Organizing at Work

This week we heard from Dan Loya at Spaces Transformed.  Dan gave a talk and a couple of comments that I had on this  important topic are below:

1. Dan did not mention this app for  note taking, but many experts, tech people and tech websites state that “Google Keep” is the best note taking app. I have used this app for about five years and I'm extremely happy with it and I would suggest that everyone in the group try it. It is free, easy to use and learn, is available for  Android, Apple  and on your Windows computer and it  syncs instantly to all of your devices
2 For my To Do list, I have probably tried 10 apps over the years and have stopped using them after two to three weeks. I believe that the best note taking app is an eight and ½  by 11 legal pad or a 4 by 6 legal pad. What are the benefits of a pen and paper? We all know how to read and write, you can use different ink colors and you can highlight your to-do list, throw it out when it is completed and. it is also a multi-platform device in that you can take it home at night or on the weekend by throwing it in your back. I have found that I need to 2   to-do lists, one for my personal use and one for work.
3. Organizing your emails.  I would suggest the following approach using Outlook 365. Outlook 365 contain something called “Categories” at the ribbon at the top of the program, and categories allows you to color code your emails. As my emails come in, I color them purple- high priority work matters, red-for work matters, yellow- for personal, orange for higher-level personal, blue for an item that needs to be purchased, green for billing, accounts receivable and money related issues and brown for work matters. Categories also allows you to use two colors and in my system I use “purple red” for urgent client related work matters and they get my highest priority. The beauty of this system is that it organizes your emails by category and by need and it allows you to direct your time and focus to your highest priority matters, which are in my case purple red.
 Before I take a break, after I come back from  a meeting or Court and before I leave to go home I always try and make sure that my “Purple Red” emails are addressed.
The system is easy to use, free and very intuitive!
Finally, every 7 to 10 days, I try to achieve something called “Inbox Zero” and then I put a smile on my face.  Inbox Zero means that I delete every email that is still in my  Inbox and then smile because I have uncluttered my emails and simplified my work space.
This approach forces me to evaluate every email as it comes into my In Box,  I either act on the email, color code it for later use or delete it. Give this approach a try it works. Jim Shenwick  jshenwick@gmail.com