Gosh! You guys are awesome.

Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments on my last post. I’m determined to personally email each and every one of you so hang in there if I haven’t got to yours yet.

As you know, I rarely get so many comments

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Today is a momentous day for us – my twins moved to “big beds” tonight.

I think they had an inkling that something was afoot because they were up and about til after 9 pm (this is unheard of in our household) last night.

They are adorable at this age – of course the cuteness is interspersed with a few tantrums – so I didn’t get too cross with them.

There wasn’t too much drama tonight – but they still missed their bedtime by an hour!

It made me think about how we all have that inbuilt radar for when things feel “off”.

Sometimes it’s just a bit off like when I start dropping food in the kitchen, burning myself taking things out of the oven or breaking mugs or glasses.

*Ahem* that’s a sign I need to get out of the kitchen before I cut off my finger.

Other times your whole life just feels off.

Off like “I don’t know how I’m going to get through all this busyness” off.

I have my tricks for getting through those times, most of which I share in Break out of overwhelm.

It’s a rhythm.

Personally I can’t deal with too much off for very long which is probably why I work really hard at the balance.

I know many of you don’t believe in work-life balance – neither do I – but it’s the feeling of your life having flow and ease instead of living on the extreme ends of the spectrum.

There are so many demands on all of our time that it feels virtually impossible to ever achieve that all-elusive life balance.

To feel like you effortlessly flow from one area of your life to the next, and not feel guilty about any of the individual parts.

Here are my 6 best tips to achieve flow:

1. Realise you only have so many hours in the day

We all only have 24-hour days. Some of us think we’re Superwoman and have more time than that. We don’t. The sooner you realise this, the happier you’ll be.

2. Write down your different roles and the time commitment required from each of them

Don’t forget to add in managing your home and personal time!

The idea is to see if you’re a time optimist or if you’re being realistic with your time. Sometimes we think a certain activity only takes, let’s say, two hours a week. When you factor in travel time plus preparation time, it may increase to four or five hours. No wonder you always feel frazzled when you think about this specific activity.

3. Now ask yourself these questions:

• Am I too busy?
• Am I trying to do too much?
• Am I being realistic about the amount of time outside commitments take?
• What do I need or want to focus on at this time in my life?
• What can I cut out?
• What can I delegate?

4. Prioritise

I do an exercise with my time management clients where they tell me all the different areas of their lives. Some people have lots and lots of balls that they’re trying to juggle. That’s okay (not preferable though) as long as your self-defined priorities are in order.

Don’t neglect your home and family commitments just to look good on a committee.

My preference is to do less overall and do the things I love really well rather than to feel overwhelmed by taking on more and more.

5. Realise that when you say yes to something, you automatically say no to something else.

Some things in life are just for a season, like the newborn stage of having twins. So while reading and going to my dance classes are extremely important to me, I personally did a lot less when my twins were little because I had to sleep whenever I could just to keep myself sane.

6. Keep evaluating and tweaking

Just when you think you have things figured out, suddenly something won’t work anymore.

That’s normal with organising anything, let alone your time.

Keep evaluating where you’re at – I do this on a weekly basis – and tweak, tweak, tweak. Just because it suited you to work really long hours a few months ago doesn’t mean it still suits you to do so now.

So that’s how I create flow and ease in my life. I want to emphasise that it’s an area I’m always working on!

As always, if you need a Personal Time Session with me, contact me. I have a client currently on a break so I have four sessions available. Do you want one of them?

I’m a bit off at the moment (about a 6 on the scale) because my house is a wreck due to the kids’ big beds arriving and some painting I’m having done. Oh, to have my house sorted again

Do you believe in work-life balance? Why or why not?

How much flow and ease do you have in your life right now?

PS My friend, Beth Dargis, wrote a great blog post on how balance is like perfectionism. Have a read – it’s definitely worth the click.

Tonight I did a talk at the church on balance.

To start off I had everyone write down their definition of balance.

That’s one of my tips – I let them write it down because I don’t want people changing their answers due to peer pressure

This is my definition:

Balance is about spending a sufficient amount of time in the areas of your life that you’ve prioritised as important.

What do you think?

Agree? Disagree? Why?

Other than that, what are your goals for the week?

Mine?

1. get up to date on emails – I have 34 in my inbox
2. decide on and send through my guest blog posts
3. newsletter
4. blog every week day
5. do webpage for Spring into Organising workshop

Before we start with Chloe’s post, I’d like to hear from you if you’ve also started following along with Chloe and Sam in terms of making any changes, thinking differently, being more intentional about your life, etc.

Leave a message in the comments otherwise email me on marcia AT organisingqueen.com (there are lots of shy people who only email me instead of commenting).

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Scary, uh?

I’ll let you know in the comments how that goes so far (since I’ve started this on Sunday), and I’ll post about it next week as well. Hold me accountable!

From Marcia

Um, yes, Chloe, I’ll definitely hold you accountable

And now, have a look at a fabulous email I received.

Marcia, I just wanted you to know that I am making big strides. In just one week, I organized my office, bought files, a label maker and even created zones.

I am inspired to work in my office again.

While it was never a mess, I found myself spending way too much time trying to find where I put this or that. Now having everything in its prospective zone is deliciously satisfying.

Ricci Jackson, C.I.D.
Certified interior decorator
http://yourdesignpartner.com

Don’t you love how she used the words “deliciously satisfying”. Hmmm, YES!

Your office can also be deliciously satisfying – organise your home office today.

Would it surprise you that I’ve already started working on my goals for 2011?

I’m not ashamed to say I’m a passionate goal-getter.

I’m the type of person who’s happier taking charge of my life than letting life happen to me.

So I set and achieve goals. I would never have managed to travel as much as I have if I hadn’t consciously set those things as goals.

This is me at Victoria Station in London – I love this pic Dion took of me. What does it say to you?

Here’s how I do my goal-setting, very, very briefly:

1.       I think back over the year that’s been and write down what went well and what didn’t. This could take up to an hour or longer, depending on how the year went.

2.      I then look forward and think about what I want for the year ahead. I really spend time getting clear on my vision, fleshing it out fully. This is also when I think about my ONE word for the year.

3.      Then I take my goals form (in the Time Management Purpose Pack) and in each of the areas of my life, like Family, Health, Spiritual, Business, I write down 1 – 3 broad goals.

4.      I then check each of those goals and make sure they align with my One Word or theme and more importantly, that I’m excited by them and that they feel authentic with who I am. E.g. One of my values is Balance so if I have too many goals, I start to feel out of control and therefore, inauthentic with who I am. So if this happens, I go back to the drawing board to simplify some more.

5.      I also make sure that they are within my control. E.g. with my business, I can only control my actions. Yes, I do set the intention to have x clients bringing in y mo.ney but the things I can control is how much marketing to do, in which ways, how often, etc. I can’t actually control the clients’ behaviour and whether they choose to coach with me or not. Does this make sense?

6.      I then choose 3 – 5 goalsvto work on for the first 90 days, schedule the work and get to it.

7.      I like to add one or two quick wins to get started so that when I achieve those goals, I’m motivated to persevere with the harder ones.

I’ve had the privilege (because I do count it a privilege to work with the wonderful people who coach with me) to work with some women recently and we’ve already been touching on their goals for next year.

I wanted to do something spec.ial for all of you so I’m giving you a 33% disc.ount cou.pon off a 30-minute goal-setting session for the next 72 hours only. Use the disc.ount code GOALS in the shopping cart.

All that means is this – you have to book and pay for your Success Strategy Session by Sat 11^th 12pm EST/ 7pm South African time but the session can be scheduled all the way up to 31 January 2011.

That said, if there’s areally good reason why you can’t have your session by 31 Jan, tell me – we’ll work something out

Are you a goal setter? Have you started for next year? Tell me I’m not the only one!

Today is my first day back at work!

Connor and Kendra, 15 weeks
(couldn’t resist this opportunity to show off some baby pics)

It must be hard to juggle your work and your babies?

How do you do it?

Leanne from Joburg

I wrote about balancing work, life and family before…

I thank God every day that I’m organised so I can save lots of time in a myriad of different ways.

I honestly don’t know how people do this mothering thing (especially of multiples) if they’re not organised I would go nuts.

1. I have lots of systems so that things that have to get done like cooking and cleaning get done with the least amount of fuss.
2. I also always cook double and when I’m in the mood and have an extra bit of time, I’ll cook even more and freeze all the extra meals. At the time of writing I have 10 extra meals in my freezer (that’s enough for two weeks) and on my to-do list today is to cook another two meals as I have the nanny here.
3. I’m fortunate that I have a wonderful boss who’s allowed me a more flexible working day now that the babies are here. However that means when I’m at work, I’m totally there. No faffing around; I get to it and get my work done.
4. I’ve pared down my business considerably. When I’m at home and working on a newsletter, I set myself a time goal, focus and get it done.
5. I always assume that a baby will wake before I expect it to so I try and work quickly. At home I clean as I go, or tidy as I go. I don’t ever think “I’ll come back to this later”.
6. Of course when the babies need my attention, all this goes out the window.

I think in short, I’ve been forced to use my time effectively. I’ve learned that now more than ever I can’t afford to procrastinate otherwise it might never get done (even simple things like eating breakfast).

Calling all mothers!

Please share your best tips with me for juggling work and babies (any work – inside or outside the home)

Melanie from New Orleans wrote…

I’m personally very interested in balancing hings – work, graduate school, home, family, friends, etc, etc, etc. If you have any advice about that, I would appreciate it!

This is a great question, Melanie. It’s also something I’m re looking at in my own life since my babies were born 4 months ago.

1. Realise you only have so many hours in the day

We all only have 24-hour days. Some of us think we’re Superwoman and have more time than that. We don’t.

2. Write down your different roles and the time commitment required from each

Don’t forget to add in managing your home time and personal time!

The idea is to see if you’re a time optimist or if you’re being realistic with your time. Sometimes we think a certain activity only takes, let’s say 2 hours a week. When you factor in travel time plus preparation time, it may increase to 4 or 5 hours. No wonder you always feel frazzled when you think about this specific activity.

3. Now ask yourself these questions:

Am I too busy?
Am I trying to do too much?
Am I being realistic about the amount of time outside commitments take?
What do I need or want to focus on at this time in my life?
What can I cut out?
What can I delegate?
Etc.

4. Prioritise

I do an exercise with my Time Management clients where they tell me all the different areas of their lives. Some people have lots and lots of balls that they’re trying to juggle. That’s okay-ish…. as long as your priorities are straight.

Don’t neglect your home and family commitments just to look good on a committee

My preference is to do less and do those things well rather than to feel overwhelmed by taking on more and more.

5. Realise that when you say yes to something, you automatically say no to something else.

Some things in life are just for a season, like the newborn stage. So while reading and going to my dance classes are extremely important to me, I’m doing a lot less because I have to sleep when I can

If you’re on my Organise It mailing list, just this weekend I sent out a survey because I need to declutter all the things I do in my business for the next year or so, in order to focus on the babies.

I realised that I can’t keep saying yes to all these other business-related things and short-change my family time!

6. Keep evaluating and tweaking

Just when you think you have things figured out, suddenly something won’t work anymore.

That’s normal with organising ANYTHING, let alone your time.

Keep evaluating where you’re at – I do this on a weekly basis * – and tweak, tweak, tweak. Just because it suited you to work really long hours a few months ago doesn’t mean it still suits you to do so now.

* will write about the way I plan my life soon…

So that’s how I create balance in my life. I want to emphasise that it’s an area I’m always working on!

Please share how you create balance in your life. We’d love to read your suggestions.