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Clutter and disorganization costs money and time
By Scott Miller
scottmiller@pantagraph.com
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BLOOMINGTON — Wendy Van Cott Speight thought working from home would allow her to spend more time with her two teenage children.

Wrong. She couldn’t keep her work from bleeding into her home life, so she opened another office in July. That made things even worse.

Now she’s losing family time to disorganization, juggling paperwork at two offices, one at home, another in Bloomington.

“I’m running around like a crazy woman, and I don’t feel like I’m getting anything done,” said Speight, owner of DECO – The Design Company. “No one is getting the attention they deserve. My family’s not getting the attention. My work isn’t getting the attention.”

That chaotic lifestyle is costing not only family time, but money as well. And Speight’s not alone.

The average executive wastes six weeks per year to disorganization, according to the National Association of Professional Organizers, or NAPO. Assuming an $80,000 annual salary, that’s $10,000 wasted each year, said Stephanie Calahan, an organization consultant and president of Calahan Solutions, Inc. in Bloomington.

The top time-waster is looking for information, Calahan said, clicking through photo slides of messy offices, with paperwork stacked up not only on desks, but chairs and even sofas.

“People thought e-mail would create a paperless society. … It just made it easier to send information, and many of us can’t just read it on the screen. We have to print it out,” Calahan told nearly 40 people attending an organizational seminar last week at Bank of Illinois in Normal. “We’ve actually ended up with four times as much paper as we had in 1980s.”

That extra paperwork is weighing down productivity in the workplace.

To cut through the clutter, people must learn the art of “wastebasket artistry,” Calahan said.

About 80 percent of paperwork filed is never referenced again, according to NAPO.

But not everything should be thrown away. The old adage that a piece of paper should only be touched once only applies to Kleenex and Charmin, Calahan said.

When people receive paperwork, they must decide what to do with it. File it away for later? Store it as a calendar item? Move it to a Blackberry or PDA? Don’t just let it sit in a pile. Then, you’ll have to go through the pile again later.

“You find that by the end of the day, all you’ve done is move clutter from the right side of your desk to the left,” Calahan said.

“Clutter is postponed decisions. It’s where we choose not to do something.”

One choice is the waste basket. Before throwing something away, people should ask a few questions:

Is it useful?

Was it difficult to obtain?

Are there tax or legal implications?

Does it even have a specific use?

What’s the worst that could happen if this is tossed?

What does that messy desk cost you?

-- The average executive wastes six weeks each year to disorganization. Assuming an $80,000 annual salary, that’s $10,000 lost each year.

-- A company employing 1,000 workers wastes $48,000 per week, or $2.5 million per year, due to an inability to locate information.

-- The average person spends 150 hours a year just looking for information. Someone earning $50,000 a year, then, is paid more than $5,000 per year just to sift through clutter.

-- That messy desk could be costing you customers, too. Seven of 10 people have less confidence in people with messy desks than they do in more organized people.

SOURCES: Stephanie Calahan, president of Calahan Solutions Inc. in Bloomington, and the National Association of Professional Organizers.

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Office clutter can be difficult to manage. Thankfully, there are some new tools on the market to keep up with a never ending flow of paperwork.
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Reader comments on this story - 6 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

solo wrote on Oct 24, 2007 1:10 PM:

" if you want something done, give it to a busy person. "

File cabinet wrote on Oct 22, 2007 3:11 PM:

" My consumer dollars are rarely spent with anyone who has a cluttered desk. "

To:Crybaby wrote on Oct 22, 2007 3:10 PM:

" lack of business and income, to anyone in a business. "

Sure wrote on Oct 22, 2007 9:46 AM:

" I would comment more on this subject but I cannot find my notes that I took earlier on this article. I know they are here on my desk somewhere. Duh. "

Unsolicited credit card offers wrote on Oct 22, 2007 8:26 AM:

" Between Identity theft,havening to shred ones own personal information, those that apply for credit. How much time and money is wasted and or basically stolen from the American Public ? Trillions? "

Crybaby wrote on Oct 22, 2007 8:19 AM:

" If a cluttered desk signifies a cluttered mind, what does an empty desk signify? "
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