The Time Management Series: Three Tools To Make Life Easier
I am constantly looking for ways to improve my time management, the way in which I do things. One would laugh at how many “systems” I have tried, how many tools and applications I have tried. Today, I want to share with you the three tools that have made my life easier.
- Remember the Milk – Remember the Milk has been around since August 2004, and I have tried it a couple of times now. Recently, I am working with it in connection with my new Droid phone. Also exciting is RTM’s integration with Gmail and Google Calendar. Since I use these daily, RTM is fitting into my workflow for now.
- Evernote – Evernote is like an online notebook. With Evernote, you can make notes, save pictures, even save web clippings. I have used Evernote a few times, and really love the ability to save things directly from the web. For me, it’s worked especially well for inspiration pieces that I find while surfing the web. Evernote also has the ability to sort, organize, and search your notes.
- To —>Done – To —>Done is a new one to me, but I was immediately intrigued by the uniqueness of the idea. With To —>Done, you enter the tasks you have to do, along with the amount of time you think it will take you to complete the task. Then, when you have some time to get something done, you tell To —>Done how much time you have, and it will give you a task from your list that fits the amount of time you have. This is a great idea for people like me who are super indecisive and have trouble figuring out what task to do first.
Those are three tools I am using now? What tools are you using? What would you add to the list? Let me know in the comments below!
9 Secrets for Documenting Your Summer
Happy Summer! Today is officially the first day of summer..and even better it’s my last day of school! Talk about luck! We have a lot of fun plans for the summer, but I always worry about how I will keep up with documenting them, and still have time to actually do things. If you are anything like me, I am sure you are looking for easy ways to document your summer while still enjoying it. I did a little research, and I found these awesome secrets!
- Tuesday Tutorials : Shimelle Laine : A Journal For Travels Ahead – This post, from Ali’s blog last summer, is all about creating a travel journal prior to your travels. By doing this, you can add things to it, and create it as you go. It’s along the same idea as Ali’s December Daily Project, and with both, the idea of “working ahead” is totally what draws me in.
- Journal Themes for Summer – This is a pretty comprehensive list of possible prompts for summer journaling. I always like this idea of having a prompt or plan before I go into my activities, that way I can make a quick list of the pictures I will need. Then I can take my list to make sure I get those shots.
- Scrapbook Your Vacation: Preserve Your Summer Memories – This article gives a nice plan for when you are going on vacation, detailing what to do before you leave, while you are on vacation, and when you get home. If you are going on a big trip during your vacation, this would be a great place to start.
- Summer Photo Ideas by Willette Designs – I saw this link on a post last week, and I will tell you as soon as I downloaded the file, I knew I had to share it further. You have to provide a little information before you get the link to the PDF with the photo ideas, but it’s well worth it. When you open the PDF, you’ll find that the 100 ideas are on little slips of paper to print and cut out, so that you can put them in a jar and pick one daily, or however you want. You could also keep the file together, and it will be just as useful.
- Travel Logbook by Log Your Memory – I have long been interested in the Log Your Memory Logbooks, and I was excited to see that there is a travel logbook. This book has all the things you need to keep track of your activities, photos, and plan your pages…and it fits in a shoulder bag.
- Today You Summer Memory Book – Another project from Ali Edwards’ blog, this focuses on creating an overview album of your summer. It’s also part of her Weekend Creative series, which means that it should be able to be finished in a weekend. I love the idea of this, and would love to do one for each of my girls, as well as a family one.
- Mini Summer Break Album at Better Homes and Gardens – This is a link to a mixed media album you could create quickly and easily to review your summer activities. Also, the article has a link to another article about capturing great candid shots, and that information is worth it’s weight in gold to me.
- 10 Essential Camera Supplies to Pack for Your Summer Vacation – The list is pretty self explanatory, but still useful when you are thinking of the things you will need to have with you on vacation.
- Hip Tips: Savor Summer with Kids Travel Journals – This project at Hip Travel Mama is geared towards having your kids keep track of their summer travels, however, what better way to get another perspective on your summer vacation? Use your kids’ journals to help you flesh out your own projects!
So there are my nine….do you have a 10th? What are you planning to do to document your summer vacation? Share your 10th secret with us in the comments!
* Photo Frame and staples by Katie Pertiet, Photo Action by My Four Hens, Font: Little Days Alt
Read MoreTime Management Series: What Do You Mean Your Inbox is Empty?
It’s no secret that I am always looking for ways to better manage my time. I am always looking for ways to make my everyday life tasks a little bit easier, a little bit more streamlined. Today, I want to share with you how I keep my email inbox at zero. Yes, I said zero. I mean it too, there are NO EMAILS in my inbox. It’s empty, and I like it that way. Here’s how I do it.
First off, you have to start by making folders in your email program. I use Yahoo, so I click on “add a folder” and it does. I have made up folders for each of the aspects of my life: School, Home/Family, Alumni (I serve on my alma mater’s Alumni Association), Invoices, Newsletter, and PDP. I also have made up folders called Hold and Follow Up. This list of folders is integral to the success of keeping your inbox empty. To decide what to make for your folders, you should survey the things that you receive email about most frequently, and make folders for them.
Next, you need to sift through what is in your inbox. I worked with a friend recently who had over 3,000 emails in their inbox, dating back to 2005. A lot of those emails, now, are trash. They get dumped right into the trash. The emails that you need to keep, that you may need to reference in the future, get sorted into the folder that matches what they are for. So, for example, if I am sifting through my emails and I find an email inviting me to a meeting from 2009, and then one detailing the notes from the meeting, I will put them invitation in the trash, and file the one detailing the notes from the meeting into my “School” folder. This can take a long time, depending on how many emails you have, and how thorough you want to be. For some, it’s just as easy to highlight all the emails from the previous year and hit delete. I am WAY too obsessive to do that. If you have a lot of emails to get through, take it a little at a time. While you won’t empty your inbox in the first sitting, you’ll know you are working towards it.
Your inbox is empty!! Wait, sorry…just checked, there are five more emails. This is the most crucial time in keeping your inbox empty. This is the make it or break it point. It would be so easy to read the emails and leave them there, but then our purpose would be defeated. You have to face it. That’s where my “Follow Up” and “Hold” folders come into play. As you go through your emails, anything you can do in less than three minutes…do now and file the email. Anything that you can respond to right away, respond to and file the email. Newsletters and emails from stores and such…look them over, and then delete them. If you need to purchase something from the shop or want information from their page, bookmark it. Emails that have you waiting on something, but you don’t need to do anything about it, go into the “Hold” folder. This folder often holds receipts of items I am waiting to receive, or notices of shipment. Any email that requires you to do something that will take longer than three minutes, goes into the follow up folder (and ideally, onto your to do list). After you have done this, your email inbox SHOULD be empty. Take a minute. Look it over. Isn’t it nice and clean? It’s like a clean bathroom…it just makes you feel happy. Just like any clean bathroom, however, your empty inbox requires daily maintenance and upkeep. Like I said earlier, in order to keep your inbox empty, you have to commit to doing these tasks with every email. If you leave even one in your inbox, you are on the downward spiral to 3,000 emails in your inbox. Believe me, I’ve been there too.
My system of keeping a clean inbox is inspired by the readings I have done in “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, and by THIS POST over at Lifehacker. It’s important to remember that not every system works for everyone. It’s important to find what works for you and go with it.
So tell me what you think? Is an empty email inbox important to you? How do you keep your inbox clean and working efficiently? Let me know in the comments!
Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Read MoreHow to Get it All Done and Still Feel Human: The Time Managment Series, Part 1
How many times a day do you find yourself thinking “if only there was more time in the day”? Trying to balance all of the aspects of our lives, we can easily find ourselves overwhelmed. So overwhelmed, that instead of spending time doing something productive, we spend it staring at the computer screen mindlessly visiting sites or playing endless games of “Farkle”. After reading numerous blogs, websites, books, and the like I have come up with some time saving strategies that work for me. With the Time Management Series, I want to share those strategies with you, in the hope that they can help you as well.
1. Create a Routine – I am one of those people who thrive on routine. When school is in session, we live by a pretty strict routine around here. In the summer our days tend to be a constant stream of either random events or absolutely nothing. This summer I was determined to change that. Inspired by Fly Lady at www.flylady.net, I sat and came up with a few routines: a nightly routine, and a routine for housework to be done each day. The nightly routine is made up of things that need to get done, as well as things that will make the next day easier. For example, at night I always clean up the kitchen, run the dishwasher, and take out dinner for the next day. For the housework routine, I wrote down all of the housework chores that needed to get done, and then started spreading them out among the six days of the week (Saturday is a freebie). These are both typed up and put in a place where both my wife and I can see them. I didn’t originally do a morning routine, however, I am seeing that we fall into one each day. I plan on writing it up and making it “official” soon. If you are interested, you can download my routines HERE.
2. Use To Do Lists – I have talked before about my love of to do lists. I take great satisfaction of crossing something off my to do list. With to do lists, I can see what needs to be done, what I should do next, and what I have already done. My to do lists are a three level process.
- The “Brain Dump” – First, I take a notepad and spend time writing down EVERYTHING I need to do within the next month or so, making sure to put a deadline on everything. If something doesn’t have a deadline, I give it one. I go through my calendar, my email, and check the forums I am active in for things that I need to complete. I usually do this on a Sunday afternoon or evening. Sometimes it takes a long time, other times it takes a few minutes. When I am done, I usually have a pad full of things that need to be done, with the dates they need to be completed by.
- The organized list – Since my brain works in often erratic ways, my “Brain Dump” list is often out of order. There are things that are due next week with things that are due tomorrow, followed by something due later in the month. To keep myself organized, I take a minute and rewrite the list, putting everything in order of it’s deadline. This chronological list helps me to figure out what needs to be done each day.
- The To Do List – My daily to do lists serves as the planner for my day. I write the to do list for each day the night before on a 4×6 index card. When I am writing my to do list, I look to include a few things: the chores from my everyday routine, aspects of my everyday life such as “workout” or “pick up perscription”, items from my organized list that are due that day or a day in the near future, and last minute issues or projects that pop up. I stick to one rule about adding items to my to do list: if it takes less than two minutes to do, it doesn’t get added to the list, instead I put the list down and do the task. Often, I split my list into three separate categories: work (when school is in session), home, and scrapbooking/design. Each task gets placed into the appropriate category. When I am done, I have a comprehensive list of what needs to be done on the following day.
These two strategies are at the core of my time mangament efforts. Also, to answer the question, yes, all of my to do lists end with the same task: make to do list for tomorrow!
In the next installment of the Time Managment Series: How to surf the ‘net and not waste time, or “oooh, another Facebook App!!”
Read MoreThoughtful Thursday
Today’s Thoughtful Thursday originated from something that my wife said to me this morning. As we were cleaning up breakfast, and getting ready to start the day, I was relating a story to her about how yesterday I had wanted to buy folders at Target, but failed to get them, even though she bought some for herself (yes, I am THAT absent minded). She looked at me and said, “Well we need black trash bags, so we can go up today and get that stuff,” to which I laughed and said, “Another trip to Target?” Her matter of fact reply was, “it’s our day…it’s what we do.” Now before you think I am a loon, our Target is literally two minutes from our house, with traffic. For us, it’s the equivalent of running to the corner store. A really big, fantastic, clean, mecca of a corner store.
Her reply struck a cord with me…it’s our day, it’s what we do. I began to think, it really is what we do…and that led me to think, what other things make up “our day?” Is “our day” different, depending on what’s going on? What is a typical day like here? I knew right away that this would be today’s thought.
Much to my delight, as I was reading through my Google Reader this morning, pouring over the 60-odd blogs I read daily…I came across THIS POST on Liz Kartchner’s blog. Liz was previously Creating Keepsake’s Scrapbooker of the Year, and regularly has a column, ask Liz, in the magazine. Aside from that, she is an amazingly creative person with a unique style that is truly incredible. Anyhoo…her post today was a layout she did for Creating Keepsakes about her To Do list. Now, any of you who know me, know that I ♥ the To Do list. I ♥ everything about them, find them extremely useful, and couldn’t live my life without one. My to do lists often end with, “Make tomorrow’s to do list.” Seeing how she incorporated her to do list to help tell the story of her day inspired me. I have just started working on my layout, and will be back to share it with you.
So, today’s thought is: What makes up “your day”? What is a typical day like for you or your family? What makes these typical activities important to who you are? How does “your day” tell the story of you?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Read MoreFind Us Online
