Submitted by Captain Curmudgeon on 04-06-2009 2:41PM.
Back when I was an engineering officer on a US Navy ship, I used to receive various orders and directives (chiefly from the Bureau of Ships) that were clearly not going to work out. I took apart my IN-OUT box and added another tray: ACTION-HOLD.
When something clearly stupid showed up in the in box, I'd read it and move it to ACTION-HOLD. When someone elsewhere tried it with the usual disastrous results, I'd take the new directive countermanding the old directive from the IN box, fish out the item in the ACTION-HOLD box, staple them together and put them in the OUT box.
The funny thing is, forever_vai, I do the exact same thing! If you can stay on top of it at check-out, it definitely helps the un-packing of groceries go a lot smoother!
My eureka moment came at a local thrift store (hey, recycle!) eight years ago. I was standing at the checkout line and behind me was a bin with an unopened box of the complete original compact system, all the forms, tabs, envelopes, an audio tape & booklet, everything but the binder, for $60. It was an impulse purchase and it changed my life.
I'm on year 20 of a five year plan to get organized. I'm sure that purchase shaved another couple of decades off the task. I'm a writer and a professor, and have been self-employed as well in my creative field throughout: I accumulate a lot of paper. I am not a planner. But I must. I like that quote: I "choose" to be a planner, rather than say I can't be a planner.
My husband was a middle-manager for a large financial firm and took seminars on the system. So, when I came home with the packet, he was amused to see me all excited about it. But, I listened to the tape, and I liked the idea that my little fat black book could be any world I designed. The single greatest task that changed my life, especially since soon after I was made department chair and advisor to 100 grad students, was keep all the paper in one place. My planner is color coordinated in sections and includes a fold-out notebook in the back. I also use the pages to brainstorm, just like I used to use journals (although I still keep separate writing notebooks). Some days are just for writing, and I find myself starting something on page, then using the old blank daily pages to continue. I keep the binders to then store these notes and ideas and drafts after the year is over.
The first time I used it I filled out the master page: "What is the one thing I can do that will change my life?" "Get organized!!!!" I wrote, but maybe with a few more exclamation marks and in caps. I lose money, I lose jobs, I lose time and for a writer, time is money; heck, I've lost friends and lovers, maybe even a pet by being disorganized.
Back when I was an
When something clearly stupid showed up in the in box, I'd read it and move it to ACTION-HOLD. When someone elsewhere tried it with the usual disastrous results, I'd take the new directive countermanding the old directive from the IN box, fish out the item in the ACTION-HOLD box, staple them together and put them in the OUT box.
Saved a lot of time and trouble that way.
Thanks, Captain Curmudgeon!
Thanks, Captain Curmudgeon!
This might sound silly, but
Whilst loading the trolley, I placed similar items together, thus at checkout we packed those items together.
So when at home the task of sorting was already done all I had to do was put it away on the respective shelves/drawers in the kitchen!!
A little bit of planning for something as simple as that indeed went a long way.
The funny thing is,
My eureka moment came at a
I'm on year 20 of a five year plan to get organized. I'm sure that purchase shaved another couple of decades off the task. I'm a writer and a professor, and have been self-employed as well in my creative field throughout: I accumulate a lot of paper. I am not a planner. But I must. I like that quote: I "choose" to be a planner, rather than say I can't be a planner.
My husband was a middle-manager for a large financial firm and took seminars on the system. So, when I came home with the packet, he was amused to see me all excited about it. But, I listened to the tape, and I liked the idea that my little fat black book could be any world I designed. The single greatest task that changed my life, especially since soon after I was made department chair and advisor to 100 grad students, was keep all the paper in one place. My planner is color coordinated in sections and includes a fold-out notebook in the back. I also use the pages to brainstorm, just like I used to use journals (although I still keep separate writing notebooks). Some days are just for writing, and I find myself starting something on page, then using the old blank daily pages to continue. I keep the binders to then store these notes and ideas and drafts after the year is over.
The first time I used it I filled out the master page: "What is the one thing I can do that will change my life?" "Get organized!!!!" I wrote, but maybe with a few more exclamation marks and in caps. I lose money, I lose jobs, I lose time and for a writer, time is money; heck, I've lost friends and lovers, maybe even a pet by being disorganized.
My Franklin Planner changed my life.