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How to Make Your Daytimer Work For You

As promised, I'm back to getting tidbits of information off to you as I come across them.

I was recently told about this little article about getting the most out of your Daytimer.  It's written in Europe so the phone numbers are a little more than standard long distance but it has some good basics--just in case you've been wondering how to make that book a little more helpful to you.

Check out NeatReceipts

I'm sorry for the long absence.  Life happened and I just had a plate full for a while.  I'm back tonight and we'll see if I can find some great information to share with you next week.  It may take a little while for me to get up to speed, though.  I'll do my best.

You may recall I was starting to get myself organized.  I've been working toward that very thing and I've found the most fabulous way to help that process along!

Do you ever do something for no apparent reason and can't figure out why you did it only to discover you were supposed to be there, do that, watch a TV show?  That happened to me tonight.  The show I normally watch when I'm done working in time to see it wasn't on.  It was one of those times when here I was with over 100 channels and nothing was on I wanted to watch.  What made me watch Martha?  I couldn't begin to tell you.

But then, there it was, NeatReceipts!  I was the most amazing gadget I've seen in a long time!  You have to go check it out.  On the demonstration they did on the show, they scanned a receipt, a recipe, and a business card.  The receipt automatically registered the name of the business, the net amount, tax, and total amount of the receipt and, with the touch of a button, put it in the appropriate tax deduction file folder. 

It turns paper receipts (and all sorts of other things) into neat spreadsheets and electronic documents--and away goes the receipt--off of your desk and, as soon as the IRS says it's OK to accept electronic receipts (I've heard they're going to do that next year), you can throw those receipts away, knowing you have an electronic copy of it and have it listed very neatly.

I really have to get this!

Until next time...

Travel Checklist and More

While working my way through David Allen's site I ran across this great little tidbit.  I mean, really, there is no way I could have spontaneously come up with a list this comprehensive but it's gotten me thinking about other things I could use lists for. 

My first list is similar to the travel checklist but it's the one I will use when I go visit my family.  I always have things I take there that don't go with me when I go anywhere else.

Then it occurred to me that I take quilting classes and I frequently get there only to discover I've left something behind.  I then either have to buy yet another one, borrow someone else's, or do without.  Now I'll be sure to have everything I need.

Now I'm working on lists for the complex projects I do for clients.  I have a client for whom I submit articles to submission sites on a monthly basis.  I always get everything done but with a list I won't end up having to backtrack a couple of times to do one little item before I can continue on with a particular submission.

I'm also working on a list of all the details I need to remember when setting up a blog for a client.  Most of what I do when I set up a blog is fairly straightforward but there are a few things that have to be searched out and consciously changed to make it work perfectly.  Never again will I have to go back and make those changes after I thought the blog was completely set up.

I suspect I'll think of more lists as time goes by.  I'd like to hear about your lists, too.  What works well for you?

Until next time...

Tickler File

You're not going to believe the site I found!  I've told you about how enthralled I am with David Allen and I shared the location of his blog.  Well, I went back to visit and discovered more to the site, not least of which is a page of Hints & Tips.  Check here and look at the right-hand side of the page to get there.  I'm linking you to the main page so you can see what else is around.  So, the next little while I'll be talking about the lovely free downloads I've gotten from David's site.

The first thing I decided to tackle is the tickler file.  These are great things to have as long as I use it every single day--not a couple of times a week--every single day.  By the way, this seems to be the secret to the whole organizational systems I'm setting up--they can't be something I do when I feel like it, they have to be something I do at every single scheduled time.  That does take a wee bit of spontaneity out of life but the effort is going to be worth it, I'm sure of it.

So, the tickler file.  In a nutshell, here's how it works.  You can set up your tickler file wherever it works best for you.  I decided I wanted mine on top of my desk where I can access it without thinking about it.  Sometimes the stuff I have in drawers disappears for years at a time (well, that will change, too, but not this week).  I have a desktop file box.  It's plastic and can accommodate hanging files or file folders without hanging folders.

Here's how it works.  Take 43 file folders and label 31 of them 1 through 31 and label the other 12 with the months of the year.  Mine got set up on January 23 so I started by putting the files labeled 24-31 at the very front.  The next file was February, behind which I put 1-23 and then March-January.

Now, every time I have something I want to be reminded about that has actual paper to go with it, in to the tickler file it goes.  David Allen recommends  removing the contents of each day's tickler file and putting it into the in box.  That doesn't work very well for me right now.  Perhaps as I get used to this system it will be easier to do this but I find I don't always attend to everything in that box on that day so for me it just works best to remove what's in there, deal with it, and move on.

The beauty of this system is that I don't have to keep a list in one place and the action item in another (and then try to find the paperwork when the item comes to the top of my list).  One of the things in the free download from David's site is a list of some of the things David has in his tickler file.  This was very helpful for me when I was thinking about what I could put in my tickler file.  To give you an idea of just how flexible a tickler file can be, I decided to file the recipes I want to try in successive months.  I'll still have a file folder for recipes I want to try but this way I can be certain I'll try at least two new recipes a month because I've already filed them in my tickler file. 

The final suggestion that I liked is never to put anything in your tickler file you might need before its date comes up.  If you need to deal with a file on a certain date but might need it prior to then, insert a reminder note in the tickler file and leave the regular file in its permanent location.

Until next time...

Clutter is Clutter

I love NextLevelPartner.  Denise Wakeman provides more nuggets for work done efficiently and effectively than anyone else I read regularly.  In fact, I read one of her little link posts (where she goes out and does the research for us so we can all read what's happening that matters to each of us) and found a fabulous  article that has tons of great electronic media organizing ideas. 

My favorite idea is the one about setting up an email account especially for on-line ordering.  This way you don't fill your main email inbox with junk mail sent by companies who bought your address from an on-line retail outlet. 

I've been doing this for years but it never occurred to me it was a great idea until I read it written by someone else.

Read the whole article--it's packed with great ideas.  Then come back here regularly.  I'll be spending a lot of time on organizing in the coming year.

Until next time...

Record Retention Schedule

Need to know how long you should save your bank statements or your phone records?  I'm an inveterate saver.  I have trouble getting rid of anything (part of the reason I'm on the road to having an organized life).  This list is the most comprehensive I've ever seen.  I'll have a copy of it on my desk when I got through my files in the coming weeks.

Until next time...

New Year's Resolutions

I'm not bit on New Year's resolutions.  Why?  Simple.  They're generally something I feel I should do but never really believe I'll accomplish.  So I gave them up years ago.  This year I decided there was something I wanted to accomplish badly enough that it warranted being an official New Year's resolution. 

I want to get organized!

I don't just want to get organized in my business life, I want to get organized in my personal life as well.  What started all this organization furor?  I read a book, David Allen's Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (you can find it listed conveniently in my Recommended Reading list and visit David's blog here).

David is far more organized than I but he has fabulous ideas.  In fact, most of what he discusses has less to do with organizing than how we think about what we have to do.  I couldn't possibly do his book justice in one post but the basic concept is that as long as we have all those little things we have to get done stuck in our heads and not saved anywhere else, we'll forever fail to get things done in any organized fashion.  That means everything. 

So, I started putting things in lists where I could easily access them and where I would review them regularly.  It was a fairly half-hearted effort at best.  I continued to keep a lot of the big stuff in my head.  After all, it wasn't the big stuff I needed to write down, was it?  It was the little stuff--what was I running low on in the kitchen?  What was that thing I thought I needed to look for at Costco the next time I went there?  How often did I need to run my spyware programs?  It set up a file on my computer specifically for my shopping lists.  I set up a recurring reminder on my calendar for computer maintenance.

What this did was help me start the organization process.  What this didn't do was get me organized.  I realized I can't do this half-heartedly.  This has to be something I do with regularity and, more importantly, with commitment.  I will continue to be disorganized until I put the systems in David's book into complete practice.

So, here I am, sharing my lack of organization with my readers.  I don't mean to say that I am disorganized, simply that I'm not as organized as I would like to be.   Things fall through the cracks on occasion, especially personal things.  I'm fairly obsessive about making sure I get client work done but as I get more clients I need to become more organized so I can let go of all those mental lists that keep me from thinking about productive ways to accomplish what I want to accomplish. 

I trust you will keep hold me accountable should I falter in my resolution.  At least once a week I will share my organizational progress, whether that be personal or professional.  Please feel free to organize along with me.  Together we can make this a great year for doing the work we do best rather than going through our mental lists.

Until next time...