The secret of task tagging

This simple suggestion seemed weird to me when I first heard it, but I have grown to use it more and more with each passing year.

If you are not near any of your normal note taking options (as discussed in the blog “better notes”), but you need to remember to something, lock that thought onto something visual that you know you will see.  I call it “task tagging”.

For example … As I am walking to the mailbox, I think, “I need to feed the birds”.  Now, we all know that the moment I bring the mail in, open it and decide what should be pitched and what needs to be dealt with – I will have forgotten all about feeding the birds.  So, as I walk, I repeat to myself, “when you see the cat food (which is in my kitchen, where I put the mail), remember to give the birds some food”. 

So, I take the mail to the kitchen and sort it all.  I get a glass of water.  I have totally forgotten about the birds and go walking into living room.  Voila, I see the cat food.  That quick visual makes me think “feed the birds”.  Since this is a two minute or less task (see my Two-Minute Rule), I stop, put the water glass on the counter, and fill the bird feeder. 

And… my cats love it.  Cat TV is back on in the backyard and everyone wins.  I feel good about myself for helping the birds (and squirrels), entertaining the cats, and I get to check one more chore off my list.

Another example is … I am working in the yard.  I remember that I need to call mom.  I don’t plan to be done in the yard for another hour.  Again, we all know I will totally forget about the call by the time I get back to the house and clean up.  I think a few times to myself, “when you finish taking a shower, notice the pictures in the bedroom and really notice mom’s picture”.  It is amazing that once you get used to this visual tagging, you will get out of the shower and while you are dressing, you will notice the pictures and then remember that you need to call mom. 

It took a bit to get good with this visual task tagging, but honestly, it really does work and you get better with it over time.

My journey to be “Smiley” again

To anyone that says you must be serious to be taken seriously … they are just wrong.

I owe most of my successes to my positive attitude. 

I started out my working life as a waitress at a Cheers-like pub. To increase tips, I wrote on each check, “have a good day” and added a smiley face.  😊  The regulars began calling me “Smiley”.  The boss bought us company jackets with our names on the front and mine didn’t say Sue, but Smiley.  I realized that I was known for being friendly and smiling.

When I entered the corporate world, it was apparent to me that some managers thought I should be a less smiley. I was seeing grumpy people getting promoted and squeaky wheel complainers getting their way.  I wondered if I needed to get more formal and earnest.

When I landed a job in an electronic banking department (which was a very new concept at the time) my friends told me to be more subdued and solemn since banks were serious places. We were encouraged to embrace computers.  To help me learn, I started a daily quote email blast with a Friday joke.  More and more people told me they liked Friday’s the best.  I turned the email into the “Daily Smile” with humor every day.  People started asking to join my mailing list and sharing it with their friends.  My boss enjoyed that I was using technology and becoming well known.  When I considered looking for a new role, he gave me a raise and asked me to stay with him. 

Life changed.  I was fortunate enough to open my own online shop. I sought advice from friends that owned their own businesses. One owner told me that people can hear you smile when you engage them, so always wear a smile no matter what else is going on in your life. Many of my repeat customers told me they returned to my shop (even though my prices were not the cheapest) because I was always happy and fun to deal with. I began to realize that I could get ahead in life without having to be grumpy or a complainer.

Fast forward and I am back in the corporate world. I planned a retirement event for an executive that had been with the company 40 years (we will call him “Bill”).  It was an important event with many executives in attendance. Our division vice president (who had worked with Bill for decades) spoke at the event.  He started his talk by stating that his favorite thing about Bill was the fact that no matter what was going on, Bill always said, “good morning” and was always willing to share a smile.

I was shocked.   What an odd thing to mention regarding a career that spanned 40 years.

I asked the vice president about it later and he stated that at the end of the day he respected people that worked through issues, projects, and assignments with a smile and a positive attitude.

Fast forward to my current position.  I started this job with a smile and a cheerful attitude.  I decided the people that thought you needed to be more stern to be professional were just misinformed.  I am very good (and professional) at what I do, but I always try and say “hi” to everyone and put a smile in my voice when engaging people.  People have mentioned how nice it is to see me always with a smile.  My bosses have appreciated my kind attitude and I have been promoted twice in three years. 

Smiley lives!   😊

Color can change your life … or at least your email

I, personally, love this little trick.  Many of my friends and family didn’t know this existed till I showed it to them.  Though… to be fair… I didn’t know this existed till someone showed it to me.  I am a firm believer in taking people’s great ideas and sharing them with anyone that wants them.  Knowledge is a terrible thing to waste, as they say.

This simple suggestion will allow you add color and/or fonts to your emails, which helps certain senders or topics to stand out from the crowd.  After being off a few days, how many times have sat at your computer to read email and wished there was an easy way to spot your bosses emails from the tons of others?  To help this, I mark my boss in red to help make sure I can easily find those first. 

I will offer instructions on how to do this in Outlook 2016. I am also sure that there may be ways to set this in your email system (if different from mine), but I am currently using Outlook, so that is what I can speak about.

• Click the View menu - from your inbox
• Click View Settings in the Current View group
• In the resulting dialog, click Conditional Formatting
• Click Add
• Give the new format a descriptive name
• Click Font
• You can assign other formats, but in this case, we want to color the message - that's a Font attribute
• From the Color dropdown, choose a color
• Click OK
• Now that you have the color, you need the condition
• Click Condition (under Font)
• In this case, you want to colorize messages from your boss
• You can pick the email address from your address book or type it in
• Click OK three times to return to the Mail window

Adding the color is a simple enough task, but if you move the message to another folder, Outlook removes the color; it stops applying the rule. To keep the color from folder to folder, you can copy the rule to other folders as follows:

• In the Inbox, click View
• From the Change View option dropdown, choose Apply Current View to Other Mail Folders
• In the Apply View dialog, expand the Inbox and check the appropriate folders
• Click “apply view to subfolders” if you want that option
• or, click individual folders
• Click OK

Over the years, I have played with fonts and other options over the years. I think that changing the font styles is a bit less effective in quickly scanning your mailbox … but play with it.  You might find that you like different font styles, along with colors, in your mailbox.

Two-Minute Rule – Helping to tackle procrastination and time management 120 seconds at a time

I learned this rule a few ways, over a few years.  The time management help was priceless.  And, it had the extra added benefit of helping me with some of my procrastination and dread of certain chores.  BONUS BIT!

The two-minute rule is so simple…

1. Look at the item.  
2. If it can be done in two minutes or less, just do it right then and there.  

How many of us look at an email and think “I will deal with that later”, when honestly, if we dealt with it right then and there, it would take 2 minutes or less. 

Or, how many of us look at the mail we just threw in that pile on the counter and think “I will deal with all that mail later”.  We all know that 95% of it is junk and that we could easily open the 1 item that needs our attention and just pitch everything else, but we add it to the pile and think we will find a better time later to go through it all. 

The funny thing … the more mail and email piles up, the more we dread dealing with them.  

And, the sad thing is … when we do finally convince ourselves that we have time to deal with the pile, we have to go back and look at each item again before we can make a decision about it.  So, we have wasted time dealing what that simple piece of mail/email - twice.  This double reading adds up and this is time we could have been playing with our cats, doing a crossword puzzle, or dealing with more important emails.

How does the rule really work; check out these examples:

• Email
• Look at the email
• Reply to the item
• Forward the item
• Trash the item
• Make a calendar item regarding the email
• Make a task about the email
• File the item in a sub-folder as reference
• Mail
• Look at the mail
• Pitch it
• Open it
• Put it in the bills to be paid
• Put it in the to be filed folder (or just file it, if that will still take less than two minutes)
• Smile at the card your friend sent you and send her a text letting her know you enjoy the thought (yes, that also takes less than two minutes)

This rule can also be translated to almost anything. For example, I get delivery boxes often.  I cut them down and take them to the recycle bins every few weeks. I could pile them up and then deal with cutting them all down over the course of 30 minutes or so before I drive them to be recycled.  I could feel dread at having to do this chore whenever I wanted to run errands.  And ... I have boxes piling up in my garage or in my kitchen.  

Where my cats love big piles of boxes, I do not.  

So, since I have the box cutter out to open the box, I just slice the box flat and put it into the carrying box that I use to transport all my cardboard to the recycle bin.  Then, whenever I have another errand to run, I can easily grab that box of cardboard and complete a few errands easily.  No need to spend time before I run my errands getting the boxes ready.  

Decluttering … The project I have learned to love

I know what you are thinking … I am one sick woman if I love to declutter.   I know … it means opening that junk drawer or looking in the back of the closet in that catch-all box and actually making decisions about what can stay and what should go.  But, I truly have learned to love the feeling of purging and the more open feeling when I look around the house and see “empty” areas.

What positive results, you might ask:

1. I can find things I truly need much more easily, since there are not a ton of things to look past before I find what I need.
2. I feel less stressed.  I always thought it was a myth that a less cluttered environment leads to a less stressful mind, but after a decade of working to declutter, I think it is true.
3. A local charity or your neighborhood garage sale folks, love you.
4. Your cats find new hiding places and toys they forget they had.

My husband helps … and here is how we make it more fun and not so daunting:

1. We set one day a weekend and we set aside 1-2 hours.
• We generally do this each weekend throughout the winter and by spring, the house is a bit less cluttered.
2. We usually start slow, with a cup of coffee and some news reading or tv watching before we start.
3. We start in one room … once the coffee kicks in.
4. We set up boxes for donation or a garage sale, and a box for trash.
5. We literally touch every item in the room - open ever cabinet, drawer or box - and make decisions about every item.
6. We try and eliminate at least a quarter of the items in the room. 
• Some rooms like the bathroom are tougher to do this for, but closets and junk drawers more than make up for the bathroom.
7. After 1-2 hours, we stop. 
• We clean up whatever mess is left.
• The full box(es) go to charity or into the garage for the sale later in the spring.
• The trash goes to the trash can.
• The partial boxes just go out of the way.
8. We then reward ourselves for a job well done.   We go out to lunch, catch an afternoon movie, or take a nap.
9. The next weekend we start wherever we left off.

Two other things we try and implement throughout the year, though we are not as good at these yet:

1. Put a donation box in the garage and put items in as we realize we don’t need them anymore.
2. Live by the “One in / One Out” rule.  If something new comes in, something must go in the donation box in the garage.

We are not 100% faithful about doing this every year in every room, but we have tried to get in the habit more and more as the years have gone by.   It makes a difference in our lives.  As with everything else, I see positive results happening in my life as a result of removing the clutter.