Comments on: Everyday Lean – Email Inventory http://www.leanblog.org/2006/03/everyday-lean-email-inventory/ Mark Graban's leanblog.org - Lean Healthcare, Lean Thinking, Lean Manufacturing, Toyota Production System Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:59:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: jp http://www.leanblog.org/2006/03/everyday-lean-email-inventory/#comment-389 jp Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:08:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2006/03/everyday-lean-email-inventory/#comment-389 Great idea - I'll try it this week. Great idea – I’ll try it this week.

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]]> By: Martha Hesser http://www.leanblog.org/2006/03/everyday-lean-email-inventory/#comment-386 Martha Hesser Sat, 18 Mar 2006 04:00:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2006/03/everyday-lean-email-inventory/#comment-386 JP, I recently read about a personal organization system that I found very clever.<br/>It is useful for those of us who get overwhelmed on Mondays in front of a "to do" list longer than what any human being can handle. <br/><br/>I have a tendency to work a little bit on everything on such a list, which many times does not lead to the completion of a full project by the end of the week.<br/><br/>The "ideator" of the system said that he writes two or three of the items in his master "to do" list on a flash card on Monday morning. <br/><br/>Then, he puts the card on a clip that hangs from his computer. Each time that he diverts his attention to some other issue, he looks at the card and tries to get his attention back on working only on these few items.<br/><br/>Once finished with those items, the next morning he writes down another flashing card and so on.<br/><br/>It does seem to me like this is a simple application of a Kanban! JP, I recently read about a personal organization system that I found very clever.
It is useful for those of us who get overwhelmed on Mondays in front of a “to do” list longer than what any human being can handle.

I have a tendency to work a little bit on everything on such a list, which many times does not lead to the completion of a full project by the end of the week.

The “ideator” of the system said that he writes two or three of the items in his master “to do” list on a flash card on Monday morning.

Then, he puts the card on a clip that hangs from his computer. Each time that he diverts his attention to some other issue, he looks at the card and tries to get his attention back on working only on these few items.

Once finished with those items, the next morning he writes down another flashing card and so on.

It does seem to me like this is a simple application of a Kanban!

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]]> By: jp http://www.leanblog.org/2006/03/everyday-lean-email-inventory/#comment-379 jp Thu, 16 Mar 2006 17:21:00 +0000 http://leanblog.bigbigdesign.net/2006/03/everyday-lean-email-inventory/#comment-379 I just read a book called Getting Things Done. It's been around for a while, but it was new to me. The author wholly agrees with processing the inbox as the e-mails arrive (as do I - it makes a huge difference in productivity and psyche!)<br/><br/>Most of the newer e-mail systems - gMail is one - let you search for archived messages regardless of where they are "filed". To me, filing messages into folders is totally NVA, even if I may use the information someday. If the message requires action, I list the action and drive on. After that I archive the message in a single folder. If it's ever needed again (unlikely), I query on the relevant term and let the system create the folder on the fly. I suppose the assumption there is that I know what term to query.<br/><br/>The author also treats action items you try to remember as a type of mental rework. He advocates using a written system to drive the sequence of actions and freeing up your "RAM" for higher level tasks. <br/><br/>Does anyone have what they consider a "lean" personal organizational system? I just read a book called Getting Things Done. It’s been around for a while, but it was new to me. The author wholly agrees with processing the inbox as the e-mails arrive (as do I – it makes a huge difference in productivity and psyche!)

Most of the newer e-mail systems – gMail is one – let you search for archived messages regardless of where they are “filed”. To me, filing messages into folders is totally NVA, even if I may use the information someday. If the message requires action, I list the action and drive on. After that I archive the message in a single folder. If it’s ever needed again (unlikely), I query on the relevant term and let the system create the folder on the fly. I suppose the assumption there is that I know what term to query.

The author also treats action items you try to remember as a type of mental rework. He advocates using a written system to drive the sequence of actions and freeing up your “RAM” for higher level tasks.

Does anyone have what they consider a “lean” personal organizational system?

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