Tuesday’s Tip – Go and Set Some Goals

Everyone talks about goal setting these days. But why exactly should you do it? Just because people keep telling you to is probably not a good enough reason. And I completely agree with you on that one. But what about if you look at these 5 reasons:

1. Goals can give you a target to aim for
   If you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to get there?
2. Goals can help you focus
   What do you want to achieve today?
3. Goals can motivate you
   If you know what’s at stake you will want to stop procrastinating.
4. Goals can help you set priorities
   Find out what’s really important to you and do something do improve exactly that.
5. Goals can be a roadmap
   Find your way from where you are now to where you want to be.

Start today by writing down your goals and see where they can take you.

Today’s tip is the first in a series of posts on goal setting. I believe that goal setting is a great way to organise your mind and your time so it’s very relevant to the Well Organised philosophy.

Piling or Filing

Many people have piles on their desks. And for some of them these piles actually work. Some people are very visual and want to leave everything out in sight that they are working on because they are worried they'll forget it if it's files away. One problem of those piles is that they take up a lot of space. Another one is that no-one but you will know where anything is. Co-workers have virtually no chance of finding anything on a piler's desk.

There are a few practical solutions that save space and will make it easy to at least identify which pile holds what.

Using filing trays is one option. The ones that are stackable and are usually used as in-trays. Simply divide all your piles out into your different projects, then assign one tray per project and also label the tray.

If your projects are very paper intensive and would take up more than one tray, you can either divide your project logically into two trays (i.e. one for active documents, one for background literature) or you could use a literature sorter which can hold a lot more.

Getting your paper organised will help you save time finding things which you can use on actually working on your projects rather than looking for relevant documents.

Back Among The Living

Dear Readers,

After quite a long absence due to holidays and other inconveniences, 2 1/2 months to be precise, it is really highest time to update the blog again. I am sure you have missed my useful posts and Tuesday’s Tips and can’t wait to receive more.

So, to stop all this anticipation and because it’s Tuesday, here is a Tuesday’s Tip to get back into your organising:

Tuesday’s Tip – Cleaning Caddy

If the thought of cleaning fills you with dread because it always takes ages to gather all your supplies together, why not invest in a cleaning caddy (£2.98 from B&Q), that stores all your cleaning products and can be easily carried from room to room.

If you have more cleaning items than fit into the caddy think about scaling down. You don’t need different products for each surface in every room. A window cleaner (for windows and also great for bathroom sink, shower and bath), one surface cleaner for more delicate surfaces (ideally something that is environmentally friendly) and a general purpose floor cleaner. If you have laminate floors, use the laminate cleaner for the all floors. And you will need a cleaning cloth of course, ideally one that can be thrown in the wash once you’re done with it.

By cutting down on your cleaning products you will save money and also do your bit for the environment.