Before They Were Famous: The Oddest Odd Jobs of 10 Literary Greats reveals the jobs held by Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, Stephen King and others. They’re not that odd. Vonnegut managed a Saab dealership.  King was a janitor. Harper Lee handled reservations for Easter Air Lines. Still, it’s interesting to see what they did before becoming famous writers.

I’m no literary great, but I’d say the oddest job I held was working as a cashier and stocker at Toys R Us. Or maybe wrapping gifts in my mom’s little kiosk that she had for one holiday season. I also worked at Tandy’s offices (Radio Shack folks) as a file clerk. That’s about four jobs (not counting babysitting) by the time I graduated from high school. My high school senior daughter has had one job for three years: working at a brunch/lunch restaurant. She started as a hostess and she’s now the senior waitress.

The coolest pre-high school graduation job I had was data entry for an antique toy car catalog. Entering names and addresses sounds boring, but it paid well for a teen and I loved looking at those old cars. Barbie wasn’t my thing — AFX slot cars were. I loved taking apart the broken ones and trying to fix them.

Despite my preference of cars to dolls, I’m not responsible for my older son’s love of cars. (I can’t begin to give you an estimate on how many Hot Wheels we have between him and his younger brother.) One of my favorite clients just happens to be in the car business. I write content about the many cars his company sells.

For a long time, I regretted accepting the 20-minutes away Toys R Us job on the spot when I had another interview lined up with the public library two blocks from my house. Obviously, I love books plus I knew the staff at the library. I was 16. I didn’t know better. Besides, working at Toys R Us taught me a bit about business and retail. Learning the Dewey Decimal System would only help me find books faster.

What odd jobs have you had?

And now for your weekly linkage …

Brain food …

• The 7 Iconic, Transparent, Empowering Business Buzzwords That Need To Die. Never liked “transparency” in reference to social media. How about “honesty”?
• Twitterstories. Share your story by mentioning @twitterstories or by using the hashtag #twitterstories. Include a photo or video that helps illustrate your story.
• 18 Clever Organizing Tricks and Storage Ideas. My dad did the glass jars thing (#2). Maybe that’s where I got my organizational (obsession) skills from. My mom came up with #14 for our cookie / baking sheets.
• Free press release sites a detailed review. Reviews 60 free sites to identify those providing the best resource for searches, building links, etc.

And for fun because we’re allowed …

• What You Text vs. What I See. Hilarious and creepy at the same time.
• The Insane Choices You Face at the Drugstore. Dizzying. OK, what’s the cure for that? Infographic focuses on one symptom: headache.
• 12 Most Influential Perks for People with Low Klout Scores. You’re welcome.
• 24 Awesomely Awkward Vacation Photos. Got this one from my daughter.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

My quest for a nice costume without the cheap material and plastic proved challenging as gal who loves Halloween. This isn’t a one-time costume, but one to use whenever I needed it. I visited the Disney website and found the Big Bad Wolf costume on sale. PERFECT for my 6’4″ husband. Not the best photo, but you get the idea.

Then I found Daisy on sale. (Unfortunately, no picture of me as Daisy Duck.) It clicked. My dad was popular with the kids because he could talk like Donald Duck. It didn’t take long before my mom and siblings showered him with Donald Duck toys, art and knickknacks that his home office looked like a Donald Duck shrine with a few Betty Boops thrown in. (Mom’s thing that we all started bopping her with Boop gifts.)

One thing about collections — it made it easier to shop for people who had everything they needed. My thing was Broadway and dreidels (spinning tops). Broadway didn’t happen by accident, but dreidels did. I had a couple of them and somehow Paul (aka Big Bad Wolf) decided to add a new one — sometimes two — to my collection every year.

Then Dad died in 2007. This left — among other things, of course — Mom stuck with a massive Donald Duck collection. She kept the more meaningful ones like the Donald Duck latch hook I did. She also gave one Donald Duck item to each of us kids that we had given him. I have the 65th anniversary clock.

Between Dad’s death and tightening belts, I decided to stop collecting dreidels because we didn’t need so much stuff. (I had stopped collecting Broadway stuff ages ago.) Stuff piles up creating more upkeep work. Besides, they just sit on a shelf only to be admired whenever company comes over.

Except for gadgets, I cut buying needless things and spent more time on every buying decision. I still make mistakes and experience buyer’s remorse (Viewsonic gTablet).

I cleared a lot of clutter giving up books I didn’t need and items I hadn’t touched in over a year. Yes, I thought “But what if I need it later? I don’t want to spend money on another one.” Well, later has yet to come and it feels great to be rid of the item.

Do you have stuff you’d like to clear out? What makes it hard to get rid of them?

And now for this week’s links.

Brain food …

• Best Tweeps for Writers. Great list that I already followed over half and added the rest without question. Yes, I’m on the list — but it’s hard to question it when it has a lot of folks I enjoying conversing with in social media. Not a popularity contest. I never win those.
• 16 Useful Twitter Plugins for WordPress. Enhance your website / blog with these plugins. I don’t recommend automating posts unless you can make it look like a good tweet instead of a cut-off one. Those are the worst.
• 280 Must Read Books for Entrepreneurs. Of course, you shouldn’t read them all. It’s more important to glean what you read than how many you read. Great list.

For fun because we’re allowed …

• Letter, letter, letter (project forever ongoing). Creative alphabet.
• How to Get Free Stuff Throughout the Year. My library doesn’t have ebook borrowing … yet. Well, it does, but not books most people read. I don’t request every free offer I come across. Only the ones I know I could use.
• The Burning House. What would you take with you if your house was burning? I was in a burning house at age six — my grandparents’. Didn’t even grab my shoes. I’d want my irreplaceable photos and information. I’d have to grab my desktop’s CPU as it has both, but not all the photos especially the older ones.
• The largest hot-air balloon gathering in the world. 182 balloons photo-stitched together. Just incredible.
• 12 Coolest Pictures of Post-It War. Good kind of war!
• Few Brushstrokes Give Hilarious Illustrations. Exactly that — simple illustration, hilarity ensues.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

I’m sure you haven’t been keeping tabs on how often I blog or noticed fewer blog entries lately. Most people don’t for most blogs, email updates and websites. We get so much information that we don’t stand by wondering where the latest update is from so ‘n so.

It pangs me not to keep this blog updated much lately. But then I remind myself that I’d rather deliver nothing than something useless to you even if it affects search engines.

You don’t need a reminder of the advantages of consistent updates and blogging. What about making time for it? All the experienced bloggers tell us to make time for blogging and to stop making excuses that you don’t have time.

I do that for family.

I do that for volunteering and giving back.

I do that for clients.

I do that for exercise.

I do that for sleep.

If we “make time” for everything we want to accomplish, soon we’ll find ourselves losing sleep and overdoing it to the point that our brains feel overloaded. Speaker and author Jill Konrath wrote about this in The Year I Lost My Brain and How I Found It Again. Then today I read the top five regrets people made on their deathbed.

Multitasking is not always a good thing. It divides your attention, thereby sacrificing the quality of the two or three things you work on at the same time.

Oprah is right when she says, “Live your best life.” And that means sacrificing blog entries. If I work to accomplish all the things I’d like to do, it’d sacrifice at least one of the above and that would not be living my life. I’m not going to put off things just to make something happen.

I don’t want to regret not spending more time with my kids at every age. I already wish I had spent more time with my daughter who was growing up while I still had a corporate job and less flexibility. By the time my boys came along, I had the flexibility and fewer regrets.

In the past year, I’ve made time for things we hadn’t done together as a family. We saw the Harlem Globetrotters. We went to the State Fair. We went to the city’s International Festival. We went to the Texas Tornado hockey game. We went to LegoLand.

What will you make time for? What will you let go? How are you living your best life? How do you feel about blogging regularly or inconsistently?

On a popular weight loss show, a contestant weighing over 500 pounds kept repeating, “I have to lose my dad. I have to lose my dad.” While I’m not in the contestant’s shoes needing to lose almost 300 pounds — the amount his dad weighed — his statement shook me. His body language, his face, his words all revealed he was feeling paralyzed.

Photo from sxc.hu user vivekchugh

This “it’s too big of a goal” thinking can overpower people in all parts of their lives. Many set big goals and objectives thinking of only the result. Then reality hits when they see how much work and time it will take to reach this big goal. Paralysis, delays and procrastination follow until they stop trying and fail to reach their goal.

Make it happen. It can be anything you need to change or do. Lose five pounds. Write 100 words. Work on the project for five minutes.

Change Overwhelming Goals into Doable Ones

A more doable approach is to break the big goal into smaller, more manageable goals. This doesn’t mean ignoring the big goal of losing 200 pounds, earning your first million or serving your 10,000th customer. To turn these big goals into bite-sized goals, set smaller goals of losing 10 pounds for this month, earning extra $100 a week or finding two new customers this week. As soon as you reach this smaller goal, bump it up. Thinking smaller and accomplishing those little steps will give you the satisfaction and motivation to continue.

You can apply this approach to many situations with these steps:

1. Identify what you want to change or accomplish.
2. Create a bite-sized goal that brings you a step closer to what you want to change or accomplish.
3. Reach goal? If yes, go to the next step. If no, go back to step two and try again or modify the goal to something more reachable.
4. Celebrate and up the goal.
5. Repeat steps two through four until you reach your big goal.

Start with Five Minutes

Instead of thinking “I need to write an 800-word article,” start by writing 100 words or writing for five minutes. Continue this process, building your way up to the big goal of the 800-word article. This approach of small steps cuts the chances of your giving up.

This do something for five minutes approach works great for when you’re not in the mood for working on something. Do it for five minutes and see what happens. For email addicts, close your email application for five minutes. Increase the time as you adapt. For web-based email, try using a different browser that you never use when you need to do something on the web. Make it a rule that you can’t open the web-based email application on that browser.

I’ve had a few days when I didn’t check email between first thing in the morning and noon. That’s HUGE for me. It took a while to make it happen, but I started by closing my email app and switching to “Contacts” in Gmail so I’m not staring at the emails waiting for me. I have good days and bad days when it comes to checking emails less often. It’s progress.

I check email obsessively on days when I want to hear from someone. That desire for a little connection is one that changing email habits won’t cure.

I picked up this philosophy from the the short “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way” by Robert Maurer.

How did you make it happen?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

Something about my brain helps me stay organized. I like things to have an assigned spot because I know where to look for them when I need them. A cluttered room turns my brain to mush and weighs me down. I can’t focus in a messy area, so it’s a good thing I have a private home office space where I spend most of my day and kids’ stuff aren’t welcome. (Kids and spouse, however, are always welcome.) My house isn’t cluttered, but it doesn’t take much to make me squirm.

I’m the same way about my computer, its folders, its screen space. My filing system hasn’t changed much from the first time I settled on one.

Desktop

While modern versions of Windows do a better job of using a similar system and helping you save files to the Documents-type folders, some apps continue to post files wherever they like or in its own folders under Application Data. Some web browsers send downloads to the Desktop, which eventually clutters it.

My Desktop currently has two columns of icons and I make sure it stays that way as the Desktop has only frequently used apps that don’t start without my help. For example, I don’t need the anti-virus app on the desktop because it always runs. I also don’t need Adobe Acrobat on the Desktop because I rarely start the program. When I do, accessing it from the Start menu is fine. Usually, I click on a PDF file and that loads Acrobat. I use shortcut keys to run Word, Excel and other frequently accessed apps. Those don’t appear on the Desktop.

Yes, I use all methods for opening apps and files. Start, Desktop, Quick Launch, shortcuts. Everything has its place and I try to avoid having duplicates such as Word on the Desktop, Start and Quick Launch. It appears in none because I use a keyboard shortcut.

Three Rules for Writing Work Documents

1. All content in the Documents folder. This applies to everything, not just writing work. Content includes Word, Excel, backups for money apps, text, web pages, pictures, pdf, smartphone backup files, videos, music, emails, family tree and cookbook files. This makes backing easier when it’s all under one giant folder instead of all over the place. Windows has improved this by creating a Library of My Pictures, My Documents and My Music. Each time I load a new app, I check the options to make sure it saves all data files somewhere in Documents instead of Application Data.
2. Folder for work. All business work goes in the “Freelance” folder.
3. Subfolders in work folder. Each client gets a folder. If a client has clients, I create subfolders for the subclients. For example, I do content work for B2B Company that includes writing emails and landing pages. B2B Company has its own clients. The work I do for B2B Company is mostly for its clients and sometimes B2B Company itself.

Folder System

The folder system looks like this:

Documents

• Freelance
  • B2B Company
    • Marketing Automation Company
    • CMS Company
  • ePublisher Company
    • Computer Hardware Company
    • Health Services Company
    • ePublisher Marketing –> I do content for the client, but I make sure the subfolder has a different name.
  • meryl.net: business-related, blog and guest blogs I do for others
    • Receipts
    • Blog posts
    • meryl.net archived –> When I create archives for old stuff, I give them a unique name as I try to avoid having two folders with identical names. Sounds trivial, but makes a difference especially when searching.
• Emails
• Education: volunteer as I often volunteer for schools and school work – both as a student and educator
• Finance: Quickbook and Money original and backup files.
• Pictures
  • Family
    • Kid 1
      • 2000-2005 (from early to pre-digital camera days when I had fewer digital photos)
      • 2006
      • 2007
      • Repeat for all.
    • Kid 2
    • Kid 3
    • Husband
    • Me
    • Print: I have professional printers print select photos. My photo printer does a nice job, but not to the same quality as professional services. I have family albums (real ones complete with plastic pages) and people look through them all the time. When I download new photos, I put the ones I want to print in this folder for the next time I order prints.
  • Friends
  • Others
• Music
• Textfiles: This is the personal version of “Freelance” folder that contains stuff related to my kids and non-business content.

Some people opt to do it the following way and it works. I had already created my system before this setup came about.

Library

• Documents
  • See above system. It’d fall under here except for pictures, music and videos.
• Pictures
  • See above system for pictures.
• Music
• Videos

I rarely use the search feature to find files. Yes, it takes a few clicks through folders and subfolders to get to the document I need, but I find them quickly. Without those subfolders, I’d be looking at a long list of hundreds of files.

How do you organize your many files?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

In coming home from a long doctor’s appointment, I decided to take the tollway for most of the way to get home faster. I rarely drive on the highway, so you’d think I’d be more alert about the exit. Yep, I missed it. I caught the sign for the exit, but thought I wanted the next one. And, of course, it was further than the usual distance to that exit taking me a bit out of my way.

Photo from sxc.hu user maavi

How did I miss it? I had too much on my mind with paying attention to cars, looking for exit signs and noticing all the construction I hadn’t seen before. I had too many filters in my mind getting in the way of the one filter I needed — the right exit.

A Filter Problem

I use Gmail more than meryl.net email. The meryl.net email has been around for years meaning 100 spam emails come in daily. The email app does a good job of diverting spam into its dump out of the way. Still, spam messages clutter email on the mobile device, which makes it harder to identify good emails. Gmail relies on all of its users in creating effective spam filters, so I rarely see spam in Gmail outside of the spam folder.

Some of my regular email newsletters stop appearing where they should. They ended up in the trash despite having their assigned labels, which should’ve filtered them to the label folder. Gmail, why are you throwing away my good email? I studied the “delete” filters to see if something confused Gmail like my multitasking on the road did to the point that I missed the exit. Having used Gmail since 2004, the list of filter felt like a mile long. (It’s still long after the clean up, but it’s more efficient and updated.)

Fixing Filters for Fitter Filtering

Time to take Gmail filters for spring cleaning. I remove every filter that deleted an email and clear many label filters. The only ones that remain — it’s still a bunch — are the ones most recently created. The nice thing about Gmail’s filters is that appear in the order they were created. So the top ones are old and go bye-bye.

When I unsubscribe to an email newsletter, I also delete the filter. But sometimes I forget. This cleaning helps clear those. I prepare myself for piles of emails showing up in the inbox after the filter wipe out. Anytime an email comes into the inbox, I either unsubscribe or create a new filter. It’s hard to let go of some email newsletters, but I tell myself that a cleaner email account is more important than subscribing to the email newsletter just in case I get around to reading it.

I’m paying attention to my actions when reading emails with several labels (email newsletters, for example). If I delete them every time, then I unsubscribe unless there’s a reason to keep them such as the rare coupon. If an organization sends too many emails, I see if they have another subscription option to get fewer emails or unsubscribe. (I don’t think any organization needs to send an email more than once a week aside from the Groupon types.)

Inbox, Spam and Domains

The only emails coming into the inbox are the quick ones that I read and delete in an instant from looking at the subject lines (Groupon is one). I also try to avoid creating filters with subject lines or @domain.com with no user name. For “@domain.com” filters, I limit those to clients from companies unlikely to have unrelated emails coming from their domain. For instance, if I had a contact at Apple, I wouldn’t create an “@apple.com” filter since it’s plausible I’d receive newsletters and notices from that domain. In this case, a filter with the contact’s complete email address works best.

I also bring back the spam folder. I had done away with it and told Gmail to send all spam to trash. But after the filter clean up, I want to check the spam folder for anything that slips through.

You can apply these steps to any email account with filters.

Results: The two email newsletters that kept landing in the trash stopped going there. I also have fewer emails coming in since I shed some of the email newsletters.

Next: Cutting down on checking email. I’ve been working on this habit all year and have improved a little. But I still check emails too often. The problem is that I need Gmail open most of the time so my husband can reach me through Google chat. I tried the chat window pop out, but it felt awkward. Even with the pop out, Gmail must stay open or else it closes the chat window.

Multitasking has its strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes when the brain or filter has too much going on, it can let something slip through. Choose your multitasking activities wisely. Sometimes it’s more efficient to focus on a single task than to do many. Or in Gmail’s case, clear the filter cobwebs so it can make better choices.

P.S. Instead of checking emails this morning, I wrote this blog post. Now let’s see if I can work for a couple of hours without checking email. (Oh, boy. Help!)

What tips do you have for managing emails more efficiently?

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Meryl Evans

The Problem: Google missed the mark (or rather the company has technical limitations that we don’t know about) on one feature in its mobile Gmail app: You can’t view your Drafts on your mobile device. Yet, if I access Gmail through my mobile’s Internet browser, I can view Drafts. But using the browser to check Gmail on a mobile phone takes more work and time.

I use Drafts as a way to take notes and keep revising or adding on to them. It can be for an article, brainstorming, grocery list, anything goes. While I could email these notes to myself in Gmail and access them on my mobile device, I can’t add on to sent emails unless I reply and that makes a mess.

By the way, I do synchronize “memos” between the Palm Desktop organizer and Gmail. Accessing these memos requires going through Gmail Contacts app, which sometimes hangs when I click “Contacts” in Gmail. That’s because Gmail collects every address and duplicates them. I could turn off this feature, but it has its advantages. Anyway, the Drafts route is more manageable than the Memos route.

Now. I could go find another app for note taking, but haven’t found one that integrates seamlessly with Gmail and Gmail for mobile. Not crazy about the idea of finding and adding another separate app to use everywhere. Maybe you use one. If so, please share the app and your experience. Maybe I’d be willing to try it!

I’ve figured out a way to work with this. It’s not pretty or as efficient as it could be if Gmail for mobile would make Gmail Drafts accessible. But it works.

The Ugly Workaround. Create a Mobile label (aka folder). When I have a draft that I’d like to access on my mobile phone, I copy and paste it into a new email and send it to myself to file it under Mobile. Anytime I need to access the info, I just jump to the Mobile label from my phone. No searching or scanning through hundreds of messages. I keep this label organized with Mobile critical info.

Next time the Draft receives enough updates, I delete the old email in the Mobile folder and replace it with the updated draft.

Like I said, involved — but takes much less work than accessing Gmail through my mobile browser. I bet one of y’all has a better way.

What tips do you have for staying organized between mobile and desktop?

I admit it. Summer break messes with my writing work that I work shorter hours, blog less and write fewer online articles. While I have one kid old enough to fend for herself (driving) and another going to day camp, summer still disrupts my schedule. For one, the day camp doesn’t start until 9am. By that time, I’ve worked at least two hours during the school year.

Between breakfast and the two younger kids talking to each other, it affects the quiet time I love during the school year. Although I’ve adjusted to start my morning with administrative work and social media catching up, how I start my day sets the tone for the rest of the day. Plus, one kid stays home all day and interrupts me at unexpected times.

Here are the rules I’ve set to be as efficient as possible:

1. No TV downstairs. The noise distracts me. Sure, I can turn off my cochlear implant — but that silence differs from room silence. Plus, turning it off prevents me from hearing the door, the dog or hurt children.
2. Make your own lunch. If I am in the kitchen making my lunch and I’m good about eating at the standard lunch hour, I offer to make lunch for the kids. But if they’re hungry before then, they can make their own.
3. Do interrupt when it’s health-related. I want them to know that getting hurt or not feeling well is important and I need to know ASAP — not at the end of the day.
4. Schedule afternoon appointments. I’m most effective in the morning, so I make all non-work appointments in the afternoon — when I have the choice.

The rules work, but I still get a few interruptions daily that aren’t important. But I won’t impose more rules on the kids. So that’s why I limit blogging and social media time in the summer. I use that time to get client work done. (Heh. Just interrupted because son said he can’t remember how to write a couple of cursive letters.)

Whether you have children at home, there may be other times of the year that become more disruptive than the usual. How do you manage during those times of the year?

If you haven’t heard by now, Twitter now has Lists that lets you put Twitter users into groups. It doesn’t matter if you’re following someone or not, you can add anyone into a list or two or three. Here’s an introduction and a how to use Twitter Lists at Web Worker Daily.

Twitter users have their own rules for who they follow and not follow. Some follow those who fall into a specific field, career and whatnot. Guy LeCharles Gonzalez follows those with some connection to publishing. It’s not elitist if someone doesn’t follow you back. They use Twitter in a different way than you and I do. Nothing against you. Really. I promise.

I follow thousands of people. It’s crazy, I know. But my work varies. Know that I do not follow every high quality tweeter who follows me. Some folks just talk about things I’m not interested in. Most of the people I follow fall into one of the following areas:

• Work as writers, editors, publishers and related.
• Tweet about casual games. After all, I run The Game Zen and write for Gamezebo.
• Experts in social media and PR. This area changes daily and I want to keep up.
• Experts in marketing especially business-to-business (B2B). For my work with InternetVIZ.
• Make me laugh. I find lots of gems in Tweets to fill me with energy and smiles.
• Those from the Dallas / Fort Worth area. Gotta stay on top of what’s happening in my neighborhood.
• People who write about things related to disabilities and accessibility. Might find something worth sharing in my CI blog.
• Gadgets, technology and web design. I cover this area often and have met a lot of folks in this field.
• People who discuss general business. This one is broad, but they just don’t fall into any of the above categories.

I know it’s crazy that I have a bit of a list and a huge Twitter stream. Social networking is high on my list of things to do for my business. Writers could manage the people they follow and their lists in the following ways:

• Create a writers list. This will be your water cooler, support system and colleagues in the same boat.
• Create separate lists for editors, publishers, agents and gigs. I lump all of these into one because I have broader interest. Or you can make one list. It depends on your needs. If writers and these folks are the type of people you follow and nothing else — then use lists to narrow them down further.
• Create a favorite people and clients list. Yes, you can make it private if you prefer not to share. This way you don’t miss a single tweet. This would most likely be a short list.
• Follow other people’s lists. Why start from scratch? We’re not the only ones creating lists, so we can follow other people’s lists. I follow Simon Mackie‘s list of Web Worker Daily writers.
• Create an experts on X topic list. What’s your beat? Football? Finance? Fashion? Make a list for your frequently covered topics for instant access when you’re working on an article. No more trying to remember the people you read for the topic.
• Create a list for learning. Plenty of Twitter IDs focus on tweeting writing, grammar and other tips.
• Create a list for current events, conferences and projects. Hey, there’s lots happening on Twitter right now due to NaNoWriMo.

To see my lists, go to @merylkevans and look in the right sidebar. Click the list to see who appears in it. You can also “Follow the list,” which adds my list to yours so you won’t have to manage it. Just remember, you can’t edit other people’s lists.

Here’s a closed-captioned screencast on how to create lists.

Some developers behind applications that make it easier to manage your Twitter business are already working on adding the list feature. I look forward to seeing what they do.

I love these lists especially since I’m a freak when it comes to organization. Of course, you can find me @merylkevans; hope I make the good list!

You might like to read more Twitter articles.

How do you use the list feature?

Inspired by the foolishness and mayhem we see on Clean House, my husband and I spent much of the past weekend cleaning house. We cleaned out the kids’ closets and dressers — removing outgrown clothes, those they don’t want anymore and shoes without a partner (yep, my daughter had several of these). Then, I tackled the game room (oh, man… especially when you have hundreds of Hot Wheels, Pokemon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Bakugan between two boys).

Dumping Stored Magazines

I remembered I kept every issue of every magazine my writing work appeared in. I also found Writer’s Digest Magazine as far back as from 2000.

I threw away all of the old Writer’s Digest (I still read the magazine, just no reason to keep old ones in storage) and kept only a few of the magazines where I had a feature — not just a column. I probably dumped two-thirds of the magazines in my storage box.

Reading Magazines

I love to read magazines. They take 10 to 30 minutes per issue (except for Reader’s Digest). Rather than keeping the issues with inspiring articles, I trash them as soon as I finish. HOWEVER… I cut out…

1. Anything I want to look up… an author, a book, a web site.
2. Anything I want to do later such as “Word Power” from Reader’s Digest, which sharpens my vocabulary.
3. Anything I want to try later… a tip, a recipe, etc.

Instead of having thick piles of entire issues, I have thin piles of ripped pages. Those that take little time, I put on my office desk so I can handle them when I am back in the office. I review the rest of the pile on a monthly basis, or around there.

Like handling the mail, read your magazine and toss while holding on to anything you want to look up or follow up on. If you keep it, count on never seeing it again until you decide to clean house as those over five-year-old issues showed.

Writing for a Magazine

I have a couple of issues of magazines I’d like to query. I study the magazine before I pitch the editor. But rather than having a dozen issues, I hold on to the last couple of issues. When a new one comes in, the oldest one goes out. I think five issues is more than enough.

Set a limit on the number of issues you’ll keep, and then just throw out the oldest one when the new one arrives.

Managing Subscriptions

I don’t subscribe to as many magazine as I have in the past especially with the books I need to read. I have a couple subscriptions I pay for and a couple I receive free. But mind you, I don’t subscribe to every magazine I can get free. The topic still matters and I don’t want to receive something for the sake of free-ness.

Aside from TV Guide Magazine, no more weekly magazines for me. That’s too much.

How do you manage your magazines? Or have you given them up?