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1. Junk
2. Emails that require an action or response from you
3. Emails that you are simply interested in reading or using as a reference (but don't require a response or action).

Delete the junk immediately. Respond to the action items immediately. Store the ones you want to read or reference in a "To Read" folder. Make it your goal to clear out your inbox at the end of every business day.

The most frequent complaint is spending too much time looking for paper-based information and/or having piles of papers and files lay around. If you have the same complaint, then I invite you to check out my audio program, The Fast-Filing Method Home Filing System. This program walks you through step-by-step how to file your papers so that you will be able to locate any paper in 30-seconds or less, I guarantee it, or this program is free! Organizing paperwork and preparing for your taxes will become simple! Click here to learn more about this revolutionary and effective home office filing system today.

If you work from home or run a home-based business, keeping your home office organized can be a challenge. After all, the home is where we relax, eat, sleep, and interact with family, all of which can spill over and cause home office organization problems. When your workspace is disorganized, your productivity tends to suffer. To create a productive home office, try the following tips.

1. Set boundaries: Determine the boundaries of your home office, and keep all other activities out of there. It's best if you're able to devote an entire room to your home office, as this makes it so much easier to block everything else out. However, if your home office is only a certain section of a room, draw an imaginary square around that section, and keep everything not related to work out of that square.
2. Have the basics on hand: For most types of businesses, you will need:
   • A trash can, recycling can and paper shredder
   • A container or drawer of writing implements, paper clips, clamps, post-it notes, scissor and stapler
   • A file cabinet or file drawers with hanging and tab file folders
   • A telephone
   • A clock and a timer
   • A notepad to jot down notes and to-do lists
3. Remove clutter: To promote home office organization, anything that is not directly useful for your work should be removed from your workspace. If you're the type of person who tends to accumulate multiple stacks of documents, books, and other materials throughout your day, take a few minutes each day to cleanse and sort it. For most of us, simply being surrounded by clutter can decrease our productivity.
4. Have an Efficient Filing System: You should be able to locate any paper or file in 30-seconds or less. In addition, the papers that you need to take action on, should be in an Active File System. Your Active File System is part of your home office filing system and is designed to automatically bring these papers to your attention when they need to be handled. This is important for two reasons.
   1. So you don't lose or forget about them, or miss a deadline.
   2. So that you can focus on your primary work without the distraction of having these important papers pile up while you wonder if you should be stopping what you are doing to deal with them. If they are in an Active File System you able to focus on your primary work and then deal with them at the appropriate time. For an efficient home office filing system, check out the Fast-Filing Method.
5. Take breaks and eat lunch elsewhere: Taking a little breather during the day is refreshing and can actually boost your productivity. If possible, get outside during your breaks. Eat lunch in your yard, or on your deck or porch. The vitamin D will boost your mood and your mental sharpness.
6. Use a Timer: Timers are a great tool to keep you focused and to limit the amount of time you spend on low-priority busy work, so that you can focus more of your time on high-priority work. Establish how much time you are going to spend on specific activities, such as, handling email. Set your timer for that amount of time. When you have a deadline, you will be more likely to get the job done in less time because your deadline will force you to prioritize and make you move more quickly.

I have resisted blogging for quite some time due to the fact that I am a self-proclaimed "Life Simplifier" and keeping up with a blog just didn't occur to me as "Simple Living". Lately I have experienced an abundance of 'simple living inspiration' and feel a call to share it. You can check out my new simple living and inspirational blog at www.ClearSimpleInspiration.com.

I have gone through a personal transformation over the past several months, as have many of my clients. It's truly amazing the shift that's happening on this planet right now. I LOVE it! More people than ever are finding and living their life purpose. We are getting back to simple and purposeful living.

Remember the 80's? Big hair, big houses, big SUV's, big over-scheduled lives, and then came the 90's (and a lot more wealth). Big consumerism, bigger shopping malls, big work weeks, even bigger gas tanks and the mic-mansions. While living our big complicated lives, many of us lost (or never found) our life's purpose, became out-of-touch, disconnected from our beautiful planet, from each other, and from spirituality. Yes, churches and religion got bigger too (mega churches started cropping up everywhere) but in my opinion, spirituality got lost.

Then came the sugar high crash (as I like to call it). Corporate corruption, stock market and real estate crash, war, health care crises, the realization that we are making our planet sick, and so on. Many people found themselves lost, distraught, and even depressed.

As a result, we are now starting to get to the good stuff. Overcoming adversity requires personal growth and millions of people world-wide are choosing to transform themselves and their lives and they are becoming happier than ever!

People are downsizing their homes, simplifying their schedules, eliminating waste and choosing a life that is in alignment with their life purpose. I have clients that have left or lost big high paying jobs they hated, sold two thirds of their stuff, traded their over-sized home for a smaller one, downsized or eliminated their vehicles, and started businesses they love, providing services of value to people. Their lives are dramatically more simple - they get plenty of sleep, plenty of exercise, plenty of quality time with family and friends, and LOVE what they do for work. Do you think they miss their big house and big paycheck?

I LOVE helping people simplify their homes, lives, and schedules, so they can get down to being truly happy and living their life purpose. I started my blog (www.ClearSimpleInspiration.com) as a way to offer inspiration to those of you who are ready to transform yourself and your life and experience happy and simple living.

May this be your best year yet!

"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter...to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life." - Jim Burroughs

Feng Shui literally means 'wind' and 'water'. It is an ancient art of furniture placement and energy flow in the home which has been practiced successfully in china for several thousand years.

Feng Shui works on the basis that energy currents, known as chi, flow through your home. Having free flowing chi through your home will improve your relationships, your wellbeing and your wealth. It will give you new energy to change and improve your life.

Clutter creates obstructions in your life. By having a major clear out you will notice your life starts to move on.

The first step in Feng Shui is to clear the clutter. Clutter dramatically slows the flow of chi reducing energy movement through your home. So before you use any Feng Shui enhancements, clear your clutter.

In Your Kitchen
Your kitchen nurtures your family by providing nourishment-so it's a very important place in feng shui.

• Expired foods create negative energies-toss them.
• Keep counter tops free of clutter, papers and mail in particular.

• Sit facing your door so you donÍt get caught off guard
• Sit with a solid wall behind you or you will feel you lack support
• Place a small healthy plant in the southeast corner of the room for good income and personal growth
• Place a round crystal on the southwest corner of your desk to help work relationships
• Keep your office clear of piles, the clutter will stop the flow of chi

• After an argument, spray geranium or lavender in the room
• After illness spray eucalyptus, lemon or rosemary
• To help you sleep mix up fresh water and lavender in a spray bottle, spray your bedroom

If you want to create a new future for yourself, then clear the clutter and make some space in your life for new possibilities and opportunities.

Your Strategy: A well laid out strategy, or blueprint, is a vital part of achieving a highly profitable business. Your blueprint will guide you in your "how-tos": how to catch the attention of qualified prospective customers, how to convert them into paying customers, how to keep them as long-term customers, and how to encourage them to send you referrals.

There are many powerful tools available to you - social media platforms, email marketing, blogging and your website - but you have to use them properly. Simply throwing up a website, a Facebook page, and possibly a Twitter page, and then waiting for the results to roll in, won't bring you the success you want for your business. It is important that all of your marketing follows a blueprint - a set of specific actions - that fulfills on your overall strategy.

If you are not working a tried-and-true blueprint, I recommend hiring a marketing consultant. A consultant will help you create a marketing strategy that's based around your business goals. From there, a consultant will help you design a blueprint that fulfills on that strategy.

I've worked with dozens of clients who have used their new blueprint to make simple changes to their existing marketing effort. As a result, they have doubled and even tripled their customer base. Simple changes will set you up as an expert in your industry, drive herds of prospective customers to you, convert them into paying customers, and maintain them as long-term customers.

The best way to ensure that you accomplish your business goals this year is: to create a strategy, and then to design a blueprint that fulfills on that strategy.

As the old adage goes "Plan your work, and work your plan."

Your Web Presence: For many business owners, there are small adjustments that can be made to your marketing funnel, your website and even your social media, such as your LinkedIn profile, Twitter, and Facebook pages. You can use your new blueprint to guide these simple changes.

Along with your social media platforms, it is imperative to have an EFFECTIVE and PROFITABLE website. Your website should be friendly to both search engines and mobile devices.

Over 50 percent of searches are done on mobile phones - make sure you aren't missing out on these potential clients. Your website should set you up as an expert in your field. It should be able to convert viewers into qualified leads. It should also increase your sales conversion rate by converting leads into customers. A built-in blog on your website will make it more attractive to search engines. Being more desirable to search engines will cause you to rank higher, which makes it easier for prospective customers to find you. A built-in blog also provides a platform for you to build a trusting relationship with your prospective buyers and your current customers.

Your Offerings: When putting together an offer for your customers, you need to be clear on what your customers want most. Surveys are a great way to find out this information. Customers will happily pay you to solve a problem for them, or to fulfill on a need they have. So you need to know which offering will work for them. Importantly, surveys can help you find gaps in your offerings, and chances to create new offerings.

Your Traffic: Use smart strategies to drive qualified, potential customers to your business. You can get targeted FREE traffic to your website and social media platforms by creating and syndicating high-quality, relevant content. In addition to adding this content to your blog, you can syndicate it through article directories, bookmarking sites, and social media sites, then get it posted on related blogs and websites. If you do not have the time or desire to do this for yourself, you can hire an online marketing firm to do it for you (it probably costs much less than you think).

My marketing firm, Clear Simple Marketing, would love to help you create and syndicated high-quality content. For more info and prices, just fill out a Marketing Analysis form by clicking here. Or, feel free to call or email us.

Your Marketing Funnel: An effective marketing funnel and web presence attract prospective customers, educate them on your services and/or products, and convert them into paying customers.

You need to have a compelling "free offer" for your prospective customers that will be used as a "relationship builder." We are living in a "give-to get" economy. Your potential customers should get a taste of your offerings. Your prospective customers get a chance to get to know, like and trust you, and to understand how your offerings will benefit them. Trust and understanding will convert them into paying customers.

On average, less than 2% of your prospective customers will buy from you the first time they visit your website. It's imperative that you create a way for them to get to know, like and trust you so that when they are ready to purchase, you are the obvious person they will purchase from.

Your marketing funnel should also keep these clients as long-term customers, and give them incentives to refer new prospective customers into your marketing funnel.

Your Relationship with Your Customers & Prospective Customers: People like to buy from people that they "know, like and trust". With social media, email, and blogs it's easier than ever for you to build a "know, like and trust" relationship with your prospective customers. In addition to being easy, it's inexpensive, produces quick results, and much of the work can be automated.

Ready to Design YOUR Blueprint?

• An effective sales/marketing funnel
• Automation of your marketing processes
• A system for attracting a steady flow of customers
• Exploration of your hidden sources of revenue
• Profitable pricing structure
• A month-by-month marketing calendar
• Assessment of your current website

We can implement the Blueprint for you, or you can use it for your D.I.Y. project. Either way, the Marketing Blueprint will:

• Enhance your online presence
• Attract you a steady flow of customers
• Increase your sales conversion rate
• Boost your bottom line

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