Even though you’ve publicly sworn off New Year’s resolutions, privately you’ve vowed to make 2008 the year when you finally get organized. You hope to slim down those piles, file important papers and access them without the help of a search team, and finally get to all of your appointments on time.

The secret to your success may lie in some new advice from Office Depot, which recognizes that each person has an individual work style and getting organized means putting that style to work for you. Playing to your strengths can help you get organized once and for all.

“Once you’ve identified your work style, then you can put into practice a few clear-cut systems to achieve your goals. Best of all, the impact is immediate. As the condition of your office space improves, you will also be more in control,” says expert organizer and Office Depot advisor Monica Ricci.

Identify Your Work Style:

The Go-Getter – You’re the quintessential multi-tasker with a million projects in the air, but you don’t pay close attention to all the little details. You need help streamlining the administrative aspects of your job so important details and documents don’t fall through the cracks.

For starters, stop taking notes on loose pieces of paper, and start using a three-ring notebook to keep all important meeting notes and phone messages together. Use an affordable, leather-bound notebook that you can pick up at any Office Depot, such as the Three-Ring Binder from Foray – it looks good and the ability to move pages around and add to it helps to keep you organized. Also, invest in back-up media to ensure you don’t accidentally dispose of important data. You can be particularly at risk if you travel a lot or work from a home office that lacks robust technology. At a minimum, back-up material on a flash drive, like the Ativa 8GB Flash Drive, which can hold the equivalent of 320,000 sheets of paper.

The Planner – You have all the answers when it comes to possible contingencies and are on top of big and small details. You are probably the most organized of all the work styles, but there still are some areas you’d like to improve.

For instance, you probably rarely make time to store or dispose of inactive files and you keep information longer than necessary, “just in case.” Change this by designating half an hour each week for filing – put it on your calendar and plan for it, like you do everything else. Make use of color-coded files, and remember to simplify the process by using general words as tab headers. Consider using the new secure folders from Office Depot that keep documents contained and prevents papers from falling out. If a file is out of date or unnecessary, eliminate it, but be mindful of confidentiality. Ricci recommends using a shredder like an Ativa diamond-cut shredder because it shreds documents, CDs and credit cards into tiny, unusable pieces.

The Procrastinator – If delayed decision making is your style, you are probably driving colleagues and family members crazy. You probably don’t get around to going through the piles and your office may look like a warehouse of outdated reports and articles. You will need to make the biggest commitment to change, starting by inventing new systems to keep you organized.

Start with your calendar and make sure to use one like the Mead Monthly/Weekly Appointment Book that allows you to keep track of monthly and weekly schedules in one place, giving you a big-picture and detailed view of your work so you stick to your project schedule. Also consider cleaning the clutter. You can begin by investing in Fashion Designer Totes from Office Depot for storing infrequently used documents. They come with a unique re-writable surface that is great for labeling what is in the box and organizing the contents.

The Perfectionist – You are most comfortable doing everything yourself, and even though your work product is superb, this approach has its consequences. Because you take on so much, you can sometimes fall behind schedule and may have trouble delegating to others.

One time-saving strategy is to find the experts and delegate to them. For instance, stop wasting time on photocopying and binding all your presentations in-house. Send these tasks to Office Depot’s Design Print & Ship Depot. They can turn your projects around both quickly and cost effectively.

Ensure that all projects are on-schedule and the team is aware of deadlines by plotting out projects and responsibilities on a wall calendar like the Mead Undated Erasable Wall Calendar. Keep this in your office or a common room where you have staff meetings and encourage the team to update their projects and report on progress on the board, keeping everyone involved and engaged in plans.

For more advice, please visit your local Office Depot store or www.officedepot.com/getorganized.

Courtesy of ARAcontent