Wherever you work, it is amazing how easy it is to accumulate paper, even in this age of electronic communications. Take a look at your work area. How much paper work do you have in your in/out tray, on your desk, in your filing cabinet. Like so many of us it might be a case of paper, paper everywhere and ne’er the space to work.

The stress of information overload can be costly in terms of our working peace of mind. The answer? Have a regular purge. Go on – do it! Allow yourself the pleasure and discover how therapeutic it can be.

Each week set aside a special time to throw away (or preferably recycle) all that paper work you no longer need from your trays, desk and cabinets. Keep routinely to this purge time – allocate it in your timetable right now.

If the thought of ditching paperwork fills you with dread – the "Will I/Won’t I Need it Syndrome – always adhere to these guidelines;

i. If newspapers are more than a few days old chuck them – it’s old news now.

ii. Magazines more than 2 weeks old: consign them to the recycle bin; the information will now be out of date.

iii. Memos more than a week old are now history – nobody will remember them anyway.

iv. Invoices, receipts not from the current financial year – destroy with joy: they’re done and dusted.

v. Keep asking yourself, "Do I really need this material?" Studies have shown over 60% of filed material will never be looked at again. If you haven’t looked at it in the last 3 months – bin it.