Monday, August 6, 2012

8 Things To Do While Watching The Olympics


Is anyone else watching the 2012 Olympic games?  Like me, do you find yourself not getting anything done? 

I decided that, just because I am enjoying watching the various sports, doesn't mean that I can't get some organizing jobs done at the same time.  With this in mind I came up with 8 organizing tasks that can easily be done while watching, not only the summer games, but anything on TV.

1. Clean up your inbox - Julie Morganstern, a professional organizer and productivity expert and the author of "Don't Check E-Mail In The Morning" recommends having no more than 20 emails in your inbox.  Create easy to understand folders and move your emails into the appropriate folder.  I try very hard to stick to the "no more than 20" rule.  I have folders entitled recipes, blog ideas, organizing ideas, GOOP (I subscribe to Gwyneth Paltrow's newsletter), funny (for jokes I want to keep), etc.  I even have vacation folders labeled with the destination and date so that the entire folder can be deleted once the vacation is over.

2. Unsubscribe from emails - While cleaning up your inbox, unsubscribe from any emails that you no longer want, like from that store that you bought something from 2 years ago and have never been back.

3. Write thank you notes - If you've been meaning to send Aunt Martha a thank you note for that lovely birthday gift she sent, then now would be the time to do it.  If you don't have any thank you notes to write, this may be a good time to start your Christmas cards.  I know it sounds crazy but imagine having one less task to do at Christmas time!

4. Sort photos - Whether you sort physical photographs or digital ones, this is a great time to organize them into categories that make sense to you.  Delete any photos that are blurry and get rid of any duplicates. 

5. Organize your DVDs - You can sort them into alphabetical order or just by genre.  Check out how I organized my DVDs (here).

6. Purge magazines - Flip through old magazines and tear out any articles or recipes that you want to keep. Recycle the rest of the magazine.

7. Sort paper piles - Sort papers into 3 piles; toss, shred and file.  Recycle all papers in the toss pile, shred (during commercials) the shred pile and then sort the file pile.  Use post-it notes on each pile until you can take them to wherever you file your important papers.

8. Purge electronic files - Go through the documents on your computer and see if there are any that can be deleted.  Maybe you kept your child's book report, or some correspondence with a client from last year.  Purge any documents that are no longer relevant.

Can you think of any other organizing tasks that could be done while watching TV?



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