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Blog: Surfing the Paper Wave
 Reflections on Getting Things Done
Are you familiar with the book Getting Things Done? I am a huge fan of this productivity system developed by author/consultant David Allen. His approach is bottoms-up: Master the trees (i.e., the daily details) and you'll master the forest (the big picture missions, goals and projects.). Developed first for the "knowledge workers" who comprise the majority of the American workforce, Allen's ideas have ready applicability to all walks of life, including homemaker and student.
Getting Things Done is fresh in my mind just now because my husband gave me my own copy as a Christmas present. Lately I have been rereading it to refresh my own implementation of its concepts after my initial exposure a year and a half ago, and to find ideas that might be helpful to my present clients. This past weekend, I reviewed and reapplied the chapter entitled "Getting Started: Setting Up the Time, Space and Tools" to my own home office and experienced an immediate gust of fresh air.
Here are three ideas I found especially helpful:
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"Keep the Drawer Less Than Three-Quarters Full." I applied this to my closest two-drawer filing cabinet, the one where I keep my most frequently used files. In order to make this kind of room, I had to relocate my tax archives from 2001 – 2006 to a more distant file cabinet. What a difference! Why didn't I think of this before? Both file drawers are easier to pull open because they are lighter; and the files inside are so much easier to find, open, and insert or extract papers from. This week, my mail didn't pile up at all, because it was so easy to file away those arriving tax documents, bills and activity notices.
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"Label Your File Folders with an Auto Labeler." – Although I often use my label maker for my clients' files, my own file folders were hand-labeled. Yes, they were neat enough, but machine-made labels add a subtle professionalism and readability that even the tidiest handwriting does not. The machine-made labels are also more easily read at a distance by my middle-aged eyes!
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"Have Lots of Fresh Folders." David Allen recommends keeping a hundred or more useable empty file folders instantly at hand. While a hundred is more than I really need, I did go to my supply cabinet and get twenty fresh ones out and place them at my desk. They came in very handy this week as some new topics came in the mail needing attention. Just having the empty folders and my label maker right there let me process these papers on the spot.
So often we tend to think that a big problem needs a big fix. As my experience testifies here, sometimes just a few tiny changes – four empty inches in a drawer; a label maker; a handful of empty folders – can make a huge difference.
posted on: 1/20/2008 10:30:00 AM by Suzanne Kuhn
category: Paper
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Surfing the Paper Wave
by Suzanne Kuhn
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About Suzanne:
Suzanne Kuhn is the owner of ACE ORGANIZING, offering affordable, customized, energizing organizing solutions to homes, schools and small businesses in the five-county Philadelphia area and central New Jersey. Although an organizing generalist, (she'll organize anything!) Suzanne has a growing specialty in paper and electronic filing systems and financial organizing. To receive her FREE booklet, 50 TOP TIME MANAGAGEMENT TIPS, email her at [email protected]
Suzanne's Website:
http://www.onlineorganizing.com/BlogList.asp?sort=organizer&schedule=41&name=Suzanne_Kuhn
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