#4 What is an Access Type? Which is Yours? How Can It Help You Get Organized?
Time to learn your preferences and tendencies!
Do you wear glasses? Are you left-handed? Do you work better standing than sitting? Once you figure out how to get your own attention, you can get organized more easily, complete things faster, and have more fun.
Most "normal" organizing books, podcasts, and TV shows have everyone organize the same way; and worse, they make you feel bad if their Linear systems don't work for you. News flash: if you haven't been able to get organized (or are rebelling against getting organized,) there is a valid reason: the more any system creates inconvenience, discomfort, or inaccessibility, the less you will use it. Very simply, it's not your fault. You may just need easy solutions that don't try to change you!
My goal is to stop the world from mocking people for not using systems that would never work for you anyway. (Hint: If an organizer comes back every week or month, it's about the regular paycheck, not solving your problems!)
For example, do you like your smart phone calendar, or do you prefer it to be paper? Many people have told me they are embarrassed at being "old school" because they prefer a paper calendar. That's not a flaw, that's a preference!
The purpose of these columns is to move Getting Organized away from what total strangers say you should do or must do. In other words, organizing should result in less constriction, less effort, and more tailoring to you.
(Special Note: If you haven't read the first three columns in this series, scroll all the way down to Archives and check them out. It will help.)
Today's column is all about access: the way you prefer to retrieve things. Why this emphasis on retrieval? Because organizing backwards delivers better results than moving forward using rules that have nothing to do with you.
Today's column describes the first of our three Access Types: Visual (the other two are Spatial and Chronological — be sure you’ve subscribed so you’ll get those too.) Everyone accesses things all three ways, but everybody has one that is primary. Let's find out which is yours, because knowing it is half the battle.
(Note: These columns don't deal with tech stuff much, because most organizing has to start at the core: moving stuff around. Later on you can adapt these ideas to tech.)
Alright! Ready to see yourself?
Our first Access Type is Visual
Are you the out-of-sight, out-of-mind type? If I organized your office in the "normal" way, by simply putting everything away, would you be able to find things you could no longer see? If I put your current projects in a drawer, would you look there, or would they be as good as invisible to you?
Visuals need to find things by looking for them. If they don't see them, they can't find them. For example, I had one client who was going crazy trying to find "that white charging cable." Two days later, she told me she finally found it — but it was black, not white. She'd lost significant time because of a visual discrepancy.
Now, before you say, "Everybody looks for things by sight," go back to where we started: Everyone accesses things all three ways, but you have one that is primary. That means that yes, everybody looks for things, but that’s not always their first way of retrieving. Read on to see (ha, ha) what I mean.
Here’s the point: Find out which visual clues will make you take action, and you’ll be well on the way to "unsticking" disorganization?
The Visual Designer
Once I was called in to organize an interior designer's office. Another organizer had told her to categorize her books by author, then throw out or donate as many as she could. It didn't work, so they gave up and called me.
I found out the designer didn’t want to throw any of her books away (all my intake questions begin with, "what do you want?") So I gave her an Access Test: I had her close her eyes and tell me how she would find her book on Scarf-Tying (notice the backward technique: not where’d she put it, but how she’d find it.) Her answer: “It’s turquoise.” And the book on Upholstery? “It’s pink.” And so on. Notice that all her answers revealed her need to retrieve by color, which is all I needed to know: She’s a Visual.
I suggested she organize her books by color — putting all the pink books together in one location, the blues together in another. She was ecstatic! From then she always found the book she was looking for easily, because color was her preferred access method.
(Why did I have her close her eyes? To prevent distractions, and to keep her from looking at me and telling me what she thought I would want to hear.)
My Ass is Grass
I got a call from a high-level Payroll Manager at a big-name firm. She was in danger of losing her job because of her chronic disorganization, but couldn't seem to motivate herself to get things done on time.
When I met with her, I realized she was Visual, so I recommended color prompts, but it wasn’t that simple. When I asked her, "what color means 'urgent' to you?" She said, "red." She thought putting her urgent paperwork in a red folder "should" get it done. (This was back in the Paper Age.)
But notice a very important follow up question: I asked her, "will putting urgent papers in a red folder get them completed?" She said, "no."
We went around and around. It must be red, but red wouldn't work. Over and over. Finally I asked her, "what happens if these things don't get done?" She replied, "My ass is grass. Oh! That's it! Green for grass!"
To be sure, I asked her, "will using green motivate you to get it done?" She shouted, "yes!" and her eyes lit up. (When I see that kind of happiness, I know I'm on the right track!)
There was more to it, of course, but here’s the point: not only did she get organized and keep her job, she was happy.
Only the individual involved can say what will work for them, but first they have to unhook from the "normal" organizing tips that "should" work but rarely do; they don’t work because they are based on rigid, one-size-fits-all commands, not questions about your preferences. (For the same reason, no well-meaning relative, coworker or friend can organize you unless they share both your Work Personality and your Access Type. (To test them, have them read the Archives at the end of this column.)
Now let's talk about the next step: where to put things based on your Visual Access Type.
Whenever I organize someone, I never ask, "where do you want this?" because they don't know. Worse, they will feel pressured to come up with the "right" answer. In the same vein, I never tell an organizing client what to do. I ask certain questions in a certain way, and then tell them what I've learned from their answers.
I also watch their eyes and hands. Let’s say I ask them to tell me how their week usually goes. If they say, “I always have meetings on Thursdays," I watch where they look. Let’s say their eyes move up and to the right, toward some shelves. I then tell them what I saw, what it means, and suggest they start keeping their Thursday meeting stuff on that shelf, because that's where their eyes went when they wanted to retrieve it. I call this, "organizing backwards."
You can extend this to anything: "Where should I put my reading?" "Pretend you're looking for it now. If your eyes go to the table beside you, that’s where it belongs; where it will serve you best. (Note: Again, this is for Visuals. In upcoming columns we’ll cover solutions for Spatials and Chronologicals.)
Sven’s Many Glasses
My friend Sven the scientist called me for help, because his home office was getting out of control. He had paperwork, books, supplies, even a Geiger counter! There was stuff everywhere, not to mention stuff for other people: reminders for members of his family, gifts for friends, and so on.
In other words, he was normal.
I started (as always) slowly and calmly, just chatting and observing. I soon noticed that, whenever I asked him about a certain item, he’d take off his glasses, swap them for another pair, and move in to see better. He was constantly switching back and forth between three pair of glasses in all.
This told me he was probably a Visual, so I proposed that we label everything. He agreed. As I made very large labels, I continued to ask him his preferences, and marked each with his exact words as we went. Eventually he stopped the musical-glasses routine and said, "I feel so much more organized!"
Sven wasn't disorganized, he just couldn't see where things were. Once they were labeled largely and boldly, he could. That's all it took. No rearrangement was required, and it was done in less then three hours.
(Note: If you try this, remember the labels must reflect the way you think of things. For example, do you think, "Family," "Friends and Family," or "F & F?" Do you think “Reading,” “To Read,” “To Be Read,” “Read Before Meeting,” or what? It makes all the difference.)
How you can tell who's a Visual
They have tall-ish stacks of paper (not flat smush, not diagonal piles)
They often wear glasses or contacts
They need for things to look good first (as opposed to feeling good, or sorting by when they will need them — we'll get to those in the next columns)
They respond well to color-coding
They like lots of decor: interesting stuff to look at, family photos, etc.
They are great at graphics, color-matching, decorating, design, fashion, and crafts
They are "out of sight, out of mind" people
And they use image words and phrases like,
I can't see it working
Looks good to me
That's crystal clear (or, "clear as mud")
I'm looking for...
What's our vision here?
When the Visual is disorganized
They have too much visual clutter, too many visual distractions
They can't find what they need by looking (as opposed to by location or by numbers)
They are easily distracted by shiny things, moving things, blinking lights, etc.
Their stacks of stuff are so tall they're falling over
They may use stacks to block things they don't like or don't know how to use, such as stacking books in front of a new project
What the Visual needs to be organized
Color coding
Large labels and signs, bright labels
Consistent appearances
Décor that matches or complements (as opposed to clashing)
Trendy containers
No restriction on the number of photos, award ceremonies, and happy occasions
Grids and aligned things
Updated glasses prescription
Good lighting
Gridlines
Bling
Summary
Visuals can be ashamed of their stacks, because they have been taught that stacks mean they are disorganized, but stacks just mean the person is a Visual.
Visuals can get organized simply and quickly by putting things where they will see them: on a sticky on the computer, taped to the bathroom mirror, taped inside your car windshield, etc.
Visuals need to eliminate all unnecessary visual distractions, because anything in their line of sight will start them thinking, which can create interruptions for them.
The best organizing techniques for Visuals include keeping all current action items out where they can see them, and putting things away only after they're finished.
Learn to relax back into your favorite preferences!
In our next column
What does the Spatial Access Type prefer?