It’s time to get organised and take your home, office and life back.

The Spring into Organising Virtual Workshop is coming up soon.

Are you joining me?

The early bird special ends in one week so don’t delay – book your seat now.

our good friends, J & P

One of my top values is connection and so I really enjoy spending quality time with my friends.

I found that life gets busy so quickly that months pass before we realise that months have passed (!) and then we have to try and find space in one another’s diaries.

I know “this is life” but I want to be purposeful about my time and prioritise the friendships that matter to me.

These three things are currently working for me:

1. Set the next date as soon as possible after I see them.

When we get together with one particular set of friends, we set the next date there and then for about 6 – 8 weeks out.

This way we always have something to look forward to and we don’t have to scramble to find the time to see one another.

I met another friend for lunch recently and we’ve already scheduled our next lunch date.

2. Use appointments or activities I currently have and “add a friend”

I’m using my lunch times and instead of eating at my desk in front of my computer (and blogging), I’m making one lunch date a week for the friends that are more my friends than couple friends.

I’m eating lunch and connecting.

I went to a parenting talk tonight and invited about 6 or 7 friends. All of them declined my offer (!) except one. She and I met up, enjoyed a cup of tea beforehand and sat next to each other during the talk.

I’m learning and connecting.

One more… I ran into a friend’s daughter at the gym last week and discovered she’s also a member now. What I plan to do is have us both work out and then have a quick juice/ cup of tea afterwards.

I’m exercising and connecting.

3. I made a friends spreadsheet

I resisted this for a looooooong time because it felt way too planned and structured for me.

And then I gave in. What does it matter if it helps me accomplish my goals?

I have the friends down the left and then dates along the top and I can see at a glance who I need to make more of an effort with.

It still feels OCD but it’s working

Two questions:

How do you keep up with all your friends?

Do you prefer to connect one on one, or in a big group?

Remember these posts about the 19 random acts of kindness for John?

I’d like you all to know that I’m not a flake and did, in fact, do all my random acts of kindness.

I haven’t blogged them because I kept forgetting and truth is, I forgot to write a lot of them down, thinking my memory would do the trick but it didn’t.

Beth and I were chatting last week and she mentioned that it’s 6 months since Jon was murdered.

6 months!

I’m still horrified and honestly, I try not to think about it too much so I don’t become paralysed again like I did for that month when it first happened.

Still, this is a good opportunity to honour Jon’s memory so here goes:

• sent my VA a thank-you card and notebook
• made 3 travel journals for a friend’s kids – they took a family holiday to Europe
• sent a care package all the way to Pennsylvania to a blog friend and her kids
• wrote out 7 mothers’ day cards for friends of mine telling them they’re awesome mothers
• baked muffins for another friend’s kids who didn’t want to eat!
• gave baby mesh feeders to two colleagues for their kids
• bought earrings for a colleague because I liked the label for her – it said “woman of splendour”
• bought a box of tea for yet another colleague, a tea drinker
• bought some t-shirts for a friend’s kid – I thought he’d look cute in them
• 4 notebooks to various people
• left random anonymous notes on the bathroom mirrors at work saying things like “your dreams are worth it” and “you are beautiful” – stuff like that. Wouldn’t you like to get random notes like that?
• left “welcome back” note on a colleague’s desk who’d spent time away from the office on a project

There were many more I can’t think of; I like to think that being this way is such a part of my life that I forget to take notes. Ha

Interesting thoughts about this exercise:

• once you get going, it’s really fun listening out for opportunities to bless other people
• it’s easy for me to encourage and affirm people
• it’s also easy for me to do nice things when I’m organised (keeping some small cards in my handbag at all times) and prepared
• sometimes people don’t even say thank you, even when the gesture wasn’t anonymous! We all know how I feel about saying thank you. But I’m not stopping though; it’s their lives and their choice to be grateful or not.
• it really feels good to bring joy to people.

What else can you add to the list? What lessons have you learnt from doing random acts of kindness?

Apologies for those of you who saw the half-finished version of this last night.

When I clicked publish, WP decided to only publish the bit that you saw and when I found out, it was already way past my computer cut-off time

Here is the complete version, part two.

*********************

I read TONS of blogs.

All sorts of blogs:

1. mommy
2. organising & productivity
3. business
4. leadership
5. home and decor
6. crafty
7. photography

I used to organise them by their categories.

This system worked okay, mostly, but if I ever skipped a day, immediately there’d be 120 and I’d feel overwhelmed before I even started reading.

And then, I felt like I needed to catch up so it wasn’t relaxing reading but guilt-filled reading.

Enough.

I thought about how I generally process my Google Reader and I read the blogs in this order:

1. blogs I always comment on
2. blogs I sometimes comment on
3. blogs that are pure inspiration and
4. business/ productivity/ leadership blogs

I took a deep breath and removed all the folders and tags from my subscriptions under Settings.

I then created new folders:

• always comment
• sometimes comment
• inspiration and reading
• business

I must tell you I love these changes because I’ve saved myself hours a week.

If I only have a few minutes I read the “always comment” folder or if I don’t have time to comment, I’ll choose something from inspiration and reading so I can just…read

If your subscriptions are all together in your Google Reader, and you’ve never categorised them, do try and let me know if it saves you any time.

Two questions for you:

How do you process your Google Reader?
Do your categories help you get through your reading faster, or not really?

PS Our winner for Clutter Rehab contacted me so third time’s a charm

PPS Have you signed up for 30 days of lists yet? This weekend is a good chance to get your book ready (don’t get caught up by perfectionism!)

I have a thing about thank-you notes.

As in, I really believe strongly about being grateful and showing your gratitude to others.

I’m also super-fussy (!) about the format in that I like real thank-you notes written out by hand.

I think it’s because my love languages are words of affirmation and acts of service, and when I receive some lovely words in a card that someone has taken the time to write out, I feel so, SO appreciated.

Pure love!

I want others to feel that way too. I just don’t think a quickly-fired off text message/ email is enough to show our gratitude.

(if you’re bristling, please tell me why and remember this is MY opinion)

Strangely for things given to me, I don’t mind sending an email. Hmmm…

I know this is not always possible but I will do my best for as long as possible, and then the babies will have to take over and do their own cards.

As an aside, a work friend gave the kids some hand-me-down tools that her boys didn’t want anymore.

When I brought these tools home for the kids, they were over the moon.

That evening, I phoned my friend and had the kids say, “thank you, Aunty Annelize, for the tools” – she LOVED getting the message.

And then I handed a pencil to each of them and told them to “write thank-you to Aunty Annelize” on a blank card.

They made a few scribbles, I labelled them with their names, and then wrote in a thank-you note around their “words”.

Very cute and the next day she loved it.

It’s still displayed on her desk. Actually, would you like to see a pic?

Back to the party.

So of course, after our party, I had to write out about 13 or so notes.

Most from the party but we also had gifts sent from family and people who couldn’t make the party.

These were all part of the same printables set from the PaperGlitter etsy store.

This is how I do mass thank-yous. I’m sharing lots of detail because I like detail. Skim over it if it’s not your thing.

1. On the night of the party, I take pics of each present with the card. This is for my memory so I don’t thank Susan for a puzzle she didn’t gift us! Also, the act of positioning and taking the photos seals it in my mind and I’ve rarely had to look back and check on things. But still, it’s there if I need it.
2. I then count up how many cards I need to write out.
3. I take out all the cards and envelopes and address the envelopes.
4. If we’re seeing any of those people in the next week, I’ll keep it back to go by hand.
5. Otherwise, I put the postal addresses on the envelope, with stamps, ready for my note.

And then the writing starts.

I like to be really specific. I learnt years and years ago on some management training that to say “great, well done” is not as meaningful as “well done for remembering to phone and give the client feedback”, for example.

And so my cards are quite specific, not just a “thank you for the present”.

Also, for me, it’s not just about the gift, it’s more about how people took time out of their busy lives and came to celebrate the birthday with us.

You may have guessed I’m quite passionate about time!

Over to you.

Do you do thank-you cards, text messages, FB messages, email, or nothing? Do you have a specific preference?

When you write a blog like this one, it’s very much a labour of love.

And when you get very little feedback from people you sometimes think you’re not impacting anyone.

After all, there are so many blogs with more perfect pics, tons of comments, better this and that, and whatnot.

(okay, that’s not all hypothetical – that’s all me)

So imagine my sheer pleasure when I received a lovely email today about how a post I wrote last week is making a difference in this lady’s life.

Here is her email:

I want to thank you today for all the inspirational blog posts you do. And not even just those, just being inspirational yourself.

(I considered editing this first paragraph out but darn it, I need some encouragement so in it stays!)

Last night I came home and cracked. I cracked because of how cluttered my home is. I am the only one at home who tries to keep everything organized all the time. When everyone comes home, everyone is always too tired for anything and I have to pick up everything and tidy up. So I cracked.

I realized that the only way to make life simpler for myself at home, is to declutter. The post you did about magazine boundaries came to mind immediately.

“When things get too much, I need to declutter” You said this in that post

So I knew right there and then what I needed to do. I took a number of refuse bags and started with the children’s rooms. Every little toy that was broken was thrown into that bag. Every toy they don’t play with was thrown in another one which I delivered this morning to the nursery school.

I also went through every cabinet in my home and threw away so much stuff that was either broken or things we never used. It felt so great, Marcia. It felt as if a huge stone was rolled off my shoulders. I can breathe again.

This morning my house was so much more organized, clean and calm.

Thanks for being inspirational.

Blackhuff
Jhb, South Africa

She is TOTAL inspiration in the way she just went for it, isn’t she?

And I love the way she describes how she can breathe now that her house is more organised.

Which feelings does an organised space evoke in you?

Thank you all for entering the giveaway and for your fantastic comments.

The winner is Amanda Jane who reads via email.

Amanda Jane, please email your full names plus your postal address to me asap, but definitely before Friday 1pm EST.

Thanks so much for playing along  – if you didn’t win, get your Kindle or Amazon copy of Clutter Rehab – you won’t be disappointed.

As part of any of my products, I offer free email support.

I do this because I personally hate it when I buy things and don’t have access to the product owners to ask follow-up questions.

Diana bought my Organise your Time system and diligently worked through it every single week.

She’d check in with me and tell me how things were going in her life (love this!) and then one day she asked me this question.

I liked her question so much that I’m going to share it here today.

So here’s what Diana sent me:

” As a time management expert, which is your favourite and in your view, most effective time management tip if you had to choose one?”

Okay, so there are two parts to that question:

1) the most effective tip

I believe that you will never be successful at time management unless and until you get VERY clear on what you want your life to look like.

Until you reach that point, you’ll be swept away at whim by other people’s needs, expectations, desires, agendas and you will not be able to live your life intentionally.

So how do you do this?

Start asking yourself these kinds of questions:

• What do I want my life to look like?
• What is an ideal day/ week/ month for me?
• Where am I coming short?
• Which factors are preventing me from living that ideal day/ week/ month?
• What can I do about them?

And then you start working towards that. If you need help getting to that point or even identifying where you’re going off track, book a Success Strategy Session with me and let’s sort out some of these diagnostic issues and get you a whole list of strategies to suit your particular circumstances, and style.

The reason some strategies don’t work 100% for you is because you’re unique and special.

Isn’t that nice to know?

So you need unique and special strategies for your life

2) my favourite time management tip

This one is easy. It’s saying no!

I saw this work firsthand in my own life and I see that little word doing little miracles in the lives of my clients every single day.

What would you say to Diana?

P.S. There’s still one day left to enter the Clutter Rehab giveaway (previous post). By the way, I noticed that some commenters refer to my book. This is not my book but do look out for it later this year

Do you say no enough?

If you need some help, the Organise your Time system will help you with practical examples.

I hope you enjoyed hearing from a reader.

Please feel free to leave your time management questions in the comment box. I love, love, LOVE hearing from you.

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the second person who was selected to win Clutter Rehab has also not contacted me.

I think both of the winners just saw the giveaway and came over to enter but don’t actually follow my blog.

The good news is that YOU have another chance to win this fabulous book.

Let’s try again.

Here are the rules:

1. You must be a follower of this blog either in your Google Reader or by email so that you can see if you win!
2. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite organising question or what you want to know about how I organise things. (These will be answered in October as part of my 31 days series)
3. If you tweet or share this on FB, you have to come back to leave a new comment.
4. I can’t accept email entries so if you read through Feedburner, please click through and comment.
5. I will leave this open for 48 hours only and the winner MUST contact me within 48 hours.

Fair?

Inspiring (head) spaces

Now on another note, I was SO inspired the other day when I read this post by Chloe.

If you’ve ever bought any of my products or coached with me, you’ll know how much I emphasise that we are all unique individuals and our organising or time management solutions need to reflect that.

And something I posted recently resonated with Chloe so much that she wrote a truly inspiring post.

Why I loved it so much

• she’s accepted who she is and who she’s not (the type of scrapper she is)
• As a result, she can let go not only of physical stuff (and already she lives very minimally) but more importantly of expectations of herself.
• she is very clear on her goals and going after them (you know how much I love a person who pursues things passionately)

Chloe gets a big thumbs up from me and no, I don’t have a pretty picture this week (aside from her header) but in this case, her changed expectations of herself are worth far more and are priceless.

Go read her post and tell me what resonated with you.

And of course, don’t forget to enter the giveaway.

I thought I’d share a quick tip with you that will help you to keep your organised space…well, organised.

Boundaries.

For me, this is one of the best ways to keep things under control.

I have one lever arch file folder for my household filing (phone, bond, water and electricity, insurance, credit card, etc.).

When things get too much, I need to declutter as I’m not prepared to create any more space than just that one file.

As for magazines, this is the container I use.

I allow myself just this one basket for any reading material. Ignore the tangled phone extension cord.

If this basket ever becomes too full, I have to go through and declutter it.

Two questions for you:

Do you have organising boundaries like these in your home?

How many magazines do you allow to flow in before they have to flow out?

This is just a sample of the tips you’ll receive on the virtual Spring into Organising workshop.