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Tag: organizing tips

Time management tips

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Schedule time next week to complete what you didn’t finish this week. Schedule appointments with yourself to complete priority work. How many magazine subscriptions do you have? Does the amount of time you have to read them match the amount you are receiving? Utilize your prime time for priorites. Avoid checking email first thing in the morning. Group your tasks together such as calls to make, bills to pay, etc. Avoid multitasking; it takes the brain 4 times longer to recognize and process each time you change gears to a new task. If you switch back and forth constantly you… read more »

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Reducing junk mail tips

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Visit the Direct Marketing Association website. There you can manage credit offers, catalogs, magazines and other mail offers. They make it super easy to manage what mail you do receive. You must re-register after five years. You may also register deceased loved ones with their Deceased Do Not Contact list. Another great website that manages a large variety of solicitations you get is Catalog Choice. Their service works with you to stop catalogs, coupons, credit card offers, phone books, circulars and more. Penny Savers: You can call 800-422-4116 or mail request to Circulation, c/o Penny Saver, 2830 Orbiter St, Brea,… read more »

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Messy desk tips

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Make sure the only things ON your desk are the things you use all of the time. Everything else should have a different “home”. Keep the things you use the most within fingertip reach. Keep the things you use often within arms reach. Keep the things you use rarely the furthest away. Everything on or in your desk, and in your office, should be assigned a home based on its use. Group like things with like things, including your tasks. Stop trying to use a table or something else for a desk, it will NEVER work. Get a desk with… read more »

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Paper management tips

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Avoid looking at papers and placing them back on your desk. Make a decision on them, and then follow through right away. Don’t keep magazines. Tear out or photocopy relevant articles. Use a follow-up file (action system) to hold paperwork relating to scheduled tasks. Invest in a Freedom Filer system. If you handle paperwork more than twice before taking action on it, you are losing time, money and energy. Sort, file and purge regularly. Work out of your car? Use a spiral notebook for ALL of your notes & never search for those scraps of paper again.

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Simple crafty recycling idea

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In response to my blog last week about giving your Christmas cards to St Jude’s Ranch for Children, I received the following suggestion from one of our blog readers, Debra Lagemann with Seven Sisters Home Designs. With her permission I am copying it here for you to enjoy. I think it’s a fantastic idea! “I keep this year’s Christmas cards to make next year’s gift tags. I cut out a pretty, cute or fun picture from the front, punch a hole into it, write to and from on the back and tie it onto the package. Every tag is different,… read more »

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Get ready for tax time

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You may be scrambling around trying to find all of your paperwork for your 2011 taxes. Why not plan ahead for next year’s taxes now. I’m sure you already have paperwork coming at you that you have to keep for 2012. It’s not too early to determine a home for your 2012 receipts to live in for the year. The 13-pocket expanding file is one of my all-time favorite organizing products. And it’s so inexpensive on top of that! Simply file your receipts by vendor – Target, Office Max, etc. If you enter your receipts into an accounting program throughout… read more »

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Simple gift wrap station

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Look what we stumbled upon while helping a client organize their basement last week. It’s a gift wrap station that they created themselves. I was so impressed with the simplicity of it and how well it worked that I asked their permission to share it with you. All they did was used a peg board and 6” long (and longer) peg board hooks to create the base for holding the wrapping paper. Then they simply slid a dowel rod through the center of the wrapping paper rolls so that it would lay on the peg board clamps and turn seamlessly.… read more »

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Declutter before the holidays

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It’s a great idea to make room for all of the new stuff that you know will be coming in during the holidays. Here are a few simple tips to accomplish that: TOYS: Discard broken toys. Donate seldom used toys to someone in need. Box up at least half of the toys and store them elsewhere. In six month you can re-introduce them to the children. They’ll feel like it’s Christmas all over again. CLOTHES: We only wear 20% of our clothes, 80% of the time. Purge and donate the clothes that you never wear. Set a limit on how… read more »

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10 tips to simplify the holidays

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SHOPPING: Shop online. – So simple – enough said. Condense your shopping. – Don’t waste time rushing from store to store. Pick a shopping destination, or two, and buy as many gifts as you can from your list there. FOOD PREP: Plan your big meal together as a “potluck” meal. – This allows people to pitch in by making their favorite dish. When everybody helps, the burden is lighter and the fun factor is higher. Prepare ahead of time. – Prepare as much as you can ahead of time so you can enjoy your time together rather than rushing around… read more »

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Reclaim your mailbox

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Junk mail wastes an incredible amount of natural resources and contributes to global warming (and your stress level!). Taking the steps we have listed in our junk mail guide saves: Time: No unwanted mail to open and deal with. Less paper piles to search through. Trees: Keep 100+ million trees in forests, cooling the planet. Water: Protect 28 billion gallons of clean water. Climate: Junk mail produces more C02 than 9 million cars. Although we offer this FREE list of resources for people to stop unwanted junk mail, many people don’t take the time to do it. What one time… read more »

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