Ruthless paperwork is the route to a clean desk. It’s a problem of small-scale decision-making, every piece of paper requires a decision and a final destination. Too often, papers fall prey to the procrastination syndrome: I’ll think about it tomorrow.

Ideally, mail and paperwork should be attended to for a few minutes every day. If the amount is small, three times a week may do. You don’t want papers to build up to the point where you look at it and you get discouraged. The easiest way to avoid that is to keep up to date.

Files can be kept in open piles on a desk or in folders, according to your style. If a clean visual environment is important to you, use boxes and folders as you RAFT. If you prefer a look of activity and busyness, paper piles may be the answer.

If you do keep stuff, keep it in a way so that it doesn’t jam up your life and you can find it again.

Use the RAFT template: refer it, act on it, file it or toss it.

• Refer it to the correct person, if you’re not the one to handle it.
• Act on it immediately. Items that can be dealt with easily, do now; David Allen’s two-minute rule.
• File it, if necessary. Eighty percent of filed papers are never looked at again. Make sure you really need it before you keep it.
• Toss out anything you no longer need. Don’t keep routine memos or anything that gives you information you already know or have. Record meeting information on your calendar, then toss the memo. We you receive document revisions, toss the orginals.

Want to make success a habit in your life? If you’ve got determination, it may be simpler than what you think. All you need is a change in your thinking pattern. Changing your thoughts can change your beliefs, your expectations, your attitude, and consequently, your behaviour.

A change in behaviour will eventually lead you to a change in performance. And when you perform at your peak, you succeed. It doesn’t matter where you are in life, or what you do for a living, by changin the way you look at thingsand think about things, you can achieve success.

The following keys can help you unlock a success habit:

1. Focus

Focus is the ability to bring all of our talents, skills, mental energy, and knowledge to bear on a specific task or desired outcome. It is one of our most powerful tools. When focussed, individuals report the experience of “time evaporating.” It is total immersion in the process of doing and creating. In sports, it is known as being in the ‘zone’.

With focus, we can move mountains. Without it, life & work can be difficult and full of frustration. Ambivalence about what you want will undermine your success. Make up your mind, and be realistic about your desires. Successful people use what they desire as motivation.

2. Set Goals

You can’t measure achievement if you don’t know where you’re going. Set specific goals such as: I’ll walk for 30 minutes per day; or I’ll write a 1,000 words each day; or I’ll lose 20 pounds.

Chose simple goals to start. Once you’ve achieved the simple goals, reward yourself and moved on to more complex goals. Write them down and keep them in your mind all the time. Focusing on your goals will help you get through the day. Successful people.

3. Take Action

Any goal can be broken down into smaller steps to make them more manageable. Break your principle goal into smaller goals, and then the small goals into simple steps. Then, give yourself deadlines to complete each step. Keep focused on the goal, while persistently working through the day-to-day steps and anything is within your reach.

4. Cultivate Your Attitude

Successful people have the discipline to stay positive even through rough times. They don’t worry about things going wrong. Attitude is a result of deliberate action.

Once negativity seeps into your thinking, it can immobilize you and stop you from taking action. Worrying is useless. If you think about it, most things we worry about don’t ever happen anyhow. Even when some things go wrong, you’ll be able to handle whatever comes your way if you have a positive attitude.

5. Have Passion

What is really important for you? What do you really want in life? Whatever it is, you need to develop desire for the things you want. This desire has to come from your mind and your heart, and it should be your driving force. Like a compass on a ship, your desire will guide you through rough waters until you get to your destination.

Determination and optimism can carry you toward achieving the goals needed to create the life you want. When your vision is clear, you don’t get stopped by temporary problems. Even when you feel like giving up, your vision can carry you through those moments.

Teach yourself to remain centred and focused, like successful people. Do whatever it takes to reach your goals. What you’re working for is worth the effort.

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Communication works best in an active, not a passive environment. If you want to get your message across to your audience members, you have to connect with them.

Interaction is a continuous way to get feedback on how well your content is understood. It also gives listeners a chance to contribute their experience to the learning process.

How do you build interaction?

• Be prepared to be spontaneous. Have questions ready—begin with relatively easy, accessible ones. Ask questions that create disagreement and watch the audience come to life.
• Work to get everyone involved: even in large groups. I have an assortment of candy ready. I give a chocolate bar to the first person who answers a question. It’s amazing how responsive the rest of the group gets when there is chocolate at stake. (Yes, these are adults.)
• Break into small groups. Ask participants to consider issues with the person sitting next to them or small groups.
• Discuss as a larger group. Have the smaller groups present their findings to the whole group. Use those points to generate further discussion with the audience.

The way you move when speaking also affects you connection with the audience. If you spend the entire speach leaning on the lectern, with your arms folded, it will be difficult to connect with the listeners.

Move!

• Don’t rock or scurry back and forth, but don’t get locked into one position.
• Walk toward the audience.
• If you can’t walk toward the audience, lean in.
• Use eye contact.
• Energize and use gestures. The larger the audience and the room, the bigger your gestures have to be.
• Get your face involved.
• Use vocal variety.

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Basement, before professional organization (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by: Sharon Lowenheim

Many people want to get organized but don’t know how to take the first step. Unfortunately, the first step many of them take is the wrong step! Here are the ten biggest mistakes that would-be organizers make, and how to avoid them.

1. Waiting for a large block of available time

Many disorganized people say that they will get organized when they have a completely free weekend, or when they can take a few days off from work. There are several problems with this approach. One is that it postpones getting started. Another is that higher priority tasks always crop up, and the seemingly free block of time rarely ends up being used exclusively for organizing. Spending a full weekend organizing can be exhausting! It’s better to start in small increments — an evening here, a few weekend hours there. Some organizing tasks can even be completed while watching television, or waiting for the laundry to finish. The important thing is to get started!

2. Being discouraged by the big picture

Many people want to get organized but feel overwhelmed by the size of their organizing problem. They don’t know where to start, so they don’t start at all. The Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” There are no shortcuts to organizing. Decide where you are going to start – pick one cabinet, or one section of a room, or one closet – and just start!

3. Hiding clutter in the closet

In an effort to make one’s home presentable to guests, many people deal with clutter by shoving it into a shopping bag and hiding it in the closet. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as it is just a short-term fix. It is important to take those shopping bags out of the closet after the guests leave and make decisions about the contents. Otherwise you will have trouble locating those items when you need to find them again, and you may also be giving prime storage space to many things you don’t need to keep.

4. Buying organizing products first

Stores like The Container Store and Bed, Bath and Beyond are full of great organizing products. However, it is important to first measure how much stuff needs to be stored. Start by sorting out the different types of items to be organized, and getting rid of the items you no longer need to keep. Next decide how you are going to organize the items, and where you are going to keep them. Only then are you ready to start considering organizing products.

5. Reading multiple organizing books

In this self-help culture, there is no shortage of books on organizing In their desperation to get organized, many people buy several of these books. However, since each organizer has his or her own methodology, reading several books without getting started will only be confusing. It is better to read one book and follow that author’s approach to get organized. Then, if there are aspects of that system that aren’t working well for you, you can consult additional books to find other ideas. Another alternative is to hire a professional organizer, who will work with you to come up with an organizing system custom-tailored for you.

6. Putting things in storage

The self-storage industry grossed over $20 billion in this country in 2007, and one out of every 10 households in the U.S. currently rents a self-storage unit. Yes, there are situations in which it is quite appropriate to rent a storage unit. However, many people opt for a storage unit as an alternative to making decisions about their possessions. After you have lived without your stored items for a year, you can safely say that these are not items that are useful to you. Instead of wasting your money storing them, make decisions about them now.

7. Asking the wrong person for help

Organizing can go faster and be more enjoyable if you have company. However, no matter how enthusiastic your friends or family members are about helping you, they may be too emotionally involved in your clutter situation to be objective. The last thing you need to hear is, “I can’t believe you let things get this bad!” or “You’re just like your father; he could never throw anything away either!” You’ll find the organizing process easier and far more productive if you work with a professional organizer.

8. Getting distracted from decision-making

Clutter, it has been said, is the result of postponed decisions. The process of getting organized is thus one of decision-making. However, some people get distracted from making decisions and start reading through unread papers or going down memory lane while reviewing photo albums. It is important to stay focused while organizing. Items that need detailed review in order for decisions to be made should be put aside in a “Review” pile and dealt with at another time.

9. Not involving the rest of your household

The habits of the other members of your household are very likely contributing to your home’s organizing issues. Furthermore, items that are used by everyone (such as kitchen and bathroom supplies, CDs and DVDs) need to be organized in a way that everyone can find them. Make sure that you have the cooperation of everyone in your household in making your organizing decisions.

10. Keeping something “just in case”

We all know the frustration of throwing something away and then regretting it later because you suddenly find the perfect use for it. To compensate, we then save too many items, “just in case”. However, the amount of storage space taken up by those “just in case” items – which will most likely never be used again — far outweighs the inconvenience of having to rebuy things that we have discarded in error. Unless you can think of a use for something right now, let it go.

I hope this article will prevent you from going down the wrong path when you get ready to organize. Happy sorting!

About the Author:
Sharon Lowenheim, MBA, MSE, is a Professional Organizer and owner of Organizing Goddess, LLC, in New York City. Since 2006, she has taught organizing skills to individuals and groups in their homes and their offices. She can be contacted by e-mail at sharon@organizinggoddess.net or by phone at (212) 249-3537 . Visit Sharon on the web at http://www.organizinggoddess.net

Article Source: http://production-management.bestmanagementarticles.com

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I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t start keeping a journal until later in my life. I had regarded writing in a diary as being too self-absorbed. However, once I overcame the perception and got started, I quickly discovered the benefit and pleasure that came from keeping a journal.

However, it’s not always easy to keep a journal. We tend to side-track the process with self-imposed limits. We feel we don’t write well enough; our lives aren’t exciting or glamorous enough to document; and so on.

The thing is, there are no rules or limits on how to keep a journal. Here are some tips that can help you get started and get the most out of keeping a journal.

• Write the date at the top of the page.
• Include the time, location and weather for each day’s entry.
• Leave space at the top, so you can go back and give the entry a title, once you’re finished.
• Find the format that suits you best: loose-leaf binder, cheap notebook, Moleskine, leather-bound diary, all can work.
• Find the time that works best for you: first thing in the morning, last thing at night.
• Find the place that works best for you: the quiet of your bedroom, in a public coffee shop and so on.
• Find the writing tool you are most comfortable with: a pen, pencil, marker, coloured pencils or other writing instrument.
• Don’t be concerned with grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. Write so that you get your thoughts out as quickly as possible.
• Write as often as you can. However, don’t pressure yourself to write daily. The more often you do write, the better you will become.
• Draw, sketch, doodle instead of writing.
• Use lists to kick-start your writing. “The 5 best things about today were…”
• Keep special mementos in your journal: event tickets, photographs, flower petals, etc.
• Let your feelings out. You can keep a journal which merely records the events of your life. There’s nothing wrong with that. You can add to its benefit by recording how you felt about what was going on.
• Talk about a significant moment in the day
• Write from your heart for yourself. This is a place to be honest with yourself. Write about the way you feel, not the way you think you should feel.
• Although you should write for yourself, if you feel like you need an audience – Pretend you’re writing a letter or note to a trusted family member or friend.
• Enjoy your journaling! Keeping a journal should not be a grim chore. If you see it that way, you’re not likely to keep it up for too long. Approach it in the spirit of creative play; an enjoyable, quiet-time gift to yourself.

Journals can be effective tools in helping one get organised, in the creative process, or in developing a new habit or skill. However, keeping a journal is a habit in and of itself and can be developed.

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Encouragement goes straight to the heart. In fact, the word itself comes from a combination of the prefix “en” which means “to put into” and the Latin word “cor” which means heart. Knowing what a big difference encouragement makes in your own life, what can you do to help others “to take heart” when things get tough or you want to acknowledge a job well-done?

The following tips were handed out at a meeting I attended. The sheet had no attribution , but I believe they came from this post by Dave Cheong.

1. Take an interest. I believe this is one of the most effective ways of encouraging others. Show that you’re interested in what they’re doing. Get them talking. People like to talk about themselves and once you get them talking, you fire up their enthusiasm.
2. Acknowledge what’s important. When you acknowledge what’s important to another, you provide validation about who they are and what they’re doing. Whether we admit it or not, each of us craves acknowledgement. Affirmation fuels confidence and self-esteem.
3. Acknowledge a job well done. Worthwhile accomplishments take time and effort. You can encourage by acknowledging someone’s effort. A simple “well done” or “thank you” can have a strong effect, which can make the difference between going on or giving up.
4. Show your appreciation. It’s common courtesy. Thank someone when they do something for you. Thank your partner after they cook a nice meal. Thank a friend for lending you a book. A simple thank you lets others know what they have done is meaningful to you.
5. Return the favour. If someone does something nice for you, show your appreciation by returning the favour. This should not be seen as an obligation, nor as a contest. You’re not trying to top the other’s contribution, but to express what their actions mean to you.
6. Do something unexpected. This is a step beyond returning the favour. Respond with something unexpected: out of the blue. Such a response has a strong impact and can reach others at an emotional level.
7. Ask for advice or confide in them. Haven’t you felt important when someone asked for your advice or confided in you about something important? Didn’t you find you were energised and eager to help. Taking someone into your confidence can motivate them to show your faith in them is well founded.
8. Lend a hand. Waiting for someone to ask you for advice is passive. You can take the initiative by offering to lend a hand. If a person sees you are willing to commit your time and energy to their interests, they will be more committed to seeing it through and less likely to give up.

filing space (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Options for managing document filing and retrieval.

By establishing a consistent system for filing and tracking documents, you will impose a sense of order on your records. This will save you time and ensure that the records you need will be at your fingertips. This works for business or personal filing systems

There are lots of choices when it comes to filing documents. No single system suits all types of records. It is important to match the system you choose to the particular types of records (financial, personnel and so on) you are keeping.

Here is an overview of the most popular options:

• Alphabetical filing is one of the oldest, most commonly used systems. It’s a good method for keeping personnel files, vendor records and customer files. Be sure to develop a universal index and a system of standards that describes how the names should be broken down for filing.
• Numerical sequence, such as accounting numbers, customer numbers, order numbers. There are several types of numerical filing systems, with the simplest being consecutive. Documents are placed in order according to their assigned number. Experts say numerical systems work best if you have fewer than 10,000 files to manage.
• Geographical sequence, such as by province: with breakdowns by cities, towns, postal codes, etc.
• Subject or organizational, such as by department, function or subject activity.
• Chronological, by years, quarters, months and/or days.
• Color coded. This coding is generally used in conjunction with one of the above systems to make it even faster and more efficient. For a numerical filing system, for example, you’d use a different coloured file folder for each number from 0 to 9, to speed retrieval and refilling.
• Hybrid. Companies often use alphabetical or numerical sequencing within geographical, subject or chronological filing systems.
• Bar codes. Scannable bar codes can speed more than retail checkout lines and inventory tracking. Organizations ranging from doctors’ offices to Fortune 500 companies use them for document tracking. Various bar codes, including the alphanumeric Code 128, are commercially available. Users can invest in equipment and software to generate their own labels or buy labels commercially.

Good communication and interpersonal relationships are imperative to overall business performance and sustainability. Yet they tend to be neglected in terms of their importance. Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, once said that 60% of all management problems are the result of poor communication.

While poor business decisions can cause the ultimate failure of a business, many businesses become torn apart and fail because of communication and relationship problems. Here are five common communication and relationship problems.

1. Dictating This is management and communications along the lines of: “This is my organization. If you want to work here, do what I tell you. If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.” Trust and respect are the essential to developing healthy leader-follower relationships. Employees need to be treated with respect, shown appreciation, and given recognition from their leaders to maintain engagement in their work. Threats and paychecks may be enough to get one task done, but the long haul they don’t come close to motivating employees the same way trust and respect do.
2. Secrecy Open communication is important in any environment says Lin Grensing-Pophal, author of “Human Resource Essentials: Your Guide to Starting and Running the HR Function,” it is important to avoid any sense or perception that employees or staff are more “in the know” than other employees. Even when this is not the case, the potential for the perception of exclusivity may exist. Steps should be taken to address any issues that may arise openly, honestly and without preference being given to anyone or any group within the workplace.
3. Infallibility Rabbi Feldman was having trouble with his congregation. It seemed they could agree upon nothing. The president of the congregation said, “Rabbi, this cannot be allowed to continue. Come, there must be a conference, and we must settle all areas of dispute once and for all.” The rabbi agreed. At the appointed time, the rabbi, the president, and ten elders met in the conference room of the synagogue, sitting about a magnificent mahogany table.One by one the issues were dealt with and on each issue, it became more and more apparent that the rabbi was a lonely voice in the wilderness. The president of the synagogue said, “Come, Rabbi, enough of this. Let us vote and allow the majority to rule.” He passed out the slips of paper and each man made his mark. The slips were collected and the president said, “You may examine them, Rabbi. It is eleven to one against you. We have the majority.”

   Whereupon the rabbi rose to his feet in offended majesty. “So,” he said, “you now think because of the vote that you are right and I am wrong. Well, that is not so. I stand here” –and he raised his arms impressively– “and call upon the Holy One of Israel to give us a sign that I am right and you are wrong.”And as he said this, there came a frightful crack of thunder and a brilliant flash of lightning that struck the mahogany table and cracked it in two. The room was filled with smoke and fumes, and the president and the elders were hurled to the floor. Through the carnage, the rabbi remained erect and untouched, his eyes flashing and a grim smile on his face.

   Slowly, the president lifted himself above what was left of the table. His hair was singed, his glasses were hanging from one ear, his clothing was in disarray. Finally he said, “All right, eleven to two. But we still have the majority.”

4. Leaders need to show commitment and consistency. Employees value a leader who can stick to his guns. But self-justification and blind faith in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary can push leaders over the line into arrogance. If you’ve crossed this line then you are at serious risk of losing all credibility and there is only one way to get it back: Admit you were wrong.
5. Conflict Conflict is a normal and natural part of our workplace. Conflict can be helpful in making necessary changes within the home or work environment. However, unresolved conflict can result in feelings of dissatisfaction, unhappiness, hopelessness, depression, and other emotions. It can result in behaviors such as physical or emotional withdrawal, resignation from jobs, dissolution of personal relations, aggression, and even violence.Many managers employ the ostrich technique in dealing with conflict. They bury their heads in the sand and try to ignore it. However, this does nothing to improve the situation. When conflict is driven underground, it only grows and will stay underground until it is so intense that an explosion may the next step.
6. Unfairness Learn how to fight fair. To do this, people need to focus on developing both emotional maturity and interpersonal skills. At a minimum, there are five basic ground rules: avoid personal attacks, don’t drag others into taking sides, don’t use subversion, focus on the issue at hand (i.e., don’t dredge up old issues) and keep heated discussions private. Bullying or childish behavior may win battles, but the result may be that businesses lose the war.

When it comes to working with people, those who do it best tend to follow two rules which reflect two of the habits Stephen Covey describes in his book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood” and “Think win-win.”

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I’ve been using an iPhone for some time now and it’s become an indispensable part of my productivity toolbox. Here are ten free productivity apps for the iPhone.

1. Evernote – Number one on the, without any question is Evernote. EN on the iPhone lets you capture any moment or idea as it happens, wherever you may find yourself.  Evernote takes notes in whatever format is best for you — text, photos, audio — and syncs automatically with your Mac, PC and Web. No matter where you are your notes are accessible. If you pay for the premium service ($45 per year) you can sync your files too.
2. Dragon Dictation — With Dragon Dictation 2.0, you can dictate status updates directly to your Social Networking applications (Facebook and Twitter), send text or email your friends, send notes and reminders to yourself … all using your voice. The new Dragon Dictation 2.0 also features multilingual capabilities, giving you the option to switch between a variety of languages.
3. iQue – iQue is the Forgetful Person’s FREE “Instant Recall Machine,” and it’s for forgetful people. Passwords, account numbers, personal info you wouldn’t want in a unprotected note? iQue uses associative memory, mimicking the way a normal brain remembers to help your brain work properly. It’s a way of tagging things you NEED to remember, so you can be more productive —even when you can’t remember what you were going to do next.
4. YouNote – Another simple note-taking application. You can take the note in a number of formats (Drawing, Audio, Text, Photo,…) You can add criteria (tags, a color, the geolocation,…) which simplifies the filing and finding of the notes. There is also a paid version of YouNote which adds a number of useful features.
5. VoiceNotes -is a voice recording application for iPhone that allows you to make short recordings and play them back later. VoiceNotes is perfect for making quick reminders of things that are inconvenient to write down in text.
6. BugMe! Lite – Make quick handwritten ink notes and reminders on the fly… set quick alarms, save notes to your Home Screen and share your “sticky” notes by email or Twitter…
7. Money & Bills – is the iPhone client for Pageonce. Pageonce merges information from various sources into one page. It lets you access personal information—for example, the status of your utility bills, recent online purchases, and credit-card transactions. PageOnce uses bank-level security to keep accounts from being hacked.
8. LockBox – lets you store and protect sensitive data such as credit card numbers, bank accounts, passwords, private notes, etc. The data is encrypted and protected by a secret code.
9. Dragon Dictation - Dragon Dictation for the iPhone is an easy-to-use voice recognition application that allows you to quickly speak and instantly see your text or email messages. When you are on-the-go, turn talk into type —from short text messages to longer email messages, and anything in between.
10. Instapaper – Instapaper lets you create offline versions of your favorite Web articles you can read when you’re not connect to a signal of some type. To save a list of pages to read, you need to visit Instapaper.com beforehand using mobile Safari, choose your content, and then launch the Instapaper app to read it offline.

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Voice mail is one of the most frustrating aspects of telephone communication; just below navigating automated phone menus. If voice mail is used properly, it can be a highly effective tool. The trick is to ensure your messages clearly communicate all the information need, but no more.

Here are some tips for leaving good voice mail messages along with half a dozen temples you can customize for your own use.

• Write down your voice-mail message before you start. It is easier to read from the page than to try and ad lib.
• Have custom greetings for different circumstances: in meetings, on vacation, business travel, etc. Update your greeting when appropriate.
• Remeber to be professional. You can never be sure who will be calling you. Leave the humourous messages for your home phone.
• Tips for leaving a good out-of-office message

Basic message – limited detail

Hello!  You have reached the voice mail of <name>. Please leave a message after the tone, and I’ll contact you. To return to the receptionist, press <number> at anytime.

Basic message – detailed

Hello, you’ve reached the voice mailbox of. Please note, you can bypass this message at any time by pressing. Today is, I am in the office, but I’m either on my phone or away from my desk. Your call is important to me. If you wish, leave a message and I will call you back at my first opportunity. If you need immediate assistance, press to have your call redirected by the receptionist.

Hello, this is <your name> of <company or department name>. I’m not available to take your call, but if you leave your name, number and a brief message, I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you would like to speak with my assistant, please dial <number>.

In meetings

Hello, you’ve reached the voice mailbox of <name>. Please note, you can bypass this message at any time by pressing <key combination>. Today is <day of week>, <date> I am in the office, but will be in meetings all day. Your call is important to me. If you wish, leave a message and I will call you back at my first opportunity. If you need immediate assistance, press <number> to have your call redirected by the receptionist.

Out of office on business

Hello, you’ve reached the voice mailbox of <name>. Please note, you can bypass this message at any time by pressing <key combination>. Today is <day of week>, <date> I am out of the office on business. If you wish, you can contact me via my cell phone <number> or by e-mail. If you need immediate assistance, press <number> to have your call redirected by the receptionist.

Vacation message

Hello, you’ve reached the voice mailbox of <name>. Please note, you can bypass this message at any time by pressing <key combination>. I am out of the office on vacation until <date>. If you need immediate assistance, press <number> to have your call redirected by the receptionist.

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