In this 30-day challenge, we've learned workflow management, email management, and clutter busting. We didn't get to some of the bigger challenges, like tax organizing and that sort of thing. But I'll do another organizing challenge next year, and I hope you'll check in then.
I'd especially like to thank our guest bloggers this month: Wonderful professional organizers June Bell and Janine Adams and fung shui and design coach Alison Marks. You've been so much fun to work with and I thank you a million times for all the great suggestions you've shared for addressing a problem that stymies most of us at one time or another. I'll add links to their Web pages and blogs to the main page so you can find them in the future if you need to.
And now, a summary of what we've learned this month. Kind of like a clutter-busting table of contents:
Figuring out your organizing priorities.
Overcoming organizing overwhelm so you can get started.
Set realistic goals to avoid perfectionism and paralysis.
Organizing systems for email, filing, and mail.
Staying productive on Election Day.
Learning to let go of things you don't need anymore.
Five biggest organizing mistakes to avoid.
Identifying organizing tools and prioritizing organizing in your end-of-year shopping.
Using the buddy system to tackle the hardest organizing challenges.
Creating workflow organization.
Creating systems to manage paper.
Secrets to successful paper organizing and sorting.
I hope you enjoyed the challenge as much as I did.
As I look around my desk today, I can see a tremendous difference from the day the challenge started. I still have magazines under my table, but the massive piles to the left and right of my computer have been replaced by a plant on one side and a small pile to the left. (Progress, right?) I have a heavy-duty shredder that makes getting rid of unnecessary paper easier. And I feel better in my office.
How about you? What changes have you noticed as you've applied these principles?
Showing posts with label workflow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workflow. Show all posts
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
30-Day Organizing Challenge: Day 3
Today's goal: Create some structure
One of the things I've heard from many of you is just having some kind of structure for your office or personal space can be overwhelming. Where to start?
I thought I'd share some of the organizing systems that work for me:
Email
I'll do a whole post on this another day, but one of the great boosts to my serenity came when I stopped being a slave to my pinging email. I look at it once a day, and now I have all the newsletters, emails from flaks and emails from specific groups to which I belong sent to their own email folders. That way, most days I only have the most pertinent emails in my inbox. My rule is, with most emails, that I either have to act on it today or file it--or I can delete it. But it doesn't stay there forever, and I don't forget to respond to people anymore.
Filing
I know it's a bad word for some, but I actually love filing, because it means that all the stuff that's sitting around has a place to go--and if it doesn't belong in a folder for a story assignment or a client, it sits on my desk till I face it. Since I hate piles, this works for me, but your mileage may vary. (It also means that the piles to the left and right of my monitor I mentioned before have been there for quite some time.)
Mail
We've touched on email, and now I'll touch on the stuff that comes into the house every day through the snailmail slot. My rule with these is this:
* If it's junk mail and has my name on it, it gets shredded.
* If it's a credit card or donation request I don't want, it gets shredded.
* If it's a catalog, it gets recycled.
* If it's a receipt for a tax-deductible business expense, it goes in files labeled for each category according to my accountant's wishes.
* If it's a personal receipt (for instance, from the grocery store, from dinner out, etc.), it gets shredded.
* If it's a personal piece of mail I won't need for taxes, I scan it and shred it.
* If it's a personal letter from a friend or loved one, I put it on my bulletin board or file it away in a box in my closet.
Planning my Day
I rely utterly on my Franklin Covey planner and on a weekly workflow list I draw up every Sunday night(another post will be coming on this, too). At the end of every day (usually around 10 p.m., when I should be unwinding), I flip to my weekly workflow plan and add my to-do items to my list for the next day. That way, when I sit down at work in the morning, I don't spend time trying to decipher the important items from the urgent-but-unimportant items. This is a system I adopted after quite a few crises on my end.
We've talked about what works for me, now for the things that don't:
Magazine storage: My magazines, which I refer to for work, are busting or from everwhere--under my bed, under my desk, under other tables, etc.--and I don't know how far back I should keep them before I can toss or donate them.
Book storage: I get books for stories, usually written by people I've interviewed. Or I get books for my own development (Telling True Stories, The Elements of Style, How Race Is Lived in America, Six-Figure Freelancing and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People all jockey for space on one sad shelf in my office, but some books are still in storage because I don't have room for them.)
These are some of the things I'll be working on improving over the next month.
What systems work for you and which give you trouble?
One of the things I've heard from many of you is just having some kind of structure for your office or personal space can be overwhelming. Where to start?
I thought I'd share some of the organizing systems that work for me:
I'll do a whole post on this another day, but one of the great boosts to my serenity came when I stopped being a slave to my pinging email. I look at it once a day, and now I have all the newsletters, emails from flaks and emails from specific groups to which I belong sent to their own email folders. That way, most days I only have the most pertinent emails in my inbox. My rule is, with most emails, that I either have to act on it today or file it--or I can delete it. But it doesn't stay there forever, and I don't forget to respond to people anymore.
Filing
I know it's a bad word for some, but I actually love filing, because it means that all the stuff that's sitting around has a place to go--and if it doesn't belong in a folder for a story assignment or a client, it sits on my desk till I face it. Since I hate piles, this works for me, but your mileage may vary. (It also means that the piles to the left and right of my monitor I mentioned before have been there for quite some time.)
We've touched on email, and now I'll touch on the stuff that comes into the house every day through the snailmail slot. My rule with these is this:
* If it's junk mail and has my name on it, it gets shredded.
* If it's a credit card or donation request I don't want, it gets shredded.
* If it's a catalog, it gets recycled.
* If it's a receipt for a tax-deductible business expense, it goes in files labeled for each category according to my accountant's wishes.
* If it's a personal receipt (for instance, from the grocery store, from dinner out, etc.), it gets shredded.
* If it's a personal piece of mail I won't need for taxes, I scan it and shred it.
* If it's a personal letter from a friend or loved one, I put it on my bulletin board or file it away in a box in my closet.
Planning my Day
I rely utterly on my Franklin Covey planner and on a weekly workflow list I draw up every Sunday night(another post will be coming on this, too). At the end of every day (usually around 10 p.m., when I should be unwinding), I flip to my weekly workflow plan and add my to-do items to my list for the next day. That way, when I sit down at work in the morning, I don't spend time trying to decipher the important items from the urgent-but-unimportant items. This is a system I adopted after quite a few crises on my end.
We've talked about what works for me, now for the things that don't:
Magazine storage: My magazines, which I refer to for work, are busting or from everwhere--under my bed, under my desk, under other tables, etc.--and I don't know how far back I should keep them before I can toss or donate them.
Book storage: I get books for stories, usually written by people I've interviewed. Or I get books for my own development (Telling True Stories, The Elements of Style, How Race Is Lived in America, Six-Figure Freelancing and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People all jockey for space on one sad shelf in my office, but some books are still in storage because I don't have room for them.)
These are some of the things I'll be working on improving over the next month.
What systems work for you and which give you trouble?
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Serenity Tip: Diversify
How many clients do you have? Does any one of them account for more than a quarter of your income?
If you're like most people, your answer is yes. As we head into a shrinking economy (or maybe we're already there--who knows) diversifying your clients is more important than ever. And it doesn't just make business sense. It makes sense for your serenity, too.
I'll give you an example: One of my favorite clients is also my longest-running clients. The money isn't phenomenal, but it's a steady stream of work on things I love to do. Then cut to yesterday, when I got that email. You know the one: The dear-john email:
Obviously, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
When I came-to this morning, I looked around me, at all the other amazing clients I also have. Of course it's upsetting to lose this client. I love them. They've been a true joy to work for. But this loss is not going to keep me up at nights. It's not going to leave me panicking and looking through my spreadsheets for how I'm going to make ends meet. It's not going to leave me worrying about things I can't control, like what I did wrong and how many other clients are going to go the same way. It's simply a very sad change in my workflow.
That, my friends, is serenity.
It's not getting and keeping your clients forever, because you can't do that. It's simply impossible. It's getting clients you love, doing your work with love and then looking for other clients.
This just happens to be the first client I've ever had drop me. But I guarantee you it won't be the last. It's part of the business. What was this week's mantra again? Just because things aren't going as planned doesn't mean they're going haywire.
So where are you looking for new clients? Are you prepared for your clients to leave?
If you're like most people, your answer is yes. As we head into a shrinking economy (or maybe we're already there--who knows) diversifying your clients is more important than ever. And it doesn't just make business sense. It makes sense for your serenity, too.
I'll give you an example: One of my favorite clients is also my longest-running clients. The money isn't phenomenal, but it's a steady stream of work on things I love to do. Then cut to yesterday, when I got that email. You know the one: The dear-john email:
Thank you for your years of service. We love working with you but we're taking this work in another direction and we won't be needing your content anymore.
Obviously, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
When I came-to this morning, I looked around me, at all the other amazing clients I also have. Of course it's upsetting to lose this client. I love them. They've been a true joy to work for. But this loss is not going to keep me up at nights. It's not going to leave me panicking and looking through my spreadsheets for how I'm going to make ends meet. It's not going to leave me worrying about things I can't control, like what I did wrong and how many other clients are going to go the same way. It's simply a very sad change in my workflow.
That, my friends, is serenity.
It's not getting and keeping your clients forever, because you can't do that. It's simply impossible. It's getting clients you love, doing your work with love and then looking for other clients.
This just happens to be the first client I've ever had drop me. But I guarantee you it won't be the last. It's part of the business. What was this week's mantra again? Just because things aren't going as planned doesn't mean they're going haywire.
So where are you looking for new clients? Are you prepared for your clients to leave?
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