Organization | Home Office Warrior

Organization

Being a Home Office Warrior Makes Clutter Control Essential

Jan 26, 2009

In your home office, do you find yourself buried by clutter? Do you feel unorganized and don’t know what to do to get organized? You’re not alone.

Working from home can present unique challenges. Filing systems, both digital and tactile, are things that must be conquered early on in order to maintain and keep yourself productive. I can hear your thinking now, “HOW to I go about doing THAT?”. Let’s discuss.

Having a filing system for paper is a key element in any office structure. But my suggestion to you would be to try to keep the paper flow to a minimum. Scan and digitally file documents that can be handled that way. For some of us, it is much easier to have documents accessible in digital format rather than having to search through paper files. Scanning can assist us in becoming free of the clutter of paper.

But, (there is always a “but”) if you take all your data to digital format, be prepared to back up, and back up often. There are many services online that you can use to back up your important files. The one that I have been using for the longest time is Mozy. It allows unlimited backup for only $4.95 a month and has a “Home” version as well as a “Pro” version. There is also a “free” version that allows 3GB of space. Mozy is dependable and can be configured to back up anything on your computer. You can schedule your backups to occur daily or weekly: it’s completely up to you. Mozy runs in the background and silently backs sp a the times that you have designated.

Going digital is a great way for getting out from under your clutter. In my next article, we’ll discuss what to do with those paper files that you must keep!

Kris Rowlands is a Professional Productivity & Organization Coach. With over 20 years experience, she can most certainly help you to become all that you want to be! Please visit her blog, Fresh Focus...On Productivity! to view the GTD and Organization products that she has created, as well as scheduling one-on-one time with Kris. Your confidentiality is guaranteed. Let her know what you need and you can make it happen!

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Organization

Being Productive – Setting my Goals HIGH!

Jan 06, 2009

I’ve been absent from here for a good while and owe you an apology: I’m sorry! The holidays and life caught up with me in a big way over the last couple weeks, plus I tried to add some rest & relaxation into the mix. I got a little of that and lots of family time, so all is well!

I decided to share my 2009 goals with the readers at HOW this year. I don’t do resolutions: instead I do goals. Since I was offered a new home on HOW last year, I thought it appropriate to do so. Without further adieu, here they are!

*Grow my consulting business by 500%
*Start on the eBook that will blow peoples’ minds (newsletter subscribers got a sneak peek in on this)
*Mull over taking out a 10 pack of ISBN numbers so I can publish all my eBooks *Network with more people in my field and collaborate more
*Contribute as guest posters/ contributors on other blogs
*Make time to comment more often on the blogs that I read
*Create questionnaire for clientele (PDF form with checkboxes, etc)
*Create a few checklists (for publication) that I have been mulling over
*Stay focused and on track with posts on FFOP
*Finish my Swirly Q GTD Template set

I’ve got a good start on some of these, and even one is finished! I’ve completed my Swirly Q Template Set (finally). I started on this back in July and just got them finished over last weekend. These templates take quite a bit of time to create and finalize. All are done in Adobe illustrator.

The first goal is a lofty one, but I have a good head start on that one already too. Great new clients are in the works that will provide challenges as well as great learning times for all involved!

I have my Mind map created for the new book idea, but have yet to write any of it. That goal is in “Next Action” status right now.

How high have you set your goals this year? What plans have you put into place in order to achieve them? Are any of them complete yet? Do tell – I’d love to know!

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Organization

A Must-Have for Productivity & Organization - Patience

Dec 09, 2008

The hardest thing to do with emotional issues is having the patience to see the logic in the situation.

There couldn’t be a more true phrase on this entire planet.

Patience is something that is learned: you’re not born with it, but you are taught it: by parents, teachers, siblings and all those that you come in contact with during your daily life. It certainly isn’t easy to learn patience, and there are some on the planet that will never master it. But in order to be productive and have your wits about you, patience is a necessity.

So what do you do to retain your head in times of great stress and pressure? I know one trick that works for me, and you might have success with it too.

WALK AWAY.

Go somewhere else, even for just a few moments. Go smoke a cigarette, grab a cup of coffee, or go outside and enjoy some fresh air. Allow your head to wrap around the situation: the key is NOT to do it while you are in the thick of the situation. Your head needs room to breathe, just as the body and soul do. Allow it that space, and you will be amazed at the results!

What do you do that allows you to have patience. Let’s chat in the comments!

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Organization

Comprehensive List Of Productivity Applications

Dec 08, 2008

One of the hardest things to do sometimes is staying productive and organized. To keep myself on my toes I use [some] of the following programs. Most of the following programs are free, but not all.

Mac OS X

Things

Things (Free Until January 6th)

I myself have used Things quite a bit. Things is the perfect blend between features and simplicity. Things will also support “teams” and you will be able to share tasks with other people. That feature hasn’t been ironed out yet, but Cultured Code has promised it will happen. And if you’re an iPhone user, they have an iPhone version that syncs flawlessly with its desktop counter-part.

Things is currently free, but will cost $49 when it it released on January 6, 2009. But if you subscribe to their newsletter, it will be $39.

[Cultured Code: Things]

Home Office Warrior

Anxiety

If you’re looking for a simple and beautiful to-do list, Anxiety is a great contender. Anxiety integrates with your “calendars” in iCal and sits in your menu bar.

[Anxiety]

Home Office Warrior

CheckOff

Another worthy contender for simply managing your to-do’s is CheckOff. CheckOff is an independent application unlike Anxiety, which is simply a separate interface for the iCal to-do’s. CheckOff does run in your menu bar though.

[CheckOff]

Home Office Warrior

Backboard

Backboard is a simple Mac application that merges Backpack (a simple web-based to-do application) with your desktop.

[Backpack]

[Backboard]

Home Office Warrior

Windows

Home Office Warrior

FruitfulTime TaskManager Free Edition

FruitfulTime’s website says the following about FruitFulTime TaskManager.

Basic todo list management tool for Windows available to download for free. Limited features, no support, for private and non-commercial use only.

[FruitfulTime TaskManager Free Edition]

Home Office Warrior

Cross-Platform

Home Office Warrior

Task Coach

Task Coach’s website says the following.

Task Coach is a simple open source to-do manager to manage personal tasks and to-do lists. It grew out of Frank’s frustration that well-known task managers, such as those provided with Outlook or Lotus Notes, do not provide facilities for composite tasks. Often, tasks and other things todo consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks.

Task Coach is for both Windows and Mac OS X.

[Task Coach]

Home Office Warrior

Slife

Slife’s website says the following.

Slife is a time and activity analytics application for both Mac and Windows that automatically keeps track of where you spend your time on your computer.

How Does Slife Work?
Slife observes as you interact with applications, documents, email and web sites and then displays detailed statistics of your computer usage in a set of intuitive and easy to use visualizations.

Why Do I Need Slife?

With Slife, you can finally understand where you are spending your time and energy, and focus on what really matters. Thousands of designers, architects, consultants, developers, and many others use Slife to keep track of time and manage their productivity.

[Slife]

Home Office Warrior

JDarkRoom

For many of us, our attention spans usually can last about 3 minutes at a time until we see a Growl notification telling us we have new articles in our feedreader or MailPlane telling us that we have a new e-mail. This is where JDarkRoom is great. It is simply a full screen text editor to block out all distractions.

[JDarkRoom]

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Organization

Marketing Productivity – Learn Social Media in a Snap!

Dec 03, 2008

We’re all busy – and we know that there are things we need to learn, but just never find the time. Now is the time for you to stop procrastinating and learn how to productively leverage social media to your business advantage.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are proving to be important places to market your business and make valuable connections with clients, referral partners, the media, and more. This past year millions of business owners jumped into social networking for the first time… but many are now finding themselves knee-deep in overwhelm and alienating future clients along the way. In order to stay productive and on top of our games, we need to utilize these services, but learn how to do so in the quickest and most productive way possible.

Nancy Marmolejo, social Media expert, has a solution for entrepreneurs who are eager to reap the benefits of Facebook and Twitter quickly and productively. On December 16 and 17, Nancy will host a virtual class "Quick and Easy Social Networking Tips For Entrepreneurs:A Proven 3 Part System to Boost Your Visibility, Expand Your Network AND Save You Hours of Time On Facebook and Twitter".

If you don’t yet know Nancy, she’s an experienced social networking user who teaches highly effective, time saving tips to entrepreneurs. Her 2 part class will reveal a proven system that she personally uses to stay highly visible on Facebook, Twitter, and beyond.

Along with the course, Nancy will be giving out five additional bonuses for all those that sign up:

Bonus #1: Official Quick Start Guide with easy to follow steps so you can start implementing TODAY ($49 value)
Bonus #2: Video tutorial literally walking you through the quick and easy steps to huge visibility. ($97 value)
Bonus #3: Complete mp3 audio recordings of both class sessions ($59 value)
Bonus #4: Word-for-Word transcripts taken directly from my video tutorial so you can read the information and have it handy no matter where you are ($49 value)
Bonus #5: “Facebook Finesse” mp3 audio interview by me and my good friend, Facebook guru Mari Smith. We outline the Do’s and Don’ts of Facebook and how to maximize relationship building on this incredible site. ($49 value)

Space is limited, so do sign up today. Even if you can’t make the live class, Nancy will make sure you get her customized video tutorials, complete Quick Start Guide, transcripts, bonuses and more. I can vouch for the fact that Social Media is a GREAT way to market your business and services, but it does indeed take finesse to do so. Coming from someone that is learning herself, I recommend that you do get some training. It is so easy to alienate people, and once you lose them, they are usually gone for good.

Take a look at what Nancy has to say, and then sign up for her course. It’s not extravagantly priced at $97, and I know that the advertising techniques that you learn will more then make your money back on the effort put forth. Heck, the five bonus items are worth triple the enrollment cost!

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