New Year's Resolutions - like it or not, it's that time of year!

Since this may be GroundFloor Media’s final blog post of 2009 (we’re all attempting to take next week off for some R&R), it seems like the perfect time to discuss that dreaded topic. You know the one… New Year’s resolutions. It’s hard to escape the chatter about those pesky resolutions. I’m sure many of the folks in our profession are “type A” personalities, perfectionists, even borderline obsessive, if you will. So setting goals seems natural to us. Why would we possibly need resolutions?

If you do decide to succumb to peer pressure and declare your New Year’s resolutions in 2010, I have come across some helpful tips that I thought you might appreciate. My favorite, and one that I’ve been practicing with mild success this week, is to never have more than seven items on your daily to do list. I’m ballparking it here – but I would venture to guess that my ongoing to do list typically has 25 items on it. And I’ve found that none of them get done because there are so many to tackle. By pulling five to seven of them off of that ongoing list to a daily “must do” list, I’ve actually been checking things off the list.

Aside from my endless to do list, the other bane of my existence is that “unread mail” indicator in my email inbox. I found a great blog about “inbox zero” last year, and I made it a goal of mine – only to find that my inbox will never be at zero unread emails. I learned to live with “inbox 100” and then “inbox 200” – and then I started getting hives, so I pulled out the “inbox zero” tips and re-read them. Here are a few that you may find helpful. I did.
-Use “rules” and create filters to automatically move certain types of emails into folders. Emails this works well for include your Google Alerts, “friend” requests and news/offers/coupons from retailers that you want to hear from (but maybe not right now).
-Schedule time for emails and respond during those scheduled times rather than living in your email inbox all day long. You’ve got other things to do!
-Use your delete key. Determine if you’re really ever going to respond to that email, and if not, just delete it. Especially if it’s more than a few weeks old. Answer it now or delete it. You can do it!

I hope you found at least one of these tips useful, if not for setting your New Year’s resolutions, then hopefully for getting some sanity back into your life on a regular basis. I wish you health and happiness (and inbox zero) in the New Year.

~Ramonna