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Archive for Planning

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

Tax Time Loomith

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 31, 2012

Many of us are planning for the holidays and looking forward to some downtime after a busy fall.  Great idea.  What’s top of your list when you get back to the office in January?

With a little forward planning, by the time you get to April, you’ll be focussed on those new clients having signed off and sent off your annual tax return.  If you are still working on a paper-based system, consider booking time with yourself in your 2012 calendar, before it gets booked with client appointments, to sort the receipts.

An accordion file makes a great receptacle.  With 13 pockets it can stand on a shelf, in a file drawer and be labelled by month to receive receipts, invoices and any other relevant paperwork.

Office Organizing
Tags : Planning, Taxes
to celebrate the new year, gold confetti and streamers in air against a black background

Happy New Year

Posted by Carolyn on
 December 31, 2011

colourful balloon floating against a blue sky with confetti flying around to celebrate New YearHappy New Year

Best wishes to all our readers for a healthy, happy and prosperous coming year.  May all your goals for the year be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and accomplished by this time next year!

Resolutions?

Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions? How about a few key items on your To Do List for this year.

My suggestion is to stick to no more than 3 items and if you can, just put one item on your resolutions list.  Set yourself up for success. This allows you to keep your attention to the one thing you want to accomplish. It reminds you that you have one key priority in addition the routine day to day priorities of life.

Have fun and good luck.

Holiday Organizing
Tags : celebrations, Planning, Time Management

Brown Bag It! — So to Speak

Posted by chrisjanes on
 October 15, 2010

Do you ever wonder where your money goes? Or why your waistline just won’t shrink? The answer to both these questions may be found in your lunch bag. Yes, the one that has been pushed to the back of your highest shelf.

Grabbing a bite on the go responds to our need for variety, and convenience. While there are more healthy choices available, both the healthy and not-so-healthy lunch options are costly – in more ways than one.

Most people say they just don’t have time to prepare a lunch. So, a few suggestions for you:

1. Never underestimate the leftover. If tonight’s dinner will travel well, just pull out an extra food storage container when you’re putting away the extras and voilà, lunch to go. You’re ready for tomorrow, before the evening has drained your energy.

2. It’s not all or nothing. If the thought of creating a complete meal is still too daunting, start with the non-perishable snacks. Put some fruit, a granola bar, a few crackers, in a bag the night before. You won’t have to think twice as you walk out the door in the morning and you’ll be glad to have some healthy supplements throughout the day.

3. Insulated lunch bags. If you haven’t got one, treat yourself. The lunch bag is now a trendy accessory. To be absolutely sure your meal will be safe to eat, throw in an ice pack for added peace of mind.

Bon appétit!

Home Organizing
Tags : Planning, Time Management

Plan Your Return

Posted by Carolyn on
 December 19, 2008

For many people, today is the last day in the office before a couple of weeks vacation over the Christmas holidays. For others, the last day may be next week or early January before a relaxing vacation in a hot, sunny locale. (I wish!)

Whichever the case for you, take time today to Plan Your Return! Thirty minutes is all it takes to get a grip on the first day back. You will thank yourself – and who knows, maybe I’ll get a titch of credit – when you return and realize that you already have control over the back log of work and your top priorities. Think how impressed your boss will be!

  1. Clear out the top of your desk even if it just means sorting into piles so that you know what’s there. Make sure the majority of the top of your desk is a clear work space. You will be able to return to your desk, sit down and breath. Breathing is good.
  2. Schedule your top priorities for your return. Check your schedule of projects and start a list of activities that will require your attention as soon as you return. Book time for these activities into your calendar. Anticipation is powerful.
  3. Containerize your mail. If you will be receiving mail into your office while you are away, nothing takes the glow off a sunny memory faster than an overflowing Inbox. Consider a larger container for the duration of your time away from the office. It will help to keep the paper organized before it even gets to you! Containing the clutter keeps you in control.
  4. Clear the floor under and around your desk. Take home the 12 pairs of shoes (at least 11 of them). Return the dishes to the kitchen. Throw out the garbage and recycling (or leave them at the door for pick up). If necessary, resort to containerizing and stacking the rest to open up the space and free the energy around your desk. Energy is good.
  5. Check the view from the door. You are going to need an organized, powerful view when you first return in order to get a jump start on those ambitious goals to be organized and exceed your quotas for 2009. Organized is powerful.

Have an awesome vacation.

Office Organizing Organizing Strategies
Tags : Clutter Clearing, Planning

Countdown to January 1, 2009

Posted by Carolyn on
 December 3, 2008

It’s coming – no matter how you try and stave it off, the new year will be here in 27 days.

That means a number of things to a number of people; budgets, performance appraisals, sales targets are just some of the items that are lurking just beyond that January 1 holiday. How to get on top of it?

Start by listing all the items you know are due in the first weeks of the new year. Now start to plan when you will get them accomplished. Take out the calendar, look at the weeks ahead. Wow, already pretty packed right? That’s the problem with trying to get much of anything done during the month of December.

Nevertheless push on. Book in 2 – 3 hour blocks to accomplish those tasks due in the first couple of weeks. On your list of things to do, make a note of all the bits that need to be accomplished in addition to just getting the work done. Is there information you need to gather? Book time with your staff for performance appraisals? Pull together the sales reports? Now get these items booked in the calendar.

Smile and look forward to the New Year knowing your new year tasks are booked and ready to be tackled.

Holiday Organizing Office Organizing
Tags : Goals, Planning, Time Management

Anticipation – The Greatest Time Management Tool

Posted by Carolyn on
 December 4, 2007

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!

Office Organizing Organizing Time
Tags : calendars, Planning, Students, Teenagers, Time Management

Calendar Cares

Posted by Carolyn on
 November 7, 2007

It’s one week into November. Is your family calendar up to date? Is it posted where everyone can see it? After four days away at the Professional Organizers in Canada national conference last week, I have only just got ours up to date today. For our family, it’s a four month white board posted in the kitchen. Each family member is a different colour white board marker with black for family events. We can all see it and any one of us can refer to it while trying to book an event.

What does your families’ look like? Does it work?

Organizing Time
Tags : calendars, Planning, Professional Organizers in Canada

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