Last month, Lynn Terry challenged all of us at her Elite forum to clean up/organize our office space: not only out physical space, but our computer desktop, email, hard drive, etc.
The challenge couldn’t have come at a better time for me, as I was already planning to do some virtual organizing: it made me push through and get it all done.
Here is my office before the challenge, and here is how it looks today:
But, my biggest problem wasn’t my physical desk: it was my desktop and email. For example, I had over 1500 unread emails in my inbox: this was not a recent problem, but one going back to more than a year. My inbox didn’t go under 1000 unread messages for an entire year. And I am happy to say that today, I only have the day’s messages.
My desktop was a real mess, with icons overflowing out of the visible area. And I am proud to say that my desktop looks so much better: just need to work on making sure it never gets as cluttered as before.
Here are the before and after pictures for that:
Being organized will help me be a lot more productive. Is your office a mess? Or is it nicely organized?
17 comments on “My Organized Office”
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Wow, your office looks amazing! Just like a magazine picture!
Looks great! My desktop thankfully wasn't that cluttered. And my email…well a few months ago, I switched how I processed email, simply so I don't have to deal with the thousands and thousands of archived emails on my laptop. Have a much cleaner process now. But the whole physical space thing… that was such a big deal for me (if you saw my
home office video my desk was under stacks and stacks of paper). It's so nice to have a cleaner, organized work space!
Love how neat and tidy your physical and virtual spaced ended up. Great job!
…Shannon
Thanks: my office is not too bad usually, since I am in the basement and there isn't a lot going on here. But email, hard drive and desktop were a different story. I am glad we had the challenge.
WOW, you did an awesome job on your office too! Would you care to share how you manage/process your email? That is one of my biggest struggles!
Looking good! The computer hard drive was the bigger challenge for me as well! I'll my own update soon. Great job!
Thanks! On email: a few months ago I ran across this article by Michael Hyatt on how he (as a CEO) organizes his email: http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/06/yes-you-can-sta…
I always have used Rules to route as much as my mail as possible to specific folders. But now on my business email, I have simplified a great deal, There folders for
– Affiliate programs
-Book Review programs
– Clients
– google Alerts
– Contacts (very specific subfolders for specific people I want to be able to find quickly and easily)
– Twitter messages
– Blog Comments
– Save For Later
Everything else goes in the save for later category, and I just use a sort by sender or the search to find what I”m looking for.
When something comes in, it is either routed automatically with a rule, or I move it from the inbox to the appropraite folder (usually save for later), or I delete it.
I've also gotten a lot more ruthless with my personal email. Deleting anything I really don't need to keep. And then using the sort by sender or the search to find what I”m looking for. For my Yahoo Groups, most of that is archived online anyway, so I'm not keeping as much of it on my computer either.
So, that's my current system. Here's another article by Michael Hyatt that is good as well:
http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/09/is-it-time-to-d…
Wow, Adriana! Great job!! On both counts! I'm so supremely happy to see a computer desktop that has icons falling out of view – just like mine! I get endless torment from my family about it! LOL
I haven't not tackled my messes yet – but, it is on my mind. I did take the pics, just never posted them. Then – I just had some success on the November challenge. So I'm trudging along – keeping at it. Just a teeny bit slower than you. Heehee!
I love your office and your desk!! Forgot to say…
Thank you so much for sharing your method and those links. They are on my list of things to do tomorrow.
True: I actually found articles I paid for, in niches I am no longer in, and which I never used.
My son always tries to get me to organize my desktop his way, every time he comes home (he is at college in Canada). But I just want what's comfortable for me.
Congrats on the November success: I read about it at the elite forum. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
I like my office too: it's in our newly remodeled basement. Awesome in the summer, but kind of cold in the winter, so I keep a blanket handy.
Exactly! 🙂
That sounds great! I'm fixing to give up my office to my oldest son – kinda sad about it, but, happy the boys will have their own rooms for once! Just gotta find a place to put all this stuff! Ack!
Yeah, our basement is cold all year long!
Exactly! 🙂
That sounds great! I'm fixing to give up my office to my oldest son – kinda sad about it, but, happy the boys will have their own rooms for once! Just gotta find a place to put all this stuff! Ack!
Yeah, our basement is cold all year long!