I was at a behavioural experiment the other day (yes, that’s what 22seven called it) and afterwards we had some eats while they discussed the findings with us.

I had to take a pic of this really cool food display. *must remember for next party*

Normal glass tumblers, upside-down, with planks of wood on top as trays.

The different heights added a lovely visual interest, don’t you think.

I’m loving Brene Brown’s I thought it was just me (but it isn’t) – my copy has about 13 post-it flags in it, Superhero Photo and brown/ purple nail polish just for autumn.

Have you seen any good ideas lately? Or what are you loving?

PS My Connor says “bautumn” for autumn and “bottoman” for ottoman – I love it!

PPS I’m not loving all the freaky finger nails on Pinterest. Is it just me or do you also shudder?

I had the best time last weekend – meeting three friends for a late lunch. We’d been planning this get together for awhile so it was all the more sweeter.

But it would not have happened unless we stopped talking about doing it and just did it.

Often times (and I’m also guilty at times) we say to friends, “we really should get together” and we don’t.

Either you’re just being polite (don’t!) or you don’t really mean it (ooh, please don’t) or you’re just not getting organised.

If you say that, take out your diary or phone and agree on a tentative date there and then.

Superhero photo is going just beautifully and I’m so enjoying exploring and being curious without having perfectionism on my shoulder.

This is one of my favourite pics taken that same day and do you know what? I only bothered to take out my camera because I knew I needed a “sun” pic as one of my photo prompts.

I’ve since resolved to stop being so lazy to take out my camera and just do it – you never know what gems you may find.

As is usually the case, the minute I decide to Be Different, there’s an opportunity.

Yesterday I started rushing down the stairs at work to go to my basement parking and just outside the door I saw a peacock (I’m very blessed to work in absolutely soul-satisfying surroundings).

It was really beautiful and the light was also gorgeous but I was already pressed for time.

I did stop though, took out my small point and shoot and took some peacock pictures. I don’t even know if they’re any good but I’m glad I stopped and took the time to take those pics.

My coaching challenge for you this weekend:

If you’re thinking about someone, there and then send off an email, text, pick up the phone, grab a piece of notepaper or card and jot down a few quick sentences.  Better still, make some time to get together.

When you find yourself saying, “I don’t have time to ….” do it anyway. Read that magazine, play with your camera, play with your children, have a nap.

Deal?

One of the biggest organising myths is that you need a HUGE chunk of time to organise anything.

That’s simply not true.

I actually don’t know many people who happen to have hours and hours free just for the purpose of organising.

The thing is, you have to make time.

One of the ways you make time is by looking for the little gifts of time throughout your day.

Even if you think you have no time, I guarantee there are bits here and there.

If you start looking for those treasured moments, you’ll realise you can get a lot more done.

I remember when the babies were just newborns (you mothers will know how crazy that time is) I thought I’d never have time to myself again.

Then I realised that I had 5 minutes here, another 10 minutes there and so on.

I could read ONE article in a magazine in those 5 minutes and maybe even churn out a blog post in the 10-minute stretch.

All that time adds up if you’re ready to take advantage of it.

It’s the same with organising.

You may not have an hour to organise your entire desk but if you find 15 minutes a day for 4 days, you do have that hour.

A change of perspective = opportunities 

You can always organise something in 15 minutes.

Here are a few quick ideas:

• Quickly reply to 3 – 5 emails. The rule is if you can attend to it in 2 minutes, just do it there and then. There are more fabulous tips in Organise your Office
• Organise photos (one of my ongoing projects to use a “spare” 15 minutes)
• Declutter a pile of paper
• Tidy your wallet and toss out old receipts and business cards

See? There are 15-minute slivers of time all around us if only we’ll just look for them.

Make a list of 10 or more quick organising projects you can do in 15 minutes and get started today.

Are you an all or nothing person? Do you tend to look for the big chunk of time versus the little bits?

If you need some help, book a Success Strategy Session with me.

Dr Phil always asks this question (without the word “laundry”) and I love it.

I always say it doesn’t matter how people make something look on the blogs or in magazines or on TV, or even closer to home, if your friends and family do things a certain way.

It doesn’t mean it will work for you and your family.

Case in point – my overflowing laundry basket.

You all know I hate laundry more than any other chore so imagine how I was twitching when I saw this.

We have to have our laundry basket open otherwise it just doesn’t work for us.

I don’t want to throw the lid away because I may actually use it closed some day (or will I?) so I keep the lid under a dresser in our bedroom.

Recently I had this dresser painted so the lid found its way back onto the basket and this happened.

a mountain of laundry

another angle doesn’t make it look any better

I lifted some of the clothes from the top – ah, there’s the lid

pushed the laundry all down – would you believe that huge pile is all in there?

All that to say – even I need reminders to take my own advice sometimes

I was reminded that bad habits creep in so quietly – you have to be on high alert to keep your home organised!

Do you have open or closed laundry bins? And…. how are they working for you?

I had a lovely lazy Easter weekend - lots of reading, some napping, lots of creating, lots of decluttering and organising, family time and socials.

The only thing I didn’t do enough of was cooking – and that was just fine with me

My little boy, Connor, even announced that we had to go back to the zoo because we took them on Monday.

squeezing the life out of his sister and strangely, she doesn't mind

 Autumn is in full swing in Joburg and I took tons of pictures of the leaves on Monday.

I’ve signed up for an online photography class (similar to my organising classes - where you get an email a day for x number of weeks) and do you know what the first lesson was about? Perfectionism!

Well… not quite but that was my aha. She said to let go of how all your settings need to be technically perfect on your camera and just look for the beauty.

Oooh, that I can do.

look for the beauty

So this week I took a very technically incorrect picture of apple slices just because the shape looked like a heart.

Where can you look for the beauty in your life?

Or where do you need to let go of your perfectionism?

I have a huge project at work getting to the point of implementation.

This is the best part of anything for me – the getting it done stage. However, it also means that it’s the busiest time and so it’s really easy to get to that uncontrollable stage.

The one where you feel like there’s way too much to do and not enough time.

Normally, this would not bother me because I have a ginormous master to-do list and I pull things off of there in terms of priority.

But when there’s a long weekend looming ahead (like there was last week) I just know I won’t be able to fully relax unless I make a sizeable dent in the to-do items.

My preferred working style is to work until done or until I’m no longer effective (!) but I’ve discovered that it’s a pure luxury to work like this these days.

You see, I have to leave at a certain time to get home so the nanny can leave.

Last week I asked my husband if he could get home for the nanny so I could work late.

Well, that extra hour made all the difference.

It sounds strange to say this but it was bliss working til I was done.

That hour was a gift of time.

I’ve since decided that I’m going to give myself the gift of {working until done} once every two weeks or so.

What small thing could you do to ease the pressure in your life just a bit?

What’s your preferred working style?

If you need some help, book a Success Strategy Session with me.

On a couple of the blogs I read, the bloggers did a 40-day challenge.

It’s linked to Lent and the idea is they declutter 40 spaces in their home and get rid of 40 bags.

I love the idea of it but it wouldn’t work exactly as intended for me since my house is already relatively clutter-free.

Although I could easily do about 3 – 4 bags

Nevertheless, I thought I’d link to this excellent wrap-up post. Katie shares what she leart, what worked well for her and what she recommends for future challenges of this nature.

Katie, here’s your “featured at Organising Queen” button.

Code

<a href=”http://takechargesolutions.org/blog/” target=”_blank”><img border=”0″ src=”http://takechargesolutions.org/blogjjd/Organising%20Queen%20Button4.png” /></a>

When you do any large-scale organising project, it’s important to:

1) have a plan of attack

2) create the time to do it (schedule it in your diary)

3) use small steps to produce huge results over time

4) have some accountability, both to motivate you and to help you celebrate your victories

The last big organising project in my house was when we went from this…

to this…

I had to get really honest about what I was keeping and why

If you need to tackle some areas of your home this month, Organise your home will help you. It’s a step-by-step system using only 4 days a week for 30 minutes at a time.

What was the last big organising project you did?

If there’s one thing that makes me sooo happy, it’s reusing containers for another purpose. And when they’re pretty too, well then, my heart just sings.

Supplies

1. clean formula cans or cans that contained food
2. scrapbook paper or other thick paper
3. sticky tape

Directions

1. Measure the length of your can and cut scrapbook paper to size.
2. Cut a piece of sticky tape the entire length of the can and stick one end of the scrapbook paper to the actual can
3. Gently ease the paper all around and use another piece of sticky tape to close the end
4. Voila – you’re done

This is a really easy organising project and if you use the same paper to make a set of cans, it looks neat and is functional.

a matching set of three and a set of two these hold Post-it notes and different buttons for crafts and these hold scissors and lanyards and keyrings

As you can see, I use them for:

• scissors
• pens and pencils
• post-it notes
• buttons
• glue
• party favours
• twins’ eating utensils in the kitchen
• kitchen utensils
• tissues (my kids pull out the tissues from the box regularly and I make them put them back in a bigger formula can so that we can use them without too much bother and fuss)

What other uses can you think of?

Hopefully this has provided some inspiration for the weekend? What are you planning to do this Easter weekend?

I had an interview with a journalist on Monday and we had a fabulous chat about all things time management.

During the interview I touched on the concept of white space. She seemed to like that so we spoke about it quite a bit.

I feel it’s essential to have “white space” in our lives. For me, white space is room to breathe. Something that seems to be so lacking in many of our lives.

If you’re feeling frazzled and overwhelmed, check to see how much white space you have in the following three areas of your life.

Dullstroom Lake – April 2011

1. Travel/ commuting time

Leave a little bit of extra time when you need to get anywhere so that you’re not constantly rushing. Also, it helps to have some breathing room if you suddenly find you need to fill up with petrol (gas) or if there’s a traffic jam.

Stress is not fun so rather take some reading or work (if you must) with you to use up any time if you don’t like to “waste” time. Although my friend, Beth Dargis, has taught me to also just enjoy being and not doing all the time

2. Daily scheduling

Don’t schedule all your appointments back to back. Some of you are saying, “but Marcia, don’t you always talk about batching?” Yes, I do.

If you do some batching, give yourself a solid break after doing a couple of phone calls/ emails/ etc. E.g. If you’re on the phone from 9 – 12, leave some white space and start another type of activity after an hour or so. And so if you run over with the phone calls, you’re not stressed and anxious going into the next activity or group of tasks, feeling like you’re already behind.

3. Weekends

I know weekends are the time to catch up on things but please, leave some breathing time.

Don’t schedule something for morning, afternoon and evening. Even two activities a day feels like too much. We have a personal family boundary of only one social per weekend day, and preferably only one per weekend, although it somehow doesn’t feel like an extra social if we go somewhere directly from church

I am also guilty of having a to-do list of 20 items for the weekend which…. never gets all done. But I do schedule lots of down time to get things like reading, sorting out my house and weekly meal planning done.

Over to you.

Can you think of an area or two where you can build in some more white space?

If you need some help, book a Success Strategy Session with me.

So I accidentally bought an iPad.

My phone was due for an upgrade in January and I thought about getting an iPhone after a friend sold me on the i-technology and how easy everything seemed.

Then I saw the prices and friends, R450 a month is three times what I pay on my current cellphone bill and doesn’t even include the calls, texts or data.

That idea was scrapped as quickly as it entered my head.

I’ll admit – it was easy since I’m not really a “fancy phone” person. I actually use a phone to phone and very occasionally, to send a text message.

But then my bank came out with an offer for iPads. I thought I was just investigating and before I knew it, the computer gave me a confirmation of purchase message.

a dresser I had painted a lovely bright blue – colour makes me so happy

EEK – I honestly thought there would be one more confirmation page but no.

I phoned them and they told me they could reverse the tranasaction since the device had not yet been dispatched to me.

At that point I decided to just go for it and leave my order as is.

Right about now you’re expecting me to tell you how I love the iPad?

Um, no.

My boss said to me last week I’m the only person with an iPad who doesn’t gush about how much they love it.

True.

I think it’s because of a number of reasons:

1. It’s working out a lot more expensive than I imagined (R230 per month plus R500 case plus R100 data – at this is me being frugal)
2. I use it mainly for email and I still (two months later) hate the keyboard. I have to concentrate far too hard and type with one finger to get everything exactly right.
3. I don’t use it to surf or play games or with apps.

So over to you.

Sell me on the ipad. What am I missing?

I must admit, a client told me I would love a certain app and I do. I really do. I love it when people know me and get me. Like when people send me pics of grey skies or doors

What are your favourite apps? And if you have some that help you to plan and organise, please share those too so we can all learn.

PS my favourite app is Houzz Combines my love of organising and pretty things.