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Quick Organizing Tips

Jul 24
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The Secrets to Organizing Microsoft Outlook- Rules Wizard

By Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Microsoft Outlook, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

Microsoft Outlook can be an extremely useful productivity tool when it comes to prioritizing the time you spend on email. However if you are unfamiliar with Outlook’s functions you may not be getting any of the benefits it has to offer to you.  This article is part of a series of articles that will help you as begin organizing your Microsoft Outlook.

 

Email should be used as a tool to help manage and process the projects that are important for your life and work.  But with the hundreds or even thousands of emails coming into your mailbox it’s difficult at times to effectively use and process email.  Microsoft Outlook Rules Wizard helps you manage your incoming emails.  You can use Rules to automatically sort, prioritize, and reduce the flow of your email.

 

Why you should use rules when organizing Microsoft Outlook

If you have a ton of email to go through using Rules Wizard can be like having a personal assistant to help you organize Microsoft Outlook.  There are a number of different ways to use the Rules Wizard. You can use it to have emails sorted into different folders based on who sent the email, the type of message or subject line, even whether you are CC’d or the primary recipient on the email.  You can flag messages that come in from certain people or have an alert set for when you receive an email from a specific person.  Use it to plan ahead with a function that can even delay the sending of a message.

 

I suggest this super helpful way using Rules. If you are receiving multiple e-newsletters, direct all of your e-newsletters into a folder to be read.  Create an Action folder titled “.Read” and then follow the instructions below to create your rule that will direct your newsletters there.  This will help reduce the flow of email in your inbox.  It is important to schedule a time each week to go through this folder and read what has come in.  The goal of this folder is to help you organize your time and inbox, not to create a place for emails to pile up and collect cyber dust!  If you find you receive an e-newsletter that you don’t read over and over again consider unsubscribing.  Being honest with yourself about what email you do and don’t need will help you while organizing Microsoft Outlook. Don’t waste time glancing at and a deleting an email every week or month that isn’t pertinent to you if you don’t have to!

 

How to use Microsoft Outlook rules

 

Creating a rule:

Before you begin create the folder you will be directing your email into, or confirm that it already exists.

1.  Select Tools, then Rules and Alerts, and then New Rule

2.  Select Start From a Blank Rule

3.  Highlight, Check Messages after Sending, and then click Next

4.  Check off with specific words in the subject.  Next click on specific words and choose a unique keyword for your rule, for example “newsletter”.  Click Add, OK, Next.’’

5.  Uncheck move a copy to the specified folder.  Then click on specified folder and choose from the list. Click Finish.

 

A quick tip

There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.  Don’t abuse the Rule Wizard.  If you overuse the Wizard by creating a ton of folders this tool will become a hindrance.  Instead of being a helpful personal assistant your Rules will become a time waster!

Organizing Microsoft Outlook by creating rules to better sort and filter your email today means less wasted time, energy, and money tomorrow!

Jul 08
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Keep Stress at Bay by Learning How to Get Organized at Work

By Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Organizing Paper Files, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

Stress is quickly becoming an epidemic in North America. Today, 75 – 90 percent of all doctor visits are stress related! Conditions like high blood pressure, allergies, migraines, ulcers, bowel and skin problems and more have all been related to stress. That’s not to mention the fact that stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis and suicide.

In addition to causing all sorts of health problems, stress also affects businesses of all sizes in lost revenue. That’s because over 60 percent of employee absences are due to psychological problems such as stress, resulting in an estimated 1 million workers that are absent on an average workday. With this in mind, job stress is estimated to cost U.S. industry $300 billion annually, as assessed by absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee turnover, direct medical, legal and insurance fees and more.

With all this in mind, now, more than ever, is the time to protect your health and business by dealing with stress effectively. One way to do that is through organization.

Sitting down at a cluttered desk can immediately increase your stress level before the workday has even begun. And we all know that this is not the time of the day to start taking on additional stress. That will happen easily enough throughout the course of your day.   The start of each day is the time to feel fresh and confident in your ability to make progress on your daily tasks. This feeling of purpose comes easily with an organized workspace. Clutter, on the other hand, washes all good intentions away in confusion and stress, and sets the tone for the rest of the workday.

How is it that a few stacks of disorganized paper can create a mass of stress in just minutes? It’s because clutter is actually postponed decisions. Each piece of paper on your desk represents something that you haven’t taken care of yet, which adds to your level of stress. Going unchecked, these paper molehills can become mountains of stress, leaving you completely overwhelmed. By this point, you may not even know where to start the organizing process.

Worse yet, the greater the stacks of paper, the greater chance there is for you to miss something important. Perhaps you misplaced a critical document that is needed for a meeting just minutes away, or you forgot about a bill that is past-due, or, you could even lose track of where you are on a significant project with an immediate completion deadline looming.

Here are a few tips for reducing stress by learning how to get organized at work:

1. Reduce clutter using the FAST System (There are only 4 options when it comes to paper – File, Act, Schedule, Toss).
2. Delegate tasks when appropriate – you don’t have to do everything
3. Don’t over schedule. Leave time free in your calendar for the unexpected and perhaps for a break now and then.

When you learn  how to get organized at work, you can put an end to the stress caused by clutter and lack of organization. Each piece of paper is dealt with once and then filed, scheduled or acted on accordingly. You are left with more free time, because you’re able to get things done in less time. You are also able to focus on your goals and priorities, delegate projects clearly and effectively, and generally be on top of your game. This will relieve a great deal of stress, while creating a real feeling of empowerment and pride in your accomplishments.

If you are interested in learning more ways we can help you get organized at work, click here now.!

Jul 01
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How to be Organized at Work – The FAST Way!

By Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Inspiration, Organizing Paper Files, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

 

Paper clutter is one of the biggest complaints people have about their workspaces.  Reports to read, junk mail to sort, bills to pay, it can get absolutely overwhelming!  This article outlines a proven method for tacking your paper clutter once and for all.

There are only FOUR things you should do with paper: File, Act, Schedule or Toss. The acronym F.A.S.T. will help you remember the steps to dealing with paper clutter. As you paper comes into your office, keep the F.A.S.T. principle in mind and sort it accordingly.

 
FILE

Reference items are placed in a tray labeled TO FILE.

  • Filing is done on a daily or weekly basis, depending on the volume of material you accumulate.
  • You should be able to find anything you file or store in 5 seconds or less! If you can’t, you need to set up a system for your filing. There are many professional organizers who teach people how to be organized at work and many of them have developed effective filing systems. Find a filing system that works for you and USE it!

ACT

Items that require action are placed in your Tickler File System to be acted on later.

There are two components to a good tickler file system. Part of the system includes an accordion file with tabs for each day of the month (1-31) and each month of the year (Jan-Dec), followed by a tab for Future Years. The other part of your tickler system is made of individual folders labeled for specific and repetitive actions, such as:

  • Call
  • Calls Expected – a folder to put notes in for calls you are waiting for.
  • Data Entry – a place to put business cards and other things that need to be entered into your computer.
  • Discuss – a folder to put notes in for weekly meetings with the same person, or if you meet with several people weekly, you may have individual folders with their names on them.
  • Errands – a folder to hold coupons, shopping lists, claim receipts, etc.
  • Pay – a place to put your bills until they are paid.
  • Photocopy
  • Read
  • Receipts or Expense Reimbursement – a place to store your receipts until you submit them.
  • Write – a place to store thank-you cards, postage stamps, return address labels, letterhead.

SCHEDULE

Items to schedule in your planner (you can use a paper planner or electronic planner, whatever works best for you).

  • Write all pertinent information in your planner (Example – name of person, event, location, phone number, etc.)
  • File the paper in your tickler system for that particular day or toss it.

TOSS

…..
Items which do not enhance your life can be immediately tossed! (NOTE: “Toss” means “get it out of here.” One form of tossing is to give it to someone else who would find it useful.)

Ask yourself these questions to determine whether or not to toss something:

  • By the time I might need this, will it be out-of-date?
  • Do I want/choose to keep this? (Notice that I did not ask if you “should” keep it.)
  • If I need it later, can I easily get it elsewhere?
  • Is it obsolete now?
  • Is it too late to do this?
  • Does anyone else care if I keep this? (Based on how important that person is to you, you may choose to keep something – such as an ugly family heirloom that does not fit your decor – because of its value to someone else.)

For bills already paid, am I keeping them just because, or is there any benefit to keeping them? Consider the following:

  • If you own your own business, keeping the bill for business expenses will be helpful if you get audited and need to prove legitimate expenses.
  • If these are personal bills that are not tax-deductible, identify if there is any benefit to keeping them.
  • You can deduct medical bills if they total a certain percentage of your income for the year. For most people, medical bills are not deductible because the percentage is too low.
  • Keeping the bill itself will not prove that you paid it. If you pay by check or electronically, you have a paper or electronic trail to prove that you’ve paid the bill.
  • If you are keeping bills to help you with your budget process, you may benefit from using a software program to help track your expenses. Once you enter the data into your program, you may not find any benefit to keeping the bills themselves.

Using the FAST system is a great start on your way to learning how to be organized at work.  You will gain control of your paper clutter which will allow you to be more productive with less stress!