Messy Desks Cost Workers Two Hours Of Lost Time A Week

citynews ^ | December 28, 2006

[stainlessbanner]

Are you a slob?

Forgive the question, but if the results of a new survey are any indication, your job could suffer if you answered 'yes'.

Research conducted by giant business chain Office Depot indicates many of us lose time at our jobs searching for important work related items like papers, files or appointments.

The poll suggests as many 34 percent of all employees have such messy desks and drawers that they waste up to 15 minutes a day or two hours a week hunting for that vital item that got buried in the clutter.

And the majority who live in that wild world are well aware they're constantly out of order, but don't do anything to fix it.

Among the messy truths:

* 53% prefer to live in their 'organized chaos' but claim they know where everything they need is.
* 76% admit they lose time to the mess
* 51% fear they'll miss important deadlines or appointments because of the constant clutter.
* 61% say they're frustrated when they can't find things they need right away.
* 27% can't concentrate because their work spaces are so jammed with junk.
* And 14% think they could even lose business because of their desk disorganization.

But perhaps the most revealing finding of all is this: 67 percent agree they've simply given up trying to fix the problem or have no idea how to get organized, and will continue their 'scattershot' approach to locating things.

How do you fix this mess?

The survey advises being diligent about tossing papers you don't need, handing relevant info off to associates (so they can add to their own clutter), and dedicating a short but specified time of day to getting organized.

Maybe you can make that the 15 minutes you normally spend going crazy trying to find everything.

[Logophile]

If you really want to waste time, maintain two messy desks, one at the office and one at home. That will guarantee that you never can find anything.

[amchugh]

There was a guy on NPR recently (yes, I listen to NPR) touting his new book about the power of disorganization. He claimed that you would often find action items that needed doing while searching for lost stuff, and that effective people in organizations tended to have cluttered desks.

That said, their is definitely an upper limit to effective disorganization. I find that if I work very hard to file the easily filable homogenous stuff, and leave the heterogenous stuff a mess, it works pretty well.

[Chode]

DayTimers...!!!

i live and die by my pocket size i got in 1983, and the standard size i got about ten years ago. no excuse.

on the other hand, the desk is a psychological problem...

[perfect stranger]

Wow! Do all those machines work?

Mine is like an operating room compared to that! LOL

Click to see the photos on my Freeper home page.

[3catsanadog]

It seems that Office Depot is trying to scare people into buying their organizing stuff.

-PJ

You gotta point there, buddy; I'm just glad this wasn't a government funded study that my hard earned tax dollars helped finance.

[stainlessbanner]

Mash here for the Adventures of Action Item Man

[muawiyah]

Massive amounts of time get wasted by mind-numbed employees who think (erroneously) that organizing stuff you will shortly throw away is useful work.

Three piles ~ one involves new stuff, one involves stuff being worked on pretty soon, and one is for the stuff you're done with but haven't thought about disposing of.

Set aside 10 minutes a day to throw stuff in the trash.

All of this stuff will be rationally organized by time of entry.

[muawiyah]

I had a case where one of the big mailers had provided us with a three foot deep pile of BS ~ most of it had been submitted earlier in House committee hearings where their expectations were not realized.

I kept that stuff organized together and out of my general correspondence.

They didn't try that again.