Kitchen Sinks and Tickler Files

So, flylady has this thing about clean kitchen sinks. The first step in her “get control of your house and home” system is to clean your kitchen sink and keep it clean.

I’ve never gotten into flylady but I thought of it this morning.

You see, my inbasket has been piling up lately. And piling up and piling up. To the point where last night when I couldn’t sleep I thought, I’d better dig through it because there’s probably stuff in it that has to be done immediately and I’ve forgotten about it. And (okay, I know you’re tired of reading this if you’ve been reading me for awhile but I have to repeat it in case somebody new stops by) since I’ve been doing the GTD thing, I’ve actually got a system that works, even if by letting my inbasket pile up this way, I’m totally NOT working the system.

But the thing is, I do know I can get control of it again easily, so last night with Letterman in the background, I did. I wish I had a before picture but last night I wasn’t thinking about documentation.

It wasn’t until this morning when I woke up and my inbasket was totally empty and I had work waiting for me to do it that I thought, I want to blog this.

When I woke up this is what awaited me:

That is my tickler file in the foreground, in green. It has 43 folders — 31 green folders for days of the month, and twelve blue folders for months of the year.

When I went to bed last night, the 5 folder was in front, because the next morning would be the December 5. (You can see December, the blue folder, sticking out a little above the others. All the other months are tucked back in there behind.)

Behind my desk files, a little out of focus, are my black wire mesh desk tray thingies. The top one (with the P-touch labeler on it) is the Out tray. The middle is my TBR tray — scripts waiting for me to read them. the bottom (the empty one) is my In tray, which was empty because I’d just emptied it.

How did I empty it quickly? Easy, I started with the top paper and looked at it, and realized it needed to be filed away. Made a label (P-touch) and filed it.

Next paper? Something I really need to take care of asap. I put it in the 5 folder so that I would do it on the 5th, today. As I worked down the stack, several things ended up with it, stuff that really needs to get signed, registered, mailed, whatevered before today is over.

Other stuff either got trashed or filed or –

Tucked ahead into other folders. 9 (stuff that I can’t do without the Resident Storm Chaser so won’t be handled until Saturday) or 28 (something to be considered before the end of the year but no need to worry about it until after Christmas, and 6 (some stuff that needs to be done quickly, but not quite as urgent as the stuff I’m doing today).

Note from the future (well, an hour later): One thing that went out in the mail — a rebate receipt for $110 which they warn may take up to 8 weeks to process. So I put my copy of it in the February folder. When I pull that one out I’ll see the receipt and if I haven’t already received my rebate, I can follow up on it. The tickler works up to a year in advance.

It’s this easy. I clear the inbasket by giving it just a little thought and figuring out when I will most likely be able to actually DO it, and put it in my tickler file for that day.

This morning I took out my 5 folder:

Dumped that stuff in the inbasket. And now have this:

6 folder at the front of the tickler, waiting for tomorrow. (It can also serve as inbasket, collecting stuff that comes in today. At the end of today or first thing tomorrow I then process that stuff into the appropriate places, and “do” the stuff that is waiting to be done.)

I have important stuff in front of me, already “thought” about, just waiting for me to “do.” I know I’m not missing anything (at least not anything that was in my inbasket!) and when this stuff is done, my inbasket is empty again until tomorrow.

I think tickler files are amazing beasts. I know a lot of people at 43 folders rave about GTD but don’t actually use the 43-Folder/Tickler File.

But, as I was thinking this morning … for me the tickler file is a little like flylady’s clean kitchen sink, only better. When I use the system (which I usualy do) I feel like I have control of some tiny corner of my life. Important stuff that was piled and taunting me is now processed and waiting its turn to be handled. Really important stuff went out in the mail today. Whatever else is going on, this corner of my desk and my life is in control, and that’s saying something.

Just don’t ask for a picture of my sink.

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Huh. I’ve talked about this before.