In the excellent book, "Making Ideas Happen," Scott Belsky reveals the results of a 2007 poll of over a thousand "creative professionals" regarding how organized they are:
7% of those who responded claimed to feel “very organized”
14% claimed to work in a state of “utter chaos”
48% attested to “more mess than order"
He says,"The disarray experienced by many professionals was regarded as a badge of honor."
I can relate! Getting organized is something I have done successfully. Staying organized is more of a struggle! It's like the smoker who says, "I have no problem quitting smoking, I've done it many times."
For me it's not that I consider a mess a badge of honor or even the sign of a creative mind, just that clearing up or going through old files never seems as important (and certainly not as enjoyable) as working on a creative project.
The problem, of course, is that at some stage it becomes hard to find things or you forget to deal with things that are at the bottom of a pile of papers and dealing with those crises take more time than it would take to get organized.
I can't claim that I've cracked this, it's more accurate to say that I'm a recovering messaholic. But a couple of strategies that I find useful are:
1) Use a "zone" plan of attack. Don't say you'll clean up your office, say you'll clean up the left side of your desk. The next day tackle the right side of your desk. The next, the floor around your desk and so on.
2) Schedule a weekly period to maintain the progress you've made. Unfortunately it's not a 'do once and you're done' task, it's more like brushing your teeth or washing the dishes. If you can make it part of your routine, it gets a lot easier to do.
3) Take advantage of periods when you're not feeling very creative, or a little tired, by using those periods to do the more routine tasks like filing, working on the administrative backlog, etc.
I'd better stop and clear the left side of my desk...