5 Things You Can Do Right Now to Limit Distractions At Work

1. Shut off your e-mail for short periods so you can avoid the temptation to leave your current project and rush to read the pop-up.
2. Have a screening process for your phone calls. If you don’t have caller id sign-up for it. If you have caller id, answer the phone calls you deem timely. If it is someone who you know you will talk to too long, make an appointment to talk to them or call them on your ride home from work tonight.
3. Be short, but specific with your responses. Limit return questions by phone or e-mail by stating everything clearly. Much of e-mail traffic is follow-up questions that could have been avoided the first time around.
4. Politely end conversations that are taking you away from your work or goals. For example, “I am really excited to talk to you, but I am caught up in a project right now, can we schedule a time to chat when I am less distracted?”
5. Knowing what you want to accomplish in the time period is important. By identifying your goals and making them visable you will have greater success at focusing on them and not the new ones that pop up during the day. Being reactive will allow you toget sucked into activities and conversations you are not interested in and don’t have time for.

Preventing the Paper Pile from E-mail

Do you find that e-mail is just another way for your paper to grow each day? This could be because you are too quick to print out every e-mail or attachment that is sent to you. Here are some tips to deal with e-mail more efficiently and preventthe paper pile up.
1. Immediately delete e-mails that are junk, spam or un-important.
2. Create folders within your e-mail program for frequently used topics to get them out of your inbox. For instance, “Family”, “John”, “Project X”.
3. Place e-mails in these folders for quick retrieval and searchability when you are looking to work on the project or refer back to the person.
4. Only print e-mails that require your immediate action or are necessary for a reminder. If you print every one you will start to become inundated with paper and lose track of important ones.
5. If you print e-mails have a designated folder on your desk related to the general topics of the e-mail. That way you can pull the folder when you need it quickly and easily.
6. Only keep the e-mails you must act in your immediate inbox. Otherwise your inbox will get just as confusing as a paper pile.
7. Immediately download pictures, documents etc. attached in emails to your computer. Then you can delete the e-mail and place items in their proper location on your computer. For instance, photos in your photo folders or a work document in the work folder on your desktop.
8. Use search tools like Google Desktop www.google.com to quickly find e-mails through keyword searches. You will find this much quicker for retrieval than sorting through papers when you need to get your hands on a document.
With these quick implementations you will save money on ink and paper, help the environment and feel a little less frantic looking for correspondence.

Free Workshop on Organizing for a Kitchen Remodel

Workshop: What's the Key To Successfully Remodeling A Kitchen? Organization!
When: Sat Mar 14, 2009 11am – 12pm

Where :map
The Organized Lifestyle Store, 725 Boston Post Road, Guilford, CT 06437

Description:
Kim Spanier, of Everything Under the Roof will present this workshop on preparing and organizing for a kitchen remodel. Get information on how to organIze design ideas that are most helpful to the design/construction company. Also organizatonal components to consider within the design, (ex. spice racks next to the stove, multi-level pantry storage for non-essential items, etc.). Kim will also show you how to prepare and organize for the construction (setting up a temporary kitchen station in a separate room with essentials). Join us for this interesting discussion whether you may be planning a remodel now or in the future.
Cost: Free
Pre-registration: 203-458-7674

5 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Closet

1. Hang items in color coded order
2. Use all of the same type of hanger (I reccommend wooden or non-slip felt hangers)
3. Maximize the shelf space above your bar with dividers, bins or extra shelving.
4. Always add a second rod to at least half your closet. Closet doublers can be an easy way to accomplish this with no tools.
5. Purge, Purge, Purge. Always make sure what you have in the closet is what you enjoy wearing and actually fits you.
For more closet organization products and ideas visit The Organized Lifestyle Store www.theorganizedlifestylestore.com

Making Tax Paperwork Less Taxing

Paper is the number one problem for my clients and customers. Tax season tends to highlight the flaws in our paper filing systems each year as we scramble to figure out where to find everything we need. Having the right system from the start can make it a lot easier. Knowing what was challenging this year, can make it a lot easier to decide what will work best for storing 2009 papers.
Studies have shown that 80% of the paper that is filed each day is never looked at again. That’s a lot of storage for useless documents! This statistic highlights why it is even more important to establish what you actually need for taxes and household reference.
Let’s start with the basics for a filing system. The first step is figuring out where the paper is going to go. Do you already have multiple file cabinets throughout the house? If you do, then you are going to want to be sure to clear some of them out before you rush to buy another one. Keep a filing cabinet near where you process your paperwork. If it is in the kitchen or dining room, then it might be good to keep either a portable or permanent filing system within quick reach. You are much more likely to deal with filing your papers immediately if the filing system is nearby. If that is not possible, then make it a habit to walk any papers to be filed to the file cabinet the day you work on them. “To File” piles end up being endless abysses of paper that you will end up sorting through for taxes next year. And you will be kicking yourself for not dealing with it sooner!
Once you have established where the files will go there are many ways you can set-up an easy and effective system. First, there are products out there that label your files for you. So all you have to do is drop in the categories. For instance, the Homefile system that sells for $24.95 gives you every major category for household and small business paperwork, including Banking, Insurance, Investments, Medical etc. If you are more into personalizing your files into categories you choose, you should check out Smead Viewable hanging file tabs. These three dimensional file tabs allow you to use a simple color-coding program on the computer to label and print custom tabs that can be viewed from the top as well as the sides. Placing them in a straight line when you attach them to hanging file folders will make finding your files extremely easy.

Remember, as you are creating your files, keep the categories simple. Getting too detailed will make it hard to remember what category you filed something and too broad will make it difficult to track down a paper quickly. If you keep most of your categories focused on what you need to refer back to for everyday financial records, taxes, home and medical, you will find that you really don’t need to keep that much paper.
If you have a lot of hobbies and are finding that you clip every magazine article with a new recipe or every tip you see on gardening, ask yourself how many times you have actually referred back to them once you have filed them. There is a good chance every time you revisit your files you are going down memory lane and seeing paper you didn’t even remember keeping.
Lastly, make sure that you purge your files constantly. If you get a new insurance policy, throw out the old one. Continuing to pile papers into a category that are not current will only make finding the current ones harder. Each year, archive the old paperwork together and remove it from your everyday files. It is a constant shuffle, but worth the time throughout the year. You will thank yourself when you prepare your 2009 taxes!
Kristin Mastromarino is a professional organizer and owner of Livable Solutions Professional Organizing and The Organized Lifestyle retail store in Guilford, CT. (http://www.theorganizedlifestylestore.com/). You can e-mail her your questions at Kristin@livablesolutions.com.

5 Ways to Become More Efficient

1. Set your top 5 goals for the day at the beginning of everyday.
2. Don’t let meaningless interuptions derail you from completing those goals.
3. Multi-tasking is not always more efficient. Don’t interupt yourself constantly while trying to complete a task. It is better to hold off on the temptation to check the e-mail that just came in and finish what you started.
4. Do not try to achieve the world each day. Prioritize what is most important and put your energies into those items first. You will probably find you have extra time if you focus.
5. Schedule items you didn’t get to in a block of free time on your upcoming schedule. By mapping out your time you will be able to get more done and be more efficient in how you get it done.

1. Clean out a junk drawer in your kitchen
2. Pull out 10 items from your closet that you know don't fit any more.
3. Match all of your Tupperware lids to their corresponding containers. Toss the mismatched items.
4. Match all of your pairs of socks. Pull aside the mismatches and toss after all of your laundry loads are complete.
5. Throw away expired condiments and old leftovers from your firdge.
6. Read one magazine that has been sitting in a pile on your coffee table.
7. Find three books to donate to your local library.
8. Clean out your medicine cabinet.
9. Sort through your pile of mail.
10. Relax because you have done more than enough!

We want to hear what you are doing to organize this snowy day.