If you’ve ever ended a long period of computer use with an aching back, tired fingers, or sore neck, you likely have a computer workstation layout that is not ergonomically correct. Organizing your computer workspace can not only save you from unnecessary aches and pains, it can help you be more productive. Here are some tips to help you get the most comfort from your computer setup. If you have a laptop, rather than desktop computer, adjust the tips as needed.

Let’s take the traditional desktop computer layout: your monitor, mouse and keyboard should be positioned properly for best comfort. There are many resources for information on ergonomics so I won’t repeat them here. If you need some guidance, the OSHA website offers helpful information.  What I’d like to focus on are some tips and tricks to get that ideal positioning. Often, the space constraints of seating, desks, cable lengths, and even location of power outlets cause us to make positioning compromises that are ergonomically unsuitable – let’s fix that!

Desk and Chair Position: Start by disconnecting everything – we will need to move things round a bit. Next, consider your ideal desk and chair position. Find a good spot where your desk
and chair will fit, making sure that there is some room to move while getting into and out of the chair. Do a couple “test fits” while seated and try reaching for things you may use – check your arm reach distance. This is your “work zone”, and we will build the rest of your computer positioning from here.

Monitor Position: The next item to position is the monitor; like the computer, it needs to be on a solid, flat, level base, meaning your computer desktop. Putting it on top of a pile of cardboard
boxes off to the side is not a good idea! Use the ergonomic guidelines to determine the best height for your use. Also consider sunlight: if the monitor will be in a sunny spot, you may want to consider some method of shading the monitor, or it will be “washed out” and the glare may be annoying. If you have multiple users, you may consider purchase of an adjustable monitor stand. This way each user can adjust the height easily. Don’t try to connect the power and video cables yet.

Here’s a link to my newsletter where you can read more about how to get the most from your workstation. I’d love to hear what works for you.

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

A survey by Real Simple Magazine and the Families and Work Institute revealed that amost half of American women say they don’t have enough free time. The survey defined “free time” as “time that you spend on yourself, where you can choose to do things that you enjoy.” I was surprised that the percentage was only 49%, but I’m glad to know there are women out there who don’t fit into the mold of an overworked, overstressed female.

If you’re one of the women who is happy with the amount of free time you have in your day, congratulations – I’d love to hear how you do it. And since you have plenty of free time, you’ve got loads of time to share your tips! If you’re someone without enough free time in your day, it might be helpful to explore why that is. The Real Simple article on the subject surprisingly reported that it isn’t typically because of work obligations, but rather because of domestic duties – housework, errands, and childcare.

Housework, errands, and childcare all seem like obligations that would be hard to diminish, but for the sake of our mental health, it might be necessary to find a way – constantly being busy with things we “have” to do increases our stress level which can reduce our overall physical and mental health. So how do we scale back? Two solutions that most commonly work for my clients are lowering expectations and delegating more. These two go hand-in-hand – if you’re less concerned about whether the towels are precisely folded into perfect piles, you might be more willing to delegate that task to your able-bodied children.

Even without delegating, lowering your standards can help you find more time. For example, if you’re willing to make frozen vegetable a few nights a week rather than washing, cleaning, and cutting fresh vegetables for every meal, you might have more time to spend doing something fun (although I know there’s someone out there who enjoys snapping the stems from green beans). Sure it’s great to have a clean house, but maybe your goal can be to clean the bathroom each week, but dust every other week. I’ve sometimes managed to ignore dust for entire month! I find it a lot more fulfilling to be out on my bike enjoying nature than at home admiring my dust-free table tops.

My goal here isn’t to tell you precisely how to live your life, but to encourage you to explore ways to make your life more fun and meaningful. I think it’s okay, in fact it’s essential, to put ourselves first sometimes –after all, life is meant to be enjoyed. So what would you do with more free time in your life, and how can you make it happen?

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

Are you drowning under piles of photographs and wondering how to dig yourself out? My January 2011 newsletter described how to organize photos – the physical prints that may occupy any number of bags and boxes in your home. But maybe it’s your computer rather than you that’s drowning – you may take digital photographs and have a hard drive bursting with them. This month I’ve called upon my husband, John, who is the technical guru of our home, to describe the best ways to organize digital photos (yes, there is a better way than just dumping them into random folders on your computer).

You can organize your digital photos similarly to your physical photos: by holiday/event, by date, etc. You can create appropriately named folders and move or copy the photos into those folders. But what if some photos could be in more than one category? I came upon this dilemma while organizing my own photos recently. By nature, I had my photos organized in date order, neatly placed in monthly folders.  However, I also wanted to have them organized by event (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, birthdays, etc.). How to solve this dilemma?

If you are dealing with physical photo albums, you’d have to make extra copies of each photo and have one photo placed in the date-ordered album and the other in the holiday/event album – quite an effort, and perhaps not a good use of space and time. On a computer you have options: you can have your photos sorted and grouped in more than one order, without making extra copies. This magic is accomplished by using computer software as a logical index to your photos. The index allows you to create multiple groupings of photos without actually moving or copying the photos.

With indexing software, you create an album (logical index) and then tell the index where in the date-ordered folders to find the relevant photos. The index builds up a list of file locations where the photos are stored, then uses that information to present the list as an album to you. For example, you can create an album (logical index) called “Thanksgiving 2000 to 2012” and the index will pull up related photos no matter how many different folders they are stored in. You can then use this album in multiple ways:

• Present slide shows on your computer
• Upload photos to an online photo printer
• Burn photos or slideshows to CD/DVD
• Upload to your favorite social media website for online slide shows
• Make postcards, holidays cards, greeting cards, and more…

Here’s a link to my newsletter where you can read about software that can help you organize your digital photos. I’d love to hear what works for you.

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

“To be able to open a cabinet, drawer or closet  and find what I’m looking for;” “To start my family’s day on time and on a positive note;” “To experience the joy of leisure time;” “To make living with AD/HD easier.” These are all reasons clients have told me they want to get organized. Although each reason supports a different goal, the one thing each of them has in common is that the end goal is about more than being organized – organization is a means to something bigger and more meaningful.

Why does a bigger, more meaningful reason matter? Why can’t one just get organized for organizings’s sake? Well, “getting organized” could be your ultimate goal, but it’s not particularly motivating. And motivation is just what you’ll need to stick with the organizing process, as well as to maintain the organizing systems you create.

Before you start your organizing project, decide what greater goal organizing will help you achieve. Will you have better relationships because you get to places on time and no longer keep your friends or family waiting? Will you eat better because you can easily find things in your kitchen, so preparing healthy meals at home will be a breeze? Think about the compelling reasons you want to get organized, and write them down. You might even want to post them where you can see them to motivate you during your organizing sessions, and to remind you to maintain your systems once you’ve set them up.

Another reason to create compelling reasons to get organized is to help guide you as you go through the decision-making process that’s inherent to the organizing process. For example, if one of your goals is to be able to get out the door quickly by easily finding things in your clothes closet, you may have to pare down your wardrobe to fit into the space that you have. As you evaluate each item in your closet, you can ask yourself how keeping it will help you get out the door quickly.

So how do you create your bigger goal around getting organized? Ask yourself what bothers you the most about your home, your office, your life. What frustrations do you experience because you have trouble finding things, you don’t get your bills paid on time, or your schedule is too full? What weight will be lifted when you get organized and regain control?

I’d love to hear your compelling reason for getting organized.

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

Several years ago I saw a sign that said “I have a kitchen because it came with the house” in a client’s home. It’s a relief to know there’s at least one other person besides me who doesn’t like to cook. After all, with the huge number of cooking shows on TV, cooking magazines staring at me in the grocery store, and specialty spice shops and olive oil stores popping up all over, I can’t help but think that everyone except me loves to cook (and is good at it as well). I do love to eat, however, so I’ve done all I can to make meal planning as painless as possible. Whether you’re the cook in your home or are lucky enough to be the beneficiary of someone else’s cooking, enjoy these tips to make mealtimes less stressful.

Plan meals for the week. I used to spend stress-filled hours (ok, minutes, but it seemed like hours) staring at the refrigerator and freezer each evening trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I finally took my own advice and now plan dinners for the upcoming week every Sunday. I write them on an erasable whiteboard attached with magnetic clips to my refrigerator. It’s amazing how much less stressful my day is just knowing I can answer the question “What’s for dinner?”

Create a rotating menu routine. I have 21 index cards, each of which contains one dinner suggestion as well as any special ingredients that I’m not likely to have on hand. Rather than having to put a lot of thought into what to make for dinner, I just grab the seven index cards in the front of the stack and use them as my
starting point. I check my calendar to determine which nights might require a quick meal or an early or late dinner based on my husband’s and my schedules. I reorder the seven index cards to correspond to each evening, and write those meals in order on my whiteboard. I write the special ingredients from the index
cards onto my grocery list and check my freezer and cupboards to make sure all of the non-special ingredients are on hand. I put that group of index cards in the back of the stack and I’m ready for next week’s meal planning.

Create a themed menu routine. Another option to make meal planning easy is to have a theme for each day of the week. Themes help narrow down your options, which for me is the biggest challenge of meal planning. For example, Monday is breakfast for dinner; Tuesday is Mexican; Wednesday is pasta; Thursday is soup; Friday is fish; Saturday is pizza – you get the idea. You could also include a night where family members take turns planning (and maybe even cooking!) what’s for dinner.

Here’s a link to my newsletter where you can find some more ideas to help you make mealtime easier than ever. I’d love to hear what helps you manage mealtime mayhem in your home.

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

You may have seen the television commercial in which a group of people are assembling in a conference room for a meeting. They make fun of the fact that one of their co-workers uses a paper and pen rather than an electronic tablet for taking notes. The shamed employee tells his colleagues to ease up on their attack because he’s just gone online and purchased a tablet so he can be just like them.

This commercial bothers me for a number of reasons, but mostly because it perpetuates the erroneous sentiment that one must use the most current technology to be successful. Never mind that pen and paper probably worked just fine for this perceived luddite – his associates couldn’t fathom that anything but the latest and greatest technology was acceptable.

Let’s consider the world of planning tools – paper planners, cell phones, tablets, computer-based programs, etc. Many of my clients are surprised to learn that I, a time management expert and coach, use a paper planner – and not one of those convenient, portable, purse-sized planners. I use a big 8-1/2 by 11 inch planner with a page per day – it’s big, it’s bulky, and it works great for me. And that’s the phrase that pays – “it works great for me.” It’s big enough for me to capture all of my appointments and to-dos, it allows me to easily plan my day and subsequently view everything I have to do on a particular day, and it allows me to carry with me any supplemental documents that I might need during the day.

When choosing your time management tool, don’t feel compelled to use any one format just because everyone else is using it. First and foremost, consider how easy it is to enter information into it. Are you ok with typing your appointments into an electronic device, or would you prefer to hand write them directly on the appropriate date? Do you want something that’s small and easily transported, or can your planner be stationary because you typically work from one place all the time? Do you need a lot of space to write lists, appointments and other information, or is a small space for each day adequate? Are you comfortable with having all of your information in one  place, that, if lost, is probably not retrievable, or do you prefer an electronic device that can be backed up?

Don’t be pressured to conform to anyone else’s perception of the best planning tool. Find the one that’s right for you and enjoy getting things done when they need to be done. And feel free to kid me about my big, bulky planner.

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

Ready or not, here it comes – tax season will be upon us sooner than we may like. Do you remember how things went last year as you gathered your financial paperwork? Will this year be more organized? Did you have to forego some deductions you deserved last year because you couldn’t find the supporting paperwork? Did you have to pay your tax preparer an additional amount to sort out the jumble of information you dumped in his or her office at the last minute? Did you waste hours searching for misplaced financial statements and receipts?

This article offers some ideas to help you organize your paperwork, which can save you time as well as money as you pull together your tax documents. There are many ways to organize paperwork, so choose the ideas that resonate with you and adjust the system as needed to fit your needs. Although properly setting up your files may be quite time consuming, you’ll reap the benefits for years to come.

Keep important papers in a fireproof safe or in a safe deposit box.Here’s a link to some information on what you should and shouldn’t keep in a safe deposit box (due to its limited accessibility). http://www.bankrate.com/finance/savings/4-bank-safe-deposit-box-questions-1.aspx

Use a file cabinet or some other type of container to hold your other documents. Office supply stores offer many options, including file carts (which are open on top and typically on wheels), desktop file holders, portable file boxes, crates made specifically for holding files, and even cardboard boxes. Several things to consider when deciding what container to use include: where you will keep it; how easy it is to put papers in it and retrieve papers from it; how secure it will allow your papers to be; and whether or not you’re a “visual” person who would prefer a somewhat open container. To simplify the remainder of this discussion, I’ll assume you’re using a file cabinet. However, my comments are relevant no matter what type of container you use.

Create broad categories to group your papers. If your categories are too specific, you’ll have too many places to search for information. For example, rather than create separate categories for flowers, trees and shrubs, you might want a category called “Gardening.” Be sure to name the categories the way you think of them. For example, if you think in terms of “Car”, don’t file car information under “Auto.”

Here’s a link to my newsletter where you can find some more ideas to help you organize your paperwork and make tax time easier than ever. And if you’d like some personalized help getting organized, please get in touch – I’d be glad to help.

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

It’s finally happened – the last traces of holiday candy, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, kettle corn and other assorted holiday treats that have filled my home for the last month and a half have been consumed. At last I can continue my quest to eat more healthfully. Sure, I could have embraced healthy eating all along, but until all temptation disappeared from my sight, the lure of sugar always seemed to overtake my limited willpower. And it wouldn’t have been fair to the rest of my household to just throw out those tempting morsels.

So what does this is have to do with organizing? Just like my limited willpower regarding junk food would have made it incredibly difficult to avoid eating it, circumstances in your life may make getting or staying organized a real challenge. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t overcome those challenges, but it’s important to recognize that they’re there. Why? First, so you’ll cut yourself some slack about why the seemingly simple quest to get organized can be so challenging. Second, so you can do something to move those obstacles out of the way.

What kinds of challenges am I talking about? Some of the more common ones I encounter with my clients are: a workload that leaves no time or energy for organizing; limited knowledge about how to get organized; feeling overwhelmed; fear of failure; perfectionism; and finding organizing boring and isolating.

All of these challenges can, at least in part, be mitigated by working on your organizing project with someone else. Working with someone else can give you the energy and motivation you need to stay on task, and can make the process move along more quickly than when you work solo. An organizing partner can help you develop new ideas about how to approach your most challenging organizing obstacles, and can help you break your project down into manageable steps to remove that sense of overwhelm. Working with someone else can give you a sense of accountability so that you are more inclined to maintain your organizing systems. Your organizing buddy can help you recognize when you’re falling into perfectionism mode and help you identify just how detailed your organizing efforts need to be. And best of all, an organizing partner can make the organizing process easier, interesting and yes, even enjoyable. There are a lot of similarities to the benefits of working with a personal trainer, which I’ve written about previously.

So how do you choose your organizing partner? The key characteristics for a successful partnership are working with someone who is nonjudgmental, will work confidentially, and who will gently bring you back on track when you’ve veered off.  In addition, they must be focused on helping you achieve your goals, not theirs. They must be patient and supportive, and most of all, someone with whom you’re comfortable sharing your situation and your memories. If you’re not lucky  enough to have a friend or family member who embraces these qualities or who is willing to help you, I’m at your service.

So what obstacles are getting in the way of you organizing goals? What can you do to eliminate them?

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

I don’t know how it always seems to happen so quickly, but here we are welcoming in yet another new year. I often ponder how life must really zip by quickly for people who are disorganized, since they are often running late, in a frenzy looking for misplaced things, or in a panic because they forgot to pay a bill or do some other important task. My wish for you this year is that you experience the peacefulness and joy that comes from being organized and in control. Here are five simple tips that will help you in this endeavor.

1. Look ahead. Choose a day each week (I’ve chosen Sunday) to look at the upcoming two weeks to see if there’s anything you should be doing now to be prepared for future appointments, commitments, events or projects. Although you may feel you can barely keep up with what you need to be doing now, investing time to plan ahead will go a long way towards making life easier. For example, if you’ll be attending a wedding in a couple of weeks, wouldn’t it be nice to have your clothing ready to go, the gift purchased and sent, and the babysitter reserved well in advance? Eliminate the last-minute panic you might normally associate with such events by taking a quick scan of what is coming up so you can prepare in advance. Note on your calendar what you need to do and when you’ll do it so you can leave all the last-minute anxiety to the bride and groom.

2. Clean up every day. Clutter has a way of draining our energy and attracting more clutter. Eliminate this possibility by spending time at the end of the day cleaning up from the day’s activities. For example, clean off your desk – put away loose papers and supplies so when you start the next workday, you’ll be able to focus on the most important task at that moment, rather than be overwhelmed by the work you left out from yesterday. Clean up the day’s dishes – waking up to a pile of yesterday’s dirty dishes can zap your energy and tempt you to just keep adding to the pile. Put your clothes away – hang up the clothes you wore that day (I hang lightly-worn clothes that I’ll wear again on a hanger and put that hanger backwards on the closet rod), or put them in the dirty clothes hamper – why not create a serene environment rather than a chaotic one piled with dirty clothes? You get the idea – create and maintain a clutter-free space to clear your mind and prevent you from having to start your day with yesterday’s work.

Here’s a link to my newsletter where you can find some more ideas to help make the transition to the new year easier than ever. And if you’d like some personalized help getting organized, please get in touch – I’d be glad to help.

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,

What do piles of opened mail, bags of stuff in the trunk of your car waiting to be returned to the store, and opened but unprocessed e-mails in your inbox all have in common? They are all things that have been started but not completed. Uncompleted tasks can weigh us down – rather than being able to cross something off our physical or mental to-do list, unfinished tasks nag at us and constantly reminds us there’s more work to do. They can also reduce our self-confidence by reminding us that once again we’ve failed to finish what we’ve started.

Not only can unfinished tasks have a psychic cost, but they can have a financial cost as well. For example, an unfinished quilt or other craft project can represent a huge financial investment. There’s not much return on investment (including the benefit of enjoying looking at our handiwork) when such a project is sitting in a heap waiting to be finished. Unprocessed mail can result in late fees on unpaid bills or overdraft charges from an un-reconciled bank account. Those bags of stuff waiting to go back to the store can be tying up a large amount of your cash.

There are lots of reasons why we may start something and not finish it, including fear, procrastination, poor time estimating, or even boredom. If you want to overcome your habit of not finishing what you start it’s important to figure out why you tend not to finish things and then figure out what to do about it. For example, maybe you’re afraid to finish something because you worry that you’ll have done it incorrectly or it won’t be good enough in other’s eyes. Procrastination may arise because you find the project overwhelming. Poor time estimating may find us starting something but just not having time to finish it. My clients with ADHD tend to have an especially difficult time finishing things, often because they get bored once the excitement of starting a project has worn off.

Once you know what your challenge is, evaluate it and determine what you can do about it. If fear is holding you back, evaluate the worst-case scenario. Maybe your anticipated outcome is worse than what’s realistic. See if you can get someone else’s input to help put things in perspective for you. In addition, remember that by not finishing a project, you run the risk of creating a bad impression in people’s eyes anyway.

If you find a task or project overwhelming, ask yourself what one small thing you can do to move forward. If you focus on just the very next thing you need to do you might find that the project is more manageable and that you’ll move it towards the finish line.

You may discover that you’re not committed to the project so you’re not motivated to finish it. For example, maybe once you started that quilt, you realized that you didn’t like the pattern or the fabric you’d chosen. Give yourself permission to recognize that you made a mistake in picking the pattern or fabric and then move on. Relieve yourself of the guilt of feeling like you have to finish it.

If time management is your challenge – you can’t finish one thing because you’re busy trying to get caught up on something else – you might find it helpful to get some time management coaching. An outside perspective can help you identify habits that are holding you back.

If boredom is preventing you from finishing things, find ways to overcome it. Use your peak energy time – that time of day when your brain is most engaged – to work on things you find boring. Play music, set a timer to challenge yourself, or find someone to work with you to help move that unexciting task forward.

Successful people don’t just talk about doing things, they actually do them, or get other people to do them. Either way, they get things across the finish line. Some days are going to be better than others, but as long as you keep moving forward, you’re bound to successfully get things completed.

Do you have a task that you’ve started but just can’t seem to complete? What steps do you need to take to get it to the finish line? Here’s to your successful completion of the things that are hanging over your head and weighing you down.

Wishing you simplicity, harmony and freedom,