January 14th is National Clean Off Your Desk Day, what advantages are there to taking this initiative to cleaning off and organizing your desk? Many people will boast that even though their desk looks and is cluttered, that they know where everything is. This is true, it's on the desk, somewhere! By organizing and clearing space on your desk, you can give yourself space to work and focus on each item that has to be addressed in order of priority and have easy and instant access to other pending items, should you be asked about them. These tips will keep your desk clutter free year round.
The first step to creating order is to tame the incoming mail! Reduce Paper clutter by sorting your mail into categories on your walk back from the mailbox. Recycle unwanted items straight away. Place mail into an expanding file that is sorted into six categories: Pay, File, Read, Call/Write, Hold Over, Coupons/Offers.
Use a planner to remind yourself to re address an issue on a particular date, for example, if you have called a company to query a bill you have received and they say they will look into it and get back to you, decide on a date that you want to re address this, and call back if your haven't heard from them, make a note in your planner and return the bill to the "Hold Over" section of your expanding file. Make notes on a piece of scrap paper of actions, dates, names and other pertinent information and attach this to the bill/letter, for easy reference in the future.
Another tip for de cluttering your desk area is to remove all the post it notes and useful reminders you may have stuck around your screen of pinned to the wall it to place all of this information into a folder, simply labeled "Useful Information". This might contain a list of most common phone numbers used, login ins and passwords, school calendars, "how to" instructions.
Basically every items that crosses our desk follows a process of being identified and read, acted on, maybe more than once and finally filed for future reference. Filing systems are another subject altogether but the basic categories are
Finance - bank, mortgage, taxes etc
Household - receipts, insurance, warranties etc
People - work, school, medical, pets
Services - pest control, gardener, utility bills etc
Other - instruction manuals, Christmas card list, brochures etc
All other items such as stationery, accessories, check books, business cards can be corralled into desktop organizers to provide easy access and keep your desk uncluttered.
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