Need to know where you are wasting time at work? Want to get more done but can't find the time?
Use this log to analyze your time habits for one week and you will be amazed!
Find it here:
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B89JSa1q6kRTZDE2YjI3MGEtMDk3OC00ZGYyLThhZWEtMWE5ZTZhYzk4YTk0&hl=en
What to do:
Track every task you do - start time and end time. Include smoke breaks, bathroom breaks, browsing the internet, emailing someone, talking to coworkers, etc. as well.
Be honest! The only person who will see this is you - and it is only as helpful as it is truthful.
At the end of each day hilight all of the tasks that you can eliminate to save time.
Create a plan to cut these habits out of your day to add more productivity.
This will be a very long week, a tedious process and you may get frustrated or annoyed and want to give up. Don't. It will only help you if you do it for at least 5 days to see true trends. It will be worth it - I proomise.
Not sure it will be worth it? Consider this:
- We only work 124,800 minutes a year (40 hours a week)
- at $50,000 per year, that's $0.40 per minute - why waste it?
- 1 hour of planning will save 10 hours.
- 80% of what we keep we never use
- The average U.S. executive wastes six weeks per year searching for missing information in messy desks and files. (That translates into one hour per day.) -The Wall Street Journal
- Getting rid of clutter eliminates 40% of housework in an average home.
-The average person receives more information on a daily basis now, than the average person in 1900 received in a lifetime.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Spring Cleaning!
Ah, the cold in Central Florida and Tampa is slowly leaving and we are on our way into Spring. What does that mean? Spring cleaning, of course! And Organizing your home. Although many of us dread it, the welcoming of Spring is a great time to take inventory of what we have an what we can let go of. Starting off fresh for the rest of the year is a great feeling!
Not sure how to begin? Here are some tips to help you out along the way (of course, hiring a Professional Organizer from A Space That Works Organizing is also a great way to make the most of your time and effort!)
- Now is a great time to organize and weed out the closet. Go through your winter clothes as you pack them away. If you didn’t wear it, you don’t need it (no matter how cute it is, there was something cuter you passed it up for.) This is the perfect winter to do this because it got so cold you know what you really needed.
- Next, turn all of your hangers in your closet around backwards. This way as you wear something and put it away you can replace it the right way and see at the end of the season what you never even wore (the hanger will still be backwards.) This is a very easy way to trick yourself into organizing.
- Take advantage of the final cool Central Florida days to organize your garage! Weed out all of the old toys, equipment and unpacked boxes from your move 5 years ago. If you didn’t remember it was there you probably won’t miss it.
- Do a toy purge. Now that you have all of the Christmas toys in addition to the rest of the mess it is time to pare down. The fewer toys a child has the more they can find and play with the toys they really love. Organize toys with your child into ones they love, ones they like and ones they no longer play with. It is also a great learning time and a chance to give to Central Florida children who don’t have as much. Make it a fun time for the kids – have them make a card for the child they will be giving their toys to (even if it doesn’t make it to the child it is a great way for your kids to feel like they are connecting.)
Keep watching our organizing newsletters for more tips each month. If you know a friend who would enjoy our organizing newsletters please forward this to them as well. To sign up for our newsletter write to Suzanna@aspacethatworks.com and write newsletter in the subject line.
Suzanna Letchford
Professional Organizer
A Space That Works Organizing
Central Florida, Tampa
407-416-6118
www.ASpaceThatWorks.com
Not sure how to begin? Here are some tips to help you out along the way (of course, hiring a Professional Organizer from A Space That Works Organizing is also a great way to make the most of your time and effort!)
- Now is a great time to organize and weed out the closet. Go through your winter clothes as you pack them away. If you didn’t wear it, you don’t need it (no matter how cute it is, there was something cuter you passed it up for.) This is the perfect winter to do this because it got so cold you know what you really needed.
- Next, turn all of your hangers in your closet around backwards. This way as you wear something and put it away you can replace it the right way and see at the end of the season what you never even wore (the hanger will still be backwards.) This is a very easy way to trick yourself into organizing.
- Take advantage of the final cool Central Florida days to organize your garage! Weed out all of the old toys, equipment and unpacked boxes from your move 5 years ago. If you didn’t remember it was there you probably won’t miss it.
- Do a toy purge. Now that you have all of the Christmas toys in addition to the rest of the mess it is time to pare down. The fewer toys a child has the more they can find and play with the toys they really love. Organize toys with your child into ones they love, ones they like and ones they no longer play with. It is also a great learning time and a chance to give to Central Florida children who don’t have as much. Make it a fun time for the kids – have them make a card for the child they will be giving their toys to (even if it doesn’t make it to the child it is a great way for your kids to feel like they are connecting.)
Keep watching our organizing newsletters for more tips each month. If you know a friend who would enjoy our organizing newsletters please forward this to them as well. To sign up for our newsletter write to Suzanna@aspacethatworks.com and write newsletter in the subject line.
Suzanna Letchford
Professional Organizer
A Space That Works Organizing
Central Florida, Tampa
407-416-6118
www.ASpaceThatWorks.com
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tax time - again!
It's tax time - again. Didn't we just do this last year? I need a Daily Money Manager. Oh - wait. I AM a Daily Money Manager!
I don't know about you, but I hate tax time. Thankfully it is a little easier with a little organization. Especially as a business-owner the paperwork can be overwhelming even for the most organized of people.
In order to make my tax season as stress-free as possible (do those words go together? Tax and stress-free?) I attempt simple organization throughout the year.
For one, since receipts can overwhelm me with the business I keep a box on my desk that any business-related receipts can just be thrown into (I can be lazy sometimes) and at the end of the month I scan them and enter them into my tax spreadsheet. That way I can double-check my accounting program (I just use Mint.com - it is online and easy) against the spreadsheet so I make sure I have all of my receipts and don't miss anything. The IRS accepts scanned receipts now, so this is an easy way to store them for the end of the season as well.
I also have my tax files set up by category -
Scanned receipts (in envelopes by month after they are scanned)
Advertising
Utilities
Travel
Health
Donations
Tax paperwork
Other
This way, as I enter everything into TurboTax each file goes in order with the categories they will ask me about.
I store my personal information in the same way - organized by category in the order TurboTax asks for it.
The last helpful thing I use is Itsdeductible.com
This website is where I list all of my donations and it lets me know the value of each item. The great thing - it also imports directly into Turbotax!
Tax season can be a breeze if everything is kept organized throughout the year - and it doesn't have to be time-consuming if you keep it simple.
I don't know about you, but I hate tax time. Thankfully it is a little easier with a little organization. Especially as a business-owner the paperwork can be overwhelming even for the most organized of people.
In order to make my tax season as stress-free as possible (do those words go together? Tax and stress-free?) I attempt simple organization throughout the year.
For one, since receipts can overwhelm me with the business I keep a box on my desk that any business-related receipts can just be thrown into (I can be lazy sometimes) and at the end of the month I scan them and enter them into my tax spreadsheet. That way I can double-check my accounting program (I just use Mint.com - it is online and easy) against the spreadsheet so I make sure I have all of my receipts and don't miss anything. The IRS accepts scanned receipts now, so this is an easy way to store them for the end of the season as well.
I also have my tax files set up by category -
Scanned receipts (in envelopes by month after they are scanned)
Advertising
Utilities
Travel
Health
Donations
Tax paperwork
Other
This way, as I enter everything into TurboTax each file goes in order with the categories they will ask me about.
I store my personal information in the same way - organized by category in the order TurboTax asks for it.
The last helpful thing I use is Itsdeductible.com
This website is where I list all of my donations and it lets me know the value of each item. The great thing - it also imports directly into Turbotax!
Tax season can be a breeze if everything is kept organized throughout the year - and it doesn't have to be time-consuming if you keep it simple.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
New Services and Sites to help you Organize!
Newest Tips, Tricks and Services to Help You Organize!
What's the newest way to save time and money? Daily Money Managers! This field has recently come to the forefront due to our increasingly busy lives and time-consuming personal finance and management needs.
So, what does a Daily Money Manager do?
They will:
- Balance your checkbook
- Manage your bill payments
- File your financial, health and other vital paperwork
- Maintain vital records
- Work with your CPA, Lawyers, Insurances and more to ensure they receive what they need
- Much more
How do you find a Daily Money Manager?
You can visit the American Association of Daily Money Managers (http://www.aadmm.com/) for more information and listings.
A Space That Works also offers this service. Suzanna Letchford has a background with Finance including studies at UCF in Finance & Accounting, years as Managing Director and Director of Finance . Call 407-416-6118 to find out more.
What is the latest link to de-stress your life?
www.JackCards.com
JackCards.com is a FANTASTIC service that allows you to:
- Add people to an address book and get event reminders
- Pick out an actual card (NOT an eCard) from a great selection of high-quality cards
- Schedule the card to arrive at either their house or yours. (You can add a personal message in your own handwriting before dropping the card back in the mail again)
- They can either pre-print the address and return address and pre-stamp or send you the address information with the card so you can hand-address it without needing to look anything up.
Never forget a birthday or event again - and toss all of those greeting cards floating around your home that you have forgotten to send!
(*Note: ASTW never receives any payment for promoting any businesses besides itself on its media. Any promotion is based solely on ASTW's personal opinion of the product.)
What's the newest way to save time and money? Daily Money Managers! This field has recently come to the forefront due to our increasingly busy lives and time-consuming personal finance and management needs.
So, what does a Daily Money Manager do?
They will:
- Balance your checkbook
- Manage your bill payments
- File your financial, health and other vital paperwork
- Maintain vital records
- Work with your CPA, Lawyers, Insurances and more to ensure they receive what they need
- Much more
How do you find a Daily Money Manager?
You can visit the American Association of Daily Money Managers (http://www.aadmm.com/) for more information and listings.
A Space That Works also offers this service. Suzanna Letchford has a background with Finance including studies at UCF in Finance & Accounting, years as Managing Director and Director of Finance . Call 407-416-6118 to find out more.
What is the latest link to de-stress your life?
www.JackCards.com
JackCards.com is a FANTASTIC service that allows you to:
- Add people to an address book and get event reminders
- Pick out an actual card (NOT an eCard) from a great selection of high-quality cards
- Schedule the card to arrive at either their house or yours. (You can add a personal message in your own handwriting before dropping the card back in the mail again)
- They can either pre-print the address and return address and pre-stamp or send you the address information with the card so you can hand-address it without needing to look anything up.
Never forget a birthday or event again - and toss all of those greeting cards floating around your home that you have forgotten to send!
(*Note: ASTW never receives any payment for promoting any businesses besides itself on its media. Any promotion is based solely on ASTW's personal opinion of the product.)
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