Country Bee - Better Health, Mind & Life!

Let’s get down to business. Decluttering your home starts with making a list. That’s your written plan of steadily attacking what’s been standing in your way. The easiest angle of attack is going to be a raw-and-ready move on clutter spots where you can make the fastest and most visible progress.

Which one is it? It’s your call. For example, is it a toss up between first getting to the living room or the office? Blitz through and transform the room where guests and visitors are likely to gather the most first. So, if it’s your living room – go for it. (Match your launch spot of decluttering to your specific needs.)

7 Simple Steps to Stop Procrastinating

Are you a victim of laziness, a root cause of procrastination? Do you oftentimes suffer because of what you at first believed as easy has turned difficult with the loss of time, and what appeared hard, due to additional delay, has become impossible now? You may draw comfort from the fact that you are in the company of many that are affected by procrastination. But you must realize that you will experience true comfort, if you get rid of your laziness by shaking yourself up into action. Like many others, you can indeed stop procrastinating and start meeting deadlines, by following a couple of easy steps that show you efficient time management.

Imagine a world without email! Some of us can because we lived and worked before there was email.
I remember one office I was working in, when the CEO was finally convinced to get computer savvy. They told him email would make his life easier. I can’t imagine what reasons they gave him, but they worked, and he took the plunge.

I visited with him a month later, and asked him, “How do you like email?� Looking crestfallen, he replied, “It’s just something else to have to answer to. It doesn’t help at all.�

Mom, are you spending way too much time sorting, washing, and folding laundry?
Here are some quick easy tips to help get you out of the laundry room!

1) Sort Less

With the exception of whites that need to be bleached, brand new dark or red items that bleed or delicates, you may not need to sort laundry as much as you think.

Most high quality clothing doesn’t bleed. And there is no crime in washing towels with other laundry unless it will get linty (like microfiber cleaning cloths).

If you are like most moms I know you think to yourself, at least once a day, “I wish I had more time!” Most of my clients come to me at some point asking how they can get more hours in the day. Unfortunately, the truth is you can’t. There are only 24 hours in a day and it is impossible to make more. That being said, there ARE ways you can cheat and create more time for the things you want to do.
1. Prioritize! This one is especially important if you are prone to procrastinating or starting something and never finishing it. Each morning you should make a list, written or mental, of what needs to be done for the day and list them in order of importance. This can be done just as you’re getting out of bed or while you’re having your morning coffee. If your mornings are already hectic I suggest getting up a mere 3-5 minutes early because that is really all you’ll need to make this list. If you’re not a morning person you can also make a list right before bed the night before but then I suggest it be a written list so you don’t forget anything. When making your list, try and be aware of how your body reacts. When you think of #1, your most important thing for the day, does you body contract? Do you feel nervous or tense? If that’s the case then maybe it needs to be broken down into more manageable parts or baby steps. Don’t try to do too much all at once or you’ll end up getting nothing done at all! You might also consider making a second list of less important things that could be done in 5-10 minutes increments. This way, when you have a few minutes to kill between activities you won’t fall into a “black hole” (see #2). Get that little bit of dusting done, throw the clothes into the dryer or make that hair appointment during your down time.

Often times we procrastinate because it just seems like so much WORK to get what we want! We just don’t feel like the rewards justify everything that needs to be done to obtain those goals.
Other times we procrastinate because we feel like we can’t have what we really want so we settle for something less than we truly deserve.

Life should be and CAN be fun!

Take a moment, close your eyes and think about what it is that you truly want. Then ask yourself WHY you want it. Then ask yourself again, what is it that you REALLY, REALLY want?

The faster you work and the harder you work, the more you get done, right? Most of us American workers believe this, so in response to pressure at work and at home we figure out ways to squeeze more tasks into less time. We are used to stress and thrive on it. In fact stress is our badge of honor, and the more of it we feel, the more we feel we must be accomplishing. But do we actually know whether stress helps us maximize our productivity?
The answer can be found in the Yerkes-Dodson Law — the relationship between stress and productivity, named after the physiologists who researched the matter. Imagine a piece of graph paper with an upside down U on it. Label the vertical axis productivity, and the horizontal axis stress. As stress increases so does productivity — to a point. At the top of the curve productivity slides notably downhill, suggesting that high stress does not correspond to high productivity.

Procrastination is when ever we postpone a task or duty intentionally without a valuable explanation. It is a natural tendency in people. Let’s face it, sometimes we are tired or a specific task is unpleasant to perform and we respond by putting it off until later. If it happens only once or on something of not much importance it is okay. But, what happens when a student keeps putting off the school work. At the last minute he may want to make up for the lost time but fails the class. So, can you see how procrastination can get in the way of your success and objectives? Therefore, it is crucial for people to learn how to avoid this negative tendency and manage it effectively. Below I have added some tips that can convert anyone in to a procrastinator no more!
• On a daily basis make a “to do list�. Check each completed item as you go.

The number one question people ask me is “How do you do it all? How do you run 10 Web sites, raise six children, and write books?� Whenever someone asks me this I just chuckle and tell them that if they could see my house, they’d understand! Or sometimes I admit to workaholism. But there are clear and definite ways to maximize your time to accomplish more without getting out of balance. In this article I’ll share a few.
1. Work with your moods. You know how most people look at everything they have to do and start with the worst first. They say, “I hate to do it, but I really have to get my bills paid today. Uggh! I’d rather be writing or designing my web site or calling new customers, but I’ve set aside Monday’s to pay my bills, so that’s what I’ve got to do today.�

Do you ever feel like you catch up with your partner infrequently, often late at night when you’re too tired to speak? Or when your timetables happen to collide? There are work dinners, school outings, sporting practice, dinners with friends, homework to supervise, household chores and so the list goes on. Do you feel like you need to make a date night just to spend some one on one time with your other half? Time when you’re not sleeping? If this sounds like you then I’m sure you will enjoy these tips for keeping each other close at heart, even if you can’t always be as physically close as you’d like.
Its all about communicating and sharing the little things that make up our lives. Here are seven ways to make your feelings known: