by Glenn Magas

Created on: December 28, 2009

Do you see that stack of paper on the corner of your desk that you always thought you might reference someday but never have? Get rid of it! Feed the shredder, fill the office recycle bin or file it a way in a bank box and store it if you absolutely cannot ‘let go’.

A clean work environment is essential to high productivity. Having ‘everything’ at your fingertips is not necessary if ‘everything’ is paper work you never use, and files that need to be filed away. Everything you need to be productive is everything you need today and tomorrow- not what you think you “perhaps-possibly-might-could-need” someday!

How do you clean up your work environment? Here are 3 things to start with.

1. Organize and get rid of what you inherited from the last person.
2. Hardcopies out, soft copies in
3. Non productive paper work on pin board – thrash!

The clutter in your work environment is probably unused paper work, reference material that never is referenced, junk inherited from the last person who occupied your space, and a collection of things pinned to your board that are so out dated you can’t even remember if it was you who pinned it there!

1. Organize and get rid of what you inherited from the last person.

Someone sat where you are and someone did what you are doing – hoarding unnecessarily files, paper work, reference material and junk. There are probably files in your drawer that are so old the other person inherited them. There are expired manuals on software systems that do not exist anymore. And there are probably personal belongings that need to be thrashed so you can start hoarding your own!

So get rid of them. All this belonged to someone else. If you have been at your job for a year and never referenced anything that was saved from the ‘last guy’, you will probably never need or reference them in the next year.  If you are so compelled to save these items, box them up and send them to storage so that they can be retrieved as needed. And obviously, they are not needed! 

Look around at your coworkers offices and ask them if they inherited things that they still have yet to get rid of. You will be surprised (or you won’t be) at how much ‘junk’ and ‘clutter’ they still have from the last tenant!

2. Hardcopies out, soft copies in!

If you are printing every single report you received via email, that report or printed email needs to be put in its

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