Clean Out Your Boat!

Organizing the Paper

Angela Hinkelman

Topics we will cover today

• Managing Paper• Calendar Tips• To-Do Lists• Prioritizing• Email Tips

Three Little Boxes…• Inbox

– A place to throw anything new• Today’s mail• Memo• Parent Notes• Phone Messages

– Set aside a time to go through your inbox.• Outbox

– Items that need to go somewhere else• Outgoing mail• Items to take home

• Pending– Papers you will use later that same day.

• A paper you need for a 3:00 meeting

Tickler File

• A way to organize your million papers!• 43 folders = 31 days in the month + 12

months• Here is what your file cabinet would look

like…

Other Paperwork Tips

• "Chickenpox" - each time you pick up a paper without doing something with it, put a red dot on it.  See how many dots you get on it before you do something with it!

• TRASH - 

T - Throw it away

R - Refer to someone else

A - Act on it

S - Save it and file it (where you can find it)

H - Hold off (read it later when you're not busy)

Streamline Paperwork

• Broad headings (detailed headings make you forget where you filed them)

• Chronological order• Clear labels (avoid numbers)• Loose-leaf notebook for large files• Avoid constant filings

168 hours

• Everyone – Millionaires, Celebrities, Executives, Teachers, Clerks, Parents, Children – has the same 168 hours a week.

• What do you do with your 168 hours?

Calendars• Choose paper or digital and stick with

it. Only keep ONE calendar.• Have some form of calendar with you

at all times.– Smart phone or paper calendar in your

bag• Set reminders.• Set time on your calendar when to

PREPARE for something.• When you think it, ink it!

Remembering Important Info

• 5 subject spiral notebook• Date the top of each page and put the topic.• Possible Uses:

– Meetings with boss– Meetings with clients– Project notes– Planning– Phone call notes– Conversation records– Student notes– Notes from Professional Learning

Types of To-Do lists

• Legal Pad• Binder• Spiral• Post-its – ON SOMETHING• Desktop Stickies -

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/stickies/– Other stickies: http://www.sticky-notes.org

Qualities of Good To-Do Lists• Write how long it takes to do each item.• Assign each item a priority.• Add items to your calendar.• Build in white space.• No back-to-back appointments • For big projects, break it up into small pieces and

schedule the chunks.  Don't skip lunch - you need the fuel and you need the break.

• Work on hard tasks during your “prime time”.• Try never to schedule more than 60% of your work

week at a time.  20% of your work week will be an extension of your to-do list.  20% of your week will be tasks you don't even know about yet.

To Do List Tip

• On your To-Do list, the "ugly frogs" (hard or unpleasant tasks) fall to the bottom and get moved to tomorrow.  This happens every day.  Do the ugly frogs first.

• “Swallow your ugly frogs first!”

Prioritizing

• Time log for a week.– At the end of the week, do you spend your

time on the most important items?• Four Quadrant Activity

– 1 Urgent / Important– 2 Not urgent / Important– 3 Urgent / Not Important– 4 Not urgent / Not important

Minimizing Distractions

• Every time you ALLOW YOURSELF to be interrupted, you add 8 minutes to your task.

• Shut your door• Find quiet time to work• Plan time to handle small tasks instead

of stopping them to tackle them as soon as they cross your desk.

Managing Email• Don’t respond immediately. • Take the "pop-up" off so it doesn't distract you each

time. • Set up folders and filters to give you a clean inbox.• Set up a schedule to read email.• Is email is the most effective way to communicate?• 55-38-7  Sort by sender or sort by subject line.  • Be careful about Reply to All.• Be careful about Bc.  The only person you should Bc

is yourself or a list of recipients.• Set up group or team rules for email communication.• Have a clear subject line.• Color code.

Reflect

• Inside / Outside circle– What is one thing you’ve learned today you

will use?

– What is one thing you still need help organizing that we haven’t covered today?• Give a suggestion to your partner.