Serving Eastern Pennsylvania, Central and Southern New Jersey, and Delaware
Serving Eastern Pennsylvania, Central and Southern New Jersey, and Delaware
There is a weird magnetic field between my garage door and the stoplight half a mile down the road. So often I get pulled back to my garage five minutes after leaving to gather some forgotten item. Sometimes it happens more than once on the same trip!
Do you often leave the house more than once?
Yes, I’m organized, but it still happens. Hey, no one is perfect.
I recently started investigating why this happens and whether it can be fixed.
Harold Taylor, a noted time management expert, told about how he takes a daily walk, after which he sits down to write an article or two. One year his kids got him a portable music device for his walks. He enjoyed the music, but he found that when he reached his destination, the articles wouldn’t come. What changed? His brain needed the quiet time during his walk for him to consistently write articles.
Many people today just don’t have any quiet time in their day. Certainly, those five minutes between the back door and the garage are hectic, and hectic is where chaos happens.
Hectic is where things get forgotten, accidents happen, and commitments are missed.
Unfortunately, my brain thinks the five minutes after I get in the car are my quiet time. After I’ve cleared the kitchen counter, grabbed my bags, and made it out of the clutches of little hands who want just one more hug — sitting in the car IS quiet time. With all of the household and family duties behind, my mind is captive in the car and starts planning the details of events I’m heading to and the commitments in the rest of my day.
That is when forgotten details pop into my head, usually right around the time I reach that first stoplight.
If this happens to you more often than you’d like, there is an easy fix. Actually, two fixes:
1. Checklists — Similar to notepads that some people hang on the doorknob to remind them of things to take out of the house, I have one inside my car that I check before leaving for an appointment. Going through the checklist forces me to switch gears before I leave the driveway, and at least I don’t forget the obvious items. For a client who often has a dead battery because she leaves her car lights on, I created a checklist of what to do before she exits her car with 3 things on it:
• Turn off headlights (her car doesn’t have automatic shut off)
• Check teeth and lipstick
• Grab purse and lunch bag
Could you make a checklist like this?
2. Breathe — Give it a moment, maybe in the front seat while you are still parked in the driveway. It’s easy to stay on the go, not miss a step in your day, but 60 seconds with your eyes closed, mentally running through the task coming up next might be all you need. Picture what you’ll be carrying, where you’re going, who you’ll see, and your essential items will pop into your head more times than not.
So simple, right? Simple, but not easy. If you do one of these fixes, you’ll be more less frantic and more organized. If you do both, you’ll be an organizing rock star. I think I hear your band warming up now!
No Matter How Much
We Wish For More!
Managing our time and never having enough of it seems to be a common theme these days. I hear the same complaint from students, single people, married people, parents of young children, baby boomers, working people, and even retirees — believe it or not. No matter what your age or what stage of life you are in, time management skills will make your life easier to handle.
We all have demands put upon us by others (e.g., boss, children, spouse, friend, other family members). However, we are in control of what we decide to do and what we decide not to do. If it’s between going to the doctor because you are sick or driving 5 miles out of your way to save $.50 on a gallon of milk, you may want to forgo the latter just to give yourself more time to do the things that are absolutely necessary. Then, you’ll be able to give yourself time to relax, take a deep breath, and re-energize.
If you always have too many activities to handle in a day, think about what you have to get done, what you want to get done, what you don’t want to do, and what you don’t have to do. Make columns on a piece of paper with these headings and write them down rather than keeping them in your head. This will help you to visualize what is going on in your life and may even spur you on to not do those things you don’t want to or think you have to do.
And, by the way, don’t forget to fit sleep into those 24 hours. What are you going to do to manage your time better so you finally are able to do those things you love? My goal is to see you go from Bedlam to Brilliance!
When trying to save time and money at the grocery store, the first step is to start with your menu plan. Plan your meals by making a weekly menu. Of course you can also do bi-monthly or monthly if you feel so inspired, but if this is a new process start with a week until you get comfortable with this idea.
For each day of the week, plan what your meals will be including breakfast, lunch, snacks, and beverages. Now check to see if you have written any specialty recipes down that may require additional ingredients such as spices, etc. Start making your grocery list based upon your menu.
Check your pantry and make sure you have all of the ingredients or food items you need to accomplish your meal plan for the week. If you do not, write them down on your grocery list. This way of planning will keep you organized so preparing and cooking your meals will go off without a hitch. Being organized will help to prevent the need to run back to the store for forgotten items or ingredients.
Keep a running grocery list during the week for any supplies that run out or are getting low. Add these items to your grocery list. This is an especially helpful household task for when you have multiple family members. If you used the last of something, put it on the list, do not let the next person needing that item be the one to find out it’s not there when they need it. A detailed grocery list helps you from forgetting items that you may need.
Do you use coupons? If not skip this paragraph. If so, keep your coupons in a file or a convenient place such as your pocketbook. Organize the coupons in the same manner you organized your list; by the order of where those items will be found in the aisles. Check that you are purchasing the exact brand, item, size requirement, etc. from that coupon as you are selecting that item. This will save you time and embarrassment at the checkout counter from choosing an incorrect item. Also check for expiration dates on your coupons.
Now if you want to save time at the grocery store take this list one step further and organize the list based upon the grocery store aisles where you do your shopping. This way you are able to cross items off the list as you go up and down the aisles. This will help you from going back and forth through the aisles if you skip something. It also helps from forgetting items.
To recap:
Planning your menu and grocery list in an organized manner will not only help you become an organized shopper, it will save you time and money as well. Happy Shopping!
“Help! I can’t stand it anymore! My office is a disaster. Papers are piled everywhere. I don’t know where things are. I don’t know what supplies I have until I run out. My bulletin boards have announcements for events that happened two years ago attached to them. I’m behind on my work, and I hate being in my office. My life is a mess!”
“Was this a phone call I received from a potential client?” you may ask. No. This is what I said two weeks ago when I felt like I was drowning in paperwork, and my life was a mess. “But wait,” you exclaim. “You’re a Professional Organizer. You know how to organize stuff. Why can’t you just organize your office?” The answer is that even we, who are experienced and proficient organizing other people’s things, sometimes cannot do it for ourselves.
Every morning I would walk into my office with incredible determination. “This will be the day that I finally and completely organize my office and my life!” But when I walked into my office, something happened. I looked at the piles of paper and the disorganization, and I became paralyzed with dread.
It doesn’t matter whether the area that is disorganized is an office, a kitchen, a bedroom or a play room. Sometimes it just feels as though as much as you really, really want to get organized, you’re just having a hard time doing it. So I asked myself what I would tell a prospective client if they called me with a similar situation.
But what do you do if you can’t get yourself to commit to tackling that cluttered area for even five minutes? Take a tip from a professional who has been-there-done-that. Either call a friend who is nonjudgmental and willing to help or call a professional; which is what I did. I figured that if I call a doctor when I’m sick and go to the dentist when I have a toothache, I should call a professional organizer when it feels like my (insert name of area here) needs organizing. What about you? Take just 5 minutes and call for help. Now? Yes! If not now, when?
Every email that comes in is an opportunity. Every Facebook article is a worthwhile read. Every free 60 page ebook is a life saver. But come on now, if you read everything you could read you would NEVER BE DONE and on top of that YOU WOULD NEVER GET TO WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT.
I’ve been a long-time advocate for short and sweet, so I always try to keep everything I share manageable and digestible in 5 minutes or less. That’s what I can do for you.
What can you do for yourself?
If you choose to spend your time on things that just pop up and come your way you will NEVER get to the work you want to do. To be a high performer be clear on what is important and spend your time on what matters. All the rest? JUST SAY NO – LET THEM GO.
I don’t know about you, but spring is my favorite time of year, and the last thing I want to do is spend my weekend or multiple weekends focusing on cleaning and organizing my entire home. Instead of pulling out that long list of spring cleaning duties, consider breaking up the list into bite size pieces to be completed throughout the year.
Maintenance is a much easier solution and a tremendous time saver.
Pick Your Battles
Look at your list and determine the cleaning and organizing tasks that make the most sense for this time of year. For example, closets are a great place to start because this is the time of year we change from winter to spring/summer attire. Garages are another good area of focus. Now is the time to put away the snow blower and pull out the lawn mower. And, let’s be honest, things tend to get piled and tossed into the garage all winter, so it’s time for a garage clean-out. Your garden shed is another great fit for seasonal organizing. Inspect and sharpen your garden tools, take stock of your supplies, clean your clay pots and determine your tool storage area based on how often you use the tools. Also, with the onset of warmer weather comes the need to change to lighter blankets and comforters, and once the bed is stripped you can vacuum and turn the mattress to complete the process.
Maintenance is Key
Now that you have decided which areas make sense to organize during the spring season; let’s break the rest of that cleaning and organizing list into manageable tasks to be completed throughout the year. Baseboards, doors, and cobwebs can be dusted and cleaned during the winter when you’re stuck inside during a snowstorm. Lampshades and ceiling fans can be dusted at regular intervals when you dust the rest of your home. Draperies, blinds and carpets can be cleaned in the fall or the end of the summer. Many people have self cleaning ovens that can be cleaned any time of the year, and grease traps and stove filters are easy to replace or clean on an as needed basis.
Consistency is the Name of the Game
Having a consistent, year round routine will help you avoid investing large chunks of time in the spring. Instead, get out and smell the forsythia, spend time with family and friends, or do whatever makes you happier at this wonderful time of year. Organizing and cleaning are necessary for a functional life, so finding ways to spread it out and make it easier in the long run will save you endless hours each season.
