Found this article in the business section and thought you would find it useful. The article basically discusses the economics of outsourcing your mundane chores. I have summarized the important points.

Did you think only celebrities and really wealthy people can afford personal assistants? Think again. There are many websites out there that can assist you with a wide variety of tasks ranging from writing thank you notes to following up on lost luggage.

One woman uses a site called AskSunday.com to deal with lost luggage, security issues with credit cards and reservations problems. When asked how she justifies the cost she said it costs about the same price as cable tv and eliminates so many of the headaches in her life, that it is totally worth it.

Prices and packages vary from site to site: On AskSunday.com users can pay 29.00 per month for 15 “requests” while the site GetFriday.com offers pay-as-you-go and monthly plans, in increments of 10 to 15 minutes. The monthly plans start at $120.00 a month for 10 hours.

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek, uses what he calls a “small army” of virtual assistants for everything from checking his e-mail to screening his phone calls and sending gifts to family and friends. He also uses a virtual assistant to find and schedule dates for him where he can promote his product. Ferriss says if you make more than $30,000.00 a year, you can afford to outsource some of your more routine tasks.

A marketing consultant uses Elance.com to find graphic designers for his website, find vegetarian-friendly restaurants, organize his Netflix account, plan a baby shower and bid for items on e-Bay.

Security issues are always a concern and Ferriss says that he has never had any problems. He does suggest though using trusted sites like PayPal.com when possible and using credit instead of debit cards to minimize potential damage.

Some sites, like AskSunday.com keep logins and passwords in a secured database so that its employees can use certain accounts but cannot see login or password information.

The article ends with a quote from the author of The Four-Hour Work Week which I thought summed it up well. “Ultimately, time is the most valuable, nonrenewable resource that we have.”

effective time management,importance of time management, Organization,organizing,organizing tips,organizing your life, time management advice,time management strategies,time management tools,time savers,virtual assistant,virtual small business assistant

Share This

Technorati Tags: effective time management, importance of time management, Organization, organizing, organizing tips, organizing your life, time management advice, time management strategies, time management tools, time savers, virtual assistant, virtual small business assistant

Women’s Day magazine had some great ideas about what to do if you are afraid to throw something away because it could be valuable. Here they are:

Check online - A woman who was worried about selling her mint-condition, in-the-box action figure went online to check prices for it. After seeing it didn’t even get bids, she had no qualms about selling it in a garage sale.

Hire an appraiser – Take your item to a local appraiser. You’ll typically pay at least $75.00 or more; find one at appraisers.org.

Outsource the Job – When you can’t find the time to list it on eBay or cragslist.org, sell your stuff to a middleman like an antiques buyer, a consignment store or an eBay drop-off franchise such as iSold It (i-soldit.com) or Auction It Today (auctionittoday.com) For a 30% to 40% commission you’ll save yourself the hassle.

Donate to Charity - Donate and save money on taxes. To find out what amount is appropriate to deduct, access up-to-date lists of fair market values at TurboTax’s itsdeductible.com and use the free online software to track your donations all year.

organizing your home,appraisal value,isolditonebay,garage sale,consignment store

Share This

Technorati Tags: organizing your home, appraisal value, isolditonebay, garage sale, consignment store

One of the reasons we have clutter is because of the emotional attachments we have to some of our possessions. Some of us are still holding onto the rock our child picked up off the ground and gave us as a “present.” Here are some great solutions to emotional attachment clutter from Womansday magazine:

Think Big – When you’re tempted to keep everything your child brings home, try this visualization exercise – Imagine how the volume of stuff will grow until your child is 18. After picturing the mountain of “child craft” you will be less tempted to save everything and save only the truly worthy.

Scan it – Use a scanner to create digital files of paper ephemera, like letters; toss originals. For bulky items, take digital snapshots and compile into a photobook at blurb.com

Re-purpose favorites - One woman hung onto a beloved maternity dress for 13 years. (Erma Bombeck says if you don’t save at least one box baby clothes you will immediately become pregnant no matter how old you are. I’m sure the same goes for maternity clothes) An organizer suggested the woman frame a swatch of fabric and a few other keepsakes in a shadow box.

I have been saving all my kids t-shirts from activities (camp, band etc.) and plan to have a quilt made by someone other than me (since I don’t sew well) for each of them. You can also make this memory quilt with baby clothes, college sweatshirts etc. The online crafts store Ticche & Bee has a kit you can order if you want to try this yourself (kits run $35.00 and up). Ticche and Bee will also do the sewing for you for an additional cost.

See our sister site Fasthowto.com and see our post on How to File Paperwork Faster

organizing clutter, clearing clutter,free ideas for organizing clutter,clutter diet,getting rid of clutter

Share This

Technorati Tags: organizing clutter, clearing clutter, free ideas for organizing clutter, clutter diet, getting rid of clutter

Here are some suggestions from the book Organize Yourself by Ronnie Eisenberg with Kate Kelly

1. The hardest part is getting started. Once you actually begin, it will be easier to keep going. You usually find is not as bad as you expected, and once you’re involved, you’ve overcome the highest hurdle.

2. Have a realistic sense of time. Procrastinators often have an unrealistic sense of time. You may think the project will take forever and you’ll never get it done. Alternatively, you may think you have plenty of time to do a project when you really don’t. To get a better sense of time, keep track of how long your projects take i.e. how long does it take you to pay monthly bills?, how long did it take you this month to make sales calls etc.

3. Work with the time available to you – If your project is going to take 10 hours, you won’t ever have 10 hours of uninterrupted time. So break down the project into pieces. Make a list of each step in the process.

4. Remember that even five minutes is enough time to get something done. Two phone calls or more can be completed in that time.

5. If it seems like there really is no time, carve out a half hour or so from your existing schedule. For instance, if you want to exercise during the day consider climbing the stairs in your building for 10 minutes before work, 10 minutes before lunch and 10 minutes before you leave. 30 minutes of exercise done!

6. Consider your workspace – perhaps it’s simply not convenient or pleasant. If you have to run around to several places to collect the items you work on you may find yourself putting it off. If your workplace is not pleasant to be in you sure are not going to want to start working.

7. Clear your work area of everything else so you are not distracted.

8. You don’t always have to begin at the beginning. If that first step seems the hardest, start with another part of the project. For example, When writing papers I found introductions were always hard for me to write, so I would leave them until the end.

9. Some people like to do the worst first. If they accomplish what they dislike most, the rest of the project seems easier. My father always said “Do the worst thing first and the rest of the day will seem easy.” I have followed this practice all my life and it works!

10. Set small deadlines – For example if you want to organize your desk here is a sample schedule:

Clean out 2 drawers by April 20
Clean out 2 additional drawers by April 25
Clean out 2 more drawers by April 30
Purchase any needed desktop organizing items by May 8
Get new organizing items in place by May 15

overcoming procrastination,causes of procrastination,research on procrastination,college procrastination,stop procrastination,adhd procrastination,articles on procrastination,avoiding procrastination,what is procrastination

Share This

Technorati Tags: overcoming procrastination, causes of procrastination, research on procrastination, college procrastination, stop procrastination, adhd procrastination, articles on procrastination, avoiding procrastination, what is procrastination

According to Stephanie Culp author of You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day many people resisit keeping a time log, even though two weeks’ worth of it invariably highlights wasted time that could easily be turned into saved time. She advises if you really want to find more time for yourself,keep your eyes peeled for time wasters as you go along.

Stephanie says never lose sight of what your’re worth per hour. While you’re filling your time log with entries like, “Stopped at the cleaners and the drug store – 1 hour,” remember what that hour cost you. You could easily use a dry cleaning service that delivers and order prescriptions online to be delivered.

If you had used a service that delivered and ordered your medicine online, you’d have had one hour for yourself. If your tendency is to resist hiring people to help you out, ask yourself if how spending your time make sense and cents.

For example, consider if it is worth say the $20 or $30 it would cost you to have the yard work done by someone else so you could have a Saturday all to yourself or spend time with your kids?

Is it worth it to spend $10.00 a week to drop all the shirts off at the professional launderers, or would I rather spend three hours each week doing them myself? Is my time really worth only $3.33 per hour? For $40.00 per month, you can have a whole day back for yourself.

importance of time management,time management tools,why is time management important, time savers,time management advice,effective time management,time management strategies

Share This

Technorati Tags: importance of time management, time management tools, why is time management important, time savers, time management advice, effective time management, time management strategies

I have been reading a book called You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day by Stephanie Culp. She explains that the first thing you need to do when trying to manage your time is to find the value of your time. According to Ms. Culp, “Knowing the value of your time can be a key tool and a deciding factor in how to prioritize the use of the time available.”

She suggests taking a pencil and figuring out what your time is worth. Determine your hourly dollar value based on your gross salary and the number of hours you work. Then the next time you are tempted to fritter away an hour fussing with the batteries on the pencil sharpener or some other such nonsense, stop and think about how much that time is worth. If your not spending your time doing a task that is at least equal to the dollar value of your hourly time, it’s probably a task you shouldn’t be doing at all.

And the next time you find yourself procrastinating or wasting time in some other way, be honest with yourself. Your time is worth money – whether you are wasting that time or making good use of it.

Once you have figured out what your time is worth, you need to take a look at how you’re spending it. The most common way to do this is to keep a time log for a week or two. Essentially, this involves writing down just about everything you do, noting how much time you spent doing any one thing.

If you spend fifteen minutes on the phone with your mother, write it down. If you spend twenty minutes daydreaming, write it down. If you spend one hour in the sales meeting, note that, and if you spend thirty minutes preparing the sales figures for the boss write that down as well.

Stephanie says after keeping a time log for a couple of weeks, it becomes glaringly apparent that you are wasting time in several different ways. You may also see a pattern where other people are wasting your time (which you allow), and – if you’re honest – you;ll even see where you have been guilty of wasting others’ time.

We will posting more time management tips from You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day by Stephanie Culp so check back or subscribe to our RSS feed. In the meantime if you need more help staying organized see our related post Reduce Paperwork

importance of time management,time management tools,why is time management important, time savers,time management advice,effective time management,time management strategies

Share This

Technorati Tags: importance of time management, time management tools, why is time management important, time savers, time management advice, effective time management, time management strategies

Here is a very easy method to use when sorting through your daily mail. This method comes from the book Organizing for Dummies by Eileen Roth and Elizabeth Miles. They call it R-A-P-I-D which stands for read, attend, pay, important and dump. Here is how you do it:

Read: Anything that you need to read goes in this stack. These are usually magazines, newsletters and catalogs you are actually interested in.

Attend: Notices and invitations for seminars, workshops, meetings, performances, parties and so on go in to attend stack.

Pay: If somebody wants you to pay for something, put in the to pay pile. Window envelopes are an easy cue. If it looks like a credit card offer your don’t want, Organizing for Dummies suggests ripping through the envelope and tossing. If you routinely shred all documents that are sensitive you may want to have an additional to shred stack. The good thing is you save time here because you don’t even bother opening the envelope.

Important: Presume important until proven innocents, and put all unknown mail into this stack.

Dump: If you know right away you won’t read it or need it, do not open the envelope. Do dump that piece of mail into a trash can or paper recycling bin.

These are just you’re preliminary sorting steps. We’ll post again with more details on what to do once you have sorted your mail.

paper bills,reducing clutter,eliminating clutter,tips on how to get organized,how to get rid of paper clutter,organizing,organizing tips,organizing clutter,organizing your life,clutter control,filing systems

Share This

Technorati Tags: paper bills, reducing clutter, eliminating clutter, tips on how to get organized, how to get rid of paper clutter, organizing, organizing tips, organizing clutter, organizing your life, clutter control, filing systems

Remember when we were going to have a paper-less society? Well, there is still a great deal of paper floating around and we still have to deal with it. I came across one organizing system called “Taming the Paper Tiger.” I think that what it was called. So here are some ways put your paper tiger on a diet and tame him too.

Reduce the amount of paper flowing into your home

- Stop junk mail from coming by writing to this address:

Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735-900

- Check your magazine subscriptions and make sure you are only subscribing to ones you read on a regular basis. You will save time and money if you eliminate magazines you don’t read anymore.

- Limit credit cards and bank accounts to just one or two. This will limit the number of statements you have to deal with each month and you may save money on fees.

-Go through mail standing by your recycling bin, shredder or trash can and drop junk mail in immediately.

-When you receive a flyer with time sensitive information (ex. date of a school or church function) jot the important information down on your calendar or input into your PDA. Now you can throw away the paper or if you can’t bring yourself to do this at least you can put the paper in a pending file. This way you will have a back up if you can’t locate your calendar.

Have an easy to use filing system

-Make sure your files are roomy. If you have to push and shove to get a piece of paper in, you will not be motivated to file anything.

-Make sure your filing area is easily accessible. If you can’t get to it easily, you will probably put off filing things.

- Make sure you have a place for every category. Stuff from my kids schools goes into a binder that is already filled with page protectors (useful if paper is not hole punched), bills go into to the “To be Paid” file, party invitations go on the fridge etc.

Purge paper on regular basis

- Take five minutes a day to purge files or 30 minutes a week whatever works for you. Set the timer and just work on cleaning files or clearing up a paper mess you see. You may have places in your office or home where paper piles up. When the timer rings – STOP.

- Have a box for papers you can’t decide about. If your just not sure if you still need it, put papers in a cardboard storage box and store them in an out of the way place.

- When you see paper just floating around, pick it up and put it in a one location. That way it is contained and you can deal with it all at once.

- Clean out your purse once a week or least once a month. I find a lot of stray papers floating around in mine.

- Have a specific file for receipts you might need to keep and clean it out once a month. Receipts will probably go into to your tax or medical file or be thrown away.

clearing clutter,clutter control,getting rid of clutter,organize it,organizing clutter,organizing tips,organizing your life,paperwork

Share This

Technorati Tags: clearing clutter, clutter control, getting rid of clutter, organize it, organizing clutter, organizing tips, organizing your life, paperwork

1. Buying the supplies will get you organized - Don’t assume if buy organizing supplies such as containers, file folders, binders etc. you will be instantly more organized. To quote an old saying “You are putting the cart before the horse.” First rule of organizing is to go through the area you want to organize and get rid of the things you don’t need or want anymore. Once you do this you will know what organizing supplies you will need to purchase.

2. Multi-tasking – Studies have shown that multi-tasking is not efficient. What happens is you lose time because you have to keep readjusting your focus. Set time limits for your tasks if you have trouble sticking to one thing.

3. Assuming a store bought organizing system will work you – Everyone’s brain works differently. What works for me may not work for you. Personally, I like a paper calender book but I know people that would die without their electronic organizer. Sometimes you have to try different things until you find what works for you.

4. Telling yourself your just an unorganized person and nothing will help - Everyone can achieve some degree of organization. We may not be all have perfectly organized homes but we can do small things to change some of our habits. Remembering to put your keys and cell phone in the same place when you come home is a step toward being organized. Remembering to empty your deleted items file in your email is a step toward being organized. Small steps…

5. Getting organized means getting rid of things you love - If something has value to you, even if it is only sentimental value, you don’t have to throw it away. I consider myself fairly organized and I still have some stuffed animals that belonged to my son (he’s in college). They are tucked away in a bin in his closet. Getting organized means changing some habits so that your life will run smoother not throwing away everything that isn’t current or useful.

See our post on http://fasthowto.com
on How To File Paperwork Faster

organizing,organizing tips,organizing clutter,organizng your life,clutter control,filing systems

Share This

Technorati Tags: organizing, organizing tips, organizing clutter, organizng your life, clutter control, filing systems

Like any other job it easier to do if you have the right tools. Here are some favorites of mine and others I have come across in my travels:

Stackable bins – You can use these for toys, clothes, art-work, papers, school memos, shoes etc. You can buy them in different colors and color code them. A lot families use a certain color for each member of the family. They are cheap and plus you can stack them high and make use of vertical space.

Solid plastic bins on wheels - These are great for kids toys and art supplies because they can wheel them where ever they go and can be pushed into closets to hideaway. I like them for dirty shoes in the laundry room. When I need to mop the floor I just pile all the shoes in there and wheel them out and the floor is clear.

Multi-level organizers - These are free standing open shelf units which can come with or without wheels. In the garage you can use these for sports equipment, gardening supplies,outdoor game equipment and painting supplies. Indoors you can use them to store video game equipment and videos, boxes of craft supplies, magazines and art projects in progress and books. Again you can even assign each child a shelf and keep school items there.

Four drawer organizer – These are made of clear or colored plastic and can be with or without wheels. I use these in the garage to store painting supplies – brushes, gloves, paint stirrer etc. I also use them in the hall closets to store seasonal decorations, replacement light bulbs, and old pictures. These are great for kids toys and art supplies because they can wheel them out when they are needed, pull out the drawers to reach things easily and then put it all back in the easily because the drawers are on the floor at their level. You put the drawers back in the unit and you’re set. I use smaller versions of these four drawer organizers in the bathroom to hold flossers, pony tail bands and razor blade cartridge replacements.

organizing,organizing tips,organizing clutter,organizng your life,organizing clutter

Share This

Technorati Tags: organizing, organizing tips, organizing clutter, organizng your life, organizing clutter