#9 Blockers and Catchers: How to Unobstruct Your Pathways and Improve Flow

In our last column, Flow, Layout, and Traffic Patterns That Improve Organization, we talked about creating a space that suits you. Diagrams showed how to set up for improved paper flow, and how to arrange furniture so that it takes care of you.

Now let's talk about "blockers" and "catchers:" how to continue the theme of convenience and not mix up your newly found flow.

WHAT’S A “BLOCKER?"I call tall furniture and obstructions "blockers," because they block your work from flowing around you.

Blockers include:

·       Doors

·       Tall furniture like file cabinets and bookcases

·       Walls, partitions, or folding screens

·       Tall plants, statues, pillars, even hanging mobiles

·       Other vertical surfaces where paper and projects can't stack up

Not sure if you have blockers, or where they are? All you have to do is look at your floor. Wherever things (paper, bags, boxes, supplies, etc.) are stacked up and not moving, you can bet they are next to a blocker, and you can see how they are obstructing your flow.

Don't believe it? Think about how beavers dam up a river by putting branches in the water. The water "flow" stops, backs up, or is redirected somewhere else. Those boxes in your hallway or under your desk are obstructing your flow.

But blockers have a useful application too: whenever you want to stem, stop, or redirect the flow of paper and objects, simply insert a blocker.

Examples:

·       To keep people out of your work area

·       To designate a different type of work area, or someone else's area

·       To redirect foot traffic, deliveries, etc.

Decide where you want things to flow, and use blockers with intent.

WHAT’S A “CATCHER?"

Flat surfaces are catchers, because it's just too easy to set things down there, and — once there — they can stay there forever, or unless you go to the trouble to move them.

Catchers include:

·       The top of a table, desk, credenza, or cabinet

·       The floor

·       A stack of boxes

·       A chair

·       Across the T junction where two cubicles join  

If there is paper on every flat surface — every catcher —   it means your furniture is too far apart, too far from the door, your work area is too small, or your furniture arrangement is not helping the flow in some other way.

Distance increases disorganization, so bringing your furniture closer together into a contiguous arrangement can help a lot.

SUMMARY:

­­­­­­­­Just as your desk arrangement can facilitate flow, so can blockers obstruct it, and catchers collect it.

BOTTOM LINE:

Put yourself in charge of how things flow — or don't — in your workspace; don't leave it up to chance.

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COMING UP IN THE NEXT ISSUE: “WHERE SHOULD I START GETTING ORGANIZED?”

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