Archive for Time Management – Page 3

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
  ·  No Comments

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 : , ,

Book a Meeting with Yourself

Posted by Carolyn on
 April 21, 2011
  ·  No Comments

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.

Organizing Strategies
Tags : , , ,

Brown Bag It! — So to Speak

Posted by chrisjanes on
 October 15, 2010
  ·  No Comments

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 : ,

Building Time: Multi Task vs Multi Layer

Posted by Carolyn on
 October 13, 2010
  ·  No Comments

The question of whether multi-tasking works to increase productivity comes up frequently at our house.  What can I say?  I have a teenager.  This age bracket of our species has taken multi-tasking to new heights with ear buds, television, blackberry and homework all going at the same time.

My experience is that multi-tasking does not work well.  I define multi-tasking as participating at one time in two or more activities that each require our attention.  Thus talking on the telephone and typing a report is multi-tasking. Similarly making dinner while helping a school child with home work is multi-tasking; both require your attention in order to be completed.  If your attention is distracted from your task, it is unlikely that you will complete it well.  Your phone mate may perceive you are distracted or merely wait patiently for your attention to return to his/her question, the report may have errors.

Time layering or time deepening is a strategy that does work.  I define time deepening as organizing two or more tasks that do not require our attention to be accomplished simultaneously.  If many layers are being developed, only the top layer can take your attention while the other tasks are accomplished without your input or attention except to get them started.  Home managers have known this strategy for ages: wash the laundry and hang to dry – while drying, mix bread and leave to rise – while drying and rising cut beef/vegetables and set stew to simmer – while drying and simmering, knead bread and set to rise – while drying, simmering and rising, mend clothes.  Project managers differentiate between those tasks that must be accomplished in sequence and therefore are time and order sensitive versus those tasks that can be accomplished at the same time therefore layering tasks.

If you work from home you may already layer your time without realizing that you are using this strategy: put on laundry, take out dinner meat to thaw, set coffee to drip, turn sprinkler on lawn – pour coffee, set to work on report.  One hour later you turn over laundry, turn over meat, move sprinkler to back lawn, refill coffee and back to report.

You get the picture.  Try it.  How many layers can you build into your time? 

Organizing Time
Tags : , , , ,

Arrive on time, with everything you need.

Posted by jennievlietstra on
 June 23, 2010
  ·  No Comments

Early, early morning is not my favourite time of the day. When I have an early appointment, like this morning, I want to spend every possible extra second in bed that I can. To do that I need to prepare ahead and organize everything that I will need to take with me.

Starting the evening before:

1. Confirm the time and address of your appointment. Look up the location on a map or print if necessary from an online map search.

2. Plan your route, with a possible alternative for those just in case scenarios. For example, this morning I was heading downtown on the subway and had to change my planned route due to a G20 security incident.

3. Calculate how much time it will take to get from A to B. Give yourself an appropriate buffer of time, depending on time of day. I calculated it would take me 40 minutes to arrive at my destination. I rounded up to 45 minutes and decided to try and arrive 10 minutes early. This gave me a definitive time that I had to leave by. By planning ahead I was able to make it to my appointment on time, even with the delay on route.

4. Pack your bag with everything that you will need. For me this included a charged cell phone, a refillable water bottle, a snack, and documents required for my appointment. For regular appointments consider having a bag reserved and always prepared with the basics you’ll need.

5. Set your alarm time to accommodate your basic morning routine, and to get you out the front door at your definitive departure time.

Now, when the alarm goes off early, early in the morning there is little stress knowing that everything is ready to go.

Organizing Time
Tags : , , ,

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Posted by chrisjanes on
 June 18, 2010
  ·  No Comments

Have you ever looked at something, without really seeing it? I recently discovered that our dishwasher has a Delay button. We’ve had the dishwasher four-and-a-half years. It wasn’t until reading the manual that accompanied my mother’s new dishwasher, that I even realized dishwashers have a Delay button.

I’ve heard of washing machines having a delay feature. While I marvelled at the idea when I was first aware of it, I quickly started to wonder how that would be useful. Now that Time-of-Use (TOU) billing has been rolled out by my electricity provider, I get it. The benefits are two-fold: I can load my dishwasher after dinner, but set it to run when the lowest rate is in effect and I no longer wake up to a dishwasher full of dirty dishes, because I forgot to press Start before going to bed.

Mornings are better when I can focus on the things needed for that day. Who wants to start their day washing dishes that should have washed themselves, while trying to get breakfast on the table? There just isn’t enough time for that in the morning.

Home Organizing
Tags : , ,

Organizing on the Go

Posted by Carolyn on
 June 16, 2010
  ·  No Comments

If you travel frequently for business you know that staying organized while on the go can be a challenge.  There are three main issues to address: a) receipts b) staying productive and c) being prepared.

Often one’s entire trip involves keeping track of those darn receipts.  Whether you work for yourself or a large corporation, even with a friendly and fully loaded expense card, that proof of purchase is necessary at every transaction.  To keep the receipts organized keep then contained.  Whether you choose an envelope, a wallet size accordion folder or a plastic folder with pockets, the trick is to keep them in one place where they won’t get lost and will be available when it comes to register your expenses.

Staying productive while travelling can be difficult when you are at the mercy of train, plane or bus schedules and someone else’s meeting agenda.  Keep a ready supply of “To Do” work on hand either on your computer or in your travel case including some lighter reading.  That way when you have to wait for the plane which has been delayed or the meeting hosts who are late, you can keep yourself productive and occupied.

Finally, business travel may be planned in advance but may also be a last minute opportunity for that BIG DEAL you have been waiting for.  Keep a travel case packed and your business case supplied so that you can leave with very little preparation.  Once you return from your trip, repack your cases immediately; you will be most conscious of what you wished you had on your trip right when you return and can ensure your travel cases are loaded up accordingly.

Organizing Travel
Tags : ,

It’s About Time

Posted by Carolyn on
 January 27, 2010
  ·  No Comments

My clients are equally split between the number that use electronic calendars and those that use paper calendars. The electronic device allows you to have instant access to your schedule 5 years out or five years back without the weight of 5 books. They also allow you to flip things around with the touch of a role ball, touch screen or mouse. No need for those messy erasers and rewriting the re/re/rescheduled appointment in question.

For many people, no matter how easy the electronic device may seem, managing time does not work for them on a small device, small screen and fiddly tool. A month at a glance is easier on an 8 in X 11 in paper than a 1.5 in screen. Those with kinetic learning preferences may find the act of writing in appointments helps to secure the appointments existence into their mind – more so than typing an appointment once then hitting the recurrence function for the balance of the year’s appointments.

I seem to be one of these people and I am in the process of trying out a paper calendar again. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. Meanwhile – what has been your experience?

Organizing Time
Tags : , , , ,

Client Questions – Why do I get stuck on Email?

Posted by Carolyn on
 June 1, 2009
  ·  No Comments

The electronic age was meant to speed up the way we work and computers promised to make life easier. They have, however, brought with them their own challenges as witnessed by the common frustrations of managing email. If email is soaking up too much of your day, try these tips:

  1. Turn off the email alert on your computer. You know emails arrive constantly. You don’t need your computer to remind you there is more work sitting in your Inbox.
  2. Schedule a routine time to clear new email messages. Do not schedule this first thing in the morning otherwise it may soak up the rest of your day.
  3. Read, respond then delete or file. Keeping loads of email messages in your Inbox is the same as leaving mail sitting on the middle of your desk. Both practices give you the impression you have yet to deal with the messages when in fact, you have responded.
  4. Use your email functionality – rules and alerts – to sort your mail when it arrives. If you have a big project on the go, create a folder for the project. Add the folder to your favourite folders where you can see it easily in the top left (or right) of your screen. Create a rule to have all new mail with the project name in the heading or body go directly to this folder. Your computer will tell you when there is new mail in the folder, don’t worry. It’s like having an assistant sort your mail before putting it in your inbox.
  5. Limit your time for email clearing. If you need two or three scheduled times to clear – so be it but limit the time of each session.
  6. Be short and succinct in your communication. No one else wants to receive long winded emails at their end since they have limited time to review it as well.

Enjoy shaking off the email shackles.

Office Organizing
Tags : , , , ,

The O-C Connection

Posted by Carolyn on
 May 13, 2009
  ·  No Comments

.. And we are not talking Orange County here folks.

This is “end of year” season. The concerts, open houses, school events, choir performances, track meets are coming at me at such a fast pace my online calendar and handheld device can barely keep up.

Oh, that’s right. It’s May again. I should have known. It happens every May and September.

Sound familiar? When events collide all at once to load up our scheduling demands that “O” word often creeps into our vocabulary – Overwhelm.

Counter with with “C” word – control. The more control you can muster the more easily you will glide through this maze of events like an organizing time professional. Anticipation will help with the control. Look out to the next couple of weeks and see what’s coming. The more you can anticipate the less likely things will catch you off guard and the more likely you are to feel in control.

Follow up with the “R” word – Relax. This too will pass. Summer is coming. And beside, the kids will only be young once. Enjoy.

Home Organizing
Tags : , ,
← Previous Page
Next Page →
Carolyn Caldwell photo, Instagram logo and link to follow.

Banish those 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.

Name(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Caldwell Evolution | Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved
Website by Janet Barclay