“How long would it take to get my office organized?” 

I have heard this question many times, and the answer lies in how quickly you make decisions.

I can comfortably say, when I am working directly with an individual, that a half-day of focused organizing will give you the needed systems for handling all of your daily work flow.  A full day of organization will clear your desk area and have you effectively scheduling your week.

However, the key in “how long” it takes to clear everything out, in addition to setting up the systems, depends on the speed of your decision-making.  According to the Journal of Consumer Research, relying on your instincts tends to yield better results.  Study participants showed that those who deliberated the longest gave less accurate responses and were more prone to changing their minds later, compared with those who went with gut feelings.

While this study was not analyzing workplace decisions, it struck a chord with me because it is the same result that I see when working with clients in their offices.  Those who can look at a paper and quickly determine their next action had their offices organized and functioning quickly and effectively.  Those who had to review the entire history of each item, along with multiple possibilities for what could be done with it, continually struggled with disorganization and clutter.

Once you have a system in place, if you still have trouble determining the next action on an item, do not give up.  Just as you exercise your muscles to gain strength, work with your brain “muscle” to build up speed. 

Each time you touch a piece of paper or read an email message, make a decision right then as to where it will go and when you will act on it.  Do not set it aside to look at it again later and think about it.  Otherwise there is a backlog and muscle strain and stress will develop.

As with any exercise program, the more you work on a set of muscles the easier it gets until you do not even consciously notice you are using those muscles.   With practice, you will find that those decisions come faster and faster with little effort.