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Advice pls for 'going through my stuff' 1st time
kenzi | Apr 5 2006
I can't put it off any longer and must go through my stuff. I can't move forward with GTD until I do this, but it still feels like a monumental task to me. I am going to start this weekend, and take Monday off to do it. I would greatly welcome any advice you all can give me to help me through this, especially stuff that the book didn't tell you but you wish you knew before you did it. Here is some background: the place where 95% of my stuff is, is my home office/home. I have a job that pays the rent, but it's not an issue with respect to GTD except as an action item: go to work. I run a small business out of my home (I import handicrafts from Morocco and sell them on my website kenzi.com, plus I am a henna artist taking clients at home but also doing house calls. My home office/store is about 40% of my home; I work on my computer, store my inventory, process orders, welcome clients, etc. all at home. I also work on some creative projects, some of them for the business and some just for pleasure. A lot of my business stuff is mixed in with my home stuff, plus I have boxes that I haven't unpacked since I moved 4 years ago, boxes with work stuff in them. I have mapped out my home showing where there are piles of papers (my main organizational nemesis) and also boxes of stuff to go through. I also plan to deal with the personal/home stuff as well as the work stuff since the overall disorganization of my home/home office is making me crazy. I live in a loft with NO closets (though working on buying armoires) and only open space. I have a lot bookshelves and one filing cabinet. I think that I should buy another filing cabinet. I think that is sufficient background, but feel free to ask me any questions. I really welcome any suggestions you may have. 35 Comments
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 I think the most important...Submitted by Berko on April 5, 2006 - 5:44pm.
I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is a distinct phase of processing just like collecting was a distinct phase. Of course, you should make sure you have the necessary tools around for when you do start organizing, but that is not part of going through your stuff. You are taking each item and deciding what it is, what it means to you, and what to do about it. You are generating projects and NAs. You are removing cruft. (A shredder can be extremely therapeutic.) So, after you process your stuff, you will likely have a bunch of papers in a "To be filed" category, a huge amount of stuff in your "Read and review" and a hefty bit on a list of stuff to tickle, either in a tickler file or on your calendar. Keep in mind the flexibility of the two minute rule during this processing phase. When you are processing such huge amounts of stuff from your inbox, you should cut that down considerably or you will never get through. So, if it will take less than a minute or 30 seconds or whatever your tolerance is, then those are the things you go ahead and do. Ganging mosquito tasks also comes into play here. If you know you are going to have a lot of papers to file, why not gang them together into a project or NA (depending on how long it will take you) called "File paperwork"? Just make sure nothing goes back into In. You decide what it is, what it means, and what to do about it and then put it somewhere in your trusted system. With reference to closet space and such, if you have an IKEA near you, that is soooo the place to go for living in small spaces or without closets. I can't get enough IKEA. » POSTED IN:
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