Clean Off Your Desk Day
 by:
Marjorie Geiser
January 11 is national “Clean off your desk day.” Are you
ready?
The problem with a messy office, or computer (like emails and files), is it
clutters the mind, which leads to such things as decreased creativity, decreased
organization, and even perhaps lost items, from important correspondence to
bills that didn’t get paid!
I’ve discussed this before, and I don’t think it can be addressed too much,
from the feedback I get! You have to get organized! And what better time than
during “Clean off your desk day”!
So let’s get down to business. Here are steps to help you turn that desk, and
computer, into something that helps you enjoy your day, instead of dread coming
into your office.
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Do you have piles? Pick just one, pull out some new file folders, and do as
David Allen suggests: Create names for these files, such as ‘articles to
read’ or ‘articles for ideas’, or even ‘misc’. However, determine what
action you must do, and then do it. With EVERY item, do something with it.
If it’s really old, you can probably even …. augh! TOSS it!
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Are you a post-it junkie? Chances are, if you are, you’re not looking at
many of those post-its. Spend just 5 minutes, right now, looking at all your
post-its and ask yourself if you plan to take action on each one. Those that
are old, toss. (This does NOT apply to affirmation post-its, but that’s for
another topic.)
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Set aside some time to continue to organize. It only needs to be a few
minutes, actually. Think about it; if you have been printing up items, or
saving great articles, and they accumulate into a pile, if you spent 5
minutes a day looking through what you’ve accumulated, and taking an ACTION
on each, you will feel very accomplished and organized! And those items
won’t be pulling at your mind, dragging you down.
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TOSS! Yea, there’s that word again. I used to keep all my journals so I
could read them, ‘when I had time’. Ha! Naturally, as they accumulated, I
felt worse and worse. They dragged at my brain! I was afraid I’d miss
something important. But then my coach at the time pointed out that IF I
needed information on a particular topic, I could easily find that info
online! Plus, once these journals and magazines get a certain age, they’re
old news!
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Another tip from David Allen is to clean your email inbox to zero. Have you
done that yet? That’s MY challenge for you for January! And let me know how
it goes for you. It’s extremely liberating. However, then you have to stay
ON it.
These are just a few tips. If you do a search for “clean off your desk day”,
you’ll find many more tips! But here’s why it’s important:
You want to be as successful as you can. And you want to ENJOY your success!
This means the mind must be at ease. If things are cluttered around you, your
mind clutters. And it constantly is thinking/dreading that clutter. And although
you may think you live in it just fine, you also worry that you might be missing
something. And you COULD be, too! But the worst thing you’re missing is the
chance to enjoy your business and your uncluttered mind.
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