Clutter Busting Coach

…clearing clutter from your mind, body and space

clutter busting

Stick to Your Goals

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Sometimes it’s hard to keep on track with your goals.

Here are tips to help make goals stick:

  • When you are working on a new healthy habit create prompts for goal implementation. For example if you want to exercise first thing in the morning lay out your exercise clothes the night before right next to your bed so you can put them on as soon as you get up. Or if flossing your teeth daily is your goal pull out the floss when you pull out your toothbrush.
  • While having SMART goals is important to success so is creating goals in the present tense to help you visualize the goal as already done. For example I wear a size eight versus I will lose 20 pounds or I am cigarette free versus I will stop smoking.
  • Set up rewards to build some pleasure into the actual activity. For example tape your favorite TV show and watch it while exercising so you can create a habit that sticks.

Creating prompts, setting up rewards and establishing goals in the present tense will aid with goal implementation and assist in creating healthy habits that stick. Give one of these tips a try…you can make your goals a reality.

Pinboards- Can they declutter your life?

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A friend told me about Pinterest because she thought I would love the concept as a clutter busting life coach. And I do.

Wikipedia gives a great description of Pinterest and its uses.

While Pinterest’s mission is to “connect everyone in the world throuh the ‘things’ they find interesting”, as a life coach I think Pinterest is a great clutter busting tool.

How many times do you cut out an article or photo from a maganize to save for ideas or planning? How many piles of papers or folders do you have with resources just sitting around on tabletops or in file cabinets? Do you ever look at them again? Or are they just there for some day soon?
What I love is that you can generally categorize Pinboards for organization and for discovery by others. What a great way to share ideas without adding more paper clutter.

 Of course there is “pin etiquette” that you should use when using Pinterest such as being respectful, pinning useful items, being authentic and crediting your sources especially with a link back to the original source.

I am hooked. You may want to check it out the Pinterest website.

Control Your Emails, Control Your Time

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Don’t let emails disrupt your day and steal your time.

Here are some techniques you can use to manage emails:

  • When sending emails:
    o Use brief but detailed subject lines. Don’t leave it blank. Leaving the subject line blank makes it difficult to file or search not only for the recipients sake but yours too.
    o Keep messages short and simple. Important information should go in the first paragraph.
    o Create lists with groups of addresses especially if you send message to the same bunch of people frequently.
    o Don’t abuse email by forwarding every joke.
  • Receiving emails:
    o Set aside certain times of the day to answer email so it doesn’t become a distraction. You can set rules to color code emails from important people so you can handle promptly.
    o Use the spam files and rules functions. You can set rules to automatically file email messages from selected addresses in a particular folder.
    o Ask people who respond to all to kindly stop doing so needlessly.
  • Email oorganization:
    o Use folders and sub-folders.
    o Organize by sender, subject matter, project or any combination that makes sense to you.
    o Empty your delete folder regularly or set it up to do so automatically.

Set up some project time now to clean out your emails and then schedule time weekly (or on a regular basis) to keep on top of email organization.

By using these techniques and with scheduled routine maintenance you can be in control of your email.

Electronic Files: Create a system that works for you

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With electronic files you are free to create a system that works for you but that freedom can be a challenge. One challenge is that electronic files are different because we aren’t handling them, they are virtual. So how do you go about bringing your hard drive to order?

Here are some tips:

  • Back up your data. How often is based on how critical your data is and how much work it would take you to recreate things from scratch.
  • Set up broad category folders in “my documents” or on your hard drive (in MAC OS).
  • Set up subfolders in each category. For example, medical documents by person or medical condition.
  • Use the computer’s sort function. For example, if you put a space or “AAA” in front of the name of the most frequently used folders they will be at the top of the alphabetical list and easy to locate.
  • Use meaningful names for your documents and use names less than 15 characters as they are easier to understand at a glance.
  • Keep refining your system so it works better and better.
  • Avoid duplicate folders to avoid confusion.
  • Reserve your desktop for items that need immediate action. When done working with the file or project then move it to the proper folder.

Don’t’ let your electronic files overwhelm you. Weekly care and maintenance will keep things in order. Get a handle on them so you’ll save time in the future.

The Journey Into Clutter Busting: The Side-tracked Home Executive

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One of my favorite books years ago when I first got interested in organizing and clutter busting was “Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise” (Warner Books 2001) by Pam Young and Peggy Jones.

I just rediscovered their website and found some great reminders including:
• There is a way out of our chaos
• There are many ways unique we got into our chaotic state
• It ultimately has to be up to you to create calm and step away from chaos
• Getting a plan of action is the first step to getting out of chaos

And most importantly, I was reminded that it’s all about the routine. Does your routine need tweaking? I am going to review mine today.