Watch Your Steps!

One of the easiest ways to save time in your day and prevent build-up of paper and tasks is to reduce the number of steps it takes to complete a task. Each incidence may only take a minute, but over the course of a day or a week, those minutes contribute to the hour a day the average person wastes completing tasks. Here are a few examples:

Filing in binders: if the paper comes to you already three-hole punched (i.e. many brokerage statements, some newsletters), great, go ahead and add to a binder. Otherwise, just file it. You may argue that it doesn’t take much time to punch holes, but I can’t count the number of clients who have had a large pile waiting to be punched. Unless ALL the papers need to be transported regularly to another location, binders just waste your most valuable resource: time. If you like binders because you are visual, post a file index instead. One of my favorite resources to easily create a file index (as well as revolutionize your filing) is the Paper Tiger Software. Click here for a description.

Closed doors: every door you need to open to use something or put it away adds complexity to mundane tasks. Either you postpone putting things away, or the door stays open all the time, which can add to the sense of disarray. Your computer tower should be easily accessible, not behind a door in your desk; your filing cabinet should be next to where you process paper, not behind a closet door. Smaller items in your desk should be in open, not closed, containers. For maximum efficiency, consider open shelving. Removing a door may save you hours every year.

Conduct your own assessment: what do you have that is not getting done? Is there a way to reduce the number of steps it takes? Move something closer, not involve as many people, remove an obstacle? It’s easy to continue doing things the way we’ve always done them, but a periodic questioning of “Why?”, either of yourself or of a group, may free you and your to-do list.