OrganizingLA Blog

Organize Your E-mail like a Superstar

Thanks to Denise Wakeman of Next Level Biz Tips, I found a CNN - CareerBuilder.com article with "7 Rules for a Tidy Inbox" by author Laura Morsch.  No, it's not what you think-- but we warn readers:  it will make you think twice about the way you organize (or not....) all your incoming e-mail.

Great virtual food for thought?  Yes.  Check the article below by clicking on "trackback" at the bottom of this post.

Sometime ago I spent about 2 hours organizing all my personal and business files in categories.  It's been great, and that time investment in my time has really helped.  If you are a small business owner, my biggest rule is to create a category called "Clients" and then label it by year.  Each client has a file, and each client has a year attached to the file name.  I put all excel, word, invoices, contracts and pictures in their files.  And I mimic this file with a hard copy file if necessary.  I got this idea from Chris McKenry of Get it Together LA!, another Professional Organizer here in Los Angeles.

Now it's time to tackle this new e-mail tidying technique-- let's do it together?

Client Testimonial - Residential Move Management and Organization Project - West Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley, CA

 

OrganizingLA and Associates received the following relocation testimonial last week.  We thought we'd share it with readers.  Parts have been edited for Client confidentiality.

OrganizingLA Design Tip: Broken Bookshelves

There is nothing wrong with your monitor-- check out a hot new interpretation from German designer Mareike Gast and her website with cutting-edge home products.

Found via Boing Boing and Crib Candy, Gast's Broken Bookshelves serves up volumes of differently-sized books in an unfamiliar, but familiar design.  After you check out the site, read the OrganizingLA post from September 22nd, with an article from the LA Times on book lovers who are lovingly buried in books.  Could this be a marriage made in Heaven?

How To Be More Effective at Work

This past week, we've posted an avalanche of articles to get your business more organized and it's ironic that our organizing and relocation business is doing great these days.  The first OrganizingLA article posted on Monday, Getting Entrepreneurs Organized from Entrepreneur Magazine and the second, an article from BusinessWeek on The Dangers of Disorganization for Small Business were both well read.  Be sure to check out these articles.

Next up, Professional Organizer Extraordinaire Julie Morgenstern visited "Weekend Today" to answer questions of office productivity and offer tips for being more effective at work.  Morgenstern is the author of “Never Check E-mail In The Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work.” Here's a great excert:

"Start the day off right:  You should start your day with the most important task. Too often, when facing an overwhelming list of to-do's people start with five or 10 quick, easy tasks to get a false sense of accomplishment, or as a warm-up, but in actuality this approach is a huge mistake. It depletes your energy because those five or 10 things take up a couple of hours, and then interruptions begin to intrude on your day and you never get the important stuff done. The burden and worry of those neglected important tasks hanging over your head slows you down. Conversely, by starting your day with the most important task, you clear the decks, kind of like earning your salary by 10 am. The sense of accomplishment you feel fuels your energy for the rest of the day and makes you more productive because there is nothing weighing you down."

You can read the entire article here.

Tips to Prevent Credit Card and Check Fraud

OrganizingLA Blog reader "Daniel" sent me an e-mail circulating around the Internet outlining "tips to prevent credit card and check fraud." The tips were so helpful and filled with so much no-nonsense advise, I just had to reprint below.

The Unused & Unloved Goes for $102.50 on eBay

It's incredible what turns up on eBay these days.  Thanks to reader PhillyScooter-- for the not-so-surprising heads up that folks buy unusual clothes, and never, ever wear them.  Take for instance bsack on eBay, who was selling a pair of dkny leather jeans a former girlfriend talked him into.  He writes: 

• I am not a member of Queen.
• I do not like motorcycles.
• I am not Rod Stewart.
• I am not French.
• I do not cruise for transvestites in an expensive sports car.
• They were never taken on pirate expeditions.
• They weren’t worn onstage.
• They didn’t straddle a Harley, or a guy named Harley.
• They [the leather pants] just hung there, sad and ignored, for a few presidencies.
• These were not cheap leather pants.
• They are Donna Karan leather pants.
• They’re for men. Brave men, I would think. Perhaps tattooed, pierced men.
• In fact, I’ll go so far as to say you either have to be very tough, very gay, or very famous to wear these pants and get away with it.

This Professional Organizer, knows it's all about getting rid of the things we don't need and don't use.  This eBay'er makes us proud and he made $102.50 off the decision to sell and move on.  Check out the eBay auction here.

Please, no questions from OrganizingLA Blog readers if I am the new happy owner-- but I would love to hear what things you got rid of after a long, painful decision process?