I recently read your article on the Rotary e-Club, "Manage Your Desk or It Will 'Manage' You."  This item was most pertinent to me at this time because I had recently hit a frustration point with my own desk.  I am a "young" attorney in that I have been practicing for just about two years, although I am in my 40's.  Second careers can be grand.

My desk was a helter-skelter mess of stacks and papers scattered across it.  As an accountant and IT program manager, I had always had stacks on my desk and been able to keep up with my work load.  As an attorney, many of the stacks were not placed on my desk by me.  In addition, my legal secretary kept coming in and trying to hand me new items (fresh off the fax, mail, etc.).  I felt like I could not complete anything, and like Tom in your article, my deadlines seemed to rule me. 

I cleaned off my desk.  Purchased a bin that I labelled "In Box - ALL items."  I did concede to making a separate bin for items requiring signature as those might be a tighter time frame.  The I labelled a similar bin "Active Items To Do."  It was key that I needed to state active items so things would not sit in that bin for ages.  The In Box and Signature Box are on the side of my desk where the secretary comes into my office.  The To Do is just behind me.  Only I can place things in the To Do box.  In addition, when I place items in the To Do, I put a post it note with the specific action on the file or document and put it into the task list on my Outlook with a deadline.  The last bin is a to be filed tray (much larger than the others).  We have occassional help that comes in to assist with filing and such.  Now they know just where to look to see if I have anything to be cleaned up for the files.  It has only been a week, but my productivity was much better in that week.

I did not realize that I was using good techniques when I reassessed the work flow.  My legal secretary was a bit non-plussed the first time I did not reach to take the document but simply pointed to the In Box.  Most time management articles speak about prioritizing, making lists and scheduling.  Thank you so much for addressing what might be thought of as the 'feng shui' of work organization.  I have never had a meeting make-up that was so helpful and so timely.