Chefs are always taught to `clean as you go' so that all food scraps, utensils and spills don't lingering like unwanted guests long after a hard night in a frantic kitchen. Artists thoroughly clean their paint brushes and seal their paints so they be used again the next day. For those of us who work at a desk and not a chopping board or easel, the same principles should apply.
Psychology Professor Sam Gosling from the University of Texas ran a study in 2006 that found that workers who had messy desks ran the risk of colleagues and managers assuming that they were incompetent and disorganised. Piles of clutter can indicate that you are struggling with the workload and you're not conscientious enough to change things.
Working at a messy desk can make life so much harder because a lot of important work can get lost under the newer files, newsletters and reports and create an unpleasant visual stressor that will only emphasise the impression that you're not coping. You can also waste a lot of time working on the stuff resting on top of the pile that is urgent rather than having the time
to figure out which stuff is important. Adam Le Good of Fundamental Training and Development agrees: ``The time people waste looking for things far outweighs the time spent keeping a workspace tidy and organised.'' He recommends diarising a tidy-up session at the end of the week.
Consider what kind of judgments you'd make if you decided to visit an accountant to do your all-important tax return this year. If the office had piles of over-balancing files on the desk, a leaning bookcase and the odour of old banana peel would you feel confident in letting them handle your money? Le Good has more concerns: ``How can you be sure that your
paperwork will remain confidential if they can't control what's lying on their desk?''
Naysayers will argue that a `messy desk equals a busy mind' and can even reach deep within the piles and pull out that important document you were asking for without missing a beat, but they're a tiny minority.
Others think that filing documents means they're `out of sight out of mind' or that having folders of completed work on their desk projects the image of importance. What instead happens is the reverse as they're considered as unwilling to take on new tasks and too disorganised to archive their completed work.
Towards a mess-less desk
Schedule time in your diary for a really good clean up. Allow a couple of hours to get it properly sorted the first time. After that it should only take a few minutes once a week. Denis Healy, Executive Director of PEP worldwide says it is ``Not about neatness for neatness sake. It is about making it easy to store and retrieve information quickly and easily.''
Be ruthless: At least half of what's on your desk isn't current work, so categorise it _ Do It, File It or Throw It.
Start with the oldest pile first and touch each item only once. Decide if it's a `do', `file' or `throw' and do exactly that. Don't put it back on your desk to decide later. Be ruthless, remember?
Only leave your `Do It' work on your desk. Label separate files for each current project. Place these in a vertical file on your desk for easy reach or in the drawer under your desk. Anything already completed should be filed further away or archived.
Find a book with clear plastic sleeves that you can leave on your desk containing essential information such as phone numbers, finance codes and regular procedures. Manuals and reference papers shouldn't take up valuable desk space and can be filed away from your desk. Mr Healy emphasises that ``the important skill is to set up `places' for the things you use and
then having the habit of putting those things back in their place after you have finished with them.''
Grab four desk trays and label them:
IN: for brand new work you've yet to read, touch or decide on. Ideally this should be empty at the end of each day as you've decided what to do with it (done, deleted, filed or delegated)
PENDING: for current work that is awaiting a decision or more information, ie a return phone call. Pending does not mean `procrastination'.
OUT: for your finished work. Each time you leave your desk to go to a meeting or have a coffee, remember to take your completed work out and distribute it.
READING _ be brutal. Only keep what is essential to your work or you'll end with a tower of paper you'll never get through.
