Filed under: Time Management
Excerpted from “The Power of Simplicity” by Patty Kreamer, CPO®, COC® ~ Certified Professional Organizer® Certified Organizer Coach®
1. Be on the look out for hearing and saying these statements:
- I am so busy.
- I never have any time for myself.
- I am always running late.
- I never make dinner…I make reservations.
- I can’t remember the last time my family ate together…
- I didn’t have a chance to…
- I am always so tired.
- I wish I had time to…
- My house is a disaster area.
- I never stop running all day but I get so little done.
2. Recognize that simplicity is a journey, not an event.
Simplicity is a choice. A decision. The bottom line is that only
you are responsible for what you bring into your life. Period.
3. Know that CLUTTER CAN:
- Make you feel tired
- Affect your body weight
- Keep you living in the past
- Make you put your life on hold
- Induce a feeling of shame and guilt
- Be the main cause of procrastination
- Add unnecessary confusion in your life
- Affect how people treat and/or respect you
- Induce or enhance the chances of depression
- Cause disharmony among family, friends, or coworkers
4. Use the NEED VS. WANT” Filter.
If I NEED this item:
- Where will this live when I get it back to my home or office?
- If there is no room for it, the second question to ask is:
- What will I get rid of in order to make room?
If I WANT this item:
- Can I live without this item?
- Can I wait a week to make the purchase?
- Do I really want to spend my money on this item?
5. Live by the ONE IN – ONE OUT Rule.
When you buy something new, get rid of something old.
6. Identify how you make decisions…EMOTIONALLY or LOGICALLY.
Emotion might bring guilt, fear, stress, and several other feelings into play. Logic, however, dismisses feelings and goes to the thinking side of decision-making. Looking at your stuff, it’s easier to feel what it means to you than it is to think about what it is doing to you.
7. Remember what IMPULSE stands for:
I
Must
Purchase
Until
Logic
Surpasses
Emotion
8. Learn to use THE POWER OF THE PAUSE.
The investment of just a few minutes or seconds in a “pause” BEFORE anything new enters your life can make a monumental difference. The period of time before you decide to bring something new into your life can be the crucial “make or break point” in attaining simplicity. You have to make a conscious decision whether or not you have both physical and emotional room for it.
9. Take Inventory.
Literally taking an inventory of what you have in your life will be a productive step for you. Since clutter is what you no longer see, many times you don’t even know what you have!
10. Recognize that only you can make the choice to live your life on purpose.
Simplicity is not easy, but you now have the essentials to successfully begin the process and achieve it. Remember that simplicity is not an event. It is a lifestyle, a choice, YOUR choice, a journey, and an ongoing path.
© 2009-2011 Patty Kreamer, CPO®, COC®
June 30, 2011
Another featured product for January, the BusyBodyBook Schedule Organizer for 2009-2010 will help you manage your time and save you money. Receive 10% off this month!
With our BusyBodyBook planner, time management is a breeze! Each family member has their own column to organize and track schedules and activities while coordinating with each other side by side.
The unique layout provides the clearest view of your daily & weekly schedules and activities, helping you stay organized, focused and on track. You’ll easily view overlapping schedules and avoid double-booking.
BusyBodyBook organizers are versatile it can be used to manage more than just family schedule. Here are some things to manage with your 2010 BusyBodyBook organizer:
We especially love the perforated pages for creating handy grocery or gift lists. You can either stash your list in your purse, or hand it over to someone else and let them do the shopping!
January 22, 2010
We’re just 2 weeks into January, so it’s not too late to implement a new system to organize paperwork, bills, invitations, appointments, and other important items. I suggest creating your own tickler system, and we have several products that might help you.
A Tickler System helps you manage your “active papers”. Anything that comes in from school, work or the mail that needs action should be filed in your Tickler System. Each day, you can pull the items from your daily folder and instantly know what needs to get done today! It’s a great way to stay on top of your “To Do” list.
Our recommendation:
Try our Get Things Done Tickler File solution. Documents, notes, and reminders of all sorts can be directly filed in this file set of 43 folders to automatically trigger action and/or review when needed, without loading up daily planners or getting lost in miscellaneous storage. If you want to be reminded to handle something in the future, but don’t want or need to think about it until then, it can be “tickled” to show up exactly on the day or month you’d like to see it again.
Not sure how this might fit into your life? Here are a few ideas:
- Regular reports and activities, from payroll taxes and performance reviews to computer back ups.
- Reminder of bill paying on a specific day to maximize your cash flow.
- Review of “Maybe” actions in catalogs, direct mail or deferred items
- Follow-ups including delegated actions
- Tickets of all kinds
- Travel directions needed for a specific appointment.
- Warranty expirations, and “Last date to…”
- Car care, kids events
- Birthday and anniversary cards to mail
January 13, 2010
How many of you are ready to send your kids back to school? While we all enjoy the carefree days of summer, we also admit that the first day of school comes with some relief! We are happy to know that our kids have more opportunities to socialize with friends, get involved in activities and athletics, and generally stay busy and engaged. But that relief can be quickly replaced by overwhelm when we realize just how many activities and events we’re going to have schedule.
Organized A to Z focuses on getting you ready for back-to-school, whether you’re a parent, student, or teacher. During the month
of August, we’re featuring products that will help you organize your stuff, schedule, and the added paper that will find its way into your home or classroom.
When it comes to keeping track of everybody’s busy schedule, you need ButtonedUp’s Family.Agenda. This durable, agenda-sized, perfectly bound notebook has 150 pages, with 12 undated months so you can start to use it anytime of the year!
Each month has three sections to keep the entire family organized: Family schedule (for recurring appointments), Month-at-a-glance, and Week-at-a-glance. The Family.agenda™ also includes weekly organizational and sanity saving tips from Buttoned Up® as an added bonus.
Use it track school events, club meetings, doctor and dentist appointments, school meetings, church activities, and much more. Avoid double scheduling and over-scheduling.
August 6, 2009
Moms – celebrate the back-to-school season with a little gift for yourself!
I’m happy to announce that Organized A to Z is carrying Absolutely Organized by Debbie Lillard!
With school starting soon, you may soon find yourself running non-stop (if you’re not already) shuttling kids to after school activities, pushing to get them out the door in time for school, struggling to get them to wind down at night and in bed at the proper time, and squeezing in all the other daily errands and work in between.
You may feel like never you accomplish anything. You might feel stressed out just walking in the door or waking up in the morning. Ever dream about doing things that you never get around to doing? Wish you had extra hours in your day? Well, here’s something even better!
Absolutely Organized is “a book full of tips and hope” for overworked, time-crunched, clutter-crushed moms. It’s brimming with practical, proven and, in many cases, very simple solutions for keeping order in every corner of your life, from your refrigerator to your file drawers, from keeping a newborn on a set schedule to getting kids to willingly pitch in on household chores.
Debbie Lillard, professional organizer and mother of three, shares her easy-to-use “Absolutes of Organizing” tips to help you gain and maintain order in the three key areas of your family’s life:
YOUR TIME: Learn the tricks for streamlining cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping and other everyday duties. Get more done and have more time left over to spend on your kids, your spouse, projects around the house, and even yourself!
YOUR BELONGINGS: Use Debbie’s simple but effective C.P.R. method (Categorize, Purge and Rearrange) to organize paperwork, photos, collections, toys, clothes, children’s artwork and more.
YOUR HOME: Take it room by room–home office, kitchen, bathroom, family room and even (gulp!) the kids’ rooms. Rid your house of clutter, make the most of your space, and make home feel more comfortable, functional and relaxing.
Follow Absolutely Organized from start to finish for a complete, full-life makeover. Or dip in here and there for help on one problem area at a time, such as that ever-growing mountain of paperwork, your collection of children’s memorabilia, or that disaster area called a closet. Tried-and-true advice for every mom, Absolutely Organized will help you simplify your life so you can enjoy more and stress less.
Get the school year started off right with more organization, less stress, and a more comfortable and relaxing living space!
August 5, 2009
Whether managing household paper, bills, or business documents, the GTD Tickler File System will keep you on track. I chose to feature this system as a birthday special because I love the simple concept and its usefulness in many applications. You can store whole documents and always keep them easily accessible. When you need to organize by date and remember to tasks and papers, this is the system to use!
Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering our favorite products at 25% off. The discount is good today only, so get it now!
July 19, 2009
Today’s featured “birthday” special is Family Activities Calendar.
Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering our favorite products at 25% off. The discount is good today only, so get it now!
July 10, 2009
Today’s featured “birthday” special is The Mess Kit!
Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering our favorite products at 25% off. The discount is good today only, so get it now!
July 4, 2009
Organized A to Z is celebrating our birthday in July, but we’re giving you the presents! Each day, we are offering one of our favorite products at 25% off. Today’s featured product is the Buttoned Up Shopping.pad. The discount is good today only, so act fast!
July 2, 2009
Thanks to Organized A to Z partner Diana Fletcher, a stress-reducing expert, for contributing this week’s series – Six Steps to Happy, Healthy Living.
We have been in a “hurry-up” mode for so long that it is difficult for many people to figure out how to slow down. One great way to begin is to look at how you spend your days. Honestly look at how you spend each minute of everyday. Often we have developed habits that no longer have any purpose. Look at your activities and ask yourself, does this activity benefit me anymore? Does this benefit anyone else? If you are honest with yourself, you will discover many of these things are unnecessary or could be done by someone else. Eliminating just a few of these unnecessary activities can create extra space in your day. The purpose of this is not to immediately fill those moments with more work. The purpose is to create space to take care of your health. Once you have eliminated some time wasters, you can use these ideas to empower you on your journey toward healthier, happier living:
1) One of the keys to good health is getting enough sleep. It is possible to make this a priority. Turn off the television set. Leave the work. It can wait. Not getting enough sleep can affect our decision making, our moods, our creative thinking, and even make us weigh more. Studies have shown that lack of sleep decreases regulation of hormones that control our appetites. Think of times you have felt unusually hungry and craved carbohydrates. Many times this is after a night of too little sleep. Set a reasonable time to go to sleep and stick to it. Your reward will be fresher thinking, fresher skin and more energy.
2) Take the time to drink plenty of water. This is so simple but so important. Keep hydrated to flush out toxins, have healthier looking skin and boost your metabolic rate. Often we mistake thirst for hunger, so drinking enough water can help you control the amount you eat.
3) Take a multivitamin. Along with the water and the right amount of sleep, you will be amazed at the change in your energy levels.
4) Every hour, no matter what you are doing, take a few moments to stand up, stretch and move around. We were not meant to sit at desks and computers or anywhere else for long periods of time. Stretch, move, breathe.
5) Everyday show gratitude. Saying thank you is a de-stressor that makes you feel good. Negative thoughts cause stress. It is hard to have negative thoughts and thoughts of gratitude in our mind simultaneously.
6) Make time for friends. Healthy relationships help us stay healthy. This does not mean you have to accept every invitation that comes this time of year. Give yourself time to think about your response to the invitation. Is this something you truly want to do? Will you be sorry you gave up sleep or time with your family or spouse? Sometimes, holiday gatherings are not where we truly want to be. We overindulge in food and drink, then regret the time, calories and lack of sleep the next day.
How you spend the minutes of each day add up to how you spend your life. The way you live your life and the choices you make determine how healthy and strong you will be. Are you making choices that strengthen you or weaken you? If you are making the choices that are making you happy and healthy, that is fantastic and I say, keep up the good work! If not, you have the power to choose a different way. A happy, healthy way.
How do you truly want to live your life?
April 30, 2009
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