Thursday, April 23, 2009

Organizing Time Management

There are 365 days in a year, 54 weeks, 7 revolving days, 24 hours in a day, and never enough time.

Am I right?

Every day is cramed full of things that need done from a list that doesn't ever seem to end. There are appoints to attend, children that need picked up or taken places, and very little time to one self.

There is always someone or something tugging you in different directions and all them seem to be running against the ticker on your watch.

I've heard the expression many times, as I'm sure you have, "if only there were more time in the day."

What I've come to realize is - it's not about more time in your day, it's about MAKING time in your day work for you.

It boils down to a little time management.

I, more than most I know, am guilty of misjudging my time. I'm fifteen minutes late instead of early. I miss appoints because I didn't account for road construction and young kids don't go potty before we leave the house and need a pit stop half way through the trip of where you need to go.

I once read an article that said you must pick your priorities in order to have better time management - HA!

When your priorities are your spouse, your kids, running your household, and maybe a job on the side - there are no way to order those many priorities efficiently.

I've found, lately, the best way to time management is, are you ready..... a watch and a personal planner.

My personal planner stores everything I need for running my household and keeping my priorities exactly what they are - priorities.

I even schedule my own private time along with time to make dinner, time to play with the kids, time to spend with the spouse, appointment times, work times, errands, and helps keep me on track.

What keeps your time organized and helps you manage your day?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

10 Ways to Organize Your Filing System

Filing cabinets get overwhelmed quickly with the paper we stash there. Files from A-Z and tons of miscellaneous folders end up in home office filing.

Here are 10 ways to de-clutter and organize your home filing system.

1. Label your content
2. Color code your folders (example: yellow for home warranties, green for financial, blue for medical, orange for bill paying, red for items needing immediate attention, and so forth...)
3. Alphabetize your filing system. Within each color of folders you may have more than one folders. For example: Finances can be split into multiple folders for - loans, bills needing paid, bills paid, insurance, and taxes.
4. After a year has passed clean out all the receipts from your filing, if you stash them all year long and create a box for them that can be stored elsewhere. (IRS states you must keep receipts of expense and income for seven years in case of an audit.)
5. Make sure you are using an appropriate sized filing cabinet - small, medium, large. We tend to fill things when the appear empty only to take up the space.
6. Every file in your filing system needs to serve a purpose. Eliminate "Miscellaneous" files as much as possible. This will ease frustrations later when trying to find documents.
7. Have a stash box near your phone, computer, or anywhere you normally lay your mail. Take this box and sort weekly. File way the papers you need to keep and trash the rest.
8. Designate one area in your home for your home office and filing system. It's easier to accomplish household tasks, like paying bills if all the files are in one area.
9. Keep important documents such as, birth certificates, home and car titles, savings bonds, and wills in a fire proof - locked box rather than an ordinary filing cabinet for protection.
10. Review your filing system yearly, take out old files you no longer need, and create new ones for children or other life events to keep your household organized.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Office Organization - Book Shelves

I've spent the last few days cleaning up piles of papers laying around my office and finding homes for books.

As an advid book reader, I have found there are too many books, and too little shelves to place them. So what is one to do with all those books?

Here are a few solutions I've recently discovered for organizing books and decluttering my book shelves.

1. Sort through books and decide upon which ones are keepers. Those you can part will put in a seperate pile.
2. Put your keeper pile on your book shelves first. Place then by catagory, subject, our frequently read.

Alternatives to bookshelves:

1. Crates make great book shelves, you can stack them and arrange them anyway that suits you and the best part is, if you need to move your books, you just pick up one crate at a time. This way you don't have to clear off the books in order to move the bookcase.

2. Regular shelving units can be used for books on wall, make sure you use secure brackets that can take on the weight, and postion several in a row or stagered to display your favorite reads.

Sharing, Trading, and Just Getting Rid of a Few Books.

It's really hard sometimes for a book lover to get rid of any of their books, but if your trading a book for another book you really want to read, or temporarily sharing it with a freind or circle of friends, it doesn't seem so bad.

1. Create a trading circle around friends where you can swap books from each others bookshelves and give them back when your done.

2. Trade books with friends, or online.

PaperBackSwap.com - offers free books when you swap, trade, or exchange your used books with other book club members for free.

3. Donate books to local libraries and charties like Goodwill, Church rummage sales, or Community Centers.

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