5 ways to tackle office clutter

It’s easy to get snowed under as a PA. You’ve got mail coming in throughout the day, a million documents to file or pass on, and a heap of other ‘things’ that keep piling up. A clear desk does wonders for the psyche, so here are five tips to help you tackle office clutter.

1 Open physical mail immediately
As soon as you receive any mail, open it to find out what it is rather than letting it create clutter on your desk. Do a quick scan to determine if it’s something important, throw out the junk mail and sort what’s left into things you need to look at and things for your boss.

2 Create a personal filing system
Once you have all of your mail sorted, create a filing drawer or a desktop alternative so you can keep everything organised. Label the files clearly, even if it’s as simple as “to do” and “need more information”.

3 Have a physical inbox
Keep a tray on your desk that’s clearly labelled as your inbox so any documents you receive that you don’t have time to file straight away have a place to go. Let your colleagues know about it too so they can put papers in that tray while you’re away from your desk. Spend a bit of time at the beginning or end of each day going through the items in the tray and sorting them into their appropriate files.

4 Make your desk your own
There’s a lot of choice out their when it comes to desktop organisers to help you deal with office clutter, such as Avery’s range of colourful accessories. So rather than boring black plastic, let your personality shine through your stationery and be sure that everything has a place.

5 Ask for digital correspondence
The simplest way to tackle office clutter is to make it known that you prefer digital correspondence where possible. If you have a colleague who tends to print emails to bring to your desk, ask them to instead forward you the message to avoid wasting the paper. Treat your digital inbox the same way as your physical one – go through it periodically to sort emails into separate folders to avoid digital clutter.