Page 138 - Time Management

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Plugging Time Leaks
• No matter what your style, reserve a large open space
toward the front middle of your desk and arrange other
materials along the three remaining outside edges. 123
• Furnish your desk with an A, B, C in-tray and an out-tray
(see Chapter 3, page 30-33).
• Behind the desk of Cathy, the protagonist of a popular
comic strip, is something she calls the “doomed pile.” It
is, she states, composed of things that she’s avoided,
ignored, postponed, skirted, dodged, loathed, and pro-
crastinated on. The only stacks on your desk should con-
sist of sorted and essential things.
• Most secondary, reference, or non-active items should be
moved away from your desk. A rule to guide you: “Out of
sight, out of mind.” If you want to remember that you
have it or if you consult it regularly, keep it on a credenza,
nearby bookshelf or counter, or in a wall-mounted “hot
file.” If you can afford to ignore it for a while, store it in a
filing unit or cabinet.
• At day’s end, clear your desk and prepare items for the
next morning. This might be an impossible task if you’re
a spreader. For most people, though, a reorganized work
surface brings a sense of control. It’s a way to summarize
the day’s work and to preview what is to come the next
morning.

One final caveat: although you may function just fine from
what appears to be a jumbled mess, your boss, colleagues, and
staff may not perceive it that way. If your work area appears
disheveled, others may conclude that you’re disorganized, over-
worked, or irresponsible. Is that the image you wish to project?
So bring this book with you the next time you’re at your desk
and analyze your workspace based on the above criteria.

Time Leak #3: Forgetting Things
It’s perhaps an apocryphal story, yet it speaks reams of wis-
dom: