How to Get Organized Without Resorting to Arson : A Step-by-Step Guide to Clearing Your Desk Without Panic or the Use of Open Flame

by Franklin, Liz

• ISBN13: 9780971949560
• ISBN10: 0971949565
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Clara Fyer Books

Summary

In this hilarious book (that really works!) Liz Franklin starts with describing your personality type, goes on to explain why we can blame most disorganization on our furniture, and knocks down many of the common organizing myths, providing you with more workable alternatives. From the back cover: "At last! Here are the tried and true, fun and funny, shocking and surprising secrets for organizing, your office, your desk, and even your life! Follow Liz's easy advice and you'll break free from the old organizing rules that didn't work anyway."

Table of Contents

The Secrets of Your Organizing Style
Learn about yourself, co-workers, partners, spouse, and others, and why each has a different Organizing Style. Why do they each work so differently? How can you support them? What are the best organizing techniques to use?	1	(1)
The First Part of Your Organizing Style Your Work Personality	2	(1)
The First Work Personality is the Sparklebrain	3	(3)
The Symbol for Sparklebrain is	4	(1)
How to Spot a Sparklebrain	5	(1)
The Second Work Personality is the Linear	6	(3)
The Symbol for Linear is	8	(1)
How to Spot a Linear	8	(1)
A Story about a Linear and a Sparklebrain ``Getting It''	9	(2)
The Third Work Personality is the Cross-Dominant	11	(5)
The Symbol for Cross-Dominant is	13	(1)
How to Spot a Cross-Dominant	14	(2)
The Second Part of Your Organizing Style is Your Access Type	16	(2)
Do You Access Visually?	18	(1)
Do You Access Spatially?	19	(2)
Do You Access Chronologically?	21	(9)
How To Access Your Inner Organizer
What's an Inner Organizer? Do you have one? If so, how can you use it to make your organizing project easier?	26	(4)
How Does a Three Smell? Take This Test!	30	(2)
There Are No Wrong Answers	32	(1)
Why You Can't Get Organized in Traditional Ways	32	(2)
What's That on Your Mind?	34	(2)
How to Find Your True Organizing Goal
When people talk about getting organized, they can mean very different things. What do you mean when you say you'd like to be organized? What is your true organizing goal?	36	(1)
What Organizing Is and Isn't	36	(2)
What It Is	36	(1)
What It Isn't	37	(1)
What's Your Organizing Goal?	38	(6)
You're Not Disorganized, Your Office Is!
How does paper flow through your office? If it's not flowing, why not? Read this chapter and the next one before you start blocking out time to get organized	43	(1)
Where Paper Flow Starts	44	(1)
Catchers and Blockers	44	(1)
The Secrets of Flow	45	(6)
How to Blame Your Disorganization on Your Furniture
Why does disorganization have so much to do with furniture placement? Could getting organized be as simple as moving the furniture?	47	(1)
Be sure you read this before you go out to buy the organizing supplies described in Chapter 6	47	(4)
Good and Bad Arrangements	51	(1)
A Bad Example: Is This Your Office?	51	(1)
One Simple Secret to Organizing	52	(1)
How Your Furniture is Causing U to Become Disorganized	52	(2)
How to Get Your Furniture to Organize U	54	(2)
The Geographical Distortion Theory	56	(1)
How to Stash Your Trash	56	(1)
Don't Trip Up the Traffic	57	(3)
Your Ideal Furniture Arrangement	60	(1)
Furniture Arrangement Tips	61	(4)
Nine Supplies You Need to Get Organized
What supplies will you need to get organized? Here's the list for every Organizing Style. You can buy these the same day you start organizing, or weeks in advance	65	(1)
The Supply List that Will Save You	65	(5)
Supplies to Avoid Buying at All Costs	70	(3)
Good Containers, Bad Containers	73	(4)
Setting the Stage for Getting Organized
How can you make sure you don't lose important papers while you're getting organized? Should you ``clean for the cleaning people?''	77	(1)
Use this chapter the same day you start organizing your office. This is the preparation---we'll start the step-by-step organizing process in chapter 8	77	(1)
How long will it take to get organized? There's no way to predict---everybody's different	77	(1)
You Must Have a Central Headquarters	77	(2)
How to Keep People Out of Your Stuff	79	(1)
How to Get More Work Surface	80	(4)
From Here to Efficiency
This is the chapter in which we start organizing your office, step by step. Be sure you've read the prior chapters or you'll have no idea what's going on	83	(1)
Remember your Work Personality and Access Type? You're going to need them for this section, so if you want a reminder, go back and reread chapter 1	83	(1)
Starting with this chapter, you will begin to see what I call ``Magic Questions''. These questions are designed to help you become self-sufficient in organizing. Your answers will tell you what steps to take for your special Organizing Style. The more you practice asking yourself these questions, the easier organizing gets. Eventually, all you will need is the questions---not the whole book	83	(1)
In fact, there is a summary of the Magic Questions at the end of this book for just that purpose	83	(1)
Handle Paper Twice: Why Breaking the Rules will Improve Your Results	84	(1)
When You Can Let Paper Sit	85	(2)
Organizing in the Olden Days	87	(1)
The New Terminology	87	(1)
How Verbs Can Save You Tons of Time	87	(2)
Magic Question #1	89	(5)
How to Get Paper to Keep Moving Itself	94	(1)
Why Your Words Are So Important	95	(2)
How to Find Your Stuff When You Need It	97	(1)
The Advantages of Verbing	97	(2)
Chaos Control: What to Do with All That Pending Paperwork
What should you do with all your verbed tasks waiting to be done? How can you keep your desk clear? When is all this stuff going to get finished?	99	(1)
An Introduction to Controlling the Piles	99	(1)
Step by Step, Getting Your Paperwork Under Control	100	(6)
Is It Working Yet?	106	(1)
Fooling Yourself for Fun and Profit	106	(5)
How Being Silly Can Get You Organized	108	(1)
Where to Keep Your Controlled Paper	109	(2)
How to Handle Evolving Paperwork	111	(1)
The Advantages of Being a Control Freak	112	(7)
What To Do When Your Workload Overflows	114	(5)
A Story About Too Darn Much Paper	119	(1)
Partners in Slime: To Share or Not to Share?	120	(1)
Your Word is Gospel	120	(1)
What to Do When Your To-Dos are Coming Due	121	(1)
Magic Question #2	122	(3)
When One To-Do Has More Than One Due Date	125	(3)
Magic Question #3	128	(1)
Latering a To-Do	128	(2)
Magic Question #4	130	(1)
Soonering an To-Do	131	(2)
How to Get the Help You Need
How much work is too much? Which items can you delegate? How can you store tasks until they are delegated? How can you get them to your helpers in the most effective manner? What helpers?	132	(1)
The Secret to Delegating: Naming Names	133	(1)
When No One Can Do it But You	133	(1)
Magic Question #5	134	(3)
How Henry Ford Delegated the Model T	137	(1)
If You Have No One to Whom You Can Delegate	138	(2)
How to Get Tasks to Your Helper	140	(1)
Magic Question #6	141	(1)
Magic Question #7	142	(1)
More Delegation Tips	143	(4)
How to Relieve the Tyranny of To-Do Lists
How does your To-Do list work with all this? How can you turn your To-Dos into To-Dones faster and more efficiently?	147	(1)
I Just Got Organized and My In-Bin is Full Again!	147	(1)
The Cure for, ``What Did I Come in Here For?''	148	(1)
A Genius and His Memory: Einstein	149	(1)
How to Stop Carrying the Little Things	150	(3)
How To Do the Core Memory Dump	150	(3)
A Cool To-Do Trick	153	(2)
The Last Time You'll Ever Have to Rewrite a To-Do List	155	(1)
Magic Question #8	156	(1)
How to Deal with New To-Dos	157	(2)
Avoiding a Typical Organizing Trap	159	(2)
Latering Again	161	(1)
Magic Question #9	161	(2)
How to Simplify Projects
Why does some paperwork take so much longer than other paperwork? Why does work keep expanding, or does it just seem that way? What's the best way to corral all the related items when they won't fit into a regular file?	163	(1)
How Some Paperwork Has Been Fooling You	163	(2)
Why It's OK if Your Desk is Full	165	(1)
How Multiple To-Dos Sneak Up on You	166	(2)
Where to Keep Bulky Projects	168	(1)
How to Store Smallish Projects	168	(2)
How to Store Largish Projects	170	(5)
How to Maximize Findability
How many times have you had to stop working to find something? Is there a better way to place things so you'll always find them easily?	175	(1)
Why ``A Place For Everything'' Doesn't Always Work	175	(1)
Magic Question #10	176	(1)
How to Find Things	177	(1)
Magic Question #11	178	(1)
Only You Get to Decide Where You Want Things	178	(2)
Magic Question #12	180	(1)
Three Ways to Set Things Up So You Can Access Them Easily	180	(4)
How to Stay Organized Without Resorting to Discipline
OK! You understand your Organizing Style, Work Personality, and Access Type. You've verbed your papers, flowed your furniture, dated your priorities, and binned and shelved your projects. Now let's put it all together	184	(1)
How Not to Lose Your Stuff	184	(2)
How to Keep from Running Around	186	(1)
What Mode Are You In?	186	(1)
How to Keep from Getting Stuck Again	186	(4)
How to Keep Your Desk Clear	190	(1)
How to Get Rid of Filing Fast
How will you ever get around to your filing, much less get to the bottom of it?	191	(1)
When You Can Procrastinate Filing	191	(1)
How Long Can You Put Off Filing?	192	(1)
How to Make Filing Easier	193	(1)
Magic Question #13	194	(1)
How to Remove the Pressure to File	195	(1)
If You Just Aren't Filing	195	(1)
When Filing Still Isn't Getting Done	196	(1)
Getting Help with Your Filing	196	(1)
Magic Question #14	197	(2)
When Your Helper Doesn't Know Where to File Things	198	(1)
Should You Color Code Your Files?	199	(1)
How to Reduce Interruptions
What really causes interruptions? Can they be controlled? Whose fault are they?	200	(1)
A Trick to Getting Back on Track	200	(1)
Who Interrupts You Most Often?	201	(1)
How to Get People to Leave You Alone So You Can Work	202	(1)
How to Explain How Busy You Are	203	(1)
Controlling Interruptions	204	(2)
When You Get the Urge to Purge
What should you toss out, and when should you toss it? Who can keep all their stuff, and who should let theirs go? Learn why the traditional rules are wrong, and review a generic list of stuff to keep versus stuff to toss	206	(1)
How to Know What Clutter Must Go	206	(1)
When Purging is Painful	207	(1)
Calling All Hoarders	207	(1)
The Collyer Brothers: Real Hoarding	208	(1)
Not Sure Whether to Let Something Go?	208	(1)
Magic Question #15	209	(1)
Sentimental Value vs. Throwing Things Out	210	(1)
How to Get Someone Else to Throw Their Stuff Away	210	(3)
Who Has Time to Toss?	213	(1)
Here Are Those Lists	213	(1)
Throw These Things Out	213	(2)
Recycle These	215	(1)
Stuff to Keep	216	(3)
Optional ``Keep'' List	219	(3)
Recapping the Magic Questions
Whenever you want to review this book, turn to this chapter. Go through these questions and you'll remember what you've learned	220	(1)
If you don't have an answer for the first question, go to the second. If the second doesn't do the job, go to the third, and so on	220	(1)
The more you practice these questions, the less you will need to pay outside organizing help	220	(2)
Index	222