Get organized by 9:09 am Today

Do you ever feel like your to-do lists and inbox is out of control?  You read about “inbox zero” and “GTD” and it sounds great, but the truth is you have no idea of where to start.  You have hundred’s or thousands of emails in your inbox and and no time to take the three days that GTD requires to set up.  What can be done today for the morbidly obese inbox and to-do list?  Here is what you can do in just nine minutes to take control back.

1.  Get boxed up. (9:00 am)

My wife and I have been in the same house now for about seven years, but in our first three years of marriage we actually moved nine times.  That was a blessing.
Here is what we found.  Things that we thought we needed would often end up in a box that was not opened for two or three moves.  We made a bold move to not bring those boxes with us on the next move.

If your inbox has more than 250 email in it, if your physical inbox on your desk cannot be seen because of the stack of papers and if there are papers loose anywhere in your world, I would suggest creating a folder called “Boxed Up” to place every email in, label a box “Toss on and put everything on your desk and in your office in it.  That’s right every email and every loose paper.  Remember you are in the land of the morbidly unorganized and drastic measures must be taken to save your organizational life.

Ok that took one minute, so now with the last two minutes sort your meeting request email and email from your boss and spouse in the “Boxed Up” folder and deal with those seperately.

For the other email and loose papers let them sit in there for three months and then delete and toss every last one of them. If someone really needs to get you they will call or email again and if you missed info…who are we kidding, if you have 250 email in your inbox and can’t see your desk your are missing info everyday now so what can it hurt?

2.  Get a plan. (9:03 am)

Now you need to get a proven system in your life or you will have 250 email again by week’s end.  Take the next three minutes and read this great post from Michael Hyatt and it then practice it – everyday.  If you fall off the wagon for a day, pick yourself up and start again.  But vow to end every week with inbox zero and celebrate it!

3.  Get in the clouds. (9:06 am)

The cloud has come and you need to get your stuff there.  Take three minutes and join a couple of tools that I use that might be helpful to you:

Evernote – I send every email, worddoc, business card, PDF etc. that I think I need to save, scan in any document that I need to keep.  I have one email folder called process that I clean out often – everthing thing else is emailed to “file” (which I have set up as an auto send to evernote) for safe keeping.
Google Docs – I have given up on local based word processing after several losses of my hard-drive.  When I write a 40,000 word book, I just don’t want to trust Microsoft not to crash.  I am about 90% in Google Doc which allows me to share and not print or email.  Less clutter.

So, there you have it.  Nine minutes on on Monday morning and you are several steps forward to being organized.

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