It seems everyone I talk to lately says they are “feeling overwhelmed.” And, given the year we have been experiencing, that is very understandable. As a result, I also hear, “I have a short-term memory,” “I forget to do things,” “I can’t concentrate,” and “I’m so distracted all of the time.”

Now, more than ever, for your mental health and overall well-being, it’s time to automate as much as you can so you can clear your head to focus or rest. Here are ten ways to automate your life and reduce distractions:

  1. Go paperless with your bills and any other paper mail you can
  2. Set-up automatic bill payments
  3. Schedule task reminders and recurring appointments. I use the Microsoft To-Do app for reminders and tasks. You can share lists with others. As a back-up, I also set timers on my phone every day for my meetings.
  4. Set-up a shared calendar to communicate events with your family and/or co-workers
  5. Set-up auto-shipments of items your household regularly uses, such as toilet paper, hand soap, dog treats, etc. I use Amazon Subscribe & Save, it reminds me before shipping what is coming, and I can adjust the quantity or skip.
  6. Order groceries online for pickup or delivery. I do this, and I don’t think I will ever go back to strolling the grocery aisles again. I purchase my fresh produce and meat at the farmer’s market on Sundays.
  7. Turn off all notifications on your devices.
  8. Put away anything you don’t use daily.
  9. Listen to the news or peruse social media for a short amount of time once a day.
  10. Retreat for 20-30 minutes a day to be in the moment. Maybe do some breathing exercises, meditate, or write what you are feeling grateful for.

What have you automated to make your life less overwhelming?  Post in the comments.

Use the last 30 minutes of your day to tidy your work environment, schedule your new tasks, and decide what is the #1 critical task to be completed tomorrow.

Start your day by turning off notifications from your email, message app, social media apps, and anything else that will grab your attention and proceed to practice #3.

Instead of checking email, complete your most critical task.

I know this is will not be easy. Email is seductive because we think there might be something more interesting waiting for us there. Resist the temptation and focus the first 96-minutes of your workday on your most critical task.

Why 96 minutes? You’ve probably heard of the Pareto principle (also known as the 80–20 rule). This principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80% of your results. Twenty percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits, 20 percent of your tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do, and so on.

20% of 8 hours is 96 minutes. Instead of wasting your day attempting to work on your critical task but never accomplishing that due to interruptions, give yourself the first 96 minutes of each day to complete what you need to. That accomplishment will energize you and give you more focus throughout your day. Try it and see if you don’t see a marked difference in your productivity.

You can now turn your notifications back on and check-in.  If you need to reduce distractions throughout the rest of your day, turn notifications off and set a timer or reminder when to turn notifications back on or to check critical communications such as email.

Have a master list, but schedule everything.

Have you ever wondered why you never get everything done on your to-do list? If you leave a task on a list there is no impetus to do it.  Instead,  decide when you will do each task and schedule each into your calendar just as you schedule an appointment or a meeting.

When scheduling your tasks, group similar tasks.  For example, make all of your Zoom meetings in one block of time, email responses in another block of time, and work on project tasks in another block.

Not sure how long a task will take?  The next time you do a routine task, time it.

 

There are many reasons we procrastinate; these are the top six:

#1 You consider the task/project to be low priority (when it is not). 

  • Re-evaluate your goals.
  • Where does this task fit into your goals? Is it an A, B, C, D, or E task?
    • A is defined as something that is very important that you must do because it will have serious positive or negative consequences if you do it or fail to do it.
      • You may have more than one A task, and you can prioritize those by A1, A2, and A3.
    • B is a task that you should do but only has mild consequences such as returning an unimportant phone call or reviewing your email
    • C is a task defined as something that would be nice to do, but there are no consequences such as having lunch with a coworker.
    • D is a task that you can delegate. The rule is to delegate everything that someone else can do so that you can free up more time for the A tasks that only you can do.
    • E is a task that you can eliminate and it won’t make any difference if you do such as watching TV or browsing social media.

#2 You don’t have all the information necessary to make a decision or can’t figure out what to do next.

  • Don’t let this paralyze you into inaction.
  • Brainstorm how you can obtain the missing information.
  • Obtain more information about the overwhelming task.
  • Speak to others, gather more details.

The more you know; the overwhelming task can shrink and get more into perspective.

#3 The project seems overwhelming. 

  • Starting is often hard when a project seems overwhelming or too big.
  • Begin by doing a “brain dump” with mind mapping. Mind mapping is a diagram using a non-linear, intuitive approach to problem-solving, decision making and brainstorming. Mind maps are for many purposes, including taking notes, making lists, or even mapping out your future life; the options are endless!
  • Once you have completed your brainstorming take the information on your mind map and begin to create a sequential plan including what the task is, its deadline, and what resources are needed.
  • Next, organize the tasks by priority and sequence (the order in which the tasks are due).

#4 Fear of failure aka the perfectionist personality.

  • Failure is an opportunity to learn and grow. Failing makes you better!
  • Know that no matter how hard we strive perfectionism is never achieved.
  • Limit your options.
  • Instead, recognize when “good” is “good enough” if the alternative is delaying and doing nothing.

Take imperfect action.

#5 Avoidance – the task is or seems unpleasant.

  • To quote Benjamin Franklin, “You may delay, but time will not.”
  • According to Brian Tracy, one of the best ways to overcome procrastination is for you to get your mind off the unpleasant task in front of you and focus on a single action that you can take.

“One of the best ways to eat a large frog is for you to take it one bite at a time.”

Brian Tracy

  • Find an accountability buddy to help you set and meet deadlines.

#6 Awfulizing – You think the task/project will take forever to complete.

  • Break it down into small and manageable tasks.
  • Assign how much time you anticipate each task will take.
  • Schedule the tasks in your calendar to get a clear picture of how long it the task/project will take.

When do you procrastinate doing something and what must happen for you to then take action?

  1. Finds the best place for all of her client’s belongings and recommends storage solutions to maximize her space.
  2. Provides her client with resources for donations and resellers. This makes it easier for her client to let go of the things she no longer uses or loves.
  3. Helps her client (a mom with a demanding career) organize her pantry to simplify meal preparation, allowing her family to assist with meal preparation and so they can enjoy eating dinner together.
  4. Speaks at a senior community to demonstrate how to maximize their smaller homes with space saving ideas.
  5. Enters reminders in her client’s phone so her client never misses an appointment again.
  6. Sorts out and groups similar activities in her client’s schedule, freeing up at least an hour each day which allows her the time to coach her son’s swim team and help with homework.
  7. Organizes her client’s clothing to prevent the purchase of duplicate articles of clothing saving her client time and money.
  8. Designs functional closet and storage systems so everyone in her client’s family can find what they need and equally crucial so that they can put things away themselves.
  9. Sets up automatic bill payments, so her client never incurs another late fee!
  10. Teaches her client how to capture all of her tasks and create a system for getting them all done.

These are just a small sampling of how a professional organizer can impact her client’s life.

Are you ready to find out how we can impact your life?

Timers have numerous beneficial uses such as to reduce hyper-focusing (something I do). Or, to set a limit on how long to do something i.e. time spent on the internet.
I use the Time Timer app every morning to focus on my critical task for the day.  It is available as a desktop timer in various sizes http://www.timetimer.com/ and its disappearing red disk is helpful to:
  • Teach children the concept of elapsed time 
  • Manage the stress of transitions by showing “how much longer”
  • Make homework and practice time more productive 
  • Reduce conflict in family and household routines
  • Increase productivity by breaking projects into manageable segments 
  • Keep meetings, appointments, and events on time and moving forward

Do you use a timer? If you do, what do you primarily use it for?


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Seven optimum habits that will return several hours to your day
 
#1 Stop multi-tasking. It has been proven that multitasking significantly reduces brain power and focus. It takes your brain 4x longer to recognize and process each thing you are working on when you switch back and forth.  
 
 
#2 Don’t check email the first 96 minutes at work. I know this is going to be a hard one. Email is seductive because we think there might be something more interesting waiting for us there. Resist the temptation and focus your first hour working on your most critical task. Why 96 minutes? You’ve probably heard of the Pareto principle (also known as the 80–20 rule). This principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80% of your results. 20 percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits, 20 percent of your tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do, and so on. 20% of 8 hours is 96 minutes. Instead of wasting your day attempting to work on your critical task but never accomplishing that due to interruptions, give yourself the first 96 minutes of each day to accomplish what you need to. That accomplishment will energize you and give you more focus throughout your day. Try it for 3 days and see if you don’t see a marked difference in your productivity.
#3 Have a master list but schedule everything.  Have you ever wondered why you never get everything done on your to-do list?  It’s very simple, you need to DECIDE when you are going to do each task and schedule each into your calendar just as you do an appointment or a meeting. 

#4 Prioritize your tasks. You might be struggling with deciding which task to do first, second, third.  A simple answer is, “Is the task an ABCD or E task?”

A is defined as something that is very important that you must do because it will have serious positive or negative consequences if you do it or fail to do it.  You may have more than one A task and you can prioritize those by A1, A2, and A3.
B is a task that you should do but only has mild consequences such as returning an unimportant phone call or reviewing your email.
C is a task defined as something that would be nice to do but there are no consequences such as having lunch with a coworker.
D is a task that you can delegate. The rule is delegate everything that someone else can do so that you can free up more time for the A tasks that only you can do.
E is a task that you can eliminate altogether and it won’t make any difference if you do, such as watching TV or surfing the net.
#5 When scheduling your tasks group similar tasks together.   For example make all of your phone calls in one block of time, computer data entry in another block of time, run errands in another block, and so on.  Not sure how long a task will take? The next time you do a routine task, time it.
#6  End each day by identifying your most critical task to work on first the next day.

#7 This is key to time management. Time is your most precious resource. Are you spending your time on your goals or are you just going through life busying yourself?

Which habits are you going to practice to get more time for YOU?
 

For many, January marks the time to reflectively think about what we want to accomplish for the new year. And, for many, this is a daunting task because we don’t know where to start. Here are a few pointers to get you started.

Determine Your Goals. Time management experts across the board agree that one of the major causes of a crazy schedule is failing to set clear goals. Focus your energy towards achieving those goals that give you purpose. Goals are the foundation or bedrock of a solid time management program. Brian Tracy author of Eat That Frog outlines seven simple steps for setting and achieving goals.
1. Decide exactly what you want
2. Write it down on a Master To Do List
3. Set a deadline for your goal; set sub-deadlines if necessary
4. Add to Your Master To Do List everything that you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal.
5. Organize the list into a plan by priority (ABCDE – see below) and sequence
6. Take action on your plan immediately
7. Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal

Activity: On your Master To Do List, write down exactly what you want (goals), a deadline for each, and then prioritize your list.

If you are struggling with identifying your goals, then first identify your roles and what you want to accomplish in each. For example; my roles are spouse, parent, business owner, friend, teacher, and volunteer. My goal for my parent role this week is to find a math tutor for my daughter.

Activity: Or, you can do the quick list method Brian Tracy suggests. In thirty seconds write down your three most important goals in your life right now. You can expand on this exercise by asking the following questions:
What are your three most important business or career goals right now?
What are your three most important family or relationship goals right now?
What are your three most important financial goals right now?
What are your three most important health goals right now?
What are your three most important personal and professional development goals right now?
What are your three most important social and community goals right now?
What are the three biggest problems or concerns in your life right now?

Think about your goals and review them daily. Every morning when you begin, take action on the most important task you can accomplish to achieve your most important goal at the moment. Brian Tracy author of Eat That Frog terms this “Eat That Frog!” Your “frog” is your biggest most important task, the one you are most like to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the most significant impact on your life at the moment. This is the task you want to start with each day. Often when we procrastinate, it is because the task seems too hard. But, if you did it first, then the rest of the day is easy, and you don’t have that frog croaking at you! You must develop the routine of eating your frog before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it.

Activity: Look at your Master To List what is your frog today? Eat it!

Practice the ABCDE Method
A = A task that is very important and something you must do. These are your frogs in life. You may have more than one “A” task. You can prioritize these by writing “A-1”, “A-2”, and so on. A-1 is your ugliest frog!
B = A task that you should do. These are your tadpoles of your life. Reviewing an unimportant phone call or reviewing your e-mail is a B Task.
C = A task that would be nice to do, but left undone would not suffer great consequences such as, phoning a friend or having lunch with a co-worker.
D = A task that you can delegate to someone else to free up more time for your A tasks such as, your teenage child doing his own laundry instead of you doing it.
E = An activity that you can eliminate altogether such as watching television.

Activity: If you haven’t prioritized your goals on your Master To Do List, review your list right now and put an A, B, C, D, or E next to each task or activity. Select your A-1 task and begin on it immediately. Discipline yourself every day to do nothing else until your A-1 task is complete.

Time management is really self-management. It is taking control of the sequence of events—having control over what you do next and your ability to choose the task that you will do next. Your ability to choose between important (what you decide to do) and urgent (what others may try to dictate you do) is the key determinant of your success in life and work.

Activity: Before you begin any task today ask yourself, “Is this task going to help me achieve one of my goals (important)?”

If you have struggled to reach goals in the past, let 2011 be the year you reach your goals…get started today–eat a frog!

Do you want to learn more about successful time management habits? Check out my e-book 4 Weeks to Reclaim Your Time (free with the purchase of my book Get Organized Today!).