FREE Organizing Tips

Keep up with our latest organizing tips:

Paper Management Tips

  • Avoid looking at papers and placing them back on your desk. Make a
    decision on them, and then follow through right away.
  • Don’t keep magazines. Tear out or photocopy relevant articles.
  • Use a follow-up file (action system) to hold paperwork relating to
    scheduled tasks.
  • Invest in a Freedom Filer system.
  • If you handle paperwork more than twice before taking action on it, you
    are losing time, money and energy.
  • Sort, file and purge regularly.
  • Work out of your car? Use a spiral notebook for ALL of your notes & never
    search for those scraps of paper again.

Messy Desk Tips

  • Make sure the only things ON your desk are the things you use all of the time. Everything else should have a different “home”.
  • Keep the things you use the most within fingertip reach.
  • Keep the things you use often within arms reach.
  • Keep the things you use rarely the furthest away.
  • Everything on or in your desk, and in your office, should be assigned a home based on its use.
  • Group like things with like things, including your tasks.
  • Stop trying to use a table or something else for a desk, it will NEVER work. Get a desk with at least one or two drawers for hanging files.

Reducing Junk Mail Tips

  • Visit the Direct Marketing Association website. You must re-register after five years. There is a $1 fee. You can also print the online form and mail it with the $1 charge to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512. You may also register deceased loved ones (also for $1) with their Deceased Do Not Contact list.
  • Visit the ADVO website or call 888-241-6760. You can also mail requests to ADVO, Customer Assistance, PO Box 249, Windsor, CT 06095.
  • Penny Savers You can call 800-422-4116 or mail request to Circulation, c/o Penny Saver, 2830 Orbiter St, Brea, CA 92821.
  • The Flyer You can call 813-626-SELL or mail request to Circulation, c/o Flyer, 201 Kelsey Ln, Tampa, FL 33619.
  • Val-Pak Savings Coupons They maintain regional lists, not a central one. Send your request to the address printed on the envelope you receive. If you receive the blue envelope, you can use their online form to remove your address.
  • Catalog and Publishing Companies They share their information about their customers, as well as sell it through Abacus Alliance. You can be removed from their list by providing your name (including middle initial), your current address, and if you’ve recently moved, your previous address by email (optout@abacus-us.com) or by regular mail to Abacus, Inc. PO Box 1478, Broomfield, CO 80038.
  • Credit Bureaus Even the credit bureaus provide information to marketers. Though not your specific information, they compile lists based on consumer characteristics. For example, they might create a list of people with annual incomes over $40,000 who use credit cards and pay their bills on time. Call 888-5OP-TOUT (888-567-8688) or visit them online. With this number you can opt out of the four major credit bureaus; Innovix, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Time Management Tips

  • Schedule time next week to complete what you didn’t finish this week.
  • Schedule appointments with yourself to complete priority work.
  • How many magazine subscriptions do you have? Does the amount of time you have to read them match the amount you are receiving?
  • Utilize your prime time for priorites.
  • Avoid checking email first thing in the morning.
  • Group your tasks together such as calls to make, bills to pay, etc.
  • Avoid multitasking; it takes the brain 4 times longer to recognize and process each time you change gears to a new task. If you switch back and forth constantly you are wasting valuable time!