Surviving an Alien Organizing Style

At home, most of us have some experience dealing with differences in organizing style between ourselves and other family members. Even though styles may clash and tempers flare, messy folks and neat freaks can and do learn to exist more or less happily together.

In an office setting, striking a balance between different organizing styles can be a bit more difficult. Someone who likes to tackle complex chores first thing in the morning, and work without interruptions until noon, may be stymied by an office culture that makes a ritual of midmorning meetings. Pilers may feel pressure to adopt more rigid filing habits; filers may not find office-sanctioned filing systems sufficiently trustworthy to handle their information. Anyone on either extreme of the clutter tolerance spectrum, whether it’s working in stark space or cozy clutter, may run afoul of informal office norms about the appearance of workplace space.

Try these ideas to harmonize your work life with your individual preferences. Resolving conflicts where you can, and learning to work around those you can’t, is a threshold skill for staying productive on the job.

Time Management

Get a good idea of where you need to improve time management by creating a time log, tracking what you do each hour for a full week. Identifying what the problems are and understanding why they’re occurring is the first step to being able to resolve them.

Accept the guidance your time log will bestow. For some, internal time rhythms don’t sync neatly with established office hours. Early birds fare better if they handle routine matters in the afternoon so that they can maximize their most productive hours early in the day. By contrast, if you find morning hours hard going, slot the low-bandwidth tasks before lunch, and take on the tough stuff when your energies surge in the afternoon.

If your day is fatally fragmented by interruptions and meetings, making it hard to complete projects, shifting your work hours earlier or later may help you wall off the uninterrupted time you need. Consider establishing “unavailable” periods during the day, blocking out time in your schedule and sending phone calls to voicemail for the duration.

Space Allocation

Working with others means sharing office space—and files, equipment, and supplies, too. To do so happily, compromise is the name of the game. Look for creative ways to walk to your own organizational beat in the midst of workplace chaos.

In shared workspaces, take control of your personal work zone where possible by setting boundaries. Erecting real or virtual barriers between your desk and the rest of the world lets you set up an organizing microclimate that better suits your needs. Rely on bookcases or cubicle walls to set the boundaries of your space, and then arrange your stuff and storage according to your own preferences.

Solutions as simple as facing away from the door when working can discourage incursions when they’re not welcome. Headphones wall off sound and send a signal to others that you’re engaged elsewhere.

Clutter Variances

Working with others who don’t share your general level of clutter tolerance can be frustrating. A supervisor of the clean-freak persuasion looks askance at your cozy cubicle, or the doting auntie at the next desk has covered half the nearby shared wall space with photos of various nieces and nephews. How do you negotiate a happy medium?

If you’re bothered by other people’s clutter, find ways to wall it off from your vision as you work. A row of books supported by bookends at the end of the desk, or a shift of your desk orientation may take the distracting images out of your field of vision.

To find common ground with someone who has less clutter tolerance than you do, look for ways to contain your clutter for a neater appearance. Relocating piles to a stacking set of desk trays will keep things in view where you want them but send a signal of “tidy, tidy, tidy!” to the pile-averse supervisor or co-workers around you.