Okay here's an excerpt of the rough draft of my book on organization...
Most books and blogs on organization come from the top down, or inside out, like July Morgenstern’s Book, “Organizing from the Inside Out.” Occasionally you find one that takes a bottom up approach like David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” The former seeks to help you realize why you are disorganized and develop more effective habits to become a more organized person. The latter seeks to deal with the mess you’ve already made in a standardized approach, saving the soul searching for afterward in order to make a lasting change.
I love both of these books. There’s nothing wrong with either approach. You can pick whichever appeals to you and if it isn’t working try the other. What I wanted to do, however, is deal with that unexplored middle ground, and do it in a way that doesn’t require you to buy fancy new equipment or radically shift your thinking.
So I created the (ADOS) Action Driven Organization System. It lets you start in the middle, and is simple enough to describe in a single blog post--mostly. Best of all, you can learn about it while you do it.
Start here: You grab pen and paper, or a spreadsheet program (I use excel).
Record all the things you do in a day (one per line on paper or one per cell down a column in a spreadsheet.)
Then record all the things you do in a week (no need to duplicate, just add weekly things).
Now record all the things that come up monthly.
Finally, record all the annual activities you engage in.
A comprehensive organization system must include organizing all your stuff, your time, everything you do, and the places you do what you do. I call this TAIL, for Time, Action, Item, and Location. We started with action for a reason though. Action is going to drive all the others forward. Here’s why.
Essentially we are asking, “What,” when considering actions. What do I do? Not what should I do? That comes in a moment. At this point you are just asking, “What am I already doing?”
Obviously, time is a “When” question, but why establish when to do something when you haven’t nailed down what you are doing? Likewise, location is a “where” question that shouldn’t come up until you know what you are doing. Item is a “what with” question, and could include raw goods, tools, finished products, etc. You can’t have a “what with” apart from a “what.” Fortunately, you just made a large list of, “Whats.”
Now in a separate column, make a list of the things you’d like to be doing at some point. It could be something you could get to this year, or in a couple years. Maybe you don’t have a clue when, or if, you’ll actually get to do it, but you really would like to do it sometime.
Tune in next Monday for the next excerpt, "The Why Question."
Monday, May 20, 2013
A late, odd post
Okay not that strange but I wanted to be posting some excerpts from the health research I've been compiling. I just had a busy weekend and didn't feel like working on the health stuff. I did write a fast 10 pages about Organizing so I'll throw in some bits of that below. BUT FIRST!
Here's an update on the writing front (which I should be doing Wednesday but I'm in the mood to do it now.) I'm succeeding at not revising "Footless and Fancy Free" as I need to let it cool a little. I will get to that in June (10 days, WOW!). I wanted to get to my "Denny's Tales" anthology but that's not happening as I've been writing up a storm on my ORG project. It sort of makes sense since I need to settle into the RV etc. so I'm doing a lot of that type of work. It's kinda on my mind when I go to write, and it's a different muscle than I've been working out when writing fiction, so it feels good. I still have ten days, I can still get some big strides toward publishing Denny's Tales if I get to it soon.
I've decided to drop the Wonder NW convention appearance that I'd previously put in my calender. I simply need to make room in the schedule. I will, however, be doing the Bards and Brews event in Hillsboro. So see the pic attached for details. Also don't forget to check out the Dublin Down Sunday night, where my friend Amber Sweeney will be celebrating the release of her newest CD with a concert. That's at 6pm.
Okay here's an excerpt of the rough draft of my book on organization...
Most books and blogs on organization come from the top down, or inside out, like July Morgenstern’s Book, “Organizing from the Inside Out.” Occasionally you find one that takes a bottom up approach like David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” The former seeks to help you realize why you are disorganized and develop more effective habits to become a more organized person. The latter seeks to deal with the mess you’ve already made in a standardized approach, saving the soul searching for afterward in order to make a lasting change.
I love both of these books. There’s nothing wrong with either approach. You can pick whichever appeals to you and if it isn’t working try the other. What I wanted to do, however, is deal with that unexplored middle ground, and do it in a way that doesn’t require you to buy fancy new equipment or radically shift your thinking.
So I created the (ADOS) Action Driven Organization System. It lets you start in the middle, and is simple enough to describe in a single blog post--mostly. Best of all, you can learn about it while you do it.
Start here: You grab pen and paper, or a spreadsheet program (I use excel).
Record all the things you do in a day (one per line on paper or one per cell down a column in a spreadsheet.)
Then record all the things you do in a week (no need to duplicate, just add weekly things).
Now record all the things that come up monthly.
Finally, record all the annual activities you engage in.
A comprehensive organization system must include organizing all your stuff, your time, everything you do, and the places you do what you do. I call this TAIL, for Time, Action, Item, and Location. We started with action for a reason though. Action is going to drive all the others forward. Here’s why.
Essentially we are asking, “What,” when considering actions. What do I do? Not what should I do? That comes in a moment. At this point you are just asking, “What am I already doing?”
Obviously, time is a “When” question, but why establish when to do something when you haven’t nailed down what you are doing? Likewise, location is a “where” question that shouldn’t come up until you know what you are doing. Item is a “what with” question, and could include raw goods, tools, finished products, etc. You can’t have a “what with” apart from a “what.” Fortunately, you just made a large list of, “Whats.”
Now in a separate column, make a list of the things you’d like to be doing at some point. It could be something you could get to this year, or in a couple years. Maybe you don’t have a clue when, or if, you’ll actually get to do it, but you really would like to do it sometime.
Tune in next Monday for the next excerpt, "The Why Question."
Okay here's an excerpt of the rough draft of my book on organization...
Most books and blogs on organization come from the top down, or inside out, like July Morgenstern’s Book, “Organizing from the Inside Out.” Occasionally you find one that takes a bottom up approach like David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” The former seeks to help you realize why you are disorganized and develop more effective habits to become a more organized person. The latter seeks to deal with the mess you’ve already made in a standardized approach, saving the soul searching for afterward in order to make a lasting change.
I love both of these books. There’s nothing wrong with either approach. You can pick whichever appeals to you and if it isn’t working try the other. What I wanted to do, however, is deal with that unexplored middle ground, and do it in a way that doesn’t require you to buy fancy new equipment or radically shift your thinking.
So I created the (ADOS) Action Driven Organization System. It lets you start in the middle, and is simple enough to describe in a single blog post--mostly. Best of all, you can learn about it while you do it.
Start here: You grab pen and paper, or a spreadsheet program (I use excel).
Record all the things you do in a day (one per line on paper or one per cell down a column in a spreadsheet.)
Then record all the things you do in a week (no need to duplicate, just add weekly things).
Now record all the things that come up monthly.
Finally, record all the annual activities you engage in.
A comprehensive organization system must include organizing all your stuff, your time, everything you do, and the places you do what you do. I call this TAIL, for Time, Action, Item, and Location. We started with action for a reason though. Action is going to drive all the others forward. Here’s why.
Essentially we are asking, “What,” when considering actions. What do I do? Not what should I do? That comes in a moment. At this point you are just asking, “What am I already doing?”
Obviously, time is a “When” question, but why establish when to do something when you haven’t nailed down what you are doing? Likewise, location is a “where” question that shouldn’t come up until you know what you are doing. Item is a “what with” question, and could include raw goods, tools, finished products, etc. You can’t have a “what with” apart from a “what.” Fortunately, you just made a large list of, “Whats.”
Now in a separate column, make a list of the things you’d like to be doing at some point. It could be something you could get to this year, or in a couple years. Maybe you don’t have a clue when, or if, you’ll actually get to do it, but you really would like to do it sometime.
Tune in next Monday for the next excerpt, "The Why Question."
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