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Browse published articles attributed to Janice Russell, with full-archive search.
How many times have you heard someone say, “I never have enough time!”? Maybe you have even said it yourself. I hate to break the news to you...we all have the same amount of time: 24 hours in a day which means 168 hours per week. There is nothing that anyone can do to change it. For some people that is the bad news. There is good news, however. You are in charge of your time.
May is Family Wellness Month. Whether you are a family of one or a family of ten or more, there are a number of ways that you can enhance wellness in your life. This article will speak to wellness in terms of mental health as it relates to a functional space and calendar.
Want to get organized this year? “Getting organized” is one of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions. Let’s bring your desire for organization into reality by developing a plan. Go ahead and groan, but without a destination, you don’t know how to get there. You may have heard of SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. Without becoming overwhelmed or too legalistic, you can make SMART organizing goals.
I love my Mom’s stuffing! I can’t wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas so I can eat some. But there is one kind of stuffing I don’t like around the holidays: an overstuffed calendar. Stuffing (or dressing) is one thing, stuffed animals are great, but a stuffed calendar just leads to overwhelm. How can you feel the joy of the holidays if you’re experiencing calendar overwhelm? I’m going to give you the bottom-line first. Are you ready?
On Monday, you are recovering from the weekend and you have emails, voicemails and tasks that have come in over the weekend. Plus, there are probably still some to-do’s from last week. On Friday, you anticipate the weekend and it is easy to get distracted from work. Thursday is almost Friday, so it’s almost the weekend, too. Plus, it’s the best day to work on tasks you’ve procrastinated but which are due at the end of the week. Wednesday is halfway through the week. You see how little you’ve done and how much there is left to do. So Tuesday it is.
A hurricane or tornado is on the way, what should you grab so that you can rebuild your life if necessary? Someone dies unexpectedly, what should they have in place to make it easier for their relatives? Many believe that a natural, weather-related, or man-made disaster won’t affect them. And after-the-fact they regret that they didn’t make any contingency plans. Even if you know that you need to have an emergency arrangement in place, the task of creating such a plan may feel daunting. Let’s see if we can break the process down into doable steps. Step #1: Establish a Plan.
No one can miss the fact that the holiday season is upon us. We all know that this time of year is filled with shopping, parties, decorating, stress for some, and peace for others. Lurking in the back of many people’s minds are thoughts related to Things. All of us interact with Things, whether work or personal objects, each day. During the holidays we have additional Things to keep track of. For example, we have Things for decorating, Things to buy for others, Things for baking special recipes, and Things we will receive from others. Whew! That is lots of Things!
Listening is both an internal and exte al activity. We listen exte ally when we converse with others or tune into the radio or television. We listen internally when we pay attention to our inner thoughts and conversations. Both types of listening are necessary for good organization – whether you at work or at home. The most important factor if you want to increase your organization is to really listen.
Most people associate the word “addict” with alcohol or drugs. Reality is that people can become addicted to either a substance or a behavior. As a professional organizer, I work with many clients who are addicted to stuff. What does this look like? Here are some of the signs: o more stuff enters a space than leaves a space o the urge to have the “latest and greatest” is strong o shopping is used as a type of therapy o although clutter may bother a person, it doesn’t affect the person enough to stop acquiring new items
While listening doesn't sound like something required to organize, it actually is an important part of reaching your organizing goals.
Giving thanks. It is something we do when someone gives us a gift or does something special for us. In the several countries there are special days called Thanksgiving. People gather together with family and friends, eat a big feast, and give thanks for all their blessings. In the United States, this holiday is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November; it is followed by Black Friday which is traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year. People start shopping in the wee hours of the morning to get deals on gifts to give people for Christmas or other December holidays.
Do you feel like you never get to the end of your to-do list? Are there some to-do items that seem to move from list to list? Do you track things to be done on one list, multiple pieces of paper, an electronic device, or in your head? One crucial factor in getting organizing is using time wisely. While there are a myriad of ways to approach the 24 hours you are allotted each day, this month we will concentrate on developing a new habit. And the new habit is: learn to differentiate between tasks and projects.
Whew! The tax deadline is behind us! Now, it's time to figure out what to do with that pile of papers covering the desk or dining room table. Not sure where to start? There is an easy way to archive taxes to ensure that you are withi IRS rules. Plus, you don't really have to think about it much each year. First, purchase a box of two-inch box-bottom hanging folders at your local office supply store. Whether they are colored or not is up to you.
Has your life gotten out of kilter in some way? Maybe your job doesn’t excite you anymore or you don’t have a job and want one. Perhaps you want to spend more time with family or friends or doing a hobby you really enjoy. Possibly there is something that you have always wanted to do that you haven’t done yet. June is Rebuild Your Life Month. No, I really don’t make these “holidays” up! Let’s take a look at one crucial piece necessary in the rebuilding process.
Clutter in your home, office or schedule comes in many forms. In this case, I’m not talking about excess stuff in your space or outdoors. I’m talking about causes of clutter from exte al and internal sources. Wait! Don’t stop reading yet. This article spotlights two important components of our Flexible Structure Method™. Our proprietary method guarantees results around organizing that matter to our clients’ life and lifestyle. Don’t you want to get out of stuff or schedule overwhelm?
How many of the following papers could you find in one minute? -Birth Certificate -Closing documents for your home or rental agreement -All supporting documents for taxes -Record of most recent subscription to a magazine or newspaper -Most recent social security statement By the way, that was one minute for all of the documents, not one minute per document! If you can't find at least one of those quickly, it's time to reorganize your files. It's a task few enjoy, but when it comes to important documents, you'll soon be glad you can find them easily and quickly.
When people leave this world, they always leave a legacy. The legacy might be food, clothing or shelter for those less fortunate. It might be a building used to educate others. The legacy might be children who solve major world problems. These are the bigger legacies. The more obvious ones. Since we all leave a legacy, here are some of the less obvious ones: 1. The person who donated goods to a local soup kitchen each week. 2. Someone who consistently dropped off clothes & household items to a homeless shelter.
As a professional organizer working with the chronically disorganized, I see teens everywhere who could use some help in getting organized. It’s a skill set schools tend to overlook, but one that parents know is crucial for success in every area of life. In the blink of an eye, those teens will turn into adults who find that just getting out of the house on time each morning, planning a meal, paying bills by due dates, finding needed items and working a job all require persistent organizing skills. Why are so many of us at a loss? It helps if we expose some common myths.
April is Stress Awareness Month. Most people are already aware of stress in their lives! But did you know stress is a major cause of clutter? There is schedule clutter because we have more tasks, obligations, and activities than we have hours in the day. There is physical clutter, which overwhelms our homes and workplaces and is caused by bringing in more items. There is information clutter due to the overabundance of newspapers, TV channels, internet access, and magazines. One of the most effective ways to reduce clutter is to attack it at the source.
We’ve just started a new year. How do you want your life to be different at the end of 2012 from how it is right now? Think of one or two ways that you’d like to change your personal or professional life. Got your answer? My guess is that many of you would like to decrease “overwhelm.” The “overwhelm” associated with too much stuff in your physical space, too many tasks in your schedule or too many thoughts in your mind. If that sounds like you, read on for how to achieve better life-flow in 2012.
Ready to implement a new filing system? While choosing your system is an important first step, most of us get stuck when it comes time to actually do the work. So here are some ideas about how to get started:
Christmas is just around the corner, and along with bringing holiday cheer it also brings holiday “stuff.” As you look around your home does it seem inevitable that clutter will be a part of your holiday celebrations? Maybe some of the items belong to other family members, regardless has all of the stuff been around so long that it seems it has grown roots? Things without a specific home become clutter, and clutter has a way of morphing from a small pile into part of your home décor (décor that’s eye catching in a bad way!).r