Become More Organized - Simply Shawn & Jenn

by Jenn on June 1, 2012 2 Comments

Organization Tips | Become More Organized Week 4

Last week was becoming more organized with bills. This week I thought we would go over a few important tasks that have helped me become more organized.

It’s rare to hear someone say they don’t need to become more organized. I like to consider myself fairly organized; however there are times when I get a little lax with my organizational habits. Breaking habits are often hard to do, it’s easier to do it right the 1st time.

So how do we find time to get everything accomplished in only 24 hours? How many times have you known what needed to get done, yet you didn’t accomplish everything you sat out to do? Without some kind of organizational skills it’s hard to accomplish multiple tasks in a short period of time.

So how does a person work-full time, have 4 children, cook dinner, maintain 4 blogs, clean and everything else that happens in the day of being mom? I do this daily, but becoming more organized. The more organized I am the more I am able to accomplish in a set amount of time, such as my daughter sleeps for 2 hours. In those 2 hours I know I can get a few blog posts done, however I must have a plan what I am going to write about, where I need to look, etc.

Without a plan in mind, I check my email see what’s going on over on Face book and before I know it my daughter is awake and I have not compiled anything. Unfortunately this has happened to me more than I would like to admit. I had to sit down and make some changes so I could work, have family time and enjoy blogging. I have finally come up with a system that is working; I more time to do things I enjoy.

Blogging was really starting to take time away from my family and my family is my top priority so I had to figure something out or give up something I enjoyed doing. I decided to get organized and rather than live by the moment pre-plan my week. I have a notebook for everything. I have a notebook for my blogs and daily I know what reviews need to be done, what giveaways are due, what are ending etc.

Here are a few tips that have helped me become a more organized employee, mom and blogger.

Have a plan – Know what you day is going to look like, what is most important and needs to get done first. Take some time the day before to look over or make yourself a list of what is top priority in your day. As you complete tasks throughout the day cross them off. It’s also a good feeling to see your list become smaller and smaller.
Make sure you list is easy and workable – While I love all the awesome apps nothing seems to work as well as an old school pen and paper. I am lazy, it’s easier for me to pull out the blogging note-book and write down a coming up even than to schedule it in my calendar. Whatever way you decide to go, make sure its easy to understand and manage. Don’t put so many tasks on the list you know you cannot complete it.
Choose what works best for you and stick with it - I have wasted so much time trying out new things, figuring them out, and end up wasting half the day away on something that doesn’t work for me anyway. If it works don’t fix it!
Do it now – Its so easy to put things off until later, but its more than likely not going to get done or there is scrambling last-minute to make sure its finished.
Put it away when you are finished – If you are cooking dinner put up the milk right after you are done, brushing your daughter’s hair put the brush up, anything you do pick up after yourself. If you have a spot for everything (easier said than done) it’s easier to find and you spend less time looking for that darn marker you had yesterday.
Take control of your life, home and work environment – Whatever you decide to use to organize your life doesn’t matter, it matters that you are using them and making them work for you.
Complete your project – I am so guilty of trying to multitask, complete 10 things at once. I am sure there are people out there that can complete quality work while multitasking, but many of us cannot. In the long run we actually end up wasting time and producing something that is okay to read or look at rather than outstanding. This is my area of opportunity learning to handle one thing at a time, so I produce quality work and get more done.

I am bad about always running and checking my email, I have made myself stop and I now only check it a few times a day. I have learned that a few hours of not checking my email is not going to kill me. I am pretty sure if I something comes I will be ok waiting, I don’t have to stop what I am doing and take care of that email.

Before I started this post I had no idea how much time I actually waste by being unorganized. I have been working hard to become more organized at home, work and blogging. I have been saving a lot of time by working off a pre-planned list. I am actually working on getting ahead!

My suggesting is not to do exactly what I do, it’s to find what works for you and stick with it. If you need to become more organized, when you begin your journey and become more organized you will be amazing at how much time we have wasted being unorganized.

I would like to ask everyone to leave me a comment letting me know what organizational skills you currently use to make your life less stressful. So what are you doing to stay or become more organized?

Filed Under: Become More Organized, Home/Garden Tagged With: Become More Organized, Organization

by Jenn on May 20, 2012 Leave a Comment

Become More Organized | Week 1 Get Your Families Buy In

Button is nicer the more organized
my life/home becomes

So those of you who read my last post Become
More Organized, are aware that I struggle with organization pretty much in
all areas of my life. Oh yea, and have a
lot going on! You call it ADHA, I call
it a lot going on……

Over the last work I have really put a lot of focus and energy
into getting my family on board becoming more organized. I have a houseful! Four children, a husband, 4 dogs and a fat
ass cat. Without a name, the nameless
cat! I meant to ask what the hell his
name is but well, I HAD TO MUCH GOING ON!!!…
Okay I admit it I totally forgot, maybe next week this fat ass cat, that
I call kitty will have a name for us.

My family is not by any means dirty people. We are clean, dishes are always done,
counters wipes, floors clean, bathrooms clean, cloths washed, ect. It is the organization that needs to
improve. You know putting something up
right after it is used, everything having a place, filing papers rather than
just setting them on the comer until later.

My husband and I both work full time. When we get home the last thing we want to do
is clean, we are guilty of being lazy and spending quality time with each other
and the children. However, it comes back
to bite us we end up doing more cleaning and picking up daily that we would if
all of us would just put everything back where it belongs right after we use
it.

If I am going to get organized I need the help and support
of my family. There is simply too many
of us for me to be the only person to become organized. So, how do you get your family on board to
become more organized?

Tips to getting your family on board and become more
organized along with you.

Lead
by Example.

This may go without saying, however if you expect your
family to become more organized, clean up after themselves, hang their cloths,
put their shoes up, put dirty dishes in dishwasher, ect; you have to lead by
example. Start doing these things
yourself before you talk to your family about becoming more organized.

Your children are not going to eat healthy if you don’t, so
why would you expect them to clean up after themselves if you are not doing it
also.

Before you decide to sit your family down and talk to them
about becoming more organized with you.
Make sure you are willing to venture down that road yourself.

Let them see you becoming more organized for a little while
before you mention it to them. They may
think it is just a phase mom is going through if they do not see you doing it
for a little bit.

Show
them how you are going to become more organized.

It happens to me all the time, you think they should just
know their cloths need to be put up, room needs cleaned, pick their cloths up
out of the bathroom. The fact is, most
children won’t do it unless you speak up and ask them to do it.

Remember you have to show them how you want things
done. If you want cloths put up in
certain drawers do it with them a few times until they understand and can do it on their own.

I do have to give my 13 year old daughter credit she has
really stepped it up. I have found I
have to ask her to do things less and less.
Not sure if it is age or it is finally starting to sink in.

Let
them know the benefits.

It is important that everyone understand what becoming more
organized means for them. In our case,
it means less daily cleaning. If we were
to become more organized and pick things up right away, there will be less
daily cleaning. Other than cooking dinner
and doing dishes there would not be much else to do.

This had the biggest impact to my children, they hate that I
make them pick up their rooms, the bathroom and their stuff every single
day. I talked to them and they
understand that if they become more organized too it means more free time for
friends and playing, less work. Who
doesn’t want to work less and play or
relax more?

Make
it fun to do.

Cleaning is not supposed to be fun, but if we make it fun
for our family they will be much more likely to participate and become more
organized with you.

Unfortunately my 11 year old son has Cebral Palsy and is wheelchair bound, so he is not able to help a
whole lot. I have a 13 year old girl, 7
year old girl and 2 year old girl that love to have fun.

We normally deep clean the house every Sunday morning, the
whole family helps. I learned a long
time ago if I expected my girls to help I needed to make it fun. Now we play music, sing, dance. We have even name out mop Mopolina and our
broom, Braomme, Once I started the fun,
my children began to participate more.

Make being more organized fun also, buy bins that are your child’s
favorite colors for the bathroom, bedroom
or wherever they are needed. My
sister-n-law has a basket ball goal over the dirty cloths hamper, which I will
be borrowing that idea for my home as
well.

Sometimes if they all pitch in and do an outstanding job,
with no fighting or arguing I will reward them.
I love to reward my children for a job well done, and they appreciate it
as well.

Say
Thank You.

Thank you goes a long way.
I like for someone to tell me thank you for something that I did. When someone tells me thank you for something
I have done it makes me want to do it again and better next time. A genuine thank you goes a long way.

There is a way to work full time, do dinner, homework,
baths, spend quality time with the family and have an organized house. We would save time by putting things up right
after we use it, filing papers rather that piling them, and focusing on having somewhat of a schedule.

I have talked to my family and they also want to become more
organized. They see that there is benefits
to becoming more organized, and know that by everyone pitching in it means less
daily cleaning up.

Filed Under: Become More Organized, Family, Home/Garden Tagged With: Become More Organized

by Jenn on May 14, 2012 2 Comments

Become More Organized | Follow Us On Our Weekly Journey

LOL, my button will become more organized as my home and life do!
This is how I feel right now:(

I need to become more organized in my home and my life. Organizing my home is something that I really need to work on everything gets done, just not efficiently. I have decided if I post about it, I will do it I am going to start being more organized. Between working full time as a store manager at a local bank, selling Scentsy, Avon, 4 Children and 3 blogs. I MUST BECOME MORE ORGANIZED!

I am always asking Shawn if he will help me, sounds something like this:

Me: “Shawn, you are doing to help me right?”

Shawn: :Yes, dear.”

Me: “Awww, see isn’t he a sweetheart.”

It all sounds fine and dandy but when comes down to it, yea well it never happens. This time mom is on a rampage! We will get more organized! In a house with 4 children, 2 adults, 4 dogs and a fats ass cat, it takes a little help from everyone! Yes, you too fat ass cat! LMAO, he doesn’t even have a name?! I don’t think so anyways, with 4 children and my husband it is hard to tell what his name is. At one time it was, Z then it was Garfield, then Ozzy, I just call him kitty…..

See this is why I cannot get organized too much going on. Call it ADHD, I call it I have too much going on, well yea I do get side tracked, but only because there is so much going on!

Now back to getting organized, I hope you will follow me on my organization journey. If we can get organized, you can too. Feel free to leave me tip I am totally open to help! Please help lord knows I am the leader of this pack and probably the most forgetful of them all. I am sure I will be the one forgetting that I have decided to make this wonderful life changing event happen, ha until the kids forget to put their shoes up. Yes, then they will call me out on it, CRAP it will be ok I can do this, right?! Yes, just keep swimming mom! You can get more organized, you must get more organized!

Be sure to be on the look out every Sunday. How to Become More Organized in your home and life. I know you probably think I am a nut but many of us want to get more organized and it is a process getting there. It doesn’t happen over night follow me on my journey to a more organized home and life.

Remember along the way if you have a suggestion please share them I would love to hear what you are doing or have done to lead a more organized life.