simply-org.com Blog

Did we ever anticipate the amount of email that we would be sending and receiving when it first started? No way. The fact is the “office” has changed from a place to any-place as the internet and email are available anywhere, anytime. The messages keep coming at us and we keep responding, or letting it pile up, or getting stressed out.

It is interesting to see the major time management gurus beginning to address this shift in our culture. I will share that the core principles of time management still apply even with this explosion of messaging.

Stop reading email as it comes in.

Instead read it periodically.

Scattered email reading is really a time waster. There is tons of research on multi-tasking and interruptions which show over and over that interruptions take up to 10 minutes to recover. So imagine you are concentrating on something and also constantly flipping to your email, responding, filing, deleting, forwarding and more. The time it takes to go back to your original project and get your head back into that space can be anywhere from a few minutes to 10. Ouch, that is a lot of wasted time.

• Set up specific times to read email and communicate to others those times so that you manage their expectations as far as your response time.

• Respond quickly that have a simple and quick response.

• Leave the rest in either your in-box or folders you have set up for later When you have time to “do the work” to respond.

• Delete when you are done, or file it away. In other words, clean up your in-box often.

Are you having trouble finding basic things in your home or office? Are you wasting countless minutes looking, looking, looking?

There are a few things that come up over and over with my new clients. One of those basic things is that there is no “home” for things.

“A place for everything and everything in its place”

We have all heard this quote before, but do you practice it in your life?

Here’s an example. I was recently in a house where basic things did not have a home. Supplies for hobbies were in multiple rooms. Sports equipment was in the car, hall closet, and several places in the garage. Mail piles were all over the house.

The first thing this family had to do was to collect things together: all the scrapbooking supplies, sports equipment, mail, photos, etc. The technical term for this is Sort. (OK, you can chuckle at the phrase “technical term”).

The second key was to cull down the amount of stuff in each category.

Third, and very important, is to Assign a Home to each category of things. So the Scrapbooking supplies all went into the home office, the sports equipment in the garage and the mail has a station at the kitchen desk.

Have you assigned a home to things in your house? Take time this week to start working on this. Choose something that you are constantly searching for and losing time.   Start by pulling everything together and assigning a specific home to it. If you are constantly losing the keys, have one specific place where you drop the keys. Always leave them there, and always find them there.

What’s the thing that you need to assign to a home?

Holiday shopping is a huge project. Did you remember everyone? Did you get the right gift? Are you running in too many directions and not getting things done?

The best advice I can offer is to prepare your thoughts and make a comprehensive list.

* List everyone you want to recognize with a gift including family, friends, teachers, service providers, neighbors and more. It might take more than one pass to remember everyone.
* Jot notes with potential ideas, sizes (if needed), favorite hobbies or activities to jar some gifting ideas.
* Pre-shop or make purchases on-line to save time.
* Take advantage of Free Shipping on-line this season…I hear there are going to be allot of these offers.
* Choose stores or websites that match the recipient.
* Plan your shopping geographically to maximize your time out in the stores.

The worst time waster is to arrive at a store with no written notes and your brain goes completely blank. Prepare ahead of shopping and have it in writing.

Some people use the same list year after year (you might consider putting it on a spreadsheet). This way you can see what you gave each person in years past, have their vitals like sizes and interests at the ready, and more.

Your list can be as simple or sophisticated as you like. The important thing is that it works for you.