Categorizing SAGE Column June 2010
Over Categorizing: How Many are Enough?
Believe it or not, people sometimes organize themselves into confusion and overwhelm instead of out of it. The trouble is over-categorizing.
When you over-categorize, you wind up treating everything as very special. So nothing gets rotated out. When you keep like items together, it is much easier to determine when something has passed its prime and is ready to go.
Creating a system based on categories, which I firmly believe in, can be a little tricky until you get the hang of it. You begin sorting your items, but before you know it, you have 20 different piles for every style of t-shirt. Then you don’t remember if the stack to your left is the ones you decided were for sleeping or painting. Frustration ensues, piles topple over as you review and you abandon the project.
Don’t let a failed attempt (or even seven of them) stop you. Here’s the secret to determining the correct number of categories – it’s almost always three. Try sorting into three piles and see how much farther you get. Even the library starts with three categories: fiction, nonfiction and biography.
Start with the broadest category possible, then narrow it down to the point you will find items quickly. Subcategorize only when needed.
Here’s my method for clothes: all tops in the closet, blouses hanging, t-shirts folded on the left, sweaters folded on the top shelf. T-shirts can be further divided into short sleeve, long sleeve and tanks, with each division on its own shelf.
The one area I see people not using enough categories from the beginning is paper. Not all paper is the same, and not every piece is unique. Try first sorting paper into these categories: to read, current action, and before/prior to this year. Then take it from there.
Tags: categories, decisions, organizing, Simplifying, systems
