Getting Things Done Organized

After work, Liz and I went and did a bit of shopping. I stopped at the local office supply store, and picked up some file folders, and general organizational gear… hoping to get my sprawling desk area under control a bit more.

Currently, I just stuff every important document I have into this corner of my desk that I end up ignoring. It’s not so much a filing system as, well… a piling system. And it’s worked so far, but makes everything feel so cluttered.

Organization is a good first step to me. And after that, hopefully I can actually see the difference between what I need to do, what I need to organize, and what I need to store.

I’m also excited about actually trying out the whole 43 Folders concept… a sort of reminder system that uses 12 folders for the months of the year, and another 31 folders for the individual days per month. As each day begins, you open up the folder for that day and do everything inside it. Once that day is done, replace the folder to the next month.

Of all the “things” that come to my desk, I am looking to find ways to

1) Do it immediately (if it takes 2 minutes or less)
2) Delegate it to someone else
3) Determine a later day/time to do the task
4) Store it for future reference
5) Discard it
6) Less ideally, put it in a “Pending” area to determine the best action later

We’ll see how things go. Option #6 opens up a can of worms, as I could have a really oragnized desk with a gigantic “pending” pile. Hopefully, I’ll be more on top of things.

I couldn’t resist this. :D