I guess we missed it, but last Monday was National Clean Off Your Desk Day.
The Los Angeles Times celebrated late too, today, with an article in the business section, highlighting our local L.A. colleague Donna McMillan. McMillan, an organizing industry veteran of 23 years, and owner of McMillan and Company Professional Organizing, says some great stuff in the piece:
"McMillan... says people have messy offices for several reasons.
First, they try to do everything themselves, the typical time-draining habit of small-business owners.
Second, they are perfectionists. That leads to indecision and procrastination. They can't decide what to do with that e-mail document, so they let it pile up with the other unanswered electronic correspondence. Or they may be holding out for the perfect file cabinets, which they don't have time to shop for, so paperwork piles up on the floor.
Last, they don't allow themselves time at the end of the day to stop for 15 or 30 minutes to get organized for the next day."
I loved the quote from one of her clients:
"Lawyers who charge $200 to $300 an hour cannot bill a client for looking for their files, so you have to eat the cost," Phillips said. "It had the overall effect of cutting into the bottom [line]."
- LA Times A Tidy Work Space Saves Time, Money, by Cyndia Zwahlen
Time is Money graphic above courtesy of CNN and AP.
