Every year we go through the same thing – resolutions and the hope of a fresh start. It’s the same every year for some of us, am I right? This year, however, I started my quest for ULTIMATE ORGANIZATION (go back and re-read that with a sports announcer’s voice – it’s cool, trust me)

ULTIMATE ORGANIZATION

For me, it meant managing a growing business, opportunities, and new media in ways I hadn’t needed to before. It meant being on the road a little more, using my tools a little better and not letting the tools or tech take so much time that I wasn’t getting productive things done.

I started my quest by looking at the things that I do really well, and do right. Email. I’m an email genius. I purge. I delete. I save things for later and group them so I can reply. And then… I don’t reply and I end up with 100 emails that need attention – but there’s no junk in there! What? Wait. That doesn’t seem efficient now does it?

Resolution #1 – Reply and get it out of my box. Check my email 3 times a day.
I’ve turned off my email notification so I don’t get the sound or popup when email comes in. If someone needs me sooner than 3 hours then they can call or text. I will reply to every mail and only “touch” things once.

Resolution #2 – Check my Blackberry Email, but don’t delete.
I get almost 200 emails per day, and all of them come into my Blackberry, so I changed the setting on my Blackberry to purge them every 14 days – that’s the minimum number of days. I now have to control my urge to keep that box clean; I only read the messages and reply if I need to. So far, it’s working well and saving me at least 30 minutes a day.

Resolution #3 – Sync or Swim
I decided a long time ago to use Gmail for my email management. I have more than 30 email addreses, but Gmail keep them all straight and no one needs to know I’m using Gmail – I reply with whatever business address (chelle@travelwebmarketing.com, for example) that they were sent to.  All of them are in one place for archiving, searching and management – but they also go to my Blackberry seamlessly, with no overlap. I also sync my Google Calendar, Contacts and Tasks (more on those later this week).

Resolution #4 – Keep Track of Social Media
I’ve got an entire post dedicated to HootSuite coming later this week, but with this week’s updates – being able to post to a Facebook Fan Page and connections with more than one account – it’s changed my life. I can keep an eye on things in a non-intrusive way with very little time loss.

So – touching things less,  using simplified technology and ignoring most of the noise. I think that’s a good start. What about you? What tips do you have to share this year?

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