April Checklist

I just have to recommend a site I found a while back. This site has taught me so much and is a great resource. What is it? LifeOrganizers.com. The site is organized into areas that you probably want to organize. They also have two blogs, Life Organizers and Life Fitness. One of the best things about this website is their monthly e-newsletter. Included in this newsletter is a Monthly Checklist. The checklist is set up with the date and an item for you to accomplish. Some are big, some are small. All are easily accomplished during your day. If you do each of the things on this checklist, it will help you maintain an amazing home and keep your peace of mind. I'm not going to repost the entire April checklist here, because you can get your own free copy by going to LifeOrganizers.com. I do, however, want to post some of the things I'm planning on doing.

Apr 5 Toss old socks that no longer have mates. I swear that the washing machine eats socks. My husband doesn't believe me, but it's true!

Apr 7 Wash and scrub out or hose out your garbage cans. This is an excellent reminder. Oftentimes you forget what the inside of your trashcan look like. But I promise you, you will not be pleased.

Apr 13 Give away or sell 5 books you no longer enjoy, read, or want. Books take up a lot of space in our home. Sometimes we hold onto books thinking we will reread them or that it's just nice to have them. There are some books I will never part with. But some books are easily replaced. Find a bookstore in your area where you can trade the books in for store credit.

Apr 16 Look ahead to the next couple of months and buy ahead some holiday cards. What a great idea! I don't know about you, but I often forget about holidays until they are upon me, and it would be nice to be prepared.

Apr 21 Weed out your wallet or purse. Toss any old receipts, movie stubs, discount cards, papers that are no longer needed. Make sure to shred anything with personal information.

Apr 28 Take a bouquet of flowers to a friend or a loved on you haven't seen or visited in a long time. How thoughtful! I might add that you may want to get a bouquet for yourself, perhaps for your desk at work. It will make you so happy.

What are some things you plan to accomplish this month?

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How to Acheive Your Goals - Steps 6 and 7 of 7

I've been posting a series based on Marcia Francois' wonderful seminar "7 Things You Must do to Achieve Your Goals." If you haven't subscribed to my blog yet, then please go check out my first three posts - Step 1, Steps 2 and 3, and Steps 4 and 5. And then, go subscribe!

Step one was to know your mission. Step two was to set big, juicy goals that stretch you a bit. Step three was to write down your goals, and follow that up with sharing it with someone to more fully commit yourself. Step four was to evaluate your lifestyle. Step five was to realize that you always have a choice (and therefore can say no to things that hinder your goals). Let's see the final two steps.

Step 6 - Plan your goals. In project management, you spend three hours planning and one hour doing. Why? Planning saves you time. Take a look at your big, juicy goals you've written, and formulate small action steps. This will help you not be overwhelmed. Write down eight to 10 action steps. This puts thing in perspective. You can realize that these small steps take just a few moments, but which contribute to the large goal, the big picture.

Step 7 - Prioritize your actions. Now that you've written out your action steps, you need to prioritize those actions. When you write your to do list, you know that some things are more important than others. Most people spend their time on low value tasks and never get around to do high level tasks that support their goals. She suggests using a four-quadrant system of "Do It Now," "Got a Minute," "I Really Should," and "I Really Shouldn't." This will help you make sure that the most important, urgent things always get done. The box, "I Really Should," is the box that always gets annoyed. We know we should write that post, join the gym, buy healthier food, etc. These are things that are going to contribute to our goals. We have to focus on these items to make sure you attend to them.

Whew! Marcia has really put together a great system here. To recap: 1. Know your mission. 2. Set big, juicy goals. 3. Write down your goals. 4. Evaluate your lifestyle. 5. Realize that you always have a choice. 6. Plan your goals (action steps). 7. Prioritize your actions.

Now that I've listened to all seven audios, it's time for me to put these things into practice. On Monday I will post about the major goals I set and how I plan to accomplish them. You guys are going to be my involuntary support group. ;-) I promise not to dwell on my goals, but do stay tuned to see how things work out.

What goals are you planning to work on?

If you would like to receive a free copy of Marcia Francois' series on 7 Things You Must Do to Achieve Your Goals, please click here. To learn more about Marcia, her qualifications, and how she can help you, please visit her website by clicking here.

Can't wait for Rachel's next post? Of course not! Click here to find out how you can subscribe!

How to Acheive Your Goals - Steps 2 and 3 of 7

This Tuesday, for Talk About Tuesday, I made a post about the wonderful series Marcia Francois has called 7 Things You Must Do to Achieve Your Goals. I have since continued with the series and am delighted to share steps 2 and 3 with you.

Remember that step 1 was to know your mission. Any goal you set must relate to your mission in life.

So for step 2 - Step specific, juicy goals. Why? Specific goals give you a sense of direction. Marcia quotes the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland when she says, "If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you get there?" Setting a juicy goal means that it is big and bold. It's going to stretch you a little bit. For instance, take a goal you think you want to accomplish within six months. Now, give yourself three months to do it. You will be more focused, you will work that much harder, and in the end you will accomplish your goal.

Step 3 - Write them down. This seems simple, doesn't it? But I think a lot of people (myself included) forget to do this. You know in your head that you want to accomplish something, but it is much more real when you write it down. You make more of a commitment to yourself to accomplish it. Take this a step further and share these goals with a friend, an accountability group, or your coach (if you have one). A great example is this post by Leo at ZenHabits. He let all of his readers know of his goal and now he has that entire support group to help him accomplish it.

So now we have a great basis to get started. Know your mission, set specific, juicy goals with your mission in mind, and finally write down your goals and share them with a support group. Be sure to check back next week for steps 4 through 7!

If you would like to receive a free copy of Marcia Francois' series on 7 Things You Must Do to Achieve Your Goals, please click here. To learn more about Marcia, her qualifications, and how she can help you, please visit her website by clicking here.

Top 5 Tips to Overcome Procrastination

I recently subscribed to get organizing tips from Marcia Francois at Take Charge Solutions. These are some tips I received in my latest e-mail. I think they probably work and I'll have to try them . . . later:

1. Do nothing until your most important task is done If something needs to be done, resolve to do nothing else until that task is done. That means no coffee or breakfast! (This really works if you love eating like I do, and you're self-disciplined).
2. Give yourself a self-imposed deadline Tell yourself that the task must be done by a certain time. And when you actually do it, it usually takes you just a fraction of the time to complete instead of the hours you imagined.
3. Get someone to check up on you I like being someone who keeps to my word so this works perfectly for me. I chat to Beth Dargis, a fellow coach, every Friday night, when we set our business goals for the week ahead. Just knowing that I have to report back to Beth makes me get moving and helps me get things done. I'm told that I do the same for my coaching clients ;)
4. Work on it for just 15 minutes For bigger tasks, it always helps if you tell yourself you'll work on the task for just 15 minutes. You can do anything for 15 minutes. Usually by the time 15 minutes rolls around, you'll have built momentum and you'll want to make some serious headway. But even if you don't want to carry on, at least you've made a start! I do this with gym - "I only have to stay for 30 minutes" and before you know it, the class is over and an hour's gone :)
5. Build in rewards Reward yourself the minute it's done, depending on the size of the task, of course. Like a cup of coffee for making a difficult phone call. Please don't go out and buy a new dress to reward yourself just for doing the laundry!

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