Sorry, The Need to Keep Organized Will NEVER GO AWAY!

About once every 10 days or so, you will find your index cards are all mixed up, some might even be located in different places, and you keep having to shuffle through them looking for the right card. This is a GOOD thing, it means you are following WA advice and TAKING ACTION!

This is often found to happen just before that overload thing on the previous page. You just MIGHT be able to ward that off from time to time by

Operation Organization Revisited

(this will make more sense if you've read my organization tutorial)

This is the number one activity I have used to thwart overwhelming overload from creeping in. I know it is time to do it, not by the fact that I keep shuffling through cards, it is when I sit down to work, I sigh and wonder what I should work on today. That is when I look at my cards and see their state and say, "Well, may-be I better organize the cards." Does it sound like a cop out, or avoidance issues? Of course! It is like people who clean the house instead of doing their income taxes!

Anyway, this is an advantageous cop out. What it does is it forces you to take that break talked about in Enough is Enough Information Overload. You have to touch and scan each and every card, or many of them, and it forces you to process what is on them again. It is like those meaningful exposures talked about in the vocabulary tutorial when you see it a second or third time, you can create a picture of what you did, what the resources are, you evaluate if it worked for you of if it is something that needs more research.

WHAT TO DO

1. Spread the cards out.
   
2. Fill in any missing pieces on the top of the card like where you got the information , the category, authors name etc.
3. If there are cards in a series and you forgot to label them ABC or 123 do that now.
   
4. Paper clip procedural cards together.
5. Rewrite all cards that are sloppy or organized poorly (throw the old one away).
6. Rewrite cards with too much information squeezed on one card. Make two cards, easily read. (throw old one away)
7. Create summary cards. Use Bullets to summarize steps. Make a card with suggested starter words for articles you got from multiple sources.
8. Add to the URL cards where you put URLs you need to use all the time or ones to go back to. If too many are listed on one card, organize into two or three logical themed cards
9. Combine information from a few cards that explain the same thing into a new set of cards with everything organized in one place. (Clip old cards together and put them aside, just in case). Make a note on the new card somehow, like use a star that says this is a combo card.

Following these ideas when reorganizing the cards gives your brain time to regroup, allows you to evaluate where you are in the learning process, lets you see the The Whole Picture Puzzle (color coding represents underlying structure) in a different way. You can see where you need more details and when you can say to yourself, "You know I have enough on this topic for now, I don't need to read anymore." (this avoiding risking information overload).

When finished, you are fresh and ready to tackle the next step!

next page Buddy Power