Time spent getting organized is the best investment you can make for the entire school year. The 4 part back to school series will show you how to maintain organized enviornments that will make an easy, productive year.

In the lazy days of summer, it’s easier to get away with disorganization. But the structure of the school year brings deadlines, appointments, and early mornings that make any child (and some adults) wish for a snow day just to sleep in, watch cartoons, and avoid the often hectic mornings that come with rushing out of the house. Getting organized now will help you stay on schedule and keep the chaos at bay. It will also give you a wonderful feeling of control, so that mornings are calm, and relaxing, even if your child insists on checking the 7 am news for school cancelations.

Are you suffering from too much multi-tasking? Over the past 7 weeks I’ve been traveling all over the country, giving speeches, workshops and consulting with individual clients. The universal cry? People are feeling scattered, and overwhelmed with demands and to-do’s. We plunge through our day like octopi—doing 8 things at once. Are we more productive? Actually, no...

Cleaning professionals say that getting rid of excess clutter reduces housework by 40%!  When someone refers to things in their home as “collecting dust”, they’ve hit the nail on the head!  Having lots of stuff around—like knick-knacks, piles of mail, stacks of grocery bags, and newspapers does more than clutter up a room.  It makes cleaning much more difficult and provides the ideal place for dust and it’s allergens to accumulate.

But…where do you begin?

Perfectionism is tricky: It seems like a virtue and a point of honor, but taken to extremes, it's a paralyzing trap. In my years of working with clients, I've learned that although perfectionists believe their goal is excellence, more than anything else they are looking for security.  Problem solvers at heart, they often feel an adrenaline rush every time they go deep and start refining details. Airtight results make them feel safe, immunized against criticism from others. Yet they endlessly berate themselves. They're upset about not getting through that reading pile or not saying yes to every request. And they evaluate their work with one of two grades: Perfect or Complete Disaster. This approach is demoralizing, depressing, and unimaginative.

When I met Francine, a publicist for a large public relations firm, she was on performance probation. Her livelihood was in jeopardy if she didn’t start producing results fast...

Bill paying is not for the faint hearted -- who wants to part with their money? Sometimes it's dread--do I have enough in the bank? Complicating matters, bills have a highly erratic personality, arriving at various times throughout the month, offering staggered due dates and a myriad of payment options. 

Regardless of income, honest folk have been known to come home to no lights, or destroy their credit because they can’t keep track of dates and account balances. Try explaining that to the cable company! 

Swashbuckle the onslaught with a simple, reliable system that minimizes the torture and maximizes your confidence in the information you are working from....

Many families divvy up household chores. One member will manage the joint finances. Another is the family chef. Sound efficient? It is, except for one thing: If the cook doesn’t have time to broil a chicken, they can always order pizza. But if (heaven forbid) anything ever happened, would all members of the family know where to find important documents?

Consider putting your heads together to compile a Vital Documents Map. Don’t worry – it’s not nearly as scary and imposing as it sounds. A Vital Documents Map is merely an index of all your most important records, so that in the worst-case scenario – you lose your wallet; your files are somehow destroyed; you have a sudden medical emergency – you’ll be able to reconstruct them with ease....

When it comes to travelling—people usually fall into one of two categories-underpackers and overpackers.  Whether for business or leisure, short or long hauls, plane or car travel, the stress of getting ready and feeling disorganized on the road sometimes makes traveling hardly seem worthwhile. 

Your goal is to take everything you need, without feeling anxious that you’ve left something behind, or annoyed with yourself for taking too much.  To attain your travel- light goals, either imitate Mick Jagger, and take roadies, or follow these well-travelled words of wisdom....

Quick: Do you know where your birth certificate is?  What about the warranty for your digital camera? Chances are they’re buried in one of the many piles that plague you—along with everything else, from newsletters, to pay-stubs, to grocery receipts, all cast amidst paper mountains. You’re not alone.  In fact, most people are beset by paper; it’s hard to know what to save, how to categorize and file.

To someone else, your items of memorabilia might look like junk, but in truth, each one holds the seed of a story. Items don’t start out as memorabilia. They begin as functional objects that get sanctified through time—often by the mere fact they didn’t get trashed!  Without a system, piles of college notebooks, bags of bellbottoms, and kids’ school projects get stuffed, stashed, lost for years, and often destroyed in the process.

Let’s define true memorabilia as objects that encapsulate your most significant memories, when a photo just won’t do. Their physical form transports you to a time in your life with a mere smell, touch or glance....