Getting Organised

June 18, 2010

tenaciousT Lightbulbs, Toasties , Leave a comment

This is another one I have picked up from my boss, who has a detailed and highly useful filing system for his emails. I took the skelton structure of the logic behind his system and adapted it to make it work for me. I get between 20-40 personal emails per day and honestly, if they’re all sitting in my main inbox, I can’t find anything easily. So I have separate folders for storing all the emails I want to keep. This sort of system is intuitive for a lot of people, but I know there are still some out there who aren’t sure about how to develop a system that works well for them, so I’m sharing what has worked for me, just in case it helps you.

I began setting up the system by working out the different activities I’m involved with in my mind – I tend to think about things I’m doing as separate tasks or projects, so that is how my email folder system is constructed. I also looked at the emails I had already in my inbox to see what sort of categories would suit them. At the moment, I have the following email folders in my personal email account (in addition to the usual ones):

  • Berowra Management (for club management / committee issues at Berowra Toastmasters that I’m involved with)
  • Berowra Membership (for membership related information at Berowra Toastmasters)
  • Berowra Website (I registered the web domain for Berowra and helped set up the FreeToastHost site, so my emails related to the website are stored here)
  • Contacts (for any Toastmasters related contacts I make – these are generally people I am not in regular contact with, but may want to get in touch with at some future date)
  • Contests (any information relating to any contests I’ve been involved with)
  • Area Governor (any information related to things done by other Area Governors I like, ideas I have for my upcoming term in that role and any resources related to the position)
  • Elouera (I’m not as heavily involved with Elouera Toastmasters, so I don’t have the volumes of communications necessary to create more than one folder)
  • Events (Any info about event management, events I’ve been involved in, even down to things like flyers I like for other events I’ve seen)
  • Guest Speakers (Any info about Guest Speakers I am interested in securing, or have secured in the past)
  • High Performance Leadership (Anything related to my upcoming HPL project)
  • Hornsby Committee (Anything related to committee business at Hornsby Toastmasters Club)
  • Hornsby Mentoring (Anything relating to the existing mentoring arrangements at Hornsby Club, as well as info and resources I am pulling together to help the club create a mentoring guide)
  • Hornsby Past Members (As VPM at Hornsby, I like to keep track of communications with members who have left the club)
  • Hornsby Personal (Anything related to assignments I am completing in the club)
  • Hornsby VPM (All main emails from my time as VPM @ Hornsby)
  • Hornsby Website (Any bits and pieces related to our website)
  • Long Term Goals (Lists of my long term goals, with updates every 3-6 months – this keeps them at the forefront of my mind)
  • Meetings (Any general meeting info for any of my clubs, including agendas and upcoming meeting details)
  • Proofreading Assignments (I’ve been assisting with some of the documents produced in Toastmasters in District 70 and I keep copies of all of them to refer back to if I need to)
  • Resources (Any general resources I want to keep in my email account, including links to websites and useful online info)
  • Seminars (Any info relating to any of the seminars and workshops I am involved in – this folder will probably be split soon)
  • Speech Ideas (This is a story file and ideas file for my own personal use)
  • Speechcraft (Anything relating to Speechcraft programs I run or am involved with)
  • Stage Time! (Anything relating to the new advanced club I’ve joined)
  • TenaciousToastie Blog (Any administration related to this blog, as well as ideas for future posts)
  • The Beyond Series (Anything related to the series of educational guides I am in the process of creating)
  • Toastmasters Projects General (Any Toastmasters projects I get involved in that don’t fit into any other categories, but won’t generate enough correspondence to warrant their own folder)
  • World Champions Edge (Anything related to my Edge membership)
  • Youth Leadership (Any emails related to Youth Leadership courses I am involved with)

For me, a lot of folders with information for different tasks works well. It may not work for you and that’s fine - I still recommend some sort of folder filing system though. It is significantly easier to find emails quickly when they are categorised and has saved me loads of time. Over time, I have added more folders as I take on new projects and archived folders I’m not using. It takes me between 5-15mins per day to file emails, but saves me about double that time per day by my non-scientific estimations.

now extra sticky!

June 8, 2010

tenaciousT Resources, Toasties , , , Leave a comment

Okay, so I know I’ve missed a few months of book recommendations, but I think this book will make up for it. Made to Stick by Chip Heather and Dan Heath bills itself as a book that explains “Why some ideas survive and others die” – which is exactly what it does. It is extremely “readable” and so full of useful information that I am astounded to have remembered so much of it. It’s chockas with practical applications and it looks good (bonus!).

If you go to the website for the book, you can read the first chapter, find links to reviews and links to websites where you can buy the book. This book has changed the way I think in a positive way and I’m certain it can do the same thing for anyone else interested in expanding their horizons.

My recommendation? Buy the book.  It will be the best $20 you’ve spent in a while…

Note: as Darren LaCroix says (I will be quoting this guy a lot…) you don’t get any benefits from simply reading good material and resources. You have to actually DO WHAT THEY SAY!!!

PS > Enjoy the book! You may notice they also have released a second book called Switch. Stay tuned for a review of this book in the near future…

Blood, Sweat & Tears

June 3, 2010

tenaciousT Resources, Toasties , Leave a comment

Blood, sweat & tears – that’s what is has taken to get my new and improved version of the club-specific Meeting Assignments Guide for Hornsby Toastmasters off the ground – it’s called Beyond Meeting Roles. It is a substantial improvement on the last one for a number of reasons:

1. There is space provided for people to make their own notes about each role. The idea behind this application is that it will help “dig” the learning into users’ brains a bit more. By taking ownership of their own learning, users will also create the guide as a personal reference tool, making it a more powerful learning device.

2. You can hole-punch the guide because it has been set up in an “odds and evens” way – you’ll see what I mean when you open the document.

3. It looks better.

So now you’re looking at my document and thinking what a fantastic resource it is and that perhaps you should create something similar for you club…well email me (kat.tmi@hotmail.com) for the word document and any advice any time you like because I want this document to spread – it took me long enough to create!

Each club will require a different way of going about creating this guide because each club does things a little differently. I am more than happy to help you along if you want to do something similar to what I have done. It is an invaluable tool for Hornsby and has worked wonders for bringing our members to a level of conscious competence in their roles.

The 2010/2011 District 70 Governor Elect is Philip Bendeich. His theme is “A Challenge to Achieve” – so here’s my call to all – let’s take up that challenge!

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