Free printable guide
How to Keep Your Desk Clear
The Future File is a set of 43 folders that keeps paper off your desk until the day you need it. Your desk holds only today’s work, so you can leave it and get into classrooms.
9 pages, with printable labels for all 43 folders.
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Printable PDF with setup steps and folder labels.
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A clear desk is step one
Days 6 through 10 of Now We’re Talking! deal with the rest of the work that keeps you in your office: email, requests, your to-do list, and the habits that protect time for classroom visits.
From the author of Now We’re Talking!
15,000+ copies sold
Created by Justin Baeder, PhD
Director, The Principal Center
Why the pile keeps you at your desk
A stack of paper on your desk is a to-do list you can’t read. Some of it can’t be handled until next week. Some of it needs a staff member who’s out today. So you stay at your desk sorting it, and the classroom visits you planned slide to the afternoon, and then to tomorrow.
The Future File gives each document a date. Drop it in the folder for the day you’ll deal with it, and it comes back to your desk that morning.
What’s inside
How the Future File works
31 folders for the days of the month and 12 for the months of the year, with a diagram of how they roll forward.
Setup in minutes
Six steps, from a box of folders to a clear desk, with a checklist.
The 5-minute morning routine
How to empty today’s folder, and when to snooze a document or toss it.
Printable folder labels
Labels for all 43 folders, plus one for Before I Leave Today, on Avery 5160 or 8160 sheets.
Clear your desk tomorrow morning
Print the labels, set up your folders, and empty today’s folder before you open email.
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