Peace of Mind Organizing

Postal increase

23 January 2012

I just happened across an article online today telling me that, as of yesterday, the U.S. postal service has raised the price of a first-class stamp by a penny to 45 cents. I’m surprised, because in the past I’ve known about that sort of thing in advance. This one was just under the radar for me.

So I wanted to share it here, in case it had escaped your notice as well.

Here’s a summary of what’s going on:

• The price of a first-class stamp went up by a penny to 45 cents
• The price of a postcard stamp went up by 3 cents to 32 cents
• One-ounce letters to Canada and Mexico went up by 5 cents to 85 cents
• Letters to other foreign countries went up by 7 cents to $1.05.
• For first-class postage, the price of additional ounces remains the same at 20 cents per ounce.
• Forever stamps purchased at lower prices before yesterday’s rate hike remain valid

I still think that 45 cents to mail a letter door to door is an amazing deal. It’s been 2.5 years since there was a rate hike. I worry about whether the postal service will be able to remain afloat in the midst of all the electronic options and I certainly don’t begrudge them a rate increase.

Personally, I think the postal service should sell ads on stamp booklets or the backs of stamps to raise revenue. There are ads everywhere else, why not on stamps?

Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines workshop now open

19 January 2012

Last fall I developed and taught a fun online workshop for Simplify 101 called Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines. I’m delighted that it’s being offered again, February 21 through March 20. You can sign up now and get early-bird pricing (20 percent off!) through January 27.

My friend and colleague, Aby Garvey, owns Simplify 101 with her husband, Jay. They put on a variety of online organizing workshops. (I’m honored to be their first guest instructor.) Believe me, they run a top-notch operation. What makes Simplify 101 workshops special is that on top of excellent information, students can interact in online forums.

When you sign up for this workshop, you’ll get three lessons, released a week apart. Each lesson is available to be read on the website, or as a pdf, or as an mp3. Your choice. And you also get access to the glorious forums where you’ll not only have the chance to ask me questions but also gain encouragement and wisdom from your classmates. It’s a very special arrangement, if you ask me.

In Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines I’ll be helping students identify good habits they already have, ones they’d like to create, and figure out how to link habits together to form simple routines. I’ll also be helping students let go of habits that are less desirable.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I’m all about habits and routines as a way of making life run more smoothly. If you’re intrigued about how to harness the power of great habits and routines, I urge you to sign up for this online workshop!

Here's your chance to Explore & Play More!

18 January 2012

My friend and Declutter Happy Hour partner, Shannon Wilkinson of Perception Studios is a fantastic life coach. This I know from personal experience over the last six or so years. I’ve been lucky enough to do one-on-one work with her and know what amazing internal transformations she can help make.

Working with Shannon one on one isn’t cheap (though it’s well worth the money), which is why I’m delighted there are other, lower-cost ways to benefit from her crazy-good skills. Here’s the latest offering:

Explore and Play More. Shannon offers a free coaching call every month, called Explore and Play. She records them and sells the recordings for $18. With Explore and Play More membership, you pay $13 a month and get the recording, plus a special members-only lounge on Facebook in which to hang out and continue the conversation with Shannon and fellow members, and added information from Shannon.

And here’s something extremely cool. The first 15 people who join Explore and Play More receive access to all seven of the past Explore and Play group coaching call recordings for sale for $18 each. (That’s a $126 value.)

The past themes explored during the monthly Explore and Play calls were:

• Inspire yourself
• Stress less
• Power of perspective
• Create confidence
• Quiet the chatter
• Moving through inertia
• Overcoming overwhelm

In these calls, Shannon takes a volunteer through hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming exercises surrounding the theme. When you participate in the call live, or listen to the recording, you can go through the same exercises yourself. It’s a wonderful, gentle and affordable way to get help and make breakthroughs!

To recap, for $13 a month you get:

• Invitation to the monthly Explore and Play group coaching calls (and you can step up and volunteer to be coached in the call…that’s like free one-on-one coaching!)
• A recording of each call starting the month you join
• Exclusive access to Shannon’s brilliance (and that of fellow members) on the Explore & Play More Facebook lounge
• Added info from Shannon, expanding on the topics that come up in that month’s theme

And the first 15 folks to join get access to all the past recordings as well.

I’m a member. It’s an amazing deal and I’m thrilled to recommend it!

Today's time saver: using email to send a text message

13 January 2012

I’m not a big text messaging person. I don’t have kids, so I haven’t been forced to text. I finally bought a smart phone last year (a cheapish Android, the LG Optimus T) and I find texting annoying at best. But certain people (like my husband) like to receive communications via text message.

When I’m at home and he’s out in the world, texting him makes sense. But I’d much rather type a message on my full-size computer keyboard in seconds than take a full minute to agonizingly touch the keys on my little phone.

I’ve learned that I can indeed type my text messages on my computer and send them via email. And you can too.

By simply typing the phone number with appropriate domain after the sign, you can send an email text. For example, to text my husband, I just type 3141234567tmomail.net, since he uses T-Mobile. (That’s not his real number, believe it or not.) If you know the cell phone provider of the person you want to text, all you need to know is the appropriate domain for that cell phone company.

I searched around the internet and found these email addresses for several major cell phone providers:

Sprint: cellnumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: cellnumber@vtext.com
T-Mobile: cellnumber@tmomail.net
AT&T: cellnumber@txt.att.net
Virgin Mobile: cellnumber@vmobl.com
US Cellular: cellnumber@email.uscc.net

I can’t verify the validity of these email addresses, except for T-Mobile & AT&T. If you try them and they do or don’t work, I’d love it if you’d make a comment here.

Incidentally, when I email a text to my husband, he responds on his phone by texting a reply and I receive it as an email.

Guest posts galore!

11 January 2012

This is a big week for me for guest posts!

I took part in a blog post for the terrific mathophilic blog, Math for Grown Ups on how I use math in my work. The blog’s owner, Laura Laing, has a Monday series where she interviews various folks about how they use math in their professions.

Incidentally, Math for Grownups is all about organizing this week. Check out this great post Laura wrote today on Getting organized bit by bit. It explains mathematically how much you can get done in 15 minutes of regular effort. I love it!

I also wrote a blog post for Suddenly Frugal the popular money-saving blog written by my friend Leah Ingram. (I did a Q&A with Leah on this blog back in February, when her book, Keep, Toss, Sell: The Suddenly Frugal Guide to Cleaning Out the Clutter and Cashing In was published.) My post on Suddenly Frugal today is on 5 tips to get organized on a budget.

I appreciate the regular readers of my blog so much, but it’s fun to get exposed to some new folks. If you’ve hopped over here from either of those blogs, I do hope you find it interesting and come back often!

Mom's Blast Off!

9 January 2012

This Wednesday is the half-day Mom’s Blast Off workshop from 9 to noon at The Heights in Richmond Heights. I’m joining life coach Jill Farmer and social media expert Allison Collinger to help empower women to make changes that get them moving toward a more fulfilling life.

I think it’s going to be a great event—just what you need to kick the year off right.

During the workshop:

• I’ll be talking about clearing clutter to make room for the possibilities in the new year
• Jill will cover time management to make time in your life to do what you love
• Allison will provide updates on the latest in social media to make your life easier and help you make money
• You’ll receive guidance to help you figure out your next personal and professional moves and actually take action

Here’s the part that I think is really cool. After the three of us have spoken, you’ll pick one expert you’d like to learn more from. Then you and the other participants who are interested in that topic will join together in a roundtable discussion with that expert.

I’m really excited and would love to see you there. The fee is $49. You can register online or even register at the door.

Inbox Zero - how I do it

6 January 2012

It’s been over a year since I started my Inbox Zero habit. On January 2, 2011 I cleared out my email inbox. And, for the most part, it’s been empty at the end of each workday since.

In May of last year, I blogged about why I love clearing out my inbox every day. You can read more detail in the post, but the bottom line is that clearing out my email inbox every day is easier than not clearing it out. Each day my inbox has only new messages in it. Nothing lingering. No time bombs. It’s fantastic.

Moreover, having an Inbox Zero habit prompts me to respond to messages that, in the past, I would have let linger in my inbox. It forces me to make decisions today, not tomorrow or next week. That not only enhances my productivity; it frees up my brain!

Today I thought I’d share the nuts and bolts of how I do it, since it seems to be the kind of thing that many consider difficult. In reality, I find it very easy.

Here’s an important note: When I talk about Inbox Zero, I’m not talking about deleting all my emails. I keep thousands of emails. But they’re filed away from my inbox, waiting for me to refer to them. They’re not mixed in with new emails.

I use my MacBook’s Mail program as an email client. All my emails are downloaded to my computer, which is how I like it. I see no reason, though, that these principles wouldn’t apply to cloud-based systems, like gmail.

1. I have many, many email folders. The one I use the most is called *Archive. (More on that below. The * ensures that the *Archive folder is at the top of my list of folders.) I also have folders for various volunteer activities, one called Clients, another for Prospective Clients, and folders for each email list I’m on.
2. I use rules to divert listserv emails to designated folders, so they never hit my inbox. Google groups, yahoo groups, any other group emails automatically go into their respective folders and I read them at my leisure. Same goes for messages from Twitter telling me I have new followers.
3. For those emails that do land in my inbox, I read and respond as necessary. Ideally, I respond immediately and then move that message out of my inbox. If the incoming message doesn’t apply to a volunteer activity or isn’t from a client or prospective client, I move it into the *Archive folder. If I don’t need to keep it, I delete it. If it doesn’t require a response, but I want to keep it, I just file it.
4. By far, most of my emails end up in the *Archive folder. Thanks to the robust search capabilities of my Mac, I can always find an old message; I don’t have to be more detailed in the filing.
5. If a message requires action after the response, I flag it, add it to my task list, then file it. In Mail, when I click on the word Flagged in the sidebar, all flagged messages are displayed. No need to move it into an action folder (which I always found scary to look in) and then refile it when the action is done.
6. At the end of each day, I go through any emails left in my inbox, respond as necessary, file and delete. It’s that simple.

The number of emails that land in my inbox each day isn’t huge—usually less than 100—and this system works very well for me. It’s very easy to maintain. I typically take a break on the weekends, which means that I have a backlog to deal with Monday morning. (That’s not ideal, but the break feels important.) During the week, I strive for—and unless I’m traveling, almost always achieve—inbox zero.

I have an iPad and I read my email on my iPad (using the Mail app) when I’m out in the world. I automatically blind copy myself on outgoing messages on my iPad, so those messages end up in my inbox on my computer. I just file them along with the rest, thus maintaining a correspondence record in my Mail program. But I don’t worry about Inbox Zero on my iPad. I left the device delete all messages at certain thresholds.

I have a secret weapon in my email success: an accountability buddy. At the end of every weekday my friend and colleague Aby Garvey and I send one another an email about the status of our inboxes. It’s highly motivating and, in the beginning, also helped me remember to clear out my inbox.

Inbox Zero may or may not be attractive for you. It’s certainly been helpful for me and if you’re tempted, I hope you find this post helpful!