Hi. I’m Lorie Marrero and today’s Clutter Video Tip is Part 1 in a five-part series
we’re doing on time management. People are making a big mistake out there and that is
thinking they have to conform to someone else’s time management system and do it perfectly.
People think they have to buy this company’s day planner and they have to fill out those
forms exactly as they are, or they have to buy this expert’s book and they have to
follow that person’s advice and do it exactly the way they do it. And to me that’s a recipe
for disaster because one size does not fit all and I believe time management is as unique
and individual as a fingerprint and it can change over time.
There are five elements to time management: capture, commit, cue, complete, and correct.
And today in Part 1 of our series we’re going to go over capturing. So you have a
lot of information coming at you all the time and that information needs to be captured
so that you can look at that later and decide whether that’s something you actually want
to do, and if you do, when you’re going to do it, or maybe if that’s just a piece
of reference information that you need for later. So you want to have a lot of these
capturing tools in your toolbox. [POP] If you’re sitting at your desk that’s really
easy. You probably have a computer right there. You can type appointments directly into your
calendar, you have a “to do” list right there, you have all manner of databases that
you can capture and put information into. But if you’re not at your desk or maybe
even if you are, you probably have a paper and pen and you’ve got probably a notebook
or a day planner. Or you [POP] may even have some kind of a list-making tool like this,
or sometimes people even carry 3x5 cards around with them everywhere and use those as a capturing
tool. There’s lots of ways to do it. Paper and pen is a great way that most people use
on a regular basis. But you may be out and about and you may not have a computer with
you or even a piece of paper. But you probably have with you your phone.
Now, even if you don’t have a Smart phone, you can still use some very smart things about
your phone and that is a service called Recall for one. Recall is a free service that you
can sign up for and you call the special Recall number and you can say a message into the
service and in a few minutes you will receive a transcribed text of [POP] exactly what you
said via e-mail. I am sure you can see how handy that might be. And, of course, you also
have a camera on your phone and you can use that camera to capture information too. Maybe
you don’t have a pen, but you can take a picture of somebody’s business card or take
a picture of the hours of a business that you want [POP] to frequent.
So there are lots of ways to use your camera and in one example also you can use an app
with your camera, Evernote. And that is a way to capture lots of information into your
Evernote database – I use this all the time – your [POP] camera works with it, but also
you can type directly into the Evernote database. And, of course, you have maybe a calendar
or a “to do” list on a Smart phone. I use Remember the Milk, which is a “to do”
list function that I sync with Outlook via my phone. And, of course, I can make calendar
appointments or whatever I need to as well.
I’d like to give you an assignment today and have you think about what your favorite
capturing tools are. And think about narrowing those down to just a few that are your favorites
that you know that you will consistently check and work on. So today write those down and
if you’re having trouble with that, you can look at our Member Message Board area
where we have our organizing expert team that has helped thousands of people in over 18
countries since 2006 for about the price of a pizza. So we can consult with you on what
those capturing tools might be for you and your lifestyle. You can see more about that
at clutterdiet.com/learnmore.
See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.
