Pile It On!
You know
who you are.
Piler v. Filer
|
Just look
around your office. On your desk. On the floor. On top of the filing cabinet.
What do
you see?
Piles,
piles and more piles.
Yes, it
is as clear as can be. You, my friend, are a piler.
And you
are not alone.
Nearly
half of all American employees claim that they organize paper by piling it on
their desk. As this Fast Company article on Piles
Versus Files
highlights, "[s]ome of the world's most productive people are pilers. Al Gore,
for example, is a busy guy, with mounds of paper to prove it. [And] many
creative workers stay productive by keeping their virtual piles spread out and
easy to glance at on multiple screens." One executive is so committed to
"managing through piles" that she had an industrial designer build a desk "that
acknowledges her stacking habit, yet gives it shape and structure."
There is
good evidence that nature, as opposed to nurture, drives people to pile.
Typically, pilers are right-brain dominant, creative types who are
visually oriented. They crave stimulation and thrive in environments where
there is a lot going on. To them, forming and sorting through piles is soothing
and constructive. By sharp contrast, filers crave order, ease and calm. To
maintain their equilibrium at work, they methodically categorize, label, purge
and store papers. They need to organize and clear their workspace before they
can begin to focus.
Although
they might appear to be swimming in a sea of chaos, pilers usually know exactly
where to find what they need at any given moment. But, if your piles seem to be
getting the better of you, this WomensMedia post offers some helpful tips:
- When
you have stacks of paper and files for various projects and purposes,
create a spine by wrapping a large piece of paper around each group and
labeling it.
- Use
a clipboard to control loose papers for each project you are working on.
Label the clips and hang the clipboards on your office wall or partition.
- Set
boundaries on your piles by restricting them to a single table or desk
top. When a pile starts to spill over, it is time to go through it to streamline
and straighten up the papers.
- Put
your papers in open boxes and mark the outside with a numbering system so
you can easily identify the contents.
If you are still on the fence about your identity,
you can take a filer vs. piler quiz. If you are a proud piler
and you know it, we would love to hear from you. You can share your piling tips
and tools here and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
by Carly Fadako