How a Simple Bag Became a Magic Organizational Tool

Have you ever showed up at a meeting and realized you forgot to bring the right paperwork? Or nipped out to the library only to realize one of your overdue books is still sitting at home?

There is a simple way to end this confusion: Tote Bag Organizing.

It’s a fancy name I made up to describe how I keep papers for separate activities together so that I always have what I need by grabbing the appropriate box or bag.

A few years ago, all the charities I subscribe to started sending me tote bags. While some of them were converted into reusable shopping bags, I had a few that weren’t suitable. I threw the papers for a Girl Scout meeting into one and forgot to unpack it…and realized how handy it was to have everything together.

I was no longer scrambling before the meeting to make sure I had everything; and when I needed paperwork that was handed out at the last meeting I knew exactly where to look.

No, you can use whatever container or other organizational tool best suits your contents. In some cases it might be better to have a smaller or larger container.

For example, I have started assuming the primary leader role for our Girl Scout troop in preparation for next fall. This means I have to lug supplies back and forth; so a banker’s box takes care of that. Inside will be a plastic folder for our paperwork that I can remove and take as a single unit when we go on a field trip.

For a meeting I attend monthly where I need a notebook and pen and a place to keep papers that need to be returned, I use a poly envelope with a closure.

I also routinely use poly binder dividers with pockets to keep papers together for short-term projects. These live in a container on my desk and get put into the activity bag as needed. An example: the reservation sheets, requirements and meeting information for the Bridging ceremony that will take my troop from Brownies to Juniors.

It is easy to put these modules together.

Gather everything you would need for the activity.Put it in a designated container.Add a writing tool and a notebook or paper.Subdivide as necessary. (see below)

After you set up the tote bag, take it to your activity. When you come home again, remove anything that has to be dealt with. Take care of these items and put things back in the bag that will be needed for the next time.

If something should come up during the week, make a note and slip it into the bag. If you receive mail that is relevant, put it in the bag.

Before your next venture to your activity, add what you need, such as books or paperwork.

Sub-divide as necessary. For activities where you may not need everything all the time, have a way to quickly remove those items. For example, my Girl Scout paperwork, which is required whenever we take an off-site trip, is in a separate pouch so that I can take just that when we go on a field trip.

If you need to do something with that activity at home, work out of the tote bag, and keep everything together.

For my treasurer gig with a local non-profit, I keep a folder for papers, the checkbook and spare supplies in a sturdy bag and add the books we talk about at our weekly meeting.For my Girl Scout papers, I have an old briefcase to keep all the papers in order, along with a package of crayons, extra paper and spare pencils.For my Girl Scout Leader meeting papers, I have a binder pencil pouch that has a notebook inside, a pen, and our tracking slips.For the library, I keep a bag with books and batteries to be recycled (our library accepts these). When a book is not being read, it lives in the bag.For choir we have a small bag with our folders, extra pencils and facial tissues.For the class I am taking, I have my notebook, and the text book stays inside of the bag, but may be removed before class if I know I won’t have to use it.

Using these tote bags has kept me on track. I always have what I need right at my fingertips, and I haven’t forgotten to return a library book for months.

Do you have a great way to organize activity items? Share below.

LJ Earnest is a computer programmer by day, writer all the time. Using the principles of productivity and simplicity at SimpleProductivityBlog.com, she helps people get through the stuff they have to do so they can get to the stuff they want to do.

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The Non-Overnight Success: How Twitter Became Twitter

What did Twitter look like before it was Twitter? Let us begin the story with an image…

Jack Dorsey’s first sketch for what would become Twitter (Photo: Jack Dorsey and d0tc0m)

This photo was first shown to me by Peter Sims, a former venture capitalist and now friend.

Pete and I share a number of common interests: wine, K-os, long dinners, and above all… little bets.

It’s a favorite topic of conversation.

Perhaps a year ago, after a quick tour of the Stanford Institute of Design (d.school), Pete and I sat talking about start-ups in Tresidder dining hall. He was working on a new book about innovation, which he wanted to bridge different worlds, to explain the shared traits of the game changers.

The question he posed was simple: if you look at the biggest successes in the world, whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs, comedian Chris Rock, or award-winning architect Frank Gehry, what do they have in common?

Answer: the bigger they are, the more small bets they make.

Becoming the best of the best is less about betting the farm (a common misconception) and more about constant tinkering. Within Pixar or within Amazon, there is a method to the madness, but it’s not haphazard risk-taking.

In the following guest post, Peter will look at the unlikely evolution of a little tool. It’s a little tool now used to overthrow governments, and a tool that’s become a company some value at more than $10 billion: Twitter.

How the hell did it happen?…

We’re taught from a young age to avoid errors and failure at all costs, yet as any successful creator or entrepreneur will attest, breakthroughs don’t happen without them.

So we have to be willing (and able) to think differently. Instead of trying to develop elaborate plans or perfect ideas, we need to make small, affordable bets in order to learn quickly, build momentum and networks, and expand our abilities and resources in order to discover unique ideas and opportunities.

Consider how Twitter came about. It didn’t happen overnight. Jack Dorsey had been, in his words, “obsessed” by how people moved, interacted, and communicated since the early 1990s. So, he learned basic computer programming, created maps with dots on them, and used information from Manhattan dispatch systems to track the movement of bike messengers, taxis, police, firefighters, and couriers. It was a start.

Dorsey then transferred to New York University and got a job as a programmer with the largest dispatch company in the world. He learned a lot in the role and eventually focused on the short format messages that people sent to large dispatch boards. “This became the basis for all of my work going forward,” he recalled.

After moving to the San Francisco in 2000, Dorsey continued to tinker with short messaging ideas. He started a company that dispatched emergency and taxi services from the web, but soon realized how little he knew about start-ups. Coming at the end of the dotcom era, the timing was bad, too. “The company scuttled and was more or less a failure,” he acknowledged.

Yet he would learn from it.

Dorsey continued to use instant messaging and LiveJournal (the early blogging platform) to post updates on what he was doing – simple things like, “I’m on the phone” or “I’m listening to the Black Eyed Peas.” Once again, these were small, achievable steps toward Jack’s larger interests.

Then one night, Dorsey couldn’t sleep and sketched out an idea on a white board. The idea was to exchange short “status update” emails with friends using his RIM 850, a predecessor to the BlackBerry. The device had four lines of text good for short format messaging, but unfortunately his friends didn’t have RIM 850s.

So that experiment didn’t go anywhere either, but Dorsey got little bit smarter, a little bit better, and a little bit closer to a big idea.

Around that time, Dorsey sketched out what would become the basis for Twitter several years later. On top it reads “STATUS,” followed by a short fill-in the blank where he wrote “Reading.” But lacking resources, Dorsey had to get a real job while continuing to tinker on the side.

Dorsey was eventually hired as an engineer at Odeo, a podcasting company where people weren’t in love with podcasting. The company was, in fact, going nowhere, so founder Evan Williams asked employees for new ideas.

One night in 2006, Dorsey’s colleague sent him the first text message he ever received. “I had no idea what this thing was,” he remembered. But as Dorsey and his colleagues talked more about text messaging, he realized the short message format could be the missing link.

Williams gave him two weeks and another programmer to develop the idea. After the prototype was a resounding success internally at Odeo, Williams upped the ante for a six-month project then launched a full-scale version publically in July 2006. Twitter would consume more and more resources until Williams spun it off as a separate company in 2007.

Of course, luck was an important factor, but Dorsey’s approach was brilliant. He focused like a laser on short messaging and made hundreds (if not thousands) of small, affordable bets in that area, most of which failed. But with each step he got slightly smarter, better, and closer until he ultimately achieved a remarkable feat.

It’s an approach that the best entrepreneurs and creators have learned to do well, but anyone can do it. Jack began when he was a programmer.

It begins with a little bet. What will yours be?

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More on Peter Sims: The above guest post is by bestselling author and former venture capital investor Peter Sims. His new book is Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries. For a free excerpt, click here.

Posted on April 20th, 2011

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