Inside Nspire

If you have been following along with us on our series "time to get organized" you should be at a place where you are ready to do something with your neatly stacked piles of papers on your desk. If you have not been following along you can start by reading the Part 1 of this series and then move on to Part 2 before coming back here. If you have already been following along, let’s get into what you should do with your piles.

At this point you should have 3 organized piles on your desk:

1. The Schedule Pile

3. The Reference Pile

Let’s start with the Schedule Pile. This pile consist of all your half sheets of paper that you could not do in under 2 minutes. You have two ways that you can schedule these to be done. I will explain the way that David recommends and then what option I took. First off, David’s recommendation.

You should have a box of file folders and a box of hanging file folders, along with a Handheld label machine. David recommends creating what is called a "tickler file system". A tickler file system essentially is made up of 43 folders, 12 of the folders being the months of the year and the other 31 being the days. I have included a picture I found on google to illustrate a tickler file system:

Now the picture is not the easiest to read in the world but it will help you to understand how a tickler file system works. All the folders you see to the front of the series of files are date folders, 1 thru 31. Toward the middle of the picture you see a lone folder by itself, that would be the month you are in, so in this case it would be January. Then behind "January" you see about five more number folders, these would be past days. Then to the very back, the remaining months.

The rule of thumb for filing that David recommends is one file folder per hanging file folder. Now if you are like me I initially thought, "Wow, that could be a waste of hanging file folders" but I can tell you it definitely makes a difference. Yes, it cost’s a little more, but the benefit of it all being organized and everything being in its place is worth every penny.

To build a tickler file system you need to get 43 file folders. Using your hand held Label machine, print out the names of the 12 months and then print out the numbers 1 thru 31. You should have 43 stickers by the end of the printing. Now place the labels on the file folders, keep your numbers consecutive and your months as well. Now place each file folder into a hanging file folder and place the entire group in you filing cabinet.

This is how the tickler file system works. This month is January, so the folder January would be in the front of the months (which months are in the back and all the numbers are in the front). Now today is the 26th so the very first file, all the way to the front would be the number 26 file. *Note: when moving files move the entire file folder and hanging file folder, think of them as a group from now on that should not be separated.

There are 31 days in January so I would place the remaining dates behind the 26 folder. All the other number folders should go immediately behind the January folder in consecutive order. You should have something in the order like 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, January, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…..so on, February, March, April… so on.

Using the Tickler File System:

Now that you have your tickler file system created it would be time to use it. This is how it works. You should go through your To Schedule stack and start placing tasks in different folders to be done. Do not place everything under one folder, you want to spread this out so that you can get it done. Since, today is the 26th I might not place anything in it since I am organizing but I would place the mowing the grass paper in the 27th folder and maybe the youth parent meeting in the 30th folder. I would also need to place some tasks to be done next month. That is why all the leftover numbers are consecutively behind the January folder. If you notice it already begins to set up the next month. So spread out your tasks over the next thirty one days. If you need to schedule something to be done a few months from now, place that piece of paper in the month folder and then when that months comes you will need to assign it to a date. At the end of the day you remove that days folder and place it to the back of the rest of the numbers. So today the 26th would go behind the 25th folder in front of February. If the folder you are moving still has stuff in it that you were not able to do, that stuff needs to be reassigned to another day before moving that folder. This will take some discipline but it creates an easy 3D calendar system that you can use to manage your tasks in a way that they get completed and you get results. Try it for a while, you may like it. Let me emphasize again though, make sure you use your label machine to write on the folders, it makes it so much easier to quickly glance at the folders and read them. We are going for easy, not just cheap…

What I do:

I have taken a much less involved approach. The tickler file was not really for me. Not that I do not like it, cause I do, but I have always been one of those people that likes to have everything right in front of me where I can see what is coming up easily… but it still be organized. To manage my "to schedule" tasks I went to the local office supply store and purchased a weekly/monthly planner. I looked through a lot of them and honestly the one I liked the most was the BlueSky Weekly/Monthly Planner. It has tabbed months, an overall month view, and a daily view all in a slim design that lays down easily on a table. I then went through my stack and scheduled my tasks on my calendar to be done in the daily view section. I basically re-copied what I had on the paper onto the calendar. Now, going this route takes a lot of discipline, especially if you have not been accustomed to using a planner. You have to start "living" by your planner. If you have tasks to be completed on a certain day… they need to be completed. If they are not completed… reschedule them. Also, I like to mark things off. So, when I complete something it gets a big mark through it. If you are having a rough day and nothing is getting accomplished you can do what I have done before, write down on your calendar… go to the bathroom or go eat lunch or something you have already done… THEN MARK IT OUT! There is just something about marking through items that gets you going and feeling like you are making progress. Yes, it’s a little silly but it does help to give you a jump-start because you want to keep marking things out.

What about everything else???

Now, you should either be using a tickler file system or a weekly planner, either works fine but both require discipline to stay with it. You should now have two leftover stacks of stuff on your desk. The Someday/Maybe pile and the Reference Pile. The someday/maybe pile should be scheduled just like the "to schedule" pile was. As some of the someday/maybe items may be packets of stuff, you do not want to place the packet in your tickler file system. If you choose to use the tickler files system then write down what it is that needs to be done, like reviewing the promotional material, and place the piece of paper in the tickler file system. Then place the someday/maybe item into a file folder that goes into a hanging file folder. You will need to print a label to reference the someday/maybe item and place it on the folder. For instance, maybe I am wanting to review a church software, like NSpire, and I had received a demo cd to look over. I would write on a half sheet of paper, "Review NSpire demo CD: Nspire Folder", I would then print a label that said NSpire on it and place it on a file folder. I would then put that file folder into a hanging file folder, drop the NSpire Demo CD into it and place it in another drawer of my filing cabinet.

I recommend that you have one drawer in your filing cabinet for the tickler file system and another drawer for your reference material. Again, remember… use labels only and one file folder per hanging file folder… this works the best. If you are not doing a tickler file system you should just schedule the task on your planner and do the same thing for referencing the someday/maybe item as I explained for the tickler file system. This should eliminate your someday/maybe pile.

Lastly, you have your reference pile. This is all the stuff that you need to have but just not immediately. Create a file folder for each item or small groups of items and place the file folder in a hanging file folder just like you did for the someday/maybe pile. After you have gone through this stack I recommend you go the the file cabinet drawer for all your reference folders and alphabetize them. This makes life so much easier when you need to find a reference item. I also went as far as doing the same thing for my CD-Roms. I have pictures below. After you have finished doing this you should have a clear desk and a reference drawer full of organized files and, if you choose, a tickler file system. You desk should be clear. Give yourself a pat on the back!!!

Staying organized…

Since you now have everything organized you need to keep it that way. This is where your inbox comes into play. You should put your inbox on your desk and that’s where everything goes that comes "in". You should run the process you have learned from the last three days on everything that goes into that inbox. Do not let items remain in your inbox at the end of the day. Something should happen to everything that comes into the inbox. If you can do it in less than 2 minutes then do it right then, if not… Defer it by scheduling it to be done and organized appropriately or Delegate it to someone else. When you leave at the end of the day you should have a empty inbox and a clear desk. This makes work so much nicer when you come in the next morning and everything is in its place ready for you to jump right in and start. I try to leave my office everyday with the desk clean and tasks scheduled. I can not explain to you how much nicer it is to come in to work the next morning and not have to fumble through files and remembering what something was.

Not only will this help you physically, getting the tasks assigned to you organized and under control is one of the first steps in being a good steward. God, will increase what you already have if you can show you can be faithful in stewarding what is small. This does not just relate to member numbers and paychecks either. God said that we can not even comprehend the things he has for us. This tells me that if I can be a good steward of what I do know he has given me I will not even be able to imagine what he will give me to steward over, for him.

Hopefully, this series has helped you in your organizational journey. As always, if you have questions, leave a comment and I will get back to you ASAP.