As a professional organizer and time management expert, I tell my clients that I will find them more time, but not to invest into more work. Instead it will be leisure time that we will actually put into their schedule to rest, relax and recreate.  Here is where that time can be found:

• Use Skpe, web-based meeting programs, and phone to limit face-to-face meetings.
• Agendize business phone calls, all meetings, and interactions. Write a teeny agenda of what to cover, ask, solve or do at those interactions.
• Delegate to the machines. Taking time to learn how to optimally  use your smartphone, tablet, web tools, software and apps can be a huge return on investment in terms of time you save.
• Limit social media usage to a hour at a time. Set an alarm. Get up, walk, and then before setting the alarm for the next hour, decide if you can knock off.
• Schedule leisure, rest, relaxation, and every other kind of downtime. It may sound counter-intuitive to your sense of spontaneity and fun but you’ll find you have the best of both worlds: spontaneity and planned non-work time.

Need more help? Contact a professional organizer who can show you how to manage your time to combat work creep.

National Get Organized Month, Shred Event – (L to R) Judith Kolberg, Peg Scullin Hussing (owner of EcoShredders), Travis Hussing and professional organizer Renee Rains

A society marked by inundation requires a new time management, one that puts more of an emphasis on purging and output than the old time management does. We regularly have to carve out time to clear up backlog and inundation whether it’s our hard drive groaning with content, flash drives of mysterious content floating around the desk, or scores of bookmarks and RSS feeds. Purging has to move into the mainstream of our schedules and not left “for a rainy day” or “when we find down time.” Those days are gone and not coming back.

Here are three ways to purge:

• Scour your Favorite (bookmarked websites) and RSS feeds monthly. What else do you do monthly? Review your investment statements? Visit your Mom? Tie your scouring habits to something you already do monthly.
• Download thematic, archival content to flash drives and label the flash drives. Get stuff off of your hard drive that has a theme and is inactive. Examples might be an old job search, or the research material for a report you finalized. Another option is to send this stuff to the cloud using Dropbox or another cloud alternative.

Purging takes time up-front. The return on this organizing investment is great. It saves time finding information, saves time coordinating files together, and saves time releasing space on your computer. It also saves time that would otherwise be wasted worrying about what is where. Never underestimate how much wasted energy and time is devoted to worry.  

Output activities means actualizing all that information you have gathered. Make it come alive. Use it.  Output activities include:

• Print your favorite photos. You are allowed to have favorites!
• Plan time to view videos and movies
• Move your music files to where you’ll actually listen to them

Couple your purging habits with output activities, and you’ll be able to turn ’overwhelm’ into plain old ‘whelmed.’

My client Marsha is in HR, charged with ‘prospecting for the best legal talent available’, one of those knowledge work kind of assignments that can go on forever. “I never knew when enough was enough. I attended recruitment fairs, interacted on social media, prospected at law school events…there just seemed no end to the work.” Meanwhile, all that time prospecting for a new attorney meant the open post continued to go unfilled, the other attorneys had to add more work to their plate, and the yet unhired attorney’s contributions was forestalled. “It’s just not worth it to the company for me to keep trying to find the perfect candidates. I’m done when I prospect what I think are the best 25 candidates a month.”

Another factor that affects closure (finishing or completing something) is the extent to which one is taken off task by an interruption or distraction Each day a typical office employee checks e-mail 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times, according to RescueTime, a firm that develops time-management and tracking software. So defend your right to concentrate. If you truly need to close the door, turn off the cell, and leave email unattended for 3 hours, do it. A recent Harvard University study of 600 managers found that the most significant factor in their perception of their best work days were the days when they made progress, the days they were able to move work forward to closure. Their findings are in a new book called The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven J. Kramer. I have a client who puts yellow crime scene tape across her cubby office opening. She doesn’t have a door but the message is clear. Don’t disturb her till the tape comes down. Many companies have a “no devices in this meetings” policy. Find a place to hide where you can concentrate.

SERIOUS TECHNOHOARDING OCCURS WHEN:

• The acquisition of and failure to discard useless, non-collectible and obsolete electronics clutters up living spaces and impedes normal activities such as cleaning, cooking and sleeping.
• The impulse to purchase electronics is uncontrollable and results in debt or diversion of money from necessities.
• A preoccupation with internet, computer, or electronics disrupts family relations, work obligations and sleep.

If you are someone who technohoards and you want to change, try this:

* Ask yourself what need is fulfilled by being amidst all the clutter. It could be the need for seclusion, control of your environment, or a need to feel protected and secure. Machines can do this for you. People, well, now that’s a little messier. Confront your needs and see if you can get them fulfilled more constructively.

* Make room for the future. Clutter keeps us stuck in the present and in the past.

* Think of yourself as someone who deserves to be picky, selective and more discerning about how you choose to spend your time, money, effort and space.

* Got technohoarding real bad? Contact the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, www.ICD.com for a professional organizer specially trained in hoarding behaviors.

I employed a method that I call ‘Disorganization – What’s In It For You?’ I learned this technique from Byron Van Arsdale, a business coach who gave a presentation at an Institute for Challenging Disorganization conference. It was very successful with Joshua. Here’s how it went:

(Judith) Here’s a stack of credit card receipts for 2008 purchases. What’s in it for you to keep these receipts?
(Joshua) I have no idea who much I’m spending. If I keep them I’ll someday find out how much I’m spending.
(Judith) Okay. That’s a good goal. If you were to sort these receipts by store and add up each stack you would know what you spent in 2008 in these stores. From my experience, I can tell you that sorting and tallying this size stack of receipts would take about 2 hours. What’s in it for you to spend two hours knowing what you spent in 2008? (Joshua) It would be worth two hours to finally get it done.

(Judith) Okay. We could get your schedule and plan out the two hours. What if you could find out in about 30 minutes. Would there be something in it for you to spend less time to know the same thing?

(Joshua) Sure. The less time the better.

We went online to the bank that issues Joshua’s credit card statements and arranged for a year-end statement for 2008. It came by email with a breakdown of all his expenditures by type. It took less than a half hour.

(Judith) Can I toss out the receipts?
(Joshua) Not yet. I’m not ready.
(Judith) That’s fine. What’s in it for you to wait?
(Joshua) If I wait I’ll get used to the idea of not having the receipts for real, in my hand.
(Judith) I’m going to print out your year-end statement so you can hold it in your hand.

We printed out the 2008 and 2009 and 2010 year-end statements. Joshua tossed all his receipts. He even shredded his monthly credit card statements for those years.

Once you know what you get out of a behavior, you can change it. For Joshua, what he gets out of saving receipts is a mental reminder to deal with where his money is going. Saving the receipts never really gets him to that outcome. But now that he was aware of what was in it for him to save the receipts, we could do something different, something more powerful to actually achieve his goal. There almost always is a better way, a more organized way to get at the same goal.

You can try the ‘Disorganization: What’s In It For Me?’ method with any organizing obstacle. You might discover that what’s in it for you to keep your stacks and piles and stuff is:

A feeling of control
A fear of forgetting
An environment of inventiveness

Remember, the second part of the method is to find a better way, a more organized way to get at the same result. That’s why the method works best when you do it with a professional organizer. If you’re still stuck, hire an organizer who specializes with chronic disorganizaiton at www.challengingdisorganization.com

The mission of the Atlanta Hoading Task Force (AHTF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is to make resources and services available to metro-Atlanta compulsive hoarders and their families. “We act as a coordinated response team providing experienced professional organizing, therapeutic support, education about compulsive hoarding, social work, and supplemental services like minor home repairs,” notes Judith Kolberg, the Director. The services are fee-based but the organization will use grants and fundraising to make the services affordable. It is estimated that 2%-4% of the adult population suffers from hoarding behaviors, such as excessive saving, excessive acquisition, and failure to discard. So far the AHTF has fielded 50 inquiries from agencies, individuals, or their families. “Our goal is to mitigate hoarding situations before they become safety or health hazards,” notes Kolberg.

To make a referral, book a speaker, or for more information, contact the AHTF at 404-231-6172, ext. 2, or info@atlantahoardingtaskforce.com.

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The short solution to “How do I organize my reading material?” is to read it. That may seem obvious, but as you know, it’s easier said than done. Here’s how to read more so you have less to organize in the first place. Make some big categorical ‘buckets’ for your reading. By ‘buckets’ I mean both electronic folders and corresponding physical baskets or bins because you’ll always have both digital and hardcopy stuff to read. I suggest these categories to my clients to get them started:  leisure, business, personal development, and consumer reading. My client, Marge, runs a dog rescue clinic. National Geographic  is her escape (leisure), and The Dog Rescue Clinic Times is professional reading (business) along with several related blogs and online magazines. She reads personal finance and health articles (personal development) to stay well-rounded. Consumer reading can be very diverse. For Marge, it’s that fat envelope full of 401(k) material, her smartphone contract, and that Internet print-out of health savings accounts to look over. Just be sure if you dump stuff into the consumer category that it doesn’t have a deadline or due date. That’s really not ‘reading’, it’s more like ‘action.’    

• Consider delegating reading. That’s what your Congressperson does. She delegates portions of the legislative bills out to various staff who read it and summarize and report back to the Congressperson. Just make sure that your delegatees have enough knowledge to understand what it is you’re asked them to read.
• Read with a closed mind. That’s right. Don’t be open-minded. If you know what you are looking for before you read a book or article, you’ll be able to tell fairly quickly if it addresses your needs. But if you don’t know your needs, you’ll be slogging through a lot of irrevelant stuff. (Obviously this advice doesn’t apply to leisure reading.)
• Schedule a regular purge of your reading material. ”I always add reading but never seem to subtract any so my filing and retrieval systems are so big and complex, I can’t find what I need when I need it”, complains Daniel a client of mine.  Good times to purge are April 15th while you’re churning up documents and files, New Year’s Day for that ‘fresh start’ feel, or during National Get Organized Month.
• Move professional reading into the mainstream of your schedule. Don’t rely on ’finding the time’. Those days are gone and never coming back. Give yourself permission to read at your desk if the reading is relevant to your career or job. I find my female clients tend to see professional reading as self-indulgent. Not so. While your male counterparts might not be putting their feet up on the desk and spreading open a newspaper, you can bet they read online and offline to keep up with their careers. You should too.
• Be an active reader. Taking notes, highlighting and underlining helps the brain retain information, and helps you block out internal distractions.
• If you need to read something with a lot of numbers or graphs in it and it’s not your forte, consider a reading partner. Someone who you can read with, outloud, who has a better grasp on that kind of material than you do.

Know How Deeply to Read

Mindstool.com recommends you know how deeply you need to read. They suggest, where you only need the shallowest knowledge of a subject, you can skim material. Here you read only chapter headings, introductions, and summaries. If you need a moderate level of information on a subject, then you can scan the text. This is when you read the chapter introductions and summaries in detail. You can then speed read the contents of the chapters, picking out and understanding key words and concepts. Only when you need full knowledge of a subject is it worth studying the text in detail.

Use Technology to Organize Your Reading

* If you’re a big reader of novels, poetry or best-selling business books, consider getting a Kindle or Nook, especially if you travel.

* Use Calibre.com or another program to organize your ebooks. Assemble them by subject, like the library does. Add tags and  you’ll be able to find any ebook content at the click of a button

* Readability.com makes it easier to read articles on the web by stripping them down to text and photos, removing ad and other extraneous material.

* Use Google Reader for the blog and website you frequently visit.

* The coolest book apps can be found at Huffingtonpost.com

A Word About Books

If you’re a biblioholic with thousands of books you want to pare down, Literacy Volunteers could sure use them. Donate them to your local library only if they are in good condition. Chances are the library will sell your books to raise funds rather than shelve them. Selling your books is tough unless they are rare and in great condition. Used bookstores are likely to offer you credit to use in the store rather than cash.

If you’re having difficulty organizing your reading materials and books, contact a professional organizer at the National Association of Professional Organizers.