Is Your Day Planner Friend or Foe? 10 Quick & Simple Tips to Effective Productivity

Last week I received my 2014 planner in the mail.  I do not know about you but one of my favourite things to do is crack open my new planner each year and begin mapping out all the important dates and events.   

In 2014 my eldest daughter Jasmine will be getting married, I need to block the week before her wedding of to help with last minute details, and I need to block the week after off for what I anticipate will be much needed “me” time.

 

A couple of years ago I gave a talk at a woman’s retreat and was asked to come up with one word that spoke to where I was at in my journey.  The word I chose was “Content" my life was in a state of peace and I was completely content.    Having to come up with one word was a challenge but it something I have adopted each year since.  

 Last year it was "Adventure" and my word for 2014 my word is: "Create".    

The word goes at the very beginning of my planner to remind me over my overall goal.

 Here are a few tips for was to maximize your planner usage and ensure that if is being used effectively

1.     Take it everywhere, put everything it and refer to it multiple times per day.   It will not work if you do not open it, read it and use it.

2.     When mail comes in the door, write bill payment dates, write appointments, and invitations dates into your planner

3.    Don’t stop there!  Put addresses, contact names and phone numbers into the planner as well.

4.    Stop the “sticky note insanity”.    Gather all your “sticky notes” and put the details into your planner. 

5.   Keep all your notes, phone details and comments in your planner – if you need to call someone back in a week, write in your planner.    If you are just too in love with your post it’s, use them in your planner.   Eg…if “call John on Tues 27 555-5555 “is the post it not and John was not in, make a note on the 27^th that you called and move the post it to the 29^th in your planner to try again.

6.    Add your grocery and shopping lists to your planner.

7.    Contact information – keep client numbers in your planner.   If you are stuck in traffic and running late, you want to be able to let them know.

8.    Use colour to chunk out and separate activities.   I always highlight my categories in colour.   An example would be…client bookings in “green”, family in “orange”, social media activities in “purple”, and networking events in “pink” and bills to pay in “red”.       At a glance I can see what is happening in my week and the ratio of family to work time.   It helps me keep my priorities in line.

9.    Have a way for your family to know what is happening with your calendar.   Online calendars can be shared.  I use a paper calendar for all of my appointments, and transfer the details to a family wall calendar at home.    I have an online calendar my clients and family can take a peek at to see what time slots remain open.   The kids have actually booked me through my client booking system on occasion to make a point if I have been working too much.

10.                     Let’s go back to #1!   If you do not use it, it will not work for you.   Develop the habit of checking, re-checking and adding to your calendar.

If you would like assistance ensuring you are making the most of your time, space and information, please contact us today for a complimentary phone conversation to see how we can help.    I look forward to hearing from you.    Bless others with your abundance, Jennifer

Simple Steps for Sorting Printed Photos

Simple Steps for

Sorting Printed Photos

The ABCs of Photo Organization

Deciding what to keep can be overwhelming. Following a few simple guidelines can make this process easier and I rely on the ABCs of photo organizing to stay on track.

A Stands for Album

These photos are the most important and belong in an album. It’s important to understand that not all photos need to go in an album. The ones you choose are often the most personal, and cherished. Less is more!

B Stands for Box

Photos that are important enough to keep should be stored in archive quality boxes for long term storage, or backed up thoroughly if digitized.

C Stands for Can

These photos can go in the ‘trash can’ or your delete file. Toss duplicates, blurry or unflattering photos, excess scenery photos, etc.

S Stands for Story

This is the most important part. Does the photo tell a STORY! Keep any photos that clearly tell a story.  An old blurry photo may have your Dad’s first car in the background! Be careful you aren’t tossing history.

Sorting Photos

Our natural tendency is to sort chronologically, but with today’s high volume of photos it can be

overwhelming. Whether you are organizing printed or digital photos, the process is always the same.

Choose to organize in themes that represent your life.

Weddings, Vacations, Sports, Heritage, By Child, Pets, School, Christmas, Birthdays

These are just a few examples, and themes will vary from one family to the next. Themes can

also be sorted in chronological order for easy access.

Safeguarding your photos

With today’s rapidly changing technology, protecting our photos continues to be a challenge.

The experts recommend that you back up photos in 3 ways.

2 Computer Sources

Besides the computer drive that your images are stored on, you should have an external hard drive where your photos are backed up regularly.

Two computer locations will ensure your photos are safe in the event of a computer crash, and easily restored.

CD/Picture Keeper Backup

Schedule a monthly backup reminder and store images on Archival CDs. These types of disc are high quality and designed for long term, stable storage. The likelihood that disc’s will be readable 10 years from now are high. Even today, we are transferring obsolete media into current readable forms easily.

Picture Keeper is a space saving device that has built in software that intuitively seeks out your digital images from your PC or MAC. This USB flash drive is small enough to store in a safety deposit box outside of your home.

Online Storage

Appo recommends storing your ‘A photos’ with an offsite service, known as cloud storage.

I can recommend a cloud based storage system that offers the security you need plus the added advantage of unlimited photo storage and accessibility from many devices for easy, private sharing.

Print your photos

This is by far the safest and most reliable form of back up. Getting your printed photos into albums, or printed photo books is the best way to ensure that your photos will survive technology changes and cloud storage. Everyone will still have ‘eyes’ 50 years from now, but technology will be vastly different.

If photo organizing feels overwhelming to you, or you simply don’t have the time, Adventures In Organizing, a proud member of appo.org can provide this service for you. 

We can recommend products for you to use and have several photo organizing packages that may suite both your needs and budget.

Check us out at:

www.adventuresinorganizing.ca  

email us at adventuresinorganizing@gmail.com

or call 613-668-6306

Original content from APPO    www.appo.org

S is for System: Create Systems to Simplify Your Life

S is for System

One of the key things I have found helpful for both myself and my clients is finding a system to manage all the household tasks.

Dealing with mail the minute is comes in the door.   Recycle the junk immediately; do not bring it in the door!   Putting the bill to pay into a “to pay” file right away, and anything thing else that needs attention into an easily accessible “to do” file.  That’s it – mail in, easily dealt with and done.

Instilling a 15 minute pick up time immediately after dinner, or immediately before bed is also a huge help.   The tidy time is for the entire family – no one is let off the hook.  Small children can pick up dog toys and return them to their home, older kids can pick up laundry and all their belongings and put them away.  Another child can tidy the bathroom counter.   Having a daily tidy “time” creates big impact on a house.  Use the timer on your stove or phone and make a game out of it.    In a family of 5 x 15 minutes that leads to 1 hour and 15 minutes of clean up each day.   That is big impact.

Use TV time productively.    Sort a drawer, clear off the coffee table while you are watching go through a pile of magazines or recipes…use commercial time to put things away.   Commercials make great cues to get moving – toss a load of laundry in, fold another, and put some away during each commercial.  

In 2012, according to the BLS American Time Survey, the average person spent 5:11 hours watching television per week and the average person spends 9 years of their life watching television.  

Just image, if you spent just half of that time, taking care of the backlog of tasks and filing around the house what your life could look like. 

I’m not saying don’t watch TV, but rather find a system to make that time count, make those minutes matter and be productive.

Make those minutes count.

If you need help making your minutes count, contact us today to see what we can do help you Lose Clutter, Gain Claity and manage your time.  

R is for Read - Making Mole Hills from Mountains

Do you have a "To Read" Mountain growing in your home?

Most of us have at least a pile, if not a mountain.

So I am sure you are staring at the mountain and wondering "where do I start"?   First, decide that today is the day to tackle and move that mountain.

It is a lovely day here in Ottawa today, and I woke up at the crack of dawn - a coffee and my reading pile on the deck and it was pretty much taken care of (other than the two library books that are pending - I don't read that quickly).   Sometimes, it is just a matter of setting an hour aside with no computer and no TV.

If you truly are dealing with a mountain rather than a pile, you will need more time.

Here are a few real solutions...

• Start at the top and get the freshest information in and out of the pile right away.   If the first item is several weeks old, decide whether or not you truly will find the time - if you have not had time in weeks, is it worth investing your time in it now?

• Set some time aside each day to do nothing but read from your pile.   If you find yourself setting an item aside in the pile to "read later" that should be a good indication that it is not worth your time investment at all - move that baby into the recycle box right away. 

• Put some reading materials into your computer bag or purse and read on the bus, while waiting for appointments and during your coffee breaks.  Recycle when done and reload your bag each evening for the next day.

• Finally come to terms with the fact that we all want to read more than we actually have time for.  Embrace technology and search for the information on line when you do have the time and let the paper documents go.   There really is nothing in a magazine or newspaper that cannot be found online. It is OK to "just let it go".

 

Make it your goal for the remainder of the month to move that mountain and make it a mole hill.  

If you need help making your mountain into a mole hill, contact us today and we will help you develop an action plan to do just that.

 

30 Simple Steps to a More Organized Life

Happy Tuesday everyone!   The snow has finally melted here in Ottawa and the sun is shining.   I even went out this morning without a jacket on.   Some days, it felt like spring was never going to arrive but today  I am so grateful to see the sun.

Many of you read my daily "Take 5" on Facebook and I am told daily how much people enjoy reading them.

The daily "Take 5" are part of my free tips and techniques which get shared on the Adventures In Organizing Facebook page and this newly released eBook takes that program one step further.

30 Simple Steps to a More Organized Life will proved you with simple daily activities, that at the end of just 30 days will have you seeing your home and your life from an entirely new perspective.

If you are feeling fragmented and pulled in 100 different directions, this is the eBook for you.   At just 4.97 you will have access to this easy simple  to use, quick and concise daily organizing tool.   Real results in just 30 days for just 4.97 - how can you lose?

It is incredible how freeing getting rid of clutter and finding a home for all of your belongings becomes.   Clarity of mind and a renewed purpose often follow.
 
I encourage you to download your copy today and better still,  buy a copy for a friend and spread a little clutter free Spring Cleaning love around.

If you are having trouble with the links, visit our website at www.adventuresinorganizing.ca   and click on the download tab on the left.

The exact url to paste in your browser is:   http://adventuresinorganizing.ca/index.php/downloads

N is for Normal: Is all this Clutter Normal?

N is for Normal, Necessary, Needed, Numerous, Never-Ending....you get the  point!

Organizing really comes down to a few basic principles and one of them is whether or not the items we have in our homes, on our desks, on our computers or in our offices  are Necessary.   

While items of beauty are Needed to enhance our homes and bring us joy, sometimes the things we collect become too Numerous and we Need to find the power to say “No More” when considering adding to our collections.

Is it Needed, is it Necessary, are the questions we should ask ourselves on our organizing adventures and if the answer to both questions is yes – then where do they belong?   

The space in our home is finite and on occasion some of our belonging seems to be infinite.   When our belonging become too Numerous for the allotted space, it is time to pare them down to fit the allowable space.   

• Too many jeans for the drawer? Get rid of the least loved.  
• Too many purses for the shelf?  Look them over and start by getting rid of your least favourite, your least used, until you have enough space.

One of my favourite clients often asks me “is this Normal”?  There is really no real answer to that question - Normal is different for everyone.   What some consider normal others consider abnormal.   A more compelling question could be “how does this mess, this closet, this bins of photographs or this dining room table we can no longer eat at, make me feel?”   

If it does not make us or a member of our household feel comfortable, then it is time to make a NOW Change.  A  Now Change is one that needs to happen before it causes strife in our homes.  What Now Change can you make today to  home and your life more comfortable?


I have no idea why I have struggled so much with this particular blog entry but finally, here you go!  I want to thank my colleagues at POC for their assistance in coming up with some Organizing related “N” words.