Anti-Procrastination Challenge: More Inbox Organization

It wasn't been too terribly long ago that I posted the Anti-Procrastination Challenge to declutter your inbox.  In spite of doing a lot of cleaning out and unsubscribing, I've still felt very overwhelmed with the massive amounts of email I receive.  Many times things go unanswered just because I have too many emails to deal with.  I came across this post yesterday at Simple Organized Living about organizing email using Gmail filters.  Wow!  I attacked my inbox and started organizing it, and I feel about 10 pounds lighter!

Photo from Simple Organized Living

 I can choose specific emails to not even come into my inbox, but to automatically go to a specific folder.  I have already seen increased productivity in checking my email.  When I open my inbox, I don't have 300 emails staring me in the face, making me feel behind before I've even started.  Instead, I can open up the folder with the most important things and deal with those first.  No more wasted time sifting through and sorting emails every day!  The sorting is done for me already!

I will warn you, though, that if you start setting up your filters, make sure you stay focused.  There are lots of shiny gadgets on Gmail that I was tempted to explore once I started looking around at the settings.  Just follow the directions Andrea's post  to help you stay on track. 

If you don't use Gmail, your job today is to do some research on how you can keep your own email inbox more organized.  You'll save time in the long run!

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Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Clean out those Coupons!

 If you missed it yesterday, I told you that I'm going to start posting an Anti-Procrastination Challenge for you each day.  If you need a little inspiration or motivation to start working on those annoying things around the house, this is it!  Be sure to subscribe to email updates so you'll receive each day's new challenge in your inbox!

(By the way, I will not be asking you to complete any task that I have not first completed myself.)

Today's Challenge: Clean out your coupons and receipts.

Depending on the type of person you are, this could be a small task or a very large one.  If you don't use coupons, you may only have a few random receipts lying around.  Round them up and file them if need be or throw them away.  If you are a big-time coupon user, you may have a big job ahead of you.  Don't just say "I ought to..." or "I really should..."; just get up and do it!  Toss the expired ones, file the current ones where they need to go, and get them all cleaned up.  Maybe you're somewhere in the middle.  You clip a few coupons for things you usually buy and you have a few restaurant flyers lying around that have come in the mail.  Throw out anything expired and put the rest away.

I got mine all taken care of today.  I know everyone has a little different system for how they organize their coupons.  I call my system the "messily neat system"...or should it be the "neatly messy system"?  Either way, it works for me.  Basically, I came up with a way to keep everything corralled into one place and fairly easy to find without spending forever filing it just so.  Maybe I'll show you how I do it one day.   

For now, you've got a job to do!

And when you come back, I'd love for you to tell me how you keep your coupons organized!

This post may be linked to one of these parties.