Getting along with coworkers is difficult enough at the best of times but a disorganized coworker can add extra frustrations. Here are some suggestions I found which should help you function alongside their messiness:

1. Keep copies of everything you give them.

2. Express clearly what you need of them and, if you don’t get it, have a conversation about what you need from him or her without accusing or making the other person wrong.

3. Keep a light tone. Try to keep in mind your coworker is not deliberately trying to make your job harder. They have a problem staying organized and you need to find a way that the two of you can work together and get the job done.

4. Ask if you can help them in any way, as they are probably as frustrated as you.

5. If the problem is severe, consider speaking to your manager about the situation, seeking guidance and/or training for the co-worker. When speaking to your manager, wait until you are calm and can explain the problem without anger and too much emotion.

6. If the problem continues to the point of affecting your job, ask to work with someone else, if possible.

7. When you send them an email or message of any sort, ALWAYS ask for confirmation that they received the message, and then retain the confirmation.

You might also consider looking at your own workspace to see if there are any improvements you might make. If you respect yourself, you respect the place where you work. Ask yourself:

1. Do you enjoy being in this space?

4. Is your desk uncluttered and is it easy to find things in your office?

If your answer was NO to any of these questions, now’s the time to roll up your sleeves, and clean up. You’ll be more productive and your co-workers will thank you.

Would like to improve your intuition skills? You really can practice intuition according to Laura Day. See our post Practice Intuition on our sister site Curepure.com

I have posted many articles on getting organized and paring down. I came across an interesting article in our local paper which talked about the “100 Thing Challenge” and it kind of made me look at my own life and how many things I had. I want to recap some of the article here in this post mostly just to give food for thought. I don’t think I could do the “100 Thing Challenge” which entails getting your clothes, books, shoes etc. down to 100 things but it made me realize how far past I am the “100″ mark in terms of possessions. If that sounds vague read on to find out what was so thought provoking about the “100 things.”

The article begins with a description of Courtney Carver who was trying to find ways to simplify her life when she decided to pare down her wardrobe to 33 items to be worn over three months. She blogged about it ( Bemorewithless) and put something on Facebook about it. (Project333)

She said she discovered she was not the only one who felt the need to pare down. She reported the challenge has done more for her than just save her money. One of things she mentioned was that she and her husband found that by reducing their clothing inventory they also reduced their expectations of what made them happy. With reduced expectations there was less disappointment and subsequently more satisfaction with their life.

Virginia Smith, Vogue’s fashion market director, said more people are making do with less in their closets. “I do think it is a new thought in fashion that is getting out to the more mainstream” she said. But, she said challenges like the Carver’s are too severe for most people. But Smith says thinking about what you are purchasing is a good thing.

Carver says she would buy things out of habit and also because she thought she worked hard and deserved those things. The first phase of her Project 333 (www.bemorewithless.com) ended in December. In January she will will do it for another three months replacing whatever is inappropriate for the season. She included accessories like sunglasses and purses on her list of 33.

About 440 people on Facebook are participating in her challenge. She is launching a website that will offer seasonal paring down guides for a fee, to people who want to follow her clothing diet but need help.

A fashion historian commented in the article that having a minimal wardrobe isn’t new. About 100 years ago it was not uncommon for a working class woman to have only three dresses and two pairs of shoes that were worn until they couldn’t be mended. She also felt the 33 was to severe because we have such pressure to consume.

Other people in the article who are doing the “100 Thing Challenge” said it used to be that cutting back was a sign of poverty and sacrifice but now it is seen as something more positive. It is way keep your life under control. Not that we can control what happens to us but paring down does help us keep from feeling so pulled in different directions trying to keep track of and care for all our possessions.

The book “The Shopping Diet” offers tips to control spending when shopping. The author says “If you are going to go minimalist do it with style. Instead of buyng a little black dress, make chocolate or forest green. Don’t buy a plain t-. Get one with a scoop or boat neck and get it in red or navy.

I guess what really struck me about all these people’s attitudes was that cutting back was not so humiliating but a kind of freedom. So much less to keep track of, take care of and less time spent shopping for more stuff. I guess it is what Sarah Breathnach was trying to say with her Simple Abundance Book that less stuff is more time for you.

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.”

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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

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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.

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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

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