Tuesday’s Tip – Take Pictures of your Treasures

If you have a lot of items that you can’t seem to part from but that are taking over the house, why not take a photo of them. This could be children’s artwork and crafts, special outfits, knick knacks, items you received as gifts but no longer fit into your lifestyle, etc.

Pictures take up a lot less space than the actual items, and you can even turn them into a nice scrapbook.

Then, when nostalgia hits, simply get out the pictures, or look at the scrapbook and reminisce in your clutter-free home that reflects the current you.

Holiday Checklists

It’s now the end of June and universities are already on their holidays, and school wills be closed in a few weeks time for summer holidays. Many of you have booked a summer holiday, whether here in the UK or abroad and you will be thinking about getting ready for the trip.

There are lots of things to think about, whether it is transport, passports, what to take for the trip, what to pack, who’s looking after the pets, etc.

The friendly people from freechecklists.co.uk have made life a lot easier by providing free checklists on the internet that you can print out. There is a whole category for travel so that all different kinds of needs are captured.

A lot of people will be travelling in roughly a month’s time, so here is an excerpt from the list “Travel Holiday Month Before” (it’s about half of the original):

• Check you luggage is appropriate to airline/size/weight BA Easyjet
• Check in-flight entertainment for yourself/children
• Arrange special boarding requirements e.g wheelchair
• Arrange   any special meals
• Arrange car hire   Go to Hiring a Car checklist
• Consider surprises for children to open/play with en route
• Buy medicines for journey/whole trip Go to Health Abroad checklist
• Think about camera/film and buy more as required
• Finalise arrangements for leaving your home. Go to Leaving your home checklist.
• Check your documents are in order. Go to Travel Documents checklist
• Check you have told all friends/family/work of your itinerary
• Order foreign currency/travellers cheques.

If you check out the site, there are lists for a whole host of other topics. The creators of the site seem to have aviation background, where checklists are the lifeblood of everything working well. Flying is as safe as it is, because everything runs via checklists that are always up to date. I think we can learn from that. Checklists make things run smoother, even when you’re not flying a plane.

Thursday’s Thought – Start! Begin! Now!

This week’s Tuesday’s Tip didn’t quite make it and since Wednesday’s Wonderings or Wednesday’s Womblings or similar all sound a bit ropy I came up with Thursday’s Thought as a nice alternative.

And it’s all about beginnings. Have you noticed that the most difficult thing about pretty much anything is getting it started? And once you have started it is much easier to keep it going? It’s that first bit of movement that takes the greatest amount of energy. If you have ever tried to push a car (or pull a truck if you’re into that sort of thing) you will have noticed that once you’ve got that thing to move, it’s not as hard to keep it moving. Some physical principles are at play here (google Newton’s First Law of Motion for more information).

And this not only applies to physics but to getting things done as well. Make a start. Find out what the first thing is you need to do to start your project, to get this show on the road and do it. Now! And then simply move along with it while it’s own momentum keeps it going.

Time Saving Tips

We all have different ways of dealing with our time and most of us often complain that we don’t have enough time. But time is a finite resource and no matter how many wishes and pleas we send out to the universe, there are only 24 hours in a day. The secret is to make the best use of the time you have available.

Here are some time saving tips, that will hopefully free up some valuable time so you can spend it on things that are important to you.

Weekly Planning Routine

Setting a weekly planning routine will help you manage your time better. Make time to write and prioritise your projects and tasks, reconnect with your mission and goals, and create a plan for the upcoming week.

Don’t file an item that still requires any action

Avoid filing an item that still needs your attention before you record it in your diary. Otherwise, you might easily forget about that item and the associated work that you still need to do. This applies to paper as well as emails.

Record your favourite TV programmes

If you can’t live without certain TV programmes why not record them instead of watching them live. You don’t have to plan your schedule around the TV, but watch the programme at your leisure and you can then fast forward through the ad-breaks, saving even more time.

Give each item a home

A key principle of organisation is giving each item a home. This should be ideally somewhere near where it is actually used, saving time when putting away and retrieving alike. This alone can drastically improve the organisation in your home and office.

Learn to speed read

This is a valuable skill in particular if you spend a lot of your day reading documents. There are classes and books on the subject.

Tuesday’s Tip – 5 Bits of Motivation

Motivation is key when it comes to getting organised and taking on a big decluttering project. Here are 5 little tips that will help you get going and keep going:

1. Drink plenty of water: Dehydration can lead to fatigue and mental sluggishness which really does not help when you have to make decisions what to get rid of and what to keep. Make sure you keep your fluid intake up and stay alert.
2. Take regular breaks: making non-stop decisions for too long will lead to burn-out very quickly. Schedule regular breaks. This will keep you more alert and you will get more done in the long run. It can be equated to “sharpening your saw”.
3. Put on your favourite up-beat music: This will keep you in good spirits and it’s always more fun to do anything with a bit of music in the background.
4. Oxygen: Fresh air will also do wonders for your alertness. Make sure you keep a window open while you work. If the weather is particularly bad, try to keep it open for a few minutes per hour at least. It’ll really help.
5. Push yourself harder: If you think a certain task will take 30 minutes, see if you can take off a few minutes. Set a timer for 25 or even 20 minutes and see how fast you can go. Remember: Work will always expand to fit the time available.

Procrastination – You’re Fired!

Watching the latest season of “The Apprentice” has inspired me to this title, as you can probably imagine. And the series is a good example that you can only get anywhere in life if you are pro-active. This also applies when you are aiming to get organised. You will not achieve a lot of progress if you are constantly thinking about getting organised but never actually do anything about it.

The successful candidates in the show were not the ones taking the back seat and the ones trying to stay under the radar. The successful people stood out as taking risks and doing the tasks to the best of their abilities.

Now when it comes to a project like getting organised, you can do many things to bring about success. But the main thing is to get started. Yes, do spend some time making a plan, but then start implementing it, making the first step. A Chinese proverb states: Even the longest journey starts with the first step. And this also applies to the largest of organising projects.

Divide your project into tasks. Break down the tasks into small, manageable bite-size chunks. Think about what needs to be done first and then do it. It will do you and your disorganised surroundings no good if you have the best plan and you don’t implement it.

If you’re not too sure how to go about the whole thing, get some outside help. HIre a Professional Organiser who will put you on the right track and stay with you for as long as you need. They can plan the whole project with you and you decide how much they actually do with you. Once you’re ready to go it alone, they will usually leave you with a host of good advice to increase your confidence and help you on your way.

So why not fire that procrastination today and get started!

Tuesday’s Tip – Checklist for Day Trips

With the weather being so wonderful at the moment, weekends are often used for daytrips into the surrounding countryside. Why not make your daytrips more successful with a little bit of pre-planning.

Write a master checklist for your daytrip and include all the items that might come in handy on the day. Things like water bottles, sun screen, a picnic blanket, a small first aid kit, snacks and of course raincoats (you never know in this country) could be on that list. Add all the items you usually forget and wish you had with you. This might include a camera, for instance.

Then keep this list in a handy place. When you get all your things together for your trip, tick things off as you go along. This makes sure you will be better prepared for your trip and make it a more successful outing.

If you keep an online copy of your list you can always add to it and adapt it.

Have a fun day out!

Tackling your To Do List

“Don't get freaked out by the items on your to-do list; think of the tasks in terms of what they'll mean to you once they're done.”
- Merlin Mann (43folders)

When we look on the items on our to-do list we often think of all the work that’s involved, all the time we need to spend until it’s all done and all the fun stuff we could be doing instead. Even though all this is justified, why not try and change your attitude. Think about the pay-offs instead. All the “What’s in it for me?”.

What could be the pay-offs for finishing the items on your list. Here are some possible positive effects:

• peace of mind
• praise from your manager, family members, yourself etc.
• a reward
• a finished project
• a raise
• a well prepared … (fill in the blanks)
• a good grade
• a degree
• a repaired and working item
• a tidy kitchen
• a clean bathroom
• etc.

Stephen Covey’s 2nd Habit of Highly Organised People states: Start with the end in mind. If you keep your eye on the outcome of your task, you always have something to look forward to and motivation and incentive to keep going until it’s done.