Chaos of organizational systems
07 May 2015, by Developer inMy life is a mess. After working on a worksheets from Darren Hardy’s The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster book, I identified my enemy #1 is messiness. Many rooms in my house have storage boxes or places where junk piles up. I carry a folder with paper to-dos in my computer case, and an additional tote with more papers or things in transit. The tote and a folder are rarely opened; they are just carried from home to office and back. Let me tell you about my to do systems:
- Office 365 inbox
- Outlook calendar
- Kanbanery board
- Tote with papers
- Paper folder in my computer case, aka the black hole
- Home fridge
- Physical Kanban board at home
- Physical Kanban board at office
- Sticky notes around my desk
After a really bad night sleep, twice interrupted by sick youngsters, I am ready for a change! My goal is to have:
- – To Do system in a calendar. These are my MUST do.
- – Ideas system in Kanbanery. These are things I COULD do if I finished my calendar responsibilities and looking for some random tasks.
- – Shared office responsibilities system on a physical Kanban board at the office. This is an information radiator of all projects at BDC Software so that I know what’s going on around me.
Here’s my plan of attack:
- – Record my journey in this blog.
- – Restructure My Ideas system from existing Kanbanery tasks into 3 columns: Hard to decide, Easy decision, Done.
- – Make Inbox go to zero either by scheduling on Outlook calendar OR adding as a Kanbanery task into the Hard to decide or Easy decision columns.
- – Eliminate my tote.
- – Eliminate the black hole folder.
- – Remove fridge tasks into digital Kanbanery board for household.
- – Repurpose physical kanban board at home into inspiration board filled with pretty pictures.
- – Designate sticky notes around my desk as an immediate to do, if not, then it goes either to calendar or Kanbanery.
- – Create a BDC Software projects information radiator. If a project is in an active Scrum sprint, I indicate team and time frame. All others are on a simplified Kanban task board.
I have been using this system for two weeks. My head is much clearer because I know what to do first, what to do when I’m done with must-do tasks, and what’s going on around me. My email’s inbox is consistently around 30, which is much better that 70. I have come to a greater peace, and of course I have much room for continuous improvement.