Task Files In Action: A Demo

When I went through the piles of papers on my desk, on my hatboxes, and tucked in three boxes this past weekend, I discovered a mountain of coulda-woulda-shoulda's; some, like filing my '08 flex spending claims by the April 30 deadline, weren't too late to do.  But the close call got me thinking about how I need to come up with a better way to manage my tasks so that they actually get done.

Yesterday I wrote about  the importance of separating out paperwork associated with tasks from that associated with archival records, and that I decided to use a limited number of pretty folders to help me organize the tasks at hand. To give you an idea for what kind of tasks I'm referring to, here's what ended up in the first round 12 task folders:

1. An explanation of benefits spanning February through March of this year, detailing a service I didn't recall getting.  I also had a question about the dates of coverage for the particular insurance.
2. A phone number to call to provide a reference.
3. A PIN number sent some time in March with instructions on how to enable it.
4. Paperwork that reminded me that I'd intended to write a thank you note to someone in early April.
5. An outdated list of my planned vacation days for this year.
6. A few numbers I intended to record regarding a goal.
7. A business card, several phone numbers, an email address, and two holiday card envelopes with return addresses, all of which all need to be written into my address book.
8. A scrap from an old notebook with information about an old  account I'd been wanting to check but forgot how to access.
9. A credit card bill from March that I'd been meaning to look over.
10. Things for which permanent files need to be created.
11. Notes on airline tickets I need to get.
12. An invitation to a charity event, a brochure from the ballet on next year's program, and a brochure on a summer outdoor concert series.

These are the items that I came across first when going through the stacks of paperwork.  I actually ended up with perhaps 30 more tasks that do need to get done at some point, but none of these other tasks were particularly pressing, so I kept to the first 12 folders I created.  In each, I added a piece of copy paper and wrote a quick note as to what, exactly, to do, (i.e. for #5, I wrote: "print updated list and input dates in planner." I then set aside some time after work on Monday to devote to the task pile.

In a little less than an hour, I called my insurance company (task #1, above), provided the promised reference (task #2), enabled the PIN (task #3), wrote and sent the thank you note (task #4), checked the old account (task #8), and decided which events I was interesting in going to (task #12) so I could hand the event file to Alpay for him to look at. In all, I completed items in half of the folders, which I then cleared out and filled with the paperwork associated with other tasks that were in danger of being overlooked before I had a system in place to capture them.

 
I actually decided to keep the files on my desk, in the place where I used to jam paper without first looking at it.  The difference:  this area is now reserved for task items, with priority to those in the folders (task paperwork not yet assigned to a folder is tucked behind the folders, as seen in the picture, above right).  As I make my way through the tasks in the folders, the paperwork is either tossed/shredded or filed, making room for new tasks to be transferred into folders.