Organize your Desk - Books and Paper (Day 10)

Today's let's turn our attentions to your workspace, whether it's a desk, a corner of the kitchen table, or your favourite spot on the couch.  Obviously it's easier to get your work done if your work corner is conducive to it, but how do we get there?

Once again, sadly, this is not a staged shot... I've been working in this mess for a week while I prepared for this post.

When we organized clothes, I took you through a "take everything out" method. That's not generally how I want you to work, though, unless you have a ton of energy and extra time in case it takes longer than you think.  Let's do this task in five-minute bursts instead.

Here are the benefits of a comprehensive clear-out that we want to keep in mind, though - it helps to deal with all items of one time at the same time, so they get looked at in one chunk, and put away together.  If we do one section at a time, whether it's a drawer or shelf, that benefit can be lost if we're not careful.  We'll try and look at categories as we go.

As usual, if anything occurs to you as you're going through the process, make yourself a "to-do" in Habitica rather than getting side-tracked.

Burst 1:

I did this before the photo because it was just too embarrassing, but if you have any clothes in your work area that don't belong there, put them away.  I'm not talking about a sweater draped over the back of your chair for when you get cold... I'm talking about the shirt that inexplicably ends up piled on top of your papers, or the socks under your desk.  Move 'em out!  Hopefully this is not as likely now that you've organized your clothes and it's easier to put everything away.

Apparently my dishes weren't too embarrassing to leave in the picture.  Take them to the kitchen (but don't get side tracked washing them.)

Next is books.  If you have books on your desk that are left over from last term, or are fiction reading, put them away on your bookcase (if you have one) or wherever you keep them.  (Maybe you need to look on Kijiji for a small, cheap bookcase?  Make that a to-do).  I don't have a good place for books, so I stack them neatly in order of size on one corner of my desk.  The ones that are in constant use I stand up beside them, so the pile acts as a bookend.  It's not ideal, and you'll see I've already broken my rule about leaving fiction reading on my desk.  But some books make me happy to see every day and don't tempt me away from my schoolwork, so I let them stay.

Next is paper.  Aren't you glad we warmed up with the easiest (clothes) and then books, which are at least easier to pile and stack?  Paper is simultaneously one of my favourite things in the world, and the bane of my existence.  (I often say 'paper sticks to me').

I hope you have some kind of rough filing system, so we're not going to touch that.  But take a quick pass through everything on top of your desk, anything on the floor, in your school bag, and stuffed in drawers.  As you go, sort it into just three piles - scrap paper to use up, sentimental keepsakes, and everything else.  Any more piles and it gets too confusing, although if you really want to sort into courses I won't stop you!

If you find anything that makes you think "oh wait!  I really need that!", you might be tempted to deal with it immediately.  If you really need to and you won't be able to concentrate otherwise, go ahead.  But think about this... if you leave it in the pile, will it motivate you to deal with that pile sooner rather than later?  And what does that say about everything else in the pile?

In this first burst, surprisingly, I only managed to gather the paper from on top of my desk.  Since we don't want the pile to get ridiculously large and overwhelming, let's start processing.  We're going to deal with the sentimental items later, so put them aside in a safe place out of the way of your work.  I keep scrap paper in the very first file folder in my file box, so I can pull out a piece or several any time I need to without spending any brainpower on it.  That makes that pile easy to deal with too.

Burst 2:  

Here's the processing method I use, thanks to David Allen's classic book on time management, "Getting Things Done" [1].  Go through the stack from the top. There are only five things you can do with each piece of paper you pick up.

1. If this piece of paper reminds you of something you need to do, figure out the next action (remember that we want physical, concrete steps) that has to happen.  
1. If that action will take less than about 2 minutes, go ahead and do it right now.  (The two minutes is arbitrary, and sometimes I stretch it to five.  The point is not to spend time putting something on a to-do list and doing it later if it would be quicker to just do it now).
2. If there is a next action but it's not doable now, is it because somebody else needs to do something?  Start a list that's called something like "Waiting For".  Note down what you're waiting for and from who. Perhaps your next action is actually sending them a quick email to remind them.  I don't often have things in this category (students don't have staff they can delegate to!), but I find it valuable enough to have a file folder dedicated to it.  I also use it for tests and other items that I need to retain until three weeks after marks have been available, since in a sense I'm "Waiting" there too, just for a date instead of a person.  I keep the list in my notebook, but you can also use a piece of scrap paper for the list and file it at the front of the folder.
3. If you've exhausted both of those options, it's time to make a "to-do" for the next action and file the piece of paper.  This gets us out of the habit of leaving paper out as a reminder to deal with it, and lets us see all our to-dos together so we can choose the most important to do at any given time.
2. If there is no next action, there are two possible things you can do with the paper.  
1. The first is file it for reference.  For me, former course notes go in this pile, as well as papers I printed off to read, so I don't have to print them again when I can't find them.
2. The second non-action thing is for something holding an idea that you're not quite ready to give up on, but you're not ready to take an action yet.  Make a file for these too, and call it something like "Someday", or "Maybe" or "Incubate".  Don't bother making a to-do for them - we aren't spending the time to figure out a next action for these yet, or committed to doing anything about them yet.

If none of those five things are correct and it's not of sentimental value to you, then it's recycling!

I got about a third of my pile processed in the second five-minute burst.  Don't be discouraged by your rate if it seems slow - remember, when you first learn something, you're slower at doing it.  Later on you'll be able to sort through a large pile of paper much more quickly, but also, hopefully, you won't have as large a pile!


If you have processed everything after a few bursts (I use the "five minutes of anti-procrastination" for this, pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for a job well done.  But I expect that is true for very few people!  I recommend adding a Habitica Habit that is something like "Process paper - 15 minutes".  You could use your "chunk of work" habit, but I find that has two problems.  First, 25 minutes is too long to work effectively on this task, and second, it doesn't remind you that it needs to be done, so it doesn't work as a cue.