Saturday, November 18, 2006

Can you find it in six minutes?

The average US executive wastes about SIX WEEKS every year searching for important -- but mislaid -- information due to the chaos on a messy desk or a sloppy file system.

If you can't find a piece of paper or a file in six minutes, due to rummaging through the debris on your messy desk, then you are wasting valuable time. The wasted time adds up to about SIX WEEKS per year.

So says Maria Gracia, in her article that appeared in the recent edition of "Empowering Women Magazine."*

As a result of a recent writing in the Wall Street Journal, she created this article for "Empowering Women Magazine," Volume 1, Issue 4.

She calls it: The Four D's of Effective Paper Management.

The four "D's" are:
  • Do it;
  • Delay it;
  • Delegate it;
  • Dump it.
I especially like the fourth "D." Dump it.

Often, I find myself saving WAY TOO much stuff, and I need to be more efficient at pitching worthless junk.

Will I ever get around to reading that stuff on "Egyptian Treasures: A Private Tour on a Private Jet?" Who knows ... maybe one day ...

*Empowering Women Magazine; Volume One. Issue Four. 2006.

3 Comments:

Blogger ten_ring said...

Good article. I look forward to reading more.

9:14 PM  
Blogger Ann said...

Good point! I throw very little away. of course, I expect that most of it will go away when the children leave home - - with them!!

11:47 AM  
Blogger Nadine said...

Some folks agree with me: Break into the the "DUMP IT" command, and get rid of the junk.

Just admitting to being a clutter freak is first step into breaking the habit.

Today, believe it or not, I actually TOSSED some old handwritten notes.

The notes were created as a result of a telphone conversation with a potential client who chose NOT to hire our firm.

That was over three months ago. And the client received an "I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER" letter fronm us -- more than two months ago.

Those notes are gone, gone, gone ...
placed into our "Inactive files" storage ... on the way up to the archive ... then on the way to trash ....

See? We still have a long way to go. But at least that stuff is not cluttering up out current clinet files.

10:01 PM  

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