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Spring is my favourite time of year; not just because my birthday is in April. This is the month when gardens and yards burst into colour like a painters pallet, kids get back on their bicycles and many of us start walking again to places we drive all winter.
Spring is also a great time to organize. If you have a garden, try taking your sorting project out there. Sorting items out of context makes it easier to make a decision and helps your brain make a more objective assessment of the value of the items to your life. Out of context, our thoughts often take a different path then we see the items in their usual “home” around your house.
Besides – most things just look better bathed in sunshine.
Many of you are opening up the holiday decorations, unpacking boxes and bins and joining in festivities with lights, wreaths, Christmas tree ornaments and those special holiday decorations that live on the mantel. Problem is, every year there are a few more to add to the mix. Can anyone remember how to get them all back in the box? Packing up those boxes in January can be worse than that 1,000 piece puzzle at the cottage, full of sky and water, that no one has ever finished.
Taking a picture before everything comes out of the box can be helpful. Take a quick photo, print and tape to the top of the box. Letter the photo be the memory. Now you can enjoy the festivities.
I have 4 hours all to myself today: that is, all to myself and the mound of paper work that accumulated while I was off tending to clients.
We schedule our meetings with clients, with staff and all manner of other related services for our lives but how often do we book time with ourselves to clear out the clutter? Unfortunately we know from decades of time management publications, that unless a priority activity is booked into our schedule, it will not get done. Is that why perhaps, some administrative or maintenance tasks in your life don’t get done?
Consider booking a regular meeting with yourself to accomplish some of the mundane tasks that life asks us to complete. It might be clearing kids school paperwork, catching up on correspondence, filing (electronically or otherwise) the bills that have piled up. If you book time on a regular basis, you will be surprised how some of this stuff doesn’t get a chance to pile up. Depending upon the task, it may be only 2 hours a week or perhaps one day a month is all that is required to clear out the backlog and keep up to date.
I’ve just been given the latest issue of Wired magazine to read… “Look! There’s an article about organizing in here!” Of course I wasn’t surprised, as organizing touches every aspect of our lives. They’ve featured four room makeovers with a range of organizing ideas, from simple fixes to high-tech solutions.
In ‘The Office’ the use of rolling filing cabinets adapted well to the work habits of the owner. Using the label maker to identify both ends of power cords is an easy way to keep wires straight. My favourite tech solution is the Sony PS3 in ‘The Media Room’. It removes the need for dusty shelf space to store all of those DVD cases!
Check out the July issue of Wired to read the full article on page 91, or read online at http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/06/ff_makeover/.
There seems to be no shortage of ways to store spices. Among the most common are the carousel, the magnetic board, the bulk purchase in a baggy, and the store-bought jars that land on a lazy susan or wall mounted rack.
What happens when you don’t have the space for a sprawling display of your spices, or simply prefer to keep them out-of-sight and away from the heat of your oven? If you are forced to store your spice bottles in a manner that obscures the label, it can become time-consuming and frustrating to pick up each bottle, turn it around to see the label and return it to its rightful place, only to repeat the exercise with the next bottle. To save yourself some time, try labelling the top of the spice jar. It’s unlikely that the sides and top of the bottle will be hidden at the same time. You’d be surprised how easy it is to pull out a basket of spice bottles, scan the homemade labels on the top and find what you’re looking for.
It seems that no matter what the publication, the first thing I look for is the recipes. I will admit that while leafing through the latest issue of Chatelaine I made the shocking discovery that I had flipped to the recipes, before even realizing they were launching their clutter-busting series. But I digress . . .
Magazines remain my number one source for new food ideas. Only when I’m really desperate will I go online to scout out a new dish. What can I say? I like paper. But what I don’t like is to have piles of magazines taking up what little living space I share with my family.
So, if I like the newly tested recipe, I will immediately tear it out of the magazine and file it away. I’m partial to the accordion folders, but am discovering that many people prefer to stash their recipes in a three-ringed binder. An added benefit of this storage method is that you can use sheet protectors to house the individual pages. Then splashes and sticky finger prints can easily be wiped away without compromising the integrity of your recipe.
Third quarter is over and your heading into the final stretch of your financial year. How are you doing on those business goals for your (your choice) a) portfolio b) directorate c) division d) company e) small business?
Getting things done, the old to do list, and making goals are all activities with which we are very familiar. Many of you have even been on courses to try and figure out how to get those goals accomplished so you can meet your targets.
One of the most powerful tools is merely the language that we use to tell ourselves what to do. Try rewriting that list of To Do’s using action verbs that clearly lead to a result rather than vague sentencing of outstanding items to be done. For example:
“Follow up with Jill regarding Great Project implementation” becomes
“Talk to Jill – Confirm implementation and target dates for Great Project have been met.”
Put some power into your To Do’s and watch the Got it Done’s add up.
Are you a “sticky note” person? You know what I mean; there are some of us who like to make notes on bits of paper to remind us of things. There are a few by the telephone to remind us to call someone, a few on the filing cabinet to remind us where to find something and a bunch all over our desk with numbers, names, notes and reminders that are so buried under the rest of the paper they are long since forgotten.
As an alternative, try carrying a small notebook around with you. Some of us prefer something small enough to fit into a handbag or women’s computer tote. Others keep copious notes and prefer the old elementary school, spiral bound, 8 1/2 X 11 note book. The size is not relevant so pick one that works for you. What matters is that the book travels everywhere with you and is available to jot down thoughts, reminders, numbers and notes. No more lost sticky notes and bits of paper all over your desk. No more stacks of paper with random notes that cause increased stress since you can’t remember where they were from.
There are some people who can translate the “keeping notes in a book” organizing strategy to a handheld organizing device. This takes discipline and the ability to read and write/type easily on a handheld. If you are one of these people, go for it and use your handheld as your notebook. Remember to back up your device regularly.
You may be surprised to find how liberating it is to have your notes and thoughts with you in your notebook when you need them!
