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Get Organized – Save Time to Enjoy Your Life
Flip a Coin to Decide? No way!
June 1st was National Flip a Coin day – but that’s a way I’ve ever used to make a decision. Have you? Did it work out?
Natl. Flip a Coin Day
For me, I like to make lists of whatever I’m doing. When I need to make a decision, I make a different type of list – the Ben Franklin Close.
What’s the Ben Franklin Close?
Ben Franklin close is about looking at an item and deciding it’s plus or minus values. I prefer to think of it as Pros and Cons in two separate columns. But there’s more than just Pros and Cons.
Weighing In
You could have an item that has more “weight” = it means more to you than another item. Those items deserve more “points”. So on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, rate the item’s weight to you.
Be careful to weigh each item individually and not against anything else you have listed. Here’s a really simple example. You’re going to balance your checkbook, but the question is do you do it today or another day?
This example shows you that another day would be better. You have other things to do. This is a very simplistic example, but it gives you the idea that something could have high ratings on both sides – Pros and Cons.
Item: Balance checkbook today?
| Pros | Rate | Cons | Rate |
| balance off – want to reconcile | 8 | other priorities | 10 |
| need to do before automatic bills come in |
6 |
enough money to cover auto. withdrawals | 9 |
| more time today | 7 | can do another day | 8 |
| Total | 21 | 27 |
Next time you need to make a decision that isn’t coming quickly,
make a quick chart listing the pros and cons, but rate them too!
Accomplish More Together
Last weekend we had 32 degrees and 7.5 inches of snow in north Scottsdale AZ. My husband actually measured how much snow was on top of a low dividing wall. I felt like I was back in Chicago looking at a white winter wonderland as the large flakes fell softly to the ground. In the 14 years I’ve been in this house, it’s been our fourth snow, but this one was the most and lasted more than overnight. If you drove just 8 blocks south, there wasn’t even a drop of snow on the ground! You could only see it on the top of the mountains. When we drive north towards our house, we always watch the temperature gauge on the car as it drops about 10 degrees from the main city, but rarely down to freezing.
As my daughter said, she didn’t have to take Max and Miles several hours north to play in the snow – just 40 minutes to Grammie’s house! After a few sled rides over the back patio, we all went into the side yard (the only place with grass) to play in the snow and build a snowman.
The snowman was a group accomplishment. Max and Miles (7 and 3) brought the snow over to our snowman location. Padding the snowman into shape was mostly from the adults because the boys kept trying to put bulky pieces on top and the snowman would break apart. That was mostly because the rain on Sat. with the cold temps had made the snow more like ice than fluff. I really knew it was hard-pack when Max threw a snowball at me — it hurt. As I suspected, the next day I had a black-and-blue mark on my hip.
Next: Make the snowman look like more than a mountain of snow!
Since the snowman needed to look like one, we added features to our “mountain”:
- The arms came from some red poles that were used for a game of horseshoes.
- The face and buttons came from small rocks the boys found on the ground.
- The gloves were donated by my daughter.
- The hat was donated from Max since he had a hood.
- I didn’t have any carrots, so I used an orange bell pepper for his nose.
I think the bell pepper was better than a carrot – more like a nose!
All in all, we had a grand time. But it wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t all have the same goal – to build a snowman together. The boys couldn’t have done it themselves, as evidenced by their bringing huge pieces over and toppling half the body several times.
It only happened because there was a common goal and we collaborated. We helped each other from carrying the snow, to padding it down, to adding the features. When you collaborate, you not only get different ideas (the bell pepper nose and pole arms with gloves), but you also have more fun.
What project are you working on that you could collaborate on with others?
New Year – 3 Tips to Move Forward
How are your New Year’s Resolutions Going?
Did you make New Year’s Resolutions? Are you progressing? Some unknown person named Jan. 17th as Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day. I don’t think you need to ditch them yet. It takes 30 days to make a habit. If you didn’t get going on your resolutions, it’s okay to get moving forward now. And if you did get going but aren’t moving along, here’s some ideas to re-activate your goals.
Success begets more success.
First, most resolutions are way too big, and you will miss the mark if you just go after the big goal itself. You can usually find several smaller goals within that one big goal. Chunking resolutions/goals down into smaller ones let’s you see more progress. More importantly, you have this sense of accomplishment of the smaller goal, and that makes you want to continue. Success begets more success. For example, your goal to drop 25 pounds won’t happen in one week so you’re smaller goal might be 1-2 pounds a week instead. When you accomplish 1-2 pounds a week, you feel better than only looking at the bigger goal of not reaching losing 25 pounds. When you steadily lose 1 pound a week, that sense of achieving your goal is the motivation to keep going.
Reward yourself.
Second, add another motivator — Take small rewards as you accomplish each step. If you lost 1 pound, have a 1-pound reward. If you organized one drawer, have a reward for that, not just one reward when you organize all your files or your whole office or the whole bedroom – those are bigger goals and get bigger rewards.
Make a list of small rewards that you could take like a cup of hot chocolate or hot apple cider (vs. your usual coffee), or a sweet treat, or reading a novel for 30 minutes. (Don’t do this last one at work unless it’s lunch time.)
Chart it
Third, keep a chart of your progress as you accomplish each step. You could use a spreadsheet or even a handwritten list like: Week 1 small goal = 1 pound, and check it off when you have accomplished it. The same goes for week 2, 3, 4, etc. Reward yourself when you accomplish the 1 pound and don’t reward yourself if you don’t complete the small goal.
Make 2019 your best year ever!
To Read , Not to Read, or to File – Magazines
Whether you work in an office environment or you just have magazines at home; it’s a great time to clean out your reading material.
Magazines
Discussing magazine article
Question: Are you going to read that magazine?
Answer: No
-
Cancel subscriptions.
If you have a year’s worth of magazines, chances are you no longer want to read that magazine. So unsubscribe from them so you don’t receive any more.
You can usually find the address under the Table of Contents to write or call to cancel the subscription.
You will need your address label ID # if it was mailed to you, especially if it was in a plastic wrapper.
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Donate any used magazines to libraries, hospitals, or doctor’s offices.
People in waiting rooms always love reading material. (donate books too) Wherever people wait, there is time to read.
Ans: Yes
Was it an impulse buy at the checkout lane?
If so, you probably just want to read that one article that attracted your attention. Then pull out that one article, and donate the rest of the magazine.
If you have a collection of magazines that are sitting in a pile, here’s a great trick to make that pile disappear quickly:
- Go through the Table of Contents of ever magazine you want to keep.
- Highlight the article you really want to read.
- Remove the article, including all “continued on pg. ___” and staple it together.
- Put the articles in a To Read file that you can carry with you when you have to wait.
- Or – File the article in a subject area and read it when you open that subject’s file. (paper or computer)
Waiting for a meeting to start, read at lunch, read on the train, read at appointments. Read anywhere you wait
Email Magazines/Newsletter
If you get magazines, or newsletters from people you don’t read, look for the “Unsubscribe link” at the bottom of their newsletter.
Just DON’T UNSUBSCRIBE if you also bought a program from them or you won’t be able to access your program.
Other Reading Material – Reports, Charts, Statistics,
You may have something lengthy like Meeting Minutes, reports, charts, statistics, etc. that you want to read or even re-read to understand all of the material. Put these items in your To Read file too!
Which of these techniques will you implement? Comment below.
Chunk your Goals
Last month we discussed the fact that New Year’s, or even winter time, may not be the right time for you to set goals (see Have Your Goals Already Derailed Off Track?) Yes, it still may really be right for you, especially if you love the quiet of winter, but for most people winter time is not an energetic time to set goals.
If you do tend to set goals in January, why are they not working?
Person walking in snow – Copyright Stock Unlimited
- We already discussed that you may not have been in a serious frame of mind (especially if you made your goals during a New Year’s Eve party)
- We also said winter may not be the right season for you to create goals.
- Another reason is that you didn’t break them down into bite sized pieces – chunks.
Most goals are too super-sized. That’s what a goal is – something big to strive for. Therefore it needs to be broken down into pieces you can truly handle – chunks. You don’t eat a whole cake at once. You take a chunk of it – one slice at a time.
Do you remember the Chunky candy bar? It is small – 1.4 oz I did a google search and was surprised to see that it is currently sold at Walmart, at least online. I don’t know if it is in the store. They even have a King size version. To me that is just a total oxymoron–a King size bar of a Chunky candy!
Anyhow, each of your goals can usually be broken down into smaller parts or chunks. If you look at your goal as a series of steps forward, they are easier to achieve. When my daughters started training for their first marathons, they had to run a block first, then a mile, then a couple of miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, etc. They didn’t suddenly run a marathon, which is 26 miles. In the same respect you have to chunk down your goals into bite-sized (whatever size works for you) steps until you can achieve your big goal.
Chunks don’t have to relate to each other and they don’t have to always increase, but they often do. For example, a typical New Year’s goal is “to lose weight.” If you want to lose 30 lbs. you won’t lose it in one day and maybe not in one year. You want to chunk it into sub-goals and then chunk the sub-goals into smaller action items which are also chunks. Two major chunks of losing weight, sub-goals, are diet and exercise.
Cakes – Copyright Stock Unlimited
If your first sub-goal is to adjust your diet, you might begin by cutting out eating cakes. Then you might cut out ice cream. Next you might cut out cookies. Those are chunks- pieces of a larger item – in this case diet. And diet is a piece of losing weight.
Exercise – Copyright Stock Unlimited
Another sub-goal might be to exercise: first 5 minutes a day, then 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 30 minutes, and then an hour a day. Those are all chunks of the sub-goal exercise, which in itself is a chunk to the big goal of losing weight.
Diet and exercise may or may not be done together. While you might focus on one and not the other, both diet and exercise are sub-goals of losing weight, and each of them could be broken down into smaller chunks to help you achieve the big goal of losing weight.
So the next time you have a goal, chunk it!
What’s your goal that you’re working on and what chunks did you create?
Comment below.
Eileen
PS I have foot surgery on Tuesday, so I may take a little longer to respond to comments this week.
