One of my favorite time management tips (yes, I have alot of favorites) is to schedule time with yourself for something fun and relaxing.  I truly believe that unless you make an appointment with yourself on your calendar for “relaxation time” that you will continue to run, run, run from event to event making time for everyone else but yourself.  Make an appointment with yourself just as you would if you had a hair cut appointment at the salon or a cleaning at the dentist. 

Whether you need to schedule just one hour a week, one whole hour a day, or even an entire weekend to relax and decompress make sure you put it on your calendar and stick to it!  Whatever it is that you need in order to relax honor it just as if it was an appointment with someone else.  You deserve to relax and take care of yourself too!  Once you start scheduling your “relaxation time” you’ll come to crave it and the rest of your day or week won’t seem quite so overwhelming.

Is your email program overloaded?  Is your inbox full?  Do you currently use Outlook as your email program of choice?  If so, I want to tell you about a great new product I’ve been testing over the past few months to streamline my email process.  It is called “Xobni” (or ‘Inbox’ spelled backwards) and is a free downloadable program online that installs directly into Outlook to help you manage your email.  Xobni adds another window area to your existing Outlook email view (see the image above) and enables you to view your email as on-going conversations (just as you would if you used Google’s online email system, Gmail, to read your messages).

According to the Xobni website, “Xobni is the Outlook plug-in that saves you time finding email conversations, contacts and attachments.”  After using Xobni myself for the past few months, I can agree.  It makes finding past emails with particular contacts a breeze.  I have been able to save a few steps each time I want to respond to an email while also knowing what was previously discussed with the same person.  I especially have enjoyed the attachment feature.  Since I send out alot of attachments in my emails, Xobni helps keep track of all these files in just one area.  Now I don’t have to go back through my older messages searching for a specific attachment that was either sent or received.

The only down-side (and my biggest complaint) about using Xobni is the color of the interface.  Currently the Xobni interface is bright orange and purple.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that the Xobni creators will soon adjust the interface to a more pleasing (and subtle) color palette.

But don’t take it from me, if you want to test Xobni for yourself, click here.

One of the most common questions I get from my clients when it comes to organizing their space is… “Where do I start?”

Here is my favorite tip to answer that question:

Jump start your organizing efforts by SORTING your items into categories of like items.  Don’t worry about purging right from the start, just begin by sorting and that’s all.  As you sort your items, whether it is clothing, paper, or kitchen accessories, ask yourself these questions:

- Do I love this item?

- Do I need this item?

- Do I use this item?

If you answer NO to any of these questions, then get rid of the item by sorting into categories of “trash”, “to be donated”, or “to be moved to another room” or area of the home or office.

Starting any organizing project with sorting will ensure you are on the right track.  Don’t worry if you have trouble making decisions with the sorting process the first time through.  You can always sort multiple times before moving on to step 2 in the organizing process.

Create relocation announcements before you move so that once you get to the new address you can put them right into the mail to let everyone know of your new location.  This will ensure that friends, family, or clients can find you easily at your new address.  You will also have one less thing to do while unpacking!

Last weekend I decided to take a few hours for myself and hit the shopping mall for a few items.  While I went to the store with a specific list of just two things that I needed to purchase, I came home with five items in my bag.  Do you ever find that you start to wander around the store when you’re out shopping?  Well, I did.  I ended up getting distracted by all the other things that were displayed and looked so appealing. 

Before I knew it I was buying items that looked “neat” or “fashionable” but that I really didn’t need.  This didn’t truly occur to me, however, until I returned home and looked into my shopping bag and thought to myself, “Why exactly did I buy that?” and “Do I really need this?” 

After taking a step back to reflect on my shopping decisions, I realized I had become a victim of the sales people and the product placement displays.  I immediately pulled out the items that I really needed and left the others in the bag so they can be returned to the store. 

What is the lesson of this story, you ask?  I can relate to all of you who find yourselves with more “things” in your homes, closets, kitchens, garages, and offices than you intended. 

The next time you hit the shopping mall, ask yourself this question before you pay, “Do I really need this?” and hopefully you won’t have to make an extra trip to the store to return things like I did.  After all, gas is expensive these days!

If you are prone to drop, lay down, or toss items into the same location day in and day out, then you should probably just set up a system to work within your own tendencies by placing a “clutter collector” in this location. 

Clutter collectors can be things such as: bowls for key or coins, hooks for purses or jackets, a charging station for your electronic devices, baskets to collect your incoming mail or magazines, or hampers for your dirty clothing. 

The next time you find yourself just setting something down or tossing it across the room, stop and ask yourself if you should instead be placing a “clutter collector” in or near this area.