5 of My Favorite Organizing and Productivity Websites

I visit a lot of websites in an ongoing effort to find useful, relevant, and interesting material to use in my newsletter, social media efforts, and communication with my clients.  While I'm always interested in finding new sources, I find that when I'm in a hurry or just don't feel like spending a lot of time looking for new material, there are a handful of sites that I know I can count on for what I need.  Here are 5 of them--check them out when you get a chance!

http://www.43folders.com/
http://www.dumblittleman.com/
http://www.sortingwithstyle.com/
www.evancarmichael.com/productivity
www.organize.com/office.html

Do You Need An Inbox?

Yes!  Many clients I work with either don't have one, or if they do, it's misused as yet another place to stack papers they're not sure what to do with.  Some inbox tips:

• It should live on your desktop.  It doesn't matter if it's on the corner or in the center--it just needs to be within arm's reach.
• Its main purpose is for gathering papers, reminders, notes from meetings, daily mail, and other info that isn't urgent, but that needs to be processed (filed, delegated, acted upon, trashed) in some way soon. 
• You must clean it out at least once a week!  That's the hard part for most folks.  But you defeat the purpose of the inbox if you just let stuff sit there.  Discipline yourself to make time each day or so to decide what needs to be done with each item in your inbox.  You'll notice an increase in your productivity--I promise!

Inboxes can be plastic trays or wicker baskets or even the lid of a cardboard box.  Whatever will work for you--just use one!  Here are some pretty ones from www.seejanework.com .

Where Does Time Go??

If you're like many people I meet, you have days that are non-stop busy, but you can't explain exactly what you accomplished.  You feel like you've been spinning your wheels!  Sometimes we let certain activities take up too much of our time.  Is it Facebook? Email? Sipping on your morning coffee while reading the paper? Catching up with friends and co-workers to see what fun things they did over the weekend?  (Feel free to insert your time-waster here.)  Engaging in all of these activities is perfectly fine...but you may not realize how much time you spend doing so.  

If you're really serious about finding more time in your day, I suggest keeping a Time Log for a week.  Write down everything you do and how much time you spend on it.  Include time spent on eating, phone calls, driving, appointments, interruptions, watching tv, sleeping--you get the idea.  This way you can pinpoint where your time is leaking.  Then you can eliminate or at least shorten time spent on time-wasting activities.  

Here's a wonderful book on time management:  Improve Your Time Management, written by Polly Bird.  Well worth spending the time to read it!

Easy Time Management Tip--Using Transition Time

 

Fill the gaps in your schedule with specific actions.   

Do you have some time between meetings?  A couple of hours with no appointments?  Are you going to be waiting awhile at the doctor?  Fill in this "free" time with tasks from your daily goals list.  No matter how small the task is, put it on your calendar or planner!  Putting it on your schedule enables you to make a detailed plan for the day.  We have so many things vying for our time and attention now more than ever...you'd be amazed how much you can squeeze into a day if you plan well.  (Schedule fun things, too-- sometimes we forget to be good to ourselves!!) 

Time Management Quick Tip

Hearing the phrase "time management" should not make you groan or cringe...it's something we could all improve upon in our daily lives. Spending our time wisely and thoughtfully will only help us reach our goals in life faster. So, yay for time management!

Tip #1: Write down goals for each area of your life. Be specific! Start with annual goals, then break those down into monthly, weekly, and daily goals. Prioritize your daily goals so you'll be focused on what has to get done. Look at your goals every day so you'll stay focused on what you want to accomplish.