A Simple Personal Organization System

(adapted from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”)By Certified Action Coach Dave Beam

One of my greatest “mentors” when it comes to Self-Management and Personal Organization has been David Allen. Based upon his widely read book, “Getting Things Done,” I have put together a simple system for personal organization that I use for myself and I share with my clients. What follows is an “A-La-Carte” set of straightforward instructions on what to do with ALL of the “stuff” that comes into your life on a daily basis. If you put a system like this in place and use it religiously, it quite literally will change your life.

So without further ado:

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

·        INBOX (Physical and Electronic)

·        Outlook CALENDAR, TASK LIST, CONTACTS

·        DAILY SUCCESS PLAN Sheet

·        EXCEL FILE LIST

·        Manila FILE FOLDERS, File Labels and File Cabinet

1. COLLECT IT ALL

Physically put everything you have into an INBOX.  If the items are electronic, put them all into one place. I prefer Microsoft Outlook.  Write down all of your ideas and things on your mind and put them into your INBOX as well.  All of your to do lists, phone messages, business cards, sticky notes, articles to read, booklets, magazines, loose files, - put it all in one physical location called the INBOX. You also need to clear your head. Try to get EVERY idea or thought out of your head and on to paper. Each thought or idea in your head gets its own piece of paper or sticky note or whatever. Don’t make a single page with a “list” of items. When we move onto the next step, you will want to be able to deal with each item individually, one at a time.

This might take an hour or a week depending on your current level of disorganization. But you will start feeling better about life in general once you complete this first step.

2. CLASSIFY – What is it? What do I need to do with it?

Getting everything in one place feels great doesn’t it! However, if you stop there it will all only come back to haunt you. Now you need to “classify” each item with what kind of action you are GOING to take. It will be tempting to start "doing" things as you are working through this step. For the most part, DON’T. Right now you need to focus all of your mental energy on sorting everything.

Pick up (or open) each item and decide what it is and classify it. Here are the classifications:

·        DISCARD IT if you no longer need it or want to keep it

·        DO IT now -IF- it is something you can take care of in less than a minute or two

·        DELEGATE IT if it is something someone else needs to do. Track the delegation by listing it as an item on your TASK LIST and who you delegated it to and any associated due date for a response

·        DEFER IT if it is something you need to do later

o   Put it on the CALENDAR if it is scheduled at a specific time (appointment) and place any physical materials in labeled FILE FOLDER

o   Put it on the TASK LIST if it has no specific time (with a due date if appropriate) and place any physical materials in labeled FILE FOLDER

·        REFERENCE IT if it is something you may use later, but there is nothing to do right now. Put it on an appropriate bookshelf, file, binder, etc for storage.

3. CLARIFY

·        Organize your TASK LIST items into appropriate categories.  Items associated with people could actually be copied from the CONTACTS in outlook.  Be sure that each task has a clearly defined outcome (what will it look like when it is completed) and a clearly defined next action (what is the next action I need to take to move it toward completion) and appropriate due date.

·        File all of the physical FOLDERS.  I use a simple system of filing where each FOLDER gets a sequential number starting with 001 and is listed in a EXCEL FILE LIST that has the number a brief description of the file that includes key words.

4. PLAN

·        At a regularly scheduled time each week, empty your INBOX and process each item, review and update your TASK LIST and choose the most important next actions to do over the next week

·        At the beginning of each day, choose the most important actions to perform that day (other than your scheduled appointments) and put them on your DAILY SUCCESS PLAN.  Capture all of the new thoughts and items of the day on your DAILY SUCCESS PLAN and put them back into your INBOX.

5. USE DAILY AND REVIEW

·        Every day you will be bombarded by more “stuff.” Immediately COLLECT this “stuff” and move it into your physical INBOX.

·        Depending on the amount of “stuff” you accumulate in your inbox, you will want to CLASSIFY and CLARIFY either daily or, in my case, weekly.

·        Try to review and purge your collection of “Reference” material monthly, otherwise it has a tendency to accumulate.

If you need more clarity with any of this, give me a call! I will be happy to sit down with you and work through how it can work for you in your individual situation.