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Is your desk a war zone?

Guest post by: Paul Puckridge

Article Overview: A recent study in the office habits of workers and the associated costs to companies conducted by the Butler Group stated that employees are suffering from both information overload and information underload. As a result, a typical worker now spends up to one-quarter of his or her day searching for the right information to complete any given task.

Is your desk a war zone?

Do you ever feel like your work area is being bombarded by files and folders, surrounded by sticky-notes or getting pummelled by overflowing in-boxes and in-trays? Will you wave the white flag of defeat or are you ready to take on a messy desk in some serious hand-to-hand combat?

A recent study in the office habits of workers and the associated costs to companies conducted by the Butler Group stated that employees are suffering from both information overload and information underload. As a result, a typical worker now spends up to one-quarter of his or her day searching for the right information to complete any given task.

In other words, many professional people are finding themselves overwhelmed by the amount of information they need to deal with, yet unprepared or perhaps uneducated about how best to deal with it.

Lost time spent looking for files, contacts or the right piece of information is your enemy when trying to work productively.

Nobody is asking for perfection - but a bit of organisation and good presentation can make all the difference in how quickly you can find things on your desk, how you feel about your work and of course, the way you are perceived by others.

Here are some simple, yet effective ways to win the war over your work area and information overload.

1. Get an simple index file. Use this for important contacts, client information and notes of previous conversations.

2. Clean your desk and work area once a week. It will not only feel and look better, but dust, dirt and germs can also effect your health.

3. Throw away those sticky-notes! A spiral notebook is all you need; it can be referred back to with ease and does away with all those bits and pieces of scrap paper!

4. Use a paper diary. Whether you choose to use an online calendar system or a paper version, a paper diary holds information that needs to be accessed daily such as appointments, meetings, deadlines, contacts and personal details.

5. Colour Code your projects in order of importance. For example, red is urgent, blue is in progress, yellow is to be done later. Then keep these files within reach. By the way, the colour-code system could just as easily be replaced by numbers, letters or anything you find works for you!

6. Get rid of any excess personal items. Junk, free promotions from companies and all that superfluous stuff covering your workspace. If you do want to keep a few personal mementos, put them away from your main work area. After all, that's where you should be keeping your critical files and things you are working on.

7. Finally, sort your old papers using a ‘D' Box recycling system. File any unwanted papers in a cardboard box, which is kept under your desk. When the ‘D' box gets full, seal it up and recycle it. This way if you do ever need a piece of paper from a week ago, you'll know where to find it.

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Article Tags: Daily Planning, Get Organized, Gtd, Paul Puckridge, Planning Your Day, The First Hour Of The Day, Work Smarts, Worksmarts



Related Forum Posts
Re: Are entrepreneur women more organized than men? - I have heard it said that if you have a disorganized desk then your mind will be equally disorganized and I must admit that when my desk is tidy my thoughts do seem to flow better. MichelleJ
Re: Is "Good" - Good Enough - It could be that some people are actually not too confident of their abilities, or fear success more than they fear failure (as I said before somewhere on this forum!!)... Also, if you have a business that is plodding along and all your pals have businesses that are plodding along, you can fall into a kind of comfort zone and imagine that "that is the way things are and were meant to be"... People might look askance if you start to look beyond the comfort zone. They might take it personally!
hot-desk.. what's that? - [quote:kdfr04eq]What I'd really like is an office-share; a hot-desk which is relatively cheap and not normal rates as I would only use it part time. My son has just found himslef one and I'm looking...[/quote:kdfr04eq] I've never heard of a hot-desk/Office-share... what's that mpcoach and how would one use it for generating ideas or spark creativity?
McDonald's rebranding - I've just been doing a bit of research into McDonalds - not for any business reasons - but over at Wikipedia it says that: In 2006, McDonald's introduced its "Forever Young" brand by redesigning all of their restaurants, the first major redesign since the 1970s.[5][6] The new design will include the traditional McDonald's yellow and red colors, but the red will be muted to terra cotta, the yellow will turn golden for a more "sunny" look, and olive and sage green will be added. To warm up their look, the restaurants will have less plastic and more brick and wood, with modern hanging lights to produce a softer glow. Contemporary art or framed photographs will hang on the walls. The exterior will have golden awnings and a "swish brow" instead of the traditional double-slanted mansard roof. The new restaurants will feature areas: The "linger" zone will offer armchairs, sofas, and Wi-Fi connections. The "grab and go" zone will feature tall counters with bar stools for customers who eat alone; Plasma TVs will offer them news and weather reports. The "flexible" zone will be targeted toward families and will have booths featuring fabric cushions with colorful patterns and flexible seating. Different music will be targeted to each zone. Now I admit I haven't been to a McDonalds in a long time - I usually go to KFC, but their are two photos of the "old" and the "new" McDonalds frontages, and I've gotta tell ya, the old, white-fronted building looks a lot nicer than the new, "terra cotta" fronted building. I might nip into a local McDonalds tomorrow, see if I like the interior changes....
Re: Are entrepreneur women more organized than men? - Women are more organized than men, and it is tested. They took 4 groups, striate women, striate men, gay women and gay men. They gave all the same list of tasks to complete in one hour before going to work. On the list there were things like, making eggs for breakfast, making sandwiches, doing laundry, etc. The results were amazing the winners were the striate women, then the gay men, gay women, and last the striate men. Personally, my desk at work is clean (no clean policy here), it is well organized at home, but I stopped checking my husbands desk, I just can't look at it.


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