Christa Wagner

I am so excited my husband and I are moving to the Commercial Drive neighborhood in Vancouver.  But now, its time to organize our move and we all know what that means.  Moving can be such a stressful time; on top of packing, letting go of stuff we don’t need, use and love and purchasing items needed for move in day, we also want to enjoythe Kitsilano neighborood as much as possible over the next month.   It’s important to me to have all my ducks in a row in order to make this most stress free move possible. 

So over the next month (moving day is September 30) I will be sharing the steps I am taking to accomplish just that.  If you have any move suggestions that have helped you in the past, please pass them along and use my posts as a guide to help you move or get organized as you move into Fall.  It’s a busy time of year and a great time to evaluate your things before more comes in from school and over the holidays.

• step #1is to decide whether we want to do the packing ourselves or hire professionals to do it all.  John and I discussed this and based our budget we will pack ourselves using Frogbox; and eco-friendly packing tool that reduces the amount of cardboard used to move. 
• Step #2:  Select a mover.  I have contacted several movers for estimates and credentials and now we must decide who will work best for us.  I need to show them what we have in order to get a fair estimate and confirm the time of arrival on moving day. 
• Step #3:  Make a list of  the things we want to do in our neighborhood while we’re still here.  Not that we won’t be back, but you know how it is and when you move you start living in a new area.  The first thing in my list is a romantic beach fire. 

That’s my plan at the moment.  Once these two steps are finalized I will move on.  This is a very exciting time and although moves can be stressful and energy intensive, I know we can have some fun at the same time. 

Savvy Solutions provides personal organizing solutions in Vancouver, BC.  We offer Speaking Engagements and Workshops, Paper and Information Management support, Time Management and Email Management.  Contact is at info@savvysolutionsorganizing.com. 

What a great appointment I had today.  I was working with a client who was experiencing email overload.  Who isn’t really?  She is an executive, has a lot on her plate and had too many emails in her inbox.  Although email is certainly known to decrease productivity, if used effectively it can help you stay organized.  My client was using her inbox as her to do list, which unfortunately doesn’t work when you have pages and pages of emails.   We worked for four hours today and she is now going to focus on implementing some new habits to eliminate email overload.  Here were some steps:

1. We started deleting.  When she called me there were over 4,800 emails in her inbox and by the time I arrived today, since our consultation, she had reduced her inbox to 2,200.  Great work!  She eliminated anything she did not need, would not refer to and moved any reference materials into folders. 
2. We created a folder system:  You have to ask yourself if you are truly going to reference this information again and if so file it just as you would a vital paper document.  Create a folder system that is intuitive and easy to you.  My favorite folder titles are Administrative, Client, Communications, Writing and Resources. 
3. We moved meeting and event emails onto her calendar so she can delete the email and see her entire day on her calendar.
4. We utilized her tasks list and moved TO DO email to tasks.  
5. We talked about composing more effective emails and sending less to receive less. 

Email can be a great tool if used effectively.  Take some to use each tool appropriately and see if you can reduce your time with email and get some real work done.

I was away last week on vacation and as you know it’s always tough to return from the beach and relaxation.  I knew there would be many emails in my inbox, but what I was not prepared for the amount of emails from the dreaded  “reply all” button. 

I love Outlook; it helps me so much with my life and business.  I use it to manage my tasks, calendar, contacts, etc.  But I have to say I really dislike the “reply all” feature.  Maybe it’s not the feature as much as it is the abuse of this feature. 

When I opened my email following my vacation, nearly one third of my emails stemmed from the “reply all” button.  Most of them said something to the effect of “thanks!” “me too!” or “great party.”  Who cares.  Did I really have to spend time reading or better yet deleting this annoying emails.  So I am not just going to complain about this; I prefer to provide some solutions:

1. When sending email to a group, blind copy all recipients so “reply all” is not an option stifling the frenzy from the get-go.
2. Think twice before choosing the “reply all” option.  Consider who really needs to hear your response. Single out the addresses of whom you need reply.
3. Consider picking up the phone.  Remember voice communication?  It can be significantly faster than 10 emails going back and forth, that not everyone needs to see.

What I would really love is an alarm to go off, prior to anyone sending a “reply all” email, but perhaps that’s not realistic.  If we could all be a little more contentious we could drastically decrease the amount of emails in our in-box.

I saw a great posting on a colleagues blog (www.declutteryou.com) regarding email addiction and some recent information collected by AOL.  Now, I am not shy about the fact that email is the one thing that really bogs me down and when you look at this stats; its no wonder.  I do my best to only check email at certain times each day and try to have fewer than 10 emails in my inbox at anytime.  But I struggle knowing there are actions sitting in my inbox waiting for my attention.   I am not going to run through the details; you can check them out yourself the Seattle Addiction page.

That said, a couple of interesting things I noticed:

• We are always encouraging our clients to have more balance between life and work, but yet 43% of people read their email in the bathroom; technology has invaded the most private of moments.
• 27% say they feel obligated to check work email while on a break from the office and one in five plan their vacations based on where they know they can access email.
• 35% check their email in the middle of the night.

So I certainly don’t expect email to go away, and I don’t want it to.  It is a great way to stay in touch, share information, communicate to groups, etc.  But what I would love is for people spend a little less time emailing and a little more time doing something that adds value to your life.  To quote Randy Pausch of The Last Lecture, ”Time is all you have.”  Is email really the best way to use it.   What could you be doing rather than emailing?  Give it some thought and let us know.