Tips from Peter Walsh (part 4)

More Tips Directly from Peter Walsh

These Tips were given to me by Office Max to use if I wanted to.  The above picture is of the new line of products that Peter Walsh has coming out in the Office Max stores called you.organized.

Calendars: You might feel like multiple schedules lead to more confusion. For a little planning relief, combine home and work calendars. Simply choose various colors to mark important dates: one for professional tasks and meetings, one for personal appointments, one for social engagements, one for your children’s activities, and so on. (Peter Walsh)

I’m with him on that one. I have tried to keep a calendar in my purse and one at home.  I like having my calendar with me.  I have solved that problem with using a google calendar on my computer and it syncs with my blackberry.  The google calendar does have color coding for events, so that helps.  It isn’t my favorite calendar and I’m always looking for other options….but it has to sync with my phone so I have my calendar with me on the road.

Cork Boards & Sticky Boards: No need to hang lists, phone numbers and reminders all over your cubicle walls. Instead, create a one-stop message center with a cork or sticky board. Hang your daily to-do list, phone numbers, and a weekly calendar of events and meetings. That way, you’ll have all your need-to-know information in front of you. (Peter Walsh)

If you give yourself the limit of a bulletin board or magnetic board…and it gets full – then that is a sign that too much is on there and you can clean it off.

Email: Stay on top of your electronic inbox. Check email when you arrive, and immediately sort each message into an appropriate folder. Even if you don’t have time to deal with the contents of a message or even read it fully, sort it for later action. (Peter Walsh)

E-mail boxes are always a problem. It is easy for them to become very full very fast.  Do use the folders that you can create to sort e-mails you need to keep. Delete junk emails.  Here is a post I did on E-mail organizing.

• Closing Thoughts: Remember that your desk sends a clear signal about who you are and how you approach your work. You should have an organized desk at the start and finish of every day! (Peter Walsh)

Disclosure: I was not paid or given anything to do this post. I was given the above info if I wanted to use it…and I did!

———————————————————————–

Guest Post

Organize Your Email

by Beth Davis

I asked Beth from Plus Size Mommy to be a guest blogger because she is such a wonderful person. I had the pleasure of meeting Beth at Blissdom 09. What a great time we all had! She and I had been twittering and she is always very nice and up lifting. Her blog is great with information and giveaways. Please make sure you visit her blog!
************************************************************************************

When Organizer Sandy asked me to do a guest post on her blog, I was so honored. I had never been asked to do one before. I thought that this was so nice of her to ask me to write one. Then I started to think, wow, I am not a very organized person. I mean I have my things organized but it is by my own “system” that probably no one else could ever figure out.

My husband thinks I am nuts and he doesn’t understand how I ever find anything, but I always do. As a matter of fact, I think if I ever was “organized for real” I would probably not know where to find anything !!

So I kept thinking and thinking, what in the world I could post on an Organizers blog?
I asked around and got a lot of idea’s from people but the idea’s weren’t good enough. After all this IS my first guest blog and I wanted to be sure it was something special. So I kept asking my friend who you all know as @craftymamaof4 (Kim) what she thought. I had her thinking for me for a few days, and then she came up with a wonderful idea !!
Something I never really thought about as organizing but it definitely IS !

KEEPING YOUR INBOX ORGANIZED :

I keep my email organized. As a matter of fact, Kim told me I was the one who taught her how to do this, and that it has really made a difference in her inbox and she can find what she wants much easier. Now a lot of you may already do this, or know how to do this, and it is quite simple, but Kim, who to me is very computer savvy hadn’t done this until I mentioned it to her, so maybe a lot of you who could be doing this aren’t ?

Here is how to organize your email inbox. (I use yahoo email by the way, but I think it is possible to do this with any email system)

1. When you open your inbox there is a column on the left hand side that has
a. inbox
b.drafts
c. sent
d. spam
e. trash

2.Then if you go further down there is a place where you can add folders.

3.You should definitely set up a spam filter in within your email settings.This will screen out any unwanted mail and also helps t block viruses. I do check my spam folder from time to time though because somethings can get sent there that aren’t spam, especially if your waiting for an email that doesn’t/hasn’t come.

4.The drafts folder is where you can keep emails that might not be quite done or are needing more info. before you hit the send button. Hint: this is also a great way to vent!!
I have used this folder many a time to write an email if I am upset over something and I save it to drafts overnight, if when I wake back up I still feel I want to send it I do, but usually those get deleted because it was something I felt like saying but really shouldn’t and what a difference a day makes when your mad, lol It still feels good to write that down though, even if you go back and delete it.

5.The SENT and TRASH folders are self explainable, but the sent mail is useful to go back and refer to if you need something in the future.

.6. Now for the REAL organizing part. If you go to where you can add folders, under MY FOLDERS. You can make a folder for anything you want. for example, Kim told me she does a lot of surveys, but only when she feels like it and has time. So she created a survey folder, Tons of surveys come into your email everyday so now she has them all going into that “Survey” folder and it doesn’t clog up her normal emails. To do this you just have to tell it to put anything with “survey” in the subject line to go to that file.
I use this for Home Interiors, I buy home interiors a lot so my consultant sends me emails about sales and things, so all of them go into that designated file and when I get a chance I will go there and read them.
It is a wonderful system and really keeps your inbox organized well. ..

Thank you Sandy for asking me to do a guest post on your blog I am touched and honored you asked me to do this.

Beth AKA PlusSizeMommy