Learning to Say No – Mom’s Secret Weapon

Are you suffering from mom burn out? Do you struggle just to make it through each day? Moms everywhere are breaking down because they are too chicken to say, “No”.

“No” may be a tiny, two-letter word, but it can be your secret weapon. And you can say it. Here are some ways you can say “no” without feeling guilty about it: “Sorry, I’m taking a break.” The number one reason why you should say “no” occasionally is simply that you deserve a break. You are chef, chauffeur, dish washer, and more. Your job never ends on any given day of the week. You deserve a break. If you feel bad for saying “no”, say, “Sorry, I’m taking a break”. My schedule is full. We tend to jam-pack our schedule full of activities, leaving no time to just rest. Here are some tips for freeing up some of your time in your schedule.

• Cut back on your kids activities
• Start a car pool and share driving responsibilities
• Do whatever you can to free up some time in your schedule. I don’t have time. You’re headed out the door, rushing to the next appointment when the telephone rings. What do you do? Do you come to a screeching halt and answer the phone? Let’s say you do, and it’s a family member, calling to dump their latest woes on you. Do you stand, tapping your foot impatiently while you roll your eyes and listen to the sob story? This is a typical scene for many moms. I have another commitment that day. Say it and mean it.
• Regularly schedule in time with your family or time alone and if someone ask for your help during that time look in your planner and tell them you have another commitment.
• Instead of rushing to be everything to everyone, stop. Ask yourself if you truly have time to add more commitments to your calendar? If not, say no by walking away, turning off the ringer on the phone, or not answering the knock at your door.
• Always remember that you are a mom – not a super hero.

When you have to say no, people will understand. If they don’t at first, they will when you consistently set these boundaries and stick to them.

Learning to say no will get easier the more you say it.

Resolve to Get Organized in 2010 with Organizing Workshops in Indianapolis/Carmel, IN

If you live in the Indianapolis area, here are my upcoming workshops for Get Organized Month

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RE: January – February workshops / classes conducted by Indianapolis/Carmel Organizing Consultant, Janet Nusbaum, to help clear the clutter and simplify your life.

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Washington Township Parks & Recreation (Westfield)

Address: 1549 E. Greyhound Pass, Carmel (behind St. Vincent Medical Center & Barnes & Noble)

Time: 6:30pm-8:00pm

Cost: $18 per session

• Resolve to Get Organized in 2010 Tues., January 19
• Power over Paper – Put an End to the Paper Chase Tues., February 16

For more information: CLICK HERE (classes appear in the Adult Enrichment category) or call: 317-574-1074

St. Luke’s United Methodist Church

“Now It’s Time” Series

Address: 100 West 86th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46260, (317) 846-3404

Cost: $10 per session – open to the public

• Resolve to Get Organized in 2010 Sunday, January 24 – 4:0 – 5:30pm
• Power over Paper – Put an End to the Paper Chase Wednesday, January 27 – 7:30 – 9:00pm

Call the church to register – 317-846-3404.

Hope to see you at any of these upcoming workshops! Contact me if you have any questions – 317-867-1540.

jnusbaum(at)SimplifiedSpaces(dot)net

www.SimplifiedSpaces.net

www.TheSimplifiedHome.net

What an Email Inbox is Not

I found this great article about e-mail clutter written by fellow Professional Organizer Donna Lindley

Consider your physical mailbox at home. Would you store pieces of mail in your mailbox that require action? What about mail announcing that your friend has moved and has a new address? How about mail reminding you of an upcoming appointment? I didn’t think so. Your email inbox should not be any different. A mailbox, whether physical or virtual, is a place to receive mail. It is NOT meant for storage. Mail should come in and out quickly.

Below are some of the most common items that we find “stored” in our clients’ inboxes. An email inbox is NOT a:

Filing System - create folders to store email that you want to keep for future reference.
Contact Management System – use a contact management system to store contact information such as email addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers, addresses, etc. Some options include Microsoft Outlook, ACT!, Goldmine, and Salesforce.com.

Calendar - store your appointments in your calendar. It doesn’t matter whether you keep a paper-based calendar or an electronic calendar. You need to have one place to look to see all of your appointments.

‘Favorites’ List – if someone sends you a great website, don’t leave it in an email in your inbox. You can add it to your “Favorites” in Internet Explorer, your “Bookmarks” in Mozilla Firefox, or try Delicious. Delicious is a free Social Bookmarking website. It allows you to bookmark your favorite sites and access them anytime from any computer with internet access. You can keep your “favorites” private or share them with others.

To-Do List – your email inbox is the worst place to store your to-dos. Again, you want to have one place to go to see all of your to-dos. You cannot possibly compare and prioritize them if they are not stored together. This is probably the most common offender.

Many of you are familiar with the old adage – A place for everything and everything in its place. By creating “homes” for each of these types of items listed above, you can gain control of your email inbox, keep it organized and save time.

Michigan-based Productivity Trainer and Certified Professional Organizer, Donna Lindley, publishes the “Timely Tips” monthly ezine from Organized Office Solutions. If you’re ready to jump-start your productivity by organizing your space, time, email and paper, sign up to receive your FREE tips by going to [http://www.OrganizedOfficeSolutions.com]http://www.OrganizedOfficeSolutions.com.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/What-an-Email-Inbox-is-Not

Be Sane and Sensible – Delete E-mail Early and Often

How about this (and see if it doesn’t ring true for you):  For the average professional, at least ½ (i.e., 50%) of what comes into your email inbox is immediately delete-able. (new word, I think). So, using that statistic, take careful note of the ideas in this article.

When you open your email (only limited number of times each day), have in your head that you are probably going to quickly delete at least 50% of them. Some, you can delete without even having to open them (ads, spam, silly things that people send that you could care less about, and so forth). Those are the easiest ones and you can just highlight those and hit delete. If you want to permanently delete, then most email programs allow you to hold down the Shift key and hit delete and then the items don’t even show up in your “deleted items” folder. But either way, press delete.

Now, when you actually begin to open your emails for real processing, you are going to have ones that you can delete just as soon as you see what they are. Several examples below:

* You’ve been cc’d or bcc’d on something that is not even pertinent to you. As soon as you make this determination, you delete the item.
* You receive emails that are announcements about upcoming events that either you’re not interested in, or that as soon as you look at your calendar, realize that you can’t attend. If no reply is required, just delete. If a reply is required, reply and then delete!
* You get a newsletter, information about something that you’ve subscribed to or requested, but you know you are now so far behind that the likelihood of getting this newsletter, special report, white paper, or other document read is slim to none. JUST DELETE IT. You’re a grown up…you get to choose!
* You receive mass emails that appear to be from someone way up in the organization (like a president, CFO, or the like) and in reality, it’s an announcement about a building being closed for maintenance. If it’s a building you’ve never been in, couldn’t find if you were looking for it, and don’t plan to be traveling to in the next few weeks, just delete the email.

Now, what about the emails that you need to ‘do something’ about. Can some of them still be deleted. YES. For example,

* You open the email and it’s something that answers a question you had, but no further action is required – and so you just delete (after writing down the info if it’s something you’ll need later).
* You open an email and the location for an upcoming meeting is included, which hadn’t been included in the last email. You either make note of that location in your calendar (paper or digital) and THEN YOU DELETE IT. There’s no need, once you’ve captured the information you need from an email to keep it.

The list goes on and on about what is delete-able. Remember, much of it can be deleted almost immediately, and quite a bit of the rest of it as soon as you’ve garnered what you needed from the email. As the title to the article suggests, delete early and often. Keep your email practices sane and sensible.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Meggin_McIntosh