Organizing the office made easier with time specifically dedicated to the task

Spring brings a chore that many faculty and staff members may be thinking about — spring cleaning.

If straightening up your office, cubicle or desk is on your agenda, plan on setting aside uninterrupted time for the job and allowing voice mail to answer your phone, suggests Dee Wilson, associate director of the Career Center and instructor of a time management and organization course for the Department of Human Resources.

"Even 15 or 30 minutes is enough time to go through a stack of mail or papers," she says. "If you have papers everywhere, you need to go through each one and ask yourself,'Do I really need to keep this?' If you haven't touched it for six months to a year, the answer is probably,'No.'"

Once you've sorted through the papers, place the ones you want to keep but won't use right away in files or binders, and place those in a filing cabinet or drawer or on a shelf, Wilson says.

"I like to use colored file folders, putting the items that go together in one color," she says.

Only paperwork that you are currently using should be kept on your desktop or in plain view in a vertical file, she says.
Wilson also suggests using bins to store mail and other items until you have time to read them.

"Ideally, you should go through the mail as soon as you receive it and throw away what you won't need right away," she says. "But if you don't have time, it's better to put all the mail in one labeled bin instead of stacking it on your desk."

Once your work space is tidy, plan to re-clean occasionally, she says, adding that the end of the semester is usually a good time to sort out files or go through papers on a desktop.

BY NANCY KOLSTI nkolsti@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Regents approve recommendation to create UNT Honors College
• Libraries conducting survey to measure service
• UNT to commemorate advances and sacrifices of women during March
• Hospital plans to reopen as non-network service provider
• Faculty Senate members meet the newly appointed faculty ombudsman
• Music sales support tsunami relief
• Lace up your walking shoes for Denton Relay for Life
• Tips to tame the challenges of the clock

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