Here are nine ways I use my Kindle to reduce clutter in my life, be more efficient, and even keep off the pounds...

1. Obvious one out of the way first... buying books on the Kindle means I do not have physical books taking up space on a shelf or table. I have at this point saved well over 3 feet of shelf space buying books this way. I love books, but they are bulky and are hard to discard once you have collected them!
2. The "staying slim" part... I use my early morning treadmill time as my main reading time, and the Kindle is easy and light enough to hold with one hand and turn pages with the one thumb. I can enlarge the font size so that even though I am moving quickly, I can easily read what is in front of me. And because it's moving with me, it's not like having a magazine propped up on the console that I am bobbing up and down in front of and fussing with pages.
3. I read the news during this treadmill time, so I quickly control how I get my news and what I want to skip over, etc. I used to watch TV news on the treadmill and was at the mercy of commercials and the timing of what news they wanted to cover at any given moment. You can subscribe to various newspapers and news blogs and they are delivered fresh when you turn on your device. (Bonus: No newspaper clutter!)
4. I read my favorite blogs on the Kindle. (Pssst: This blog has been the #1 Home & Garden blog on the Kindle since Sept. 2008! And today, it's even #12 OVERALL! Thank you so much!) It costs $0.99 - 1.99 per month per subscription, depending upon which blogs you want to subscribe to... but if time is scarce, it's wonderful to have that content delivered to what I think of as my "centralized reading device." I don't really want to sit in front of my computer reading everything.
5. I read long documents on the Kindle too. You can e-mail documents as attachments to your Kindle's special e-mail address (look in "Manage Your Kindle" on Amazon's site to find it), and they will show up your Kindle! PDFs, Word documents, and other formats translate really well. I especially love reading eBooks this way-- there are lots of downloadable PDFs that you'd otherwise need to print out to read comfortably. There is a small charge for this (I believe it's 15 cents per document to send them), but that is very worth it to me (probably save that much in paper and printer ink alone). Full instructions for this process are in section 8.3 of the Kindle user guide.
6. I read web articles this way also. Constantly throughout my workday I get wind of articles that would be really fun to read but would interrupt my workday to stop and read them. There is a fantastic free service called "Instapaper," at www.instapaper.com, where you create an account, put in your special Kindle e-mail address and set it up, and get a button for your toolbar that says "Read Later." When you find an article on the web, press the "Read Later" button, and the article gets sent to your Kindle for reading when you're ready. This is my new favorite thing!! I am so excited about this service. (This also is subject to the 15 cent Amazon charge per emailed item)
7. I travel with the Kindle and it reduces clutter in my carry-on bag. I am such a bookworm I used to travel with multiple heavy books and magazines to read on the plane or train, and I now have lightened my load considerably! (Bonus: I always have a dictionary with me too.)
8. I save time buying books wirelessly, because I don't have to drive over to the bookstore to purchase something I want to read. And if I am traveling, I don't have to spend time hunting down a bookstore in an unfamiliar city. The Kindle works on the cellular network, so you can download a book from almost anywhere.
9. I get text clippings of my notes and highlights right on my computer. While I am reading, I use the Kindle's little "mouse" control to make highlights on passages and write notes to myself about what I think on the small keyboard. I can plug in my Kindle with the USB cable and grab all of the text from these notes and passages from the "My Clippings" file. Since they are already in text format and "paste-able," I can use this information much more quickly and easily. Instructions for this are in section 8.2 of the Kindle user guide.

I did not expect to like the Kindle as much as I do! Hopefully you see why now. I think of it as an "iPod for books." I recently treated myself to a really cool "Gelaskin" applique for mine, for fun but also to protect the surface when I read it at the nail salon and can tend to get nail salon gunk on it. :)

What do you think about the Kindle? What are your favorite tips for using it to save time and reduce clutter in your life?  Share in the comments! (Kindle photo above from Amazon.com)

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OUR STUFF SPEAKS TO US.

The objects and environments we choose to surround ourselves with are constantly and subtly giving messages to our subconscious mind about how we feel about ourselves and our future. If you have a closet full of clothes that are too small, every morning when you look at those clothes you are getting the negative message that you are too fat. If you have a workspace that is beautiful, with lots of color and flowers and handsome furniture, you are getting the message that you like your work and coming here is a good thing. If you are keeping a wheelchair you absolutely don't need, that you must see frequently and work around as you go about your daily life, you are getting the message that you'll probably need that wheelchair. That can't be good.

Why keep something that is going to bring constant negative messages into your life? If you are keeping things around you that represent bad memories, bad jobs, negative people, and limiting beliefs about yourself, you are directly contributing to your life being and feeling less joyful, less hopeful, and LESS, in general. Don't let stuff steal your joy with its subtle whispering over time!

Commit to your environment fully supporting you in having an OUTSTANDING LIFE.

Here are a few posts from before that really reminded me of this point too:

It's So Totally ME! (about my serious mature pajamas)
Get Real By Watching a Cartoon... (about the incredible messages about stuff in the movie "UP")
What Do I REALLY Think About Feng Shui? (today's post being one place I agree with Feng Shui strongly)

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1. Exercise equipment: Purchased with the best of intentions, these devices often end up as guilt-inducing clothes racks. Unless you really use it regularly, sell it on Craigslist or to a sports consignment store and get your bedroom back! Use the money to get a gym membership where they have much more equipment. It's much better to buy equipment like this as a reward once you've proven to yourself that you can stick to a program for a certain period of time. (You also might want to try "workwalking" if you really want to keep your treadmill-- see this previous post.)
2. Bulky specialty appliances: Deep fryers, professional grade slicers, bread machines, and buffet serving dishes take up a lot of space and are used so rarely that it almost always would be better to borrow or rent the equipment rather than store it yourself. Are you really frying that much? When is the last time you baked some bread? (Thanks to @TannaC on Twitter for giving me a laugh about bread machines that made me think of including this in my post!)
3. Large children's toys: Anybody have a Little Tikes kitchen set or a Thomas train table? How about all of those "ride-able" toys in your garage? These large toys are great for a while when the child is really involved with them, but often they fade into oblivion as the child matures and they are onto other interests. They become part of the scenery and it is easy to overlook them... or you are tempted to save them for a future child or relative. Remember that they are often easy to find in children's consignment stores... and if you must keep them, try to put them in your attic or other less accessible storage (we call this a "D" space in our Clutter Diet® program) and get them out of the way of your daily living.
4. China and other collections: When is the last time you got out your formal china settings for a large meal? Most people never use it. And many people don't have any kind of sentimental attachment to the plates they picked out for their wedding registry when they were much younger and had different taste in design. If you want to sell it, the conventional wisdom is that you get a better return selling china by the piece on eBay rather than selling as a set. You can also sell a set to a local consignment store. Of course, maybe you do use it, and maybe it does have sentimental meaning to you, and that is okay and wonderful. But if you realize it's taking up space, maybe with its own piece of furniture to store it all, it might not make sense. And that goes for other collections that may have have outlived your fascination with them. 
5. Spare furniture: You got a new sofa, and your old one is "perfectly good." Wouldn't it be great to save that sofa for your son who will be going to college in a few years? Great, if you have space to store it, but if you don't, it is a very bulky thing to keep around for something you are not sure if you will need. Whatever you do, don't get a storage unit for that stuff... remember that at some point (and it doesn't take long), the rental cost of the unit exceeds the replacement cost of the items inside, especially if those items are "used." 

Are items like these taking up a spare bedroom that you would be happier using as an office or creative space? Are you stepping over this kind of stuff and forcing storage of things around them that you do actually use frequently? Think about how you'd like to use your precious space to make your life better TODAY, instead of keeping things you are guessing about possibly needing for the future. Share your jumbo space hog stories in the comments!

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Yep, it's National Procrastination Week! Does that mean we need to put off celebrating it until next week?

Here is my challenge to you this week:  Do something you have been dreading!

Think back to a time when you have overcome your dread and tackled a big project. Maybe it was organizing your garage, maybe your closet, maybe even going through a big pile of paper on your desk. How did you feel when you got that horrible dreaded task out of your way? Like a million bucks! Like celebrating!

The root of all disorganization is truly delayed decisions and actions. Look around you—every bit of clutter on your kitchen countertop, your desk, or your coffee table is something that has not been decided yet or something that has not been done yet. In other words, procrastination is the cause of almost all clutter.

These procrastinated projects actually drain you of your energy. Spiritual teacher John-Roger says, “If you leave incomplete projects to abound, they ‘sting’ the unconscious and drag on you. You may be unaware of the cause, but the effect will be your walking around feeling heavy, with the low-energy blues. Even after you sleep like the dead for ten hours, you’ll still think you need a great deal of sleep. It’s called the karma of incompletions.”

I believe that organizing itself is not difficult if you understand some basic concepts. Almost every single dieting book really boils down to "Eat Less, Move More." And almost every single organizing book boils down to "Keep and Do Less, Live More." These are not difficult ideas, but what makes success difficult for people is the psychology around doing it. There are articles here on the blog that will help motivate you, and you can also join our Clutter Diet® program if you want even more accountability and support.

The most powerful way to overcome procrastination, in my opinion, is to get an Accountability Partner (you can call it a “Motivation Partner” if that feels better to you). Make commitments to each other to get these dreaded tasks done and report back. Make a contest out of it if you like! You’ll be surprised how much this support will get you moving.

I leave you today with a trio of quotes from the tremendous Eleanor Roosevelt:

“What one has to do usually can be done.”

“What you don't do can be a destructive force.”

“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”

Good luck with your projects, and if you need help, remember we have a team of Certified Professional Organizers® answering your unlimited questions 7 days a week in our Clutter Diet member area—check it out if you get stuck. Let us know how you're doing in the comments!

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Prevention:

• Unsubscribe to as much as you can, and better yet, don't subscribe in the first place. (Unless it's my newsletter--ha!) Make sure the content is really adding value to your life, is consistent with your goals and objectives, and is not just a constant sales pitch.
• Be careful when you buy something online-- make sure the checkbox for receiving other communications from the vendor, and especially from "their partners," is not checked off by default. Check privacy policies to make sure you understand how your information is going to be used.
• Make sure your IT person has helped you set up the best spam filtering you can get for your particular situation. Spam is a terrible time-waster!
• Have conversations with significant email senders in your life about your desire to reduce your e-mail.
• • Individuals: You can agree for someone like an assistant to send you a report in digest form of several issues and events that have occurred in one day, vs. sending you an individual e-mail about each item. And if you are on someone's "joke list," ask politely to be removed as you are trying to prevent inbox overload. Most people will understand.
  • Teams/Departments: Have deliberate, facilitated conversations about what could be done about reducing e-mail in your company culture. Some companies are having "No E-mail Fridays" to encourage people to pick up the phone and interact more, and to have more focused, productive time. Talk to your team about who really needs to copy whom and find out if there are obvious things that can be changed-- the only way to know is to talk about it directly.

Reduction:

• Cut that giant inbox down to size. Someone on our Q&A call had over 3000 messages in her inbox, and that is VERY common. To whittle it down to a manageable size, pick a reasonable date in the recent past by which you are 99% certain anything before that date has been handled or followed up with further emails. For example, if it's February, you might pick January 1st, or December 1st... and any messages prior to that date get archived into a folder. You still have them, they are searchable, and everything is going to be okay! But they will be out of your inbox and you can get closer to that fresh start.
• Use rules and filters to start weeding out and organizing what is left. In Outlook, it's under Tools>> Rules & Alerts (older versions say "Rules Wizard"). In other situations it may be called "filters." You can set up rules to take things like routine newsletters and set them up to automatically go to a folder called "Read/Review," taking them out of your daily processing. You'll be very surprised at all of the things rules and filters can do! 
• Use our Action-Reference-Trash (A-R-T) technique to help you quickly plow through the remainder of the inbox. 
• • ACTION means you need to do something with that message-- respond, research, delegate, etc. You can leave these in your inbox, or you can use Outlook tasks and calendar functions to drag the messages and create tasks and appointments from them.
  • REFERENCE means no action is required, but you need to keep it on file for later-- so get it out of the inbox. Create a system of folders that works for you to go back and find things quickly. It could be one folder called "Reference," or you could have folders for various parts of your job and life. Don't make so many folders that the decision-making slows you down! Keep it simple. Remember, it's all searchable and sortable.
  • TRASH means hitting the DELETE key... but before hitting delete, always ask yourself if you can unsubscribe to that particular type of message first and do that too.

Maintenance:

• Process your email regularly with the A-R-T decision-making technique, and pick a target number of emails in your inbox that works for you to feel "in control." For some people, that is "INBOX ZERO." For others, 10, 20, or 50 messages in the inbox feels sane and manageable. Try to hit that target number at least once a week, if not daily.
• As you maintain, always keep Prevention in mind. Unsubscribe as you can and keep those principles in practice.
• There are two main problems with maintaining e-mail-- 1) the ongoing volume and 2) the reactive, addictive, unproductive mode many people can fall into with it. You want to manage email, not have it manage you. As you maintain your inbox,  use these practices to help you stay proactive:
• • Turn off the notifications that pop up and make sounds when a new email is delivered to your inbox. These are interruptions and distractions that you have complete control over.
  • Check and process your emails at certain designated points of the day, not continuously. If you are trying to get productive work done, email will be a constant interruption if you let it.
  • If you must check at an "off-time," look at your Blackberry/iPhone instead of getting into Outlook or Gmail. You can see and respond if anything urgent has arrived, and otherwise you will be less tempted to start processing and digging in because you will have to peck responses out on a tiny keyboard.

There is SO much more to say about email! What are your favorite tips and pet peeves? Share in the comments!

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