Dena Land News A
MO NTHLY NEW SLET TE R BY LINDA LANE -WHITE – KELLE R W ILLIAMS RE ALT Y SE RVING MY HOMETOW N O F ALT ADENA/P ASADE NA AND O UTLYING ARE AS
Five Ways to Save Valuable Time
October 2008
Linda Lane-White “Singing” Realtor ® CA Lic #01091347 Notary Public I n T u ne W it h Yo u r N e e d s
445 S. Fair Oaks Avenue Pasadena, CA 91105 Phone: 626-786-1231 Fax: 626-296-1979 www.lindalanewhite.com
Home Office: 519 Alameda, Altadena, CA
Inside this issue: 5 Ways to Save Time
1
Ceedub Construction
2
Recipe of the Month
2
Tame the Clutter Tiger
2
Active Adults Corner
3
Ask An Expert
3
Victor Wright
4
October Home Decorating
4
Augusta Financial
5
Recent Area Sales
5
Professional Organizer
5
October in Dena Land
6
Finding yourself running out of time every day? Feeling stressed and disorganized? You are not alone! Lacking enough hours in a day is something all of us face from time to time. Here are a few strategies for freeing up some time (and regaining some sanity): Planning Your Day “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” said the wise Mr. Unknown to whom so many insightful adages are attributed. This adage holds true for both big tasks and small ones - such as planning your day. A hectic, stressful day, where little gets accomplished is often the result of a no clear plan as to what needs to be done. Spending just a few minutes the night before to write down a list of things you need to accomplish tomorrow will go a long way towards having more productive and less stressful days. Time management gurus recommend setting one toppriority item that must be done even if you don’t do anything else. Then prioritize the rest of the items, leaving at the bottom of the list stuff that can even spill over to the next day. Keep the list realistic though; you want to feel good at the end of the day that you’ve accomplished what you set out to do. The Extra 15 Minutes How much can a person accomplish in 15 minutes? A lot in fact, if we are talking about getting up 15 minutes earlier every morning. Hitting the snooze button for
just a little more sleep often translates into a more hectic morning because then you are forced to rush when you finally get up. But what if you get up 15 minutes earlier instead? More time to get ready, less rushing and less stress will translate into a better day altogether. Try it. Fight Procrastination Procrastination saps both your productivity and free time, and therefore it is something we should try
hard to eliminate. First, here is a simple 2-minute rule: if you are faced with a task that will take less than two minutes to complete, don’t put it off for later—do it right away. The next simple rule is called OHIO— Only Handle It Once. Do you normally go through your mail quickly picking an item or two that interests you, then leaving the rest of the mail to go through for later, only to come back to sort through it again looking for something else? Well, that’s a waste of time. Only handle it once—pick up an item and decide right away: pay, keep or trash. No point in sorting and resorting items ad nauseum. This applies to your inbox,
too. When you take something out of your inbox, don’t put it back—take care of it while it’s still in your hand. Prioritizing is another way to fight procrastination. Have multiple tasks of the same priority on your plate? Do the easy stuff first. This gets you in the working mood, which often means tackling the hard task will become easier. Checklists and More Checklists A great time-waster: forgetting things. A great way to avoid this: write things down. Checklists are the secret of success of many superorganized people, and they often keep more than one checklist. For example, one checklist for work-related tasks, another for the family obligations. A running grocery list on the fridge is yet another kind of checklist that can save you time. “Bulk” Tasks Just like shopping in bulk can save you money, doing things “in bulk” can save you time. Preparing meals is one example. Consider cooking once a week for the whole week, and freezing the food in mealsized portions for convenience. Another example is grouping different tasks together. Instead of going to the store, coming back home, then the next day going to the dry cleaners, try grouping your errands together. Saves time and gas! And those are my five quick tips for this month. Implement them all or only one, and watch your time get magically freed up!