One of the quickest ways I know how to relieve your stress when you are sitting at your desk is to STOP what you are doing and start SORTING the piles of papers and items on your desk into like categories. Put this mantra in your head. STRESSED? Stop and Sort. Say it enough that when you start feeling stressed, you are conditioned to create a clear space in front of you.
You will immediately feel a weight lifted off your shoulders as you start to make clear space and start to get a better handle on what the items are that are sitting on your desk or in your environment. I don’t believe that having piles is necessarily a bad thing. But if you can’t look at your piles and know exactly what is in there, whether it’s something you need to file or take action on, and when it’s due then you’ve got to put each one of those papers in some sort of paper management system.
If you are finding that your paper keeps winding up in piles, use this little technique. Sort all the papers on your desk in to like categories. Here’s some examples:
A. Marketing
B. Client Paperwork
C. Financials (banking, credit cards, taxes, receipts)
D. Events
F. Coupons
G. Notes
H. Travel
I recommend that when you are first sorting, make the categories as broad as possible. You can get more specific later. Remember, the goal right now is to just see clear spaces. In my experience, everyone will have the same 15-20 categories of paperwork that comes into their space. Sorting your paperwork will show you what those categories typically are.
Now that you have your categories, put those piles in a hanging file folder with a sticky note on the outside indicating what the category name is.
You can get even more specific with manila folders within the hanging folder to sort items even further. Ex: Make the hanging file folder Bills due and then put 2 manila folders inside. One for 1st-15th and the second for the 16th-31st. That way, when bill pay day comes, you have your bills in one area instead of searching all over the desk.
For any paperwork that needs filing, just for now have either a filing folder in your paper management system or a basket. You can also get that more specific later on too to make filing easier.
The idea is this new paper management system or your “action” system is only a temporary holding place for your paperwork so you can find documents a lot easier when you need to. However, you will need to make some sort of list of the items you need to take action on, or your action system may just become another dumping ground for papers. Albeit, more organized but it will still get too full and then you’ll be searching for another solution.
So when you are feeling stressed. Just say Stop & Sort and clear your space and very quickly you will feel your stress start to melt away and restore a feeling of hope that it IS possible to be organized. The key is in the systems. Contact Miss Organized if you need help setting up an efficient and easy filing system that will make sitting at your desk a lot more pleasant and help you gain greater productivity.