Some of us seem to go through life like magnets, attracting object after object to ourselves, and never letting go of anything.  Drawers fill up, shelves fill up, boxes fill up, car trunks fill up, closets fill up, cupboards fill up, garages fill up…

Sometimes, personal belongings are the problem. Other times, it’s the relentless influx of information at work – on paper, electronic, or both – that floods in, filling up our voice mail, ‘In’ boxes and file cabinets.

At what point do we stop possessing our belongings, and start being possessed by them? Have we reached a place in our lives where we need to reverse our polarity and begin shedding objects, instead of acquiring them? If you are a human magnet, that can be an uphill struggle!

Part of the solution lies in improving our ability to assess the relative value of the items and information that come our way. At home, the solutions that we devise can be as idiosyncratic and one-of-a-kind as we like. At the office, however, there needs to be a meeting of the minds so that everyone is using the same system.

If you aren’t sure whether your office has a problem, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is paperwork and electronic information organized, accessible and up-to-date?
• Do messages get lost or overlooked? If so, how often?
• If someone is out sick unexpectedly, can other members of the team find the information and materials that they need in order to fill in for the missing worker?
• Is there a drawer or out-of-sight shelf where papers and files tend to pile up?
• Are old materials and periodicals cleared out on a regular basis, or do you have an out-dated archive that would do the Smithsonian proud?

Are you a keeper or a purger? What techniques work best for your office?