National clean off your desk day

Not on your calendar? It's today. No, it's not a new holiday created by Hallmark, but an initiative to get all those papered-desk individuals to see the wood (or glass, metal, or laminate).

Squared Away, an office-organizing firm in Newton, Mass., dug up the idea, suggesting the average US executive loses six weeks per year retrieving misplaced information from messy desks and files.

The firm offers the following tips for giving your desk a military look today - and for the rest of the year:

*Make decisions quickly; 80 percent of decisions should be made immediately. It's better to decide about a piece of paper only once than to handle it more than once.

*Trash the rainbow of paper "stickies" on your computer and create cyber-stickies on your computer screen.

*Set up a tiered file holder on your desk. Use it to store files you'll refer to every day, including files for current projects and action items, and files labeled "To Read," "To Sign," and "To File."

Compiled by Sara Steindorf

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