Category: Information Management

Conquer Email Overload:  Do This, Not That

A coaching client asked for email suggestions last week, so I thought I would share with all of you! email

I’ve been researching a lot about email this week, in preparation for writing this article.

There are the “don’t open your email in the morning” people, who work on their chosen work for a few hours when they get to the office, and then check their email.

There are the “check your email all the time on your smart phone or device” people who do just that, too.

I’ve read about the “zero inbox” movement, but I don’t agree with it.  It uses sophisticated filters to move messages to folders, but folders don’t work for everyone, and just moving email around doesn’t actually complete the work.

There may be people like me, somewhere in the middle: I work virtually. I wake up and check emails just to make sure there are no schedule changes for the day or major crises to handle, then step away from it as I get my family and self and home ready for the day.  Then I step back to it when I can focus on working through what is in my various in-boxes.

Here are some strategies to help you conquer your own email overload!

  1. Do: Recognize that Email is our work, or at least part of it.  We cannot forgo email to do our work, at least not all the time.
  2. Do: Focus on Flow.  Work has flow, and email is part of your work.  So emails need to flow, too: Into your in-box, through your work process, and back out again, responded to or forwarded, then filed in a folder or trashed.
  3. Do: Be grateful for email.  I would never be able to do as much as I do, or communicate as fully with as many people, if I didn’t have email.
  4. Do: Decide when and how to handle your email.  Don’t be a victim of your email!  You. Decide.
  5. Do: Block time to process your emails.  And I mean to read, act and file them.  Here is my process, determine for yourself what types of emails get your attention first, second and third!
    • Log in, then delete everything you can, like all the ads or obsolete newsletters.  Better yet, un-subscribe from mailings lists you no longer need (I’m going to try something called Unroll.me).
    • Check for client correspondence, especially about today (usually important and urgent), which will impact my appointment schedule.
    • Check for presentation correspondence (important, not typically urgent).
    • If there are multiple replies to a conversation, read the most recent reply, which should hold everyone’s responses to date, and file or delete the rest.
    • Mark as urgent (a Star on outlook) the most important messages.
    • Move non-urgent reading items to their own folder, to be read later.  And carve out time every day or a couple of times a week to specifically read through that folder content.
    • Now that you have cleared the email clutter, go back and tackle the emails designated as urgent.
    • A couple of times a day, I also check my personal email, and my facebook messages, too, as FB is the chosen communication method for some of my clients.
  6. Do Not leave your in-box open all day, or have your devices set to send automatic notifications for new email.  DO limit your email-checking to fewer and more purposeful moments during the day.  I’ve changed my settings, and am working on the closing the in-box, too.  Remember, You. Decide.
  7. Do Not send an email message now to say that you will send an email message later.  Set an autoresponder, if you must, with an “email received” message.  “Respond immediately to your email” is one of the least useful tips I read this week in my research.

Take a deep breath, friend.  Think a little differently about your email.  Then get to work!

7 Motivation Boosters That Worked This Week

What is Motivation? Energy? Drive? Google defines it “the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way, or the general desire or willingness of someone to do something”.  Finding and keeping “Motivation” is a recurring theme with my clients and the rest of the world, too!

Below are 7 ways to increase our “desire or willingness to do something”, that worked for others this week.  Give one a try!

  1. Recognize the BIG DEAL OF MOTIVATION isn’t so big after all. It’s one simple decision. Yes or No. Left or Right. Up or Down.  From moment to moment, choose to do the productive thing over the unproductive thing, organized over disorganized, the healthy choice or the unhealthy choice.  Motivation shows up in little tiny steps in the right direction, as opposed to large sweeping gestures or drastic life changes.
  2. Change your Perspective.  Be someone else.  A friend hates filing his papers, and wants an assistant who would file for him. So, as silly as it sounds, once a week, he plays a little mind game, pretends to be his own assistant, and takes care of those mundane tasks that he dreads.  Knowing him, he may even send himself out for a cup of coffee as a reward.  If I lack motivation to take care of tasks, I might pretend to be my favorite concierge ever, Angelo, who helped me plan a girls’ weekend.  Step outside of yourself, be that helper for 30 minutes and take care of all those things you want to hand off to someone else.
  3. Accountability.  Here’s how: Agree with a friend to accomplish a list of tasks, and report to each other via texting or email when you accomplish each task (phone calls take too long).  The act of reporting our successes can be so motivational!  On the other hand, wanting to avoid the embarrassment of having to admit we didn’t accomplish something may be motivating enough to get us to accomplish the tasks!
  4. Tackle big projects in small pieces.  Perfectionist thinking says “I only want to start the task when I have time to complete it”, even when the task takes 10 hours.  And we rarely will get 10 hours in a row to dedicate to a task.  Try little pieces to move your projects along.
  5. Employ Hard Stops.  Hard stops go together with “little pieces”.  We hesitate to start projects because we have no idea how long they’ll take to complete. Try scheduling time to just work on the task, not necessarily complete it.  Set a timer, commit to stopping at a certain time, then STOP! And go do something else!  You’ll make progress in a couple of areas, and feel more motivated to get back to your tasks next time.
  6. Pay attention to people sapping your motivation.  Perhaps your boss, a needy friend, a cranky family member?  Even after you finish speaking with them, your brain mulls over the conversation, and your focus and energy are gone.  You can’t avoid them altogether, but you can take back your energy and focus.  Consciously decide to return to Yourself, Your Plan, Your Day.  I know, it is easier said than done, but it can be a powerful feeling, to take back your motivation.
  7. Pay attention to other drains on your motivation.  I worked with a client recently who mentioned she felt terrible every Sunday evening.  So the question is not “How do we take off every Monday from work”, but instead, “What do we do differently over the weekend that makes us feel poorly by Sunday?”  Poor food choices, staying up late, sleeping in?  What if our headache or upset stomach are from anxiety about the coming week?  Be aware, and take action.

So, the next time your get-up-and-go gets up and goes, try one of these ideas to give your motivation a boost!

How to Cross “Organize My Medical Information” Off Your List!

October is National Organize Your Medical Information Month.  “Organize Medical Papers” is an often neglected task.  And if our health becomes an unexpected roller-coaster ride, we find ourselves struggling with our info AND a medical setback.

October is the right time to organize your medical info since employers offer their insurance enrollment period in November for the upcoming year.  Take this opportunity to look back and review, and look ahead and plan, and get those papers in order!

Remember, I’m a certified professional organizer, not a health care professional!   Always consult a medical professional for health-related questions.

Your Medical Information may include, but is not limited to:

  • ID numbers for your health insurance(s), prescription or dental plan, etc.
  • Lists of and information on current medications and supplements
  • Durable power of attorney for health care
  • Immunization or Medical records
  • Progress reports for various therapies
  • Information on acute (once in a while) or chronic (on-going) medical issues
  • Discharge instructions from current and past events
  • Correspondence with insurance companies re current and past treatment

First, purge old or obsolete information!  It’s clutter and can even be dangerous.  For example, keep only your updated prescription list, so no one confuses the old list for the new one.

You can purge papers if you won’t need them again, the information is no longer pertinent, or if the information exists elsewhere and you trust the keeper of the information.  For example, my three sons were delivered uneventfully by the same doctor at the same hospital.  That was more than 10 years ago, so I can confidently purge records from those events.  Remember, SHRED anything containing personal information!

Now that you have a better idea of what papers you have and what to keep, set up a system for your papers.

Make It Portable.

  • Purchase a 3 Ring Binder from your local office supply store for keeping medical information portable.
  • Take your medical binder to doctor appointments, so you have all the information you need at hand.
  • High Tech. The August edition of Woman’s Day offered suggestions to improve your health, and a handful of them were high tech:  Asking about on-line Patient Portals with your healthcare provider, or trying these mobile medical apps like PocketPharmacist or iTriage.

Make It Easy and Keep it Updated!

  • In the front of the binder, keep a list with your physician and other practitioner’s contact information.
  • Purchase a clear set of binder pockets, to help you divide up the important info within your binder. Assign pockets for categories such as:
    • Prescriptions and prescription information
    • Copies of the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and other pertinent directives
    • Discussion topics for your doctor, like recent lab / test / radiology reports, articles about new health care innovations, nutrition, supplements, etc., to discuss at your next appointment.
    • Pending insurance issues
    • This year’s paid medical bills and insurance EOB (Explanation of benefits)
    • Perhaps a folder per specialist, or per issue

Make it Personal:

  • Each family member may need their own binder! Thankfully, my family has unremarkable medical histories.  But every year, we fill out physical forms for my sons for school athletics and camp.  I keep a copy of each yearly physical form, to help complete the next one.  And as information changes, for example my son had oral surgery last December, I note that on my copy of the physical form.  The actual medical record exists with his doctors, but I now have an informal yet compete history for my own use.

Tell your family where the medical information binder is kept.

  • For example, our family recently faced some medical challenges, and my siblings and I all knew where my parent’s medical information binder was kept. Thankfully, everything went smoothly, but we were glad to have the information!

Spend a little time with your Medical Information now, and feel better all year long!

Do Future-You a Favor, and Leave a Recipe!

I was at a professional event, and an IT guy mentioned leaving himself a recipe.  After a moment, I realized he was not referring to food, but to a note-to-self, a recipe, a map for his future self to follow to complete a recurring task.  I chuckled at the reference, but I use and absolutely recommend the practice of leaving recipes!

Recipes are great tools for those often-but-not-too-often tasks, the ones that are regularly scheduled but with large gaps of time between, like quarterly or semi-annually.  We do these tasks often enough to remember part of the process, but not often enough to make them a habit.

Let me give you a couple of examples, of the awkwardly scheduled tasks and the Recipe Solution:

  • Once a month, I post my upcoming presentations to Facebook and also to the NAPO-Chicago website.  I wish I could say that I quickly and confidently complete these tasks from habit or memory, but I can’t say that.  Every month, I have a moment of panic, trying to remember if I’m supposed to post to my personal FB page first, and then share to my Professional page?  Or is it the other way around….. and when I send the info to NAPO, did the contact person say PDF not Word?  Hmmm… Or Word not PDF….  Then the panic passes and I look at my note on my IPhone that tells me Professional then personal, and Word not PDF.   Whew.  Once I check my notes, my recipe, the process takes all of 15 minutes.  Done. 
  • I helped with an annual event last week for our school district.  Wisely, we recapped just hours after the event, writing up notes of successes and challenges, while all the details were still fresh in our minds.  We’ll add those wrap-up notes to all the other notes for the event.  Next May or June when we start working on next year’s event, the process will go that much more smoothly. 
  • Approximately 5 times a year, I have the opportunity to teach a class at Moraine Valley Community College.  I love teaching at MVCC, I always meet the nicest people.   And my contact person is very kind.  But she has to be getting tired of me, since for the first 4 classes, I missed some detail of the grading process and held up my students’ grades.  Each time, I have added details to my Recipe, like my log-in info and the correct screen to enter attendance, etc.  I really hope I’ve got it right this time, I’ll find out when I teach my next class in September!
  • Even my father-in-law’s habit of writing the oil filter size and oil weight for each car he has owned on the cabinet door in the garage is an example of a Recipe.  When it comes time to change his oil, he is reminded of what he needs.

Save yourself the scrambling, the head scratching, the moment of panic. Do Future You a favor, take some notes for those awkwardly spaced recurring tasks and leave yourself a Recipe!  Future You will thank today’s You!

Swap 60 Minutes With Your Mail for 167 Worry-Free Hours! 

Does this sound familiar? mailbox-clip-art_436249

Piles of new / old / opened / mystery mail are scattered on flat surfaces all over your home.  Somewhere there’s a utility bill that might be due, and that reimbursement check from work is missing.  You are always vaguely worried about business falling through the cracks.

You’re not alone.  I worked with a client just last week with a similar challenge, and here’s how we cleaned up her surfaces, took care of this week’s mail and took care of business, in no time at all. Try it for yourself!

First, we collected the mail from the hall table, kitchen counter, dresser, mail box and desk top.  We wiped off a counter top, and made some space to get to work.

As we worked, I shared these truths with my client:

  1. The Pareto Principle (a.k.a. The 80/20 Rule)
    1. 80% of what we use in 20% of what we have.
    2. In business, the 80/20 rule says that 80% of our business comes from 20% of our clients.
    3. In a closet, the 80/20 rule says that if we own 10 pairs of pants, we wear the same 2 or 3 all the time.  In the kitchen, if we have 10 appliances, we use the same 2 or 3 every day.
    4. And if we get 10 pieces of mail today, we actually need to keep and act on 2 or 3.
  2. You will receive mail you don’t need and didn’t ask for.  Just because someone sent you something doesn’t mean you need it.
  3. Your daily mail is unlikely to contain anything truly urgent.
  4. Once you’re organized, maintenance takes no time at all.
  5. Sometimes a conscious effort once a week to work on mail all the way to completion is better than halfhearted dealings every day.

With these truths in mind, we tackled this week’s mail (and you can, too!):

  1. We pulled out ads and old newspapers, and recycled them.
  2. We pulled out magazines, confirmed my client actually wanted to read them, and created a reading pile.
  3. Next we opened up every envelope.  Why?
    1. Just like the book and cover analogy, you can’t judge your mail by the envelope.  For example, health insurance reimbursement checks look just like Explanation of Benefit envelopes.  In addition, credit card solicitations don’t always look personalized on the outside envelope, but can contain personal information inside and therefore require shredding.
    2. We can recycle parts of every mail item. For example, my client’s ComEd envelope contained a bill page, a return envelope, a “customer privacy info” sheet and an advertisement.  We kept only the bill page, as she pays her bill on-line and didn’t need the return envelope,
  4. Next, we put the “bills to pay” and the follow-up items in a small pile, for my client to complete when our session was over.  Since we had purged 80% of the papers, there were only 3 or 4 action items, which will take maybe 15 minutes to complete.
  5. We took out the recycling, shred a few papers containing personal info and filed the rest (just a few).
  6. Total elapsed time – 15 minutes. Done and Done.

For many of us, tackling the mail once a week is enough.  And by “tackling”, I mean taking our daily mail all the way from the mailbox to complete and filed.  This approach requires up to an our once a week, uninterrupted, but surely an hour of hard work and focus is worth the freedom from paper management tasks for the other 167 hours!  Give it a try!

Spring Cleaning For Your Financial House!

It is Spring!  This time of year, we all want to make changes and put things in order for this new season.  In addition, the tax deadline is next week, so let me recommend putting your Financial House in Order, too.    Here are 6 steps to get you started:

 

Shred your discarded personal papers.  Why Shred?  For safety sake.  You want to make it as difficult as possible for someone to commit a crime like identity theft against you.

If you don’t have a shredder, get one.  If (and when) you have a shredder, create the daily or weekly habit of shredding any un-needed paper with personal information on it.  If you tackle this job in little pieces regularly, you won’t amass big piles of papers to shred.  (Note – this is a great job for a helpful child!)

If you already have big piles of papers needing shred, keep an eye out in your community for free Shred Events.  If you just want to catch up and get it all shred at once, you have a couple of options.  The three big office supply stores, Office Max, Office Depot and Staples, all offer shredding services on a per pound basis.  In addition, you could contact ProShred or Shark Shredding , and make an make an appointment to shred all your papers at once.

 

Go on-line and request your Credit Report.  Why get your credit report?  Your credit report is a snap-shot of your financial identity.  Reviewing your credit report may uncover unresolved issues that are harming your credit score, or long-neglected credit cards or accounts that are still active.  Take time to review your report, and follow-up with any issues you notice.  And make a note in your calendar to do it again next year, too.

There are three reporting agencies, Equifax (www.equifax.com), Experian (www.experian.com) and Transunion (www.transunion.com).  I don’t know about other states, but I know that as an Illinois resident, I am entitled to a free credit report from each agency every year.

 

Buy a fireproof Safe.  If you don’t have a safe, invest in one.  Make sure it is fireproof and portable, and that you, your spouse, and one other person that doesn’t live in your house knows where the key is kept.  Store your irreplaceable vital records in there, like birth / sacramental / marriage and death certificates, insurance policies, passwords, Wills, car titles, etc.

 

If temptation to spend is great, physically “Freeze” your credit cards.   I heard this tip years ago, about a woman struggling with credit card debt actually freezing her credit cards in a large block of ice.  The idea was to make it complicated to use credit, so she would have a chance to consider and re-consider any purchase made with credit.  I don’t know if you want to really freeze your credit cards, but you could remove all but one from your wallet and put the rest away somewhere safe, like in the safe mentioned above or, well, a well-disguised block of ice.

 

Make sure your Beneficiary allocations are up-to-date.  Check your retirement accounts, insurance policies, etc., and make sure that the stated beneficiaries are who you want them to be.  Too often we forget this step, and our loved ones could lose out.

 

Add a “2014 Income Tax information” file to the front of your top file drawer, and make a habit of tossing charitable donation receipts and other pertinent tax info in there.  It will make tax time go more smoothly next year.

 

Add these steps to your Spring Cleaning plan this week, and get your Financial House in order, too.

Paper Management Suggestions for the Lady at the Gas Station.

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A woman noticed the magnets on my van, and asked me about my business.

She said “I always say, I need someone to help me with my files.  I always think that it’s just me, and there is something wrong with me”.

No, there is nothing wrong with you, and you are not alone in struggling with your papers. Here’s why:

Image

  • Most of us keep too many papers, and / or keep papers for too long.
  • Most of us name our files the wrong thing, if we even have files.
  • Some of us have barriers to filing, either real or imagined.
  • Most of us don’t maintain our papers often enough.

We keep too many papers, and we keep them for too long:

We keep receipts / business cards / post-it notes / grocery lists far longer than they are useful.

We keep newspapers / children’s daily school work / magazines long after they’ve been read.

We keep papers out of habit, because they started out as “important”, but now they are just old news.

We want to hold on to our papers for “just-in-case”.  HOWEVER, You can purge your papers if:

  • The information exists somewhere else (medical records or on-line banking information);
  • The information is not pertinent to you (flyers for activities that don’t interest you or past events)
  • Purging the paper will have minimal consequences (who reads the privacy notices from credit card companies?)
  • You can’t imagine when or why anyone would ask for that information (utility bills or grocery bills from more than a few months ago, account information from long closed accounts, etc).

We name our files the wrong things, if we even name them at all:

Never name a file Miscellaneous.  Ever.  Either a paper is necessary enough to warrant a file named for it, or it isn’t important and it needs to go.  If you have a “Misc.” file, perhaps it could be more aptly named….:

  • marketing ideas
  • Action Papers
  • general credit / banking information
  • Work To Do
  • You choose…. But make it meaningful.  Name your files, name your papers and get to work.

We have barriers to filing, either real or imagined.  They may include:

  1. Non-existent filing systems (your important papers don’t have a final “Away” in your home or office).
  2. Antiquated filing system (what worked 20 years ago doesn’t anymore).
  3. Physically inconvenient filing: perhaps the file cabinets are under other things, or in a remote corner of your home or office, so papers never get put away, reviewed or purged.
  4. Too-Full file drawers – you have files from 2007, but no room to file the papers from last week.

The solutions are simple: purge the clutter, move the file cabinets, purge or shred the unneeded content.

Most of us don’t maintain our papers often enough.

I know that sounds scary.  As though I am telling you that you have to find more time to work on your papers – ahhhhh!!

But remember, I just told you how to keep a lot less.  Really, we just need to perform maintenance more often but for less time total.  Five to 10 minutes a day to:

  •          Open today’s mail;
  •          Shred today’s shredding (a few pages);
  •          Toss the recycling (a few pages);
  •          Pay this week’s bills (once a week);
  •          Enter a few items into your calendar; and
  •          File the few papers that you actually need to keep.

So, to the lady at the gas station and to you, try one of these ideas this week, and you are not alone in your struggles with paper management!

Keep Your Cool Technology From Getting Cluttered!

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My family really loves technology. I have a few tech items that I am extremely attached to – my IPhone 5, my IPad and my laptop. But those are just MY gadgets.  Everyone else has gadgets, too. We even loaned the 9 year-old an old IPhone 3 to use as an IPod touch (music, games and apps, no internet or phone usage) on a recent long-distance car ride.

So between 5 people, we have 4 phones, 3 IPod touches, 3 Nintendo 3DS handheld games, a couple of Kindles and digital cameras, and my IPad. Plus 3 laptops and a desk top computer, and an xBox 360 and Wii.

We embrace our technology, but the accompanying clutter can be maddening! Here are some ways we clear our tech clutter, try a few for yourself this week!

Tame the snake pit— I mean— chargers and cords.

1.  Dedicate 1 charging station. Image

  • We use a surge protector strip on the kitchen desk. Maybe you need more than one, for different family members, but limit yourself to one or two stations, to help keep track of necessary items and share resources. (Do this when you travel, too, so things don’t get left behind!)
  • Charge where you work. I leave my IPhone charger cord plugged into my laptop, and charge my phone while I work. My husband keeps an extra phone charger at the office.
  • I received a MOS organizer, http://mosorganizer.com/, to review and test in my office setting. A great gadget, the MOS Organizers is a magnetic object that holds the end of your charging cord between charges. The attractive 3.5” whiImagete triangle holds the charger cord end and keeps it from dropping off your desk/ charging area when not in use.
  • My hubby also received a very cool “Powerbot” wireless charger for his phone. He only needs to place his phone on the disc, and it charges! No more cords! (this only works for select tech items, though).

2. Match up your chargers with your current tech gadgets (phones, cameras, IPod, etc.).

3. Label the chargers / cords:

  • Tag the chargers with labels listing tech item type (camera, GPS, cell phone, etc.), date and owner’s initials. If you don’t have a labeleImager, you can also fold a blank mailing label around the charger cord, and jot the initials on that.
  • Bundle the cords. Most are longer than necessary. We use cord coils (picked them up at Office Max), to rein in the chaos.
  • ImageOr try bundling the cords with different colored Velcro straps (each person gets their own color), or even patterned craft tapes.
  • I have to share a suggestion to hang charger cords in the inside of a cabinet door with command hooks when not in use (check out all 34 of these awesome ideas, http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/how-to-de-clutter-your-entire-life
  • Or these handy charging ideas, http://www.workingmother.com/content/desk-control .

4.   Any chargers or cords not matched up with a tech items? Put them in a freezer bag, with today’s date and an expiration / recycle date on it, about 6 months from now.

5.  When in doubt…   Occasionally, I will put all the cords away in the drawer under the charging strip. I figure, everyone knows which cord is theirs, and will take out what they need. And things will look tidy for a while!

Keep your Apps and Updates up to date. At least once a week for my phone, I download all the app and system updates available. I update my IPad occasionally, too, but not as often as my phone.

Set limits.  No phones at the dinner table, or after 10 pm. The wi-fi to the kids’ IPods turns off at 10 pm, and all tech items are left in the kitchen overnight. No one needs to send or receive texts after 10 pm. When the boys were younger, we set TV limits, too, for example, the TV in the basement was set to only age appropriate programming.

And unplug sometimes. Seriously. I love my technology, but I like to just talk to people, too. And nap. And read, like an actual book. And go hiking. And tickle my son.

So, spend just a little time this week, and clear some tech clutter!

Our Home Command Center, more Command and more Center!

This week I want to share a small project that made a big impact in my kitchen – not too overwhelming and sooooo useful!

First, if you’d like, I wrote this a while ago, for more specifics:

ImageYour Command Center: Knowledge is Power

Your command center is the information hub of your home.  Perhaps it’s a desk, maybe just a kitchen counter or table near the door.  But everyone and every home needs one.

Calendars and schedules, contact lists and team rosters, incoming mail and bills to pay, school supplies and reference materials.  Yep, all of this can be in a command center.

I reworked ours last week.  It took less than an hour, and this is the after picture.  I wanted to post it first, since it is a nice visual, and it makes me happy.

The command center surface is not large (by design), but it is in the kitchen, the very center of our home. That keeps it front and center, accessible to everyone – but that also means that it gets cluttered, and when it does, I have to look at it all the time.  And that occasionally drives me crazy.  So here are the before and after pictures, and my comments:

  • Always start with a plan.  I know what I do and don’t like about our current arrangement, plus what I wanted the updated space to look like.
  • I cleared everything off, and wiped down the space.
  • I moved some books out that belonged on other bookshelves, and I Imageeven (gulp) got rid of the desk encyclopedia.  I kept the dictionary, thesaurus and bible, because I encourage my boys to actually look stuff up instead of asking Google.  However, the desk encyclopedia was mine.  From high school.  And that was a loooong time ago.  So it went away.
  • Before, I had trays available on the kitchen desk for each child.  Not surprisingly, while school papers and assignments moved in and out, other stuff just piled up.  So the sloppy side-by-side trays were replaced by a vertical tray.  Much better.
  • I powered through the school supplies, and ruthlessly purged what the boys don’t or won’t use.  Buh-bye.
  • The charging cords and surge protector still drive me crazy, but I’ve been keeping the cords clipped up when not in use, or in the desk drawer underneath.  And I received a very cool produImagect to review for an upcoming blog that may help with this, so more later…
  • I went with “pretty”.  I don’t always care what my organizing tools look like, but since this area is seen by anyone walking through my house, I invested in matching and attractive items.  Nice, clean lines.  Ahhhhh…. (that is a contented sigh, by the way)
  • A vitally important but often neglected part of a Command Center is the day-to-day attention and maintenance.  I made sure that only current information was present in the Command Center.
  • I recently read a suggestion, to have a “waiting” folder, with items waiting for follow up.  Like rebates, reimbursements, copies of applications, etc.  So I added one to our existing files.
  • So, in under an hour, I improved the look of the most lived-in room in the house, pared down and cleaned up our information, and cleared some clutter. Look around – Do you have a Command Center?  Is it time for an update?!  Give it a try! Image

Less Searching, More TIme, Less Dirt, More Focus? Must be Clean Off Your Computer Day!

Today is “Clean Off Your Computer Day”, designated by savvy IT people to clean old files off your computer – Embrace it!  I am a PC user, and not familiar with Mac, but some suggestions are universal, so read on for ideas to make your system work better for you!

Here are my suggestions:

  1. Grab a note book.  These types of projects generate a lot of other to-do items.
  2. Clean up your actual computer:
    1. Turn off and unplug (if possible) everything.
    2. Locate and wipe off your computer’s fan(s).  My IT guy says this very important step is often neglected, and skipping it can hamper computer performance.  Keep your computer area de-cluttered to maintain good airflow.
    3. Grab your can of compressed air, and blow out your keyboard.  It’s amazing (and disgusting) what lands in there.
    4. Since everything is turned OFF, with an ALMOST DRY antibacterial wipe, wipe down your keyboard and mouse. I said ALMOST DRY, so if you do this wrong and screw up your electronics, I have 100s of witnesses who read “ALMOST DRY” and who know I am not responsible.  Let everything dry completely.
    5. With a DRY and clean microfiber cloth, wipe off your screen.
    6. Since the compressed air is going to blow stuff around, use a slightly wetter wipe and wipe down your work area.  It’s typically a very germy place.
  3. I often get asked:  HOW DO I WIPE AN OLD COMPUTER SO I CAN RECYCLE IT?
    1. Every computer is different, so run a google search on “How do I remove the hard drive from xxxxxxxxxxx (brand and type of computer)”.  You will receive an instant answer involving a screwdriver and about 20 minutes of your time, and perhaps even links to you-tube videos to walk you through the process.
    2. Once the hard drive is removed, google E-Waste recycling in your area and get rid of the old computers, monitors and printers.  Many towns have permanent drop sites for such things as old computers and printers, TVs and almost anything else with a cord.
  4. Storage:  Back up, back up, back up.  External hard drive or cloud, take your pick.  This will be a blog for another day.  Just know you should be backing up your computer.
  5. Manage Your Hard Drive Better:
    1. Operating systems are getting cleverer with their search capabilities, but you can still save time by setting up your system better now to find things later.
    2. When you search for something, sort documents in your hard drive in reverse chronological order, all the time.  Click on the “Date modified” column on your Documents Library page until your most recently used documents are listed at the top.
    3. DO NOT just have one large folder with everything in it.  Just thinking about that idea makes me cringe.  A single cluttered directory makes finding anything very frustrating.
    4. Use Naming Conventions and subdirectories when you save your folders and documents.  For example, my business subdirectory contains a folder called “Presentations”.  Within that folder, I have subfolders for each type of presentation I give (so, Time Management, Kitchen and Menu Planning, Paper Management, etc.).  Within those folders, I have the actual presentation notes, but also the Handouts associated with the presentation, all starting with HO plus the presentation name, so I know which is which.  I use similar rules for naming other things, too, to quickly find files when I need them.
    5. My IT guy saves his documents first to large folders per Application.  For example, he has both a C:Excel and C:Word folder.  He suggests this strategy helps him find things faster.  Within those very broad “type” names, he then breaks down his files into categories.
    6. My saving method is categorical.  For example, I volunteer with Cub Scouts, Choir and Baptismal Prep Ministry.  Each of these important-to-me categories has its own sub-folder in my main drive, with a folder for each year or project, again to help me find my files quickly.

My clean-out-your-computer day activity may be deleting any documents more than 2 years old, or within category folders if those categories no longer pertinent (for example, “completed clients from 2012 and before”, etc.).  Clearing computer clutter will help you save time and focus more clearly.  What will your clean-out your-computer day activity look like?