Is your sock drawer exactly like your “My Documents” or your desktop, or your inbox? Why yes, yes, it is!
Who among us has a perfectly clean and organized sock drawer, devoid of old photographs, a stray shoelace from 1973, or a belt way in the back you really like but have never actually worn on a night out with friends? Not many, I imagine.
How about your “My Documents” folder (Just “Documents for you Mac users) or your folder organization in general.
Let’s talk about that drawer you have at the bottom of your dresser with all the photographs in those Thrifty Drugstore envelopes. Or that box of VHS tapes you have. Or that box in the garage with the old Super8 rolls and the three cassettes full of slides. You no longer have a VHS player or anything to play the Super8 video or to see the cassette of slides. You have stuff that is wonderful but you cannot use it. That is a grand challenge today. I have no answer for this. I do know that an external hard drive is likely a good way to keep all the stuff you had on your last computer. And the one before. And the one before that. And now we have a drawer full of external hard drives that are not labeled. Yep. That is me.
How about your inbox?
I try very hard to answer emails when I get them, if possible, and I most always get to work on Monday mornings with no email to read. I already read them and deleted them or moved them. It is so nice not to have to read a bunch of stuff first thing on Monday. I can actually DO things.
Unsubscribe to things you don’t need or use frequently. Even those fancy trade journal sites that sound important but you never really ready anything they send. You don’t need that.
How about open tabs in your browser?
You can’t imagine the things I’ve seen. A full row of tabs on a browser with a “+48” in the right corner. Like you are really going to go back and read that article you have kept open for a week? Nope. You’re not. Stop keeping tabs open for later reading. If you really really want to read it, use your bowser history to go back and find the damn thing. That is what the “history” is for.
There is nothing better than to start cooking in a clean kitchen. Nothing better than wandering to bed and pulling down the covers in a nicely made bed. There is nothing that feels better than to actually be done for the day when you are done for the day.
Try to finish the day the way it began – clean, with lots of room around things you need to tackle.
Suggestions?
Number One: Give away things you do not use or throw them away if no one else can use them. I know there is some rule like, “If you have not used in it six months, get rid of it” or something like that. Follow some kind of guidelines. Any guidelines. Just don’t write them down and stick them somewhere where you won’t see them again for five years…
Number Two: Use your desk and computer desktop like a “current projects” only space. If you have more than like 20 projects going then maybe that is the problem 🙂 The only things visible are things you are actually working on today. Or maybe tomorrow. Once the thing is finished, put it with all the other things you have accomplished but don’t pile them up on your desk.
Number Three: End the day with a nice clean desktop, browser, and Inbox. Trash all the things you do not need. I usually have about five to ten items on my desktop and maybe three to five emails in my inbox. If it is not directly needed today, I move it or toss it.
Number Four: If you can’t find something in like one minute of searching, you don’t need it.
Here is a seventeen-minute video that I should have done in five, about various ways to manage online courses using the silly sock drawer metaphor. Have fun today and remember to close this tab when you are finished with the page.