Time Tamer Tuesday - Tax Tips

Categorize your tax information when you receive it.  Compiling all the data required for your tax submission will be a lot easier. 

Time Tamer Tuesday - Save the Size

Children's feet grow very quickly.  Next time you walk past a shoe store with your child, pop in and have his/her foot measured.  When your mom calls to say she found some great children's shoes on sale she would love to buy for your children, you'll know exactly what size to tell her to buy.

Time Tamer Tuesday - Lighten up on the Commitment List

Don't over commit yourself. It's better to do fewer things calmly and accurately. Tomorrow is another day. 

Time Tamer Tuesday - Use the Down Time

Line up to check out?  Subway slow?  Buses busy?  Keep a notebook with you so you can jot notes for other projects, thoughts, lists or activities while waiting.  Ideas often come to us while our brains are supposed to be concentrating on other things.

Time Tamer Tuesday - Plan for Traffic

When planning your schedule for the day, allow time to get from one place to the next: anticipate traffic delays. 

Time Tamer Tuesday - Lay Out the Work Out

Headed for a workout in the morning?  Whether you go to the gym or hit the pavement/park for a run or bike, lay out your gear the night before - all of it including clothes, socks, shoes, gloves, keys, phone, shower gear, work clothes and anything else you need to take.  You'll be primed when you wake up and can go on autopilot until the endorphins kick in.

Time Tamer Tuesday - Schedule those Loads

Take advantage of the time delay features on dishwashers and washing machines to get chores done when hydro rates are low, but you're busy with more pressing matters -- like homework, bedtime, or reading a good book. 

Time Tamer Tuesday - 15 Minutes to Tackle those Weeds

Struggling to find time to weed the garden?  Try using 15 minutes a day to tackle whatever weeds you can pull in a quarter hour.  By the end of the week you will have invested over an hour of weed pulling!

Time Tamer Tuesday - Anticipate the Drop Off

If you have to drop something off somewhere, leave it in your car.  It's so much easier to drop something off when you're in the neighbourhood, instead of making a special trip. 

ADD Time Monitors

For individuals managing ADD, learning to manage time can be an ongoing challenge.  Professional organizers and ADD coaches often encourage the use of timers to make sure hyper-focus doesn't cause the swallowing of hours and hours of time scheduled for something else.


Here's an idea I created for a young client whose tremendous creativity sent me searching for an alternate timing device.  Create a set of playlists for yourself on your mp3 player for various lengths of time.  One might be 5 Min Playlist, another 10 Min Playlist etc.  When you have a task to complete or a job that you need to focus for a designated time, plug in and turn on your playlist that matches that period of time.  It may take a couple of attempts before you figure out the genre of music that works for a 10 minute end-of-day-get-stuff-off-the-floor task versus a 30 minute I-really-have-to-enter-in-my-expenses-today-if-i-want-to-be-reimbursed-this-month type task.


Have fun with it - its a perfect personalized tool to support your time management.

Book a Meeting with Yourself

I have 4 hours all to myself today: that is, all to myself and the mound of paper work that accumulated while I was off tending to clients.

We schedule our meetings with clients, with staff and all manner of other related services for our lives but how often do we book time with ourselves to clear out the clutter?  Unfortunately we know from decades of time management publications, that unless a priority activity is booked into our schedule, it will not get done.  Is that why perhaps, some administrative or maintenance tasks in your life don't get done?

Consider booking a regular meeting with yourself to accomplish some of the mundane tasks that life asks us to complete.  It might be clearing kids school paperwork, catching up on correspondence, filing (electronically or otherwise) the bills that have piled up.  If you book time on a regular basis, you will be surprised how some of this stuff doesn't get a chance to pile up.  Depending upon the task, it may be only 2 hours a week or perhaps one day a month is all that is required to clear out the backlog and keep up to date.

Building Time: Multi Task vs Multi Layer

The question of whether multi-tasking works to increase productivity comes up frequently at our house.  What can I say?  I have a teenager.  This age bracket of our species has taken multi-tasking to new heights with ear buds, television, blackberry and homework all going at the same time.

My experience is that multi-tasking does not work well.  I define multi-tasking as participating at one time in two or more activities that each require our attention.  Thus talking on the telephone and typing a report is multi-tasking. Similarly making dinner while helping a school child with home work is multi-tasking; both require your attention in order to be completed.  If your attention is distracted from your task, it is unlikely that you will complete it well.  Your phone mate may perceive you are distracted or merely wait patiently for your attention to return to his/her question, the report may have errors.

Time layering or time deepening is a strategy that does work.  I define time deepening as organizing two or more tasks that do not require our attention to be accomplished simultaneously.  If many layers are being developed, only the top layer can take your attention while the other tasks are accomplished without your input or attention except to get them started.  Home managers have known this strategy for ages: wash the laundry and hang to dry - while drying, mix bread and leave to rise - while drying and rising cut beef/vegetables and set stew to simmer - while drying and simmering, knead bread and set to rise - while drying, simmering and rising, mend clothes.  Project managers differentiate between those tasks that must be accomplished in sequence and therefore are time and order sensitive versus those tasks that can be accomplished at the same time therefore layering tasks.

If you work from home you may already layer your time without realizing that you are using this strategy: put on laundry, take out dinner meat to thaw, set coffee to drip, turn sprinkler on lawn - pour coffee, set to work on report.  One hour later you turn over laundry, turn over meat, move sprinkler to back lawn, refill coffee and back to report.

You get the picture.  Try it.  How many layers can you build into your time? 

Arrive on time, with everything you need.

Early, early morning is not my favourite time of the day. When I have an early appointment, like this morning, I want to spend every possible extra second in bed that I can. To do that I need to prepare ahead and organize everything that I will need to take with me.

Starting the evening before:

1. Confirm the time and address of your appointment. Look up the location on a map or print if necessary from an online map search.

2. Plan your route, with a possible alternative for those just in case scenarios. For example, this morning I was heading downtown on the subway and had to change my planned route due to a G20 security incident.

3. Calculate how much time it will take to get from A to B. Give yourself an appropriate buffer of time, depending on time of day. I calculated it would take me 40 minutes to arrive at my destination. I rounded up to 45 minutes and decided to try and arrive 10 minutes early. This gave me a definitive time that I had to leave by. By planning ahead I was able to make it to my appointment on time, even with the delay on route.

4. Pack your bag with everything that you will need. For me this included a charged cell phone, a refillable water bottle, a snack, and documents required for my appointment. For regular appointments consider having a bag reserved and always prepared with the basics you'll need.

5. Set your alarm time to accommodate your basic morning routine, and to get you out the front door at your definitive departure time.

Now, when the alarm goes off early, early in the morning there is little stress knowing that everything is ready to go.

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Have you ever looked at something, without really seeing it? I recently discovered that our dishwasher has a Delay button. We’ve had the dishwasher four-and-a-half years. It wasn’t until reading the manual that accompanied my mother’s new dishwasher, that I even realized dishwashers have a Delay button.

I’ve heard of washing machines having a delay feature. While I marvelled at the idea when I was first aware of it, I quickly started to wonder how that would be useful. Now that Time-of-Use (TOU) billing has been rolled out by my electricity provider, I get it. The benefits are two-fold: I can load my dishwasher after dinner, but set it to run when the lowest rate is in effect and I no longer wake up to a dishwasher full of dirty dishes, because I forgot to press Start before going to bed.

Mornings are better when I can focus on the things needed for that day. Who wants to start their day washing dishes that should have washed themselves, while trying to get breakfast on the table? There just isn't enough time for that in the morning.

It's About Time

My clients are equally split between the number that use electronic calendars and those that use paper calendars. The electronic device allows you to have instant access to your schedule 5 years out or five years back without the weight of 5 books. They also allow you to flip things around with the touch of a role ball, touch screen or mouse. No need for those messy erasers and rewriting the re/re/rescheduled appointment in question.

For many people, no matter how easy the electronic device may seem, managing time does not work for them on a small device, small screen and fiddly tool. A month at a glance is easier on an 8 in X 11 in paper than a 1.5 in screen. Those with kinetic learning preferences may find the act of writing in appointments helps to secure the appointments existence into their mind - more so than typing an appointment once then hitting the recurrence function for the balance of the year's appointments.

I seem to be one of these people and I am in the process of trying out a paper calendar again. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Meanwhile - what has been your experience?

The O-C Connection

.. And we are not talking Orange County here folks.

This is "end of year" season. The concerts, open houses, school events, choir performances, track meets are coming at me at such a fast pace my online calendar and handheld device can barely keep up.

Oh, that's right. It's May again. I should have known. It happens every May and September.

Sound familiar? When events collide all at once to load up our scheduling demands that "O" word often creeps into our vocabulary - Overwhelm.

Counter with with "C" word - control. The more control you can muster the more easily you will glide through this maze of events like an organizing time professional. Anticipation will help with the control. Look out to the next couple of weeks and see what's coming. The more you can anticipate the less likely things will catch you off guard and the more likely you are to feel in control.

Follow up with the "R" word - Relax. This too will pass. Summer is coming. And beside, the kids will only be young once. Enjoy.

Organizing to Maintain your Sanity - 3 Time

"If I had time", you say, "I would be more organized!" I know, me too. Unfortunately since none of us have figured out how to put an extra couple of hours into each day, we will just have to work with the 24 hours that we have.

Let's start with your calendar. Do you have one? Do you carry it with you all the time? If it is a paper calendar, can you put it into your purse, briefcase, computer bag? If it is electronic, can you carry it in your purse, briefcase, computer bag? Do you have a family calendar (if you have a family)?

Since this series is about maintenance tips I am concentrating on keeping organized (as opposed to the clearing out and sorting to get organized).

Ensure that today's appointments are in your calendar. Review tomorrow's appointments before the end of the day so that you have time to prepare for whatever is scheduled. If you have car service arranged, have you organized someone else to take the kids to swimming? It takes only a minute or two to review the appointments for tomorrow. It could take a lot longer to catch up if you miss something or it takes you by surprise. At the end of the week, review your appointments and plans for next week. Again, the anticipation will give you a chance to plan and prepare.

Once that is done, you can head for your evening knowing your plans for tomorrow and next week are already in place and organized. Aren't you clever!

Anticipation - Plan Ahead

For many people the concept of anticipating what's coming down the road is hard to to grasp. We are all wired differently and not everyone has the same orientation to the future.

In this case, I find helping clients to plan ahead is more helpful. How far can you plan ahead? Many of us work with financial planners to plan ahead for our retirement. That's a form of organizing the future. Some of us plan ahead for our children's education with education funds. That's also a form of organizing the future.

How about planning ahead for summer activities? Have you thought about your children's activities for the summer? Have you booked the camps that they want to attend? Plan ahead to that you, and your family, are not disappointed by applying or acting too late.

How about planning ahead for the weekend? Have you made plans? Have you organized the gear that you might need for those plans? Are you using the weekend to plan ahead for the next week.

Try writing a list of a couple of things you need for tomorrow to make it an easier day. See if you can get those accomplished today before you turn out the light. That's planning ahead and organizating your life, one step at a time.

25 Things to do Before Christmas - #11 Regain Perspective

The month of December is a challenging one for many people. As an organizer and blogger, I offer my clients and readers suggestions for easing the burden of multiple commitments and a fast paced society by organizing space,time and "stuff".

Laura over at OrgJunkie has reminded us all that it is important from time to time to sit back, take stock and remind ourselves of what is really important in our lives at the end of the day. I commend you to her post When You're Not Enough from December 9.

I hope that my posts would never lead you to feel that you are not doing enough in your life. If you are spending time on your top priorities, then clear the rest of the clutter and give yourself breathing space to do a great job at it. If your are wondering why you are doing what you are doing, then step back and take stock. What really is important? Enjoy putting your time and energy into that.

25 Things to Do Before Christmas - #22 Decorate & #21 Menus

# 22 - Are you planning to decorate your house for the holidays? Book some time into your schedule. Maybe invite some friends or family? Check you decorations and make a list of any that need to be replaced or repaired. Have you switched to energy efficient bulbs yet? Why not switch this year.

# 21 - Review the meals that you will be cooking this holiday season. Prepare your menus and shopping list. Schedule time to actually do the shopping and any other preparation that is required ahead of the meal.