Archive for the ‘Electronic Organization’ Category:
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Time for the Tuesday Ten Minute Toss Challenge! RIGHT NOW spend 10 minutes tossing your virtual subscriptions and make some room in that inbox! Are you receiving eMagazines or eCatalogues that you no longer value? Emails from an organization that you are no longer interested in? Virtual periodicals that are no longer relevant to you? Weekly virtual advertisements from all the stores in town? Ten minutes is enough time to unsubscribe from an email list (or two, or several!) you don’t read material from. Embrace today’s challenge and reduce the volume of virtual clutter coming into your home or office inbox!
Ready, set, TOSS!
What steps have you taken unsubscribe from email lists? We want to know!
If you have ideas for a Tuesday Ten Minute Toss Challenge, please let us know! In the meantime, check back weekly for a new challenge and make sure to join in the fun. We look forward to hearing about how you do with the challenges.
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Got cord clutter? Keep all those wires neatly organized and accessible with a colorful cord management system! The value pack from Dotz has a variety of useful, color-coded accessories that keep track of which cord does what!
The value pack includes everything you need to conquer cord clutter once and for all. The brightly colored identifiers help you tell cords apart and the cord straps bundle them together.
The cord wraps also keep them contained and out of sight. No more tripping over tangles of unsightly cords or wasting time trying to find the cord you need. Great solution for home entertainment and computer areas or for that mess of cords under your desk at the office.
Interested? Take advantage of a 57% savings with the Mamapedia deal on the Value Pack, but don’t wait, that special offer is only good through the end of the day today.
How do you keep your cord clutter in check, we want to know!
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It’s time for another Tech Talk Thursday! 
Last week we brought you a resource for turning your old electronics into cash in our post Tech Talk Thursday: Trade Your Unwanted Electronics for Cash. We hope you made mountains of moolah and managed to clear the decks of unwanted gizmos. But perhaps you discovered that some of your gadgets no longer have any resale value and the thought of putting them in the landfill gives you eco-anxiety. Don’t fret, we know two companies in the greater Seattle/King County area will make it easy for you to let go of those old things.
Friendly Earth will take your unwanted appliances, electronics, metals, batteries and even machinery like farm equipment and vehicles. Call Friendly Earth at 206-367-4111 or visit their getting started page!
Yesterday we told you about InterConnection.org. They’ll take old computers, TVs, monitors and other peripherals so that they can refurbish them and provide technology to under served communities around the world. They also guarantee that their hard-drive wiping process will destroy any of your lingering data. Interconnection also provides free business pick up. They also have convievent drop-off locations for personal donations.
If your eWaste has been piling up, give these companies a call today and find out how you can recycle it free of charge. Too busy to do it yourself? Call us! Simply Placed is always happy to help you 206-579-5743.
How do you recycle your eWaste? We want to hear about it!
If you have ideas for a Tech Talk Thursday topic, please let us know! In the meantime, check back weekly for a new topic and make sure to join in the fun. We look forward to hearing about how you use technology to stay organized in your life.
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Do you have old computers or computer parts hiding in closets around your home or in a storage room or under the desk at work? Feeling like it’s time to let go of a few of those things? InterConnection is a nonprofit agency that recycles old computers for free, and will come and pick up donated items from businesses, also for free!
When you bring your old computer to InterConnection, they will recycle your electronics and provide free data wiping. You also get a tax deductible receipt with every donation. InterConnection teaches computer maintenance and repair skills to low income individuals and provides computers to under-served communities both locally and abroad. Its great to know that your donated electronics are used wisely by this organization to help those in need.
What they take for free: computers, laptops, monitors, keyboards, mics, power cables, wires, memory, hard drives, small speakers, cell phone, ink cartridges, TVs, printers, scanners and peripherals.
They have three easy ways to donate:
1. Drop off your old electronics to the north side of their building 1109 35th Street, Seattle 98103. No appointment is needed and you can drop off items between 10 AM and 6 PM on weekdays and on Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.
2. Mail your items! Even if you don’t live near Seattle, you can still donate to InterConnection. Just visit their website and receive a pre-paid label for mailing laptops!
3. Schedule a business pick up! InterConnection provides free pick up for business with three or more computers to donate, they can arrange a pick-up anywhere! To schedule, call 206-633-1517 or check out the donate page on their website.
How do you recycle your eWaste? We want to know!
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Welcome to our new feature: Tech Talk Thursday! Since technology is such an integral part of our lives, we are going to bring you tools, tips and tricks to help you stay organized in your digital domain.
Today we encourage you to gather your old cell phone, laptop, external hard drive, digital camera, computer peripherals – even DVDs – that you no longer use but haven’t tossed yet. Then, visit Gazelle.com and trade them for cash! Gazelle is a “reCommerce” company that recycles and resells more than 250,000 electronic and digital products.
To find out if your old things may still have value, simply visit their website and search the database. Gazelle also has a great FAQ page if you want to know more about how it works.
First, they will make you an offer and make arrangements to ship your item to them at no cost to you. Then comes the fun part: getting paid! They will send you a check, Amazon gift card, or Paypal the funds directly to you. What could be better than that?
How do you recycle and resell your technology? We want to hear about it!
If you have ideas for a Tech Talk Thursday topic, please let us know! In the meantime, check back weekly for a new topic and make sure to join in the fun. We look forward to hearing about how you use technology to stay organized in your life.
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Time for the Tuesday Ten Minute Toss Challenge! RIGHT NOW spend 10 minutes tossing items off your computer desktop. Ten minutes is plenty of time to remove old shortcut icons you no longer use, organize documents into easy-to-locate folders and sort or arrange your icons into a system that makes sense. Take back the desktop and make it functional once again by taking this opportunity to embrace our challenge! Tell us how it went!
If you have ideas for a Tuesday Ten Minute Toss Challenge, please let us know! In the meantime, check back weekly for a new challenge and make sure to join in the fun. We look forward to hearing about how you do with the challenges.
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The post-holiday slow down is here. Can you feel it? Does it seem hard to get things done this week? Lacking of motivation? Maybe you’re ready to check some things off your list, but you can’t reach anyone or get calls or emails back. Difficult to focus on “normal business” this week when it seems as if everyone else is on vacation, taking the week off, or just ”kinda working”? Check out this article from Fast Company for some ideas on how to utilize the rest of this week productively and position yourself to start off 2012 strong. You’ll tackle some things that are best done during more “quiet” down time anyway, or that are often put off when things are moving quickly.
Let us know how you use your downtime or take advantage of your quiet office this week. Oh, and if you’re one of the ones truly on vacation, then relish in the rest, relaxation, recreation and rejuvination that are sure to result. Enjoy!
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About a month and a half ago, we started a weekly post on the Simply Placed Facebook page titled the Tuesday Ten Minute Toss Challenge. Its been receiving a great response and lots of participation. We decided to move it to the blog so we’d have a little more space to elaborate on the post if we chose. We’ll still post the challenge on the Facebook page, but wanted to have the details here as an enhancement.
The feedback we’ve received so far is that you like the bite size nature of the tasks, that they are motivating you into action, and that the specific suggestions on “toss” projects are timely and do-able. Great! We’ll keep ‘em coming. If you have ideas for a Tuesday Ten Minute Toss Challenge, please let us know! In the meantime, check back weekly for a new challenge and make sure to join in the fun. We look forward to hearing about how you do with the challenges. Chime in anytime! Now on to this week’s challenge:
Time for the Tuesday Ten Minute Toss Challenge! RIGHT NOW spend 10 minutes on that huge list of contacts on your phone, Outlook, or other contacts database you use. Quickly select people that you don’t keep in touch with, don’t recognize or have never contacted before and remove them from your contacts. Ten minutes is a long enough time to sort, reorganize or delete people from your list, making it easier to use and simpler to find the people you do contact often. Take our challenge and get control of one of those contact lists!
What’s that? 10 mintues is not long enough to accomplish this task? You’re welcome to take longer if you’d like, or if you have the time. Alternately, schedule another bursts of time in your calendar to complete the task. Either way, 10 minutes spent and progress made, is better than doing nothing at all.
Did you have long lists of contacts that needed ten minutes of maintenance? Tell us how you did with today’s challenge!
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Friendly Earth, a non-profit recycling company, is holding an electronics recyling event August 27, 2011 from 10-3 at the Sammamish Presbyterian Church in Sammamish, WA. Bring your used, broken and unwanted appliances, as well as electronics and scrap metal.
Friendly Earth, specializes in the recycling of electronic waste, more commonly referred to as e-waste. Friendly Earth accepts and recycles all forms of waste that fall into the categories of consumer and commercial appliance and machinery, household and portable electronics and equipment, scrapped and fabricated metals, and personal and professional garments. See below for a list of examples from each of the above mentioned categories.
Appliances: washers, dryers,
Metals: all forms of metals, including ferrous and non-ferrous
Electronics: computers, cell phones, tvs, speakers, stereos, video players (dvd, vhs, etc.)
Batteries: single charge, multi-charge (lithium and metal hydride), car batteries
Machinery- lawn and farm equipment, personal and commercial vehicles, bikes
Electronic Accessories: power cords, cables, cds, dvds, hard disks, chargers
It’s clear from the list above that Friendly Earth does more than just e-waste recycling. They believe that they are more than just a recycling organization. They see themselves as educators, helping to teach the consumer and community about the benefits of proper recycling. In addition, they partner with community establishments, governmental entities, and local and global corporations striving to make our environment and the world a better place to live.
Friendly Earth tries to reuse as many items as possible. If an item can be refurbished and redistributed for use, then Friendly Earth will always select this course of action. If an item is unusable, then we will recycle it properly to prevent it from going to a landfill or being shipped to an overseas country for disposal.
All Data from hard drives are removed using products that are Department of Defense specified. They use WinWipe software, then a Degausser (CE Approved) which demagnetizes any remaining data from the hard drive. They also use a WinMasster F.GR-4000-001E to remove data as well from hard drives.
If you can not make it to the recycling event on August 27th, please contact Friendly Earth to arrange for a pick-up of your e-Waste (free for businesses) or find out where and when you can drop off your electronics at their Seattle location. Their recycling services are offered for no fee (including wiping the data from computers you’d like to recycle). 
For more information about Friendly Earth, click on this link, Friendly Earth PDF, visit their website, or Facebook page.
Simply Placed is pleased to introduce you to Friendly Earth as a resource for your electronic recycling and electronic clutter clearing needs.
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Some of you have heard me talk about one of our most popular classes or individual consultations, the Email Intervention. We know (and perhaps you agree) that a lot of people out there are addicted to email. Others may not feel addicted, but are stressed out by the sheer volume they receive and overwhelmed by the time it sucks out of their work day and even their leisure time. There are steps you can take to reduce your stress around email and reduce the time you spend in your inbox. Have a collection of hundreds or thousands (even tens of thousands? We’ve seen it!) emails in your inbox and want to know how to start down the path of enjoying some Email White Space? Please enjoy this guest post by fellow blogger and productivity consultant, Jan Wencel of Life Contained.
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How does it make you feel to think about COMPLETELY EMPTYING YOUR EMAIL INBOX?
For those of you who use your inbox as a storage place…
This may send you into a panic. Do not fret. You can do this.
Start by setting up two appointments: one in the near term & another in six months. In the first appointment delete by age, from the bottom, all the messages you know are extinct and you’ll not need to reference. Then sort by author & delete all the messages from people you know you can eliminate. Next rank by file size & delete the emails with large attachments that you no longer need. The last step may seem drastic, but there are great rewards. Create a folder called “Expired Email.” Choose a date to draw an imaginary line (I suggest no more than three weeks out), then drag all older emails into the expired folder. Any emails retrieved from the expired folder within six months should be incorporated into other reference folders. All others (with few exceptions!) should be deleted during the second appointment you arranged for six months out.
For those who use your inbox as a to-do list…
We suggest you break this habit. Although more effective than allowing 1,000+ emails to pile up, using your inbox to prompt on-time follow up can lead to mishaps & doesn’t allow for prioritization.
Start by setting up an appointment to create an action file to hold all the reminders you have. Then add reminders for tasks resulting from emails as well as other tasks you need to complete.
Ah…doesn’t the email white space feel peaceful?
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Thanks, Jan, for your insights!
Jan Wencel is a certifiable GTD/inbox zero nerd. She runs a business in Chicago, Life Contained, Inc., similar to Simply Placed. She has been my invaluable accountability partner since 2006. You can reach Jan at 630-803-6650, jan@lifecontained.com or www.lifecontained.com
