DrDeClutterBlog.com

How do you get more “time” in your day? I hear it all the time, don’t you? “I just don’t have enough time! I just wish I had some time for myself!!”

Rewriting your “to do” list is supposed to make it shorter, right? So, what happened?!

There never seems to be enough time. Life clutter is everywhere! Calendars, emails, deadlines, requests, work, home, kids, family, pets, chores, travel and other nagging “DO THIS NOW!” sticky notes makes for a life filled with stress, overwhelm, aggravated emotions, guilt and lost energy. Creating even one more hour a day is a skill not lost on anyone who can’t take it any longer.

8 TIPS TO TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE, TIME AND MIND
Life’s short! Add (schedule in) an hour a day, to relax, reflect and complete projects with these starter tips.

1) Start simply, by reviewing your holy “to do” list. Take off anything that is not truly yours to do. Give back and delegate those activities that belong to someone else. (Be prepared…they will not like it!)
2) Review your daily schedule. Make changes where you can to make time for yourself to breathe and slow down. Everything doesn’t have to done yesterday.
3) Manage expectations of others – stop being “user-friendly”. On a airplane, the flight attendant will instruct you to put on your oxygen mask first, before helping your child or neighboring passenger with theirs. Why? Because if you’re dead, you can’t help anyone else! Say “yes” to yourself first, which may sound like “no” to others and stop being, or feeling taken advantage of. You might just be the best person to head up “another” committee, and you can say, “No. But, thank you.”
4) Support yourself: Make sure to put your most important items and personal time on your schedule first, if you don’t there’ll be no room for them after all of the lesser or other’s schedules take up your time and space.
5) Say “yes” to simplicity! The more you have the more you have… to maintain, protect, take care of, look after, store, clean… etc. Declutter, simplify or hire someone to do most of it for you!
6) Delegate. When you can, delegate it, even if it means hiring someone.
7) Stop “shoulding” on yourself! As in, “I should…. “ Make plans, do it or not, but no guilt – big time, energy and spirit waster!
Breathe. Just stop and breathe. Running all day and feeling anxious causes multiple physical energy and mental capacity problems. For even ten seconds at a time, once an hour, sit down and just b-r-e-a-t-h-e. D-e-e-p-l-y. It will make a difference.

Work, children, school, sports, band, back to school… . If your most hectic time of the day is before 8:30 a.m., then these tips may be the S.O.S. you’ve been looking for!

The hurried feelings and urgency that can rule these early morning hours can ripple over into the rest of your day like dominos. No wonder, according to a University of Maryland study, 85 percent of us feel rushed some or all of the time.

Here are 6 TIPS to Stop Morning Time Crunch Crisis

1) Prepare the night before.
This is a must if you’re going to get on top of the day. Getting ready what you’ll need for the next day the night before will really help lessen the confusion and short tempers that can take a toll on your health and relationships each morning. At last a half-hour before you go to bed at night prepare for the next day: Get your clothes; food for breakfast and lunch, even dinner when possible; everything you need for work or school; items for planned errands, drop-offs and pick-ups; children’s school notes signed; their meals ready; clothes, sports equipment, etc. Preparing the night before will make the morning so much easier on everyone.

2) Be selfish! Take care of yourself first.
Taking care of everyone else before yourself (especially a women’s/mother’s issue) will not get you “points in heaven!” It will however wear you out. Preparing the night before will take care of some of this, but waking up 15 or so minutes earlier and getting yourself ready, ideally while the kids are asleep, will give you that breathing room needed “when” things don’t run smoothly.

3) Organize Your Basics.
My basic organizing information includes the fact that “everything must have a ‘home’.” You will waste much less time searching for the little things when you take care of the basics daily, giving everything a home – a specific, consistent place to “live.” Know where your house and car keys “live.” Have an extra $20 in your wallet in even smaller bills at all times especially if you have children, they may need some of it for a school function. If you wear nylons make sure you always have more than one good pair “just in case.” Make sure any medication is up to date and bottles are never too close to empty before refills. Ask the children daily if they have parent/teacher notes to read or sign or anything that needs to be prepared for the next day. Small measures to take care of the basics will bring so much peace to your mornings immediately. No more, “Where is it?” and “I don’t know!”

4) Keep it simple!
From children’s clothing to breakfast and lunch choices, choose the easiest options, especially during really busy weeks. Buy clothes that are so easy “a child could do it!” Example: Velcro sneakers for them; front buttons and zippers for you. Minimal preparation is the key for breakfast foods, as well as foods the children can get themselves: Like cold cereal, energy bars, and yogurt – healthy and easy. Teach your family to put dishes in the sink or right into the dishwasher as early as possible. Even very small children can do this to help out. Decide how important it is to fix the beds “perfectly” or have all the dishes cleaned before you leave – things like this don’t matter in the big picture and will only create more stress where it’s not necessary.

5) Just say “no” to TV in the morning.
You might consider TV a useful tool to keep kids in one place, but studies show that it’s actually a huge distraction. Leaving the TV off lets everyone focus on the business at hand, communicate without shouting over the TV and finish sooner.

6) Calendar Central.
Don’t let yourself become the “all knowing” person in the house of the appointments and schedules (it’s a set up for victimhood and martyrdom!). Buy a large calendar. Hang it on the refrigerator or wall where everyone, no matter how short or tall, can see it easily. Write in all kids’ appointments, practices, and activities. When you’re doing your night before prepping (see #1 above!), check the calendar. Gather all necessary items – school projects, soccer ball, treats for band, extra socks, violin cases – and put them by the door. You’re ready! When you leave in the morning, just grab everything and go.

Kids get as or more stressed than parents when they feel unorganized, unprepared, out of control and helpless to change it. Being a leader and model for peaceful mornings will be a life-long proactive lesson for your children. Start off of the right foot this school year!

“There is no such thing as a good tax.”
~ Winston Churchill

Tax time, again. I hear it in every phone call this time of year more than usual… “Kim, please help me organize all this paper. I can’t handle it!” Or, more to the point, two weeks ago I received a call from Jenna, “Kim, I will shoot myself if you don’t come and help me find all my tax stuff and get it together. I just can’t deal with this!”

Paper. Taxes. Not doing your Patriotic Duty throughout the year, one-receipt-at-a-time to stay on top of it. Life. Overload. High blood pressure. Fear. Anxiety. It’s a lethal mix.

What do you do? Please take the following guides seriously to organize now and throughout your year to get your financial paperwork and taxes ready and done, on time and with so much less stress, pain and self-loathing.

Fact:
If you haven’t started pulling your taxes together “yet” and may not until about April 14th, plan on lots of stress, fear, complaining, blaming the government and others and gnashing of teeth, thoughts about “extensions,” and wondering if people really do go to jail for not paying their taxes and by the way, “Doesn’t the government have more important things to worry about than my petty couple hundred dollars?”

Solution #1:
Stop waiting. Stop stalling. Stop procrastinating… NOW. Start doing them today… little by little. Sit on the floor or at a clean table and start dividing, sorting, culling through your receipts, putting them in their separate categories, such as vehicle, utilities, health insurance, etc. Put these in envelopes labeled for each category. When you sit down again, go through each envelope and add up the totals and write them on the envelope. Call your accountant. Be done for this year.

Fact:
What you put off creates more stress and becomes a health hazard.

Solution #2:
The magic of maintenance — I say it all the time, especially when I hear people complain about having to deal with and take care of their “stuff” – “90% of life is maintenance.” Whatever you have, buy, create, keep, use or store… must be maintained, even your thoughts and beliefs! You choose how much you want to maintain. If you don’t want a lot of tax papers to think about and take care of here are a few options: 1) hire someone to take care of them (which means having the money to pay them and trust that they’ll really take care of it); 2) use and buy less creating less paper/receipts; 3) move to a country that doesn’t have taxes; 4) see Solution #3.

Fact: Computer tax programs, they’re a good thing.

Solution #3:
Get ready for your 2005 taxes by getting ready now. Gather, organize and account for papers, receipts, etc. well in advance of the April 15 filing deadline. Keeping up with your paperwork and bookkeeping on a daily, weekly and monthly schedule gives you plenty of time for Tax Time to request copies of any missing documents as well.

Use Quicken, QuickBooks or some computer finance, banking and tax preparation program REGULARLY (weekly, monthly) to keep up with your receipts, expenses and income, investments and interest so that at the end of the year, like magic, you can click on REPORTS and PRINT and vwalla!! It’s all done. Incredible! Yea technology!

“This [preparing my tax return] is too difficult for a mathematician.
It takes a philosopher.”
~ Albert Einstein

Fact:
Some people need to have chaos, drama and negative experiences in their lives to feel alive.

Solution #4:
I know several people that I simply stay away from this time of year. They wait until the last few weeks before tax deadline and then become maniacs. This kind of behavior and self-imposed habit is not good for the person or their family, friends or co-workers.

Waiting until March or April every year to do your taxes creates fear, stress, anger and adrenaline spikes that are seriously not healthy for your body. Stop it. Drama and adrenaline may make you feel “alive,” but they are only helping you get “adead!” You should have and want to have much more important activities that bring joy, happiness, excitement and positive adrenaline rushes to exchange for doing mundane paperwork on a regular basis.

Do what you love, take care of the “life on planet earth daily stuff” and have a happy life — you deserve it! Those around you will love you for it too!

Yes, Virginia, there is a You-a-Claus!

It turns out money can buy happiness! What’s the catch? You have to spend it on others!

The University of British Columbia’s Elizabeth Dunn, Ph.D., led a survey of 632 American to find out just how true this is. She found, “We’re significantly happier when spending pro-socially” — on gifts or charity.

The amount of money isn’t even an issue, it’s just the giving it to and for others that makes the difference.

BONUS! Dunn says that the good feeling we get from this altruistic act can last 6 to 8 weeks! Much longer than your new sox or vacation!

So, when you’re returning Christmas gifts this week, think about the money you’re getting back in cash or gift cards. Maybe, instead of rebuying something for yourself, that you may not need anyway, put that money toward your favorite charity or cause. Remember, you’ll get 6-8 weeks of glow from it!

Oh, what does this have to do with the Law of Attraction? Like attracts life. Sooo, if you’re giving money and goodness, and feeeeeling it for weeks, you’ll attract “like!” I “like” that!

Problogger Darren Rowse has a fun look at saving 37 minutes a day to get more blogging done. Pretty funny.

Business online is magical really when you think about it. Digital nothings zipping around the universe making sense, information, education, entertainment, connection and commerce.

Do you make money from online time?

If not, I’d say, get off most of these more than minutes at a time if this is not your way of making money.  Get back your time and focus by limiting and stopping all together some online activities that waste minutes, hours and ultimately days of your life.

Darren’s list: 

• Turn off Twitter – 6 minutes an hour
• Turn off Facebook – 3 minutes an hour
• Stop checking your Traffic Stats – 2 minutes an hour
• Stop checking your AdSense Earnings – 2 minutes an hour
• Stop Tweaking your blog design – 3 minutes an hour
• Stop checking your Google Page Rank – 1 minute an hour
• Turn off Email – 5 minutes an hour
• Log out of your RSS Feed Reader – 2 minutes an hour
• Stop checking to see if someone Dugg your latest post – 1 minute an hour
• Stop checking affiliate earnings/e-book sales earnings – 2 minutes an hour
• Turn off any other Social Media Sites (LinkedIn/StumbleUpon/Plurk/Reddit etc) – 3 minutes an hour
• Turn of Skype, Gtalk and all other IM services – 4 minutes
• Stop Reading Blog Tips and Start Blogging – 3 minutes an hour

Save more time! I’ll add:

• Get off ezines and newsletters you don’t read anyway but glare at and wonder if you should read them – 3 minutes an hour
• Stop opting in to sites just to leave your Comment – 6 minutes an hour
• Don’t pass on jokes that aren’t funny anyway! – 3 minutes an hour

Life’s short! Enjoy every minute in the best ways you can imagine!

http://givingcircles.org/ brings together individuals so they can pool ideas and money to make a bigger impact! Check it out!

Unless you donate to the same charity every year, or local ones that you trust, you can check out the finances and general sustainability of more than 5,300 groups at http://www.charitynavigator.org/ 

Did you shop ’til you dropped on Black Friday? Eeeeeek!

Are you still doing it?

If so, and you may be feeling some remorse. Simply find your receipts and see what you can take back that you really don’t need, and neither does the person you thought would really like or need the item.

I know, that feels hard to do, especially now during the core of holiday shopping season, but it’s going to feel worse when the bills start coming in and you can’t pay them! Can you say “interest” rates?

Start your Waste-Watcher’s Diet now. Start saving more, spending less, even during the holiday season.

Get creative and give differently this year if money is tight.

Write down some belt-tightening measures to yield at least $150 in savings each month (or as much as you can realistically save), then commit to shedding your budgetary flab. Your financial health depends on it.

I agree to cut back on ___________________________

    For a monthly savings of ____________________________  

I agree to cut back on ___________________________

    For a monthly savings of ____________________________

I agree to cut back on ___________________________

    For a monthly savings of ____________________________

I agree to cut back on ___________________________

    For a monthly savings of ____________________________

I agree to cut back on ___________________________

    For a monthly savings of ____________________________
 
Signed ___________________________

    Total $_________________________
 

You can't do it all and you can't do little pieces of many things well, so . . . What do you need to STOP doing? 

In Seth Godin's little amazing book, "THE DIP," he let's us know a lot about quitting, stopping and walking away from what is not our priority and what is wasting our time.Our time is chopped, diced, spliced, and frittered away every day. The important things don't get the attention they need and deserve due to too many interests (none of which get any attention either) or too many "shoulds" (usually stuff that doesn't matter or bring great paybacks, but cause a lot of unnecessary guilt.)

Sometimes a big makeover isn't the answer, but a quick and easy small one might be to freshen up your room! 

In "Speed Decorating", the new book by Jill Vegas the author gives some quick and easy ways to liven up your kitchen: