Are all your spare batteries the same room?
If they are in the same room, are they on the same shelf/cupboard/drawer?
If they are on the same shelf/cupboard/drawer, are they safely contained in a plastic or glass container?
If they are in containers, are they organized by size?
Are all the tips free of contact with other items i.e. batteries?
Are the containers labeled?
Are all your spent batteries taken out of their electronic gadget i.e. flashlight, radio, toy?
Are spent batteries safely organized in a plastic or glass receptacle – for discard at a waste transfer station?
Author Archive for Carolyn – Page 35
For many of you, the title of this entry has more to do with ethics than organizing. While business gifting frequently has an ethical component to it if you are gifting to clients or contractors, the issue I am drawing you attention to is prevention of clutter. Giving gifts that add to clutter in the life of another is just not a gift at all, (unless of course they hire me to declutter their world and then I thank you for the gift!)
In today’s era of “living the moment” and “finding a simpler life” and keeping clutter at bay, I recommend redefining the word consumable. The Encarta Dictionary defines consumable goods as “goods that have to be bought regularly because they wear out or are used up, such as food and clothing”. For the purposes of gift-giving, I have defined the word as follows: A consumable gift is one which by its inherent nature has a best before date or natural expiry date, wears out or is used up and permits the recipient an opportunity to enjoy for a limited time and then dispose of, without guilt”.
If this is a definition that appeals to you for individuals on your gift list, here are some suggestions to get your shopping started.
- Baskets of food, home made preserves, including perhaps candles and some decorative paper napkins related to a a personal interest or characteristic of the recipient e.g. gardener!
- A tribute donation to a charity which is already supported by the recipient or otherwise meaningful to them e.g. The Toronto Humane Society, The Cancer Society.
- A sponsorship donation to a charity which has designed annual sponsorship or gift campaigns e.g. The Toronto Zoo has set up an animal adoption program. In the adoption package you receive a picture and information about your animal. World Vision has a gift catalogue from which you can pick an item that can be supported by your donation e.g. 2 rabbits to a family ($35), a harvest pack for 4 families ($35), a backpack with school supplies for a child ($25), help a family start a business ($100) or fill up a whole stable ($1200).
- Gift certificates especially for a clothing store or movie passes. These gifts are great for the younger recipients on your list.
- Candles, decorative paper napkins, coffee.
- Performance tickets – the show is enjoyed and – poof! – no clutter.
- A gift certificate for maid/cleaning service for a day.
- A music lesson for someone who always wanted to play the ______ (you fill in the instrument).
You get the idea. Now let your imagination have some fun and enjoy the shopping experience knowing that you are helping to keep clutter at bay in someone else’s life. As always, reduce your stress by shopping on line.
The Holiday season is upon us and with it, all the trappings and traditions that the holidays bring. In today’s era of “living the moment” and “finding a simpler life”, many people are looking for gift giving ideas that avoid adding to clutter in other peoples’ homes.
To do this, I suggest that we redefine the word consumable. The Encarta Dictionary defines consumable goods as “goods that have to be bought regularly because they wear out or are used up, such as food and clothing”. For the purposes of gift-giving, I have defined the word as follows: A consumable gift is one which by its inherent nature has a best before date or natural expiry date, wears out or is used up and permits the recipient an opportunity to enjoy for a limited time and then dispose of, without guilt”. If this is a definition that appeals to you for individuals on your gift list, here are some suggestions to get your shopping started.
- Baskets of food, home made preserves, including perhaps candles and some decorative paper napkins related to a a personal interest or characteristic of the recipient e.g. gardener!
- A tribute donation to a charity which is already supported by the recipient or otherwise meaningful to them e.g. The Toronto Humane Society, The Cancer Society.
- A sponsorship donation to a charity which has designed annual sponsorship or gift campaigns e.g. The Toronto Zoo has set up an animal adoption program. In the adoption package you receive a picture and information about your animal. World Vision has a gift catalogue from which you can pick an item that can be supported by your donation e.g. 2 rabbits to a family ($35), a harvest pack for 4 families ($35), a backpack with school supplies for a child ($25), help a family start a business ($100) or fill up a whole stable ($1200). My daughter (13) and son (6) love this catalogue and had fun doing the “shopping” for me for their cousins in Hong Kong and Italy, some neighbours and friends.
- Gift certificates especially for a clothing store or movie passes. These gifts are great for the teenagers on your list. How about IKEA so your niece can redecorate her room? A manicure for your workaholic sister? Then book the appointment and enjoy together!
- Candles, decorative paper napkins, coffee
- Performance tickets – the show is enjoyed and – poof! – no clutter.
- A gift certificate for maid/cleaning service for a day.
- A music lesson for someone who always wanted to play the ______(you fill in the instrument).
You get the idea. Now let your imagination have some fun and enjoy the shopping experience knowing that you are helping to keep clutter at bay in someone else’s life. As always, reduce your stress by shopping on line.
Tags : Gifts
So you think everyone has a better grip on their time than you, right?
You wonder why you can never show up on time for meetings, why you are always running late for everything and whether you will be late for your own funeral. Organizing time is not “rocket science” ( or brain surgery, pick the metaphor you like best) but most of us struggle with it. Even professional organizers show up late for meetings with the wrong or no files.
When it comes to time management, there is nothing more valuable than the ability to anticipate an event or events. Isn’t that what our organizers, calendars, day timers, and PDA’s are all about. The multi million dollar industry of calendars is based on the notion that we like to anticipate what is coming in our lives. With anticipation comes the ability to schedule both our time and our resources – like the car for example. When you look to next Tuesday and see that you have four reports due on the same day, having a whole week to get them done is very, very helpful.
Here’s a primer on organizing your time that will help you to anticipate what’s coming up.
1. Find a calendar that works for you: electronic, PDA, puppy dogs, whatever. The size, style and platform are really only relevant in terms of what works and what looks good.
2. Enter in all the fixed dates over which you have no control: meetings with the CEO, annual meetings, sales travel, interviews with childrens’ teachers, your piece of the car pool. Put them in for the whole term or year until the known completion date.
3. Enter in all the regularly scheduled flexible time such as gym time, squash night, book club, time with spouse. If it is scheduled, the intention moves from a 1 (would like to do) to an 8 (really intend to do) and has half a chance to get to 10 (will absolutely make sure this happens) at which point after 28 days it becomes a habit.
4. Enter into the calendar the activities that lead to what you would like to accomplish by year’s, month’s, week’s, day’s end e.g. I will read one chapter of an organizing book three times a week until I can get to meetings on time.
Have fun anticipating your wonderful life!
When it comes to time management, there is nothing more valuable than the ability to anticipate an event or events. Isn’t that what our organizers, calendars, day timers, and PDA’s are all about. The multi million dollar industry of calendars is based on the notion that we like to anticipate what is coming in our lives. With anticipation comes the ability to schedule both our time and our resources – like the car for example. When you look to next Tuesday and see that you have four family members going in four different directions at the same time by 4:30 in the afternoon, having a whole week to work on those back up resources like a car pool is very, very helpful.
Children learn to anticipate at a very young age – does birthday party excitement for a whole week sound familiar to you? Young students are now learning in school to use their school issue “agenda” to record their homework.
By the time the kids hit their teens, they have learned to anticipate excitement, record their homework and use their lockers. Unfortunately as adults, we don’t teach them the time planning that goes along with being able to anticipate events. Even as a professional organizer, I have been slow to teach my own teenager how to use her time wisely. Here’s the process that I went through with her to get her back on track with time. It’s a relatively easy organizing task and they will thank you for the time management skill later in life.
1. Find a calendar that works for you: electronic, PDA, puppy dogs, whatever. The size, style and platform are really only relevant in terms of what works and what looks good.
2. Enter in all the fixed dates over which you have no control: music lessons, swim practice, band practice, year book committee etc. Put them in for the whole term or year until the known completion date.
3. Enter in all the regularly scheduled flexible time such as piano/instrumental/voice practicing time. If it is scheduled, the intention moves from a 1 (would like to do) to an 8 (really intend to do) and has half a chance to get to 10 (will absolutely make sure this happens) at which point after 28 days it becomes a habit.
4. Enter into the calendar the activities that lead to what you would like to accomplish by year’s, month’s, week’s, day’s end e.g. On Saturday afternoons I will go to the library so that I have books for my English class on Monday.
Have fun anticipating your wonderful life!
Are all your To Do lists in one room?
If they are in one room, are they all in one location in that room?
In that location, are they on one piece of paper, one file or in one file folder?
Are the similar or related items identified as relating to each other?
Are similar actions listed together?
Are they sorted by date identified, date due, level of importance, level of urgency, relevance to your objectives?
Do you know when the items have been accomplished?
Are all your spices in the same room?
If they are in the same room, are they on the same shelf/cupboard/drawer?
If they are on the same shelf/cupboard/drawer, do you have more then one container of any one spice?
Are there any contianers with expired best before dates?
Are the containers labelled with the name of the spice they contain?
Are they sorted by alphabet or type or frequency of use?
Do you use them or are they for decoration?
Priorizing your To Do List used to be a case of ranking A, B or C and then ranking within A, B or C to 1, 2 or 3. It was the A1’s that were to get our attention; and I suspect that you are still struggling to get the A1’s done.
You’ve rewritten your list so that every task starts with an action verb such as call, write, create or decide. Write into your calendar a time slot for all your call items that will take more than 10 minutes. Anything less than 10 minutes, do it now. Complete the same process for your other action verbs items and watch the list disappear.
Tags : Lists, Time Management
About the time that many of us wonder if we ought to merely stop taking photographs, digital or otherwise, in order to avoid the need to organize them, someone reminds us of why they are so precious. In this instance, it happened to be my sister. At the risk of being accused of nepotism, I encourage you to link in and enjoy her posting. We can get back to organizing the photos tomorrow.
So you’ve written the To Do lists faithfully and still can’t get your A1 priorities done. In fact, you have To Do lists all over the place and have even taken to highlighting the A1 priorities, right?
In order for a To Do List to be a Got it Done List, use action verbs to start your items. Using a verb is often not enough direction to yourself and leaves you with a vague sense that something has to be done but not sure what. For example;
Follow up with John Doe regarding Great Project outline.
becomes
Call John Doe – confirm deadline for Great Project outline.
Verbs such as call, write, file, decide or forward are useful action verbs for most business environments. Make up your own handful of action verbs and see your To List become your I’m Done List!
Banish those procrastination gremlins!
Conquer Procrastination Cheat Sheet
Struggling with procrastination gremlins? Grab your free copy of Conquering Procrastination Cheat Sheet: 4 Procrastination Gremlins and the Tricks to Beat Them.
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Website by Janet Barclay