“Kevin is a joy with his ability, humor, and ambition.” No, I’m not making this up. I have the report card from 3rd grade to prove it! I took that report card home where my mother dutifully filed it in a box. She also filed away every school music program, picture, and certificate of achievement I ever received. I was left with a stack of boxes so voluminous I was convinced Jimmy Hoffa, the Davinci Code, and several ballot boxes from the 2008 Minnesota senate race were inside them as well.
Fast-forward to 2009. My cataloging and organizational skills now rival that of the head of the National Archives. At work I became the go-to person for requests of company documents, policy memos, and that one report from 1982 about some obscure topic that’s come up again. I’ve decided it’s time to turn those skills on the Library of Congress inside my house and downsize in preparation for a home sale. I’m left with four choices:
- Contribute to our nation’s cultural heritage by donating everything to the Smithsonian
- Hiring a crew from the TV show “Hoarders” to clean up this EPA Superfund site
- Borrowing a flamethrower.
- Digging in and going to work.
I am proud to say I chose Option 4 and I have emerged victorious. Among the results…
- 8 inches of file folder content shredded
- 700 computer files deleted
- 1 Winnebago camper decommissioned (OK, so technically it was a toy camper)
- 25 books donated
As for that report card? It’s now encased in glass, mounted on the wall, and lit up by two spotlights. Simplifying is important, but I’m not letting things get too out of hand!
The business lesson in all of this?
Keep half of what you think you should, keep your initiatives down to three or less at a time, and keep honing in on the one thing that you want everyone to know you do better than anybody else.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment