Do You Trust Your Organizing System?

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Do you trust your organizing system?

How you answer this question, will most likely determine how organized you really are! If the answer is Yes… Well kudos to you my friend! My guess is for most people the answer is yes, sort of, maybe, sometimes, or no, not at all.

David Allen in Getting Things Done, talks about having clear edges between your reference files and action files.  What does this mean? Having clear edges between your files means only reference paper goes into the reference file, and only action papers go into the action file.  Clear edges means there is no grey area, it should be very clear what is in the file.

You are making a promise to yourself and making a commitment to maintain your system the way you set it up.  You trust that when you are looking for a reference file, it will be in the reference file.

The files and therefore the system must be clear and well defined!  You can not be sort of be organized or organized half of the time.  When doing so, we are breaking the promise you made…. You are breaking the trust in the system.

What happens when we don’t trust our systems? We become numb to them!  We say, they no longer work for us.  We get frustrated and we can easily go back to our old habits and before we know it, the paper pile is back!  We have to trust our systems in order to make them work! We have to keep the promise we made.

Here is an example of a trusted system, which is not about paper, but everyday items you would find in a home:

I was working with a client the other day and we were talking about underneath their bathroom sinks.  Both sinks had a variety of different medicines, first aid, extra supplies etc, basically to the point where it was overflowing.  They were buying duplicates of items because they thought they were out.  So we created a new system… one they could trust! We decided to clear out the sinks and go through the organizing process by placing like items with like items.  After deciding what was needed to stay under the sinks, we labeled a clear bin for the excess supplies.  We placed the clear bin in their closet where there was plenty of room and easy access.  So going forward, if they were out of something from under the sink, they would go to the extra bin, if it was not in the bin, then they knew they could trust it was no where else in the home and they could add it to their errand list.   They now have a trusted system in place.

Do you trust your organizing system?

If the answer is no, what actions can you do to fix it?

In order to stay organized, in order to live an organized lifestyle, you must trust your systems!

Happy Organizing!

Posted on July 16, 2010 by in Home Organizing, Office Organizing, Paper Management, Productivity, Staying Organized, Time Management

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  • Michelle

    I just listened to the podcast and wanted to add a few points to the GTD discussion.

    1. Someone who is unfamiliar with GTD might think (based on your discussion) that David Allen’s approach encourages putting next actions on your calendar. In fact, it doesn’t. You mentioned “hard edges” and doing that softens the edges of the system and makes it unreliable.

    The only actions that should be on your calendar on a specific day are those that are truly “day specific.” Things that “have to be done” on that specific day. Not things that you would like to do on that specific day.

    In Making it All Work, he says, “If you add entries such as what you’d like to get done on a given day, you’ll have to keep rethinking your schedule, wondering what’s real and what’s not.”

    He does not support the “daily to do list” idea.

    Of course many people are not strict GTDers, but I think it’s important to preface statements that aren’t true to the system with a “this is not what David Allen suggests, but this is what works for me…” statement, specifically for people who are just hearing about it for the first time.

    2. It would have been nice to hear you guys talk about the idea of contexts and next actions. I know it was already a long recording, but those are ideas that really make the approach work and make it different from many others in the productivity space.

    Thanks for the podcast! I enjoy it!

  • http://www.takecontrolorganizing.com Nikki

    Michelle – Thank you for your comments and insight. You bring up some great points and clarification. This is a fantastic book and I have really enjoyed reading it and discussing it with Pete. I could see future podcasts relating to contexts and next actions. Thanks for listening!