What I’m finding out is this is an ongoing, rather than a one-off project! No sooner do I think I’ve got this monster tamed than it grows another head and threatens to overwhelm me again.
The latest monster crept up on me while I was busy planning! I have a stack of 5 trays on a shelf behind me that started overflowing with paper. Do you know where it all comes from? I certainly don’t. But I’d got into the habit of throwing stuff in the top tray ‘to deal with later’. Big mistake! Before I knew it the tray was full. My concern was that there might be something urgent at the bottom, and I’d miss a deadline.
At the weekend I went through the contents of all the trays to find out what was lurking. Fortunately it turned out there was nothing urgent and the piles of paper were soon reduced to current work, with everything else either filed or recycled.
In an attempt to stop this happening again, I’ve made room for the top tray (the biggest problem) on my desk so I can see it and avoid its contents building up. That’s the theory anyway!
The rest of the story so far
I’ve ruthlessly reduced the number of email newsletters arriving in my Inbox. That’s ongoing and the one-out, one-in policy is working well.
I finally got around to writing down a list of business development projects, prioritised them in order of which will bring the best return and selected just 3 to work on.
What’s next?
This story is far from finished, in fact I think it’s going to run and run! The next challenge is to actually get the first projects on the list finished, and make sure I don’t get swamped by new information coming in while I’m working on them.
How do you tame the amount of information flowing into your business? I’d love to hear from you.
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