Always sort your mail over the trash or recycling bin. This way, you can quickly chuck the useless propaganda, and it won’t clutter up any space within your home. If you want to nip paper clutter in the bud, sort your mail before it enters your house and toss the junk into the recycle bin outside!

Use a desk with at least one file drawer. We are not quite completely digital yet, and even the most streamlined businesses will have a few papers. File drawers will protect your desk from overflowing paperwork. Make sure to use hanging files. If you don’t, your folders fall down and slip around, making it impossible to retrieve files without a time-consuming investigation. If your desk does not come with a file drawer, make sure to buy a file cabinet. See the file drawer don’t below.

Keep business separate from personal. Work projects combined with bills and personal correspondence can create a very messy environment. Making an actual physical boundary between work and personal tasks and papers will help you switch out of personal mode, and your productivity and concentration will increase dramatically.

If you need to have personal and business papers in the same room, keep them physically separated. Think left and right separation. In my experience, top and bottom do not seem to be as effective. Some people can keep personal and business papers in the same workspace. If this is the case, I would recommend an L-shaped desk configuration, with personal papers to the left of the monitor and business to the right. If you try this and find you are becoming easily sidetracked with personal projects, set up another desk for your personal correspondence, perhaps behind your main workstation, so it is not directly in your line of sight.

Ditch your PJ’s and get dressed. Take the time to change into street clothes before you begin working in the morning. You will be surprised how much more you get done when your body wakes up, and your brain automatically shifts faster into work mode.

Work on a desk or desktop that is covered in clutter. The pro rule of thumb is to have at least 60% of your desk surface area, as I like to say “open for business.” Right now, you may not realize how much your energy is being drained by the chaos in this area of your life. Even if you aren’t aware of it, clutter is a distraction. Being disorganized is stressful, filling your mind with niggling thoughts about whether you remembered to pay a bill, make plane reservations, or send out an invoice. Ultimately, this is a drain on your creative reserves, and your ability to focus on growing a successful business.

Work without a proper database for your contacts. There is nothing more important than setting up an effective database. Most people spend way too much time searching for contact information when they need to make a call or send an e-mail quickly. Develop a contact database that includes more than names, numbers and e-mails. Also, sort and organize your contacts into categories. Common categories might include Family, friends, vendors, networking and colleagues.

Let your cable and cords overtake your workspace. Try to contain your collection of cords all within one box. Here is a good rule of thumb to tackle your cord collection: if you have never used the cord, it is still wrapped in its original plastic bag or twist-tie, all of the equipment it came with works without it now, it has been over one year, and you are not setting up a new office, you can probably let it go.

Have your office supplies scattered around and about your workspace. Use a closet or bookshelf to gather all of your supplies into one area. A closet outfitted with floor-to-ceiling shelves is the ideal storage area for your supplies. If you don’t have a closet, however, you can use a free-standing bookshelf. If you don’t like visual clutter, consider covering the cabinets with doors or with a curtain. Whatever kind of storage you choose, the most important task will be to keep all your extra supplies in this area. This makes it clear to you and everyone else using the office where to go to quickly find any supply.