#3.3 Boxes and Drawers

Part three of the "multiple things methapore series" - after #3.1 Juggle all the balls and #3.2 So many hats here comes "Boxes and Drawers", where I would like to dive deeper into all the tools that help me organize the work I do on daily basis: control the flows of data; store, organize and retrieve knowledge etc. The series is almost over, I promise - I keep my favourite tool for the last post, and then off to other topics.

E-Mails

That's a big one - hundreds of e-mails go through our mail accounts each day, and sometimes it seems impossible not to drown in all this influx. However, there are 4 techniques that help me navigate these seas (mostly) unperturbed. 

• Keep Inbox (almost) empty:

The "Zero Inbox Method" states, that you should keep yout inbox free of any mails at the end of the day. Triage your inbox and do the following:

• Delete ones you don't need to act on or keep for later use

• Forward ones that should be acted upon by others

• Put aside ones that you have to act on later, or need for information

• Act right away on the ones that you can act on

Well, I failed to implement this method. But I did learn a routine that works well for me: After reading a mail I either delete it, move to "Archive" or leave in Inbox for later action. I try to keep no more than 10-15 emails in the Inbox "for later" - this way I can glance at them to see if any of them are urgent, or if they can wait a bit longer. Not perfect (I still have one e-mail waiting there from September 2023), but it works "good enough".

• Auto-filter messages:

On top of the general "Archive" folder, I keep dedicated folders for all the e-mails I can easily filter automatically. When working on a project, I automatically filter all e-mails from client's domain to dedicated Project folder. I have folders for internal and external ticketing systems. I have a folder for all corporate announcements, release notes, IT updates etc. The inbox is lighter and happier, and I know that in some cases I can just mark the whole folder as read and be done with it.

• Set auto-responders:

Whenever I'm off work for more than a day, I set an auto-responder stating when I'll be back at work and when the sender can expect a reply. This one is more of a courtesy towards others, but it helps to avoid unnecessary work for me apologizing for missed meetings, re-organizing or re-iterating actions, or handling escalations. Simple, but effective. 

Calendars

We've talked about time-boxing and managing meetings last time. I just want to reiterate the fact, that you can book slots for yourself in your calendar, to let others know you're not to be disturbed. You can also import a team calendar into your outlook, to share important events, or have a glance on other people's PTOs - although this takes some discipline from the whole team to keep them up to date and to remember to put the events in right calendar. 

Files and Folders

I like boxes stored in other boxes. I like file binders and document sleeves. I like to keep my Desktop empty and to keep my folders neatly stacked by topic and category. In other words, I like tree structures. It lets me quickly localize the thing I'm looking for—or at least the general area where something should be stored. But I must warn you—this is not a perfect solution. It takes time and discipline to put things in the right basket. Sometimes you'll realize the structure you had in mind does not match reality—then you need to make an effort to reorganize files and folders to better match your needs. Also, this method usually doesn't work with shared folders—other people have different ideas about what the structure should look like—likely, something that seems natural to you might be totally unintuitive for someone else. Luckily, all is not lost - there's Everything:

• Everything 

"Everything" is an amazing search tool for Windows (available HERE). It takes a moment to load, but then can find everything almost instantly. It has many advanced search options, so even if your idea for organizing files is to keep "Desktop(1)" folder on your Desktop, you should be fine.

Of course, the examples above are only scratching the surface—many depend on your enterprise landscape (SharePoint spaces, Gmail search options, custom Jira's JQL queries), others are just small tools that help in repeatable tasks (Autohotkey, PowerToys, Ditto). Next I would like to touch on one that is very close to my heart—MindMaps! See you next time!