Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Organizing our Office - The Two Touch System

How much paper is piled on your desk or workplace? Over the last year, I could not even see my desk. Instead, I saw a pile of papers, coupons, and newspapers and figured somewhere under all it was a desk. I was pretty sure I use to have a desk under all of it.

The question was whether or not I would ever find it and if I found it could I keep it clear. Over the last two weeks, my husband and I have been working hard clearing the desk. Now that we have the desk cleared, we are working on it keeping it clear which means we have started the two touch rule.

This is our version of the one touch rule. Every piece of paper can only be touched twice. We will try to put every piece of paper in its place the first time we touch it (one touch). If we can’t, it is allowed to go into our in box which we will empty once to twice a week.

This means we have to address everything as it comes to us. We can no longer just pile paper up all over the desk. Instead we have to take the minute or two minutes to address each item. This will save us time over all and it will reduce our headaches and stress with a clean work area. Anyone want to make bets on how long this lasts.

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