The obvious answer is that you may have too much on your plate. Every time you have good intentions to live your dream, successfully complete that project, or reach that life-changing goal, does LIFE seem to get in the way?

This begs another question; can you ever learn to proficiently finish what you start? It also leads one to ask; are there others who already achieve success in their lives and are just more capable than you?

The funny thing is that you’re probably reading this because you are someone who is already smart, driven, focused, ambitious, and has amazing goals set for them self. But somehow you can never manage to make your dream or goal a priority, it always seems to end up on the back burner, and it feels like you’re constantly playing catch up.

Question: Are you someone who has an amazing goal, dream or invention that’s been sitting on the shelf gathering dust, and right now it is nothing more than a great conversation piece or story you tell to others at dinner parties?

If your answer is yes, then you need to keep reading.
There is no formula that successful people poses that you too couldn’t have. Success also has little to do with money, education, or family connections.

And it has nothing to do with luck. In fact, let’s get “luck” out of your vocabulary from here on out for the rest of your life. Things don’t happen to you, they happen as a result of you.

Those lucky guys at Google who made billions. That lucky starlet who is in every major motion picture. That lucky entrepreneur who always seems to be on vacation. That lucky guy who put his name in a hat and won a brand new Aston Martin. Keep in mind that for every rule there will always be exceptions to the rule. And while there are exceptions to every rule in life, they are not the norm. And nine out of ten times when you come across someone you think has been lucky, it’s more likely that they’ve worked their butt off to reach their goals and enjoy the dream they set out to achieve. You never saw the work that went into their amazing results. You’re most likely seeing them at the end result. Remember, we see only ten percent of an iceberg. The other ninety percent (aka hard work) lays below the surface.

While success is hard work, it doesn’t mean you have to work hard. What is does mean however, is that you have to be willing to be persistent in reaching your goals. Often the difference between those who are successful and those who fail is small. Often successful people keep pushing forward long after others have given up. And remember, a race isn’t won in miles, it’s won in nanoseconds. That means that though you may not see it, the finish line may be just around the corner.

But right now we are talking about how to finish what you start; successfully. To do that, we need to examine your current habits and practices.

Most people who can’t seem to finish what they start often use the excuse of not having enough time. Said a different way, they are not good at Time Management.

If you fall into this category then you’re not alone. If this is you, then it’s not too late for you to learn how to become someone who finds they can have much more free time they thought. However, you are going to have to learn some new habits. It may seem hard at first but actually they are simple to master and once you’ve mastered these simple techniques you’ll find you are free-er, and suddenly you have more time available to take care of what you’ve been putting off in the past. You may suddenly find you have time to even take a nap.

The first step is to take a look at how many non-essential things you do every day. These are the things that can be big time wasters and may seem important to you on the surface, but are ultimately the very things that suck up all the VALUABLE time from your days.

The first of these is email. Now before you jump down my throat and say, “It’s part of my job. How am I supposed to do my job without email?”

For some this may be true, but to an extent. Perhaps it’s waiting for an important contract, or expecting a reply to your business proposal. But ask yourself if it is really essential or even necessary for you to be glued to the computer or your crack-berry device at all times? Probably not.

And since email is not an essential part of everyone’s life, you CAN train yourself to wean yourself from that time-sucking electronic device.

Think about it. Honestly ask yourself how many of those “Must Do” emails are, in fact, someone else’s request of something from you, yet it has little to do with you? Take a moment and think hard. Really take the time to look through them and see which ones are essential to your life or career and which ones are actually time wasters? Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok to respond to a friend or colleague and offer advice and assistance. But do you really have to do it all the time, and worse, at the very moment it arrives at your In-Box? Again, probably not.

We humans can easily get distracted. Each day there are thousands of things every minute that attack our senses and take the focus off of what’s right at hand. Sights, sounds, smells, the weather, a shirt tag poking at your back, a baby screaming, a horn honking, a pretty girl or handsome guy walking by, all can become distracters. So can an email telling you that you’ve just WON a trip to Australia!

What if instead you could manage your emails and only handling them two, three, (or if absolutely necessary) four times a day, at specific times, and that’s all? What if you could stop glancing at your cell phone every time it buzzes or chimes with a new email message? How much more FREE time would you then be able to create for yourself EVERYDAY?

For many who are reading this it will be a big challenge at first. But ask yourself how important it is for you to REALLY finish what you start? Look at the past three years of your life. Have you made considerable strides to further yourself, your career, your goals, or are you finding you’re still stuck in “catch up” mode?

Instead, try an experiment for just one week. Just ONE WEEK. Start slow and choose only four times a day to respond to your emails. Just FOUR. No more. Pick four times that will not interfere with anything else you have going on. Just email. And don’t’ cheat by keeping your cell in your hand. If you decide that two of the times per day are going to be used responding to email via your cell phone, then once you are done, no more cell emails. That’s it.

Next, Pick one hour twice a week to clean up your email box. You should never have more than 50 emails, (I can actually hear you throwing up your hands right now, but stick with me).

We live in an age of technology and automation. You probably have an email system that can automatically place most of your emails in archived folders for you. e.g. If you get a lot of emails from Bob, create a “Bob” folder for all of his emails. I mean seriously, do they really need to be kept with all the other (non-essential) emails?

Get in the habit of deleting those emails that are least important. Here’s a good rule of thumb. Like with clothing, if you find you are not wearing something after six months, donate it. The same idea goes for emails. If you find you’re not readdressing an email or using it after, let’s say, four weeks, file it or trash it immediately.

As I said, this habit will be hard for you at first but stick with it. You’ll soon find that it’s not as painful as you first thought and that the world did not end. In fact, you may find for the first time in your life that you are actually seeing and enjoying the world you live in.

This next step we’re going to discuss will make the dread of this new email regime seem like a cakewalk. Next you are going to limit and curtail your texting habits.

Again, think about how many non-essential texts you do every day. Every minute. Every second!

Today we live in an immediate world where everything is now or yesterday. Rush, rush, rush. But just how productive is that for most people? Think about how much more productive and creative we were before television, cell phones, and email? You may not have been around then but certainly you can see and agree why we had so many more successful painters, sculptors, creators, and inventors, before the masses became glued to these time-sucking devices. Instead, days were typically filled with writing, socializing, creating, exploring, family, travel, charity work, and mentoring. Long before cell phones existed, telephone calls were limited to just a couple times a day. And we did just fine! And, there was no texting!

Don’t get me wrong, these devices all have their merits and can be useful. But we are addressing the goal of finishing what you start and what can keep you from enjoying the benefits of completion.

Examine a day’s worth of texting to really look at how many were absolutely necessary? How many were fun socializing? And how many were from someone asking something of you?

This time I’m not going to hold your hand. I cannot limit you to doing this time-sucking task to only four times a day. But I will suggest however, that you try to leave your cell phone either in the car or at home whenever you can.

If you are going to the movies, make an effort to leave it on your car. Not your purse, your car. If you are going to dinner with friends or family, leave it in your car. Not your purse, your car. If you are at home and sitting with a family member or friend, it’s a great opportunity to leave your cell phone in the other room.

If a call comes in by all means answer it if absolutely necessary. But getting into the habit of not always having it with you can free you up in more ways than you realize, and like the first time you were told that you had to wear a seatbelt, at first you resisted, but eventually you got into the habit.

Next on your Finish What You Start list is to unlearn multitasking. By doing this you will no longer be a victim of overwhelm.

Often, one task cannot be accomplished until another task has first been completed. Sometimes the accomplishment of a single task can be the catalyst in the entire process that streamlines all the other tasks you must handle and catapults you even faster to the finish line.

To successfully become a Jedi project master who reaches their goals every time you will need to create a project list. Specifically on a piece of paper that you will keep with you throughout your day. This list cannot be kept on your computer, though you may use your computer to type it up. Also, it cannot be kept on your cell phone.

Two things are at work here. By writing your tasks, projects, errands, and goals down onto a piece of paper, you create a process within your subconscious that begins the job of figuring out the best way to handle these goals. Second, if you can train yourself to write down these projects the night before, during the evening you will come up with the best way to perform these tasks.

We are visual by nature. With very few exceptions we think in images and pictures. When you write down for example “pick up the dry cleaning”, as one of your errands, you actually visualize that dry cleaning establishment within your mind. Or even the clothes you are picking up. Even if it’s just for a nanosecond. By writing your tasks out the night before, you create a system within your mind of the best method to efficiently and productively handle your projects.

An important MUST technique is when you do create your list, whether it consists of projects, goals, dreams, tasks, errands, objectives, or a combination of them all, you must never write down more than ten (10) items per day. It doesn’t matter if you’re already a master at doing tasks, keep it to ten (10). The reason behind this as you will see is vital to your Finish What You Start success.

If your list does contains more than ten things you’ll look at it and instantly begin to feel overwhelmed. This can happen on a subconscious level at first, but soon the results will also creep into your conscious mind and begin to drag your energy and enthusiasm down. This can also constrict your creativity as well.

The second reason you want to keep the list to only ten (10) items is that you want to create a habit of GOAL REACHING accomplishment within you. By seeing your task, goals, and objectives completed, you create new muscles within you that become mission driven and you start to see how really easy it is to get things done. You become more empowered. In no time you will build drive, momentum, and creative power within you.

Once an item on your list in completed, check it off and/or cross it off your list. Do this in a way where you can still see the completed task. In other words, don’t black it out entirely. Again, this creates a sense of accomplishment and unstoppable power within you. At the end of the day you are going to really see how much you’ve accomplished and how farther along you now are.

Often you may have a couple items left on your list that have not been completed. If you do have items that haven’t been completed at the day’s end, do not hang onto that list and carry it with you the next day. Instead, you’ll want to create a brand new list and add these few incomplete items to it. Beginning with a fresh piece of paper each day rather than hanging onto an old one builds within you a sense of completion and you find you’re becoming someone who can master any project. And, that you are no longer someone who has a lot of unfinished projects left on his plate.

Exercise: Keep a small journal for one week of a list of all the non-essential time-wasters that you have in your life. Do this much in the same way that you would journaling or tracking your finances & purchases. By the end of the week you should be able to truly examine everything that you can eliminate in your life or that’s keeping you from reaching your SUCCESS goals.

Finishing what you start is about a simple process:

? Having a GOAL, PROJECT, or OBJECTIVE
? Making a DECISION that this is something you must accomplish
? Taking time to PLAN the process
? Taking ACTION towards achieving it
? Being PERSISTENT (this is the key difference between those who are successful and those who quit)
? Having no HESITATION – By taking action and moving forward even if you have fear or anxiety (fear is only a feeling)
? Checking in with others often on your progress (feeling alone can keep you locked in a vacuum)

Here’s an important distinction: Urgent tasks are those things that you must do immediately like phone calls, emergencies, interruptions, the demands of your boss or customer. The “In your face” things that require your “urgent” attention. These things are determined by external pressures and requirements.

Important tasks however, are those things that contribute to reaching your own goals and that contribute to your long term future: planning, organizing, studying, researching your project or customers, and setting priorities before you begin.

Then there are also the tasks that are urgent but not important such as the ringing telephone, a trivial text, someone who wants to socialize or chat. These things bring no results!

Remember, managing time is managing yourself. If you are someone who wants to finish what you start but could never figure out how to do it, here’s your chance.

Want a great tip? This is one I learned from my mentor, Brian Tracy. Keep the word “Consequences” firmly fixed in your mind.

If you still can’t figure out which emails, texts, phone calls or tasks are the important ones, remember the word “consequences”.

Think to yourself, “What are the consequences if I do this particular task or activity?” The greater the possible consequence, the more important it is. Said another way, if the actions of what you do bring the results of what you want then it is an important task. If however, on the other hand, you are in the same place you were before or find you are now farther behind, then the task or action is not an important one.

Said in plain English: If you want to finish what you start, stop creating tasks, activities, or projects that get you nowhere. These things might make you feel valuable but they add nothing of importance to your life. And they don’t move you forward. However, if you make your dreams and goals the priority, you will find you are miles farther than ever before.

Strangely enough most people who practice these tools find that they have much more time to socialize, play and do more of the things that once sucked up all their time and kept them from enjoying LIFE.

I hope this resonates with you and gives you some great new tools to take your goals to the next level. If you feel that you want to go even deeper and really become someone who wants to be a master of their life instead of the other way around, I invite you to read my book, Finish What You Start. It incorporates simple principles that the top successful people use in their own lives to create the success results they want every time.

http://www.Finish-What-You-Start.com

Volunteer. Take the focus off of yourself and try to bring some joy into someone else’s life. It’s the best and quickest way to feel better about your own situation. Haven’t you ever seen the joy of someone less fortunate after helping them? It’s the feeling of a lifetime. Go online and Google the names of your local churches or organizations for some leads; it is doubtful you will get turned down. Not-for-profits are always on the lookout for good, trustworthy and dedicated volunteers.

Get Spiritual. A simple walk in the park, or sitting on a beautiful hilltop watching nature can be very soothing and renewing to the soul. Although most people equate being spiritual with attending church, it is not always the case. However, going to church may be an option. If not, you can always take up yoga or meditation, two other alternatives to calming the mind and easing the soul.

Fellowship. Friendship and fellowship come in many forms. You can adopt a dog, or a cat; or hang out at your local library, sporting event or town festival. The key is to surround yourself with other positive people and remain social. Take up a sport, travel, go see a movie. Whatever you do, do not isolate yourself. By doing so, it allows you time to dwell on the negative and not move forward with the positive.

Education. Enroll in a course at a community college or YMCA. Surround yourself with the opportunity to learn, it will take your mind off of your current state and give you a chance to learn a few new things. Have you always wanted to be an accountant? Here’s your chance to take your life in a new direction.

The key when feeling depressed is to try to evaluate what’s making you upset, and to try to change it. Life is too short to be miserable and sitting in agony or pain. Please note that depression is a serious matter, and seeking a medical professional is highly advised. However, these four tidbits can help you restore yourself in a positive way and lead you to a life of happiness.

? 2010, Janelle Howell Inc. All rights reserved.

With so much information and training at your disposal, it’s easy to get locked into “Learn-Build-Tweak” mode when you need in the beginning to train yourself in “Create-Publish-Promote” mode.

This is what 99% of newbies get wrong.

Here’s the right way. The foundation of any internet business is first and foremost to build up your ‘behind the scenes’ personal branding and online presence over the net.

Here’s a method to stay focused and become self organised and hyper productive with your internet marketing.

What I teach my team is to first build the foundations of your online business – and that means your internet marketing plan is initially all about personal branding across the net.

You can build this up for free by creating value-driven content. Your target audience will love your leadership and the search engines will love your unique contribution – resulting in high quality leads for your business. What you learn, you teach through articles, videos, blog posts, messages to your list and so on. You then promote your content using social media.

All for free!

(Only once you have this down, do we advise you learn how to market, using your own landing pages and paid advertising like Google Adwords, Facebook PPC, banner ads or ezine solo ads.)

When you dive into internet marketing, with any system or membership, there is potentially so much at your fingertips – marketing modules, live trainings, recorded materials – for a peek into the back office of the marketing education system I personally use to learn and teach the techniques of mindset, marketing and business organisation, go to the resource box at the end of this article and follow the link you find there.

PROBLEM.

With so much information and training at your disposal, it’s easy to get locked into “Learn-Build-Tweak” mode when you need in the beginning to keep on with “Create-Publish-Promote” mode while you build up your ‘behind the scenes’ personal branding over the net.

This is the FOUNDATION for everything else.

Why?

Because your leads will check you out for sure before doing business with you, by putting your name into Google – what comes up?! So you prospects need to find something that provides value and attracts you to them, on a personal and emotional level as well as your knowledge and expertise.

You have to brand yourself as knowing a thing or too so you absolutely need this online presence of authority and leadership to draw the crowd!

This is what 99% of marketers get wrong! They spend their time driving traffic and getting leads and lots of money on ineffective, fancy advertising campaigns. But those leads need to see’ something special and valuable from them personally, rather than just the same ol’ sales pages.

Think about it. Why would they partner with you?

You need to give something valuable that will resonate with your target audience. Empathy, problem solving, tips, strategies, support, and so on.

SO… you have to get into consistent, quality content production.

Get some articles, blog posts, videos done – just do it!

Promote your content like crazy using social bookmarking (ping.fm), Twitter and Facebook, and article submission software (I’m just testing one out) or video submission software (Traffic Geyser is awesome for this – if you are using a lot of video).

Ok… so that’s WHAT you need to be focusing on… here’s how to stay focused!!!

Create a spreadsheet with 7 columns (labelled each day of the week) and 10-20 rows (labelled for each time slots of your day – e.g. 30 minute slots).

Block out unmoveable slots, like if you have other jobsor other commitments outside your home business plan, or for family time.

Choose 3-4 marketing methods maximum that you will learn/do/master and do those consistently through the week. Block out the slots in your calendar for learning/doing each one.

For example: e.g. Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat write one article & upload to article directory/submitter) and for your training (e.g. learn facebook marketing Mondays 2-4pm) and for your follow up (e.g. calling apps, getting new members started etc) and of course your mindset & leadership development (block out time to read, attend webinars or listen to calls etc.)

The spreadsheet helps you lay this out.

Make it suit your lifestyle, existing commitments, time with the family etc. and once you have it laid out, colour code each block so you can easily view it and print it out, stick it up on your wall in front of your computer!!!

Use an alarm or stopwatch timer on your desk if you have to, to make sure you get everything you have planned DONE by the end of each day.

(E.g. it may take you an hour to write a good article to start with, and after a month maybe it will only take you 30 minutes so use that hour to produce TWO articles or produce an article and a short 1 minute video promoting your article!)

This strategy REALLY helped me feel in control of my daily activity and helps you become accountable to your 90 day plan and target goals for generating leads and sales/income goals.

At the end of each week, you do feel highly productive if you stick to you plan. Even if it’s not always 100% you can improve and it will become more of a natural habit of an organised desk and mind!

I ask about the idea a few months later, and it often is not one bit closer to completion.
Ideas stop short of becoming reality, and projects seem to drag on endlessly, because of one thing: complexity.

A software programmer can allow the development of a new app he’s building to drag on and on for years (I know of cases where this happened), only to find Google release something that makes his app obsolete. The problem: the program grew and grew in complexity and features, but never shipped.

A web developer can work on a rad new website with killer features, but after months of work the website never launches. Problem: too complex, and too much of a perfectionist.

A writer can work on a novel, working in characters and plotlines, and then work on revision after revision, only to abandon it. The complexity of a book can become overwhelming.

If your project has been dragging on, or you’re having problems completing, try simplifying, and stop trying for perfection.

I’ve launched a number of projects over the last few years, and learned a thing or two about making ideas take life, and getting to done.

Here are some of those key principles:

1. Keep the scope as simple as possible. You don’t need to do everything with this project. In fact, if you can just do one thing, that’s perfect. As small a thing as possible. Don’t redesign an entire city — just work on one building. If the project starts to get complex or seem overwhelming, narrow the scope. Do less. It’ll help you get things done.

2. Practice ‘Good Enough’. Perfectionism is the enemy of completion. Nitpick and worry about getting it “just right”, and you’ll never get it done. Done is better than right. So if you start to nitpick and worry about perfect, say “screw it” and then just try for “good enough”. You can always make it better in the next version.

3. Kill extra features. Similar to simplifying the scope, you’ll want to try to make your creation do as little as possible. Want it to talk and walk and cook breakfast? Just try for talking. Want your website to publish great content and have social networking and podcasts and news and a newsletter and a membership area? Just shoot for great content. Whenever you find yourself adding new features, see if they can’t be killed.

4. Make it public, quick. Your goal should be to get your project in some working form out to your customers/readers/public as soon as possible. In as few steps, as quickly, as easily, as simply as possible. Remember: don’t worry about perfect, and don’t let this first public release be wide in scope or full of features. Release it with as few features as possible. Releasing it publicly will 1) get you to done faster and 2) put some pressure on you to make it better, quickly.

minimalist geek, it's possible

I’m a little on the geeky side, I admit. Not a total nerd, but enough that I do alot on the computer and use technology to do everything from communicate to staying in touch to publishing to working to writing to networking to finances and more.

And still, it’s very important to me that I keep things minimalist and peaceful.

I believe that’s the trickiest part of technology: how to use it everyday and take advantage of it, without getting carried away. How to keep things simple but powerful. How to master technology without letting it become our master (to paraphrase Stephen Covey).

Alot of my friends ask me how I manage to do this, so I’d like to post a little bit about it today.

This is my setup
This won’t work for everyone, but it’s working for me and it’s at the very least a starting point and guideline for those that are interested.

First of all, almost everything I do is online. Now that I quit my day job (with the horror of its fax machine), I no longer keep paper files. I can access all of my information and documents online, so I can work from anywhere, from any computer. And there’s no longer any time spent on organizing, as I use Gmail’s philosophy of archiving instead of filing.

I use a Sony Vaio, because of it’s big screen and I’m a sony fan, it works well with my sony digital camera, which even for a minimalist I find it’s a necessity to save the memories. I have a regular pc on my desk at home and nothing else. No drawers for filing or papers. No fax machine, scanner, printer or anything.

Software I use include Gmail for email and IM, WordPress for blogging, Firefox for everything, Google Docs and Spreadsheets for all my document needs (although I do use OpenOffice as well), Google Reader for feeds (yes, I’m a Google fan, but only because their programs do what I want the best). I favor Open Source software if possible.

Now on to the tips.

1. Focus on the essential. It’s important to take some time to think about what’s essential to your tech work (and play). What do you really need? What gives you the most benefit for your time? What’s not so essential? What takes up a lot of time without making much of an impact? What gives you the most enjoyment? If you can identify the activities, sites and software that is most essential to you, you can eliminate or at least reduce the non-essential. And from then on, focus almost exclusively on what’s essential. This applies to your work tasks as well – what tasks are extremely essential? Focus on doing those each day.
2. Do one thing at a time. I know. This is super hard when it comes to tech. Browser’s on, a dozen tabs open at once, switching between reading and email and work and IM and Twitter … we live in a multitasking world. But it doesn’t have to be this way. While there’s nothing wrong with having multiple tabs open, it can be very helpful to focus on one task at a time. Have 10 tabs open, but do one tab until you’re done, then close it and move on to the next, and so on. If you’re going to do IM, just do IM. If you’re going to do email, just do email. Sure, you can do more than that at once, but it adds to the stress of your day and decreases your effectiveness because of all the switching. Practice doing one thing at a time and you’ll find your work to be much more peaceful.
3. Have periods of disconnectedness. While I do most of my work online, I find it extremely useful (and calming) to close my browser and just work offline for awhile. This post, for example, is being written in a text program, and when I’m done writing I’ll go and post it in WordPress. This really allows you to get much more done, because there’s no temptation to go check something just for a sec.
4. Don’t live in your inbox. I’ve done this, and if you do it you know who you are. Email is everything to many people. It’s communication, it’s a task list, it’s where you do your work, it’s your organization system. But if you work from your inbox, you are constantly being interrupted by new messages. Get your task list out of your inbox. Do email only at pre-appointed times. Do your work with your email closed.
5. Schedule your IM time. Same thing applies to IM. I’m not a huge fan of IM, especially if you have your IM program open all the time. That’s because it encourages people to interrupt you whenever they want, instead of you valuing your time. If IM is important to your work, then schedule IM meetings, or have certain times of the day when you’re available for IM and tell your colleagues and friends about it. And have it for a limited amount of time and then end it.
6. Turn off notifications. Again, email and IM and other notifications encourage interruptions and multitasking. Instead, turn everything off so that you check your email when you choose, not when others decide to send you something.
7. Set limits on what you do. For example, check email just twice a day. Write emails of only 5 sentences or less. Only check Twitter once a day. Only respond to 4 messages on your favorite forum. Or whatever works for you. Limits force you to choose the essential, instead of trying to do everything.
8. Create a morning routine. I’m a fan of morning routines in general, and the same concepts apply to tech. The Morning Coffee extension for Firefox is a great way to set up your routine with a single click. It opens all your essential sites in tabs, so that you can work through this routine one thing at a time and be sure that everything is finished.
9. Create a weekly routine. With Morning Coffee, you can also set up routines for different days of the week. This allows you to check a certain site or inbox once a week, for example, instead of every single day.
10. Clear out your inbox. Clearing out your inbox is a very calming thing. It also prevents the overwhelming feeling of having hundreds of emails in your inbox — some read and some not.
11. Pare down your feeds. I used to have well over a hundred RSS feeds to read in a day. The need to go through them all, every day, was very stressful to me. So I eventually cut them down, one stage at a time, until I got down to 10 essential feeds. Now it takes just a few minutes each day to scan through my feeds, pick out a few articles I’d like to read, and mark the rest as read. Much simpler.
12. Simplified filing. As I mentioned above, I use Gmail’s philosophy of archiving instead of filing. I used to be a compulsive filer, as I like things to be organized. I had folders and subfolders, and I’d spent a bit of time each day filing every single email. What an effort! Instead, I archive everything and just search for what I need (I don’t even use tags or labels anymore). It takes seconds to find something. Seriously, there has never been a time when I couldn’t find something through search. I do this not only with email but with all my documents (through Google Docs and Spreadsheets).