There is an old saying, "A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind, but an empty desk is an empty mind". There is not much evidence that either statement is true. Nevertheless, it is inefficient if your desk is piled high with unsorted papers and miscellaneous material.

If you spend more than a few seconds looking for a particular file or piece of paper that you know is on your desk somewhere, you will benefit by taking the time to organize everything. Think of all the time wasted looking for the same piece of paper over and over again.

Many firms today scan hard copies of paperwork and place the information on the computer. But you may still receive many hard documents or just be used to working with your own hand written notes.

Paper handling and efficiency consultants advise all of us to only handle the same item once. You are wasting an enormous amount of time when you have a pile of material that must be gone through over and over again for different documents in the stack.

If you must keep the hard copies handy, try using a file folder for subjects that you know you are going to refer to several times. Consolidate short messages or notes on to one page rather than have numerous pages that are half empty.

Another suggestion from the experts is to separate files of what must be done within a day or so from long-term projects and from what may be put off indefinitely.

Don’t make printed copies of everything that appears on your computer. For example, there is no need to print out every email you receive. Store those about the same subject in a separate computer file that you may access when needed.