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Mindfully Organized 2 Minute Tips – #2 Decluttering 101

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Have too much stuff?  Have a room or a whole house you are a little embarrassed to have people see?

Welcome to the next video in the Mindfully Organized 2 Minute tip series. In today’s episode I am going to give you some tips on starting to declutter without creating an even bigger mess.

First thing DO NOT TAKE EVERYTHING OUT!  There are only so many decisions that your brain can effectively make in one day.  If you have been building up the clutter for awhile you can NOT get rid of it in one sitting even if you want to.

First set yourself up 5 bins.

  1. Refuse ~ Trash
  2. Recycle
  3. Regift ~Donate
  4. Relocate ~  Has a set home already somewhere else in the house or someone else’s house
  5. Retain ~  Keep

Now pick a spot to start.  I like to start in a corner and work my way around the room but if the room is too full you might just need to start with whatever you can reach and then try to work your way around the room.  This will give you some clear space to put the keep boxes back as you go.

Ask yourself these questions, the same questions I would ask you if I were coaching you:

  • Have I used this item in the last year?
  • Does it make me smile?
  • Do I have a use for the item somewhere in my home or office?

Anything that you don’t answer yes to at least one of these questions you probably don’t need to keep.

Remember to stop sorting before you get too tired.  You want to leave enough time and energy to take care of the mess you made, and you will make a mess, it always looks worse before it gets better.  Leave enough time to take the trash and recycle out, to put the donations in the car  and to put away what is left.

I made a printable graphic of the three questions and the 5 bins that you can print out to remind you how to get started.

Don’t miss any 2 minute tips.  If you aren’t on the MO mailing list yet register today and get a free ebook on How to Tame Your Inbox at tameyourinbox.gr8.com

What do you think?  Leave me a comment below and let me know your thoughts on decluttering or suggest a topic for future 2 minute tips.

Mindfully Organized 2 Minute Tips #1 – Getting Projects Done

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Have you ever contemplated a project or multiple projects you wanted to compete and thought, how in the world am I ever going to get these done with everything I have going on right now?

Welcome to the first video in the Mindfully Organized 2 Minute tip series. In today’s episode I am going to give you some tips to getting those projects you have been hoping to do, finished and reduce your stress at the same time.  Sound too good to be true?  They actually go hand in hand.

First thing, first, is to GET IT ALL OUT OF YOUR HEAD.

Your brain can’t focus when it has to remember too many things all at once!  So pull out your computer, your journal, your favorite to-do-list program, mind-mapping software, poster board and pens whatever works for you and start downloading.

This is not the final list you will be working from it doesn’t have to be perfect this is just a brain dump. Get it out where you can see it.

You will find that for the next day or so you will need to add things to the list as your brain processes. Get your project chunked into small actionable tasks.

Not build website, but

~Chose tagline ~find headshot ~write homepage copy

Now the key to choosing what to do next is to ask yourself a couple of key questions. The same kind of questions I ask my coaching clients.

~What has an immediate deadline? ~What is most important to move the project along? ~Can I concentrate on just one project?

If you have a really old project hanging over your head ask yourself, do I really want to do this project?  What is getting in my way?

Now schedule for the coming week at least one task per day.  If you are working on your business, I actually suggest 3 tasks per day. Before you know it the project will be done.

What do you think?  What have you found to be the best way to get projects started and rolling along?  Leave me a comment below.

Making Room for What You Want in Life: Letting Go to Grow

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Letgo2014

There is a finite amount of time, energy and money in your life. 

There are only 24 hours in each day. The money or credit that you have right now is limited.  The amount of energy that you have to participate in life is limited.

We all have our individual limits of each of these resources. You might have less energy than a friend or you might have more time to use because you don’t need as much sleep as the average. Whatever it might be, YOU have a limit.

Admittedly, there are ways we each trade one resource for another.  You can trade sleep for time but by not sleeping enough you are dipping into your energy resources.  You can trade money for time and energy by paying someone to clean your house, watch your kids, write your book…but in the end there are still only 24 hours in each day and there is no way money can buy you out of those limitations.

Each one of us makes daily decisions regarding how we are going to spend our precious resources.  There are experts who specialize in teaching you to make, save and spend your money the best way possible.  Experts who focus on saving for retirement, experts who focus on living life to the fullest in the moment, and ones who try to teach ways to balance the two goals out.

There are efficiency experts to help you manage your time, to get more done in less time, to manage your to-do list so you have more time with your family and friends, to save time being organized and these are certainly  of importance to me.

However, the thing that is missing in these conversations is ENERGY.  Everything in our lives also takes our energy.  Whether it is walking the dog, taking care of the our homes, planning our retirement, cooking dinner, going to work or writing a blog (like I am doing now); all of these tasks require your energy.

Some tasks, especially ones that you have done often, only take the energy required to do that specific task.  Walking the dog becomes routine once you’ve done it for years. This task only requires the energy to actually perform the action.

This is not true for tasks that are new to us.  Writing this blog is one example.  I need to generate the energy to actually contemplate what I want to say.  I can’t just sit down and write a blog.  I roll each of these ideas around in my mind until my main idea coalesces and rises to the top.

Writing has always been something that I defined as a task I did not excel at. Over the last year, as I work on my coaching business, each time I needed to write something for the first time I had to spend some energy just convincing myself I could write well. I needed to talk my brain out of finding distractions and push forward. Only then was I able to sit down and write.  Writing a blog, for me, takes much more energy than the energy it took to sit down and write this out today.

With that in mind…What do you need to let go of, at least for a little while, to allow yourself the energy to accomplish the goals on your intention or resolution list, making 2014 your best year yet? 

We all manage, every day, to fill up the 24 hours that we are given and we find the energy that goes along with those hours.  If you are going to do something new and different for yourself this year then something else has to be let go of, at least until your mind, body and spirit are trained for the new activity.

Could you stop watching TV or only watch for 2 hours a week?  Could you take the bus into work so that you can read and/or work during your commute?  Could you enlist the people in your home to plan or make more of the meals? Could you stop saying yes to every request for your assistance, instead focusing on yourself in the moment?

What are you going to let go of? 

I am choosing to trade out some of the electronic brain-teaser games that I like to play at night and instead reading one of the many books on my nightstand and in my Kindle that I’ve been wanting to read.

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think about these ideas. If you like them let me know what you might choose to give up in order to make 2014 your best year yet.

Join us on all kinds of social media as we make 2014 the Best Year Yet with #2014BYY. Join the Mindfully Organized Challenge Group to make 2014 awesome!

 

 

NeatDesk Desktop Scanner

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I am loving our NeatDesk scanner! When my fiance purchased this last year I wasn’t convinced that it was a time saver, then I started to see the light.
Your scanned receipts are searchable by vendor, date, amount.
The documents that are cluttering up your desk because you may need them one day…converted into 1s and 0s to be found with a quick search if you ever do need them.

Sooo Cool!

ARC Customizable Notebook System

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Do you work better sometimes with good ol’ pen and paper?  Do you have 6 notebooks with the start of 8 projects?  I have been there.

I have just the thing to make your life simpler!

ARC Customizable Notebook
ARC Customizable Notebook

The ARC Customizable Notebook System from Staples. 

I have been using this system for a few months and just love it.

Some of the Pros:

  • Everything in the system can be moved.  So you create the notebook that works for you right now. If you change your mind, no worries, you just move things around again.
  • You can get different sized discs to create your notebook, so I have small 1/2 inch discs in the notebook I carry with me and larger one in my main notebook.  Because everything moves, I don’t have to carry my whole food journal with me.  I write in the small journal and then move pages into my main notebook when I feel like it.
  • There are a multitude of options you can get to customize your notebook.  There are different sizes, covers, dividers, paper and more.  I use the 8.5 x 5.5 sized paper, with a leather cover, a poly zip pocket, poly tab dividers, poly pocket dividers and the smaller task pad.
  • There is also a punch so that you can punch other papers to put into the notebook.  Amazon carries the punch.Circa Portable Punch (Arc Customizable Notebooks by M/ Sold at Staples, Disc Bound Notebooks)

 

ARC Customizable Notebook System
ARC Customizable Notebook System

I just love it and my desk is so much cleaner with only one fabulous notebook!

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