I can’t say that I love meetings…who does. They interrupt my work flow and 9 times out of 10 nothing gets accomplished during a meeting except more questions.

Here are a few of my pet peeves about meetings

• Meetings without an agenda – if I don’t know what it is about how am I supposed to be prepared. Hmm…
• Inviting more than 5 people. Huge meetings are the worst time wasters. Very few people get to talk. AND most of the people who are invited don’t really need to be there.
• Marking the meeting as urgent and not saying why. The only person it’s urgent for is the person calling it…Why should I care?
• Meetings during lunch – unless you plan to feed people, meetings between 12-2pm are usually a monumental waste of time. Hungry people don’t focus well on anything but their rumbling stomach. They might look like they are focused but they aren’t 100 % present. It turns out that the brain uses glucose, a type of sugar, as a primary source of fuel. At least give ‘em some candy or better yet some fruit.

So next time you’re scheduling a meeting…could you please give some context…thanks…your loyal fan.

xoxo,
Frustrated Meeting Attendee ;)

© iStockPhoto/Franck-Boston

Getting organized is always a resolution for a large majority of people at the beginning of a new year. Most people don’t get very far. It’s a resolution that’s kept as much as the losing weight intention is. Clutter has an energy. Get rid of it and it’s surprising how much better you feel.

I am by no means an expert organizer. I can create a gigantic mess with the best of them. Anything in my digital life is organized but the physical world is another matter entirely.

Books I’ve found helpful for getting organized in general

• Unclutter Your Life in One Week
• Organizing from the Inside Out, Second Edition: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Dealing with my finances

• Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny
• Mint.com – so I know how much I’m spending and hopefully saving too!
• Statements from banks and credit card companies are all digital. Save a tree. Sign up for electronic statements.
• Receipts have a home at Shoeboxed
• BillMinder from return7 simplifies your life by tracking your bills. One time or recurring expense it doesn’t matter.

Try something new… see a professional

• Open Spaces Feng Shui from Ann Bingley Gallops offers a more holistic approach. It isn’t just about getting organized. More like energizing your Chi.
• Spacial Harmony from Dara Finkel working with her could bring “serenity and peace”.

Even though I have a iPod Touch and a Blackberry I use a notebook as a daily log. Simply because it’s hard to talk on the phone and type. Sketching during a meeting is simple. I just start each day with the date at the top and scribble from there. I don’t write to-do lists in there because they already have a home.

There are tons of websites and books to help you create a system that works for you. Stick with it for a few weeks at least before you give up. Changing habits require at least 30 days according to the experts.

My final word is to pick just one thing and finish it. Don’t try to get rid of a year’s worth of clutter in 1 day. It won’t work. Start small but start. It won’t get better by just thinking or staring at it. If it worked that way we’d all have clean desks or houses and a working schedule just by wishing it were so.

1. 15 inch Mac Book Pro – which I bought this summer. Getting rid of my Windows PC was not that much of a sacrifice and re-learning a few things on my new computer has been fun rather than frustrating. Hands down the easiest shopping experience I’ve had thus far buying a new computer. Apple really knows what they are doing to be sure. I highly recommend their personal shopping service. One-on-One classes were worth the investment as well.
2. Logitech Trackball – I like this device so much I bought two. One I keep at home and the other I take to work. I’ve freelanced at different companies this year and I’ve taken it to pretty much every gig I’ve had.
3. My Book External Hard Drive – because it takes up little desk space. Looks more like a book than a hard drive. Super fast and super quiet.
4. OmniFocus – I consider this task management overkill but well worth it. I have tried quite a few organizational software. None I’ve stuck with for longer than a few weeks or months. But this software I’ve been using the longest. In combination with my mind-mapping software it helps keep me focused and on task with what I need to accomplish. I love that I can add context to the things I need to do. I don’t think I’ve mastered every feature yet but I will given time.

The Losers

While this post is about the wins with the technology I’ve had; I can’t end without mentioning the worst technology purchase I made in 2010. Hands down it has to be getting a Blackberry.

I probably use about 10 % of the features of the device. The browser is beyond slow so much so that I have pretty much given up on using it. I use my iPod Touch for my appointments and pretty much staying on top of everything.

Switching to Vonage was also a bad decision. Dropped calls. Horrible reception, almost like talking on a mobile. And let’s not forget the ridiculous fees to change plans or cancel the service. Good riddance to bad rubbish as they say.

What new toy is on my list for 2011?

Besides a new mobile phone, I’m not sure yet. Technology is changing so fast by the time I make up my mind there will be some new gadget I want to get!

My desktop was a mess. In trying to regain some control I decided I needed a more visual approach to the problem. I’m a very visual person and I hate having to use the menu system to find the applications that I need.

I got the idea of using a mind map for my desktop from the Mind Map Inspiration blog. The author of that blog Paul Foreman uses them on his desktop as well. I decided to give it a try my desktop was a mess anyway. What’s the worse that could happen?

So how does it work? First, you change your desktop image to be image of a mind map. I got mine from Paul’s blog.  Then I put the most often used applications in the center. I have to mention I also use Folder Marker so that I can change the icons on folders to know their importance. I put utilities on the black branch, blue is mostly imaging software, purple and green I’m still figuring out but the brown and gray branches are applications I don’t use that often. I’ve been using this desktop map experiment for a few days and I’m liking it a lot. I will probably need to customize the map more but I figured why do that until I knew if it would be a valuable tool for me.

Download the maps for free at the Mind Map Inspiration blog.

Below is an excerpt from Tony Buzan’s book How to Mind Map: The Ultimate Thinking Tool That Will Change Your Life

Just like a road map, a Mind Map will:

• Give an overview of a large subject or area
• Enable you to plan routes or to make choices, and will let you know where you are going and where you have been
• Gather together large amounts of data in one place
• Encourage problem solving by allowing you to see new creative pathways
• Be enjoyable to look at, read, muse over and remember

Mind Maps are also brilliant route-maps for the memory, allowing you to organize facts and thoughts in such a way that your brain’s natural way of working is engaged right from the start. This means that remembering and recalling information later is far easier and more reliable than when using traditional note-taking techniques.

What do you need to Make a Mind Map?

Because Mind Maps are so easy to do and so natural, the ingredients for your “Mind Map Recipe” are very few:

1. Blank unlined paper
2. Colored pens and pencils
3. Your brain
4. Your imagination!

For examples of hand drawn Mind Maps head over to Tony Buzan’s Mind Map Gallery