Feeling Overwhelmed by the Mess on Your Desk? Fear Not!

Do you have a large pile of papers on your desk? Is your desk disorganized and full of clutter? Do you feel that your mail tray's inbox keeps getting fed with more and more paper?

Don't worry, you're not alone. You wouldn't believe how many people come to me with this problem on a regular basis. You should also see some of my co-workers' desks. It looks like a whirlwind spun through and left nothing untouched.

One of my readers asks this question, which I have heard many times and started thinking, "Maybe I should write a post on this":

How can I clear my clutter to start with?

My answer to this is:

The best way to de-clutter your desk is to create 3 piles: 

1. The "keep" pile - these are items that you want to keep no matter what. These are important documents to you or your manager and needs to be kept on hand at all times.
2. The "throw" pile - this would be items such as junk mail, things that you know you don't need any longer and can do without and items that are over 7 years old, as business requirements state that you don't have to keep anything past this time frame for legal reasons.
3. The "maybe" pile - this is the pile that you have to sift through and place into either of the first 2 piles.

If you can delegate any of these tasks to someone else, make sure that you do, as this will cut down on your to-do list. In terms of your mail tray being used appropriately, read my post entitled "De-clutter Your Desk: Ask Others to Use Your Mail Tray".

And in tomorrow's post, I will be writing about correct mail tray usage.

I hope that this helps the reader that asked this question as well as anyone else that is having trouble starting out with cleaning up their workspace and feeling overwhelmed. Don't worry, just do things in manageable chunks and you will get things done in no time.

Can you think of any other ideas that could help people their workspaces? Please leave any comments.

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Until next time,

Take care - of your clutter!


Post from: Administrative Assistant Tips