When I was in my 20’s, life was less cluttered in a lot of ways. Our house hadn’t yet accumulated an abundance of stuff/junk. Our life revolved around church, family, and work as the kids weren’t in school yet. I think we only had four channels on TV, maybe 20 or 30 movies on tape, about that number of CD’s and cassettes, and dial-up internet. Looking back, life without clutter was pretty sweet.
As time went on, clutter accumulated. I remember reading Greg McKeown’s Essentialism. A fantastic book but, for me, not practical enough to be life changing. Later I read Marie Kondo’s Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Wow! This was all practical. I read that book probably three times and then committed to following her process. What a change! Even now, I often think “if it’s not bringing me joy, it’s time to get rid of it.” That obviously applies to your possessions, but it also applies to your activities and habits…and even to QuickBooks.
In the video, I show you how to de-clutter your QuickBooks Online menu. I learned this from Harvest Community Church. Here’s some questions I ask myself when making decisions on organizing and decluttering my menus:
- More than Two Clicks? When I’m doing my regular work, and it takes me more than two clicks to get to the screen I need a Bookmark. That way I’m down to just one click.
- Is this a Someday Thing? In Marie’s book, she talks about books we plan to read someday. Guess what…someday is not one of the seven days of the week and therefore will never come. If I’m keeping a menu item because someday I will do something with Projects or someday I will need to track Time, just hide it for now until that day comes.
- Where do I always go? If you have a regular routine in QuickBooks Online, which I’m sure you do, sort your Menu and Bookmarks according to that routine. It almost becomes a checklist then.
- Where do I always get lost? There’s usually a couple of screens that you forget how to get there. For me, it used to be the Chart of Accounts. I would hunt around for it. Once I found it, I would think, “I’ll never forget where that is.” And then I promptly forgot. When you get lost, as soon as you find what you’re looking for, see if you can Bookmark it.
Useful Links
- Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing/dp/1607747308
- Harvest Community Church: http://www.harvestmitchell.org/