-
-
Search
-
Archives for Decluttering
An impartial participant can help get rid of clutter
Sentimental clutter can be the most difficult clutter to clear from your spaces. “Oh, I remember this!” is the exclamation that inevitably gets tossed around while trying to clean out a closet, basement, or attic. Until you went to organize the space, you probably had no idea that you were holding onto these items. You’re then struck with the pang of nostalgia and you flirt with the idea of keeping everything you’ve rediscovered.
If you are going to take the time to clear your home of clutter, it can be a good idea to get someone impartial to help handle your sentimental clutter. Whether you hire a professional organizer or you get a friend or spouse to help you, their impartiality may help you get rid of sentimental clutter.
Trying to get rid of things that you think you’ll miss or one day need is a problem for most of us (I struggle with it). This article in the San Diego Reader is entertaining and shows how the process of getting rid of clutter can be helped by having an impartial participant. From the article:
David sat on the floor and began unloading a large box; I stood beside him and sifted through a crate. Every few seconds, I would hold up an item and say, “You don’t need this. Trash?” I’d wait for him to nod before placing it in the big white plastic bag. David grumbled here and there, but an hour in, I’d filled three large bags and broken down four boxes.
If you’re struggling with clearing sentimental clutter, you may want to read the full article for some inspiration.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Yearbooks: Worth keeping or clutter?
About once a month, a reader writes to us asking what to do with his or her large stash of yearbooks. Whenever this question comes to me, I’m always at a loss for what kind of advice to give. I have all of my old yearbooks — a spiral bound paper one from elementary school, two paper ones stapled together from middle school, four traditional ones from high school, and two traditional ones from college — and my husband has five of his. They take up a cube on our bookshelf and sit beneath our reference books.
In a way, I think of these books as reference materials. If a person I don’t remember makes a request to connect to me on Facebook or LinkedIn, and the request states that I went to school with the person, I’ll head to my yearbooks hoping that a picture of the person will spark my memory. I also look through the portraits before heading to class reunions, but those are pretty much the only times I look at them.
However, the idea of getting rid of them sort of makes me nauseated. Maybe a part of me is fearful that one day I’ll lose my memory and need them to recreate my past? Maybe I hope that my children will be interested in them and want to better understand who I was when I was their age? Even though I can’t exactly identify why I keep them, I have carved out a place for them in my home.
My advice is that if you want to keep them, then it’s okay to keep them. Store them in a place that is safe (not in a cardboard box in a mildewy basement) and scan any pages that you would be crushed to lose if your home were destroyed by a natural disaster. Remember to backup your hard drive at an off-site location so that you won’t lose your data in an emergency.
If you don’t have any desire to keep them, then scan individual pages you want to keep digitally and recycle the books. You might e-mail your former classmates and see if any of them are interested in the books if you don’t want to toss them straight into the recycling bin. You also could contact your school’s historical society and see if they would want them, or if a current journalism teacher at the school might have use for them.
How have you handled your yearbooks? Do you have additional advice for what to do with yearbooks? Your ideas are welcome in the comments.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Simple steps for organizing a home office
Today we welcome guest blogger Jason Womack, a workplace effectiveness and productivity consultant. You can find him on his corporate website at jasonwomack.com and his blog at jasonwomackblog.com.
If you’ve decided to quit your commute and work from home, one of your big challenges may be maintaining the sanctity of your work area. When your office is disorganized, it can easily become a magnet for bills, toys, receipts, homework papers and even dirty laundry. This clutter can quickly bring your productivity to a screaming halt.
In order to stay one step ahead of the chaos, keep your workspace as productive as you are. Here some ideas to keep a clean desk and a clean path to productivity:
- Make processing a priority: Processing your in-boxes (voicemail, e-mail, paper, and files) clears the deck for your life and work. Every five days, you need to make processing your focus. This weekly overview will enable you to create the space you need in order to work the way you’d like.
- Get it: Take everything out of your briefcase and put it on your desk to tackle.
- Supply it: Go through your travel and business supplies and replace or restock anything that’s low. Also purge and restock an area or two on your desk (fill printer with paper, stapler with staples, water a plant, check the electric plugs by the floor to make sure they are in contact, etc)
- Gather it: Put any as-yet-unprocessed notes into the in-basket. These can be from anywhere – meeting notes, Post-its, business cards you’ve picked up, e-mail messages or other mail.
- Update it: Review any papers in your “pending” file to make sure their status is up to date. Also open and review your current project folders.
- Find it: Check your calendar and your to-do list. On your calendar, look two weeks back and four weeks ahead. If you have any reminders in there, add them to your to-do list. Add to your to-do list by going through the notes in your inbox or other reminders you have. Check off anything you’ve gotten done.
- Assess it: Finally, take an overview of your outcomes and inventory your incomplete goals. Reassess your commitment and decide if there is an action that can be added to your to-do list in order to reach that goal.
If you undergo this weekly assessment of your workspace, you can spend a lot more of your time on your actual work in your home office.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Are the paths to your goals paved or cluttered?
For the past nine months I’ve been conducting a one-question Internet survey about what blocks people’s goal success. The question I have asked people is: What is the single, biggest obstacle to achieving your goals? The responses have been intriguing.
“Lack of Organization/Too Much Clutter” made it to the Top 5 on the list and it continues to rank as the #5 obstacle to goal success.
Speaking of goals, the National Association of Professional Organizers reports that getting organized also made it to one of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions this year. In early 2008, the President of the organization, Standolyn Robertson, said: “Getting organized is one of the top 5 New Year’s resolutions.”
If getting organized makes it to your list of resolutions in 2009, it could lead to a positive ripple effect. Because, when people clear out clutter, it paves the way for other goals too.
Why does clutter get in the way of goals?
When there’s clutter on our desks and we have to step over the jackets, the laptop case and shoes strewn about the hallway, it’s harder to think and we forget things.
How can you remember a priority project when it’s buried beneath a paper pile as high as your office chair?
For me, an organized workspace (and house for that matter) sharpens how I think and gives me a motivational lift. It’s about progress, not perfection, by the way.
For example, when the surfaces of my workspace are clutter free–yet I still have the tools at hand that I need–I power through things faster, have increased focus, and I feel better at the end of the day. That’s because productivity equals satisfaction. I like to work hard on my priorities.
When things are in the way–mentally or physically–we get slowed down, distracted and derailed. It’s no fun at year’s end to open a mysterious word document that reminds you that you were going to drop 10 pounds and you haven’t made it to the gym all year.
Here are four tips to clear out clutter so that you can remove at least one obstacle to goal success.
Step Back
Assess the space you want to organize, whether it’s your cubicle, garage or kitchen. Take five minutes to picture what you’d like the space to look like. Do you envision a transformation or just a few tweaks?
Create a Big Goal
The big goal represents your organizing ideal. For the garage, maybe that means hiring a custom closet company to build storage shelving and hooks to hang tools. Consider the benefits: peace of mind and clarity.
Do the Tough Thing First
Spot the thing that you dread most. When you look at the file cabinet in the garage bursting with 15 years of taxes, tackle it. Doing the hardest thing first will build momentum and inspire you to move on to more uncluttering.
Set a Small Goal, Too
You’ve made progress by facing the tough thing first. Do another small goal immediately. For instance, sort through two boxes or put all gardening equipment in one area.
Team up with one or more person to help make the process fun. With focus and dedication, all 4 steps are do-able.
Taking a moment to step back will give you a snapshot of what you want before you start. From there, you’ll have the ingredients for your first big goal. Doing the tough thing first allows you to get going fast and sets the stage for overcoming resistance of the things you don’t want to do. Keep going with a series of small goals. As you make progress, you’ll be more organized, and you’ll have more clarity and confidence to maintain your organized life.
What strategies have you used to set and achieve your uncluttering goals?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Find garage organizing inspiration from Elfa, Ikea, and Sears
Camping gear, bicycles, gardening supplies, lawn maintenance equipment, tools, automobile care products, and recycling bins are common goods found in garages across America in addition to automobiles. If the garage is well organized, it’s a lot easier to get the car into the space. But, for many residents, the garage is so haphazardly thrown together that a home’s garage includes everything except a car.
As the weather cools in the northern hemisphere, bringing your car into the garage is a more attractive idea than it was in warmer weather. The threat of early mornings spent scraping ice off of your windshield can be a great motivator to finally getting your garage into tip-top condition.
If you’re looking to improve the level of organization in your garage, you might want to check out the following storage solutions. Their prices vary, but all will help you to get your garage organized. A simple Google search with the phrase “garage organizing” will also yield many local companies that specialize in systems to tidy your space. The pictures are also great inspiration for how you can create your own systems for your garage if you aren’t interested in purchasing an out-of-the-box solution.
And if you missed it when it ran, be sure to check out our recent post on steps to take to organize your garage. Good luck!
Popularity: 5% [?]
Tools of the Trade
Do you keep a stapler on your desk? How often do you use it?
What about the other objects taking up real estate on your desk? How many items could live in desk drawers or cupboards instead of on your work surface?
If the top of your desk is cluttered, start by looking at all of the equipment, peripherals, and doo-dads eating away at your space and deciding if some of the objects could find better homes someplace else.
I started this post by mentioning the stapler because most people don’t use them on a regular basis. Paper clips, photocopiers that staple documents automatically, and double-sided printing have reduced the amount of stapling people do at their desks. Clearing the stapler — or broken printer or obsolete Rolodex or whatever you’re not using on a daily basis — off of your desk and storing it in a desk drawer is a simple way to give yourself more work space. (Except the broken printer … feel welcome to get rid of that.)
You don’t have to make your desk sparse and uninviting, but giving yourself room to move can help boost your productivity by clearing distractions and frustrations from your line of sight. Are there objects on your desk that don’t belong to you? Do you have a small collection of dirty coffee cups and used utensils? What can you do right now to clear the clutter and create a more useful work environment?
Image from the Swingline website.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Creating a personal strategic plan
Setting goals, working on projects, and tackling action items are three things I do on a regular basis to keep my work and personal life afloat. They’re the backbone of what I refer to as the Daily Grind.
The Daily Grind doesn’t happen by accident, though. I’m not a person who sits around and lets things fall into her lap or wish for the perfect opportunity to open up to me. I try to have purpose to my actions and am proactive in my dealings. Because of my desire to live with purpose, guiding my Daily Grind is a personal Strategic Plan. Much like a Strategic Plan that guides a business, my plan guides who I want to be. It keeps me on track, helps me reach my goals, and keeps me from feeling like I’m in a rut or walking through life as a zombie.
Similar to how a business creates a Strategic Plan, I created a plan for myself. In the book How Organizations Work by Alan Brache, strategy is defined as “the framework of choices that determine the nature and direction of an organization.” If you replace the words “an organization” with “my life” you get a solid idea of a personal Strategic Plan.
Brache continues in his book to discuss how to create an effective Strategic Plan for a business. Building on his ideas, but with a bent toward the personal, I created the following process for how to create my plan and how you can create a plan, too.
Five steps to living with a personal Strategic Plan
- Collect data and analyze your current situation. What are your strengths? (The book Now, Discover Your Strenghts can help you answer this question.) How do you process information? What in your life do you love? What activities in your life do you look forward to or wish you had more time to complete? What are the activities you loathe and want to get out of your life completely or reduce dramatically? What competes for your attention? What are your core beliefs and how does your life reflect those ideals? Do you like the things you say you like, or is habit guiding your behavior?
- Make the tough choices. How far into the future are you willing to work with this Strategy? (I recommend no more than three years.) Review the data you collected and analyzed in the first stage, and put into words your core beliefs that under no circumstance are you willing to break. State what obligations in your life you must fulfill. State your strengths and which of these should continually be highlighted in your life. What stands out the most in your life as being the positive force for your actions? More than anything else, what makes you happy?
- Communicate (draft) your personal Strategic Plan. Put into words the plan that will guide your Daily Grind. Write it in words that you understand and trigger memories of why and how you chose your plan. Your Strategic Plan isn’t a mission statement, it can fill more than one sentence of text. It probably won’t be a 20+ page document like many businesses create, but it should be at least a page or two containing the gist of your vision. Be realistic and let the document wholly reflect who you are and who you want to be. This is just for you, not anyone else, so let it speak to and for you.
- Work with your Strategic Plan as your guide. Make decisions about how you spend your time and all aspects of your Daily Grind under the guidance of your plan. Try your best to keep from straying outside the bounds of your Strategic Plan. Live with purpose.
- Monitor and maintain your Strategic Plan. Sometimes life throws us a wrench when we were looking for puppies and rainbows. Or, something even better than you ever imagined can happen. Update and monitor these changes and see if your Strategic Plan needs to be altered as a result. If no major change has taken place, evaluate your performance within your plan and check to see if you’re getting lazy and letting things slide. Maybe you realize that your plan wasn’t broad enough, or maybe it was too specific. It’s your plan, so work to keep it healthy.
Ideas and Suggestions
What you choose to put into your plan is a deeply personal choice and how your plan looks is as unique as your finger print. If you’re looking for ideas or suggestions to get you started, consider the following:
- Your relationship with your children, spouse, parents, siblings, friends.
- Your spiritual and philosophical beliefs, how you practice those beliefs, and how you incorporate them into your daily life.
- Your career goals and how much energy and focus you choose to commit to these achievements.
- Your time and how you choose to spend it.
- Your health and your objectives regarding your health.
Your strategic plan shouldn’t be a list of goals about these topics, but rather the guiding philosophies behind those goals. For instance, if in your Daily Grind you have action items about losing five pounds, those action items might reflect your Strategic Plan: “I enjoy the time and active relationship I have with my growing children. Staying healthy and in good physical condition allows me to have energy for this time with my children and allows me to work when I’m at work. Good health also is one way that I can work to have more years with those I love. It is important to me that I make healthy choices with regard to nutrition and exercise.”
Do you have a Strategic Plan? Does it help to keep clutter — especially time and mental clutter — from getting out of control? If you haven’t written a personal Strategic Plan before, do you think this is a tool that can help you?
Popularity: 8% [?]
Creative ways to get rid of clutter
Two of my dear friends recently moved from DC to Google Town (a.k.a. Mountain View, Calif.). At their going away party, they gave gifts to all of the attendees — literal parting gifts.
In the parking lot of their apartment complex after the party, my husband and I decided to open our gifts. Both boxes were filled to the brim with ephemera. My box included: 3 yen, a knitted mitten Christmas tree ornament, 4 ticket stubs, a scratched CD, a bright pink magnet in the shape of a button, and about a pound more stuff. My husband’s box held: a broken Palm Pilot, a cracked copy of Microsoft Excel, a sticker that said “I used to be punk rock,” and two handfuls of other random trinkets.
The next day, I called my friends to find out about these special packages. They explained that as they were packing their lives for the move, there were items in their apartment that they knew they should throw out but couldn’t get themselves to do it.
“We had bizarre emotional attachments to all of the objects in the boxes,” one of the two explained. “We couldn’t throw the stuff away, so we wrapped it up to give to you and the others.”
“You know we all just tossed or recycled the stuff in the boxes, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “But giving the stuff away as gifts was the only way we could get rid of it.”
“I get it,” I said, not really getting it at all.
A few days later, the idea started to resonate with me. Whatever it took to get the clutter out of their future home was a good idea to me. Seeing as I had no attachment to any of the objects in my gift box, I tossed and recycled the stuff immediately. A few conversations with other friends from the party, and I found that they did the same. The stuff had been dealt with and was out of my moving friends’ lives. The process of decluttering was unconventional, but effective.
Have you encountered or tried a non-traditional decluttering method? What do you think of my friends’ ephemera boxes as a method of getting rid of clutter — especially clutter with a misplaced emotional pull to keep? Any suggestions for how to say goodbye to clutter in a creative way? We would love to read your ideas in the comments!
Popularity: 5% [?]
Decisions, decisions
Just when we need to make the call, sometimes our minds get entangled and we hem and haw. In fact, one study shows that 80% of us loop back and question our decisions once we make them.
Whether we like it or not, decisions are here to stay. You know the ones — In what direction should I take my career? Chocolate or vanilla? Shall we launch Product A or Product B? — and, big or small, we have to make decisions.
Here are some methods used in companies that you can use, too.
Autocratic
The person in charge (or the person who appoints him or herself in charge) solely decides what to do. Others are expected to follow without input.
Pros: Works great in a crisis. Direction can be arrived at fast without having to debate the issues. If the building is on fire, you want someone to say, “Go down the stairs, now!” It is also useful for private matters, such as during downsizing.
Cons: Most people don’t like to be told what to do all of the time. (Autonomy anyone?) They may even defy the order or, worse yet, nod their heads in agreement without implementing. And, if a bad decision is made, people know where to point fingers. Team spirit declines.
Democratic
Let’s hold a vote. The leader does not have all of the power and gets yes/no input from the group. Majority rules, of course, even if that is only a 1% difference.
Pros: Decisions can still be made fast and people are involved. Because everyone gets to cast his or her vote, it breeds a climate of fairness. With this binary approach, people have a simple way by show of hands or the cast of a ballot to support or oppose an idea.
Cons: Groupthink. No individual is responsible, the group is. If things go south, responsibility can be easily dodged. And, the original naysayers can state, “I voted against that in the first place.”
Consensus
Here, the group collectively makes a decision. People can share ideas, give input, and debate what they want to occur. Control lies in the many hands of the whole team.
Pros: “We’re in this together” is the theme. Responsibility and buy-in are necessary. En masse, people own the decision and, as a result, show more commitment to making things happen. Plus, with many thoughts, ideas, and issues being voiced in the process, the final decision can be a well-informed one.
Cons: It can take a very l-o-n-g time to decide something. People get bored or check out of the process. (”We’ve been talking about this for two weeks. Can’t we just flip a coin?”) Also, just one voice in the crowd can derail a direction. Loud voices and strong personalities prevail.
Delegation
Defer the decision to someone else. Let the person with the most knowledge on the topic make the call.
Pros: Giving responsibility shows trust in the person’s judgment. It gives him or her a chance to step up and provides that person opportunities for growth. New ideas emerge that may not have surfaced without delegation. Ideally, the person builds good decision-making skills along the way and learns from mistakes.
Cons: Whoever deferred the decision to someone else still holds the responsibility. It is important to ensure that the person to whom you’re delegating has the knowledge and expertise to make an informed choice. That person may also need guidance on what to consider when deciding.
Consultative
Those in charge can generate input, ideas, thoughts, and concerns through one-on-one or group discussions to make a better final decision.
Pros: People participate and buy-in more with the solution, as well as offer their ideas to the process. They share their knowledge to impact a solid decision. With a wider range of input than from autocratic or democratic styles, the final call is based on more information. With many voices, circumstances are better known and understood.
Cons: There can be favorite go-to people whom the leader talks to most. Others, whether they have expertise or not, can feel left out or even resentful. (Teacher’s pet?) It takes time to gather suggestions. Getting too much data from people can lead to information overload, yet it’s imperative to include those with the needed know-how.
***
Ultimately, the trick is to adjust your decision-making approach based on the situation. You wouldn’t want to take a vote to see if you should call for an ambulance when someone is having a heart attack. Line up the style with your needs and avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to keep clutter out of your decision-making process.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Backpack: A digital version of a miscellaneous drawer
Once again, we’ve asked online social tools guru Stowe Boyd to write for us on digital information management. Thank you, Stowe, for sharing your insights with us!
In almost everyplace I have ever lived, there has always been one drawer — usually in the kitchen near the backdoor, or near a wall phone — filled with all sorts of junk: old chinese food menus, elastic bands, pencils, garbage bag ties, condiments, and nubs of crayons left over from elementary school. Basically a black hole of odds and ends that forms a backdrop of a hectic life, where there isn’t always a perfect place for every last thing. Sometimes you need a “miscellaneous” category, a catch all, a kitchen drawer for random things.
I have a hectic life, but one that has increasingly gone digital. In the same way as my non-digital life, I have found the need for a general purpose information organization tool: a place to store the myriad bits of information that I use and share on a regular basis.
My digital kitchen drawer is Backpack, an online information management tool from 37signals. 37signals is a company that has built an international reputation for its tools, like Basecamp (a collaboration tool for project teams), Highrise (a CRM tool), and Campfire (a chatroom solution).
I have the “solo” account ($7/month), but 37signals also offers accounts for groups and with larger storage.
All About Backpack
Backpack is based on the model of a collection of pages, and on each page you can add, edit or delete any number of information scraps: notes, lists, files, photos, and writeboards. Writeboards are a 37signals sort of online word processing document — providing styled text — but otherwise not much like Microsoft Word. Because I use other tools for serious word processing, though, I hardly ever use writeboards. However, I use all the other bits and pieces.
In the screenshot above, you see Backpack is open. I have already logged in — it’s password protected — and I have clicked on one of the many pages displayed in the right-hand margin, in this case one called “Thoughts about /Aviso.” /Aviso is a monthly, half-hour web show that I will be launching at the end of August, and I have been using Backpack as a means to collect my ideas, and to share them with my production partners. You can see at the upper right-hand corner that the page is shared: I invited some others to take a look at the page, and perhaps to edit it, although none of them actually made edits. Backpack also allows publishing the page so that it is completely public, but I have not done so in this case.
Here I have added an additional note field, created a title, and added some text. Note the asterisks arounf the word “text,” which is part of a markup language that Backpack supports called Textile. I could alternatively used HTML for markup, though, if I wanted to.
Textile has some great features that I have used in many ways, such as the music in the screenshot below. This is a song that I wrote (yes, yes, a Renaissance man, I know, I know), and I have taken advantage of Textile’s simple technique for creating tables as a means of aligning chords with words.
The Textile tables are created by simply placing vertical bars (’|') around the table entries, like this:
|Gmaj|F#/D|
|Halfway cross|the world|
Needless to say, I have found this extremely helpful. And, I use tables in some often-used pages. For example, I have a page where I store passwords and IDs for various services that I use.
The photos that can be placed on Backpack pages don’t really make it a replacement for something like Flickr, but if you were using Backpack to plan a dinner party you might include a photo of a planned recipe or a snapshot of the people coming to dinner. Backpack scales the image down to this gallery size, so it is not a good way to share images; for that, you would have to upload the image as a file, and manually add the HTML to a note, as I have done in the page, below:
Backpack pages automatically have an email address, and you can direct email to them, which occasionally can be useful. I have also used the email addresses for various online services that need an address, since it means that 1. I can later delete the page to avoid any spam, and 2. It keeps the email out of my inbox.
Backpack provides a calendar and a reminders tool, but I seldom use them, since I work with time through my Google Calendar; however, these might be useful for others.
As I have written about in the past, I keep the overwhelming majority of to-do items in my Remember The Milk account, which is tightly integrated with Gmail, but occasionally I find myself making checklists that aren’t to-dos exactly, or tasks as part of some activity that I am working on with others. For example, in the page below, I was making a checklist of travel arrangements that I shared with an assistant:
Online and Offline: Packrat
I know that many people are uncomfortable with keeping information like their passwords in a service online. Since Backpack is itself password protected and encrypts transmissions through SSL, I am personally satisfied with that aspect of things. However, I do want to be able to get access to the information in the rare situation that I am not online, like my seat on a flight. Enter Packrat, which is a companion application that runs on my Mac, and which synchronizes with my Backpack account.
In the above image, you see that I use Backpack to write posts for Unclutter, and the nice folks at Unclutterer copy the material and post it on the blog.
The only negative about Packrat is that I have to remember to synchronize with Backpack before getting on that flight to London or I won’t have the most recent information available.
It Must Be In There Someplace
Backpack uses a page and margin approach to organization, here shown by clicking the “all pages” option. (The reason for “all pages” is that you can opt to take a page out of the navigation in the right margin, dropping seldom used pages from view.)
Backpack supports tagging, so I can pull up all my recipes, all my music, or all the pages tagged “Bonnie Raitt,” simply by clicking on that tag.
For Groups, Too
Backpack was conceived principally for the needs of the individual, but scales up for small teams, or families.
I already mentioned being able to invite others to share pages, which can be done with anyone, even people who don’t have Backpack accounts. Plus, a Backpack account can be set up with mutiple users, and they could share pages, calendar, reminders and the other capabilities of Backpack.
One very interesting feature recently added is the “Journal,” which is designed to allow the members of a shared account to remain in contact like the popular Twitter service does. Similarly, 37signals recently added a “Newsroom’” feature that allows users to see what has been recently updated and by whom, which isn’t very interesting for a solo user like me.
I Like That Kitchen Drawer
It’s one of those obvious things, in hindsight: As I used Backpack more and more, I discovered more ways to use it. Ultimately, I closed down other accounts — including 37signals’ own Basecamp — and migrated the bits and pieces of my messy, messy life into the free form pages of Backpack. It’s worked out well for me, and seems just as natural now as that kitchen drawer.
Popularity: 8% [?]
E-mail: The great time waster
Yesterday, Lauren Halagarda discussed a number of tips for clearing clutter from your inbox. Today, contributor Sue Brenner explores how to keep e-mail from cluttering up your time.
Maybe it’s anxiety about e-mail that causes this form of communication to create so much stress? The sheer volume of messages piling in our inboxes begs us to sort through them first thing every morning to feel like we’ve made some progress. What starts as an innocent peek into Outlook can end up devouring an hour, a morning, and, in some cases, a whole day.
MSO.net, a UK and Australia-based web agency, reports:
“As the quantity of e-mails in workers’ inboxes increases steadily, productivity suffers as people spend less time doing the work for which they were employed and dedicate too much time dealing with the unwelcome e-mails. This increases anxiety since office hours may increase and thus the work/home life equilibrium is affected - ultimately more stress is heaped on the individual.”
How about setting periods of time when you’ll sift through e-mails and then let them gather again for later? For some, especially in the high-tech industry, this might seem impossible. But, getting a handle on e-mail time has its benefits. MSO’s study revealed that people underestimate how often they check e-mail, which potentially amounts to more wasted time.
“Of those surveyed, 34 per cent said that they thought they checked their inbox every 15 minutes. However, monitoring software reported a different story when fitted to those users’ PCs. In reality, many were viewing e-mails up to 40 times an hour. The burden to respond quickly to e-mails appears to be partly to blame and when combined with the volume of e-mails being received, stress is the outcome for 33 per cent.”
It’s true that wanting to reply quickly to e-mails is part of the culprit. However, when we’re compulsively clicking on our inboxes 40 times an hour (unless you’re in a job that warrants that amount of e-mail checking such as customer service or tech support), productivity declines.
E-mail can be used to keep busy, deceiving us into thinking we’re getting important work done, when half of the stuff we open is a YouTube forward. There’s some funny footage out there, but it seductively steals time.
And, when you’re already stressed–a looming deadline, an important interview–e-mail is as easy a distraction as turning on the TV at night.
Unless I’m meeting with a client or have an early appointment, I check e-mail in the morning. As a small business owner, I like to be responsive.
Keeping it under control
When I start working for the day, I first check my calendar. Then, I write down on paper my top three priorities for the day. (I don’t want my e-mails influencing these priorities just yet.) The act of putting pen to paper helps me concentrate and hone in on what’s important for my day.
If I have a morning meeting, then I’ll head out the door. If my schedule is clear, it’s then that I will quickly dip into e-mail. If my e-mail unveils something urgent, I might replace one of my priorities on my top three list. Then, I draw a line under the top three and put other to dos there, in case I have extra time.
Throughout the rest of my day, I only check e-mail once every few hours. I get more done that way and my focus stays sharper. Every once in a while, there are a few important e-mails that sneak past me, but not many. If an emergency arrises, people will find me if they need me.
What helps you stay on top of e-mail enough without too much time loss? What strategies do you use to focus, block distractions and make the most of your time?
Popularity: 7% [?]
Detox your inbox
Once again, I would like to welcome Lauren Halagarda as a guest author on Unclutterer. I hope your enjoy her advice on the e-mail detoxification process.
Are you overwhelmed by the amount of e-mail in your inbox? Do you have difficulty keeping up? Do e-mails get lost in your inbox? Here are some secrets that will help you take control of your inbox and manage your information overload.
First and foremost, you need to change your mindset about the purpose of your inbox. My definition for an inbox is: a location for temporarily holding incoming mail, whether it is paper-based or electronic. The inbox should not be a “forever home” for your incoming mail, rather, it is an intermediate step in an effective e-mail (or paper) management system.
Once you decide to stop using your inbox as a to-do list, database, filing cabinet, tickler file, contact management system and calendar, you can then tackle processing e-mail much more effectively. Here are the questions you need to ask yourself when processing your e-mail.
Does the e-mail contain an action? If not, do you need to retain the information contained within it? (Be generous with your delete key.) Most of the e-mail we receive we never refer to again — experts say the number is close to 80%. If you can find the information in the message elsewhere, delete it. If it contains details you need such as contact info, transfer that information to your address book or contact management system. If it contains event information, transfer it directly to your calendar. If it is resource information or data that will help you get work done in the future, find an appropriate storage location for it. If you do need to retain the e-mail itself, deposit it into storage. (Preferably into ONE reference folder. I labeled mine “processed mail.”) If you use Gmail, use the archive function.
If the e-mail contains an action, can someone else take care of it? Delegate it. Once you delegate an item, you may still need to follow up on it. In that case, add the follow-up item to your task list.
If it is something that you need to do, can you do it in 2 minutes or less? Do it now. But be honest with yourself about how long it will take you to complete, if you are still working on it 20 minutes from now, it doesn’t qualify.
For those items that require action or cannot be delegated or done within 2 minutes, you may need to do it later. Create an item in your task list to identify the very next action required. Make sure you are not creating a task that has pre-requisite actions. For example, if the task is “go to the office and get parking permit.” What do you need to have in order to obtain the permit? The pre-requisite task may be to gather your original registration and copy of insurance.
Obviously, e-mail processing is just one of the components to an effective action management system, but it is a key foundational element in capturing and identifying tasks so you can move them from To-do to DONE!
Popularity: 7% [?]
Yard Sales: An unclutterer’s ultimate, how-to guide
Today we welcome guest post author Geralin Thomas, the ideal professional organizer, and her amazing advice for a successful yard sale.
A pocketful of cash, a clutter-free home, and a lot of interaction between your stuff and passers-by all make yard sales hard to resist. Who hasn’t driven by a yard sale and wondered if there’s a too-good-to-be-true bargain hiding behind a used sewing machine, or if the perfect whatcha-ma-call-it at a to-die-for price is amidst all the other treasures?
Why have a yard sale?
We all want our homes to be clean and neat and to reflect who we are. A truly great home balances organization with comfort and style. Hosting a yard sale provides incentive to edit things from your house that no longer fit, work, come in handy, or relate to your lifestyle. Oh yes, and yard sales generate extra income. So, why not have a yard sale?
Choose the right day
- Not every day is right for a yard sale. For example, don’t schedule your sale on a holiday weekend unless you live in a tourist town.
- The best months for sales are April, May, June and September.
- If possible, try to schedule your sale near the 1st or the 15th of the month because those are paydays for a lot of shoppers.
- Saturdays are best.
- Earlier in the day is better than later.
Spread the word
- Contact local authorities and inquire about restrictions, regulations, permits, etc. for posting signs and hosting sales.
- Let your neighbors know about your sale; if they don’t want strangers parking in front of their homes, place “no parking” signs where appropriate.
- Inquire about placing ads with various local newspapers. Ask how many words, how much it is going to cost, and how far in advance you need to submit the information.
- List a rain date or have an indoor back-up plan.
- Post signs at local grocery stores.
- Place ads on electronic bulletin boards.
- Distribute flyers in community centers.
- Use foam board rather than poster board for posting signs around the neighborhood.
Advertise clearly
- Who is involved in the sale: single family, neighbors, community?
- What type of sale is it: yard, community, garage, moving, fire?
- When is your sale: date(s) and day of the week, time from xx am –xx pm
- Where is the sale: give clear directions from a major intersection
- Why should people come? Make your ad stand out. Be creative with your wording and list a few “big ticket” items to draw interest.
Sample ad: Multi-family yard sale; designer-name maternity clothes, educational preschool toys, upscale infant gear, and much more. NO Checks. Saturday & Sunday April 3 -4; 8:30am –1pm. Rain date: Sat. April 10. EARLY BIRDS PAY DOUBLE! 555 Main Street across the boulevard from the community pool.
Sample ad: Retirement Sale; 60 years accumulation of antiques, furniture, power tools, appliances, gardening tools, house ware. Cash Only. Saturday; September 10; 7am - 3pm ONLY (Rain date: Sat. Sept. 17); 555 Main Street, 3 miles West of Rest Assured Retirement Center. NO early birds.
Gather the following supplies
- Tables for displaying items
- Assortment of bags for people to take their items home: plastic store or grocery bags, gift bags, paper grocery bags, lunch bags
- Packing boxes; store them under the display tables until needed
- Bubble wrap and newspapers for fragile items or breakables
- Tape to secure lids or keep stray pieces together
- Permanent markers to change price signs throughout the day
- Rubber bands to bundle silverware, spools of ribbon, etc.
- Tape measure and yard stick
- Calculators for adding up sales
- Extension cords to plug in electrical items to show that they work
- Spare light bulbs if selling lamps
- Batteries for testing toys and small appliances
- BONUS TIP: If you want to earn extra income buy extra batteries and sell them!
Details to remember
- Have a trash can so people can dispose of their bottles and snack wrappers.
- Keep a large bottle of hand-sanitizing gel or wet naps to clean your hands.
- Leave enough room between tables for shoppers with strollers to browse.
- Don’t forget a roll of paper towels for spills and a box of tissues for sneezes.
- Lock the doors and windows of your home.
Price it right
- Do not price every single item for sale. It is time-consuming and everyone is going to ‘bargain down’ the asking price anyway.
- Group similar items together on a table and price them all the same.
- Make categories and label them: Exercise and Fitness, Bed & Bath, Camping, Books & Media, etc.
- Label the tables: $5.00-$10.00, $1.00 or less, or Best Offer — minimum $20.00, etc.
- Price in 50 cent increments (easier to add).
- Face the facts, everyone comes to a yard sale looking for a bargain – so give the people what they want and, remember, the main idea is to unload all your unwanted things – making money is almost secondary.
Hang it up!
- Make sure all clothes are pressed, clean, and hanging on hangers.
- Do not try to sell clothes that need mending, ironing, or stains removed.
- Group clothing according to sizes.
- Have a full-length mirror stationed somewhere convenient.
Money matters
- Before the sale day, go to the bank so you’ll have plenty of small bills on hand – between $50.00 and $75.00 in cash.
- If you really want to generate a buzz, ask the bank for $2.00 bills and silver dollars. Younger shoppers love “funny money”.
- Hip packs are a must for carrying cash. Do not leave a cash box unattended.
- Do not accept checks from strangers. A Cash Only rule is a good one – and take collected money inside your house periodically.
Snacks
- A great way for an older child or teen to make a little extra cash is to sell coffee and donuts during the sale.
- Stock up at a warehouse-type store: sell mini-bottles of water, juice boxes, small packs of goldfish crackers and other parent-approved snacks for children in tow. Food and drinks will keep shoppers shopping longer.
Leftovers
Do NOT bring the items that didn’t sell back into your home or garage. There are 3 options for leftovers that you must take care of immediately after your yard sale:
- Put them into your car or van and drive them to the nearest donation center and obtain a tax credit for your donation.
- Place them curbside with a sign that says, “FREE—Help Yourself!” Anything that remains after 2 days should be trashed.
- Conduct a “Leftover Raffle.” Sell raffle tickets for $ 3.00. Draw names out of a hat. The winner gets anything and everything they want, and you make $3.00 per person on your leftovers!
Now your attic, garage, and home are clutter-free! You’ve gotten rid of your “trash” and some lucky person has discovered a “treasure”! Best of all, you now have some extra cash to treat your family to something special!
Popularity: 9% [?]
10 tips to beat clutter in less than five minutes
I’m happy to have Gretchen Rubin, the fabulous author of The Happiness Project, join us with a guest post today on Unclutterer. There just aren’t enough kind words in the English language to say about her. Welcome, Gretchen!
Having a clutter-filled house can make you feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Everywhere you look, you see little chores that should be done. No single task is particularly difficult, but together, they add up to a big headache and a big mess. Pretty quickly, it’s easier just to add to the piles than to try to attack the problem.
Here are ten easy, quick tips that, if followed regularly, will help keep your clutter under control. And none of them takes more than five minutes – if that.
- Make your bed each morning.
- Throw away the newspaper each night, even if you haven’t read it yet.
- Follow the “one-minute rule” – push yourself to do any chore that takes less than one minute. Throw away the junk mail, close the cabinet door, put your dirty socks in the hamper, hang up your wet towel.
- Identify an organization or person to whom you can give things you no longer need – it’s much easier to get rid of unneeded stuff if you can envision someone else getting good use from them. Also, figure out a place to store those things until you hand them over. We have a special shelf for books that we’re taking to the Housing Works thrift store. When the shelf is full, we drop off the books.
- Pause for a moment before you “store” something. Storing something means you don’t intend to use it much. Other than holiday decorations and seasonal clothes, you should strive to “store” as little as possible.
- Beware of freebies. Never accept anything free, unless you’re thrilled with it. A mug, a tote bag, a hand-me-down toy, the lamp from your mother-in-law—if you don’t need it, don’t take it.
- Get rid of things if they break. When I went through our apartment, I was astonished by how many things I’d kept even though they didn’t work.
- Don’t keep any piece of paper unless you know that you actually need it. I have a friend who, for years, carefully filed away the stubs when she paid her gas bill. “Why?” I asked, mystified. “I have no idea,” she said. Along the same lines, don’t keep anything that would quickly become dated—like travel information. Remember the internet! If you can easily find information online, you don’t need to keep a hard copy.
- Hang up your coat.
- Before you go to bed, take five minutes to do an “evening tidy-up.” Don’t tackle anything ambitious, but just stack up the magazines, put your shoes away, shove the chairs into place, etc. Just a few minutes of tidying can make your house look a lot better, and it’s a calming thing to do before going to sleep. Plus it makes the morning nicer.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Turn your old CDs into a workout
Wondering what to do with all of your old CDs? Wonder no longer!
Gizmodo suggests turning them into free weights. The idea is certainly resourceful, and originally comes from the Make: website.
In the past, I’ve seen old CDs repurposed as coasters, artwork, and Christmas tree decorations. What clutter-busting solutions have you found for your old CDs?
Image from Make:, and thanks to reader Katherine for bringing this to our attention.
Popularity: 9% [?]
