First Today, Then Tomorrow

One of the things I instituted at my last full-time job was an official Dumpster Day for the entire company. On New Year’s Eve we kept the office open, at least until the middle of the afternoon, but not much actual business was going on. So rather than waste the day, I arranged for big trash cans and recycling bins to be distributed throughout the office and set clear goals for the employees.

I also think it’s a good idea to designate at least one bin as “To Be Shredded.” You can have it shredded internally, or better yet, there are some very affordable mobile shredding companies you can call on. You can have them show up to shred company documents, but it’s also a nice benefit (at no additional cost to you!) to let your employees bring in their documents for shredding, too.

The overall goal was for everyone to feel organized and prepared for the coming year with a secondary goal of cleaning up everyone’s personal work area.

Here were the guidelines:

1. Designate an area of your desk as the inbox – you’ll probably need more space than your physical inbox.
2. Start high and work low (for Cubical dwellers – modify if you have the luxury of a whole office). Everything comes off the shelves and the surfaces. Anything that’s paper, including books and magazines gets moved to the inbox. Drawers are included.
3. Clean. Clean all of the surfaces and empty drawers.
4. Process the inbox to zero. Start at the top, don’t cherry pick, and process everything with as much objectivity as you can. Before a thing can go back on a shelf or in a drawer, it has to be something you need. Most of the things that accumulate on or in a desk are things you don’t need now, you didn’t need when they ended up there, and you probably won’t need in the future. Either pass them on to someone who does need them, find the right place for them — or into the dumpster with them! Be ruthless. Get rid of all those magazines, copied articles, memos, letters. If you need them, file them correctly. But for all else, the dumpster awaits.
5. Don’t stop until the inbox is empty. You’ve got all day.

I’m betting that 50% of the things in, on, and around your desk can be disposed of. It’s hard not to accumulate loads of crap in an office setting. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. If you’re going to be effective and nimble, you need to “lose the weight” of stuff that settles around you.

You don’t have to work in an office to have your own dumpster day and it can be as often as you like. You’ll be amazed at how good it feels and it sets you up for a really fresh start.