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Entries Tagged 'Goals & Time Management' ↓
Organizing & Balancing Time
The first step to time management: Know how you want to use your time. Once you decide on what’s important to you in your own life, it will make it easier to know when to say yes and when to say no to requests for your time and energy. You can decided how you want to spend your time. There are endless ways that we can spend our time and we have to be selective. Selective means that sometimes you just have to say “no.”
Here are 10 ways to say no and save face:
1) No. I’ve heard that no is a complete sentence! Although this is a bit too blunt for most of us. Try these softer approaches…
2) Thank you, but I already have too much on my plate right now.
3) Thank you, but this isn’t a good fit for me right now.
4) Thank you, but I already have another commitment.
5) Thank you for thinking of me but this isn’t something I can do right now.
6) I appreciate that you have confidence in me for this project, but I am focusing on something else right now.
7) I would love to take that on after I drop something else from my schedule.
This isn’t something I can do right now, but I’d be happy to help you find someone else for this role.
9) I don’t have the skill set for this particular project to help you succeed.
10) I don’t have the energy and enthusiasm that this project deserves.
Sometime you just have know when and how to say no to balance your time which will help you balance your life!
Tags: balance, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, no, time management
Can you guess what happened to me last week, mere days after my birthday? Why yes, yes indeed, I received my very first ticket. Always a die hard fan of a man in uniform, it wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I came face-to-driver’s license with one. I knew I had made a big mistake when I pulled too close in front of a van and was greeted by his horn. But, I actually thought I was merely on my way to my appointment (that I was running late for) after a close call. But it was not to be so.
Of course the overachiever that I sometimes am, I was pulled over with full lights and sirens. If it had been happening to anyone else, I would have thought that it was pretty hot. Sigh. And I most certainly was not hot on my end: shaking, nervous, fumbling for my proper documentation (organized, just nervous). Then I did the unthinkable, I started crying; I couldn’t help it, it just came out. I’m quite confident the officer didn’t notice the tears as he was deep into ticket printing by this point. Did you know they print a computer generated copy on the spot? Failure to yield: $124, well, there’s nothing hot about that either. I may have to turn my attention to fire fighters for a while.
The ticket stung, my pride was wounded, my pocket book cried along with me-it was a rough morning all the way around. But I knew there was a lesson in there to be learned-think, think, think…Ah yes, continue finding a better balance, slow the heck down. I realize I move quickly much of the time, on my feet and in the car. What can I do?
**Get a good night of sleep so I am not tired & running late in the morning. I am so not a morning person.
**Stop trying to get in one more thing before I leave the house. I love to check things off my list and sometimes try to do too much.
**Be realistic about how much time I have to get ready to get out the door on time.
Sometimes it takes light, sirens, a uniform and $124 to make us sit up and take note. But, it doesn’t even have to take that, just reflect on your current life balance and see where you may need to tap the brakes and slow down, even a little bit.
Tags: Balance-Family, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, list, police, Self, time management, work
For some reason, we often love to take everything on all by ourselves. Well, maybe we don’t reeeeally love it, but we seem to do it anyway. If you own your own business, it can be really be tempting to try to do everything yourself to save money. But are you honestly the best at everything: marketing, IT issues, accounting, payroll, data entry and training? Maybe it’s time to give delegation a go!
What about at home, is there someone else who just might be capable of filling the dishwasher and unloading the dryer? Are you suffering from, “If I don’t do it, no one else will?” or maybe, “No one else can do it the way I do it?” Give it up, let it go, give yourself a break! No, they won’t do it the way you do it. They may do it better, they may do it worse, but at least they will do it.
Whether at work or at home, find all the areas where you can get a helping hand; grab that hand and give it a good squeeze! My IT guy was here for two hours this morning helping me set up a business newsletter. Now it should be easy, but ‘should be’ wasn’t getting it done on my end. After he left my handyman showed up to fix my doorbell and the caulking in my bathtubs. Now I have learned how to plunge toilets, unclog J-traps and repair drywall, but there are still some things I just don’t know how to do.
So how to decide when you should hand over the keys and slide into the passenger seat?
1) Delegate a task if someone else can do it better than you can. You should use that time to concentrate on what you are best at.
2) Delegate a task if someone else can do it at least as well as you can. It will free up your time to work on something no one else can do for you.
3) Delegate a task if someone can make you more money by handling it.
4) Delegate a task if someone else can do it faster than you can.
5) Delegate a task if you can’t stand the task. If accounting isn’t your thing, it will a drag. Find someone who loves it!
Delegate at home & the office so you can do what you do best and let someone else do what they do best-a win, win!
Tags: delegation, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, IT, office, payroll, training
You are busy, rushed & maybe struggling to keeping on top of your game. There’s work and kid’s homework, after school activities, dinner, laundry, mopping…You get the picture. On top of it all, there’s that nagging at the back of your mind…the phone calls you are supposed to return to the friends who have left you messages. The weeks, months and years going by without a coffee or a lunch but always good intentions to do so.
There are way to let your friends and family know that you are living, breathing and thinking of them even when you are short on time. Here are 10:
Try using facebook for quick status updates. As long as you aren’t getting sucked into the time-consuming games, you can get a quick look at what your friends & family are up to. With little effort, you can let them know what you are up to with a daily or weekly status update. I recently taught a class where a participant said her family turned to facebook to stay in touch after their grandma died as she was the one who kept everyone in the loop.
Use your headset to catch up with conversation in the car when you are by yourself.
Keep blank note cards & stamps on hand to jot down a quick “hello” and drop them in the mail on your way to work.
Keep cards on hand for all occasions so you are ready at all times for birthdays, anniversaries and expressing sympathy.
Create a Word document and type an email message. Cut and paste your message into individual emails with your recipients’ names so it won’t look like a mass email.
Leave a “thinking of you” voicemail at a time when you know someone won’t be able to take a call.
Combine activities: Talk on the phone during mindless tasks like folding laundry or go for a walk with a friend to get exercise & catch up.
Let people know how much time you have at the beginning of a conversation.
Leave a note on the counter, pillow or in a lunch sack.
Have easy-to-mail, generic gift cards to drop in the mail for special occasions or for just “thinking of you” times. Great options are Amazon, iTunes & Starbucks. Be sure to make a note in your planner 3 days prior to the special occasion to remember to mail it.
Try one, two or all 10 of these ideas to help you manage your time and stay in touch with the people you care about!
Tags: Amazon, balance, facebook, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, iTunes, Starbucks, time management
I am really looking at ways that I can make changes to my routine that will save time (time management), save money (good for my budget), miles (gas and wear & tear on my car and helps the environment). These are all positive things, but it’s also kind of a fun way to challenge myself. How can I still get what I want using alternative sources? I will give you some of my own examples.
Example #1: My hair-which I take very seriously. 
I recently took the very bold step of letting my teenager color my hair. MY HAIR! I’ve only had professional highlights previously at about $110 twice a year which meant driving to the salon and sitting for about an hour. Now, I was taking a big chance on this one, but I went for it. I had a gift card for Target so I got the color for free and paid my daughter $10. I saved a drive, time in the salon and lots of money. My hair is darker than usual, but it’s fun and it’s changeable.
Example #2: I absolutely cannot stand going to the nail salon to get my nails done; it’s about a 40 minute round-trip drive plus sitting 45 minutes to an hour. It feels like such a waste of time! But since I am really hard on my nails and they need to look professional, I’ve spent both time and money going in twice a month for $50. Again enters my daughter who loves to make money. Our agreement is that I will buy her $80 worth of OPI nail polish for 20 manicures from her. She pointed out that would have been at least $500 in the salon! When did she get so smart? Oh ya, she’s a teenager, she’s known it all for a while now. If this works out, I’ll be saving a bunch of time and money as well as drawing my teenager out of her room.
I challenge you to find ways to manage your time better by finding alternatives that save you money too, a win-win! Feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what you tried!
Tags: budget, Home Organization, Home Organization Blog, save money, save time, time management
10 Days to Faster Reading
To organize your reading materials you have to make decisions on what items are important to you so you can make your reading pile manageable. The following suggestions on how to do that are from the book, “10 Days to Faster Reading” by The Princeton Language Institute and Abby Marks Beale.
1) Figure out what you are receiving and where it is coming from.
2) Take a piece of paper and write down all the reading material you are receiving: magazines, professional journals, newsletters, e-mail newsletters, etc.
3) Keep the list for one month.
4) Next, rate each piece, assessing its value to you and why you should keep it. If you can’t come up with a valid reason, cancel your subscription. If you have five or more unread back issues of any one publication, chances are you don’t have the time for it or are not getting value from it.
5) The items that you don’t have time for, toss in the recycle bin or pass it on. Local libraries are great places to donate magazines and books.
I think it’s also important to point out that you can read just the parts you are interested in. For some reason I used to get hung up on feeling like I had to read a magazine cover-to-cover. But now I realize that it’s OK to just read the articles I am interested in. One way I feel better about that is by donating my magazines to the library so someone else can enjoy them when I am done. Maybe they will read the articles that I didn’t!
Consider reading “10 Days to Faster Reading” so you can literally read and comprehend material faster; I am in the middle of reading it now and I have high hopes that I will devour more books! Decrease the amount of reading material you have on hand to help you read faster as well and you will be on your way to smaller stacks!
Tags: 10 Days to Faster Reading, Abby Marks Beale, articles, library, organizing, Princeton Language Institute, publication, reading materials
Reading Material to Organize
Maybe you enjoy reading, maybe you don’t but one way or the other, most of us have more reading material stacked than we have time. I do enjoy reading and I find that most of the books & magazines that I read are centered around personal improvement or relate to my business. And there certainly is no shortage of books to choose from. All I have to do is read a magazine that mentions a book that sounds interesting and boom-there’s another one on my list! So, how do you organize your reading materials and how do you read faster?
Organizing reading materials
* Be choosy about what you choose to read. Most of us end up with newsletters, articles, brochures and recipes that we mean to read but end up in a pile instead. Look at reading material quickly as it comes into your home or office and quickly decide if it will be worth your time to read. Recycle the one’s that don’t make the cut.
* Have a place for your reading material other than stacks on your desk that get shuffled around. Create a folder or file labeled “To Read” and place items of interest there. If the file is getting too thick, it’s time to make quick decisions. A folder also makes it easy to grab your reading on the go.
Hanging folder for reading materials
Next up, part 2 on organizing reading material: how to make decisions on what to keep.
Tags: articles, books, brochures, folder, magazines, newsletters, organize, organizing, pile, reading material
At-A-Glance Quick Notes Appointment Book
OK, OK, it’s the day planner again, not a ‘real’ best friend. But did I happen to mention how much I love my planner? My planner is so awesome because it’s the main time management tool that keeps me sane by keeping me on top of everything in our household and with my business. It’s what keeps the little stuff from falling through the cracks.
What do I put in my planner at the beginning of each year that maybe you should too?
- Birthdays and anniversaries in red pen.
- Reminders a few days before birthdays and anniversaries to mail cards/gifts.
- Reminders to make doctor appointments.
- Reminders to make dental appointments.
- Reminders to change furnace filter.
- Reminders to clean Dyson filter.
- Scheduled appointments.
- Scheduled meetings.
- Reminders of things I need to bring with me to meetings and appointments.
- Important or “critical” tasks that I need to schedule into my day vs. leaving on a ‘to do’ list.
If you use a paper system, be sure to look at it every day for your schedule and reminders. If you use an electronic system, still check it daily but also take advantage of the reminder system/tones that are available to you.
Organizing your time with time management can be as simple or as detailed as you need to make it. I feel like we all have so much running through our heads daily that getting the little details written down can be a load off your mind!
Tags: appointments, Blackberry, critical tasks, Dyson, electronic system, meetings, reminders, schedule, time management, To Do list
At-A-Glance Day Planner
OK, before you start feeling sorry for me, I’m not really best friends with my day planner. I have managed to rope in a ‘real’ friend or two here and there. But I really do LOVE my paper planner for time management and not letting anything slip through the cracks! I’m a paper and pencil girl, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. This is a super time of year for you to sit down and make sure you are including important dates, information and reminders that you will need in the new year. I personally use the At-A-Glance Quick Notes Weekly/Monthly Appointment Book. You can use whatever works for you-Outlook, BlackBerry, wall calendar; just make sure you use one system and stick with it.
A few tips to make sure you are using the right system whether paper or electronic:
** You feel comfortable with it. I personally like to be hands-on, touching and turning the pages.
** You are using only one system because you trust your system. No Outlook + a day planner.
** You are able to use your calendar system consistently.
** You are staying on top of appointments, celebrations and reminders because your system is so awesome. Like mine.
I have used this system for years and I like it because:
- I can turn the pages, I don’t like scrolling through an electronic device. And yes, I have experimented.
- The planner is set up to show a whole month as well as a blank page for notes for each month.
- The day planner has an entire column for every day of the week from 8 am to 8:45 pm. I have plenty of room to write and all of my appointments are in chronological order.
Use the system that naturally works best for you for time management and watch for my next post on what to put into your calendar!
Tags: appointment book, At-A-Glance Quick Notes, Blackberry, calendar, day planner, electronic, Outlook, time management
Delegating Girl Scout Badges
Oh why oh why didn’t I think of this sooner?!! How long was I dragged down by ‘mom guilt’ over these Girl Scout badges? Oh, probably only 2-3 years. Recently I was cleaning out my own dresser drawer when I came across the bag of guilt-producing badges. I had so diligently added all my girl’s badges to their vests over the years, until one day I didn’t. Right around the one day that my youngest brought a landslide of badges home at the end of the year. Good for her and her accomplishments! Not so good for a busy mom who isn’t the least bit crafty, OK, it’s just a little sewing or ironing but it’s still so not my thing.
Enter oldest daughter who loves to sew, craft, knit. OK, it’s not from my side. The daughter who loves to have money but who wouldn’t dream of offering the neighborhood tasks of my childhood such as raking leaves or washing cars. But sewing buttons onto my coats and adding badges to Girl Scout vests is right up her alley! I promptly hired her to get ‘er done which she did in a very short period of time, maybe a couple of hours. As it turns out, I’m not a good negotiator as I found out she would have done the work for half the amount of money I offered her. But it was worth every penny! It was amazing that a weight was lifted off of my shoulders in such a short amount of time by someone who could do the job so easily.
Delegation is a great way to stay on top of office or home organization; remember to delegate when:
** Someone else can do the task better than you can.
** Someone else can do the task at least as good as you can.
** Someone will enjoy the task more than you will.
** Someone else can get the task done more efficiently and faster than you can.
Do a little delegating and lighten your load a bit this year so you can focus on the home organization tasks you do best!
Tags: delegation, efficiently, Girl Scout badges, Home Organization, home organization tasks, tasks
