Great Circle

Piles of paper on your desk and bookshelves. Books double-stacked. Your computer “desktop” covered with files, folders and shortcuts. Your hard-copy diary filled with documents requiring action; while Microsoft Outlook throws up a dozen reminder-notices every time you open it.

If you left your office looking like this last Friday, you might want to consider some small changes for the new week.

I’m serious when I say that I’ve met more than one ”professional” who seriously believes that other people see this mess and think,

“My, what an important, busy, resourceful and productive person!”

In reality, those people’s thoughts sound more like: “What a mess!” or “Her office looks as bad as mine!” or even:

“If this guy can’t keep this level of work organised, how can he be trusted with more?”

Chaos, clutter and incompletion in your workspace leads to chaos, clutter and incompletion in your headspace.

It makes your work harder to do well.

Saying “I don’t have the time to clean it up or organise it” is a nonsense; this disorganisation wastes your valuable time!

If you’re not convinced, then send out a confidential survey of your colleagues and ask them these 3 questions:

• “What do you think when you look at my desk/office?”

• “How does my level of tidiness or organisation affect you and your work?”

• “If you were going to advise me to change anything in my office or filing system, what would you advise?”

You may be unpleasantly surprised.

A great friend of mine - Angela LoValvo - is a coach & trainer who often finds herself helping people organize from chaos. I’m indebted to her for helping me compile this list of suggestions for fixing the mess:

1. Make your workspace look attractive to you. If it’s attractive you won’t be as inclined to ruin the look.

2. Keep all your jottings and notes in a small notebook that you carry with you - rather than on beer coasters, post-it notes and scraps of paper. (I can personally vouch for this one!)

3. Invest in a filing system and a label maker. Sort out your filing arrangement (e.g. short term / long term), make it simple and easy to recall.

4. Give Every Object a Home. Create a space for everything and put everything in its place. In my own office, I have a file holder which is about 12 centimeters deep. It holds the 6-8 files I dig into most regularly. One of these is called Works in Progress where I store my scribblings and drafts of workshops and articles.

5. Systematise common decisions. For instance, if you find that a large proportion of the paperwork on the desk is of a certain type, make a decision about how you will process those documents in future. Then trial the process intentionally for 6 weeks.

6. Clear everything from your desk except for essentials, ie. telephone, computer, calculator, pens. They don’t need to be piled on your desk! If you are afraid you will lose documents etc when you take them off your desk, then there’s a different issue that needs addressing. This is one I have had to face up to myself.

7. Exterminate your attitudes which justify the messy and lazy approach to your working life. They. Are. Not. Helping. You.

8. Plan a regular 30 minute block (at least once a fortnight) where you tidy and organise. You might even grow to like it.

And if you’re still stuck, hire Angela to come help you fix it!