“Clearly, the problem of email overload is taking a toll on all our time, productivity, and sanity, mainly because most of us lack a cohesive system for processing our messages and converting them into appropriate actions as quickly as possible.” ~Merlin Mann

I’m in a spring cleaning frame of mind, and I am going to tackle the massive (or not) task of purging and cleaning out my digital space. What better place to begin than with the monster of digital overwhelm which is e-mail.

The Goal  – Inbox Zero

The term inbox zero was coined by Merlin Mann, in a series of articles and a talk that he gave at Google way back in 2007.  The term means exactly what it says – that at least once a day you are able to process your inbox to empty! Imagine that – instead of thousands or ten of thousands of messages facing you each time you open your inbox, you only have 5, 10, maybe 30 on a busy day.  Not only that, but you are able to quickly and efficiently process that small number each day, bringing your inbox back to zero.

Imagine how calm and relaxed you might be if this scenario could actually be achieved. Imagine NOT getting that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach each time you open your e-mail. You know the one. The one that is a direct result of the horror of contemplating all the incompletions that are buried in those e-mails.

I know of very few people who aren’t overwhelmed by their e-mail at some point, if not all the time. E-mail is a fantastic tool, but unfortunately we don’t always know how to most effectively manage it – instead – we allow it to manage us.  I think that there are 2 factors that contribute to the overwhelm factor:

1. Not controlling whats coming in,
2. Using the inbox as a to-do list rather than an inbox.

Not Controlling What’s Coming In

I’m sure we can all agree, that not every message coming into your inbox is of the same importance. A message from a person asking for your input on a project is very different from marketing newsletter from a company that sells tea cozies and whose mailing list you’re on because you purchased a gift for you aged aunt  2 years ago. Unfortunately, we allow these messages the same level of access to our attention, making it way harder to separate the important from the trivial and the unnecessary. As a result we end up with unnecessary clutter in our inboxes which adds to our sense of overwhelm, saps our energy and makes it harder to focus on what’s important.

We’ll tackle this problem as part of our cleanse and learn how to exercise much more discretion when considering what kind of e-mail we allow into our inbox in the.

Inbox vs ToDo List

While I haven’t  yet achieved inbox zero I am WAY closer than ever before because I learned the all too important distinction between my inbox and my to do list. I used to leave messages that needed action, but which I couldn’t complete when I first read them, in my inbox. I believed that this would serve as a reminder to me that I needed to act on them.  After reading David Allen’s fabulous book, Getting Things Done I had a massive AHA movement and realized that my inbox could not function as a to do list. Perhaps it might have worked  if it only contained 10 or 20 messages rather than 8000. It is psychologically crippling to look at an inbox number in the thousands and know that in there are things you need to do.

Having some kind of task list to send messages that can’t be acted upon immediately will be the key to setting up a simple way to managing our email.

Who’s In Charge?

Many of us have developed some pretty bad habits around email (myself included). We experience a feeling of helplessness when it comes to email because we let it control us. We haven’t been taught how to make the appropriate decisions about how to prioritize what’s coming in, and what we then do about it once it arrives. Instead we allow in a deluge of stuff and then haphazardly try to handle what we can without having any sort of organizing system or well thought out approach to dealing with the deluge.

Well enough is enough -  this is a beast I mean to tame for once and for all. The stress and overwhelm that comes from my bulging and out of control inbox ultimately compromise the quality of my work and my life.

The Plan

My two goals for this week are to 1) get my inbox to zero and 2) setup a simple way to enable me to keep it that way in the long term. I’m going to take steps  to get me there:

1. Stem the flow: exercise deliberate control over what’s coming in to my inbox
2. Clean It Out: Get it to zero
3. Manage it: setup systems which allow me to prioritize that which does come in, and keep my inbox in the zero zone

I’ll get started with Step 1 tomorrow! In the meantime, here is some recommended reading for those who are interested.

Recommended Reading

I highly recommend Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen if you are looking for a great methodology to help you organize and manage all the many responsibilities in your life.

To learn more about Inbox Zero, read the original series of articles by Merlin Mann on his site 43Folders: http://www.43folders.com/izero

You can also check out a video of his Google Talk here: http://www.43folders.com/2007/07/25/merlins-inbox-zero-talk

Along with the more traditional spring cleaning I’m doing, I’ve also decided that my digital space needs some massive spring  cleaning action.  I confess that right now it is something of a mess and I am suffering severe digital overwhelm. This is not good. It is making it harder for me to work with focus and clarity. It’s stifling my creativity.  It’s making me less effective and efficient. It’s forcing me to spend more time at my computer than I would like.

Believe it or not, as much of a tech-addict as I am, I actually would like to spend less time with technology and more time doing what is meaningful to me. This may seem odd given that I am technology consultant, but in reality this is what I try to help my clients to achieve. I support them in “mission based technology”, which means  using technology tools to support what they’re about. It means less time spent being frustrated by inefficient processes and inadequate tools and more time creating and advancing their missions.  These same principles apply to my own work and truth be told, I’m not fully practicing what I preach. Yes my work is around technology, but my mission is helping my clients to use technology to better meet their own missions.

I really believe in the power of  technology as a tool that when used appropriately and consciously can free us up to do our work.   Whatever time I spend being frustrated by my own systems – whether it be trying to find a document, generate and send an invoice, or prepare a proposal – takes away from the time I have to think about creative solutions for my clients. These are tasks that I should be able to do quickly, simply and without stress. The tools I use are key to this, but organizing those tools and then using them correctly is essential.

A tool is only useful if you use it as it was intended.

I have great tools, but I think I need to use them better and my digital clutter is major impediment to this. It’s like trying to type on a keyboard that has piles of paper on it.

Sooooooooo…  I’m taking action by launching a Digital Spring Clean for the entire  month of April. I’m going to tackle it all: e-mail, documents, photos, contacts, social media accounts, RSS feeds.

How The Digital Spring Clean Will Work

Each week Iwill I focus on purging, clearing and organizing one area of  my digital life as follows:

Week 1: Email (including contacts & tasks)

Week 2: Documents & Files

Week 3: Social Media & Web

Week 4: Multimedia & gadgets

Over the course of the month I will share my progress as well as handy digital organizing  tips and recommendations and reviews of some of my favorite tools for getting your digital clutter under control.

I invite you to join along and do a little digital cleansing yourself.  You don’t have to commit to a full month – I’ll be giving you idea for easy actions you can take – some which can be done in as little as 10 or 15 minutes.

So stay tuned as we begin by tackling email next week.!

• $10, ooo of Adsense advertising
• Discounted or free Google Apps
• Premium YouTube and mapping features
• Learning resources and case studies.

If  you are a 501 c3 you should really  think about applying for this program. Google tools are a great way to cut your IT costs and increase effiency. This program just makes them even more appealing.

Check out the announcement of the new program on the Google Blog here.

Check out the new Google for Non-Profits website here.

“Failure is an event, not a person.Yesterday ended last night.” Zig Ziglar

Failure seems to be the theme of the day – and that’s a GOOD thing.

This morning I tweeted the Zig Ziglar quote above and then a couple of hours later read this great post from Chris Brogan, Failures and Successes.

The post encourages the embracing of failure as a “business imperative”.  As Chris says, “Failure is a beautiful thing. It leads to more chances to try something new.”

In working with a lot of my non-profit clients I am aware that there is a  HUGE fear of failure when it comes to technology projects. Often it is rooted in the fact that they have already experienced failure with a particular project, therefore they become leery of trying again.

I don’t blame them, especially in situations where they have already spent limited resources on a project which didn’t yield the desired results.  Of course they would be hesitant  to spend more money on something which has already “failed”.  In many cases the projects have been funded through some kind of grant, so there is always the fear of reporting to a funder that a project has failed, jeopardizing future funding.

When they do try again, however, they are so anxious to get it right this time around that it sometimes holds organizations back from moving forward. They end up spending so much time trying to avoid further failure by getting things “exactly right”, that they become stuck – mired in endless minutiae.

I’ve seen organizations spend hours discussing the wording for an option on a navigation menu for a  new website. While I appreciate their well intentioned and thoughtful approach, I’ve often had to pull the plug on conversations like this by reminding them if they pick the wrong word, they can always change it.

I am not suggesting that your non-profit organization start throwing caution to the wind and implementing projects without carefully thinking them through and planning appropriately and responsibly.

I am however suggesting that you  embrace the fact that you might not get everything on a project exactly right.  The current nature of technology – particularly website technology, is so fluid  and ever changing that if you’re waiting to get it exactly right, you’ll be waiting a LONG time. In the meantime the social web will keep moving along with you and there will be missed opportunities for engagement and connection.

It does not make sense to keep running an antiquated, barely functional website which turns people away because you’re hashing through word selections or image placement on your new site.

Luckily for all of us, there are so many great content management systems and other technologies which are built on the premise that things change. They allow you the flexibility of changing things that don’t work, without having to break and rebuild.

Seeking success and avoiding the complete failure of a project is the right and responsible thing to do.

Just don’t let your fear of failure stop you from moving your projects forward.

This annual gathering is the signature event of the N-Ten. I attended my first conference last  year in Atlanta and I can honestly say it was the best conference I’ve EVER attended in my life.  It brings together non-profit staff and technology professionals! It’s an amazing community of people who work  to use technology

The conference officially sold out today, but the good news is that you can also attend online.  That’s how I’ll be participating this year, since my schedule doesn’t allow me to make it to DC. You can find out more about attending online here.

If you’re a non-profit staffer responsible for technology in any way, I highly recommend checking out an NTEN membership. I think you fill find it to be a sound investment in supporting your organization’s use of technology

Learn more about Nonprofit Technology Network membership.

As a solopreneur, this is true for all  work. I need constant, easy and instant access to my documents, whether I’m working from home on my desktop or sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop.

Like a lot of people, I have a collection of flash drives that I used to use in the past to take documents with me wherever I went.  This system required me to remember to copy the most current versions of files AND to remember to take the right flash drive with me. This took an incredible toll on my already overburdened brain.

Enter Dropbox – my favorite application for document management. It has simplified my life dramatically.

Dropbox is  a web based file-hosting service that allows you to store files in the cloud, which you can then access from multiple computers and mobile devices.

How DropBox Works

• When you sign up for a free DropBox account you start with a storage limit of  2GB.
• You can then install the small DropBox application onto the computers you use. This creates your “MyDropbox” folder.  From then on, you can save all your files in your dropbox and they will automatically and continuously be synced with your dropbox folder in the cloud.
• You can also access your DropBox from some mobile devices.
• Even if you don’t have the application installed on a computer you can access your Dropbox through the website.
• If you need to , you can also share documents with other people, and they can also makes changes to the documents.

Super simple.  Super efficient

The beauty of  DropBox is  that a local copy of your files are stored in your dropbox, on each computer you have the application installed on.

How I Use It

This tool has really simplified my file managment. I have a desktop computer and a laptop, and spend almost equal amounts of time working on both. I have several  external drives which keep copies of  ALL my digital stuff and are hooked up to my desktop. I am able to access them from both computers when I am home.

When I am on the road working from one of  my satellite offices (ie, Panera or Starbucks) I often need to access files. I can remote into my desktop if necessary, but that’s sometimes a little tedious if all I want is to grab a file.

So, I keep my often used documents as well as those for active projects in my DropBox.  I have access from my own computers, from my Android phone and in a pinch from other peoples computers. I can access my files from my laptop when I’m on the road. Even if I have no internet connection the files are stored locally, so I can open them and make changes, and know that as soon as an internet connection becomes available my changes will automatically be synchronized.

My flash drive days are over.

This post is part of my Favorite Fridays feature. Every Friday I take the opportunity to talk about some of my favorite applications, websites, tools and gadgets and share with you how I use them in my work and life.

The Yass Hakoshima Movement Theatre, along with  The New Jersey Center for Mime and the Montclair Modern Dance Center is  part of  Danamari Ltd.  It is under the artistic direction of internationally acclaimed mime/movement artist Yass Hakoshima, who combines elements of modern dance with ancient Japanese movements to create a unique and amazing expression of movement.

Their old site was built for them by a volunteer using static web pages. Making changes to the site could only be done by the volunteer. The staff didn’t have the software or the expertise required to make changes. As you can imagine this was incredibly frustrating – particularly when the volunteer was busy and they needed timely changes made.

This site was built on a very tiny budget!  It is built using the latest version of the open source content management system, WordPress. Using WordPress has empowered the organization to be able to use the very user friendly web based interface to make changes to the site.  No expensive, complicated software involved.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation recently announced a new series of Communications Workshops being offered as part of its Technical Assistance Initiative.

I am thrilled and honored to be part of the faculty. I’ll be teaching a series of workshops on “Smart Social Media for Non-profits. ”

These workshops are free to current Dodge grantees. Learn more about these workshops!

Nonprofit peeps, you MUST watch this and make sure your communications folks see it too.

I’ve been working on a number of non-profit websites lately, so its very timely for me and I confess it has made me rethink my own approach to helping my clients on website projects.

I’ve been in lots of meetings lately where all of us – in a very well intentioned way-  spend hours upon hours discussing what WE believe the visitors to our sites want.

It occurs to me now that a very important step which many of us working on web projects don’t ever take is to ask our constituents/supports what they want.

The instructor  was speaking to us about how we transitioned between poses and she urged us to do our best to achieve “economy of energy”.  She explained that one of the goals of our yoga practice is to get from one pose to the next in as few movements as possible and with minimal fuss – or as she put it “without extra stuff”.

Image: Senge

The term economy of  energy stuck with me, and thinking about it afterward, it occurred to me that it’s something we should seek in our use of technology.

I am sometimes shocked by the fact that for many organizations, simple tasks often become mind-bending exercises in complexity and wasted energy.

In some cases its because the wrong systems are in place. Either they are too basic and can’t accomplish the necessary tasks, or they far too complex for the work at hand, making them unwieldy and impractical.

In other instances, the right systems are in place, but the human processes being used to manipulate the systems are unnecessarily complicated.

In my mind, the whole point of using technology tools like databases, spreadsheets, e-mail and even social media is that they allow you to do something with more economy of energy. Think about it:

-It takes less energy to share timely information with 5000 people by using  mailing list software to send a newsletter than it would to send e-mails one by one.

-It takes far less energy to pose a question to  500 people by posting it on Twitter or asking them to comment on a blog post than it would to call them individually and ask the question.

-It takes less energy to type information on 150 payments into an accounting system and batch print checks than it would to hand write them.

-It also so takes less time to find a payment made to some last year by typing their name into a search field in your accounting software, than it would to wade through boxes of paid checks.

See what I mean? Economy of energy.

It can be easy to lose sight of the fact that this is really the reason why we all use technology in our organizations. Or at least it should be.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the technology itself that we make it way more complicated than it has to be.

Sometimes we get so caught up in having the latest and the greatest and in doing what everyone else is doing that we wind up making our jobs even harder.

Sometimes we just get stuck in the old familiar comfort of doing things the way we’ve always done them that we don’t see just how inefficiently we’re working.

If  you think about it, any good  technology tool should allow your organization to accomplish the tasks essential to meeting its goals and fulfilling its mission in the least possible steps and with no “extra stuff”.

My yoga class is 90 minutes long.  Using a little economy in your transitions enables you to save as much energy as possible for the real work of the class – holding the poses.  The more energy you have for them the more you are able to hold the poses with maximum effort, focus and calm.

In the same way, a little economy in the use of your technology tools, will allow you to save as much energy of your the real work of your organization – whatever that might be.  The less time you have to spend fussing with cumbersome processes and tools, the more time and energy you have to do your core work with maximum effort, focus and calm.

So when you’re thinking about investing in technology, make sure that you add “economy of energy” to your list of requirements. Yes it’s important to compare costs and features, – but no matter how good the tool or how reasonable the cost, if its making you use more energy to do your work than is necessary, then it may not be as useful as you think.