Stanford @ Porter Drive Blog

"To keep or not to keep", that is the question!

One of the important decisions that we need to make (as we go through our files and pack them) relates to which files should we keep and which files can we toss into the recycling bin or set aside for shredding. This question came up in the Total Organization class as we discussed the process of packing. To help answer this question, the following documents summarize the Retention of Financial Records guidelines and the Personnel Files and Data guidelines:

Download retention_of_financial_records.pdf

Download personnel_files_and_data.pdf

As you go through files and divide them into the three categories we discussed in the workshop (the current files that are needed in the new space, the files to be archived, and the files to be recycled or shredded), you can refer to the above guidelines to help you make these decisions. When in doubt, it is recommended that you err on the conservative site, and choose the longer retention period. Remember to label your boxes and use the techniques we discussed in the workshop for each packing and unpacking.

If you haven't attended the Total Organization workshop yet, or if you have colleagues who haven't, the last session will be held on June 11, 2008. Hope you will be able to join us then.

Our first Effective Meetings workshop--and the presentation slides

Meetings can take up a good chunk of our time. When we ask participants about how much time they spend in meetings every week, the answers are shocking more often than not. It seems that between meetings and e-mails, there is barely any time left for working on the core business activities, not to mention strategic thinking and creative problem solving.

Our first Effective Meetings workshop took place today and went very smoothly thanks to Chris Lundin's effort in getting the Webex web/phone conference setup, helping greet our participants today, moderating the polls that we conducted after the case study videos, providing some updates on the collaboration technologies platforms at Stanford, and being an active participant all at the same time.

The purpose of the Effective Meetings worksohp is to help participants rethink their approach to meetings and develop 7 important skills that can help make meetings more effective. In addition, the workshop demonstrates how collaboration technologies and meeting technologies can be helpful in making meetings efficient and may be even cutting down on some meetings. Participants left with a checklist and some action items on how to apply the learnings from today in their upcoming meetings. Here are the slides from today:

Download Effective_Meetings_slides.pdf

Hope you will be able to join us in the upcoming Effective Meetings workshop (via web/phone conferencing) on Tuesday June 3rd, 1:30 to 3:00 pm.

The catch-all to-do list template from the Total Organization workshop

One of the challenges that most business professionals have is managing to-do lists. After all, we are bombarded with to-do items, coming at us faster than we can process them. In most cases, these items end up taking over our desk space in the form of post-it-notes and papers of all shapes and sizes, and in some cases, they end up taking over our wall space, and even our "electronic" space.

The catch-all to-do list that we discuss in the "Total Organization: Making your move efficient and more!" workshop is intended to help us consolidate all these items into one place. This catch-all to-do list can helps us track to-do items that don't necessarily have a specific time frame or deadline yet, but that we want to capture and review periodically to determine if action is necessary.

There are many potential tools that one can use to maintain this catch-all to-do list. This can range from using a specialized application such as the Tasks in Outlook, to using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or a Microsoft Word document, or even a running list on a paper notepad. Any of these tools is likely to do the job, and which one you choose may depend on your experience with these tools and your preferences.

Attached is a catch-all to-do list template which is a Word document. Word has several advantages. It provides additional flexibility as well as easy navigation and search capabilities. The attached Word document for instance uses a clickable table of contents which allows us to easily jump to the desired category of items and add an item in it: Download todolist_template.doc

And to learn more about the catch-all to-do list techniques and how to manage other to-do items, and organize paper and electronic information, and get ready for the move, please visit us soon at the Total Organization workshop (the next one is coming up on May 29th).

Transform the move into a great opportunity! Join me at the Total Organization class soon

Moving is not something we do every day. Luckily not. It does therefore present new challenges that we are not used to tackle on a regular basis. This, coupled with the fact that we tend to accumulate a substantial amount of “stuff” over time, the process of going through our workspace and getting ready for the move may appear to be daunting at times and may take a substantial amount of time and energy.

No more! The “Total Organization: Making your move efficient and more” workshop is here to help. It is intended to break down the process of getting ready for the move and getting settled after the move into more concrete and manageable steps. This Tuesday May 13th, I had the opportunity to conduct the first class. I enjoyed meeting and working with eager participants who were delighted to discover how the move can be an opportunity to get organized and work more efficiently. This is the agenda of topics that we covered:

• Using the journal & organizing the desk
• Managing e-mail & the end-of-day reconciliation
• The beginning-of-day & filing structure
• Packing into 5 easy steps
• Unpacking into 5 easy steps
• Your action plan

If you have already taken the class this Tuesday, please feel free to e-mail me (porterdrive@people-onthego.net) any questions you might have about the topics we covered. The answers will be posted on this blog so that you and everyone else can benefit from them.

If you haven’t taken the class yet, hope you will be able to join us soon at one of the upcoming classes.

--Pierre Khawand (pierre.khawand@people-onthego.net)

About this blog

Welcome to the Stanford @ Porter Drive Blog. This blog is intended to help you make your move efficient. It includes answers to the most frequently asked questions related to the training classes and the move, as well as tips and techniques for getting organized before and after the move, and up-to-the-minute updates on relevant news and events.

Training classes

To help you get ready for the move, and operate more efficiently after the move, the following sets of classes are being offered now. Take advantage of these offerings and reserve your seat as soon as possible:

- The "Total Organization: Making your move efficient and more!" classes
- The "Effective Meetings: Online and offline" classes

Questions and Answers

If you have questions relating to the topics covered in the classes, please e-mail porterdrive@people-onthego.net (People-OnTheGo is the provider of the training). If you have questions related to the move please e-mail porterdrive@stanford.edu Answers to these questions will be posted either to this blog or to the website (http://porterdrive.stanford.edu/) depending on the nature of the question and whether the related topic is already covered on the website.

Additional resources

Pleaes refer to the http://porterdrive.stanford.edu/ for more information about the Porter Drive facility and relevant resources.

Additional Background

Porter Drive complex in the Stanford Research Park will temporarily house key administrative offices from Land and Buildings, Administrative Systems, and the Controller's office beginning summer of 2008. In 2011, these offices will move to the new Stanford in Redwood City Campus. Like many universities nationwide, Stanford is developing off-site locations close to the core campus to accommodate growth and ensure that the university continues to meet its academic mission.