Take time to schedule and manage your emails and phone calls

a. Never check email or voice mail first thing in the morning

b. Schedule regular times to check emails and stick to it

c. Read recent emails first

d. Allocate the amount of time you will spend and stop promptly

e. Create email signatures to sign off with one    click

f. Read it, delete or move it

Pre-plan and then plan again – keep your eye on your large goals

a. Plan next week either on Friday afternoon (business) or Sunday evening (mom)

b. Plan your day before it plans you!

Set your intentions and goals for the day in advance of that day

The day before, the night before or in the morning before you begin your tasks for that day

c. Allocate specific time slots for recurring tasks, do them over and over at the same time each week

Gasoline, banking, grocery shopping

Calls, reports, marketing

Arrive early for appointments

Spend the time you wait for others to plan what you want to accomplish in the meeting

a. This will decrease your stress level

b. You will appear poised, professional & in control of your schedule instead of harried and disorganized

Umbrella Your Day

(create chunks of time for related activities)

a. Divide your main responsibilities into 5 days, for example:

1. Planning Day – (Friday or Monday)

2. Current Large Project

3. Outside Appointments, Errands

4. Bills / Paperwork

5. Research

Create an exit area in your office for all items that need to leave your space.

a. Place things there as you find them.

b. Choose an area on your desk or credenza that is positioned towards the   door

Create ‘To Do’ Lists

a. Complete the three most important tasks each day before you move onto anything else

Take Control Your Papers

a. Check it, move it into a predetermined place off the counter until you are ready to take action

b. Handle it only once before you work on it

Learn to say NO

a. Don’t volunteer until you take a moment to determine whether      you have the time to fulfill the commitment

b. Give yourself permission to reconsider commitments

Delete unnecessary tasks from your schedule that detract from your BIG picture goals

c. Don’t automatically respond to another person’s  problem / fire before you determine whether it is going to foul up your agenda

A comment about my Barnes and Noble presentation in November:

What an amazing presentation you gave. I am embarrassed
to say that I’m known for getting so many notices from the
post man about our box being full, that they sent me a notice
that they would stop delivering if I didn’t go to Read the rest of this entry »

Situation:

A client moves but does not have the time to get everything unpacked and organized. There are too many books and not Read the rest of this entry »

Situation:

With only a small desk and no defined office space, this client had to keep track of massive amounts of information. With such a small space, my news producer was in desperate Read the rest of this entry »

Situation:

This garage was used for watching tv, working on crafts, and an extra playroom. At the same time, it had to be used to store the usual garage items including holiday décor, extra entertaining supplies, etc.

Challenge:

In the beginning there was no storage in this garage, only some assorted furniture, TV and a desk. As with many garage conversions, this space had to accommodate many different types of activities and serve as a comfortable retreat /playroom for the two boys and a space for mom and sons to create craft projects and read.

Solution:

My client had wall-to-wall cabinets installed along the longest side of the garage without windows. The cabinets made it possible to create order with the deep freeze storage items like holiday décor and also made a place for sporting equipment and extra entertaining items to live while not in use.

I shifted furniture around to create zones for each type of activity. The desk was moved to the back wall so that all craft supplies were in the same zone with small table and chairs positioned for action.

The lateral file cabinet was moved next to the door into the house as this contained the permanent family records.

The large cube shelf was moved behind the couch to create division between storage and TV zone. All extra toys were grouped together ‘like with like’ and stored in baskets behind the couch. As the boys decided to play with different activities, they brought out one basket at a time and learned to put the first one away between activities to keep chaos at bay.