Tips for Keeping the Clutter Away

Judi Clements Training & Development
www.judiclements.com

Here are some of the best tips I can offer for time and clutter management.

• Decide immediately.  Make decisions NOW about what to do with each piece of paper. 
• Ask yourself these 3 questions:
  • What does the item refer to?
  • What category should it belong to?
  • What is the next step I must take with it?
• Ask yourself, “Do I really need it?”  If so, file it.  If not, dump it. Throw away or recycle as much as possible.
• Whenever possible, handle paper only once.  At the least, each time you touch a piece of paper, move it one step closer to completion.
• Do not set papers aside to decide later.  If it must wait for a decision, place it in a Tickler File to return to within one week.  Write a note on your calendar, To-Do
• List or Project List to remind you to get back to it.  After that, make a decision.
• Put things away.  Always re-file quickly.
• Spend 15 minutes, twice a day, clearing out your In-Basket. Do not let it turn into a holding, aging, or procrastinating tray.
• Clear off the top of your desk at the end of each day.
• Spend 30 minutes twice a week doing a more thorough cleaning of your desk.
• Be realistic about the amount of information you can read and absorb.  Limit your subscriptions.  Clip articles you want to save as soon as you read them.  Throw the rest of the periodical away.
• Keep your organizing system and files SIMPLE, easy, and logical. 
• Purge your papers.  Do twice-a-year BIG PURGES of both your paper files and your computer files to keep the volume down.
• Whenever a file moves from “active” to “inactive,” remove unimportant notes, drafts, and nonessential information.
• Break the habit of writing things down on numerous scraps of paper.  Write notes in the appropriate place the FIRST time.
• Sort incoming mail, email, and voice mail into categories, by priority or by action.