Napoleon’s secret to time management

From a column by Andrew Potter in the current Macleans:

One of the greatest military strategists who ever lived, Napoleon was, not coincidentally, a master at getting things done. Like any general, he had to deal with a tremendous amount of paperwork. His strategy was to stack everything on his desk in a series of six piles. He would take care of the most urgent business immediately, and the rest when people came to his office to bug him about it. The piles moved from right to left every time a new week – and thus a new pile – was started. On the left of his desk was a trash can, and every week all the paper that was in the leftmost pile went straight to the bin.

I love it.