Learning Modalities For The Chronically Disorganized
More on office organization, filing, filing sytems that work for the chronically disorganized. Using your dominant learning modality can help you file better.
This excerpt is from Mike Nelson's book, Clutter-Proof Your Business, which oddly enough, has a chapter on Feng Shui and was translated into Japanese and Korean.
Make a mental "hanger" to prod your memory to put the project in its right place. Memory experts (you know, those smart alecks who can recite everyone’s name in a crowd of a hundred) tell us that one secret is to associate a person’s name with something else. "Mike Nelson" might be too common to remember, but if you associate the name with the old Seahunt TV series and visualize me in full scuba gear, you’ll pick me out of a lineup. "Janis Wilson" is common, but if you visualize her on a January calendar as a sun-face willing to work, you won’t forget her name. Personalize the hanger using your dominant learning type.
Marita Adair – Marty is a visual, creative person. Her secret to being able to find anything later is to see it. She uses four-legged wire shelves to put the scanner above her printer, under-shelf wire baskets, plastic see-through crates as book dividers on her shelves and clear literature containers. I can organize my clutter better if I can see it. I put on my daily calendar to put away 12 things. I often get a lot more."
Visual people should use transparent "Action" files on their desks while working on a project, then transfer them to transparent filing crates as it loses its immediacy. Once it goes into the metal monster filing cabinet, it is like declaring them dead and buried.
Use see-through filing systems whenever possible. Use flowcharts (both visual and logical tools) to map activities. Use charts on the wall to keep track of where we are in our task list. Map a map of the filing system in the file cabinets we have to use. Keep the map where we can see it. That way we can "see our way through."
Kinesthetic people can keep a file folder filled with sticky notes with the names of each file that they can move around as they use them. Make a file folder (a legal size is best for you) that you can access readily. Keep it on your desk instead of the files themselves. Write the names of the real file folders on sticky notes. This frees you to put the files in a real file drawer and not feel like you have "lost touch" with them. When you need a file, go to your sticky note folder. As the project moves forward, you can move the notes into different stages like "waiting on a call from Appleton," "submitted bid to Appleton," "Pending installation," etc.
Auditory people can associate a sound with the file. Since reading has a strong auditory component for many of us, go ahead and say it out loud. You are already "saying" it in your mind. This reinforces it. For instance, when you begin this telephone project, say out loud, "Telephone Systems." Then visualize a phone ringing. Imbed that sound into your mind. Pull in a little association, and visualize an apple tree with a ringing phone for Appleton. Hear the phone ring again. You could imagine an old-fashioned page-boy walking through the office saying, "Phone message for Mr. Appleton. Phone message for Mr. Appleton." Now you have the entire project and the individual characters in the plot impressed on your auditory senses. If you’ve talked to any of the people involved, recall the sound of their voices as you create files for them. Whenever someone sounds like somebody you already know or a TV or radio voice, associate their name with the name of the person they sound like.
Logical learners won’t need the redundant filing system. If they’ve set the files up in a logical manner, they will feel comfortable that they can find them.
Emotional learners will add their own emotional reactions to the mental visualizations above to make the project and people important to them. I know it’s hard to get emotional about a telephone system, but you don’t have to get all logical about it. In fact, you probably should drop all pretenses to being logical right now. You could visualize a telephone call where you got some really good news. Hear the voice on the other end, but in a different way than the auditory learners. Hear the emotions in the other person’s voice and feel the emotions in yours. Then add in the main players in the project or names of the folders in a conversation with the person giving you the news. Hear Appleton excitedly telling you about his proposal.
For more, get the book, Clutter-Proof Your Business here.