If you’re just joining me now, it might be a good idea to go back and read post 1 and post 2 in this series. Today we are going to talk about PRODUCTIVITY. What does it mean to you? To me, it means getting tasks done in the least amount of time so I can free myself up to do the things that I want to do! After the steps of De-cluttering and Organizing our space to make it function about 80-90% better, we will still have some tweaking to do to make our space the best that it can be. Let’s look at dealing with our mail every day.
In the de-cluttering phase, we clear a space for mail in our office. For the organizational part, we are using a basket to collect all mail for the week and look through it on a certain set day. (Lisa Woodruff, professional organizer, suggests to do this on Sundays.) The next step would be to increase productivity in this area, or make the system run smoothly. According to Lisa Woodruff in her book “The Mindset of Organization,” these are the 5 steps to productivity.
- Use the organized system
- Plan
- Refine and Order
- Evaluate and Maintain
- Execute
Step 1: Use the organized system. For the mail, you have decided to put all mail into the basket so it will be corralled and not be floating all over your kitchen counters.
Step 2: Plan– Let people in the house know that the mail goes into the basket every day and that they can find any mail there.
Step 3: Refine and Reorder- After using the system, is there anything that is not working. Do you need to add some folders within the basket to separate where bills are kept? How about a coupon folder?
Step 4: Evaluate and Maintain- Is there anything that would make the process easier? For instance, is some mail getting left in the kitchen because it’s easier to lay it down there than walk back to your office and put it in the basket? Maybe you could move the basket closer to the door where you walk in or just keep the basket in the kitchen. Part of the way the system works is that you check it on Sundays. Is that really a good day for you to go through the basket? The maintaining part includes throwing mail away (or recycling) that isn’t relevant to your life or taking action on any papers that need attention that week.
Step 5: Execute- After trying out your system and working out the kinks, your system should serve you well and allow you to be more productive!
Hope you have enjoyed this series but next week we’ll be moving on to a different subject and it’s a good one!
STARBUCKS!!
I highly recommend Lisa’s book and even visiting her website- www.organize365.com!
Good ideas.