Organizing Paper Action Files Made Easy

hi matt buyer of map buyer organizing with organizing paper action files made easy in this paper management series i've addressed the option of abandoning your paper and going digital that can be great space saver great tree saver and if done right great time saver however digital files do take time to set up and to maintain and have big issue with the digital option when it comes to running files these are the files you'll want to make point of acting on running files should compel you to action there's time and place for things to be out of sight out of mind for running files it should be the exact opposite computer has lot of functions and lot of layers so digital to-do's can get hidden all too easily but paper priorities can always be in compelling position with my approach to get your running files to be as compelling as possible the goal should be vertical visible and minimal like clipboard and easel for the daily tasks and clear envelopes and an incline sorter for my ongoing projects position this just off the side of my desk to keep my precious work surface clear the difference between project and task can be understood by asking the classic question how do you eat an elephant the answer of course is one bite at time the projects are represented by the elephants the tasks are represented by the bytes every project is made up of series of tasks in my book the circulation solution identify circulation as plan for movement in series of manageable reliable stages bite-sized tasks are perfect examples of manageable reliable stages they are much less likely to get postponed by the way the only color coding do is with the four stages of files running files are red hot and compelling setting files are yellow warm findable the sleeping files which we keep just in case and remotely are cool green while the useless dead files are cold blue ongoing projects require enough regular attention that they shouldn't be hidden from regular field of vision and by regular mean on weekly basis these might include updating website planning trip writing book marketing to name few ongoing projects might include more mundane examples like bill paying shopping information to enter or pending pending is for those odd pieces of paper that represent when the ball is in somebody else's court but you don't want to forget about it like pending orders ongoing projects only become actionable if you plan 15-minute session into your week to work these into your schedule see more about this in my time management video at the end of this video so i've talked about your running files and getting the vertical and visible but how do we get them minimal look no further than your traditional newspaper for model if you were to see all the stories crammed onto the front page you wouldn't know where to begin but you don't you see the headlines with connection to the full stories inside your daily tasks should be just like those headlines with connection to the full story inside those full stories can be in your ongoing projects your sitting files or even reference binder you don't need to have all these larger stories out just the headlines so if you're going through backlog of paper accumulation and you get to the running files the first thing to ask is are you looking at ongoing projects or tasks when say tasks mean tasks that you need to make point of acting on this week if they could wait it goes with projects next with your stack of tasks reduce them down into manageable notes remember the newspaper analogy you're just creating headlines work these into your week schedule scheduled events are what call fixed time and these make sense in shareable syncable digital format which print out weekly eight days at time your tasks are what call flexible time because they can be shifted around on the fly according to your evolving priorities of the day you will never have to rewrite the same thing twice on to-do list again so that's it that's how to navigate all four stages of paper to summarize it's about taking the less important dead sleeping and sitting files out of the way with singular focus and fast speed so that you can take on your daily tasks with singular focus and fast speed for more easy organizing tips please subscribe thanks for watching i'll see you around