Stephanie Winston's Best Organizing Tips: Quick, Simple Ways to Get Organized and Get on with Your Life [Paperback]

Winston, founder of the consulting firm Organizing Principle, doesn't promise to add more hours to the day, but she does present practical guidance on doing things faster and more efficiently. Setting priorities and "getting it done" are the focus here. Winston profers advice on handling "paperwork gridlock," filing, paying bills and taxes, even dealing with junk mail. She suggests ways to manage your kitchen, clean your house and tidy up car clutter. Oddly, the book is addressed to women, but men would profit as well from Winston's tips. Fortune Book Club selection; BOMC and QPB alternates; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Professional organizer Winston follows up her Getting Organized (Warner, 1994. rev. ed.) and The Organized Executive (Norton, 1994. rev. ed.) with this collection of Heloise-like hints and tactics on organizing our lives. She covers the paper shuffle, using calendars and time management, office and home clutter, cleaning up the home and organizing chores, and even organizing your kids. This is an A-to-Z assortment of suggestions that are nicely designed for easy surfing, but it misses the more difficult, fundamental issue of controlling one's life that is very effectively covered in Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (LJ 3/15/90) and First Things First: To Live, To Love, To Learn, To Leave a Legacy (LJ 4/1/94). This is a rehash of Winston's previous work, and although it may be of limited use, it is recommended only if you haven't yet acquired her other books.?Dale Farris, Groves, Tex.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Many people think an uncluttered desk (or car, house, etc.) is a sign of a seriously disturbed mind. Winston notably disagrees. She offers organizing tips for all phases of existence, including (it's chapter 5) "Reading Expeditiously--Zipping through Newspapers, Magazines, and Catalogs." She emphasises retrievability as a function of organization and organization for its own sake in advice that encompasses the proper filing of addresses and business cards, setting priorities, storage space, kitchen organization--in short, nearly everything a person seeking the shapely ship is likely to want to do. Although her comprehensive attention to detail might make Winston an unappealing dinner companion, it allows her to create an admirable book of advice. What with its bibliography (for further research into organizing the bejesus out of your life?) and form for sending in tips for the next edition, it's a tome worth living by--as long as you don't put it down somewhere and forget where it is. Mike Tribby --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The New York Times This book is the next best thing to a pile of stuff animating itself and disappearing.

60-second solutions to help you get organized -- and get on with your life

Are you overwhelmed by the clutter in your files and on your desk? Are you tired of being clobbered by clothes and hangers every time you open the closet door? Do household chores take twice as long as they should? Does the very thought of getting organized intimidate you -- because you don't know how, it takes too long, and you'd rather be doing anything else? Then this is the book for you.

Featuring clear, quick-to-read lists and a meticulously detailed index, Stephanie Winston's Best Organizing Tips pinpoints how to:

* Do away with disarray in closets, cupboards, and cabinets

* Lighten the load of household chores

* Eliminate desk mess and paperwork pileups

* Make short work of bill paying and taxes

* Take maximum advantage of precious "found time"

For perfectionist and procrastinator alike, Stephanie Winston's Best Organizing Tips will prove indispensable.

Stephanie Winston is a bestselling author, professional organizer, and the founder of The Organizing Principle, a time-management consulting firm whose clients include American Express, Xerox, and Campbell Soup. She lives in New York City.

Chapter 1

Conquering Paperwork Gridlock

Pat is a stringer for her local newspaper and can write authoritatively about anything from Thanksgiving chestnut stuffing to theater reviews. She also manages to make her deadlines. However, Pat has yet to file her health insurance claim from six months ago. Her desk is covered with story ideas and research for articles, unanswered letters, unpaid bills, and other hard-to-identify papers. And to the side of her desk is a large stack of unread magazines and newspapers, probably dating back six months.

Pat is caught in the paper trap.

Paper is perhaps the bane of our organizational existence, because paper is ubiquitous. Every day we are bombarded with, surrounded by, and submerged in an ever-increasing influx of printed material, from important things like the estimate on your gutter replacement to coupon Val-U-Paks. And every day we all do something with this paper -- even if, like Pat, we only push it aside and say, in what I call the "Scarlett O'Hara syndrome," 'I'll think about it tomorrow." But we seldom do. When this happens, the problem of paper becomes not a problem of neatness, but a problem of decision making.

If you are also prone to "push it aside," ask yourself this question whenever you come across a bill, catalog, bank statement, or coupon book: "What's the worst thing that could happen if this didn't exist?" If nothing would happen, toss it. If you think you might need it someday, can you find a duplicate if someday comes? If so, get rid of it.

Regardless of your response, a decision must be made, and the good news is there are only four possibilities:

T Toss. As we've seen, you can throw it away.

R Refer. It ain't your job, it's somebody else's. Pass it along to someone who might be interested in it or who is responsible for it.

A Act. No getting around it, it is your job. Act on it personally: Reply to that letter, examine that report, sign that expense voucher.

F File. Your only job is to find a place for it so you can find it again. Name it anti file it.

I call this the TRAF system, and it is the fundamental rule of paperwork. Stick with this formula for decision making, and the wealth of handy TRAF tips in this section, and you can be sure you won't be tripped up or trapped by paper again.

For starters -- highlight

* Read mail with a highlighter or pen in hand. Mark or highlight any actions required -- due dates on bills, expiration dates, appointments, invitation dates -- and put the items in your action box.

* If you are setting aside a paper to keep -- for example, an article you want to save -- highlight the section that interests you so you won't have to read it all over again.

The TRAF System: Toss, Refer, Act, and File

TOSS: Getting Rid of It

* Open your mail over the wastebasket, tossing as you go. In an apartment house, sort mail in the mailroom, bringing upstairs only materials you will be acting on. This reduces the paper load both literally and psychologically.

* For those papers you are unsure about: time to bite the bullet. For each piece of paper ask yourself, "What's the worst thing that could happen if it didn't exist?" If the answer is "nothing," toss. It your answer is, "Maybe I'll need it someday," ask yourself, "Can I find a duplicate if someday comes?" If so, get rid of it.

* Set up a "holding pen" -- a special drawer -- for papers you think you might need but probably won't, and check it weekly. For example, you might want to keep tracking slips from packages you mail by Federal Express, Express Mail, or UPS. (Hint: It's usually a good idea to call the recipient on the designated day of arrival just to make sure the package arrived on time and in one piece.) If ali's well, you can toss the tracking slips when you check the drawer. One client called this her "Friday drawer" because she found when she checked it every Friday that most papers she had saved could be thrown away.

REFER: Keeping the Paper Moving

* Create individual "referral folders" for the handful of people you talk to most regularly -- your boss, staff, "team" colleagues, etc. -- into which you drop things to discuss with that person. Then, at a convenient time, say, "Jim, there are a few things I'd like to go over with you." After you've asked a coworker to get back to you on something, drop a reminder note into his/her folder.

Your referral folders should be especially accessible; either stand them up in a vertical file holder on your desk or put them at the front of your desk file drawer. You can use colored folders to distinguish your referral folders from other files.

* Or head notebook pages with the names of those same key people and jot down ideas to discuss as they occur to you. Then catch each person at a convenient moment and go over your list.

* Using the referral folder principle, create automatic agendas for your regular meetings. For example, drop materials to be discussed at Monday's staff meeting into a folder headed "Monday Staff Meeting," and add to it as things come up. By Monday you've collected an instant agenda!

* At home, create a "spouse basket": Put all papers to discuss with your spouse -- an invitation, your child's report card, a message from your insurance agent -- into a single basket. Talk things over daily and clean the basket out. Try discussion baskets with your kids too.

ACT: Getting Things Done

A key obstacle to action is getting caught in the "low-priority trap" -- you push aside a piece of paper such as an alumni bulletin, thinking, "This isn't pressing, I'll just look at it tomorrow..." Before you know it, "tomorrow" is three weeks later, and those seemingly unimportant pieces of paper have accumulated into a dark, dense thicket of daunting decisions. What to do? Deal with it! If a piece of paper is worth saving, it's worth acting on -- and soon.

The five keys to getting through your action stack

1. Set a regular half hour every day for TRAFing and working through your action stack. Stick to the time limit. Some people prefer to hold paperwork (except for urgent matters) until late in the day or early the next morning so they can deal with it while the phones are quiet.

2. Thumb through the stack quickly and take note of those tasks that require a substantial time commitment. Then pick a realistic time to work on them and enter it into your calendar. For example, you know it will take an hour or two to go over the new newsletter layout, so pencil in an hour at 3:00 this afternoon, and an hour tomorrow at 11:00.

3. Riffle quickly through your action stack a second time and pull out two or three top priorities. Act on those tasks first, then work through the rest of the stack in the order that it falls. And if everything seems like a priority? Then work through the stack in order. Don't shuffle pieces of paper around.

4. You are about halfway through your action stack and already you are in a paper panic. Perhaps there's one item that's really bugging you -- you know you need to make a decision, but you just can't think about it now. Decide to think about it later -- don't just push it aside. Mark it with a red dot and move on. If any document gathers three red dots, that means you've passed it by for three days and it automatically gets pushed into red alert. It should be dealt with at once.

5. When your TRAFing time runs out, stop, even if you haven't gotten through your action stack. Start tomorrow's session at the bottom of the stack and work up, so old business gets cleared up first.

Two-Step TRAFing

Perhaps you've received a letter which would be better handled by another party -- someone in a different department, for example. In a situation like this, you need to take two-step TRAFing action. First, act on it -- call the sender to confirm receipt or send a note of acknowledgment. Then refer the letter to the other, more appropriate party.

Three variations on working through your action stack

The "right" way to work through your action stack depends largely on your individual style. While it's usually best to tackle priority tasks first, the feeling of accomplishment you get from plowing through busywork may motivate you to confront your priorities with energy and confidence. Here are the alternatives -- just be sure to keep deadlines top-of-mind and plan your time accordingly.

1. Do priorities first. This is the best bet for anybody with a consistently heavy paper load. Save busywork till last.

2. Do busywork first. Says one magazine executive, "It clears the decks and the brain." Caution: Don't get so involved in the side issues that you never get to the main event.

3. Work from the top down. Begin at the top of your action stack, and work straight down.

Tips for moving paper in and out fast

* Handwrite your reply at the bottom of a letter or memo and pop it back in the mail to the sender that very day! Handwriting is not only fast, it frees you to handle your paperwork outside the office -- for example, on the commuter train.

* You can't get any faster than this: Sort and process all mail with your secretary daily at an appointed time. (Most people like to consolidate a full day's mail, unless there is a crisis situation.) Working together forces you to make decisions, take action, and delegate as you go.

Here's how it works: Say a supplier writes you requesting an appointment to discuss a new product. On the spot you decide, first, if you're interested. If so, ask your secretary to call and set up the appointment and enter it into your calendar. If not, dictate a "thanks but no thanks" note to be ready for your signature by day's end.

Using this strategy, one manager and her secretary were able to process an average day's paperwork in about fifteen minutes. Not only is this method fast, it also forces you to make decisions about things which...