Was this because I don't like my job? Or maybe I have to work with awful people? Nope. I love my job and my colleagues are great. It was because I was going back to a disorganised mess.
Now this is bad times. Home is a mess, office is a mess. This equals, head is a mess. But I knew that today I could start to make a positive change. I didn't have many meetings so had about 5 hours where I could just knuckle down and start getting organised.
So what did I go back to I hear you ask? Well, 314 emails - about half of which I had before my two week break and hadn't dealt with, a pigeon hole full of post and this pile of paperwork....
Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!! And I haven't even looked in the two sets of drawers I have yet...
Anyway, there is absolutely no point sorting out home when work is still in chaos so I made a good in road into the backlog today. With my email I decided to employ a technique that I read about in 'Bit Literacy' by Mark Hurst. This is available as an e-Book from Amazon available here and if you don't have a Kindle you can download it for your PC here.
The technique basically is about achieving an empty inbox every day. Sounds impossible? That's what I thought. But I have to tell you, I did it - no emails in my inbox!! I either actioned, deleted or filed all 314. Some have been converted to tasks as they did not need doing today, but I did make sure I set deadlines and reminders. The feeling of that achievement is amazing and I will definitely keep it up.
With the in-tray disaster zone, I am still going through it. Basically, I have done the Look and Chuck to get rid of junk quickly. I then pulled out any papers I need to read or for meetings in the next seven days and made a new pile (!?) that needs me to take action. My next step with the action pile is to turn them into tasks, like I did with my email and file in priority order. I will have done this by Friday.
I also made the decision to get rid of everything in my 'To Read' tray. Some documents have been there for months, and quite frankly I have coped without their enlightenment so far. Most of it is available online, so it all went in the recycling. If I need it in the future, I can find it again. To stop this accumulation in the future I have booked three, one hour slots in my diary every week to read what is in the tray. If I haven't read it, I will bin it sooner.
So hopefully by Friday, the top of my desk will be sorted, next stop will be the drawers and the 'Pile of Stuff' in the corner.
Onwards and upwards! The Declutter Diarist
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