You may already know that I use and recommend an electronic system for a master to-do list. It’s important to have a structured place to capture anything and everything you think you should or could do.

On any given day, however, the master to-do list is too much. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and/or distracted. That’s why I use a distinctly low-tech approach to stay focused on my top priorities each day. That’s it in the photo. Yep – it’s a yellow sticky note on my computer (horrors!). The thing is, this is not like all those random sticky notes I see in so many offices. This one has a bit of architecture to help me be productive all day long.

At the top it says ‘Today.’ Right under that I’ve listed, numbered in priority order, my 3 targets for the day. I’ve chosen these because of their deadlines and the amount of time I have today to work on them. I will do everything within my power to work on these from top to bottom, one at a time. Even for me, this is not easy – but without this plan, I would be all over the place and finish up the day feeling like I had spun my wheels but gotten nowhere.

Under the Target 3 is a list of a couple of other things I’d like to get done as/when I get through the priorities.

Will I do more than 3 things today? Of course. Is it possible that I won’t get everything on my little sticky note done? Sure. But I know it will feel great to cross off even one or two of those high priority tasks, and this is motivating.

To help myself along, I treat myself along the way to a quick coffee break, a 5-minute Facebook indulgence, a stretch, or a phone call that needs to be made – only when I have finished one high priority task. Writing this post right now is actually a little reward for finishing the first (and yuckiest) thing on my list. That task actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be – which is often the case once you just make up your mind to get started!

Would something like this work for you? Give it a try today!

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If getting organised is one of your resolutions, don’t get started without a reliable process. Without making a systematic change, you may well end up going in circles – or even backwards. Then you’ll feel rotten, and we don’t want that.

I know you don’t have a lot of time, so here’s a quick and dirty (but solid) process to help you tackle the clutter in your life, whether it’s electronic, physical or mental.

The Quick and Dirty Organising Process:

1. Get real
2. Get some breathing space
3. Get past the guilt
4. Get new systems
5. Get a new mindset
6. Get support

This month we’ll look at how to apply the Quick and Dirty Organising Process to email. In future articles, we’ll look at paper, time, goals and clutter at home. If you would like to see examples for something else, just let me know.

Quick and Dirty Email Organising

If I only have an hour to help someone with email overload, this is what we do. I usually have to get a little bossy. It’s not pretty, but it works every time. Ready for me to slap you around a bit?

Step 1: Get Real

Admit that you’re not going to go through all those emails in your Inbox anytime soon. This is boring, time-consuming and probably unnecessary in most cases. So let’s get that email clutter out of your way.

Next, recognise that most of the time you spend filing emails is wasted time. How many do you really reach for again? When you do look for one, how successful is your search? Exactly. Let’s stop all that silly micro-filing.

Step 2: Get some breathing space

Move all your emails from the Inbox to a folder called Inbox 2009. Going forward, unsubscribe or set Junk Mail rules for stuff you don’t want to see again.

Take all your email folders and put them into a folder called Folders 2009. You’re going to set up something new – keep reading.

Get past the guilt

Call this a fresh start, and ignore that Inbox 2009 folder.

If this is hard for you, block 30 minutes each week to systematically process all those old emails according to your new systems. If you miss doing this some weeks – don’t fret. Hopefully you’ll discover that the world doesn’t turn on your old emails. Look forward – not back.

Get new systems

1. Create some email action folders that will help you clear your Inbox quickly each day. The idea is to batch emails according to your next action. Examples:

• Reply Today (This tends to roll to the next day, and that’s OK.)
• Review on Weekend (This is for stuff you don’t need to think about until you’re planning for next week.)
• Discuss (with boss/team/spouse at regular meetings)
• Admin (All those fiddly tasks you hate to do. Blast through them once weekly – with good coffee or wine at hand!)
• Personal (Put photos in here too – to organise later.)
• Reading (Great for regular newsletters, etc.)
• Watching/Waiting (For things you’ve delegated)
• Idea Capture (A personal favourite – for great ideas you want to process into your idea/project lists later, say once a month)
• Done (For emails you’ve dealt with, don’t need to micro-file, but want to keep. They don’t live in the Inbox anymore. Going forward, most of your old emails can be deleted or stored here and retrieved using your search function.)
• Current Projects (This will probably have subfolders – but keep it simple.)

2. Wherever possible, set rules to get emails into these folders for you automatically.

3. If you find yourself reaching for some of your old folders, look for how to incorporate these into your new action-focused system.

4. Establish a regular time each day or week to deal with what’s in your action folders. Tie this to a reliable routine you already have, or set a reminder on your desktop calendar or phone until this becomes a habit.

5. If you do a lot of emailing on your handheld, make sure you have folder sync set up so you can clear your Inbox properly anytime, anywhere. This is a great way to use the time while you’re commuting, waiting for a meeting to start or sitting in the car waiting to pick up the kids.

6. Set a target for keeping your inbox count low, and don’t call it a day before getting down to this number. This is a bit like creating a ‘clean desk’ policy for yourself. Examples:

• Inbox Zero (nice, but not essential)
• No more than what I can see without scrolling
• A round number, e.g. 10 or 30
• Your age

Get a new mindset

Treat clearing your Inbox like a game. Set a timer and see how long it takes you to hit your Inbox count target. I guarantee it takes less time that you think it does. This is always a hugely empowering realisation for our clients who are overwhelmed by email. Go ahead – time it, and watch yourself get faster.

Ignore that voice in your head that says clearing the Inbox is not really working. Without processing your Inbox systematically, you are regularly robbing yourself of time to focus on the real priorities. Not convinced? Read this article.

Get support

A lot of your email woes are related to the habits that have evolved between you and the people you live/work with. You can make everyone’s life easier by establishing some shared best practices about how and when you use email. Suggest you have a coffee or a call together to brainstorm ways to be smarter about email together.

This does not have to take a long time or be very formal. Just make the appointment and start the conversation.

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Holiday time is on the way again, and for those of us with children this means another round of presents to add to our already overloaded space at home.

Now is a great time for you and the kids to make room for those new items coming your way this season. By doing this together you’ll be teaching them to take responsibility for their space and belongings. They’ll also learn basic organising strategies that will help them throughout the rest of their lives.

Here are some tips to make your pre-holiday sort-and-purge a success:

Make it an Annual Household Event

Having the children sort through their old toys each year in preparation for new ones is a great way to ease the pain of letting go. In homes where this is done yearly, the event is another signal for the children that the holiday season is nearly here. Knowing that they are making room for new toys adds to the excitement

Getting Started

Ask the kids to take everything out that needs to be sorted, and put it on the floor. Be prepared for some mess!  Make sure you have some boxes and shopping bags handy for items to go out, and then start sorting.

Sort the toys into 3 piles:

• To Stay
• To Go
• Not Sure (Keep this one small!)

Don’t stress too much if the ‘To Stay’ or the ‘Not Sure’ piles are bigger the first time round! Decision making can be a hard skill for many of us to learn.

Talk About Giving

Talk with your child about the value of recycling items and giving unused toys to children who will use and appreciate them. Many schools sponsor orphanages or children’s charities and have collection drives for toys and other items at various times of the year.

Create Objective Guidelines

Establish rule-of-thumb guidelines to make the sorting go smoothly. For example, you might agree that if an item hasn’t been played with since last Christmas, you’ll let it go.

Have a ‘Cooling Off Spot’ for Difficult Items

Box up any items left in the ‘Not Sure’ pile and put them in a cooling off spot that is accessible to the kids. Agree on a time frame for a final decision, e.g. “If it hasn’t come out of the box in 2 weeks or 1 month, we’ll pass it on.”

Take a Photo

Sentimental items are particularly difficult to let go of, but space limitations can push the issue. Suggest taking a photo of your child with the special toy, and then feature it in your family photo collection.

Have a Mini Garage Sale

A fun way to help kids move toys along can be to have a mini garage sale so they can sell any unwanted items to their friends. It can be a really enjoyable event, and they’ll have a great time making the ‘For Sale’ signs to put up around the neighbourhood. Another option is to join a community Car Boot sale where you can set up a small stall to sell your items.

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When we talk about strategies for beating distraction during our workshops, I often mention the concept of white noise and find that this is not as commonly known as I thought.

I’ll date myself by saying I first learned about white noise as a kid when the one English-language television channel in Germany would go off the air at midnight. Between the final notes of the U.S. national anthem and the news at 6 a.m., there would be nothing on the tube but jumpy black and white dots and a steady “shhhhhh” sound all night long. My parents explained that some people liked to fall asleep with the TV static on because it drowned out other sounds in the neighborhood. They told me this masking effect of a constant sound was called white noise.

Since then people have figured out that white noise, also called ambient noise, is a great concentration aid during your waking hours. For people who work in an open-plan office, coffee shops, airport lounges or around kids, it’s a lifesaver. Kids and adults with ADHD find white noise to be soothing and a focus booster. Here are some links to good sources of white noise recordings:

Ambiance

First up is Ambiance, the application I use regularly on my iPhone. Get it at the App Store > Productivity > Ambiance. I pop in my headphones wherever I happen to be when I need to push through some work without distraction. The range of available recorded and looped sounds is impressive. My current favourites for working are ‘Large Wind Chimes’ and ‘Waterfall and River.’  To help us catch some shut-eye despite night road construction outside the window, it’s hard to beat ‘Rain on a Tin Roof.’  My hubby and I like the timer and slow fade-out features that ensure we drift slowly off to sleep without a sudden stop to the lulling sounds.

Simply Noise

A simple site that delivers steady static, just like my old TV. You can adjust the volume and oscillation of the ’soundscape’ to suit the circumstances and ‘enjoy auditory zen.’ You can also download the files of white noise, pink noise and brown noise. For more on this, put on your scientist hat and head over to Wikipedia’s explanation of the colors of noise. To listen to the different colours, check out this site.

White Noise 24/7

This site has a small selection of natural sounds and mechanical sounds available in streaming audio format. The second category includes a ventilator, washing machine and dishwasher…reminds me of that Thanksgiving weekend when my huge family was packed into my grandparents’ house, and I dragged my air mattress into the kitchen to sleep next to the dishwasher. It was the only thing that would drown out the sound of my uncles and grandpa snoring!

White Noise Machines

To create white noise for an entire room or office, consider some of these white noise machines or sound conditioners. For a good overview of how these machines work and why they boost productivity, read this article.

Do You Use White Noise?

Please vote on our Productivity Poll to let us know how/whether you use white noise. Thanks!

Do You Know of Other Good White Noise Resources?

Please let us know by commenting below – thanks!

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Last week I attended the breakfast put on by Community Business to present their survey findings around work-life balance issues in Hong Kong.

You can download the full survey report  here - and I think you will get a lot out of it if you make HR decisions for your company.

One of the best suggestions made during the morning was for businesses to study the questions asked in the survey and to find ways to get input from their own employees on the issues raised. This information will form the basis of a work-life balance initiative that makes sense for your corporate culture and values.

To give you the gist of the results – here’s my summary of the key findings:

• Most employees’ expectations of their employers’ obligations to address work-life balance issues remain unchanged, despite the economic recession.
• For Hong Kongers, the ideal work-life ratio would be 62:38.
• 30% would consider leaving their current jobs for a better work-life balance.
• Hong Kongers are working an average of 48.4 hours per week, down from 48.8 last year. This is 21% higher than the 40 hours recommended by the International Labour Organisation.
• Gen Y is more concerned with work-life balance than Gen X.
• Those making less than HK$10,000/month work the longest hours and struggle most with work-life balance.
• Financial security was rated the greatest challenge to achieving work-life balance. The 2nd greatest challenge is long working hours, 3rd is company downsizing and 4th is leader’s attitude.
• Work-life imbalance is causing prolonged fatigue, insomnia, poor diet and not enough time for partner and family.
• Employees cite a 5-day work week and more paid annual leave as the top priorities for employer intervention.
• Flexible work arrangements and the ability to work from home are also key areas for employers to address.

My response?

We have a lot of valuable data about where people’s time is going and how they want to be using it. Companies need to work out ways to measure the quality of this time, i.e. just how productive are these working hours?…and could the same output be achieved by employees who know how to work efficiently in non-traditional locations or at different times of the day/night? Could they actually get MORE done this way? Can management be tangibly assured their people are working hard even if they’re not sitting in a cubicle all day?

I say yes – The right people with the right skills and the right boss can definitely pull it off. Teams will need to learn new-fangled collaboration techniques in order to make it work, employees will need to manage their workloads effectively, and managers will need to focus on deliverables rather than seat time.

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We recently did a facilitation session with a group of senior sales managers whose team leader felt they needed to revisit the issues of work-life balance, prioritisation and boundary-setting. One of the most interesting conclusions to come out of the session was a need for a new model for thinking about balance, particularly for parents.

The group commented that what is commonly meant by the ‘life’ side of the work-life balance equation is ‘family,’ specifically time spent with the kids. While several participants felt there was room for improvement here, others stated that their job and their kids were indeed getting enough time; the missing piece was actually ‘self’ time. By this the group meant time for exercise, hobbies, adult relationships, reflection, and so on. Here are some thoughts on how to strike a Work-Life-Self Balance:

Put yourself first – in the day.

For many of us, the only part of our day we can truly control is first thing in the morning. This is the time to schedule exercise, meditation, reading and reflection. Build a ritual around it. We’re big fans of Leo Babauta of Zen Habits fame, and here’s his helpful piece on How to Become an Early Riser.

Plan in small ‘Bio-breaks’ during the day.

Your body and brain naturally cycle in 90-minute intervals called ultredian rhythms, and they will force a change of activity for you, even if you haven’t overtly changed your own activity. For example, when you try to push past 90 minutes in a meeting or on a project your brain will start to wander, and your focus will falter. Your body may start to ache, asking you for a stretch, drink or change of scenery. Take advantage of this natural cycle when planning your work day, and build in little boosts for yourself every 90-minutes or so. Don’t do anything work related during these little breaks. Instead – stand up, have a stretch, take a walk down the hall, make a personal phone call, flip through a magazine, or go get a smoothie. You will then be more productive in the next work session than you would have if you’d pushed straight through. Remember – your brain will take the break regardless of whether you officially give it permission.

Establish defined working hours, and stick to them.

Decide – and communicate to your team – when you will and will not be responding to email and calls. When you’re at home, don’t turn on the computer. Scan handheld email for emergencies if you must, but don’t respond unless the company is going to shut down without your immediate intervention. When you’re at work, don’t attend to personal issues. Keep the two separate, and deal with each in turn, efficiently and effectively. Harvard has proven yet again that this ‘work less/get more done’ approach actually makes you MORE productive than the always-on lifestyle you may be living now.

Get organised.

Get better systems in place at work and at home so less time is spent on the tedious, repetitive aspects of each. Streamline, simplify, cut back, create templates and share the load. Figure out how to do everything faster and better, with less time invested. This frees up more time for everyone to focus on the top professional and personal priorities. I really should mention that we can help you with all this – just get in touch!

Love what you do.

Make sure you’re doing work you love, so it doesn’t feel like such a slog. For help with this, turn to our friends Angela and Carole at Loving Your Work.

Get some help.

Get a life coach and/or personal trainer to help you develop the habits you know will make your life better. It makes all the difference in the world to have someone keeping you accountable and pointing out the progress you’re making. We recommend Ana Scherer of NRG Coaching and Andrew Cox of Innate Fitness. Andrew’s the guy who taught us about those ultredian rhythms!

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If you manage daily life for your kids (alone or with your partner), we call you a Family CEO.

That stands for ‘Chief Everything Officer,’ and we think it’s a pretty important role to play. In fact, we think it matters more than anything else!

Great Family CEOs spend their time and energy shaping a great future for all of us – through the people their children are becoming.

Unfortunately, we find that too many parents diminish this role one way or another. Some will sheepishly tell us that they’re just a stay-at-home parent. Others carry this huge responsibility in addition to working full-time or part-time jobs – and bear all the weight alone instead of sharing the load with partners, helpers and kids. Either way, these Family CEOs can learn a lot from the way effective corporate CEOs manage the business. Here are a few tips to help you improve the way you run things at home:

Stay focused on the big picture.

Not everything is worth getting fussed over. Pick a few key areas where it will really make a difference to establish some routines, and get these working consistently.

Get good technology.

It helps to have your own computer and handheld email device so that you can keep on top of things without waiting your turn for the family computer. Learn to use electronic organising tools. We strongly recommend synchronized electronic calendars for managing multiple schedules easily. Please ask us for help with this!

Draw lines between activities.

Try to do your computer work when the kids are at school or sleeping. Then stay focused, and work efficiently. Learn to manage your email, calendar and to-do lists effectively. When you’re with the kids, be fully present – mentally as well as physically. Build in time for yourself as well as time to nurture your relationship with your partner – and then get good at protecting this time.

Delegate.

You don’t have to do everything yourself. In fact, it’s bad for your kids if you do everything for them. Find things they can manage independently, and praise them for doing so. Learn to help your helper help you better. Have a discussion with your partner about how you can share the load.

Systemise.

Look for as many things in your regular routine that you can template as possible. Examples include a rotating meal plan, a cleaning schedule, and packing checklists for weekly activities. Think it through really well once – with everyone’s input – then put the whole thing on auto-pilot.

Don’t get emotional.

I know, I know…easier said than done. But does it ever actually help? Not so much. Remember what matters. Remember that you can’t un-say anything.

Communicate effectively.

If you apply even half the techniques in this book, your relationship with your kids will improve tremendously. Shouting doesn’t work.

Develop your team.

Take classes on parenting, organising, communicating, etc. Invest time in each other. Have meaningful conversations. Set goals together and celebrate your successes. Have fun together!

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