Getting things done is what matters. You’ve opened my mind to those offices where it looks like no one works there. I wondered how the person who needs paper to write phone calls and to-do lists on ever manages. I worked with someone who got things done in the middle of a mess. It’s a myth that those people know where everything is but they do get things done. They also waste time looking for things under all the junk mail and other stuff, but we all have our ways of working.

I like to work almost minimal, with a few notes and brainstorms and drafts on paper. My problem is letting a pile of ‘important’ and semi-important papers accumulate, then I need to file or dispose of them and that is a discreet chunk of time. Trying to deal with each piece of paper only once is my ideal, but the filing does tend to build up. We’re not ready to go paperless on certain types of paper.

So, what I need to do more of is pause every day/2/3 or at least once a week to file those papers. Filing Friday might be a good mantra. Take a few minutes on a Friday to clear any filing that is still sitting there and start each new week with a clean desk.

Thanks for raising this issue.
Jan