Tuesday 31 March 2009

Tuesday’s Tip – Deciding What is Clutter

Clutter means different things to different people. For some it’s simply “whatever doesn’t fit on the shelf”. But the thing is that the shelf might be filled with clutter and all the good stuff then doesn’t have a space.

Here are some guidelines to help you decide what is clutter, and therefore what can or even should go:

  • you don’t like it (yes, that does include unwanted gifts)
  • it is broken and won’t get mended (can’t or won’t)
  • there’s no current use for it and you can’t see yourself using it in the near future (“I might need it one day” DOES NOT COUNT!)
  • it clogs up areas which you could be using so much better
  • it prevents you from living an organised life

Wednesday 25 March 2009

Why Time Management?

We all have limited amounts of time. There are only 24 hours in a day no matter how much we wish for more. And some of those hours we need to sleep to recharge our batteries (ideally around 8),  leaving 16 hours to play with. And everyone of those hours comes only around once. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. There is no way you can relive an hour, make up an hour or get an hour back.

With that in mind it seems logical to try and make the best out of every hour that we have, make every hour count. The term time management is a bit of a misnoma. You can’t really manage time because it’s constant and simply ticks away but you can manage what you do with it. So it’s more about self management than time management, really. It’s a bit like the old joke if “olive oil is made from olives, then what is baby oil made out of?”

So if we can’t manage time, but only ourselves, it should really be quite easy since we are in control of what we do. Or are we? There are so many demands on us these days that it can be really difficult to decide how to spend our time, so many distractions, so many wonderful ways to waste time.

But: If we’re really enjoying ourselves, are we actually wasting time? I would say that depends. If your main goal in life is simply to enjoy yourself and you spend a lot of your time doing just that, then I would say, you’re doing exactly what you should be doing.

Most of us have more aims and goals for our lives though. We want to have a career, make a nice home, achieve diplomas, give something back to society by doing charity work, spend time with our families, socialise with friends, further our education, and so on. The list is endless. But who says you can’t enjoy yourself while following your dreams.

Once you know what your goals are and you have drawn up a plan how to achieve them, and then made room in your diary for the relevant actions that will help you achieve those goals, you are on the right track. You are on target to achieving your goals and you are managing your time well. Or should that be managing yourself?

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Tuesday’s Tip – SMART Organising Goals

When setting your organising and/or decluttering goals make sure they are SMART. Setting the goal “I’m going to get organised” is simply not going to cut it.

Here is what SMART stands for with some examples:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Timely

Specific: I’m going to put everyone's birthday into my diary.
Measurable: I am going to spend 10 minutes at the end of each working day on filing.
Achievable: I am going to complete the decluttering of the spare room in one weekend. (This might stretch you a little, but is achievable)
Relevant: I am going to go on the next time management seminar at work. (Related to “getting organised”)
Timely: I am going to finish reorganising my pantry by the end of this week. (Goals need a time factor. This helps prevent procrastination and will motivate you to get a move on.)

And now for one goal that ticks all the boxes, one SMART goal:

By the end of the week, I will have entered all my family and friends’ birthdays into my diary.

February was National Time Management Month in the US

To celebrate National Time Management month in the USA, NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) published a whole host of valuable time management tips.

Here is the full list:

General time management tips

  • Use a planner to track appointments and tasks. It can be a paper-based notebook, a computer software program, or an electronic handheld device.
  • Make a habit of prioritizing your weekly tasks. Rank them in order of importance.
  • Review how you are spending your time and make adjustments according to your goals and priorities.
  • Create at least one hour of uninterrupted time per day to tackle projects and action items.
  • Allocate more time for a task than you think it will take to allow for interruptions.
  • Break large projects down into small, sequential steps. Schedule these steps into your day with your planner.
  • Group errands together so that you save time (and money) on travel, and the hassle of having to run out again because you didn’t plan your trip initially.
  • Work while you wait. Have “busy work” on hand to do while you wait at the doctor’s office, are on hold with the cable company, or are stuck waiting for a late lunch date.
  • Create time management goals. For example, set a goal that you will not take personal phone calls while you’re working.
  • Track your activities to determine whether or not you’re accomplishing your time management goals.
  • Establish routines and stick to them as much as possible.
  • Be sure your systems are organized. If you waste a lot of time looking for files on your computer, take the time to organize a file management system.


Other organizing tips are available at www.napo.net.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

Tuesday’s Tip - Motivation

(for technical reasons this week on Wednesday)

Something I read once and it stayed in my mind, unfortunately I do not remember who wrote it. Today' I thought it’s time I share it with you:

If you reach for the stars – you will reach the moon
If you reach for the moon – you will reach the sky
If you reach for the sky – you will reach the clouds
If you reach for the clouds – you will reach the top of the tree
If you reach for top of the tree – you will fall on your backside.

So why not reach for the stars, you never know where it might lead you.

Friday 6 March 2009

More Green Decluttering - Excess Mobile Phones

To stay with this week’s topic of “Green Decluttering” I have found out a couple of ways to get rid of your excess mobile phones without simply dumping them.

If you’re on a contract or simply a bit of a techno geek and like to have the latest model you will probably have a few more phones than you are actually using. They also can (and should be) decluttered.

But instead of simply throwing them out, which is really a bit of a waste, especially if they are still fully functional you can do one of two things:

1. Give them to charity

Charities have different ways of making money out of used mobile phones. Just make sure the charity in question actually takes mobile phones.

Here is a list of couple of charities that do:

2. Sell them

You can also sell your unwanted mobiles for hard cash. There are dozens of places that buy, recondition and sell on your phone. Here are some of them (some of them are also charitable organisations):

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Tuesday’s Tip – Furniture Recycling

This week’s main post it’s all about Green Decluttering. There are so many more ideas that I thought I’d stay with it a little bit longer.

I have already mentioned Freecycle (http://www.uk.freecycle.org/). Here are some more ideas for recycling furniture:

The Furniture Reuse Network (www.frn.org.uk) is a national charity which collects furniture donations for households living on income benefit: they refurbish and recycle over 2 million items a year.

Any Junk (www.anyjunk.co.uk) will collect items from your door (costs from £25) and they claim that over 50 per cent of their loads are not dumped on a landfill (larger items like sofas are donated to charities)

These ideas are taken from www.angelsandurchins.co.uk from their feature on decluttering. On their website you find useful parenting information for people living in and around London.

Sunday 1 March 2009

Green Decluttering

When you are having a decluttering session make sure that whatever goes out of your house is going to the right place. There are lots of ways to ensure that you are not simply filling up a landfill site even more.

Of course, the simplest thing to do would be to dump it all in the household rubbish or take it to the tip or even hire a skip (depending on how much you are getting rid of). But with just a little planning your decluttering can be a lot greener and it might even make you some money in the process.

First of all, when you decide to get rid of something, decide whether it’s in good enough shape that somebody else might want it. Is it even good enough that someone might want to buy it?

  • If you answer that last question with yes, you could either sell it on Ebay or a carboot sale. You could give your friends/family first refusal at a fair price.
  • If you don’t think anyone would give you money for it, then you could donate it to a charity shop.
  • If you don’t want to sell it for whatever reason and don’t want to give it to strangers, why not offer it to someone in your family or a friend who you know could use it.
  • For women’s clothing, jewellery and accessories you could hold a Naked Ladies Party. No worries, nothing rude going on here. It’s a get-together of women who swap clothes they no longer want or that no longer fit. Check out http://www.getcrafty.com/home_nakedlady.php for more details.
  • You can also post it on Freecycle. Check out  http://www.uk.freecycle.org/ to find your local group and once you post the item, whoever needs it will come and pick it up. It is a recycling scheme where people offer items free of charge to other people who might need it.

All of these options ensure that someone else could make use of it and it doesn’t have to go to waste.

If the item is past it, then find out whether it can be recycled, then either put it in the correct recycling bin or take it to your local recycling centre to be disposed of properly.

Only throw away items that can’t be sold on, given away or recycled. That way, decluttering will improve your home and you won’t have to worry so much about damaging the environment since you have done your best.