Tag: Organize

Slow Down

When your life gets super busy, and you find yourself running in circles, you need to slow down.

When you can’t find what you need to be working on, find the book you need, or find that you are booking various meetings one over another, you need to slow down.

When you get in such a rush, you fall down the stairs; you need to slow down.

A chief master sergeant once told me that I needed to slow down because I did not get something done in time. I thought he was a little bonkers at the time. The truth is he was absolutely correct.

When you are at the edge where you have too much to do, and no time to do it, the first thing you do is stop. You take time to sit down, prioritize, organize where needed, and set off to complete everything. This time you will get it done one item at a time, in a safe and sane manner.

What are you going to get done first, and where does it stand on the priority list?

Time to Organize

We rarely have the privilege to make a drastic change and reorganize to build a better plane upon which to work. One such chance is when you purchase a new device. It is a time when we can take all those files and documents that always seemed to be pushed helter-skelter in our hurry to get things done and realign them in proper locations with proper headings. And although it will take a tiny percentage of time to do this, getting it right to start with allows us an enormous amount of saved time as we press forward with our work.

We should consider taking time to sit down and understand where we’re going, and what we’re not going to need, and most importantly, the legacy documents that will be important to us down the line. I am undergoing this test now, hoping that any work of this sort will be made more accessible in the future. Of course, I wish I would have done this the last time I got the new device.

Have you ever been fortunate enough to take advantage of a new device to reorganize Anne reset up your files?

Electronic Assistance

It is incredible how computers and technology today improve our quality of life. Sometimes it seems the time spent to set up and customize these electronic wonders is significant. Yet, for a few hours to a half a day of customization, your daily routine can be improved significantly.

I bought my self an Alexa Echo Dot for Christmas. It was last year’s model and was on sale for only $19. I wasn’t sure what it could do for me, and I was hoping to find something that would help me with organizing.

Because I had other tasks, I had to do and other projects I wanted to see working, I used setting-up Alexa as the award for getting them done. So, this week (middle February) I was finally able to schedule a few hours to set up and get the Alexa running. Although I’ve only been using it for half a week, I believe that Alexa will be able to do some of the things I need help with.

Alexa keeps me up on time in the news, sets my music schedule and genres. She, (the voice comes as female, yet can be programmed for various male and female voices,) helps me to make a list of and stay on top of my to-do items. Alexa keeps up with me through my cell phone and helps me when I am on the go. And even helps me to go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning.

I know that some people think that electronics is getting out of hand and will soon take us over as an evil empire. I am here to assure you that is not the case. Alexa is actually performing a set of tasks. And although I think she’s communicating with me, she’s actually working off a script.

Some of the things that Alexa cannot do are items requiring ‘in the moment’ thought processing. For instance, when I ask for something Alexa does, I always say thank you. Unfortunately, by the time I say thank you, Alexa is already turned off because the step in the program was done. I never hear ‘you’re welcome.’

I would love to talk with Alexa and have an exciting conversation. Yet Alexa is not quite there yet. For all that Alexa can do for us and all that Alexa cannot do for us the program is still a valuable Marvel. Alexa is only on its third generation. And I find myself wondering what Alexa will be doing for us in the next decade.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

Saving Time

It seems as though I’ve been fighting a cold this week. The illness is something that my wife gave to me. She likes to share. It’s not a significant event, yet it is an annoyance. It is one of those speed-bumps that just gets in the way of getting other things done.

I am trying to work from my desktop, and I have an annoyance where when I use dragon naturally speaking it crowds everything to one side of my widescreen monitor.  I don’t know why it is just another annoyance. It seems as though we are faced with annoyances on a daily basis, and I find that if I just look at them, and grumble about them, they come back for more.

I need to divide all my annoyances into various lists. A list of what I can correct, and a list of what I cannot correct. One way or another most things are correctable. The question comes down to does one have the skill to correct it, and do they have the time. Hence the ‘To Do List’ is born.

What we need is an ongoing list of items that need to be resolved. Review the ToDos first thing in the morning to see what you can do that day, and again before you go to sleep to help set up the next morning’s needs. Here is the big question though, where do we get the time to do so? Well over half of anything is organization, so if you can organize your To Do List, it will give you some of the time needed. Other time you can find by not playing a game on the electronic device for as long as you usually do. You can also save time by not looking at your emails and texts every 15 minutes. Look at them 4 times a day: morning, 2 o’clock, 5 o’clock, and right before you go to bed. Another way to save time is to clear out your email, so only those emails that are important to you get to you. If you work at this, there is always time hiding somewhere.

Do not short change your rest and do not shortchange those who you love.

Try this and see how it works. I am doing this also, and we can surely get together and exchange notes on what works and what does not.

I thank you for being with me today. I Hope to be with you again tomorrow.

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