Tips for Cleaning off your Virtual Desk By Debbie Williams of Organized Times Recently we celebrated Clean Off Your Desk day (well, some of us did anyway), but what about those computer files and packed email in boxes? Electronic files on your computer take up valuable space on your hard drive, but can be organized just as easily as paper files. If you create and maintain a simple filing system for your virtual desktop, you'll be as organized on your computer as you are in the rest of your office. Desktop Management Tips Create new folders for the main categories: clients, leads, taxes, personal growth, reading list, entertainment, etc. I recommend keeping Business and Personal files in separate folders for quick retrieval. After you create or download a new document onto your hard drive, don't save it in the default drive; take the time to file it in the folder you've created. Get as organized, as you need to be to find it. You may want to create folders, subfolders, and documents within those. Often after completing a task, we move on and forget about it, then can't possibly locate it later. If you get in the habit of creating sub-files within your main files, assigning a descriptive name to them, you can easily find your documents. New computer users will want to keep a written log or make notes for easy document retrieval. If you use a computer at work, or share files with a network, consider implementing a code for document naming. Add a date or client name suffix to each document so it can be found easily. For example, a record on your patient John Doe's medical exam of May 5, 2000, would be named: doej050500.doc. This works well for salesmen, physicians, attorneys, professors, and others suffering from paperwork overload. Use your new filing system for word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and all your applications; try to be consistent. Favorite Web sites that are book-marked in your Internet browser can be filed in the same way. It may take additional time as you are surfing the net, but it sure saves time when searching for that important Web site later. Email Management Incoming Use a dedicated email application (such as Eudora or Outlook), or utilize the software that came with your computer. Do some extensive research before you rush to buy expensive software. Sometimes we underestimate the obvious, not realizing all the tools embedded in our system's software. Use filters to categorize and sort your incoming messages. For example: to delete spam or adult material, turn on the Junk Mail or Adult filter in your email program. (You will need to refer to your user's manual or online Help section of the email program you use for more detail.) Create rules for other incoming mail categories such as Process (incoming orders), Take Action (inquiries from clients), Read (ezines you subscribe to, or information you requested from a colleague), Pay (invoices). This saves so much time in reading your daily emails because the first step in organizing has been done automatically: most of your messages are already sorted for you. Outgoing Not only can you filter unwanted messages and file others, but you can send customized messages in response to incoming emails. Simply create a message, save it, and make a filter or "rule" whereby this message is sent when a certain incoming message is received. This is like a simple autoresponder you can maintain yourself. It's a good way to keep track of e-zine subscribers, inquiries, responses to a survey, etc. If you will be away from your office on vacation or break but the office remains open, create a short message explaining this to your clients or customers. (Of course, this does not work if you shut down your computer. You will need to engage an autoresponder service for this type of application.) Daily Maintenance Create folders within your email program just as you have on your desktops (both virtual and physical). Organize them the way you classify things: if you can't remember things easily, then make lots of subfolders and mark them clearly. If you have an excellent memory for detail, then make just a few folders to catch all your mail. You can even make folders for each client or person on your mailing list. The ideas are endless. As you finish reading your incoming messages, file in the appropriate folder: trash, client, follow-up, mailing list, etc. If you file on a daily basis, all the better. Consider purging your Deleted Items folder on a daily basis to free up the clutter. There's not much use looking at all those message you have no intention of reading. Reducing the visual clutter on your virtual desktop is as important as keeping your office clutter-free. You'll spend less time searching, more time creating, and won't dread wading through messages and documents to get to the good stuff. Time is money, and anything you can do to save two minutes here, five minutes there, can improve your sales and your state of mind. And you can file all those unwanted jokes and urban legends with the other files in File 13, otherwise labeled The Round File. Past Columns: • Use technology to automate tasks • Home office management for parents: 7 tips for managing your time • Organization on the move Debbie Williams is an organizing strategist and founder of the online organizing forum, OrganizedU.com. She is the author of  Common Sense Organizing, from Champion Press.  Copyright 2001, Debbie Williams