Organize Your Workspace For Less Stressful Multi-Tasking

We've all become multi-taskers by necessity. But nothing builds up stress more than working feverishly all day long and feeling like you got nothing done. Sound familiar?

The key to productive multi-tasking isn't energy or motivation — it's organization.

Here are three tips on how to "spring clean" your office for a more productive and less stressful day. Less clutter = less stress, it's as simple as that.

1. Locate Your Tools Based On Frequency Of Use

As creatures of habit, we each use certain office items more frequently than others.

The things you use every day should be within hand's reach. The phone, keyboard, calendar, Post-It notes, organization trays...that sort of thing. You might also want to consider installing an ergonomically correct keyboard tray under your desk to free up precious desktop real estate.

The things you use at least once a week should be within arm's reach, but not necessarily on your desktop. Staplers, tape & paper clip dispensers and all that stuff belong in drawers.

The idea is that daily or weekly items are all accessible without getting out of your seat. Studies have shown that the average business person is away from their desk for 20 minutes each time they get up. So get up less often.

2. Set Up The Five Key Workload Management Tools, Then Use Them

The five essential workload management tools are:

• A single to-do reminder system
• An in-box
• A to-read file
• A to-file file
• A hot file

How many different methods do you use to manage your to-do's? The higher that number, the higher your stress level and the lower your productivity. Consolidate them into the one that works best for you. This may take some discipline, but trust me, it'll make a huge difference.

Make sure you at least review everything in your in-box each day, and keep your to-do list as up-to-date as you can.

If something's been in laying your to-read file for over a week, file it or toss it. It's obviously not pressing.

Get around to your to-file file at least once a week.

3. Get Your Paper Filing System In Order

We all generate lots of documents and we tend to keep them close at hand longer than we need to. Dealing with your paper filing system is the most "spring cleaning-like" part of getting organized. But it's really worth it.

Information ages faster than ever before. So your filing system should reflect this. Newer documents are almost always more necessary to have at hand than older ones. (The situation is, of course, quite different for lawyers, accountants and medical professionals.)

So the file drawers most within your arm's reach should only contain material you need to access at least once a month. Or, worst case, once a quarter.

Anything older should be moved to a different file drawer or even boxed and moved to a reasonably accessible storage space.

Multi-tasking has become a fact of life. Although we can't control external pressures, we certainly can control the pressures we put on ourselves. And getting your workspace organized is one of the best ways of doing that.