canon: an accepted principle or rule; a body of principles, rules, standards, or norms.
In today's fast-paced world, organizing and managing different aspects of our lives can often become overwhelming. Chaos and clutter can accumulate quickly and reduce our effectiveness. Understanding where clutter comes from and creating processes to address it can help you maximize your efficiency.
Where does clutter come from?
Clutter is the by-product of deferred decision-making and delayed action; it is a silent creeper, accumulating gradually when we are unable to move forward in addressing it.
Have you ever gone to clear a space and been overwhelmed by what to do with a single item? Or have you created a "Misc" directory on your computer because you don't have the time to make a decision about where a file should live? When we put off taking action or put off making choices, we effectively leave our environment in a state of limbo where each delay adds another layer to the growing pile of things that "we'll get to later."
But the mental load associated with making a decision for every item you touch can make a quick cleanup insurmountable.
One of the most effective ways to address this challenge is to setup processes that allow you to make decisions before you do the work. The creation and application of canonical categories is one way you can pre-decide how to handle digital and paper clutter. Like having a set of drawers, defining your canonical categories can help you quickly and easily drop things where they go, enhancing both efficiency and clarity.
What Are Canonical Categories?
Canonical categories are broad, versatile classifications that you define and use holistically across all areas of your life. Whether you're sorting your incoming mail, organizing digital files, reading email, or cleaning up your desk, these categories help guide you in maintaining a meaningful structure, making it easier to manage and retrieve information.
What is NOT a Canonical Category?
Canonical categories aren't relative, temporal, or verb-based.
Relative means "considered in relation or in proportion to something else." Examples are "old," "new," "big," "urgent."
Temporal is a sub-category of relative and means "related to time." Words like "current," "first," "last."
Verb-based are actions words, such as "to-do," "file," "read later."
It's clear that, while these terms may be helpful in the moment, they don’t scale or age well. Have you ever come across something that is over a year old called "New?" What about a file that says "current" and is not your latest version?
This is one of the core principles behind this organizational methodology: a categorization system is meant to make it easy for you to quickly impart long-term significance to an item that is meaningful and reduces the mental load required the next time you encounter it.
Why Are Canonical Categories Important?
By using consistent categories across different platforms and storage solutions, you create a cross-functional tapestry of meaning within your own lived world that will help streamline the process of organizing and retrieving items, reducing time spent searching and sorting.
Consistency in categorization reduces the cognitive load of having to remember where things are stored or how they are classified in different contexts. This can be especially helpful in creating a bias toward action and "getting to done" where you're no longer hampered by decision-making.
With a clear organizational system, you can focus more on completing tasks and less on managing disorder, thereby improving your productivity.
How Do I Create My Canonical Categories?
Jot down category names based on the following techniques:
Sort a pile of mail, excluding junk,
Write down the names of your existing physical file storage tabs or sort a pile of papers into physical folders,
Categorize the email you received in the last week,
Take a look at your open browser tabs and think about how you would group them as bookmarks,
If you drop computer files into a "Misc" folder or on the desktop, sort them into new folders,
If you have a note-taking app, like OneNote or Evernote, write down any relevant groupings that you've created.
It's not important how long the list is, the goal is to gather your current structure and then workshop the content. Are there overlaps and alignments?
How Do I Apply Canonical Categories
Once you have your list, you'll want to edit and tailor to your life. Look at areas where you may have overlaps - such as "shopping," "order confirmation," "coupons," "gifts." Is it helpful for you to consider this a single category that works for any of those related items, or is it better for you to create each as a sub-category for clarity? Consider where different categories are aligned. Is "insurance" a sub-category for "health" or "finance" for you?
Consider assigning colors to your categories so that you have a consistent scheme on platforms that allow color-coding.
It's important to stay flexible!
Don't feel like you have to be so precise that your process becomes filled with struggle. Allow yourself the grace to make decisions now that can change when you encounter new material or situations. Allow the system to be slightly different in two areas. Maybe they'll always be slightly different… or maybe one approach will "win" after you've applied your system for a certain amount of time.
Apply your categories as needed
It's so important to remember that empty categories are noise, so don't use categories in areas where they aren't needed. You may find that your paper files will have a subset that is different from the subset of categories you use in email, which is, in turn different from the categories you use as digital file folders.
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Interested in a one-on-one Categorization Workshop? Email me: latesummergroup@gmail.com
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