Organizing Creative Professionals: Sorted

The Sorted Seven - No. 6: Action Files

Lord help us, we're spending the rest of March celebrating the seven desktop tools that are essential to managing paper in your office! I call these tools The Sorted Seven, and you can see an overview of the whole system here.

After detouring into reference-file country, we're back in the land of action. Just to review, there are essentially only three things you can do with each piece of paper: you can toss it, act on it or file it. Today, we're talking about a unique hybrid of those latter two options: your action files.

Once we've asked the crucial questions about whether or not the item can be tossed and have decided to keep it, there's another set of questions to ask, and they all boil down to: Is the ball in my court?

If the information doesn't need to be put into your calendar or contact management system, move on to: Do I need to perform a next step with the information on this piece of paper?

There are a few different ways to answer that one: "Yes, and I know what that next step is," "Yes, but I'm not sure what that step is," "No, but this information does pertain to something I've got in play right now" and "No, because the ball isn't really in my court right now."

Action files are where papers go when the answer is one of the "No"s. Just as reference files contain papers you no longer have an immediate need for but want to keep around, action files contain papers for which no immediate action is required, but that you want to keep around for current projects.

If the info pertains to something you're working on, it goes into one of the numbered action files. As with the reference files, the numbering system might seem a little weird, especially if you're used to filing by name. But once you get the hang of it, you'll save astronomical amounts of time, thanks to your file index (paper or electronic).

If the ball isn't in your court, or the info doesn't pertain to a current project but isn't reference file caliber just yet, it can go into into a categorical action file. These are named, but there are only a few of them, and the names don't change: Awaiting Response, Data Entry, Potential Purchases, To Read, To Write -- plus additional categories that might pertain to your individual business.

When the ball isn't in your court? Awaiting Response. When you've got a business card but don't have the time to enter the info in your contact management system just yet? Data Entry. An article you want to read but don't have time to right now? To Read.

The trick with these categorical files is that you have to make a date with yourself each week or two to go through them so they don't become a collection of holding tanks for information.

How do you make and keep that date? We'll talk about that on Wednesday. See you then!

The Sorted Seven - No. 5: Reference Files

Lord help us, we're spending the rest of March celebrating the seven desktop tools that are essential to managing paper in your office! I call these tools The Sorted Seven, and you can see an overview of the whole system here.

We've spent the week talking about action-oriented things you can do with stuff taken from your In shelf, but today we're taking a slight detour. Remember, there are essentially only three things you can do with each piece of paper: you can toss it, act on it or file it. Today, we're going to investigate that third option: filing it.

Once we've asked the crucial questions about whether or not the item can be tossed and have decided to keep it, there's another set of questions to ask, and they all boil down to: Is the ball in my court?

Do I need to put this information in my calendar or contact management system? If so, the ball's in your court, and we've discussed how to handle that info.

If the answer to the above question was "no," move on to: Do I need to perform a next step with the information on this piece of paper? You might need to call someone, write something, plan something, etc. If the answer to that question is "yes," we'll discuss what to do with that piece of paper on Monday.

If the answer was "no," our final question (where the scores can really change) is: "Am I waiting on someone else's action regarding this piece of paper?" Again, if that's the case, we'll learn what to do with the paper on Monday.

But if the piece of paper doesn't require action from you or anyone else, then it falls out of the "act" category and into "file." Specifically, your reference files (as opposed to your action files).

You might notice in the picture above that the reference files are numbered, rather than named. When I joined the Paper Tiger program and heard Barbara Hemphill's recommendation to number files, I thought that sounded weird and counterintuitive. Now, I swear by it. "But how do you know what's in what file?" By the contents of that very first file tab: File Index. Your file index tells you what is where by using keywords—you know, the same things you use to search in every other part of your life.

You might prefer to put your reference files in manila folders with alphabetized labels on them. And while you're certainly free to do so, I'll be more than happy to tell you why that method is less than optimal.

If you're intrigued by the Paper Tiger filing system, drop me a line and we can discuss it further. If not, hang in there until Monday, when we discuss action files. Have a great weekend, everybody!

The Sorted Seven - No. 4: Contact Management

Lord help us, we're spending the rest of March celebrating the seven desktop tools that are essential to managing paper in your office! I call these tools The Sorted Seven, and you can see an overview of the whole system here.

On Monday, we discussed what to do with date- and/or time-specific information (put it in your calendar). Today, we'll talk about what to do with contact information.

This information comes in a few different formats: info in an email, an address written on a Post-It while you're on the phone, a postcard, an empty envelope and, of course, a business card.

But, as usual, these pieces of paper and data have no meaning if you don't know where to look for the information they carry: Which specific email had that client's cell phone number? Where, in your amorphous business card pile, did you put that prospect's card? Did you throw out that envelope with the return address on it?

You know where I'm going with this. Contact management systems aren't remotely fascinating, sexy or even geeky-cool. But, when they're used properly, they're indispensable for any business.

This pic shows just a few of your options for contact management. If you own a Mac or use Microsoft Outlook, you've already got a pretty decent contact management system built in. Ditto if you use a Blackberry. Of course, having a free-ish electronic system doesn't mean you need to use it. If you're a paper person and are diligent about the updates, by all means, use a paper system.

As with calendar systems, use what works for you -- but use it, and use it consistently. If you're sorting through your In shelf and find contact info, you have two options. If you've got just one or two pieces of contact info to enter into your system and about 2 minutes to spare, take the time right then to update your contact management system.

If you don't have the time and/or you've got a lot of info to enter, sort the contact information into an Action File (we'll discuss these this coming Monday) and, if possible, block off a time on your calendar to enter that information. If you get a regular influx of business cards, consider a scanner (such as Neat Receipts, also available for Mac).

You might wonder why I singled out contact management as a separate part of the Sorted Seven. The reason is that no matter what business you're in, your business is about people, about connections, about relationships. So any tool that manages the info about those relationships is mission-critical to your business.

We're now more than halfway done with the Sorted Seven! Do you feel like you've learned some useful stuff in this series thus far? If you have any questions about any part of it, please let me know!

The Sorted Seven - No. 3: Your Calendar

Lord help us, we're spending the rest of March celebrating the seven desktop tools that are essential to managing paper in your office! I call these tools The Sorted Seven, and you can see an overview of the whole system here.

So, once a piece of paper has left the In/Out/To File sorter and you've decided not to release it to the Trinity of Trash, you have two more possible options for it: act on it or file it. Today we're going to explore one of several ways you can act on a piece of paper: by entering its information into your calendar.

Sometimes, all you need from a piece of paper is a date, time, place and event. Say there's a mandatory staff meeting next Wednesday at 4, a test on the 17th or a seminar in three weeks. That information may be vital, but it isn't doing you any good on a random piece of paper; it needs to be put into the context of the rest of your activities.

That would be your calendar. Now, one of the great questions in the field of business productivity and time management is: what type of calendar/planner system is the best? My answer to that: whatever type works for you.

My calendar, as shown blurrily above, is a Planner Pad. I like the size, the vertical arrangement of the schedule and the fact that I can set the week's priorities and then filter those priorities down into days and then into time slots. Also, I like to work on paper (and in pencil) so I can move things around, jot little notes, draw my little arrows, etc.

However, you might be better suited to a Day-Timer, a Franklin Planner, a Quo Vadis planner, if you like paper products. Or an electronic calendar might be more your thing: a program running on a handheld device like a Blackberry or iPhone, or software running on your desktop computer or on the Web.

Truly, the only things that matter when it comes to selecting what type of calendar system to use are that it works, that you like it and that you use it consistently. A calendar that isn't used is just a leather-bound paperweight. (Vinyl, in my case, but still.)

So when you come across a piece of paper with specific event information, your answer to the toss it/act on it/file it question is: Act on it! Enter the information into your calendar. If you need to, include a phone number or other short relevant info in the calendar entry. Then, you can move the paper to the Trinity of Trash, or file it for reference.

But what if the piece of paper in question has information that needs to go in your calendar, but also has info that you'll need when that calendar appointment comes around? Patience, dear readers. That answer is coming next week.

The Sorted Seven - No. 2: The Trinity of Trash

Lord help us, we're spending the rest of March celebrating the seven desktop tools that are essential to managing paper in your office! I call these tools The Sorted Seven, and you can see an overview of the whole system here.

Okay, we've covered the In/Out/To File Sorter, which is where the great paper management circle of life begins. Today, we explore three of the potential next stops for paper after it lands on your In shelf.

I call them the Trinity of Trash: the recycle bin, wastebasket and paper shredder. But before we get to them, we need to start where we left off: your In shelf.

When you begin going through the accumulation of stuff in your In shelf, you might get a little overwhelmed, wondering "What do I do with all this stuff?" The good news is that there are essentially only three things you can do with each piece of paper: you can toss it, act on it or file it.

Let's begin with that first option, and let's phrase it in the form of a question, Alex: Can I throw this out? To answer that, we need to ask a few more questions...

Do I need this? Am I required to do some action with this item? Does it have legal, financial or tax implications? If you answered "no" to all of these, keep going.

Can I identify a use for this? A specific use, not "I might need it someday." I might need a steel heart valve someday, but there's no point in keeping one on hand. If you answered "no," keep going.

Is it still relevant? If you're delving into an In shelf with several weeks or months worth of stuff, the paper might not have the most up-to-date information on it. It might be a special offer that expired or an old update to a policy that's since been revised. If the item is no longer applicable to anything, keep going.

Is it difficult to find this information again? Thanks to the intertubes, most information can be tracked down online. However, it might not be a bad idea to keep a paper reminder that you want that information in the first place.

I'd like to stress that it is totally okay to answer "yes" to any of these questions. You can keep everything you want... as long as you're willing to pony up the space, time, energy and/or money to maintain it.

But if you're quite sure you don't want to keep that piece of paper, then it's time to visit the Trinity of Trash! Which one to visit, though?

Does this contain personal or sensitive information? Is it a credit card application that has been thoughtfully pre-filled-out for you? Does it include military, trade-specific, medical or insurance information? Is anybody's Social Security Number on it? Better to shred.

Some businesses use shredding companies, and compile all their to-shred stuff in covered collection bins. Smaller offices can use individual shredders, but I'll add a caution: however many sheets your shredder says it can handle, divide that number by 2.

Can this be recycled? A lot of stuff can: catalogs, non-sensitive documents, newspapers, magazines, scratch paper. If you don't have the option of office recycling pick-up and would like to find where to take your recyclables, check out Earth911.com for recycling options in your area.

And then there's trash. Some things just can't be recycled (most receipts, envelopes with little windows, used tissues). So don't be ashamed to trash stuff that you don't want or need. Whatever size wastebasket you think you need, go one size larger; according to productivity guru Barbara Hemphill, the larger the receptacle, the more likely people are to use it. Save the dainty wastebaskets for the reception area.

So that's how you work the "toss it" decision. But what about the "act on it" and "file it" decisions? Patience, my friends. Next week, we explore the many ways you can act on a piece of paper.

The Sorted Seven - No. 1: The In/Out/To File Sorter

Lord help us, we're spending the rest of March celebrating the seven desktop tools that are essential to managing paper in your office! I call these tools The Sorted Seven, and you can see an overview of the whole system here.

We begin at the point where paper enters your office, where its first stop should be: the In/Out/To File Sorter. I totally recommend the model shown here, because it has three open areas with a lot of space between them. I've put books, CDs, sections of the newspaper, even a t-shirt on these shelves with no problem.

Also, the horizontal arrangement (rather than an angle arrangement with slots) means that you can see everything, and that index card with the phone numbers on it won't get lost at the bottom of a tray. And there's a set of holes on the back to enable you to attach it to the wall if you need to save space on the desktop.

I call it the In/Out/To File Sorter (although I think its official name is the "three tier desk shelf") because that's how I've labeled the shelves from top to bottom. Here's a brief overview of how the system works.

IN: This shelf is where every piece of paper that enters your office lands. This is stuff you haven't seen. This is unopened mail. This is stuff your colleagues have handed to you, saying, "Can you look at this for me?" This is notes from a meeting you haven't had time to transcribe or review yet. This is a flyer HR has handed out to everybody. This is a temporary holding spot.

OUT: Once you're done with something and need to send it on to its next destination, it goes into Out. Also, if something doesn't belong in your office, it goes on this shelf so you'll have one dedicated place to look the next time you leave your office and need to take that thing to where it belongs. This is where outgoing mail goes, or the file that someone left in your office, or the DVD you borrowed last week. (I put my calendar there to remind me to take it with me when I leave the office.)

TO FILE: If you've gone through your In shelf and have found some stuff you don't want to toss and don't need to act on, but do want to hold on to (don't worry; we'll be discussing these decisions in detail in the days to come), then that stuff goes in To File. Since the stuff that needs to be filed isn't time-sensitive, it's okay to let it pile up a bit in To File until you've got a good stack of stuff to file, then spend 5-10 minutes filing.

The most crucial part of this sorter is the In shelf, and there is one essential rule for the In shelf: nothing ever goes back into In. Once you've taken it out of In, you have to make a decision about what to do with it (again, we'll talk about those decisions) and move it along the pipeline. Otherwise, your In shelf turns into a bunch of postponed decisions, and as my mentor Barbara Hemphill is very fond of saying, Clutter Is Postponed Decisions™. An In shelf that has turned into a clutter magnet is no use at all; if that happens, the system has pretty much broken down.

So that's how you use the In/Out/To File sorter. Think of it as the way station for paper in your office: the first place it goes when it arrives, the last place it goes before it leaves and the waiting room to catch the Filing Express.

Next time, we'll talk about the trinity of trash: your Wastebasket/Recycle Bin/Shredder. How to decide whether to get rid of something and how best to get rid of it.

Get your paper managed with the Sorted Seven

This post kicks off several weeks of blogging about the seven tools I used to manage my paper in my office. The "Sorted Seven" is based on my mentor, Barbara Hemphill's, "Magic Six," but I think the SwiftFile is special enough to merit its own number. Here's a breakdown of what we'll be talking about for the rest of the month:

(Yes, I decoupaged my filing cabinets several years ago. Don't judge.) The tools are numbered in the order in which we'll be discussing them:

1. The In/Out/To File sorter. 3/18/09
2. The trash can/recycle bin/shredder. (The shredder is elsewhere in the room. Side note: the computer subwoofer also makes an excellent footrest.) 3/20/09
3. My calendar. (In the "Out" portion of the sorter because I'm going to take it with me this afternoon.) 3/23/09
4. Contact management system. (Outlook in my case, but an address book can work too.) 3/25/09
5. Reference files. 3/27/09
6. Action files. 3/30/09
7. The SwiftFile. (Today's folder is on my desktop, but the glare from the window makes it a bit hard to see.) 4/2/09

And, I'm thrilled to add, my free eBook, "How to Harness a Hobgoblin: The #1 Strategy to Boost Creative Productivity" will also be available on April 2. (I would have released it on the 1st, but I believe in laying low on April Fools Day.)

So if you'd like to learn how to set up a system to help you handle all the paper that comes into your office, stay tuned for the next few weeks, and I'll introduce you to the Sorted Seven!

Your family (is a) business

I've started work on a presentation about organizing a home office to keep your family on track. This is as close to residential organizing as I get, but it's still fundamentally based in business organization. And that is because, frankly, your family is a lot like a small business.

Like a business, your family has revenues and expenses. Your family has operating activities, investing activities and financing activities. If you have kids, you have a kind of payroll (room, board, allowance) and benefits (health insurance, savings account) system. The parent(s) function as executives, making decisions and strategic plans, and occasionally calling on guidance and help from a board of advisors that might consist of grandparents, extended family and/or good friends. And like a business, your family receives an influx of paper every single day.

That is why, like every business, your family needs an office. Yes: "needs." I don't often make imperative directives; I try to frame my advice in terms of "I'd recommend..." or "You could try..." but I think the necessity of an office is absolute. That said, the office doesn't have to be a separate room. For some families, a desk and filing cabinet will work fine, and in dire straits, a portable file box can do the job.

What matters most is that there is one designated place in your home for paper relating to your family business activities. A place where everyone in your family knows to go when they need to find a document, store a document or make sure someone else gets to see that document. You could think of this area as "paper central" for your family.

That might not sound terribly cozy, welcoming or retreat-like, and those are frequently the kind of adjectives we use to describe our ideal home environment. But you are absolutely free to add personal touches to the "paper central" area to make it comfortable and easy to use, so it doesn't feel too much like a corporate file room (unless that's your design aesthetic ;-) ). I think it's crucial to recognize that our homes need to support us in our present reality, and the reality for every family is that it is, at least in part, a business.

When was the last time you backed up your data?

I'm half-tempted to leave this post at just that title, hoping that the question itself will spur you into action. But if it takes more than one question (which you might or might not know the answer to) to motivate you, let me add a few more questions...

What projects have you been working on lately? Whether it's freelance work for a client or some plans you've scanned for how you eventually want the backyard to look, chances are there's some pretty original work currently occupying your hard drive. I don't want to sound like a mafioso, but it would truly be a shame if something happened to that data.

Do you have any digital music or videos? Because a crash can wipe those out, too. And while you can re-download previously purchased items from iTunes, it would take quite a while.

How many times have you unloaded your digital camera onto your hard drive? Unlike music or TV episodes that can be re-downloaded, photos that have been deleted off of your camera can't be re-taken. Those memories would be just plain wiped out.

Now that I've hopefully got you a little bit nervous, I'd like to reassure you that data backup is pretty easy. All you really need is an external hard drive and a connecting cable. Most hard drive manufacturers include automatic backup software with the drives, so it's just a matter of turning on the external HD and connecting it to your desktop machine.

And then it's a matter of waiting... sometimes, quite a while. Rather than sit and tap my toes in front of the screen, I back up my data overnight once a month. My external HD software has an option that boils down to "just update everything that's changed since last time." For my monthly updates, that doesn't take too long. But if you can't come up with an answer to the blog post title, your external HD might need all night.

So, let me know in the comments: when was the last time you backed up your data? And what would it take for you to do it on a regular basis?