It's a Spring Thing!
Spring always seems to signal freshness and renewal, so why not take a
fresh approach to removing that ugly clutter monster who has made
himself at home all winter in your office and around your house?
Try these 4 approaches to get yourself started this Spring:
Purge your files. Look in your file drawer right now and
chances are you'll see many papers that are old, outdated and useless.
Remove them, they're only taking up space. If youre not entirely sure
about throwing them away, create an "archive file" to store them apart
from your "live" file, allowing easier access to current files.
Clean up your hard drive. Your computer in the office, and
also your family computer, probably contains dozens or perhaps hundreds
of digital files that are no longer needed. Delete these, they could be
slowing the performance of your computer. As with your paper files
described above, if you're not certain whether you might need them later
on, transfer the outdated digital files to a recordable CD, DVD or Zip
drive.
Organize your shelves. Is your cubicle being over-run by
shelves that are piled high with aging materials? How about the shelves
in your home office? Outdated magazines, old letters, last years
calendar...these can all be tossed in the trash. Books and binders that
may have toppled over on shelves should be stood neatly upright with
bookends to support them. And loose papers should be examined if theyre
not needed, throw them away, if they are needed, put them in the file
before they get lost.
Organize your organizer. Whether you're using one of the
latest digital palm organizers or an old fashioned paper-bound
organizer, there is likely a whole bunch of information stored away that
is no longer viable. The meeting you scheduled into your palm unit, the
one that happened 3 months ago, delete it. The business card you stuffed
into your appointment book, the card for the company you were supposed
to meet with 8 months ago but didnt, discard it. The bottom line is, the
only way your organizer itself, and ultimately you, can be completely
organized is if things are up to date.
