Earth Day and Decluttering

Decluttering and downsizing can create a lot of waste if your discards end up in the trash. Wednesday is Earth Day, which is a good time to think about what you’re contributing to the waste stream. You might not realize that there are ways to recycle lots more than glass, plastic, metal and paper.

Because people replace gadgets so quickly, electronic waste is a huge problem. Consider donating or selling those that still work. For outdated technology and broken items, some manufacturers offer free returns. Otherwise, you might be able to take them to a nearby drop-off center.

Call2Recycle can help you find places to recycle batteries and cellphones. Check with your local department of waste services for policies on disposing of electronic waste in your jurisdiction. You can help keep toxins out of the air and water by diverting your electronic waste.

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Earth Day and Decluttering

Decluttering and downsizing can create a lot of waste if your discards end up in the trash. Wednesday is Earth Day, which is a good time to think about what you’re contributing to the waste stream. You might not realize that there are ways to recycle lots more than glass, plastic, metal and paper.

Because people replace gadgets so quickly, electronic waste is a huge problem. Consider donating or selling those that still work. For outdated technology and broken items, some manufacturers offer free returns. Otherwise, you might be able to take them to a nearby drop-off center.

Call2Recycle can help you find places to recycle batteries and cellphones. Check with your local department of waste services for policies on disposing of electronic waste in your jurisdiction. You can help keep toxins out of the air and water by diverting your electronic waste.

Organized by Marcie^TM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value
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And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!

Clean Out Your Computer Day

The second Monday in February is Clean Out Your Computer Day.

 

Why bother? Because digital clutter can build up as quickly as physical clutter, which leads to confusion, poor use of time and related stress.

 

Think of your computer as a virtual file cabinet. Your documents are inside file folders, which are inside “drawers,” which are your major file categories.

Matching your digital files to your paper files makes a lot of sense. You might have paper files related to your car, your health, your home and your finances. Start out with those same categories for your digital files. If you would like to eliminate excess paper, you can scan documents and “file” them digitally into the appropriate folders.

 

While you may feel you have unlimited disk space, it’s not necessary to keep everything – similar to weeding out documents from your paper files. The less you have, the easier it is to find what you need, when you need it.

 

Start by consolidating similar documents in folders and dumping duplicates. If you can’t figure out which is the correct version, you can name each document the same thing, along with the date it was last updated.

 

Get in the habit of saving only one copy of each document, with a name that has meaning to you, unless your job depends on your being able to produce earlier versions. In that case, you can attach the date to the title each time you update it.

 

Finally, remember to back up your files so you don’t lose valuable information.

 

What would you gain by making your computer files easier to access?

Organized by Marcie^TM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value
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Clean Out Your Computer Day

The second Monday in February is Clean Out Your Computer Day.

 

Why bother? Because digital clutter can build up as quickly as physical clutter, which leads to confusion, poor use of time and related stress.

 

Think of your computer as a virtual file cabinet. Your documents are inside file folders, which are inside “drawers,” which are your major file categories.

Matching your digital files to your paper files makes a lot of sense. You might have paper files related to your car, your health, your home and your finances. Start out with those same categories for your digital files. If you would like to eliminate excess paper, you can scan documents and “file” them digitally into the appropriate folders.

 

While you may feel you have unlimited disk space, it’s not necessary to keep everything – similar to weeding out documents from your paper files. The less you have, the easier it is to find what you need, when you need it.

 

Start by consolidating similar documents in folders and dumping duplicates. If you can’t figure out which is the correct version, you can name each document the same thing, along with the date it was last updated.

 

Get in the habit of saving only one copy of each document, with a name that has meaning to you, unless your job depends on your being able to produce earlier versions. In that case, you can attach the date to the title each time you update it.

 

Finally, remember to back up your files so you don’t lose valuable information.

 

What would you gain by making your computer files easier to access?

Organized by Marcie^TM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value
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National TV-Free Week

Photo by suphakit73

TV-Free Week started back in 1994, as a way to encourage people to watch less TV and to enjoy other activities. Now that you can watch TV on a host of electronic devices with screens, the event is also known as Screen-Free Week and Digital Detox Week.

Schools encourage students to turn off TVs and find other ways to entertain themselves. Libraries encourage reading and community centers encourage active play.

When you watch television, you are exposed to unrealistic lifestyles and subjected to advertising for things you don’t need. You may not realize how many decisions you make based on what you see on TV.

Think about everything you could be getting done if you weren't watching television. You could finish projects you started, start a project you’ve been putting off or simply spend some time putting things away.

How much TV do you watch during a typical week? Could you avoid watching any this week?

Organized by Marcie TM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value

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And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!

National TV-Free Week

Photo by suphakit73

TV-Free Week started back in 1994, as a way to encourage people to watch less TV and to enjoy other activities. Now that you can watch TV on a host of electronic devices with screens, the event is also known as Screen-Free Week and Digital Detox Week.

Schools encourage students to turn off TVs and find other ways to entertain themselves. Libraries encourage reading and community centers encourage active play.

When you watch television, you are exposed to unrealistic lifestyles and subjected to advertising for things you don’t need. You may not realize how many decisions you make based on what you see on TV.

Think about everything you could be getting done if you weren't watching television. You could finish projects you started, start a project you’ve been putting off or simply spend some time putting things away.

How much TV do you watch during a typical week? Could you avoid watching any this week?

Organized by Marcie TM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value

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And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!

Clean Up Your Computer

As Get Organized Month comes to an end, consider your computer. While you might not have considered organizing your computer, you could be more productive if you were able to find what you need, electronically, without searching.

How many emails do you have in your inbox right now? Can you guess, without looking? If you aren’t able to quickly scan what’s in there, it may be time to clean out your inbox.

Marsha Egan of Inbox Detox  declared the last week in January as Clean Out Your Inbox Week. It’s a good time to create some decision points about keeping email. How long will you keep email in your inbox? What if you need to refer back to back to information in an email – do you have a filing system set up? Do you want to archive messages you’ve responded to?

January also is National Clean Up Your Computer Month, sponsored by LOPSA. After you set up your inbox for productive use, make sure you’re using folders to contain digital documents that you need to access. Set aside some time once a week to go through folders, delete outdated or redundant material and consolidate folders that have similar information.

Whether you can’t get a good night’s sleep unless you end the day at Inbox Zero or you’re someone who just deletes all your email once a year because you can’t deal with it, spend a little time regularly sorting through your electronic documents and you’ll save a lot of time and frustration in the long run.

Do you have a digital-maintenance habit? Click on Post a Comment, below, and tell us.

Organized by MarcieTM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value
Follow me on twitter and facebook  
And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!

Clean Up Your Computer

As Get Organized Month comes to an end, consider your computer. While you might not have considered organizing your computer, you could be more productive if you were able to find what you need, electronically, without searching.

How many emails do you have in your inbox right now? Can you guess, without looking? If you aren’t able to quickly scan what’s in there, it may be time to clean out your inbox.

Marsha Egan of Inbox Detox  declared the last week in January as Clean Out Your Inbox Week. It’s a good time to create some decision points about keeping email. How long will you keep email in your inbox? What if you need to refer back to back to information in an email – do you have a filing system set up? Do you want to archive messages you’ve responded to?

January also is National Clean Up Your Computer Month, sponsored by LOPSA. After you set up your inbox for productive use, make sure you’re using folders to contain digital documents that you need to access. Set aside some time once a week to go through folders, delete outdated or redundant material and consolidate folders that have similar information.

Whether you can’t get a good night’s sleep unless you end the day at Inbox Zero or you’re someone who just deletes all your email once a year because you can’t deal with it, spend a little time regularly sorting through your electronic documents and you’ll save a lot of time and frustration in the long run.

Do you have a digital-maintenance habit? Click on Post a Comment, below, and tell us.

Organized by MarcieTM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value
Follow me on twitter and facebook  
And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!

The Case for Redundancy

Being a Productivity Consultant, I usually counsel against redundancy. After all, why would you waste your time creating duplicate systems or processes? I regularly coach clients to let go of tasks or products that duplicate what they already have.

There are, however, a few reasons to embrace redundancy.

Recently, my computer crashed and I lost two years’ worth of contact data. Because I had invoices and a paper calendar, I was able to recreate some of the information I lost. I will never be able to document all of the phone calls I made, unfortunately.

Having some redundancy in your back-up system (some combination of CD, DVD, external drive, flash drive, cloud, etc.) can help you avoid the agony of reconstructing history.

I’m not suggesting that you print and file every email or hang onto every piece of paper forever. Instead, come up with a reasonable system that you can manage independently. Until it becomes habit, set reminders so that you remember to backup regularly, then store your backup so that you can access your work remotely, if you need to.

Now that I know how to backup my database correctly, I have it in three different places. I’m not taking any chances on losing it again.

What systems do you have in place so that you aren’t wasting time, trying to catch up?

Organized by MarcieTM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value

Follow me on twitter  and facebook

And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!

The Case for Redundancy

Being a Productivity Consultant, I usually counsel against redundancy. After all, why would you waste your time creating duplicate systems or processes? I regularly coach clients to let go of tasks or products that duplicate what they already have.

There are, however, a few reasons to embrace redundancy.

Recently, my computer crashed and I lost two years’ worth of contact data. Because I had invoices and a paper calendar, I was able to recreate some of the information I lost. I will never be able to document all of the phone calls I made, unfortunately.

Having some redundancy in your back-up system (some combination of CD, DVD, external drive, flash drive, cloud, etc.) can help you avoid the agony of reconstructing history.

I’m not suggesting that you print and file every email or hang onto every piece of paper forever. Instead, come up with a reasonable system that you can manage independently. Until it becomes habit, set reminders so that you remember to backup regularly, then store your backup so that you can access your work remotely, if you need to.

Now that I know how to backup my database correctly, I have it in three different places. I’m not taking any chances on losing it again.

What systems do you have in place so that you aren’t wasting time, trying to catch up?

Organized by MarcieTM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value

Follow me on twitter  and facebook

And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!

Traveling with Gadgets

It's summertime and chances are you're heading on vacation with your GPS device, cellphone, camera, iPod, tablet, video-game player, portable DVD player, e-reader or laptop (or some combination of these).

Not only do you have to remember to take the items, you have to remember the associated paraphernalia.  Whether you're traveling by car, plane or train, you'll want to make sure you come home with everything you took with you.

A car organizer like this onefrom The Container Store, can stow kids’ games and DVDS, along with cables and chargers.  You can pull the entire unit off and take it into your destination with you.

The Grid-it, also available at The Container Store, allows room for all your electronic gadgets and their cords.

You could also use a toiletry bag, if you already have one, and avoid buying something new.

The most important component, however, doesn’t come with any of these:  a checklist.  Make a packing list so you remember to take everything you want and bring it home afterward.

Organized by MarcieTM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value
Follow me on twitterand facebook

And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!

Traveling with Gadgets

It's summertime and chances are you're heading on vacation with your GPS device, cellphone, camera, iPod, tablet, video-game player, portable DVD player, e-reader or laptop (or some combination of these).

Not only do you have to remember to take the items, you have to remember the associated paraphernalia.  Whether you're traveling by car, plane or train, you'll want to make sure you come home with everything you took with you.

A car organizer like this one from The Container Store, can stow kids’ games and DVDS, along with cables and chargers.  You can pull the entire unit off and take it into your destination with you.

The Grid-it, also available at The Container Store, allows room for all your electronic gadgets and their cords.

You could also use a toiletry bag, if you already have one, and avoid buying something new.

The most important component, however, doesn’t come with any of these:  a checklist.  Make a packing list so you remember to take everything you want and bring it home afterward.

Organized by MarcieTM: Save time and money by letting go of what you don't need and finding room for what you value
Follow me on twitter and facebook

And if you like what you've read, share it using the links below!