How To; Organize Your Daily Life

How many times have you come home from a hard day at work, just to find another mess, waiting for you when you walk in the door?

Then, you find that you have a meeting to go to, a child to take to a practice, a friends house or a meeting and absolutely 'no time' to get all of your have-to's accomplished.

This is what starts the everyday cycle of stress, frustration and the inability to cope with everday life. We have goals, but never enough time to accomplish them. We are overworked in more ways than one and unable to handle the 'daily grind'.

How do we go about changing our lifestyle, when the lifestyle that we have won't let us?

We have to do things with the kids, we need to go to the meetings as part of our business lives and we need to handle things in the workplace, as well as at home! So, what 'gives' is our own peace of mind.

However, we can set a goal to reclaim our lives. We can choose the things that we 'want' to do and eliminate some of the stress makers. We can set up a car pooling list with other harried and frantic parents and we can take control of our lives by setting a goal that will work for us and our families.

Write a list of the things that are truly important to you and in your life. Your family will be number one, but they seem to be the ones that suffer from neglect as well as yourself. So, let's just change that little problem.

It could be that you are involved in too many things and it is time to cut back. You can still offer to do the 'extra' thing for your group of club, when you have the time; but you don't have to be a part of every project that is offered.

Start a car pooling club with other parents, to take the kids where they need to go. Set up a 'Kids Helpers'group, for those things for the kids, that a parent gets volunteered for. Parents take control for a week or maybe two weeks and then another group of parents get their turn to help.

This will give you a guaranteed hour to get some things finished that would normally be overlooked. Plus, you will be able to greet the kids when they return home and give them your undivided attention.

Those pesky little home projects, can become a thing of the past. Schedule 'BIG' projects for the weekend, when you have more time. As for during the week, 10 minute clean up jobs will do just fine.

If it helps, put a broom next to the door with a sign on it; 'If my house looks dirty to you..PLEASE HELP'. It will make you feel less guilty and your company will get a kick out of it!

Your goal for 2008, is to take back control of your life and get rid of the stress. Organizing your life can be easy, if you list all of your stress points and tackle them one at a time.

Ask yourself these questions about the items on your list:
1.How important is this
(If I eliminate it will it change my life)
2.Can I make the job easier
(can I do things simpler, faster, with less work)
3.What will I be happy with
(if I remove the clutter will that help or do I actually
have to polish everything)
4.If I don't do something this week, will it make a difference

Chances are, you will find that a lot of the things that you are stressing over aren't all that important. It can mean that you are causing your own stress, because no one else really cares except you!

By setting a goal to organize your life, you will be able to take a good, hard look at every area of your life and you will know immediately what the 'priorities' really are.

Remember to 'work smarter-not harder' and you will, once again, be in control.