At the end of the day, spend 15 minutes writing down the top 3 things you want to accomplish tomorrow. You’ll wake up with purpose and focus.
Archive for Schedule
We just celebrated my son’s birthday with a big party at an indoor carnival. Despite having the party outside of our home, there was still a lot to do. Most importantly, you have to start planning early. These venues are booked far in advance of the actual celebration. So, what do you need to consider when scouting around for a party location? Here are a few things you will want to keep in mind:
· Is there a dedicated party room?
· Is there a sink in the room?
· Will you have to share the space with other patrons?
· Is food provided, or do you need to supply your own?
· Will you have access to a fridge?
· Will there be a staff member assigned to look after your party guests?
· Where are the washrooms?
· Is there somewhere for coats, presents and loot bags to be safely stored?
Answering these questions will let you know if you’ve found the right place for your party and exactly how much will be left for you to sort out before the big day.
This post is going to make everyone else happy and give you some more work. “Oh great!”, I can hear you say. But remember, when your organization makes everyone else happy, you look good.
It’s not about goals – its about agendas. Do you use them for your meetings? Do you send them out ahead of time? Are they clear and concise and related to the previous meeting’s minutes (if there was one)?
There is almost nothing worse for meeting attendees, even the virtual kind, than a meeting that doesn’t stay focused, runs overtime and doesn’t accomplish the goals for which it was set up. Your agenda, sent out in advance, will notify everyone of the purpose of the meeting, the time commitment, who will attend, what they are expected to contribute and what they can expect to get out of it.
Set up your meeting agenda. Send it out ahead of time. Stick to the agenda when you meet. Everyone will be happy to attend your meetings.
It’s the end of the first week in February – have you turned over your year end yet?
Are you still mixing 2008 invoices/receipts with the new 2009 items?
Have you collected your 2008 documentation for year end reports and income tax preparation?
Do you have a designated location for your 2009 invoices/receipts i.e. e file/folder, paper file, folder, envelop or even a plastic bin?
Have you opened up a new file/folder for February 2009 so that January 2009 can be easily identified/located/sorted/recorded ___________ (fill in your own blank).
How much does your small business/home-based business pay in bookkeeping fees?
Would a little more organization reduce that for you?
What could you reinvest in your business with the proceeds?
#14 Gift Wrapping – Maybe you like wrapping gifts at the last minute and scrambling at the 11th hour. On the other hand, maybe you wish you could have all your holiday gifts wrapped and waiting for their recipients while you relax and calmly enjoy your friends, family and holiday festivities.
If you fall into the first group of people you are reading this blog because you think I’m an outstanding writer and due for an award. I’m guessing that’s not the case for most of you and you really would like to get a grip on the season.
OK – Book a date in your calendar to wrap presents. Now book a second date. It always takes way longer than you think. Check that you have a copy of your favourite movies to watch or music to listen to while you wrap. Pull out all your wrapping supplies, gift tags and ribbons. Is there enough? Replenish only if necessary. Get ready for that calm enjoyment of the season.
This post idea came from my 14 year-old-will-definitely-conquer-the-world daughter. She felt that my readers would need some help getting through the holiday season. Since today is the second day of December, I will cover off two items.
25. Prepare your exhaustive gift list. Make sure everyone you will need to prepare a gift for is on the list so that you avoid any last minute surprises that could have been anticipated. Note on the list what needs to be bought, what you already have and what needs to be made.
24. Check your December calendar and ensure that it is up to date with all the social commitments you have for the month. Make sure it includes any items that you need to take to those social commitments. Book in the time to make/purchase the items you will be taking. Find out who is cooking the Christmas dinner that you will be attending. Is it you?
Simple concept isn’t it: be prepared. If you were a Boy Scout or Girl Guide, you would have memorized this motto along the way somewhere.
In application to business and time organization, the concept is no different. The more you can prepare ahead of time, the more relaxed, organized, polished and professional will be your presentation and performance. By preparing your material ahead of time, and confirming everything is ready in advance, you will also be able to avoid most technical hangups, forgetting things, or other people forgetting things.
Because you are a professional business person, your dates are already carefully mapped out on your daytimer right? Good. Now schedule in preparation time well in advance. Finally, follow up by scheduling in time, no later than the day before, to confirm that everything and everyone is in place. Now you can relax.
So often we struggle with those not-so-fun tasks that every job, business, company can claim. If you work in a SOHO it might be organizing your receipts to send to the book keeper. Oh, you do your own book keeping and the receipts are still in a box/envelop/pile on the desk?
Here’s a strategy for tackling that not-so-fun chore: schedule, subdivide into bites, conquer.
Start by scheduling some time to tackle the job. Without a Level 10 Intention, its not going to happen. By scheduling time on the calendar, you can at least get your intention close to 10.
Next divide the project into bites, something you can chew without choking. Maybe start by sorting the receipts into months and filing them into separate envelopes one for each month. Already separated? Try dividing or labelling them into your expense categories. Can’t find the receipts? There’s you first bite: spend the scheduled time collecting all the receipts you can find in your office and put them into envelopes, one for each month of the year. (Try an accordian file and you don’t need to worry about labelling the envelopes!).
Too often we fail to accomplish a task because it never gets scheduled into our calendars. Other bits and pieces of our business gobble up the day, the week, the month. If the task is an unpleasant or difficult one and you are procrastinating as a result, you probably find yourself doing almost anything else than sitting down to tackle it. Schedule a date with yourself to take it down.
Tags : Schedule, Time Management
Here is a quick follow up post from two days ago, after I received several questions from clients.
Yes, I really did mean for everyone in the family to pick a colour to be their colour for family organizing. You’d be surprised how successful this can be. Use everyone’s favourite colour to help pick out all kinds of household items from toothbrushes to tote sacks to calendering.
My husband grew up in a family of 10: M&D, 6 children, one maid and her son. His colour was green. There was green thread on his socks so they could be identified in the wash. Naturally, when we picked colours for ourselves and the children for our family calendar – his colour was green!
Colour can be a quick and easy way to organize anything from toys to files. When we organize we sort (small, medium, large widgets) pattern (like things together) and decide (keep, sell, toss). The same is true for storage and retrieval activity; looking for a spice (sort by alphabet?), filing paper (sort and pattern this year, last year, food, rent, utilities etc) and making decisions at every step.
Coloured boxes, baskets, labels or other storage tools provide an easy first sorting mechanism. Each child could be assigned a colour for their toys (John gets the blue toy bucket) sports gear (Jane’s labels, bag and towel are blue) or items on the calendar.
It is helpful to limit the number of colours to a minimum of choices. Use colour for high level choices. For example, if you run a home based business, try using one colour to sort between business and personal files (business is blue, personal is green). Too many colour choices can increase organizing challenges especially for individuals who are easily distracted and have difficulty focussing.
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Website by Janet Barclay
Website by Janet Barclay