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Article 59
July 23, 1990

The Personal Organization Procedure

Part I -- Cleaning Up Your Space

The overall procedure for each area is:

1. If you have a "Pending" file, an "In" file, drawers, or anyplace where papers or objects accumulate that represent incomplete cycles, take such "accumulation zones" up one at a time. Dump the contents of such a zone onto the center of your desk or table and begin by cleaning that up. Then clean up each of the other accumulation zones. Finally, clean up other areas in the room in a systematic manner, one at a time.
2. For each article in the space, decide the following:
1. Do you really need to keep it at all? If so,
2. Does it belong in this space or in another one?
If the item isn't needed, throw it out. If it is needed elsewhere, put it in a "going elsewhere" pile (you might want to use several such piles -- one for each destination). If the item is replaceable and there is only a small possibility that you will ever have a use for it, throw it away, sell it, or give it to someone who can use it.
3. As you go through your possessions, some (such as scraps of paper with writing on them) will remind you of incomplete cycles. If you can complete any of these tasks immediately (such as by writing a letter or paying a bill), do so and throw out or file the reminder. Write down the details of any cycles that remain unhandled on your Incomplete Cycles List. Then you can throw out the scrap of paper, or whatever, or, if you need to keep it, file it in your Pending file, or wherever you keep incomplete cycles.¹ Anything in your Pending location should have a corresponding entry on the Incomplete Cycles List.
4. Sort the rest of the items and put them away in a logical order, in places where they can be found later. File anything that needs filing. Take the items in the "going elsewhere" pile(s) and put them where they belong.
5. When you are done, you should have a clean space, with a Pending space containing only needed items, and a Incomplete Cycles List. Do not put away the Incomplete Cycles List; keep it prominently in sight at all times. You will be taking the Incomplete Cycles List with you from area to area as you clean things up. You should have only one Incomplete Cycles List. Consolidate any such lists that already exist into a single one.
6. Move the Incomplete Cycles List to the next sharply-circumscribed area you are going to clean up and do (1) to (5) on that area. Handle all the areas in a room before going on to another room. Repeat these actions on new areas until all areas are clean and you have one Incomplete Cycles List.

• Addressing sharply circumscribed areas in a systematic way.
• Keeping track of incomplete cycles, deciding on them and consolidating them.
• Organizing things in a way that will make life easier later.
• Handling "Accumulation Zones" that would not be confronted in a normal cleanup.

Part II -- Completing Incomplete Cycles

1. Taking the Incomplete Cycles List you have just put together, add to it to form an exhaustive list of any activities you have ever (recently or otherwise) begun but not finished. Be sure to include any unread books, courses you meant to take, careers or projects you meant to start or complete.
2. Make up a "To Do List", separate from the Incomplete Cycles List you have just constructed. Leave it blank for now; you will be filling it in during the remainder of the Program.
3. Handle the Incomplete Cycles List as given below, starting with the cycles that are easiest and can be completed the quickest:
1. See if the cycle has, in fact, already been finished (perhaps by someone else), or whether circumstances have arisen that make it irrelevant or impossible. This may require doing a little investigating.
2. If it's not finished and still possible and relevant, decide whether you really and truly still think it's worth doing.

 

 

If so:

3. Finish it (this is preferable), or
4. Decide when you are going to finish it and how you are going to finish it, i.e., what steps you are going to take to finish it and when you are going to take them, and write these data down on your To Do List.

 

 

If you don't think it's worth finishing:

5. Decide it's all right not to finish it -- ever -- and decide you don't have to worry about that activity anymore.
4. After doing the above with every item on the list, take your To Do List and keep it prominently displayed at all times. You might want to split up your To Do List into separate lists for home and for work. Keep each prominently displayed in an appropriate place where you won't be able to help running into it all the time. That allows you to get these cycles out of your head without your having to worry about forgetting them. Let the physical universe be a memory for you.
5. Arrange to be reminded (by a calendar, a secretary, or otherwise) as the time arrives for completing each necessary action.
6. Do each of these actions when you are reminded of them, without procrastinating.

Frank A. Gerbode, M.D.
Director, IRM