With such great feedback on my Hump Day Hint 'The art of being organised', many of you commented of the desire to have such organisation in your personal life too. Lucky for you all 'organisation' is my middle name and today I write with many tips and techniques that I practice in my own life that you too can implement in your personal life to ensure that it will also run like a well oiled machine.
Many of us feel that because we are so dedicated to having our Exec's life so well organised that there is not enough energy or time to have our own lives as organised. When I first started as an EA I was so focussed on that of organising my bosses life that my own life could have been described as nothing less than a mess. When 100 per cent of your brain is committed to ensuring your boss is where they need to be, when they should be, with what they need to be there with, sometimes isn't much capacity left to remember what it is you need to do be doing in your own life! But as I got older (and more experienced) I began to realise that most of the organisational techniques I was using to organise my boss were things that I could actually implement in my own life (with the right planning of course). Now I don't profess to have all my life in order, but its not too bad, and I most definitely do not feel stressed out or overwhelmed by 'life's chores'. And when I've had those days at work where I've had the life sucked out of me, more often than not I can just come home and collapse on the couch knowing that the planning I've implemented in my life is so seamless that nothing will fall apart if I have a night (or three!) off. Now I don't have any kids, but I know for those that do life can be very different. But that's not to say you can't implement the below techniques in your life as an organisational basis, leaving the rest of the time to dedicate to the care of your children.
Weekends are paramount when you a fulltime worker, and especially when you're an EA. Those two days a week are really the only time you've got to action all the errands you have to in your personal life and to do all the things you need to keep the 'machine' running. We all have to eat, we all have to sleep, we all have to do the dreaded tasks of cleaning, running errands etc etc. Basically we are all the same, and unless you're some kind of millionaire, most of us have to do all this stuff for ourselves. It can stress you out just thinking about all the things you need to squeeze in to that two days a week, but it doesn't have to be stressful, not with some dedicated planning put in place. So rather than frazzle yourself every Saturday morning thinking about all the things you must squeeze into the weekend, think about implementing some, or all, of the below into your life. I guarantee these techniques and tips will minimise your stress levels and ultimately leave you with a more enjoyable and peaceful life.
1. Eat: Plan to do one large weekly shop only. Keep a list of what groceries you need to buy, plan out what meals you will cook each night and which nights you will get takeaway, and then do one shop based on that. Not only will it save time on shopping, it will also help you stick to a weekly food budget and also take the anxiety out of trying to decide what to have for dinner each night. Once you've shopped, freeze all your meat/poultry/fish so that it keeps for the week and feel confident knowing there is always food in the fridge! Make sure you plan some easier and quick meals for some of the nights where you just can't be bothered cooking or you get home late from work. If you make your lunches then buy enough supply for the week and make them the night before. Morning's are usually precious, and if you're anything like me you'll chose an extra 15 minutes sleep over making your lunch any day! Better still, cook extra portions of your dinner each night and have the left overs for lunch the next day. Its the best the time saving tip ever. And for the all important meal of the day, breakfast, try keeping a box of cereal/oats at work that you can resort to on the days that you are seriously running behind.
2. Clean: Choose a day of the week (either a weekend or one night during the week) as your cleaning day. Use this day to do the dusting, do the vacuuming, mop the floors and clean the bathroom. Also do the majority of your laundry (if you can) at this time. If you do all the big cleaning jobs just once a week you can get it all out of the way in an hour, max. Do the little odd jobs, like the washing up and taking the rubbish out during the week, as you need to and you'll find your house will stay spotless. Try to stay on top of the cleaning in this way, as if you let it go by the wayside it will just make it harder and more time consuming when you do get around to doing it. Plan out when you'll do the bigger more un-frequent jobs like cleaning the shower, cleaning the oven and fridge etc etc. It helps to diarize when these should be done so they don't get forgotten!
3. Errands: Use your calendar in your phone to remind yourself and plan what needs to be done each weekend or evening. I usually map out my Saturday and Sunday in my calendar with time allocated for everything I need to do including walking the dog and going to the gym. If it's not listed in there then it doesn't get done! Simple! So take the thought out of your tasks and errands, plan them in your calendar as they come to mind so you don't find yourself on Saturday morning sitting there thinking "now what was it that I needed to do this weekend??!".
4. Appointments: Rather than getting caught out needing a hair appointment and not being able to get in at your salon, try booking ahead all the appointments you frequently need throughout the year. Plan ahead and get 6-12 months worth of appointments booked in for your hair, physio, dermatologist, the dog's grooming, the dentist etc etc. And where you don't need a set appointment (your nails for example) just plan it out in your calendar when you'll need to have them done. You're probably seeing a theme develop here on the diarizing things in the calendar!
5. Maintenance: Similar to the above, for the maintenance you do at home (on yourself or for anything else that gets 'maintained'), diarize what needs to be done and when. This might be colouring your own hair, doing your tan, fleaing and worming your pets etc etc Take the element of just having to remember out of it, put it in the calendar and remove the thought out of it all.
6. Exercise: Its all very well to diarize when you should exercise, but actually going out and doing it is another thing. Personally I find trying to find time to exercise the most challenging, but if you join a gym or dance studio that has classes you'll find yourself ensuring you get out the door each day on time in order to make that 6pm class. Similarly if you diarize those Saturday morning classes I can guarantee you'll be out of bed, exercised and home again all before lunchtime, ready for whatever else needs doing.
7. Birthday's & Anniversaries: Again diarize these in your calendar on your phone with reminders set on them to alert you 1 or 2 weeks before. This will then give you enough time to buy a present, post a card or make plans for the celebration. Remember to set the occurrence on these to 'yearly' so you'll only ever need to do this task once! Really helpful for those loved ones who are overseas especially, as its easy to get caught out posting a card way too late when their birthday has slipped your mind.
8. Family & Friends: This is a tricky one, as when life gets busy, its friends and family that usually get 'cut' off the list of priorities first. But it's important to keep up relationships, especially when you'll need them at other important times of your life (see #16 on Kids). The best way to ensure you catch up all with all those loved ones in your life is to try consolidating the catch ups so you only have to do one. Rather than try and schedule five coffees with five different friends, make plans with them to catch up all together.... five birds, one stone! Similarly with family, be the one that organises (or even hosts) the family dinners and ensure everyone comes. It's much easier than trying to get around to each of your siblings and parents individually.
9. Bills: When bills come in note their due date in your calendar on the day they are due with the amount. Then list a reminder on the diary note for it to pop up and remind you on the morning the bill is due. That way nothing will ever get missed and payments will never be late. And more importantly, the utility companies won't have your money before the due date. Why should they accrue interest on your money!
10. Festive Periods: Festive parts of the year, such as Christmas and Easter, can usually create unnecessary stress, especially if you are disorganised with your gift buying and planning. But it doesn't have to be that way. Mark out in your calendar the days that you need to start doing things - i.e. when to start shopping, when to buy your Christmas tree, when to visit family/friends etc. If you set yourself these deadlines you won't find yourself trying to beat the crowds on Christmas Eve battling others for your purchases. A month before Easter and Christmas make ists of who you need to buy for, who you need to write cards for and start to have discussions with family members as to who will be doing what. Festive times don't have to be stressful. Yes it's busy, but with proper planning (and budgeting) you can actually enjoy it!
11. Holidays & Leave: Unfortunately this isn't one that I've practiced of late, but the theory behind this tip is still good! Taking holidays and annual leave is completely necessary for all of us, if at the very least to keep us sane. Its very easy to let the year just get away from us without us planning for and taking proper breaks. We all get busy and for most of us we get busy to even take the leave. But they give us 20 days annual leave a year for a reason! So my advice here is at the start of each year to plot out and plan when it is you'll take these days, whether it be all in one go at the end of the year, or spread out over long weekends every couple of months. If it's locked in then we will work around it, and so will our bosses. They do it, so we should do the same. And sometimes its easier to plan our leave once our boss has planned theirs. When they're not there, its easier for us not to be there too. Give your boss a little push at the start of each year to lock in their leave for the year so then you can do the same.
12. Hobbies: A life that just filled with organisation and routine can be a little dull, so there must be room and time for things that give you pleasure. If you don't have a hobby of some sort, then you should find one. Whether it be playing tennis, or writing a blog, make time to do things that are outside of your work and outside of all your life's chores! Its all about finding the balance when it comes to having an organised life, if its too structured life can become too rigid and dull. Yet on the other hand if it's full of too much pleasure, life can end up becoming 'undone'. So make sure there is time for your hobbies. As a rule (for myself) I like to try to get as many of the 'chores' out of the way as I can on a Saturday leaving the rest of my weekend for play. When you work hard, you don't want to be spending all your weekends doing things that just feel like more 'work'.
13. De clutter: A busy and cluttered house can equal a busy and cluttered mind. The more stuff you have the more stuff you have to take care of. I'm a strong believer in trying to keep your clutter to a minimum, and that includes trying to keep a lid on your personal paperwork at home. Is very easy for papers to pile up, making it a nightmare at tax time to try and find what you need. Invest in a decent sized filing cabinet and create some files for all your utility bills, bank statements, credit card statements, loyalty programs etc etc. They say you need to keep paperwork and invoices for 7 years, so every couple of years do a clean out and shred what you no longer need anymore. Whilst you're at it do a de clutter of your personal items and see if you can sell them, either via a garage sale or put them on eBay/Gumtree. You'll be surprised how much stuff actually accumulate and how much money you can make if you actually get rid of it. You don't need to do this every year, but its good to do at least every 2 years.
14. Multitasking: This would have to be my most favourite time saver, and boy oh boy am I good at it. I absolutely loathe wasting time, so if an opportunity presents itself to multi task then I'll do it! You'll often catch me sitting in traffic recording ideas for my blog on my phone, or similarly when I'm standing over the stove cooking dinner I'll be on my phone researching various things or simply doing my daily check of Instagram or Facebook. Sitting in traffic, cooking time or even walking/running on the treadmill, to me is just 'dead time'. If you are doing an activity that is mindless and it's safe to do something else at the same time, then take advantage of it!
15. Pets: Many of us have these beautiful little additions to our family and its important we don't neglect them, especially in periods of business and stress. I know this sounds extreme but I have my dog's weekend trips to the park diarized in my calendar so that I can work my weekend plans around that. Its easy to forget their needs and to them their big trips to the park or their super big weekend walks are the highlight of their week. If these don't happen their days can just roll into each other which isn't fair on them. But its not enough just to walk them once or twice a week on the weekends, so if it's too much to walk them at the end of each working day then make plans for a neighbour or a family friend to help you out and walk them during the week. If you've taken on the responsibility of owning a pet you need to ensure you keep up the responsibility of tending to their needs. But if your dog is a cat, then you deserve a pat on the back! You clearly thought ahead.
16. Kids: Now I don't profess to be an expert on how to manage children and manage your every day life at the same time, but I've had enough exposure to it to know how I would plan my life if I did have them. Just because you have kiddies running around at your feet and an abundance of other commitments that go along with them, it doesn't mean your life needs to be out of control. Like everything else, use your diary, make plans, diarize them with reminders and try to get ahead of the game. If anything, having kids is a time to be even more organized than what you already are. If you're expecting a baby then you've got at least 9 months to do some 'major planning'. Now I know they say that you can do all the planning in the world, but when a baby comes along that will all go out the window, and I know that's true. But just because your days may be dedicated to feeds and sleeps, doesn't mean you can't schedule all your other life chores outside of that. And as for your sleep? Eh, who needs sleep?! No seriously, try and make plans to get as much help as you can. Help is everything when you have kids. So just plan properly and don't ever try to do it on your own. You may be successful in your professional life, but babies and kids is a whole new ball game, so expect life to get a bit crazy!
17. Gardening & Plants: Unless you live in an apartment (and I tend to think those people might be the smart ones!), most of us have some sort of garden or patch of plants that we must take care of. For me, the idea of having to weed my garden and clean up the leaves literally makes me want to run for the hills! But alas, it must be done, because if I don't do it, then no one will! And unless gardening is actually an enjoyable task or hobby for you, it can often be the job that just never gets done (not dissimilar to cleaning the oven!). There are certain tasks in life though that you sometimes just need to outsource, as we are all time poor and when you are trying to cram a life's worth of chores and activities in to seven days, sometimes something just has to give. Whether its the house cleaning, cleaning the gutters, or in this case the gardening, sometime you've just got to put your hand in your pocket to make sure it gets done so you can retain your sanity. You can't do EVERYTHING, so sometimes things just have to be outsourced!
18. Yourself: Make sure you take some time to DO NOTHING! Not diary worthy, but something you need to make sure you do. Whether it be just watching some mindless TV each night, or making a rule for yourself that from 3pm onwards on a Sunday afternoon its your time, then so be it. But when I say 'your time' I mean YOUR time. Don't be folding washing, or writing emails (I'm guilty of this sometimes!) as the aim here is to literally numb your mind. Now the super balanced folk out there will mediate or do yoga, but my meditation usually takes the form of watching some brain-dulling TV along the lines of Keeping Up with Kardashians or The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Not the most intelligent TV choices I know, but who cares, it keeps me sane and keeps my stress levels low.
19. Your other half: Make sure you make time for your significant other. Perhaps this can be combined with the previous tip, but to keep relationships alive you need to invest constantly in the 'relationship bank'. Just like saving money, if you don't make contributions in the savings account you're savings won't grow, and relationships are no different. So set one night of the week as date night and stick to it. Even if you are tired just alter the activity around your energy levels. There is no reason why you're date night can't take the form of staying home and watching a movie together. When you work in high stress and busy jobs like ours, its easy to let our relationships go by the way side. I made this mistake when I was younger and now am consequently a divorcee! Lesson learnt.
20. To Do: On top of diarizing everything I need to do in my life, I also like to keep a small hard cover note book as my 'To Do' book. I keep lists in it of everything that needs doing in my personal life and I create weekend to do lists, and shopping lists in it etc etc. It sort of serves the purpose of a diary, but without the calendar aspect. For me, on top of having the visual in front of me of everything that needs to be done, it is also so satisfying to physically cross jobs off my list once they are done! Everybody is different, and perhaps you prefer to work completely electronically, but find what works for you and manage your tasks from end to end. No body can remember in their head everything that needs to be done, and those that try to are usually the ones that are completely disorganised!
So that's it, 20 things you can implement and start doing right now that should ease the pain of life! None of these ideas or tasks are ground breaking, and most follow the same theme of thought of just diarizing everything, but once put together you'll definitely see the difference in how your life has been and how it can be.
Labels: Hump Day Hint
1. Eat: Plan to do one large weekly shop only. Keep a list of what groceries you need to buy, plan out what meals you will cook each night and which nights you will get takeaway, and then do one shop based on that. Not only will it save time on shopping, it will also help you stick to a weekly food budget and also take the anxiety out of trying to decide what to have for dinner each night. Once you've shopped, freeze all your meat/poultry/fish so that it keeps for the week and feel confident knowing there is always food in the fridge! Make sure you plan some easier and quick meals for some of the nights where you just can't be bothered cooking or you get home late from work. If you make your lunches then buy enough supply for the week and make them the night before. Morning's are usually precious, and if you're anything like me you'll chose an extra 15 minutes sleep over making your lunch any day! Better still, cook extra portions of your dinner each night and have the left overs for lunch the next day. Its the best the time saving tip ever. And for the all important meal of the day, breakfast, try keeping a box of cereal/oats at work that you can resort to on the days that you are seriously running behind.
2. Clean: Choose a day of the week (either a weekend or one night during the week) as your cleaning day. Use this day to do the dusting, do the vacuuming, mop the floors and clean the bathroom. Also do the majority of your laundry (if you can) at this time. If you do all the big cleaning jobs just once a week you can get it all out of the way in an hour, max. Do the little odd jobs, like the washing up and taking the rubbish out during the week, as you need to and you'll find your house will stay spotless. Try to stay on top of the cleaning in this way, as if you let it go by the wayside it will just make it harder and more time consuming when you do get around to doing it. Plan out when you'll do the bigger more un-frequent jobs like cleaning the shower, cleaning the oven and fridge etc etc. It helps to diarize when these should be done so they don't get forgotten!
6. Exercise: Its all very well to diarize when you should exercise, but actually going out and doing it is another thing. Personally I find trying to find time to exercise the most challenging, but if you join a gym or dance studio that has classes you'll find yourself ensuring you get out the door each day on time in order to make that 6pm class. Similarly if you diarize those Saturday morning classes I can guarantee you'll be out of bed, exercised and home again all before lunchtime, ready for whatever else needs doing.
