If You Go to an Office, You'll Still Need a Space at Home
Don't skimp on work space at home. As you'll discover through this process, it's critical that you have at least a satellite home system identical to the one in your office. Many people I've worked with have been somewhat embarrassed by the degree of chaos that reigns in their homes, in contrast to their offices at work; they've gotten tremendous value from giving themselves permission to establish the same setup in both places.
You must have a focused work space — at home, at work, and if possible even in
If you're like many of them, you'll find that a week-end spent setting up a home workstation can make a revolutionary change in your ability to organize your life.
An Office Space in Transit
If you move around much, as a business traveler or just as a person with a mobile life-style, you'll also want to set up an efficiently organized micro-office-in-transit. More than likely this will consist of a briefcase, pack, or satchel with appropriate folders and portable workstation supplies.
Many people lose opportunities to be productive because they're not equipped to take advantage of the odd moments and windows of time that open up as they move from one place to another, or when they're in off-site environments. The combination of a good processing style, the right tools, and good interconnected systems at home and at work can make traveling a highly leveraged way to get certain kinds of work done.
Don't Share Space! It
is imperative that you have your own work space — or at least your own in-basket and a physical place in which to process paper. Too many married couples I've worked with have tried to work out of a single desk at home, and it always makes light-years of difference when they expand to two workstations. Far from being the "separation" they expect, the move in fact relieves them of a subtle stress in their relationship about managing the stuff of their shared lives. One couple even decided to set up an additional mini-workstation in the kitchen for the stay-at-home mom, so she could process work while keeping an eye on their infant in the family room.
Some organizations are interested in the concept of "hoteling" — that is, having people create totally self-contained and mobile workstation capabilities so they can "plug in" anywhere in the company, at any time, and work from there. I have my doubts about how well that concept will work in practice. A friend who was involved in setting up an "office of the future" model in Washington, D.C., for the U.S. government, claimed that hoteling tended to fall apart because of the "Mine!" factor — people wanted their own stuff. I suggest there's a deeper reason for the failure: there needs to be zero resistance at the less-than-conscious level for us to use the systems we have. Having to continually reinvent our in-basket, our filing system, and how and where we process our stuff can only be a source of incessant distraction.
It is critical that you have your own work space. You want to use your systems, not just think about them.
You can work virtually everywhere if you have a clean, compact system and know how to process your stuff rapidly and portably. But you'll still need a "home base" with a well-grooved set of tools and sufficient space for all the reference and support material that you'll want somewhere close at hand-when you "land." Most people I work with need at least four file drawers for their general-reference and project-support types of paper-based materials — and it's hard to imagine that all of that could ever be totally and easily movable.
If you're committed to a full implementation of this workflow process, there are some basic supplies and equipment that you'll need to get you started. As you go along, you're likely to dance between using what you're used to and evaluating the possibilities for new and different gear to work with.
Note that good tools don't necessarily have to be expensive. Often, on the low-tech side, the more "executive" something looks, the more dysfunctional it really is.
The Basic Processing Tools
Let's assume you're starting from scratch. In addition to a desktop work space, you'll need:
• Paper-holding trays (at least three)
• A stack of plain letter-size paper
• A pen/pencil
• Post-its (3X3s)
• Paper clips
• Binder clips
• A stapler and staples
• Scotch tape
• Rubber bands
• An automatic labeler
• File folders
• A calendar
• Wastebasket/recycling bins
Paper-Holding Trays
These will serve as your in-basket and out-basket, with one or two others for work-in-progress support papers and/or your "read and review" stack. The most functional trays are the side-facing letter or legal stackable kinds, which have no "lip" on them to keep you from sliding out a single piece of paper.
Plain Paper
You'll use plain paper for the initial collection process. Believe it or not, putting one thought on one full-size sheet of paper can have enormous value. Although most people will wind up processing their notes into some sort of list organizer, a few will actually stick with the simple piece-of-paper-per-thought system. In any case, it's important to have plenty of letter-size writing paper or tablets around to make capturing ad hoc input easy.
Post-its, Clips, Stapler, Etc.
Post-its, clips, stapler, tape, and rubber bands will come in handy for routing and storing paper-based materials. We're not finished with paper yet (if you haven't noticed!), and the simple tools for managing it are essential.
Moment-to-moment collecting, thinking, processing, and organizing are challenging enough; always ensure that you have the tools to make them as easy as possible.
The Labeler
The labeler is a surprisingly critical tool in our work. Thousands of executives and professionals and homemakers I have worked with now have their own automatic labelers, and my archives are full of their comments, like, "Incredible — I wouldn't have believed what a difference it makes!" The labeler will be used to label your file folders, binder spines, and numerous other things.
At this writing, I recommend the Brother labeler — it's the most user-friendly. Get the least expensive one that sits on a desk and has an AC adapter (so you won't have to worry about batter ies). Also get a large supply of cassettes of label tape — black letters on white tape (instead of clear) are much easier to read and allow you to relabel folders you might want to reuse.
You can get software and printer sheets to make computer-generated labels, but I prefer the stand-alone tool. If you have to wait to do your filing or labeling as a batch job, you'll most likely resist making files for single pieces of paper, and it'll add the formality factor, which really puts the brakes on this system.
File Folders
You'll need plenty of file folders (get letter size if you can, legal size if you must). You may also need an equal number of Pendaflex-style file-folder hangers, if your filing system requires them. Plain manila folders are fine — color-coding is a level of complexity that's hardly ever worth the effort. Your general-reference filing system should just be a simple library.