posted by Joel Southerland In my last post, I covered how in 60-seconds you can take a huge leap in productivity and organization just by cleaning off your desk. Hopefully getting reacquainted with the surface of your desk has already been rewarding. A clean workspace lends itself to clear thinking — which is necessary for real productivity. But, now… The Box. What do you do with that? Set yourself up on a daily schedule to go through the box. Spend 30 minutes a day (more or less depending on how much time you have) taking the pieces of paper in order from the top to bottom. Use an egg timer if you need to so you don’t get carried away. Don’t “presort” the box; just take it from the top down. And, here we go…

1. Throw away what can be thrown away. That will probably be the majority of it. Don’t be sentimental. Be brutally honest about what has value and what doesn’t. If it is something that you think you might use one day — but you aren’t sure how or when or what for — it is garbage. You will discover that as you learn to throw things away, you develop a sense of freedom from the clutter. To be honest, how often have you thrown something away that you wound up absolutely needing to have a few days later? For all of us, the answer is never or almost never. Toss with confidence.
2. File what needs to be filed. Better yet, have your secretary or volunteer do all of your filing for you. Don’t be afraid to ask for a volunteer to come in and do some filing for you if you don’t have a secretary. Now, there is a secret to this… Make an “outbox” that you put all of the things in that need to be filed or given to someone else. Put a sticky note on the item that gives instructions on filing - and don’t think about it again. Trust your assistant to handle it properly.
3. Deal with what needs to be dealt with. You will run across items that need one call, one decision or one action. Go ahead now and take action on the item (or decide the future action and when it will happen, then file it appropriately) right now. Don’t wait. If you can “put something to bed” with one action, it is well worth the energy to do so. If something requires more than one action, then create a project folder for it and schedule a time on your calendar to work on it. Force yourself to do whatever you need to do to get the item out of the box, off your desk, and where it ought to go!
4. Delegate what can be delegated. If it is someone else’s responsibility, put their name on the sticky note, and let your assistant give it to them. Don’t you take it to them — it will eat up your time! Let your assistant deliver it to them so that you don’t have to leave your desk.

You will make your way through the basket faster than you think you will. Whatever you do with the item, only touch it once. If you have to touch it twice it should only be when it’s coming out of a file folder so you can take action on it. Don’t put it down and pick it up over and over… that is how your desk got in that shape in the first place! Yeeeesh! If you have difficulty with an item, let me know. Post a comment on the site and I will check back and give you some ideas! Hey, send me “before and after” pictures of your desk at joel at sermonators dot com! We just might post’em!