If your choice affects other people, there is a third question you should ask, “Does it work for others?” Through the years people have often made comments such as “My office is a mess, but I can find anything in it!” That may be – but what happens if they can’t come to work? I tell my clients, “If you are working for someone else, that information does not belong to you, it belongs to the client, and your professional responsibility is to organize it so that someone else could find it if you were not there and they needed it.”

If you work for yourself, you may think it doesn’t matter. A highly successful business owner discovered it could make a tremendous difference. While jogging down the road he was hit by a drunk driver. Left for dead, he spent months regaining his ability to work. To keep his company in business, he had to accomplish the same results in half the time.

Љ Barbara Hemphill is the author of Kiplinger's Taming the Paper Tiger at Work and Taming the Paper Tiger at Home and co-author of Love It or Lose It: Living Clutter-Free Forever. The mission of Hemphill Productivity Institute is to help individuals and organizations create and sustain a productive environment so they can accomplish their work and enjoy their lives. We do this by organizing space, information, and time. We can be reached at 800-427-0237 or at www.ProductiveEnvironment.com