Conquer Your E-mail Inbox

I’ve been hearing a LOT about “inbox zero” – the idea that at the end of the day you should have zero e-mails in your inbox.

There are a couple of things about this that made me suspicious right away:

1.  Any “one size fits all” approach to business organization and systems makes me nervous.

2.  The VOPs (“Very Organized People”) are using inbox zero as a way to say “Hey look, I’m better than you because I have zero e-mails in my inbox” .  Worse, I see people buying this and feeling bad about themselves.

First, let me just say it.  I have 3,636 items in my inbox right now.

Let me also say that I am absolutely on top of all of my e-mails, I know what e-mails require action, and which ones need to be done today.  Plus, I can find any e-mail that I need to find in seconds.

Which is to say that I can find my e-mail easily and use it effectively – and that, after all, is the Renegade Organizer’s definition of organization.  I could just as easily have zero e-mails in my inbox, but not have a handle on what I needed to do with my e-mails or when.  I could be bragging about my “inbox zero” status while rapidly falling behind on what I need to do to keep my business running.

That doesn’t mean that inbox zero is a bad thing necessarily, it just means that in the basic three step process of Renegade Organizing (1.  Think 2.  Plan 3.  Act) we can’t skip steps one and two and fall for some new cliche about the “right way to be organized”.

What could you do instead?

1.  Think

What do are you trying to accomplish with your e-mail.  What do you need to do?  How would you know if you were succesful?

2.  Plan

What are the options for doing that, which options make the most sense? (This step may also require you to learn about your e-mail system – take the time, it’s worth it)

3.  Act

Implement the system that makes the most sense to you and will help you be successful by your own definition in Step 1.

Need a little more help?

This is a perfect situation for The Golden System from Simple Systems for a Complicated World

You might also check out my earlier blog post “5 Steps to Ease in your E-mail”

Deathmatch: Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

Ok, so it’s not really a death match, but you have to admit that would be really cool.  Two concepts enter, one concept leaves…

Seriously, I have noticed a lot of confusion about efficiency and effectiveness: what are they, what is the difference, which is more important. I see people getting caught up in being as efficient as possible and sacrificing results because of it.

Consider this quote by Peter Drucker:

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself!

Since this is Renegade Organizing we won’t be using the textbook ideas that I learned in school about efficiency and effectiveness, we’ll be using what I’ve learned about them in the real world.  While I’m at it since I’m not a college freshman writing a paper, I’ll spare you the sentence that starts “Webster’s Dictionary defines…” and get right to the meat of it.

The main difference between the two is that efficiency is a tool, effectiveness is an end result.

Measuring efficiency can be very tricky, and often takes us to the minimal possible measurement.  To riff off a previous blog for example, let’s say that I want to see how efficient I am dealing with my paper.  Since the amount of paper that comes into my office each day, week or month varies it’s difficult measure and compare by day, week or month.  I can measure how long it takes me to deal with each piece of paper, but the sheer volume of different types of paper and ways that they need to be dealt with makes that impractical.  I can group the types of paper, see how long it takes me to do each type of task and use that measurement, but since similar tasks can require more or less work on a case by case basis,  that’s not a very reliable measurement.  So I can make smaller groups of my original groups…ok you get the idea? This type of analysis can be complex and you often end up with measurements that are either imprecise or not very real-world applicable.

Effectiveness is typically much easier to determine.  Let’s say that I define effective paper management as dealing with every piece of paper on or before the deadline on which is has to be dealt.  That’s pretty easy to measure – by day, week, month, year, type of paper etc.  It’s a yes or no question. There are lots of tools to get me there, efficiency is only one option.

Efficiency is all about least.  Doing things in the least amount of time, with the least amount of effort, and the least amount of waste, often based upon the smallest possible measurable increment.

Effectiveness is about the most.  Doing the most possible, making the most of each activity, achieving the most goals – effectiveness is a big picture measurement.

I don’t know about you, but I’m generally a big fan of most over least.  That being said, there is definitely a place for each and it is not my intention to suggestion that efficiency is not important.  However, there are always times when efficiency and effectiveness are in conflict and one must choose between the two. For example, it’s not particularly efficient to lock the door as I leave my house in the morning (especially if I’m carrying my purse, briefcase, dance bag, gym bag, and talking on my cell phone).  However, I take the extra time to do it because I believe that it is effective at preventing a break-in and preventing a break-in is important to me.

The trick here is to keep your eye on the ball – the end result that you desire – and if either efficiency or effectiveness must be sacrificed, then I would suggest that it be efficiency.  Again using the paper management example:  Is it more efficient to only touch your paper once?  Perhaps – if your goal is to spend the least amount of time touching your paper.  Unfortunately, if you have to follow any piece of paper you pick up to completion, your inability to set your own priorities can really hurt your ability to be effective in doing the things that you need to do to reach your loftier goals – you know, goals like being able to afford food and housing.  Therefore, I say if it comes down to a choice let’s remember that efficiency is just one of many tools that can create effectiveness.  You wouldn’t feel bad for laying down your hammer if it wasn’t the right tool for the job, would you?   Sometimes efficiency is not the right tool for the job, so free yourself from the fear of being inefficient use whatever tools will make you effective.

What do you think?  Don’t be shy – just click on “leave comment” above (just under the blog title)  and tell us how you really feel.

Video Blog – The “Have It Or You Don’t” Myth

Hi Renegades,

Here is my very first video blog – it’s the first myth of organization “You Have it Or You Don’t”.  Learn how the myth came about, how to know if it’s keeping you from being organized, and what to do instead…

You Should Touch it Lots!

The way that I help clients deal with paper management requires them to touch a piece of paper several times.  Almost any time I bring this up in a workshop, somebody brings up the idea that you should “only touch paper once” – that as soon as you pick something up you should follow it through to completion.  There have been a number of books written about this and let me just say that, for my money, this is the WORST idea I have ever heard for small business organization.

I spent some time on the internet before writing this blog reading about people who espoused this theory. Everyone I found modified it in some way that actually required them to touch paper more than once.

This issue is priorities.  Tons of paper comes across our desks that requires us to take some action.  Some of it is important and some of it is not.  I cannot be in charge of my priorities if every time  I touch a piece of paper I have to follow it through to completion, even if the piece of paper I touch is low priority and will take me two hours to deal with.

One thing that often happens in traditional business organization/operations is that we confuse efficiency for effectiveness.  Those of you who have read my Paper Management book or taken the workshop know that I go through all of my “take action” papers every single day and make a decision about what is going to get done that day.  There are pieces of paper that I might touch 100 times .  You could argue with the efficiency of that system.  However, let’s focus on the steak here and not the peas (I’m working on my Texas metaphors – what do you think?).  It allows me to control my priorities, make decisions based on real deadlines, and I never forget about anything – but I don’t have to keep it all over my desk to avoid the “out of sight, out of mind” trap.  It’s hard to argue with the effectiveness of my system.

I’ve never met a busy business owner for whom “only touch it once” actually worked, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t out there.  As always, if what you are doing works, please ignore me and keep doing what you’re doing.

However, if you are beating yourself up because you are failing at the “only touch it once” philosophy, please feel free to permanently store that philosophy in the circular file and try something else immediately!

You Can’t Build a House, or a Business, Without a Foundation

Disorganized business owners lose money.

As business owners it seems like we concentrate as much time, effort, and money as humanly possible on sales and marketing.  And that makes sense…that’s where the money comes from.  Let me be clear that I am not knocking sales and marketing – I’m currently working with Pete Monfre of Clarity Marketing (www.claritymarketingsupport.com) on my own strategy.  (By the way, Pete is a genius and is helping me with many things including creating a new logo, improving this website and designing book covers that are a lot more fabulous, so keep your eye out!)

Unfortunately, what many business owners end up learning the hard way is that administrative systems form the foundation of their business.   Just like a house, it’s pretty impossible to create a business without a foundation. It doesn’t matter how many people you meet networking if you can’t keep track of them.  It doesn’t matter how many referrals you get if you don’t follow up with them.  It doesn’t matter how many sales you make if you can’t fulfill the orders.  It doesn’t matter how many orders you fulfill if you don’t invoice.  It doesn’t matter how many invoices you send …ok, you get the picture.

Organizational systems do NOT stand over you with a big hammer and beat you up (“It’s not GOOD enough!”  “You have to FILE!” etc.).  Organizational systems sit underneath you and support you in everything that you do.  They are how you know that you won’t lose that business card, that you will remember to follow up with that prospect, that you have invoiced all of your clients,  that you can fax that document to someone as soon as you get back to the office (without having to launch a search party in your garage to find it).

Create and institute your systems one at a time, over time.  Rome was not built in a day and your organization systems won’t be either.  For many people summer is the slow time in their business.  Consider using this slowdown as a time to create the systems and processes that will support you when things pick up in the fall.  Brainstorm a list of all of the things that you do and start creating simple systems to make sure that you don’t miss steps or lose out on opportunities.

I have books (see the home page) and workshops (see the workshops page) coming up to help you do this in what I think is the fastest, easiest, most common sense way possible; but there are lots of options out there so find what works best for you and create a strong foundation so that your business can grow as big and as fast as you can imagine!

5 Steps to Ease in your E-mail

1.  Choose to be in control.

1. There is so much published right now about e-organization and most of it wants to tell you exactly what to do.  Organizing e-mail is just like organizing anything else – it should come from your specific situation and personality.  Don’t let anyone, not even me, tell you what to do!  Consider the ideas below and use them as they are or alter them to fit your situation.

2.  Create folders for things that you need to keep track of.

1. Consider creating a folder for Take Action, one for things To Read and one for things to do Today.  Use folders that make sense to you (and name the folders something meaningful).
2. At the beginning of the day, go through the Take Action and To Read folders and move things that MUST be done today into the Today folder.  As you check e-mail throughout the day, put them in the correct folder. (That way you can make sure that you are dealing with any emergencies that come up, but you don’t HAVE to deal with non-priority e-mails right away).
3. Consider mimicking your paper intake system (From the Paper Management book) in your e-mail for ease and consistency.

3.  Archive

1. Find out how to archive old emails on your computer.  That way you can keep them without cluttering your e-mail program.

4.  YOU decide how often to check your e-mail.

1. There are plenty of books that will tell you that you should only check your e-mail once a day.  Or twice a day.  Or once a week.  What do those authors know about you?
2. Ask yourself, how important is it, to me to check my e-mail during the day.  What do I want my customers to expect from me in terms of response.  What are the upsides and downsides of checking my e-mail more often or less often.
3. Use your actual situation to guide how often you check your e-mail and how you respond.
4. If you suffer from “Pavlov’s E-mail” when you hear the “You’ve got Mail” noise that your e-mail makes, consider turning the noise off.
5. Using the folders that you created in step 2 means that you can quickly check your e-mail, move items that require your attention into their proper folders and then move on with your life!

5.  Don’t be afraid to try something.

1. Consider the information above, brainstorm your own ideas (you can use The Golden System from the Simple Systems book if you get stuck).  Decide to try something for a while.  If things get better, do more of that.  If things get worse, do something else.  It’s ok to try something and find out that it doesn’t work for you, that just gets you closer to knowing what does work.

Receipts Got You Down?

Let me guess…you have a pile (or an envelope, or a box) full of receipts.  You are absolutely dreading tax time because every year it takes tons of time to figure out what to do with your receipts.  You’ve got the Receipt Blues.  Well put down the harmonica honey, we can solve this in two shakes.

What usually goes wrong?

Often I see people keep their receipts by month, or by form of payment (credit card vs. cash etc.).  So what’s the big deal?  Well, let’s start with the Golden Question of Organization – “What are you using it for?”  Typically the answer is “to write the expenses off on my taxes”.  Unfortunately, keeping receipts by date or form of payment doesn’t help with that at all.  So, what’s the alternative?

First, we categorize.  Either look at your tax return from last year or talk to your CPA and ask what categories she or he want you to use on your taxes.

Now, you have lots of options – paper, electronic, simple, complex, more work on the front end, more work on the back end…  Remember that the goal here is to store the receipts by category so that they are easy to use at tax time.

I like simple, so here are two simple ideas.  As always, feel free to tweak, or ditch these altogether for your own ideas.  The Golden System from the Simple Systems for a Complicated World book can help you if you get stuck.

Simple Paper System:

This has a little bit more work on the back end, but is an extremely simple way to support yourself at tax time.

• Create envelopes or folders with the categories.
• When the receipts come in, drop them in the correct file.
• At tax time, it’s a snap to add up the receipts in each category.

Simple Electronic System:

This one has more work on the front end, but is still very simple to create and use.

• Buy an accordion file that allows you to label it yourself.
• Label it with your categories.
• Label a letter sized envelope with each of the category names.
• Paperclip it closed and put it in the accordion file in the correct category.
• Create a spreadsheet with a column for each of the categories.
• When receipts come in, put them in the correct category.
• Once a week, enter the new receipts onto the spreadsheet.
• Once they are entered, place them into the envelope.
• When its tax time, you can simply add the numbers in the spreadsheet, and file the envelopes for tax back-up.

This Weekend Only – Lose your Money and Your Self Esteem

I hear it all the time on the radio – This weekend only , come in to our store.  Buy everything you need and be organized by Monday!

If they want to be honest they’d just say “This weekend only, waste a bunch of money, set yourself up for failure, and damage your self esteem.”

No matter how much money you spend, if you started this Friday could you become fluent in another language by Monday?  Probably not.  So, does it make sense that you could become organized in a weekend even though it’s eluded you your entire life?  Probably not.

The truth is, you just can’t buy organization with a credit card.  Not even with cash.  Organization is about creating systems and processes that allow you to find your stuff easily and use it effectively.

Let’s be honest. Organization is simple and easy, it’s just a set of skills.  That doesn’t mean that it ‘s fast.  You learn the skills, you apply the skills, you make adjustments and you learn more, just like learning anything.

You don’t have to use my system, but I do recommend that if you want to get organized you follow three simple steps.

Think

What am I trying to accomplish?  What do I want to be able to do?
How can I accomplish what  I want to do?  What are the options?  What do I want to try?

Plan

How can I accomplish what  I want to do?  What are the options?  What do I want to try?

Act

How can I implement my plan?  What do I need to buy.

The trick is that you don’t shop until you know exactly what you need. That way, you don’t get emotionally tricked into buying a ton of stuff that you don’t need just to set yourself up for an expensive failure.  When it comes to organization, Renegade Organizers will take cheap success any day!

The Power of the Hour

If you’ve read the books, you already know that I will not work with a client who won’t promise to spend one hour a week on administrative tasks.  Many people tell me that they don’t understand why.

It’s simple, really.  I can help someone put systems and processes in place.  Whether they are the most simple or the most complicated, all systems and processes have one thing in common:  They require time to maintain.  Not a lot of time, but time nonetheless.

Any time a former client tells me that they are struggling, the first question that I always ask is “Are you doing your Admin Hour?”. To a person, they sheepishly answer “no”.  Now, I’m not one to say I told you so, but…

Creating systems and processes without putting the time in to maintain them is a little like hiring an administrative assistant and telling him not to ever show up, then being shocked when none of the work gets done.

What you do during your admin hour depends entirely upon your situation and what systems and processes you have in place.  Even if you don’t have your processes in place, you can probably save a few hours a week by collecting all of your filing and then dedicating an hour a week to filing and entering receipts int eh computer.  It’s so much faster than filing one piece of paper at a time all day every day, and it’s certainly more effective than piling up the paper and never filing it at all.

So, in the interest of my motto – Making Organization Fun and Easy, Seriously, – I seriously want you to make your life easier by have some fun during your Admin Hour.

It will change your life!

It’s NOT About the Clutter!

Everywhere you turn you hear the same things:

Clear the Clutter!

Clutter is the Enemy!

Be Organized- get rid of Clutter!

Lies, lies and more lies.

I’ll tell you a secret:  Clutter speaks to me, whispers really. It says “Hey, Ragen, there’s no system in place to keep me from piling up!  My owner cleans and cleans and I pile right back up again.  I want a system!”  Clutter is never the problem.  Clutter is just a symptom of the problem.  The problem is a lack of simple systems to deal with all of the things that come into your space.

Stop trying to clear the clutter and start looking at it.  Really look at your clutter.  What’s is made of?  Is it business cards?  Catalogs?  Junk mail?  Knick knacks?

Try dividing your clutter into some broad categories, think of 3 or 4 categories that would encompass all of the stuff and then group it into those categories.  Then use The Golden Question – “What am I using this for?”.  Based on your answer to that questions, create simple step by step systems for these things to come into your space, get taken care of (whatever that means in each specific case), and get stored, recycled or thrown away.

If you get stuck, try using the intake, flow and filing system from The Renegade Organizer’s Easy Guide to Paper Management . It applies to way more than paper.

While it can be a good feeling to clean up clutter (over, and over, and over again), trust me that you’ll feel positively triumphant when you turn around and see the systems and processes that you created working for you to keep the clutter away for good!