Email Updates and Promotionsenter your email address below:
| | The Number One Paper Problem in America: Pending Items
By Paula Royalty
What is a Pending Item? A Pending Item means no action is required on your part until some time has passed. In fact, you have to wait for time to pass before you can do anything. Example: a meeting or class notice; a task you have delegated; waiting for someone to return your call.
Why is this a problem? The problem with some of these items is you are never sure when they will be resolved. Often people will put a piece of paper on their desk because they are sure the person will return their phone call in a few minutes, and they want the information handy. Eventually a desk can be stacked with lots of these pieces of paper, and you end of wasting a lot of time just looking for things. Sometimes you can forget they are there. That can lead to unnecessary crisis management.
How do I solve this problem? There is a very simple solution to this problem that requires no technology and no memory games. For every pending item, there are three steps that MUST be followed for a fool-proof system.
1. Put a brief note in your Daytimer, or on your calendar, on the day you will take action.
If you know the Action Date:
If the paper is for a scheduled meeting or event (like theater tickets or a meeting agenda), put the note after the meeting posted in your Daytimer like this: "Staff Meeting - file" (means I go to my "Staff Meeting" file for the information I need); or "Basketball Game - pf"" means the tickets are in my "Pending" file.
If you are not sure of the Action Date: PICK ONE! If you want to make sure nothing turns into a crisis that you can avoid, decide when you will follow up to keep information moving. If there is no paper associated with the task, put the note in your Daytimer on the Action Date you have selected. If there is paper, put "PF" on the Action Date. That tells you to go to your "Pending" file and see what to do.
2. Write the Action Date on the piece of paper. Orient the paper with the staple in the upper right-hand corner, and write the Action Date just to the left of the staple. You will see why in Step 3.
3. File the paper in its Subject File (in the front) or in a generic "Pending" file (in date order). Put the paper in the file so the Action Date shows when you open the file in the drawer. You will never have to take the file out of the drawer to retrieve or file papers.
Now your Daytimer will tell you when to look in your Pending file or in your subject files for your items on dates when you can keep things moving. No more stacks of waiting papers on your desk!
|return to index|print this article|More about the author|
|
|
|
Day-Timers, Inc.
is a subsidiary of 