bluebell
New member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2007
- Messages
- 1,485
- MBTI Type
- INTP
I'm good with making systems. I'm not so great at keeping them
Yep. I've lost count of how many systems I've set up to keep my desk at work vaguely organised. They only work when my workload isn't too high. As soon as I get overwhelmed, even for a day, it all goes to shit and the organised chaos starts to get a bit disorganised. Then it stays that way until a) I have to move desks or b) I get a new job. I think part of me believes that once I find The Perfect System, then my desk will stop looking like it's been snowing paper.
Things are usually pretty clear in my mind, though. I remember the dates of all the big upcoming meetings and mostly can remember what I need to do. I'm usually juggling a few too many things, though, and I still haven't found a way of reliably keeping track of my short and long term to do lists. I think my current system is occasionally dropping reminders into Outlook calendar for the random stuff, like conference abstracts or whatever, and hoping that if I forget anything that's really important, someone will yell at me and I'll do it then.
Electronic files at work are organised despite the chaos of my desk. It's super easy for anyone else to use and my system for that has actually survived the overwhelming workload days.
At home, bills get stuck on the fridge and the due date gets stuck in my mind. I have a calendar stuck up in the kitchen where we write down appointments or invitations to stuff. Occasionally I remember to look at the calendar. We mostly do this so we don't end up with parallel timelines when we both need the car.