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Items identified as “3” or “4” really don’t belong on your desk. They can live just as happily on a shelf.
Although it is advisable to clear off your desk each day before you go home (and perhaps before lunch as well), some people like to leave themselves a small to-do list of tasks for when they arrive the next day. They find that this list “jump starts” their thinking and organizing processes in the morning. If this works for you, do it.
Of course you may also want to keep personal items on your desk, such as photographs, or other sentimental items. Your desk is a kind of home, after all. It’s a very personal space. So by all means, give your desk a welcoming character. But don’t collect knickknacks that just get in your way.
It’s all well and good to say you should keep your desk clear, but you are probably deluged with memos, letters, bills, brochures, and documents of all sorts in your inbox every day.
There are four things you can do with any given piece of paper:
1 Deal with it immediately and be done with it. (This includes delegating it to someone else).
2 Categorize it into a pile to be dealt with some time later.
3 File it away off your desk.
4 Toss it into the nearest recycling bin.
The only other possibility is to leave the paper sitting randomly somewhere on your desk, and I do not recommend that.
Treat your electronic files and emails similarly to how you treat all of the hard copy that you encounter. The principles of sorting in this chapter are as applicable to computer files and emails as they are to paper.
It’s very easy to let messages pile up in your email inbox. What’s the harm? They don’t really take up space, do they? Well, actually they do. They take up space in your computer’s memory but more importantly, emails that never get deleted can create clutter in your mind. “Have I read that email? Do I need to reread that email?” As your email inbox grows, so grows an insidious sense of encroaching chaos.
Your emails and electronic files must either be filed into their proper folders, or deleted. Files should not loiter on your computer desktop, and emails should be purged from your inbox on a regular basis.
It is inevitable that papers will sometimes pile up in your inbox or on your desktop. At least every day or two, you have to attack that stack.
When you go into attack mode, you must look at one item at a time and decide immediately what you will do with each piece of paper. Do not make an “undecided” pile. An “undecided” pile is just another thing you will have to deal with later.
One popular method of sorting your stack into coherent piles is to designate each document either:
As you are plowing through your stack, if you come across memos or letters that require a short to-the-point response, answer them immediately. Don’t even bother putting them in the A pile; just dispatch them right away. It’s usually easier to dash off a reply in the moment when the issue is fresh in your mind than it will be later when you would have to reexamine the document.
If you need more time to formulate a response, then make a few notes to yourself on the document or on an attached note before moving the document. That way, when you get to it later, you’ll have a reminder of what you want to say, and the process will go much quicker.
Put stray business cards immediately into your organizer or take a minute to record the information into your hard-copy or computer address book. Unless you have a system to organize business cards, it’s probably best not to collect business cards.
If it’s not immediately clear what to do with a given piece of paper, try asking yourself the following questions.
Make your life easier by getting rid of as much paper as possible including unneeded copies of documents (never make more copies than you need!), outdated reference materials, catalogs you’ll never get around to opening, and general information that doesn’t pertain to your particular job. Send these to be recycled, and then get back to your sorting.
If you must keep piles of papers on your desk, know which piles are which and keep them organized and consistent. Don’t move them around; you’ll only confuse yourself. Consider the types of documents that tend to reside on your desktop. How many piles do you truly need?
The following are examples of piles that some people have on their desks. If you keep additional types of piles, name them in the blank spaces following: