Posts Tagged ‘getting more done’
Take Care of Yourself First — Get More Done
Feeling hungry? Thirsty? Tired?
Too busy to stop and meet these needs?
Then you may find yourself having difficulty concentrating on the really important stuff.
😐
Your body tells you when you are lacking in basic foundational needs. Pay attention to the messages it gives you.
Hungry? Feed yourself something nutritious. You may feel too busy to stop. But store some healthy snacks and nuts in your desk drawer/purse/car to keep your body fueled throughout the day.
Thirsty? Drink. More Water. Sorry, coffee, soda or alcohol doesn’t count. Your brain consists of 90% water and without it you will be prone to headaches, irritability, lethargy and an inability to focus.
Tired? Get more sleep. How well do you function when you’re tired? I’m guessing not at your peak performance. Don’t sacrifice sleep under the premise that you need to get more done. Studies prove that you get less done when you aren’t well rested.
Bottom line…Take care of yourself. Get more done.
Now go drink a big glass of water, munch on a carrot or take a little nap before tackling that next organizing project. 😉
Jana Hartwell, CPO
Sensible Organizing Solutions
Practice Imperfection
The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a terrible waste of time. ~ Edwin Bliss
Applying perfection to everything you do can seriously impede your productivity – I know. This is something I battle myself. Being aware of this helps keep me from obsessing about getting all of my work to look ‘just right.’
Some things do not require your best effort. Learn to distinguish between tasks that deserve to be completed with 100% excellence and stuff that just needs to get done.
If you’re a perfectionist, learn to tolerate “good enough” in yourself and others.
Practice this in small ways, like allowing spelling mistakes in your to-do lists or being satisfied with providing a draft while having it (e.g., a letter, project proposal, etc.) fine-tuned by someone else — or vice versa.
If you tend to lose yourself in a task, try limiting how much time you’re willing to spend on it. Set a timer and challenge yourself to just get it done–or a chunk of it done.
Adopt a mantra to help you stop the madness of perfectionism like: “I like it JUST the way it is!”. This is a spiritual exercise that will help you make better judgments about how to spend your time.
Practice imperfection – get more done.
Jana Hartwell, CPO®
jana4sos@gmail.com
Focus Your Efforts
If you have been having trouble getting and staying organized, perhaps these thoughts will help.
A crucial element of effective organization is to focus your efforts on something specific.
Those who work with me know that I do my best to keep our efforts focused on decluttering and organizing one area at a time. There is good reason for this.
- It is much more effective to spend one hour organizing a small area like a shelf, an unpacked box, or an inbox than it is to spend that hour on a larger area such as an office, a kitchen, or a file cabinet.
- When you only chip away a little bit in many different areas, the impact is minimal and nothing permanent gets accomplished.
- Focusing on a specific space from top to bottom will help you end up with an organized space.
My esteemed colleague, Ellen Faye, COC®, CPO®, calls this her eye-dropper metaphor.
If you put a few drops of water here, a few drops there, and a few more drops somewhere else, you just have little puddles of water; but if you focus your resources into one specific space then you end up with something to show for your efforts. www.facebook.com/EllenFayeOrg
This month, choose one small area to focus on decluttering for 1/2 hour to 1 hour max (e.g., your purse, a linen closet, a few shelves in your laundry room, a closet floor, the inside of your car… ). Set a timer.
When you have finished, drop me an email to let me know how your mini-project went.
Jana Hartwell, CPO®