Entries Tagged 'Goals & Time Management' ↓

Delegation can go a long way toward home organization.  Sometimes it is difficult to let go of being the one to get it all done.  Sometimes it is hard to believe that anyone else will do the tasks or chores as well as we do.  You might worry that something will get messed up, forgotten or simply not look at nice as when you do it yourself.   Or that it is just faster to do it yourself. 

Sometimes though, delegating duties will bring nice suprises.  It can be surprising to learn that your kids may see something in a different light or have different ideas on how to do something that are even better than your ideas!   When it comes to delegating duties to kids, in the big picture, you are teaching them life skills to help them toward  their own independence. 

So here we are at summer vacation and I have to balance business, kids, house, chores, etc.  My kids are old enough to actually do some work for me this year which is pretty exciting.  It’s also a little unnerving for a professional organizer who likes things done a certain way.  My oldest recently cleaned out my twitter account to balance followers vs. following.  She had a clever way of making notations on some accounts that I never would have thought of.  Plus, the two hours she took to do it, opened up two hours of more productive work for me.  Work that no one could do for me.

My youngest worked on Household Hub Notebooks and she pointed out a clever trick while she was working as well.  So, just because I’m mom, I guess I really don’t know everything-who knew?  So, don’t be afraid to get help to help you stay organized and get tasks done!

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What a handy little gadget the Time Timer is to help you organize your time!   The next time you need to make sure time doesn’t get away from you, pull out your Time Timer and make sure you are in control; be the boss!  The great feature is the red shading that allows you to see and follow the passage of time.  This can be a very handy tool for children as well.  I had just a regular dial timer when my kids were small and I know how handy even that was for clean up time and many other tasks. 

It can be easy to get sucked into a task like email and before you know it, a 10 minute task turns into a 40 minute task.  That’s not good when you have a deadline to meet or a lot to get done in your day.  Here are some handy ways you can use a timer to keep you on track:

• To set an allotted time for surfing the web
• To set an allotted time for spending  time on social media
• To break down tasks into smaller chunks
• To allow yourself not to feel overwhelmed by a task-you can set the timer and do ‘anything’ for just 15 minutes!
• To give yourself 10 minutes of clean up/put away time at the end of a task or the end of the day
• To keep yourself from wasting time-beat the clock!

You can also purchase software to load onto your computer if you would rather have a Time Timer working on your screen while you are spending time on your computer.  It’s so easy to spend more time than we mean to on the computer.  A great tool to remind kids when their screen time is up as well.

Organize your time and strive to be more productive each day! 

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Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Biznik, Twitter-Oh My!  These, aren’t even a fraction of the options that we have to choose from when it comes to social media.  And with social media comes the expenditure of your time, energy and efforts.  Which means you must organize your social media time and find a balance in how to use these sites as effective tools that don’t leave you sucked into the social media vortex. 

Here are some tips on how to organize your social media time:

• Know why you are using social media sites-have a plan to make them effective for your business and use them as a tool
• Have a schedule for using these tools; don’t be random, create a time for it during your day
• Stick to the sites that work for you and your particular business.  If a site is producing zero results-let it go
• Use scheduling tools:  try hootsuite to schedule tweets on Twitter well in advance.  You can input lots of tweets at one time, they will go out according to your set schedule and you don’t have to keep logging on to produce more tweets
• Don’t get sucked in, know why you are logging on and how long you want to be there.  Set a timer, such as 10 minutes on facebook.  It is so easy to start looking around, reading, responding and getting lost in cyberspace which can be a lot more fun that actual work sometimes.   

We are so fortunate to have such powerful and amazing tools that bring the globe together and expose us to such a wide audience.  Organize your social media time and make the most of it!

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What a handy little tool my BlackBerry has been to help me organize my office tasks recently!  Do I mean I’ve used it to process emails?  No.  Do I mean I’ve used to to keep track of my schedule while on the go?  Nope.  Does it mean I’ve used it to sync my schedule with Outlook?  Nada.  I’ve simply used the alarm to help me put a cap on how long I am focusing on separate tasks-super simple!

Recently my interior design partner put a status on facebook that she had set a timer for 30 minutes while working in her office and just how much she got done during that 30 minutes.  It can be easy to get caught up and lost in our tasks, especially on email and social media.  Once you get sucked in, you can kinda get lost for a while.  So, instead of feeling like I have to do any one task in my office for long periods of time, I am setting my alarm on my phone, actually for just 15 minute increments.  It really is amazing how much you can get done in one focused 15 minute session.  At first I had the alarm tone that I use to wake me up each day, which of course needs to be somewhat annoying.  That doesn’t work when you are in the middle of concentrating unless you want to give yourself mini heart attacks all day.  So I changed it to a soothing tone to shake me ever more gently out of my current task.  And  it seems to be working. 

Organize your office tasks by breaking tasks into smaller chunks of dedicated time.

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This past Saturday I gave a talk in my local area about Goals and Time Management.  Some of us that were there currently do a lot of our business work from home and realize how important it is to be organized with workflow.  So we talked a little bit about how easy it can be to get distracted by other tasks such as housework or even by time consumers like facebook since it can be so much fun-facebook, not the housework!  So I shared with everyone a picture that I had recently about how I should prioritize my office work.   Knowing just how easy it is to get caught up doing all the little stuff, like making phone calls, checking facebook, cranking out emails, while the more important and longer tasks may take a back seat.

So the picture I had in my head was a triangle.  With the tipy top being where I should start by concentrating on the most important/critical task.  A critical task could be a project with a deadline, a task I need to complete that affects someone else getting their work done, a task that affects my bottom line or maybe even just a task that I am putting off or procrastinating on.  It happens.

Then coming down from the triangle as it gets wider, would be a flow of all the other smaller, less critical tasks.  That’s where the phone calls, texts, facebook updates can fall into place.  It’s easy to knock out the little stuff, but are those tasks really getting you closer to your goals?  Organize you workflow priorities and see things get done!

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Have you ever heard of SMART  Goals?  I recently read an article about SMART goals and I thought,  ”Now that is a great way to get organized with a concrete plan!”  So here’s an overview and I will use an organizing goal, but of course!

S:  Specific  Be specific about what you are setting out to do.  Don’t say, “I’ll get the house organized.”  Say, “I will organize four drawers in the kitchen.”  Choose the four drawers you are going to work on.

M:  Measurable  Make sure you can measure your progress.  Write down which drawer you want to organize each week and check it off when it’s been done. 

A:  Attainable   Make sure you can take certain steps to get to your goal.  This can mean planning which day you are going to organize the drawer that week and mark it off on your calendar so you have time set aside.  It’s not going to happen by chance.  You are making a plan to make it happen.

R:  Realistic  Make sure your goal is do-able.  Saying you are going to declutter and organize a huge kitchen in two hours after you have worked all day and you’re tired is not do-able.  Saying you will declutter and organize one drawer every Saturday after breakfast for 30 minutes is do-able.

T:  Timely  You should be able to reach your goals in a certain amount of time.  Set a date that you want to reach your goals and place it on the calendar.  If you are breaking goals up into steps, put each step on the calendar. 

You can organize your goals to get organized-now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

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Well, it’s heading to the end of January.  It’s been a few weeks since we were all feeling in the holiday spirit and feeling optimistic goals and a fresh, new year right around the corner.  Well, how are you doing so far?  Have you met one of your goals or are you making progress toward meeting one of your goals yet? It’s easy to ramp up those plans over a good glass of champagne.  Then comes along the normal day-to-day activities, the deadlines, the requests on your time, getting dinner on the table and just wanting to veg out on the couch at the end of the day because you are just so darn tired.

But this isn’t the time to give up, oh no way!  This is the time to make sure you are doing several things to keep up your momentum:

• Make sure you have written down your goal-this will help make it happen.  Put it where you can see it-make it bold!
• Make sure you have written down the reasons you want to reach this goal-this will keep you motivated!  Why is this important in your life?
• Make sure your goal is reasonable and attainable.  Did you bite off more than you can chew? 
• Make sure you have broken your goal down into little bites, little steps, a bitty bit at a time.
• Get someone in on your goal with you. Garner some support for your efforts and the desired end result.  Get a cheerleader in your corner!

Every day is an opportunity to work on your goals, to move forward.  You are alive-anything is possible!

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Did you know that January is national “Get Organized” month with NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers)?  Yep, that’s right, a whole month for office and home organization!  A new year, a new month, a time for new year’s resolutions with “getting organized” at the top of many people’s lists. 

So, the definition of ‘resolution’ according to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary:

 the act or process of resolving: as a : the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones

I find that very fitting in relation to organizing.  When I go in to help people get organized it is because they are overwhelmed, stressed and don’t know where to begin.  It’s all too much.  But decluttering and organizing really is all about breaking things down into processes, steps so it won’t be so overwhelming.  That’s what I am there for, to break things down, provide support and show people the steps that are needed to reach their goals.

Important steps:

• Create a goal
• Set up supplies
• Sort belongings
• Make decisions on what to part with and what to keep
• Give belongings a home
• Remove the items you are parting from the home
• Maintenance

Think about your home organization goals and remember to break things down into steps so you aren’t overwhelmed!

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Home organization is often at the top of many people’s new year’s resolution goals.  And why of course I think it’s a great one!  It’s one thing to have a goal but it’s quite another thing to have a plan to make it really happen.  That’s where people get stuck, they have good intentions and all but then they don’t know what steps to take to make it happen.  So, what I thought I would do today is show an example of a home organization goal and how you too can make it a reality!

1.  Write down your goal so you are clear about what you want to accomplish.  “I will clean out my closet and part with old clothing I am not wearing.”
2. Write down the reason you want to reach this goal to keep you motivated to accomplish it.  “I want to be able to reach into my closet to find clothing that fits and looks good on me without stress or stepping over clothing.”
3. Write a date on your calendar to complete this task so you have a commitment and an appointment with yourself.  January 20
4. Write down the activities you need to do to accomplish this task.  Estimate how long each step will take to the best of your ability.

            a)  I will pull all my clothes out and place ‘like’ items together so I can see how much I have.  Pants with pants, shirts with shirts, skirts with skirts, etc.    45 minutes

           b)  I will go through all my clothing and part with articles that do not fit, do not look good on me,  or are ripped or stained.  I will throw away clothing beyond repair and place remaining items in bags for donation.  2 hours

         c)  I will place all clothing that I am keeping back in the closet together according to ‘like’ items.  This will make it easy to find what I need quickly.  15 minutes

         d)  I will take all useable clothing to a donation drop off site.   30 minutes

Breaking it down and seeing approximately how long each step will take makes reaching your home organization goals more manageable!

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After looking at how I have been organizing my home office workflow in parts 1 & 2, I thought we should look at some common time wasters that can seduce us from our work and  tasks at hand.  When working from your own home office, there can be many distractions that come up.  Let’s look at some, you may have others that I haven’t listed as well.  Feel free to leave a comment!

• Taking personal phone calls.  It is very easy to just pick up the phone when you see your favorite person is calling you.  It’s also easy to get sucked into a conversation that takes way longer that you anticipated. 
• Texting.  That chime can be irresistable-I know it is for me!  Turn it off if you are working on one of your critical tasks.
• Checking and responding to email.  Maybe there will be a joke or something positive you come across, it can be like a little surprise!  But you should resist checking email frequently and check it in batches at designated times in your day.
• Errands.  It can be so tempting to jump in the car to get things done more quickly when the kids are off to school.  But before you know it, the day is gone and you didn’t get anything done.  Yet another night spent in the office.
• Housework.  I’m really trying to let this one go and clean later in the afternoon/evening when the kids are home.  I don’t feel as guilty cleaning when they are home as I do sitting in front of the computer.  If I have a pile of laundry to fold on the bed and I do take a break to take a phone call, then I fold quietly while talking.

It takes discipline and a plan to stay focused and organized in your home office; you can do it!

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