12 ways to organize your life

12 ways to organize your life

I admit it! Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the seemingly endless streams of paperwork and wonder if I'll ever be able to organize it all. Emails or Ezines I want to keep, ideas I found on the Internet, school papers, notes of ideas that popped into my head as I was waiting to have a tooth filled, newspaper clippings... I would file and file and file and then forget where that article was that I needed to complete the project that was due last Thursday!

I have been an avid list-maker all my life out of necessity, juggling a 9 to 5 work life, family time, a home-based business and taking care of two houses; as well as having a number of hobbies such as cartooning and fine art, clothing design and creation, crafts and ballroom dancing. At one point in my life even being a competitive ballroom dancer for five years as well as an assistant disk jockey for parties. You can see why I had to find ways to organize my life.

For all of you super-busy people I have put together some handy tips to help you organize your life and keep your sanity.

1) Notables: Keep a small notebook and pen handy, wherever you are, to jot down ideas or appointments or things to do instead of trying to remember them later on.

2) Telephonery: Set a time limit to each phone call and make sure you tell your caller. That way you save yourself the stress of trying to end the phone call and it also helps the caller to condense the information they want you to hear.

3) In Waiting: Use waiting time at the dentist, meeting with your boss or while waiting for your roast to cook to catch up on reading or planning, or use the time for tidying up, filing or other tasks.

4) Help Wanted: Be sure to offer praise to a subordinate, co-worker or to a member of the family for any effort you've noticed - they'll be happy to help you when you're bogged down.

5) Don't Put It Off! If you procrastinate, you'll only get stressed out when you think about that hateful "to do" item on your list. You'll blow it out of proportion in your mind and it will become almost impossible to accomplish. Make sure you tackle the largest or most disliked job first, dividing it up into manageable tasks. Then the other jobs will be a breeze!

6) Control Bug: Delegate the tasks you have no time for or team up with someone who can help you. (See tip #4!)

7) Group Effort: Save time and footwork by collecting everything to bring with you to complete errands or to distribute in each room of the house instead of making too many trips. Make a fast list while planning out your route and be sure to plan each stop along the way so you don't have to backtrack and lose time.

8) Schedule Fun Time! Make sure you include some personal time for YOU. Allot some time in your agenda. Make an appointment for yourself and keep it, even if it's only a leisurely 20 minute bubble bath or a 15 minute walk in the fresh spring air!

9) Space Freebies: Go through any old unneeded files to free up space in your filing system.

10) Once and Only Once: Each piece of paper should be handled only once. Read it and file it, redirect it to someone else, schedule it or toss it. Don't add it to an ever-ending pile on your desk in hopes that you'll get to it eventually.

11) Post-Master: Use sticky notes to write errands needed to be done. Stick them to your front door to remind you as you're headed out.

12) Systems Engineer: Too much time is wasted every day on searching for things. Find a system that works for you and your lifestyle and apply it. Use it religiously and you'll find new time slots you never thought you had!

Heather Diodati is the owner of DDesign - designer of Whimsies! brand personalized cartoons for all occasions and the creator of the Pet Computer Virus™. Sign up for her free Ezine and receive a Memory Jogger System complete with a kit of printable forms for you to use.

Organizing paper

I really wanted how to organize things and here are some of how to do it. Enjoy.... :)

How to organize your classroom files


I'd like to challenge anyone to think of a profession that involves more paper than teaching. Whether it's lesson plans, handouts, flyers from the office, schedules or an infinity of other types of papers, teachers juggle, shuffle, search for, file and pass out enough papers on a daily basis to get any environmentalist up in arms.

So, how can teachers win the daily battles in this never-ending paper war?

There's only way to win and that's through down and dirty organization. One of the most important ways to get organized is through a properly categorized and maintained file cabinet. Usually, a file cabinet will come with your classroom. If not, ask the custodian if he or she can find one for you through the district office. The bigger, the better, in my opinion, because you will need it.

Depending on how many files you have, you can decide the best way to label the file drawers. However, there are two major categories to consider and almost everything fits into them: Curriculum and Management. Curriculum means handouts and information that you use to teach Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Holidays and any other subjects you cover with your students. Management can broadly be defined as things you use to manage your classroom and teaching career. For example, your management files might include Discipline, Professional Development, School-wide programs, Classroom Jobs, etc.

Now comes the ugly part. Hopefully, you've already been using some type of file folder system, even if they are just stacked in a corner some place. But, if not, you're going to have to sit down with all of the papers you use during teaching and go through them one by one. First of all, look for things that you can throw away. The more you can pare down to the papers you really use, the further you go towards the ultimate goal of true organization. For those papers you need to keep, start organizing them into piles or, better yet, make file folders on the spot, label them, and just put the papers right into their new homes.

Try to be really specific with the categories you use. For example, if you are organizing your Science materials, don't just make one big Science folder. Take it one step further and make one file for Oceans, Space, Plants, etc. That way, when it comes time to teach your Ocean unit, for example, you can just grab that file and have everything you need to photocopy.

Next, use hanging files to place your file folders in a logical sequence. Then, take a deep breath - you're essentially organized!

The trick, though, is to maintain this level of organization over the long term. Don't forget to file new materials, handouts, and papers as as soon as they come across your desk. Try not to let them linger in a bottomless pile out of sight.

I know that this is easy to say and harder to do. But, dig right in and get to work. Being organized feels so good!

Good luck!