Welcome to "Organizing Blog Central" -- where we give organizers around the world a chance to share their experiences, advice, and opinions about getting organized. You'll find everything here -- inspiration, motivation, tips, product recommendations, and even a few challenges to your current belief system (you can't change without letting go of a few preconceptions!)
Come back daily, as we have a dozen different blogs a day every day of the week -- on topics like home and office organizing, paper and time management, organizing your kids, simplifying you life, getting your finances in order, travel, moving, and much more!
Last week I discussed a few ways we could dress up our homes for the upcoming holiday season. It seems that is always my favorite part…getting the house to feel festive, warm and inviting. There is a whole other side to the holidays which is usually the part I dread. Especially now that we have moved and once tried and true traditions have to be adjusted to allow for more travel. Most of my clients tend to agree with me that the holiday season can produce more anxiety and stress even over tax season!
Distractions are receiving some very negative press these days, don't you agree? I was thinking that if we gave as much attention to being focused as we do to being distracted, we would probably find ourselves more focused--just a thought. It's interesting that we have chosen to make distractions the enemy because in doing so we have given them power. However, distractions aren't the problem, we are!
On any given day I can be distracted by a dozen different things. Some of these distractions go unnoticed because I'm not conscious of them, but most of my distractions are very noticeable, some are even welcomed. How I respond to them, though, makes all the difference in how I experience them.
The saying...
Cleaning out your junk can be incredibly freeing -- but where do you start? There's so much to do!! Before we talk in detail about "de-cluttering," let's take a minute to look at the bigger picture. Here are a few rules of thumb to follow when you begin cleaning out -- either at home or at the office:
For most people these days, keeping up with the daily onslaught of email is a major challenge. In fact, experts estimate that e-mail has added an extra 1.23 hours to the average person's workday (E-Writing: 21st Century Tools for Effective Communication by Diana Booher; Managing Your E-Mail by Christina Cavanagh). If you multiply 1.23 hours by 5 days for 52 weeks, the average person is spending 320 hours per year of extra time handling e-mail. Wow! That is a lot of time spent on email. And experts estimate that the time lost to email has caused workers to shave time elsewhere, causing a productivity crunch.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the average U.S. worker spends up to...
I'm a busy mom with school-aged kids, so it goes without saying that we experience hectic school day mornings. If your mornings are chaotic like ours, follow these get-organized tips to ensure a smooth to and from school routine.
Make mornings flow smoothly by getting everything ready the night before.
Have school bags packed and placed by the door and tomorrow's outfits laid out.
I'm into time management and have been for over 26 years
now. An area of time management that
often escapes us is reading time. We get
busy with so many other things that taking time to read often goes by the
wayside. Building this important time
should begin in childhood.
Former first lady, Barbara Bush, was read to by her parents,
read to her children and grandchildren.
She believes, and I agree, that reading aloud is one of the best kept
secrets of good parenting. The impact
on children is tremendous and gives them a head start on their formal education...perhaps even two and a half years ahead when entering kindergarten.
There is much more to be gained than just reading
skills. The act of reading to a child
teaches them sharing and involvement.
Families are brought together and feelings of love are experienced by
all.
A few tips from Barbara Bush and others involved in literacy
programs are: ...
When I sit down with a client to work on prioritizing and delegating, the biggest challenge is always deciding what kinds of activities and responsibilities to give up. Quite often, we get so entrenched in what we think we "should" be doing, that we forget to pay attention to what we "enjoy" doing. So when it comes time to let go of the boring, tedious, and time-consuming tasks that eat up our day, we face a struggle just trying to identify them.
Oscar Wilde may not have known it, but his statement is applicable to how much of a mystery our own financial "secrets" can be, even to ourselves. Sure, you may be skilled at sussing out that Colonel Mustard did it in the library with the candlestick. But what if Mrs. Peacock, the agent from your insurance company, Mustard Mutual, canceled your homeowner's policy with a pen stroke? Would you know why, or what it meant? ...
The
following is an excerpt from by favorite blog www.unclutterer.com. The blogger, Erin Doland, has a new book coming out this week on November 3 called Unclutter Your Life in One Week. I'm sure the book is going to be very useful (and clever!) so be sure to pick up a copy if you want to unclutter your life in one week (and really, who doesn't?). :)
My blog for this week is an update to my blog from 10/05/2009 on Project Management SaaS.
I did additional research on each of the project management tools and posted the information.
If you have used any of these software packages, please share your thoughts:)...
If you notice any problems with this site, please contact our webmaster.
And if you don't see what you need you are welcome to "ask the organizer" any question!
To see what people are saying about OnlineOrganizing.com, check out our visitor comments.
OnlineOrganizing.com is a service mark of Bradford, LLC.
