Reducing Paper Clutter

I just ran across this great article in LifeHacker.org and had to share it. It deals with paper clutter and the author provides a great method for controlling it, with out being overly OCD about it. Here's the link: http://bit.ly/kxC30n

Adding a quick, daily scan of the paper that came in during the day is a great way to keep the stack of paper manageable until your weekly review time. That daily review should be quick and "unfiltered" as you briefly scan items and place into "keep" and "toss" piles. (I bet your "toss" pile ends up the larger of the two!)

In Session 2 of my Time Management seminars we talk about the weekly review process. This article provides a great addition to that review session.

Some additional organizational thoughts for the weekly review process that I might add to this writer's process are:

• Add action items to the proper to-do list or calendar date; then toss that piece of paper.
• Informational items such as phone numbers, addresses and such, add to the proper storage media right then and there; then toss that piece of paper.
• Paper that you need to keep handy, such as bills and forms, can be stacked in an inbox to be addressed that week. Add an action item to your to-do list on the day you intend to do it. If there's anything you didn't address by the next review session, you can reschedule into the next week. Another option, if you have space and are so inclined, is to have file folders for each week day and place the items in their appropriate day. But if you don't truly have room for this, don't do it - it will just add clutter.

Depression, Anxiety and Time Management

For everyone, depression and anxiety are part of the natural ebb and flow of our emotional make up. Everyone feels depressed at some point in their life. It is a natural part of the grieving process; a response to some significant loss.

We also experience anxiety at the prospect of some impending "doom" (whether it be a test we're not prepared for or that meeting with the boss that was called unexpectedly.) Anxiety is our "early warning system" that primes our defenses and readies our fight-or-flight reflexes.

For the majority of people these emotional responses are usually relatively short lived and have a minimal impact on our ability to function. But for many these emotions can darken the world into an ever spiraling vortex that is debilitating and paralyzing. Some take medications to level the playing field and minimize the damage; others hunker down and wait it out; still others seek out various coping mechanisms - some good, some not so good - to help weather the storm.

Regardless of where you fit in this spectrum, it is important to know that depression and anxiety will have an ill effect on our daily routines in time management. Our emotions play a vital part in both our desire and ability to be focused, proactive, and consistent. When we are depressed or anxious our tendency is to avoid the things that we feel are fueling those emotions, whether or not they actually are. All those things on our to-do list look like big red buttons hot-wired directly into our depression and anxiety and the last thing we want to do is face them and deal with them. They don't just loom large on our horizon, they are gigantic! They are the monsters hiding in our closets; they are the stuff of our nightmares - literally.

The result? We avoid doing our time management. It's amazing all the things that can creep up to crowd out even the possibility of sitting down to do it. I, myself, am partial to the "crawl back in bed and pull the covers over my head" response. And what do we do when we avoid doing the work? We beat ourselves up and tell ourselves how really bad we are. And that leads into more spiraling downwards, more anxiety, more depression... and more avoidance... and... and... and...

I know from experience that the reality of those to-do items is never as dire as we feel. On more than one occasion, I've bitten the bullet and faced my fears head on and discovered that it really wasn't so bad after all. It didn't dissipate the depression or solve the anxiety, but I was able to at least stop beating myself up for a little while. But for those who suffer from extremer bouts of depression and anxiety, it is often the rare occasion that they can muster up the ability to forge ahead and get down to work.

I will tell you right now that we are all victims to our emotions. Even those who only suffer mild, or "normal," depression and anxiety are victims of these emotional quagmires -- they just may not be as long lasting or as debilitating. But even if you suffer from chronic depression or have an anxiety disorder, either taking or not taking medication, your reactions to them are perfectly normal.

These emotional mine fields derail us, regardless of the severity of them. They throw us off the track of our daily planning and review, as well as our ability to monitor our activities throughout the day. While our instinct, as well as our fears, keep us focused on our being derailed, that is really not the right place to focus—especially during the time of derailment.

Instead the better focus is on what we need to do to get us back on track. The first thing may be to do absolutely nothing. During the throws of the depression or anxiety it may be impossible to do anything we might consider “productive”. Usually that just makes us feel worse, so let me give you permission to just do absolutely nothing. You have enough to worry about, so why add this to your plate? As the saying goes, “this too shall pass.” So you can wait this out and pick back up when the storm is over.

The next thing to do is to be gentle with yourself. Don’t beat yourself up or put yourself down. Be forgiving. Also, don’t try to analyze the situation right now. Once you’re back on track and some time has gone by, then it will be time to review and see what happened and what got you back on track.

And finally, realize that the things you are worrying about probably aren’t as big as you think. All those action items on your to-do list will take far less time than your fears are telling you; the severity level of them is probably much lower than you think; they will still be there—without much damage done—when things settle down.

Once the depression or anxiety has subsided, gently return to your practice. At first it will feel overwhelming, so take it smaller bites. Start fresh – don’t grab your now stale to-do list and try to pick up where you left off. Grab a fresh sheet of paper, a new page in your planner, whatever you’re using and start anew. Then, focus on the prioritization aspect. Don’t worry about the doing of the tasks, just the prioritizing of them. This is when limiting your “A’s” to just 3 is really important. You will want to make up for lost time – that’s natural. Fight this urge and force yourself to limit you “A” priorities to only 3. Focus on these for now and leave the rest.

Next, look for those things that can be scheduled forward, or better yet, completely cancelled. Getting them off your plate now will free you up considerably.

After a few weeks, when things have returned to something you consider normal, and you sit down to do your weekly review, look back over the events and analyze it. But don’t look for what went wrong. Instead, look at the things that got you back on track. Focus on the positive actions you took. These are the tools you will want to file away in your “tool box” for later retrieval.

The most important thing to remember is to not beat yourself up—realize that you are human and that what you’re going through is 100% natural. You’re not alone and you’re not the first person to have this problem. Focus on self care and then work on gently (and this is really the key word) returning to the practice.

Upcoming Seminar

Part 2 of the "IT'S ABOUT TIME" seminar is this coming Saturday, 19 March 2011, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. Location is 224 Waverly Place, New York, NY (the Parish Hall of St. John's in the Village).

Space is limited, so contact me at apjones.nyc@gmail.com to reserve your spot.

In this seminar, you will:

• Understand the Core Principles and Core Values of Time Management
• Discover what is, and is not, working for you
• Explore the roles you play and the people and commitments you have
• Recognize and avoid burnout
• Learn effective "lessons learned" techniques.

Out of the Dust

This is the beginning of Lent. It is one of those times of year, like New Years and, for some, Advent - perhaps the odd birthday or two as well - when we try our best to set a goal and stick to it.

In Lent we traditionally give something up - something that is both dear to us and something we feel we can live without, such as chocolate, or coffee, or meat. A more recent development in the Lenten tradition is to take on something new as a spiritual exercise such as setting aside a specific time to read or meditate, or to do some specific charitable act.

Whatever your spiritual background, be it Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Jainism... whatever it may be, I'm sure you've found yourself at this very common cross-road of setting some task for yourself such as letting go of something or taking on something. You said to yourself, "This is good. I can do this."

But what happens a week or so into the practice? Well, if you're like me, you find that you skipped one... then two... then... well, the practice sorta fell by the wayside and that chocolate bar just magically was in your hand and all was gone, save the wrapper!

The same holds true of our time management practices. We start our really well those first few days, doing our morning planning, our evening review, keeping up with our continuous monitoring. Then that morning the alarm went off late, or our best friend came into town and we left work a little early and hung out with them until the wee hours - no planning or review that day. Then it was a quick slide down that slippery slope.

How do I know this, you ask? Easy! It happens to me! Yep. I'm just like you. It happens; we start out, we slip. So what do we do?

I went to a quiet day retreat this weekend and the Rev'd Barbara Crafton was the speaker and this very topic was part of her focus. I relearned some very interesting points I'd like to share with you.

1) Little by little our disciplines trickle into dust. We tend to really beat ourselves up over this, but it is very much the nature of things. There are certainly things that can help us stay on track, but chances are you start out gang-busters, and then little by little that discipline just fades away.

I want to tell you something about this... IT'S OK! It happens. So what do you do? Easy. You pick it up and start it again... no harm, no foul.

2) Failing at something doesn't mean you are a failure. Just because you failed at doing your planning doesn't mean you are a failure - or that you are a failure at time management itself. Failing at something isn't a bad thing; quite the contrary, it's an opportunity to learn.

Sit back and think about why you may have failed. Maybe you're trying to force it at a time that's not right for you (if you're not a "morning person" then setting that alarm clock a half hour earlier just probably was recipe for disaster anyway.)

This practice - the practice of good time management - is a gift, not a job. Let yourself enjoy it; do it at a time that is good for you. If you do that, then you will begin to see more and more how your life is continuing to grow toward betterment.

The Biggest Enemy

I have found that the biggest enemy to Time Management is that sense you have at the end of the day that you got absolutely nothing accomplished; that your day has just been a waste of time.

You can combat that with one easy exercise: pick a time each day at the end of the day (if you're an office oriented person, that might be around 5:30; if you work at home or freelance, it might be later in the day - closer to supper) to review your day. Make sure it's the same time each day.

Take just 15 minutes to review your task list, calendar and journal for the day. Look over your task list, add those myriad of things that you did do that didn't start out on your list. Check off the things you accomplished, delete the ones that are no longer relevent, and schedule forward the ones that must be relegated to another day.

Now take a fresh look at all that you did accomplish today! Smile! You did a great job! You've gained back control of the day and you can look back with pride in a job well done. Now go get a good night's sleep... you deserve it!