Getting Organized: Seeing Results (part 3/4)

I processed everything in my “in-box” over a couple of weeks.

In-Box emptied of small paper slips. The box has since been replaced with something nicer.

Some items, or tasks, were too massive or not important enough to complete at that time, but they were still duly noted on my tracking spreadsheet.

Projects organized and slated for future actions.

The Big Purge: Shred, Recycle, Toss.

I had quite a collection!

At the end of my time as a GTD guinea pig I had accomplished some important things.

1. I made space for my home office and set everything up.
2. I identified future projects and recorded them on my spreadsheet so that they wouldn’t be occupying memory power in my brain.
3. I purged a lot of stuff.
4. I developed a system to track and record all of the things that need to be done in both my personal and professional life.  This was partially based on GTD methodology and partially based on my own experiences and ideas.

Throughout the experiment I was continually reminded of a key factor I noticed from my professional experiences many years ago.  In order to be organized and stay that way everything needs a place.  So this is Tip #3: Everything Needs a Home (even the handmade lace coasters, which incidentally were a gift from my mother).

Although the tip is succinctly stated and sounds easy, sometimes it’s harder to put into practice than it seems.  Sometimes part of finding a home for something means physically purchasing a new piece of furniture or a new external hard drive to store all of your items.  But one thing is guaranteed, if you don’t have a place to put an electronic or physical item, it will cause clutter, pile-ups, and backlog.

Stay tuned for next week’s gripping conclusion to the Getting Organized series on how to maintain what you started.