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4 ways you can spring clean your office life – Metro US

4 ways you can spring clean your office life

4 ways you can spring clean your office life
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Spring is finally here, which means that in addition to getting ready for the soon-to-be sunny weather, now is also the perfect time to spruce up your office life.

“During the spring, people seem to get happier and enjoy the sunshine,” says Tamara Kano Myles, an organizational expert and the author of “The Secret to Peak Productivity: A Simple Guide to Reaching Your Personal Best.” “We are also at the end of the first quarter [of the year], so you still have the next nine months to make strides toward your goals.”

Wondering where to get started? Myles offers these suggestions:

Sort throughyour files: “Are you keeping a lot of outdated paperwork?” Myles asks. “Go through your files and get rid of what’s no longer relevant.” She adds that this bit of cleaning may bring you luck in the future. “From a feng shui perspective, it’s good to have empty space in your cabinet to attract new clients.”

Rid yourself of clutter: “Most people who have piles of paper on their desks will try to sort them but will quickly lose track,” Myles notes. Instead, she suggests making use of her “three to’s” system for every document that comes your way. “I call them ‘to do,’ ‘to file’ and ‘to toss.’ If you start by making those three files, everything will move a lot more quickly.”

Check your email less: “A lot of executives receive up to 300 emails a day, and they are just buried,” Myles says. “Don’t use your inbox as a secondary to-do list. I suggest only accessing your email at specific times each day — for example, once in the morning, once at lunch, then mid-afternoon and at the end of the day.”

Manage your time better: Are you spending a lot of time on things that aren’t meaningful to you or your work? Myles says that it’s time to assess your current projects and think about how you are balancing your personal life. “Spring is a good time to think about priorities and time management,” says Myles. “Start planning everything you want to do and focus on your priorities.”

Follow Lakshmi Gandhi on Twitter @LakshmiGandhi.