The Clutter Diet Blog

We have a Piece of Flair on Facebook!

If you are into the social networking site Facebook, you might know about the application called "Pieces of Flair," which are shiny buttons you can put on your profile page to show your personality. (Of course this is inspired by the movie Office Space where Jennifer Aniston's character is advised about how many pieces of flair are required on her restaurant uniform.)

As a member of Facebook, you can install the Pieces of Flair application here and then search their flair choices for "Clutter Diet" to find us.

Back to work for me... I've "got a case of the Mondays!!"

The "Bottom" Line on File Folders

I was working with a client Friday and was reminded that many people still don't know about Box-Bottom File Folders. They are terrific for those very bulky files that would dwarf an ordinary hanging folder and cause the contents to bow up out of the top.

This picture is from the FedEx Kinko's website of a Smead product, which was the best photo I could find that shows how these work. (Other places sell them, though, and other companies produce them besides Smead.) They come with these cardboard inserts that you place into the bottom of the folders, which are themselves larger than normal to accommodate the insert. They come in different sizes, and many people are tempted to order the "assortment" box of various sizes. In my experience, just get a box of 2-inch box-bottom folders and not the assortment. The 1-inch size is barely worth bothering for, and the 3-inch size is so large that you might want to think about other options for that much paper!

Using box-bottom folders is a great way to neaten-up your filing cabinet and make it easier to wrangle those large files. Do ask yourself why you're keeping that much paper, though, and make sure that makes sense!

Swap Books at Work

One of our Clutter Diet members in the UK was telling us in the member message boards that they have a book swap shelf at work. That is BRILLIANT!

Why not do this in your own workplace?  Here are the benefits:

• Gives your gently used books a good home (and gets them out of your house)
• Promotes a literary culture in the workplace, and probably some great discussions over lunch
• Allows opportunities for receiving new good books without spending any money
• Promotes a greater sense of community in the workplace in general

At agreed-upon intervals, someone could take all of the books that are not claimed or swapped to a used bookstore. The money received could go into the company coffee fund or something. (Or, the unclaimed books could be taken to a charity drop-off.) This is a really easy little workplace morale boost! Let us know if you give it a try.

Save Tons of Time on the Phone!

I just found out from Kim Komando that there is this great site called "BRINGO" at www.nophonetrees.com that lets you immediately talk to a human being when you're trying to call a big company, like a lender, insurance company, or airline. You go to their site, find the company you want to speak with, enter your phone number, and they call YOU back.

I just tried it with AT&T/Cingular. First Bringo calls you, and I mean IMMEDIATELY, and you press # to verify your number. That is a one-time set up. Then they call you back again and you are connected. When I tried it, the guy answered "hello," so it was really very direct, definitely not a main public line! This saves tons of time vs. navigating through a confusing system and waiting in the queue!

Another way to save time on the phone (and aggravation!)...When you need to do complex calling between multiple parties, such as calling a health care provider and an insurance company to explain who has paid whom... it's great to do 3-way calling and add in both parties so they can hear what each other are saying. You get rid of the volleying-of-responsibility problem that you often run into in these situations. I have done this many times with disputes in health insurance, and I am sure you can think of other instances that this is helpful. Many people have 3-way calling on their phones and never use it.

Try Bringo and let us know in the comments how you liked it and what happened. I'm a believer!

Organize Your Family's Schedules

I recently tested a couple of great resources for people who are managing a busy family's schedule.

Cozi, at www.cozi.com, and AirSet, at www.airset.com, are both really solid online scheduling tools for multiple people. (logos shown here from their respective websites) Both applications would be ideal if you have a computer in or very near your kitchen or in another very highly-trafficked area of your home.

Cozi Pros & Cons: They have a desktop download that automatically syncs with its online component, so you don't necessarily have to be online all the time to use it. The grocery list feature is AMAZING...you can get your grocery list text-messaged to you while in the store, and you can text it over to your spouse as well!  Don't forget the milk, honey! They even have a recipe interface with Betty Crocker. Cozi is definitely more oriented toward families, with a photo on the home page of the application and a journal feature to capture little family memories. Each family member has a color code, and all appointments are shown with this code. The design is simple, intuitive, and beautiful. I have not found anything wrong with this application, except that I wish it featured a contact manager. I think that families often need to share contact information and this would be a natural component. Cost: Free.

AirSet Pros & Cons: AirSet can be well-used by a family, but it is set up to use as a workplace tool as well. It doesn't have the cool grocery list text messaging feature, but it does have LOTS of other tools as part of its very thorough interface. Shared calendaring is a given, and it also has contacts, which Cozi does not. It has a blog, a wiki, and even shared playlists and photo albums. It is very impressive, and many small businesses might do well to utilize AirSet as a substitute for networking with Outlook. You can also manage multiple groups from one place, such as a work group and a family group, maybe a team or other organization, etc. The only downside is that its multi-featured interface does not feel quite as simple or user-friendly as Cozi. It is very easy to use, however... just in comparison it's not as streamlined. Cost: Free, with an upcharge for mobile phone syncing.

What do you think? Has anyone used either of these regularly? I have only tested them but don't use them on a daily basis.

Twitterpated

Remember how Bambi and the other animals in the forest talked about being "twitterpated?" Well, I am kind of twitterpated over "Twitter." Some of you might have noticed my little "Twitter Updates" feed in the right sidebar of my blog page. It's kind of like a mini-blog. When I first heard about it, I thought, "I don't have time for this!" and "WHO CARES about what people are doing?" (logo shown is from Twitter's website)

I decided to try it. These guys over at Common Craft have done another cool video (like their one explaining RSS) that explains Twitter and why it matters. Here's why I like it: I really believe that you have more joy in your life when you express gratitude and just capture that joy and celebrate it. There are so many joyful things in my life that are small and I wanted to have a place to share those, like making a new friend, seeing the first bluebonnets of the season, and other little things that are too small to tell anyone about by themselves, but added up and collected sure do make me happy when I read them. So it doesn't really matter to me if anyone "cares" what I saw or did today, it's really something I am writing for myself to celebrate life's little joys. And hopefully, someone does care and wants to celebrate those things too. 

It just takes a few seconds to text-message a quick thought to Twitter from my phone, and it makes me remember what I loved about my day. I hope you think it's cool too and that you will soon be twitterpated over Twitter!

Decluttering Your Relationships

I heard Sandra Yancey, founder of eWomen Network, speak recently and really enjoyed it. She is one of many speakers I've heard who have quoted the idea that "you ARE the average of the five people you spend the most time with."  This idea includes everything, from your actual net worth to the values and interests and quality of life that you have.

One of the big cellular phone providers has a promotion going on about your "Fave Five" people that you call frequently, and they are putting the question out there about who your Fave Five would be. So in the spirit of this "averaging" idea, ask yourself, "Who are your Fave Five?"  You can decide for yourself if family "counts" or not-- the idea is that you take stock for a moment of the most important relationships in your life that are influencing who you are and who you will become.

When you boil it down, organizing our lives is ultimately about arranging our world to support us in becoming who we aspire to be, and it also includes decluttering the relationships that are not serving us. Is someone in your "Fave Five" contributing to your having less value, less freedom, less encouragement, less belief in yourself? Is someone's chaotic life bleeding over into your own?  Do you aspire to the qualities that these people display to the world? Are these relationships positive?  Do you WANT TO be the average of these particular five people?

Maybe your Fave Five needs decluttering... this is not an easy thing sometimes, but it doesn't always have to be a big visible ordeal like a divorce. It can be a shift, a different choice of how you spend your time. Just start by being conscious of your choices for your "Fave Five."

Label the Light Switches

Someone was visiting my home recently and commented on the light switch labels we have...I have always done this in every home we've lived in, because I get confused! So it's just a natural thing to label the things that confuse me so I won't make the same mistakes over and over. Here is a photo-- click it for a larger version.

It's like I am always saying-- I am organized because I am LAZY! I do not want to do things the hard way. I am always asking myself, "How can I do this better, how can I do this faster, how can I not do this at all?" Click here to read an article I wrote for Lifehack.org on this very subject.

Are there things in your home that confuse you? Are there mistakes you keep making? How could you eliminate the problem? Let us know here in the comments what you are doing to save yourself time and frustration.

Honesty Check! How Do You REALLY Spend Your Time?

We've talked before about keeping a time log of how you spend your hours. To me, this is not necessarily something you'd want to do ongoing, but more of an exercise in awareness. It takes some time and energy just to do the logging itself... however, I am testing this software/web application called "Rescue Time" that automatically logs all of the time you spend on your computer on each application or website. It will really keep you honest!

For example, today, since downloading it, I have spent 22 minutes in Outlook and 9 minutes on our company's WebEx Office interface, and 9 minutes here in TypePad writing this post. I also spent 6 minutes on a cooking school website making a reservation for me and my mom to attend a class. It sees all and knows all!! Here is a screenshot of the "dashboard" where you can see how you've spent your time in graphical form. Click the thumbnail to see a larger version.

It logs everything you are spending time on, and then you can "tag" it with labels, like "work," "personal," "writing," etc. You only have to tag an application or site once, and then it logs it that way thereafter. So over time, I can get an absolutely accurate chart of where my time is spent in the categories that I want to track.

This is a great way to get a grip on the truth about how you spend your workday in front of your computer... WITHOUT having to painstakingly log it yourself.  And if you spend MUCH more time on e-mail than you would like, for example, you can set "goals" to help you with changing your habits. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Gutter Ball Days

Last night I went bowling. Frankly, I had a really rotten day, and I was glad it was our "family night" because I didn't need to worry about dinner. It was my son's turn to choose where we went, and we had a great time visiting the "300" bowling place here in Austin.

Now, I don't bowl well (unlike our team member Yvette who is practically a pro!!). When I throw a gutter ball, it's just part of the deal and I really don't sweat it. Last night it really struck me that, after the gutter ball, you get a fresh new frame on your next turn. The pins are reset and you have a whole new chance! 

I realized that we can have these "Gutter Ball Days" like the one I had yesterday, but the next morning we get a fresh new chance at another day. You just pick right back up. It's no big deal! That really helped me to have a better time last night and a better day today. I wanted to share this insight with our readers, because so many of us are trying to get organized and trying to improve and achieve, and you can certainly have a discouraging day now and then. Treat those days like the insignificant "gutter balls" that they are, and don't let them ruin the other, fresh new days in the future.

Move on forward!