Don't be like me and try to do everything in one day. In fact, it's not likely that anyone can do it one day. Just set aside a few minutes each day to work on it, 5 or 10 minutes. If you routinely do this everyday, then move on to another point, you'll get there.
Cleaning our offices is the equivalent of, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Just take a bite out of your office each day to focus on cleaning it up.
We'll be going all the way from A to Z. So, if you can just keep up with the specific letters each month, you'll get to the end of the alphabet in no time at all!
So, let's roll up our sleeves and get started.
A is for Archives. This is what we like to call them. In reality, if you strip away the fancy title, it's nothing more than old, outdated, dusty files, samples, catalogues, and storage boxes. For the A's, we're focusing on paper types of archives.
Seriously think about parting company with the contents of these supposed archives. If you haven't needed it within the past couple of years, it's likely not necessary. (And, we're not talking tax papers here, which are another story.)
In addition, the information contained in that dusty archive is likely outdated, and current information can be easily found on the Internet.
This is a project that requires decision making. So, it can be tiring. Don't try to do all your archives on one day. In fact, you may need to spend time preparing to clean your archives.
You might need to analyze if there's a better way of archiving the information in a less space- consuming way. Or in a less messy way. You might need to order some supplies at this point.
Be prepared to spend some time on the A's part of our list: archives.
When I started writing this column, I had a huge problem with archives, because I had so many article ideas. I finally went through all of them, got the ideas and my half-baked manuscripts and/or outlines organized. I keep article ideas for Suite in green. Once the articles are written, the folder gets pulled out--or reused for another article idea. (If you're thinking that's looking like a lot more articles for Suite 101, you'd be right! And, those files are not previous articles. They are just ideas I've started writing articles about.)
