Today I want to talk about an area of the office that may just be one of my favourite things to organise – your computer!

Because we can’t see computer clutter as obviously as we can see physical clutter, we often don’t realise it’s there but believe me, it’s still affecting you.

How does it affect you?

When you open your Inbox and feel drained at the sight of all your emails, when your computer runs slow because there are so many photos on there and when you click into your Google Reader and can’t BELIEVE how much some people post because you went through your blogs for 3 hours yesterday and now there are 127 unread items yet again!

Sound familiar?

We’re going to look at 4 places where you can declutter electronically. Today we’re going to look at two and next week we’ll discuss the other two:

Free downloads

We (especially women) like fr.ee things, don’t we? Buy one, get one f.ree sales come to mind… As a result, we download anything and everything we can find that’s for fr.ee.

If it’s fr.ee, it’s got to be good, right?

No, actually, it’s not all good. Not only are you cluttering up your computer but you can’t possibly use all the things that are out there because we live in an information-overload society.

I wish I could say that I’m immune to the addiction to F.REE stuff but I’m not! I am much better than I was but I still find myself entering my email address far too often for my liking.

At one point I had about 6 different grocery shopping lists on my computer (all fr.ee downloads) and 10 different versions of a to-do list. None of them quite worked for me so I made my own and deleted all of them.

Email

Mmmm, email.

My clients need help with email more than any other thing in their office, and paper’s a close second.

That’s because email’s so fast and because we don’t use it correctly. Did you know that for every email you send out, you get at least two emails back?

So how do you know if your emails are a problem?

The quick answer is if you spend more than 30 minutes a day on email.
90% of people waste an extra hour a day on email that they don’t have to. That hour translates to SIX WEEKS a year. You read that right – six weeks!

Get familiar with the delete key (my favourite key on the keyboard) and start deleting. Delete immediately once you’ve replied to an email and don’t file unless you absolutely have to.

Disable all the notifications from social networking sites like Facebook.

I only get friend requests, messages and notes on my wall in my inbox. The rest I’ll see when I choose to log on. (No, I don’t get Facebook on my phone but that’s another article for another day)

Here again, decide on your comfort level for emails and make sure you work your system until you can breathe again. Personally, I set a daily goal of deleting at least 50 items so once I’m done with my inbox, I go through my Sent Items and delete, delete, delete

As a matter of interest, how many emails are in your inbox right now?

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Marcia Francois is a time management coach and speaker who inspires busy women to break out of overwhelm, make the most of their time and take purposeful and focussed action so they have the time and freedom to live life to the full. Visit http://purposefultimemanagement.com for your free Time Management Purpose Pack.

Today I want to talk about an area of the office that may just be one of my favourite things to organise – your computer!

Because we can’t SEE computer clutter as obviously as we can see physical clutter, we often don’t realise it’s there but believe me, it’s still affecting you.

How does it affect you?

When you open your Inbox and feel drained at the sight of all your emails, when your computer runs slow because there are so many photos on there and when you click into your Google Reader and can’t BELIEVE how much some people post because you went through your blogs for 3 hours yesterday and now there are 127 unread items yet again!

Sound familiar?

Let’s look at 4 places where you can declutter electronically:

Free downloads

We (especially women) like fr.ee things, don’t we? Buy one, get one free sales come to mind… As a result, we download anything and everything we can find that’s for fr.ee.

If it’s fr.ee, it’s got to be good, right?

No, actually, it’s not all good. Not only are you cluttering up your computer but you can’t possibly use all the things that are out there because we live in an information-overload society.

I wish I could say that I”m immune to the addiction to FREE stuff but I’m not!

At one point I had about 6 different grocery shopping lists on my computer (all fr.ee downloads) and 10 different versions of a to-do list. None of them quite worked for me so I made my own.

Email

Mmmm, email. My clients need help with email more than any other thing in their office, and paper’s a close second. That’s because email’s so fast and because we don’t use it correctly.

Did you know that for every email you send out, you get at least two emails back?

Get familiar with the delete key (my favourite key on the keyboard) and start deleting. Delete immediately once you’ve replied to an email and don’t file unless you absolutely have to.

Disable all the notifications from social networking sites like Facebook. I only get friend requests, messages and notes on my wall in my inbox. The rest I’ll see when I get a chance to log on.

Here again, decide on your comfort level for emails and make sure you work your system until you can breathe again.

Personally, I set a daily goal of deleting at least 50 items so once I’m done with my inbox, I go through my Sent Items and delete, delete, delete

It’s this weird game I play – anybody have some other weird email games?

As a matter of interest, how many emails are in your inbox right now?

Look out next week for part 2 of decluttering your computer



Today we’re decluttering email.

I’m going to give you just one tip today – make decisions. Don’t just read your email and close it again without making a decision as to what to do.

Here are some previous posts that deal with email:

• An empty inbox is like…
• Anne’s post on dealing with her e-clutter
• 5 ways I deal with email

This week, your challenge is to

1. find out your email comfort number
2. declutter your inbox until you’re there
3. build in daily maintenance time to keep to that number

Share in the comments how many you decluttered!

If your email is out of control, Conquer your email will get your email organised and under control. Someone went from about 3000 mails to less than 100 in just days.

This is a comprehensive handout plus an hour-long audio. I teach you every single secret and tip that I use to help me manage my email in only 15 minutes a day.

email

Get ready because I want you to post the number of emails you start with, and how many you manage to declutter tomorrow.

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If your email is out of control, Conquer your email will get your email organised and under control. Someone went from about 3000 mails to less than 100 in just days.

This is a comprehensive handout plus an hour-long audio. I teach you every single secret and tip that I use to help me manage my email in only 15 minutes a day.