Order your chaos

Submitted by: www.orderfromchaos.com

1. What to Keep and What to Toss

Most of us keep way too much stuff and for all the wrong reasons. Often that is because we don't know the rules of what to keep and what to toss. It's simple. Of each piece ask these three questions:

• If I throw this away, will I get arrested? We all have things we must keep (tax returns, certificates, continuing education credits, etc.). You know, legal stuff, incase the paper police show up. If you'll get arrested, then keep it.
• Have I used this in the past 6 months, or do I know exactly how I will use it in the next 6 months? If the answer to both these questions is "No" then toss it/recycle it/give it away, whatever, but get rid of it! By the way, this is 95% of your stuff.
• Can I get it someplace else? If you can, toss it! About the only good thing about all the new technology is the web. Now, you can replace just about anything, including forms (I download my 941 each month, rather than keep copies on hand all the time). Or, if you can ask that organized person in the office, do it!

Apply these three questions to everything and you'll be amazed how clear your office is, how useable your kitchen counters are, and you'll be able to fit passengers in your car again.

2. Write Everything Down

The average business person receives 240 requests for their time and energy each day. With the increase in spam, it's probably higher! Contrast those numbers with the fact that the average human brain can only keep 7 things in short term memory and you begin to see the problem. We can't remember it all (any of it?) anymore. Therefore, we need to write those requests down. But, not on post-it notes or stray scraps of paper or the backs of envelopes. We need to write them down in one place, where there is actually room to capture them. That means a two page per day calendar system (blank on the left page for notes, and with a to-do list and a schedule on the right page). You can even make one out of a spiral notebook, as long as you date the pages into the future. You MUST be able to write into the future, as most truly important things don't need doing today, but they do need to be done soon. Especially capture your interrupted interruptions. How often are you doing task one, get interrupted to do interruption one, get interrupted during interruption one for interruption two, and by the time you get back to your desk, you've totally forgotten interruption one? You'll remember when you're driving home, or when you sit straight up in bed at 3 a.m.! So, write it all down, write it in the same calendar, and write it down when you need to do it.

3. File 90% Right Now!

Those of us who are disorganized are allergic to drawers - file drawers, dresser drawers, any drawers. We have this out-of-sight-out-of-mind fear, so we want it right out where we can see it (this is really the "I'll-leave-something-out-to-remind-me" method, but that's a different tip). What we need is a way to have it out where we can see it, but piled vertically rather than horizontally. For this, we need a very nice tool available from Office Depot, the wire file cart. It is about as long as a filing cabinet drawer, holds hanging folders and is made of heavy wire mesh (open), short (fits under your desk) and on wheels (mobile). What you do with the "Hot File" as I call it, is to create a folder for the things you touch everyday or every other day, no less frequently than that. What are those things you ask - usually current clients, current projects and frequently repeated tasks.

Do you realize 90% of the stuff you save is a current client, current project or frequently repeated task? That's why you can do 90% of your filing right now! This is a fabulous tool for the home as well (they have a smaller one for that). It should be kept right next to the place where your stuff lands when you come in (you know, the kitchen counter, dining room table, top of the dryer, that place). That way you have a place for "bills to pay" and "bank statements" and "catalogs to peruse" as well as "owners manuals."

4. Since You Never Get Done

We never get done anymore, do we? No matter how long we work, how hard we work, or how much work we take home, we just never get done, do we? Welcome to the twenty-first century. Unless something drastic happens, it is not going to get better; it will probably get worse. So, how do we stay sane in this crazy making culture? Your goal is not to get done. Your goal is to accomplish the 7 most important things each day. No, I didn't say 7 things. I said the 7 most important things. There is a difference. If you accomplish the 7 most important things each day, you will be in the 3% of human beings on the face of the earth. I know it sounds simple, but you will be surprised how seldom you will get all 7 done, but when you do, sit back, relax, eat some chocolate and party, because you're in the 3%, you little achiever, you!