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Entries Tagged 'Goals & Time Management' ↓
Have you ever heard of Parkinson’s Law? To summarize, Parkinson’s Law says we will use the amount of time we are given (or give ourselves) to complete a given task. Have you ever been without a specific deadline on a project and dawdled around? Have you ever felt like you are more productive when you actually have more to do and put your nose to the grindstone? I know I have done both. It seems like if I have office time without clear goals and deadlines, I can twitter away (literally) way too much time and still feel like I didn’t get all that much done. Then there are other days when I know I need to work quickly before a meting, a client or to have a free weekend and I just knock shtuff out left & right.
A great tool I have recently discovered to light a fire under my arse is a free tool-yeah for free tools! E.ggtimer.com provides a free online timer, just set the time, get to work and be sure to beat the clock! Only want to spend 10 minutes on twitter? Set the clock. Want to check your email in 30 minute batches? Set the clock.
It’s amazing how something so simple can make a difference. But isn’t it great that it doesn’t have to be complicated? Simple is smart!
Tags: DIY organization, email, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Parkinson's Law, productivity, time management, twitter
You’re probably asking, “Extra time, what’s that?” I know, I know, you may have to draw deep into fantasyland here to grasp this one, just let yourself indulge for a moment.
Well, today I urge you to write a short list of a few things you would like to do with extra time. Now don’t overwhelm yourself with some giant list that goes back to finishing the baby books. Maybe it’s sleep, maybe it’s going for walks, maybe it’s reading a book or taking a bubble bath OR reading in a bubble bath-gasp!
The reason that I want you to think about it and write it down, is because sometimes we don’t really know what we would do with ourselves. And when we don’t know what we would do, then we just keep doing what we’ve been doing: twitter, facebook, email, mindless tasks, procrastinating, making tasks take longer than they should.
But if you know how you would rather spend your time, this can give you the motivation you need to become more efficient, get out of your rut and maybe even start delegating some things so you can have time for the things that you want to do!
So take the time today to think about what you’d like to do tomorrow and start structuring your days and your time to make that happen! The things I would like to do with my time are: more reading, more exercising, more time with my kids & boyfriend and more fun!
Tags: balance, DIY organization, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, time management
I just finished reading a really awesome book (that my business partner actually helped write!), called “Dotcom” Secrets by Russell Brunson & Matt D. Murren. It’s a book directed at business owners but it includes good goal-setting advice that can apply to any area of our business, homes or lives that we may be changing.
One of the authors had an opportunity to listen to Tony Robbins speak about the difference between tactics and strategy. I found it interesting to read about goal setting presented in a little different way so I want to showcase the concept today.
Tactics
Tactics are the tasks that you do every day, the little tasks.
Strategy
When you employ a strategy, you take a step back to take a look at the big picture. You ask yourself, “What strategies can I implement to make my tactics (the small tasks) more successful? Even better, you outsource or delegate the small tasks to someone else if you can.
So how can you use strategies and tactics to get organized?
Let’s use getting the kitchen organized as our example for today.
Strategy or Big Picture:
- Create an organized and efficient kitchen.
- Clear counters for food preparation.
- Maintain and restore order quickly.
Tactics:
- Hire a professional organizer or work with an organized friend to declutter the kitchen.
- Let go of excess belongings from counters, drawers, cupboards and pantry.
- Place items of the same type together in organizing bins, baskets or holders.
- Label the “homes” for kitchen items so everyone in the family will know where things go.
- Make sure everyone in the house knows where things go.
- Assign family members duties like cleaning out the dishwasher to help keep the kitchen clean and running smoothly.
- Hire a housekeeping service if needed to maintain the kitchen and/or occasional deep cleaning sessions.
This is just another way to think about goals and creating smaller steps that break down the process and make it easier to accomplish your goals, organizing or other!
Tags: "DotCom" Secrets: How to Get 100 New Customers in 100 Days Online, DIY organization, get organized, goal-setting, goals & time management, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Kitchen Organizing, Matt D. Murren, organizing, Russell Brunson, Tony Robbins
Can women be crazy-busy and still get a pedicure too? YES! ! I know it can be a real challenge to get everything done each day: work, make dinner, wash clothes, make the bed and yet we’re still supposed to get some “me” time in? How do we exercise, get a cute haircut and keep our toes flip flop-worthy?? Today I’ll share 4 ways that you can do what you gotta do, plus some pampering too:
Me Time Tip #1: Make a list of the things that you would love to be able to do for yourself so it’s very clear.
Haircut: Only need to do that about once every other month. Pedicure: Can probably get away with once a month. Acrylic Nails: That’s going to be about an every 2 week commitment. Exercise: Several days a week or maybe even every day. Read a Book: Possibly every night which could mean curbing a TV habit to encourage a book habit.
Knowing what’s important to you and how long each activity will take will help you plan your time.
Me Time Tip #2: Make a list of things you can let go to create more time for you.
So, let’s say it’s time for a haircut and you work full-time so the only time for a haircut is after work. Well, that’s a great night to get take out, have hubby cook, use the crock pot or have left-overs so you can take 30 minutes at the salon and knock off 30 minutes in the kitchen. Does the bed really have to be made? Can you blow off cleaning the kitchen for one night and do double duty in the kitchen the next day? Do you really have to drive to the grocery store for shopping or can you sit at your computer while dinner cooks and order from a delivery service?
Start thinking about what you can let go or substitute, at least on the days that you want to do something nice for yourself.
Me Time Tip #3: Delegate, then celebrate yourself.
There must be a few tasks that you do that someone else can do just as well or at least good enough (you may have to lower your standards a little). I know it’s really easy for us to take on everything ourselves, often thinking it’s just faster to do it ourselves, but it still takes our time. It’s OK to have kids fold laundry or clean out the dishwasher and it’s OK for husbands to run some errands. Don’t be afraid to take some tasks off your plate. If you have the budget for it, hire help and don’t feel guilty about it! I wrote a post on just this topic, so I’ll include the link here. When I was a teenager, my neighbor hired me to clean her house and babysit, so it can be done on a budget too!
Me Time Tip #4: Kick guilt to the curb.
Repeat after me: “I will not feel guilty for taking time for myself and I will not feel guilty for taking care of myself.” If you don’t do it who will? If you get burned out and fall apart, everyone’s going to have to step up and help anyway, so you might as well take the time and get a little bit of help and take care of yourself now. Consider it preventative maintenance.
For more tips on maintaining life balance when you don’t have enough hours in the day, please read more here!
Tags: balance, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, How You Can Make Time for a Pedi (and other girly stuff), tips on maintaining life balance when you don't have enough hours in the day, Women
Meetings, meetings, meetings-board meetings, PTA meetings, meetings at work, coffee meetings… Got something to say, why, surely call a meeting. Or not. Sometimes you really can get away with another form of communication that is much faster such as email or a phone call to a targeted person. But there are definitely times a face-to-face is beneficial and so we call a meeting. If a meeting must happen, then follow these 3 tips to organize terrific meetings:
Meeting Tip #1: Make sure you have everything you need to make your meeting run smoothly. Do you have an agenda? Do you have key decision makers present? Do you have notes, supplies, statistics & examples ready? Do you have all of the information that you need at your disposal to make quick decisions?
Meeting Tip #2: Make sure conducting a meeting is an activity that is in the best interest of your group or company. Meetings take time and time is money honey. Is this meeting a critical activity that will help you reach your goals, increase your bottom line and improve your financial picture?
Meeting Tip #3: Make sure everyone leaves the meeting with a clear action plan. First know what your goals are when you start the meeting. By the end of the meeting, make sure everyone knows how the goals will be met and who is going to meet them and how. Make sure everyone walks away with a game plan, make sure they know what tasks they are responsible for with due dates and an accountability plan. By the next meeting, everyone should be able to report where they are in the process clearly.
For 5 tips to Organize Effective Meetings, please read my previous post. I’d love to hear your meeting successes as well!
Tags: DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, meetings, office organization and productivity, organize
Meetings are often a necessary evil in my book. How many times have you had to put your work aside, when you were super busy, to attend a meeting that just ran on and on? Your work is still sitting there waiting for you as you look at the clock knowing how much this is putting you behind. But meetings happen and meetings are gonna continue to happen so we need to look at ways to keep them from being a time suck.
Whether you are running a PTA meeting or a board meeting, follow these 5 Effective Ways to Run a Productive Meeting:
Meeting Tip #1: Look for an excuse not to have a meeting. Ask yourself if scheduling a meeting is truly necessary. Can you accomplish what you need to accomplish through speaking one-on-one, a phone call or an email? If you truly must have a meeting, then follow the next 4 tips.
Meeting Tip #2: Make sure your key people will be attending. If there are key decision makers or players that won’t be available to attend, you won’t have an effective meeting. Chances are there will be questions that will go unanswered and you will have to deal with them again at a later time. Make it an effective meeting by waiting until all, or at least most, of your key players will be available.
Meeting Tip #3: Stick to the key players. Don’t invite people to the meeting that really don’t need to be there, time is money and if you have people sitting in an unnecessary meeting, then you are wasting time & money. Stick with the people who have the information and knowledge to contribute and make decisions at your meeting. Everyone else can be informed of the decisions that were made through an update or an email.
Meeting Tip #4: Stick to an agenda. Make sure you think about and communicate what must be covered in the meeting and have it in black & white to help everyone stay on track. There’s nothing worse than sitting there wondering where things are going in a meeting as the time clicks by and your work stands still.
Meeting Tip #5: Be cognizant of staying on time. What’s worse than a meeting? A meeting that goes into overtime. One of the best meeting leaders I’ve come across would say, “Lets get through this and if we finish up early, people can stay to chat after.” He kept our meetings on track and we would finish early. When you are on a board or involved in a group, often times people do know each other and want to chit chat and this was a great way to acknowledge that.
Follow these 5 tips to help keep your meetings on track today!
Tags: 5 effective ways to run a meeting, DIY organization, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, meeting tip, meetings, office organization and productivity, time suck
I’d say the #1 thing I help clients with is paperwork & file systems. Paper can be overwhelming and when you don’t have a flow for your paper, it usually backs up into piles and those piles = stress. Something that you don’t want to lose in paper piles:
#1 Money that you owe by the way of bills. Paying bills late will cost you even more money.
#2 Money that is owed to you. Professional organizers find money all the time-cash, uncashed checks and gift cards. Something else I have recently started coming across with clients that they don’t know what to do with: Groupons. You don’t want your Groupon to slip through the cracks and miss out on a fun event or meal because it expired.
Well, recently I came across this awesome site to help you organize your bill payments AND Groupons-yeah! Welcome to manilla.com.
Just a few of the things Manilla offers:
- Alerts when bills are almost due or reward points are about to expire.
- Just one log in to get to all of your accounts means just one password.
- Manilla files & stores you account documents.
- Just a sample of accounts they handle: Cell, cable, utilities, credit cards, Groupons, Living Social & Netflix.
- It’s FREE! Companies pay a lot of money to send you your bill, instead they pay Manilla which can save them money and it makes it free to you!
If paper piles and due dates are causing stress in your life, give this service a shot and eliminate some stress-who needs more stress anyway?!
Tags: DIY organization, Groupons, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Living Social, Manilla, manilla.com
How can I volunteer my time? Let me count the ways… As a busy woman, I’m sure you’ve had plenty of opportunities and requests that have come your way to volunteer your time. And once you’ve proven yourself to be a trustworthy volunteer, the requests will keep on a comin’. Requests may come in the form of any one of these worthy volunteer activities or a slew of many others not listed here:
1) Girl scouts
2) PTA
3) Room Mom in the classroom
4) Classroom party planner
5) Carpool duties
6) Church programs
7) Board position for an association that you belong to
Neighborhood block party planner
9) Art docent
10) Teacher’s helper
11) Field trip chaperone
12) Community needs such as food drives, school supply drives, food bank, homeless shelter, animal shelter, etc., etc.
There’s no possible way I could list all potential opportunities here, but as I’m sure you already know, the needs and options abound! But just like any other activities in our lives, we have to stand up and protect our life balance. I’m all for helping others as this is something near and dear to my heart, but I do believe we need to make sure that we aren’t spreading ourselves so thin that it causes stress for ourselves, makes us lose sleep or disrupts the balance in our homes with our own families.
To ensure that you can be of valuable help but not cross the line by stretching yourself too thin, please follow these tips:
1) Make sure that you understand how much of a commitment you are making before you say yes. It’s common for a position or activity to start out sounding like just a little thing, only to jump in and learn there are a lot of meetings and a lot more work than you planned for.
2) Consider removing another activity or position from your plate before taking on a new one. Just like stuff in our homes, there’s only so much room just as there’s only so much room in our schedules. If we keep taking on more, something else gets pushed out like sleep, eating healthy, time to clean your house or your sanity.
3) Make sure that you only say yes to activities that you are truly passionate about and are near and dear to your heart so it’s a joy to volunteer and not a drag.
4) Make sure you have the skills for the position or that you have the time and energy to learn something new.
If requests come your way that aren’t a good fit for you, here are 10 ways to say no gracefully to save face and manage your time and life balance.
Tags: Balance-Family, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, Self, time management, volunteering, Women, work
What’s on your New Year’s Resolution list this year? To lose weight? To take up a hobby? To get organized perhaps… I know someone who can help you with that 
.
This year getting back in shape and losing weight it on my list, which is unfortunate because in years past I was thankful that I didn’t have to add this one. But, it is what it is, 12 Reese’s Peanut Butter Holiday Trees later, dang they were good though. I can’t blame it all on the ‘trees’ though, there were many brownies and chocolates leading up to those oh so yummy trees.
It’s all good when you start off the new year ready to roll and ready for a fresh start and positive changes. You’re pumped up, you’re motivated, you’re ready! But what about a few weeks down the road? How do you keep your commitment and see those resolutions all the way through? Well, here are two super awesome websites to help you stay on track and reach those goals as you put down the peanut butter cups.
Habitforge.com: Habit forge will help you with the 21 day process of creating new habits.
You can use this site to tackle your new habits solo or you can get on board with a group that is working on a similar goal to yours. Habit Forge will send you a daily email to check in with you. The steps involved with this site are as simple as 1-2-3:
1) Decide & Act
2) Check your email
3) Succeed in 21 days
Woohooo!
Stickk.com: Stickk will help you reach your goals with awesome accountability-accountability is key for me when I’m working on my own goals!
1) Choose your goal either through the drop down menu of goals or create a custom goal.
2) Choose your stakes-oh snap! You don’t have to, this is optional, but you can choose an amount of money to place on your credit card if you don’t meet your goals each week. This money will go to the person or organization of your choice.
3) Choose a referee to monitor your progress-again, optional.
4) Choose support from other members of the Stickk community.
If you’re finding that you need a boost to kick the Reese’s habit and reach your goals (ok, maybe it’s just me with a Reese’s ‘problem’), then take advantage of these free sites to keep you motivated and reaching your goals! For more tips on reaching your goals, please read more here and I’d love to hear what your own goals are. To your success!
Tags: changes, DIY organization, get organized, goals, habitforge.com, habits, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, New Year's Resolutions, Reese's, stickk.com, tips on reaching your goals
Today we’ll explore time management tip #2 to enjoy the holidays stress-free.
Time Management Tip for the Holidays #2: Save stress and save time in the kitchen this year.
1) Plan your menu for holiday dinner now and make your grocery shopping list.
2) Ask guests to bring items so you don’t have to cook everything yourself.
3) Take shortcuts. It’s OK to buy your pumpkin pie instead of baking it yourself if you want to this year. It’s OK to decorate pre-made cookies. It’s OK to have a potluck and let everyone pitch in. A potluck will save you both time and money since it means less groceries to buy!
4) Look for store specials and coupons before you shop.
5) Shop as far ahead as you can.
6) Go to the grocery store on off-peak hours if you can so you miss the crowds and the long lines.
7) Use a grocery delivery service and not even have to leave the house!
Plan ahead and keep it simple this year! For more holiday organizing tips when you’re the hostess, please read more here.
I’d love to hear your own time saving tips in the comment section too!
Tags: DIY organization, grocery store, holiday organizing tips, home, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, hostess
