clutter busting

Clutter Busting: Financial Records

April 26, 2014 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

I would feel remiss if I let April go by and didn’t address financial or tax records.

Since you have already pulled together all the papers you needed to complete your tax filing take a little more time to get you financial records fit.

Taking the time to get your financial records organized now will pay off big especially when next tax season rolls around.

Clutter Busting: Email Management

April 19, 2014 by clutterbusting 1 Comment

Do you feel like you are in email jail? Is your inbox too full? Do you spend too much time on email management? Begin managing your email and you will begin to manage your time.

To manage your outgoing emails:

Be concise and to the point.
Summarize the message in the first two sentences and expand in greater detail later.
Follow basic principles of good business writing such as using proper grammar, sentence structure, use paragraphs and spell check (but not too much).
Write effective subject lines by summarizing the content of the message
Send the email only to people who need to be informed but are not the primary receipients.
Use bcc to send to many people without cluttering the message with lots of addresses.
Read the email before you send it to verify the content and tone.
Double check recipients.

Here are some more general email tips: [Read more…] about Clutter Busting: Email Management

Clutter Busting: Meeting Management

April 12, 2014 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

Do you spend a great portion of your day in meetings? Do you feel that meetings are a waste of time?

If you are feeling that a lot of your time in unproductive meetings here are some tips:

Schedule fewer meetings.
Schedule shorter meetings.
Schedule walking meetings.
Schedule conference call or online meetings.

In order to make the most out of meetings and make them more productive:

Set ground rules.
- Come prepared to the meeting.
- Start and end on time. Assign a timekeeper.
- Stay on target.
- Establish roles such as a minute taker.
- Set an agenda and send it prior to the meeting
- Summarize the meeting by actions
- Make sure the right people at the meetings. No one else.

People are willing to attend and actively participate in meetings that are efficient, effective and provide opportunity for meaningful participation. And time is money, so make the most of your meeting time.

Clutter Busting: It’s About Time

April 5, 2014 by clutterbusting 1 Comment

Do you feel there are not enough hours in the day? Do you want to gain some control of your time?

Time management will help you:

Prioritize appropriately.
Focus on what’s important.
Conquer interruptions.
Leverage yourself.
Create work/life balance.

Not being in charge of your time is a problem because it takes a physical, mental and emotional toll on you. Value your time by implementing some of these solutions:

Recognize time robbers.
Build new and more effective habits into your day.
Focus on effective actions.
Allow a few exceptions into your plan.

It’s about time that you take control…there are only 24 hours in a day. Make the most of it.

Clutter Busting: Decisions Made This Week

March 29, 2014 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

Well I had to challenge myself if I challenged you. So how did my week of “putting it where it belongs” go? It went well.

You can see the kitchen counter by the phone (my big hot spot). The laundry room does not have anything in it that is not related to laundry or that is not permanently stored there. And the stairs are clear (usually used as a staging area for moving things upstairs).

Lessons I learned from this challenge:

It takes less time to do something than I think.
There is less chaos in the house when things are stored where they belong (knew this just needed a reminder).
Having a clean and sparkly sink when I come downstairs in the morning starts the day on a positive note.
Clear counters and stairs make me happy and enthused to do more.

What lessons did you learn from this challenge?