Avoid the Avoiding Habit and Find More Time and Less Stress

Procrastination can creep in and easily become a habit. Once it does, it erodes your capacity to function effectively. But it can be a hard habit to break.  However, with some honest self-assessment and an organized and attainable plan of attack, it can be overcome successfully.
Be gentle with yourself when you decide to try and kick the procrastination habit.  It may be so ingrained that you don’t fully recognize all the ways you actually procrastinate. Start out by taking a large or complicated task and breaking it down into smaller parts that you can accomplish easier.  It’s important to bear in mind that the most difficult or complex tasks are simply just a series of smaller jobs.
Make a verbal commitment to someone else about improving your time management skills and your desire to avoid procrastinating. Allow others to become involved in your efforts by reviewing your progress, helping you set deadlines or evaluating your results can be very helpful.  This will most likely create a commitment on your part to fulfill the expectations they’ve set for you.
Sit down and map out a plan to manage your time more effectively.  When a deadline is looming, make sure you allot time each day to work on the project so it doesn’t sneak up on you in the final hours or days.  Learn to ask for help when you’re feeling overwhelmed or overworked.
Reward yourself for good behavior and accomplished goals. Don’t wait until you’ve accomplished the ultimate goal, but reward yourself for your successes along the way.  Make sure the reward is something you like to do.  Treat yourself to the newest book by your favorite author and take the time to read it.  Indulge in bubble baths or relaxing music.  If you’ve gotten into the habit of working late, make sure you develop a new habit of going home on time each night.
By making a commitment to avoid the avoiding habit, you’ll soon be well on your way to finding more time and find yourself more relaxed and productive and less stressed in the process.

Keeping an Organized House Maintained

Once you’ve got your house organized and looking just the way you want it, how do you keep it that way?  Getting your home organized in the first place is never an easy task but sometimes even keeping it organized can be just as challenging.  With some work and cooperation from the rest of the family it can be less of a problem.  It will take some time to get used to the new habit of keeping organized, but with some kind, friendly reminders, everyone will get the hang of things.

To keep things running smoothly establish a daily maintenance routine.  Everything has its place but it can’t get there on its own.  So, maintenance is vital to the success of your new system.

Keep the entire family involved.  Even the youngest family members can help.  To help make putting things away for small children, label things.  If they are too young to read use pictures cut out of magazines or the latest circular from the mail or newspaper and tape them to boxes, shelves, or drawers to help remind them where their belongings go.  This will help them to remember where certain items belong.

Assign each family member a particular room or rooms then create a chart showing each room in the house and each family member.  Each family member can then be responsible for making sure that particular room is clutter free daily.  Take a box or basket into the room and anything that doesn’t belong in that room place in the box.  Any other item that belongs in that room but is out of place gets put in its place.  Once everyone has gone through their designated rooms, meet in a chosen area and sort through the items and see what belongs where.  One more quick run through to return the misplaced items and you’re done.  Another method is to have everyone work on each room together, and then each family member can take their own belongings to their room.

Despite your best efforts, dirty laundry piles up quickly.  Designate a single place for all dirty laundry.  Color coding the baskets or labeling them darks, whites and colors can make wash time easier and save you time by not having to sort through it all.  Each family member can then put their clothes that need washed in the appropriate basket and when a particular basket gets full, it’s time to wash.

If you happen to live in a two story home, running up and down the stairs all day can be very tiring.  Try keeping a box at the top and bottom of the staircase, in a safe place of course, so if an item is found that doesn’t belong on that floor it can be placed them in the box.  At the end of the day or when the box is full, the items can be put away without you having to tire yourself out by making several trips up and down the stairs.

Consistency is the key to the organization maintenance system you chose.  In order to keep clutter to a minimum each family member must make the effort everyday to help put things away.