Organize Your Office: Simple Routines for Managing Your Workspace

Ronni Eisenberg, who lectures and gives workshops on organization skills throughout the U.S., is also author of the popular but slightly more intimidating Organize Yourself!. Here she’s brought a slew of practical tips for managing your workspace, from your briefcase to your bulletin board, from your e-mail inbox to those endless interruptions from coworkers. She covers the basics, including organizing your desktop and stemming the flood of junk mail (send a note to the Direct Marketing Association). She also hits upon modern organizational dilemmas, such as how to decide if you’d be better off with or without a PalmPilot. Some of the hundreds of handy tips she offers for making both in-person and telephone meetings quicker and more productive; methods for confronting procrastination and poor work habits; 10 rules to adhere to when filing; and 14 ways to make meetings run smoothly and accomplish what you want them to. Much of Eisenberg’s advice is geared toward the executive; she advises closing your office door to really concentrate on big projects, something that the cubicle-bound can’t do. But if you aspire to have that corner office, or if you’re prone to losing important documents or rushing to big meetings several minutes late with sweat beading up along your forehead, Eisenberg’s words of wisdom should help you get your act in gear.