Embarrassed but Proud

By Jessica Hoelzel

I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve been procrastinating (avoiding, ignoring, refusing to acknowledge) my “To File” stack of papers for months now. It grew to approximately 2.5 inches thick, and at one point I did remove it from the file folder it was busting out of and moved it to a more expandable hanging file folder. Denial is an ugly thing, especially for a professional organizer.

When I decided “enough is enough, I must take action” yesterday, I spent the first few minutes of filing in astonishment. Some of the papers, I saw, dated back to April. Can it be true? Can I really have let it go like this?

YES. Factor in career changes, moving, new school, vacations, summer and there you have it. A backlog of papers that had to be dealt with. A big ol’ stack.

When I had all the papers filed, and emerged from my low point, I actually sat back and felt, well, proud. First of all, I had the files created already, so all I had to do was stick the papers in where they belonged. I’ve recently been blogging about simplifying your life, and setting up this system for my papers is one way I simplifed mine. Secondly, the filing had taken me less than an hour. In less than an hour’s time, I was feeling like parts of my life were back in order – finances, insurance, health care; my ducks are now in a row.

Now, the efficiency learning lesson here is that that backlog of papers was from about 6 months. If I had filed those papers monthly, like a good little organizer, it would have only taken me about 10 minutes a month. Instead of having to force myself to sit for one hour. If it’s uncomfortable for me, I know it’s torturous for you.

10 Minutes a Month. That’s all it takes. You can avoid having to sit that long. And avoid procrastination’s avoidance game, which really just keeps you from feeling good and living the life you want.

Simplify Your Life: Regain Control Over Your Inbox

By Jessica Hoelzel
 
Here’s the final tip from my 5 Tips for Proactively Managing Email:

5. Schedule time to set up folders for messages you want to keep on file. Take 15 minutes per day for one week to designate files and place messages in them. This should totally clean out your inbox, except for the newest messages you haven’t gotten to. Think seriously about whether you need to keep a message, though, before you just throw everything in there. Can you get the information elsewhere, say on a website? Can you request it again if you need it? (Make a note of the person’s contact information.) Do you want to print out a hard copy to put in a paper file? Does the content belong elsewhere in your computer, say in another file?

Read my earlier post for the lead-in to these tips. Utilize all 5, and you’ll be on your way to creating your life and work according to what really matters to you.

If YOU have tips to share, please click below to Post a Comment.

Simplify Your Life: Regain Control Over Your Inbox

By Jessica Hoelzel
 

Here’s the 4th of my 5 Tips for Proactively Managing Email:

4. UNSUBSCRIBE. Take your name off lists for information you don’t read or need. Be realistic about what you have the time and energy to take in. If you have subscribed to something that looks interesting, but turns to be different, ditch it. If you thought you’d have time, but have a backlog of messages, cancel it until you have more time. Usually the information you have an interest in can be found on the website, or you can request it again later.

Read my earlier post for the lead-in to these tips. And…stay tuned for the next tips. You’re on your way to creating your life and work according to what really matters to you.

If YOU have tips to share, please click below to Post a Comment.

Simplify Your Life: Regain Control Over Your Inbox

By Jessica Hoelzel

Happy Monday!

Here’s the 3rd of my 5 Tips for Proactively Managing Email:

3. Start with DELETE. Before you even get into the nitty-gritty of what to read and respond to, delete unwanted messages. Do a fast scan first thing and select the messages you know can be discarded. This is the first phase in streamlining that inbox. Delete, delete, delete!

Read my last post for the lead-in to these tips. And…stay tuned for the next tips. You’re on your way to creating your life and work according to what really matters to you.

If YOU have tips to share, please click below to Post a Comment.

Simplify Your Life: Regain Control Over Your Inbox

By Jessica Hoelzel
 
Here’s the 2nd of my 5 Tips for Proactively Managing Email:

2. Designate specific times to check your email, and specific times to respond to messages. Check your inbox at the beginning of the day, to see what is most pertinent to respond to. Incorporate things that require action into your plan for the day or to-do list, according to what is most timely or urgent. Check your email no more than 2-4 times per day at your scheduled time. Reply to emails when you have the least distractions.

Read my last post for the lead-in to these tips. And…stay tuned for the next tips. You’re on your way to creating your life and work according to what really matters to you.

If YOU have tips to share, please click below to Post a Comment.

Simplify Your Life: Regain Control Over Your Inbox

By Jessica Hoelzel

In my last post, I wrote about simplifying your life according to what really matters to you. With so many distractions, and information coming at us from all angles, we absolutely must consistently check in with ourselves to see whether what we are doing, how we are living and working, is based upon our authentic desires. Are we making choices that serve us on a physical, mental, spiritual level? Are those choices in line with our definitions of work/life balance, supporting us in achieving business and personal success?

At a networking lunch & learn today, the speaker, Tony Signorelli asked the group what they thought the biggest time-waster was. The overwhelming response was right on – email. Let me ask you, do you find hours and hours of your time each day or each week spent on emails? Checking email, getting distracted by new emails, trying to organize email or find something in your email? If email is way old-school for you, does the same ring true for managing text or instant messages? Be really honest with yourself about how much time is actually taken up. If you haven’t a clue, take tomorrow to log it.

Tony’s “New Rules for Self Employment”, found on his website, include time management strategies, and his advice (specifically for small business owners, but applicable to many) is similar to mine (found below). One thing I haven’t added to my list, though, is his idea to hire a Virtual Assistant to delegate email filtering to. If you want to know more about that, he’s got plenty of info on his website.

It's one thing to feel overwhelmed by the stacks of actual paper on your desk, but with flooded inboxes as well, how does one stay focused, like I heard Tony say today, on the things that really matter, the things that make you productive?

Here's some of my advice. (Adapted from an article printed in the Blaine Spring Lake Park Life)



The 1st of my 5 Tips for Proactively Managing Email:


1. Set limits around checking email. Also disable the pop-up feature to eliminate distractions and temptation. (Do this for Instant Messaging too!) Interruptions decrease efficiency because the mind has to change focus several times, which is also draining.

And…stay tuned for the next tips. You’re on your way to creating your life and work according to what really matters to you.

If YOU have tips to share, please click below to Post a Comment.

Simplify Your Life

Yampa River, Steamboat Springs, CO June 2011

By Jessica Hoelzel

 

A very wise man, back in the 1850’s – when it seems life should have been far less complicated that it is today, wrote this:

“Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand, instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumbnail.”

That man was Henry David Thoreau, Philosopher, Naturalist, author of Walden.

What he wrote so long ago, his advice gleaned from pulling himself out of the busy shufflings of society, and into the tranquil balance of nature, is advice we should heed, now more than ever.

Now, our world can seem chaotic. Now, our world can seem like time is accelerating. Now, we need to focus on what really matters. And not let things that don’t clutter up our lives.

Time to get real. Time to re-focus. Time to live authentically, with what really matters: LOVE.

Be with the people you love.

Do what you love.

Surround yourself only with what you love.

There’s nothing more simple than that.