I see it every day, busy people who have added so many activities to their plates that they are overwhelmed, exhausted and not paying attention to things that matter. A client who takes over her daughter’s Brownie troupe yet doesn’t have the time to learn the rules, another who has a passion for military games so he continues to buy them despite the fact that he already has over 1,000 games. The businesswoman who wants to tackle 10 personal projects at once and wonders why she has no time left for herself or another client who thinks that she has small NYC closets yet has never worn 20% of what she owns.
We all forget to simply be in the moment. To enjoy what we have, to do a job and do it well. We instead try to perform 6 things at once and none of them particularly well. We are addicted to our Blackberries or other “stuff” that takes away our concentration from important matters such as our children, our work and even our time to rejuvenate and appreciate what we have. Can we truly say we’re happy? Do we even know what we’re doing anymore?
Being in the moment means concentrating on one thing at a time and not multi-tasking. Multi-tasking leads to jobs done part-way or even worse, our inability to care about what we’re even doing because our minds cannot process two things at once properly. We end up taking in the least important information and often disappointing others as well.
Time management means understanding how you are spending your time and knowing whether or not you can devote time to a new project. Simply because you’ve always loved photography doesn’t mean you have the time to start it now. I knew a woman who signed up for a writing course and managed to go once. Did she even get anything out of it?
How about understanding what you have in your closet and why. Are some of your belongings the result of impulse shopping when you’re having a bad day? Does a closet full of stuff you don’t like, want or need make you happy? I don’t know anyone who impulse shops who can then look at their purchases after the fact and actually feel good about it. If the activity ends up making you miserable, why continue to do it?
We need basic things to make us happy; our families, our friends, having passion in our lives yet we always seem to be pursuing materials items. We think that blouse will make us happy or we’ll buy 10 books thinking we’ll get to read them. That blouse will probably make us happy until we get it home and it sits in the closet staring at us accusingly. Those books will then sit in a corner gathering dust and every time you look at them you feel like a failure for not having the time to read them. Why not be in the moment, enjoy what you have, take on projects only when you know you can devote your time properly and always remember that yes, you CAN do anything you wish to do but you CANNOT do them all at once. Not the way they’re meant to be done and not in a way that will ever result in you being proud of a job well done.
Alison Kero, organization and productivity expert and founder of Gotham Concierge, helps business professionals develop goal achievement strategies through organizational skills. She teaches you how to stay focused in your pursuit of a goal and keep obstacles from sabotaging your efforts. Alison also helps business professionals and owners how to create the systems they need to become more organized. She teaches an easy-to-implement approach for managing your workload so you get the recognition you deserve. She arms you with the tools you need to manage your time, organize your work, and meet deadlines.
Alison Kero created Gotham Concierge in June, 2004. Alison has 15 years experience as the personal assistant to a number of high level executives in a variety of companies, trade associations, and NGOS as well as 5 years experience as a professional organizer. She understands what it means to lead a busy life, and what it takes to make things run smoothly for a busy professional. Prior to creating Gotham Concierge, Alison worked at Citigroup in International Private Banking and also worked as a freelance editor. She was notably published in the 2nd Edition of the Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy as the bibliographical researcher. Alison also appeared in the fall of 2007 with world-famous fashionista David Evangelista on the CBS Morning Show and most recently in the summer of 2008 was interviewed by NY Business TV's host Mike Ryan. Her interview can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iup99BEEjKM.
Showing posts with label time management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time management. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Breaking It Down: Getting Things Done… Eventually
I’ll admit it I have not always been organized. In fact, if you saw my bedroom up until I left college, you’d never believe that I now spend my days organizing others and helping them manage their time. My bedroom used to look like a tornado hit it. Sometimes it was so bad, my brother, (whose organizational skills can best be described as overly-anal) would offer to clean my room for me. I always cheerfully accepted. (What a treat!)
I have since altered my disorganized ways, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve gone overboard on everything having its place or that I somehow experience joy by going through stacks of paperwork. I too hate filing. It’s hideous and usually you’re just glad you avoided getting a paper cut. The worst part is how dry it makes your hands!
So how does an inherently lazy disorganized person go from never seeing the top of her dresser to professionally going in and helping others create workable systems to make their lives easier? Mostly by figuring out that being organized could be fun and easy, that’s how.
There are some basic rules on how to make getting organized easier, like doing a little at a time instead of big projects. It’s easier. You can talk yourself into doing 3 dishes because, hey, it’s only 3 dishes and I’ve never once woken up the next morning and I thought to myself, “gee, I’m so glad I waited to do these dishes. I totally feel like doing them now.” No, I always thought, “Thank GOD I did those dishes last night!” So just knowing that made it easier to almost always do my dishes as I dirty them instead of waiting to do the 3 hours project (which has now become an even longer task thanks to dried food particles now clinging to the dirty dishes) because I have to do it.
Do that with everything in your life and it kind of makes it more manageable. If there are certain things you don’t like to do, like those dishes, try to at least make a game out of it. I like to do some dishes during the commercials. I get some done and I know I get to sit back down when the show comes back on. It’s win-win in my opinion.
It’s just a matter of how you think of things. If you go about the task at hand thinking negatively then the activity will almost always take longer than you thought – mostly because your negative thoughts got in the way. Just accept that certain tasks will always suck. Like doing your taxes, this activity will always suck. However, choosing to reflect on the fun things you did with all those receipts may make the time pass much more quickly than griping about it ever will.
So when you wake up tomorrow and try to talk yourself out of making your bed, remember that it’ll take 2 minutes of your time (unless you’re one of those people who likes to put like 10 pillows on your bed for show, then it’ll take more time and frankly, if you are one of those people, it’s your own fault it takes so long because you were the one who bought those pillows. Stop buying so much stuff – less stuff means less time dealing with your stuff) and the end result is a nicely made bed. I guarantee you the thoughts you have looking at the nicely made bed are far more positive than looking at a tumble of linen. So start breaking down your projects today. It’ll make the process more manageable, easier, more fun and you’ll probably actually do it versus waiting for that “one day” when you try to accomplish the whole task in one fell swoop.
Good luck on breaking down your projects into simple tasks. If you need more advice or help getting organized or managing your time contact Alison Kero at: 646-831-9625 or at: info@gothamconcierge.com to schedule an appointment.
I have since altered my disorganized ways, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve gone overboard on everything having its place or that I somehow experience joy by going through stacks of paperwork. I too hate filing. It’s hideous and usually you’re just glad you avoided getting a paper cut. The worst part is how dry it makes your hands!
So how does an inherently lazy disorganized person go from never seeing the top of her dresser to professionally going in and helping others create workable systems to make their lives easier? Mostly by figuring out that being organized could be fun and easy, that’s how.
There are some basic rules on how to make getting organized easier, like doing a little at a time instead of big projects. It’s easier. You can talk yourself into doing 3 dishes because, hey, it’s only 3 dishes and I’ve never once woken up the next morning and I thought to myself, “gee, I’m so glad I waited to do these dishes. I totally feel like doing them now.” No, I always thought, “Thank GOD I did those dishes last night!” So just knowing that made it easier to almost always do my dishes as I dirty them instead of waiting to do the 3 hours project (which has now become an even longer task thanks to dried food particles now clinging to the dirty dishes) because I have to do it.
Do that with everything in your life and it kind of makes it more manageable. If there are certain things you don’t like to do, like those dishes, try to at least make a game out of it. I like to do some dishes during the commercials. I get some done and I know I get to sit back down when the show comes back on. It’s win-win in my opinion.
It’s just a matter of how you think of things. If you go about the task at hand thinking negatively then the activity will almost always take longer than you thought – mostly because your negative thoughts got in the way. Just accept that certain tasks will always suck. Like doing your taxes, this activity will always suck. However, choosing to reflect on the fun things you did with all those receipts may make the time pass much more quickly than griping about it ever will.
So when you wake up tomorrow and try to talk yourself out of making your bed, remember that it’ll take 2 minutes of your time (unless you’re one of those people who likes to put like 10 pillows on your bed for show, then it’ll take more time and frankly, if you are one of those people, it’s your own fault it takes so long because you were the one who bought those pillows. Stop buying so much stuff – less stuff means less time dealing with your stuff) and the end result is a nicely made bed. I guarantee you the thoughts you have looking at the nicely made bed are far more positive than looking at a tumble of linen. So start breaking down your projects today. It’ll make the process more manageable, easier, more fun and you’ll probably actually do it versus waiting for that “one day” when you try to accomplish the whole task in one fell swoop.
Good luck on breaking down your projects into simple tasks. If you need more advice or help getting organized or managing your time contact Alison Kero at: 646-831-9625 or at: info@gothamconcierge.com to schedule an appointment.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Organizing your Inbox for Time Management
Let me guess, your e-mails have gotten out of control. You get distracted quickly because an e-mail comes in and as a result, your work is taking longer than you had originally thought. You have begun to have a love/hate relationship with e-mail.
It’s completely understandable these days we get so many e-mail messages during the day that it becomes overwhelming. More e-mails pour in every day and you never want to miss an important e-mail, but are starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount and want to make sure you’re also staying on task while devoting enough time to responding to important e-mails.
First, unless you have or work in a business where your only part in being there is to respond to e-mails, most e-mails do not need to be read as soon as they come in. In fact, studies show that every time you get distracted, whether from a phone call, someone stopping by your desk or an e-mail comes in, the average person gets off task for anywhere from 10-20 minutes. How often are your e-mails so important that stopping your work for that long is actually beneficial to your time? It’s probably not as often as you think. To help prevent such losses in time, schedule specific periods during your day to look at and respond to your e-mails. How often you do this depends upon how much e-mail you get and how much you need to respond to them.
If you fear that not responding immediately will cause problems, start to let people you work with know that you will be looking at your e-mails during specific points of the day. Let your clients know as well. Then invite them to call you if there is an emergency, but otherwise, you’ll get back to them at the allotted time in the day. Always train people to know what to expect from you and it prevents unnecessary problems and/or breakdowns in communications. Most people can wait a few hours for a response.
When you do reach those points of the day where you are responding to e-mail, first go through the e-mails quickly one by one. Do not respond immediately to any of them. Create file folders for your incoming e-mails such as: research, respond to within 1 week, respond to within 1 day, keep, etc. These different file folders can be set out to work for the types of typical e-mails you receive daily. Once you have put your e-mails into their respective folders, go through those e-mails you perceived to need an immediate response and get them out of the way. Also, set up and utilize your junk folder to filter out unwanted e-mails.
Again, any time you are in the middle of a task and you take a moment to look at an e-mail, it will take you 10-20 minutes to get your brain back on task. If you receive many e-mails during the day, this habit will create problems with getting your work done on time, keeping you working later hours than are needed, leads to exhaustion, stress and less time to concentrate on other things. By setting specific points during the day, such as at 9:30 am, 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm to look over, sort and respond to e-mail then you have made a date with yourself to handle e-mail, but are not a slave to handling everything that comes in when it comes in.
Sorting quickly through your e-mails helps you to quickly assess what needs to be looked at immediately and what can wait. By assigning certain items to be worked on later when you have more time and those that aren’t pressing matters, it allows you to have the time to devote yourself to work that is imperative. Sorting your e-mails into categories allows you to prioritize your work and makes it simpler and less overwhelming to deal with. The file folders also make it much easier to find e-mails in the future.
Always make sure you delete items you no longer need on a daily basis. If you aren’t sure, create another file folder to hold on to items you may need to find later on. However, your inbox should only carry items that need to be addressed immediately or those items you have not yet sorted through.
I hope this helps to begin the process of learning how to live without instant e-mail gratification. If you have a ton of e-mails to sort through, do a little at a time or you’ll never get it done. Ask your assistant to help filter e-mails for you as well. Lastly, if you feel you need additional help of a professional organizer or time management coach, contact Alison Kero at: 646-831-9625 or on her e-mail at: info@gothamconcierge.com. Consultations can be done in person in the NYC metro area or phone consultations are available nationwide. Lastly, if you trust and know of another professional organizer, contact them and make an appointment to get your time, space and life organized today. You’ll see and live the difference every day! Good luck!
It’s completely understandable these days we get so many e-mail messages during the day that it becomes overwhelming. More e-mails pour in every day and you never want to miss an important e-mail, but are starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount and want to make sure you’re also staying on task while devoting enough time to responding to important e-mails.
First, unless you have or work in a business where your only part in being there is to respond to e-mails, most e-mails do not need to be read as soon as they come in. In fact, studies show that every time you get distracted, whether from a phone call, someone stopping by your desk or an e-mail comes in, the average person gets off task for anywhere from 10-20 minutes. How often are your e-mails so important that stopping your work for that long is actually beneficial to your time? It’s probably not as often as you think. To help prevent such losses in time, schedule specific periods during your day to look at and respond to your e-mails. How often you do this depends upon how much e-mail you get and how much you need to respond to them.
If you fear that not responding immediately will cause problems, start to let people you work with know that you will be looking at your e-mails during specific points of the day. Let your clients know as well. Then invite them to call you if there is an emergency, but otherwise, you’ll get back to them at the allotted time in the day. Always train people to know what to expect from you and it prevents unnecessary problems and/or breakdowns in communications. Most people can wait a few hours for a response.
When you do reach those points of the day where you are responding to e-mail, first go through the e-mails quickly one by one. Do not respond immediately to any of them. Create file folders for your incoming e-mails such as: research, respond to within 1 week, respond to within 1 day, keep, etc. These different file folders can be set out to work for the types of typical e-mails you receive daily. Once you have put your e-mails into their respective folders, go through those e-mails you perceived to need an immediate response and get them out of the way. Also, set up and utilize your junk folder to filter out unwanted e-mails.
Again, any time you are in the middle of a task and you take a moment to look at an e-mail, it will take you 10-20 minutes to get your brain back on task. If you receive many e-mails during the day, this habit will create problems with getting your work done on time, keeping you working later hours than are needed, leads to exhaustion, stress and less time to concentrate on other things. By setting specific points during the day, such as at 9:30 am, 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm to look over, sort and respond to e-mail then you have made a date with yourself to handle e-mail, but are not a slave to handling everything that comes in when it comes in.
Sorting quickly through your e-mails helps you to quickly assess what needs to be looked at immediately and what can wait. By assigning certain items to be worked on later when you have more time and those that aren’t pressing matters, it allows you to have the time to devote yourself to work that is imperative. Sorting your e-mails into categories allows you to prioritize your work and makes it simpler and less overwhelming to deal with. The file folders also make it much easier to find e-mails in the future.
Always make sure you delete items you no longer need on a daily basis. If you aren’t sure, create another file folder to hold on to items you may need to find later on. However, your inbox should only carry items that need to be addressed immediately or those items you have not yet sorted through.
I hope this helps to begin the process of learning how to live without instant e-mail gratification. If you have a ton of e-mails to sort through, do a little at a time or you’ll never get it done. Ask your assistant to help filter e-mails for you as well. Lastly, if you feel you need additional help of a professional organizer or time management coach, contact Alison Kero at: 646-831-9625 or on her e-mail at: info@gothamconcierge.com. Consultations can be done in person in the NYC metro area or phone consultations are available nationwide. Lastly, if you trust and know of another professional organizer, contact them and make an appointment to get your time, space and life organized today. You’ll see and live the difference every day! Good luck!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Linking Similar Tasks Together to Save Time
Do you remember the
What I mean is that you’re more likely to remember where things are and where you keep them if you put similar things together. Put all your pots and pans together. Put all paper goods together. Schedule similar tasks at the same time so if you have tasks on your list that are similar in nature, do them together. Say you have 3 projects you’re working on and each project requires you to do some writing, some research and some number crunching. Schedule your time working on these projects not separately, but together. Schedule the writing for each project together, schedule the research for all 3 together and the same with the number crunching. Although they are separate projects, writing is writing and when the creative juices are flowing, it’s far easier to keep up momentum if you’re staying within the same task.
If you schedule one project at a time you’re instead jumping around far more than you would by scheduling these like tasks together. The best part for those of you who thrive on variety, you still get variety by scheduling your tasks this way because the nature of these projects will probably be different, but again, allowing yourself to work on virtually one task will help you to be far more productive.
Continuing to lump like things together, whether you’re organizing items in your home, projects you need to finish or tasks you need to accomplish will allow you to save time. You will know where your items are because you can relate the box of extra pens to the supply of paper and envelopes you placed with them. You have then saved yourself the time it would have taken to remember where you put them and the search it would have taken to locate the pens. You know where they are from now on because you placed them near similar items.
You can save time by lumping errands together that are near one another. If I have to schedule an appointment, go to the bank, pick up food and stop by the pharmacy, I know I can do these in one trip because I know that all of the places I need to go to finish these errands are nearby one other. I then plan to do them in practical order. I would first stop off at the pharmacy to drop off my prescription because I know it usually takes 30 minutes to fill. I then would stop by the bank to deposit a check because it’s the next location on my way to grab food. I then schedule my eye appointment because it’s next to the food shop, then grab my hot food and stop by the pharmacy, which was my first stop and closest to home on my way back.
Again, planning and scheduling a little ahead and lumping like things together will go a long way toward creating a more simple life, which will enable you to be more productive and use less time to accomplish your goals, tasks, errands and projects.
If you need help creating a process for your hectic schedule, creating an organizational scheme for your home or office, or how to get more time out of your life, contact me, Alison Kero at: 646-831-9625 or e-mail me at: info@gothamconcierge.com to schedule an in-person visit or phone consultation today. Best of luck organizing your time, space and life!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Learning to Say “NO” To Solve a Problem
Have you ever tried to accomplish a task that seemed to be problematic from the start? In my business that task was errand running. Unless I know the client, I can’t seem to finish a request without major problems arising, despite the fact that I’ve done my research and asked as many questions as I could prior to beginning.
It was after my last errand running task that I realized I was wasting a tremendous amount of my time and I needed to stop providing this service. The errand I had said yes to seemed simple enough, but ended up taking 2 days and never did get finished due to a whole host of unexpected complications. I had given the client a 4 hour quote, so I lost a fair amount of money on this unfinished task. I could have sat around and chastised myself for not accomplishing the errand for this new client and concentrating on how much time and money I wasted, but instead I realized something far more important and positive than beating myself up; I hate running errands. Worse than that; when calculating time spent to the money I earned, I was losing money each time!
What? Give up? Should I give up? Should I say no to errand running requests in the future? Was I being lazy, unhelpful, selfish, or a bad business owner? No! I was finally accepting the conclusion that I can’t be great at everything. I realized that not being great at everything was more than okay, it was normal. What wasn’t okay was continuing to say yes to requests I didn’t enjoy doing and I didn’t find rewarding. I can help people manage their time and I can help people get their homes and offices organized because I see the value in my time and theirs when I help them this way. I see no value when I’m trying to locate a red hot chili pepper or various parts to a wardrobe at Ikea.
I also realized I was wasting a tremendous amount of time and energy on a task I disliked, yet continued to say yes to similar requests. How many times have you continuously pushed yourself to be good at something you’re not? How much money have you spent trying to, “do it yourself” when you should have been hiring an expert? How much time have you wasted saying “yes” to something that is not within your area of expertise? How much money have you wasted by continuously saying “yes”?
When you have a task to perform always ask yourself, “do I like doing this,” “is it cost effective for me to perform this task” and “will it take less time to hire a professional”? If the answer is “yes” to all, then by all means go ahead and do that task! However, if you say no to 2 or more of those questions, then it’s time to outsource or say no.
If you have a task to perform at work, ask yourself if it’s worth it to continue doing that task. Is there someone else who can perform this task better than you? At a lower cost than your time is worth? Is this something you offer that perhaps you should walk away from?
Sometimes the best way to save time and money is to accept that you cannot do everything and you cannot do everything well. Then walk away and walk towards those things you do excel at, that you make money at and you enjoy doing. Sometimes saying “no” is the best time saver of all.
Although saying “no” is one of the things I teach in my time management seminar and tele-seminar’s, learning to use it effectively and often and with meaning is really difficult. I strive each day to use the powerful word “no” when I know it’s in my best interest, but that never means it’s easy to do. Practice makes it easier as does the feeling of empowerment I feel after I’ve said it.
The trick to saying no is figuring out what you want to do. Once you’ve figured that out, saying “yes” to what you want and “no” to what you don’t want it becomes much easier. I will be writing more on the subject of saying no to save time in the future since it’s a huge subject and there are many ways to use “no” effectively to get what you want, what you need and lower stress levels.
If you want to start making positive changes in your life to become more organized and in control of your time, join in on my monthly tele-seminar or contact me at: 646-831-9625 or info@gothamconcierge.com to learn about my in-person sessions or private phone consultations. Please visit my website at: http://www.gothamconcierge.com to learn more about how Gotham Concierge can help organize your time, space and life. Best of luck!
It was after my last errand running task that I realized I was wasting a tremendous amount of my time and I needed to stop providing this service. The errand I had said yes to seemed simple enough, but ended up taking 2 days and never did get finished due to a whole host of unexpected complications. I had given the client a 4 hour quote, so I lost a fair amount of money on this unfinished task. I could have sat around and chastised myself for not accomplishing the errand for this new client and concentrating on how much time and money I wasted, but instead I realized something far more important and positive than beating myself up; I hate running errands. Worse than that; when calculating time spent to the money I earned, I was losing money each time!
What? Give up? Should I give up? Should I say no to errand running requests in the future? Was I being lazy, unhelpful, selfish, or a bad business owner? No! I was finally accepting the conclusion that I can’t be great at everything. I realized that not being great at everything was more than okay, it was normal. What wasn’t okay was continuing to say yes to requests I didn’t enjoy doing and I didn’t find rewarding. I can help people manage their time and I can help people get their homes and offices organized because I see the value in my time and theirs when I help them this way. I see no value when I’m trying to locate a red hot chili pepper or various parts to a wardrobe at Ikea.
I also realized I was wasting a tremendous amount of time and energy on a task I disliked, yet continued to say yes to similar requests. How many times have you continuously pushed yourself to be good at something you’re not? How much money have you spent trying to, “do it yourself” when you should have been hiring an expert? How much time have you wasted saying “yes” to something that is not within your area of expertise? How much money have you wasted by continuously saying “yes”?
When you have a task to perform always ask yourself, “do I like doing this,” “is it cost effective for me to perform this task” and “will it take less time to hire a professional”? If the answer is “yes” to all, then by all means go ahead and do that task! However, if you say no to 2 or more of those questions, then it’s time to outsource or say no.
If you have a task to perform at work, ask yourself if it’s worth it to continue doing that task. Is there someone else who can perform this task better than you? At a lower cost than your time is worth? Is this something you offer that perhaps you should walk away from?
Sometimes the best way to save time and money is to accept that you cannot do everything and you cannot do everything well. Then walk away and walk towards those things you do excel at, that you make money at and you enjoy doing. Sometimes saying “no” is the best time saver of all.
Although saying “no” is one of the things I teach in my time management seminar and tele-seminar’s, learning to use it effectively and often and with meaning is really difficult. I strive each day to use the powerful word “no” when I know it’s in my best interest, but that never means it’s easy to do. Practice makes it easier as does the feeling of empowerment I feel after I’ve said it.
The trick to saying no is figuring out what you want to do. Once you’ve figured that out, saying “yes” to what you want and “no” to what you don’t want it becomes much easier. I will be writing more on the subject of saying no to save time in the future since it’s a huge subject and there are many ways to use “no” effectively to get what you want, what you need and lower stress levels.
If you want to start making positive changes in your life to become more organized and in control of your time, join in on my monthly tele-seminar or contact me at: 646-831-9625 or info@gothamconcierge.com to learn about my in-person sessions or private phone consultations. Please visit my website at: http://www.gothamconcierge.com to learn more about how Gotham Concierge can help organize your time, space and life. Best of luck!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Conquering the Influx of Mail – Paper
Mail seems to be one thing all my clients have in common. In fact, countless times, I’ve actually found checks hidden in unopened envelopes that have ranged from $1.00 to several thousand dollars. That’s money my clients didn’t know they had! Usually they like me a whole lot after that.
One of the reasons mail has become a hindrance is because there is simply too much of it. How much of your incoming paper mail is simply junk mail? Are you constantly getting mail from your financial institutions with blank checks or credit card offers? These are great if you need them, but could also be a huge liability. If your mail is stolen, you could very easily have your identity stolen. In a quick moment, you all of a sudden owe thousands of dollars that someone else spent. It’s also a great way to stop yourself from being tempted to spend money you don’t have. To easily opt out of these credit card offers once and for all visit this site to learn how: http://creditcards.lovetoknow.com/Request_Stopping_Offer_Credit_Card
Magazines are also a huge source of incoming mail. How many magazines can you truly read in 1 month? Do you find you are constantly behind on reading? Do you keep them thinking, “one day I’ll get to this?” I have one client who kept thinking he was going to get through a pile of dental magazines…. From 1985! Keep a strict limit on how many magazines you receive monthly, I limit myself to 8 for both personal and professional because I know that’s how many I can handle per month without feeling overwhelmed or getting behind. I also promptly move my magazine to the recycle bin after I receive the latest issue. If I see an article I want to keep, I tear out the article and toss the rest of the magazine, which saves a ton of space. Contact magazines you no longer read and ask them to remove you from their list. Contact companies who send you their catalogues and ask them to remove you from their list. You can almost always find their catalogue online.
Keep your shredder near the front door. If you keep the shredder far from where you place your mail, it becomes more difficult to shred unwanted mail as easily. Go through your mail immediately! Most people don’t deal with the mail right away and it grows into a large and often unmanageable pile. If you sort immediately and place all items you wish to keep in a basket, then you can immediately shred anything you know is waste. If you receive a ton of unwanted mail and wish to cut down on it, send a postcard or letter to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 15012-0643 Include your complete name, address, zip code and a request to "activate the preference service". For up to five years, this will stop mail from all member organizations that you have not specifically ordered products from.
If you are comfortable, have your financial companies send you their invoices, bills and other information via e-mail. You can then easily create a folder for that mail, set payments up automatically and quickly lower the amount of time you spend paying bills and collecting paper.
Figuring out what papers are actually important and which ones can be tossed can be stressful. What if you toss something you actually needed? What do I need and what can I part with? The easiest way to figure this out is to turn to this site: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/bank/19990714a.asp which will tell you exactly what you need to keep and toss.
Once a year, at minimum all your paper items should be weeded through and anything that is no longer needed should be tossed or shredded. You can always create different filing systems if the one you currently have in place isn’t working for you. Do colors help you remember which files are kept where? Use colors! Does the name of a file throw you? Change it to something that works better.
Constantly assess what paper is coming into your home and whether or not you truly need it. After awhile, it becomes easier to figure out what you truly need and want to look at versus what can be dropped from your list of important mail. If you place limits on yourself for what you truly need and want to read, what charities you truly want to give to (versus those who guilted you into donating money) and learn to use the word, “no”, these processes become easier and more manageable for the busy life you lead.
If you have become overwhelmed with the amount of paper you currently have in your home and have no idea on how to start, please contact Alison Kero at 646-831-9625 or info@gothamconcierge.com. You can either schedule an at-home or in-office appointment in the NYC metro area or schedule a consultation via telephone to get your time, space and life organized.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
How to Overcome Being a Slob
Have you ever been called a slob? Do people cringe at your office space or decline invitations to your home because of the absolute mess? Have you ever wondered why you can’t seem to create a more organized environment?
I have a client I have worked with periodically over the years whom I consider to be a slob. I have found countless change, cigarette butts, dirt, hair, kitchen ware (like knives) and pieces of paper strewn about her floor. I have been unable to take even a step inside her large walk-in closet because of the many piles of things she has thrown in there which blocked the entryway. I have found birthday gifts still in their bags from her birthday that had passed a year and a half ago. I have found the mates to shoes, clothing she had been looking for, and a bathing suit inside a shoebox.
Being called a slob isn’t something anyone wants to hear about themselves. It isn’t as though you don’t care or aren’t trying, you just haven’t come up with solutions to help create a more organized and clean apartment. I want to share some tips with you today which I have suggested to my client on how to get more organized and save yourself some time.
There are usually two reasons someone becomes a slob. First, your parents were also slobs and you grew up in that environment. You may not have noticed anything was wrong until later when you realized you had never been taught any organizational skills. In this case, my client had parents who were not considered well organized and she may have learned that from them.
Second, there are underlying psychological reasons why you are living in a chaotic and often unclean mess. Since I am not a licensed psychologist, I won’t give out advice except to say perhaps talking to someone to help you feel better about yourself will help you feel you deserve to live in a clean organized environment. I wish you the best of luck. I will say that in the case of my client, who is obese, a smoker and rarely exercises but has a job where she takes care of everyone else’s needs (and I see her caretaking her friends and family constantly), this is a woman who can help everyone but herself and nothing will change until she recognizes that and slowly starts making a change to start treating herself with respect and takes care of her needs.
However, there are still tricks of the trade to help you keep your home or work place in better condition. The first is to hire a cleaning company or person to come in and clean for you! Quite obviously this is either something you do not enjoy or may not be good at. That’s okay – not everyone enjoys cleaning, but thankfully cleaning services can be pretty reasonable and you may find yourself keeping your place cleaner.
I also witnessed another client who finally had her home cleaned and it completely unnerved her and set her off. She couldn’t handle cleaning people coming in and touching anything and within a day, the home had become filthy again. Disorganization and dirt actually made this woman feel safer for whatever reason. If this is you, discovering what is inside you that won’t allow you to live in a clean, healthy environment is necessary before you can make positive changes.
My second suggestion is to use shelves and baskets to place things in. Have them near your door along with a coat rack or hooks. This makes it much easier to find items and you’re more likely to remain a bit more organized if you don’t have to walk far to place items away. Throw your shoes in a basket – at least you know where to find them. Throw your extra change into a glass jar placed on that shelf. Stick your purse on a hook or the shelf. Just make sure you periodically go through the baskets to keep them organize and free of overflow. Also, do not buy huge baskets – they aren’t useful if they are so large you can keep your entire wardrobe in them.
Respect yourself and put in a little time on your home. I’m not saying a lot of time, you are a busy person. I am asking to commit to 15 minutes a day and center on just one corner or one drawer or one cabinet to keep organized. If 15 minutes aren’t working – try 5. At least you know you have done 5 minutes. Clean an area during commercials when watching tv. That way you know you only have to for a few minutes but you’re getting stuff done. I vacuum during commercials, dust, do a few dishes. It makes the process a lot easier and kind of fun! How much can I get done during a 2 minute break?
Buy a shredder! Mail seems to be most of my client’s biggest challenge. Have a shredder near your door and as you go through your mail, toss them in the shredder if they are junk mail. Or place it in your living room and shred during a commercial break.
Set up automatic payment for your bills. Have those bills e-mailed to you instead of creating more paper. You can just keep them in your inbox, or choose to file them in a separate folder, but clicking a mouse is easier than physically pulling out a folder. Go electronic, save a tree and save yourself some time!
Make sure you take the time to reward yourself for taking the time to get yourself organized. Treat yourself even if you’ve taken 5 minutes to organize that day! Learn to respect yourself and treat yourself well. Rewarding yourself may seem foreign at first, but you deserve to treat yourself to something you like because you tried.
I wish you the best of luck on getting a bit organized and saving time. Trust me, with just these few ideas, they’ll help you to figure out where things are and will save you a ton of time when locating your items. Should you require additional organization help, I am available for phone consultations or, if you live in the NYC area, will come to your home and work with you to create a more organized, peaceful environment which you deserve to live in. Contact Alison Kero at: info@gothamconcierge.com or on her cell at: 646-831-9625. I do not judge your home or you, I am only pleased you have the courage to ask for help and take the first steps towards a more organized, harmonious life.
I have a client I have worked with periodically over the years whom I consider to be a slob. I have found countless change, cigarette butts, dirt, hair, kitchen ware (like knives) and pieces of paper strewn about her floor. I have been unable to take even a step inside her large walk-in closet because of the many piles of things she has thrown in there which blocked the entryway. I have found birthday gifts still in their bags from her birthday that had passed a year and a half ago. I have found the mates to shoes, clothing she had been looking for, and a bathing suit inside a shoebox.
Being called a slob isn’t something anyone wants to hear about themselves. It isn’t as though you don’t care or aren’t trying, you just haven’t come up with solutions to help create a more organized and clean apartment. I want to share some tips with you today which I have suggested to my client on how to get more organized and save yourself some time.
There are usually two reasons someone becomes a slob. First, your parents were also slobs and you grew up in that environment. You may not have noticed anything was wrong until later when you realized you had never been taught any organizational skills. In this case, my client had parents who were not considered well organized and she may have learned that from them.
Second, there are underlying psychological reasons why you are living in a chaotic and often unclean mess. Since I am not a licensed psychologist, I won’t give out advice except to say perhaps talking to someone to help you feel better about yourself will help you feel you deserve to live in a clean organized environment. I wish you the best of luck. I will say that in the case of my client, who is obese, a smoker and rarely exercises but has a job where she takes care of everyone else’s needs (and I see her caretaking her friends and family constantly), this is a woman who can help everyone but herself and nothing will change until she recognizes that and slowly starts making a change to start treating herself with respect and takes care of her needs.
However, there are still tricks of the trade to help you keep your home or work place in better condition. The first is to hire a cleaning company or person to come in and clean for you! Quite obviously this is either something you do not enjoy or may not be good at. That’s okay – not everyone enjoys cleaning, but thankfully cleaning services can be pretty reasonable and you may find yourself keeping your place cleaner.
I also witnessed another client who finally had her home cleaned and it completely unnerved her and set her off. She couldn’t handle cleaning people coming in and touching anything and within a day, the home had become filthy again. Disorganization and dirt actually made this woman feel safer for whatever reason. If this is you, discovering what is inside you that won’t allow you to live in a clean, healthy environment is necessary before you can make positive changes.
My second suggestion is to use shelves and baskets to place things in. Have them near your door along with a coat rack or hooks. This makes it much easier to find items and you’re more likely to remain a bit more organized if you don’t have to walk far to place items away. Throw your shoes in a basket – at least you know where to find them. Throw your extra change into a glass jar placed on that shelf. Stick your purse on a hook or the shelf. Just make sure you periodically go through the baskets to keep them organize and free of overflow. Also, do not buy huge baskets – they aren’t useful if they are so large you can keep your entire wardrobe in them.
Respect yourself and put in a little time on your home. I’m not saying a lot of time, you are a busy person. I am asking to commit to 15 minutes a day and center on just one corner or one drawer or one cabinet to keep organized. If 15 minutes aren’t working – try 5. At least you know you have done 5 minutes. Clean an area during commercials when watching tv. That way you know you only have to for a few minutes but you’re getting stuff done. I vacuum during commercials, dust, do a few dishes. It makes the process a lot easier and kind of fun! How much can I get done during a 2 minute break?
Buy a shredder! Mail seems to be most of my client’s biggest challenge. Have a shredder near your door and as you go through your mail, toss them in the shredder if they are junk mail. Or place it in your living room and shred during a commercial break.
Set up automatic payment for your bills. Have those bills e-mailed to you instead of creating more paper. You can just keep them in your inbox, or choose to file them in a separate folder, but clicking a mouse is easier than physically pulling out a folder. Go electronic, save a tree and save yourself some time!
Make sure you take the time to reward yourself for taking the time to get yourself organized. Treat yourself even if you’ve taken 5 minutes to organize that day! Learn to respect yourself and treat yourself well. Rewarding yourself may seem foreign at first, but you deserve to treat yourself to something you like because you tried.
I wish you the best of luck on getting a bit organized and saving time. Trust me, with just these few ideas, they’ll help you to figure out where things are and will save you a ton of time when locating your items. Should you require additional organization help, I am available for phone consultations or, if you live in the NYC area, will come to your home and work with you to create a more organized, peaceful environment which you deserve to live in. Contact Alison Kero at: info@gothamconcierge.com or on her cell at: 646-831-9625. I do not judge your home or you, I am only pleased you have the courage to ask for help and take the first steps towards a more organized, harmonious life.
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