My File Cabinet is too heavy to lug around!

[Kenn]

I want to be a black belt, but
my file cabinet is just too heavy to
carry around!

What am I talkinga bout?

Well ... one of the criteria in being a
black belt is to have your systems
be completely accessible, functional
and intact as you move fromlocation
to location.

The Belt Tests

I need some clarity. I cannot access my email
remotely. I cannot access my project files
remotely.

Unless I had a completely paperless system
with a laptop with all my stuff and continued
wireless access, then I might be able to do it.

So what does a "completely accessible" system
really mean?

 

[reinout]

Re: My File Cabinet is too heavy to lug around!

I need some clarity. I cannot access my email
remotely. I cannot access my project files
remotely.

...

So what does a "completely accessible" system
really mean?

Having access to your email all the time, OK. But when you've got access to a computer you should have access to your email. Web-based email works most of the time. You might have some internal emailserver that you can't access remotely. Ouch, that is really hard. Could you try to work around it? Forwarding all your mail to some remote location? (I've got webmail as an last-ditch backup method, IMAP gives me all the access I need (from three locations)).

Lugging around 20 kilogram worth of paper-based filing cabinet doesn't sound too attractive to me either No, you don't have to. It should, however, be well-enough accessible. I've got a problem in the sense that I work from home and from two work locations (PhD who's working also at a company...).

I store all my work-related reference material at one work location. When I want to work at home in the evening, I just take home with me those two folders that I need. It doesn't work all the time, but well enough.

What works for me is to split my reference material, some is at home, some at my work. What goes where is up to your own judgement. I don't mind doing some swapping now and then when some responsibilities swap a bit from personal to professional and vice versa.

I hope you get some ideas from this.

Reinout

 

[rossw]

Kenn,

I think the blackbelt criteria really mean that your overall workflow system mustn't fall apart wherever you are. "Fall apart" means that:
- your task list is no longer trustworthy
- you cannot find reference/ project material efficiently where you look for it.

The system explicitly recognises that most tasks can only be done in the right context. For any task that requires access to multiple paper project files, the context is probably @office.

So you can aspire to the black belt when you are sure to:
- capture inputs are reliably wherever you are,
- bring everything together often enough to keep your list of commitments up to date and
- have everything filed whenever you are in the context of your files.

The context for filing does NOT need to be @anywhere, (though you could have "@office: Grab PROJECTXYZ bid file for client visit on July 20th")

Hope this helps

FBA (aspiring white belt)