A tidy office makes for a tidy mind, it can help you be productive and organized. 

I speak from experience, many years ago I would 'dump' all sorts on my desk - paper, books, coffee cups, pens, files, I could go on but I think you probably get the picture. It was a little like my teenage son's room now, if a bomb hit it it would be an improvement!

I 'saw the light' when I attended a Time Management course as part of a car manufacture's management training program. Though the course was for time management the key issue was organization, I learnt that if I prioritized my work I could work a lot more efficiently and part of the organization was to be able to find key information without hunting around for it. Everything should have its place and you should have a place for everything.

Of course this not only helps at work but also at home. I keep my work area as clutter-free as possible and file all correspondence depending on its importance to current projects. If it's important and urgent it goes in my current work file on top of the desk, if it's unimportant and not urgent it goes into the 'dump' file. The dump file is what you might guess it is; every so often I'll look through it and bin the old stuff, if something within the file becomes important I'll take it out and 'promote' it to one of the other files.

There are three files, the top file for important/urgent stuff, the dump file for unimportant/un-urgent stuff, and the transient file for everything in between. From these three files, after I've finished with the correspondence, I either archive it or throw it away. Never keep it just for the sake of it.

I also keep a to-do list, this I find invaluable. As I receive correspondence or find a new job I add it to my to-do list and categorize the item from one to nine, one for the highest priority and nine for the lowest. On a weekly basis I diarize my jobs ensuring that all high priority items are  entered in and find room for one or two low priority jobs. Quite often priority nine items will just get crossed off the list because it's obvious that they're never going to get done.

As jobs are completed from the diary I tick them off, this gives me an easy-to-view progress report, I also cross off the item on my to-do list. On a weekly basis I re-write the to-do list and add entries to the following week in the diary, including items not completed from the previous week. This ensures that uncompleted jobs are not forgotten and important, high priority, jobs are completed first. Of course really urgent jobs can override all my excellent planning but if that happens I forward entries effected into the next week.

I can't say that the system is fool proof but it has helped me and could help you achieve much more than you are now.

Top Ten Tips

1. Keep a to-do list
2. Categorize correspondence as you receive it.
3. Add an entry on the to-do list
4. File it immediately
5. Complete jobs by priority
6. Throw away what you don't need.
7. Keep your desk tidy and clear of clutter.
8.Review your 'dump' file regularly.
9. Cross items off the to-do list as they're completed.
10. Re-write the to-do list weekly.