As June is coming to a close, I’ve been thinking about the past year quite a bit. June marks my one-year anniversary of improving my health through changes in my nutrition.
As you probably know I actually started my health journey in January of 2016. I was very overweight (yes, obese) and quite unhealthy. I had high blood pressure and my Dr. told me I was on a fast path to Type 2 diabetes if I didn’t make changes soon. Continue reading
A year or so ago, I wrote a post about organizing and managing your piles of paperwork and junk mail. These days, I get more, actually much more email than snail mail. Email is a wonderful tool for business as well as for personal use. It is great to have (nearly) instant responses.
Technology has advanced very quickly in the last couple of decades. We now live in a 24/7 world, where practically everything is available at a moment’s notice. Gone are the days of typing a letter, mailing it, and then waiting a week or more for a response. Nowadays, people get impatient if they don’t get an instant response to an email they sent.
As a result, nearly everyone has at least one, if not more, email addresses. I have both personal and business email addresses … all told, I have 6 email addresses. Do you have more than one?
Email inboxes fill up fast. Some people get hundreds every day. It can become overwhelming very quickly.
Here are some tips I try to follow monthly:
• Create sub folders to file emails you will need to refer back to at a future date.
• After reading an email, delete it or file it away in the appropriate folder
• Try to respond right away … saving it for later keeps the inbox cluttered.
• If you get too many emails sales ads from stores, you can request to receive fewer by changing your preferences or unsubscribing completely.
• You can delete multiple emails at one time by using the search bar to find all the emails from a specific sender, then click on check all, then click delete all.
Once you get your inbox emptied out, try to stay on top of it by setting aside some time every month to keep it manageable. It will take less and less time each month.
Are you superstitious? Do you believe a broken mirror brings you 7 years of bad luck? How about if you step on a crack, you break your Mother’s back? Do you walk under ladders? How do you feel about cats with black fur?
I was on the phone with a client the other day, and we were trying to decide on a date for her next appointment. I suggested she look at her calendar as I was consulting my appointment calendar. She gave me a date, and then I would counter with a different date. We were actually starting to look at available dates for next month, when I noticed that she hadn’t suggested March 13, 2015. I asked if she was available on the 13th, and she was surprised that I would want to work on Friday the 13th (I was actually surprised that anyone would think that). I assured her that I wasn’t superstitious in the least. I have a feeling that we will be having very interesting conversations while we are working on getting her receipts and paperwork organized for the tax guy 🙂
For those of you who are superstitious ~ may the Luck of the Irish be with you on this 13th day of March !
What are your thoughts and beliefs about superstitions?
Oh, and btw, have you done your taxes yet? Are you procrastinating? Need help getting your papers organized? Tracy Helps You will be happy to “help” with that 🙂
As I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed this morning, I came upon a status that very simply asked “would you rather have a personal chef, nanny, housekeeper or a personal trainer?”
It sort of got me thinking … Which would I choose? Since I have adult children living at home, I definitely don’t need a nanny – and my kids help out with the housework (a requirement of living here) … so I narrowed it down to between personal chef and personal trainer (btw, since it’s only a dream, why can’t I have both?). Anyway, I decided to choose the personal chef because – to my way of thinking, he or she would prepare healthy meals and snacks for me. I wouldn’t have to shop for food or even be in the kitchen with all its temptations 🙂 Also, maybe the idea of me actually working out might not be such a burden (again, in my dreams). Continue reading
1) I use old egg cartons to store and keep my small ornaments safe without having to wrap them each individually.
2) I try to keep the ornaments in the boxes that they came in if possible. The really old, family keepsake ones I wrap in tissue or bubble wrap. For the fabric and/or plastic ones, I try to organize them into similar groups and store them in large Ziploc baggies.
3) The living room is where the majority of my decorating takes place. I store the decorations in bins according to the area they will go. I only bring the bins in for the area I plan to work on. That way they aren’t just sitting there, cluttering up the room until I want them.
4) I always start with the bins containing my artificial, pre-lit tree ~ don’t judge ~ and the ornaments bin. The next bin I bring out contains the stocking, garlands and wreathes. Then I get the bin with the Nativity, followed by the village and finally the bin holding all my Christmas pillows and throws.
5) I also use a separate bin (or bins) for each additional room I decorate, for exp. one is labeled kitchen – one is labeled bathroom … yes I decorate these rooms ~ again, don’t judge :), this way I can only bring the bins I need at that time.
Do you have your own business? Could you use some office help? There is an incredible amount of time consuming work involved with keeping your business records organized. Even though so many things can now be digitalized on your computer, you still have to spend time “filing” your documents and reports into electronic files. You need to have an easy system in place to be able to locate those documents at a moments notice. Of course, there are still paper copies of things to file away for future purposes as well. As a personal assistant, I’d be happy to help you … I can take over some of the more mundane tasks of running an efficient office for you 🙂
Well, the calendar says it is officially Spring, even if the snow on the ground begs to differ. Spring cleaning for me involves organizing along with actual cleaning. This is the time of year that I try to go through closets and storage areas to try to downsize and organize.
Many times in late Fall, in my hurry to tidy up for holiday decorating, things seem to get shoved into closets, drawers or under beds. You know that saying, out of sight ~ out of mind? Well it comes into play a little too often at my house 🙂
Each April, my church holds an annual garage sale (from donations from the congregation and the surrounding community). After operating expenses, the proceeds go to help several charitable organizations in our community. It has always been a successful and highly anticipated event. I usually volunteer by helping sort through and organize the donations and by working as a cashier on the actual day of the sale.
About a month or so beforehand, I usually start to get motivated to sort through my stuff for items to donate. I start a mental list of possible items ~
Then I plan a schedule to start sorting through and organizing the various closets, cabinets and bookshelves. I box up the items for donation. Then I’ll wipe down and clean the shelves before putting back the items that I’m keeping.
It always gives me a sense of accomplishment to tidy up and re-organize the cabinets and closets. I also really like the feeling of giving … of my time and my treasures.
It has been a week since I posted my list of tackling spring cleaning early goals. During the week, I worked on re-organizing my cabinets. I started with my Tupperware cabinet … it was a mess.
Nice, neat and tidy plastic storage containers and lids.
My neat and tidy dish cabinet … now that I look at it, maybe I’ll raise the coffee mug shelf up another notch 🙂
Boy … on my list it was only a couple of sentences, but it sure was a lot of work 🙂 I’ll work on scrubbing and de-greasing the outsides of the cabinets another time, after all, we still have another 5 or 6 weeks of winter left (if you can believe the groundhog). I’m happy to have my plastic containers more under control … now if only the other members of the family will help in keeping the cabinets organized 🙂
How are you doing on tackling your spring cleaning chores? What is on your to-do list? Give me an update … we can encourage each other 🙂 Let me know if you’d like Tracy Helps You to … help you.
Tracy Helps You was founded in the spring of 2013. It has been a year of learning for me, and I feel that I’ve had quite a successful first year of business. I’d like to thank everyone who reads my Blog … I truly appreciate it 🙂
I also would like to thank Kris at www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com & Angie at www.manylittleblessings.com for hosting List It Tuesday.
Here are my Top 5 Posts …
November 12 ~ Today is Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen … and today I am thankful for my gift of attention to detail.
Being detail oriented is a gift I’ve been blessed with for as long as I can remember. My eye has always been drawn to sequence / patterns like this. As a kid, I used to get “Highlights for Children” magazine. My favorite part was the page where they showed you 2 similar pictures and you had to find the differences. I’ve always been pretty good at word search puzzles too 🙂
This attention to detail comes in handy for more than just fun and games. It has helped me to become a pretty good organizer. It seems my mind just naturally likes things to be in a logical order. I have always been detail oriented and just love sorting things out and storing the like things together. In hindsight, this probably explains my love of baskets and containers 🙂
I think I’ll end with a joke (sorry, but you probably know what’s coming) … Why was 6 afraid of 7 ~ because 7 ate 9 … hahaha 🙂
♥ Today I am thankful for my gift of attention to detail ♥