Get Everything Done

I'm interested to know how people process paper. Though I have got better at it since reading Mark F's books, I still tend to accumulate backlogs of the stuff.

Some time management writers advocate handling each item once. Pick it up, and do something with it: action it, file it or bin it. One well-known book from the 1980s recommended putting a pencil dot in the top corner of each piece of paper each time you handle it. You'll be surprised how many dots accumulate.

When it comes to email, the best advice, often from the same writers, is different. Don't allow your day to be fragmented by email; batch it up. Don't go through the emails one by one, but sort them, by topic, by correspondent, by subject, and address a cluster of them at a time.

Since I'm reasonably on top of my email and not underneath (ie submerged) by paper, I have decided that what I do with email might be a better way than my current habit of dealing with paper. So here's what I do when confronted with a large pile of papers.

1 I put the first piece of paper in a corner of my desk. Let's say it is a gas bill. I put the second piece of paper in a second corner. Let's say it is a magazine. Then I go through the in tray, putting any other utility bills on the first pile, and any other magazines on the second pile.

This process leaves a third pile that is neither utility bills or magazines. They go back in the in-tray and the process is repeated. This violates the handle it once rule, but being able to deal with all the utility bills and magazines together saves time compared with dealing with them intermittently as you work your way through the backlog.

2 After I've done this for a while, I use a different method. I take the top two items off the pile and compare them. The more interesting one I put in one corner of the desk; the less interesting in the other. I go through the whole pile in pairs, splitting them between interesting and boring. (If two papers are equally interesting or boring, I split them between the two piles at random.)

Eventually I have two piles. One of them, I start processing. It might be the interesting one or the boring one, depending on my mood. The other goes back into the in tray. I don't have to deal with that today. This, again, represents multiple handling; but I find it valuable. The reason is because I am in effect using Mark F's procrastination buster; procrastinating on doing the very unappetising task by doing a task that is only a little unappetising, and its benefits outway the single handling dogma.

A rather long winded entry, but to wrap up: do you think that the "decide now; handle every item just once" mantra really works? And what other methods do people have for grappling with the paper monster?

I use the....ahem....closed list. My current initiative is doing the Worst First either in one chunk to finish it or to do a predetermined time block of it alternated with another item from the list. I keep at it this way. It keeps me current and helps fortify the principle of getting things done straight away or at least alternating it religiosly with the other items on the list. Like Mark Forster recommends, I try my level best not to add items below the closed list line .....until both my Worst First and the other items are completed. Both principles combined with Commitment vs Interest keep me on point and effectively shrink any avoidance tendencies. An added bonus it that as I keep up with MF;s Closed List with my Worst First as the Current Initiative, my confidence and enthusiasm has been bolstered immeasurably! I now regard intentional avoidance much like I regard STD's....avoid it like the plague....the immediate relief or pleasure that procrastination offers always comes back on me ten fold in self disappointment. Thanks to Mark's System, I haven't felt that in a good long time. Refresh your mind about Mark's Principles and you'll eventually come to ABHOR dallying around! LOL!
an aside....like I did, experiment with Mark's Principles to suit your own mental system and work load. I think Mark's System is positively brilliant!

Hi again
I forgot to mention....Before I could implement the Worst First as my current initiative I had to use my backlog as my current initiative to clear things up.