T hrow it away or recycle it

R efer it to someone else

A ct on it

S ave it in the place where it belongs

H alt it, in the case of junk mail or subscriptions you don't read

Or use the 4-part test: (from Lisa Kanarek - Organizing Your Home Office for Success)

• Will I ever look at this again?
• Will I be able to replace this later if I toss it now?
• Will my business suffer without this?
• Can I file it so that I can quickly find it later?

If you answer YES to questions #1,3-4 and NO to question #2, then KEEP, otherwise, TOSS it.

The main idea, experts say, is to avoid just throwing incoming papers in a pile to be dealt with later. You should either act on the paper right away, file it, or recycle it.

Likewise, adopt procedures to manage the new generation of email and voicemail. Some experts advise letting the answering machine or voicemail pick up all incoming calls, then setting aside 10 minutes at the end of each hour to answer those calls. E-mail is a tougher issue to handle. Thanks to modem technology, people can receive hundreds of electronic messages each day which can require hours to read. Treat e-mail in the same manner as paper: act on it in a timely manner, putting each message in a proper folder - electronically. CompuServe and American On-line provide some type of electronic file cabinets and software programs such as PaperMaster and HotPage allow creation of electronic file cabinets for scanned, faxed, imported and downloaded documents.

If you're having trouble getting or staying organized, a professional can be very valuable. He or he can suggest ideas that have proven effective in other businesses and can help resolve logjams more quickly than you can on your own. Solutions to disorganized offices are effective only if they are personalized. What makes sense for one business may not necessarily work for another.

If you are a person who has the mess of the world on your hands, but you're functioning beautifully, have wonderful human relationships, and you are productive and creative, then disorganization works for you. However, if it impedes some of those real quality-of-life issues, then disorganization is exacting a heavy toll.