Staying Organized by Lena Austin
This article was reprinted from Realms of Love. You can find out more about the whirlwind we call Lena Austin at Lena’s website.
How do I do what? Stay organized? It’s because of those 13 releases that I manage. I’ve had time to develop a system that works for me. It’s not perfect, but it works.
There are rules anyone can follow for their own system:
1. Handle it once- If you have a piece of paper, read it, do what needs to be done, then file it. “Pile-o-mania” develops due to procrastination. This is especially true for tax-related items. I have a pocket shoe organizer on the back of my office door. Receipts and other tax related items are filed in the pocket matching that deduction category the very day I bring them home. At tax time, I total each category, stuff the reciepts in a clasp envelope matching that category, and write the total on the outside. (My accountant loves me, because I can email her a report with all figures neatly totaled without an appointment.)
2. Learn and use the concept of prime real estate- Your desk surface is prime real estate. That’s where all the action takes place. If you don’t use something daily, it doesn’t belong on the desk. The further away from your desk, the less the item is used. For instance, I use my bell timer and my thesarus daily. They stay on the desk. I use my index card file at least once a week. It is on the shelf above my desk. I rarely (monthly or longer) use certain binders. They are in a bookcase in the closet in my office, out of sight but accessible. A giant wipe off calendar is above my desk for easy visual access.
3. Code/Label everything. I use color codes to mark everything, from my files in the file cabinet to my dayrunner. Pink for Personal, Blue for family, Yellow for Promo, Green for Business, Orange for Miscellaneous, and so on. I own a Brother P-Touch label maker for clear, easy to read labels even with my very poor eyesight. (I’m nearly blind, you see.)
4. Take the time to prioritize daily. I use a spiral notebook. Each sheet has been divided off into color codes (see above) using highlighter boxes, four lines per color. Each sheet has a day/date at the top. If I have a chat on the 5th, I put that task in the yellow box of that date. A crit partner meeting? The orange box. Need to turn in a cover art request? Green box. Every morning while I mumble over my first cup of java, I move the uncompleted tasks from the day before, then assign priority numbers for each task in each color code.
5. “Take 15″/Power Hour- Even the most hated task can be tolerated for 15 minutes. I set my bell timer for 15 minutes, and usually when it goes off, I’m done or so close I can finish up with a feeling of accomplishment. This works for almost any task, but some get a “Power Hour.” Writing gets a “Power Hour” where I shut off the browser and IM programs, turn on the CD player, and lose myself.
Do I follow these rules to perfection? No. Not by a longshot. Every month or so, the piles develop, junk accumulates, and I have to spend one of those Take 15’s cleaning my desk back to a pristine state, and filing things I should have done immediately. Hey, nobody is perfect. LOL!
Lena Austin