Find out if you have corporate clutter....

See how do you score on the following scenarios

1. You’ve got your work appraisal coming up. As you review your objectives from last year (no one actually reads them in-between, do they?!), you realise that one of your objectives was to ‘be tidier and more organised.’ You look at your desk and;

a) try to think of an excuse as to why you haven’t improved - a big project you’ve been involved in, a big change in the office, or blame someone else who’s been using your desk.

b) realise that although your desk is tidier, you're no more organised because it's all hidden in your drawers, out of sight, and in truth you still can't find anything.

c) think ‘that’s one objective I can tick off the list to do’.

2. You’re in an interview for a job which would involve setting up an office at home. You are asked how you would manage the demands of running all the administration yourself without office support, and what steps you would take to ensure your procedures linked in with the head office. Do you:

a) Pretend you’re the most organised person that they could ever meet – it’s not like they’re ever going to see that you can’t even get in your spare room which you loosely call the ‘office’. You’ll just clear a space on the dining room table instead and work from there.

b) You know which room you’ll have as your ‘office’, but you’ll just concentrate on the important thing of doing the job and then deal with any administration issues as and when the ‘moaning e-mail’ comes round.

c) You’re so confident of getting the job you’ve already put up shelves, ordered the desk and chair, and thought about how you’ll make time to do a little bit of admin each week to keep on top of it.

3. At Christmas your office is open between Christmas and New Year, and you are one of very few people who choose to go into the office and work. Is this because:

a) It’s so quiet you can get loads of work done unlike the rest of the year.

b) In theory so you can have a sort out, but as you begin to sort through your ‘in tray’ you find things that need dealing with so end up doing work instead of sorting things.

c) It’s a great time to have a clear out of your desk and files because the phone’s aren’t ringing, there are no meetings, and you can use other people’s desks to have a good sort out of paperwork.

SCORE:

Mainly A’s

You’ve got clutter – and it’s taking over your life because you don’t want anyone to see it. You definitely need to sort out the clutter!

Mainly B’s

You’re good at hiding the clutter from people, but confining it to one room or area isn’t going to help sort it out – clutter clearing might just help.

Mainly C’s

Sounds like you already know how to clear your clutter and keep it under control – congratulations! Maybe you know, or live with some ‘mainly A’s and mainly B’s’ who could do with some help!