is it a desk or is it a workbench?

[ArcCaster]

Just listened to Kelly's talk and picked 'clean my desk' as my stuck project. Started visualizing what 'a clean desk' would look like for me. Turns out it is NOT a clean empty desk -- it is a neat desk containing current and future work that I can easily recognize and find. Books and white papers I am partway through reading or want to read soon -- the current module of the new workshop I am creating -- source material I am drawing from -- mind maps and flow charts pulling together all the pieces -- labs and exercises providing application for what is presented in the slides.

Then John pointed me to the setup guides, and I read Organizing Your Workspace. David's desk is not at all what I envision. I don't see any current or future work on it.

So my question is -- where does current work go? Creating a workshop can take months -- do I really file everything at the end of every day? I would like to come in the next day and pick up where I left off.

Currently, my desk contains piles of papers, and is clearly not optimal. My problem appears to be that I do not know what the desk of a researching author should look like.

 

[Barb]

Just listened to Kelly's talk and picked 'clean my desk' as my stuck project. Started visualizing what 'a clean desk' would look like for me. Turns out it is NOT a clean empty desk -- it is a neat desk containing current and future work that I can easily recognize and find. Books and white papers I am partway through reading or want to read soon -- the current module of the new workshop I am creating -- source material I am drawing from -- mind maps and flow charts pulling together all the pieces -- labs and exercises providing application for what is presented in the slides.

Then John pointed me to the setup guides, and I read Organizing Your Workspace. David's desk is not at all what I envision. I don't see any current or future work on it.

So my question is -- where does current work go? Creating a workshop can take months -- do I really file everything at the end of every day? I would like to come in the next day and pick up where I left off.

Currently, my desk contains piles of papers, and is clearly not optimal. My problem appears to be that I do not know what the desk of a researching author should look like.

I have a few brightly-colored, standup accordion files and some coordinating file boxes that I sometimes use for paper-intensive projects for short periods of time. I really hate clutter, so I do corral everything there when I'm finished with it and, if I have to, I'll put the file or box on the floor behind or under my desk. Also not optimal, but it works for me.

Brand: Semikolon. It comes in great colors.

 

[SiobhanBR]

I also put everything away at the end of the day. In my case, although I may have a preference and a plan for what I'm going to work on the next time I am at my desk, there are so many things that can derail that plan if I left anything out my desk would very quickly become disorganized clutter. For very active work I use the left hand desk drawer to store "in progress" project support files that are otherwise in the filing cabinet. In a pinch if I'm rushing to catch my bus at the end of the day, everything on my desk goes in the tickler for the next day.

There is nothing like a clean desk to welcome me to work every day!

At home, I used to leave projects out assuming I would get to it - knitting on the ottoman, papers stacked on the dining room table, etc. One of the best habits I have cultivated in recent years (and I think I finally have it!) is to put things away when I'm done with them. This requires having a designated "away" to put them (aha!) and makes it infinitely more likely that I have and can find everything I need to keep going when I choose to start up again.

 

[ArcCaster]

OK -- I like the idea of a clean desk too

However, Barb, you use the phrase "when I'm finished with it", and Siobhan, you use the phrase "when I'm done with them".

In my case, when my next appointment comes up (including stopping 'work' and moving on to my evening activities), I just leave, generally before I am 'done' or 'finished' (I don't have any paint brushes that need cleaning, or deck stain that will dry out if I don't put it away -- so there are apparently no negative consequences to just letting things sit). Perhaps you pay more attention to your schedule and try to end on a completion?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[SiobhanBR]

OK -- I like the idea of a clean desk too

Perhaps you pay more attention to your schedule and try to end on a completion?

Thanks,
Rob

Ha! Ha! No, indeed, but wouldn't that be nice?

The projects I work on at work (and there are hundreds of them) last months or years. What is my high priority today might be pushed to the side by an emergency tomorrow (rightfully so - not just necessarily latest and loudest). As I mentioned, I usually catch a bus home, so I often leave in a flurry of activity. I may have documents half reviewed either electronically or on paper, reports half read, notes half processed. It all gets removed from my desk and locked up before I turn off the light. The trick is in leaving appropriate bookmarks - example: my Next Action will say "I'm on page 5 of xxx.doc" If I don't have time to leave the appropriate NA that is when it goes into the tickler for tomorrow. First thing next morning, I can appropriately bookmark it and then either file it away if it isn't getting worked on or leave it out to keep going.

At home, I found I left things out (music I was practising, knitting needles/patterns, programming notes, novel notes) but it might be days not hours before I got back to it. In the interim it is just in the way, getting moved from place to place and always in danger of getting lost or separated from it's components. Or spilled on! So I got a zippered bag I plunk my knitting into and I use zippered folders/bags for my writing/programming projects. They are then contained and easy to put away when I go to dinner, sleep or work (or whatever else has called me away!).

 

[ArcCaster]

AHHA -- Siobhan, sounds like you make heavy use of something I don't use that much -- a physical tickler file -- and you revisit it first thing next morning. And your zippered bags are basically compartmentalized versions of a tickler file.

Next action -- collect the various versions of a tickler file and bring them front and center!

I can see a wonderful desk in my future

Thanks,
Rob

 

[Chris R]

I started using tickler files in earnest about 6 months ago and I have found them extremely useful in organizing my life.

 

[Barb]

OK -- I like the idea of a clean desk too

However, Barb, you use the phrase "when I'm finished with it", and Siobhan, you use the phrase "when I'm done with them".

In my case, when my next appointment comes up (including stopping 'work' and moving on to my evening activities), I just leave, generally before I am 'done' or 'finished' (I don't have any paint brushes that need cleaning, or deck stain that will dry out if I don't put it away -- so there are apparently no negative consequences to just letting things sit). Perhaps you pay more attention to your schedule and try to end on a completion?

Thanks,
Rob

I just meant when I'm finished with it for that period of time. My office is also in the front of my house--by the front door--with glass french doors. I don't want it looking too messy AND I don't want to be repelled by it the next morning. Chances are, too, I will start with something else the next a.m., even if it's just planning.