The Clutter Diet Blog

I Am Writing This Now to Send Later...

Here is a handy little trick for people who work late, like I do... If you are trying to catch up on your work late at night but don't want to look like a complete fiend for staying up at 1 AM doing e-mail, try this:

In Outlook, from within the e-mail message you are sending, click "View>Options."  When you see the options window, check the box next to  "Do not deliver before:" Then choose a date and time that you would like to wait for message delivery, such as the next morning at a decent hour.

Click these thumbnails to see what the screens look like. (opens in a new window)

You'll click "Close" and then when you're finished, click "Send."  The message will just stay in your Outbox until it's time to be sent out... but you will be done with whatever it was and on to your next tasks.  And nobody will wonder what the heck you were doing up so late.

As usual, "YMMV" (Your Mileage May Vary), so do a test on your own system to see how it works and verify that it sends it out when stated.

How We Spend Our Time

Fantastic issue of Time magazine this week-- celebrating the 300 million population mark in the United States, they looked at a snapshot of statistics about who we are, where we live, what we believe, and how we spend our time.

Did you know today's parents actually spend more time with their children than parents did in 1965?  And now fathers in particular spend TWICE as much?

Here's a breakdown of the average woman's average day for 11 main activities:

• Phone calls, mail, e-mail:  14 minutes (I do not believe this!!)
• Caring for non-household members:  15 minutes
• Religious and civic activities:  21 minutes
• Caring for family:  43 minutes
• Educational activities:  26 minutes
• Buying goods and services:  58 minutes
• Eating and drinking:  1 hour 11 minutes
• Household activities:  2 hours 16 minutes
• Work-related activities:  3 hours
• Free time:  4 hours 48 minutes
• Personal care and sleep:  9 hours 37 minutes

To me, this makes no sense that women are on average spending more time on religious and civic activities than they are talking on the phone and doing e-mail.  Not the people I know!

So supposedly we have this 4 hours and 48 minutes of free time... I wonder what we are doing with that?  Would love to hear comments on this.

I Think I'll Write about Procrastination...Tomorrow

I was reading a book recently that told the story of a great warrior who took his soldiers to a battle in ships, and when they reached their destination, he burned them.  The only way for the soldiers to get home was to win the battle and take the enemy's ships. 

The suggestion was that if you have a goal, you should "burn your ships" to get it done.  Recently I had a business goal and decided I would put out advertising about the new service to "burn my ships." Having the deadline of the advertising coming out was extremely motivating to get my work done!

I have also heard of people writing a check to an organization they find repulsive, and telling the friend to mail the check by a certain date if they have not done what they are supposed to do.

So, one way to conquer procrastination is to create a forced deadline for yourself.  What ships could you burn today to help yourself succeed?

Gift Certificates: Organizing Your Quasi-Cash

It's certainly getting popular nowadays to give "Gift Cards" from major stores to people in lieu of a regular gift.  We have seen many of these that have been lost in homes.  They belong in your wallet, as they are the same as cash.  Other gift certificates that are larger in size face this question: Are they Predictable, or Unpredictable?  Do you know exactly when you'd use them (a massage, for example)?  If they are Unpredictable, they should probably be kept in your car.  We recommend using a sturdy vinyl string envelope like the one pictured here to keep these types of items in your car, or if you have a lot of them, you can use a "check file" with dividers to organize them.  If they are Predictable, you can keep them in your filing system or together in a special box or letter slot.

In the meantime, I will take those pesky massage gift certificates off your hands if you don't know where to keep them.  ;)

No Excuse for Bad Spelling on the Web!

Consider the wonders of the humble Google toolbar. Most people, it appears, use it only for the search window and the pop-up blocker, but have no idea about the other buttons. There are some great tools on there!

The Spell Check button checks your spelling in web forms, web-based e-mail, chat rooms, and
other places where you might be typing freely on a web page. Here is a screen shot about how this works.

Crazy Busy

Thursday I had the pleasure of hearing Edward Hallowell speak at the Texas Conference for Women here in Austin. His current book is called CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD. This book is about the odd phenomenon of many people having symptoms of ADD without actually having the condition. The problem is our hectic lives. He started his talk with the story that opens the book-- about his frustration while taking some time off in a cabin at the lake and the place had a rotary dial phone. He was very upset at the 11 seconds it took him to dial out... and realized how incredibly ridiculous that was.

Here is an ironic and funny idea: If you don't have time to read the book, buy the abridged audio version.

Pimp My Garage

A recent Time Magazine article did a great job of covering the garage remodeling trend. Did you know that The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University estimates that we spent $2.4 billion improving our garages in 2003, which is double what we spent the previous decade?

Why? We have more stuff. In our work, we've always referred to the garage as the "Final Frontier" for clutter. You may get it out of the daily flow of your life, from the kitchen or bedroom or office, but then where do you put it? Usually, the garage... it's the ultimate "put it here for now" space in your home. It's on it's way out... but not quite gone.

People are spending over $10,000 on their garages, putting in special flooring, specialty workbenches, and even wine storage. The garage looks as good as any other room in the house-- clean and tidy. What I want to know is, now where is their "stuff" hiding?