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You are here: Home / 1 - Productivity / d Productivity Systems (Architect) / Productivity Tools / Recommended In Boxes

Recommended In Boxes

August 31, 2009 by Matt Perman

Post 3 in the series: Recommended Productivity Tools

For your physical in box, I recommend the silver steel letter trays that you can get at Target or Amazon. I used to have the plastic black letter trays from Office Depot, but I’ve recently switched over to these because they look a bit better.

As far as you to make the best use of your in box, it’s pretty simple: Put one on the top of your desk.

Some people stack several together and use the lower ones to hold pending items like material to read. I don’t do that because I prefer to only create very short-term, ad hoc pending stacks that I deal with right away. Pending items that need to be held for longer periods of time go into a file drawer (which will be covered when I, finally, get to my posts on filing).

If you have a desk at work and home, then obviously I’d recommend an in box at each location. Since my desk at home is in the basement, I also have an in box upstairs that I can easily toss stuff into.

As far as location goes, I recommend putting your in box on the left side of your desk. This creates a workflow of left to right: stuff to process starts on the left; you process it in the center; stuff that needs to be distributed elsewhere gets put into an “out” pile on the right.

Last of all, the big question here is: Is it “in box,” “inbox,” or “in-box”? I’ve seen all three. But when I think about it, I don’t think I like the looks of “in box” — which is the form I used in this post. So going forward, I’m going to start writing “in-box.” (If you have an opinion, let me know!)

Posts in This Series

  1. Recommended Productivity Tools: An Introduction
  2. The Tools You Need to Have (And Where to Keep Them)
  3. Recommended In Boxes
  4. Recommended Capture Journals
  5. Recommended Pens
  6. Recommended Pencils and Paper Pads
  7. Recommended Staplers, Staple Removers, and Tape
  8. Recommended Scissors, Letter Openers, and Post-Its
  9. Recommended Paper Clips and Super Glue
  10. Not Recommended: Desktop Organizer Things
  11. Recommended Chairs and Waste Baskets
  12. Recommended Labelers and File Folders
  13. Recommended File Cabinets and Bookshelves
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What’s Best Next exists to help you achieve greater impact with your time and energy — and in a gospel-centered way.

We help you do work that changes the world. We believe this is possible when you reflect the gospel in your work. So here you’ll find resources and training to help you lead, create, and get things done. To do work that matters, and do it better — for the glory of God and flourishing of society.

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About Matt Perman

Matt Perman started What’s Best Next in 2008 as a blog on God-centered productivity. It has now become an organization dedicated to helping you do work that matters.

Matt is the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done and a frequent speaker on leadership and productivity from a gospel-driven perspective. He has led the website teams at Desiring God and Made to Flourish, and is now director of career development at The King’s College NYC. He lives in Manhattan.

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