3 Keys Thursday: 3 More Tips for Tackling that Inbox

Dodgerton Skillhause via Morguefile

Yesterday, I wrote about my inbox frustrations and my plan for dealing with them. So, today, I thought I'd share three action steps on the same topic, culled from other sources. For more information on any of these, click on the name of the source.

From PC Magazine: Delete first. Before digging into your inbox, delete the junk. Unread.

From Julie Morgenstern: Completely avoid your inbox for the first hour of the day. Settle into your day and set your priorities --  don't let email derail you.

From Marcia Ramsland: Decide what to do with an email the first time you open it. Reply? Archive? Delete?

I've gotten really good at the first one. As for avoiding email first thing, I've settled on a compromise. I skim the emails for anything that seems important or personal, deleting everything else as I go. That way, I can get survey what's there, get a head start on the important stuff (which counts as derailing, I suppose) and see what, if anything, needs to be added to my schedule for the day.

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When it comes to #3, I'm hoping that fighting the urge to check my email on multiple devices (i.e. when I'm not prepared to deal with it right away) will help me, but I don't think the "touch it once" strategy will work for me as a rule of thumb. Rather than being a time saver, it ends up derailing me; I do much better with fast, frequent checks (where I can delete the unnecessary stuff) and a dedicated time later in the day to focus on all the emails that need action.

How about you? How do you see these action steps fitting into your email management strategy?

Organizing Extra: Ideas from HGTV

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I've been writing about time management a lot here lately. Last Thursday's post in particular, along with the planning that preceded it, nudged me to take a look at my blogging habits. I've done so before, but now, with proof that blogging sometimes overshadows the other writing I want to do, it was time to look at my schedule with an eye toward change.

When I first started this blog, these Saturday posts were a great way to showcase people, places and articles that inspired me. Julie Morgenstern. Marcia Ramsland. A Perfect Mess.

Sometimes, though, as I've often written here, it's time to focus on that L in STYLE and let it go. I've featured all my inspirations, along with quite a few fun finds I made along the way, and that brings the Organization Extra feature of this blog to its natural conclusion.

So, for the moment, at least, I'm stepping away from Saturday posts. I'll try to feature some posts from the archives on the occasional Saturday, and, if I find something new and exciting, I'll make sure to share it. But, for the foreseeable future, I'll be putting up new posts only on Wednesdays and (3 Keys) Thursdays.

Meanwhile, since HGTV got me inspired to walk down this road in the first place, it's only fitting that I conclude this feature with something from them. Over at CatholicMom.com, I've been writing about containers, and this HGTV feature on organizing mistakes to avoid echoes much of what you've read here, and at CatholicMom.com, if you follow my STYLE Savvy posts.

See you Wednesday.

Organization Extra: Holiday Planning

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Perhaps you're one of those folks who Christmas shops all year long. Or maybe you're a serious Black Friday shopper and you spent yesterday making lists and checking them twice.

Maybe you're spending today patronizing local businesses in honor of Small Business Saturday. Or perhaps you're creating lists for Cyber Monday when you can shop from home in your pajamas.

No matter your shopping style, it's the time of year when tracking down gifts becomes a necessity for most of us. And shopping is just the tip of the holiday to-do iceberg.

Fortunately, although the holidays are creeping ever closer (as several of my Facebook friends enjoy pointing out on a regular basis), there's plenty of time to tackle things in an organized fashion. If the mere thought of getting ready for the holidays leaves you in a panic, check out this article by organizing guru Julie Morgenstern, who always manages to make planning seem not just possible, but palatable as well.

Not ready to tackle holiday planning yet? Just below Julie's article on holiday planning is one on organizing your mail.

Whatever you organize today, do it with STYLE. :-)

3 Keys Thursday: 3 Keys to Effective Time Management

Photo credit: Dodgerton Skillhause

The semester has begun, and I feel as though time is managing me rather than vice versa. As I sit down to write this, for example, it's 11:14 PM -- about 24 hours later than I'm usually finalizing a Three Keys Thursday post, and yet I'm just getting started.

How ironic that the post I planned for today is on time management. Fortunately, two of the three keys are brought to you by people wiser than me.

Zoom in, zoom out. This one was inspired by Marcia Ramsland, who talks about managing time horizontally (from the beginning of the week to the end of the week) and vertically (from the beginning of the day to the end of the day) in her book Simplify Your Life. Doing only vertical time management gives us tunnel vision and creates pressure to get it all done in a small space of time, while managing time only horizontally may leave us planning in generalities and neglecting the step-by-step process necessary to get to the things on the weekly calendar. Balancing the two helps us balance small tasks and big ones.

Pencil it in: Set a time or it won't get done. I first read this in a book by Julie Morgenstern, and it makes a lot of sense. Making lists is a great start, but often, if we don't assign times to things, they don't get done. If something's been lingering on your to-do list, pencil it into your calendar so you can get it off the to-do list.

Make time to manage time. Ironically, it takes time to manage time, especially when you're trying to coordinate multiple schedules. Pausing to take a look at what lies ahead each day (or the day before) and each week gives us a better sense not only of what we have to do, but of time itself.

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Still, despite the best strategies, time management is an imperfect process. Time is a non-renewable resource that often seems to run out much sooner than we'd like, and when it comes to time management, a certain amount of energy is required. When we feel overwhelmed or exhausted, it's hard to look at to-do lists and calendars and weave them together into a pattern that makes sense. At our house, Friday dinners have become our opportunity to talk about what everyone has planned for the upcoming week, and to coordinate our calendars so we all have some idea of what lies ahead. Admittedly, I'm more enthusiastic about this than anyone else in my house; perhaps that's because I'm the one who needs it the most.

Especially this semester.

See you next Thursday. After all, I've got it on my calendar.

Organization Extra: Professional Organizers

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In the world of organizing, there are these wonderful creatures called professional organizers. They come to your house and consult with you about how to clear your clutter and live a more organized life. They offer classes and strategies and, I suspect, live in glass houses where there would only ever be a mess if someone threw a stone.

Needless to say (if you've been reading these posts), I'm not one of them. Throw a stone in my house and it's likely to end up on a pile of papers. But I'm working on it. And hey, my large rectangular spaces are looking good.

I took an online class on professional organizing once. It was interesting, but it made me squirm. Nowhere in it was there a word about following my style or my default habits. And as someone who's spent a great deal of her adult life trying to transform myself into a Type A organizer, I know the old tricks don't work for me.

But I know there are good eggs out there. Professional organizers like Julie Morgenstern and some of my HGTV favorites who don't have a leave-no-clutter standing rule at the expense of their clients' better judgment and favorite things. Organizers who send out newsletters and motivational emails and  sticky notepads with "Today I Will Do One Thing" imprinted on them. Organizers like my friend Cindy Bernstein at Aim 4 Order.

Okay, so Cindy and I have never met face-to-face, but we've chatted via email enough for me to know that if I were going to bite the bullet and hire a personal organizer, Cindy would be the first one I'd call. In the meantime, I subscribe to her e-newsletter and read all of her great ideas there and on Facebook. I especially like the fact that she suggests good homes for things I'm ready to say good-bye to...

...but more on the L of STYLE (Let it go!) next week.