How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster? 16

[HgTX]

I have a bad case of monkey brain. "Away" is the same as "gone", so I can't bring myself to file anything I'm not 100% sure I'm absolutely done with. (Yeah, we're supposed to pick up the notion of object permanence around the age of two, but some of us are slow.)

As a result, the place is enough of a mess that I got busted last year by the occupational safety people. (I guess they were fearing a landslide.)

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[PhilBW]

I never used to be concerned about a messy desk. Then I went to a time management seminar, and the speaker said looking for stuff was the biggest time waster most people have. I didn't believe him at first, but after that I began to take note every time I was digging through piles looking for stuff. I was amazed at how much time I really spent doing that. One of my worst habits was when I would finally file something away, I would accidently get ahold of unrelated documents and file those away in the folders where they didn't belog. Whenever I couldn't find something, I would start pulling out the files I had recently filed, and that is where I would find the missing items. My desk still isn't always neat and tiday, but I'm doing better, and it really does save time.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Looking for stuff is indeed a big time waster.

However, my lamellar filing system is capable of instant retrieval. ... so long as no one, e.g. an S.O., disturbs a pile.

;---

Last place I worked filed stuff in Outlook messages. Not in Outlook, and not in Exchange, where Outlook could search them; their IT department limited every user to 65-ish Mb of storage, which is not much by today's standards. Messages were moved to folders by project, renamed by the Project Manager/Clerk to what he/she thought they were about. Talk about looking for stuff wasting time...

Did you know that Windows Explorer's Search function doesn't necessarily look everywhere you tell it to?
A great piece of software called Agent Ransack does; it's the search that should have been built in, in the first place.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ykee]

I think this link says it all:

http://www.aperfectmess.com/messy_desks.html

keeping a really tidy workspace is not only a waste of time, but is conterproductive.

 

[COEngineeer]

I put a shiney object in my cubicle so I know if someone is behind me LOL. But dont put a mirror because that is just too obvious. But this trick will not make you finish your work faster. It just make you surf the internet faster.

Never, but never question engineer's judgment

 

[SomptingGuy]

I'm currently facing a dark window. I see them coming. I even know who they are. I kind of like it.

- Steve

 

[Mr168]

I have a small clutter on my desk. Post-its galore, the errant business card, etc, etc. Every so often I will clear it off and semi-organize it into manageable piles. It seems to last roughly 24 hours or so. Man simply was not meant to function efficiently on L-shaped work surfaces, never mind remain tidy on one.


Of course, the crowning architectural highlight of my desk is the dust-laden stack of "I'll take a look at it when I get a chance" pile for those coworkers who shall forever remain affixed at the bottom of my personal totem pole...

 

[JohnRBaker]

ykee, it sounds like I could have written that book. I just had to order it. Thanks, and a shiny new magenta star is on it's way to you ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[HgTX]

Mike: I'm with you on Agent Ransack. The search function in Vista just doesn't work, which is inexcusable for such a basic utility that's worked just fine through so many operating systems.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[JohnRBaker]

BTW, the book just arrived and am going to start it today as my lunchtime read, that is if I can still find it in this mess when noon rolls around ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[corus]

Only using your desktop is under utilisation of your knowledge cluster domain (or work space as you plebs would say). Any management consultant guru will tell you that. Once the desktop is full and stuff can no longer balance on anything else, then overspill on to the floor. For those who have been promoted to a window seat, then also use the window sill. The telephone can be placed anywhere or even hidden under a pile of paper, as when it wants to be used it just makes a ringing noise. Ingenious.

corus

 

[FeX32]

That's exactly what I do in my window seat.
Who knew


Fe

 

[HgTX]

Hey, that's my office, right down to the buried phone! And if I bury it right, in between layers, it develops a characteristic muffled ring so that I can recognize it from across the room. Unfortunately, a forced cleanup last year shifted the phone such that it now sounds like two other people's.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[kontiki99]

How should an Engineer/Fire Fighter organize his desk?

I think it's under here someplace.

 

[YoungEngineerOnline]

Hi Guys
I´ve found that having my screen rotated to portrait view saves me a little time, esp when dealing with word and pdfs.

If your computer accepts this jut press: CTRL + ALT + Left Arrow

Rg

Matt

http://www.youngengineeronline.com

'Tips and Down-To-Earth Advice for Young Engineers'

 

[Compositepro]

Now that was a cool tip, Young'un.

 

[Hoxton]

1) Every piece of correspondence you receive : draw a cross in the top right hand corner.

Game is a bit like noughts and crosses (does that translate into american?)

Top row is company
Left side row is you

So if it benefits you AND company : put an "x" in the top left box. Put this in "immediate" file

If it does not benefit you OR company : put an "x" in the bottom right box. Consign this to WPB file (waste paper bin - trash can in USA).

If it benefits company NOT you : put an "x" in the top right box. Put this in "pending" file

If it benefits you NOT company: put an "x" in the bottom left box. Take this home and action whilst wife reads book. (Apologies to all those excellent femail engineers I meet).

2) Write down each night before you leave the actions you must take the next day. Number them in priority. ALWAYS look at this before calling police, fire service etc.

3) When your boss says he is going to re organise you and your colleagues: Do not fight (conflict wastes time). Agree. Hand him the departmental policy documents (which you have in bottom drawer - and wrote 20 years ago....) and suggest he marks them up with his suggestions and agrees with quality, health and safety, human resources, etc and get their agreement before imposing. Never fails.

 

[ivymike]

"noughts and crosses" tic-tac-toe?
"waste paper bin" uh, same name here

 

[JohnRBaker]

Back in the 80's we acquired a software company out of Cambridge, England, and on our internal 'notes' system someone started a thread titled 'Dress Code' where we posted, from both sides of the pond, observations with respect to many things about how we worked from day to day and one popular topic was the proper (or improper, depending on your perspective) use of the English language. One of the best was when one of the UK guys was over on a short term assignment and he mailed a picture back to the office of him standing in front of a 'Coke' machine under a sign which said 'Drug' Store. Apparently, at least back then, the words 'Coke' and 'Drug' had a much more limited usage in the UK as compared to here in the states.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[sandman21]

I dont so that I dont get other things on top of what I am working on, makes finishing the first stuff faster.