I’m not much of a spring cleaner… I’m more of a fall cleaner. To me, it’s the perfect time to start gearing up for the coming new year. One of the ways I prepare is by purging, regrouping and organizing. Below are a few activities you might to consider doing as well.

1. Organizing Emails. I’m an Outlook user. Personally, I like using folders to store and organize emails. The search feature fails to find mail I’m looking far too often to be a reliable method. So what I do is create folders under the “Deleted Items” section rather than in my “In” box area. I don’t keep a lot of folders. The only emails I am a packrat about are those to and from clients. I give each client a folder and under each client, I create subfolders for each month.

2. Deleting or Archiving Old Emails. Around the end of the year, I go through my list of folders and archive those of clients with whom I am no longer working. I keep six months of current client folders and archive the rest.

3. Taking Stock of Your Online Documents. This is also a great time of year to do a quick run-through of your document files and folders and see where you can reorganize, consolidate and purge.

4. Cleaning Out the Supply Closet. Okay, I’m sort of an organizing freak so this is something I enjoy doing periodically. Supply areas are places where we tend to put “stuff” and forget about. Again, this is a great time of year to clean out the old, give away extra or old equipment to someone who can use it, and make room for the new year with a clean slate.

5. Streamlining Hardcopy Files. There’s a lot of paper that I put into PDF and store online. I’ve also gone entirely electronic billing and online bill pay. However, paper is still a fact of life. There are just some things that are easier to read when they are printed out. And scanning printed materials to turn them into PDFs does create an extra job that you might not have time for. So for the paper that I do keep, I have five different hanging folder filing sections:

Green – client files
Blue – tax, licensing and financial files
Red – accounts payable
Yellow – employee and contractor/subcontractor files
Clear – subject files

For those folders that deal with date ranges, this is a good time to add a new folder for the coming year. For example, say you have a file for bank statements and you keep these in a folder marked with the current year. Now is the time to create new folders for the coming year and stick them in the file. Then at the end of the year, when you are pulling out old files (such as old clients you no longer work with, for example), you can also pull out all your 2010 folders for storage and you’ll already have the new 2011 folders ready to go.

Piles aren’t necessarily a bad thing. As long as you are managing them (and not the other way around), they can actually be quite useful. But if you find that they are impeding your progress instead of supporting it… if you are constantly working around your piles instead of with them, it’s time to gain the upper hand.

First Things First

• Understand why you pile. Is your workspace really working for you? Do you need a larger area or more storage? A bigger or more efficient desk? Is it a case of needing more consistent, effective habits? Is there something going on in the business that is causing you to drag your feet? Identifying some of the root needs will tell you what your next steps should be.

Create More Workspace

• Utilize closet storage to keep clutter you don’t need or use every day (such as office supplies) out of eyesight.
• Install shelving to get books and other resources off your desk.
• Use binders to group and store certain hardcopy information that can then be shelved.
• Use stack trays. Assign each slot a particular category of information (e.g., by client or project). Instead of taking up several spots across your desk, you are making more use of vertical air space.
• Get some wall slots. These are perfect as to-do bins, “In” boxes, or storing active client files. I happen to use magnetic ones that I place on each side of my lateral file drawer. Makes great use of space that would otherwise go unused.
• Add more drawers. If your desk doesn’t have built in drawers, buy a roll-away file drawer. Drawer space is particularly handy for tickler systems and keeping supplies and info you need regularly at your fingertips, but out of the way.
• Write on the wall. Well, not literally. But whiteboards and chalkboards (I use a glass whiteboard myself) are great for instantly capturing those ideas and to-dos that flitter across your mind. Once completed, you simply wipe them off. A sure-fire cure for post-it clutter.

Instill More Productive Habits

• Put things away. Everything should have a place of its own. When you are done with something, put it back, if not right then, at least by the end of the day. Make this a habit.
• Observe the rule of “3.” When you start to create that fourth pile, you know it’s time to stop, regroup and clear out the clutter. Piles should be a productivity tool, not a default.
• Reserve piles for active projects. These piles might be comprised of any amount of paperwork, notebooks, reference books, etc., and sorted by project. Piles you aren’t actively engaged with need to be dealt with and dispersed.
• Don’t let Shiny Object Syndrome get the best of you. By all means, indulge those creative, entrepreneurial ideas. Store them in a hardcopy or online notebook. But better to finish existing projects first than to start new ones that will only add to your piles, overwhelm and inertia. Completion creates a positive forward momentum in and of itself.
• Use a tickler system. This is a set of hanging file folders numbered 1-31 (one for each day of a month). A ton of desktop paper clutter can be reduced and better managed with this system. Each morning, check that day’s folder. Keep out the work you can do that day. Move any work you can’t forward into the next day’s folder. Store notes and papers with dates and deadlines in the corresponding numbered folders. When that date rolls around, you have everything right there in the folder ready to go.

RESOURCE: Aesthetics are very important to me in my surroundings. I love See Jane Work because they get that business and organization can be both functional and stylish. They always have a large and ever-new selection of binders and desk sets in fashionable colors and designs.