Archive for November, 2008

Last week I attended an event with businesspeople keen to make connections. Now I’m no power networker, but I’m a pretty good observer, and I noticed countless instances of people missing opportunities simply because they weren’t organized. Here are the top 5 mistakes they made …

Top 5 Mistakes Made by Disorganized Networkers

1. Having too few business cards.

If you love your cute business card holder that accommodates 7.4 cards, fine, but throw an extra stash in your bag, pocket, or purse.

2. Being all about the food and drink

You want to be able to shake hands, speak without displaying masticated sushi and breathe without fellow attendees passing out from garlic fumes. Think of the event cost as covering information and opportunities and forget the nibbles. Eat beforehand. Sip on a drink but put it down between conversations.

3. Keeping business cards in a bag or jacket

If someone asks for your business card you don’t want to be running off to search for one. Keep some with you as you circulate.

4. Talking ad nauseam about themselves

I categorize this as disorganization because the people I observed lulling their companions into a waking doze weren’t, as far as I could tell, egocentric or self-absorbed. They just hadn’t prepared a brief description of themselves and their businesses, and were tongue-tied and unaware. Condense your story into a short, interesting snippet. People can always ask for more.

5. Bogarting the talent

Of course everyone wants to meet and ask questions of the keynote speaker/panel members at these things. Just don’t be the one making an entire Dr Phil episode out of your questions, issues and ideas while the 20 people behind assassinate you with evil looks. Be prepared beforehand so you can keep your discussion brief. You’ll make a better impression on the speaker and have a nicer time with your fellow attendees.

If you’ve got end-of-year functions lined up and some schmoozing of your own to do, then get organized and avoid these mistakes.

Question: What networking mistakes have you observed?

Image by Ajda Gregorčič

Okay, so you’ve turned off auto-receive and now only process (never check!) emails at scheduled times.

Q: What do you do with your emails when you do process them?

A: Deal with each new email in one of these ways: Action, Flag, File or Delete.

The ONLY 4 things you should do with new email

1. Action

Can you do what the email requires in a few minutes or less? Can you reply, forward, attach a file, make a note of information, find a file, change a document, etc? If so, do it straight away.

Then, if you need the email for reference, file it; if not, delete it. Same goes for any forwarded or sent fruits of your email tree.

Voila! The ‘instant action email’ (IAE) is satisfying - enjoy it.

2. Flag

Do you need more time or resources to action the email?

I have to stop here to say Do you really? Walking to the filing cabinet doesn’t count. Don’t use this option as a way to procrastinate on tasks you can do quickly - think of it as a last resort. You want as many IAEs as possible.

If it’s a genuine flagger, schedule it. Some scheduling options include:

• Put the task it in your schedule for the date (and time, if appropriate) when you’ll do it
• Flag it - in Outlook you can add a dated flag which puts the email into your task list for the flagged date
• Move it to a To Do folder that you action regularly.

In this way, emails for later action are placed where they’ll tickle you at the right time, and removed from your inbox.

3. File

If no action is needed but you think you may need the email for reference, file* it. We’re getting that inbox closer to zero!

3. Delete

If no action is needed and you don’t need the email, delete it. Another satisfying inbox action!

The email dilemma: To keep or not to keep?

There are two schools of thought on this debate. One school says: Storage is cheap, search is fast, keep everything. I belong to the other school, which says: If in doubt chuck it out; keep nothing unnecessary; minimize your personal footprint - on and offline.

Decide what sits best with you.

The empty inbox

By turning off auto-receive, downloading emails only when you’re ready to process them, and sticking to the 4 options above for email processing, you’ll find yourself with the holy grail of modern life: an empty inbox. Ahhh…

*I’ll cover email fling systems in a later post

Image by tomeppy

Thanksgiving Day is November 27 in the US. What a perfect prompt for a Get Organized Tip on one of the best strategies for happiness there is… gratitude.

Gratitude makes you happier

Psychologists have scientifically tested (yep, we’re talking unwitting participants, experiments, statistical analysis, peer-reviewed journals) whether appreciating good things leads to greater happiness. And guess what - it does!

They’ve found many ways thankfulness boosts contentment, including:

• writing about positive events (1)
• counting blessings (2)
• noting three good things each day (3)

Get Organized for your personal thanksgiving

Just reflect regularly on your good stuff you’ll be on the path to a happier life. Here are some ways you can organize yourself to get more grateful:

1. Start a journal for recording the good things that happen to you.
2. Wear a ring on a different finger, put your watch on the other hand or plant post-it notes everywhere - anything to remind you to actively notice and appreciate your blessings.
3. Set a daily recurring task in Outlook to flag three positives a day. 

Get in the mood to think thankful. Here, I’ll start…

10 things I’m grateful for

(in no particular order)

1. Living in Sydney, a beautiful city
2. Ziggy, my iPod, whom I love with a passion that borders on objectophilia
3. Chocolate
4. Books - literature, detective novels, science, psychology, and heaps more!
5. Cliff, my espresso machine, who eases my tortured transition from sleep to wakefulness every day
6. Arrested Development, Friends, 30 Rock, Buffy, which have given me countless hours of laughter
7. My amazing, talented, kind friends
8. Stephen Hawking
9. Xander, my laptop
10. The internet

Now it’s your turn. What are you grateful for? C’mon share! It’ll make us both happy.

References

(1) Burton, C. M., & King, L. A. (2004). The health benefits of writing about intensely positive experiences. Journal of Research in Personality, 38(2), 150-163.

(2) Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111-131.

(3) Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410-421.

Image by Fern R

Okay, so the title’s a smidge disingenuous.

What I’m suggesting is that you abandon the tactic of email ‘checking’ - scanning subject lines and sender names, reading what catches your eye, sending the odd reply, all in a haphazard fashion.

Why you should avoid ‘checking’ email

1. You double up effort and waste time

Checking involves scanning, selectively opening and half-reading emails. But it leaves most message-related tasks incomplete. You quickly forward a hilarious YouTube link but defer replying to your disgruntled client, actioning a request from your boss and RSVP-ing to your mother-in-law’s family dinner e-vite.

You invariably have to go back and re-orient, re-read and (sometimes) re-dread before you can act on your emails.

2. It puts you in a dabbling mode where anything difficult is postponed

People tend to ‘check’ emails when looking for a distraction (I sure do used to), so they’re not generally in a high-output frame of mind. It’s a way to be busy without being productive. That’s fine sometimes, but usually it just puts you in a  procrastinating place. And there are better ways to take a break - like stretching, doing eye exercises or communicating with a colleague in an ancient style known as ‘in person’.

3. You miss things

Easy to do when it’s unclear what’s been actioned and what hasn’t while playing Which Email Shall I Pretend Not to See.

So what do you do instead?

Processing email - the secret to single e-handling

Here’s how to ‘process’ rather than ‘check’ email:

1. Turn off auto-receive. OFF!
2. Depending on your job, required availability, etc, set a schedule for how often it’s reasonable to process email. It could be hourly, twice-daily, weekly - whatever works for you. Or forget the schedule, but download emails only when you’re ready to deal with them.
3. On that schedule, or when ready to deal, download your emails and start with the first one. Now this is the key: Process* each one before moving to the next. No jumping ahead, no deferring, no half-doing whatever task is called for.
4. Persevere - this will become a habit you treasure.

There’ll be times when checking is needed - if you’re waiting on an important email or need to know what’s ahead before going into a long meeting, for instance. But overall, swapping email checking for processing will boost your productivity and improve your personal organization.

Until you get a Crackberry.

*There are only 4 things you should do when processing email.

Question: Are you an email checker or processor? Please share your comment below.

Image by CarbonNYC

Do you ruminate about your child’s school challenges?

Get that worry out of your head - where it hurts you and helps no-one - and do something useful with it. By thinking constructively about things you can do and making a plan for actions you can take, you save yourself stress and improve your ability to help your child.

A big worry can be eased with a little organization.

Get Organized to Help Your Child at School

How can you help your child with school progress?

You might consider these ideas (and add your own)

• Get a tutor
• Look for online resources and tools (great if your child likes computers but not books)
• Look for a computer game or program in the target area (ditto)
• Come up with a reward system (eg a certain grade earns a certain desired reward)
• Chat to the teacher for guidance
• Ask your child what they would find helpful
• Suggest a study session get-together with friends, where they help each other
• Offer to coach your child yourself (depends on your skill level)
• [add your own]

Here are some other areas where you can plan ideas for helping or coaching your child:

• How can you help your child with teacher relationships?
• How can you help your child with peer relationships?
• How can you help your child with sports activities?
• How can you help your child with extra-curricular activities?

Get into the habit of turning rumination into organization, you’ll have less worry and more resources for helping your child.

Image by Brian “DoctaBu” Moore

It’s one thing to splurge on fabulous shoes, a new iPhone or a scrummy bottle of wine.

But it’s just plain dumb to waste your money on penalty charges or excess interest because you were late paying a bill. All it takes is a little organization and a shred of planning, and you can save your dollars to squander in ways that really matter to you. That’s what I do!

Here are 6 simple steps to get it done.

Get Organized to Pay Your Bills on Time

1. List all your regular bills. These might include mortgage/rent, utilities, internet, cell phone, landline, car loan payments, credit card payments, subscriptions, etc.
2. Identify the ones that can be auto-paid from your back account or credit card, and set these up. (This info will be on the back of your bill or may be available online.) Some you’ll be able to arrange online, others by phone, and some will need an ancient type of admin called ‘a form’. Don’t fight it - whatever effort you make now will be worth the saved time, money and hassle. (Um, it goes without saying that you need to be able to cover these bills from your credit card or bank account. But I’ve said it anyway.)
3. If you’re lucky, all your bills will be automatically payable. For any that aren’t, set up internet banking or phone banking to pay these bills at your convenience.
4. When a bill arrives, check whether it will be autopaid. (The bill will say something like: ‘Payment of $287 will be made by autopayment from your credit card on 28 November 2008. Please ensure funds are available on this date.’). If it’s a pesky one that can’t be autopaid, diarize the due date. If you use something like Outlook you can set a reminder, too. And on the due date, pay it.
5. Alternatively, if you have several bills that aren’t able to be autopaid, you might prefer to save time and batch the tasks by paying them all at once, online or by phone (but before the earliest due date).
6. Bonus step: Since credit card payments are often at the higher end of interest charges, pay them off in full in each month if you can.

Feels great to have your bills well organized, doesn’t it! I suggest you reward yourself with something nice.

Image by brendan.wood

Expanding your comfort zone is one of those things you can’t help doing once you make the decision.

The trick is to think ahead about the areas where you want to grow.

Choose a growth area and you’ll start to notice opportunities - then you just need to give yourself a little encouragement to take one small step at a time.

Ideas for expanding your comfort zone

• Speaking up in meetings
• Wearing more interesting clothes
• Going somewhere new
• Starting a conversation with someone
• Seeing a different kind of movie
• Reading a book from an unfamiliar genre
• Going to a restaurant with cuisine you’ve never tried
• Traveling to a new holiday destination
• Shopping somewhere different
• Changing the order in which you do things
• Trying a new brand of something - anything!
• Doing something different at the gym
• Switching radio stations
• Buying music from a new artist or genre

Open yourself up to new things and you’ll find that as your comfort zone expands, so too does your confidence. Just be gentle with yourself!

In what areas would you like to expand your comfort zone?

Image by Yemisi Blake

Waiting rooms at the surgeries of doctors and dentists are not places you want to spend time.

There’s the array of 2-year-old magazines bearing disturbing stains, the dude scratching himself beside you, from whom you’re convinced you’ve just contracted Ebola, and the rush to be on time only to still be sitting there, 45 minutes later.

But you can organize yourself to minimize the time you waste in waiting rooms. Here’s how…

Be Organized to Waste Less Waiting Time

1. Take the first appointment of the day

This is your best chance of getting in on time. There’s no opportunity for the doc to fall behind. Except with you.

2. Call ahead.

This is especially useful if you have an appointment later in the day, but which time the delays have accumulated.

I always ring the surgery at the time I would have to leave to be on time for my appointment. I say:

“Hi, I’m Michele and I have an appointment with Dr Drooplehead at 4pm. I was just checking whether she’s running on time or whether you can advise me what time I should arrive.”

Invariably I’m told to turn up 30 - 60 minutes later. That’s quality time I don’t have to spend with Ebola-guy.

3. Take something you can do in a waiting room.

You need to be ready to move when you’re called, there may be kids crying, and there’ll be people going in and out. Choose something that doesn’t require space, shut-down time or great concentration. Ideal options include:

• A reading file - magazine articles, reports, etc
• Your PDA or diary - review upcoming tasks or appointments.
• Relaxation - open a game on your phone or PDA, or do the crossword if you have a magazine or newspaper
• Phone de-cluttering - delete ancient items in your inbox and sent items, cull your photos, streamline your SMS
• Plan/make notes on an upcoming work project or personal goal - itemize tasks, resources, priories, objectives, etc

Before you know it, they’ll be calling your name. Better not keep them waiting!

Image by frotography.pl

No matter how fabulous your outfit, a haphazard handbag will undermine your personal presentation.

Not only is an overfilled, misshapen bag a fashion faux pas, it also a time-waster when you scuba dive in search of lipgloss, an embarrassment when you can’t find a tissue, and an opportunity-killer when you ferret fruitlessly for a business card.

So how do you achieve handbag nirvana?

First, the bag itself should be practical, with enough size and compartments to suit your lifestyle. I personally fear those tiny-mouthed bags whose zip bites my hand every time I try to venture in. Ouch!

Second, it should be attractive and in good condition. A tatty, well-organized bag still looks tatty.

Next, it needs to be streamlined, containing only those items you need. This calls for discipline! Your items might include:

• Wallet
• Keys
• Attractive, nice-to-use pen
• Attractive, nice-to-use notebook
• Diary/PDA
• Cell phone
• iPod
• Small make-up purse (with mini sizes of essentials like lipgloss, mascara, a mirror, hand cream)
• Small tissue pack or handkerchief

Last, you need to regularly clean out the detritus that accumulates in every handbag, such as:

• Old tissues
• Old receipts
• Loose coins
• Random pens
• Ancient mints and gum
• Indecipherable notes and scraps of paper

By following these simple steps, you’ll be in handbag heaven.

There are plenty of tips, checklists and worksheets for organizing your Personal Presentation in Get Organized Wizard for Smart Women.

Image by bbaunach

There are 2 steps to this tip:

1. How can I minimize my travel time?
2. How can I make better use of unavoidable travel or commuting time?

Spend less time commuting

1. If you can, negotiate to work from home one or two days a week. Voila - instant time saved!
2. Reduce travel time by avoiding peak hours, especially if you drive. Although trains and buses may be more frequent during peak times, the ride will likely be less comfortable, with your options for time use limited to sniffing someone’s underarm or jostling indecorously. Experiment with different times to find a sweet spot of comfortable travel and time effectiveness.
3. Consider a more radical re-jigging of work hours. For instance, might four longer work-days rather than five standard one suit both you and your workplace?
4. Look for alternative travel options. Is there a faster bus? A train that takes a longer but lets you prepare for your day en route?

Make better use of travel time

1. Read work material
2. Read for pleasure
3. Read blogs - you can download them into a reader such as FeedDemon so they’re ready for offline perusal
4. Listen to podcasts on any topic that interests you - there are plenty at iTunes to get you started
5. Listen to audiobooks - check out Audible for stacks of fiction and non-fiction titles
6. Listen to music - get in a little soul time or crank something nasty to relieve stress
7. Meditate
8. Work on your laptop (who cares if that kid thinks you’re geeky)
9. Prepare for your day - make a to-do list, go through your diary, center yourself.

(Um… perhaps limit yourself to the listening ones if you drive.)

What ideas do you have for cutting down or sprucing up your travel time?

Image by taggle burman

I’m sure the last thing you want is a lecture on the importance of backing up or a tragic tale of lost files to hammer home the point.

Rather, if/when you’re ready to take steps to organize your computer backups, here are 4 levels to consider…

Organizing 4 degrees of computer preservation

1. Save often

• Use the autosave function.
• Also get into the habit of saving manually on a regular basis, especially if it’s a large or important file.
• Every so often do a Save as…, using a new file name.
  For instance, I use the protocol [Filename] 08Sep28 1400 and save the document as a new name with the time/date updated every couple of hours - so at 4pm I’d Save as…  [Filename] 08Sep28 1600.
• Consider backing up or making a copy of key files on your hard drive - you can do this automatically.

2. Take a copy

Copy a current important document to a CD or flash drive.

• If you’re working on an annual report, thesis, novel or other receptacle of blood sweat and tears, save it to a portable drive when you head to lunch or log off for the day. It’s a great short-term insurance policy if anything should suddenly happen to your file or computer.

3. Back up externally

Back up your computer files to an external hard drive.

• You might not do it every night, but do it regularly enough that whatever you lose will not send you naked and screaming through the streets.

4. Keep a copy of backups offsite

• This is a safeguard in the event of theft, fire, and other things you don’t want to think about. Don’t think about them, just protect against them.
• It’s especially important if you have a business or precious/irreplaceable items on your computer.
• There are now many online places to store backups, such as Jungle Disk.

Got some tips of your own? Please share them!

Image by Arbron

Got a hankering to re-organize or de-clutter your home?

Before you get started, think about your values for the home you want to create…

For instance, which of the following values do you want your home to evoke:

Home values

By clarifying the tone you want for your home, you’ll have a guiding vision to simplify organizing decisions and streamline de-clutter choices. It will help you decide what to throw out, what to keep, how to arrange things, which colors to work with, and whether some fresh additions are needed.

And the end result will feel more like ‘home’. Your home.

Image by jimmyroq

Welcome to the Get Organized Wizard Blog!

Here you’ll find regular tips, tools & techniques
for organizing your whole life.

Yep - not just home or family or office,
but the entire 360 degrees, including:

Getting Organized Modules

These posts will be short and sweet. I’m guessing you have neither time for, nor interest in, long, ponderous meditations on the minutiae of organizing principles (snore…). So I’ll give you what I think you want: short, succinct snippets that you can read in about a minute.

And this minute is almost up - so see you next time!