Tidy Tiger Solutions, Michelle Panzlaff, a Professional Organizer and a Certified Paper Tiger Experts, created this video to provide helpful advice for getting organized to busy professionals, homeowners, families, and students alike.
Click here to watch Michelle’s organizing challenge video to learn about these organizing obstacles and start applying techniques to help you feel less stressed and get more done!
The fact is it can be hard to get started. When trying to get and stay organized, there is a wide variety of things that can get in our way. The good news is there are ways to solve this dilemma.
Also in this video, see how Michelle combines the functionality of the powerful indexing systems in Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management with the concepts provided by Productivity Guru, David Allen, in his world famous GTD (Getting Things Done) Systems.
Learn more about the organizing products and services provided by Michelle Panzlaff and Tidy Tiger Solutions by visiting www.tidytiger.biz today. Plus, drop into the home page of Tidy Tiger Solutions for free printable gifts and more for your home, work or personal organizing needs.
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Tidy Tiger Solutions
Michelle Panzlaff
To Michelle, serving as a Professional Organizer is all about creating more functional and enjoyable spaces, productive workflow and effective filing systems, while helping clients feel inspired and more productive.
As a skilled professional, Michelle now possesses over 23 years of office, service and administrative experience. Michelle relies on her exceptional skill set to solve complex challenges for her residential and business clients alike.
Phone: (778) 866-6942
Email: info@tidytiger.biz
Sherry Borsheim, a Paper Tiger Expert of Simply Productive, gives us a great clutter busting strategy to get organized, and to stay organized. Sherry also recommends and helps implement Paper Tiger filing system software for document management for not only organizing paper files at home and office, but organizing other physical items because anything that you can put a number onto, you can Paper Tiger. If you need help busting through your clutter in your home or office, get ahead of the September rush of back to school and get your kids and home organized now. Click here to learn more about Sherry’s special offer!
As I was helping a teenager get her room organized for back to school, and she asked me “is your home organized?” And my reply was “yes, I practice what I do with you.” Then she asked me “what are the best rules of thumb for staying organized?” My reply was, “well, there are several rules of organizing that I use in my office, home and life and when you use these on a regular basis, staying organized gets easier and easier.”
I shared with her how appling a few organizing rules on a regular basis was the key to keeping her room organized long after I left. And how she could apply the same rules to planning her school schedule and finding time for her hobbies.
Sometimes all we need is to get pointed in the right direction, learn a few useful skills and you’re on your way!
I’ll be the first to admit that getting organized can be a process and not easy at times. But with regular maintenance, and a few clutter busting tips, staying organized gets easier and easier because you won’t want to go back and do the hard work again.
In this week’s S.O.S. (Simple Organizing Solutions), you’ll learn my best clutter busters for your home and how to apply certain rules to stay organized for years to come!
This one rule of thumb for organizing can change your life and help free up extra space in your home. Click the link to read on:
When you apply this one rule of thumb, on a regular basis, letting go gets easier and the rewards can be very satisfying!
As always, keep it simple and be organized!
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Sherry Borsheim is the president of Simply Productive. You can visit Sherry, access her free article archive and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.simplyproductive.com. Sherry lives in Vancouver, BC Canada with her husband (her high-school sweetheart).
Contact Sherry so you can get a JUMP-START on ORGANIZING your office, home and life. She will give you her trade secrets and steps to setting up your organizing systems, including recommending Paper Tiger filing system software for document management, to be organized and manage the paper files that you need to keep in hard copy format and other physical stuff in your life.
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Teachers are preparing to open the doors to their classrooms and parents are scrambling to purchase last minute school supplies. We’re sure these teachers wish that preparation for the new school year was as simple as purchasing pens and pads, but unfortunately it is not. However, Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management can make maintaining organization in the classroom a little easier for them.
Think about all the paper files that you have to keep track of and be able to find when needed. As a teacher, you are likely to teach many different students and subjects, and most of the time alphabetical order isn’t enough. Here are some of the things that Paper Tiger can help you with:
Of course, parents and students can easily get overwhelmed with the amount of papers, handouts, homework assignments, project instructions, etc. that is hard to maintain in an organized way if a filing system software is not implemented.
With Paper Tiger’s flexibility, the files can be organized in a way that fits your personal workload. You would simply input the name of the items and keywords related to each file in your Paper Tiger database. (Hanging File Folders = Items) When a file is needed, a simple search can locate any file in seconds.
You can use the aforementioned categories such as attendance records and student assignments and the keywords would include the specifics such as the class, the grade, the year, the class period etc. Replacing the endless paper piles on your desk, Paper Tiger not only reduces clutter but it saves time. You will no longer have to worry about losing an assignment to hand out, creating it again and making twenty-five copies only to spot the original on your desk.
Gone are the days of excessive sorting and taking stacks of miscellaneous paper home every night. With Paper Tiger, all of your paper files can be neatly organized in your file drawer(s) and you don’t have to worry about being able to find them later. This eradicates losing paper files as well. This type of system will also benefit your substitute teacher. Life sometimes gets in the way and we have to miss work. If your substitute teacher can easily find your organized files, (s)he will be able to find what she needs with a simple search in your Paper Tiger database. You can feel confident that your students won’t be disrupted in their lessons because you have implemented a system that keeps you, and your substitute teacher, organized.
Have you ever had a star student that you make an example of in the next school year? You can set a location for “exemplary work” and also know where your past students’ best work is. The same type of thought process can apply to parent teacher conferences and future lesson plans.
By implementing this system, teachers are not only becoming more organized and efficient, they are being responsible. Imagine if your students were going on a field trip and you can’t remember if Joseph brought back his permission slip or you’ve misplaced it. By organizing these types of documents, you will always be able to find them when you need them. You will always be able to retrieve the documents in a timely manner.
The same principle applies for parents and students. Decide what paper files need to be kept, then index the keepers into Paper Tiger’s database. When you need to retrieve an old project paper, you can search the database and you’ll know exactly which hanging file it was placed in. Also, each child could have one file for archives (reports, etc.) that should be kept and one file for stuff that can be tossed out when it’s no longer needed, to avoid having to sort through the files on a regular basis.
An example Location in Paper Tiger’s database for each child might be:
Location Name: Susie’s School Files
Item Name: English (with keywords for any projects and when they are due, along with keywords for other paper files that will be included in this hanging file folder and updated when papers are added)
Item Name: Math (with keywords for any projects and when they are due, along with keywords for other paper files that will be included in this hanging file folder and updated when papers are added)
Item Name: History (with keywords for any projects and when they are due, along with keywords for other paper files that will be included in this hanging file folder and updated when papers are added)
Item Name: Archives (with keywords for all paper files that will be included in this hanging file folder and updated when papers are added)
Item Name: To Be Tossed (set a date to toss these paper files, which could be at school end)
Paper Tiger is Not Just For Filing Paper! If you teach a younger group of kids that use a lot of educational toys, this indexing system will certainly keep them organized. You can use and label storage containers to store these larger items. Younger children have shorter attention spans and won’t be patient while you figure out if the flashcards and toy numbers are in the same place you had them last year. By numbering the storage containers to match the assigned indexed number in Paper Tiger, then input the contents into the keywords section, you’ll know exactly where the state puzzles are when you need them without searching through every container.
Paper Tiger helps to eliminate clutter, so teachers, parents and students will be more organized, and each will have more time to spend with their families because they are not wasting time always looking for things.
This indexing system can benefit teachers of all grades, classrooms, and students. As you prepare to welcome your students in the next few weeks, think about using Paper Tiger Filing System to make school a much more rewarding experience for both you and your students.
Life can be very stressful. Now add your clutter and disorganization to the equation and it’s even worse. Paper Tiger Filing System Software for Document Management can significantly reduce stress and anxiety levels by helping you get organized and virtually eliminating paper clutter. We’ve compiled a list of tasks that when combined with Paper Tiger are essential towards a less stressful life.
Before any organization can occur, you have to part with paper that you don’t necessarily need. Why are you holding on to last week’s grocery list? Do you really need that pile of junk mail? Surely, if you took the time to look at all the paper clutter that you’ve accumulated, you would throw a majority of it in the trash. Getting rid of the excess clutter is the first step towards reducing stress. A huge weight will be lifted as you throw away extra paper files that you don’t need.
Instead of creating a to-do later pile or getting in the habit of doing things later, get things out of the way. Don’t check the mail and toss it on the kitchen counter, sort through it while it’s on your mind so you don’t have the chance of building clutter piles. By making yourself do this and not procrastinating, you will greatly reduce stress.
In addition to being proactive, be tidy. When you are finished looking at a bill or a magazine, put it back where it belongs. Giving your paper items a home is yet another way to avoid clutter piles. By setting these boundaries and forcing yourself to make decisions in a timely manner, you are stopping clutter before it can accumulate.
For those paper files that you need to keep in hard copy format, you would simply index the item name and keywords relating to those documents into Paper Tiger’s database.
One hindrance to filing is finding a hanging file folder and the tab insert where you would put the name of the file. Then what to name the file is another problem. Files can be named different things, so what do you name each type of file so that you can remember when you need to retrieve the file to reference it again.
Paper Tiger solves these problems because the software allows you to set up all hanging file folders in your file cabinets at one time using the numbered tabs that you print out from the software and they never change. They stay in numbered order for that location in your database. You type in keywords relating to each document in Paper Tiger’s database digital file location matching the physical file location.
Paper Tiger assigns the file number to the document or set of relating documents that you want to put in the same hanging file folder. You can give the document any name you want without any worry about finding it later. For documents that you want to add to an existing file, simply edit the Item and add additional keywords necessary for the new document(s), then drop into that relating hanging file folder. You don’t have to add keywords for every piece of paper in a file if the file name contains the only word(s) you would ever look up to find it. (ex: invoices)
Because the hanging file folders are already setup and waiting for your information, you eliminate the time-consuming hassle of having to find and create a file folder and insert tab each time you want to file something. Again, the software will assign an index number to each file you add to be put in the first available empty hanging folder.
After you’ve converted your filing system to Paper Tiger, you can file your paper files away, and no longer have to worry whether you will be able to find it again. When you need to find a file later, you simply conduct a Google-like search in the database for whatever keyword you’re thinking on that day to find where your file is located.
Paper Tiger is not just for filing paper. You can add other Locations in your database to organize other types of things. Some of these are described on our Not Just For Filing Paper page, which include but are certainly not limited to the following:
As you can see, you can get organized with Paper Tiger and reduce the stress of searching for the things you need, but also to clear away clutter.
Sherry Borsheim, a Paper Tiger Expert of Simply Productive, has offered some great tips on staying organized while traveling for business so that when you’re back to your office, you won’t have a lot of ‘briefcase drama’ nor will you have a stack of papers to fumble through. You’ll be able to index them into your Paper Tiger database, and file as you’ve already noted.
Conquer Your Paper Chaos When You Travel
Has this ever happened to you? You’ve just returned from a business trip and your briefcase is bulging with receipts, meeting notes, business cards, travel documents and other essential paperwork. You’ll probably spend your first day back in the office just sorting through the chaotic mass of paper before you can even think about getting down to business!
Or, perhaps you travel all over the city attending one meeting after another. By the end of the day, your briefcase is a pile of to-dos with no particular order. Phone messages are scattered on various pieces of papers and you just know that an important message is hidden somewhere in the mess. Then there are the business cards you collected, some require follow-up, but you’re not sure where you put those important numbers. If only you had kept it in a safe place so you could remember where you put it.
At this point, all those good intentions to take action and follow-up on hot new business leads fizzle into frustration. But there’s no time to think about how you misplaced those essential items. The minute you’re back in the office you find there is a pile of emails waiting for your response, in addition to a large pile of papers on your desk begging for your attention. You dive right in to the emails and before you know it the morning is gone and it’s lunchtime. You work through lunch in order to attack the pile of paper on your desk. Then you realize you reviewed your messages, so you abandon the paper pile and listen to all your messages. It’s a never-ending circle of paper, email and voicemail, and you haven’t even cracked open your briefcase. You just spend the day reacting to emergencies and interruptions with no planned scheduled time to deal with the important issues that you had hoped to get to.
This continues day after day and you’re still dragging all those papers from your business trip in your briefcase and you’ve been adding to it during the week as you attended more meetings. Now you have no idea what’s what and it all melts together into one big mountain of paper begging for your attention. How long do you let this go on before you decide to take action? For some its days and other’s, its weeks or months. Those hot new leads you made on your business trip aren’t so hot now and the longer you leave it, the more you procrastinate on taking action. Eventually you take mountain of paper out of your briefcase and drop it on the floor by your desk and say you’ll deal with it later, because you have more important things to take care of in the office. Guilt sets in and it constantly nags at you to do something but you don’t. You know you should get your business receipts handled but you’re not sure where they all are and it ends up costing you money when you could have been reimbursed.
Here are some tips on how to put an end to the briefcase drama scenario after business travel:
1. Streamline and organize your briefcase so you know what the next action is on any piece of paper and business card while you’re out of town and when you arrive back at your office. Use plastic folders to batch similar tasks together. Remember, ease of access and functionality are very important when using any organizing product.
2. Label the file folders inside your briefcase with the next action you want to take – “Call, Data Entry, Discuss, Receipts, Meeting Notes/Agenda, Photocopy, Read, or Write”. Customize your files based on your specific action steps.
3. How to use your travel briefcase when outside your office. File meeting agendas under the file tab labeled “Meeting Notes/Agenda so when you get to the meeting it’s all together. If you collect business cards during your trip there are two things you can do with the business card: (1) enter it immediately into your Contact List, or (2) file it into your mini travel briefcase under “Data Entry”. When you return to your hotel or your office, any cards that you wanted to get into your Contact List are all grouped together. You can enter them yourself, scan them using an App or delegate the task to someone else.
4. Define the next action. No more putting it aside to deal with it later. This is what I call “deferred decisions”. Instead, ask yourself this very important question: “What is the next action I want to take on this piece of paper?
5. Schedule a specific time in your calendar to handle that next action. This is the key to getting things done. A pile or file labeled “To Do” is only an intention to do something, where as a scheduled appointment is a commitment to take action on something.
6. Use clear project folders to keep like papers together. Use these project folders to keep your agenda and meetings notes together in your mini-travel briefcase or keep them on your iPad using Evernote in a folder called “Agendas”. You may be attending several meetings and these project folders are sure to keep your papers grouped together. Do not use paper clips, they tend to attach to other pieces of paper and get caught on other paper clips.
7. 80/20 Rule – 80 percent of what we file we never refer to again. Therefore, ask yourself, “What is the worst possible case scenario if you tossed this piece of paper away?” If you can live with the results of your answer to this question, then toss the piece of paper.
8. What to file for future reference. If you decided to keep the information on a piece of paper, ask yourself: “If I want to retrieve this information again, what trigger word would you think of?” Write the trigger word on the upper right hand corner of that piece of paper and file it in your briefcase under “File”.
9. Transferring papers when you return. When you return to your office after the business trip or day of meetings, everything that you’ve gathered during your time away from the office is grouped together by the next action. Instead of a mountain of paper spilling out of your briefcase, you’ll be ahead of the paper chase game, because you’ve already defined the next action. All there is for you to do is to schedule time in your calendar to handle the actions in your mini-travel briefcase. Some of the actions like Data Entry, File, and Expense Reimburse you can delegate to your assistant if you have one. That feeling of guilt and shame won’t be there because you’ve handled what you said you would do when you returned to your office. For those papers that you need to file, you can enter the ‘trigger’ word that you’ve already written on the file into your Paper Tiger database, add additional keywords if necessary, and drop the document(s) into the corresponding item number hanging file folder.
Business Travel tips:
Implementing the business travel briefcase will dramatically decrease your stress level and increase your productivity when you return to your office. You’ll turn piles of paper into valuable resources instead of deferred decisions and guilt. Instead of reacting to emergencies, you’ll be proactive on your commitments and follow-up.
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Sherry Borsheim is the president of Simply Productive. You can visit Sherry, access her free article archive and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.simplyproductive.com. Sherry lives in Vancouver, BC Canada with her husband (her high-school sweetheart).
Contact Sherry for a JUMP-START on ORGANIZING your office, home and life. She will give you her trade secrets and steps to setting up your organizing systems, including recommending Paper Tiger filing system software for document management, to be organized and manage the paper files that you need to keep in hard copy format and other physical stuff in your life.
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This article by Sherry Borsheim, a Paper Tiger Expert of Simply Productive, gives us a way to create a system for dealing with the mail and all the paper we receive everyday! How much does your stuff or clutter cost you?
Check out Sherry’s Organizing Bootcamps that will give you a JUMP-START on ORGANIZING your office, home and life. She will give you her trade secrets and steps to setting up your organizing systems, including recommending Paper Tiger filing system software for document management, to be organized and manage the paper files that you need to keep in hard copy format and other physical stuff in your life.
How much time do you think you waste shuffling junk mail and flyers around your home or office? How often do you pick up your mail and put it aside for later? But later never comes. Before you know it last month’s mail is still piled on the kitchen counter and the In Tray on your desk is growing by the minute.
Let’s be honest here, opening the mail is not exactly high on our priority list unless it’s a cheque, gift or personal card from someone. After a long day at work or chauffeuring the kids to all their after-school activities, the last thing you want to do is open the mail. I don’t know about you, but I can think of more exciting things to do. Like put my feet up and rest for 15 minutes!
More and more people are going paperless when it comes to bank statements and bill paying. Magazines are now available on iPads, but I still prefer my glossy magazine. For many businesses, paper is still around and receipts need to be accounted for. The paperless office is yet to come. And I see more paper in homes and offices than ever before as the volume of emails increase.
More and more people are making the effort to go paperless because it’s easier to manage; it reduces clutter in the home and helps the environment. According to 41Pounds.org:
What would you like to do with the extra 70 hours a year I just found for you by eliminating your junk mail? Now there’s a hidden time-waster that I hadn’t thought of before! And no more excuses that I don’t have time to work out.
In Canada:
In USA:
So what’s the best solution for dealing with the daily mail that comes through your front door? The answer is to set up a simple system and create a habit that you and everyone in your household follow. A system is only as good as the end user! Or you can delegate picking up the mail, opening it, filing it or putting in your Action folder.
Here’s the process for dealing with the mail before it piles up and takes over your counters:
There are hidden costs, like stress and anxiety which weigh heavy on you if there is clutter and piles of paper, unopened mail, junk mail, flyers and old magazines lying around for long periods of time. And piles of paper become dust collectors which lead to an unhealthy disorganized environment.
Re-evaluate or cancel subscriptions to journals and magazines that you don’t have time to read or rarely refer to and you will dramatically reduce the paper coming into your home. Look at new options to receive your newspaper subscription, like on the iPad which has a larger viewing screen than a cell phone.
In the past three years, I’ve made a huge effort to eliminate paper in my office and in our home. For years I’ve contained magazines to one small magazine rack and when it is full, I recycle or give to a charity or hospital. Every 3 months, I purge bags of paper that I thought I needed 6 months earlier. I’ve asked my bank to only mail my business bank statements, and my business invoicing is all electronic. More and more my business processes are becoming paperless and more online. My goal is to have as little paper as possible so I’m mobile to travel and work anywhere. Overall, having an impact on the environment.
What are you doing to reduce paper in your home or office? Do you have any other resources or tips for dealing with your mail? Leave your comment below or on Sherry’s original blog at http://www.simplyproductive.com/2012/02/eliminate-your-junk-mail-and-gain-70-extra-hours-a-year/!
Sherry Borsheim is the president of Simply Productive. You can visit Sherry, access her free article archive and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.simplyproductive.com. Sherry lives in Vancouver, BC Canada with her husband (her high-school sweetheart). Reprinted with permission.
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Whatever your document management issues, Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System Software is the ideal solution to help you control the paper flow in your company.
Some businesses have so many files that they must consolidate at times. They may have rules that state that files can be moved to basement storage periodically, to an offsite location, storage shed, or a corporate storage location. When this happens, how do you handle the filing on those still important, yet archived, files? Let’s consider…
1. Basement Storage
Whether you store your files in a file room, unused office, or a basement storage room, you need to keep track of them with your filing system. Some people may think you can’t use an indexing system with archived files, but that’s far from the truth.
Document management via an indexing system makes more sense now than ever because your files are farther away from your “regular” office space. This means you’d have to go further to find the files you need, which of course takes more time and creates added expense.
When you index archived files in remote storage areas, you’ll be able to search the Paper Tiger database to find where the file is located, then go right to the location, pull the file, and be able to get back to work with the file in hand. Then you can quickly return the file to the same location when finished.
An indexing system handles the information required so you know which files are in the basement or other storage area compared to the file room. There’ll never be confusion as to where a file is located with an indexing document management system.
2. Offsite Storage Location
Offsite storage locations can be different than other storage areas. The main reason being you don’t have the ability to easily browse where your files are in those storage facilities. Using indexing to manage your documents stored in an offsite location, you can manage these files the same way as any others. Note the location of the files, add keywords to help you index them and file as needed. The hardest task then will be beating the traffic in your drive to find a file.
3. Storage Shed or Unit
Some businesses use storage units either on location or within a locked gate at a different facility. With this type of storage, you’ll want to use shelves so archived file boxes aren’t directly on the floor. Shelves will protect the files and still allow you to use your indexing file system easily.
For best results, mark each shelf so you’ll know specifically where boxes are located. You can, of course, use file cabinets, but you might not want to purchase new cabinets when you move files to archived storage. Metal shelves will work just fine while still allowing you easy access to your documents.
4. Corporate Storage Location
At times when corporations have small divisional offices, they may not have the room to store archived files, and they don’t want to send them to an offsite storage location. In this case, those files may be sent to the corporate office for safekeeping.
When this happens you can use the same indexing system you’re currently using, even though the files aren’t in the same location. You manage it the same way you would with any other offsite storage location. Simply note the location, the box number and keywords in your index file and you’re good to go. Document retrieval is a cinch, regardless of where your files are stored.
One advantage with corporate storage is that you will typically be able to contact someone in the corporate office and ask them to send you any files you need without you having to make a trip to the office. With another offsite storage location, that wouldn’t work, of course.
At times businesses may run into storage problems and will need to move files around to accommodate space or a change in facilities. Using an indexing system for your document management needs will make this an easy transition and still allow you needed access to your files.
Whatever method you use to archive files, be sure and use the Action Date function in Paper Tiger to remind you when these archived files need to be pulled and destroyed based on your company’s records retention policy. If you don’t already have a records retention policy, see our ‘Retention Guidelines: How long should you keep records?‘ articles that might be helpful to you.
Try Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System Software today and see for yourself!
This article gives us 8 tips for organizing a small real estate office (the tips are applicable for many small offices) and controlling the chaos. The article deals with getting organized, managing clutter and setting up a paper filing system or document management system, using The Paper Tiger software. You can read below a short portion of the article and then click on the link to read the entire article. See The Paper Tiger Document Management and Filing System software mentioned under “Let your computer help”.
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Controlling the Chaos: 8 tips for organizing A small-office
Any association executive who oversees a single-person office will tell you that organization is key to keeping dozens of duties and tasks in order. Yet for many executives, being the sole staffer can lead to serious lapses in organization, unchecked clutter, and unique filing systems. Although everyone is disorganized in their own distinctive fashion, here are some general tips for bringing order to small office chaos.
Read the full version of the article by clicking here.
Use these Instructions for decluttering your home and use The Paper Tiger filing system software to keep track of your documents and many other things you decide to keep!
Instructions for decluttering your home
by Alex Fayle (in less than 500 words)
taken from unclutterer.com
Again we want to welcome guest author Alex Fayle, the writer behind the helpful anti-procrastination website Someday Syndrome.
One of the most frequent questions I ever get asked about organizing is the process. How do you make the decisions to get rid of things? While there are many tips and tricks you can use to ease the streamlining process, it all comes down to 5 easy steps:
1. Set yourself a goal “I am going to sort half this room before bed” or “I’m going to streamline the contents of this one box.”
2. Figure out broad categories and where you are going sort each category into.
3. Sort your stuff, moving systemically through the space, and not bouncing back and forth.
4. Purge what you don’t want.
5. Stop when you’ve reached your goal.
Use the sorting time to reminisce about the objects — don’t make any decisions at this point. Allow the emotions to come up and clear themselves out so that when it comes to the streamlining stage you are free from the emotional ties and can make more objective decisions about them.
If the idea of sorting overwhelms you, give yourself some early victories and do a walk-through of the space, choosing to remove a few large things that will open up the space quickly.
After sorting:
* Take one category and if you can, move it out of the space in which you are working, and into a clear space (like the dining room). This allows you to concentrate on the one category and not have to face the rest all at once.
* Ask yourself two questions: Need it? Love it? If you can’t say yes to either then get rid of it. Life is too short to fill out our spaces with things we’re indifferent to.
* Take the things you are not going to keep out of the house as quickly as possible. The longer they stay the more likely they will come back into the house.
* Give yourself rewards – for example out of fifty childhood books you’ve never reread but have kept for sentimental reasons, keep five and store them in a place of honor where you can see them and appreciate the memories associated with them.
There are two instances in which you stop for the day even if you are not done:
1. If you find yourself hitting a “brain fog” where nothing makes sense or you find yourself holding on to everything you are reviewing.
2. If you have hit a manic state and start tossing everything without looking at it.
Simple, yes? So now tell us, what are you going to streamline this week?
Posted by Alex on February 17, 2009
By Meggin McIntosh, “The Ph.D. of Productivity”™ and Paper Tiger Expert
Meggin also recommends Paper Tiger Filing System Software for document management to get everything in your life organized — it’s not just for filing paper.
Take your pulse right now – and then answer these questions:
Now, let’s think about the pulse of your productivity. Ask and answer these questions:
If you are in business (or really, in any other type of profession), you need to periodically take the pulse on your productivity and the overall health of your organization.
When you attend to all seven of these on a regular basis, you’ll see your organization’s health improve. And, let’s tell the truth, your personal health will also improve since the stress of living and working in a ‘sickly’ organization takes its toll.
So right now, using your list of the seven areas listed above, give your productivity a checkup.
Now that you have thought this through a bit and done a quick diagnosis, do you have a sense that it’s time for some changes? Is there a need to make some adjustments that will increase your overall productivity?
Choose one of the seven areas to focus on first. Just as a patient who goes in for a yearly check up, may have multiple areas that the doctor recommends need attention. The doctor knows that no patient can change 15 behaviors or practices in one day or even in one week. So just choose one area and determine one change you can make in the next day. Now, repeat that change for at least seven days….and then move on to the next change. Watch for improvement. You’ll see it.
And remember, just as your physical health needs to be monitored, so, too does the health of your organization. An excellent way to keep checking the pulse of your productivity is to join others (worldwide) who receive Meggin’s weekly emails (and check out what is available for download at no cost at the following websites):
**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)
**Keys to Keeping Chaos at Bay (http://www.KeepingChaosatBay.com)
(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh works with bright people who want to be more productive so that they can consistently put their emphasis on excellence. If this sounds like you, I look forward to having you in our group!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meggin_McIntosh
by David & Lorrie Goldsmith
Published 2/09
Reprinted from frogpond.com at http://www.frogpond.com/articles.cfm?articleid=dgoldsmith23
http://davidgoldsmith.com/
Finding time to plan is a Catch 22. Poorly designed systems force you to put out fires all day, leaving no time to plan. The longer you go without time-saving systems, the more problems you face, robbing you of planning time and fun time.
Saving time is like saving money. Put $2000 in your IRA from age 20 to 30, and you accumulate over $1 million in savings at retirement. Start the same retirement program at age 30, and you accumulate far less money.
Find time with good planning. If you can save only 15 minutes each day, at the end of the year you’ll have gained more than eight days of free time to spend as you choose. That’s a full vacation. Eliminate 60 wasted minutes each day…(it IS possible)…and gain an additional month of time for a vacation, a new endeavor, or to dine with your family.
Finding time is easier than you think. Here are 11 useful tips:
1. You might be the problem. Before jumping to something new, make sure that you’re using what you have properly. Plan each day the night before, not that morning when you’re already on the move. List priorities and rank them by importance of results, not urgency.
2. Delegate. For some this is difficult, but worth doing. Don’t trust that others will produce top-quality results. That’s a sign of flawed leadership. Educate others to take on responsibility and deliver results. Only keep tasks that belong to you.
3. Budget your time. Assign a realistic estimate of time for daily activities to prevent overbooking. Allow 20% to 30% of your day for the unexpected: impromptu meetings, returning phone calls. A good rule of thumb is to book only 6 hours of work for an 8-hour workday.
4. Batch similar activities to save time. If you will be conducting 10 personnel reviews, pull all 10 employee files at once. Planning in advance enables you to group similar tasks.
5. Run meetings with purpose, time limits, and focus. Use meetings to discuss ideas already thought about, not to start thinking. Exchange and benchmark progress by having participants bring completed work when they arrive. Each person should leave with an assignment due for the next meeting.
6. Turn off email pop-ups and instant messaging. They cause you to react at inopportune times. They’re no different than having someone barge into your office uninvited. When you need blocks of time, hold non-emergency interruptions and address them at your convenience.
7. Reduce interruptions from staff through strategy, systems, and education. Strategic plans set direction. Systems control flow of operations. Education produces empowered and independent employees. Jonathan Shultz of TCN Worldwide says that his job is to deliver the “vehicles for others to be successful.”
8. Take control of clutter. Trashcans and filing tools free up workspace, mental space, and time. Select a filing system based on how easy it is to find information, such as Paper Tiger Software (www.thepapertiger.com). Documents are filed by number, and numbers are retrieved in “less than 5 seconds” via software.
9. Use customer resource-management (CRM) tools such as ACT, Seibel or Goldmine software to organize digital communications. Notes taken during correspondence are available at the press of a button…no more searching through stacks of papers or file folders. But, if you have it and don’t use it, others won’t trust the system.
10. Put computer files in chronological order using a dating system. Year-month-day: February 4, 2003 reads 03-02-04. Now all 2000s group together, as do 2001s and 2002s.
11. Cut ties with negative people, especially if they’re employees. They easily suck away time. Challenged and excited people achieve more than the living dead…so do their supervisors.
There’s no substitute for great planning. Pushing off planning will bite you later, whereas great planning puts you in charge of your life. “Create” time with useful tools such as strategic and tactical planning, priority management, and systems. Strategic and tactical planning saves time and directs everyone toward the same goals. Priority management brings balance and achievement to work and personal life. Systems and procedures focus activities, maintain order, and reduce waste.
Once you’ve mastered the art of planning, you’ll need to find something to do with all that extra time.
For other articles written by David or Lorrie: http://davidgoldsmith.com/editor.php
Copyright© 2009, David and Lorrie Goldsmith. All right reserved. For information contact FrogPond at 800.704.FROG(3764) or email susie@FrogPond.com.
The following article by Barbara Bartlein, The People Pro, recommends The Paper Tiger filing system software!
After coaching executives for more than twenty years, it is clear that one of the greatest stumbling blocks for productivity is the difficulty successful people have in letting go. They hang on to routines, paper, people, and even meetings that suck their time, energy, and creativity. Consider:
* The average US executive wastes six weeks per year retrieving misplaced information on desks or in files. At a salary of $75,000 per year, this translates into $ 9225.
* Office workers spend 40-60% of their time working with paper. Despite visions of a paperless office, 95% of all information is still transmitted using paper.
* 80% of filed papers are never referenced again.
* Negative employees cost companies millions of dollars in lost productivity and sales.
* Of 1,037 full or part-time workers polled by Opinion Research USA, 27% ranked disorganized, rambling meetings as their top frustration.
Highly creative and energetic people seem especially prone to hang on to things and routines. After all, this was part of what made them successful. They view “stuff” as opportunity and people as resources. But sometimes it doesn’t work and the clutter, negative employee or useless routine gets in the way of attending to what is really important.
There are steps you can take to “let go” of the things in your life that are stifling your success. Some suggestions:
* Let go of perfectionism. Perfectionism is paralysis and often 80% is more than good enough. Sometimes it is better to just complete something than obsess over details that won’t make a difference. Set time limits for projects and stick to them.
* Let go of energy suckers. Get rid of negative, non-performing employees on the payroll. When management at 3M laid off the bottom 10% (the poorest performers) at one facility–their productivity skyrocketed up eighteen percent. 3M learned that negative employees not only produce less, but they also cost more. Negative employees destroy morale and turn off potential customers. As one employee said, “an energy sucker is the person you go on break with and come back more exhausted than when you left.”
* Let go of meetings. The great corporate time waster. So many meetings aren’t really necessary and too often they are poorly organized and run. Conduct training for effective meetings for all management personnel. This should include an evaluation checklist whether to have the meeting at all. Make sure that meeting organizers know how to create an agenda, start on time and keep control of the proceedings.
* Let go of filing. Make your office paperless by using some of the new on-line filing systems such as www.thepapertiger.com. Easy to implement, you can manage both paper and electronic files. It eliminates duplication of materials and does not require scanning.
* Let go of crisis management. Avoid the tyranny of the urgent so that you can focus on what is important. Often the result of someone else’s poor planning; it can result in spending most of your day putting out fires. Let co-workers know that you plan your day and don’t jump from project to project. Insist on realistic timeframes for projects.
* Let go of interruptions. Train yourself and your co-workers to stop the frequent interruptions that block creativity and “flow.” Every time you are interrupted, it will take an average of 15 minutes to get back into the task at hand. Make sure you are not interrupting yourself with frequent breaks, cups of coffee or chatting in the hall.
* Let go of useless tasks. Do you really have to do all the stuff on your “to do” list? I have seen executives typing their own letters, doing computer entry and other everyday jobs that could be easily delegated to someone else. Evaluate what you really need to do.
* Build white space in your life. UN-schedule time on your calendar and in your life to just think, read, walk, and relax. Have a weekend from time to time where you have nothing planned. Don’t schedule every hour of the day with no breathing room for the unexpected.
* Know what is draining your resources. Take a careful inventory of where your time goes and with whom. What activities/people deplete your energy? Evaluate how you can handle them differently. How do you re-charge? Structure your week with some re-charging activities such as exercise and hobbies.
* Start plugging the leaks. Start letting go of the problems areas. Get rid of clutter, let go of your bottom feeding employees and control access to your time.
Increase Your Productivity by Letting Go
According to Albert Eistein, there are three rules of work: “Out of clutter find simplicity; from discord find harmony; in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
FREE E-mail newsletter, sign on at http://www.ThePeoplePro.com. Barbara Bartlein, is The People Pro, and President of Great Lakes Consulting Group, LLC, which helps companies sell more goods and services by developing people. She can be reached at 888-747-9953, by e-mail at: barb@barbbartlein.com or visit her website at http://www.ThePeoplePro.com
Barbara Bartlein, The People Pro may be contacted at http://www.ThePeoplePro.com or barb@thePeoplePro.com
The Sermonators interview Dr. Brad Whitt from Temple Baptist Church in Simpsonville, SC
If you are a member of the clergy, this audio tells you in detail how to use The Paper Tiger software to better manage content that you use for your sermons. Use The Paper Tiger to create your own personal library. Remove or photocopy articles of interest from magazines or newspapers or print internet articles. File them now, and read them when you have time.
Ultimate Virtual Filing System For Sermon Resources (And Your Entire Office)
Note: interview regarding The Paper Tiger actually starts about 7-9 minutes into the podcast
Dump Your To-Do List and Keep Your Sanity
By Rosa Golijan, 5:00 PM on Tue Sep 1 2009
Quickly jotted or carefully plotted out, to-do lists are a staple of many productivity methods. Yet in the wrong hands, these lists somehow morph from helpful road maps into overfilled energy-wasters. Could it be time to dump the to-do?
Maybe you were lazy, maybe you had an emergency stop your week in its tracks. Either way you haven’t kept up on your to-do routine for a few days and now you’re repaying every precious second with interest. If you use something similar to the Gmail GTD Inbox, now your whole inbox might feel like that dreaded post-vacation email buildup. If you stick with pen-and-paper for your to-dos but let things pile up on your desk for a couple of days, it feels like you’ve been ignoring the mailman. Except that unlike your email or snailmail buildup, you can’t simply take your whole to-do list and dump it into the trash… can you?
When Gina covered the art of the doable to-do list, she reminded us that a successful to-do list requires purging:
Just like you should be able to see what tasks are top priority on your to-do list, you should be able to see what items have been on your list the longest as well. Chances are you’ve got some mental blockage around the tasks that have been sitting around forever, and they’ve got to be re-worded or broken down further. Or perhaps they don’t need to get done after all. Deleting an item from your to-do list is even better than checking it off, because you’ve saved yourself the effort.
Today I’m taking Gina’s advice to a bit of an extreme and encouraging you to try the same: Rather than spending the day sorting through a flood of tasks drowning every category to find the ones which can go, I’ll be dumping my inbox-based to-do list entirely and taking a completely fresh start:
That is my moment of bliss. By tomorrow, a new to-do list will be taking form gradually and I’ll add the important tasks in, but today I’m saving myself … time by starting off fresh. Am I running the risk of missing a task or to-do item? Yes. Will that task have been significant? Most likely not. The productive time I’m gaining by taking the risk of skipping the tasks which would be purged in a few days to begin with is worth it. And there are always e-mail archives for reference, just as there are filing cabinets for physical to-do/GTD materials.
Since I’m the kind of person whose to-do list almost always hits the over-filled, under-processed stumbling block, dumping my to-do list will become an occasional to-do from now on as a clean starting point can turn into a productivity booster and give a productivity method of choice the power up it needs. In a perfect world I’d always keep a pristine to-do list, but I’m realistic, and every now and then, this dump is exactly what I need.
If you’re not ready to follow my potentially crazy approach and dump your to-do list, despite the safety net of archival methods, then keep in mind that you can at least tweak your routine to be more effective by incorporating could-do lists, did-do lists, or maybe even some paper and sticky pads. No matter which route you take, try to stick with one task at a time in order to actually get through your to-do lists.
Whether you are in fact taking the “dump the to-do” approach, just plain tweaking your routine, or not doing anything at all, I’d love to hear your to-do list methodology or general productivity horror and success stories in the comments. How do you get back into your routine after vacations, emergencies, or planned breaks? Do you start with a clean slate or do you stoically battle your way through all the build up? Does it work?
Many apologies to Gina for taking her incredible pointers and abusing them in a way she may have never promoted and many thanks to the crazy inbox-clearer who inspired me to do such a thing in the first place.
See full article, make comments and see others’ comments at http://lifehacker.com/5350360/dump-your-to+do-list-and-keep-your-sanity
