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44 Comments
- nshah, on 10/10/2007, -1/+21I love how they include tips like "Simplify, Simplify, Simplify " and "Have...less..stuff" on a list of 27 tips.
- feshmania, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11you really need one freaking rule to staying organized: stop procrastinating. I mean, easier said than done, but still, everything can be rolled into that one statement.
- SublimeRuin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Dammit I can't find a pen/pencil/marker to write these down with, or a notepad/notebook/notecard/tablet/planner/scratch pad/scrap paper/napkin to write on!
I know! I'll just bookmark it with IE/Opera/Firefox/Safari and view it from my Cell phone/pda/tablet pc/laptop/iphone/sidekick/DS/PSP or other browser capable portable device when i'm out and when I'm at home I can view it with my Wii/WebTv/desktop computer(mac/linux/win) or print it out and post it on my frig/bedroom door/desk/coffee table/dog so i always know where to find it when I need a reminder of how to simplify my life.
Or...I could just take a deep breath...make a simple list each day(mentally or phyiscally) be a responsible adult and get my ***** done.... - Khook20, on 10/10/2007, -3/+10This sounds like too much work
- esbern1, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7jesus christ this sounds like the most anal retentive person ever. he keeps track of his diet in a color coded binder?
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Right smack in the middle of this list is an advertisement for another site.
It goes:
1-14: Common Sense
15: Ad
16-27: Common Sense - Rodman930, on 10/10/2007, -0/+527 easy steps to OCD!
- kidendless, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4one of these days im gonna get organizized.
then im going to shoot up a local brothel and attempt suicide. - mseneschal, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Does anyone else find it ironic there are 27 tips to getting organized? Why not make the list “simple” and have 3 tips? I’m going to post a list on my blog. It’ll be the top 3 reasons why people love lists:
1.) People like to be told things they already know.
2.) Lists are faster than reading an ENTIRE paragraph.
3.) Whatever is in the list must be 100% true. - listrophy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Having moved over the past weekend, "Have...less...stuff" would have been an invaluable trait for me to have. Instead, I ended up transporting boxes and boxes of junk that will eventually be thrown out before being used ever again.
"Simplify, Simplify, Simplify" is stupid, though. Way too simplistic. :) - elvenseven, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Enough of this list already.
- ChronicColonic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I thought the information was so insightful that I
1) printed this article
2) cut each tip apart
3) scattered them on the floor to sort them
4) got sidetracked with something on the Internet
5) rolled over them backwards in my office chair ruining approximately 13 of them
6) stood up to get something to drink, taking two of them with me on my shoe
7) while I was getting something to drink, my dogs decided to run through them, picking up several to chew on
8) saw something on TV that caught my eye (not certain what it was, maybe something on short term memory problems)
9) my daughter decided to use a few of them for her own artistic creations
10) At which I decided that this was not a good approach to organizing my life.
11) Determined that memorizing this article would work better
12) Although I do have a photographic memory, realized that it was full of jokes, old sitcoms, Saturday Night Live skits, and porn.
13) Came to the conclusion that even though I could easily come up with 101 different things to become organized, there would be 1001 way to be sidetracked. Such as typing a comment on Digg.
However, the tips are very worthwhile...Digg. - escheriv, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Personally, I don't understand the current trend of hyper-optimizing your life. I'm sorry, but I thoroughly enjoy meandering leisurely through it. The last thing I want to do is make sure every second of my day is scheduled and filled.
Yes, sometimes the yard goes a little too long between mowings. Yes, sometimes the dishes pile up in the sink. etc. But at the end of the day, I'll get to it when I get to it. If the yard goes an extra day because I feel like riding the bike instead, so be it. - CatalystGhost, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Learn2backup.
- ngmcs8203, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3How about this as a list:
"27 reasons why I should have a proof reader fluent in English look over my postings before they go live." - Xalorous, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2If you read the little intro, you'll find that these are 27 individuals' best tip to be organized.
- Humbug101, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Give me 3 tips to organize these 27 tips.
- spencersage89, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I logged in just to digg you down. Why do I keep running into you and your 300 fetish? Welcome to my block list.
- tk0680, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Plenty of OTT rubbish, with the odd germ of a good idea thrown in.
- drgmdp, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1that, and the fact that reading weblogs and trying to be productive are straight opposites, makes this a lame+ article
- hello2gurl, on 10/10/2007, -0/+127 Great Tips to Keep Your Life Organized
Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits.
It’s a rare person among us who doesn’t feel the need to get more organized. I consider myself fairly organized, for example, but there are times when I get a little lax about my organizational rules, and there’s always room for improvement.
And if you’re already organized (read: you’re an organizational freak), chances are, you like to read about others’ organizational systems.
As such, there should be something for everyone on this list.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked all of you for your best organizational tips and tools. And you responded in force, with some great stuff. What follows are some of the best of the tips (tools will be in another post), edited for brevity and consistency.
I must emphasize: these are not my tips, but yours, and when you see the word “I” it refers to the reader writing the tip, not me. Names have been removed to protect the innocent.
3 Most Important Tasks. Writing down and making mental note of my top 3 tasks to get done for the day. Everything else seems to fall into place if I do that.
An easy and workable task list, or to do list. While I love all of these handy web 2.0 apps, computer software, very neat gadgets like palms and really cool cell phones, they just don’t work for me. I’m a lazy woman, with an even lazier attitude. I might put a task in Remember the Milk, another task in my palm, one in my Gcal and send another text to my phone. With all of these different ways of doing things, I end up spending much more time trying to organize my to do list, or consolidate it, that I don’t get much actually done.
Keep ubiquitous capture device. It might not be the same device for every location (I have a moleskine for work, but use my mobile for inspiration on the fly) but just being able to write stuff down when you think about it is key for me.
Choose one tool and stick with it.
Do one thing at a time.
Do it now.
Make use of the word no.
Use the recycling bin/trash basket. Organizing unnecessary items is wasted energy. It is amazing how much more in control I feel just by ridding myself of now outdated articles I’d like to read “someday,” or countless meeting notes from which relevant action items have already been extracted.
A (good) place for everything, and everything in its place. By finding places that are easy to get to for all the things I use most often, and places that are pretty easy to get to for the things I use less often, I spend less time dreading doing things and more time actually doing things. And the place for things you never use is elsewhere (trash can, place that accepts donations, etc.).
Simplify, simplify, simplify!
Put it away now. The single, simplest thing I do to stay personally organized is to put whatever tool, item, clothing, bag, hairbrush etc., away immediately after using it. I always know where everything and anything is so I never waste time looking for something. Very efficient. I could tell a stranger where to find anything in my home.
Keep a to-do list that syncs with your mobile phone (so you can add stuff as and when you remember it). And make sure every item has a due date.
Change. It obsoletes unimportant things. It brings down any method or idea that isn’t timeless. It brings up newer and more important things that you and others can’t resist anymore. Best of all: it’s an organizing tool that operates itself. You simply have to embrace it.
Divide material into red, yellow, blue and green plastic file folders. For example, anything that has to be done today (paperwork to be given to a client, bills to be mailed) go in the red folder. Contact material or anything related to customer field support goes in the yellow folder. Your mileage may vary as to how you organize your briefcase, and like me you may also have project-specific manilla file folders as well, but dividing stuff up into just four color coded folders is a huge help.
Flylady.net. She helped me realize that I needed to apply GTD principles to my home life and not just work. I had work under control using checklists, projects and next actions. I tried the same system at home and failed. Then about a month ago I discovered flylady.net courtesy I believe one of your blog posts. Wow, what a difference. My house is clean and so is my desk at work. Many if not most of her basic ideas are just like GTD in a slightly different perspective (control journal, baby steps) and also concrete methods for accomplishing next actions (2 minute hot spots, 15 minute timers). Her most useful tip was to put my daily/weekly lists into shiny page protectors in my control journal. I use a dry erase marker and voila no more killing trees or not doing my list because I can’t print it (or want to avoid the hassle). The best thing about this, I am more relaxed, my blood pressure is finally dropping and I feel less stressed.
Unapologetically take control of your time and priorities.
Sort at the source. My favorite organizational tool is my post office box. I visit it once a week (usually Saturday), stand at the counter in the lobby and sort my mail. I use the P.O.’s trash bin. What comes into my house is only what I need to have. Bills and letters and checks go into my inbox (which by the way is a box with a lid that is wrapped in lovely fabric and has a yellow bow on it so it looks like a present sitting on my desk). Reading material goes on the table by my chaise lounge which is where I do all my reading.
A sheet of paper, a calendar and a white board. I’ve found that the easiest way to organize myself, my days and so forth is a good paper calendar, a sheet of paper that I divide into four sections and a medium sized white board. For my paper the top left section is my actual running to do list for today. The top right section is my running grocery list, or list of things I must purchase. The bottom left is for notes such as calls I made, who I spoke to, appointment dates. The bottom right is whatever I need to move to another day. If I’m told to call back on Monday, then I note that on the calendar. As for the white board, the kids can make notes (Can I spend the night at Brian’s on Friday? Grandma called), and I can jot down things as I think of them to be added to tomorrow’s to do list. My calendar, and the white board are in the same location, so I can transfer short notes if need be. I carry my paper task list with me everywhere, so I can make notes at any given moment.
Color coding. I’m a visual person, and I find that color-coding my various lists and calendars minimizes the time I have to spend looking at them. This worked especially well when I was in school: I dumped every class syllabus into Outlook, and then color-coded every class period (blue for paper due, yellow for quiz, red for test, etc). It took awhile to set up, sure, but then for the rest of the semester I only had to glance at Outlook to get a very clear idea of what kind of week I was going to have.
One binder. I use a binder cleverly labeled “@ 2007″ with the following divisions:
@ Today - With my Emergent Task Planner from davidseah.com;
@ Week - The remaining days of the week ETP’s as a skeleton;
@ Year - All my historical sheets;
@ Diet - Which tracks what I have eaten for the day;
@ Fitness - Which tracks my workout routine for the day. My binder is with me all the time and it has helped me become a better employee, family member and relationship guy.
Write down, execute and tidy up on the way. These are is my organization bible. I’ve been living that way since more than two years and I can say that I’m an organized person.
A little whiteboard on my bedroom wall. I have it separated into two sections, a “todo” and a “today”. “Todo” is a list of general things I have to do, like get my car inspected, buy someone a present, etc. Then “today” is what I need to do, obviously, today! Things can be moved back and forth as appropriate. I find having a specific list for today helps push me to get the important things done in a timely manner. I also keep two things permanently on the “today” part, which are meditation and exercise. This seems to help.
Note cards. One can write tasks on them — one per card, or in a list (depending on the type of task in question; I do both). When doing one per card, the stack serves as an easy prioritization scheme. But wait, there’s more: They can be arranged on cork boards, shared, annotated, torn up and rearranged. They can be used as placeholders, as mini-white boards and as tokens to model ideas. They are easy to carry around, and to attach to other documents. Further, different colors allow for a visual representation of different kinds of todo’s (as can different annotations). Finally, they are cheap and most importantly of all: easy (much easier than software) to reconfigure as needs and projects change.
Never rely on a single point of failure. I’ve seen people pay $1,000 to hear speakers at a conference and only have one pen to take notes. It’s a great feeling when one thing breaks, gets lost, or runs out of power, and you have another one in reserve!
Have.. less.. stuff.
Delegate. Learn to trust people with critical tasks in all areas of your life. When you learn to effectively delegate tasks you actually find that it is easier to keep the stuff you cannot delegate better organized.
You control your life. Whatever electronics or paper you use, make them work for YOU not the other way around. Does Outlook really have to stay checking your email every 5 minutes? Maybe, but I bet you’ll get a whole lot more done if you check it a few times per day. That goes for the Blackberry too! After all, there are so many tools, and one to fit everyone - so use what works, but make it work for you!
If you liked this article, please bookmark it in del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thanks! - octophobic, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1My routine changes so little I don't need to bother. The only thing I do to remember things is to put them in my path so I'll notice them on the my out. (Often hung from the door itself)
- nepawoods, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"Simplify, Simplify, Simplify"
Or better yet, just simplify. - hotsake, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1To address the "have less stuff" ethos: I got myself into a regimen of asking myself whether I would still use a particular purchase in 3 months, 6 months, and so forth. This helps cut down on impulse buys. Another thing I did was to donate or sell a lot of books. They make the heaviest boxes when moving! There were some that I would never read again, and even if I want to in the future, I can probably find the title at the library.
- n5yat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Wow! I'm sure I haven't seen any of these ideas before in the
5000 previous Diggs of "how to get organized" articles...
Is someone getting paid per article to keep posting these things?
Thank goodness for the "bury" button... - SublimeRuin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1[you win]
- theOster, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1no. 12 made me go look at tfa. nothing there.
- Quaoar, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This far too much work! I have a simpler, more effective list:
1. Hire a personal assistant.
Q - SublimeRuin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1What's a virus? [I win]
- jonesyb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I liked this article. There is a good few things I can take from it that will help me.
- vondur, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1That earns you an LOL!
- rot13ubercrypto, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Here's an actual useful one: if your country's laws allow it (i.e. if you don't have something like an 'x' year document retention duty), buy a scanner, and every time you get a bill or paper or whatnot, scan it and toss it. It's a quick habit to get used to, and has helped me get rid of many pounds of binders. I also find that not trying to follow too many damn tips about how to organize your life (which more likely than not the author just sort of came with in a moment of theoretical boredom without ever bothering to follow them him/herself) is a good way to not make you feel bad about yourself.
- andsoitgoes42, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Simply? WTF. 27 steps to tighting your anus so much you can turn coal into diamonds. If you don't have an ability to be organized, this stuff will do squat, being disorganized is like being addicted to crack, you just keep coming back.
- TheRealAlzabo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Write it into iCal, sync to phone and print leaving extra spaces.....get the hell to work douchebag....
- hisXenocide, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0number 3 is actually pretty good. Keep ubiquitous capture device. This last quarter I ripped out the pages to an old book and just tossed all my notes and homework in there. Its really nice cause I always used to have a million half used notebooks that I would have to search through. Now I can just quickly sort through and dump what ever i don't need.
- rcolson9333, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0i need tips on how to organize my tips.
- Vigorator, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Because you never know, and hell02gurl didn't number the *****
It’s a rare person among us who doesn’t feel the need to get more organized. I consider myself fairly organized, for example, but there are times when I get a little lax about my organizational rules, and there’s always room for improvement.
And if you’re already organized (read: you’re an organizational freak), chances are, you like to read about others’ organizational systems.
As such, there should be something for everyone on this list.
A couple of weeks ago, I asked all of you for your best organizational tips and tools. And you responded in force, with some great stuff. What follows are some of the best of the tips (tools will be in another post), edited for brevity and consistency.
I must emphasize: these are not my tips, but yours, and when you see the word “I” it refers to the reader writing the tip, not me. Names have been removed to protect the innocent.
1. 3 Most Important Tasks. Writing down and making mental note of my top 3 tasks to get done for the day. Everything else seems to fall into place if I do that.
2. An easy and workable task list, or to do list. While I love all of these handy web 2.0 apps, computer software, very neat gadgets like palms and really cool cell phones, they just don’t work for me. I’m a lazy woman, with an even lazier attitude. I might put a task in Remember the Milk, another task in my palm, one in my Gcal and send another text to my phone. With all of these different ways of doing things, I end up spending much more time trying to organize my to do list, or consolidate it, that I don’t get much actually done.
3.Keep ubiquitous capture device. It might not be the same device for every location (I have a moleskine for work, but use my mobile for inspiration on the fly) but just being able to write stuff down when you think about it is key for me.
4.Choose one tool and stick with it.
5. Do one thing at a time.
6. Do it now.
7. Make use of the word no.
8. Use the recycling bin/trash basket. Organizing unnecessary items is wasted energy. It is amazing how much more in control I feel just by ridding myself of now outdated articles I’d like to read “someday,” or countless meeting notes from which relevant action items have already been extracted.
9. A (good) place for everything, and everything in its place. By finding places that are easy to get to for all the things I use most often, and places that are pretty easy to get to for the things I use less often, I spend less time dreading doing things and more time actually doing things. And the place for things you never use is elsewhere (trash can, place that accepts donations, etc.).
10. Simplify, simplify, simplify!
11. Put it away now. The single, simplest thing I do to stay personally organized is to put whatever tool, item, clothing, bag, hairbrush etc., away immediately after using it. I always know where everything and anything is so I never waste time looking for something. Very efficient. I could tell a stranger where to find anything in my home.
12. Keep a to-do list that syncs with your mobile phone (so you can add stuff as and when you remember it). And make sure every item has a due date.
13.Change. It obsoletes unimportant things. It brings down any method or idea that isn’t timeless. It brings up newer and more important things that you and others can’t resist anymore. Best of all: it’s an organizing tool that operates itself. You simply have to embrace it.
14.Divide material into red, yellow, blue and green plastic file folders. For example, anything that has to be done today (paperwork to be given to a client, bills to be mailed) go in the red folder. Contact material or anything related to customer field support goes in the yellow folder. Your mileage may vary as to how you organize your briefcase, and like me you may also have project-specific manilla file folders as well, but dividing stuff up into just four color coded folders is a huge help.
15.Flylady.net. She helped me realize that I needed to apply GTD principles to my home life and not just work. I had work under control using checklists, projects and next actions. I tried the same system at home and failed. Then about a month ago I discovered flylady.net courtesy I believe one of your blog posts. Wow, what a difference. My house is clean and so is my desk at work. Many if not most of her basic ideas are just like GTD in a slightly different perspective (control journal, baby steps) and also concrete methods for accomplishing next actions (2 minute hot spots, 15 minute timers). Her most useful tip was to put my daily/weekly lists into shiny page protectors in my control journal. I use a dry erase marker and voila no more killing trees or not doing my list because I can’t print it (or want to avoid the hassle). The best thing about this, I am more relaxed, my blood pressure is finally dropping and I feel less stressed.
16. Unapologetically take control of your time and priorities.
17. Sort at the source. My favorite organizational tool is my post office box. I visit it once a week (usually Saturday), stand at the counter in the lobby and sort my mail. I use the P.O.’s trash bin. What comes into my house is only what I need to have. Bills and letters and checks go into my inbox (which by the way is a box with a lid that is wrapped in lovely fabric and has a yellow bow on it so it looks like a present sitting on my desk). Reading material goes on the table by my chaise lounge which is where I do all my reading.
18. A sheet of paper, a calendar and a white board. I’ve found that the easiest way to organize myself, my days and so forth is a good paper calendar, a sheet of paper that I divide into four sections and a medium sized white board. For my paper the top left section is my actual running to do list for today. The top right section is my running grocery list, or list of things I must purchase. The bottom left is for notes such as calls I made, who I spoke to, appointment dates. The bottom right is whatever I need to move to another day. If I’m told to call back on Monday, then I note that on the calendar. As for the white board, the kids can make notes (Can I spend the night at Brian’s on Friday? Grandma called), and I can jot down things as I think of them to be added to tomorrow’s to do list. My calendar, and the white board are in the same location, so I can transfer short notes if need be. I carry my paper task list with me everywhere, so I can make notes at any given moment.
19. Color coding. I’m a visual person, and I find that color-coding my various lists and calendars minimizes the time I have to spend looking at them. This worked especially well when I was in school: I dumped every class syllabus into Outlook, and then color-coded every class period (blue for paper due, yellow for quiz, red for test, etc). It took awhile to set up, sure, but then for the rest of the semester I only had to glance at Outlook to get a very clear idea of what kind of week I was going to have.
20. One binder. I use a binder cleverly labeled “@ 2007″ with the following divisions:
Today - With my Emergent Task Planner from davidseah.com;
Week - The remaining days of the week ETP’s as a skeleton;
Year - All my historical sheets;
Diet - Which tracks what I have eaten for the day;
Fitness - Which tracks my workout routine for the day. My binder is with me all the time and it has helped me become a better employee, family member and relationship guy.
21. Write down, execute and tidy up on the way. These are is my organization bible. I’ve been living that way since more than two years and I can say that I’m an organized person.
22. A little whiteboard on my bedroom wall. I have it separated into two sections, a “todo” and a “today”. “Todo” is a list of general things I have to do, like get my car inspected, buy someone a present, etc. Then “today” is what I need to do, obviously, today! Things can be moved back and forth as appropriate. I find having a specific list for today helps push me to get the important things done in a timely manner. I also keep two things permanently on the “today” part, which are meditation and exercise. This seems to help.
23. Note cards. One can write tasks on them — one per card, or in a list (depending on the type of task in question; I do both). When doing one per card, the stack serves as an easy prioritization scheme. But wait, there’s more: They can be arranged on cork boards, shared, annotated, torn up and rearranged. They can be used as placeholders, as mini-white boards and as tokens to model ideas. They are easy to carry around, and to attach to other documents. Further, different colors allow for a visual representation of different kinds of todo’s (as can different annotations). Finally, they are cheap and most importantly of all: easy (much easier than software) to reconfigure as needs and projects change.
24. Never rely on a single point of failure. I’ve seen people pay $1,000 to hear speakers at a conference and only have one pen to take notes. It’s a great feeling when one thing breaks, gets lost, or runs out of power, and you have another one in reserve!
25. Have.. less.. stuff.
26. Delegate. Learn to trust people with critical tasks in all areas of your life. When you learn to effectively delegate tasks you actually find that it is easier to keep the stuff you cannot delegate better organized.
27. You control your life. Whatever electronics or paper you use, make them work for YOU not the other way around. Does Outlook really have to stay checking your email every 5 minutes? Maybe, but I bet you’ll get a whole lot more done if you check it a few times per day. That goes for the Blackberry too! After all, there are so many tools, and one to fit everyone - so use what works, but make it work for you! - jt32470, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0let's consolidate it all into 1 ....whic his GET RID OF ALL YOUR *****!
most of the things you own are garbage...give them away to goodwill or any other organization
bingo - imashmuck, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Except when you get a virus or your hard drive crashes...
- gimlik, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Pwned at work... can someone post a text copy of the 27 tips.
- abstracthuman, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Yeah it's pretty ironic, borderline humorous how complex it can be to simplify your life: "4: Choose one tool and stick with it." Hmm... pretty sure there are about 93 tools they recommend.
- lookinout, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1And how good is your diet? Keeping track is a really good tool.
- Piedramente, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0Tip: Do not overload.
- gartekh, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0I logged in just to digg you up
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