What's the secret to a consistently clean desk? Take two minutes to tidy & clean your desk. Here's the details:

 

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Before you stand and walk away for a meeting or lunch, spend two minutes tying up loose ends, such as the following:

1. Clear off the center of your desk and jot down your next three action items for your return.
   
   
2. Straighten the papers you were working on and put away any files.
   
   
3. Enter new information into your database and toss scraps of paper.
   
   
4. Return pens, paper clips and stapler to their rightful homes.
   
   
5. "Stairstep" your priority paperwork by putting the most important to-do items on top and the next ones showing under that.
   
   
6. Send an e-mail to move an action forward or respond to a question.
   
   
7. Prioritize telephone calls you need to make when you return.
   
   
8. Pencil-mark the spot where you stopped reading.
   
   
9. Clear away all clutter and push in your chair.
   
   
10. Take items with you that can be delivered or mailed so that you can get them out of your work area.

Excerpted and condensed from Marcia Ramsland's: Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay That Way! ©2003, W. Publishing Group, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. Copying or using this material without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited and in direct violation of copyright law.

 

About Marcia Ramsland

Marcia Ramsland is well known as "The Organizing Pro" for her practical skills and tips to manage busy lives. As a national speaker, author and consultant since 1985, Marcia delights her audiences from New York to California with tips and secrets to organize their time, home, paperwork and life. Her tips have been in Woman’s Day and other national magazines, radio interviews and TV. She can be reached through her Web site www.OrganizingPro.com, and her books can be ordered there.