Become a Super Manager.
Whether computer files or paper documents, there is a way to become a super data manager.
Become super efficient in your paper/computer work. It’s easy. Just use the “THREE FOLDERS system.”
Organize everything, DOCUMENTS, Gmails, CLOUD data, even old-fashioned binders, into just THREE FOLDERS as illustrated:
- ACTION
- PENDING
- DEPOSITORY
ACTION: Items needing action, immediately or soon. The urgency of the data can be displayed adding a date to the file title. A letter to your bank manager can be named “Loan Rqst 04 29 2019”
PENDING: Files which are ongoing or waiting a response.
DEPOSITORY: Everything else. All files end up in this folder eventually.
Keep it simple, even avoiding “subfolders”
Keeping all your data in three folders simplifies your data life. Avoid use of ‘subfolders.’ If you can’t live without subfolders, simplify by incorporating their subject area into the file name: Finance, House, Personal, etc. followed by the file name, “Finance Loan Rqst 04 29 2019”.
Simplify, simplify, simplify
Keep your data life simple; apply the K.I.S.S. rule everywhere: Keep It Super Simple.
Keeping your data/files organized means life is simpler and finding information is easier. Your data daze are over when you use the ‘three-folder system’: Action, Pending and Depository!
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A site visitor, an engineer, sent us an improvement to the procedure above, a 30% improvement. Eliminate the PENDING folder. A task, an event, a responsibility is either active or in the depository…period. He may have a good point there but full disclosure, my insecurities want to retain the PENDING folder as I wait for someone else to complete the item.
