The faster the pace of your life, the more organized you need to be. Simplify your life by mastering these ten timesaving habits:

1. Make your bed and make your day. It takes only two minutes to give you sixteen hours of order. Besides, a room is 50-70 percent clean when the bed is made.

    

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2. Practice the "two-minute pick-up" every time you leave a room or your desk. Before you leave a room, turn around and quickly put away everything for two minutes. The more you put away before you leave, the smoother your transition when you return.
   
   
3. Learn to love clean counters. Cluttered counters represent undone actions. Significant amounts of time and energy are lost if dishes, mail, children’s papers and clutter are not dealt with or neatly put away.
   
   
4. Cut your work in half by putting things away now. One of the biggest time wasters is saying, "I’ll deal with that later." Put everything away now.
   
   
5. Set the pace for your day by arriving early, or at least on time, at your first event. Your arrival time at the first event often sets the pace for the rest of your day. Stress less by arriving on time.
   
   
6. Be sure dinner is on time and regular. Late dinners throw everyone out of whack – late baths, late homework and late chores. Have dinner at a time that still gives you plenty of day left to get things done and plan for tomorrow.
   
   
7. Solve the problem of "I forgot…." Don’t clutter your mind with things to remember. Write them down in your planner and review it frequently.
   
   
8. Assign to-do items to the three days you have most control over: today, tomorrow and the next day. Life has a way of filling up quickly, so try to do each item promptly. Also, limit your lists to ten items so that you don’t get overwhelmed.
   
   
9. Strive to focus your day’s events on things you enjoy. You will enjoy the things you like to do a lot more if you get other things done in a timely and orderly fashion.
   
   
10. Congratulate yourself daily for your accomplishments. Use positive self-talk during the day. And if you go through your day with a smile and a good attitude, you get bonus points for brightening up the world.

Excerpted and condensed from Marcia Ramsland's: Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay That Way! ©2003, W. Publishing Group, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. Copying or using this material without written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited and in direct violation of copyright law.

 

About Marcia Ramsland

Marcia Ramsland is well known as "The Organizing Pro" for her practical skills and tips to manage busy lives. As a national speaker, author and consultant since 1985, Marcia delights her audiences from New York to California with tips and secrets to organize their time, home, paperwork and life. Her tips have been in Woman’s Day and other national magazines, radio interviews and TV. She can be reached through her Web site www.OrganizingPro.com, and her books can be ordered there.