Q. Do you have a recommendation for an online meeting scheduler you like?

Meggin’s Answer:

I really like www.TimeTrade.com – I’ve just started my second year using that and I like it.  The more coaching clients I have, the better I like it!  It saves the back and forth jillions of emails to get things scheduled.  There’s a yearly fee but I think it’s something like $29…so a bargain.

For meetings, I have been using www.Tungle.com and I like that because you can get a bunch of people scheduled.  It’s working well for various MasterMind coaching groups or other meetings I’m trying to schedule.

Hope that helps!

If you work in a plant that somehow generates hazardous waste, then you know all about the proper way to deal with hazardous materials. But, for most folks who work in government agencies, schools, colleges, universities, home-based businesses, and the like…you probably can’t even imagine that you have items that are in your office that are must be dispensed with properly, due to the fact that they are they are potentially hazardous to you and/or to the environment. Or, maybe you do know that you shouldn’t just toss your old monitor into the trash, but you just leave it sitting in the corner until you have ‘time’ to get rid of it in the right way. What’s the result? Mounting clutter.

Since you’re reading this article, I know you are ready to start de-cluttering your office or workspace, so here’s a suggestion: Appropriate a container (or multiple containers) designated for items that should not be disposed of in a careless manner. These containers are for those items that tend to just keep sitting around because people aren’t quite sure what to do with them, although they know they should do ‘something special’ or call ‘someone important’ to handle them.

When you are in a full de-cluttering mode, you have your container nearby that is marked “Hazardous Waste.” You place all items that fall into this category into this box. In the interest of the environment, everyone’s safety, as well as being on the right side of the law in some cases, these particular items need to be disposed of properly. Even if you aren’t sure what to do with the objects, at least get them put into this box, and then you can find out the answers to “Where do these go?” Nearly all organizations have someone who is designated to know the answer to that question – or you can always check your local yellow pages.

Here’s what you might find that belongs in this container (to be disposed of properly):

• batteries – of all kinds,

• bottles of white-out,

• paint (and many kinds of art supplies),

• computer monitors and other components,

• aerosol cans (with or without anything in them),

• certain liquids – especially the type you might find in a garage or lab,

• fluorescent light bulbs,

• toner cartridges (laser, etc.)

• and the list goes on.

The main idea is to place all those items in your workspace that you have just been piling up or moving around because you had the feeling that they were ‘hazardous,’ but meanwhile not really doing anything with them. It’s time to get them contained during your de-cluttering time and then either to personally dispose of them properly or call someone who does this for a living.

And you are invited to learn more from the full-color Get a Plan! Guide(R) to Ridding Your Workspace of Clutter to REALLY get going on your decluttering.  This special Get a Plan! Guide(R) will give you (and others with whom you work) suggestions and motivation to start de-cluttering your workspace (and even your home).

• Stop email ping-pong (also known as “boomerang email”).
  
• Have a “throwaway” email address (from hotmail or yahoo, for example). You can use it when you have to sign in to various websites, etc., but you never give it out to anyone who is sending you real mail. Then, if it starts being bombarded with junk, you can just turn it off and create a new “throwaway” email address.
  
• Keep updated virus software. Having your computer shut down due to a virus causes untold chaos and headache for you and those around you.
  
• Ask people not to send you unnecessary “stuff”-cartoons, jokes, chain letters, etc. Be kind but firm in your request.
  
• Clear out your email inbox daily. (WHEW! I know this one makes most people fall out of their chairs when I say this in a workshop. We will come back to this one later in the series, but for now, I just wanted to put it out there for you).

Be sure to check out the 7 Sane & Sensible Email Practices package.

Marketing is the process of creating awareness of and interest in your products and/or services – in those who can (and will) access them.

~ Meggin McIntosh

If you would like to learn ways to market so it matters, thereby increasing your impact (whether that means students in your classes, people buying your books, professionals hiring you for your organizing services, or any other endeavor in which you’re involved) then don’t miss this tele-workshop.  Click => http://meggin.com/MarketingThatMatters.php to register.

DETERMINE when you will check and respond to email.  If you are like the average professional today – and you put this notion into practice, you can reduce the time you spend daily on email by nearly 50%.  Let’s look at this more carefully…

Reduce the number of times you check email - and certainly do not have it on ALL DAY. That is just inviting interruption, distraction, and wasteful expenditures of your time and energy.  Although I will not give you an absolute number, if you can get away with once a day, then do so, For most professionals, 3 – 5 times per day will suffice. This means that regardless of whether you’re checking email at the office or on your iPhone, Blackberry, or whatever, DO NOT check more often than once per hour.  Here’s a second aspect of ‘determine:’

Determine your own energy clock and set times for working with email that are in sync with your level of productivity. If you are maximally sharp first thing in the morning, ask yourself if it makes sense for you to be using that most focused, productive time on your email. And please note:  there are so many different types of email – and if you’ve determined that some of them require significant mental sharpness and creativity, then address those during your best times.

Don’t sit down to ‘work on your email’ unless you actually have the energy and time to make decisions.  You may have observed others (or yourself) as they sit down to ‘work on’ email.  They open an email, read it, don’t do anything about it because either they don’t have time or they don’t have the energy, and then they just click on the next one. This is an outrageous way to ‘spend’ your precious time – because you’ve accomplished nothing.

Right now, determine how many times each day are sane and sensible for you to be checking your email.  1, 3, 5…maybe 7.  No more than that.  And know that you may very well need to educate those around you about your practice and your recommendation for their email practices.  The more we are all productive…the more we are all productive. 

And if you would like additional ways of getting and staying productive, then please join others (worldwide) who receive Meggin’s weekly emails (and see what is available for download at no cost at the following websites):

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

**Keys to Keeping Chaos at Bay (http://www.KeepingChaosatBay.com)

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

A hacker is “Someone who solves a problem in a clever or non-obvious way. A lifehacker uses workarounds and shortcuts to overcome everyday difficulties of the modern worker: an interrupt-driven existence of too much to do and too many distractions to keep you from doing it” (p. xxiii). And that is exactly what she provides in this book–cool ways to use technology to be more effective, efficient, safe, and productive. How could I not love this book?! Some of her ideas are fairly high-tech and others are lower tech. I’d be stunned if you read this and didn’t find at least 10 ideas to put into practice.

I recommend many other great books on my website:  http://www.meggin.com/BooksMain.php.  You’ll find a bunch related to productivity, leadership, and personal growth. 

If you love having books arrive FAST, be sure to sign up for Amazon Prime…free 2-day shipping for one flat rate each year (and you can have 4 family members all using it.  Such a bargain for those of us who want books NOW vs. later!)

Are you kidding me?  1001 ways….  And it’s true.  It’s quite the hefty book (704 pages) and it’s stunning the number of different ideas that are included.  Out of that number, any one of us can surely find at least…10 ideas we can use.  Or maybe even 100… 

If you love having books arrive FAST, be sure to sign up for Amazon Prime…free 2-day shipping for one flat rate each year (and you can have 4 family members all using it.  Such a bargain for those of us who want books NOW vs. later!)

Specific Areas Where Simplifying Makes Sense

Although there are scores of ways that you could choose to simplify, here are some general categories worth considering (along with one example of each):

Technology

• Any of us that use PowerPoint® know that we can go simple or we can go complex. If we think we have to have a new and different and amazing graphic on every single slide, that’s complex and it takes so much longer than if we say, “You know, I’m going to have a nice blue border that’s attractive and I’m going to have good information here, and every once in a while I’ll have a nice piece of clipart.” That’s simple. And it works. 

Personal Maintenance (e.g., hair, nails, makeup, clothing)

• Your clothing choices can be simple or complex. I have read about people who decided that navy blue was going to be their color and they just bought lots and lots of navy blue things. Think about what changes can occur when you decide on one color – navy blue or black or brown – and then you buy corresponding brown shoes (or navy shoes). When you are making purchases or planning your daily wardrobe, you no longer have to worry, “Are these shoes fuchsia or magenta? Will they go with that deep pinkish red pair of slacks? What kind of hose should I wear with this? Many of you reading this know the drill (and the questions and the overwhelm). If you have nothing but navy, then it just simplifies your other choices.

Clutter

• The more ‘stuff’ you have around, the more overwhelmed you can become.  Many wise folks make it a rule that when one thing comes in, one thing goes out. For example, new telephone in, old telephone out; new pair of shoes in, old pair of shoes out; new printer in, old printer out. If you are like most people, you haven’t been practicing this, so you probably need to get rid of as much paper and paraphernalia as you possibly can.

Meals/Food

• Decide on all your meals at the beginning of the week rather than worrying each day about what’s for dinner.
• Have three cereals rather than 19 cereals in your cupboard. It takes up a lot less space and provides fewer choices.
• Cook on the weekends for the week. I am the crockpot queen. I always take recipes and then just doctor them up with more of everything. If they made 20 quart crockpots, I’d probably buy one. After a weekend crockpot event, I can freeze several nights’ worth of food (since my husband doesn’t think that eating the exact same thing 7 nights in a row is a good plan). Part of what simplifies life when I use a crock pot is that it’s really one dish. It’s all in there. Simple, as far as I’m concerned.

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. ~Hans Hofmann

Choose at least one of the following to do today:

• Look at your email. Find one item that has been sitting there for awhile because you’re not sure how to respond. Call the person instead and delete the email.
• Take a look through your cosmetics and toiletries. Toss at least one.
• Look through the kitchen cabinets, laundry room, or garage, i.e., wherever you keep those appliances and gadgets that seemed like a good idea but have turned out to be a pain in the ___ to use. Find one such item and put it in a “Give Away” box.

Repeat each of these at least 3 times over the next week. Check the benefits for yourself.  See if becoming ‘just whelmed’ (vs. overwhelmed) isn’t one of the results. 

And if life’s daily complexity is just one area that overwhelms you – and you would like to be ‘just whelmed,’ then you’re invited to join others (worldwide) who receive Meggin’s weekly emails (free!) at

**I Want to Be Just Whelmed (http://www.JustWhelmed.com)

If you would prefer quick, short weekly tips, then the following site is another place to find suggestions and other tools to support you in your quest for peaceful productivity:

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

Hurst, Mark. Bit Literacy:  Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload. 

I have been buying this book in large quantities and have now used it in several workshops and am giving it to many of my consulting clients.  Not only do I love the way this guy writes (he’s very smart, articulate, and clever), but I find his message, tips, and tools extremely helpful.  It doesn’t matter whether you agree with everything he says or not…you will think about your email differently and you might even empty your email in-box.  Woo-hoo!

If you love having books arrive FAST, be sure to sign up for Amazon Prime…free 2-day shipping for one flat rate each year (and you can have 4 family members all using it.  Such a bargain for those of us who want books NOW vs. later!)

I now need someone familiar with Windows Media Player to help me… my phone can actually download MP3′s with this tool, and I would no longer have to carry a separate MP3 player with me when I hike…It’s not such a big deal, but anything to make life easier.