• Decide which items are absolutely necessary, which deadlines MUST be met today…before I leave for my evening job outside the home?
• What can I rough out (I do much writing online as one of my businesses) and then refine tomorrow?
• What e-mail correspondence needs to be done today…and what can be left? (I do much of the correspondence and billing for my husband’s home business.)
• How can I organize for the yard sale so it’s set up and ready to go early tomorrow morning? Here I can delegate.
• What else can be delegated? Since others can’t do my writing, I can delegate cooking.

How do you keep on track and organized when the unexpected arises?

Post from: My Organized Biz

The opportunity to host a book tour for Time Management in an Instant, 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day came my way just at this time.  Authors Karen Leland and Keith Bailey are touring the blogosphers this week.  I thought you, my readers, would like to know about this book, so I asked them to stop by My Organized Biz so you have an opportunity to learn about their book for managing your time and being more productive.

A quick summary:

In today’s hurly-burly work environment many business people find it challenging to avoid distraction, stay focused, use their time and energy to maximum benefit, and gain ground on important goals and outcomes. One study by the Families and Work Institute found that one-third of Americans are overworked and more than 50 percent of those surveyed say they are either doing too many tasks at the same time or are frequently interrupted during the workday – or both. In short, we are overloaded!

Time Management In An Instant helps the reader to overcome this feeling of overload and avoid the traps that lead to an unproductive relationship with time. It offers field-tested time habits and expert advice based on the latest research that will help the reader better manage, create and spend their time with more satisfaction and results.

In their book, the authors cover 60 topics such as:

• Achieve Your Goals Everyday
• Assess Your Time Management Skills
• Break The Habits That Hold Your Back
• Choose The Perfect Planner
• Clean Out Your File Drawer
• Cultivate Time Efficient Conversations
• Delegate Like A Pro
• Design Goals In All Areas Of Life
• Generate Energy With Your To-Do List
• Get A Good Nights Sleep
• Keep An Activity Log
• Organize Your Email In-Box
• Reorganize Your Filing System
• Retool Your Priority System

Karen Leland and Keith Bailey are partners in Sterling Consulting Group; an international management consulting firm. These best-selling authors have written six books, which have been translated into ten languages. They also have worked with more than 200,000 executives, managers and front line staff in companies throughout the world and now are passing some of their tips on to you.

 The authors have a special promotional offer during their tour week of July 20-24, combined with the Essential Email online course.

(Sterling Consulting Group Image)

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Decide upon a color for various topics in your files, then code anything pertaining to each with a particular color…whether it’s the ink you use for writing on the file folder, the color of the label, the paper clips you use (some come in various colors), even the color of the folders themselves.

When I was researching and writing a resource book for writers, my editor set up a filing system for my research by color coding the labels on the file folders.  There was a different color for each category and then I’d simply place additional folders and information in the appropriate ones.  This made it easy to locate my research when we were writing the book.

Do you use color coding in your business organization?

(Image: sxc.hu)

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If you’re better organized, you’re generally more efficient and effective.  Let’s look at 13 ways to save time and be more effective.

1. Use an answering machine to take care of unnecessary calls and avoid interruptions
2. Be firm about your working hours
3. Make a “to do” list and stick with it, but don’t have so many items on it you become discouraged.
4. Take a short break every couple of hours.
5. Handle all postal mail as soon as it comes in.
6. Quickly scan e-mail and get rid of trash.
7. Try to complete a task instead of jumping to something else.
8. Keep a small notebook with you to jot down ideas or tasks you need to do.
9. Learn to say “No” to family and friends for tasks they can do.
10. Set deadlines and stick with them
11. Organize for 20 minutes per day.
12. Develop a filing system for your desk so papers don’t pile up.
13. Play uplifting music when you work

Let me know your best organizing/effectiveness tip.  Do any of the above work for you?

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When I asked Kathy how she did it, she replied, “Don’t look in my closets,” she answered with a grin.  “The stuff will fall out on you.  Also, I have toy boxes in their rooms and a long windown seat trunk in the living room.  We simply stuff the stuff in those till I have time to sort through.”

Do you use the “stuff it in the closet” method of organization? 

It works when you have to do a hurried clean up.  Or if you have organized shelves and spaces to put the “stuff” on a regular basis. 

What about…

• Shelves in your office
• Closet with shelves and designated spaces in your office and other rooms
• In/out trays on your desk, or “to do” and “to file” trays
• File cabinets where you really do take time to file info into marked folders
• Emergency closets or boxes where you can put clutter in a hurry for a temporary storage

What are your emergency and permanent storage methods that make life easier for you?

(Image: sxc.hu)

Post from: My Organized Biz

Image: sxc.hu

However, if I don’t write something down, I bounce from one task to another wthout accomplishing much at all.

There are a number of ways to create a “to do” list and I’m still working on the best for me.

• 3×5 index cards for each day of the week. Adjust as you accomplish or don’t the items on them.
• Write the most important items at the top of the list
• Plan an hourly schedule and put something there you plan to do.
• List only three important items. Then you won’t feel deflated that you didn’t accomplish more.  Add as you accomplish these.
• Keep a list that you adjust daily, instead of rewriting each night.
• See yourself accomplishing the tasks as you write them down
• Visualize your day in advance.
• Utilize one of the computer programs for organizing your day.

What works best for you in organizing your “to do” list so it isn’t overwhelming?

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• They are compulsive people who think they must have everything in order before they can be productive.
• They actually think organizing, filing, indexing are productive aspects of a business.
• They have a fear of the actual productive activities if it involves  tasks they are uncomfortable with.
• They don’t like to move out of their comfort zone.
• They don’t like to learn new tasks.
• They aren’t self-confident, so organization makes them feel better.

Take a look at your organizing versus productivity.  Are you using the need to organize (which generally does cause you to work more efficiently) to the extreme so you aren’t accomplishing the necessary productive activities which lead to profitability?

Image: sxc.hu

Post from: My Organized Biz