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 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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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