Encourage your team (and yourself) to spend a specific time each week in tidying their desk. This should include:
- Stacking and filing piles of paper neatly.
- Putting papers into sections
- By priority
- By category
Possibly do this every Friday afternoon before leaving work so that desk is clean and ready for concentrated work on Monday morning. This should reduce the stress associated with not knowing what is on your desk and what needs to be done next.
If it is an enforced policy you will hopefully find everyone becomes more organised. It is important to remember that if your company is looking for people to fire (when in economic difficulty) a messy desk can make you look unorganised and unreliable.
What is your experience with work efficiency with a messy or tidy desk?
