How Colours Help Organising the Home Office

14th April 2020

3 minutes

According to Kyocera research, 2018, about 2 hours are spent daily searching for files and documents. This time can be spent more meaningfully. Especially in the home office, the work materials are often distributed over the entire living area. To make this daily task easier, there is a simple solution with a big effect: colour!

Colours give structure

The systematic use of colours for folders, trays or storage boxes helps enormously with structuring documents. With the different colours, everything can be assigned correctly at just one glance, because colours have a subconscious effect. They allow us to intuitively recognise certain patterns through optical bundling, without having to think much about them.  Colours help to capture categories and areas immediately and save a lot of time for searching and storage.

Colours influence mood

Colours have also been shown to have a direct influence on human emotions. Another effect that can be used for the home office organisation. In principle, you have the freedom to decide when it comes to colour assignment to certain topics such as tax, invoices or inspiration and can be guided by one’s own association. However, it can also help to select the colours according to their attributes.

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The characteristics of the basic colors

Yellows

The colour yellow stands for balanced  energy and constant dynamics. It looks friendly, bright and is a perfect alternative to white.
Tip: Office basics such as punches, scissors and boxes in the colour yellow form a good basic equipment, helping create a pleasant ambience without much distraction.

Greens

Green is associated with positive thinking and success.  It conveys hope and can even motivate an ambitious way of working.
Tip: Successful projects, good results and ingenious ideas can be seen literally. A folder or tray in green for successfully completed work or good inspiration helps motivate the completion of future tasks.

Blues

The colour blue stands for seriousness and balance. It can have a calming effect in difficult working phases or stressful situations.
Tip: Complex and long-running tasks such as tax returns and calculations require a high degree of concentration. The colour blue is perfect as a label for these situations.

Reds

Red is typically associated with strong energy potential and high productivity. On the contrary it can also be considered a signal colour and calls for caution.
Tip: Deadlines, pins and credentials should not be overlooked. In order to have the most important documents ready immediately, it is helpful to mark them with the signal colour red, helping avoid unnecessary and stressful searching through other notes and files.

In general, the following applies:

  • Aim to use no more than 3 or 4 colours, otherwise they bring more restlessness than structure into the workplace.
  • Be sure to keep the colour system consistent and assign digital files and emails accordingly.
  • Take a moment to relax: Creating order with colours can be a lot of joy and a nice change to the concentration time.

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