Welcome to The Simplifier, brought to you by…

Contents:

1. A Note From Shawn

Making headlines

2. Our Featured Quote

by Lily Tomlin

3. Article: Turning On the Easy Access Station

by PS Head Simplifier Shawn Tuttle

4. Your Simplification Tip

Naming File Folders - When less is more

5. In the News

How to get rid of e-clutter; Simple Ideas for Sustainable Living; and Savoring Life Through ‘Slow Living’?

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

Clean Desk Challenge

7. Keep Smiling

Dramatic Lemur

 

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1. A Note From Shawn

Another local organizer and I had the honor of being included on the front page of The Union’s business section yesterday. (The Union, our local newspaper, is not to be confused with The Onion, featured in our last issue’s Keep Smiling section.) Wonky headshot photo aside, I’m grateful for the exposure. I’m also appreciative that the paper found helping people in clearing their chaos worthy of front page action. Making life easier is what it’s all about!

The reporter included the notion that being disorganized can result in missing deadlines and thereby harm your reputation. What he didn¹t have room to mention was how far an Easy Access Station, smartly labeled filed folders, and a clean desk can go in preventing an otherwise potentially disastrous situation. Nor did he mention the widely-known fact that Simplifier newsletter readers are sure to be at least 76% more immune to these travesties! You can help spread this important point by forwarding this newsletter on to any and all of your friends and colleagues. What a perfect Valentine’s Day gift! Hmm, I think I¹m stretching it - maybe I should sign off here so you can move on to the good stuff.

Enjoy,

Shawn

Shawn Tuttle
Head Simplifier, Project Simplify
Co-editor, The Simplifier

 

 

 

2. Our Featured Quote

“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.”

-Lily Tomlin

 

 

 

3. Article: Turning On the Easy Access Station

By Shawn Tuttle

Just think if all of your dishes, pots, pans, utensils, plates, and mixing bowls were spread all over the counter. You’d come in the kitchen for a bite to eat and hunt around for a fork. You just saw one over here earlier…where is it now? Not too practical, and hopefully, not too common. More likely, all of your kitchen things have designated places. You know where to put them when they’re clean, and you know where to go when you need something. It’s easy, right? (“Yes!”)

Shouldn’t it be that easy to deal with all the papers in your office? This one goes here, this one there… Then when you need one again, you know just where to look. It’s easy, right? Hmmm, I’m not hearing the same enthusiastic “Yes” on this one. While the physical shape of bowls and plates makes sorting in the kitchen easy, the nondescript nature of a piece of paper requires you to engage analytical skills to figure out where it should go.

We talked about dealing with incoming stuff in The Inbox Zapper. What this doesn’t address are the files and papers that end up scattered on your desk during the course of the day.

Many set up a file rack on their desk or put files in their desk drawer for quick access. Great idea for facilitating your work flow. However, my experience with clients’ offices is that these file areas have long ceased to be useful. Usually, they end up as a catch-all, with the files ending up there out of convenience, rather than intention.

Let’s reclaim a file space that’s within easy reach of your desk chair, establish its parameters, and set it up to serve you well. I call this the Easy Access Station.

Benefits
How does the Easy Access Station make your life simpler? It stores like things together for quick location and access. Because it’s so easy to get and retrieve files, it’s a cinch to keep your workspace clear and thereby focus on the project or task at hand. (And it’s that much easier to leave yourself with a clean desk for the next morning!)

Here’s how to set up an Easy Access Station:

1. Determine what to include.
   Which files are you currently using on a regular basis? Customized for your situation, they may include:
   - Current Project files for projects that you are actively working on. By active I mean this or next week, not sometime this month. You may have several files for large projects. Only keep the one/s you are actively using in the Station.

   - Cycling files capture repetitive or “cycling” information that you deal with all the time. These might include: 1-to-1 files (for a specific person), Bills to Pay, Bookkeeping to Enter (or give to bookkeeper), Upcoming Event Info, Receivables, Contacts to Enter, Pending, and/or a Someday/Maybe file for ideas you are considering but haven’t committed to doing yet. I also have a Movies file where I drop names of movies that people recommend or that I read about and want to see.
   (Note: Some of your cycling files could be digitized. No reason that you couldn’t have a movies list in a notepad, Word doc or spreadsheet. However, I like the ease of the hardcopy file because, for example, I’m dropping things in from the newspaper.)

   - Empty file folders for quick-grab access as you go through your inbox. Your newly-made file folders probably get filed in your main filing cabinet, not in the Easy Access Station, but you want the empties easy to reach.

   - Reference binder holds information that stores well on a single pieces of paper. Usernames and passwords, packing list, phone lists, travel log, etc.
   If scraps of paper and Post-its are the bugaboos of your workspace, then you’ll want to focus on the cycling files and reference binder.
   

2. Choose placement and container. 
   In the Organizing By Zones article, I talked about Zone 1 being the desktop and Zone 2 being within arms reach of your desk (and not on your desktop). You may ask, “I use these files daily, so why not put them in Zone 1 on my desktop?” You could–it depends on your situation.
   The important factor is that they are physically easy to access. Opening a door, drawer or lid, adds an extra hurdle to easy access. If you have a desk drawer, it must be really easy to open and close! If it isn’t, use that drawer for other storage and find another solution. Also, files should have room to breathe in their space, and not be difficult to pull out or put back in.
   Other factors to consider: How much free space is on your desktop? How much of an open-space feel do you want on your desktop? How much spreading out do you like to do? Do you have room for a file cart on wheels? Do you have a floor that a file cart would roll on? Would your workspace benefit from the extra drawer or shelf that comes with many file carts?
   

3. Label sections for easy finding. 
   Labeling also serves as a reminder that only these types of files are allowed here. The three recommended sections could be called: Current Projects, Cycling files, & Empty files.
   

4. Nurture the integrity of your Easy Access Station.
   Take a quick scan once a week for projects that are no longer current for you. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the project is completely done. What it means is that you won’t be working on it for a few weeks or that it’s out of your hands. Remove these files from your Easy Access files and, if they need to be kept, store them in their proper place in your filing cabinet.

Aside from selecting and purchasing your file container, setting up your Easy Access Station can be done fairly quickly. (Just remember to actually use it once you get it set up!)

Most people agree that working at a clean desk feels better than working at a desk cluttered with papers and files. The Easy Access Station makes switching between projects easier because your current files are within arms reach. It also provides a home for the somewhat random information that tends to clutter your desk. Having less on your desk makes it easier to focus on the task or project at hand. So set up your station, monitor it weekly to keep it current, and enjoy your clutter-free desk!

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

 

 

 

4. Your Simplification Tip

Naming File Folders - When less is more

It’s February 2006. You have a conversation with Jim, during which you take notes that seem super-important and that must be kept. You put them in a file folder and label it. Here are three options of file folder names:

1. Feb 2006 Notes with Jim

2. Notes from 2/06 conversation with Jim

3. Jim - conversation notes

Note that each choice would be filed alphabetically in a different place: under F, N or J. Which would you use?

Now it’s February 2008–2 years later. You remember that you had a conversation with Jim a long time ago, but don’t remember exactly when. You want to review your notes, but don’t remember how you labeled the folder. Where would you think to look?

Not “F” for February, because you don’t remember when the conversation was.

“N” for notes? Unless you already have a section for Notes with people, it’s not likely. (Plus, a section for “Notes” with people would get unwieldy quickly.)

“J” for Jim. While this originally seemed to be the most vague title, it begins with the most explicit piece of information, i.e. Jim.

The key to naming file folders, when you use an alphabetical system, is to begin the title with the word that you would be most likely to look it up under!

 

 

 

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Spread simplicity - forward The Simplifier to your friends and colleagues!
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5. In the News

Compiled by The Simplifier co-editor Lance Brown

How to get rid of e-clutter  (Dayton Daily News - Dayton, OH)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/243urp
Personally, I hire an e-maid, who comes in twice an e-week and e-dusts, takes out my e-trash, that sort of thing. But maybe you can’t afford to live in my imaginary e-world, where there are such things as e-maids. In that e-case, you’ll have to e-deal with your own e-clutter. Perhaps this article will (all together now) e-help.

Simple Ideas for Sustainable Living (Mother Earth News)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/yr9aqz          
This is the second in our series of “we trust news sources that have killer names” articles. Last issue, we took assurance that Smart Company would have some good ideas. This time, the topic is sustainable living. And how can “Mother Earth News” not have good info about that topic? They can’t not, that’s how. (Even their slogan rocks the town: “The Original Guide to Living Wisely”. Who could turn that down?)

Savoring Life Through ‘Slow Living’?  (Medindia.com)
URL: http://tinyurl.com/395o99
Which of the following is made up?: a) slow food, b) slow shoes, c) slow football, or d) slow money. Would you believe it’s not “slow football”? This article about the emerging “slow” movement is worth checking out, even though you’ll have to work a little to “slow ignore” the ads that are jammed up against the first few paragraphs on the page. ;-)

If you know of something in the news that should be featured here, let us know!

 

 

 

 

6. Featured at ProjectSimplify.com

The Clean Desk Challenge

Once again, Shawn has made my job in this section easy. This time she did it by issuing the “Clean Desk Challenge”, to herself and any takers. What is the Clean Desk Challenge? Simple: End each day with a clean desk. At least it sounds simple, when it’s in words like that. (Everything’s so much easier in my imagination. Why can’t we all just stay there?) But can you break past the easy “talk” and pull off the proverbial “walk”? In other words…are you up for the challenge?

If you are, Shawn is all warmed up and ready to compete. She’s been posting “proof of life” desk photos on a nearly nightly basis. (Starting here.) So if you can’t manage to get your own desk clean every night this month, at least you can salivate over Shawn’s pristine surfaces. (Just don’t salivate on them…that would kinda defeat the purpose.)

 

 

 

7. Keep Smiling

by The Simplifier co-editor Lance Brown

Dramatic Lemur

The picture’s almost enough to draw out a smile, I hope - but the (very short, work-friendly) video got a full-blown laugh out of me. Maybe it’s just me, though. Only one way to find out…

http://www.viralvideochart.com/metacafe/dramatic_lemur?id=1068919 (<–click)

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for reading!

Publication Information
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The Simplifier is published by:
Project Simplify
P.O. Box 597
Nevada City, CA 95959
phone: 530.205.5775
web: www.projectsimplify.com
e-mail: (newsletter@projectsimplify.com) newsletter (at) projectsimplify (dot) com