Taking stock. It's an interesting term don't you think? I'm in the process of poking around in my bookcases, my closets and even my pantry. I'm literally taking stock to see what is in these places, consider if it still has a use, whether to use, read, wear or eat! If I can find no use it must find another home--through donation or trash bin. I think that this outward focus of activity is a natural precursor to some some inward focus of activity. But I'll wait until I've worn this laser look a bit before focusing inward.
Though I would have ardently argued to the contrary, the evidential matter that has been occupying my time--meaning STUFF!--is clearing proving that I'm an accumulator. (As is my husband). Fortunately, I also possesses an annihilator animus. My staff and colleagues (when I had a staff and colleagues) used to always know--and dread--when I had transitioned from accumulator to annihilator. Whatever was incubating on my turf ended up, appropriately, on theirs. So I don't bemoan my accumulator persona, but I should invoke the annihilator persona more often.
I admire people who know exactly what to do with something, be it a piece of paper, a problem, an opportunity, as soon as it crosses their consciousness. I'm a deliberator. I take comfort that dispatching a problem is not the same as solving it--so I'll take some comfort that this tendency of incubating and deliberating helps build clarity.
So as I cull through shelves of books, stocks of goods, clothes, and other sundry items, they will likely provide some fodder for future non-market posts. There is a particular book that I want to find to share some real gems... but I have to find the @#$&%$@$# book first.
3 comments:
Appropriately titled post. Cleaning out the closets and the garage is exactly what my wife and I plan to do while waiting for a better trading environment.
2nd_ave
Leisa,
RE: your post about "accumulator versus annihilator" and the ultimate disposition of items
A former colleague in an industrial media company, which I helped start up, studied this very set of issues in terms of corporate/industrial workflows. He developed and refined a procedure and correlated symbolic vocabulary (just in case we decided to incorporate the system into some sort of computerized assistant to 'mentor' employees during work situations). One of the results was that he became extraordinarily efficient by insisting on a few basic principles for ordinary interactions with items.
Upon encountering an item (or set of items):
1. Determine the category of disposition (one-time linear or cyclic?) [He devised a 'thesaurus' of purposes to assist learning his system. Each category elicited its own work stream.]
2. Anticipate any new items spawned by disposition process.
3. Follow through to final state; except in cases of emergency, do not postpone disposition or displace action to other controllers.
While some might regard the entire project as 'anal' I must admit that he became (and remains to this day) super-efficient in dealing with all sorts of complex scenarios. For myself, I came to appreciate the economic aspect of encountering all things in terms of their interacting dependencies and final state(s). Ultimately, the procedure seems to reduce to the commonsense folk wisdom of "don't put off until tomorrow what may be done today" combining with "a place for everything and everything in its place."
Which reminds me, I need to go clean out my basement . . . .
johojo
johojo: Oh my, your friend sounds like a machine.
My greatest resource is David Allen and his book Getting Things Done-The Art of Stress Free Productivity. He has a wonderful system. In fact, it is the best that I've seen. I liked him so well I had him come and talk to my executive and senior level managers. Though, it is like anything else, you have be disciplined in doing it.
You are right, those old adages are terrific. I would also add: a place for everything and everything in it's place. Those two together make for some pretty powerful performance.
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