If you look at my desk, you will think you are looking at a disaster area. But it only appears to be chaos to the untrained eye. The truth is, I know where everything is and the worst thing any “Good Samaritan” secretary can do is to “straighten up my desk for me.” It is usually months before I find everything after someone does that.

But there is a better way of doing things. Believe it or not, your desk does not have to look like a tornado hit it in order for you to get things done and know where things are. Rhonda Abrams wrote an article for USA Today entitled “Strategies: Crawling Out From Under A Pile Of Papers.” In that article, she offers several suggestions on organizing your desk, yuor computer, and your finances. Here is a portion of what she says–

1. Office Stuff

• Files in your desk and file drawers: Archive previous years’ files and put in storage. Keep only current or continuing files nearby.

• Pile on your desk: Put in appropriate files or toss. Remember Rhonda’s Rule: “When in doubt, throw it out.”

• New files: Identify names of files you need now or will soon, use the label maker and set up new files.

• Desktop: Keep useful piles but get rid of all the other stuff — scraps of paper, business cards from people you don’t remember, and everything else cluttering your workspace.

• Set up a “shipping center:” Set aside an area with envelopes, packing materials, postage meter or stamps, shipping labels, etc. Get that stuff away from your work area.

• Get FedEx or UPS software and start using it. It’s free, makes tracking easier and gets rid of paper.

2. Computers — Hardware and Software
• Clean out program files: Uninstall programs you no longer use (go to Add/Remove Programs in your Control Panel), and upgrade the programs you depend on. Don’t touch something if you don’t know what it is!

• Clean out data files: Go through your documents and archive outdated files onto a portable hard drive. (Of course, make sure you have a regular backup system in place at all times.)

• Update your virus protection.

• Defragment your hard drive: Do this overnight (it takes a long time), after you’ve backed up your data.

• Change passwords: It’s a good idea to change the passwords on all your accounts once a year. Make sure you write your new password down and store in a safe place.

3. E-mail

• Set up filters: Learn how to use filters or rules to sort out your email.

• Unsubscribe from mail you no longer want to receive.

• Set up a signature to add to the bottom of your e-mails.

4. Record-keeping

• Get a contact management or address database. Enter the contact information from all those business cards you have sitting around, so you can implement marketing campaigns more easily.

• Get a bookkeeping program. Stop using that shoebox! Get an easy basic business bookkeeping program.

• Clean up old accounts: If your finances are really a mess, close out your old bank accounts and start fresh.

Having a little better organization in your office may not increase your bottom line to the million dollar mark. But, if your bottom line ever tops the million dollar mark, you will be able to see it.

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