Archives for Office Organization
Become a Gmail ninja
If you use Gmail as your primary e-mail system (and I recommend that you do simply because of its powerful spam filter), then it’s time for you to become a Gmail Ninja.
Google recently released four tip sheets to help you get your e-mail clutter under control with Gmail. The tip sheets come in four levels (white, green, black, and master) and are targeted to how many e-mails you receive a day (white being just a few messages a day, master being a “massive number”). Even if you only receive a dozen e-mails a day, it’s still beneficial to check out all four tip sheets for additional ideas.
The following are some of my favorite tips:
Use filters to control the flow of incoming mail
Set up filters to automatically label, archive, delete, star, or forward certain types of incoming messages. You can create a filter based on any message — just choose “Filter messages like this” from the “More actions” drop-down menu to get started.
Get through your mail faster with keyboard shortcuts
Using keyboard shortcuts will help you shave milliseconds off every action, which can add up to a lot of saved minutes each week. Enable keyboard shortcuts in Settings and use “j” and “k” to navigate up and down within your inbox, “o” to open messages, “r” to reply, “c” to compose, “s” to add or remove a star, “e” to archive, and more. Hit “?” at any time to see the reference guide with a full list of keyboard shortcuts.
Send and archive in one step
Turn on “Send & Archive” from the Labs tab under Settings, and you’ll see a new button that sends your replay and then archives the thread with one click.
There is also a printable guide for easy reference while you’re in your e-mail inbox.
(Once again I’m thanking my friend Erin Kane for introducing me to another valuable resource for Unclutterers.)
Popularity: 10% [?]
Illuminate your clutter hiding spaces
Clutter has a way of accumulating in poorly-lit spaces. If you can’t see it, you forget it’s there, and it’s easier to mindlessly add to the disorder. Deep drawers, basements, closets, lower cabinets, and garages are especially vulnerable to dark spaces where clutter can hide.
After you clear the clutter from an area, if it is poorly lit, I recommend putting in an adhesive LED Puck Light ($14 for a 3-pack). They require very little energy, can be used with rechargeable batteries, and help the spaces to stay clear of clutter going forward — just be sure to put the light in a place you can easily reach.
How has better lighting helped keep clutter out of your home? Is there a space where better lighting could help you? Tell us about your experiences in the comments.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Piegato One shelves
Whenever I see a piece of furniture that is brilliantly simple, my first thought is, “I want to share that with the Unclutterer readers.”
This week, I learned about the Piegato One shelves and instantly wanted to share them with you. They’re designed by Matthias Ries and will be manufactured by his company MRDO Products. The shelves ship flat and then you bend the metal into place with very little effort:
A short video shows how to setup and install them.
I know that the industrial look isn’t everyone’s favorite style, but you can still appreciate that such a beautifully engineered product exists. This shelving system is simple, streamlined, and wholly uncluttered.
(via Dwell)
Popularity: 19% [?]
Everyone can learn to be organized
Everyone begins life as a messy, disorganized, lump of a baby. No one is born in a starched shirt and polished shoes with a day planner in one hand and a vacuum cleaner in the other. (Our mothers, they are particularly happy about the vacuum cleaner part.) We scream. We drool. We poop. We cry some more. Everything about a baby is chaotic.
During the early years of life, some children are formally taught by their caregivers how to be organized. Others garner bits and pieces through observation, example, and trial and error. Finally, there are those who picked up very little during childhood and didn’t start learning about organizing until adulthood (I fall into this category).
The speed at which we acquire organizing skills is also varied. Some people learn a specific organizing skill the first time they encounter it. Others, it takes considerable practice.
How you learn or how quickly you learn is completely irrelevant; the point is that everyone can learn to be organized.
From this point forward, I want you to stop thinking about your disorganization as a state of being. Instead, think about the specific way that you’re not yet organized.
“My closet is a mess because I haven’t mastered the skills necessary to keep it free of clutter. I need to learn how to organize my closet and acquire the skills that it requires to maintain it well.”
“My big project at work is a mess because I don’t know what programs and systems are available to help me get it under control. I need to research and learn about what I can do to better manage my time and work of this project.”
When you stop identifying as someone who is disorganized, and start thinking about it as just a specific skill that you can learn, getting organized becomes an easier task.
Popularity: 20% [?]
The desk whisperer
Thursday evening, I was a presenter at the first Ignite-DC. An Ignite presentation is exactly five minutes, contains 20 slides, and each slide advances automatically every 15 seconds. An evening consists of 16 artists, technologists, thinkers, and personalities talking about subjects they love.
I gave a lighthearted presentation on the perception of productivity. (Not actual productivity — because that is what books are made of, not humorous five-minute presentations.) I wanted to entertain as well as inform, and I hope that I achieved that. Check it out:
(If you can’t see the above video, check it out directly on YouTube.)
Feel welcome to check out the other Ignite-DC presentations from Thursday and the world-wide Ignite website to see if there is an Ignite event scheduled near you.
Popularity: 19% [?]
DIY note card task board
Today we welcome Brian Kieffer, one of Unclutterer’s amazing programmers, to tell us how he created his extremely useful note card task board.
I’m a big fan of using index cards as organizational tools. They’re cheap, relatively sturdy, and the perfect size for jotting down tasks and notes, among many other uses.
Unless you really like flipping through cards over and over, though, it can be difficult to keep from losing track of everything you have going on your cards. If you’ve searched for a solution to this, you may have encountered Levenger’s excellent Note Card Action Board. But at nearly $40 for a 13″x15.5″ board, they’re pretty pricy.
I made my own in less than 5 minutes for a fraction of the cost using simple parts I picked up on a trip to my local art store. All you need is a board, and several large, heavy-duty rubber bands.
Any sturdy board will work, but the board I chose is the 16″x20″ Studio Panel. It’s essentially a 3/8″ thick piece of masonite with a canvas-like surface, and you can get them in many different sizes. The textured surface of the board provides a little bit of friction to keep the cards secure, and could easily be painted to match the decor of your office. The back of the panel includes pre-drilled holes for hanging on the wall.
Assembly is quick and easy. Just stretch your rubber bands over the board and space them according to the size of the cards you use. And BAM! DIY Note Card Action Board. Then you can use your label maker to mark the different sections of the board for your productivity system.
Popularity: 25% [?]
35 luxury notebooks to organize your life
I’m a list keeper. I used to keep lists on stray pieces of paper around my office. Whatever was within reach would get a list on it — backs of envelopes, stray receipts, post-it notes. After I got the iPhone, my random paper list-making decreased significantly. The Notes application and I become fast friends.
However, I’ve once again found myself looking to good ol’ pen and paper to write down some of my ideas. Instead of turning to scraps of paper that will eventually clutter up my desk, I’ve decided to buy a notebook.
In my pursuit of finding the perfect notebook, I have discovered that there is a gigantic market of luxury notebooks out there. I honestly had no concept of how large it is. So, if you’re in the market for a good notebook to keep your ideas in one organized location, these are the brands to explore:
- Awagami
- Alwych
- Apica
- Bienfang
- Canteo
- Cartesio
- Cavallini
- Ciak
- Clairefontaine
- Derwent
- Doane
- Eccolo
- Exacompa
- Fabriano
- Field Notes
- G. Lalo
- Guildhall
- HandBook
- Kunst and Papier
- Markings
- Maruman Hongasen
- Miquelrius
- Moleskine/Kikkerland
- Myndology
- Nomad
- Pen and Ink
- Pentalic
- Piccadilly
- Quo Vadis
- Rag and Bone
- Rite in the Rain
- Rhodia
- Smythson
- Whitelines
- Xonex Ru
I made my decision about which to buy based on reviews I came across on a couple of notebook blogs. The blog Black Cover has pictures and reviews of some of the little black notebooks. And the website Notebook Stories has reviewed 19 different brands.
Are you a traditional notebook aficionado? Is there a brand or style that didn’t make my list? Please let us know about it in the comments!
Popularity: 29% [?]
What’s in your office?
When you imagine a CEO’s office, you probably think of a wood desk, an ornately framed print of a stale landscape, a couple diplomas on the wall, a bookshelf of leather bound classics, a large window with a decent view, and everything well organized with no clutter anywhere. I could probably create a coffee table book filled with thousands of examples of this exact office.
For better or worse, most CEO’s offices send the message: “I am in charge, and I get work done.”
Forbes recently profiled the offices of 10 CEOs in the article “What CEOs Love To Keep In Their Offices.” The article discusses the not-so-obvious things that some big-wigs keep in their spaces. But, I have to be honest, none of the items they mention are really that far off the regular path — a dry erase board, a dart board, an executive bathroom.
CEO offices are consistent because they are, in many ways, the face of the company. Consumers and employees alike judge CEOs based on the image they present. If a CEOs office is full of clutter and chaotic, then it sends the message that the company is cluttered and chaotic. So, the CEO of a company will always have an office that looks like the one I described in the first paragraph.
Can you take a few cues from the CEOs? I’m not advocating that you retrofit your cubicle with wood laminate and bad artwork, but can you keep your office clutter free? Can you project to your co-workers and clients that you are efficient and productive and able to handle all the work that comes your way? Does your office say that you’re organized and ready to lead?
Popularity: 21% [?]
A home office for a small space
Having a home office in a 450 square-foot space may be a pretty tough task. How does one make room for a home office and make it feel separate from the rest of the living space? The Unfolding Office featured in Dwell’s Dec/Jan 2007 issue is a unique option for a home office in a tiny space.
The Unfolding Office was a project of Michael Chen and Kari Anderson of Normal Projects who designed this solution for teacher Eric Schneider’s 450 square-foot apartment in New York City. The outcome was an all-in-one unit that holds everything from a desk to a bed and nightstand. For a better idea of the finished project, take a look at the slideshow.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Plan projects with a Work Breakdown Structure
I enjoy leading a project. Setting the goal, defining scope, and then using my favorite piece of the planning process: creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
Before you get to who’s going to do what and the schedule, the WBS allows you to take a project and break it into smaller, more manageable pieces. You end up with an organized, visual display of the main pieces of your project.
How it works: Once you define your final date for the project, your next step is to define the scope or magnitude of that project. How big is it? What will the project include? If your goal is to have a wedding by June 30, 2009, your scope might include dinner, invitations, decorations, entertainment, and a ceremony.
To further define the scope, a WBS offers a system to map out the work in detail. A simple way to think about it is by asking: What are the key deliverables — tangible and intangible things — that will result from the project? What will it take to get the project done?
A WBS also includes a logical list of tasks, that when completed, roll up to the deliverable. For example, the entertainment deliverable for the wedding event above might look like this:
1.0 Entertainment
- 1.1 Research bands.
- 1.2 Select band.
- 1.3 Create preferred song list.
The beauty of the WBS is that it can be used for relatively small projects (like organizing your garage), as well as large projects (like developing a piece of software).
You can create a WBS in most of the project software tools out there, or you can create one of your own on paper or in a document program like Word. On the work front, a WBS can be part of your project planning for anything from an office move to building a bridge. The more complex the project is, the more useful the WBS is to ensure that the main pieces of the project puzzle are captured.
Do you use WBSs on your projects? Let us know your experience in the comments area.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Apple wool felt laptop sleeve
Laptop sleeves are a necessity if you are regularly on the move. They protect your computer from daily wear and tear while providing a quick way to transport your precious cargo. The wool felt laptop sleeve designed by redmaloo is a nice option because it serves more than one purpose. The sleeve protects you computer, but it also unfolds to provide a work surface with a mousepad (see picture below). The sleeve is available via ex49. ex49 imports was created to provide emerging, talented artists from Germany with the opportunity to exhibit and sell their products overseas.
(via Swiss Miss)
Popularity: 13% [?]
Six tips for going paperless
Please welcome Mark W. Shead, who blogs once a week on the informative Productivity501.com. He is a business management consultant focusing on using technology to streamline businesses.
I have been moving toward a paperless office for two reasons. First the amount of paper in my life continues to grow each year and I’ve grown tired of spending so much effort just wrangling physical paper. Second I spend a lot of time on the road. It is nice to have access to all my files whether I’m in working in my office in Kansas or waiting for powder to fall in Colorado.
The move to paperless has been an interesting experiment and I’ve been amazed at just how attached I have become to the pieces of paper I have saved over the years. Here are some tips for people looking to make a similar transition.
- Scan what makes sense - Go for the biggest bang for your buck. It doesn’t make sense to scan every single book you own, but it does make sense to scan in your bills, receipts and insurance paperwork.
- Give yourself time to adjust - You are probably going to find yourself very attached to your papers. I got over this by creating a “to shred” set of files. I kept the paper around until I was comfortable with my electronic access to it and was ok with shredding it.
- Backup, backup, backup - Make sure you have a reliable way of backing up your data. Not only do you need to back your data up, you have to test it as well. Also make sure you store your backups in a safe place. I keep one backup in my office and another encrypted on Amazon’s servers using Jungle Disk. That way if a flood or fire destroys my computer and backup hard drive, I can still get my data back.
- Get some help - If you have a lot of paper to scan consider hiring someone to help. A high school or college student can go through quite a stack of papers in a few afternoons. The worst part of switching to paperless is when half of your data is on paper and the other half is digital. Getting a bit of help initially can make your system much more useful to you right away.
- Think “Where will I look for this?” - There are many ways to file your scanned documents. When you are designing your system, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking “Where should I put this?” You need design you system around the question “How will I look for this?”
- Don’t skimp on your scanner - The ScanSnap is one of the best scanners for the money. You want to make sure you don’t get something that requires putting each page, one at a time, on a flat bed. If it is too much trouble to scan in a new piece of paper, you won’t do it.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Ask Unclutterer: What should I do with old x-ray films?
Reader Piper submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:
I have a bunch of old X-Rays hanging around. Various broken bones, MRIs and things like that.
I don’t really want to throw them away (I’m not quite sure why) but I don’t know what to do with them either. I know I’m not the only one that keeps these things because I’m moving into an apartment and found a couple of X-Rays from the previous occupant.
Right now, they live in the bottom of a dresser drawer. That doesn’t take up much space, but it seems silly to have a curiosity like that around but hiding in the bottom of a drawer. I thought about putting them on a window as a decoration, but decided that was just too macabre and weird.
What an interesting question!
First, you should know that the Environmental Protection Agency claims that x-ray films do “not appear to be hazardous waste.” This means that if you have them in your house in an envelope, you’re storing them safely. The films themselves don’t retain any toxic levels of radiation. I was actually worried about this for a while, so I was glad to learn that handling them was fine.
Now, just because you aren’t poisoning yourself by having them around, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should keep them. The next time you go to your doctor’s office, bring along your collection of x-ray films. Ask your doctor which of the x-rays are worth keeping, and which ones you can purge. If you have an on-going medical condition, your doctor will probably instruct you to keep all x-ray films of importance to that condition. However, your doctor will probably tell you an x-ray of a broken wrist you had in the third grade won’t be important to keep.
The x-ray films your doctor recommends you keep should be stored in your personal medical file in your home filing cabinet. If you don’t still have the envelope they came in, ask your doctor if you can buy one from her. They usually run about $1 an envelope (if your doctor even chooses to charge you). I don’t recommend displaying or doing anything crafty with these x-ray films since you or someone close to you might need to access them in a medical emergency.
Best case scenario, your doctor will offer to recycle any x-ray films you don’t need to keep. If she doesn’t, call your local hospital and see if they accept old x-ray films. If neither your doctor or local hospital recycle them, check your county’s website to see if they have a recycling program for such items or if a recycling center in your area does. Most old x-rays have silver in them, which means that they’re relatively valuable in the recycling market. I’ve never had any difficulty finding a recycling center that accepts old x-ray films.
If you want to do something more creative and artsy with your old x-ray films, I suggest only using ones that have out-dated information on them. An image of your bones while you were still growing is probably safer to use than an image of your bones as an adult. Or, if you had a pin put in your ankle, an image before you had the pin put into it would be safer to use since it’s not how your ankle currently looks. X-rays are very personal information and you wouldn’t want it to get into the wrong hands and have to fight an insurance fraud case.
Thank you, Piper, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.
Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.
Popularity: 32% [?]
Ask Unclutterer: Dual desks
Reader Cory submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:
What are some good solutions for a two workstation/desk in a apartment? I will soon be moving in with someone sharing a one-bedroom apartment and we are looking for an elegant way for us to both have a small desk/laptop workspace in the new place. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
My husband and I share an office in our home and we have considered setups similar to what you’ve described. The following are images I’ve collected over the years of two-person desks that I like. You can click on the images to learn more about the desks. I encourage our readers to add their finds in the comments section and hopefully our collective responses will lead you to a solution.
Thank you, Cory, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.
Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.
Popularity: 18% [?]
E-mail Resolution: More advice for an empty inbox
My 2009 new year’s resolution is to get e-mail under control, and right now I’m failing. With the deadline for my book quickly approaching, my e-mail inbox is over-flowing with messages I haven’t responded to. I didn’t have a strong enough system in place yet to handle everything, and now my inbox situation is out of control. Maybe by May I’ll have things organized.
In the meantime, I keep seeking out articles and research to learn as much as I can about different inbox maintenance systems. Last Thursday, I stumbled upon the article “An Empty In-Box, or With Just a Few E-Mail Messages? Read On” in The New York Times.
The article touches on the most basic of basic advice, which is refreshing. The author of the article makes a statement that I’m starting to agree with wholeheartedly:
Notice that my system doesn’t include any complex method for organizing e-mail — I don’t categorize my messages into folders by sender, subject matter, date or any other scheme. That way lies distraction.
One of my biggest problems with many of the methods for inbox clearing are that they require so much maintenance that the work involved to organize the system is unbelievably time consuming. The system itself is clutter.
What are some bare bones systems that you use? What do you think of the reporter’s advice on keeping an inbox organized? I really want to hear what you have to say in the comments. My struggle continues …
Popularity: 10% [?]
