Article excerpted from
new book, "How to Do Space Age Work with a Stone Age Brain" by Eve Abbott1 - 2 - 3—SORT!
Every time you start to clean up your office so you can work better instead of harder—that big backlog of information is just too overwhelming. Sorting can actually put you into a better working space in very short time.
The good news is you don't have to do it all at once. Use first cut to trash, recycle, shred, and archive leaving just items requiring Action on your part.
Now do Action sort beginning with your desktop, desk drawers, then, wall mount shelves or cupboards at your desk. You'll have a clean Action zone to put these items back in better working order. Then, it's 1 - 2 - 3—SORT!
Sort and only sort—no reading a newsletter or making one quick call. Also, work for two hours or less, take a break, then, finish it off with another two hours at most. Otherwise, our stone age brains overload and start putting things in wrong place. There are three essential Action domains: 1) to Do 2) to Read 3) to File.
TO DO: In to-Do domain there are some basic categories: Call, Pay, Sign, Schedule, Correspond, Read, Review, Write, Research, etc. Everyone has unique information categories in their work and lives, but, these will get you going and you can add Actions as your piles take on definition and turn into Action files.
When a piece of info is sticking to your fingers, ask yourself: Am I past due date? Trash or if you need other info from it, file it. Will anyone care if I do or don't do this? If not, why spend time on it? Trash Do I really need to do this? If no—trash. If yes, into an Action file and calendar it.
TO READ: Set up magazine files to sort your reading material as it arrives. Label these by topic, project or subscription. Do not read anything yet! This time to decide which articles are really worth your time and energy to read.
