Do you feel energized & motivated by your home office? Can you find any document within 60 seconds? Do you have sufficient space and do you separate personal and business paperwork? If your answer is "NO" to any of these, your home office is in serious need of overhaul!!

You can create the time to do just that. Dedicate 15 minutes each day to sorting through all that stuff on your desk. Pick up only one piece of paper at a time. Make a decision on where it should live. Then pick up the next document. Repeat process! There are three decisions to make with paperwork: to chuck, to act or to file.

Chuck

Do you know how much energy is being drained from you by clutter in your office? Get rid of anything that: • you do not need, use or like • is broken or inoperable • does not serve the life you want to live • holds a bad feeling or memory

Act

You can't imagine how good you'll feel when you get those jobs out of the road. In your initial clean up of the back log, put items for action into a small tray called ‘To Do' Dedicate 5 minutes at the end of your 15 minutes sorting, to compete one or two of the quicker action items.

File

There are two types of items to file:

1. Paperwork that has been acted on and needs to be kept for personal, business or taxation purposes. The key is to have the appropriate categories/systems set up to enable easy filing.
2. You like it and want to keep it: photo, magazine clippings, trinkets and other memorabilia. Give them the home they deserve; an album, collage, frame, folder, or other part of the house. Don't clutter you desk with memorabilia. Start your first 15 minutes now - and create a home office that works for you!

Published in HOME, Cairns Post 12 July 2008