BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Organization Tackling the Paper Pile

OK James is asleep so now I am taking on the paper pile downstairs while Bob and I watch TV. Bob is watching Psych. Or sort of, it's an old episode and really he's playing a tank game on his phone.

I have a file box which has all of my in process projects. So I'll sit with the pile on one side, the box on the other, and get it all sorted into categories. Sorting is the first step!

Wow it's almost 5am (really 6am with the time slide back) and I *just* finished organizing and sorting the paper pile. I have an entire bin full of recycled paper now plus many folders with different types of paper to do things with. So progress! Things are getting organized, and my office is more clean!

off to bed

Hi Lisa. That's dedication! You sure put in your time getting stuff sorted. Now you have things you can act on. What kind of categories emerged for you?

That's great, lisa. I am pretty far from getting around to my paper piles. But i did accomplish a few organizing things today, so i'm feeling good about that.

I have several folders of wine notes that haven't been put online on my wine site yet. A large folder of my local town notes, I run a website for the town. A folder of book review notes, books I've read and haven't written up yet. So that sort of thing. Now at least I can tackle a given project and know all the material is there for it and get through it.

Hi Lisa. Thanks for sharing your categories. They sound very actionable. By that I mean you can look at the label you have assigned and know what you have to do. It sounds like you will be able to sit down with a folder and move right through the contents without having to stop and think about what needs to be done with each piece of paper. Since you have put like with like, you will save yourself loads of decision making time.

Notes seem to be a theme for you. How do you plan to get these projects done? Do you have blocks of time already worked into your schedule?

Dear Kelly Jane -

Do you mean how I will work on the paper piles? Those are "spare time" projects". I can work on those when Bob wants to watch something and I want to sit on the futon with him. So it's in the box waiting for those times to happen.

Hi Lisa,

Yes, my question was about how you planned to work your way through the folders. I am making the assumption that all the papers you put into the various folders were important, otherwise you would have chosen to let them go. I was mostly curious if they were time sensitive. People often think they will get to projects in their 'spare' time, but my experience tells me unless you schedule time in for those projects they rarely get done. So if there isn't anything critical in those papers, your plan of tackling them when you spend downtime with Bob will work just fine.

If there are any important and urgent papers in your various folders, I would encourage you to pull those out and schedule time into your work day to get those things taken care of.

I think if a task is important enough to do, it's important to schedule time for it. The reason I am such a fan of scheduling is that too many people 'hope' they will get stuff done. Unfortunately, hope is not a useful strategy.

Dear Kelly Jayne -

There are stages of important I have billions of tasks. For example I went to Bordeaux a few months ago and I have great notes to put on the wine site. However I have editors who need launch reviews, and those are time sensitive. I also have server updates that need to get done for security reasons. So they're all important. They just have different priorities.

The wine notes can go up "whenever". They can go up when there is not launch reviews and server updates to do.

Hi Lisa. I love the billions of tasks! Hopefully(I am guessing by your statement related to prioritizing that this is true for you) it means you have many interests and wear many hats, but you aren't over a barrel, missing deadlines and so over extending yourself that you feel under the gun all the time.

Prioritizing tasks is critical if we are going to be successful. I am sure everyone is aware of the urgent, important, not urgent, not important matrix. It sounds like you certainly have put it use.

Some of your tasks sound like noncritical, fun projects (that's a good sign, it usually means the task owner is maintaining a well rounded life). I must say I am a little envious, reviewing wine notes about a trip to Bordeaux sounds particularly enjoyable!