Being busy is a virtue, as long as you are being productive and not spinning your wheels! For some individuals who are always on the go, a question keeps arising. How does one manage to get a good workout most days of the week, while fitting exercise into an already crowded schedule?

It’s a question that’s been plaguing modern women since the dawn of the modern era. Even if your schedule is packed, there’s no need to feel you have to sacrifice work to maintain your fitness. Likewise, you do not have to give up your exercise program in order to thrive at work (or school) and at home.

Be In Charge and Change Your Perspective: For those who forego exercise because they dread the activity, maybe a new point of view is all that’s needed to get moving and to feel good about it.

It’s useful to “think of working out as something enjoyable,” according to Patrick Hammond, a running coach quoted by Polar. “Never think of it as something you have to do, but instead as something you want to do. This has worked for me for the past 24 years.” A small change in point of view can have a big effect on your life.

1. Commit to the Workout Schedule You Devise

Sticking to a schedule for exercise is crucial. If you don’t plan your workouts, exercise time will likely fall through the cracks as you turn your focus to pressing work matters.

So, treat your workouts as being just as important as the conference calls you schedule.

2. Try Different Workouts to See Which Approach Integrates Best With Work and Home Life

Maybe you like jogging or running. Or, perhaps group sports are more your style. You won’t know until you try various exercises and activities.

3. Set Specific Goals to Promote Fitness

Instead of having a vague idea of “getting in better shape,” write down goals with specific ideas in mind. For example, you want to lose 8 pounds over the next three months. 

Or, you would like to be able to cut down the time it takes you to walk one mile. Working toward a goal will keep you going even when your busy schedule is calling for you to skip exercising.

4. Get Even Healthier By Hydrating Regularly, and Eating Better

People sometimes eat more when actually they are more thirsty than in need of a meal. This is a reminder to stay hydrated. 

Carry a water bottle with you if you are trying to avoid sodas and other sugar drinks. And improving your meal choices will help you maintain fitness, even when you are low on free time.

5. Be Accountable to Somebody

It’s harder to get away with skipping your exercise if a friend or relative (or even a coworker who also wants to improve fitness) knows about your schedule. 

He or she will ask how your workout went that day. If you explain that you ditched spin class or just weren’t in the mood to go for a run that morning, you’ll have some explaining to do.

6. Go Easy On Yourself

Don’t give yourself grief if you miss a scheduled workout. Just recognize that it happened, and try to do better the next time. You’re already subject to enough stress because of your busy lifestyle. Don’t compound the problem by feeling bad because you had a minor setback!

If you’re like many busy women with a family, oftentimes you wish you were more productive at work and at home. 

Running around all day and not getting as much done as you’d like (or need) can put a damper on your mental health, to be sure. But there are many things you can start doing today to boost productivity. You can also take better care of yourself and get more done by trying the following 10 helpful tips:

1. Discuss your feelings with a close friend or relative

Getting things off of your chest provides a great deal of relief. You’ll know you’re not alone. Just being heard will help you start to feel better. Your friend may have some good advice, but at minimum, will lend a sympathetic ear. We can all use that at some time or another.

2. Take sick days, mental health days, and vacation days

Sometimes, individuals are so pressed for time, they don’t take off time from work when they are genuinely under the weather. And it’s tempting to put off vacation days, thinking you will just cash them in when it’s time to leave the job. Make use of your time off on a regular basis. When you need time for yourself, it’s perfectly justifiable to take a mental health day.

3. Stay connected or reconnect with your dearest friends

They will help ground you as well as remind you of what’s important in your life and what you can ignore in times of stress.

4. Ask for help

If people around you don’t know you need assistance, whether at work or in your personal life, don’t expect them to be mind readers!

5. Give yourself a reward when you deserve it

Just met a major project deadline, received a promotion or raise? It’s time to celebrate! And you’ll find your mental health lifting more when you celebrate successes with loved ones.

6. Be mindful, or start learning how to practice mindfulness

Centering yourself and tuning into your environment, taking it all in, is a recipe for a more relaxed mental state.

7. Change your schedule to better meet your mental health needs

For example, if you notice that you enjoy exercise before work on random days when you can manage to fit in a session, start getting up a little earlier (consistently) and try your new schedule on for size.

8. Devise routines to start and end your day

What you do in the morning to prepare for your day may include a hearty breakfast and some coffee or tea, exercise, or just diving right into your emails before you even think of sticking a fork into the first meal of the day. And to help you unwind at night and preserve your mental resiliency, have rituals for the end of the night too, such as taking a bath, walking your dog, or watching a movie, sprawled out on the couch.

9. Accept and love yourself for who you are now

A positive self-image does wonders for your productivity, as you will feel more capable and confident. And self-acceptance is key for improving your state of mind.

10. Visit a counselor to discuss your situation

If you are finding it hard to break out of a rut or otherwise experience trouble staying centered and getting productive. An objective, empathetic third party can help you see yourself better, to make changes more easily.

Here’s hoping that these 10 tips will be beneficial in helping you become more productive and feel a boost in your mental health too!

Living in chaos (or just being messy and disorganized) can take a toll on your mental and physical health. While some individuals prefer to keep things loose, in the long run, they may be at risk for running themselves ragged without some structure in place.

Consider how much time you spend looking for lost things such as car keys or your phone, delaying your journey. 

Or if you want to run an errand to shop for items in two stores, but forget to make a stop along the way at a third business, it means you have to go out again. This wastes time, fuel, and attention. And having to make up a trip could mean taking time out of another important task that day.

Here is information about why and how to better structure your day and boost your health.

1. Give yourself a break from time to time

If you don’t step away from your demanding tasks, whether at work, school, or home, you could wind up exhausted, leaving you more vulnerable to getting sick. Take regular breaks, turning away from your tools, computer, or customers so you can rest and recharge, every day.

2. Reduce your working hours, if possible

While you may not have much flexibility at your job today, see if you can minimize your hours by arranging for some flex time or to work from home. But if your job can’t accommodate your need to work less, for the sake of your health, it might be time to start looking for another job or even change your career path.

3. Try some gentle movement

Instead of sitting in the break room or watching short videos on your phone while eating lunch, consider going for a nice walk for half of your mealtime break. You’ll look forward to getting some fresh air. Punctuating your workday with exercise as well as nutritious meals will give you some structure.

4. Focus on eating nutritious foods

Junk food from vending machines, fast food, and dodgy food trucks may give you a quick hit of calories, but it’s not really a substitute for proper, healthy meals. You can pack your own vegetables and fruits from home for snacks, and find healthier restaurants near your workplace.

5. Do something restorative, just for you

Maybe a trip to a day spa with a friend, or attending a cultural event like a great movie, play, or concert is what you need to unwind and have some fun. Or, look for a fun adult education class in your area. Perhaps you would like to learn about meditation, yoga, or how to do a certain type of exercise. These are examples of restorative activities that can serve as springboards for your imagination.

6. For Better Health, People Add Structure to Make the Most Out of Each Day

It’s not always so easy to carve time out of your busy schedule to take care of yourself too. Making a habit to structure your daily tasks will give you more freedom, so you can be productive as well as get the rest you deserve and need.

If your response to the need for time management is to start shopping online for a watch that has 25 hours instead of the standard 24, maybe it’s time to get serious about how you allocate minutes and hours to your daily tasks.

Here is an insight into how time management can help you cut down on stress, keeping it to a more manageable level.

1. Managing Time Helps You Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed

When you have way too many items on your to-do list and you can tell it will just make you frustrated trying to cope with every agenda item, it’s time to employ time management. Otherwise, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. 

People who are overwhelmed find it difficult to envision solutions to their time-crunch problems. Stepping back and taking an objective look at all of the impositions on your hours and minutes is the first task in managing your time.

2. Time Management Definitely Helps You Feel More in Control

One reason individuals start to panic when their tasks become impossible to finish in the allotted amount of time is the sense of growing chaos. Feeling out of control does no one any good. So, using lists to break down your daily duties will really be a big help. So will evaluating your to-do items, and seeing which are truly necessary on a particular day or week to finish. 

You might need practice in refusing to accept invitations when you really don’t have any time to spare. Your friends and family will understand that you have to prioritize where you spend your time. They have the same issues to cope with as you do, after all.

3. Improving Efficiency Is a Direct Result of Proper Time Management

Maybe you are doing things haphazardly, without enough organization. Being able to view yourself clearly is important when it comes to figuring out how much time you have to do things. Aim for efficiency. This could come by you cutting items out of your list of responsibilities. 

In some cases, it might be worthwhile to hire someone to take care of certain tasks, such as grocery shopping with an app instead of going to the store yourself, or hiring a housekeeper when you are choosing between an hour of sanity for yourself or the prospect of cleaning the kitchen when you really need to lie down or meditate.

4. With Enough Time to Get Important Things Done, You Can Finally Get Sufficient Sleep

If the idea of getting a good night’s sleep has been evading you lately, you’ll be happy to hear that managing time will be instrumental in you getting to bed by a decent hour, going forward. 

And when you start to get the sleep you need daily (and enough rest during the day), you’ll feel much better and in control. A simple change, such as cutting out a talk show at night so you can get ready for bed earlier, will have a ripple effect where you have less anxiety about getting the correct amount of rest.

5. Reducing Stress Will Help You Stay Happier and Healthier

Cutting down on your levels of stress should be a top priority since it will help you get more out of home life as well as work life. Being a busy person doesn’t mean you need to feel stressed out all of the time. With careful planning and ensuring you get proper sleep every day, you’ll be well on your way to a less stressful lifestyle.

The tips from the infographic below are from a long-term supporter of GOW, Terry Currie. Terry wrote articles for GOW many times over the years and deliver GOW courses to her local community centre in the USA.

Most everyone you meet will say “Yes,” when asked if they want to become more productive. It’s a great idea, but how do you go about managing your available time when you are trying to grow more productive? 

Here is a way to become more efficient in time management with an eye toward becoming a more productive person at work and at home.

1.Set Daily Goals:

The thing about setting goals every day is so you can have a record of what you are trying to accomplish, which you can then keep track of to see how well you are actually doing. 

Your productivity goals won’t mean much if you aren’t able to analyze how your time usage matches the goals you set.

2. Focus on One Task at a Time:

Your main issue might have to do with multitasking. Perhaps narrowing your focus will get you better results. Pick the most crucial tasks, with the most looming deadlines to focus on first. 

You might be delightfully surprised to find yourself completing three items on your to-do list faster, one in a row, than if you kept switching back and forth from one to the other, in between taking phone calls or answering emails that keep arriving.

3. Develop a Schedule:

Without a fixed timetable, it’s easy for things to fall through the cracks. Don’t just schedule work tasks or errands such as going to the bank or dry cleaners. You’ll also want to schedule things like going for a run before breakfast or making time to have lunch with a friend mid-week.

4. Find Ways to Deal With Stress:

Coming up with a healthy and smart way to reduce stress will be a big factor in your time management skills. A stressed-out person can’t think as clearly as a calm individual. 

So, when you are feeling stressed, you won’t be able to be as productive. Listening to books on tape, watching an engrossing movie and exercising are all examples of ways to minimize stress wisely.

5. Set More Realistic Deadlines:

If your deadlines are impossible to meet because of time constraints or you need input from someone else and it won’t be available, that’s a sign that you need more efficient time management. Look at past examples of tasks and how long they truly took to accomplish. Then use those times to fill in your schedule with a more realistic timetable.

Now Is the Time to Manage Your Time More Efficiently, for Better Productivity

Procrastination is a state of mind that you’ll want to shake off in order to become more productive as you learn time management skills and practice them. Be kind to yourself. Just recognizing that you need to become more efficient is a great sign that you’ll succeed. 

After all, there are plenty of people who have no clue about why they are always falling behind or never seeming to be as productive as their available time would indicate. With stress reduction techniques and a new plan to make your deadlines actually feasible, you’ll know what keeps you stuck and what things you can do to make better use of your productive time.

There is always a tug of war between all of the chores we have at home and the work that we must take care of at our jobs. For many moms, this is a particularly difficult problem. 

That’s especially true for those who are involved in homeschooling while also coping with work-from-home setups put in place during the start of the global coronavirus pandemic that causes COVID-19 infections.

Here are some tips to help you balance your family life and your professional life: 

1. Set Boundaries

Job 1 will be to establish clear boundaries between family life and work life. This is easier said than done when you are working from home, of course. But you need to make boundaries because otherwise, one world will intrude on the other. 

Put a sign on your office door at home when you are having a video conference or need to focus without interruption. By the same token, do not check emails after work hours or respond to business-related texts or calls when it’s family time.

2. Accept Imbalance

Sometimes, the imbalance is impossible to avoid. Go with the flow and realize that eventually, things will sort themselves out and you will be a happier person. 

3. Negotiate Flex Hours

If you are burning the candle at both ends, speak with your manager about working with more flexible hours. That way, you don’t have to worry about meeting your job quota by a certain hour if you need to take your child to the dentist or have to go to a parent-child meeting in the middle of the day. 

When flex-hour scheduling is not possible, see if you can arrange to work part-time, to give yourself some buffer between work and home duties.

4. Limit Your After-Work Involvement

You can’t do it all, especially when both work and home are already clamoring for attention. So cut down on activities after school or after work, such as meeting for drinks or going to a charity fundraiser when you’d rather have quality time playing games with your family.

5. Work Toward Inner Peace

When you feel calm and unperturbed by the day’s events, it will play a huge role in balancing family and professionalism. Meditation, prayer, and yoga are examples of ways to work toward this sense of peace.

You’ll find that inner peace plays a big role in balancing professionalism and family.

6. Stop Procrastinating

Avoid procrastination now! This is definitely not a task to put off, by definition. You’ll want to prioritize things that are most important, and then and plan to do them at specific dates and times. Doing so will actually give you more free time.

7. Behold the Power of Saying ‘No’

By cultivating a habit of saying “No!” to matters that are unimportant, you’ll be carving away more precious “me” time and time with family.

8. Keeping Life in Balance Is An Ongoing Project!

No matter how busy things might get, following these tips to help restore the balance between work duties and home duties should go a long way toward you become relaxed. Achieving balance isn’t always going to be easy. 

But you can get better with practice.  With an improved work-life balance, you’ll be more able to engage with your loved ones as well as with your colleagues on the job.

Wise time management is vital to productivity and helps you meet deadlines or complete all of the tasks that need to be done each day. It may also allow you to experience less stress or stop feeling overwhelmed by commitments. Try to follow these simple tips:

1. Create daily to-do lists

Make a list of tasks you can finish today, including parts of larger projects. People often find it rewarding to check off each item as they complete it. The list also provides a record of what you’ve accomplished. You can use paper or a basic computer program like Notepad or TextEdit.

2. Set priorities logically

Some things on your to-do list hold greater importance than others. You could put them at the top of the list, circle them or use a highlighter. Generally, these tasks are essential or must be done soon. Paying taxes on time is a higher priority than seeking new customers.

3. Start taking micro-breaks

Before you move from one task to another, take a micro-break lasting one to five minutes. Study data reveals that this can improve your health, reduce stress and boost concentration. Here are some examples of things to do during micro-breaks:

• Stretch
• Eat a snack
• Make coffee
• Look outside
• Play a song
• Walk around

4. Learn how to say “no”

When a family member, friend, client, or co-worker asks you to do something that will take a significant amount of time, it isn’t always realistic to say “yes.” Don’t let people pressure you to answer right away. Find out if you truly have enough time to spare. If not, politely say “no” and briefly explain why.

5. Set smart goals for yourself

Create goals that are specific, not general. Don’t set yourself up for failure with unrealistic plans. It should be possible to measure your progress and determine if you’ve reached a goal. For instance, you could aim to file all of your unfiled papers by the end of the day.

6. Try using a calendar app

Calendars make it much easier to keep track of appointments and deadlines. You could use a paper booklet, desktop computer software, or a smartphone app. Some apps are free while others cost less than $10. Try to find software that doesn’t always need internet access, especially if you travel.

7. Minimize distractions

Technology can help you manage time, but it could also distract you constantly. Adjust your settings so that you don’t get notified of every new email or social media message as it arrives. Tell people to call you on the phone if they truly need to reach you immediately.

8. Set specific deadlines

When setting your own deadlines, it’s best to choose exact times and dates. They can motivate you and help you avoid putting things off. Consider rewarding yourself in some way for meeting them. Deadlines shouldn’t be so soon that they cause excessive stress or provide so much time that you work slowly.

If you follow these tips consistently, your day will go more smoothly and you can focus on what really matters. Remember that GetOrganizedWizard.com is always here to help when you have difficulty managing the many tasks and responsibilities of a busy life.

Sometimes people grow frustrated when they are living in a small space and need to set up a home office. For many, it’s their first time with a work-from-home or WFH arrangement. But there’s no need to fret. Here are suggestions to help you organize your home office even when space is limited.

1.Work under your staircase:

Just because you don’t happen to have a spare room to turn into a full-fledged home office, you can set up a nice workspace in the area below your staircase. Instead of leaving this area barren, it can become a place to earn an income.

2.Try using a dividing wall to distinguish work from home:

This is a time-honored method to make the most out of cramped quarters. Keeping the non-work area out of sight helps you to concentrate on the tasks at hand.

3.Opt for a loft bed:

You only sleep for about 1/3 of your life, so why let valuable space be devoted to a bed when it’s not in use? This is where a loft bed can make a big difference. It lets you sleep out of the way while having plenty of room for an office below. Of course, you will need to be comfortable about going up and down stairs or a ladder to get in and out of bed.

4.Manage your cables:

A tangled mess of cables for your printer, computer, fax machine, and other pieces of equipment make the office less easy to use. Gather cables with a series of ties to keep them out of the way. Using colored labels helps you quickly track a particular cable to its device.

5.Set boundaries with the people you share the space with:

Other people living in your home, whether family or roommates, need to be aware they should respect your work time and workspace. Tell them your working hours and ask them to avoid knocking or otherwise disturbing you. If you are working in a common area

6.Mount furniture on the wall:

A murphy bed is another approach if you want to save space but do not have a loft. It folds into the wall when not in use. You can also install wall-mounted cabinets or shelving, or even mount a desk to a wall.

7.Adopt wireless tech:

For those who cannot abide by loose cables spanning their desk and office floor, a wireless mouse, keyboard, and headphones mean you have less stuff to clutter up the area.

8.Use a desk-riser to make a standing desk setup:

Not only will you be in better shape from standing more than sitting, but you also make more use of the limited room in your office area.

9.A Comfortable Home Office to Do Your Best Work

A clean, organized space with good lighting and a comfortable chair positioned so you can view your computer monitor without turning your neck is essential for work-from-home success. Using these tips, from wall-mounted furniture to freeing up the room with a loft bed will make your home office a much more pleasant place to work.

A cluttered office can make you feel nervous, especially if you aren’t sure exactly where all your files are stored. That’s a recipe for disaster if you are on deadline and can’t find some missing documentation.

You can’t expect to get much work done if your home office is filled with junk. Unfortunately, it’s easy for people to gradually accumulate more and more objects, from knick-knacks to tools, printed books, and other reference materials. Before they know it, the office is filled with clutter. 

If you’re the sort of person who becomes anxious around clutter, you have another good reason to declutter your home office. Here are tips to make your job easier.

1.Create a mail station:

Incoming mail is a major source of clutter. Put letters in a designated station and sort through them daily, discarding junk and responding to what’s important now.

2.Reduce paper clutter and go paperless:

Chances are that many of the printed pages you keep in your home office now are not really needed. It’s so much easier to search through digital documents with your computer. Eliminate as many paper documents as you can.

3.Invest in a good labeling system:

Labeling your files makes them easier to see at a glance and is more efficient than writing them by hand. You can use a handheld label maker or computer software to produce labels that output from your computer. You can change the font and color to help make the labels stand out better.

4.Separate important documents by type:

Put the most important documents in special categories, such as pending bills, contracts, research materials, and schedules. That way, they’ll be easier for you to find when you need them and you won’t have to sort through a lot of unwanted documents.

5.Set up a color code for your filing system:

Colors provide extra information to help you quickly locate what you need or where to put a new document that you receive or generate. For example, use green for financial files, orange for personal records, yellow for your insurance documents, and blue for items that relate to the house itself.

6.Digitize old paper files:

Any documents that are old and seldom consulted are probably good candidates for digitization. Your combination fax machine/printer likely has a scanning option. Use optical character recognition software to convert the scanned documents into machine-readable text.

7.Make better use of your wall space:

There likely is plenty of unused space right in front of you. Walls are ideal for storing files. You can use shelves to keep active files out in the open and ready for access, compared to older files that you may still need to hold onto still and can go to the back of a filing cabinet. 

8.Keep the Office Free of Clutter, Going Forward

Once you clean out your office and get it nice and organized with the help of a filing system, chances are you’ll be motivated to keep it free of clutter. It’s easier to relax and think when everything has its place in your office.

Working from home is increasingly common and has had a substantial impact on productivity. A recent study found that it makes employees about 5 percent more productive on average, according to Bloomberg. However, some home offices are far more efficient than others. Your specific equipment and environment have a major influence on the work that you’re able to accomplish.

1.Why it matters

When you can focus on your occupation and complete tasks efficiently, it doesn’t just help you keep your job in the short term. It also has valuable long-term benefits. High-quality work and greater productivity may lead to higher wages or full-time employment. While managers rarely promoted staff members who worked at home in the past, promotions have become more common since 2020.

2.Getting Organized

A cluttered desk doesn’t just look unsightly. It reduces your efficiency because you spend too much time searching for specific documents and small pieces of equipment. It can take hours to set up an effective filing system, discard unneeded papers and find places to store each item. Nonetheless, it’s worth investing this effort to boost productivity every day in the future.

3.Office Equipment

The right tools also make a big difference. Things like a file cabinet, comfortable chair, and well-designed computer keyboard hold considerable value. Don’t try to work from the sofa or kitchen table, even if you’re only working from home temporarily. This equipment can also help you become as productive as possible:

• Desk lamp and organizer
• Spacious, ergonomic desk
• Hole-punch, three-ring binder
• Separate mouse or trackball
• Reliable high-quality pens

4.Interruptions

Not unlike a traditional office, your home may present distractions that stop you from concentrating. Family members, roommates, neighbors, pets and nearby traffic can create such problems. It’s crucial to firmly explain that your employer expects you to work uninterrupted. Headphones may help block noise you don’t have any control over.

If there’s a way to set up your office in its own room or building, this is one of the best ways to raise productivity. It reduces interruptions because people can easily tell that you’re working. You could also keep work-related papers and equipment organized better if they stay separate and don’t move from room to room.

5.Daily Scheduling

Many individuals find that a predictable schedule improves productivity. Like a separate space, this helps other people recognize when you’re working (and avoid creating distractions). It also makes you less likely to mix office and household tasks. To avoid burnout, remember to schedule breaks and don’t allow your job to take over the entire day or week.

Your office environment can truly make the difference between completing tasks efficiently and missing deadlines or producing lackluster work. It’s wise to invest the time and money needed to fully equip and organize this space. You could also benefit from taking steps to separate your personal and professional lives as much as possible.

The key to any successful office will be how well it is organized. If you can’t find items quickly, you are losing time and money. 

Even the most fastidious people can slip up and find themselves working amid a sea of clutter. Here are some home office organization ideas that you can employ to banish clutter and work more effectively.

1. Keep a Calendar to Remind You to Clean the Office Weekly

The same calendar that you use to plan upcoming business tasks and appointments can also help you keep the space clean and neat. Whether you prefer to neaten it up on Sundays to start the work week fresh, or would rather clean on a weekday, as long as you stick to a schedule, you can count on your workspace remaining free of clutter.

2. Use Paper Holders to Corral Your Documents

If you regularly deal with a lot of paper and its documentation that you cannot leave as digital files, you can tame the mess by using paper holders strategically. The top shelf can be for outgoing correspondence, while the bottom shelf is noted for a conference and the middle shelf is background material for you to look at later in the week.

3. Stick With Simple, Clean Accessories for Your Desk

You don’t want a crowded desk. That just makes everything harder to find when you need it. For example, a cup to hold pens and pencils is appropriate, next to a sticky note pad dispenser. Items you seldom use would go into a drawer. But if you use your stapler throughout the workday, it’s an accessory you’ll keep out in the open.

4. Make Use of Space-saving Shelves

Your walls have plenty of room to hold items, from gear, extra cables for your devices, reference books, and a few decorations.

5. Divide Drawers for Better Organization

Your desk drawers may be open, with items scattered all over. From postage stamps, spare coins, extra writing instruments, rubber bands, and other essentials, it’s best if you add drawer dividers. Then it will be simple to find what you’re looking for, instead of making someone wait on hold on the phone while you rummage around for items.

6. Mount Your Desk to a Wall

You can free up space by mounting a desk to the wall. You can fold it up with small nooks for various items like pens and notepads when not in use. Rather than facing a messy desk, you’ll see a clean rectangle on the wall that folds down whenever you need to write.

Staying Clean and Clutter-free Every Day of the Year

Daily cleaning may be a bit ambitious. But with proper organization, you can reduce the amount of time needed to keep everything straight.

Your desire to get rid of clutter in your home office is admirable. Remember to go easy on yourself if you happen to forget to clean the space one weekend. As long as you get into the habit of staying organized (with a place for everything and of course, everything in its place), you’ll enjoy a cleaner office that helps you get your work done with less stress.

Working from home doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice productivity. While you very well might enjoy more support when working at a company, there are things you can change to be more productive in work-from-home situations.

1. Maintain Barriers

Ideally, if you have sufficient room, aim to divide your home office from your living space. This helps you transition into work mode in the morning and then at night, you can decompress more easily if you actually physically leave the work area.

2. Get a Comfortable Chair

Find a chair that’s rated for comfortable office use for 8 hours plus. You want an ergonomic design so that your body isn’t forced to reposition at an awkward angle.

3. Build decluttering into your schedule

You may have to find the motivation to throw out unneeded items or gather up a messy pile of documents, but summoning the energy now will make removing clutter easier and faster than if you keep putting off this essential chore.

4. Invest in comfortable peripherals

Use a keyboard that’s ergonomically designed for maximum comfort, and consider using a trackpad instead of a mouse that you have to grasp. While you’re at it, remember to use wrist pads to protect your tendons and nerves while typing and moving the mouse.

5. Say it instead of writing

Use a speech-to-text app on your smartphone or computer when you have an idea, need to write a memo, or craft an email response. You can probably speak much faster than you can write. This saves wear and tear on your hands, a boon for those who must type all day.

6. Figure out a schedule that helps you work most effectively

If you’re a morning person, you may want to hold video conference calls at the start of the day so you can focus on quieter tasks in the afternoon. You might slot in a walk around the block every day at 1015 a.m. instead of taking a coffee break

7. Bring in more oxygen

You can go green by putting a potted plant in your office space at home. Greenery can help calm you down when work becomes stressful. 

8. Give Your Eyes a Break

Many office workers will follow the 20-20-20 rule. This has you looking away from your computer or phone’s screen once every 20 minutes, to gaze at something 20 feet away, for a period of 20 seconds. This helps your eyesight since you’re not focusing on a screen just inches from your face all day.

Install some good audio speakers and connect them to your music player or a streaming service. Cranking up your favorite tunes can energize you and lift your mood, making for increased productivity.

Set a timer (such as on your watch) to control how long you speak on the phone. It’s easy to get distracted, but getting stuck with someone who wants to chatter all morning could cause you to scramble during the afternoon to meet a deadline.

An Organized Home Office Is Easier to Clean and Keep Free of Clutter

Taking some time now to make your office organized and more productive means you can work smarter, accomplishing more tasks in fewer hours. When you see how much nicer it is to do your work in a clean and uncomplicated space, it will motivate you to declutter on a regular basis. 

It’s easy to get so wrapped up in your career that your life starts to get out of balance. While it’s tempting to think it’s a simple matter that the more you work each day, the more rewards you will reap, there is a point of diminishing returns you’ll need to take into account. 

In other words, the benefits of toiling for long hours won’t be able to offset the harm caused by overwork. Reduced productivity is a real risk when you spend more time at work than you do anyplace else.

Here is an insight into why productivity will increase for people who maintain a healthy work-life balance:

1. Reduces Stress

Work can be stressful even for people who make a point of not taking their work home with them. But when the work-life ratio is out of proportion, stress will increase. 

The amount of cortisol flowing in your system is boosted under stress, and an increase in cortisol makes it harder for people to do their job properly. Making matters worse, when you’re under stress, you tend to make more mistakes, which leads to frustration, adding to the stress even further.

2. Prevents Burnout

Overwork and feeling cut off from your personal life is a recipe for job burnout. Individuals who throw themselves into their job without regard to getting sufficient rest and spending time away from the office wind up burning out. And a burned-out employee will tend to feel depressed and tired, to the point where he or she feels it would be impossible to come into work at all. With a more balanced approach, however, employees are unlikely to feel burned out.

3. Proper Work-Life Balance Improves Mental Health and Well Being

A person’s state of mind certainly depends on whether they are feeling stressed or are being unduly burdened. By arranging to divide your time more equitably between your career and your home life, you can avoid debilitating anger, depression, and overall stress. Contented individuals make for employees who stay on top of their game.

4. Improves Motivation

If you’ve been feeling less motivated at your job than usual these days, the problem may have to do with you spending too much time at work and not enough time for yourself, family, and friends. Poor motivation leads to poor job performance, which is a risky situation to get into. You’ll be more productive when you feel motivated to do a good job and to demonstrate your skills, knowledge, and abilities.

5. Scheduling Some Time to Strike a Healthy Balance

For individuals who have a tough time striking a good balance between work and life, it’s worthwhile to build time into their schedule (including making calendar entries) to relax and do things that have nothing to do with their job. 

The same tools you use to schedule your work efforts can also help you to organize your home life, making more time for you and your loved ones. And when you are living more harmoniously, you can count on your productivity to improve.

There’s plenty of work to do in your home and your main task now is to figure out who in your family will do what chores, and when. The trick is in reinforcing the idea of getting routine chores done on a consistent basis. 

Instead of just telling each person what they’re responsible for doing, it’s useful to  make a chore chart and put it on display. That way, everyone is clear on what he or she is supposed to be doing. There will be no questions, since the chart is there to list what tasks to focus on. 

Here’s how to set up and follow the chart so your family will get the most out of it.

1. Set Rules for Chores

Establish details such as when a chore must be done, like mow the lawn before dinner time, and set clear conditions, such as no internet or TV until chores are done for the day.

2. Tailor Chores to Appropriate Age Level

Think of the difficulty and amount of responsibility needed for doing different types of chores and match your kids by age level to these tasks. One kid might be careful enough to wash and dry dishes, while another is more suited to raking the lawn or washing the car. A larger, older child is more capable of running a vacuum machine than a smaller child.

3. Decide on a Visual Approach that Everyone Understands

How should the chore chart appear? You might use different colors for each kid to help them identify what they’re responsible for. A chore chart could focus on the day’s activities, or a week, or a month, depending on your family’s preferences. At the bare minimum, you’re looking to assemble a list of chores corresponding to who takes care of them. 

How detailed the chart is, including the time and day or date to finish chores is something you can test different versions of to see what works best for your family.

4. Place Chore Charts in a Visible Location

If your kids don’t easily see the chart, you can’t expect their chores to be top of mind. Post the chart prominently, such as on the wall in your kitchen, or on maybe on the hallway outside the children’s bedrooms.

5. Provide Incentives for Completed Chores

In addition to penalties for not doing chores (like no TV/Internet), it’s useful to consider incentives to motivate positive behavior. Examples include:

• Getting to watch an extra 30 minutes of television

• Deciding what restaurant to go to for the next family dinner

• Picking the game you play during the next game night 

It will be fun to come up with your own rewards to dangle in front of your young ones as incentives.

6. Motivating Your Family to Take the Chore Chart Seriously

Once you set up a chore chart and get your family accustomed to following it, you’ll be delighted to see your home becoming more organized and easy to live in. That makes a chore chart a worthy goal for any family to set up and use to stay neat.

With so many types of tableware, small appliances and ingredients, a kitchen can sometimes become the most cluttered part of your home. Unfortunately, this harms the room’s appearance and makes it hard to find things you really need. These quick tips can help you declutter more easily and efficiently:

1. Purpose

Keep the main purpose of your kitchen in mind. It’s a place to store food and prepare meals. Be careful not to let too many unrelated things accumulate in this room, such as keys, music CDs, homework, clothing, boxes or mail.

It might make sense to keep keys in your kitchen if it’s where your front door is located, but you ought to designate a specific bowl or drawer for them. Other items like bills and seldom-used cookbooks belong elsewhere. If you don’t have a good place for them, think about buying a bookcase or filing cabinet.

2. Equipment

Counters often hold too many gadgets and appliances, leaving little workspace. Take the time to banish any equipment that’s broken, redundant, primarily decorative or not really useful. Avoid keeping specialised appliances that only prepare one kind of food. Possible ways to declutter:

• Sell or donate useful items
• Ask friends if they want it
• Throw away useless belongings
• Recycle glass and metal

It’s also easy to accumulate too many pots, potholders, mugs, glasses, plates, cutting boards and so on. Consider storing seasonal or holiday-themed items elsewhere. Give away any items you never use. Remember that you can buy disposable plates and utensils for occasional parties.

3. Cabinets

If your kitchen cabinets remain crowded with genuinely useful items, consider installing more shelving between or above the existing shelves. This is normally feasible unless you have a lot of tall mugs. You could also save space by using stackable bowls and cups; glasses and ceramic mugs occupy more space. A storage bin or recipe box might be helpful.

Consider buying microwave-safe glass storage containers that you can use to cook, store and eat food. When possible, avoid using different containers for each task in the meal preparation process. This approach will result in less washing and fewer items cluttering your cabinets, drawers and sink.

4. The Sink

Strive to have a clean, empty sink at the end of each day. Don’t let food residues and grimy dishes pile up. The task will become burdensome and you’ll be more likely to put it off. Consider washing a few plates and utensils at a time.

5. Leftovers

Don’t forget that food can also become clutter. Every month, set aside some time to look at all of the items in your refrigerator and cupboards. Discard any ingredients that have expired or grown mould. The same goes for leftovers you don’t ever plan to consume.

As you declutter the kitchen, try to make often-used items easier to access. Things that you only use occasionally can be placed near the back of a cabinet or drawer. Don’t get overwhelmed; focus on one step at a time and think about writing a to-do list.

When it comes to getting enough exercise, you might not feel like you have enough time in the day to work out. But that’s really not the case. You can turn a lot of your everyday activities into forms of exercise, so you can keep moving, burn calories, get stronger, and still get all your household tasks completed. Not sure how to get started? There are lots of routines you can create for yourself, depending on what you typically do around the house each day. Here are a few ideas to get your household chore workout routine started.

1. Cleaning Can be Great Exercise

As you clean your home, you can also be getting exercise. Just the act of cleaning is good enough to burn some calories, and it’s far better than sitting when it comes to health and activity levels. But if you want to do more than just move around a little, you can also find ways to make your cleaning more of a workout. There are two ways to do that. One is through more effort in the actual cleaning, and the other is through incorporating actual exercises into your cleaning routine. Both can be very valuable.

2. Do Chores and Workouts at the Same Time

Adding exercises to chores isn’t always difficult, and there are a lot of creative ways to do it. For example, you can do squats while you’re folding laundry, so you’re not taking any extra time out of your day for one task or the other. You can also dance while dusting, vacuum for at least 20 minutes at a time without stopping, and clean windows with large, consistent arm circles to feel the burn. Doing things like planks and pushups while cooking is another great way to get more of a workout.

3. Plan Your Household Cleaning Around Exercise

You can also plan your household cleaning and other chores around getting exercise. In other words, if you know you’ll be going for a walk, consider what you can walk to and what you can bring back. If the store is close by, for example, walking to get the groceries you need, and then exercising while you’re meal prepping or cooking, is a great way to incorporate both of these important tasks into your day. You can also use putting away canned goods as a way to lift weights, for example. Creativity is key.

4. Make Sure to Take Some Downtime

Even though it’s great to exercise while doing household chores, don’t forget to take some time off. If you’ve done squats with the laundry one day, you may want to give your legs a rest the next day. How much downtime you need depends on how intense your workout is and how often you’re doing it. Some people do household chores each day, so their house stays clean. If you’re doing that, consider a cleaning routine where you can work your legs on certain days, arms on other days, etc. That can be a great way to have a clean house, while staying healthy and active, too.

Some people believe that chores are unnecessary; kids should be kids! Other people believe that chores are absolutely essential to building a responsible adult. The truth is that chores are important, but how they are presented is just as important.

1. Chores Help Children Learn Responsibility and Self-Reliance

A chore isn’t a punishment. A chore is, in some ways, a privilege. Cleaning a room shows pride and responsibility and is a way to display someone’s gratitude for what they have. Children should understand not only that they “need to do” chores but why people do chores. A great example: You take care of a prized toy so that it continues to function and so that you have it for a longer amount of time. When children are taught chores, they are better able to take care of themselves in the future.

2. Chores Are a Great Way for a Family to Bond

Having a “cleaning day,” cooking together, and organizing together should be seen as a fun family activity, not something to avoid or moan about. It’s part of quality time and can be a teaching moment. Children will learn more about how to care for things and how to complete tasks such as making a sandwich or baking cookies. The more time children spend with their parents completing activities and tasks, the more they generally thrive.

Young children may not be able to do much but organize their own toys. But even doing that can help them with their intellectual processing. Where do small toys go? Where do larger toys go? Is there a bin so that you can sort them by color?

3. So Why Do Children Often Resist Chores?

If chores can be fun and teach children independence, why is it so hard to get children to complete chores? Well, as adults we’re often not very wild about chores either. That’s especially true when we perceive chores as stopping us from doing the things we actually enjoy.

Often, children hate chores because chores are seen as a punishment. Too frequently, parents do use chores as a punishment; “You’re grounded and need to take out the trash this week.” Chores should never be seen as a punishment because it’s something that everyone will eventually need to do.

Children also shouldn’t see chores as optional, because that’s when they start to think about “other things they could be doing.” Rather than telling a child “Could you clean up your room?” tell your child something like “Either you can clean up your room now or clean it up after dinner.” Giving them a binary decision tree like this makes them feel like they’re in control, but they still ultimately have to complete the task.

Ultimately, chores are about as important to children as any other type of responsibility — what matters most is how you implement it. If chores are perceived as punishment, you can end up with children who are reluctant to take charge. If chores are something that the whole family does and something that they understand as both a responsibility and a right, they will be more receptive in the future.

If you’re the type of person who tends to joke around, wishing there were more hours in the day, it sounds like what you really are wishing for is a better way to organize how you spend your time.

After all, a person might begin the day with the best intentions, only to see plans to complete a list of tasks falling through. In such cases, it pays to examine what you are trying to do, focus on priorities and come up with a more realistic approach to doing what you can in the amount of time available.

With that in mind, here are tips for how you can get things done in proper time management.

1. What Is Time Management and How Important Is it?

If you’re a beginner at coming up with a system to organize your efforts, it’s good to get an overview of time management first. Time management is how you plan and organize your day, allocating minutes or hours to specific tasks. People use anything from simple paper calendars or electronic calendars and alarm apps on their computers and smartphones to help them stay on track.

2. Prioritizing Tasks Based on Importance and Urgency

What’s the most crucial thing you need to do today, or this week? For example, you have to work out a budget for the coming month, or have to pick up a relative from a doctor’s appointment, which will be more urgent to finish than putting up holiday decorations or steam cleaning your carpets. Lower-urgency tasks go on the list but are labeled as “optional” if you cannot get to them that day.

3. Starting the Day With a Clear Focus

When you wake up, give yourself a moment to consider the main tasks for the day, focusing on your priorities. This can give you energy and purpose to tackle the most pressing items first.

4. Plan Everything Ahead

It’s essential to plan ahead so you can ensure you have time as well as the ability (money, physical capability) to take on your various action items. You’ll have a better idea of how much time it will take to do them, and how finishing one task sets you up to begin on another.

5. Setting a Time Limit

If you don’t have a clear limit on how much time you’ll spend on a particular task, you run the risk of blowing the day on a project that doesn’t really justify the effort. Use a kitchen timer or the timer on your smartphone to set limits for activities to help you focus.

6. Stop Being Perfectionist

The last thing you’d want is for perfect becoming the enemy of good. That is, people can get bogged down trying to aim for perfection, when “good” will be quite sufficient.

7. Work Smart, Not Harder

At the heart of any plan to manage time is the idea of working smarter, rather than harder. As you can see, with some planning and a bit of forethought, you can organize your most important tasks first and see to it that you complete your to-do list more efficiently.

While some individuals have worked from home for decades, it’s a new experience for millions of people around the globe. Telecommuting certainly has some advantages; you can avoid illnesses and travel costs. Employers don’t need to rent as much office space. However, work-life balance often becomes a serious problem. Some individuals end up working all the time or very little. It’s particularly difficult for those with children or multiple pets. Fortunately, there are effective ways to balance your career with the rest of your life.

1. Setting Boundaries

If your job doesn’t have a predetermined schedule, you may benefit from creating your own daily timetable. Try to wake up at the same time each day and work the same hours when possible. Get dressed; a casual outfit is fine, but don’t wear pajamas all day. Avoid doing household tasks like vacuuming carpets or washing dishes during your work hours. If you don’t live alone, think about putting up a sign that tells people when you’re working. Certain situations make interruptions especially problematic; you could use a different sign during professional phone calls and online meetings.

2. Taking Breaks

When you’re working at home, you need breaks just as much as employees in shops and office buildings. This will improve your health and allow you to concentrate on tasks more easily. Remember to look far away and walk around; consider going outdoors if weather permits. Always set aside time for lunch. Even when you face a tight deadline, you shouldn’t have to eat meals in front of a computer. People become less productive when they work too many consecutive hours.

3. After Working

Definitively end your workday at a predictable time. Don’t go back and check your business email. Consider using separate email and social media accounts for personal purposes. If other people live in your home, tell them when you’re finished. Family and friends will be less likely to distract you if they can recognize the difference between your work hours and time off. Take a walk or do something relaxing at the end of your shift; don’t immediately switch to washing laundry or paying bills.

4. Separation

To limit distractions and interruptions, try to separate your office from the rest of your residence. This may also help you avoid thinking about work and household tasks at the wrong times. A separate room with a door is preferable. You could also use a partition to divide a large space. If you can still hear family members or neighbors, try wearing padded headphones. Possible office locations:

• Garage
• Motorhome
• Large closet
• Basement
• Attic

Telecommuting works better in some industries than others. The shift may be temporary or permanent depending on your specific job and employer. As with any major transition, it takes time for people to fully adjust. Try to remain open to gradually finding the best techniques and solutions. A change that seems like a complicated problem could eventually improve your life as you avoid traffic, spend more time with your family and cut expenses.

It happens frequently. You have two options for establishing a home workspace, but you can’t decide between them. You might have an actual office, but wonder if working in the dining room, kitchen, or living room might actually be better. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for all, and you could find that one or the other is best-suited to your working style.

1. Choosing the Right Spot: Separate Rooms vs. Open Space

First, let’s consider the differences. Separate rooms are isolated. It’s easier to concentrate. You can decorate them and “own” them however you wish. You can retreat to them away from family and friends. It’s a dedicated space for working. So why would you choose an open space? Open spaces have the advantage of feeling less restrictive. You may feel more comfortable and accessible in an open space and you may feel freer to do your work on an “as needed” rather than on a dedicated basis.

Separate rooms work great for people with traditional work schedules who want to be able to turn themselves “off” at the end of the day. But they don’t work very well for people who do their work piecemeal. Open spaces usually work better for those who are working sporadically throughout the day, because it lets you remain engaged with what’s happening around you rather than having to do all your work alone.

2. Decorating Your Chosen Space

Regardless of whether you have separate rooms or an open space, you should decorate and organize your chosen space to make sure that it feels like a “working environment.” When decorating, consider:

• Color and lighting matter. Brightly lit spaces are more comfortable and cool tones tend to be more relaxing. Bright reds and oranges are urgent; blues and greens are calm.
• Your decoration outlines your space. Make it clear where your “workspace” and your “living space” begins and ends, so you can feel a psychological sense of separation.
• Make it easy to keep clean. A lot of a decor and clutter is just going to collect the detritus of your ordinary, day-to-day life when you have a home workspace.

Decoration is as functional as it is aesthetic. Decoration is what keeps you happy and motivated when you’re working and it’s not something that should ever be ignored.

3. Furnishing Your Chosen Space

Furnishing a separate room is similar to furnishing an office. You need to make sure everything is ergonomically-friendly and functional. For an open space, you may need multi-purpose furnishings; furniture that can double as both a coffee table and a desk, for instance. Consider your working needs and what will work best for you while not disrupting the active living areas of your space. Consider space-saving furnishings such as a transforming (lifting) table or desks that can be raised up against walls.

4. Developing Your Organization System

With an open space, this can be more of a challenge; you need to develop an organizational system that won’t disrupt your daily life and that won’t lead to important files or documents potentially being compromised. Locking file systems, file systems that can slide other under furnishings, and built-in filing cabinets in discreet areas can help. 

Creating a home workspace is always going to be a challenge regardless of the options you have available to you. But staying organized will help. Continue following the Get Organized Wizard for more hot tips about the work-from-home world.