How to... de-clutter your desk

“We live in a culture where people think a desk piled high means you’re very busy and efficient,” says Sue Kay of consultancy No More Clutter. But, she says, they’re wrong.

“A clear desk equals a clear mind. If you have only a minuscule space on your desk, you can’t work in a relaxed way,” she says. Clare Draper of consultancy Clutter Clearing agrees: a messy desk increases stress, she says, because you can constantly see evidence of all the things you haven’t done yet. On top of this, you probably won’t be able to find things, which will cause more stress and may make you look disorganised.

Time is of the essence
The first thing you’ll need is some uninterrupted time, says Kay – a day when no one else is around or a quiet afternoon.

“You can’t multi-task when it comes to de-cluttering,” she says. People often underestimate how long it will take, especially with paperwork. “It can take as much time to decide what to do with a piece of paper as it can to buy a pair of trousers.”

Remove everything, except your computer and phone, from the desk. Put it all in a crate or move it to another space. This allows you to see what your desk would look like if it were always clear. “Take a few minutes to think what it would be like if you faced this on Monday morning rather than your normal desk,” suggests Kay.

Once you’ve got all your paperwork in one place, you should divide it into categories, Draper says, because “your brain is configured to deal with things in pigeonholes”. She recommends choosing categories such as: things that need urgent action, things to keep for legal reasons, things that belong to someone else, things that were passed on by your predecessor, reference, not sure and rubbish.

“This is a different way of thinking for most people,” says Draper. “Very often just choosing five categories can take up to half an hour.” After choosing the categories, take a coffee break to clear your head.

Categorise and respond
Next, get bags or crates and start putting in papers according to your categories. This may be difficult at first, as many people simply never throw things away. But once people get going, they usually find everything fits into one of their boxes, says Draper, who adds that only one or two things ever end up in the not sure box.

Be tough on putting stuff in the “rubbish” pile, says Kay. Think about whether something is really important. If you haven’t looked at it for years, you won’t miss it. Ask yourself, “what’s the worst that could happen if I don’t have a copy?”

If you’re keeping a miniature reference library, ask yourself whether there are master copies of those documents in the building already, or whether your copies would be more useful in a place where everyone can use them.

This process could take a few hours – or it may be something you need to chip away at for several weeks, depending on how much clutter you have. Whichever approach you take, set a realistic deadline for clearing everything and try to stick to it.

Sorted
Only once you’ve sorted everything into boxes should you think about what to do with each category.

Everything you decide to keep can be filed out of the way, says Kay, who insists filing isn’t as hard as some people believe. “People think it’s really complicated and are frightened they won’t remember where they put something,” she says.

But if you take care to choose categories that split the things you do into smaller portions, it should work.

Bear in mind that the things you need to keep won’t necessarily need to be kept for ever. You might be able to set a “throw away date” for something. For instance, once an invoice has been paid, you can be sure the finance department has its own copy and get rid of yours.

The ideal desk
Kay recommends that you aim to have just one action tray, contacts book and stationery holder on your desk. To help keep the desk tidy and be better organised, get rid of your sticky notes; it’s far better to write all your notes in one book or computer file so that they’re all in the same place and therefore are easy to find, she adds.

You can also minimise the clutter caused by emails by not printing them unless you need to. “People find paper more stressful to deal with than emails, so by generating more paper, you’re creating more stress,” Kay warns.

You should do regular mini-purges, she says, once a month for your in-tray and once a quarter for your filing cabinet.

End each day with five minutes of clearing your desk: either file papers or put them in your “action” tray if you’ll need to lay your hands on them quickly. Kay says: “In the morning when you come in, you won’t feel that you can’t cope.”