Time Management Idea - Flipping In Trays

I had an interesting chat with a friend of mine, David Hicks, about working in office environments the other
day.

We were discussing how in trays can hide all manner of work and I was saying how they needed to be flushed on a regular basis.

David however offered a nice and simple solution to the problem. When certain members of his team weren't progressing with their work as expected he would periodically go to their in tray and invert the stack of work in the pile. This was done with the person present, so that it wasn't an underhand trick. So, the work that was tucked away at the bottom of the in tray would now be at the top and have an increased chance of being worked upon.

Unmanaged in trays were the inspiration for the front cover of the 'Office Productivity' book (see image to the right) and if you have any ideas on this specific theme then please let me know!

Giles Johnston
Author, Consultant and Chartered Engineer

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