The to read pile
I can’t figure out how to handle my to-read pile at work. If I leave it in one undifferentiated mass, I never get to the bottom of it, and important things get swallowed up. If I go ahead and file things, I forget about them because they’re out of sight. If I file them but make a list of what I want to read, I’m afraid I’ll spend all my time futzing around with the list and never getting anything done. If I make lots of piles, it works until I get busy with something else, and then the piles run into each other and I’m back where I started.
And then there are all the emails I get with links to reports that I might want to read. When I click through, and determine that I am interested in something, but it’s not the highest priority thing for me to read right then, what should I do with the email? I wind up doing this multiple times with the same emails, which I know isn’t efficient.
And this is without even getting into the pile of books next to my bed.
What do you do, dear readers? Does anyone have a strategy that really works?
August 31st, 2006 at 8:48 pm
(unhelpfully:) no… I just have overlapping and numerous piles all over my desk; i’ll forget about something, but in the course of looking for something else i’ll find it again. It’s kind of random and messy but when I actually try to get organized I lose track of too many things… Sorry 🙂
August 31st, 2006 at 8:57 pm
For paper stuff I use the post-it bookmark tabs (um not sure what they’re really called but they’re designed to stick to the edge of the paper and then stick out). I tab all the important stuff one colour and less important a different one and then I pull out the garish fluorescent stuff first.
For email I do pretty much the same thing with colours.
September 1st, 2006 at 11:53 am
Sorry I can’t say categorically that either of these strategies is working for me because I’m just starting to use them but for what they’re worth:
* put articles I want to read into top-loading sheet protectors in one-inch binder with dividers sorting articles by priority. When sitting down to read or leaving the house for anyplace I might have time to read, I either grab one of the sheets (some have more than one article) or the whole binder.
* use the “to do” feature in iCal, labeling each item (since I’m a student, many of my items involve reading) a certain priority – reserving the highest priority for the “big rocks” I REALLY want to (or need to) accomplish in a given day/week. Having my calendar right there is helping me to determine a realistic timeframe.
Or so the theory goes… Will report back in a month or so. (smile)
September 1st, 2006 at 2:42 pm
For email stuff — i love using the feature in my email (at work I have Lotus) that allows me to flag emails to different levels of importance. Those with emails to links I want to check out get low priority (as opposed to requests from my boss or such, which get high priority)..and then I can sort all emails by the flags to find them again when I have the time.
September 1st, 2006 at 5:23 pm
I have two email files that I shunt stuff like this into–one that is for reports that directly relate to a project that I am working on, and one that’s for stuff that just looks interesting, but isn’t directly related. That’s pretty much the one I never read.
I’m almost entirely paperless, though–no big stacks.
September 2nd, 2006 at 6:26 am
I really struggle with this. But I think I’ll try Megan’s email prioritisation. The one thing that works, to some extent, is setting aside some time once a week to sort through the current pile and prioritise it, rather than doing it too much on the fly.
But I often haven’t got time to do it!
September 5th, 2006 at 9:30 am
I use a pile for the paper stuff (though I am a minimalist, so it is the only pile on my desk) and a “Reading” folder in email. I have found, however, that more important than how the pile is organized, is how time is organized. I have to schedule a little bit of time every day to do some reading. It’s a nice break from the rest of my job, but without scheduling it on my caledar, I know that it would never get done.
September 10th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
The only time I’m successful in keeping on top of my ‘to read’ pile is when I read each item exactly when I get it, or I schedule regular time on my calendar to read the things in that pile and have to force myself to not *respond* to anything until I’m done reading. I am so interrupt-driven that I end up not doing anything, it’s very frustrating.