The busy holiday season is upon us …can you believe it? This can be a hectic time of year, so where do we find the time to do it all?  We don’t. My Grandmother always told me, “Missy, you can’t be in two places at the same time” and she was right.  It is not physically or mentally possible to “do it all”…and it is ok for you to stop trying – time is precious.

Here are some tips to help you make the most of the your time:

• Plan Ahead. Such a simple concept, but so important. Plan for the week or just the day, whatever works best for YOU.  Make a plan to serve as your guide. Remember, it is a guide…not a rigid agenda that controls your every move.  Use your plan to set priorities, including free time to do things that you love.

• Be kind to your calendar (and yourself) – don’t overbook. Pick the most important events and activities to add to your calendar and make sure they fit into your priorities.

• Be realistic about how much time it takes you to do an activity. We tend to under-estimate, so include buffer time.  Also, it never hurts to add 15 minutes buffer time to your travel.

• Give yourself permission to say “NO”.  Why is it so hard to say “no”?  Because we don’t want to disappoint or let others down.  But the truth is, people understand and they certainly don’t want to contribute to your stress.

When you feel yourself getting overwhelmed with the amount of activity that the holiday season can bring – remind yourself that your time is precious and you should be spending it on things that are important to you AND fit into your priorities.  I give you permission to stop trying to “fit it all in”.

By: Melissa Stacey

Be honest…do you have business cards piling up on your desk? Are there lots of them? Those cards are not very helpful in pile on your desk, so let’s get your cards organized and more useful!

The first step is to sort through the business cards to get rid of the ones you don’t need. When sorting, ask yourself these questions:

* Do you remember who the person is?

* Do you use their services?

* Would you refer out their services?

* Do you want to form a business relationship with this person or company?

If you answered “no” to these questions, put the business card in the recycling bin. Don’t bother hanging on to cards you won’t use.

The next step is to organize your business cards in a way that makes it easy to find what you are looking for, when you need it. Here is what I recommend:

• Electronic Organizing – Use a card scanner or input the information manually into your contact database. Categorize them under the services they provide either in folders or by using keywords. That way if you forget their name, you can still search by category or keywords.

• Card Organizing – Create a binder. Insert the business cards into business card pages.  Organize them by categories.  Again, you won’t have to remember the company name, just the service.

Happy Organizing!

By: Melissa Stacey

By: Melissa Stacey

Is your love of books creating feelings of overwhelm? If so, it may be time to evaluate your personal and business book collection. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

1. If you didn’t like the book, let it go.
2. If you are not going to refer to it again, let it go.
3. If a book has been sitting in a stack to read for YEARS, let it go.
4. If the book has no sentimental value…that’s right…let it go.
5. Buy an electronic reader like a Kindle (I love mine!).
6. Create your collection only with books that you love.

Share the wealth with other book lovers by passing your unwanted books on to a friend, donating them to a library or selling them at a used or online book store.

By: Melissa Stacey

Listing, listing

You’ve probably experienced it yourself—the endless to-do list! Every item is like one of the Hydra’s heads. Kill off one and two more pop up in its place! This condition is even deadlier if you’re running your own business.

What to do? There are some great tools that can help you.

Organize Your Desk

First, you’ll be able to think much more clearly if you get rid of the visual clutter around your work area. For instance, get all electronics out of sight. Second, go wireless as much as you can. Wherever you can’t go wireless, buy some wire wraps at Radio Shack and organize those self-tangling cables.

You can find these and other tips for an organized desk at the blog Productivity 501:
Productivity 501

Organize Your Time

For some of the best planning and time management tools, David Seah offers exceptional templates that you can download for free from his blog.
David Seah

One of them, The Printable CEO™ (PCEO), lets the user focus her time more productively, and makes her business both sustainable and fun.
The Printable CEO

The blog also offers a free “compact calendar” that I find works better than almost anything I’ve seen out there—and I’ve been looking for years! You can print the sheets, or create your own compact calendars based on the Excel template
Compact Calendar

Use these tools wisely, and you’ll find yourself killing off your to-do list with a vengeance!

But wait! What’s the point in becoming super efficient and productive if all you’re doing is crossing items off your list? Your to-do list should allow you to better leverage your time and talent so that you can move your business forward. You can’t really harness your creativity if you’re always making lists.

Next topic: go beyond just getting things done. Take lateral action!

By: Cheryl Chow

Recently, in a spurt of ‘abundance thinking’, where I was convinced that 2010 is going to be a MUCH better year than 2009 (I can’t afford to think otherwise, can you?!), I decided to do an inventory of people/resources I can turn to when my workload is too heavy to do it all myself.

Like many fellow consultants, I can perform every function needed to support most client projects myself, but have found it very wise to outsource certain portions of my research projects when I have a heavy client load in order to ensure that my time is spent on the things that are: 1) high value activities, worthy of my $100+ hourly rate and 2) things that only I can do based on my unique talents or the client relationship.

In an effort to streamline the process when I need to turn to other resources, I created a spreadsheet that provides me with a quick glance at the resources I’ve qualified and established relationships with over the past 10 years.  Some of the features of the spreadsheet:

• Every row is a different person/resource
• The first few columns include contact information, notes about the resource and their specialty
• The rest of the columns are categories of resources such as Interviewing, Analysis, Recruiting, Panels/Lists, etc.
• I put an X in each column/category that a given resource can help with

Having this quick reference allows me to rapidly scan a given column when I have the need for support in any given area.  When I meet/qualify new resources, I add them to the spreadsheet, which ensures that I think of them when the need arises.  This saves me a LOT of time and helps me make sure I make the right choice for each project, which helps ensure high quality results for my clients.

Let’s all think ‘abundance’ for 2010 and do a similar inventory of our resources…and if you don’t HAVE back-up resources, be sure to find some…WIC is a great source of qualified people who can partner with you to help in almost any element of your work.

By: Jen Berkley Jackson

Does your email inbox have 3,000 emails in it?  Do you lose important emails because they are buried deep in your inbox?  Don’t let email overwhelm you.  Take control of your inbox with these easy steps: 

Clean Out Your Inbox Daily – The best way to avoid email overwhelm is to clean out your inbox daily.  The only emails that should be in your inbox are those emails that are pending action. 

Delete, delete, delete – When you receive junk mail, advertisements or duplicate information… delete them.  If you have emails that have nothing to do with you, are trash or not worth your time…delete them. 

Take Action – When you receive an email that will take 2 minutes or less to deal with, than take the necessary action immediately.  Then delete or file the email.

File It – If you need the email for reference in the future and this information is not available anywhere else, than file it in an email folder.  Be sure that the folders you set up are easy to understand so you can find the email later when you need it. 

Clear Out Email Backlog – If you have 3,000 emails in your inbox, then start taking the steps to clear out the backlog.  Start with the most recent emails first and work your way back.  Each day spend 15 minutes working on this project until it is completed. 

Create a Junk Email – Use this email address to order things online or sign into random websites.  Once this email address starts to get overloaded with spam, you can shut it down and create another junk email address.  This will help contain the junk email so it won’t take over your real email.

By: Melissa Stacey

Setting up the right organizing systems in your office can make all the difference in the world.  You can clean up and organize your space, but if you are not setting up maintainable systems that work well for you, the clutter and disorganization will come back.

A recent article called “An Orderly Office?  That’s Personal” in the New York times discusses one person’s journey to organizing her office and how organizing systems changed her life.

To read more go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/garden/26office.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=march%2026,%202009%20organizer&st=cse

By: Melissa Stacey

The best way to store items is by using storage containers.  Containers help keep similar items in one place, they protect your belongings and they serve as a “home”.  You can also use them to maximize your storage space by purchasing containers that are stackable.

Favorite Stores – Some of my favorite places to shop for containers are Container Store, Storables, OSH and Target.

Container Store 25% Off – Right now you can find some great containers for your organizing projects at the Container Store and get 25% off through April 13th with this coupon: http://images.containerstore.com/messyHouseTour.pdf

By: Melissa Stacey

Spring is already here and I am still working on implementing my New Years Intentions/Resolutions. Better now than never!

Is your new year resolution or intention about getting organized?  If so, a great way to start is to stop extra mail that comes into your home or business.  Check out www.dmachoice.org or www.greendimes.com to remove your name from junk mailing lists.

Looking to get rid of old electronics?  I found a great website that will buy used cell phones, MP3 players, computers and camcorders. The company will send you a prepaid postage box so you can ship your items to them.  The website is very user friendly and it only takes a few minutes to look up your electronics.  Go to www.gazelle.com for more information.

By: Melissa Stacey