IMS #199 - January 06 2011
How to Get Organized
Peter,
Research has shown that the average
person will waste four years of their life
looking for things. Some research suggests
it's even more.
These are things that you've already seen
and perhaps put somewhere. Now suddenly
you need whatever it is, and you spend
precious minutes, sometimes hours
searching for it.
Lack of organization also leads to
procrastination and overwhelm in the
future. Certain individuals have gone so
far as to fail to pay taxes, because of
their mess. I want to prevent that from
happening to you.
I'm going to share what works for me. I
hope to give you some of your life back,
by showing you how to get organized right
from the start.
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How to Get Organized and Stay that Way
There are many products and methods for
getting organized. Some popular ones are
Get Things Done, 4D, 6D, File Act Delete,
or FAD method.
I don't use any of those systems. I try to
keep my life, filing systems, and to do
lists, as simple as possible.
The first step to getting organized, is to
set up your filing system, both real and
virtual. Let's start with the dirt world
one. That would be the one outside your
computer. ;-).
Jet down to your favorite office supply
store. Snag some cardboard file boxes,
hanging folders, manilla file folders and
some labels. Now you'll have to decide
how to organize.
Some people set up one folder for
each bill, like hydro, insurance, car
maintenance, medical, bankcards, phone,
etc. I do that for personal items, but for
my business, I prefer to set up a folder
for each month.
As the bills come in, they go into an
action folder. As they get paid, they get
filed into their respective folder, in a
hanging folder, inside the file box.
That is the key point to remember,
make folders to file receipts and papers
as they come into your life. Don't do it
later, or lump it in a pile, until its out
of hand.
Do your filing at least once a month for
dirt world items. On the computer, your
filing is daily. As you use, source, or
create items, put them into their
appropriate folders. (Which I'll talk
about in a minute.)
When it comes to accounting, I have my
CGA do the work for me. She's been doing
my business and personal taxes for over 15
years. I consider her to be an essential
business partner and advisor.
(No one - in my opinion - should do their
own company taxes. It's the accountant's
job to read all the bulletins and stay
informed of the constant changes and how
they affect my business. I don't want any
part of that, except to hear about the
deductions she finds me.) ;-)
All I need to do, is write her code on the
receipt and highlight the tax. That way
she can see what category to enter the
receipt into, and know if the tax is
deductible or not.
Then I take the whole lot - folders,
receipts, payments, etc - to her once a
year. Everything is neatly organized so
she can do her job quickly, and minimize
the cost for me.
Once the taxes are done, the monthly
folders get filed in a cardboard archive
box. The box with the hanging file
folders, gets a fresh set of manilla
folders, all neatly labeled for the
coming months.
If you're a business with regular clients,
set up a folder for each client. You can
keep all their files in that one folder
and file it alphabetically, so its easy to
find. Just be sure to file it once you're
done with it, so you don't end up with
a mess.
If you do work on a per project basis, set
up a sequential numbered docket system.
Each project gets its own unique docket
number. Everything pertaining to that one
job gets stored in the docket folder.
Very often when it comes to the dirt
world, accountants, lawyers and other
professionals need physical paper copies.
Instead of using a fax machine, I use a
scanner and laser printer. I prefer to
rely on PDF files, so I can have both
digital and paper copies.
When it comes to organizing everything
else, you can use the computer. It's the
ideal way to digitize, store and retrieve
your records.
I keep my notes in text format, because it
works with everything. For payments and
receipts, I always save them to my hard
drive in PDF format.
(People are always surprised to find that
I have digital articles, notes and records
going back to 1988. The text format allows
me to copy and paste into any software of
the future.)
To help keep your digital life organized,
there are plenty of database solutions
like Bento and Filemaker Pro. But I find
them cumbersome to setup and use. The
exception of course is when you have
customers... lots of customers.
A database is the only way to keep track
of who ordered what and when it was
shipped. It can mail merge and print
labels. Give each order a unique number.
They can sort and print by any category.
A database can do just about anything.
And that's the reason I don't like them.
Things that can do everything are
generally clunky to use. Whereas I prefer
simple, light, nimble and portable.
On the Mac, I use Yojimbo by Bare Bones
Software to organize my digital world.
It holds all my notes, affiliate program
data, agreements, passwords, login info,
hosting, domain names, private sites, ad
campaigns, just about everything.
Yojimbo can sync between computers
and even export data to other devices.
It saves pages as rich text format, so
they're easily useable in other programs.
It can also encrypt items for privacy.
I set up folders in Yojimbo for each
project I'm working on. That way I can be
writing about one thing, then suddenly
jump to the other project if I get a good
idea. There's no waiting as I keep the app
running at all times.
As for "To Do" lists, I only have one.
I keep it to 10 items or less to prevent
overwhelm. Anything that doesn't require
my focus today, goes on its own project
list in Yojimbo, where I keep notes, until
I'm ready to work on it.
Every evening I delete the tasks that I've
achieved from the list. I then take the
remaining items, and arrange them in the
order of their importance. Doing so is a
critical part of the process. It's the
secret to staying focused.
The top five to do items are what I'll
work on, and try to achieve the next day.
Some days I only get one thing done, but
that's ok. Success comes from the
relentless pursuit of a worthy goal, or
ideal, one small achievement at a time.
For scheduled items I use Apple's built-in
iCal software. I put any appointments on
the calendar, where they are synced
through Mobile Me, with my iPad and
iPhone. It sends me reminders, via
email and message, so I never miss
an appointment.
So between Yojimbo and iCal, I can
organize and prioritize most of my digital
world. But what about bulky things like
bookmarks, pdf files, receipts for
purchases, web printouts, screenshots
and graphics?
I have a hierarchy of folders on my hard
drive for that.
The bookmark structure I use took a lot of
thinking. I worked on it as a project, on
and off, over a four year period. In that
time I determined that all business falls
under three TLCs (top level categories):
Research, Production and Marketing.
Inside each TLC there are two levels of
nested subcategories. The first level down
describes the Type and the second level
down describes the Process...
For example, in the Marketing TLC, I
have placed folders for different Types
of Marketing: Advertising, Interactive,
Permission, Persuasion, Public Relations,
Sales and Syndication.
Each Type folder has their own nested
level of Process folders. For example,
inside the Persuasion folder, there are
folders for: Calls to Action, Conversion,
Copywriting, Psychology, Salesletters,
Selling, Shopping Carts and
Squeeze Pages.
So, if I was impressed by an article on
how to improve my calls to action, the
bookmark, file, or web page printout,
would get filed here:
Marketing - Persuasion - Calls to Action
To save a bookmark to a folder, just
drag the favicon into it. You can find the
favicon in your browser, just to the left
of the URL, or web page that you're
currently viewing.
Hold your mouse button down on the
favicon and drag it to the appropriate
filing folder. Once the bookmark, or file,
is on your drive, you can add comments
and tags to it.
To add personal info to any file on the
Mac, select the file by clicking on it.
Then Command I (hold down the Command
key and type I to Get Info about the file)
and type whatever you want into the
Spotlight Comments box.
Let's look at another process for the sake
of example, say SEO. My logic tells me SEO
isn't marketing. If someone found you in a
search engine, the SEO is over. When they
see your listing, that's when the
marketing begins.
SEO happens in the Research stage, before
the Production stage even begins. So your
SEO needs to be in place as you create, or
produce the pages.
SEO gets filed inside the Research folder,
which is inside the Training folder.
Research - Training - SEO
In addition to hundreds of nested business
folders, I also include two other top
level categories, Personal and Community.
Personal bookmarks and files, having to
deal with hobbies, interests, lifestyle,
etc, are kept separate from the
business ones.
The Community folder can be used one
of two ways. You can file it in either the
Personal or Marketing category.
For example, if you run a Community like
a private site or forum, you might want to
categorize things like announcements,
policies, reminders, news, downloads, etc,
for your members.
The other way to use the Community folder,
is to file it under the Personal category.
It could contain the bookmarks and files
for any memberships, forums, reward sites,
clubs, etc, that you belong to.
This hierarchy of folders is for more than
just bookmarks. You can use it as a
virtual filing cabinet, to organize your
life and your business. You can keep all
all your passwords, usernames, receipts,
serial numbers, pdf files, tax forms and
paperwork in them as well.
So the next time you're looking for a web
page from last month, the one that listed
all the social bookmarking services,
you'll know to find it in the Marketing -
Interactive - Social Bookmarking folder.
Or the next time someone asks you for a
W8Ben tax form, you can quickly retrieve
it from the Production - Business -
Accounting folder.
And that's even better than having the
data... knowing where to find it.
Remember what I shared in the beginning?
Research has shown that the average
person will waste four years of their life
looking for things. What I'm hoping is, by
sharing these thoughts on how to get and
stay organized, that you'll save time, and
get more of your life back.
Now the rest is up to you. Make a
commitment to make filing a habit.
Don't let things pile up. If you get into
the habit of filing something, the moment
you're done with it, you'll never suffer
from overwhelm, or procrastination
because of it.
File it before moving onto the next task.
That's how you get more of your life
back... by spending less time looking for
things in the future.
take care,
Michael
P.S.
Dynamic Media members can login to the
Vault and download my filing hierarchy
that took four years to create. It comes
with hundreds of empty nested folders.
Everything to do with Marketing,
Production and Research, all neatly
organized into Categories, Processes
and Types.
Vault: http://www.dynamicmedia.com/vault/
I've set up the virtual filing cabinet for
you. By downloading it, you're already
half way there, so there's no excuse.
Start the new year right, by using these
folders to organize your life and your
business. You'll have more time, and
be less stressed in the future, because
whatever you need, you'll know where
to find it.
Still not a Dynamic Media Member?
Sign up for monthly coaching and you'll
get direct access to me and my 25 years
of marketing experience. Plus you'll
get dozens of bonus goodies inside
the Vault.
Membership: http://www.dynamicmedia.com
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