Enzo Calamo is a stacker. Or he was.
The Vancouver-based marketing director for AEGON Canada says so much paper came across his desk in a single day that by week's end he was surrounded by a fortress of teetering piles.
It was overwhelming, and ate into his productivity and that of his employees, he says.
So he made a business decision and a career investment: He hired a professional organizer.
"She came in and helped me create a filing system, and she made different piles that were more manageable. It just became much more efficient," Mr. Calamo says.
"It's allowed me to handle more projects in a more effective manner rather than get bogged down on one or two projects and hoping to get to others."
We've seen the professional organizer on shows such as Oprah, heroically digging housewives out of their closet clutter or bedroom full of junk.
But this brand of organization is now commonly tackling the cubicle as companies realize that an organized employee is less stressed and more productive, says Clare Kumar, director of marketing for Professional Organizers in Canada.
"Companies are getting it; they're getting that equation between, 'If I help somebody be successful and be well at their work, it will pay off,' " she says.
This year's gloomy outlook will spur many workplaces to get their downsized staff organized, she adds, since administrative assistants can often be first in the layoff lineup and are some of the only ones trained to keep files in check.
Getting organized often makes the list of New Year's resolutions, and more office employees are adding it now that job security is top of mind. A cluttered desk or a lost report is one of the last reasons you would want to be shown the door, she says, but it does happen.
"Clearly the downsizing is going to leave the people that are left behind managing everything even more stressed," she says. "There is that background mental chatter of, 'Oh my God, what about my job?' "
Debra Milne, an organizer who works solely with the corporate set, remembers one woman who was fired because she couldn't navigate the piles of stale reports and unnecessary papers.
"If the manager hands off work to someone who is very disorganized, work will just go missing," she says. Not good in the boss's eyes.
There's an investment in getting organized that goes well beyond stocking up on file folders, says Jane Woolsey, a Toronto organizer who focuses on helping people in their home offices. It's teaching a skill managers often assume people already have, she says. "It's like physical fitness - you don't just get organized once," she says.
Grace Walker realized how little she knew about staying organized after laying off 13 people from the physiotherapy clinic she runs in Orange, Calif., since the economic crunch started in September - her office manager being one of the casualties. After that, she had been playing catch-up, buried in papers and files she couldn't keep track of.
"I was coming in on weekends to get through all the paper," Ms. Walker says. "I was just feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities. Not having a manager any more, a lot of stuff was being dumped on my desk."
Organizer Regina Leeds, author of One Year to an Organized Work Life, taught Ms. Walker to be ruthless about tossing things she won't realistically need.
Ms. Leeds, who takes a Zen approach to her professional organizing, says the key is sorting out your thoughts before organizing your desk.
"The office is like your body, it's what you present to the world. You don't want to be made to feel overwhelmed, tired and exhausted the minute you enter," she says.
She recommends writing to-do lists at the end of the day instead of first thing, when e-mails tend to have piled up. Storing items you often use within arm's reach will keep you from misplacing them.
Often a person is extremely organized at home and a mess in the office, or vice-versa - rarely does it go both ways, she says.
Vancouver organizer Linda Chu, who set up the filing system for Mr. Calamo, says home organizing is virtually the same as that at work.
"I always say 'stuff is stuff' whether it's your home and whatever nook or cranny you put things into," she says. "There's always that anxiety around the search, whether it's for your keys or the report for that board meeting."
Despite having gone through the organization process with Ms. Chu, Mr. Calamo admits he still falls into the rhythm of stacking items he plans to read later, or reports he needs to follow up on. But now a switch goes off before things get out of control.
"If my desk starts getting messy, I know it's time," he says.
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Five tidy tips
Drink water and take breaks. When you're dehydrated and
antsy, you can't think. And when you can't think, you forget where you put things. When you forget where you put things you get stressed out and when you get stressed out it will be harder to get organized.
Unstack that pile of papers on your desk. Get rid of the piles and be ruthless about what you should keep and what you should throw away (i.e. "Have I needed this in the past six months or do I know for sure I will need it in the next six ?")
Buy file folders and tag them in any way that works for you -
alphabetically, colour-coded,
numerical. Filing style is personal - everyone has a different process of remembering. Keep the same or similar filing systems for computer files and e-mail.
Learn to put it away. If you take a bottle of headache pills out of your drawer, put it back. One of the major reasons people suffer from desk clutter is because they don't return items to their rightful place.
Ask your manager what he really means by ASAP. Often we fall behind and get disorganized because upper management usually wants its projects done now, without regard for longer project deadlines. Or so we think. Asking the boss when he will really need it, acknowledging all the other things you have to do, will help you prioritize and stay organized. When he says "Now," he may actually mean by end of the day.
Sarah Boesveld