What is going to make 2010 different?  We are always striving to be faster, stronger and bigger, but what does that really look like.  One of the most popular resolutions is to get organized and that doesn’t always translate into MORE. Efficiency is a great goal but prioritizing might be a better one.  Knowing what is important in your time and stuff will make every day seem easier. That is a gift that only you can give yourself. So, how do you get there? What do you let go of?  Here are three strategies that may help you.
Top 10 List
What are the all the things you are involved in?  What are your roles?  List them all; pick the Top Ten and let go of the rest, even temporarily so you get caught up on the issues that are bothering you.  You may be surprised when you miss an activity that had been routine and not important, then find yourself secretly celebrating.  This is a great strategy for getting on track when you are going through a major life transition.  Step back and minimize while you get through it!
What is it that only I can do?
Another great tip that really works for entrupenuers is to really write down all the “jobs” you do and then highlight the jobs that only YOU can do.  Go one step further and mark those that you actually like to do.  For me this has really illuminated all kinds of little things that have kept me from the bigger things.  It was easy to let go by finding people to do those very specific jobs that I no longer need to attend to.  It is fun to think of the year ahead with out those items on my To Do List.
Know you  3 MIT’s Daily
MIT’s are your Most Important Things.  If you could write just 3 MIT’s down for the next day when you are leaving your desk or at the end of each day, and were able to start each day ready to accomplish just those 3 things, I suspect it would be life changing.  I know we all have HUGE To Do lists, and making a master list does help get it all down, but I am talking about having a top 3 every day that are non-negotiable!  This will take away the feeling of overwhelm and will help you know what enough looks like. Knowing this can help you stop just working and working and working until you just “hit the wall”

So- see your New Year through the lens of doing what is important and knowing what “enough” is. This will bring simplicity and order to your 2010!

Getting stuck is all about perspective.  Often by the time clients call for our help they really have had several failures and their veiw of their problem is blown out of proportion.  They are seeing everything from an extreme point of view.  They are CATASROPHIZING!

• They have decided that I am PERFECT and will think they are terrible.
• They have decided that their space is the worst space I have ever seen.
• Sometimes they see it as impossible or hopeless
• They think that they or the people in their lives will be traumatized by letting go of certain items.

But often what is trally happening is that i have seen spaces that are in worse shape and all I am really looking at is the person, not the stuff.  I am trying to understand how they want to live in the space and what might be getting in their way.  Often letting go brings energy and a sense of empowerment and control to everyone involved.

Be careful if you tend to think in worse case scenarios.  This highly emotive thinking can get in the way of clear decision making and making decisions is the key to processing the things that are in your life.  Building your decision making muscles and confidence will help you keep a healthy perspective as you face challenges.

ADD clients are often prolific thinkers who are creative, who struggle with focus, impulse control, prioritization and time among other things. The key to change is awareness and setting up distraction free, reminder rich environments. Because these clients have so many ideas they are prone to be big starters and poor finishers. We often see these clients being “productive procrastinators”. They are busy with low priority tasks, for example they will be pruning the hedges instead of working on their presentation that is due the next day! Helping clients prioritize is the first step to helping them be more effective day to day. Part of prioritizing is making manageable lists. Agree on a “do-able number” to ensure success and then “A/B” that list. Assign an “A” to the most important items and a “B” to the rest to make sure they are focused on what is most important daily. Commit to what is important by slotting tasks on a calendar. This sounds simple but this exercise cements the task in your client’s mind which is important when they struggle with focus and time. When competing goals are screened out now it is time to engineer the environment to reduce distraction and keep them on track with reminders. Set “mini deadlines” and add rewards to keep them moving toward their goals by delaying gratification until completion.

Awareness of the “triggers” that throw them off track is important and then strategies to overcome. For example if email distracts your client then set timers for that activity so they don’t get lost in that “now” moment. Transitioning is once your ADD client is hyper-focusing on a task is very difficult so setting a timer that requires them to actually move away from the current task begins that transition for them so it is easier to get on to the next task. One important thing to be aware of is “productive procrastination”. This is when our clients are constantly busy but not doing what is most important.

If you are trying to change any habit-set your self up for success by taking less on during that time.  We have been focusing on lateness and procrastination lately but this can help with any behavior change from smoking to getting exercise!  Reducing stress at that time increases your will power to succeed.  Stress often makes you resort to those old ways of dealing with things instead of trying new ways. 

So clear the decks and plan successful change by giving yourself a little break to do so.

Free Tele Class to Teach You How to Be on Time

Do you feel the need to squeeze as much activity as you can into each day?
Do you view “unproductive time” as time wasted?
Are you pleased when the day goes by quickly?
Do you regularly under estimate everyday tasks like getting ready for in the morning or driving to work?

If you answered “yes” to 2-3 of these questions, you would be labeled a “producer” in Diane DeLonzer’s book, Never Be Late Again. I must admit that I clearly fit this label! A producer’s battle cry is ” If I hurry, I can…”. Producers are optimists/gamblers. Their thinking is, checking these last two things off me list is more important that being a 100% certain that they will be on time. The rationalization is that they can cross those items off and if EVERYTHING else goes perfectly…they could still be on time. Well, we all know what happens. Producers schedule things tightly to avoid the dreaded down time. We grumble about how BUSY we are and forget that WE are the ones who over-committed! We live daily with this driving desire to GET IT ALL DONE! Here is a little secret…you are NEVER going to get it ALL DONE! So take a deep breath and try some of DeLonzor’s techniques to make a change:

When you feel your self saying, “If I hurry….” replace that with “I am being realistic or optimistic….”
Practice saying “NO” so that you are comfortable doing only things that are important.
Prepare to wait. If you don’t like waiting have something to do!
Practice transitions. Use alarms that make you stop what your doing to turn them off–and you have just started a timely transition!

You are not alone! Many of us are so overwhelmed with to-do’s and commitments and distracted by multiple media streams competing for our attention that I think it is like “Self Inflicted ADD”. There are so many things competing for our attention that we lose track. The first line of defense is to slow down and unload some of the things that distract you.

If this doesn’t help and you find that this is a life-long problem it is time to face it and use tools to set yourself up for success. I often recommend electronic calendars/organizers to clients who suffer with these time challenges. Having these features incorporated into a smartphone really helps. First of all, it is a fact that people learn to use their phones! The more features that are integrated into a phone the more these tools can help. They also sync with your computer, so that if you lose the handheld phone, the data is protected.

Using alarms to keep you on track really helps.  It may feel silly at first, but if it works do it!  When transitions are the problem set alarms that require you to actually get up to turn them off.  Moving out of your space is a big component to get you up and able to transition to the next step.  Setting up a reminder rich environment with minimal distractions is the key.  Accepting this trait to be part of how your brain works and putting systems in place will empower you to start making the changes you need to succeed.

People ask me how they can STAY organized after we work together. I was thinking about what determines which clients STAY organized and it occurred to me that the client who are ready to do less and have less get better results. Clients who are “getting organized” so they can squeeze more into their day or their space often find themselves struggling again. This is probably because they have not decided what “enough” is in their life and their systems have not stabilized and are still hard manage. They continue to add and add without ever subtracting! People get the best results when they are ready for change and start to see that less is more.

Write down any 3 items that you can do each day to keep your life running smoothly. Here are some ideas:
 Go through mail, sort and toss!
 Clean kitchen before going to bed.
 Clear off your desk.
 Pick up/straighten house.
 Lay out clothes for next day.
Be honest. If you did those 3 things tonight, how you would wake up feeling tomorrow? Think of these as SINGLE DAILY ACTIONS that will soon become the GOOD HABITS that support an organized life!

Now that I am rushing I need to make sure I get good rest to stay trim! Studies show that one out of four men and women report sleeping less than six hours a night. There are several large studies that link lack of sleep to obesity. One interesting study that tracked more than 68,000 nurses for 16 years found that the odds of gaining 33 pounds were 32% higher for among those who slept no more than five hours a night compared to those that slept at least seven. Appetite just went way up. Gherlin (a hormone that make you hungry rises and leptin (a hormone that controls appetite) drops. Studies also show increased insulin resistance, therefore a higher rate of diabetes. This also may also have a evolutionary link to sleeping less in winter and storing fat during that time to protect our bodies.

So get your rest and help your body work the way it should. We are always looking for a way to effortlessly keep our weight under control. What could be easier?