It’s not just at home that spring is a good time for organizing and housekeeping – at the office as well you can take advantage of these first rays of sunshine to put some order into your files and thereby gain efficiency. 5 steps to face April looking good.
1. Organize your workspace
Some people are more efficient with a nearly empty desk, while others thrive in stacks of files and objects lying around. In any case, there are probably many useless items on your desk. Take a large garbage bag and discard pens that don’t work any more, full notepads that you haven’t used for two years, and business cards that you have already copied onto your phone.
2. Organize and update your contacts
Changes of address, company, job, cell phone number… Your network is constantly changing. Make sure everyone’s contact details are up to date, and when this isn’t so, take the steps to find the current information. This is also valuable on social media. Begin with your oldest contacts. Don’t get rid of anyone – you never know who may be useful at any time or who might call you, but put into a separate folder those who you will probably never need to get in contact with again.
3. Sort paperwork
How many useless documents accumulate in your drawers over the year? For some you have no choice – you are obliged to keep them for legal reasons or because the file is officially still underway. This doesn’t prevent you from archiving them in places where they will be in your way less. For all the others, don’t hesitate to toss them! This will not only make space, but with a pile reduced by half you will save time the next time you are looking for something specific.
4. Delete emails
Are there more than 20,000 messages in your inbox? You can probably delete a few hundred without losing anything vital! Use reverse chronological order – a ten-year-old welcome message from a company is no longer very useful, as are discussions with colleagues about contracts that are now obsolete. If you are afraid to delete them, just in case, at least create a separate file where you will put all the conversations that have nothing to do with your current work.
5. Clean up your computer
There again, it’s a question of sorting out what might still be useful from the rest. If your desktop is full of icons, you will find it hard to find your way. Rather use folders based on themes that correspond to your daily tasks (customer management, invoices, etc.). This will be especially useful if you work on your personal computer – avoid mixing the two worlds. As for the internet, consider sorting your favourites.