Laura Stack* is an advocate for simple offices on the understanding that the less you have, the less time it takes to find what need.
For millennia, religious leaders and philosophers from Jesus to Buddha, Thoreau to Gandhi have sung the praises of living simply, with fewer worldly possessions.
You can’t take it with you, after all.
There are even native cultures in places like Papua New Guinea and the American Northwest where how much you give away to others is far more important than how much you keep.
Most Westerners, however, seem to operate on the philosophy: “He who dies with the most toys wins.”
Much of our economy is based on buying new stuff on a regular basis, even when the old stuff still works fine.
Why? Partly it’s to show off what we can afford; partly it’s just to have more, more, more.
We even consider the internet a basic human necessity nowadays.
There is, however, a subculture that has embraced minimalism.
They do more with less in their personal lives to keep costs down and pile up significant savings.
This concept doesn’t always extend to the workplace.
However, that’s where it can serve you best — even if you’re not a minimalist otherwise.
To accomplish more work with less stuff, try these five tips.
Declutter:
Clean your office, especially your physical and digital desktops.
Limit the pictures, awards, and books.
Remove and store anything you don’t use often, and get rid of things you rarely or never use.
Maintaining an uncluttered workspace helps you focus on your work, as it limits visual distractions and makes it easier to find things.
If it takes you more than a minute to lay your hands on something, keep working on your systems.
Embrace the Cloud:
Store and back up digital documents on the Cloud, such as Dropbox or Hightail, so you can access your files anywhere.
Wi-Fi is cheap and often free, especially in coffee shops and libraries.
Many smartphones include Wi-Fi hotspots that can connect you anywhere.
Use a laptop instead of a desktop:
If you haven’t already, stop using a desktop computer at work while also using a laptop.
You can use the laptop everywhere.
Also, it’s a lot easier to keep track of all your work files, because you maintain fewer machines to sync them across.
Given the continued advancement of Moore’s law, laptops are just as powerful as desktops and weigh very little.
Just pop it out, take it with you, and dock it back when you return to your large monitors and keyboard.
Use more tablets:
You can use tablets to read documents, annotate files, add to Evernote and take care of emails anywhere if you have a data plan or can access Wi-Fi.
While you may want a high-end tablet like an iPad, since there are so many apps for it, you can buy 10 decent tablets for about the same price.
Stop buying new stuff:
As long as it’s not broken, you don’t need a new smartphone, computer, desk, or whatever.
I have had the same scratches on my office desk for many years, and it’s purely functional.
If it works well enough, why bother?
Buying new electronics means greater expense, plus hours learning the new platform and transferring data.
If you can demonstrate a productivity or efficiency increase, that’s a different story.
The late George Carlin used to do a hilarious comedy routine about having too much stuff, and how it quickly gets out of hand.
Sound familiar?
At work, having more stuff can pump up your productivity — to a point.
It’s great to have your own printer, since they’re cheap and save you time because you don’t have to run around picking up documents.
However, too much stuff wastes money and time, gets confusing, distracts you, and gets in the way.
You can do more work with less stuff than everyone seems to need, especially in this burgeoning electronic era.
Now, if they’d come up with a computer with a built-in coffee pot, that’s something I could get, though it might slow me down with more breaks.
*Laura Stack is a keynote speaker, author and authority on productivity and performance. She has authored seven books, including her latest: Doing the Right Things Right: How the Effective Executive Spends Time. She can be contacted at theproductivitypro.com
This article first appeared on Laura’s blogsite.
