The calm after the storm

Last week was so hectic I was absolutely exhausted by Thursday but somehow I persevered.

Usually I don't jam-pack my schedule so full but I had two end-of-year functions and I (mistakenly) thought, "oh, it's just one more thing". But one more thing in addition to my regular coaching appointments = hectic!

Thank God this week is back to normal.

I only have one free website/ blog teleseminar this week - yayy - besides normal commitments.

So what are you up to this week?

What did you declutter this week?

Edited to add decluttering pictures


Please encourage all your blog friends to join us in decluttering and choosing to live a simpler life by using the button on your sidebar. Christmas is just around the corner and you need to start taking action so that you don't just fill up all the spaces you've already decluttered.

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This week I'm going to post my pictures late.

Honestly, this has been a very hectic week and I suppose I'm decluttering the expectation that the organising expert always has it together.

I also had an expectation that I'd be treated a certain way at work and I decluttered that expectation this week. Now I know to just take things as they come. That's not my natural style but as Dr Phil would say, that's not working for me!

So I'll declutter some clothes on Saturday and post the pictures, okay? When my cleaning lady and I were packing my clothes away last weekend, she told me I have too much and I agree.

2 pairs of track pants and 4 tops

By the way, we also "decluttered" a mouse this week. My word - I screamed like a girl when I found him on the carpet!

What did you declutter?

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Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you got rid of this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Get ready for tomorrow...

Declutter your children's toys now

Now is the perfect time to declutter your children’s toys, just before Christmas.

You know how you get overwhelmed with too much stuff?

Your kids also get overwhelmed with too many toys.

Your kids have too many toys if…
1. There is not enough space in their rooms to store it. No, the answer is not to move to a bigger house or to buy more containers.
2. They don’t even notice when you remove some toys.
3. They forget the toys they do have because they’re buried so deep.

Now, here’s what I want you to do:

1. Sit down with your child and explain that there are other little girls and boys who don’t have any toys.
2. Ask them to choose some toys to give to those kids.
3. Warning – your children will probably pick things that YOU’d like to keep. Restrain yourself from putting those back in the toybox!
4. Make sure they’re in good working order and drop them off at your nearest orphanage or shelter.

Now you’ve made some space for the inevitable – more toys at Christmas!

I picked up a great tip when I was working with a client a few months ago.

She told me that whenever the kids have birthdays and they are inundated with toys, she lets them pick their 3 favourites and hides the rest away.

Every so often she’ll magically produce one of the new toys and the child is enthralled for a couple of weeks. In fact, this is exactly what she did so that her little darling would leave us in peace to organise her office!

If all else fails, do what my client did and hide their toys away.

Overwhelmed? Distracted? Own your own business?

I'll show you exactly how to:

• Do the one thing that will instantly get you more time


• Focus your time and get the right things done


• Design your business around what you're good at


• Stop feeling overwhelmed


• Say no to what's not good for your business


• Focus on your high-payoff activities


• Know when it's actually good to procrastinate


• Stop time-wasters from getting the best of you

Plus you’ll also get regular weekly tips and information to make your business more organised and highly productive so you can bring in more money.

1. Please enter your first name and primary email address below, and click submit.


2. Check your inbox for a special link to confirm your subscription.


3. As soon as you're confirmed, you'll get a second email from me with the download link to your first tip. You'll receive one tip every two days.

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Love and time success

Favourite organising tools #13 - the best 89p I ever spent

I haven’t done one of these favourite organising tools posts for a looong time.

And every time I use this particular tool (every single day of my life) I think, “I really should post this” so I finally got my act together.

You all know how much I love plastic envelopes. Here in South Africa, I’ve only ever seen the bigger ones (A4 – for my overseas readers, that’s the size of printer paper) so imagine my delight when I found A5 ones (half the size of A4) on our visit to the UK in May.


If you’re interested, I got this one at Tesco’s for the grand sum of 89p ;) My cost per use is already less than a penny!

Why I love it

• The PERFECT size for carrying in your handbag or in your hand
• Nothing falls out
• I can see the contents because it’s transparent
• Pretty pink colour always helps

I always have stuff with me to read, to work on (business planning), blog notes, etc and I keep all that stuff in here because I like things contained.

Do you use these plastic folders? What do you use them for?

P.S. This one is called Snopake Polyfile A5

Today I'm decluttering...tasks and delegating them to my VA

Please encourage all your blog friends to join us in decluttering and choosing to live a simpler life by using the button on your sidebar. Christmas is just around the corner and you need to start taking action so that you don't just fill up all the spaces you've already decluttered.

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This week I decluttered this vertical organiser on my desk and then... of much more importance...

I decluttered some tasks and delegated to my virtual assistant (VA).

I'm quite fussy about doing certain things my way (!) but I think I've been indoctrinated by Melanie Benson Strick because I'm delegating more and more, easier and easier.

I still cringe sometimes thinking, "I can't believe I'm doing this" but I'm following my own rules (if someone can do it at 70 - 80% as good as you can, then you should delegate) and I did it!

Which means I had time last night to have supper with an old friend - yes, thanks, we had a wonderful time catching up.

What do you need to let go of?

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Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you got rid of this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Make it easy to recycle paper

I've always said that if you make something too complicated, it just won't work, no matter how well-intentioned you are.

That's why it's so important to make your systems easy, especially if you live with other people and you want them to live by your organising "rules".

That's true for designing a good flow for laundry in the home and also for recycling paper in the office.

And so this was born:



I used to have one wastepaper basket but found we were less inclined to separate the paper when we cleared the trash.

Who wants to fish around amongst apple cores and other bits of fruit? Certainly not me.

This works beautifully for us.

First of all, I don't generate that much paper to start with but what I do throw away, goes straight into the paper bin. It's much easier now to take the one basket and dump it as is into the paper recycling bag.

Do you recycle paper? If yes, do you use those fancy partitioned recycling bins, or how do you make it easy for your household?

Text or phone?

image from www.breakitdownblog.com

Do you prefer to text or phone?

Why?

Read this and weigh in here.

Last chance to get your office organised this year

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Listen to all the FAQ here (it's just 4 minutes long)

Get your home office organised by spending a half-day with Marcia, the Organising Queen, learning all the tips and tools of the trade

At the end of the seminar you will have...

• a well-ordered, organised desk and office plan with clear zones


• a system to reduce your email overload


• an easy, step-by-step plan to prioritise your work


• at least 3 clear ways to make your computer do your common business tasks, automatically


• a clear, simple way to deal with all the paper


• ideas on how to maximise your office and storage space


• and much, much more

and of course, you have 60 days' unlimited email support while you take action on your plan (this alone is worth $97)

“I used to spend my days always working on email and never getting anything done. Thanks to Marcia's suggestions, I now can’t believe everything I get done in one day!

It’s allowed me to have a very successful business while working only 15-20 hours per week. I love that her techniques have given me the freedom to spend time with my son and husband.

Thanks to her business organizing strategies I have doubled my productivity which has in turn doubled my business income. Thanks Marcia for all that you do!” Jennifer Haubein

www.BestBizWebsiteSolutions.com

The nitty gritty details

Date: Tuesday 18 November

Time: 11am - 3pm Eastern Standard Time/ 6 -10 pm South African Time (GMT+2)

What do you need: Telephone, pen and handbook

Format: Simulcast - both by webcast and telephone - so if you have a computer and internet, you can participate. This is GREAT news for all readers outside the US who don't want to pay long-distance charges :)

So how does this work?

Once you register and pay, I'll send you the access information and the 27-page handbook for the day.

On the day, at the top of every hour, I'll teach for 15 - 20 minutes and the rest of the hour, we (the entire class) will all action that section of our offices.

You can call the phone number, listen to me speak and chat back with questions or comments.

OR

You click the link I'll send you, and a webpage will open where you simply click a play button to listen in. You can even type questions and comments to me on your screen which I'll see after a few seconds. It's as easy as that!

Your choice!

What are the sections we'll tackle?

11am How to organise your desk for maximum functionality and efficiency

12pm Clear the paper clutter and create a system for the flow of paper in your office

1pm Conquer your email, set up folders and organise your inbox

2pm Prioritise all your projects and develop a system for planning your month, week and day.

2:50 - 3pm Wrap-up and how to maintain your organised office

The best thing about this seminar is that you're learning and doing so at the end of the session, you have a beautifully organised and functional office!

Your investment: only $77 (actual value $267)

Let's recap. What do you get ...

• LIVE teaching from Marcia Francois, time management and organising expert


• LIVE group coaching


• 60 days' unlimited email support


• 27-page handbook


• MP3 audio downloads of all the teaching


• 7 easy steps to organise your office e-book*

* This will be emailed to you straight after the seminar because I don't want you to get overwhelmed before the time!

Honour the memory, not the item

On Friday in the Declutter Challenge, I wrote about sentimentality, which is why a lot of us hang onto stuff.

Kristin wrote a beautiful comment on that post so I went over to read her story.

It's beautiful, beautiful and I ask that you go and read the story of her wedding dress here.

Friday Declutter Challenge 14 Nov - take a picture to honour your memories

Please encourage all your blog friends to join us in decluttering and choosing to live a simpler life by using the button on your sidebar. Christmas is just around the corner and you need to start taking action so that you don't just fill up all the spaces you've already decluttered.


The Declutter Tip for the week ...

If you're sentimental and you find it really, really hard to declutter, take a picture to honour your memories.

Here's some posts where I wrote about this some more:

• Are you sentimental?
• Declutter by taking pictures

Do you have some sentimental items to declutter? Get your camera out, honour the memories but still declutter.

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This week I finally decluttered this salt cellar *sob*

My husband received this salt and pepper set from a client YEARS ago (probably 10 years ago) and it's so unusual that we always get lots of oohs and ahs from dinner guests. Aside from the fact that I just love using it because it's so pretty.

I LOVE this salt cellar (isn't it gorgeous?!) but the top's broken and it's come off a couple of times, without too much drama.

This week, the top came off and there was salt ALL over my kitchen. I hate mess (can you guess?) so that was the final straw.

Funny thing is I still had that feeling like maybe somehow it could be fixed. Then I realised I should take a picture, blog it and I'd never have to forget about it.

So here it is :)

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What did you declutter this week?

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you got rid of this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What are you going to declutter next week?

Show me your desk

As promised, here are some pictures of my desk at work. Looking at the pictures it actually looks a lot more cluttered than it feels...

Anyway, some things I want to point out to you:

1. the wall of inspiration on the right under my name (pictures of my hubby, inspirational quotes, scriptures from the Bible, pictures of friends and some SARK cards - my favourite is "you are a delicious, succulent human bean", which fits into my Big, Juicy goals theme)
2. my glass of water
3. my office control journal (in that vertical organiser)
4. minimal paper - only have 3 files and I'm actually cheating because one of them contains my performance appraisals, certificates, etc.
   

Now let's look at my desk head-on:

• computer with picture of Wicklow, Ireland as a screensaver
• in the top left corner, I have my "only four things to do with paper and email" from Help! I need more time
  
• radio and mirror (essentials!)
• to the left of the computer, my "things to do today" papers
• right in front of the keyboard, my master to-do list of all my projects and where they're all at, on top of the notebook where I write my 6 (or less) Eat the Frog items every day, and other assorted notes

For the most part, the desk works for me (although that vertical organiser is taking up too much space - I think I'll "release" it) because it's empty of stuff while still being inspiring to me. I can't work in a cold work space so I like to be surrounded by things that are "me".

If you have any questions about some things in the pics or how I do certain things, put them in the comments so everyone else can also benefit when I answer them. Thanks.

Now for the fun part, show me your desk (please link to a post with a pic of your desk, not to your entire blog)

3 things!

1
Remember my partner from the August Declutter Challenge?

Well, Beth's got a declutter calendar for next year ready and it's waiting for you. Yes, YOU. And isn't that button pretty? Makes me feel all peaceful :)

This is the year you get your

house under control with My Simpler Life's

2009 Declutter Calendar. One small area to

declutter each day of the year. Find it here:

Declutter Calendar

2
Don't forget to show me your desk tomorrow. I can't WAIT to see the different desks and have already blocked out some time to do some lovely blog visiting.

3
And of course, this happens every Friday and I'd love to have you participate :)

It's raining in Johannesburg

It's been rainy and cold in Johannesburg since Friday. Normally I love cold, dismal weather (seriously, I'm not being sarcastic) but not when the power's out. Because it means I can't have tea!


Yesterday, a vast section of the city had no power. We were unfortunate to be part of the affected area. It lasted nearly an entire day - went off yesterday 9:25 and only came on around 3 or 4am this morning.

Can you believe my laundry was about 5 - 10 minutes from done when the power went out? Very annoying.

So what did we do?

Well, my cleaning lady was here so she did everything she could without electricity (no ironing or vacuuming) and so did I.

1. packed lunches and breakfasts for the week
2. went out for lunch and supper & enjoyed lovely, long conversations with Dion
3. bought a Rod Stewart CD (and a Ricky Martin one) and picked up my tickets for the concert
   
4. read, read and read some more
   
5. went to church
6. completed my tax return (South Africans, the deadline for manual submissions is 21 Nov)
   
7. did some goals planning for next year
8. finally registered to vote after 3 text messages reminding me to do so
   
9. analysed a survey I did recently for my mailing list
10. made lots of phone calls to catch up with friends
    

see the temperature in my car? 14.5 degrees (winter weather!) and clearly I was listening to the Ricky Martin CD :)

Today's been laundry, laundry and more laundry and of course, lots and lots of tea!

On the bright side, I am super focussed so am flying through my computer stuff :)

P.S. Get ready for the show me your desk challenge on Wednesday. Mr Linky will be up at 8am SA time (1am EST)

Clearly you feel passionately about your desks

I'm amazed at the impassioned responses on my post about the beautiful minimalist desk so let's have some fun!

Next week Wednesday (12th November) I'm going to post a picture of my desk at work (and trust me, it's nothing like that one) and I want all of you to participate along with me.

I'll put up a Mr Linky so you can all show us your desk and this is what I want to know - why it works or doesn't work for you.

Okay? Game on!

Use the weekend to take your pictures and write about it (but please schedule the post to only publish on Wednesday).

I can't WAIT to see your desks!

Friday Declutter Challenge 7 Nov - remove temptation

Please encourage all your blog friends to join us in decluttering and choosing to live a simpler life by using the button on your sidebar. Christmas is just around the corner and you need to start taking action so that you don't just fill up all the spaces you've already decluttered.


The Declutter Tip for the week ...

Remove the temptation of wanting to buy or get things by going on a media fast:

• newspapers
• brochures
• catalogues
• ads on TV
• internet shopping sites

If you don't see it, you won't want it. Because if you really need it, you'll go looking for it, won't you?

Years ago I used to scour the free newspaper that got delivered to our house to find all the specials. And then on the weekends we'd go to about 3 different shops to buy all these specials.

It started taking up too much time so we stopped. And you know what? Not only did we save time, but we also saved money (at the time, hundreds every month).

No temptation = No buying = No clutter

Do you find this to be true in your own life too?

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This week I decluttered two lipsticks from my make-up case that are basically done.

I also went through my pen holder on my desk and got rid of a mechanical pencil (I don't even write with pencils) and a gel pen that had gone dry.




I also went through some files in my study. It's so interesting - the narrower I make my niche (time management and organising for small business owners in a service business) the more I find I can declutter.

I'm sure when I next go through files I'll find even more that I can throw out.

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What did you declutter this week?

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you got rid of this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What are you going to declutter next week?

Wordless Wednesday - beautiful desk

Share in the comments - does this kind of work environment make you do the happy dance, or is it too minimalistic?

I love it! But mine is a LOT more colourful and happy.

Clever jewellery organiser and gift idea

Look at this clever idea for organising jewellery. A friend of mine received this as a gift and I, of course, immediately took some pics with my phone.

Those little pockets on the inside could be used for rings or earrings (studs) and bigger items could be placed right in the middle.


And then when you pull the cords shut, it looks like this: Beautiful and functional - what more could you want?!

If only I were crafty I'd make myself one of these for when I travel. I currently use a plastic container with cotton wool to cushion my jewellery. Maybe some of you crafty people can make some of these for gifts?


Don't you love it? How do you store your jewellery?

P.S. This is how I store my watches and this is how I store my necklaces and bracelets (look at the picture).

Menu plan for this very busy week

This is what I have for lunch about 30% of the time - wholewheat bread, toasted, with beef and tomato (of course, lots of pepper)

What do you have for lunch?

This week I have 4 evening appointments so it's going to be a BUSY week for me.

And I'm aiming to go to two dance classes because I've missed 7 weeks - will let you know if I made it!

Last week I told you how I plan meals around my life. Of course I forgot to mention that my menu plan doesn't restrict me, because I move meals around if I need to, because of the weather.

It's blazing hot in Johannesburg so if that day is particularly hot, I'll do a cooler version for supper. Like if I'd planned pasta, I'll do a pasta salad instead of hot pasta.

Anybody have ideas for cool meals?

My menu for the week

Monday
Chicken pasta salad

Tuesday
Stir-fried beef, rice and veggies

Wednesday
Sweetcorn and potato bake, chicken steaks and salad

Thursday
Chicken a la King

Friday
Fishaways

Visit Laura for more menu ideas.

Don't forget to visit on Friday to show off what you declutter this week. The Mr Linky will be up at 12am EST so get ready :)

P.S. Download your free menu planning form and grocery list here :)