project 03 :: reading response 02

Reading response in reference to excerpts from:

Maeda, John. The Laws of Simplicity. 2006. Law 2: Organize, 11-21.

1. According to Maeda, the acronym SLIP stands for Sort, Label, Integrate, and Prioritize. This is a process of deciding "what goes with what." I was pleased to read about this, because last summer I read a book about increasing productivity in workflow, and the author laid out a very similar process! I have since used a process of sorting, labeling, integrating, and prioritizing my everyday tasks and projects using an app on my phone called Todoist, and have found it to be extremely helpful. I will walk through Maeda's SLIP process using my own experience.

First, it is important to SORT each individual piece of information into various categories. For example, if I had a list of tasks that looked like this:

• finish class project
• call Jenna
• clean bathroom
• register for classes
• grocery shopping
• get dinner with Heather

I would sort them into categories, where like goes with like.

• finish class project
• register for classes

• clean bathroom
• grocery shopping

• get dinner with Heather
• call Jenna

Next, I would LABEL the categories. For example:

• School
• finish class project
• register for classes
• Home
• clean bathroom
• Errands
• grocery shopping
• Social
• get dinner with Heather
• call Jenna

Then, I would INTEGRATE some of the categories, to have as few categories as possible. In this case, Home & Errands can probably be consolidated.

• School
• finish class project
• register for classes
• Home
• clean bathroom
• grocery shopping
• Social
• get dinner with Heather
• call Jenna

Finally, I would PRIORITIZE these items by determining which tasks were most important and then setting due dates on them.

2. The sentence that most resonated with me from this reading was:

"Organization makes a system of many appear fewer."

For an organizational junkie like me, this is so true. Whether it is a to-do-list, a cluttered room, or files on a computer, whenever these things are organized, it seems like there are fewer items to take care of! And fewer items is less overwhelming.