How to Prioritize Your Goals

In order to prioritize your goals you’ll need to have a good understanding of what you need to be happy in your life. There are typically four areas in which most people make goals:

1. Family – Spending more time with your kids or partner
2. Financial – Saving toward your six month emergency cash or starting a business
3. Physical – Being healthy and more active
4. Personal – Getting more education, or devoting more time to spiritual pursuits

Within each of these areas are numerous concerns, but most goals can be summed up into one of these four areas. As to which goals are most important at any given time, you’ll need to ask yourself some questions to determine where to place your focus.

* Which goals nag at you most often? – What keeps you up at night that worries you? Are your finances suffering because you cannot earn enough money at your current job and you want to figure out how to get off the debt treadmill? This is a goal that fits in with all four of the areas above because financial stress can cause a lot of problems with your health and personal development as well as cause problems within the family.

* Which goals can be accomplished most easily? – Some goals are very short term but give maximum impact without too much work. For instance, maybe you have a goal of walking 15 minutes per day. This goal may only fit in with the personal and physical areas above, but walking 15 minutes per day will not take much away from the other areas and can give you huge results and a feeling of accomplishment.

* Which goals would give you the most pride in yourself? – Will you feel better if you lose 20 pounds or will you feel better if you spend 20 minutes extra with your son? Keep in mind there is no wrong answer, although being healthy might ultimately give you more time in terms of years with your son.

* Which goals have the most permanent results? – When choosing whether to spend that extra money on your degree, determine how permanent the results are, and realize that no one can take that degree from you; it will always be an accomplishment. What is it worth?

* Which goals will still impact me in 5 years, or 10 years? – If you start a business today, and work daily toward meeting the goals of that business, what will be different in five or ten years? How will that impact you now and in the future?

* Which goals align with your core values in life? – Any goal that fits into all four areas of your life is worth pursuing if it also fits into your schedule at the time.

* Which goals are completely up to you, that you control 100 percent? – Remember that you cannot control what anyone else does, so if any goal relies on the participation of someone else, and you don’t have their participation, you might want to switch gears and focus on something only you control.

* Which goals are just for you? – Some goals are completely personal in nature and have nothing to do with anyone else. For instance, you might want to read a particular author that has nothing to do with anything but your own pleasure. This is perfectly fine.

* Which goals are just for others? – There are “shoulds” that often get in the way of proper goal setting and these are goals that are only for other people. Your spouse wants you to lose weight, your mom wants you to go to college, your best friend wants you to start a business. None of these are a good reason to do something, although as long as you know going in why, it’s okay to make it a goal.

* Which goals cause you the most fear? Why? – Sometimes the very thing you fear most is what’s best for you to do. Look clearly at your goal and figure out why it frightens you. Sometimes it’s the unknown, and like ripping off a Band-Aid, just doing it might be the best cure.

* Which goals make you excited? – Some goals immediately send tingles down your body and into your mind, pushing you forward to doing it. These are goals that are easy to do and probably impact your life a lot. However, do pay attention because if it’s a goal of becoming the high scorer on a video game you might want to question your “why”.

* Which goals are most realistic? – The best goals to put first are the goals that best fit into your life today, cover all four areas of life, and still fit into your schedule and where you control 100 percent of the effort.

When you answer all these questions, you’ll be able to see how the goals practically organize themselves. Try making a chart and adding each goal to the four areas, then choosing the ones that cross the most areas to add to your schedule first.
 
Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
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Visit our Life & Business Coaching website:  North By Northwest

Working from Home - Are You Up to the Challenge? Organizing Your Space and Your Home - Virtually

With everyone staying at home, either working from home or just "social distancing" themselves - there are a lot of things that you can do to become more successful.

If you now have to work from home - do you have a dedicated workspace? Do you have the tools that you need to be successful? Do you have a routine that can guarantee your success? Or are you cleaning your home and watching videos while you are supposed to be working?

Working at home should still be considered "work". You owe it to your employer to be as productive as if you were actually in your office - at work.

It's not as easy as most people think. There are many distractions out there that you need to consider. Especially in light of the fact that everyone else is at home also - including most kids. This adds to the noise level and can distract you from getting your work done.

Having added Virtual Organizing to our business years ago, I can help you set up your office and workspace to be more productive.

As a Life & Business Coach - I can help you get through this trying time and get you back on track and figure out how to make the transition from working outside of your home - to working from home - or even looking into your future plans. Maybe now is the time to take that leap into trying something new - something that you were too afraid to leap into when you had a job and didn't want to jeopardize it for your "dream".

Life is throwing a lot at us right now. It's how you handle it that will make a difference.

Since you're at home - why not work on those "projects" that you have been putting off all of these years! Get your home and yourself Organized!

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How organizing your space is accomplished Virtually:

*  Make an appointment with a Virtual Organizer - you will need email access and a phone
*  You must be motivated to do the physical work yourself
*  You must be committed to reaching your goal
*  Virtual Organizing sessions are only one (1) hour long - instead of the usual 4 hours
*  Shorter Virtual sessions are less expensive than In-Person Organizing sessions
*  We walk / talk through your space and come up with a plan
* You do the physical work yourself - with email/phone support by the Organizer

Visit the Virtual Organizing  page on our website for more information.

Visit our Life & Business Coaching website - to see how a Coach can help you move forward and be successful in this trying time.



Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
.

Visit our Life & Business Coaching website:  North By Northwest

How to Create a Pattern of Success

Being Organized can bring Success!

Once you experience success you will be able to look back and realize that you achieve all success pretty much the same way. You set a goal, follow through on the tasks needed to be done for achieving results, keep an open mind, learn from others, track your successes and learn from failure. It’s the same thing, over and over again. And it works.

If you want to create a pattern of success in your life, you can start now by learning the secret that successful people know. Successful people are only special because they are doers and follow through. They are not smarter than others; in fact it is entirely possible you are smarter on paper than they are. You just don’t follow through.

Become a Goal Setting Expert

Start at the top and learn how to craft the best goals for yourself. Know that the goal is something that can be accomplished and know that the goal is measurable before you finish writing it. Most of all, make sure it’s a goal that you really want to achieve.

Schedule Everything

People who achieve are doers. If you want to get something done, schedule it no matter how silly it might seem to you. If you put it in a schedule at a particular time, and not just on a generic “to do” list, it will be more likely that you get it done.

For instance, if you have set a goal to write a 80,000 word novel by a certain date, then you should know how many pages you need to get done each week and which days you can work on it, which times, hours, and how long it takes you to write a page. Successful writers write; they don’t wait for inspiration to strike. They schedule it, and do it. The same can be said for anything you want to achieve. You don’t wait until you want to do it; you do it on schedule.

Automate the Mundane

There are a lot of things that need to be done but that can escalate easily into “busy work” which doesn’t get you closer to a goal. Bookkeeping for instance is something that can be accomplished today, with the right software, almost automatically. You can schedule payments to happen automatically; you can also use software that enters everything for you in the ledger. Freeing up time to focus on your scheduled activities that must be done to achieve the goal is a more productive use of time.

Get Outside Expert Help

To be a success doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself. You’re not on your own. The best scientists, professors, doctors, lawyers, and CEOs have assistants who help them look great. You too can hire outside help and contractors to help you do the tasks needed to reach your goals. Other than doing exercise for you and thing you must do physically for yourself, there isn’t much you can’t outsource today.

Stop Reinventing the Wheel

In most cases, someone has already done it before you. Someone has already worked out the kinks and devised a plan of action that will work for you too with hardly any tweaks. Learn from other people’s mistakes and realize that you can gain valuable information from what others are already doing.

Never Stop Learning

They say it takes ten thousand hours of reading about a topic to become an expert on any subject. Keep this in mind as you look toward your future and set your goals. If you want to be an expert, you’ll need to start today building up those ten thousand hours. Even if you know nothing about a topic today, you can be an expert in just ten thousand hours.

Know Your Core Values

As you set goals to create a pattern of success, it's imperative that you know what your core values are in terms of family, personal, financial and your physical life. Everyone has different areas they need to work on more than others - you need to know what your areas are to set realistic goals that you want to meet.

Track, Assess, Repeat

Nothing is ever done without the paperwork, as they say. Well, that includes creating a pattern of success. Only by setting goals, then tracking and assessing the results of the goals, and then repeating what works will you create a pattern of success.

Creating a pattern of success requires knowledge of goal setting, and goal achieving, and an in-depth knowledge of yourself. Starting today you can gain that knowledge and create a real pattern of success in your life.

Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
.

Visit our Life & Business Coaching website:  North By Northwest

Put It in Writing: Set a Schedule for Managing Time and Stick to It

The hardest part about time management is making a real commitment to following a schedule. It can be especially difficult for people who want to work for themselves to work on any type of schedule. It can feel wrong somehow to keep a schedule as an entrepreneur. However, keeping a schedule is going to increase your success exponentially. Putting your schedule in writing will help you follow it.

* Use Your Smartphone – Today’s cell phones are really mini computers. You can have your entire life on there, including your work schedule with alarm reminders and everything. If you see a popup on your phone every time you go to use Facebook, reminding you of tasks that need to be done, you will not have much of an excuse for not doing them.

* Try Google Calendar – If you have a Gmail account, then you already have access to a powerful system that can help you put your time in writing, while helping you keep track. You can easily set up different calendars for different aspects of your life and color code the entries. Further you can print out a calendar each day or sync to your smartphone so that you don’t forget anything.

* Try a Project Management System – Project management systems like Basecamp can help you put your schedule into writing, and organize it too. You can use this system whether or not you outsource tasks to others by just assigning the work to yourself if you don’t have others to assign them to. You’ll get an email reminder before the task is due.

* Use Evernote – This nifty little program can be used to help you keep track of your schedule, notes for projects, and more. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get used to it you’ll enjoy using it to keep track of many tasks.

* Try the “Old-Fashioned” Date Book – The old Filofax still exists and many people prefer it to using technology. If you’re one that does, don’t despair because many people stay better organized with everything in writing in one single notebook. If that’s you, you can still do it that way.

* Use a Large Whiteboard – The great thing about having a large whiteboard on your office wall is you can’t escape the tasks that need to be done since they are very obvious. You can also feel accomplished as you erase things as they get done.

* Use Time Tracking Software – FreshBooks.com comes with time tracking software that enables you to keep track of what you’re doing easily once you set up names for them. Make entries for using social media, making phone calls, even doing the dishes, and you’ll soon figure out where you’re wasting time. You can’t get time back, so it’s nice to know where it all went.

* Create a Contract with Yourself – Actually put your promises and goals into writing in the form of a contract. Write down in black and white what you will do, what your work hours are, and what you plan to do during those work hours. Then sign it.

Setting a schedule and sticking to it requires commitment to your business as if it is a job. This isn’t to say that it won’t be more flexible than a job. But, if you have to move the two hours you wanted to work on a particular project, due to a family emergency, you need to then take time from elsewhere to replace the two hours you were going to work. Seeing the schedule in writing will help you schedule things the best by making a visual representation of your day.


Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
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Visit our Life & Business Coaching website:  North By Northwest

Organizing Your Family - Getting Started

To get started organizing your family, it helps to get specific. General tips are fine, but really knowing just what to do can help a lot with motivating you toward your organizational goals. Following are some tips on getting started organizing your family.

Time

Organizing time is just as important as organizing your stuff. If each family member has his or her own calendar, it can become a major headache trying to coordinate everyone's schedule. Try having one big family calendar, such as a large, office-style calendar that can be put on the wall or laid on a desktop. If you put it by the front door, everyone can see what is going on before leaving and as soon as they come home.

Have each family member write his or her schedule on this master calendar. To make it easier, assign a different colored pencil to each family member. This helps you see at a glance who has the most activities and who needs to be where when.

Labels

Use labels to show the contents of toy bins, personal baskets/boxes, file cabinets, and even dresser drawers if you like. This helps you and your kids find what they want or need at a glance. This also helps as you delegate tasks to others - you won't be as likely to be driven crazy by kids not knowing where to put clean dishes or laundry.

Containers

It's okay to get creative with containers; just so long as everyone's stuff is contained! Clear bins are a natural choice; they can be stacked, they are clear, and they come with lids. Plastic drawers are another option. For those who have a lot of small things - beads, for instance, or small collectibles - egg cartons make great storage containers. They can be labeled and stacked as well.

Chore Charts

For kids and grown-ups alike, keeping a chart with chores/tasks listed can help a lot. If you rotate tasks, a dry-erase board is a good idea. Tasks can be crossed off or erased, and this helps everyone feel more accomplished.

Routines

This ties in with time organization. Establishing routines can help children feel more secure, and adults, too, benefit from knowing what comes next on a given day. Routines like reading the comics at breakfast or having a special snack after school can create lovely memories while teaching your child how organization can simply be made into a habit.


Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
.

Visit our Life & Business Coaching website:  North By Northwest

Benefits of Organizing Your Home

Maybe you've heard that being organized is very helpful, or perhaps you would like to be more organized but can't see how it would help. What's the big deal? Are there any real benefits to being organized other than bragging rights?

Actually, there are! Here are some of the benefits of organizing your home.

Found It

For one thing, being organized helps you find things. This can be a huge time-saver! Knowing where things are saves time and frustration. Lost items can have a ripple effect, too. If you're so distracted over the lost item, you may end up forgetting even more. Kids' rooms with organized toy bins also make it easier on everyone; you'd be less likely to have to go back into your child's bedroom in the middle of dinner preparation, for instance, to help them find a favorite toy.

Stress Reduction

Being surrounded by unorganized clutter can, according to some experts, have an effect on the brain that is not unlike that incurred from trauma. Your brain finds clutter stressful, in other words, and responds with such negative feelings as anger, depression, and frustration.

Healthier and Happier Family

Clutter is hard to clean. Dirt and dust accumulate around and between cluttered objects, making for a rather unhealthy environment. And if you have pets, animal hair can find its way in and among disorganized objects, which may set the stage for allergies.

Another thing to consider is insect pests. Bugs like silverfish like to get in among books and other paper clutter to make their homes. Other vermin like clutter as well, such as mice and even cockroaches. Organizing and cleaning go hand-in-hand; you can't have one without the other! So getting things organized can minimize these unhealthy conditions.

Another way that organizing your home contributes to health is with regard to meals. If you are organizing and planning your family's meals, they are likely to be a lot healthier than if you are grabbing something last-minute from the drive-through or freezer.

Hospitality

Are you hesitant to have people over because of your messy house? One of the benefits of organizing your family's home is that it becomes a more inviting home. You're not ashamed of it, so you will be more likely to ask friends and family over.

Free Up Some Time

Who doesn't want to do that? It seems there's never enough time! In an organized home, you will feel more energetic and less bogged down with all the clutter, and that leaves time for enjoyable activities. Sometimes, you feel like you really should be tackling the clutter and mess, and therefore you don't do as many pleasurable things...but you don't get around to organizing, either! Just going ahead and getting it done helps break that cycle.
 
Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
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Visit our Life & Business Coaching website:  North By Northwest

Decluttering – What It Entails

The term “decluttering” has been a catch phrase for a number of years. Some think it is simply cleaning a house, but if you have seen television shows about hoarding or cleaning, you know it can be much more than that. So, what does it entail?

The World English Dictionary defines decluttering as the act of getting rid of mess and disorder. This is generally a two-step process:

1. Get rid of the current clutter you have in your home.

2. Avoid letting additional clutter into your home.
You may have heard the old adage, “A place for everything and everything in its place.” For those struggling with clutter, this often becomes a mantra or battle cry.

Start small when you begin decluttering. If your home is cluttered, going through and getting rid of things will seem intimidating. It is easy to become discouraged and overwhelmed. By starting small, even with one single dresser drawer, you see how much you can accomplish in a short amount of time. Quite often, with a small area, you can declutter and clean it in less than 15 minutes. Anyone can do this if is important to them.

Enlist the help of someone you trust. Perhaps your family is full of clutter bugs and they really are not interested in moving out of CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome). If they will not help you, ask a friend to do it instead. Not only will your friend be there to give encouragement, they may also be able to help you with the hard decisions that often come up when decluttering.

Get four boxes – Keep (this room), Toss, Donate/Give/Sell, and Keep (store elsewhere) – and place them in the area where you will start. Try to handle each item only once. When you pick something up, decide if you will keep it in the room where it now is; if it is garbage and can be tossed; if you no longer need it and it can be donated or given; or if it is to be kept in a different location. Look at each item and put it one of the boxes.

When you review each item, try to think about how often you have used it in the last year. Be honest with yourself. If the item has not been used in a year, it is time to let it go - either in the trashcan or into the Donate box so someone else can use out of it.

Be aware of the things you bring into your home. Quickly go through your mail outside near the garbage can. Important mail goes under your elbow. Everything else is probably junk mail and does not need to enter the house. While you open your mail, write down important dates on a calendar. You can then file the mail if still needed or shred it if it has personal information on it.

Adopt the one in/one out rule. If you purchase a new item, with this rule, you would also get rid of one item. This item could be something related to what you purchased or something non-related. The point is to get into the habit of removing one item each time a new item comes into the home.

When you have one drawer, stack, corner or box cleaned out, take a break. If your friend is still there, have a cup of coffee or tea. Then, after your drink is finished, tackle another. Before you know it, you will have a cleaned out dresser, cabinet or one less pile to look at. Then, do your best to keep that renewed area clean and clear from that point forward. Congratulations on a job well done!
 
Less Clutter = Less Stress ^SM     in your home, your business and your life

Organizational Consulting Services

http://www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
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Visit our Life & Business Coaching website:  North By Northwest