Spring Cleaning #30: Take a Load Off Our Drives

Copying files to network drives and deleting them is pretty straightforward. On the S: drive maintenance is pretty much taken care of for you. Move it or lose it!

I scanned the forms created for Cataloging and Processing that are stored on network drives. There were files that were no longer used that needed to be deleted but not a lot of them. There were a lot more of my personal files that needed to be deleted. It's easy to just keep adding new files and not thinking about the unused ones when the storage capacity is always there or is expanded to accommodate the volume of files stored on the network drives. On a home computer you'll eventually hit the wall with storage capacity and be forced to deal with deleting files. Here at work that has never happened since the amount of storage capacity keeps getting enlarged to accommodate the need. The oldest file I found in my personal folders was created in 1998! It was used for a number of years after but it had been at least five years since that file was used. It's gone now!

Spring Cleaning #29: Email

I have been keeping my email pretty much under control. I get very few personal messages through my work email. At the beginning of each month I review my emails and delete anything that I think is no longer necessary to keep. I review my address book periodically and delete old contacts.
This is all true of my Outlook email. However, when I am off work or away on library business, I use webmail. This is the one where I dropped the ball. Although I had already cleaned this up by the time this exercise came along, it is an example of not keeping up with maintenance. I know in Outlook that deleting an email doesn't really get rid of it. I still have to go into my deleted messages folder and delete again to really purge them. Knowing this I can't imagine why I didn't think to do the same thing with webmail. I have used it on the occasions mentioned for a few years now. Over the Christmas holidays I was checking my email from home one day and actually focused on the fact that there was a Trash folder! When I clicked on it, every email I had read and deleted through webmail over the past few years was sitting in my Trash! There were a few thousand messages! I purged them and am now conscious of the appropriate handling of my webmail email as well as my Outlook email.

Spring Cleaning #28

Well, I was pleased (or maybe annoyed!) to discover that I already follow an approach similar to GTD. Why annoyed? Maybe I came up with it first and could have marketed it! Anyway, I do follow the two minute rule. Clearing off the stuff that's quick and easy is both satisfying and efficient. Wham! Bam! Gone! Feels great especially when you've been working on labor intensive stuff. I try to complete one item at a time. Of course, this isn't always possible but, when it is, it's a good psychological boost. I think my "in progress" pile equates to the concept of deferring in GTD. It keeps my "to do" pile cleaner. I'm pretty much in the middle of the road when it comes to the stuff that doesn't require action. Depending on my instinct/judgment some stuff gets tossed right away and some goes in my "aging" pile of stuff I think I might have to deal with down the road. I weed this pile periodically and throw out the stuff that definitely won't be needing further attention because it's now a done deal or the even is passed now and didn't require any involvement from me (for instance). The stuff that I think I may need to refer to in the future gets filed.

I tend to have various (but not too many) piles of stuff that all get addressed in various ways and with varying frequencies but overall I'm reasonably well organized and get things done.

I looked at the various electronic calendars and organizers. Some are nifty. Some are cute. Some really just seem like someone really trying hard to use technology. I have stayed with a paper calendar and it continues to serve me well.