Smart Marketing Tips from Get Busy Media: Eight Resources to Declutter and Organize

I have been on a minimalist jag lately. Since reading Tim Ferriss’s two books and reading a host of other minimalist blogs in the last year and a half, I have become a proponent and advocate for minimalist living.

Guys like Derek Sivers, Tim Ferriss, and Steve Jobs have convinced me that keeping up with the Joneses is not sustainable and more importantly, not the key to happiness. Staying organized by eliminating clutter and wasted energy have become my goals for 2012.

I’m taking a page out of each of their books and offering you eight tips, methods, and resources to declutter your life and become better organized for a more productive and more efficient 2012. Wait, I forgot to mention: all eight of these resources are free. That’s right; they won’t cost you a dime.

Google Reader

I am stone ages behind on this one and just recently set mine up.

Google Reader, for those who are unaware, is one of a number of tools in Google’s suite of offerings that allows you to aggregate websites you follow. Users can subscribe to feeds using either Google Reader’s search function, or by entering in the exact URL of the RSS or Atom Feed.

In short, having one central repository for all your blogs, e-newsletters, news, and sports is a huge timesaver and a huge boon for your inbox. This is the No. 1 step you should take to give your inbox a break and funnel all of your favorite websites’ information through Google Reader.

RescueTime

RescueTime is a resource I picked up from Tim Ferriss in “The Four-Hour Workweek.” This simple resource does exactly as you would expect.

RescueTime helps you understand where you spend your time and gives you the tools to spend it more productively. The minute and a half video on the homepage succinctly states why you should be using RescueTime.

Evernote

One of my co-workers also recently brought up Evernote and said this tool has become a sensation in Japan.

Last week, I resolved to take a deeper dive into this tool once and for all. Evernote positions itself as “your personal digital assistant.” Users are able to create notes, clip Web pages, store PDFs, and snap photos and have access to this anywhere you go, on any device you own. Their goal is to be “the go-to application for stress-free notes and content archiving for you and your business.”

Dropbox

Tired of sending updated versions of your PowerPoint presentation between your work and home computer? Do you also need to loop in your IT guy and assistant to make sure they are up to speed on the most up-to-date deck? Dropbox is the perfect solution to your problem.

Dropbox is a cloud-based sharing service that allows you to bring your photos, docs, and videos with you anywhere you go. I love the Dropbox desktop shortcut for the ease of dragging and dropping files into my Get Busy Media folder.

Within this folder, I have granted access to the other five members of our team, thus creating our own secure file on the cloud that we can access anywhere we have an Internet connection. Users can also access their Dropbox folders via their Androids, iPhones, Blackberrys, and iPads.

Digsby

I must admit that I am still playing around with this application and have yet to activate it for myself.

This platform is certainly on my 2012 To-Do list! Digsby exists to save users time and empower them to be more efficient. This platform helps users save time by enabling them to manage all their IM, email, and social network accounts from one platform. For more information on this platform, watch its live demo.

MailChimp

Are you an avid blogger, publisher, or writer who spends hours a week sending emails of your work to a number of different parties?

MailChimp is a free email marketing service that automates this process for you and does so in a much more visually appealing fashion. According to MailChimp, this platform “makes it easy to design exceptional email campaigns, share them on social networks, integrate with web services you already use, manage subscribers and track your results.” Think of MailChimp as your own personal newsletter-publishing platform.

Gmail Priority Inbox

Within Gmail, you can adjust how your mail appears in your inbox. You have the ability to organize your mail by the following criteria:

- Important first

- Unread messages first

- Starred messages first

- Priority Inbox

With Priority Inbox you are able to determine which messages you want to appear at the top of your inbox. This could be any combination of the above: important, unread, and/or starred. I prefer the classic view but am starting to warm to the idea of using the priority inbox feature.

Unplug the TV

You will be amazed at what you can accomplish when your TV is unplugged and stowed away. The temptation to watch “one more show” is no longer as easy as picking up the remote.

Without a television, time you would have spent passively engaging with a television program is now presumably allocated to other more productive activities. Although I have yet to unplug mine, I have yet to sit and watch a full movie or TV show since September.

We hope you find these resources useful and applicable to your day-to-day life. Any feedback you

have on any one of the above products or methods would be greatly appreciated.

Get Busy Media is a blog and resource center that helps small businesses and entrepreneurs build smarter companies. For more information on how to jump-start your small business marketing, please visit www.getbusymedia.com or connect with us on Twitter, @GetBusyMedia.