by The Open University
Available in 48 free installments
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How do you organise yourself?
Make a note of how you organise your:
emails
internet bookmarks or favorites
computer files
your household paperwork, for example bills, insurance documents, guarantees, receipts
book, CD, record, video or DVD collection
Compare your notes with the 3 people below:
Person 1 ? “I tend to be organised because I have my books grouped by author, and if they?re in a series then the series has to be in order. My CDs are alphabetised by surname, or name of band, with compilations alphabetically by title at the end of the sequence. I also have a filing cabinet for all household paperwork, with individual files for gas, electricity, car, and so on. Yes I?m a born librarian.”
Person 2 ? “I don't really organise my emails, I read then delete unless its a receipt then i'll print it off and put it in a safe place! (Never to be seen again). I do add my favorite webpages to my toolbar, but this is more down to laziness rather than organisation. All my household bills are shoved in a box which i tidy out once every six months. My books are on a bookcase in no particular order as are my DVDs and CDs.
Yes, i really am this disorganised but somehow it hasn't had a negative effect on me so far!!!!!!!!”
Person 3 ? “I tend to be quite ruthless with filing ? a hatred of clutter helps.
Emails: only open 3-4 times per day, when read either: a) delete; b) action if short, c) keep to action later that day or next. I have a fairly simple filing system but tend not to save on the basis that someone will have a copy. I have an automatic ‘rule? set to delete emails more than 6 months old. I?ve never missed any deleted ones.
PC filing: no more than ten folders on broad topics and no more than 4-5 subfolders in each. I find it easier to file and retrieve using broad topics. I try to keep the contents down to a single screenful. Older files are ruthlessly purged. Favourite websites ? no more than a dozen which I use regularly ? others are easily found anyway.
Paper filing at home: a (deliberately) small filing cabinet sectioned into utilities; insurance; car; job; credit cards; etc. I only keep one years worth of bills etc. and try to throw out the oldest when a new one arrives but that doesn?t always work out. So between Xmas and New year I go through and shred anything older than the year just finishing.
My New Year purge also applies to books (if I haven?t opened it for 2-3 years I?m probably not going to), CDs/DVDs (1-2 year rule) and clothes (1-year rule). Local charity shops do well. This policy has the double benefit of keeping collections to a reasonable size and making me think: do I really need to buy/keep/store it if I?m going to throw it out in a couple of years? But I guess minimalism is not to everyone?s taste!
My motto: if in doubt throw it out.”
Whilst each of these people have different ways of organising information one thing becomes clear: find a system that works for you and use it. How complex or simple your system is will depend on the type of information you deal with, and how you are going to use it, as these two audio clips show:
Click below to listen to the first audio clip.
Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.View documentTranscriptClick below to listen to the second audio clip.
Interactive content appears here. Please visit the website to use it.View documentTranscriptThe silver surfers are using the internet for leisure purposes, and so they don?t really need to keep track of things, because they are sites they regularly use or can search for again.
The researchers have to keep a research log, and will eventually be writing a dissertation that will reference all the sources they use. So the researchers are more organised and are careful about storing their information.
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