Knowing where you store important information is half your success in today’s personal and professional world. Data is everywhere. Finding the info you need quickly and effectively is critical.
Fifteen years ago, I worked with a guy who had a computer in his head. By far, he had the most disorganized looking desk since the printing press was invented. He was a paper propagator. Piles grew. Memos fell onto the floor. Reports stacked up. Yet he knew where everything was.
Somehow, his brain captured EXACTLY where the crucial legislative report lay hidden. I clearly remember going to see him one morning, needing a fairly important document under a tight timeframe. He seemed distracted. I thought to myself, “Oh oh, this is not going to turn out well. There’s no way he’s going to find this.”
He listened to me, and might have even been talking on his cell phone at the same time for all I remember, because he was one of those guys who take in what you say while walking around rearranging his room, checking his mail, clicking on his computer keyboard and talking to a key constituent. For some reason, he was also able to catalogue where he put everything on his disaster of a desk.
He shuffled a few papers around, reached under a mound of folders and UNBELIEVABLE, there it was. He shrugged his shoulders, gave a silly grin and I was on my way.
Most of us have some system like this. Documents might be kept in our heads, placed in filing cabinets or stored on our computers. As the proliferation of information continues its aggressive virus-like attack on our humanity, it becomes more and more important that we arm ourselves with tools to curb the beast.
Winning the war means knowing where everything is. Think of how often in your home you’re looking for some paper you filled out regarding your medical care or insurance and you can’t remember where you put it. Or you’re at work and your boss asks for some file from two months ago and you draw a blank because heck, the presidential election is ongoing and you’ve been distracted. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember that far back” becomes your refrain.
To survive today, you must archive your way to organizational success. Create folders. Find memorable places to store files. Name things in ways that make sense to you and you’ll ALWAYS remember. This is hard. It’s still easy to forget where something is stored if you don’t go there often.
I think that is one of the reasons we are often lost today when we try to find something important and can’t figure out where we put it. There’s an ongoing societal frustration that builds up.
Release your anger/frustration by archiving. A good friend has over 40 folders on different business subjects. He names them in a silly way to poke fun at the corporate world, things like “Process Improvement,” “Standards,” “Policies,” “Parking Lot,” “Meetings,” “Teamwork,” “Heard It Before,” “Never Gonna Happen,” “Best Customer Complaints” and “Quality.” I would suggest not implementing his titles.
Still, you can archive your way to organizational success by finding your own system that organizes the way you think. Work becomes a matter of dusting off the old stuff because you know where everything is, and it all gets recycled. Home life hums because you easily access every form from 1988-2016 electronically.
If you find you create too many electronic folders, there’s always the old fashioned way of building paper piles on your desk. But you’ll have to call my buddy on his land line to get him to help you navigate it.
Fifteen years ago, I worked with a guy who had a computer in his head. By far, he had the most disorganized looking desk since the printing press was invented. He was a paper propagator. Piles grew. Memos fell onto the floor. Reports stacked up. Yet he knew where everything was.
Somehow, his brain captured EXACTLY where the crucial legislative report lay hidden. I clearly remember going to see him one morning, needing a fairly important document under a tight timeframe. He seemed distracted. I thought to myself, “Oh oh, this is not going to turn out well. There’s no way he’s going to find this.”
He listened to me, and might have even been talking on his cell phone at the same time for all I remember, because he was one of those guys who take in what you say while walking around rearranging his room, checking his mail, clicking on his computer keyboard and talking to a key constituent. For some reason, he was also able to catalogue where he put everything on his disaster of a desk.
He shuffled a few papers around, reached under a mound of folders and UNBELIEVABLE, there it was. He shrugged his shoulders, gave a silly grin and I was on my way.
Most of us have some system like this. Documents might be kept in our heads, placed in filing cabinets or stored on our computers. As the proliferation of information continues its aggressive virus-like attack on our humanity, it becomes more and more important that we arm ourselves with tools to curb the beast.
Winning the war means knowing where everything is. Think of how often in your home you’re looking for some paper you filled out regarding your medical care or insurance and you can’t remember where you put it. Or you’re at work and your boss asks for some file from two months ago and you draw a blank because heck, the presidential election is ongoing and you’ve been distracted. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember that far back” becomes your refrain.
To survive today, you must archive your way to organizational success. Create folders. Find memorable places to store files. Name things in ways that make sense to you and you’ll ALWAYS remember. This is hard. It’s still easy to forget where something is stored if you don’t go there often.
I think that is one of the reasons we are often lost today when we try to find something important and can’t figure out where we put it. There’s an ongoing societal frustration that builds up.
Release your anger/frustration by archiving. A good friend has over 40 folders on different business subjects. He names them in a silly way to poke fun at the corporate world, things like “Process Improvement,” “Standards,” “Policies,” “Parking Lot,” “Meetings,” “Teamwork,” “Heard It Before,” “Never Gonna Happen,” “Best Customer Complaints” and “Quality.” I would suggest not implementing his titles.
Still, you can archive your way to organizational success by finding your own system that organizes the way you think. Work becomes a matter of dusting off the old stuff because you know where everything is, and it all gets recycled. Home life hums because you easily access every form from 1988-2016 electronically.
If you find you create too many electronic folders, there’s always the old fashioned way of building paper piles on your desk. But you’ll have to call my buddy on his land line to get him to help you navigate it.
