Stopping junk paper mail is on everyone’s dream list. Here’s a quick way to take care of a big chunk of it — put your name on the direct mail association’s ‘Opt Out’ list. This will prevent your name from being shared among catalog and other direct marketers. We’re too late to have this work for the Christmas flood of mailings this year — but next year will be better.

Click on this link and complete the form. DMA Opt Out Link

Don’t drop the ball, complete the action by getting the form in an envelope with a stamp and in the mail. Or, finish it on-line. Be sure to do a form for others at your address.

Pages of tips for stopping junk mail are included in my workbook titled ‘Managing Email & Paper Mail’. It’s available for sale at www.organizersinc.com .

"Multi-tasking often doubles the time to get jobs done compared to doing them sequentially," says David E. Meyer, director of the Brain, Cognition, and Action Lab at the U of Michigan. "Additionally, errors go way up."

Know your goals and projects for any day. Lay them out in order of importance. Tackle one at a time and stay on task! Then, go out and play!

Stopping interruptions, or at least controlling them by reducing the number and / or duration are what I call interruption interceptions. Just as a football player intercepting the opponent’s pass changes who controls the ball, intercepting interruptions allows you to control your time.

Here are a few more interruption interceptions that work:

• Set meetings following each other and stick to the start times. If you have a meeting at 10:00 and another at 11:00 you can say truthfully, I need to wrap the meeting up at 10:50 so I can be ready for an 11:00 appointment. [appointments for phone calls and your own planning time are real 11:00 appointments]

Voicemail may be able to call you when you have a message. Some of us working in home offices or from the road could benefit by a ‘call me’ feature of some voice mail systems at our corporate office. The ‘call me’ feature will notify you that you have a new voicemail when one is left in your mailbox. It’s similar to a lit light on your phone when there a messages in your box and since you’re not at the corporate headquarters, you probably don’t have this light. This notification, typically an automated call to your designated phone, will save you time by ensuring you check voicemail only when there is mail waiting for you. I suggest asking the group that supports your phone system to start finding out about it. This is such a special feature you might have to go to the provider of the system or hunt around yourself. It’s a great tool utilizing technology of today!

Interruptions must be managed or else they will be notorious for keeping us from getting our real work done. Below are a few common interruptions and remedies for managing them.

• Interruption: Your email announcement tells you that you’ve got mail.
  Solution: Turn off the bell, ring, or flashing notice. Check your email on a schedule you set.
• Interruption: people stop by your cube.
  Solution: Print up a sign saying, "In the middle of a project, please come back later" and put it where it’s easily seen. Point out the sign to intruders for the first week or two you use it so they become accustomed to your new signage. Be sure to take it down when you’re available.

Email systems frequently have a tool that could help you set expectations with others in your office and your clients. That tool is an autoresponder that lets them know when you’re out of the office. Set up the autoresponder to reply to messages sent to you. Include where you are and when you’re going return. If someone is covering for you while you’re away, be sure to include how to contact that person in your absense.

For example, I am in Utah for the next week on a bicycle trip from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon through a number of fantastic national parks. It’s off-peak so I’m going while the crowds are down and everyone is back in school. Should you send me an email today you will instantly receive a message back saying, "Thanks for writing, Susan is out of the office in Utah and will not have access to email. She will return to the office on September 25th and contact you as soon as possible."  In my case this is a feature offered by my internet provider as opposed to my email system (Outlook).

Hunt around and find this feature. The benefit is clients, peers, and superiors understanding your schedule and knowing when they can connect with you. If they know you’ll be back on a specific date, they’ll likely to be patient.

Buy yourself a label maker now. Many of my client do use a label maker at my urging. (I often bring one to our first one-on-one session so they can try before they buy). After a week, and sometime just hours, they’re in the routine of using their label maker consistently. Why spend the money? Why invest time to stop, type in the label text, print the label and apply it? Here are my top 7 reasons why:

• You and other will be able to read the writing (Can say my handwriting isn’t always legible – even by me)
• You can easily print 2 labels – one for your folder and the other for hanging folder tab  – in an instant

When is the last time you did something for the first time?

This question is from a t-shirt I saw while on vacation earlier this year. It is my favorite saying of the year because it’s challenges me and encourages me. Being comfortable with the way we’ve always done things is good – most of the time. Trying new things and welcoming the learning and changes that go along with stepping into the unknown is what keeps things fresh, teaches us, and stretches us into being the best we can be.

So, try kicking this week off with something you’re doing for the first time —

• Put a hook by the door so you hang your keys there & find them quickly (no one said it had to risk your life.. this new thing).

What is that under your desk? If you have no clutter under your desk buy yourself a cup of coffee and celebrate your uniqueness. The rest of us need to get out our headlamps and mine the piles under our desks for gold while trashing the trailings.

[click on the photo for a better view of it]

Get a large trash can and a couple boxes (the type used for reams of paper work well). Dig through the stuff ‘under there’ and put most of the it right into the trash. The remaining things should go directly into the boxes for later sorting. In 20 minutes you should have only flooring underfoot.

It’s time to take that umbrella back to the car. (Store it in the pocket on the back of the passenger seat for easy retrieval.) When you find the passport renewal paperwork that has been m.i.a. – complete it right away. That folder for the project that’s complete, probably useless so toss it.

Deadlines often give us a meaningful end to projects and activities. Consider the things you finished before you left for vacation this summer (hopefully that’s not a faded memory already). You probably had email under control, coverage lined up, and your voicemail changed to inform callers of your absence and expected return. Specific reports were likely submitted and contacts with important clients made. You left with a relatively clean slate.

Create real or fantasy deadlines to motivate yourself and limit the duration of projects since many expand to fill the time alloted to them. When you create that deadline commit to it. Ways to commit are: