Posted by Rich on June 09, 1999 at 05:16:52:
In Reply to: Re: Help for bureaucrats? posted by Julie Signore on May 21, 1999 at 17:29:16:
Julie, a belated but nonetheless heartfelt thank you for your encouraging words, and for the wealth of ideas you've made available in this site. I've come a long way in getting my workspace organized since I wrote to you, and that in turn is helping me stay on top of schedules and deadlines. My next big project is to weed and organize my paper files, then I'm going to take my printout of your desk recipe and tackle that. _Then_ I'm going to borrow the family camera and take an "after" picture to amaze my wife (I won't need the "before" shot--she can look at my home desk or dresser for that!).
You're absolutely right that no one system helps everyone. In fact, no single system I've found has had everything I need--it's better to take an idea from here, an idea from there, and try them out.
For example, in "Time Management for Unmanageable People"--the best organizing book I've found so far for my needs, _if_ I had to pick just one--Ann McGee-Cooper and Duane Trammell suggest keeping current project files out where you can see them. Well, I thougt, I'm pretty right-brained, I'll get some open file boxes and try that. But for me, it was a disaster--I just got distracted by all that stuff surrounding me. What works for me in this particular area of organization is the very "left-brained" approach of putting every piece of paper back in its folder, and every folder back in its place in the file cabinet, whenever I'm not actively working on it.
On the other hand, I do have a very visual memory, and I think it would help to have some representation of all the things I'm responsible for out where I can always see it. So what I'm looking for now is a bunch of those magnetized business cards that realtors, contractors, et al. give you for your refrigerator--but blank, so I can write a project name on each one and stick them on the side of my file cabinet. Since what I'm doing changes all the time, I could move the cards around and wipe off and rewrite them as needed.
Well, I'm rambling, and I need to get back to those files. Thanks again--I'll keep filing progress reports.
Rich