Helpful Time Management Tips

Are you an individual who just feels as if you can never catch up?  Do you feel like you can’t get everything that you need to do done?  If so, it is important that you take steps to correct the problem.  Poor time management is often associated with the workplace, but did you know that your personal life can be negatively impacted as well?  It can be.  As for how poor time management can have a negative impact on your personal life, you may be surprised just what it can do.  

For example, if you have a poor sense of time you may find that your relationship with your spouse, family, or friends may suffer.  Those who have a poor sense of time are often stressed, frustrated, and unorganized.  This is likely to put a significant strain on otherwise healthy relationships.

Despite the fact that time management can have a negative impact on your personal life, there is good news.  That good news is that there are ways that you can prevent your poor use of time from becoming too much of a problem.  The biggest way to prevent this from happening involves learning how to make better use of your time.  To help you get started, a number of personal time management tips are outlined below.

An easy way to learn how to make better use of your time involves creating and relying on to do lists.  If you have everyday tasks that have become a part of your routine, like getting your kids ready for school or going to work, you do not necessarily have to include these items on your list.  With that said, other non-daily tasks should be added.  These tasks may include running an errand before work, attending a child’s sporting event, helping your child with an important school project, going for a medical appointment, and so forth.

Learning how to prioritize is another important component of being able to properly manage your time.  It is important to remember that the day and its time is limited.  If you have a family and a fulltime job, you may find it difficult or downright impossible to get everything done.  If that is the case, be sure to prioritize.  You can leave the lesser important tasks, such as dusting your house as opposed to doing laundry for later or the following day.

The use of time management tools is another easy way that you can go about making better use of your time.  There are a number of tools that you can use to your advantage.  A to do list was sited as an example above.  Other tools that you may be able to benefit from the use of include alarm clocks and daily or weekly planners. There are also wonderful time managements apps. Since most time management tools are affordable, already in your home, or free to create, you should use them to your advantage.

One of the many reasons why people end up wasting time is because they are easily distracted.  If you feel this the main source of your time management problem, you will want to determine what your biggest distractions are.  For example, do you spend too much time socializing with coworkers after work or with the neighbors?  If so, you don’t have to completely eliminate this contact, but try to limit it.  The same can be said with television and internet use.

Laundry Room Logistics

All laundry rooms at one time or another probably have been guilty of massive piles of unsorted dirty clothes, laundry products strewn about, and a feeling of disorganization and chaos. When this feeling sets in, it can make tackling an overrun laundry room an even more difficult chore. But with some work, creativity and commitment from other family members, this room can become an organized oasis. 

The first step is to develop a routine in your family for making sure their dirty laundry is delivered to the laundry room on a routine basis. If you’ve established Wednesday and Sunday as laundry day in your home, then laundry needs to be delivered to the laundry room no later than Tuesday and Saturday nights. Each person in the family that is old enough should be taught to sort laundry into designated hampers in the laundry room. 

Maintain a laundry basket or bin for each family member. Once clothes are washed, dried and folded, place them into each basket and deliver them to their bedrooms. Older children should hopefully be capable of putting laundry into drawers and on hangers themselves.

Make it a habit of keeping on top of the laundry supplies. Make sure there are always plenty of laundry soap, and fabric softener available. Nothing can be more aggravating than finding no laundry soap available when you have six loads to be done. 

Make sure your laundry room has a separate and clearly labeled bin for items that need to be dry cleaned. Make sure that this bin is emptied as often as needed and that items are delivered and picked up from the dry cleaners promptly. Have another bin set aside for items that need to be repaired or that need buttons replaced. Tackle this bin at least twice a month so that it does not become overwhelming. 

Keep Your Kitchen Or Dining Room Table Clutter-Free

Kitchen or dining room tables can easily become a catch-all for everyone’s belongings. Mail, school books, car keys, pens, pencils, and other miscellaneous items can quickly appear, and at dinnertime, end up in a large pile of clutter somewhere else in your household. 

To curtail this habit, try organizing a central area for everyone’s belongings right inside the door to your house. A bench or short shelf can be placed in that area for clearly labeled catch-all bins for each member of the family. 

This will also help during the course of the day when picking up around the house. Items found around the house can be placed in these bins, and each family member should get into the habit of making sure items are emptied from the bins and properly put away each evening. 

If your kitchen table doubles as an arts and crafts studio or location for your kids to do their homework, make sure that there are bins, shelves and containers nearby that neatly organize school, office and arts supplies, and keep them within easy reach. Help establish good habits in your children by ensuring they are held responsible for putting these things away as soon as they are done using them. 

Make sure snacks are kept on plates and drinks are kept on coasters to ease cleanup time. A nicely decorated table spread is also an ingenious way to keep the table from becoming cluttered. Spread a nice tablecloth and place a large centerpiece on it, or even set four or six formal place settings on a dining room table that is not used for meals each evening. Your family will be less likely to lay things on these tables since they can see there are already things there. You’ll also be ready for company at the last moment this way.

Coordinating Your Busy Family’s Schedule

If you have a busy family that seems to be traveling in different directions constantly, you know how challenging it can be to coordinate everyone’s schedules. Between projects and deadlines at the office, meetings with your children’s teachers, after school activities like soccer practice and troop meetings, not to mention the household chores, it can be a confusing task. 

But if each family member is committed and communicates effectively, the task of creating a combined family schedule is a manageable one for you. The first step is to commit to weekly family meetings. Make it essential that each family member is there so that the schedule can be discussed and organized. This should also double as a great opportunity to schedule quality family time together, so make sure it’s held at a time when everyone is able to attend. 

Next, design a schedule that can be easily accessed by all family members, so that everyone knows where everyone else should be at any given time. This can be done by designing one yourself using materials such as poster board, markers, pushpins and index cards that can be pinned to the schedule, allowing for changes that can occur from week to week. 

It could also be designed on your family computer and saved onto the desktop, so each family member can readily access it and make changes if necessary. Have family members get into the habit of indicating on the schedule specific addresses or contact telephone numbers if the activity is new or changes from week to week. 

Be sure that care providers for your children such as grandparents and babysitters are familiar with your scheduling system and know how to use it. Again, with a commitment from each family member and open lines of communication, the family schedule can be a useful tool for everyone.

Turn Your Junk Drawer Into Your Neat Drawer

We’re probably all guilty of having at least one junk drawer somewhere in our house. This is the drawer that started out as a helpful drawer that kept all the handy items in one place like tape, pens, buttons, safety pins, and so forth in one central location, but turned into the drawer where other things manage to accumulate when people don’t know where they go or don’t feel like taking the time to put them away properly. Get this drawer (or drawers) back into useful mode again by using a few simple steps to bring things back under control. 

First of all, in order to clean it out, you’ve got to empty it out. Remove everything. Place a piece of paper or tea towel down to protect your countertop or table surface. You may want to make sure all items are placed on this protected surface. Once the items are out of the drawer, they need to be sorted. 

Group all similar items together, and if you can’t determine what something is or if it’s needed after consulting with others in your family, you may decide to get rid of it. If there are things in this drawer that belong in another location, be sure they are put away promptly. You can clean the drawer completely and wipe dry. Afterwards, you may want to lay a fresh drawer liner or contact paper inside. 

The next trick is devising a simple, workable organized system that everyone in the family can use. Ice cube trays, small boxes or even 35-mm empty film containers work well to store small things in. If you cannot see into it to determine its contents, make sure it’s clearly labeled. 

Most importantly, encourage your family to keep the drawer organized and neat. If it’s properly maintained, there should be no need to shuffle through the drawer looking for things, creating an even bigger mess to clean out yet again in a few months. 

How To Begin The Process Of Decluttering Your House

First, take a good look around your home. Find out the things that you and your family have been storing for quite awhile. You might find a number of things scattered or stored here and there that you forgot you even owned. The picture often times results in a cluttered house. Check out the list below of why you may decide to donate or sell some items as part of your overall decluttering plan.

It is the wrong color or wrong size 

It has been outgrown either physically or emotionally 

It is not flattering 

It is outdated 

It is damaged or broken 

It is never used 

It has no useful purpose 

It is too good or nice to use

It was a gift, but you may not have a use for it

You may want to have a donate box/bag where you can store things that you do not use anymore and decide if you definitely want to part with those items. This way you may be relieved of the accumulated pile of clothes that you don’t actually wear. Most importantly, you will also contribute to the charity for those who do need these unused things. You will feel good.

Also, you can begin to make a good routine habit of just using fifteen minutes each day to tidy up the arrangements of your desk, shelf, tabletops, and countertops. Hopefully, you will enjoy starting on your journey of living an organized lifestyle, along with a feeling of peaceful calm that we need the most in our increasingly stressful lives. 

Goals and Habits for Keeping an Organized House

Is your main goal to have a clean house? It may be. With hectic lives, busy work schedules, and kids, many Americans find themselves living somewhat in a mess. Although most homes are “clean,” others may be cluttered. Is yours one of them? If so, don’t only make the resolution to clean your house, but turn it into a reality. For tips on how to do so, please continue reading on.

So, have you made your resolution to keep a clean house? If so, one of the first things you want to do is write it down. Verbal resolutions are often pushed to the back of the mind and forgotten about. Don’t let this happen. Write down your goals and place them in a prominent location, such on your desk. That written note can serve as your motivation. Each time you see it, you will be reminded of your goal.

After writing down your goals/plans to have a clean house, you need to share it with others. This is important as you may not want be solely responsible for a clean house. Do you have a spouse, a live-in partner, or children? They can possibly help too, if appropriate. Talk to your children about keeping their toys picked up, your husband about putting dirty clothes in the hamper, or your spouse about keeping the dishwasher or laundry loads. When all home occupants are onboard, it will be easier for you to achieve your goal of having a clean house.

After deciding on this resolution and sharing it with your family, you may be ready to get started with cleaning. But, wait! You should first do a few things. For starters, it is important to know that a clean house is nice, but it will not last. Old habits are hard to break. That is why it is important to discuss your plans with your family. Do your children leave their toys lying around? Encourage them to put them away afterwards, and so forth. You too, need to make important changes. What are your weakness? Do you let dishes pile up in the sink? Do you toss dirty clothes on the floor? Make the change.

As previously stated, many Americas actually have clean houses. For some, an unclean house is more than dirt and grime. Too much clutter can translate into an unclean and possibly unsafe home. To reduce clutter and make it easier to keep a clean and organized home, examine tools available for sale. For example, there are a number of closet organizers for sale. There are storage shelves designed for sheds and garages, and so forth. Whether you need to organize under your kitchen sink, a playroom, or the bathroom, you should be able to find a tool to help you get started.

So, why should you buy organizational tools? Because they make it easier to break old habits. If you or someone in your family is known for kicking off shoes wherever, buy a shoe organizer. There are small shelves available for sale, as well as hanging shoe organizers with pouches. If you are concerned with costs, look for items that are on sale or wait and save money. Most individuals mistakenly believe they need to meet their resolution as soon as possible. Can’t afford to buy a closet organizer until next month? So what? At least you are taking steps to have a clean and organized home.

Although most disorganized homes are due to clutter, and a good cleaning routine is always helpful. In fact, you should do both, declutter and clean. When organizing a hallway closet, take all items out. Dust the closet and then quickly vacuum the floor. Before putting items back inside of the closet, look at their usage. Donate, sell, or appropriately anything your family no longer needs. When you combine cleanliness with organization, you are not only going to make your long-term goals a reality, but a lifelong habit.