Category: Information Management

Don’t Just Pile, Act then File!

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     This week’s article is inspired by Mary and AnneMarie, so thanks, ladies, for the inspiration.   And thanks to all of you who offered comments and insight in the Pile vs. File debate, via email or Facebook.  And the responses also inspired a future topic (perhaps next week) of Cool Tools and High-Tech Solutions for your papers.

     Most of the folks who responded feel they are both Pilers and Filers of papers, meaning they pile papers for a while and then file them, with a variety of time frames, from “once a week” to “whenever I can’t find something”.  And a little pile of work to be done is Ok, but please, not too many piles!

     This month’s Real Simple reported that 83% of HR managers “say the appearance of an employee’s workspace affects their perception of the employee’s skill level and professionalism.  Want to be a go-getter?  Then go get those dirty coffee cups and messy piles of paper.”

     I find the challenge with paper is that each piece of paper represents something else.  This post-it note is not just a piece of paper, it is a place holder that represents a phone call to make, a letter to write, an action to take, a past event, a loved one.   There are 3 types of papers:

  • Active: Papers requiring action:  Bills to pay, forms to fill out and return, coupons, receipts for returns, articles to read
  • Passive:  Papers we need to hold on to for a prescribed time, perhaps to refer to or not, then purge: receipts, paid bills, kid’s activity schedules like soccer or baseball rosters
  • Archive:  Papers we need to keep forever, like mortgage papers, tax records (for 4-10 years, depending on who you talk to), birth certificates, wills, passports, etc.

Why Do We Keep Papers?

  • We haven’t completed the actions they require.
  • We think someone will care about them in the future.
  • We haven’t gotten around to doing anything with them, or it didn’t occur to us we could toss them. 

 Why Do We Pile Papers Instead of Filing Them?

  • We’re afraid if we put something away, we’ll forget where it is or that we even have it.
  • We don’t like or trust our filing systems because they are too complex, or too basic, or they were not created by us for us.
  • We don’t feel like filing, because we don’t see why it matters.  Or we are busy, lazy, got called away, the files are far away, the drawer is broken, we need to clean the old stuff out of the file cabinets before we can put the new stuff in, and that job seems too overwhelming, too, yada, yada, yada.  I do this for a living, I have heard lots of reasons why people don’t file.  The reasons against filing are legion.

 Why Does Piling Paper Cause Problems?

  • Piling papers vertically makes retrieval of information difficult or impossible.
  • Gravity.  We can only pile things so high before they topple.
  • There is only so much horizontal space in most homes
  • Visual clutter is distracting
  • Piling papers puts all papers equal, regardless of importance, type of action, value, etc.

 Why Do You File Papers?

  • Well, to counteract all the problems listed above, of course!
  • Filing things away makes finding them and everything else easier.  Papers stay where we put them.  And then we can see the beyond the clutter.   
  • File folders and holders hold paper vertically and are open at the top, maximizing space and allowing viewing and retrieval.
  • Maintenance is so much easier than catching up.  A few minutes daily is much easier than a monthly paper mess!  I am very proud of those of you who answered that you are both a Piler and a Filer. 

 First Things First:  Set yourself up to Succeed:

  • Sit down with a shredder, recycling bag and 10 minutes on the timer.  Power through your piles, re-sorting your papers into Action, To File – Passive, To File – Archival, Recycle and shred. 
  • Now that you’ve sorted your Papers, Jump In!
  • Active Papers:  Active Papers are the only papers you should have on your desk right now.
    1. Try a new way of holding your Active papers, like a standing file folder on your desk. (No Piles, remember?!?!)  
    2. Break down your Active Papers Pile into types of actions to take: title manila folders “bills to pay”, “forms to complete and send back to school”, etc.   
    3. Break down the actions into little tiny steps, if necessary.  I read an article about a woman who needs to file her expense reports more quickly. 
      • Currently:  Her expense receipts get stuffed in her wallet until it is too full, then she takes them out and piles them on the desk until the pile falls.  A couple of times a year, when the spirit moves her and / or she needs the money, she files her expenses. 
      • New Requirement:  Her employer now requires a 60-day-or-less turn around.  If she wants to get paid, she has to step up.
      • Her folders now live in a holder on her desk, and walk her papers through the reimbursement process.  They are entitled: receipts to expense; receipts to copy; copied receipts to submit for reimbursement; reimbursement requests sent; and Reimbursed Expense requests and proof of payment, 2011.
    4. Schedule time to actually act on your action items.  If you don’t dedicate time to Action items, they will never get done.  Monday morning are my Action mornings. 
    5. Once you act on a paper, ask yourself again what the next action is for that piece.  It could be Return to School, pop in the mail, give to someone else, recycle, file, etc.  Papers need to keep moving!
  • Passive Papers: Stand and deliver
    1. Once you decide a paper gets to stay in your files, spend time every day or every week filing things away.  I have spent lots of blog time on Paper Management issues, so click here for pertinent links to topics like categories, filing systems, etc. 
    2. Archival Papers:  File forever.  These are the easiest papers to deal with because you don’t see them often, and there aren’t many of them.  Unless you have 30 years of accumulated passive papers, which leads us once again back to maintenance. 

     I like filing.  I like the feeling of accomplishment, of Done-ness.   I like clutter-free, visually peaceful space that comes from filing.  I use filing as the final act of closure on my work day, before I turn off my computer and go do fun Colleen / Mom stuff.  I never have much to file, and my folders are convenient to put things away.

    I challenge you, this week, to look differently at your pile of papers.  Do a power sort and purge the easy stuff, then Act on your Active Papers and file the rest.  You can do this, I know you can.  And you will be amazed at how much better you work when the piles are gone!

The Day the Bags Come Home

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Summer relaxes our daily routine, and brings opportunities to work on organizing projects.  Paper is always an issue, but working on kid and school papers in the summer offers the rare opportunity of cleaning papers off the desk or kitchen counter, and having them stay gone for a few months!  Yeah!!

     In less than 2 weeks, it will happen.  You know, IT.  That Day, the one where the contents of your child(ren)’s desk and classroom comes home in bags from school.  Ugh.  But we can handle this, I promise!  When the bags arrive, take half an hour and WITH YOUR CHILD’S ASSISTANCE:  

  1. Purge garbage immediately. 
  2. Review school supplies, set aside those items that can be used all summer or next year, and trash the rest (knowing you all will want some new things for Back-To-School. 
  3. Set aside the rest in a bin or bag, and put a date on the calendar for another hour with your child to review it.  If you are feeling really inspired, tackle this step right now, but we often want to go play on the first day of summer.

In a few weeks, when that scheduled hour arrives and you have both gained distance and perspective on the school year, decide what papers stay and what papers go.  The school papers fall into 4 or 5 categories:

  1. Tests and assessments: SAVE A FEW, especially the official reports from state testing.  And you can keep really big and meaningful projects, like book reports or essays. 
  2. Achievements, awards and progress reports: SAVE MOST, and just the last progress report if it is cumulative.  And there probably won’t be more than 10 or 15 of these.
  3. Daily school work and home work:  TOSS!
  4. Art and craft projects: TAKE PICTURES of big ones THEN PURGE the projects; save a few small ones.  If you struggle with all the Art, try: Creating a gallery on a clothes line strung across the bedroom with clips for papers; Creating a magnet wall with magnetic paint and a border, and clean it off once a month; buying a grouping of inexpensive frames, and swap out pictures every week or month.  Your little Picasso is wonderful, of course, but not every piece is a masterpiece.
  5. Other business of school (unless it is about the next Academic School Year): TOSS!

ACADEMIC BINDER:

     The important stuff in the first 2 categories goes into the Academic Binder.  Each child has an Academic Binder begun in preschool, with testing assessments (MAPS and ISATS), end-of-year grade reports, class pictures, award certificates, event programs for band and choir, special notes from teachers, etc.  My oldest recently completed an application for entrance into National Junior Honor Society.  He had to list awards and service projects from the current and past school years.  All the information he needed was in the Binder and it was huge help in putting together his application.  He enjoyed flipping through it, too.  When we start applying for high school honors and scholarships next year, we’ll be ready to go!

(Click here for a past blog on creating Binders)   and (Click here for past blogs on more Paper Management Topics)

Daily School Work and Art:

     My middle son would keep every paper he ever touched if I let him (But I don’t).  Some rainy summer day, we will go through this year’s school papers and whittle the big pile down to his true treasures:  reports or essays, big projects, math tests that earned him his math medal, etc.  We’ll wrap the keepers with a rubber band, or in a 9×13 envelope labeled with name, date and grade.  We’ll take pictures of any large or 3D art projects, and keep just the pictures.  We have a plastic box on the shelf with past years bundled in it already, and this year will be added to the top.  We have yet to review any past years, but he likes to know we kept some stuff and I respect his wishes (with limits).

Stuff as Treasures:

     Boundaries and limits are needed in the amount of papers and treasures you keep for your child.  With babies, we want to keep favorite outfits or toys or books, and keepsakes like greeting cards and growth records of course.  As the kids get older, they start to generate more keepsakes, like handmade mother’s day cards or pre-school papers, and they start to value stuff on their own, like event tickets or “treasures” like toys or balloons, etc.  Now that my boys are older, they choose to keep or toss their own stuff, in addition to stuff I deem necessary to keep, like grade reports and programs from their shows and concerts, and things.

            So, try for a sweater box size of keepsakes per year (OR LESS), regardless of what is in the box.  We keep less and less these days as keepsakes, but my boys accumulate their own “stuff” now.   Are you keeping things for you to review in 20 years, or for your child to review in 20 years?  There is no wrong answer, but if you think you are keeping things from them, ask yourself what you would want to keep from your own childhood (tip: NOT piles of old homework papers).

      As you keep papers or other treasures, WRITE A NOTE about the paper or item and leave it in the box for your child to read when he or she gets older, so you both remember in 20 years why you kept an item.  We like to see some things from our childhood, but we don’t want to be burdened with an attic full of things we don’t remember.  And always remember that activities and time spent together will be more important to your child than any stuff you may keep.

So, block out a little time in the next month to review those kid papers, purge most of them, and set some aside as to keep and treat as treasure.  And enjoy a few months with a clear kitchen counter or in-basket!

Are You Drowning in Kid Papers?

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      A friend recently stated she was “Drowning in Kid Papers”, and I know we all feel that way some days.  So let me lend a hand and pull you out of your paper flood!  

     There are 3 kinds of papers:  Archival, Passive and Active.  Most of those Kid Papers bogging you down are Active Papers.  Active Papers require a next action and soon!  They are items such as permission slips to complete; a party invitation that requires a phone call, and then a trip to the store for a gift; coupons to take shopping and redeem;  and bills to mail, etc. 

     How do we get to Act on these Papers?   Decide on One and Only One place for these papers to live.  In our house, the active papers live on the kitchen desk (our Command Center).  They live in Only One Place because that makes acting on them a lot simpler!   And This One and Only One Place is also where all papers land when they come into our house, either via our mail box, backpacks, work briefcases, etc. 

  1. Use the Steps from Julie Morgenstern, Organizing From the Inside Out:
  • Sort and Purge – Make purging easy:  What can go now?  Trash?  Shred? Recycle?
  •      Complete forms and put right back in the backpack (we keep envelopes and small $$ in the desk drawer)
  •      File school papers right away. 
  • Sort the rest into Active, Passive and Archival papers
  •       Put away passive and archival immediately
  •       These are Active papers, so sort them by action:  Calls to make, Forms to complete.  Or, Sort them by when you want to Act on them, By Day:  I have a file for each day, so if I have calls to make, I’ll tuck all those reminders in this week’s Thursday file, when I know I will have an hour at home to make the calls.  Or, The Best idea:  Act on them RIGHT NOW, if you can, and move them along.
  • Assign a Home / Containerize:  Have a work space the whole family knows about, and if it tends to be a kitchen counter, so be it.
  • Equalize (Means Maintenance):  Regular maintenance is vital to any paper management system, so plan to act on your Active Papers every day or two, and to look at your Passive Papers every month or two.  Purge the information that is no longer important to you or that is about events and seasons now over.  Every Friday we clean out backpacks and folders, with my sons standing next to me.  We use four categories: Papers for Mom to Act On, Recycle/Toss, File (keep) and Homework to Complete. 

       Here are some examples of files on my kitchen desk, use them as inspiration to create and name your own files:

  1. “To File – Child’s Name” files, one for each child. I fill this file during the week as backpacks come home with papers, then file the items in a bin on each child’s closet shelf when I clean house (every week or 2)
  2. “Academics – Child’s Name” file, one for each child, for quarterly assessments, certificates, awards, etc. throughout the year.  These become part of their Archival records in their binder.
  3. Kids Activities: Current team rosters and contact lists, receipts for paid fees, raffle tickets, etc.
  4. Kids (Possible) Activities (for ideas when they come in the back packs or mail)
  5. Kids Extra Pix (pictures people give us through the year, extra school photos)
  6. Kids Religious Education (handbooks, general information)
  7. Kids Music (handbook, repair information, copies of completed sign ups)
  8. Kids Gifted Program (handbooks, overviews, resources)
  9. Kids Boy Scouts (contact information, handbook and yearly info)
  10. Kids Service (ideas for service projects, things to do)
  11. Kids School (handbooks, schedules, Principal notes and newsletters, sick child policies)

I also have a file holder on the desk, for general Family files.  All of these are accessible to all family members.

  1. Family: Adventures (ideas for places to do and things to do, parking passes, free day passes, etc.)
  2. Family: Events (guest lists for RSVPs; info or permission slips from venues, menu and party ideas for upcoming events)
  3. Family:  Home Improvements (ideas like paint colors or new front door brochures; active bids for projects, info on a new couch)
  4. Family:  Memberships (membership cards and literature for aquarium, zoo, museums, etc.)
  5. Family: Menus and coupons (take out and catering menus, along with coupons and such)
  6. Family:  Recipes (finally, some place to toss all the recipes I grab out of magazines, in a place where I can actually flip through and try them out!)
  7. Family:  Travel (travel info and packing lists for upcoming trips, accessible to me and my hubby, file goes on vacation with us)
  8. On a clip above the desk, we have upcoming event information, in reverse chronological order.  These are just for information purposes, Actions have already taken place:
    1. Invitations I have already responded to
    2. Newsletters from the library, with events I have signed up for circled or initialed
    3. forms to be turned in, like registration, with the due date noted on top
    4. Look ahead to tomorrow’s schedule

      Archival Papers are those items worthy of Long Term Storage, For example: mortgage papers, wills, passports, birth certificates, etc., and annual tax papers (for 4-7 years).  We store archival papers in small and movable labeled bins (not too big), file cabinets, or bankers boxes.   Archival Kid papers could be Keepsakes and treasures from each school year.  A great way to store those are Binders (a separate blog published 2/20/2011)

     Passive papers will most likely not be needed or retrieved except for disposal.  We keep them for a pre-determined amount of time and then discard.  Passive Kid Papers include: Completed everyday assignments and art projects; Yearly school handbook; contact lists for teams, or schedules and calendars (after we input the information into our date book / PDA of choice).   Here are a couple of ideas for How to take care of Kid Passive Papers:

  1. Short term – Open file holders on the desk or counter top, see above for suggestions 
  2. Monthly “Reminder”  files – a file for every month, for upcoming events, reminders, deadlines, etc. more than a month away (birthday party ideas and gift ideas are great to pop into monthly Reminder files).
  3. Also, if your young Picasso’s artwork and projects are gumming up the works, keep a few from year to year, or save them all to review in June, after school is over, and have your child pick their top 10.  Or, take a photo of the artwork or project, and print up and keep the photo as a memory (then you can toss the big cumbersome original)

     So, friends, if you, too, feel like you are “drowning in Kid Papers”, consider this your Life Preserver!  Spend a little time setting up your space to manage the deluge, and then spend a little time every day maintaining, or “staying a-float”.   Peace to you – Colleen

Bind Up That Paper Monster!

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Published originally in July, 2010 via  my website.   Copyright © 2010 M. Colleen Klimczak

 

I hear paper management questions all the time:

  • “What do I do with my kids’ school papers?”
  • “I cut out lots of recipes, how can I remember to use them?”
  • “How do I store my papers so that I can find things easier?”
  • “Maintenance is a pain – how can I make it go easier?”

            The answer to all these questions can be “Binders!”  Early on in my business, a friend and client helped me embrace the idea of Binders, so thanks to DCD!

 When to use a Binder system:

  • When you work with categories, like Children’s School / PTA or Medical Papers, 2009;
  • If you are a visual person or prefer to see your papers instead of filing them in file cabinets;
  • When you want or need your papers to be portable;
  • You have space limitations, binders work well instead of large file cabinets;
  • When you don’t have a system that works, or are ready to try something different to get a handle on your paper management (WHICH MEANS ALL OF US!).

Why use a Binder system:

  • You can read your information like a book;
  • You can organize your information how it makes sense to you;
  • Binders are Portable, to work on when you are on vacation, when you travel, when you are out and have some time while waiting, etc., or to take with you to doctor’s appointments;
  • Binders are Flexible, you can add or subtract folders as life evolves;
  • Binders are Duplicate-able, meaning if they work for one family member’s medical issues, perhaps you can use them for other areas of your life.

Situations that might benefit from a Binder System:  I use them for:

  • Working with categories, like
    • Children’s School / PTA or Medical Papers, 2009
    • Class topics / presentation notes, organized by topic
    • Recipes, like Main Dishes, Appetizers, Desserts, Beverages, Family Favorites
    • Children’s academic papers, organized chronologically and by child (see below for example)
    • For Bills, organized in pockets in the Binder…
  •  
    •      Chronologically by year, then by vendor
    •      Chronologically by year, then by month
    •      Use pockets for pen, calculator, check book, stamps / address labels

How to set up a Binder system:

  • If you don’t have Binders and accessories at home, take a trip to the office supply store.
  • Pick up a few 1”-3” 3-ring binders, a 3-hole punch, a stapler, 2 or 3 sets of binder pocket folders with tabs, plus pens and notepapers.
  • Sort your papers into categories, if you have not done so already, and pick a category like “Your Name – Medical” to try out the Binder idea.
  • Within my Colleen- Medical binder, I have clear binder pocket folders labeled:
  • An example of a non-medical Binder is a Binder for each student in your home.
  • As my kids get older and involved in more academic and leadership opportunities, it is so easy to access their report card history, special achievements and activities, since all the information is already grouped together.
  •  
    • Insurance Statements from my insurance company
    • Bills or statements from my physician appointments
    • Completed / Paid bills for those insurance statements and paid bills, once they are matched up and paid in full
    • Notes or articles I want to ask my doctor about
    • Articles about things I want to learn more about, like Heart health or weight loss
    • Other items might include pre or Post-operative instructions, prescriptions to fill, information about prescription meds I am taking, etc.
    • You can also keep your lab results or similar items in a binder, to make it easier to flip through them and review your progress over time.
  • We have 3 sons, therefore 3 Binders on the shelf in the kitchen.
  • Each child has a Binder, and in that Binder is a pocket for each school year.
  • We 3-hole punch the various papers or use sheet protectors (also available at your office supply store) to store awards received, newspapers articles, school pictures in photo pages, grade reports, team pictures from sports, notes, etc.

     Imagine the Binder system is like the main drive and folders in your computer.  The Binder is the main drive, and the binder pocket folders are the sub-directories for different areas of your life.  Think about the different areas, the “categories” of your life, and give paper management and a Binder system a try! 

Published originally in July, 2010 via  my website.   Copyright © 2010 M. Colleen Klimczak

Your Command Center: Knowledge is Power

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Every home needs a Command Center.  Your Command Center:

  1. Is one (and only one) centralized location to manage all information (paper and electronic) that enters and leaves your home or business.
  2. Is often a part of your Landing/Launch Pad (next blog topic!).  Command Centers are all about information, Landing / Launch Pads are all about stuff,

 Why do you need a Command Center?

  • Because life is complicated!  And lack of communication, resources or information complicates it further (“Houston, We Have A Problem”)!
  • Command Centers are all about information.  Knowledge is Power.
  • A Command Center makes life simpler, easier and better.  It
    • Keeps you informed and guides your actions.  Where to go, what to do, who is going, etc.
    • Keeps you informed as a family, with everyone working off the same information.
    • Keeps you prepared for whatever life may throw your way.
    • Helps you make good and informed decisions.
    • Enables you to act on your action items, like school papers, bills to pay, forms to complete, errands to run, etc.
    • Saves time, money and peace of mind by keeping vital info on your day-to-day life easy to find.

 What belongs on a Command Center? 

  • Communication or Message Boards:
    • Contact Lists, like soccer team rosters, phone trees and our permanent one with doctor’s numbers, neighbors, family members, poison control, school, etc. (I have all the info in my phone, but it is nice to have a reference for everyone else!).
    • Lists everyone’s use, like grocery lists, task or chore assignments, homework reminders.
    • Notes to each other:  “Band Practice After School”, “Late Meeting – be home by 7 pm”, etc, keeps things running smoothly around here!
  • Calendars
    • Menu plan for the week
    • Travel plans and itineraries
    • Schedules, like Band and sports teams
    • Reminders for upcoming events.  Our event reminders, like invitations or fliers from school, are clipped together in chronological order.  As soon as an event is completed, the reminder comes down and the next event reminder is now on top.
  • Paper (just some suggestions here!):
    • Shopping lists
    • Grocery lists
    • Receipts
    • Bills to pay
    • Errands to run (receipts for returns, mail to mail, papers to drop to other people)
    • Other to-dos, like calls to make
    • A folder for current house projects, to collect bids, contact information for contractors, etc.
  • Note: Many of my Command Center functions are on my smart phone and laptop in MS Outlook.  However, I want other family members to participate, so the same info is also available in my Command Center, accessible and visible to all family members.
    • There are great websites and apps out there, like www.Rememberthemilk.com, TaDalist.com and Todoist.com to manage tasks and schedules, and multiple members can have access.

What does a Command Center look like?

  • Let Function dictate your Command Center.  Make sure there is a place for communications, calendar and paper management, and perhaps an inbox or board for each family member.
  • Google “Command Center” and see what is available.  There are some ultra cool ideas out there, but resist the Racoon Response (don’t jump at something just because it is shiny and pretty!).
  • Surf around, grab some ideas and put together what works best for you.  Make sure your ideas work before investing $$.  Pre-fab or complicated Command Centers are not necessarily better tools, they are just more attractive.  Here are two cool examples, from Real Simple, easy to implement and not too pricey:
  • The kitchen or your family entrance are the most successful places to set up your Command Center.  It needs to be centralized and convenient or it won’t get used.
  • The refrigerator door seems an obvious place for a Command Center, but beware, magnetic clips can slide down the front if they get overloaded, and strongly shut doors can send everything flying (trust me on this one!).

So, spend a little time this week and think about what you want on your own Command Center, where you want it to be, and who should use it.  Then get creative!

National Clean Off Your Desk Day!

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    The second Monday of January is National Clean Off Your Desk Day (Yes, it’s real, I am not just making that up!).  So embrace the day, and clean off that desk!  Set yourself up to succeed:

  1. Clear an hour on the schedule, grab a trash can, a couple of recycling bags and a shredder.
  2. Designate a box for old electronics that need to leave (check my recycling guide for destinations), and a bag for items that need to go to someone else.  
  3. This is not “Get Everything Done Day”.  The goal for today is to set up your Desk and space to succeed.  Stack work to be done to one side and note your To-Dos as they occur to you on a pad of paper at hand. 
  4. Set up some empty vertically held file folders, either in a hanging folder file drawer or in a holder on your desk.  Files standing up are ready to receive info, instead of piling them flat.  As soon as files fall flat, they start to pile up.

Getting It Done:

  1. If you have the space and time, clear everything off the desk and put back only what you really want to keep. 
  2. If time and space don’t permit clearing your desk top entirely, then Start at the Left side of your desk, and work to the right.  That way, if you get distracted, you can pick back up where you left off. 
  3. Clear clutter.  Work through each pile, deciding to “Keep” (for example, To-Do’s, file, long-term storage, keep but put in a different room or desk) or “Toss” (options may include recycle, shred, reference for other people, just plain garbage, donate).   And wipe off your desk at some point, it is amazing how dusty it gets!
  4. Do not get distracted by other tasks to be done, just jot down those other tasks, and focus on clearing clutter and restoring your work space.

 Things to Remember:

  1. Your desk top is prime and valuable real estate, like beach front property.  Dedicate your desk top to work, not to clutter. 
  2. Use Horizontal space for work space, and Vertical Space for storage.  The more you can store close at hand above your desk on shelves or in cabinets, the more desk top space you will free up for work space.
  3. Move electronics off your desktop, if possible.  Stack your printer or scanner on a shelf or stacker to open up desk space.  I have my All-In-One on a stacker, and store my project baskets beneath the stacker

 What Does and Does Not Belong on your Desk:

  1. Does:  Lap top / Computer
  2. Does Not:  Out-dated data storage, un-identifiable computer or accessory cords or connectors, non-functioning electronics of any kind.  Beach front property, remember?
  3. Does:  Papers / files / binders for projects you will work on today and this week
  4. Does Not: Books or reading materials you are not currently reading 
  5. Does: Today’s coffee cup or water bottle, in a tip / spill proof container (voice of experience here!)
  6. Does Not:  Any beverage or food item older than a few hours.  And certainly not a Candy Dish (mainly because it will be tempting to eat the whole thing!)
  7. Does:  Pens / Pencils / scissors / stapler / letter opener that you use regularly. 
  8. Does Not:  More than 10 of any type of pen, pencil or tool. 
  9. Does:   One useful container paper clips or binder clips.  Just one.  And it has to actually be functional, not just cute.   And maybe one useful container for spare change.   Just one.
  10. Does Not:
    1. Shoes, unless you are a cobbler (yes, I’ve really seen this)
    2. Houseplants.  Move them to a shelf or a table near by.  The water overflow and dirt dump potential make these bad desk-top choices.
    3. Candles.  Shifting piles of papers, open flame, yikes.
    4. Photos.  Hang these on the wall or on a shelf nearby.  Desk top space is at a premium, and I can see photos on the wall better, anyway.
    5. Legos, Matchbox Cars and Goldfish, living or crackers (or maybe this is just my desk)

Ways to Maintain that lovely clear desk space:

  1. Make it Easy for things to leave:
    1. Leave the garbage and recycling cans and shredder nearby.  Make an appointment with yourself to use them, and to empty all of those receptacles once a week (Thursday morning for me).
    2. Leave a Donate Bin (for example, for books or old and obsolete electronics) and an Errand folder (for mail to mail, bank deposits, etc.) nearby, to help things leave your office in a timely manner.
  2. Plan to convert subscriptions for professional journals or magazines to an on-line option, and purge all the old ones, since many are available on-line for free or as part of your subscription price
  3. Cut down on your paper consumption.  If you have a paper Filing System that you like, duplicate the system and file names on your computer hard drive (and back-up often, of course!!).  For example, instead of printing an email with a marketing idea and putting it in a folder for later, I can save the same email to a “Marketing Ideas” subfolder on my laptop.  This makes it easier to retrieve, convenient to cut and paste info as needed, and my desk stays neater. 

Here’s to a cleaner desk!  Have fun!

Enhance Productivity and Focus – Clean Up That In-Box!

1.  Treat your email inbox like you would your regular mail box.   As soon as you open your email in-box, clear the clutter!  If you had to deal with paper mail, you would:

  • immediately toss the stuff you don’t need;
  • scan the stuff you probably don’t need and then get rid of that too; then
  • have a few things left that require a read or a response.  
  • These are the steps to take for email, too! 

2.  Immediately remove advertisements and daily newsletters you will not read or use today (don’t worry, they will come again tomorrow).

3.  Delete or change Subscriptions:

  • These days, most newsletters have an Un-Subscribe option;  Unsubscribe if you don’t need the information; or
  • Change your subscription options, like requesting all the correspondence from one source in a digest or bundled form.  I receive daily digests from 2 list-servs, instead of individual emails every time someone has a comment.  This really helps clear my in-box clutter!

4.  Sort your in-box in reverse chronological order, so that the newest emails are always listed first. 

5.  Use Folders for your opened mail, and Leave only active “To Do”s in your in-box:

  • Be specific in naming your folders.  I have a few folders dedicated to my presentations:  “Ideas” for classes I want to create, and “Correspondence” regarding classes I have already set up.  Very different information, so two separate folders.
  • Realize folders can be added and deleted, as events come and go. Create a “Holidays Logistics” or “Office Party” folder for all things holiday related, and then purge the whole folder in January.

6.  File items for retrieval:

  • Create folders for projects or people: for example, Newsletter Info To Share, Presentation Correspondence, Presentation Ideas, Travel Info, Expense Reports, or Shopping Ideas.
  • When you’re ready to tackle these projects, all the information is together. 

7.  Questions in the Subject line: My spouse and I may email many times in a day, and we use the Subject line as our email content (Subject Line: “Late meeting, home at 6 pm”, or “Class to teach at 7 pm”), similar to Instant Messaging (which I will not put on my laptop, in the interest of time management!).

8.  “No Need for Reply”.  An extremely organized friend uses this in her correspondence.  Often, we send an email for purely informational purposes, to keep folks “in the loop”, so to speak.  Adding this note at the beginning or end of your email tells your reader that they can respond, if necessary, but that they don’t need to, thus freeing their time and your in-box!

9.  If you currently have only one email address for personal and professional, and you find that it fills up quickly, consider a second free email address, like gmail, to use for newsletters and advertisements that you don’t want to look at every day.   

10.  Maintain your Clean In-box from day to day, and clean out the Folders a few times a year.

I hope you find these ideas useful, and that you are greeted with a clean and user-friendly email in-box the next time you sit down at your computer!  Peace.