Many of us approach our workday with the same fears that Dorothy and her friends (the Scarecrow and Tin Man) had upon entering the dark forest. Somewhere, lurking among the shadows -- "Lions and tigers and bears! Oh, my!" We, too, look at the myriad of memos, post-its, periodicals and lists and we are certain that there is something in there that's going to sneak up behind us and take a bite out of our...well, you know...

And then -- the lion strikes! Dorothy, et al. race around in fear, trying to avoid certain disaster. Mortal peril! What shall we do???!!! Suddenly, Dorothy turns and confronts that lion and finds out that he is, in fact, a coward, unable to stand up to her scrutiny with any power.

That clutter on our desk is the same. We build up an imaginary scenario in our own minds in which we are eaten alive by deadlines that we've missed and looming projects . We find ourselves confronted by a lion in the form of a memo we were supposed to respond to weeks ago. We race around in fear, trying to avoid certain disaster, knowing there are other lions and tigers and bears waiting to pounce...!

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You may think of your calendar as only a time management tool, but it is also an important organizing tool. Barbara Hemphill, author of “Taming The Paper Tiger at Work”, teaches an organizing method called the Magic 6™, which we use at Living Orderly. The calendar is number three of her Magic 6™. You can eliminate a lot of incoming paper and computer files by using your calendar. 

When you are going through your inbox or email, the key is to take the information you need from a document or email, enter it in your calendar, and ditch or delete the original. If there are details, that are too much to enter into your calendar, keep it but file in a Pending File, Action File or a Tickler File. (I will write more about using a Tickler File later. I use a Tickler File called the Swiftfile, and it is absolutely one of my most essential tools.) Depending on your filing system, you may want to note on your calendar where you filed the document with the details.

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