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Archive for organizing strategies

3 Steps to Mastering Clutter-Free Living

Posted by Carolyn on
 March 2, 2022

3 Steps to Mastering Clutter-Free Living

In my experience, there are only 3 steps to mastering clutter-free living.  With the consistent application of these three steps, applied to any decluttering project on a regular basis, clutter-free living can easily be achieved.

During March I will explore all three of these steps in more detail.  I’ll give you an understanding of how easy they can be attained and tips to apply right away.

Clutter-Free Living, A Modern Issue

books

Dear Books, What am I going to do with you…?

Mastering clutter-free living is the subject of much literature.  A quick scan at the local newspaper stand, revealed multiple publications with the words declutter, clutter free or organizer on the title page.  With the Covid 19 pandemic keeping many of us very close to home the last two years, we have become even more aware of the clutter and many have become more bothered by it.

Sure, you can spend the weekend decluttering the garage, the family room or your home office.  But then what happens the next week? Does the office become cluttered and full of papers yet again?

Step 1: Achieve ClarityLooking for focus and productivity?

If you want to know how to get somewhere, you have to know where you are going.  Get really clear on what you want to achieve with your clutter-free project.  This is probably the most important step of the three. Here are some tips to help:

  • Get clear with yourself on what you mean by declutter. What are your expectations of yourself? An empty closet or just nothing on the floor? Not everyone has the same understanding.
  • Create a picture in your mind of the decluttered space. Have a vision for what you actually want to achieve.  What does your decluttered kitchen look like?
  • Find some pictures (digital to avoid more paper clutter) of what you want your clutter-free space to look like.

Step 2. Create a Strategy

Coaching can support productivity

Coaching can support get clear on priorities, goals and increasing productivity.

With a clear vision of where you want to end up, finding a path is much easier.  Keep that vision in mind and identify the steps you need to get there. Make a plan. It does not have to be complicated.

  • Break your project into bite size pieces that you can manage in the time you have available. Is this something that you can only give a few hours? Pick a series of decluttering tasks that will fit into that time frame and end with the vision you have in mind. Here are some 10 minute ideas.
  • Think of clutter-free living as a process and include in your project daily tasks that will keep the area/room or space clutter-free moving forward.
  • Keep the plan simple. Think, one step at a time e.g one box, one drawer, one closet.

Step 3. Take Action

Figure out the first step to take that will start you toward you vision.  Is it a box to empty a table to clear or a cupboard to sort.  Do you need to start just with one drawer in the kitchen in the 30 minutes you have available.  Find the first step.

Here’s the thing about taking action, it creates energy.  Once you start on your path, you will find it easier to keep going.  Once you have achieve a little success, even one old box worth, you can celebrate the achievement and use that energy to get to the next box.  Or the next drawer.

Clarity, strategy and action, together, form a simple 3 step process for mastering clutter-free living.  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  The simpler the better.

Organizing Strategies
Tags : Clearing Clutter, clutter-free, declutter, organizing strategies
notebook on desk with clover leaf

Planning and Luck Meet Each Other

Posted by Carolyn on
 March 17, 2021

notebook on desk with clover leafI had a feeling this would be quite a week. Last week was National Procrastination Week. The daylight savings switcheroo always creates a hiccup. St. Patrick’s Day and Small Business Development Day are both March 17. March 20 brings in the first day of spring. Meanwhile, Twitter Day is March 21 and Passover and Easter are right behind. So naturally, it was time to write about planning and luck and their relationship.

Struggling with this blog post, I headed out for a mind-clearing, fat-burning, sunshine-worshipping walk. Then I saw the hawk. He soared high overhead then swooped in so close that I thought I might be breakfast. His graceful dive was awe-inspiring. He reminded me of Lori, my university residence door-mate. We would dress up in white coveralls and she would swoop around, arms spread wide in wing formation, reminding me to soar, to be as free as an eagle. Suddenly, I was transposed to those heady university days and I knew exactly how to write this blog.

In early August 1985, Lori offered me a trip to Vancouver. I was just three months home from living more than two years in Papua New Guinea—and floundering. I said that I would accompany her as far as Edmonton, then called the Director of the Master’s Program to which I had just applied and told him I needed an interview with him. He thought I was crazy to TELL him I wanted an interview, so he agreed. Five days later, I was sitting in his office following an adventure that only Lori could have arranged: station wagon arranged; sleeping in tents in fields; cassette tape playlist created specially for the trip; seeds, sprouts and bagels in the cooler.

I was sitting in his office having announced that I needed to be in his program. He asked me if I planned to hang around until he decided to accept me, IF he decided to accept me. Then he announced that I was completely crazy when I said that I was bussing back to Toronto and needed just 24 hours of banking time and I would be on a flight back for the first day of school. I only had two hours between that interview and the bus departure in which to check out two potential places to live that were miraculously still available two weeks before school started in the busy university/government town.

Within a week, I had received his phone call telling me to book my flight. I landed at 6 am for class at 8:30 and rolled in with my suitcase in tow. As Director, he was first on the agenda of the first day of first year. And he told the entire class how crazy I was. The program was on the 13th floor of the building. I had sat in seat 13 on the flight. I’d committed to renting a room in a house with 13 in the address. Planning and luck?

Even St. Patrick might have applauded my crazy luck.

Before you, too, jump to the conclusion that “She’s just plain lucky,” consider another option—one you can use so that when your own call comes in, people will claim you are just as lucky. Only you will know the planning and action that you put in place behind that luck.

You see, when I got wind of the fact that there might be a spot in that Master’s Program, from an astute and very clever Admin Assistant, Sarah, who answered my first phone call, I made sure that I would be ready. If there was going to be a lottery draw for who got it, I would have a ticket. I hustled around the province (this was before the internet, cell phones and Zoom remember) and arranged my transcripts, wrote the GMAT test hundreds of miles away, and assembled letters of recommendation and all the other items the school required. All the requirement were sent off to the Director within two weeks of my phone call to super helpful Sarah.

I worked hard, but mostly I stayed on top of implementation. Focussed on action, I created a task list and I knew that I just had to tick off every item on the list. If I could get the package to him within two  weeks, it would be on his desk when the intake committee had to decide how to handle a slightly higher than average decline of admission rate. That’s when Lori called. So off I went to Edmonton.

I completed my Master’s in Health Services Administration and convocated in November 1987.  Only a handful of us did. Perhaps there was an element of luck, but I maintain that the secret of my success was that I stayed focussed on implementation and action. Ruminating on problems wasn’t going to get me that spot on the dais in front of the Dean as he held my hood and my certificate of completion in his hand.

I offer you the same strategy. Where planning meets opportunity is where luck shows up.

I AM Evolution Coaching Organizing Strategies Organizing Time
Tags : organizing strategies, Planning

Time Tamer Tuesday – 5 Steps to Time Management at the Office

Posted by Carolyn on
 March 14, 2017

Time Management at the Office

Time Management, The Illusive Goal

Wouldn’t it be nice to know that time management was actually possible? Do you wish you could get more done at the office?

Unfortunately, despite all attempts otherwise, none of us can manage Time; that is the reality.  It continues to tick away – 24 hours in each day, 60 minutes in each hour and 60 seconds in each minute – each and every day of the year.  We can, however, manage ourselves.  We can manage ourselves to do more with the time we have available. Manage your behaviour around getting things done, and time will seem way more friendly – almost like you did manage it. Here are 5 steps to get help you out.

Step 1 – Commit to Behaviour Change as a Time Management Strategy

Start by committing to managing yourself in order to get time management under control.  Set the intention to become more productive with  your time.  With a commitment to your own behaviour change, time management becomes less illusive.  Make a pact with yourself to take responsibility for doing more in less time.  While time is not to blame for what you can’t get done, only  you have control over what you CAN get done.  So take back control.

This is the toughest step.  Get firmly planted in this direction, and the rest will seem much easier.

Step 2 – Identify Your Top Priorities and Tasks for each Day, Week, Month and Year

Time Management at the Office, Set Goals

You likely already have annual priorities identified as part of your annual planning, goals, performance objectives or other performance measurement or company planning strategy.  Are you an entrepreneur?   Have you got your business objectives lined up for the year/quarter/month/week?  Great.  Now turn them into goals for the month, week and day.  What do you need to get done by the end of the day, week, month, and then the quarter, to accomplish your annual goals?  The priority tasks for today will feed into your priority goals for this week.  The same is true for the month.  By the end of this week, are you a quarter of your way to your priorities for the month?  What has to be finished to get there?

Daily tasks are the key to keeping the productivity up.  Keep your daily priority tasks simple and short.  Now write them down.  Start with a verb to direct your action.  Rather than writing “Managers’ Report” write “Collect data, analyze and write Managers’ Report”.   Writing down goals helps set the intention and for many of us, helps lodge those goals into our brains to help keep us focused and pointing in the right direction.

Step 3 – Book Time in your Calendar to accomplish the Tasks

For time management book tasks into your calendar.

Each task takes a certain amount of time.  Estimate this to the best of your ability and book the time to accomplish the task into your calendar.

There’s a funny thing about tasks we want/need/should get done, especially some of the tougher ones.  If we don’t book time and protect that time, everything else, on everyone else’s priority list, has the opportunity to get

Step 4 – Commit to the Time Scheduled – and Let Everyone Know

Your time is committed; tell the people around you.   Close your door.  Ask not to be disturbed.  Put your phone on silent.  Turn off your email alerts. Turn off all your alerts except for any related to risk management that require you to drop everything and respond (are you on the Code Blue Team?).  This often takes some practice.  With time, however, people will come to understand that you commit to your time and expect them to respect that.  And they will love that you get stuff done.  Your boss knows that managing these boundaries helps you to get stuff done for her/him.  Reports are on time.  Your staff recognize that you get stuff done for them.  Schedules are on  time.  You approve vacation requests quickly.

Nice.

Step 5 – Commit to Running Productive Meetings

You’ve got a meeting to run?  Set an Agenda.  Send it out ahead of time.  Be clear on what you are trying to accomplish.  Remember, other people struggle with time management as well.  When you are clear on the agenda, people you meet with are grateful.  Stick to it your agenda.  Finish the meeting just as soon as the agenda is accomplished.  While we are all interested in someone else’s successes, their celebrations and someone else’s venting their frustrations, if all that isn’t on your agenda, it will have to wait for some other time.  You run a focused and productive meeting.

 

With a commitment to managing yourself, identified priorities, time booked for your key tasks, protection of your time and productive meetings, time management at the office is no longer illusive.  At least it will feel like you managed time.

Office Organizing Organizing Time Time Tamer Tuesday
Tags : organizing strategies, productivity, Time Management, Time Tamers
organized closet

Organize the Closet – Lighten the Load

Posted by Carolyn on
 March 9, 2016

Organize the Closet? I Can’t see the Closet

organize the closet

Try the Friends, Acquaintances, Strangers game to sort through clothes.

Recently a client and I stood in front of what was supposed to be a clothes closet in her bedroom.  The door was open and the closet was full.  She was desperate to have a beautifully set up, organized closet. But in fact, we couldn’t even see inside much less organize the closet or contents.

Some serious purging and sorting was needed.

Almost all of these strategies were used.  Each strategy has its own merit.  They each work differently for different people depending on the item in question.  What works for you?

Pull Everything Out

Start by getting everything out of the closet.  While this can be an almost overwhelming task, at least you will know what is in there.  Get the clothes, purses, shoes, scarves and anything else out of hiding.

Use the Friends, Acquaintances, Strangers Game

Getting through the sorting of a full closet enroute to an organized closet can be daunting task.  Using the friends, acquaintances, strangers game can help.

Friends are the people you would have for supper.  In other words the clothes that you love, look good in, feel good in and wear often – or would wear often if you could get at them with an organized closet!

Acquaintances are the people you might chat with but aren’t very close to.  Which are the items that you thought you might like but ultimately never warmed up to?  Can they move on to a life outside of your front door? Off to donation?

Strangers are the people you just don’t know.  Or maybe the ones you knew but don’t hang out with anymore.  These are clothes that don’t fit or have gone out of style. You don’t care for them, don’t wear them.  Send them away.

Re – Consider the Gifts

We all have items in our closets that were gifts.  They were loved, liked or found amusing by someone that gave them to you.  But maybe not quite your taste.  Since they were a gift, they are yours to do as you please, right?  Consider, your mother likely didn’t expect you to keep that sweater for 4o years.  If you don’t wear it, love it, cherish it – send it off to someone who will.

Photograph the Cherished

Organize the closet

Which of your shoes are friends, acquaintances or strangers?

And then there are the items we love and don’t use; beloved items that just don’t measure up to today’s – or your – style. Take a photo. That way you have the memory without having the item take up space in your closet.

Organize the Closet

With a lighter load, its easier to hang up, fold up and generally sort everything back into the closet.  Try going through the sorting process again as items go back into the closet.  Sometimes a second round of sorting will lighten the load that much more.

Now stand back and survey the closet.  When you open the doors you ought to be greeted with friends waiting to be taken out and worn.  Items that you love, that make you feel good and that look great on you.

Home Organizing
Tags : Clearing Clutter, closets, clothes, organizing clothes, organizing strategies
Organized for sports hooks for bikes

Organized for Sports – Get Hooked!

Posted by Carolyn on
 February 9, 2016

Staying organized for sports can be a time consuming task, whether its for your own activities or those of your children.  Some sports are heavier on the gear side, some on the logistic side.  Some like hockey require both since both teams and gear are involved.  Add in an animal, as with horse back riding, and the need for organization gets that much greater.  Your 4 – legged friend is counting on you to be, and stay, organized!

We don’t have a horse in our family but we sure have a lot of sports activity and sports gear.   Over the years there have been soccer balls and team uniforms, baseballs and bats, inline skates, hockey equipment, swim team/practice equipment, sailing gear/tools, skis and ski clothes.  As my children get older, the number of sports has decreased but the sophistication and expense of the gear has increased.  Sound familiar?

Organized ski instructor locker with hooks.

Use Hooks to stay Organized for Sports

How does a professional organizer tackle sports gear for their family?  I’m a hook person and to stay organized for  sports gear, I head first for a hook.  The advantages of hanging sports gear on a hook are many.  Here’s just a few:

  • Gets the gear off the floor and away from harm (dogs)
  • Allows it to dry and breath (swimsuits, life jackets)
  • Uses vertical space for more efficient storage (bicycles, skis, ski poles)
  • Costs very little compared to cupboards
  • Keeps the gear accessible to grab and go

Which Hook?

Depends.  I have several different types depending on the type of gear, how heavy it is, who uses it, whether off season or in season storage and whether the storage location has to change from time to time.  Here are my 3 favourites and hopefully some ideas for you to use as your own.

  • 3M Command Hooks.  These are movable without leaving marks, scratches or holes.
    Sailing bag on hook.

    An empty sailing bag stays clean, dry and out of the way on a hook.

    I use them to hang my name tag, knee brace, helmet, kids stickers, pocket reference book and keys in my ski instructor boot locker.  They can be used for judo or karate belts.  We use them for empty sailing gear bags, life jackets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Vinyl-coated screw in hooks.  These are widely available across North America.  They are great for bicycles and heavier gear that involves weight. They are particularly good for items that need protection from the hook or are wet (paddles).

Hooked Bikes5kOrganized for sports hooks for bikes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Nails. What can I say – they still make the least expensive, universal hanging device.  Nails are effective hooks.Cottagers know this better than anyone and use them for paddles, life jackets, cushions, towels and anything else that needs getting up off the dock, floor, deck or ground.

You may have your favourite sports gear hooks as well.  I`d love to know what you use.  How do you store  your favourite sports gear?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organizing Sports Gear
Tags : Children, Clearing Clutter, managing mess, organizing sports gear, organizing strategies, sports gear
organizing footwear

3 Steps to Your Best Foot Forward

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 12, 2016

organizing footwear

I’ve always had an eye for shoes but not perhaps the way most footwear aficionados do.  I see organizing footwear as including presenting yourself with your best foot forward;  its more than just finding the perfect shoes and shoe storage.

People notice our footwear and its big business.  According to Transparency Market Research’s new market report titled “Global Footwear Market –  Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 – 2020,” the Global Footwear Market was valued at USD 19,8782.9 million in terms of value and 9990.7 million in terms of volume in 2014, which is expected to reach USD 220227.9 million and 10,974.0 million in terms of value and volume respectively by 2020. Footwear  can impact your success in a job interview or the amount of respect earned at the office.  Take these three steps to make sure you have your footwear organized for your best foot forward.

Step 1 – Keep Only the Footwear you can Store

The temptation to continuously add to our footwear collection is tough to beat.  It is, however, important to make sure that shoes are stored in a manner that will keep them dry, dust free and easily accessible.  Too often I sort through closets with clients only to find shoes that are so badly damaged due to mold and dust they are beyond salvation.  Ultimately we end up throwing away hundreds of dollars of footwear.  Whether the shoes are stored in the latest, most expensive see-thru container or the shoe box they arrived in is less important than that they are  protected.  Use a storage system that gives you the opportunity to identify the shoes when you need them while keeping the shoes free from damp and dusty conditions.

Step 2 – Review and Sort Your Footwear Twice a Year

This is pretty easy for those of us who live in four season climates.  At least twice a year we sort clothes and put away warm weather clothes in favour of cold weather ones.  Weather your climate changes or not, use a twice yearly schedule for organizing footwear.  This gives you a chance to inspect each pair’s repair status, whether they are still fashionable, need a polish or some repair.  It is also a good opportunity to assess whether the footwear still fits, is relevant to your wardrobe and lifestyle or is due for replacement.

Step 3 – Find a Local Shoe Repair

Check shoes for any that need repair or polish.

Organizing footwear includes checking regularly for repairs and polish.

In today’s throw away culture, a shoe repair can sometimes be hard to find.  A good one that is reliable and easily accessible can be as helpful to organizing footwear as your shoe boxes.  Your budget will go further when soles are replaced instead of the entire pair of shoes, heels are reinforced, polish is reapplied and boots are protected from the winter elements.

Treat your footwear with some respect and it will be there when you need it.  Three simple steps will help you put your best foot forward and keep your footwear organized.

 

Home Organizing Organizing Strategies
Tags : clothes, organizing footwear, Organizing Maintenance, organizing strategies, shoes
Overwhelmed

Overwhelmed with Getting Organized?

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 6, 2016
Overwhelmed

Have attempts to get organized in the new year got you overwhelmed?

Welcome to 2016.  I’m overwhelmed.  How about you?

The way I feel right now, I could do without a new year ever again.  I’m bombarded with email, tweets, FB group posts, Instagram pictures and LinkedIn comments telling me how to plan, schedule, set goals, accomplish goals, managed resolutions and be successful in 2016.  Since most of us would like to be more successful at whatever we do, that seems like a good start to the year, right?

Wrong.

Too much.

I was feeling so optimistic as 2015 came to a close and now with the bombardment of direction and cheers from well meaning social media, I’m hiding here at my desk wondering how to manage the overwhelm in my head.  Ideas, thoughts, plans, goals, schedules, resolutions;  it’s all there in a big foggy, swirl.  Remember that picture of electrons swirling in circles from high school science?  Put that in a vat of swirling cotton candy and that’s how my brain feels. It hurts.

Anyone else on the same page or am I out here alone on planet Overwhelm?

As a professional organizer, I’m not immune to being overwhelmed.  And like everyone else, I have to get organizing whether I’m overwhelmed or not.  The only difference is I’ve coached and supported clients back from planet Overwhelm and I have strategies I know will help.  I’m going to use them.  A few simple steps to get rid of that overwhelmed feeling when trying to get organized.

Get Moving

Go for a walk.  Moving large muscle groups helps to dissipate stress.  If all else fails, just walk around your house, apartment, room or office.  Head to the water cooler.  Or better still…

Get Some Fresh Air

Walk outside.  The clear, cooler air will help blow away the cotton candy from your brain.  The smell of wood stoves always takes me back to my days working on a reserve on the Canadian pacific coast where life was relatively simple.  The fresh air is almost as good as a RESET button.

Write it Down

Just writing down the swirl of thoughts and confusion can sometimes provide clarity.  Even if the thoughts are randomly written, your brain will start to put them into order.  Grab a pen or pencil and just start writing.  Don’t worry about anything making sense.

Make a List – or Two

Take the random written thoughts and group the ideas together.   Try groups like stuff to do, calls to make, decisions to make, long term plans, next week’s party, business goals, vacation plans.  You have your own stuff going on that will provide natural groups.

Take a Break

Organizing and being overwhelmed will require more breaks than organizing at other times.  Decision fatigued sets in faster when an individual is overwhelmed – if they are able to make decisions at all.  Give yourself lots of breaks to refresh your grey matter.

Take a Social Media/Technology Break

Our cell phones, computers, tablets and television bombard us with direction and instructions.  Take a break and get away from everyone else telling you how to start your new year.  For some, even just a few hours without the device will make a difference to help get you back from planet Overwhelm.

Getting organized in new year is a great thing.  Being overwhelmed is not.  Using these few easy steps I got back from planet Overwhelm and was able to get this blog post written.  You’ll get your stuff done too.

Organizing Challenges
Tags : Goals, Lists, Maintain Your Sanity, managing overwhelm, organizing strategies, Understanding disorganization
Organizing with our ears involves using what we hear to help us organize.

Organizing with our Ears – Auditory Processing Modality

Posted by Carolyn on
 October 14, 2015
Organizing with our ears involves using what we hear to help us organize.

Organizing with our Ears – Auditory Processing Modality

Organizing with our Ears is the second in a series on organizing using one’s processing modalities.  In 2010, Denslow Brown of Coach Approach for Organizers and Organizer Coach published The Processing Modalities Guide.  This is the second of nine modalities that Denslow addresses in the guide.  Auditory processing involves what we hear.  It includes sounds around us as well as what we say.

Organizing with our Ears – Strength and Sensitivity

Like visual processing, auditory processing modality can be described on a strength continuum as weak, competent or gifted. Someone who is gifted might have perfect pitch or be able to identify sophisticated meaning from sound.  Someone who is auditorily weak does not rely primarily on their hearing to understand, learn or interface with the world (that’s me).  Organizing with our ears can also be identified as hypo or hyper sensitive.  Someone who is hypersensitive might become overwhelmed or irritated when there are too many sounds at one time such as in a crowded party room (me again).

Organizing with our Ears – Organizing Strategies

Professional organizers and those trained in processing modalities, understand that using one’s dominant processing modality to organize, increases the ability to stay organized and maintain an organized environment.  Most of us use more than one modality to interface and learn from the environment.  In fact we likely use several.  A few will be stronger, more dominant, than the others, and therefore most useful in staying organized.

If you are auditorily sensitive, many different sounds may be irritating, annoying or exhausting.  Simple, soothing sounds may be pleasing and help with focus. Try the following strategies:

  • Use soothing background music to drown out or distract your ears from a noisy room or street below your window.
  • Use pleasant background music to help you focus on a task.

If you are auditorily strong, you remember items by their sound or a sound associated with them.  Words and tones are meaningful to you.  Try these strategies to keep you organized:

  • Label file folders by names that first come to mind when you think of the contents e.g. “Family Pictures I Would Keep Forever” rather than “Family Pictures” . 
  • Use sounds on your watch to help you keep track of time.
  • Use a timed playlist on your phone or digital music player to help you keep track of time spent on a particular project or task.
  • Talk yourself through the steps of an organizing project.  Write them down and say them out loud while you work your way through each step.

If you are naturally attuned to sounds – and like to play with sounds and words – use that skill and strength to your advantage when organizing.  Next post in the series will look at the kinesthetic processing modality.

Organizing Challenges Organizing Strategies
Tags : Clearing Clutter, Filing, home office, managing mess, Organizing Maintenance, organizing strategies, Time Management, Understanding disorganization
We can organize using our eyes if we are competent in our visual processing modality.

Organizing with our Eyes – Visual Processing Modality

Posted by Carolyn on
 October 14, 2015
Organizing with our eyes allows us to use our visual strength to get and stay organized.

Organizing with our Eyes – Visual Processing Modality

Organizing with our Eyes is the first in a series on organizing using one’s processing modalities.  In 2010, Denslow Brown of Coach Approach for Organizers and Organizer Coach published The Processing Modalities Guide.  This is the first of nine modalities that Denslow addresses in the guide.

Organizing with our Eyes – Strength & Sensitivity

We can have little or lots of strength in how we perceive the world with our eyes.   Lots of strength would make us gifted while little strength is referred to as weak.  If we are strong, organizing with our eyes would be natural, easy and help make staying organized easier.  We can also be hypo or hyper sensitive in using our eyes.  Sensitive means we are bothered by, perhaps agitated and likely exhausted by too much or the wrong visual stimulation.

Organizing with your Eyes – Organizing Strategies

Professional organizers and coaches with training in processing modalities understand that the degree of strength and the degree of sensitivity can be used to help a client get organized and stay organized.

If you are visually sensitive then lots of colour might be irritating while one or minimal colour might be soothing.  Try these strategies:

  • Use storage containers that are all one colour, size or shape if they will be used in one place.  Even just one colour will make a difference.
  • Use containers of similar, complementary or minimal colour to contain items that might otherwise look messy or haphazard.
  • Place things in an orderly fashion by size, shape or colour to minimize visual stimulation.

If you are visually strong you remember items by sight.  You can easily identify the visual difference in items.  Try these organizing techniques to take advantage of this strength:

  • use clear containers to help identify their contents
  • label storage containers to identify their contents
  • use colour on file labels or the files themselves to distinguish between different groups of subjects.  For example, client files might be green while marketing files might be red.
  • use visual cues such as symbols, single words or a sketch to remind yourself to do a particular task.

Use your natural and existing strengths to help you get organized.  Organizing with your eyes is just one way.  Organizing with our ears is next.

Organizing Challenges Organizing Strategies
Tags : Filing, Goals, managing mess, Organizing Maintenance, organizing strategies, organizing tips, Professional Organizers in Canada, visual organizing
woman in black juggling blue balls

5 Strategies For Students to Manage Time Tasks

Posted by Carolyn on
 August 10, 2015

It’s early August.  One glance at the window of any office supply store will confirm the inevitable – the new school term is just around the corner.   Like many parents, you anticipate the new school year with trepidation: back to the pressure of projects, assignments and exams but your child, the student, is not very good at managing his/her time. It’s possible your student feels the same trepidation and has already suffered the stress caused by struggling to manage time commitments.

5 Strategies to Help Juggle Time

Time tasks are better managed than juggled.

Here are five strategies that will help  your student be successful at managing their time tasks. timeliness and success.

1. Modify your Perspective; Time Can Not Be Managed.

Time is time.  It ticks past at the same pace every second of every minute of every hour of every day. No matter how we try, no one has yet found a way to make it stop. Needless to say, the enduring state of time means we have absolutely no control over it. None. Zilch. Nada. You can’t control it, stop it, or manage it.

There, feel better?  You are off the hook to manage time. Insert sigh of relief.

What we do have control over is what we do with our time, how we use it.  Anything you commit to do, no matter how big or small, is a time task or time commitment. An assignment is a time task; so is taking out the garbage, going to hockey practice and eating supper.  Most of us don’t think of eating supper as a time task but just ask your stomach and the coach what happens if the school bus is late and your student can’t get supper until after hockey practice at 8 pm.  The better we are at managing our time tasks, the more successful we are at managing our relationship with time.

2. Identify Time Tasks

Help your student be really clear on all the things for which they have  time commitments. In most young people’s lives many there are lots, many of which can’t altered, modified or moved. There are 2 types of time tasks – the regular/routine (RR)and the irregular/occasional (IO). RR tasks are frequently the more obvious ones such as class schedules, hockey practice, dance class(es), Youth Group and piano lessons. IO tasks might include assignments, shopping for prom dress and hockey tournaments.  I consider exams to be RR since in most high schools the exam schedule is known well in advance and can be clearly planned for. Birthdays would be IO unless you can remember the dates of everyone’s birthday and are certain when the all the celebrations will be. Less obvious RR are sleep, meals and the orthodontist appointments (same time every month right?). More challenging are IO time tasks over which you have no booking control like the hockey games and  group projects. Driving time is both RR and IO as it is frequently attached to an activity.

3. Use a Day Planner/Calendar.

Using a day planner, in whatever form, is likely the most significant strategy for helping a student manage their time tasks.  Planners provide the opportunity to do just that – plan.  And then there are all the synonyms for planning. People who plan and are prepared, have an interesting relationship with luck.  Use whatever form of planner works for your student and is appropriate for their age.  In some cases this will be the calendar on their phone.  In others, it will need to be a wall calendar over which you still have some influence or even help them insert their time tasks.

Start by having the student fill in their RR tasks, remembering to leave space for meals, sleep and driving time.  Next have the student fill in whichever IO tasks they are aware of.  This is a great opportunity to fill in related tasks such as finding the shoes to go with the prom dress or sharpening the skates before the game.  Encourage them to write in all their friends’ and family members’ birthdays. Why? Often there will be parties booked around these dates and with the dates booked in the agenda a student can anticipate a gathering of friends or family around the birthday date. With the heads up on their agenda, they can also budget their funds if they wish to go out to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

If they are old enough, encourage your student to keep the agenda with them at all times in their back pack or hand bag.  It will then be available for reference when the opportunity to babysit comes up or a party invitation arrives.

4. Plan Tomorrow Today

Being prepared is still a good motto.  Teach your student to check their agenda at the end of the day and plan for the following.  If they are still young and using a wall calendar, teach them to check the calendar before bed to prepare their clothes, dance bag, hockey gear or homework books before the rush of the morning.

5. Verb-up the To Do List.

Developing a list of the time tasks associated with assignments and other school activities is a powerful tool for getting time tasks accomplished.  Unfortunately, these lists frequently become a list of nouns waiting for attention rather than actions requiring time e.g. Geography project, English outline, prom dress, new binder.

A more helpful list uses at least one verb to clearly indicate what needs to be done and includes a deadline.  Being more specific when writing the list also helps your student realize what the full time tasks actually involves and how they will know when it is completed.  For example:

Geography project becomes,

Review (teacher) Mr. Sanders topic list and choose a topic for geography project.  Submit to Mr. Sanders  by September 30.

Prom dress becomes,

Call BFF. Book shopping time this weekend. Set up FB page for prom dress for our grad year. (who knew dresses had their own FB pages?)

Each of these tasks has now become a more complete assignment by verbing-up the task statement.  Your student will know what needs to be done and when it is accomplished.

School may be just around the corner but you and your student can be armed and ready for the added pressures it brings.  These five strategies will set up your student to manage, not juggle, their time tasks with a straight A result.

Organizing Students
Tags : Children, organizing strategies, organizing students, Students, Time Management, Time Tamers
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