.

Maintain an Efficient Online Calendar Throughout Your Office Administration Career

Office administrators need to keep track of countless meetings, and keep a detailed schedule well into the future. As a result, your calendar will often be your best friend during your office administration career, and making sure to keep it consistently updated will be crucial.

However, physical calendars can only contain so much information, and there are plenty of online tools which will do a far better job. A good online calendar will allow you to save meeting times, dates, locations and some key notes about events. You can even share it with your colleagues, so that everyone has important scheduling information at hand whenever they need it.

Are you interested in an office administration diploma?

Check out Discovery Community College to find out how we can prepare you for a new career.