I arrived the next week to find a frazzled woman and a spacious but incredibly cluttered office - with not a clear space on table, desk or chairs (except her chair).
'I've decided if I'm going to work for another ten - fifteen years I've just got to get this issue handled,' she said in despair as we viewed her imitation of a town tip.
'I'm so frustrated and bogged down by it all; I think I'll take tomorrow off.'
I just grinned - it didn't sound as though she had much confidence in our results, but I knew what was coming.
I find that most people who struggle with this issue (and Suzanne was no exception) have to experience the sort-out and the set-up at a cellular and kinaesthetic hands-on level before they make any sense of it.
They're not easily able to apply verbal instructions, or they would probably have already done it.
The first thing I noticed, once we commenced the 'clean-up', was that she deferred decisions.
She'd pick up a piece of paper; look at it; put it down - in a different pile.
You could just about hear the thoughts go ratchet, clatter, click in her brain: 'I can't think about this right now - it will take too long'.
She then repeated the same pattern with the next, and the next, and the next piece of paper.
To beat the problem she needed new behaviour.
Every piece of paper, information or equipment lying around is a symptom of a decision not made or an action not completed.
Each time she started to paper shuffle I stopped her.
'What category is this item?' was the question.
Once named, I took it out of her hands and placed it on the floor with other things of the same type, putting like with like.
The hardest part was the first ten minutes.
I'm sure Suzanne felt like snapping at me, but we had to stop her old automatic behaviour (alias a habit).
After about ten minutes she got past the discomfort, her brain (at a deep level) started to create a new pathway, and suddenly she found the rhythm. And then there was no stopping her.
She just needed to stay with the new hands-on experience until her brain had time to make sense of the process.
It took us a few hours, but her office was fabulous when we finished (except the filing cabinet, which needed another day and a fresh brain). She was buzzing with excitement.
As we worked on her office another story happened outside her door.
One of her staff had a similar problem (on a much smaller scale).
He came and watched the process for the first twenty minutes, asked a few questions, and then ducked out to start his own clean-up.
He only needed a short visual preview and auditory instructions, for when I walked past his desk half an hour later, the job was almost finished. (Learning is not a one-size-fits-all process.)
By the end of 3½ hours she was so excited and energised she was almost jumping out of her skin!
As I left she stood there with a look of ecstasy, excitedly planning the next day's projects.
I heard her say to one of her staff, 'I can't believe what I see. I never thought I could get this handled, and it's so easy.'
She couldn't wait to get into work the next day. And two years later, in a different job, she reported continuing success.
Robyn Pearce (known as the Time Queen) is the MD of GettingAGrip.com, an international time management and productivity training company based in New Zealand. Get your free report 'How To Master Time In Only 90 Seconds' and ongoing time tips at www.gettingagrip.com 
