Ok.. I am severely late to start the 31 days, due to my birthday, a wedding and last day of work before yahoo ! maternity holidays. Those are all good reasons to state and make use of. I guess.Nevertheless, here is........
Day 1: No day like today
You know all the post and great advertisements that pile up on the table by the hall, or the kitchen counter, or even the dining table?
The best way that has helped me, is to tackle it the day it arrives. If you have 2 minutes to stare at that pile, you have the time to deal with it. I usually separate them into two piles. "A discard immediately pile" and an "action pile". Those advertisements, junk mail, I immediately put in the discard pile. And hide the toy store advertisements away from the kids and for me to scan later on.
I open up the rest and scan through its content. Those that deserve to be in the "action pile", gets there. The envelopes are in the "discard pile", unless there is a sender address sticker that I want to save. All those in the "action pile" get transferred to the office room , to the various file trays marked "to pay" , "to file" , "to read and act upon". Okay, this might take a minute more than 2 minutes. But its sorted and the kitchen counter/dining table/ hallway table stays clean everyday.
At the end of the week, or when I get a chance to go through my file tray(ideally in the same week itself), bills are paid, documents are filed in the right files, action is taken to those you need to do something about. My husband tends to scan them(even bills we wish to keep) too and maintain a digital record. I haven't reached that phase yet.
Another new thing we have started is have a shared family calendar synced on our devices. Those things that require both my husband and my attention , such as a football game, a doctors appointment, a dinner party etc... get tagged with the "Daniel family" color coded tag. So we are both aware of something that requires both our attention. This helps us not to make another appointment when we can't call or reach the other person at that moment.
Also, the usage of Evernotes has helped in me not nagging him to do certain things around the house. I just add it to his action points and tag them urgent. Like " hang curtains in baby room" . "Fix leaky faucet". It has also helped us individually to put a tag on things we need to do at various urgency levels, make lists, clip internet links we want to use later on and aid in our purchase. I even put " one day project" ideas in a folder to think about later when I have time. So, its documented and not forgotten and gives me the freedom to take it up when I want.
Clearing the mind as much as possible with the "things to do" is the purpose. And of course changing the action tag to "action completed" brings me so much of pleasure. No more paper bits, different places on the phone. I am only doing doable items for this day and not staring at an entire list and missing them everyday.Peace and calm.
Day 1: No day like today
You know all the post and great advertisements that pile up on the table by the hall, or the kitchen counter, or even the dining table?
The best way that has helped me, is to tackle it the day it arrives. If you have 2 minutes to stare at that pile, you have the time to deal with it. I usually separate them into two piles. "A discard immediately pile" and an "action pile". Those advertisements, junk mail, I immediately put in the discard pile. And hide the toy store advertisements away from the kids and for me to scan later on.
I open up the rest and scan through its content. Those that deserve to be in the "action pile", gets there. The envelopes are in the "discard pile", unless there is a sender address sticker that I want to save. All those in the "action pile" get transferred to the office room , to the various file trays marked "to pay" , "to file" , "to read and act upon". Okay, this might take a minute more than 2 minutes. But its sorted and the kitchen counter/dining table/ hallway table stays clean everyday.
At the end of the week, or when I get a chance to go through my file tray(ideally in the same week itself), bills are paid, documents are filed in the right files, action is taken to those you need to do something about. My husband tends to scan them(even bills we wish to keep) too and maintain a digital record. I haven't reached that phase yet.
Another new thing we have started is have a shared family calendar synced on our devices. Those things that require both my husband and my attention , such as a football game, a doctors appointment, a dinner party etc... get tagged with the "Daniel family" color coded tag. So we are both aware of something that requires both our attention. This helps us not to make another appointment when we can't call or reach the other person at that moment.Also, the usage of Evernotes has helped in me not nagging him to do certain things around the house. I just add it to his action points and tag them urgent. Like " hang curtains in baby room" . "Fix leaky faucet". It has also helped us individually to put a tag on things we need to do at various urgency levels, make lists, clip internet links we want to use later on and aid in our purchase. I even put " one day project" ideas in a folder to think about later when I have time. So, its documented and not forgotten and gives me the freedom to take it up when I want.Clearing the mind as much as possible with the "things to do" is the purpose. And of course changing the action tag to "action completed" brings me so much of pleasure. No more paper bits, different places on the phone. I am only doing doable items for this day and not staring at an entire list and missing them everyday.Peace and calm.
I have always wanted to try using a calendar on our computers/phones/kindles. Maybe I will now.
ReplyDeleteHeading out to my garage right now for two minutes - no really we always have a snippet of time to do something to make our life more organized and run more smoothly - thanks for reminding me.
ReplyDelete