School supplies that are built to last the entire year

With the start of each new school year comes the excitement of shopping for new supplies and the virtually boundless ads and offers featuring discounted merchandise.

But buyers should beware – that bargain you think you’re getting may not add up in the long run. If products are not made to withstand the rigors of daily use, you could find yourself replacing them multiple times during the school year.

The smarter choice may be to invest a little more in products that are built to last. For example, extra tough Cardinal Poly Pockets may cost slightly more than paper, but could actually be serviceable for years. Some products, like the following Cardinal binders are even guaranteed to last.

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If you’re like the average household, juggling the logistics of home, business and family can send you into “information overdrive.” Even in today’s technology-driven society, paper continues to stream in through the door, cluttering up our desktops, countertops and nightstands.

Jamming papers into a cabinet or desk drawer is certainly one way to deal with managing papers and space, and quarantining documents into a central location seems like a perfectly logical quick fix. But be warned, a mysterious black hole seems to materialize when it’s time to reference that important invoice or return form.

So how can we eliminate the mystery of the missing papers and reduce clutter? Don’t put it down, put it away! With the right tools, it’s a simple concept that can actually become habit forming.

Organization made easy

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Clutter = stress. The more things you have to look at, deal with, sort through, ignore, or clean, the greater your stress levels. Experts say that most people regularly use only about 10 percent of their belongings, which means that 90 percent of what’s on your desk or in your home isn’t necessary to everyday living.

Chances are if you have piles on your desk, stacks on the floor or half finished projects everywhere, you’re experiencing stress, which can prevent you from working at your optimum level of productivity.

So, whether you’re working at home, on the road or in the office, learning to organize your workspace can dramatically lower your stress levels.

Here are some basic tips for organizing throughout the year:

1. Tackle a job that’s within reason.Don’t try to organize the entire office all at once. Take small steps, like organizing the top of your desk or a single drawer. Then, move onto another area, like a large file cabinet or closet. Think about where and when you waste the most time or feel the most stressed –searching through a file cabinet or delving into an archive to look for an old client presentation or expense account–and designate this as first priority.
2. Get six large boxesLabel them “To Do,” “File,” “Keep,” “Store,” “Trash” and “Donate.” Beginning in one corner of your area, go through every object there. If it gets daily use, keep it where you can put your hands on it easily. If not, put it in one of the boxes depending upon how often it gets used. Remember the cardinal rule of de-cluttering: When in doubt, throw it out.

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The biggest mistake people make when working in teams is thinking that everyone works just like they do, according to Gloria Petersen, a corporate speaker and trainer. “The most important thing to realize when working within a team is get to know each individual personality and accept that personality. People are different and they’ll think and respond differently.”

Accept Different Personalities

Personality differences need to be respected. For example, Susan’s personality is very spontaneous. She likes doing things on the fly, often at the last minute. It’s been her way of tackling a project since her college days when she’d stay up all hours of the night in order to turn in a project due the next day. Despite her last minute rush to get the work done, she usually earned an A.

Jim, her teammate, likes to do things methodically and well in advance of the due date. He plans out the job, makes a list, checks it twice and accomplishes each task in order. He is organized and knows where everything is. Because he is so organized, he has never pulled an all-nighter and doesn’t appreciate having to work late because someone else didn’t get their job completed on time.

Be Flexible

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Often, when we think of workplace safety, we think about accident prevention. However, the presence of bacteria in the workplace is becoming an ever-greater problem. A recent study conducted by University of Arizona researchers revealed some rather startling facts. The average desk was found to have over 10 million germs on its surface – with more than 80% of them transmitted by hand.

To put this into perspective, according to the study, there are 400 times more germs on the typical office desk than there are on the typical office toilet seat.
But there’s more:

• Personal areas, such as offices and cubicles have higher bacteria levels than common areas
• Telephones are the #1 home for germs in our offices
• Bacteria levels on the typical fax machine are three times higher than on the bathroom door

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