Do Something! Find the surface of your desk

It’s Friday afternoon in June, and it’s gorgeous outside (well, at least it is where I am). It’s tough to keep your mind on substantive work. If you don’t have a significant deadline to contend with but you want to be productive and feel like you’ve accomplished something, try a quick desk de-cluttering before you  leave the office for the weekend. Not only will you avoid having to tax your mental resources, but you’ll set yourself up for a more productive start to the week next week.

Your desk is PRIME real estate – the most prime real estate in your office. Anything that’s kept on your desk should be something that’s used daily.

• Move non-work items (photos, mementos, etc.) off of the desk.
• Keep office supplies in drawers or on shelves where they’re within reach but not cluttering up your desk.
• Make use of vertical space – hang shelves or wall pockets or bulletin boards to keep control of those ‘important’ papers that regularly pile up on your desk and keep important reference information or reminders in view without interfering with your work.

Don’t keep shuffling paper around on your deskschedule it and then put the file or paper away. If all you need to do is review it and bill for the review, do it right away and then file it. Make it a habit when mail arrives to get rid of as much as you possibly can immediately.

Cure yourself of “I need to see it syndrome.” Keeping file on or pile of work to be done on your desk as your physical reminder that you have work to accomplish is not an efficient way to work. Rid yourself of the idea that if you don’t see something it won’t get done. When files and piles remain on your desk or in your office for any length of time, they become ‘wallpaper.’ You get so used to seeing them that you don’t ‘see’ them at all any more, and their effectiveness as reminders disappears.

Use calendars, tickler systems and master lists to keep track of work to be done. Rather than letting work, mail, files, etc. pile up endlessly, use these tools to keep track of work that needs to be done. As you’re de-cluttering, keep your calendar handy, and enter appointments to perform the work and tasks that are represented by the files and papers on your desk. Put upcoming dates for events, CLE programs, etc. into your schedule with necessary information and toss the flyer. Or if you haven’t made a decision about attending, decide when you can make that decision and enter the information or the flyer into your tickler system, but get that invitation off of your desk!

Prune your periodicals. That pile of periodicals or articles that you intend to get to, but never manage to read doesn’t belong on your desk, either. Most of the content of publications, trade journals, legal magazines, etc. gets recycled after a while. And old articles about substantive law are likely to be of limited use due to changes or updates in the law. If you’ve got a huge pile of periodicals that you haven’t read, consider tossing them (or at least tossing the oldest ones) and starting fresh. File articles by topic for reference when you’re working on a relevant case or project.

Delegate whenever possible. If something has been sitting on your desk forever, chances are that it’s either not important or it’s something you dread. If you can let it go completely, do so. If not, see if you can delegate the task to someone else, even if you have to outsource it.

Take 15-30 minutes and find the surface of your desk. Take everything off and go through it, making a decision right away whether to toss it, delegate it, schedule it or keep it on your desk. Only keep those things on your desk that you are going to do first thing next week, or that you need to do your work on a daily basis.

Want some more tips on time management and organization in your office? Check out the articles on my website at LawyerMeltdown.com and get updates and information by email through the Lawyer Meltdown newsletter.