Six Sigma Blogs

When you make dinner, triple the recipe. If you are making lasagna make three pans, one to eat and two to freeze. After one week of tripling your dinners you will have two weeks worth of dinners prepared and in the freezer. Imagine not having to cook dinner for two full weeks.

Don’t spend time running to the store every time you need to send a thank you, anniversary or birthday card. Instead, create a card organizer and stock up on cards during your regularly scheduled shopping trips. Get a small portable file box and place hanging file folders in it labeled - Birthday, Thank You, Graduation, Baby, Wedding, Anniversary, Blank and any other categories you desire. Buy cards in bulk when they are on sale and keep them in the appropriate folder. Now, when you need to send a Birthday card it will take you a couple of minutes to get one out into the mail.

When pumping gas use that time to clean out your car. Throw away all garbage. Keep a container of car wipes under the seat so you can wipe down your dashboard and console. Clean the windows (inside and out).

Keep your passwords and log-ins organized and accessible. How to do this is to make a new “contact” for each of your accounts. In the notes section write or type in the URL (if there is one), password and login and any other notes pertaining to that account. One way to do this is to keep them in your electronic or paper address book (which ever you have). Set up a code system to keep them secure in the event that someone gets a hold of your address book. For example, your code could be that you make the first three digits or letters bogus. Your real password is what comes after those first three digits or letters.

Simplify Your Email.

There are 3 kinds of emails.

1. Junk.

2. Emails that require a response or action.

3. Emails that you are simply interested in reading or using as a reference (but don’t require a response or action).

Delete the junk and respond to action items as soon as you can. Store the emails you want to read or reference in your “To Read” folder. A good goal is to clear out your inbox at the end of every business day (if possible).

Do important or urgent action items as soon as you can. Don’t feel obligated to respond to forwards, or to even read them. If you are interested in reading a particular email but don’t have time at the moment, simply store it in a “To Read” folder. Do not put any emails that require an action or response in your “To Read” folder. Respond to personalized emails as soon as possible but stop responding when an interchange has served its purpose.

Schedule your “To-Do List” into your daily calendar. For example, if one of your To-Do List items is “schedule a dental appointment”, than put it into your calendar as an appointment - “Friday, 9:00am-9:15am, schedule dental appointment”. Many things on the list will probably take less than 15 minutes, but schedule each item for 15 minutes anyway. In a 2-hour time period you will have 8 items scheduled. Most likely you will accomplish everything early and still have time to handle interruptions.

Organize your paperwork. This will help eliminate piles of papers and probably save you more time than you may realize. According to Real Simple, if you live in the USA, you spend an average of 55.2 minutes per day looking for things! That’s 14 days a year! The number one thing American’s spend their time looking for is paper documents and files. If you spend just a few hours setting up an easy to use and maintain file system, and you schedule a few minutes each day to maintain your system, you may be able to take a two-week vacation with the time you saved!

Heidi is a professional organizer specializing in organizing paperwork , creator of The Fast-Filing Method home filing system, & publisher of Life Made Simple e-Magazine. She energizes her readers’ lives by teaching effective systems to help you accomplish more in less time! Visit ClearSimpleLiving.com to get a complimentary subscription & a FREE Home Organization Kit.

Do you struggle trying to balance your work, your family and social-life? Do you sometimes feel as though there is just not enough time each day to get done everything you need or want to do? This article will provide you with three simple steps you can take to earn you more while working less.

First and foremost you need to be organized. Most of the people who earn six or seven figures and only work 20 hours per week or less are highly organized individuals.

In addition to being organized you need to prioritize. For most of us, 80% of what we spend our time doing, only makes 20% of the difference. People who only work part-time and make six and seven figures know exactly what matters and that’s what they spend their time doing. They skip or delegate everything else.

Step 1 — Get organized and prioritize. Make a list of everything there is to do and handle in your life, your home and your business or job. Just sit down and start listing things you either want or need to get done in no particular order, as they pop into your head. This list of “to do’s” is finite and in reality will probably only take you a couple of hours to create.

Step 2 - Take a good look at the items on your list and decide what items will make the most impact on your income and quality of life. The best way to do this is to sit in silence for 20 minutes and meditate over your list. The most impactful items on your list will start becoming apparent to you. Highlight those items.

Step 3 - Move all of the highlighted items from your list into your calendar. Schedule each item. Be realistic when determining how much time to allow for each item. For example, you might schedule one item for Tuesday from 4pm-5pm, another item on Wednesday from 8pm-10pm, and so on.

If you are unable to get all of the highlighted items into your calendar within the next two weeks, then you need to refine your highlighted list again before entering it into your schedule.

This simple three-step process will help you get organized, focus on the 20% that will make the biggest impact on your income and quality of life and it will help prevent you from taking on more tasks than you can handle effectively. If you are unable to complete a task during the scheduled time, re-schedule the task for another time. Treat your tasks like they are important meetings because they are.

Once you fully switch from keeping a running “to do” list to scheduling every task, you will feel more relaxed, be more efficient, have more time and you will get more done. “To Do” lists tend to be weights on our shoulders. They make us feel like we will never be caught up, never get it all done and often they cause us to focus on the least important tasks.

When you have a running “to do” list you are more likely to stress over what you need to get done and when and how it’s going to get done. By simply scheduling what needs to get done, it will get done when it’s time to do it. No more stressing or agonizing over it.

Leave open space in your calendar for interruptions, putting out fires and for new and fun things to come into your life. If every minute of everyday is scheduled with something you have no room for anything new, fun and exciting to come into your life. Also, be sure to schedule time with your family, to exercise, to eat and organization time. Organization time is for things like going through your mail, doing your filing, cleaning and those sorts of things. This will help keep you organized and in balance.

Heidi is a professional organizer, creator of The Fast-Filing Method home filing system, & publisher of Life Made Simple e-Magazine. Heidi energizes her readers’ lives by teaching effective organizational systems to help you accomplish more & GAIN peace of mind! Visit ClearSimpleLiving.com to get a complimentary subscription AND a FREE Home Organization Kit.

I’ve got some good news for you - staying organized is much easier than getting organized. To keep things in good order indefinitely, follow these six easy tips.

1) Don’t Put It Down, Put It Away - The Golden Rule of staying organized. Don’t just drop it on the desk-put it back in the place you’ve reserved for it. A couple of extra seconds spent doing that will save you time in the long run.

2) One In, One Out - For every new thing that comes into your home, donate, sell or throw away something older.

3) Make Sure Everything Has a Place - Find a reasonable “home” for new things –and keep them there.

4) Seasonally, Do a Clean Sweep - Four times a year, with laundry basket in hand, take an inventory of your house and garage. With each item ask yourself:

Do I use this item now or will I likely use it in the near future?

Is this item important or meaningful to me?

If you answered “no” to both of these questions then, donate, sell, or toss the item. Repair items that need repair and then return them to their designated places.

5) Police Your Closet — Look through everything in your closet and ask:

Does the item fit?

Is the item in good condition?

Is it in style?

If there are items in your closet that fail one or more of these questions, sell, donate, or toss them. If your weight regularly fluctuates and you think you will be able to wear an item in the near future, keep it in a separate section of your closet.

6) Get a free Home Organization e-Solutions Kit - It’s full of ideas and tips that will inspire you to, not only get organized, but to stay organized too. It’s available at http://www.ClearSimpleLiving.com.

Heidi is a professional organizer, creator of The Fast-Filing Method home filing system, & publisher of Life Made Simple e-Magazine. Heidi energizes her readers’ lives by teaching effective organizational systems to help you accomplish more & GAIN peace of mind! Visit ClearSimpleLiving.com to get a complimentary subscription AND a FREE Home Organization Kit.