Tightening up on small tasks during the day saves time and helps keep your head clear when you’re super busy.
For example, if you have errands to run that don’t have specific deadlines, pairing them up to run them as a group saves time and energy – both yours and gas in the car.
Here’s a quick organizational exercise to help you run errands more efficiently. Continue reading
The cool part about habits is that they’re your brain’s way of saving on thinking. When you try something new, your brain records what you’re doing and after you do the same thing multiple times, your brain says, “I’ve got it! You can run on auto-pilot now.”
That’s why you don’t have to think about how to drive every time you get behind the wheel of a car. And how when you take a shower or brush your teeth your mind can wander. How many of us come up with brilliant ideas in the shower? You can thank your shower habit for taking over giving you time to think.
A great way to form a new habit is to tie it into an existing habit. Then your brain can use some of the same cues you had for an old habit and re-purpose them into a launch pad for a new habit.
Let’s say you want to start exercising. What habit can you tie into to make this a successful launch? You have thousands of habits strung together that make up each day. What are you going to bump out or add to? Continue reading
“Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave, and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.” – Alice Childress, playwright
How does this apply to organizational habits? It’s big.
If you are organized and efficient and are loving it, please know that most people are not organized and efficient – and accept that. Organizational Zen is about getting organized so you waste less time. Then it’s about using that saved time to think clearer and to work on big, meaningful projects in your life.
One of my favorite bloggers, Leo Babauta at ZenHabits, often writes about TMIs: The Most Important Stuff. This is the stuff that you know you need to do and whether you write it down or not, you are probably going to get it done.
So why write TMIs in your planner?
Because you want to stop thinking about them. Once you are organized, you learn to trust that if you write something in your planner, it will either get done today or you’ll move it to another day. But it will get done. Trust that. Because you are organized 🙂
If you’re feeling disorganized, it may be that you need to get organized. OR it may be time to make changes in your life. Just like you can’t reorganize a room or house until you declutter, you can’t get organized if you have too much junk floating around in your head.
Here are some signs you need more than an organizational fix: Continue reading
Going task-to-task can leave you feeling like a hamster on a wheel!
That’s not a great way to get good work done.
I love the idea of getting off the wheel and making space between projects. It’s great to be organized. And it’s great to get a lot done. AND it’s important to take a break – especially between big projects. Continue reading
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
Organizational Habits 