1. Do you have reading materials on your desk?

One common source of desktop disorganization is reading materials. Magazines, newspapers, etc. that come to you that you feel like you should read can consume a bunch of desk real-estate. For many people, this reading material isn’t ever going to be read. It just causes clutter and slows you down in other areas. Here are some tips for dealing with reading material.

• Stop it at the source. Be honest with yourself and if you are unlikely to read something in the future, get off the mailing list or cancel the subscription. There is no sense keeping it coming into your life to clutter things up.
• Opt for more expensive, higher-quality publications. Subscribing to a few high-quality succinct newsletters that provide an overview of your fields of interest may be much more efficient than trying to deal with 10 publications that you have to sort through. I subscribe to the Kiplinger Letter, Kiplinger Tax Letter and Trends Audio Magazine and find that those three subscriptions cover a great deal of content I had previously tried to acquire from multiple other sources. They are short–only a few pages long–so they don’t take much of my time, but they still keep me up-to-date on areas I need to know about.
• Keep what you need. Glance through a magazine and identify the articles you want to read. Tear them out and put them somewhere you are likely to read them. For example, putting them in your computer bag to read while waiting at the airport or even in your bathroom can help you get the value out of them when you have time to read them.
• Use RSS. Subscribing to publications through an RSS reader will let you skim a large quantity of sources and pick the ones that are of interest to you without filling up your physical or virtual inbox.
• Get it in audio form. If you have time during your commute, you may be able to get audio versions of the publications you are interested in. This can improve the value of your commute while freeing up your desk from papers you want to read but will never get around to reading.
• Get a bookshelf - If you have more books than places to put them, get some bookshelves. I do not recommend the the pressed-wood shelves you’ll find at office supply stores. If you really load them up with books, they will bend and break. We purchased some folding, real-wood bookshelves from World Market several years ago and have been very pleased with their quality. Also, don’t overlook having a carpenter build some permanent shelves for you. Sometimes the cost per foot of shelf is significantly lower and you can get them designed exactly the way you want. If money is a big issue, a few cinder blocks and 1 by 12 inch 5 foot long boards are very functional, durable and very low cost.

2. Does your desk contain items that need to be filed?

If there are items on your desk that need to be filed, but haven’t yet been organized, ask yourself, “why”? Why are they still sitting on your desk? Is your filing cabinet too far away? Is the filing process a pain, so you set things on your desk rather than put them away? Right now on my desk I have several pieces of paper related to taxes that I haven’t filed. I really don’t have an excuse. There is a stack on a nearby desk that my assistant will scan into my paperless filing system, but I just put the paper on my desk instead of where it belongs.

Why would I do this? Over the past week, I’ve been very busy and I’ve set some items on my desk that don’t really belong there. If my desk were clean other than just those two or three pieces of tax-related papers, I would probably have put them away. So keep in mind that clutter causes clutter. Keeping an organized desk will help you stay organized. Keeping a cluttered desk will encourage you to put more on it because “one more piece of paper doesn’t really matter.”

3. Are there papers on your desk that require action?

This is a big area of desk clutter–things that require your action that you haven’t gotten to yet. Take a look at these types of papers and write a number in the corner (or on a sticky tab) indicating the number of minutes you feel it would take to deal with them, or at least take the first action that would be required.  If you have a bunch of 2 to 5 minute items, you would probably be better off doing them as they come in. Is there a reason you didn’t just pay that bill when you opened it? Is there a reason you didn’t sign and send back that form when you got it? Understanding why you put off the action will help you understand how to keep those papers off your desk in the first place.

Papers that require longer action may be a bit more problematic. However, is your desk the best place to keep papers like this? At the very least, they should go into some sort of inbox so they will all be together. If you have a lot of papers that require action in the future, use some sort of tickler system to remind you when they need your attention.  Of course, if you have papers that require attention, but not necessarily your attention, they can be delegated and put on your assistant’s desk or inbox.

4. Are there things on your desk that don’t belong there?

Right now on my desk I have a plush stuffed dog and a conestoga wagon bank. These belong to my two-year-old daughter and she has brought them to me over the past few days. While they represent clutter, I have absolutely no desire to stop her from sharing her treasures with me. That is one of the big reasons I enjoy working at home. I want to be present as she grows up, and the clutter she adds to my desk is part of that. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. (That said, I probably should take these items back to the play room where they belong.)

Other things that are on my desk that shouldn’t be there:

• Utility knife – I was using it to open some packages and failed to put it away when I was finished.
• Video camera – I use it for video conferencing, but it has somehow made its way off the tripod and onto my desk.
• Spindle of blank CDs – These belong on the storage shelf, but I failed to put them away last time I used them.

As you can see, I have a number of items on my desk that simply need to be put away. This is where a messy desk breeds a messy desk. If my desk were clean, I probably wouldn’t have left out the video camera; I would have put it away. However, with everything else on my desk, there is no mental anguish in adding yet another item.

5. Do you have enough storage space?

One of the best things I’ve done to help keep things organized is that I brought in an eight drawer dresser. Multiple small drawers make it easy to sort items and these drawers provide a great deal of storage space. Of course, the downside of storage is that you’ll end up keeping things that you should really get rid of, but not having enough storage for the things you need virtually guarantees that you’ll have stuff on your desk that has no home.

Conclusion

Keeping your desk organized will probably always require effort. Some people keep an organized desk naturally. Others don’t. However, there are significant benefits for everyone who works toward keeping their workspace organized–whether it comes easily, or not.  The five questions above will help you better identify the sources of your disorganization and will lessen the amount of effort it takes to keep the benefits of an organized desk.

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Here are some ways you can facilitate more effective meetings and hopefully get more done in less time.

1. Make people show up on time

If people trickle in over a 10 minute period, that is a lot of wasted time. Often people come late because they know the meeting isn’t going to start on time, anyway. This is kind of a “catch 22,” because if you start the meeting with no one there, it is hard to get anything done. If you wait for everyone, then you make it likely that people will come late to the next meeting. Here are a couple ideas:

• Email everyone to remind them a few minutes before the meeting starts.
• Call or run by the office of people you know are often late.
• Go ahead and start the meeting without everyone. When someone comes in late, ask that they catch up with someone else in the group to find out what they missed.
• Hold the meeting somewhere that being late will make them look bad or at least be more noticeable.
• Ask people to come on time. Depending on your role, this might be as simple as making a request, or a bit more strict, like pointing out that they are being rude to everyone else who came on time.

You can find creative ways to help encourage people to come on time, as well. Once I was having problems with a particular individual who always showed up late for our meetings.  At one meeting, he was late again. I took everyone that was there down to the cafe, bought everyone a drink and we continued our meeting there. The late individual came in and didn’t know where everyone was. The next time, he showed up on time.

2. Always have an agenda

Ideally, you want something with a specific amount of estimated time allocated to each item. This makes it easy for you to identify things that are starting to drag on longer than they should.  Use the agenda to make sure you stay on track. This doesn’t mean you can never discuss something that isn’t on the agenda, but the agenda helps tell you where you should pick back up if you get side-tracked.

Give people the agenda ahead of time. For short meetings, it is probably best to have it in the body of an email. If you send it as an attachment, there is a good chance people won’t read it before the meeting. If you have it in the body, they will probably at least skim it. At the very least, you want to get the meeting agenda into their subconscious mind before they show up.

Having an agenda also helps show that you are organized and have a plan. It sets the expectation that your meeting isn’t going to be a waste of time. It helps put the meeting in the right perspective and makes it carry a more valuable perception.

3. Invite the right people

It is easy to get so many people involved that you can’t get anything done. On the other hand you can’t have an effective meeting if you don’t have the right people there. If you are talking about something that needs to be approved by a number of people, it may be good to have meeting with a small group of people to hash out the ideas and recommendations for the decision makers to look at.

The number of people in a meeting is tricky. You want to avail yourself of everyone’s talent, but you don’t want to have a bunch of dead weight, either. Still, there are other considerations beyond just the contributions of people to the meeting:

• Political – Sometimes you will need to invite someone so they feel important. You can potentially make them feel important without inviting them by scheduling the meeting for a time when they have another meeting scheduled.
• Buy in – Related to the political point, sometimes you have to have people in a meeting because they won’t support your conclusions unless they feel like they were part of it. Sometimes you can get around this by having a one-on-one session with them ahead of time to hear their concerns and make them feel like they were part of the process.

There are also some people you want to make sure you don’t invite. I’ve worked in organizations that had high-level employees who never seemed to do much of anything. They seemed to feel that their sole responsibility in life was to play the devil’s advocate and tell everyone why their ideas wouldn’t work.  These types of people can’t make a decision, themselves, and usually have nothing to add. Occasionally they will help you steer clear of a potential pitfall, but the signal-to-noise ratio is so high that their input is worthless, for the most part. These are people you don’t want to have at your meetings.

4. Use email effectively

Don’t have a meeting for something that can be better communicated via email. If you just need to distribute facts, use email. If you need to argue about the best way to do something, don’t try to do this in your inbox–hold a meeting. Some people try to avoid distributing information via email because it makes them look more important to do it in a meeting. Giving the statistics from last month isn’t the type of thing everyone needs to sit in a room to listen to. It might make someone feel important, but it is pointless unless the numbers are generating a lot of questions–even then email may be a more effective communication medium.

Have you ever noticed how science fiction shows have someone on the space ship whose job appears to be to repeat whatever the captain said to the computer again? Reading numbers off a spreadsheet is usually just as pointless.

5. Use meetings to argue

This sounds bad, but really, this is what makes an effective meeting. Meetings let you get people together and work through differences in person. You can pit various ideas against each other and come up with the best solutions. If you don’t have any arguing going on in your meetings, then you are probably having meetings for the wrong reasons.

You have to learn to argue fair. You are discussing ideas, not personally attacking people. It may take a bit to get a team to open up to the point where they can passionately express their views, but that is what you need for meetings to really become productive.

One common problem is having someone at a meeting that is so important that no one will disagree with him/her. If no one is going to disagree, you might as well just let that person make all the decisions. I had a graphic designer working for me once who would never disagree with me when we were having meetings. I finally asked her about this. She said she didn’t want to argue with her boss. I explained that I was paying her to disagree with me! If I didn’t want her opinion, I wouldn’t have hired her in the first place.

6. Record your decisions

Often decisions are made at meetings, but within a few months, no one remembers why. Taking good notes will help you easily remember not only what was decided, but why it was decided. It also makes it easy for new people to easily catch up and understand the history of a group.  For taking notes, I like tools like SubEthaEdit or EtherPad that let multiple people edit the same document simultaneously. I like these tools because they help keep everyone engaged and don’t require a bunch of time creating “minutes” after the fact.

Another advantage of having good notes is that it gives you a way to pass on the meeting’s contents to people who need to know about the discussion, but can’t come (or you don’t want to come). Ideally, having the notes stored somewhere that everyone can search them is a valuable method of knowledge management for your entire company.

7. Kill the Powerpoints

Powerpoint can be a useful tool for doing training, but if you are spending a lot of time with someone at the front of a room flipping through slides, it is a sign that your meetings aren’t very efficient.  Powerpoint can be a good way to make sure everyone is looking at the same thing as the starting point for discussion.  A good rule of thumb is seven minutes.  If the person controlling the Powerpoint is talking for more than seven minutes without being interrupted or asked a question, then the information probably doesn’t need to be presented in the meeting.

8. Get everyone talking

Don’t let people be silent participants.  If someone isn’t participating, they may not be comfortable with the format–everyone else may be jumping in but they feel like they need to ask permission to talk or prefer something with more structure.  These people need to be included.  Usually it is just a matter of saying, “Joe, what do you think?”  The point is, you need to make a conscious effort to include everyone.  If they aren’t being heard, then it is probably a waste of money for them to be there.

9. End on time

You want people to show up on time for your important meeting.  You need to give them the same level of respect and end when you say you will end. If you keep on top of your agenda’s time schedule, ending on time shouldn’t be too difficult and ending early is always a good thing, too.

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Here is how I’ve started saving those receipts without worrying about printing them out:

I have a folder in my Documents folder called “receipts.”  When I buy something, I simply save the order confirmation page to the folder.  In OS X, this is very simple because I can just print the page to a file as a PDF.  Here is a screen shot showing you how:

So, if you aren’t using OS X, you do still save your receipts to a folder.  Most browsers have a way to save a web page. Most give you an option to save it with all the images in a folder so you can see it as it appeared on the web.  Here is an example of how to choose that option from Firefox:

I suggest naming your receipts with the date and purpose.  For example, if I buy a pair of running shoes online, I’d name it something like:

20070122-running-shoes.html

This makes it easy for me to locate again and I can delete files that are old enough that I don’t need them any more.

Originally published May 15, 2007.

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We set up each of our cell phones to sync with our laptop, but we still had two separate address books. However, after playing around a bit with the .mac synchronization, I was able to set up our address books on the computer to sync with each other.  This has been a much bigger benefit than I had imagined because now we are both looking at the same version of the address book.

As our mutual friends change numbers or addresses, the first one of us to find out updates it everyone with a simple change on the computer or phone.

This is a very simple thing, but it makes a big difference–at least for us.  Not everyone is going to want to use a .mac account, but the idea of having a shared synchronized address book for you and your spouse is worth looking into.  If you have other suggestions about how to technically do this (especially for Windows users) please leave a comment below.

Originally published April 24, 2007.

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Most people put too little emphasis on their surroundings. I’m not saying that you have to spend all your time trying to create the perfect office, but you shouldn’t ignore the things around you. Your productivity can be greatly influenced by your outlook, and your outlook can be greatly influenced by your surroundings.

For years, I never had a picture of my wife on my desk at work. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my wife, but it just seemed like an extra piece of stuff on my desk. Eventually, I ended up with a framed photo of her and decided to take it to work and put it on my desk. I noticed that I was much happier after I put her photo there. Seeing her smiling face made me feel good, and it helped me get more done.

I have also found it helpful to keep framed awards and diplomas on my walls around my work area. It may seem silly, but when I’m stumped on a particularly difficult problem, I tend to lean back, notice one of the awards or diplomas and think “This problem is nothing compared to what it took to earn that!” It is a simple thought, but it helps me keep things in perspective and stay optimistic.

A messy office breeds a messy office. Having a clean office encourages you to keep your office organized. I have heard that the best chefs in the world keep their kitchens clean as they go. When they are finished cooking, they don’t have a huge pile of dirty mixing pans and measuring cups because they clean them as they go. You can take care of your work area in the same way. It is easier to spend a few extra seconds staying organized (when everything is already in order) than it is to invest 5 hours in organizing everything in a messy office.

Originally published February 5, 2008.

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A couple great sources for safety information on foreign countries are the CIA World Factbook and the US Travel Advisory site.

1. Take Copies - Having a copy of your drivers license and the first page of your passport are very handy in getting your visa or vehicle permits.  They also serve as backup if your wallet and passport are stolen.
2. Understand the Law – Make sure you understand the laws at your destination.  There have been many cases of U.S. citizens thrown into Mexican prisons because they had a firearm in their vehicle–something quite common in the U.S., but a very big legal violation if it is found by the Mexican border officials.
3. Know the Altitude - When planning your trip, be sure to take the altitude into consideration.  If you are going from a place that is 800 feet above sea level to a place that is 8,000 feet above sea level, you’ll need to give your body some time to adjust to the thinner air.
4. Get an International Drivers License – This is something you can get from AAA even if you aren’t a member.  It costs about $10 for the license plus the cost of your photo.  Basically, an international license just says you are a licensed driver in the U.S. and it does so in about 15 different languages.  In many places, your U.S. license is valid by itself, but some countries will keep your license if you have a driving violation.  Sometimes this is used as a threat to extract a bribe.  If you give your international drivers license out and someone decides to keep it, you’ll still have your regular state-issued license.
5. Power Adapters - Make sure you know what it takes to use any electronics or laptops at your destination.
6. Cell Phone Rates – If you are taking your cell phone, make sure you understand ahead of time how you will be charged for international usage. You also may need to have your carrier turn on international access in order for the phone to work.  In many countries, you can get a local SIM card that will work in your phone for placing local calls at a much less expensive rate.
7. Emergency Numbers - You should make sure that you have numbers for the U.S. consulate or embassy at your destination.  Also make sure your friends and family know when they should expect to hear from you and give them the emergency numbers just in case you disappear.
8. Credit Cards – Make sure you call your credit card company and let them know you plan to be out of the country.  Otherwise, they may shut down your card, thinking it has been stolen.  Also, be aware that some stores process cards differently, so it is possible that your card might be rejected.  Make sure you have other means of payment available.
9. Addresses – Make sure you have your destination address written down in the local language.  This can make it much easier to communicate with a taxi driver who speaks another language.

Originally published December 14, 2006.

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The My Documents folder is there for a reason. If you don’t have a My Document’s folder, create one. The idea is to keep all of your documents in this folder. This makes it easy to backup your computer and easy to find stuff instead of looking all over your hard drive.

You can take this idea step further and create folders for the types of items you produce on your computer. Here is an example of how OS X sets up your home directory by default:

One of the big benefits of this type of setup is that you can go to one place to start looking for anything you’ve previously saved. It also gives you a single place where you can tell your backup software to start to archive everything. I’ve seen people keep files all over their hard drive. When they need to switch to another computer, it is a nightmare. With files all over their computer it is very difficult to be confident that everything got moved over because you are bound to overlook some obscure folder that contains some of their important data.

2. No Top Level Files

A lot of people just throw their documents directly into the My Documents folder. You organization will improve if you promise not to allow yourself to put documents directly in this folder. Create subfolders and put the documents in there. The advantage to this method is that you create a way to associate similar documents–by putting them in the same folder.

If you have a file that is truly a one-off document and you will never have another similar document, you will still benefit by creating and putting it in a “miscellaneous” folder.

An important way to think about folder creation is to stop asking “where do I save this” and ask “where will I look for this when I need it”. You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to organize when you start out planning for retrieval instead of focusing just on the storage part.

3. Create a Downloads Folder

Part of using the Internet is downloading files. Many people have their computer set up to store downloaded files on their desktop. If you are extremely disciplined about keeping your desktop clean, this might not be a bad setup. However, if you keep any files on your desktop, the downloaded files can quickly clutter things and make it hard to find what you are looking for.

By creating a folder specifically for downloaded files, you can keep all of these types of documents together. If something is important and needs to be saved, you can move it to a different folder. If your “downloads” folder only contains downloads, then it is much easier to clean out. You can just scan through it to make sure there isn’t anything important and delete the contents every few weeks.

To make this work effectively, you’ll need to make sure your web browser is set to automatically put downloaded files in your new folder. Here is the place to change the setting in Firefox’s preferences. Other browsers have similar settings, as well.

4. Version Control

Version control lets you keep multiple versions of the same document. Instead of keeping a bunch of different versions of the same thing, you keep one version, but you have access to the document’s history to go back to prior versions.

There are several ways to implement this. On OS X, TimeMachine gives you this type of capability. There are several version control systems that will give you this capability as well. Subversion is probably one of the more popular systems for this. Subversion comes already installed on OS X. It can function in a variety of different settings, from a simple local repository to a repository with multiple users on an external server. Both Windows (TortoiseSVN) and OS X (SCPlugin)have some nice add-ons that let you use the version control directly from the graphical file system browser. This lets you use a menu system instead of learning a command line interface.

If you set it up correctly, Subversion can give you version control and backup capabilities. For most users, TimeMachine is quite a bit easier to set up, but it doesn’t give you the full capabilities of version control.

5. Aliases, Short Cuts and Links

Sometimes you need a file to exist in more than one place. For example, you might have your contract stored under each client’s folder and want to have another folder somewhere that contains all of your active contracts all in one place. Normally you wouldn’t want to just make a copy of the documents. Not only would the copy take up additional space, but if you made any changes, you’d have two different versions of the same document.

By creating a short cut, you can make a pointer to the original document. These types of links are also sometimes called aliases. To make a short cut on Windows, right click and copy the file, then right click and select “paste shortcut” in the directory where you want to put the short cut.

In OS X, option click and select “Make Alias”. It will create an alias in the current folder and you can then move it to where ever you want.

Note: Since OS X is based on a Unix style operating system you can also create links using the command line. I’m not going to get into the details here, but links will allow you to basically put the file in two directories at the same time while still only storing it once on the hard drive. From the graphical OS you’ll have a very difficult time telling which one is the original and which is the link. One of the advantages of this is you’ll get a thumbnail preview–something that is missing with the alias function performed with the gui.

Originally published February 26, 2008.

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One habit I formed early on in college was to get a copy of my transcript each semester. One semester, there were an extra 15 hours of credits on the transcript for classes I had not taken. After doing some checking, it became clear that they had accidentally given me credit for someone else’s work. I explained it to the university and they straightened out the records. However, I imagine it was much easier to get something taken off than it would be to get something added. By keeping a copy of my transcript, I had a very simple way to prove what classes I had taken if my credits ever accidentally were given to someone else.

About eight years later, I was taking classes through Harvard’s extension school toward a second Master’s degree. One day I was looking over the requirements and discovered that all of the work I had done wasn’t going to count. There was a requirement that you take your first 3 courses in a particular order and I hadn’t done that. Obviously, I was very concerned because I had already earned about 20 hours toward the degree.

I went to my file and found a dated print out of the same page that listed a different set of requirement–requirements that I had followed. I went to the office and showed them my printout and asked if the requirements had changed. They said that the requirements had changed, and I would only have to meet the old requirements for my program.

I could have probably gotten it straightened out without having my print out, but it was much easier to deal with since I had kept good records.

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• Set up new internet before switching off the old. If you want to minimize downtime, don’t turn off your old office’s internet until you have everything set up and running in your new space.
• Vacuum, vacuum. If you have the floors cleaned before you move in, make sure you give yourself time to vacuum two or three times before you start moving your stuff in.
• Pack by what you need. Make sure the things you are going to need access to are easy to find.  I put all the stuff I needed for the next week or so in my laptop bag where I knew I could find it.
• Don’t set everything up permanently. Set everything up, but in a temporary way.  Once you’ve used things for a week, you may find that you want your desk on the other side of the room to avoid a draft or some odd lighting.
• Change your address. Don’t forget to get the forms filled out a few days in advance. (You can do this online from the Post Office website.)
• Check the humidity. Even if it isn’t hot, high humidity isn’t good for your electronic equipment or books.  If it is too high, get a dehumidifier.
• Examine the outlets. If you see any evidence of cracking or black marks, replace them.
• Test for noise. Have someone walk around on the floor above your office and see how loud it is.  What you find may influence where you put your desk or may even prompt you to add some insulation before moving in.
• Anticipate problems. This is especially important if you move into a place that has been vacant for awhile.  For example, you probably shouldn’t set up your desk and computer directly under the kitchen sink if the plumbing looks old and hasn’t been in use for awhile.
• Test shipping. If you get a lot of time sensitive UPS or FedEx deliveries, it may be worth ordering something just to make sure the drivers know how to find your address. (Particularly important if you live in a rural area.)
• Declutter. Moving is a great time to get rid of things you don’t need.  In my case, I found that I was saving a lot of old boxes and electronics that I will probably never use again.
• Emergency numbers. Make sure you know how to get a hold of emergency services at your new location.
• Water detector. In addition to smoke detectors, you might consider getting a water alarm if your office area is below the grade or in an older house.  These devices hook to the wall with a sensor that runs down to the floor.  If they get wet, the alarm goes off.

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I finally decided on keeping anything that might be slightly important in my inbox where I can search for it.  It turns out that, for me, this is far more productive than trying to move things around and categorize them. It was very liberating, and I found that nothing bad happened by keeping older emails in my inbox.  In fact, I discovered it was easier to find things, because it only required a simple search instead of trying to find the folder where I had filed something.

However, there is a downside.  It can be very easy to forget about something you need to act on later. Since I do consulting, forgetting to act on a small email request from a client could lose me several hundred dollars on that particular request and several thousand dollars on future business.

To deal with this, I’ve found that creating an email “to-do” folder for each of my clients helps me stay organized without trying to sort through thousands of messages that I need to keep just as a reference. The “to-do” folder gives me a simple place to check to see if there is anything pending and allows me to focus on a particular work context as needed. Once I’ve completed the task, I move it back out into my general inbox, where I can find it easily if I need to reference it later.

Originally published April 17, 2007.

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1. Purge Old Files

If you still have paper files, it may be time to get rid of some of the older ones to make things easier to find.  Even with paperless digital files, there are times where it makes sense to delete or at least archive off the older files to reduce the amount you have to look through.

2. Take Stuff Home

Whether your office is in a spare bedroom or in a skyscraper in downtown New York, there are always going to be items from home that migrate to work.  Taking a few minutes to identify these items and move them back to where they belong in your home will help keep your office better organized and keep you from missing the items at home.

3. Computer Desktop

If your computer desktop is getting cluttered, go ahead and invest the time in clearing things off and putting all the random files into the appropriate folder.

4. Dust

A few minutes with a feather duster can greatly reduce the amount of dust sitting behind your computer or in the tangle of wires under your desk.  It also isn’t a bad idea to occasionally blow the dust out of your computer so it doesn’t clog up the fan or keep the heat from dissipating correctly.

5. Unsubscribe

If you are are on email or physical mailing lists that no longer benefit you, consider unsubscribing.

6. Frame It

If you have awards, diplomas or other similar documents pinned to the wall or sitting on your desk, consider getting them framed and matted.

7. Glove box

Most cars tend to gather old insurance papers and other random items in the glove box.  Take a few minutes to throw out anything that isn’t current, and make sure you have any important emergency items (like a flashlight or small first aid kit) that you may need.

8. Important Numbers

Fall is a good time to make sure you have a copy of all your important numbers up to date.  I like to keep a copy of all of my credit cards, bank accounts, insurance numbers, passwords, etc. on a physical piece of paper in a lock box.  That way, if we ever had a fire or any other type of catastrophe, we’d have easy access to everything all in one place.  If you already have such a list, consider updating it.

9. Email

If you keep all of your emails (like I do), Fall is a good time to go through and archive off all the older messages so they don’t continue to clutter up your mail client.  It is also a good time to go through and delete messages you know you will never use.  I find it useful to sort email by the sender–often I can delete hundreds of emails at a time when they are sorted like this.  For example, I can delete all of the emails from my credit card notifications by grouping them by the sender email address.

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Here are a couple crises to consider:

1. Your wallet gets stolen while you are traveling to another city.
2. Your car gets a flat tire.
3. Your cellphone gets its memory erased.

These are all fairly minor issues if you are prepared. They can become catastrophic issues if you are not prepared.  For example, if your cellphone memory gets erased, as long as you have a backup of all the important names and numbers, it isn’t that big of a deal.  However, if you have no type of backup, you could potentially lose contact information that would be very difficult, if not impossible to recreate again.

I recently had a flat tire on my car.  It shouldn’t have been any big deal, and I just took it to a service station to have it fixed.  Unfortunately, my car has one fancy locking nut on each wheel that can’t be taken off by a regular tire iron.  After a search of the entire vehicle, we gave up and the mechanic had to find a way to force the lug nut off. I lost an extra 30 to 45 minutes of time because I wasn’t prepared.

Our lives are full of numbers.  Credit card numbers, insurance numbers, bank account numbers, etc. Most of the time, we can get these numbers off our credit card, bank statement, or insurance policy.  However,  the time that these numbers really become vital is when those policies, statements or cards are destroyed or stolen.

Before my wife and I headed down to Mexico, we made a list of all the important numbers in our life, printed it off, and put it in a safe deposit box where our family could get to it if it was ever necessary.  We didn’t even save the file–just the printed copy.  The list contains all of our bank accounts, credit card numbers, retirement numbers, health insurance numbers, life insurance numbers, passport numbers, drivers license numbers, and online banking passwords.  It also contains the telephone numbers for all of the banks and companies that might need to be contacted.

If I were to die, it gives my wife a single place to go for all the necessary insurance and financial information she would need. The few hours of putting this together would save her a few days of digging through files.  It also gives us a simple way to recover information for much less drastic emergencies such as having our wallets stolen while traveling.

The point is, you can invest a few minutes today that can save you hours and hours down the road.

Originally published June 21, 2007.

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We asked experts for advice on the following topic:

What is your best piece of advice for creating an effective work environment in your home office?

The single most important productivity strategy is equipping the home office to facilitate the work. Today, in fact, a (used!) Steelcase desk system is being delivered here. The U-shaped work station will put everything at my fingertips – computer, phone, files, notes – whereas when I did this before, I had a less professional set-up. The room I’ve chosen has great natural light – the previous one had a nice view of the back yard (quite pretty) but faced north – in the winter and spring, that meant relying on lamps and overheads. I’ll have brilliant natural light on my desktop in the other room.

Finally, to be successful working at home, you have to have business development plans as detailed and robust as if you were working in an off-home office. Really, people can win with a cell phone and a convenient park bench if the BD plan is solid.

Sean Williams from Communication AMMO

I work out of my home and have for years.
The most important thing for me is to be in front of a large window with lots of natural sunlight.
Lots of other things – be far from the kitchen, be disciplined, etc. But the window is key.

Zale Tabakman from www.ZaleTabakman.ca

1. Cut down on as many interruptions as possible.  For a WAH parent, this may mean working during nap time, school hours, or hiring childcare/help.
2. Keep things where you use them.  Examples:  Printer paper can be easily stored near the printer for ease of access.  Store empty file folders in the rear of the file drawer.
3. Store like things together.  This can be accomplished by dedicating one shelf or bin to each “topic”.  Examples:  Keep marketing materials in one location ALL together.  Keep materials needed for presentations in one location ALL together.
4. Items you use often (pens, scissors, sticky notes, etc) should be in easy reach.  You should not have to get up from your seat or dig around for items that you need several times a day.
5. Keep the office, the office.  Don’t allow toys, food, children, spouses, pets (and their paraphernalia) to throw you off track.  Keeping clutter at bay helps bring tranquility and efficiency to any environment!

Julie Bavington from Organize With Julie, LLC

My best advice for creating an effective work environment in a home office is a series of things that, cumulatively, add to your success:

• Good lighting
• Make sure that you have plenty of space for your work area
• Have a dedicated space so that you can leave things out overnight if necessary
• Get a comfortable chair
• Experiment with productivity tools until you find the right one for your workflow style

Stephen P. Smith from …words

Establish times when you are officially working, and then:

1. Don’t take care of household tasks during those times.
2. Make sure family and friends know that you are working and that you are not available for non-work related activities.

Just because you are physically in your home doesn’t mean you can watch TV, chat on the phone, fix a leaky faucet, cook, clean, do childcare, and other household and social activities while you are working. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you are being efficient and multi-tasking!  Focus on your work so that you use your time efficiently and produce high quality results.”

Sara Sutton Fell from FlexJobs

Rather than face your desk toward a corner or a wall, turn it around and have it facing the door with your chair behind it so you have a clear view of the entry point of the room.  This will give you a more “executive” feeling in your office, and will allow you to feel more in control, able to greet whoever walks in the door, rather than feeling vulnerable with your back turned.  It’s a feng shui thing, but also a very practical office setup – when do you ever walk into an executive’s office and see them with their back turned to the door?  Try it, it works.

ALSO:

Very light jazz or classical music will keep you feeling upbeat and accompanied without interrupting your thoughts, work flow or phone conversations!

Tasha Moody from Simply Staged

Put up a vision board of everything you want out of your business…it will remind you daily of your goals.For instance, what do you want to make yearly–put those numbers on the board…I am making 250,000 a year…Put it in the present tense and use photos of  the life you want to lead.

Leslie Jacobs from LesMess.com

My best piece of advice is to create a relaxed atmosphere. A home office can easily become the dumping ground for mail, excess luggage, storage for skis, etc. Eliminate the clutter and create a powerful environment using a water fountain and aromatherapy. Positive sounds and smells can increase your productivity dramatically.

Whenever I have a power conference call, I light an aromatic candle to soothe my senses. It truly works!

Christine Louise Hohlbaum from The Power of Slow

My best piece of advice for productivity in a home office is de-clutter every morning! Pile or file papers from the day before and make sure you are starting with a clean & tidy desk top each day. Clear desk=Clear mind!

Christy Cook from Teach My Toddler Inc.

Create a home work environment that cultivates productivity by diminishing distractions. The distractions can be tv, your baby or even your cluttered desk.  Establish one dedicated space to work in, equipped with the papers, computer and area you need to get your job accomplished.  The space should have a desk top clear to work on, a credenza or auxiliary flat space to hold an action file and frequent references, and a drawer for less active files.  Set times to get work done and administration time to get organized.  By setting up your space for your best work, you will feel better about the work itself and accomplish more.

Ellen R. Delap from Professional-Organizer.com

Have a home office that has a door (if possible) or a cabinet that shuts and try not to use it for family space as well.  It will help keep your desk and mind uncluttered as well as allow you to shut off “work time” and move into “family mode” a little better.

Kristin Delfau from Delfau Tax and Financial Services

My best piece of advice for creating an effective home office is to select a room in the house that is to only be used as an office preferably with windows, a glass door and a separate phone line for office use!

Since I work at home around my daughters who are 8 and 10, I can see them playing during the summer in the front yard or I will move to our sun room to see them in the backyard while I am holding a conference call.

The glass door comes in handy to block out extra noise but the girls can come to the door and hold up a note or a food item and I can nod yes or no without any interruptions.  I can make lunch and walk around the house to keep an eye on the girls all while talking on the phone.

I empower them to be involved so they are in charge of answering the home phone and taking messages if I am on the other line!

Stacy Kannenberg from Cedar Valley Publishing

Use a public scheduler (like Google) to keep you from messing around or wasting time.  Give all your clients access and stay true to the client or project to which you’ve scheduled yourself.  Take breaks only when scheduled and return personal calls when you’re off the clock (the schedule).  Suddenly it will feel like you’re working a lot less – and you may just be shocked to discover how much time your personal projects are eating out of your day.

Debra Yergen from DY&Co media

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Get a Desk for Your Desk

After all, shouldn’t your desk have a work area for itself?  There is no reason it needs to share with you all the time. By getting a small table, shelf or box and placing it under your desk in a place you don’t need for your feet, you can move all of your electronics down out of view where they can still perform their function, but not contribute to clutter on your desk.

Depending on how your desk is set up, you may even be able to put certain pieces of equipment where you can get to them easily.  For example, your printer or scanner might fit nicely on the front portion of this mini desk while the rest of your electronic equipment sits toward the back.

While getting the items off your desk is valuable, getting the wires out of sight is an even bigger accomplishment.  By using the desk for your desk, you can run only the wires necessary to the desktop which should reduce clutter and minimize the need for extension cables.

I use a small short bedside table under my desk.  It holds three shelves.  The top one holds my laptop where I can easily plug it into my desktop monitor, keyboard and mouse.  The bottom shelf holds some of my other electronic equipment.  The middle shelf holds some external hard drives and other items that I need to frequently plug into one of my computers.

Just keep in mind that some equipment needs air flow in order to cool properly.  Make sure you don’t accidentally cover up the vents and make things overheat.

Originally published April 2, 2007.

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To be a productive blogger, you need to learn to use the mountain tops of inspiration to help fill in the valleys where you can’t think of anything to write.  This can be as simple as keeping a word processor document of future posts.  If your blogging platform supports it, I suggest using the scheduled post feature. Write your post when inspiration strikes but set it to go live when you know you will need a post.  You can sit down and write posts for the rest of the week or the rest of the year.

For example, if you take one Saturday each month and write one short post per week for the next month, you’ll have a huge head start.  Even if you get busy with other things or can’t think of anything to write about, your blog will remain active.

It takes discipline to schedule a post for later.  Once you finish a masterpiece, your first instinct is to put it up so the whole world can see it. This tendency causes many blogs to be sporadic.  They will be silent for two weeks and suddenly have a dozen posts go live a 2am Saturday morning. If all your readers are using RSS, this might not be that big of problem, but running a successful blog means getting people to integrate it into part of their daily pattern.  Your blog needs to become a habit.  Your reader is more likely to return if they know you will have new content every week or every day than if they think it is just random.

Also keep in mind that one of the things people like about blogs is the “bite sized” content.  Publishing the equivalent of 50 pages spread out over a bunch of posts all at once is probably going to get less brain share than a single post each week or each day,  just because people can’t take all the information in at once.

To summarize:  Write your posts when you have the time and inspiration.  Post them when it is most convenient to your reader.

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