About a year ago, I decided that age was catching up with me and it was time to lose some weight. I eat mostly non-acidic foods* and knew that standard diet fare would not work for me. And I avoid most processed foods, so packaged diet meals were out. On the exercise front, I love a good class at the Y but decided to try running again after giving it up about 10 years ago.
I learn a ton of stuff reading FastCompany‘s free daily on-line publication and found this gem: Continue reading
Getting enough sleep is a vital part of being organized. If you head isn’t clear, you can’t plan, you can’t focus, and it’s hard to get anything done.
Besides messing with your ability to organize, lack of sleep makes it hard for you to learn and retain information, affects your judgment, and makes you more forgetful. It has a clear impact on many aspects of your health, messes with your immune system, can decrease your sex drive, and your skin ages faster. Studies have also found direct links between lack of sleep and depression. AND you are more likely to have an accident.
So how can you add some sleep magic to your life? Change your sleep habits. Continue reading
We all have 24 hours a day. What you do with your time can feel crazy and out of control. Or you can grab the reins and choose the work you want to get done.
That being said, getting organized is best done in baby steps. Save 5 minutes here and 20 minutes there, and pretty soon you have time to think. Or time to start an exciting new project. Or time to relax and zen out for a bit!
And that’s why my grocery list is in Excel.
First, let me say that I will put off grocery shopping until I am down to eating dry soup and crackers. It’s not that I dislike groceries, I just don’t like grocery shopping – with the shopping carts that never get washed. The people who park their carts in the middle of an aisle as they ponder a purchase. The cashiers who talk to the baggers about how tired they are and how they can’t wait to get off work. It’s a little draining so I try to be really quick about it. Continue reading
So what can you do? Try some new habits. Continue reading
I know. It’s a calendar and planner – how hard can that be? There’s nothing tricky but I’ve seen calendars with so many notes and cross-offs you can’t read them. And I’ve seen planners with nothing in them – so here’s my advice for working with both tools in an efficient manner.
And let me say again that the best part of being organized, besides getting a lot done, is having peace of mind knowing that the most important work will be done. Keeping a calendar, planner pages, and Continue reading
If you did the exercises in my post about “Getting Started”, you brainstormed a long list of everything you have to get done, added big projects, and honestly thought about what might be missing in your life. That’s great. And here’s the bad news: You can’t get it all done.
As my favorite organizational guru David Allen famously says,
“You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.”
So now you have to: Continue reading
Starting something new is never easy, and if you aren’t already a little organized, I know the idea can be daunting. What helps me is to have a goal in mind. “I want to get organized so I have time to do (blank).” Your (blank) could be anything, but it should be juicy enough to entice you to stick with a new organized habit.
If you don’t have something in mind, try this. Block out about an hour of time. Find a pad of paper and a pen. Get yourself situated somewhere where you won’t be interrupted. And take a deep breath. Continue reading
Organizational Habits 