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A Simple Way to Organize Anything

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One of the most helpful books I’ve read on organizing is actually Organizing for Dummies. It was comprehensive — it covers just about all areas — while also being very clear.

I don’t agree with everything in it (I differ from the approach she takes to filing in some ways, especially the categories). But there was one huge take-away from the book that applies to just about everything you have to organize.

This huge take-away is the acronym she uses for her organizing process. The acronym is P-L-A-C-E:

  1. P urge
  2. L ike with like
  3. A access
  4. C ontain
  5. E valuate

This process is really, really useful. And it doesn’t just apply to organizing space, like your garage. I implement a variation of it even when organizing ideas, websites, files, and so forth.

First, purge. Get rid of what is unnecessary. You don’t want to organize things you don’t need.

Second, “like with like” means to group like things to together. This is the principle of good writing we learned in high school English, and it applies to all forms of organizing. This is the central organizing principle of anything.

Third, access means that you put things you use more frequently to be closer to access than things you use less. For example, if you are organizing your kitchen, you probably have lots of hard-to-access spots. You put the pans you hardly use in those places, not the pots you use every day. Or at your desk: things you use every day should be at your fingertips, like an effective cockpit.

Fourth, contain. Don’t leave things scattered about, even when they are grouped. Contain them into contains. Drawer dividers in a drawer, plastic tubs in your basement storage, and so forth. And again, this is a broadly applicable principle. Web pages, for example, apply this principle. The various elements of a page are grouped, and then visual characteristics “contain” the various elements to help guide your eye and make the page easy to process.

Fifth, evaluate. When you are done organizing, step back, consider what you’ve done, and see if everything feels right. Change what can be improved.

How to Organize Your Internet Bookmarks for Immediate Access

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I posted the other day on how to organize your RSS feeds. The other part of the picture is organizing your internet favorites.

By having both of these organized well, you can save a lot of time and make your online workflow more enjoyable.

Is it Really Worth it to Organize Your Bookmarks?

As with my RSS feeds, I did an experiment about a year ago by not organizing them. I just left them in a long list (at that time in Internet Explorer), testing to see whether that would provide quicker and more direct access.

What I found was that I had to spend a lot of time hunting through that list for the bookmark I wanted.

So I’ve concluded that it is indeed more effective to organize your bookmarks. However, you need to do it right. This is a basic principle in regard to all filing: if you don’t create the categories right, you won’t want to use them.

But if you do create the categories right, you’ll not only find that things are easier, but will probably find that it creates additional insight and creativity. (Strange, but true: It makes you ask: what’s missing?)

Here are three other benefits of organizing your bookmarks:

1. It Makes it Easy to Access Dozens of Sites Very Quickly

For example, if I need to pay my credit card bill, I go to my “financial” category and click on my credit card site. Then I might want to check the latest news, so I just click into “news” and then one of my news sites (yes, even with RSS I still sometimes visit the actual sites). Then I can quickly go over to my “workflow” category and bring up the dashboard for my blog to write a post, then to my “travel” category to hit Expedia and book a trip I have to take, and so forth. It’s all very quick and easy.

2. It’s Fun

I actually find it kind of fun to have all of the bookmarks of my most-used sites right at my fingertips. It’s enjoyable to be able to have them all at immediate access and to quickly jump over from one category of site to another, as needed.

3. It Helps You Remember New Sites You Want to Stay on Top Of

I realize that subscribing to the RSS feed usually is the best way to do this. But there are still some sites that work best by actually visiting them. By having my bookmarks organized, it keeps it on my mind that there are various types of sites that I want to keep visiting, and it does this without cluttering my interface.

For example, I came across the site Innocentive last spring. It is an idea marketplace where “organizations with challenging problems” can connect with “smart people with creative solutions.” It provides a supplement to the traditional R&D approach by utilizing the extend “smart world” to help solve business problems.

Great idea. So I want to keep up with how the site and works and come to understand it a little better. I don’t just want to go look at it once and then forget about it. Having it in one of my bookmark categories ensures that once in a while I’ll remember to go back to the site and take a further look.

What Categories to Have

I mentioned above that a lot of the usefulness of this comes down to using the correct principles of classification in creating your categories. I’ll be doing future posts on setting up files well, so I won’t go into that here. For now, here are the categories that I group my bookmarks into:

  • Workflow
  • DG [where I work]
  • NewCo [a side venture I’m not doing anymore]
  • Friends
  • Social Networking
  • News
  • Politics
  • Stores
  • Financial
  • Travel
  • Business
  • Social Good
  • Technology
  • Productivity
  • Blogging
  • Theology
  • General
  • Projects

Here are a few notes on the categories:

“Workflow” is where I put the online tools that exist for accomplishing the primary tasks of work and life. For example, it contains my links to: Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Analytics, my blog, the admin panel for my blog, and a few other things.

“DG” is where I put online documents or websites (Basecamp projects, etc.) pertaining to my job. Now, one might ask why “Google Docs,” for example, is not in “DG,” since I mostly use that for work. The reason is that the stuff in “workflow” is mostly platforms that can be used for work or life. Stuff in my work folder (DG) is stuff that is specific to my work.

The “Projects” category is at the end is for temporary bookmarks that are relevant to a project I’m working on. It’s a good working place to put stuff that I need to access a lot for a project, but which I then can get rid of. Sometimes that stuff might just go well in my work folder; it really depends on how I want to use it and how much I need a certain project’s stuff kept all to itself for ease of use.

The rest of the categories are probably pretty self-explanatory. But there are principles behind these groupings, which will be discussed in future posts on filing in general.

To create the categories, in Firefox go to Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks. Then create them by creating them as folders within the “Bookmarks Toolbar” folder. In Internet Explorer, go to Favorites > Organize Favorites and you can create the folders there. Once you’ve done this, move your bookmarks into the categories.

(I assume you will probably be creating some new categories as well, and not using some of the ones that I have. But hopefully the ones I’ve listed give you a good idea of how to do the categories.)

Where to Put the Categories

The key to making this work comes down to where you put the categories. You don’t want to have to open up that left sidebar to reveal your favorites.

Instead, you want these folders to be manifest in the bookmarks toolbar, which shows across the top of the page. I use Firefox, but you can do this in IE as well, and I think in Safari too (at least I hope you can if you are a Safari user). Here’s what I mean (I’m really sorry if the image is low quality; I think you can still get the idea):

The bookmarks toolbar is that line across the bottom with the labels “workflow,” “DG,” “family,” etc. When you click on one of those labels, the bookmarks in that folder reveal in a drop-down from there. It’s really handy.

To make the bookmarks toolbar display, in Firefox go to View > Toolbars and highlight “bookmark toolbar.” Now, all the category folders that you created will show up in the bookmarks toolbar across the top of the page.

In Internet Explorer, go to to View > Toolbars and select “links.” Then, make sure to also deselect the “lock toolbars option.” Now, you’ll see the word “links” show up somewhere up top in IE. Take that and drag it where you want it to go. When I look at my IE, it looks like it puts this on the same line as the menu toolbar. Make sure to drag it on to its own line and extend it across. Now make your favorites show on the left side (click the “star” that makes them show) and drag the folders up onto the links bar. Then you can close the favorites side bar and not have to use it.

Alternatively, if you’d rather just use the favorites sidebar in IE instead of the links toolbar, that might work out just as well. In Firefox I found this cumbersome because it treats the side bar a bit differently.

This Connects to Filing in General

So now we see a way to organize online book marks in good categories and how to make those categories quick and easy to access.

As I’ve mentioned above, this is part of the larger question of filing in general. I’ll be doing posts in the future on how to set up your files. (Yes, even in the age of good desktop search, there is still a critical place for good electronic filing, as well as effective filing of paper-based stuff. Good filing is fun and effective!)

How I'm Processing the Questions on Email for Next Week

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In my post yesterday on how to get your email inbox to zero, I encouraged readers to email me their questions on email and effective practices that they use. I’ll then do some posts next week answering the best questions and highlighting some of the best ideas from people.

A helpful way to illustrate my system might be to summarize how I use it to handle these email questions I receive so that I have access to them next week when I write the posts, but still have them in an organized spot in the meantime.

Here’s principle number one for me in this: I’m not keeping those emails in my inbox.

Those who read the post yesterday could probably finish this post today for me. What I did is create a new folder in with the “working folders” that I encourage people to have. The constant folders in there are “answer,” “hold,” and “read.” But you can also create temporary folders in there for support material that you need to keep on hand for a bit, or which you need to collect for a task in the coming days.

So I created a folder called “WBN Questions” in in with my other working folders. Whenever I get a question, I send a quick thanks to the person and then move the email into that folder. Next week when I write the post, I’ll go into that folder, review the questions again, pick the best ones, and write my post.

When I’m all done, I’ll delete the emails (though I never permanently empty my deleted bin, so I’ll still have them on file), and then delete this temporary support folder.

How to Get Your Email Inbox to Zero Every Day

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[UPDATE: The content of this post has been updated and turned into a PDF article.]

It’s possible to get your email inbox to zero every day, even if you get 100 emails a day.

And it’s not super complicated, though it does take effort and some discipline. But I don’t think lack of effort has been the main problem. I think the main problem has been not knowing how to manage email effectively.

Many people have simply never been taught the best practices for keeping email under control. For example, we can quickly fall into the trap of using our email inbox as a small to-do list (really bad), and sometimes we even end up using our inbox as a holding tank for major project items (far worse). The result is that we go through our days with a sense of having a thousand “open loops” continually before us.

The goal of this article is to outline some very simple practices that will enable you to manage your email in a way that is effective, simple, and maintains a sense of relaxed control. You should be able to take this article and use it to get your inbox from whatever point it is—even if it’s at 15,000 emails—and get it down to zero.

It shouldn’t take too long (if you have 15,000 emails, maybe you should just delete everything more than a month old and start over!). And you’ll be able to keep it there. Or, at least, if you don’t keep it there, it won’t be because you don’t know how.

Overview

We’ll cover a 5-part process for getting your email inbox to zero and keeping it there. The five areas are:

  1. Setting up your email workspace
  2. The rules of processing
  3. How to handle the four different types of emails
  4. Email filing (don’t do it)
  5. Staying at zero all day long: how often should you check email?

(Here’s a pdf of this article for those who prefer reading in that format.)

[Read more…]

Send Me Your Questions on Email

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I just posted above a detailed article I’ve written on how to get your email inbox to zero every day. The process works really well. I find it entirely doable to get my inbox to zero at least once a day, with the exception of days when I’m away from my computer or when I shut email down to focus on large projects, and in spite of receiving some pretty complicated emails.

(Although this doesn’t mean that there are never any days, or weeks even, when you need to let things go completely haywire, or just say “enough!,” which I think is just fine from time to time — more on that in future posts.)

Now, the article certainly doesn’t answer all questions that can arise. In addition, I’m really interested in hearing what approaches you have found effective in dealing with email.

So here’s what I think will be most interesting of all:

  1. Send me (or put in the comments) your questions on email. Send the toughest ones you can think of, especially anything that has been a consistent snag to you, or any unanswered questions from the article. I’ll then do a post next week giving my answers to the most puzzling and most helpful questions and we can also discuss them further in the comments if desired.
  2. Send me (or put in the comments) some of the email strategies and tactics that you’ve found most effective, and I’ll feature the most interesting or useful ones in some posts.

What Makes a Website Effective?

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The redesign of any ministry website presents the organization with an incredible opportunity. It is an opportunity to serve the body of Christ by providing abundant and easy-to-access content and an opportunity to provide a foundation for more effectively accomplishing the goals of the organization. The way to make the most of this opportunity is to make sure that the outcome of this redesign is an effective website that is built on the basis of sound principles.

The Importance of an Effective Website for Christian Ministries

Why Is an Effective Website Important?

An effective website lies at the foundation of organizational effectiveness. In a real sense—at the human level—the success of any ministry today depends in a large measure upon the success of its website. Successful organizational strategy can no longer be carried out apart from an effective website and an intentional web strategy.

The reason is that, in this day and age, the web has become the main way people interact with and experience many organizations. This is even more true for teaching-centered ministries, as the internet has become the primary way people obtain, use, and share the content that these organizations provide. The more effective a website is, the better the experience website visitors have with the organization, and the more motivated they will be to spread its message and content to others.

What Makes for an Effective Website?

When most people think of a “good” website, they think first—and perhaps exclusively—about its graphic look. If a site looks nice, it is considered a success. But web experts such as Jakob Nielson, Steve Krug, and others have shown that the graphic look of a site is not the most important factor.

This comports with experience. We have all been to sites that look nice but are nonetheless frustrating to use. Specific information that we can reasonably expect to be available on the site is difficult to find, or the navigation tools are confusing and therefore inefficient. Despite an attractive look, such sites provide a negative experience, making us disinclined ever to visit the site again.

An attractive look is certainly very important, and any ministry’s new site must look great in order to serve visitors and reflect well on the gospel. But no one visits a ministry site primarily for the aesthetic experience. Your visitors are focused, goal-oriented, and likely quite busy. They want to identify as quickly and easily as possible—and at whatever level of detail may concern them—what can be found at the site and how to find it. In other words, they are interested in what has been shown to be the single most fundamental component of an effective website: usability.

Websites exist to be used. Sites that are easy to use enable visitors to accomplish their goals more effectively and with less frustration. Ease of use creates a more pleasant experience for visitors, makes them more likely to return, reinforces the credibility of your brand, and makes it more likely your visitors will share your site with others.

Graphic design does not create ease of use. It builds upon ease of use. Absent good information architecture and an adherence to sound principles of usability, attractive graphic design is insufficient and ineffective.

 

How Does One Build an Effective Website?

An effective website, therefore, is created when good graphic design is joined to high usability. Most of us recognize good graphic design when we see it. But usability is not nearly so well understood.

 

In essence, usability comes from (1) good information architecture, and (2) adherence to sound principles of usability and layout. Information architecture has to do with the way the site is structured—what the main sections of the site are, what the sub-sections are, what categories are used to group the content, and so forth. The primary importance of good information architecture cannot be overstated. In allowing a visitor to find his way around the site easily, good information architecture keeps him from getting lost (one of the worst of all sensations on the web), keeps him oriented, and enables him to move easily and confidently from one place to another.

 

Good information architecture reveals your content so that it can be maximally accessed; more than that, it interprets your content. Particularly at the levels of Topic (e.g., Atonement) and Resource Type (e.g., sermon, article, poem, etc.), solid information architecture provides the visitor a grid for how to think about your content, thus enabling him to find, understand, and remember it better. Sites this easy to use are returned to frequently and talked about widely.

 

Good information architecture, however, is not achieved by organizing a site according to what “seems best to us.” Rather, there are established principles of classification and organization that assure effective architecture. Likewise, there are also general principles of usability and design that reveal and govern how to build the mechanics of a site correctly. These principles of usability and design are the second component to making a site usable. As a few examples: site navigation should always highlight the section the visitor is in so that he can tell at a glance where he is; every page on the site needs a title; only links should be underlined; and “click here” should never be used. Defining these principles (along with some 100 others like them) and following them in the creation of the site pages, is essential in creating an effective, usable website.

Congratulations

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While I disagree fundamentally with the perspective Obama has taken on the three core issues of economic policy, foreign policy, and social policy, it is also important to acknowledge that he ran a very smart campaign and should be congratulated for that.

And far more important than that: It is not necessary to fully agree to also very gladly acknowledge the historic importance that, for the first time in our nation’s history, an African-American has become president.

How to Organize Your RSS Feeds

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Typically, I am all about grouping and organizing things. But about a year ago I decided to test whether, when it came to my RSS feeds, it might actually save time not to organize them into folders.

My reasoning was that simply having them kept in a straight list would make them directly visible and accessible.

And there is something to that. I found it most useful back when I used Internet Explorer as my reader (I actually found it very handy to use IE for my RSS reader).

When I switched to a Mac, I didn’t find Firefox’s Live Bookmarks very convenient, so I switched to NetNewsWire–which I really love. It also has a very good interface for easily allowing you to organize your feeds into folders if you want.

I concluded that it makes things simpler and saves times to organize my feeds into folders, for two reasons:

  1. It allows me to more easily read my feeds by topic
  2. It makes the number of feeds less overwhelming

I find that it is more efficient, at least for me, to review my feeds by topic because I can go faster when I can roughly keep my mind on the same subject and proceed in chunks.

And when I didn’t use folders to group my feeds, I came to have a mental resistence to them because the list was so long.

Grouping them in folders also makes it easier to prioritize. Basically, my first folder is called “Priority.” This folder contains the feeds from any topic that are most important to me. So I can easily skip all the other folders if I am short on time, and focus in on these.

Then, if I have a bit more time it is easy to determine which topic is of greatest interest to me at the time, and I can just scan those folders quickly.

Compared to my experience of keeping my feeds in a straight list, I’ve fond that I save time by organizing them into folders.

Here is the list of categories I use:

  • Priority
  • Friends
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Career
  • Social Good
  • Productivity
  • Blogging
  • Publishing
  • Technology
  • Theology

Employees are not Overhead

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Standard terminology, at least in the non-profit sector, refers to employees as overhead.

This needs to change.

People are not overhead. People are the force that makes any company effective. That is not overhead.

Matthew Kelly and Peter Drucker make this point better than I ever could:

It has been almost forty years since Peter Drucker observed the single greatest error of our accounting system: people are placed in the liability column on the balance sheet. Machinery and computers are categorized as assets and people as liabilities. The reality, of course, is that the right people are an organization’s greatest asset. (Matthew Kelly, The Dream Manager, page 2.)

Of course, just about everyone is willing to say “people are our greatest asset.” But largely this is still in the realm of theory–it hasn’t penetrated the way we actually work and think. Kelly goes on:

We may have acknowledged this truth in theory, but we have not allowed it to sufficiently penetrate the way we manage our organizations, and indeed, the way we manage the people who drive them.

One indication of the fact that we haven’t yet started taking seriously the reality that people are assets, not liabilities, is that we still use terms like “overhead” to describe them.

Employee Disengagement Costs You Money

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The other day I picked up a book called The Dream Manager. It’s another business parable, but it is very perceptive. (I had never been into business parables until I started reading Patrick Lencioni’s stuff, which is excellent.)

The book is about employee engagement:

The problem is, the great majority of people in the workplace today are actively disengaged. This is the dilemma that modern managers face. To varying extents, people don’t feel connected to their work, the organizations they work in, or the people they work with. No single factor is affecting morale, efficiency, productivity, sustainable growth, customer intimacy, and profitability than this disengagement. (The Dream Manager, page 1)

I agree completely. Employee disengagement is a tragedy and is pervasive in the modern workplace. A friend of mine often says of his company that “they pay you just enough to keep you from leaving.” What a horrible way to treat employees.

The biggest reason that employee disengagement is important is because of what it does to people. It creates the “quiet desperation” of the modern workforce that we see all around us. It also has a financial cost. I found it really interesting that this cost can actually be quantified:

If on average your employees are 75 percent engaged, disengagement is costing you 25 percent of your payroll every month in productivity alone. The real cost to your business is of course much higher when you take into account how disengaged employees negatively affect your customers and every aspect of your business. (Page 2)

There are some very effective, and simple, solutions to the problem of employee disengagement. I think it is one of needs of the hour, and in one sense that is going to be a major component of what this blog is going to be about.  And for those interested in a helpful book on the topic in the meantime, The Dream Manager is proving to be a very good read.