WooHoo!!! My IM Index - IN FOLDER is EMPTY at last!

[Mohsin]

Hi Alex and IM-Index Users,

At last i finished a big task...

that is i reorganized all my IM related information as per IM Index Organization plan.
It was not easy, i mean there were so many files and folders to be reorganized!

But i am glad at last i did it.And i am feeling very happy , as i have found so many GEMS
i have bought in the past but never found them in my PC LOL...

Now i am more Organized i.e. More effective in the LONG RUN.

Thanks Alex for such a great plan for information organization...
and providing us the EXACT tool to make it HAPPEN.

God bless you,
Mohsin

[logicallyme]

Mohsin,

Congratulations! I'm only about 120 GB behind you.

Well, this isn't getting it done, but thanks for letting me know that there is hope.

Best wishes,
logicallyme

[Alex Goodall]

Folks

Do apply some judgement and discrimination here as well.

Do you REALLY need all that 120 GB?

What about just throwing away anything more than 3 years old? Most of it is likely to be out of date by now.

You need to balance the time it will take you to sort through 120 GB with the value of the content you are organizing.

Say it takes you 3 solid days to get through 120 GB, but by throwing away the old stuff and stuff that is only of marginal value, you bring that time down to 1 day.

Suppose in the process you DO get rid of something you might have used. Would that value of what you lost be more than the 2 extra days it would have taken you to organize everything? Probably not.

Our family once spent 3 years moving house every year (it's a long and not very interesting story....). During that time, 80% of our belongings were in unopened carboard boxes or storage, and somehow, we didn't notice. It made very little difference to our lives.

What I'm saying, in a nutshell, is that being organized is NOT just about having everything in the right place, it's also about being discriminating about WHAT you organize.

I just thought of a new formula!

Organization = Categorization + Discrimination

Hmmm.... I can feel a new article coming on!

Alex

[logicallyme]

Alex,

I had to wade through that 120 GB, because neither my daughter nor husband had been discriminating in their attempts to "help get things done" and "downloading this for you".

I have to give them points for the trying to help.

Linda

[CCGAL]

I am just getting started on this task, but I think Alex's comment about discarding outdated information is a good one.  I honestly don't know how much "stuff" I have to go through, but I intend to apply the 80/20 rule to it ... that is to say I will probably be tossing out 80% of it and focusing on the 20% that will actually be useful to me.

[Alex Goodall]

Yes - 80/20 is another way of looking at this: so long as you don't spend too long figuring out which 20% to keep!

Perhaps just ditching the oldest 80%.

And from now on - resolve not to simply download everything that's made available - even if it's free. Again be discriminating in what you spend you time on downloading. There is a cost to that downloading - even if it's free.

I get access to a huge amount of content, but I ignore 98% of it. Sure, in amongst that 98% will be things that I do actually need, and I could get for free - but the time taken downloading and organizing it all just doesn't warrant the time.

Once all the providers of these downloads get to organize their content along the the lines of the IM Index Mind Map (and it is starting...), then we can much more easily sort through what it is we really want BEFORE downloading it, and then just access what we want.

Finally, whilst, we're on this topic - I hope everyone has a copy of my Laser Focus Shield Report and Mind Map:

http://imstrategyandplanning.com/laserfocusshield

because that will help you decide what IS relevant for you at any given time. Follow the rules, ignore everything else, and get on with building your business!

Alex