From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Processing question 3: Where is its home?

From the course: Time Management Fundamentals

Processing question 3: Where is its home?

“

- The final step of what, when, where processing is where is its home? You need to decide where to put any physical or digital item associated with this task. Let's consider some best practices. First, remember this phrase. Everything has a home and no visitors allowed. This means that items of similar type should be grouped together and kept separate from everything else. This makes it easier both to find things and put them away. What kind of home should you use? Think folders, boxes and shelves. Remember those recommended stacking trays and storage drawers? Use those to create new homes if needed. As you do, keep your homes no more than three quarters full so you don't hesitate to put items where they belong. Next, you may have heard the phrase, when in doubt, throw it out. Well, that's a good rule for physical items like paper but for digital items, when in doubt, keep it. Digital storage is relatively cheap and search engines can locate these items easily. This leads to another practice regarding where you keep contact information like phone numbers, addresses and so on. Keep them all in one accessible place. Use an app that syncs the data continuously and makes it easier to share with others. Optionally, you may find it helpful to assign a virtual home to tasks by categorizing them according to situation or location. For example, I could assign a where by creating a temporary processed task list called 1:1 Nicole. When I go to the scheduled meeting, I'm prepared because all my questions and requests are there in one place. You can use categorized tasks for any recurring appointment such as group meetings or shopping. These virtual homes for processed tasks make it easier to follow through because they free your mind from having to remember each individual task. A few seconds spent answering the where question can save us precious minutes or hours in the future.

Contents