January is National Get Organized Month. Whether it’s your home or your office, getting organized makes life simpler. Studies say it takes 18-21 days to make or break a habit. If you made New Year’s Resolutions and you are serious about keeping them, realize it will take you all of January to accomplish it. In fact 20 work days is an entire month!

How to Accomplish your Resolutions:

Quitting after a week or two, or even after a few days means you didn’t seriously consider your resolution and do not really want to keep it. Sometimes the reasons are:
it’s just too far away,
takes too much time, or
is too hard.

Here’s some ideas to help you achieve your resolutions.

1. Chunk it. If you break your resolution down into smaller chunks, it is easier to accomplish the smaller pieces. As you achieve each small piece, you feel more confidence to move forward to the next chunk and the larger goal/resolution seems more doable.

2. Reward yourself. Don’t just reward the big New Year’s Resolution, give yourself a small reward for each of the steps you take to move yourself forward to the big goal. Rewarding yourself at small steps will give you more energy to keep going.

3. Tell someone. Tell a friend or someone close to you who will help you achieve your goal by often asking how you are doing towards your Resolution. If you do not tell anyone, then it is easier to quit moving forward and you often “fail”. When someone asks you, you often feel guilty in having to say you didn’t move forward, so this accountability helps you push toward the goal.

Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year - the time for holiday gatherings. If you are having one at your house, do your planning by acting like a journalist who is writing an article. Ask yourself the 5 W’s: Who? What? Why? When? and Where?

Start with Why?
Why do you want to have the gathering? Is it because you are the oldest and think you are the one who should be gathering the family? Would it be okay with you if someone else did it? Would anyone else want to?

What?
What do you want to do? A cocktail party? An afternoon buffet? A sit down dinner? Does this depend on who you are inviting?

Who?
Do you want just immediate family? Do you want extended family? Where is the cut off? Who is in town or could cocme in?

When?
Is this going to conflict with other family parties/gatherings? Do you need a daytime or an evening? A weekday or a weekend?

In our house my daughter comes to us for Chanukah and her in-laws for Christmas, which is the weekend this year. Since I remarried and we are traveling to see my husband’s grandchildren for Chanukah, the date for Chanukah with my daughter and new granchild is planned around the other two events. So we start Chanukah in Virginia, then have it here and she can be with her in-laws for Christmas on the weekend.

Where?
Do you want it at home? Do you want to go to a restaurant? Does someone have a clubhouse available? Where do you want to have it, and how early do you need reservations?

Plan your holiday gatherings with the 5W’s and you will have more time to enjoy them.

Whatever you celebrate,

Happy Holidays.

Eileen Roth
Your Organizing Tour Guide

The weather is finally beginning to cool off. I know those of you on the east coast are saying snow is too cold for fall! We all hope you are faring well and do not have to go too long without power.

Fall is actually a great time to get organized. You have more energy than you did in the summer heat, so you feel better about being active. There are some fall projects that must be done – like raking leaves. And many people like to clear the clutter from their homes to get ready for the winter holidays.

But many others think organization is a skill that takes too much time. Yes it takes time. You don’t create messes in a minute and so it takes time to clear them. Is it worth it? Let’s see. Picture a time that you organized something. It might have been something simple like opening a pile of mail or clearing the papers off your office desktop. Maybe you just tossed away old pens and highlighters that no longer write; or cosmetics that are empty, too old, or the wrong color. The point is –Do you remember how good you felt when you got that one small area organized? That is the first benefit of getting organized – a release of stress. And along with it, a feeling of accomplishment.

It is that stress release from getting organized that improves your efficiency. Now you can find things easier and faster, which means you save time!

It is never too late to start being organized. So when will you make the time? Today? Tomorrow? This weekend? Make a commitment to get one area organized. Then you can go on to the next.

September is back to school time. Your children are back in school or you yourself may be taking classes or getting an advanced degree. From the time students start changing classes, usually middle school and up, organization plays an important role.

The best time to learn organization is, of course, as young as possible. The younger you learn to put “everything in its place”, the easier it is. This is especially true in today’s society where students go to school all day, have after school activities, and then have to do homework for five or more classes. It is a balancing act that cries out for time-saving ideas.

According to Wikipedia, Robert Baden-Powell, the Boy Scout’s founder, defined the Scout Motto of Be Prepared as 2 parts:

“Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.

Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it.”

So are you helping your students Be Prepared by being organized?

If you want help being organized for school, please click on Products and then the Take Action File + Student File System. It is primarily for middle school and up, but any student over third grade could use it (as well as any parent.)

This weekend I was in Louisville to watch my younger daughter do a full Ironman – 2 mi. swim, 112 mile biking and 26.2 miles (full marathon) running.

It all started with a little competition. For those of you who have been in my time mgmt. seminars, you will recall me telling the story of her older sister running her first marathon when it came to Phoenix. Not that I think this is pure “I have to beat my sister”, but I know it started with “If she can do it, I can do it!” and so both girls ran marathons.

I am amazed and truly admire my younger daughter for setting such a high goal to run a full Ironman. It started with a little competition that she created in her mind. (Her sister never ran another one – the goal was just to run one.) Then she took it step by step: First she ran a half marathon, then a full, then a triathalon, to a half Ironman and now a full Ironman. In fact at the very end when she was really exhausted, what carried her in was a 62-year old man who said to her, “Are you going to let a 62-year old man beat you?” And with that she ran the last few miles to the finish line along with him. Another little competition! She finished in 14 hours and 4 minutes around 9pm after starting at 7am. Now that was a tremendous goal!!!

What goals do you want to reach/achieve? Would a little competition help you achieve it? Does it need to be with someone else, or like my daughter, can you just compete with yourself?

Now go out and achieve it!

Happy a happy Labor Day.

“Those lazy, hazy days of summer are here.”
Have you been lazy? Have you relaxed?

Is there anything you wanted to do this summer
that you still have not done?

Write it down.
Now commit to a date to do it.
Mark it in RED CAPITALS on your calendar.

Studies show that people who take breaks
and relax are less stressed and less
frustrated, and hence more pleasant to be around.

Are you stressed and frustrated?
Breaks rejuvenate us.

If you have no time for a week long vacation, take a mini vacation.
Go away for 3 or 4 days, or even a weekend. If you can’t take time off, take Labor Day to give you 3 days.

Go somewhere – even if it’s only 2 hours away.
Get out of town. I don’t mean that like the old westerns,
but it will change your perspective when you get away from it all.
So Get Out of Town!

This month just flew by – and for good reason. The Unexpected happened – in the car in a parking lot.
(No, it was not a car accident.)

My daughter doesn’t like hospitals. She had a bad experience when she was younger. She was in terrible pain all night after surgery.
So she didn’t want to be in the hospital waiting for hours.

She was stalling. The pain got worse. Finally she agreed to go. I got the call to go meet them at the hospital.
I was stalling, figuring there would still be hours to go. I took my time getting ready even though it was a 45 minute drive. Halfway there I got a call – “You have a grandson.” My first grandchild.

What, he is here already? “Yes, he was delivered in the car in the parking lot of the emergency room.” My son in law is a kidder; I did not believe him.

Apparently no one in the emergency area did either. When my son in law said the baby was coming now he meant literally. They figured he was just another expectant father until a child watching in the hospital doorway saw him holding a new baby.

Thank heavens Matt had read books. Matt knew how to get the cord off the baby’s neck and get him to breathe, and then laid him on my daughter’s chest until help arrived.

Matt expected the unexpected. He had read about having a baby from a father’s viewpoint. He had gone to classes. He knew what to do, just in case.

Do you have a Plan B? What if something does not work out? Do you have alternatives? Will you be prepared? Can you, are you, willing to change directions?

All is well that ends well, because the unexpected happened and preparation was there.

Last month we talked about checking before you switch.
Coincidentally, this month I was reading about the idea of what I will call Passing By. And I realized I was doing it too.

After the frost, the lemon trees were part dead. As new growth came, more branches came in lower. I kept passing by the tree. Each time I thought, “I do not want lemons hanging on the ground. I should remove the low hanging growth.” I did this for several weeks. Yesterday I finally removed the low growth.

How many times have you passed by something and said to yourself, “I have to do that,” but you do not do anything about it, you just keep on passing by it and saying the same thing each time?

Maybe you think it is just one more “C” item, (ABC priorities) a low item on your priority list. Something you want to do, but it is not very important so you keep putting it off.

These items can still weigh on your mind. It is a form of procrastination.
Think about what items you “pass by” and do not take care of.

Is there a project on your desk you keep seeing (passing by) but do not do?

Do you want to file some papers but don’t want to make a file label so you keep passing by it?

How much simpler would it be to just stop and take care of the item when you pass by it?

Stop waiting for free time. Take it off your list. Stop passing by it and just do it!

When you get on or off an airplane, do you look around to be sure you have everything? Airlines have lots of “lost” items from glasses to cameras to computers.

When you leave the house, the car, or the office; switch one file for another, or switch from one task to the next; check before you switch. Is everything put away from what you were doing before you switch to something or someplace else? Or could a piece of paper get “lost” and need an announcement “Mr./Ms. X, please return for a lost item.”

Eileen Roth

Spring is here, and it really is the best time to set goals. Think about it.

On New Year’s Eve most people do not seriously consider the goals they claim to have made. And if you live in a cold winter climate, it is usually dreary outside. Not very uplifting weather to set goals.

Spring is a time of renewal and rebirth. Many people are coming out of the “cold blues” and rejoice at the nice weather. It is clear, crisp, and bright outside. That can make it clear and crisp inside your mind too.

Consider making your goals now. Get outside and enjoy the weather. In fact, go to a park, and move away from your normal environment to set clear, crisp goals.

Look at the clear blue sky. Listen to the birds chirping. Observe the flowers and plants coming alive for spring. Revel in the sounds and sights of new life.

Spring yourself into setting your goals and moving forward to a new year.

Eileen Roth
Your Tour Guide for Success
Author, Organizing For Dummies