Hasta La Ideas

Reader Lucia submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I like following a lot of websites in a RSS reader — I use Google Reader — but sometimes it’s too much. I check it and there are more than I can read. Now the count is 1000+. Help!

This is a great question and a problem that I’m sure many of us have faced in our online lives. Here are two tips that I hope will help:

1. Declare RSS Reader bankruptcy. If you have more posts than you could possibly read in two hours cluttering up your RSS reader, it’s time to start fresh. In the left-hand column of your Google Reader homepage, click on the link to “All items.” Then, in the middle column, click on the “Mark all as read” button. Poof! Instantly you are all caught up with reading your RSS feeds.
2. Create prioritized categories. Once you are out from under the slew of unread posts, you can set up a system to prioritize future readings. Instead of organizing your RSS feeds by content, order them by priority. I have three: Must Read, Really Like, and Fun. My “Must Read” category is filled with blogs I need to read every day for professional reasons. For instance, my Unclutterer feed is in this category so that I can make sure our RSS feed is functioning properly. “Really Like” is filled with close friends and favorite business, writing, and organizing blogs. And “Fun” is filled with silly, but low-priority blogs.

   When I’m pressed for time, I go to the “Subscriptions” list in the left-hand menu and then click on the “Must Read” folder to only see the most important posts. If I get through this list quickly, I’ll click on the folder for “Really Like” and get through as many as I can before my scheduled blog-reading time has expired. Whatever I don’t get to, either gets marked as read (see tip #1) or just sits unread if I know I’ll have more time later in the day to do some reading.

   To create categories, click on the blue “Manage subscriptions >>” link in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. Select the “Subscriptions” tab in the orange menu bar. Then, click on the drop down menu next to one of your feeds and highlight the very last option “New Folder.” Create your Must Read, Really Like and Fun folders and then assign all of your blog feeds to those three categories. When you’re finished, choose “<< Back to Google Reader" in the orange settings bar to return to your feed reader. Whenever you add a subscription, you need to manually assign it to a folder.

When reading RSS feeds, I like to set a timer and only read blogs for a set amount of time. If not, I can spend hours cruising through the internet. Obviously, I hope that Unclutterer makes your “Must Read” list! And, for anyone reading this post who doesn’t know what an RSS reader is, be sure to check out Matt’s post on this subject “RSS feeds: A primer.”

Thank you, Lucia, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

Today we again welcome the phenomenal Monica Ricci as a guest author on Unclutterer. She’s the organizing adviser for Office Depot and Beazer Homes, and you may have seen her on HGTV’s Mission Organization. A professional organizer hailing from Atlanta, I’m happy to call her a friend and to have her share her uncluttering wisdom with our readers.

Some time in the late 80s, my first husband taught me to golf, and I discovered something countless people already knew: Golf is hard! In fact, it’s the most difficult sport I’ve ever learned, with the possible exception of hang gliding, but that’s a whole other (horrible scraped-and-bloody-legs) story that maybe I’ll tell sometime after I’ve had too much to drink. But I digress…

What Joe taught me about golf is that to be a successful golfer, you have to learn a bunch of new skills and combine them properly to get the results you want. Your stance, your grip, your head position, your back swing, your swing, and follow-through all have to be just right to get the ball to go where you want it to. If one of those skills isn’t right, the ball will hook, slice, or burn some worms. In short, you get a less than desirable result. To be a good golfer, it’s important to learn proper fundamentals and combine them well, so that when you practice, you’re practicing good habits rather than deeply ingraining BAD habits.

The same is true in life and organizing. Your success is deeply dependent on the habits you create over time. The way you manage your time is a habit, and all the daily routines you’ve developed to manage your life and your work are all just habits. If you look objectively at the state of any area of your life from the condition of your home, office, or car, to your relationships, your finances, or your health and fitness, what you see are the results of your habits. If you love what you see, then do more of whatever you’re doing!

On the other hand, if what you see isn’t so terrific, sorry to say, that’s also the result of your habits. If your habits haven’t created the life and results you want, it’s time to change them. Here’s how to make a change in three simple steps…

1. Pay Attention In The Moment. If you mentally “check-in” with what you do on a daily basis in the midst of your routines, you’ll notice that you do things without even realizing it. Some of those ingrained habits are positive (putting the cap back on the toothpaste or putting the seat down without even thinking) while some others aren’t so great (throwing the mail on the kitchen counter and ignoring it for a few days, trying to throw together meals on the fly, writing phone messages on scraps of paper that you end up losing, trying to keep up with multiple calendars).
2. Choose a Different Thought In The Moment. Once you notice what you’re doing, you’re halfway there! Your thoughts created those habitual behaviors, and therefore your thoughts can create new ones. For example, change your thinking from: “I’ll just put this here for now and handle it later” to “I’ll take a minute and handle this now.” Change “I’ll remember that appointment in my head” to “I’ll add that to my calendar now so I don’t have to remember it.”You’ll be AMAZED at how powerful this one specific change is! As long as you just pay attention to yourself, you’ll be able to hear those thoughts that precede the ineffective behavior.
3. Choose A Different Behavior In The Moment. Habits are the behaviors generated by thoughts. If you change your thoughts, you can change your behaviors. This is where your power lives. You can change your thinking (which is GREAT!) but unless you ACT on that change, your results will stay the same.

The secret sequence to change a habit is:

1. Pay attention.
2. Choose a new thought.
3. Act on that new thought.
4. Repeat.

Once you apply that sequence to a few of your negative habits a handful of times, your new behavior will begin to be the new “default” — you’ll replace your old habits with powerful new ones, which will create a totally new result in your life.

Once again, I want to welcome the incredible Danielle LaPorte (author of the blog White Hot Truth) to Unclutterer. Read a more complete biography of her at the end of this article.

Last year was a biggie for me. I released a book, did speaking gigs in a dozen different cities, raised a bunch of money for my internet company, left that company for a new solo venture, and still made time to build forts and Popsicle stick boxes with my little boy. I knew that if I didn’t stand guard against the potential time, energy and stuff clutter that was coming my way, I was going to go berserk.

My initial inclination to planning for business growth was to do more. Work more hours. Put my kid into more programs. Just cram more into my life for a period of time. You know, weather the beautiful storm. But this time, I stopped myself. Maybe it’s maturity that brought me to my senses. Or maybe it’s all the sinus infections I’ve had from being over-worked. Or it’s the plethora of plastic toys and unanswered email that’s crept in while I’ve been juggling an ever-increasing more-ness to my life. But I finally had my eureka revelation and (I know, it may sound daft, you may have already mastered this incredibly obvious life lesson), but I finally realized that a girl can only do so much. Uh-huh.

When the going gets busy, the wise ones simplify … with a vengeance.

Managing chaos with beauty, quality, and ruthless simplicity:

1. Commit to your creativity. This may sound like it should be the last priority on your packed to-do-list. When we’re busy, the creative things are usually the first to go, but creativity is like a super vitamin juice for the soul – a little bit goes a long way. Whether it’s just a love note that you write on a napkin, or some flowers you arrange for the dinner table – find little ways to keep your creative nature alive. Beauty-making helps you keep things in perspective.
2. Get the best tools. Whether its more computer memory, a comfortable back pack, or a bus pass, invest in the best of what you use the most. Any carpenter will tell you that a house is easier to build with a sharp saw.
3. Have it delivered. What last minutes trips and essential to-dos are consistently causing you stress? There’s probably a service to solve that dilemma:
   • Arrange for direct deposits and automatic payments. I go into my bank only a few times a year (no more looking for a parking spot or waiting in line!) We auto-pay utility bills with an air mile-earning credit card, and write just one or two checks a month to the credit card.
   • Get a food delivery service. Once a week, the food dude drops off organic veggies, milk and other yummers we’ve ordered. It costs about 5% more than our usual grocery bill, but race-to-the-grocery-store trips before work/daycare/appointments – no more.
   • Send gifts through Amazon. It seemed like every girlfriend I have had a baby last year. I sent them all kids books directly through Amazon (you can fill out a gift card that is included with your order.) I give them the more personal, lovey prezzies when I see them in person (and know better what they really need).
   • Get DVDs by mail. Now THIS changed my life. No more, “We have to watch this movie tonight,” pressure for the sake of the $5 rental fee. And no more late fees!
4. Just say ‘no.’ Really. It’s a magic word.
5. Insist on good service. I switched banks because I could never get a human on the phone and it took too long to get my business done. And as much as I liked her, I broke up with my hairdresser. She kept me waiting every single time.
6. Give yourself a break. I adore books. I’d eat them if I could. But I actually committed to NOT read books for the first half of my very busy year. I also gave myself permission to be late with returning phone calls for six months. Sweet relief.

If you can see busy times coming, plan to do less, not accommodate more. Refuse to expand, insist on boundaries. Take your soul vitamins – be sure to do the little things that nourish your spirit. Reject anything that doesn’t foster your greatness, and put systems into place that support your freedom. Be ruthless. You’re worth it.

Danielle LaPorte founded www.whitehottruth.com because “self realization rocks.” Her blog is lauded as “kick-ass enlightening.” She is the lead author of the bestseller, Style Statement: Live By Your Own Design. A former think tank executive and communications strategist, Danielle helps entrepreneurs blaze their careers with her signature Fire Starter Sessions.

I’m talking to my computer right now. I’m speaking these words — rather than typing them — and watching them appear in my Word document.

I’m using a program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a voice recognition software program by Nuance. I bought a version of it last summer when I strained my wrists typing. Then, it was a necessity, and now it’s a convenience.

It’s a useful tool because Nuance claims that people type an average of 35 words a minute with only 58 percent accuracy, but speak 120 words per minute. The company’s Senior Vice President Peter Mahoney said, “When you type, the accuracy rate is abysmal because people get good at using the backspace key.”

If you type 35 or fewer words a minute, then an increase to 120 words would significantly improve productivity. If you’re already typing more than 100 words a minute, though, you may not notice such significant gains in speed.

Edit your work carefully, though. When the software is getting used to your voice and style, it may write something other than what you intended. For example, when you’re writing about rich, sweet, frozen, dairy products it may type, “I scream” instead of the correct “ice cream.” But, the more you use it and correct mistakes, the greater the accuracy.

It also scans for context. Mahoney said, “Dragon doesn’t understand what you’re saying but does understand the likelihood of words appearing near other words. It picks the appropriate word such as ‘over there’ not ‘over their.’” You can actively adapt Dragon to your writing style. Just point the software toward e-mails and reports you’ve written and let it analyze them. That allows Dragon to do a better job of knowing what words you tend to use, and can improve accuracy.

The Professional and Preferred editions include a feature called Voice Shortcuts. With Shortcuts, you can tell the program, “Search the web for Italian restaurants in Chicago,” and your default browser will open and start searching. You can also go to specific websites. For instance, you can say, “Search eBay for MP3 Player,” and it will search eBay.

While Windows Vista offers basic free voice recognition software built into the operating system, Dragon out-performs Vista with its speed.

Dragon requires some PC strength, so make sure your system meets the minimal specifications. On Amazon, you can find the standard version of the software for $54.99. Dragon is not available for Macs, but Nuance offers a similar program called Dictate. I’m not a regular user of Dictate, so I can’t speak to its performance.

Do you use Dragon NaturallySpeaking or another voice recognition software? Let us know about your experiences in the comments area.

Gina Trapani, former editor of Lifehacker who now runs the inspiring and informative website Smarterware.org, has compiled a list of strategies for the Harvard Business blog on “How to Mitigate the Urgent to Focus on the Important.” She discusses how if a concerted effort isn’t made to set aside time for big-picture items in your day that they easily can be pushed aside by sudden requests and demands.

To realign your work day, she offers three concrete plans of action. My favorite:

Set up a weekly 20-minute meeting with yourself. Put it on your calendar, and don’t book over it — treat it with the same respect you’d treat a meeting with your boss. If you don’t have an office door or you work in an open area that’s constantly busy, book a conference room for your meeting. Go there to be alone. Bring your project list, to-do list, and calendar, and spend the time reviewing what you finished that past week, and what you want to get done the following week. This is a great time to choose your daily three important tasks. Productivity author David Allen refers to this as the “weekly review,” and it’s one of the most effective ways to be mindful about how you’re spending your time.

Do you make time on your schedule for focused planning on big-picture projects, free of interruptions? What would you need to do to schedule a 20-minute meeting with yourself? How could it impact your work?