# 28 Spring Cleaning and Getting Things Done

Spring in Texas is a beautiful, wondrous time of year. The weather is great, and innumerable wildflowers burst forth in magnificent splendor. The world renewed seems clean and fresh. Traditionally, this has been the time for homemakers to throw open the windows, beat the dust out of carpets, and scour every surface of the house until it gleamed. In the 21st century, we must keep our "houses" of information clean as well. iHCPL pointed out that we are spending about 20K of taxpayer's money to enhance our backup drives for storage. That little tidbit of information is quite the motivator!

There are numerous resources which describe ways to organize and use time wisely in order to be more productive. GTD, or Getting Things Done, is the system David Allen writes about in his book. He promotes the idea of stress-free productivity, and believes that the first step in GTD is to move things out of the mind and record them somewhere, thereby freeing one to concentrate more fully on the task at hand. This is unlike other time management systems, which emphasize setting priorities first. (Ironically, I skipped iHCPL exercises 26 and 27 because doing the required training is my priority...haha.)

As a library employee, I feel it is important to be familiar with computer applications, but at this time I do not feel the need to use the Google calendar or the Ta-da list. I would like to use the Ta-da list, just because I find the name so amusing; however, I am a circulation assistant and my job is fairly uncomplicated. I have used an agenda to keep track of appointments and important occasions for approximately 30 years. That has served me very well. It is also highly portable, inexpensive, and energy efficient.

I looked over one of the other organization systems called Zen Habits. Most of the ideas discussed involved Mac applications. I read the article "The Zen of Tech: 12 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Online Life Simple and Peaceful", which listed many common sense techniques such as: focus on the essentials, do one thing at a time, set limits on what you do, and my personal favorite...have periods of disconnectedness. I enjoyed the post entitled "3 Ways To Claim Your Life Back - How to Step Away From Your Computer". The author recommends planning specific activities away from your computer, such as taking a walk or reading a book. Ummm.....we've become so dependent on and addicted to technology that people actually have to be reminded to do these things? I would laugh at that, but I don't think the author was joking.

There are links to popular posts, by category, at the bottom of the page. I'd like to go back and read some of them in my free, slightly better organized time.