Michael Campbell has released the latest issue of ‘Internet Marketing Secrets’. The featured article is titled “How to Get Organized”. [‘Internet Marketing Secrets’ Newsletter]


Michael Campbell has released the latest issue of ‘Internet Marketing Secrets’.

How to Get Organized

Research has shown that the average person will waste four years of their life looking for things. Some research suggests it’s even more.

These are things that you’ve already seen and perhaps put somewhere. Now suddenly you need whatever it is, and you spend precious minutes, sometimes hours searching for it.

Lack of organization also leads to procrastination and overwhelm in the future. Certain individuals have gone so far as to fail to pay taxes, because of their mess. I want to prevent that from happening to you.

I’m going to share what works for me. I hope to give you some of your life back, by showing you how to get organized right from the start.

How to Get Organized and Stay that Way

There are many products and methods for getting organized. Some popular ones are Get Things Done, 4D, 6D, File Act Delete, or FAD method.

I don’t use any of those systems. I try to keep my life, filing systems, and to do lists, as simple as possible.

The first step to getting organized, is to set up your filing system, both real and virtual. Let’s start with the dirt world one. That would be the one outside your computer. ;-).

Jet down to your favorite office supply store. Snag some cardboard file boxes, hanging folders, manilla file folders and some labels. Now you’ll have to decide how to organize.

Some people set up one folder for each bill, like hydro, insurance, car maintenance, medical, bankcards, phone, etc. I do that for personal items, but for my business, I prefer to set up a folder for each month.

As the bills come in, they go into an action folder. As they get paid, they get filed into their respective folder, in a hanging folder, inside the file box.

That is the key point to remember, make folders to file receipts and papers as they come into your life. Don’t do it later, or lump it in a pile, until its out of hand.

Do your filing at least once a month for dirt world items. On the computer, your filing is daily. As you use, source, or create items, put them into their appropriate folders. (Which I’ll talk
about in a minute.)

When it comes to accounting, I have my CGA do the work for me. She’s been doing my business and personal taxes for over 15 years. I consider her to be an essential business partner and advisor.

(No one – in my opinion – should do their own company taxes. It’s the accountant’s job to read all the bulletins and stay informed of the constant changes and how they affect my business. I don’t want any part of that, except to hear about the deductions she finds me.) 😉

All I need to do, is write her code on the receipt and highlight the tax. That way she can see what category to enter the receipt into, and know if the tax is deductible or not.

Then I take the whole lot – folders, receipts, payments, etc – to her once a year. Everything is neatly organized so she can do her job quickly, and minimize the cost for me.

Once the taxes are done, the monthly folders get filed in a cardboard archive box. The box with the hanging file folders, gets a fresh set of manilla folders, all neatly labeled for the coming months.

If you’re a business with regular clients, set up a folder for each client. You can keep all their files in that one folder and file it alphabetically, so its easy to find. Just be sure to file it once you’re done with it, so you don’t end up with a mess.

If you do work on a per project basis, set up a sequential numbered docket system. Each project gets its own unique docket number. Everything pertaining to that one job gets stored in the docket folder.

Very often when it comes to the dirt world, accountants, lawyers and other professionals need physical paper copies. Instead of using a fax machine, I use a scanner and laser printer. I prefer to rely on PDF files, so I can have both digital and paper copies.

When it comes to organizing everything else, you can use the computer. It’s the ideal way to digitize, store and retrieve your records.

I keep my notes in text format, because it works with everything. For payments and receipts, I always save them to my hard drive in PDF format.

(People are always surprised to find that I have digital articles, notes and records go ing back to 1988. The text format allows me to copy and paste into any software of the future.)

To help keep your digital life organized, there are plenty of database solutions like Bento and Filemaker Pro. But I find them cumbersome to setup and use. The exception of course is when you have customers… lots of customers.

A database is the only way to keep track of who ordered what and when it was shipped. It can mail merge and print labels. Give each order a unique number. They can sort and print by any category.

A database can do just about anything. And that’s the reason I don’t like them. Things that can do everything are generally clunky to use. Whereas I prefer simple, light, nimble and portable.

On the Mac, I use Yojimbo by Bare Bones Software to organize my digital world. It holds all my notes, affiliate program data, agreements, passwords, login info, hosting, domain names, private sites, ad campaigns, just about everything.

Yojimbo can sync between computers and even export data to other devices. It saves pages as rich text format, so they’re easily useable in other programs. It can also encrypt items for privacy.

I set up folders in Yojimbo for each project I’m working on. That way I can be writing about one thing, then suddenly jump to the other project if I get a good idea. There’s no waiting as I keep the app running at all times.

As for “To Do” lists, I only have one. I keep it to 10 items or less to prevent overwhelm. Anything that doesn’t require my focus today, goes on its own project list in Yojimbo, where I keep notes, until I’m ready to work on it.

Every evening I delete the tasks that I’ve achieved from the list. I then take the remaining items, and arrange them in the order of their importance. Doing so is a critical part of the process. It’s the secret to staying focused.

The top five to do items are what I’ll work on, and try to achieve the next day. Some days I only get one thing done, but that’s ok. Success comes from the relentless pursuit of a worthy goal, or ideal, one small achievement at a time.

For scheduled items I use Apple’s built-in iCal software. I put any appointments on the calendar, where they are synced through Mobile Me, with my iPad and iPhone. It sends me reminders, via
email and message, so I never miss an appointment.

So between Yojimbo and iCal, I can organize and prioritize most of my digital world. But what about bulky things like bookmarks, pdf files, receipts for purchases, web printouts, screenshots
and graphics?

I have a hierarchy of folders on my hard drive for that.

The bookmark structure I use took a lot of thinking. I worked on it as a project, on and off, over a four year period. In that time I determined that all business falls under three TLCs (top level categories):

Research, Production and Marketing.

Inside each TLC there are two levels of nested subcategories. The first level down describes the Type and the second level down describes the Process…

For example, in the Marketing TLC, I have placed folders for different Types of Marketing: Advertising, Interactive, Permission, Persuasion, Public Relations, Sales and Syndication.

Each Type folder has their own nested level of Process folders. For example, inside the Persuasion folder, there are folders for: Calls to Action, Conversion, Copywriting, Psychology, Salesletters, Selling, Shopping Carts and Squeeze Pages.

So, if I was impressed by an article on how to improve my calls to action, the bookmark, file, or web page printout, would get filed here:

Marketing – Persuasion – Calls to Action

To save a bookmark to a folder, just drag the favicon into it. You can find the favicon in your browser, just to the left of the URL, or web page that you’re currently viewing.

Hold your mouse button down on the favicon and drag it to the appropriate filing folder. Once the bookmark, or file, is on your drive, you can add comments and tags to it.

To add personal info to any file on the Mac, select the file by clicking on it. Then Command I (hold down the Command key and type I to Get Info about the file) and type whatever you want into the Spotlight Comments box.

Let’s look at another process for the sake of example, say SEO. My logic tells me SEO
isn’t marketing. If someone found you in a search engine, the SEO is over. When they
see your listing, that’s when the marketing begins.

SEO happens in the Research stage, before the Production stage even begins. So your
SEO needs to be in place as you create, or produce the pages.

SEO gets filed inside the Research folder, which is inside the Training folder.

Research – Training – SEO

In addition to hundreds of nested business folders, I also include two other top level categories, Personal and Community. Personal bookmarks and files, having to deal with hobbies, interests, lifestyle, etc, are kept separate from the business ones.

The Community folder can be used one of two ways. You can file it in either the Personal or Marketing category.

For example, if you run a Community like a private site or forum, you might want to categorize things like announcements, policies, reminders, news, downloads, etc, for your members.

The other way to use the Community folder, is to file it under the Personal category. It could contain the bookmarks and files for any memberships, forums, reward sites, clubs, etc, that you belong to.

This hierarchy of folders is for more than just bookmarks. You can use it as a virtual filing cabinet, to organize your life and your business. You can keep all all your passwords, usernames, receipts, serial numbers, pdf files, tax forms and paperwork in them as well.

So the next time you’re looking for a web page from last month, the one that listed all the social bookmarking services, you’ll know to find it in the Marketing – Interactive – Social Bookmarking folder.

Or the next time someone asks you for a W8Ben tax form, you can quickly retrieve it from the Production – Business – Accounting folder.

And that’s even better than having the data… knowing where to find it.

Remember what I shared in the beginning? Research has shown that the average person will waste four years of their life looking for things. What I’m hoping is, by sharing these thoughts on how to get and stay organized, that you’ll save time, and get more of your life back.

Now the rest is up to you. Make a commitment to make filing a habit.

Don’t let things pile up. If you get into the habit of filing something, the moment you’re done with it, you’ll never suffer from overwhelm, or procrastination because of it.

File it before moving onto the next task. That’s how you get more of your life back… by spending less time looking for things in the future.

take care,

Michael

P.S.

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Legal stuff…

Copyright 2006 Dynamic Media Corporation. All rights reserved world wide. All trademarks and servicemarks are property of their respective owners.

The information contained in this newsletter is the opinion of the author based on his personal observations and years of experience. Neither the author or publisher assume any liability whatsoever for the use of or inability to use any or all of the information contained in this publication. Use this information at your own risk.

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Michael Campbell

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