05.12.08
Workload exceeds maximum!
Each time I got a voice mail today, my voice mail system gave me an ominous warning that my inbox was getting so full, it was considering not letting me hear any messages. It told me I had to delete or move emails first in order to free up space. It came down to my basic curiosity– how bad did I want to know who the caller was or what they wanted? Would it be worth it to free up inbox space just to find out I had a new task, project, or problem to handle?
Hmmm… curiosity got the better of me. I decided to squirrel away some unread newsletters that were piling up. I stuffed them into a folder on my hard drive, along with dozens of other unread newsletters from the same sender. Sigh… wish I had time to read them. Maybe someday…. Wait- forget that daydream of getting caught up– the voice mail beckons. After hearing it, I was right. I have a new project to work on and a phone call to return. Guess I’ll have to read those newsletters later, whenever that is…
I’m so far behind on reading my blogs I might as well clear out the aggregator and start over. When I worry about what I may have missed in unread blog posts, I try to tell myself if it were that important, I’d find time to read them every day. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially when the voice mail and email inboxes are full to bursting.
In addition to emails, voice mails, and newsletters, I tried desperately to keep up with new projects today by writing them down on a pad of paper. It was a great idea– until I remembered I had several pads of paper scattered about my desktop with lots of old projects written on them. Guess it’s time to consolidate them on one large piece of paper and figure out which ones need to be done first.
I’ve tried putting new projects or tasks into Microsoft Outlook’s tasks and assigning due dates, reminders, and priorities. But they only end up annoying me when the reminder pops up and I don’t have time to do the task or project right then, usually because something else has come up. I know I can change the reminder or even dismiss it. I can also ignore it and have the software tell me how many hours, days, or even weeks I’ve been ignoring it. There’s nothing like being reminded you’re really far behind on your to-do list–and like a true packrat, I can accumulate overdue reminders like nobody else.
04.01.08
Paper panic
I couldn’t find two very important pieces of paper yesterday and such a feeling of panic arose in me. I’ve been working very hard to file papers as soon as I got them, not touch them more than once, and not stack them in piles. I’ve really grown to like the clean desktop concept and the feeling of calm that comes with it. Then when I couldn’t find these two pieces of paper, my first thought was, “Eeeek, I’ve thrown them away by mistake! How could I have done that? It was such a bad idea to get organized. I knew where everything was when it was in piles.”
I frantically searched what remained of my piles and files: my nearly empty in-box, a pile of stuff left over from the big purge awhile back, and a folder marked “DO.” I found some interesting stuff I’d forgotten about squirreled away in those places, like those darned appraisals I was going to do a few weeks ago. But I didn’t find the papers I was looking for.
In a fit of desperation, I checked the green conference bag I bring to work every day, sure I wouldn’t find them in there. Why would I take them home with me?, I asked myself. They were part of a larger group of papers, so I wouldn’t need them by themselves.
Surprise! That’s where they were. I was relieved I found them, frustrated I couldn’t find them, and aggravated that I forgot where I put them. Some days I feel like I wake up and have totally forgotten everything that happened in my life up until that morning.
03.28.08
Out of sight, out of mind
The papers I threw into my in-box the other day stayed there the rest of the week, just as I feared they would. I totally forgot about them. Despite having my in-box on top of my desk, it’s outside of my line of sight when I’m facing my computer, which is most of the day. So anything that lands in it is basically ‘out of sight, out of mind’ as far as my AD/HD brain is concerned. I know left-brained people (like my husband) don’t understand this concept. His paper and email in-boxes are always cleaned out, every day. Nothing sits or piles up- ever!
Before leaving for the day, I grabbed those papers out of the in-box and clipped a “To File” note to them. I put them next to my computer, where I’d be forced to look at them Monday morning. That way I can be assured they won’t lie there all next week, slowly being buried by new papers that land on top of them.
Speaking of always emptying an email in-box (oh, not mine, of course)– my husband deletes or prints out his emails every day, so his in-box is squeaky clean. The other day, he was trying to sign up for online banking at our new bank. I told him we already did that when we opened accounts there last fall– didn’t he get the confirmation email like I did? He checked his email and well– of course it wasn’t there. I searched my 1,200+ messages and found it within seconds (thanks to Yahoo’s email search box).
Ha! The Packrat strikes again! I proved that although I keep just about everything, I can usually find something somebody needs. People think I’m organized, but the real secret is that I never throw anything away. The trick is finding it when I need it…
03.18.08
Collecting web sites
I recently decided to use delicious to organize my library and technology web sites, since I tend to collect them like I do papers and books. I set up the delicious buttons on my computer at work, so that when I read of or hear of a new website, I can find it and bookmark it right away– no delays, no excuses. This way I won’t be scribbling it on a piece of paper or photocopying an article I would get to ‘later’ when I had more time to read it (yeah, right- who am I kidding?). Maybe this will help me reduce (or at least manage) my paper piles.
My collection of links in delicious is pretty puny right now, but I plan to beef it up in the coming days. I have gobs of links on paper and in other places, so there’s a lot of work to do. When I get it more fleshed out, I’ll post the link to my delicious links (don’t you love how that sounds? delicious links) here on my blog, so I can share my collection of web treasures with my readers. Delicious appeals to my desire to organize everything, even the web (or at least the tiny part of it that interests me).
03.15.08
Clean desktop
Ever since I purged my desktop and files of several pounds of paper two weeks ago, I’ve become accustomed to seeing lots of white space on my desktop. I can honestly say I’m hooked on it. I can see the smooth, flat, light gray Formica for the first time in years. It brings a feeling of peacefulness to the whole room.
Anything that lands on the desk doesn’t stay there long now– that’s my new goal. I can say it’s almost becoming an obsession to keep paper off my desktop. I want it clean when I leave at the end of the day, which is what most normal people do. But I’m not normal and many times in the past, I’d leave stuff out when I left, because I knew I’d be working on it the next day. As long as it wasn’t confidential paperwork, why bother to put it away? I’d just have to get it out again. I was partly afraid if I put it away, I’d forget the next day I was working on it. You know– out of sight, out of mind.
The best incentive of all is the reduction in my stress levels. Seeing a clean desktop at the end of one workday and at the beginning of the next tells me everything is going to be all right and that I can handle all of my projects, employees, and responsibilities. That’s probably the best reason of all to keep it clean.
02.28.08
Controlling paper clutter
There was an article in our Sunday paper where readers shared with Sara Noel of Frugal Village their tips on how to control paper clutter. While I’m still struggling to figure out which method would work for me, I can tell you which ones won’t (hint: all of them).
Go paperless: this reader scanned paper documents and saved the digital images to a removable hard drive. Bad idea for me: I already have a problem organizing my born digital documents, much less any I would scan in order to eliminate paper from my life.
Box system: this reader put all of their paperwork into a box and at the end of the month, went through the box and paid bills, sent birthday cards, etc.
Bad idea for me: I’d never go through the box and bills would go unpaid. I already have a hard enough time sending birthday cards despite having a whole desk drawer full of them. Maybe I should send them all on Jan. 1st every year.
Immediate action: this reader opens mail next to their filing cabinet.
Bad idea for me: this is way too easy, therefore I don’t do it. Procrastination doesn’t allow it.
Prioritize: this reader pays all bills online and stores things in binders if they think it’s worth the time to punch holes in paper and file it that way.
Bad idea for me: I don’t trust online bill paying (yet) and who has time to punch holes in papers? I just let ‘em pile up. They don’t fit in my overstuffed binders anyway.
Portable file, one for each family member: this reader handles papers only once and files papers in boxes or portable files according to family member.
Bad idea for me: I would need extra large boxes for all the papers I keep that pertain to my kids (oops! already have ‘em and they’re full!) and what fun is it if I can’t pick up the paper several times and never know what to do with it?
Self-discipline: this reader says don’t waste time filing papers you don’t need to save. Besides, it’s probably on the Web if you need it.
Bad idea for me: I don’t have any self-discipline and can’t figure out what to keep or pitch. Besides, I’d probably have to bookmark it on the Web so I can come back to it later. Then I’d have to organize my bookmarks.
Create deadlines: this reader creates boxes with deadlines for catalogs, throwing them out a month after they arrive.
Bad idea for me: who has so much free time they can track the age of their mail-order catalogs? I wait until there’s a huge pile and the year on them doesn’t match the current year in which I’m living, then I pitch them.
P.S. I recently found out I have a moderate case of AD/HD, so I’m going to have to work twice as hard as the next gal to stay on top of projects, mail, email, paperwork, and everything else. Wish me luck. If anyone with AD/HD has practical, useful advice, please share it. 
02.24.08
To-do lists and GTD
Have you ever felt you heard something on the radio that you were meant to hear, because it came on at just the right time? If you had been in the car at another time of the day or tuned in to a different station, you would have missed something important? This is exactly what happened the other day when I heard a story on NPR.
The story was about to-do lists and GTD (Getting Things Done). David Allen, author of Getting Things Done and of the website with the same name, Getting Things Done, recommended using Post-It notes to write down ideas and thoughts that run through your mind (check– I do that already with scraps of paper– not sure it makes me more organized). Doing this, he claimed, freed up your mind to continue working on whatever was at hand. Since I need to figure out how to organize all those scraps of paper, I think I should read his book. Our library has copies of it, so I’ll have put it to the test. There aren’t too many organizing systems that work for me.
One of the resources mentioned on the NPR page was 43 Foldersby Merlin Mann. This site is based on Mann’s email inbox solution, which contains tips on handling your email inbox, as well as other GTD tips based on Allen’s book. Hmmm…. looks like I need to take some time reading Mann’s tips, since my inbox is flooded with up to 100 emails per day.
I’m still trudging through 4 Weeks to an Organized Life with AD/HDby Jeffrey Freed and Joan Shapiro. The problem is, I’m too disorganized and distracted to finish the book and will have to surrender it to the library. Once I discovered a glaring typo (a bad find & replace put the letters AD/HD into the word ‘addition’ in several places throughout the book), I had a hard time continuing it. Again, there aren’t too many organizing systems that work for me. If I can ever finish this book, it will be interesting to see if it provides any lasting value for me.
02.11.08
Little pieces of paper
One of the things I’m good at producing is dozens of scraps of paper with lists of things I need to do. You’d think with all the electronic organizers and to-do lists I have access to I’d have found a better way by now, but that’s not the case. Somehow paper seems to work better for me– at least for the moment. I have to find a way to capture random thoughts racing through my head: current projects, people I need to contact, files I need to load.
Last week, after filling up 4 new scraps of paper (front and back!) with to-do lists, I decided to go through a collection of those paper scraps in my desk drawer. I wanted to see if any were aged enough to be thrown away. Surprisingly, some were. I threw away several and was amazed at how feelings of relief replaced those paper scraps.
The thing that scares me most about creating too many little scraps of paper is that it reminds me of my grandmother when her mind started slipping. We would visit her and find scraps of paper with nonsensical stuff written on them. None of us could decipher any of the words, but they made sense to Grandma when she wrote them. She was obviously capturing her random thoughts just like I do. Unfortunately, they were outward signs of the inward deterioration of her mind. I hope my scraps of paper continue to have meaningful scribbles on them now and in the future.
