Managing My Things

As for organization, I always thought I was doing better than others. I have not graduated into the digital world so my organization tools remain to be paper, pencil, and monthly planner. I learned a while back that I had to get my thoughts out of my head in order to be able to sleep at night. Because night time is when the house is quiet, I even got into the habit of keeping paper and pencil on my night stand so I could write things down that came to my head in the middle of the night. Organizing my tasks is the easiest part for me. If things feel like they are piling up, I will write them all down and then prioritize them and check them off as I complete each task. 

Organizing the paper work, phone calls, and emails is a bit more challenging for me. I try to go through my emails only once in the evening, deleting everything that doesn't require my attention right away. Then I copy all the information that I need to act upon in the very near future. Lastly, I read and "mark as new" the emails that I need to keep and respond to later. Yep! You may have guessed it, but this has not been working for me very well. My email now has over 90 things on it and I can't keep track of all the papers I copied. My papers get lost because I don't organize them into a file system. 

I have three challenges that I need to work through. One of those challenges is the lack of stamina I still have after my cancer treatments. This makes for shorter than normal days. Another challenge I have is feeling like if I can't physically see it, I forget about it. And finally, the biggest challenge I have is the feeling of moving at warp speed to get so many things done in a short amount of time, so nothing really gets adequately organized. I am sprawled out all over the place at my house. This is no good.

I learned a lot of good ideas from Getting Things Done. I like the file folder system that the guys talked about in the video. That seems like a feasible idea for me to tackle in order to organize the projects, paper work, and other tasks that come across my desk. Another idea that Josh and Joe talked about was archiving email older than 6 weeks old. That is an idea that I am now doing so that "new" email list goes down. I feel like I can take small baby steps towards implementing many of the ideas referred to in the article and video. My goal is to then be comfortable enough with technology to convert over to programs I can put on my computer and get a blackberry so I have access to all my information no matter where I am. 

Letting go of my feeling to have everything in visible sight is a huge hurdle for me to get over. I can visualize how with the right tools, this is something that I can achieve, however. 

I admire how my 21 year old son handles everything with the help of his computer and phone and how comfortable and natural this is for him because he grew up with technology. Then I look at me, who grew up without the help of technology and how difficult it is to change over. So, my goal for this class is to really get comfortable and knowledgeable about the technology that is out there and how it can help to make my professional and personal life a little less hectic, freeing up more time for enjoying quiet moments alone or with my family.