Hey ya'll - how about this, a post completely non-related to SL today =P ... haha - when I told one of my faithful readers (BiggestFan if you must know) that I was planning on posting today with an initial review of IE8 he responded with "boring". Ha! Well, you know what, while I am a bit too emo over IE8 at the moment to write anything constructive (it had the nerve to dump a post I was writing actually extolling it's own virtues! - and no, autosave did not work for some reason) ... I am going to "bore" him with something else. A follow-up on my long ago post re: Taking Back My Life w/ MS Outlook 2007.

The first time I posted I was basking in the general glow of my new deep love with Microsoft. You see, Microsoft and I have been good friends for many many years ... but it was with the introduction of SharePoint into my life last year that our relationship really moved to the next level. I won't rehash how I came to find the TBYL book, because that really is boring, but regardless ... I found it, I read it, and I embraced it ... for like 2 weeks. Okay let me restate - I embraced the whole hook line and sinker for like 2 weeks ... but many of the general principles (believe it or not) stayed with me even through my dark days the last 6 months. I even found myself explaining principles from the book to other interested parties and, in fact, recommending the book to certain people. One of the Linux guys I know also brought me Time Management for Systems Administrators to make the point that the same concepts can be found in books without all the MS subliminal marketing. (side note: I have not yet read that book, but I plan to... and ... um the MS marketing was not at all subliminal =)

Okay, so fast forward to now (X months later) and like I said before, it's pretty feckin' intimidating trying to work my way out of the hole I dug. I needed a tool, and when TBYL was mentioned @ SPC08 it was like ... I dunno ... kismet or something. Sooo ... I grabbed the book off the shelf, dusted it off, and set to it.

This time, I had over 1000 emails in my work inbox alone. I had the following collection points:

• 5 email addresses
• 2 physical inboxes @ work
• 2 physical inboxes @ home
• 6 (YES - 6!) notepads I was jotting info on
• the floor of my car
• my purse
• 2 laptop bags
• various flat surfaces covered in random postie notes

Okay, first step - go through all those and consolidate, either deal with stuff (if it can be done in under 3 minutes), delegate it, or assign myself a task. First step actually didn't take as long as I thought it would, I was through everything and my inbox was down to 2 items in about 3 hours. Of course, the next day my inbox had crept back up to 65 and I remembered how important it is to stay diligent and block out time to process the influx of info.

I know I was shocking people as I pinged them about issues that had died months ago, trying to gain some sense of resolution. And of course, at the end of it, I felt more settled and in control ... even though I now have a clearer picture of everything I have to do.

Okay, enough about that for the moment - I am getting ready for Easter and because I forgot to assign myself a task I suddenly realize I haven't gotten items for my daughter's basket (urgh). I will be posting on this subject again, I think there are some ways to leverage SharePoint in this whole effort ... I have interest in making my time and tasks more visible to management so everyone can admire how fantastic I am.

happy hop day ya'll.
don't hate, illuminate.