How to Restore Order to a Desk

Time required: Fifteen minutes
Equipment: Waste-paper basket, One tray for action, Cloth
Standard expected: The working area is clear, current papers can be found, and every cable has an identifiable employment.

Papers accumulate upon a desk because each represents a decision which appeared, at the moment of arrival, capable of waiting until later. A quarter of an hour may be insufficient to decide them all, but it is ample time in which to separate the present business from the old envelopes, exhausted pens, and cables whose employment nobody can now recall.

Method

Remove cups, plates, clothing, and anything whose home is plainly elsewhere. Dispose of rubbish and collect loose notes into a single pile. Wipe the uncovered surface before the opportunity closes again.

Sort the papers according to what must be acted upon, what is worth keeping for reference, and what has finished its business. The first group belongs in one tray, with the urgent matter uppermost; file the second, and shred or recycle the third according to what it contains.

Return the implements used each day: pen, pencil, notebook, spectacles, and perhaps a ruler. Lesser stationery belongs in a drawer. Test unidentified cables against the devices presently owned. Label the survivors at both ends and release the rest from service.

Leave enough open surface for the next piece of work. Write down the first action required by the tray, since a tidy pile may otherwise become merely a more handsome delay.

Common errors

Putting the entire accumulation into a drawer clears the surface at the expense of ever finding anything again. Equally troublesome is the elaborate organiser, which introduces a set of small categories that must themselves be maintained. Test the pens before returning them: sentiment is wasted upon the six dry examples which have lived in the mug since last winter.

The Butler's RuleKeep upon the desk the papers and implements required for the present work; matters awaiting a later decision belong together in a tray, where they can be found without occupying the whole surface.