Organize Your Life

My life has been busy lately. We recently moved to Georgia and at first I didn't have a job, so I felt as if I were between lives. I had stuff to do, like find a job, but nothing too strenuous. Then out of nowhere I found freelance writing work, took on a position of responsibility in my church, and I'm suddenly busier than I was before we moved. I realized I would need to organize my thoughts, my paperwork, my home, and my life in order to accomplish all that is required of me. Here are the areas I plan to focus on.

My thoughts. I have a million things in my head at any one time, and it's easy to forget them or miss out on an important detail because I haven't written things down. From now on I plan to keep a notebook with me at all times and write down absolutely everything as it comes to me. I will also need to keep a pretty thorough 'to-do' list. I may go back to using todoist.com, but for now, I'm going low-tech with the notebook and paper calendar.

My paperwork. I don't know about you, but we've got papers everywhere in this house. The dining room table is the repository for recent mail items. My work desk is littered with bills, documents, and important scraps of paper. Our filing box has a stack of documents six inches high on top of it, none of it organized at all. This is one area of my life that will require a lot of changing on my part.

My home. I constantly battle dishes and clutter in my house. Things are not where they should be, so I'm constantly wandering through the house looking for an item that I searched for (and found) just the day before. It's frustrating, to say the least. I would like to organize my home in such a way that everything has a place, and is there when I need it. I would like to find a system in the kitchen so that I don't fight mountains of dishes all the time. (It doesn't help that our dishwasher is minuscule!)

My life. I need to organize my life so that I use my time wisely. I've got a lot to do, and I'd like to maximize my efficiency so that I can accomplish a lot but still have plenty of free time for relaxing.

I think I will write longer posts on each of these four areas. I'll let you know what I do in each area to organize myself, and hopefully share some good tips for keeping things running smoothly. I hope you will share your ideas as well.

5 Quick Tips for Starting Your Day Right

Some days are really good for me. I'm productive, I feel confident and happy, and I check a bunch of things off my to-do list. Other days, I have to force myeslf to get going, and my day never quite takes off.

Why is this? I think the key is the way I start the day. The way you start the day can set the tone for the rest of the day, so it's important to get off to a good start. I've found several things that help ensure that my day is happy and productive rather than blah. Here are 5 quick tips for starting the day right:

1. Get up. Okay, maybe that was obvious, but I mean that when you wake up, get up immediately. If you take your time getting up, you'll fight grogginess for the rest of the day.

2. Meditate or pray. Spend 5-1o minutes at the start of the day in prayer or meditation. You may be surprised to find out what kind of effect these quiet moments will have on the rest of your day.

3. Eat breakfast. Your body needs fuel. We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so don't skip it! And bonus points if you make it healthy.

4. Exercise or at least breathe. If you have time (or want to make time!), exercise in the morning. The endorphin boost can get you going and help you feel good. If you don't have time for exercise, take some deep breaths and notice how good it feels.

5. Go for it. Before you settle in with your time wasters (whatever yours happen to be - TV, Internet surfing, chatting, etc.), get started on your first 'to-do.' Pushing forward and finishing a task feels good and can help you build momentum toward the next task.

There you have it. Try one or several of these tips and see if they help your day go better. Let me know the outcome! And if you have your own tips, feel free to comment and let me know what yours are.

Stuck in a Rut

I have been stuck in a huge rut lately. It has affected my ability to work, blog, and even enjoy life. I just didn't feel like doing anything. I think this happens to everyone occasionally, but it can be very frustrating when you're in the middle of it.

How did I get out? I think part of it was me riding out the bad time until it started to ease. I'm not sure that's the best way to handle it, because what if it lasts a long time? Not to mention the fact that my productivity levels went WAY down during this time period.

Something else that helped me happened this weekend. My husband and I were given tickets to see an amazing concert pianist play on Friday. I hadn't been to an event like this in a long time, and it rejuvinated me! It was exciting to see what one person could do with hard work and practice.

So the next time I get into a rut, I'm going to try the following:

• Try something new. It could be playing a sport, spending time with a different friend, seeing a concert, trying out a new restaurant, etc. Anything to get me thinking again.
• Do something. Many people recommend setting a goal to do 3 things in a day. I always feel like I need to do MORE than that, which can stress me out. When I'm stuck, I should focus on doing ONE thing in a day, and go from there. Once I start, doing more gets easier.
• Ask for help. During my very worst day, a good friend decided to come over to my house and help me clean. It sounds like a small thing, but her help and friendship made me feel so much better. Ask for help when you need it!
• Exercise. What is it about exercise that makes it so hard for me to do when I'm in a rut? It is one thing that gives energy and can help rejuvinate you. I just need to do it!
• Manage stress. If there's something weighing you down, find a way to deal with it. Maybe you just need to vent your feelings, but maybe you need to tackle a project so that it's not hanging over your head. For me, a stressful situation can really bum me out.
• Find your energy. What makes you happy and renews your energy? Think of some things and just do them. For me, spending time outdoors or with my niece and nephews really lifts my spirit.

Those are my ideas for picking myself back up and regaining my energy. What helps you during those 'blah' times?

Best of the Tips

Because of my participation in the LiteMind writing project, I found a few really great new blogs. Here are the entries that I have deemed most worthy of your attention:

Articles:
7 Powerful Tips to Overcome Failure
7 Tricks to You Need to Fight Procrastination (Boy do I need this one!)
26 ways to Change the world (Easy ideas that make you happy in the process.)
10 Ways to Improve Personality (Apparently it can be done. Not that any of us need to...)

Resources:
100 Resources to Improve your Career, Relationships, and Money (This is a long list of articles that look excellent.)

No Cost Business Tools: 37 Free Applications that Make Your Life Easier (Tons of free resources for getting stuff done online.)

And that's that. Stay tuned for a longer post from me soon. I plan on writing some idea and tips for the holiday season.

Seven Ways to Stop Wasting Time

I've had a hard time lately with time management. I have a lot to do, but it's hard to make myself do what needs to get done. Instead I manage to waste time. I'll sit down to check my email in the morning, and next thing I know, an hour has gone by. I still get the essential things done, but it takes much more time to get them accomplished.

You may know the feeling. For my benefit, I've assembled a few tips for avoiding the 'time-waster' trap. Perhaps they may help you as well.

Have a planning session with yourself. What are your big goals? If you have a purpose, it's a lot easier to stay focused on what's important to you. Think about your long-term goals and what you need to do to get there.

Start each day with focus. What is it you want to accomplish today? Make sure your tasks and activities fall in line with your main goals. If you want to clean your kitchen, then sending email all day does not fit with your goal. Know what you want to do and stick with those things.

Have a clear-cut plan. Instead of going through your day aimlessly, list out your most important tasks and set out to achieve them first. That way, even if you waste time later, you'll still have accomplished the important things. I like to schedule each hour of the day, assigning myself certain tasks for each hour. That way, I always know what I should be doing.

Cut out (or at least cut down on) your time-wasting culprits. You know what they are - TV, Internet, email, magazines, blogs, chatting with co-workers or friends, ... etc. If you can't cut them out completely (and who can?), start by cutting down. Cut one hour of TV every day, and you've got a lot of time on your hands!

Set a timer. Set a timer for 15 minutes and accomplish as much as you can within that time frame. I learned this trick from FlyLady, and I was shocked to find out just how much can get done in that amount of time.

Reward yourself. Decide that you want to work at something for x amount of minutes. At the end of that time, you can reward yourself with your time-waster of choice -- but set a limit on it!

Throw in a 'lazy' day every now and again. I don't know about you, but every once in a while, I like to lounge in my pajamas all day and watch cheesy movies. It's a somewhat rare occurrence, but it allows me to rest my brain from my goals, plans, and to-do list, which in turn assures that my goals stay fresh.

Time-wasters will always be lurking around. But with a little planning and some practice, we can say goodbye to wasted time. What techniques do you use for managing your time?

How to become a morning person

I'm not a morning person and neither is my husband. Since we moved to Georgia and suddenly didn't have to get up for an 8:00 a.m. job, we both routinely stay up until midnight or later, which also means we don't get up early in the morning.

But we both want to change that. We'd like to be able to get up at a reasonable time and be productive in the morning hours. Can it be done? Can a night owl who feels foggy and tired in the morning become chipper and productive in the a.m.? We shall see. Here are the tips I've found to help me become a morning person.

1. Go to bed at a reasonable time. Don't go to bed if you aren't tired, but you do need to get enough sleep. This one is obvious, and it's one of the hardest things for us to do! I'm going to try it, though.

2. Choose a wake-up time and stick with it. No more hitting the snooze button for me.

3. Wake up 15 minutes earlier each day until you reach your target. I've also heard that if you keep waking up earlier in 15 minute increments, you'll eventually be an early riser and will hardly notice that a change happened.

4. Do some stretching. Stretching feels good, and it gets your blood moving. It tells your body to get ready to move!

5. Exercise in the morning. This will wake you up and increase your energy for the day. Don't allow yourself to talk yourself out if it - just do it!

6. Get some sunlight first thing. Maybe you can combine exercise with sunlight by exercising outside.

7. Shower. A shower helps me to feel less groggy in the morning.

8. Eat breakfast. Don't skip breakfast - it provides the fuel you need to get going in the morning.

9. Get up. This is another seemingly obvious one, but just getting out of bed is the first step! Stop hitting snooze and just hop out of bed first thing.

10. Find a reason to get up. If you have the proper motivation, you will get up. When I have a job that starts at 8:00 a.m., I get up early because I'm motivated to keep my job. My motivation now is that I want to accomplish a lot earlier in the day so I can relax later. But the point is, if your motivation isn't doing it for you, find another reason to get up.

I'm going to work on these tips and I'll let you know if I become a morning person. I hope they help you become the morning person you want/need to be. And if all else fails, you can always try the inflatable pillow alarm clock. Ha!

Related posts:
Tips for falling asleep naturally

Tips for Surviving Unemployment

When you're between jobs and searching for employment, it's easy to get discouraged. It's hard to maintain your sense of self-worth when you don't hear back from potential employers and get rejected by others. How do I know this? Because I am currently in the category of unemployed.

Last month my husband and I moved to Georgia from Arizona, where I had a full-time job. I've been looking for a job here since June, and I've had my fair share of discouragement. So this post is meant partly to inspire me, and partly for anybody in the same boat as I am.

Here are some ideas for making it through the rough times.

Seek support from friends. Your true friends will encourage you and support you, which is something you need during this time. Having the support of family and friends is invaluable. Not to mention that friends and family may have job leads. Which brings me to the next point...

Network. Tell everyone you know that you're looking for a job. Join an organization in your field. Use Internet tools like LinkedIn to network. You never know where a job lead will come from, so always network.

Brainstorm. I've found my unemployment to be a perfect time to brainstorm. I brainstorm what my perfect job would be (if you don't know what you want, how will you get it?). I also brainstorm temporary solutions - are there temp jobs I'd be willing to do? Are there side jobs I could do? Are there other solutions to your situation that you haven't thought of yet? Brainstorm away!

Cut yourself some slack. Looking for a job can be harder than working a full-time job. It drains your energy, you face rejection, AND you don't get paid for it. So pat yourself on the back for how hard you've worked. You haven't landed the perfect job yet, but you're doing what you can.

Don't take rejection personally. On a bad day it's hard not to take it personally, but the truth is that you will fit well in some jobs and not in others. There are many reasons you weren't chosen for the job and someone else was, and not all of them have to do with you. Don't take a rejection personally. Just don't.

Remember your hobbies. It's easy to get stuck a rut when you're unemployed. It gets depressing to watch TV all day in your pajamas. To combat this, do something. What are the things you like to do? This is a perfect time to do them. Get out in your garden, sew a quilt, lift weights, bake some bread. You get the idea.

Learn a new skill. The great thing about not having a job (and the worst thing about it!) is all the free time. You can't look for a job 24/7 or you'd go crazy. So how about learning something new? You could even learn something to make you more marketable. Head to your local library and find a book on something you've been wanting to learn to do.

Be positive. I know, that's easy for me to say. Believe me, I know how hard it is to be positive when you're unemployed. I struggle every day with this. But on days when I focus on the positive I have more energy, am more willing to put myself out there, and have a lot more confidence in myself and my abilities. These are all things that can help with the job search. And staying positive is essential for your mental and emotional health!

*Almost everyone goes through a period of unemployment at some point in their lives, so remember that you're not alone. What kinds of things helped YOU during that time? I'd love to hear your comments and ideas.

Overcoming Procrastination

My husband and I both suffer from procrastination at times. I avoid tasks that are unpleasant, which then causes problems later on when I have a multitude of unpleasant tasks to care of. Not to mention that procrastinating means that sometimes important things slip through the cracks, like paying bills. Not good!

I don't like procrastinating, but that's just how I've functioned for most of my life. Recently, I adopted a positive affirmation that really struck me. The affirmation is: I do it now. I say this to myself every day, and it actually works. I still have trouble with procrastination, but it's getting better!

My husband just started his doctoral program and is struggling to adjust to the demands of his studies. I know procrastination is something he struggles with, and I know he can't afford it with the time constraints he has. So when I saw this article about procrastination on The Positivity Blog, I knew I had to link to it - it's got great tips for getting past procrastination.

So if you've ever struggled with procrastination, check the article out here. And you may also want to try repeating the phrase, "I do it now" any time you want to put something off. I'm telling you, it really helps!

Related Posts:
What Motivates You?
Habits Shape Who We Are
When doing something new, don't give up!