Clean Up Your Act

Disorganized salespeople used to be easy to identify – cluttered desks, overflowing “in” boxes and post-it notes covering up post-it notes were the sure giveaways. But now we’ve entered the information age, and all that clutter has given way to the sleek, sexy PC. With a computer, even the most organizationally challenged salesperson can arrange myriad follow-up letters, product specifications, contact information and other sales literature into tight, easily accessible files. Right? Hold it just one minute, says time management, planning and paperwork control expert Odette Pollar. Just because someone has a computer doesn’t mean that person’s any more organized than the hapless soul drowning in a sea of paper.

“One of the most common organizational problems in business today revolves around handling the sheer volume of information that comes across a person’s desk,” Pollar explains. “And that’s true whether you have a computer or not. Today there is more information than ever before, and that causes people to fall behind in their reading and stop differentiating between the important information and all the extraneous stuff that comes our way.”

As a perfect example of how technology has simply shifted the form disorganization takes, Pollar cites the growing popularity of e-mail. “Many people are now finding that they will have 120 e-mail messages in a week,” she says. “Now those messages are going to differentiate greatly in importance. But sifting through them becomes a major task. So they can get just as backed up on their PCs as with paper messages. Despite what some technology pundits may say, my experience suggests that if you’re disorganized on paper, you’ll be equally disorganized with a computer, just in a different form. Here’s one trick to staying organized; make sure your paper files match your electronic records. You shouldn’t have a whole different organizing system for the computer.”

Whether it comes to you over a modem or through the mail, Pollar suggests a three-step approach to handling the information glut.

“One,” she advises, “read information that helps you see the big picture, or that helps you do your job better. Realize that just because something is interesting, that doesn’t mean you have time to read it. Second, tie information to what you already know. Rather than having random bits of data floating around that aren’t connected to anything, tie everything to something else. When you’re reading you need to say, ‘Yeah, this is related to our latest initiative and that’s how I can use it.’ And finally, use new information within two or three months. If you don’t, it goes out of your head and if it’s at all technologically based it will become obsolete by then anyway.”

But even the most computer literate among us cannot eliminate paper from our work lives entirely, nor should we want to. Part of the problem, Pollar explains, is the decision-making process. Often we don’t know exactly what to do with the pieces of paper that float across our desks. Rather than deciding whether to file or eliminate them, these sheets of paper instead join their brethren in an increasingly imposing stack. Pollard says it’s easy to eliminate this organizational headache.

“One of the things that confuses people,” Pollar says, “is they try to make too many decisions. Ask yourself a very simple question, which is, ‘What is the very next action I must take on this piece of paper?’ And then it becomes easy because the answer is, ‘Well I have to call Dave because I don’t understand X.’ There’s your answer – you write ‘Call Dave’ on the paper and on your to-do list and put it away. What usually confuses people is they’re thinking, ‘How many steps do I need to take to finish it?’ They identify the next eight steps, and you never have enough time to do all of that – you’ve got other things to do. But that’s not what you need to know to get it off your desk. You just need to know the next step. Track that next step and put the piece of paper away. That makes decision making a lot easier.”

According to Pollar, most disorganized people are operating under two false notions that help them rationalize maintaining their messy ways.

“One,” she explains, “people have a mistaken belief that they can immediately lay their hands on any piece of paper, despite having a desk laden with piles of paper everywhere. If they could, I wouldn’t object to piles. But that’s not what happens. Things get lost, we end up paper shuffling to make sure we remember everything that’s in the piles. And then if you’re already overworked, the amount of time you spend shuffling paper is literally a waste of time.

“Second, being organized is learned behavior, just like being disorganized is learned. It’s not genetic; you’re not born with this skill. Everybody learns it. So you can unlearn behaviors that are not effective and learn new ones. But that’s something I run into a lot – people thinking that they are just genetically disposed toward having desks that look like spots where tornadoes have just touched down.”

In terms of other little things you can do to improve your organization, Pollar recommends setting aside a certain amount of time, whether 20 minutes or two hours a week, just for dealing with paper. She also recommends clearing your workspace at the end of every day.

“If you work out of your car,” she says, “then clear out your car at the end of the day. Whatever your work area is, clear it. Put the day’s accumulation away, so that the next day you can start fresh. Each new day you can mess it up again, but at least give yourself that head start on cleanliness.”

Soon after you begin a program of organizational improvement, the benefits will come rolling in. Besides the satisfaction of being able to locate every essential piece of paper on a moment’s notice, you’ll just start feeling better about yourself.

“You want to get organized,” Pollar says, “because it makes your life easier. But it’s also easier for the people you work with, the people you work for and the people who work for you. Of course it saves time. And it does something for your peace of mind, which is really important because when you walk in and the desk is already piled up you think, ‘Oh man, I’m already behind.’ And you just got there. The last benefit that I often see is control. When you’re disorganized you’re out of control: out of control of the paper and what that paper represents. And if you can’t put your hands on all your resources, you make decisions that aren’t as well thought out, for example, because you don’t have all the information. Getting organized is really not that difficult. When you consider all the positive results you see almost immediately, there really is no excuse for not changing a couple of self-defeating habits that lead to unproductive workdays.”

Odette Pollar’s 12 TipsFor Getting Organized

1. Sort through those piles of documents on your desk. Dump outdated, duplicated or unnecessary information.

2. Don’t set papers aside for a later decision. If it must wait, place it in a “tickler file” to return to in one week. Then make a decision.

3. Sort mail with a wastebasket close at hand. Beware of time lost reading junk mail.

4. Don’t take notes on puny scraps of paper. Having more space to write is helpful and the paper can later be filed with less risk of being lost.

5. Put all instructions and equipment manuals together in one file.

6. Use only one calendar and write commitments in pencil.

7. If you are unsure whether to save an item, toss it. Be realistic: Will you ever go back to it again?

8. Break the habit of writing on random bits of whatever paper is handy . Write notes in the appropriate place the first time.

9. Avoid file labels such as Miscellaneous, Information or Pending. These are traps for loose paper.

10. Keep manila folders close by. Create a new file when you get paperwork related to a new project.

11. Tear interesting articles out of magazines and newspapers, then recycle the rest of the publication.

12. Allot time to read. Thirty minutes three times a week will keep you up-to-date.

Cleanse Your Cyberspace

Now that your workspace is clear of clutter, don’t you think it’s time to turn your organizing eye to that PC on your desk? Oh sure, it looks innocuous enough just sitting there, humming away, as if to say, “Hey, what are you looking at? I’m perfectly organized.” But you know better. Bring order to your hard drive by sweeping out the musty, cobwebbed files. Here’s how to do it:

1. Dump the extra copy.

If you have a printout as well as

a computer file of a particular document, do you really need both? Copy the file onto a diskette, label it and toss the hard copy into the circular file.

2. Delete automatic back-up files. Many programs automatically back up files whenever they are updated. Over time, you can create quite a backlog of back-up files. Look for the .BAK or .BKP extension, then be liberal with the delete button.

3. Deprogram away. Unused programs waste prime hard-drive real estate. Delete programs that you’ve replaced with newer versions, DOS versions of your new Windows programs and software that you no longer need. Just remember that in Windows it takes more than merely deleting an icon from the program manager to eliminate it from the hard drive. You’ve got to get into the file manager and flush those pesky programs out.

4. Get rid of other unnecessary files. There may be many of them, so this can be quite a task. Scroll through the entire file manager by directory and eliminate those files you no longer need. If you can’t decide about a particular file, create an archive directory for it and its brethren. Every so often go back and clear out the archive directory as well.

5. Flip ’em to a floppy. Having old files on your hard drive may be convenient, but it’s also unnecessary. Copy files that you want to keep but don’t need on the hard drive onto floppy disks and store them in a safe place. Don’t forget to label the diskettes so that if necessary you’ll be able to find what you need quickly.