Fewer Items More Control - Interruption Management
When you continually seek to reduce the volume of items you’ve retained, you have a better chance of staying in control:
Rather than keeping a five-page report, retain only the single page that you actually need and then scan it.
Rather than retaining an entire page, clip the paragraph, address and phone number, or key item of information that you actually need, and chuck the rest of the page. With the small clipping or subsection of page you've retained, tape it to a single page, perhaps one that contains other relevant retained tidbits, or scan it and keep it in a file with other related documents. Always strive to retain only the bare minimum information that you believe is necessary. Strive to reduce the size/weight/volume of the pile.
Reexamine everything in the pile once again. Even after you've pared down a particular pile to a smaller, more concise pile, review it with the notion "what am I continuing to retain that adds to little or nothing?"
Perhaps you are already familiar with the issue an item represents and don't need to retain printed information relating to it.
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In general, the more like items you group together, the easier it will be for you to find any particular item that you need!Labels: information access, organization, paring down, piles, retain, scan, tips, volume
Rather than keeping a five-page report, retain only the single page that you actually need and then scan it.
Rather than retaining an entire page, clip the paragraph, address and phone number, or key item of information that you actually need, and chuck the rest of the page. With the small clipping or subsection of page you've retained, tape it to a single page, perhaps one that contains other relevant retained tidbits, or scan it and keep it in a file with other related documents. Always strive to retain only the bare minimum information that you believe is necessary. Strive to reduce the size/weight/volume of the pile.
Reexamine everything in the pile once again. Even after you've pared down a particular pile to a smaller, more concise pile, review it with the notion "what am I continuing to retain that adds to little or nothing?"
Perhaps you are already familiar with the issue an item represents and don't need to retain printed information relating to it.
- - - - -
In general, the more like items you group together, the easier it will be for you to find any particular item that you need!
Labels: information access, organization, paring down, piles, retain, scan, tips, volume