Quick Tip: Create a Bacn Folder

By Jon:

How many emails do you get in a day? If you're like me, too many (but not as many as in the above photo -- sheesh!!). I've been trying to filter down my emails into something actionable, necessary and important, rather than a cacophony of noise. My most recent and most interesting filter has been to create a Bacn folder.

What is Bacn? Bacn is similar to Spam, except that you the user signed up to receive the messages. This can include social networking messages, blog/messageboard comments, and more. I find myself distracted throughout the day when these messages arrive, and rather than move to my next work-related email, I login to my Facebook to see what strange app I've been invited to partake in.

To remedy this distraction, simply make a new folder in your email app of choice and create a series of rules to route all social network site communication to this folder. It's as easy as that.

As it's been said, Bacn is "email you want but not right now." As is true with most things in life, with these messages out of sight, they're out of mind. I've set a GTD reminder to review my Bacn folder on a regular but infrequent basis; as such, these non-urgent messages can wait and don't stand in my way.

Quick Tip: Fluorescent Lighting Is Terrible

By Jon:

I don't know about you, but I seem to have been getting a lot of horrible headaches lately. I took a step back a few weeks ago and tried to identify their cause. I didn't get them on the weekends and they weren't tied to caffeine use, so I was able to narrow it down to my workweek. I took a look around my workstation and realized one simple fact:

I had fluorescent lights beaming down on me from all sides.

Our whole office uses fluorescents because they're cheaper and last longer. Even my desk lamp was a FL! I emailed our facilities team and asked them if there was any way to kill the lights above my head. A short email and 24 hours later and two massive lights above me were turned off. That was weeks ago and I've felt better since day one.

Sometimes all it takes is a simple email and your facilities/maintenance team can do a lot for you. Since then, I've gotten a wireless mouse, a wireless ergonomic keyboard, a new lamp and I'm working on having a section of my cubicle desk removed to increase the size of my available office space. The sky's pretty much the limit, considering all this is available elsewhere in our building and it's not costing anything to our bottom line. Send some emails and see what you can get out of it.