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Snapshot of a Desk
By Jeff Zbar | September 6, 2007
Stop. Look down. What’s the state of your desk right now? Is it a cluttered cacophony representing a chaotic mind? Or is it neat and tidy and certain to scare anyone otherwise beleaguered by a messy space? Your desk can speak wonders. What’s yours say about you?Regardless of whether you work from a traditional office or a home office, or even if your “home office” is just that place where you handle bills and family finances, keeping your space (relatively) organized can boost your productivity, improve your time management, and keep your mind equally focused.
Try these tips:
1. Touch mail once. When mail comes in, immediately ditch the junk (and that doesn’t mean the bills), open must-keep mail - tossing the envelopes and stuffers and filing or placing the rest where they need to be.
2. Invest some time. Spend 10 minutes at the end of each day clearing your desk. Tomorrow morning, you’ll be happy you did.
3. Log on and pay. Taking Tip No. 1 above to the next logical extension, enroll in your bank’s online bill paying service. No more postage.
4. Get billed online. Taking Tip No. 3 above to the next logical extension, enroll in your utilities’ and car/mortgage finance companies’ online billing service. Receive and review your bill online. You’ll save some bill trees, and reduce your clutter.
5. Make these a habit. I’ve paraphrased him before and I’ll do it again, if Aristotle had a home office, he would have said, Keeping the home office clean is not an act, but a habit. Make it a habit to clean your space and clear your head.
Then again, some of us thrive amid chaos. My father, a physician noted for having a desk as beset by nature magazines as medical files, also had a sign in his office that read, “Please don’t straighten out the mess in my office. You’ll confuse me and screw up my whole world.” Speaking as an apple that didn’t fall far from its tree, amen to that…
Topics: Clutter Control, Home Organization, Office Organization, Personal Organizing |