Since a lot of people take the week between Christmas and
New Year’s off, if you are working over the holidays, chances are it will be
slow. Experts say this is what you should do with that time instead of playing
Candy Crush:
Clean your desk. Office desks carry more bacteria than
toilet seats. Take everything off the top of your desk and put it in a box.
Dust and sanitize the surface once it’s clear — and don’t forget to de-germ
your keyboard and phone, says Scott Roewer, who owns organizing company
Solutions by Scott & Company. Put back only what you immediately need on
your clean desk and keep the other stuff in the box, he says. ”If you need
something, get it out of the box and find a home for it in the desk. After a
few weeks, you’ll find the items that remain in the box are rarely needed,” he
says. Chuck, recycle or re-home it.
Throw stuff out. “It’s a good time to clean your files and
get rid of things you don’t need,” says Dale Winston, chairwoman and CEO of
Battalia Winston. She says a good rule of thumb is to chuck anything you
haven’t looked at in the past year, with the exception of tax paperwork.
Shelve it. You’re probably not making the most effective use
of any shelving space you have, Roewer says. “Deeper, reinforced shelves work
well for boxes of files, cases of paper, or larger supplies,” he says. “Use
smaller shelves that are not as deep for office supplies such as pens, staples,
post-it notes, etc.” If you have lots of vertical space, use bins you can slide
out to corral what you’re keeping there. Label containers so you can keep track
of where everything is (which also comes in handy if you need to tell a
colleague where to find something.)
