What is YOUR desk saying about you?

If your desk or office could talk…. What would it say about you?

That was one of the many questions that Elizabeth Hagen and I discussed on my Corporate Conversations with Charmaine Radio Show (you can listen here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/charmainehammond/2012/08/15/guest-elizabeth-hagen-and-ayesha-mathews-wadhwa


Would your desk say any of these messages?

• “You need to get organized!”

• “Wow. What’d you do? No more clutter.”

• “I am drowning in paper!”

• “Clean desk = great results!”

• “There is no more room for piles!”

• “Ah…. Freedom… I love this tidy desk!”

• “I can’t support all this junk”

• “How many times are you going to move that piece of paper?”

What would your desk or office say about you, if it could talk of course? Elizabeth is a certified professional organization, speaker and author and coaches business to achieve higher levels of success. Her passion is seeing people smile as they move away from a state of being overwhelmed to a state of organization. Elizabeth states that it is possible to have more focus, more prospects, more clients, and more business! She is the author of Organize with Confidence: Now is your time, and Growing your Business with Confidence.

Elizabeth stated that some of the biggest overwhelm culprits are: PAPER, Email and Time. Do any of these sound familiar to you? When people are overwhelmed, they often do nothing, instead of something or one thing. Being overwhelmed can actually paralyze us, whereas when you step in to action, you reduce anxiety, and bring about relief.

Here are a few tips from Elizabeth to reduce the overwhelm and increase action to organization:

• Increase Your Focus- be self disciplined, do what you said you will do

• To Do List Cards- use 3x5 index cards with one item per card- ten of your most important tasks/to do list actions (instead of a lengthy list or a bunch of sticky notes) then focus on the first few

• Deal with paper

o Ask “what is my next action?” with each piece of paper

o Then, implement Elizabeth’s F Plan

 Finished (recycle, shred, file)

 Fast (not finished but very fast to finish) and Get It Done!

 For Others (delegate for someone else to do

 Future Short Term (file the paper in a file with the date you need to respond or get this done)

Listen to the recording to learn more about the Other F.  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/charmainehammond/2012/08/15/guest-elizabeth-hagen-and-ayesha-mathews-wadhwa

What can you do today to tackle one of the piles or lists that is creating overwhelm? The index cards are GREAT for focus and decluttering. I also love using the Ticker File System (see below), and Elizabeth recommends these as well.  There are files for every day of the month, a yearly file and blank files. This is a great way to manage the Future Short Term process that Elizabeth talked about in her interview and the F System.


You can learn more about Elizabeth at: www.elizabethHagen.com


Check out Elizabeth’s awesome books. Do you know someone that could a little more organization and less overwhelm?