organize

I just finished reading Getting Things Done by David Allen. This is a very important book for anyone wanting to understand why you should get organized. I didn’t realize how much I was wasting by not doing so. It’s interesting that the book is about productivity and yet this is the first thing I thought to comment upon after reading it. Take it as a sign and check the book out; there are some really good hints there.

Here’s a good quote from Sherlock Holmes, in A Study in Scarlet:
“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

It is in this respect that I have taken steps to organize myself tonight. I need to take stock of myself, and the first step towards this is organizing my tools for the job, mainly my brain and my computer. My brain needs a diet, and I plan to give it a strenuous one. :)