I didn't spend much time at my desk yesterday, so today I had to:
1. Backup my old Outlook .pst (coming in at just under 400mb)
2. Start a brand new Outlook file
3. Backup all my time sheet information (I use a special program for this)
4. Re-work my time sheet configuration for the New Year (get rid of projects, consolidate others)

For Outlook, I decided to flatten my folder hierarchy.  Typically, I have folders nested at least 4 or 5 deep, but this year, I've decided to try a single level (under Inbox):

Inbox
    @Action
    @Projects
    @Waiting For
    Distribution Lists and Newsletters
    Friends
    Reference

You may recognize the first 3 folders if you've studied any of David Allen's “Getting Things Done” methodology.  Because this is sooo different, I create a bunch of categories I can use to help with displaying of the data.  I'm also running Lookout which I think will really help me with this new structure.

My categories are something like this:
Personal.General
Personal.Friends
Personal.Business
Consulting.General
Consulting.<Client>.General
Consulting.<Client>.<Project>
Consulting.<Client>.<Project>

So, when at item comes in, I'll follow the GTD process:
Is it actionable?  If yes, I'll assign it a category and then either “do it”, “delegate it” or “defer it”.  If it's not actionable, I'll either delete it or put it in my references folder.  I'll most likely assign these items a category as well, but I haven't really decided yet.

I have absolutely no idea if this new system will work, but I felt that my old system was getting out of hand.  For example, I had something like this:
Projects
    <Client>
        <Project1>
            <contact>
            <contact>

and so on.

It'll be nice to get a clean start with Outlook.  I always have Outlook running and with the 350-400mb pst file, it was getting a bit slow.

I still need to finish some end-of-year accounting stuff, but I have a bit of time left to do that.

I really wanted to re-roll my laptop this weekend, but I'm just about out of time.  I have some client “stuff” that needs to get done and I have a book review to write for “The Independent”, a newsletter put out by the ICCA.