Do you ever start browsing for one thing on the Internet and wind up so lost and turned around you might even be in a foreign country? Last night I was looking for some cute little newborn girl dresses that might be suitable for taking our newest little one home from the hospital in and I wound up totally lost and I don’t even know how I got to this estatecarinsurance.com auto insurance site. I’m sure glad we’re not in need of new or different auto insurance. I am not very well-versed about auto insurance. Now…give me a website full of baby dresses and I’m good!
mmf drawer. No? Well, a girl could dream, guess. This is one of those super-tough cash drawers you sometimes see in places of business. My thought was that it would be handy to have one…but maybe not. It looks pretty high tech because it connects and disconnects to a computer through a cable. Even if I had one of these babies, I sure wouldn’t have much to put in it.
Do you ever appreciate the peace of an empty inbox? Or is your inbox always overflowing with stressful messages?
Time to restore some order in our inboxes today!
- Make a new folder. Name it whatever you like, but this folder will be the place you immediately file all emails that require action from you.
- Now go through your most recent emails and place as many as 20 emails in this action folder. These are the important emails that require some kind of action from you.
- Now make another folder. Call this folder a “holding” folder. This is where everything else that is currently in your inbox goes right now. Don’t worry – you’ll get to these…but we’re putting them away where they won’t stress you out for the moment.
- NOW…promise yourself that you are going to file your emails as they come in. Here are your choices for processing your emails:
Delete them immediately
Deal with them immediately – these are the emails that require a 2 sentence response you can do it less than two minutes.
File them in your action folder
File them in your holding folder
Make a “reading” folder if you get a lot of newsletters. Place your reading emails in this folder and make it a point to get back to them and read them. Then delete them!
Wondering how to control the flood and reduce it?
- Ruthlessly unsubscribe to emails you don’t read and don’t want.
- Reduce the number of emails you send (and you’ll get fewer emails back!)
- Reduce the length of emails you send
- Make email rules so your emails get directed into the folders you desire. Make junk rules to delete the junk so you don’t even see it.
Oh…and I did promise! The emails in your holding folder. Start to go through them a few at a time and delete the emails you don’t need. You can also do a mass delete unless you are afraid you might miss something important. Spend five minutes at a time going through these old emails and you’ll probably be through them in less than a week. Then promise yourself…NEVER AGAIN!
Do you maintain a website? Most people I know have some kind of a presence on the Internet. With this presence invariably comes the maintenance of a website — which is a whole new learning experience for many of us. Once you have a website up and running, your thoughts often turn to things like Search Engine Optimization, Page Rank, and directory submissions. What is a directory submission, you ask? An Internet directory is a compiled list of websites within a certain niche or subject. When people search for content online, these directories are a useful way to find information. If your website is included in one of these directories, you will often receive traffic when people search for content that you include on your website. This is why submitting your website to free directory lists is a great way to increase traffic to your website and increase your site’s standings.
My college-freshman son just made a splurge that he is rather proud of. After extensive shopping among many different laptops, he finally settled on a Dell that was delivered last week. This is especially important to him because he earned and bought this laptop with his own money. He had it built to his specifications and it even has a Brewers Baseball outer shell that makes it especially “him.”
I’m proud of him. He earned this!
Anyone who runs a website or is interested in search engine optimization for website rankings might be interested in exploring this web site directory. I know I have been there as I banged my head against the wall trying to figure out how to promote a website and optimize it for the best rankings. This site has an extensive list of web directories that will link to your website without reciprocal links – this is huge, if you have ever tried to do any legwork here. Great time saver!
Your computer desktop, that is. Is it cluttered and messy…full of files and icons…or is it simple and minimal?
If you tend to a cluttered computer desktop, would like to encourage you to try a minimalist desktop for a few days and see if you notice a difference in your computer time and productivity.
Suggestions:
- Put all of the icons currently on your desktop into one or two folders. My suggestion would be two folders named “Current” and “Archives.” Anything you are currently doing or working on goes in Current and everything else goes in Archives. As soon as you finish something, move it from Current to Archives.
- Choose a serene wallpaper for your desktop. Maybe a calendar, a solid background, a nice simple picture of a landscape or nature scene. Stay away from busy and stressful wallpapers.
- Consider removing icons and applications from your task bar as well. You can keep a folder with frequently used shortcuts, if absolutely necessary, on your desktop.
Keep your desktop simple so you can focus on what you are using the computer for in the first place.
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