Professional organiser Cindy Swan knows that even the best office managers can benefit from an organisational pick-me-up.

That?s why she decided to run a contest offering a free office makeover from her company Bermuda International Professional Organising.

The winner was Lisa Whitehead, office manager of Southern Cross Cable Ltd. on Church Street.

?Employees get a list of how to work the copy machine, the telephone and other machines, but never a list of how to do the filing,? said Mrs. Swan. ?They don?t have a procedure manual to say this is the way we do the filing.?

She said it is a myth that improved technology has created a paperless office.

?Just the opposite is true,? she said. ?Filing cabinet companies have reported that sales are up 80 percent. That is because fax machines and e-mail actually generates more paper. Studies have shown that there was actually 50 percent more paper in the office in 2005 than there was ten years ago, 80 percent of which is never used.?

Twenty-six people entered the contest. People were asked to send in a personal essay, and a photo of an area in the offices that needed some work.

?My story begins on August 30, 1991 which was my first day at Southern Cross Cable,? Mrs. Whitehead wrote in her personal essay. ?I have now been here six and a half years and have never looked back. I feel like this company is very special, therefore I am always looking for ways to organise anything and everything in our office.

?I have recently redone our archive system and purchased more than 40 containers in order to create some unity. I would really like to have the entire office revamped as it has such potential, but I need some help at this point.?

Mrs. Whitehead said she would like the office to reflect the bright, cheery personality of her co-workers.

Mrs. Swan said many people who entered used the contest as an opportunity to complain about the people they worked with. Mrs. Swan said she liked that Mrs. Whitehead didn?t do this.

?Her essay was just so personal,? said Mrs. Swan. ?What I liked about it was that she wasn?t only focusing on herself, she was focusing on her co-workers.

?She worded it in such a way that it made me look at her application again. I thought ?This is the person that I would like to work with?. She did not try to put down any of her co-workers, in fact she built them up.?

Mrs. Whitehead turned out to be quite a tidy person and had a passion for organisation that rivalled Mrs. Swan?s.

On an organisation score of one to ten, Mrs. Whitehead scored a seven compared to Mrs. Swan?s usual clients often score around a three or a four.

Still, Mrs. Swan found ways to help her.

?She has a very organised mind state,? said Mrs. Swan ?At her desk, I am going to work on having a little less around her workspace. Sometimes less is best.?

Gone were the multiple pictures of Mrs. Whitehead?s grandchildren on her desktop. ?Sometimes we just feel like we have to have these things around us and it creates a cluttered look,? said Mrs. Swan. ?Even though we are organised and we know where our things are we need to get rid of the clutter. There is not much, but it is there, and it is something Lisa and I are going to work on.?

Mrs. Whitehead said she was receptive to any new tips she could pick up from Mrs. Swan.

?I like all that,? Mrs. Whitehead said. ?I like learning about new ways to organise. I try not to enforce it on anyone as far as their own personal space. I like an organised basic office, as far as photocopier paper. And they let me do what I want, which is helpful.

?I can organise very well, but I am an old-fashioned organiser. I like things in a box, and you go to that and you know it is there. However, with this world, as far as the exchange of emails and things like that I guess I need to be updated.?

Mrs. Swan recommended the ?FAT? system when sorting through papers. This stands for File, Act or Toss and sometimes delegate.

?I tell clients to put everything that they don?t have space for into a box, and if you don?t look at that box for ninety days, you don?t need it,? she said. ?In Bermuda we need to revisit that. Less is more.?

Files can then be organised into action files, permanent action files and reference files.

?Action files are projects you are dealing with that will come to an end,? she said. ?They will either become reference files, they will be tossed or delegated. You also need a space for your permanent active files. These are things you need to do everyday. Signatures you need to get. Things you need to pay.

?Finding what you need is not a rocket science issue,? Mrs. Swan said.

?All you need to do is have a home for the items you are working with. Statistics tells us that it takes three weeks to develop a good habit.

?A bad habit can be developed immediately. Putting it back in the same place. Don?t have homeless things lying around.?

She also recommends that paper pushers create an index of their reference files. She said computer programmes such as Taming the Paper Tiger or Easy Reach can help with this.

The contest was sponsored by AF Smith, the Paper Tiger Company and Easy Reach Software Company.