Organizing Your Desk
Your desk is your world whether it is at home or in an office. You have important papers, reports, miscellaneous papers and not so important papers. The biggest question is, are you able to find items you need in minutes? Do you know where that report you have been working on is, or where your passport and social security cards are? If the answer is no, you probably need some help with your desk and the paperwork that comes in on a daily basis and the items you should be keeping and know exactly where they are at all times. A bulletin board makes a great choice for all papers that have an end date. For home, those might include schedules for your child's sports, the school year schedule, and invitations to birthday parties or weddings. For the office, the bulletin board makes a great place for meeting dates, conferences you will be attending and project schedules. Overall, avoid making the bulletin board a place where miscellaneous items just end up in a mish mash of placement because important dates will be lost and missed. Hopefully we have gotten a few papers off your desk. What remains and where should it go? The rest of the papers more than likely require an action of some type. You might need to call for an appointment, or to get information for a report. Keeping it straight and not losing it is the key. You can try the calendar and schedule each task when it is due or needed. Whether you use a wall calendar, your computer, your smart phone, or a day calendar, make sure you use only one. I have been in many clients homes who have to check more than one calendar to schedule our next appointment. This just causes confusion, stress and a way to over schedule which inevitably happens at least once during our time together.
If piles are more your style but you don't like them all over the place because they end up mixed up and you miss dates, try a pile filer. Many companies make such a product for very little cost to you. Just Google "pile filer" and you will find many products to help you keep your piles in order with separate tabs. You can have tabs for calls to be made, orders to be placed, or correspondence to answer.
For your home office and desk, make sure you bring in all the papers in from around the house. Have a place for bills and and a place for important papers. For your personal documents such as passports, social security numbers, house deed, and other papers that would be very difficult or costly to replace should be kept in a waterproof, fireproof safe.
Make sure that to do pile is reviewed weekly and if it has been in the pile for over 30 days, you are probably not going to move forward so give yourself permission to throw it out. Keeping your desk organized will help your productivity and relieve the stress.