Category: Hospitality, Holidays & Every Day

Five (Really!) Simple Steps To Start Menu Planning!

Many of my clients have “Start Menu Planning” on their list of projects. And many never get around to it.  Meal planning is such an invaluable practice, for home management and peace of mind, nutrition and wellness.  People know Menu Planning is a good idea, but getting started proves too daunting.

Why Bother with Menu Planning?  Spending 30 minutes once a week to menu plan will:

  • Save money (shopping the sales, using coupons, using your food better)
  • Save time (plan ahead, cook once and eat twice)
  • Decrease stress. (Avoid the 4 pm emergency grocery run FOREVER!)
  • Allow more flexibility in your schedule.  (Be in command of Dinner Time, instead of a slave to it!
  • Provide better nutrition for you and your family.   (Home cooking is almost always the most nutritious, and family dinners are the foundation of family communications!)

But you probably know all that, just like my clients do.  So the hurdles are still “How do I start?  Where do I start?  What is the small first step that I need to take to start making this good idea a reality?”

Start Where You Are, with What You Have.  And Start Right Now. 

It takes little time and no tools. 

Just start.

  1. Start In Your Kitchen, not at the grocery.  Take an inventory, and base your Menu on what you have.  I was recently in a client’s kitchen, and she had made a list of what was in the freezer.  Brilliant!  Most kitchens I am in have too much food, which means most of us more challenged by “How to use what I have?” than by “Help, the cupboards are bare!”  So, now that you know what you have…..
  2. Make a list of your Family Favorites, and start with those (and not intimidating new recipes).  Start with meals you know your family will eat.  Have everyone list their favorites, and work those into your plan.
  3. Start with just today.  This morning, look in the kitchen and decide what is for dinner.  Decide on your dinner time, thenIMG_1520 check your recipes, if you use them, to determine when you need to get started.  Now pull out 2 baking dishes.  Load one on the counter with the non-perishables to make dinner tonight.  Put the other in the fridge with the perishables.  If you are feeling really ambitious, plan breakfast and lunch while you’re at it.
  4. Do this every day for a few days, until you get the feel for how it works.  Now go the next step, and plan a few days ahead.  Look at that!  You’re Menu Planning!
  5. Be open to changing your kitchen and your habits:
    1. A client suggested buying an extra set of measuring scoops to leave in your canisters.  The largest scoop can go in the flour, second largest in the sugar, third largest in the brown sugar, etc.  Or go to the dollar store, grab all 1 Cup scoops, and leave those in every canister. (thanks LG!)
    2. I am working on a chart for my kitchen cabinets.  The list contains all the items that I tend to use, and how many of IMG_1285each I need in a typical 2 week period (that’s how often I do my major grocery shopping).  For example, if I tend to use 4 cans of tomatoes every 2 weeks, I need 4 on hand, or I need to add some to my grocery list.  Your grocery stores have re-order points, consider this inventory control.
    3. I may not have mentioned it lately, but I love my crock pot.  At least once a week, I spend 20 minutes and assemble dinner at 8 am.  I love coming home those days to the smell of dinner cooking!
    4. A friend shared this link on Facebook, just as I was editing this article!  http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/2014/03/plan-prep-party-3-steps-to-a-cooking-at-home-habit/
    5. Also, go to www.cookingwithchefkate.wordpress.com, and sign up to receive Kate’s blogs.  She has a handy “search option”, and so many of my new favorite recipes come from Kate! (and she is a friend and just delightful!)  Check it out!
    6. Use your prep time for twice the impact.  Soup is on today’s menu, which is great because I can spend 10 extra minutes, clean and cut all the carrots and celery I bought the other day, and have carrot sticks for snacks and diced veggies for a meal later in the week.

So, I hope I have taken some of the “overwhelm” out of getting started with Menu Planning.  It really is a great practice, and saves so much time and money.   Start In Your Own Kitchen, Start Small – Just START!

More SnowDay Organizing Projects – Kids can Help, and Have Fun, too!

Oh, for goodness sake, another snow day.  Well actually, a Cold Day.  Bitter wind chills, blizzard force winds and new snow overnight. I understand the caution, truly I do.  So, despite having an 18- day Christmas break, and a three-day weekend last weekend, here we are with more days all together in the house.

If you, like me, are wondering how to get a few things done and still have fun with your kids, can I suggest a few organizing projects? The following projects are useful, quick, kid-friendly and should require no new items to be purchased, since it’s too cold to leave the house.

Clean out your pantry / cabinets: 

Little kids can help pull everything out, and sort like items with like (for example, even a 3-year-old can sort cans of different types of veggies by the picture on the front).  Have school-age kids who can read help you determine expiration dates, and toss all the expired or stale stuff.   Talk about service and charity with your kids, and set aside a bag of items to donate to your local food pantry.

Bake some cookies with the random bits of whatever you may find (in my cabinets, 3 bags of pretzels, a partial bag of white chocolate chips and some left over candy canes are inspiring creativity in me!).  Make a large pot of soup with what you find, and leave it simmering on the stove all day to humidify the air and make the house smell good.  You could really get creative, and have your kids plan this week’s menu with you, based on the current contents of your kitchen.

Clean out under your sinks. 

Bathroom?  Kitchen?  Laundry room?  The process is the same, regardless of what room you are working in!

Pull everything out, wipe everything down.  Combine partial bottles of similar items (I often find 4 or more partial bottles of dish soap, body wash or shampoo under client sinks!).  Use containers you have on hand (kitchen storage containers or plastic baskets) to corral small items and keep them from getting lost.

Consider how many of certain items you really need.  Kitchen sink – how many plastic shopping bags?  Bathroom – how many partial / sample / hotel bottles of anything?  Yep, combine and then recycle.

Clean out the Freezer:  Here’s a link to the project:  June, 2011 Kid Convenience And Nutrition in My Clean Freezer!

     The kids can help, though you may want to be the one pulling everything out so little hands don’t freeze!  Everyone can help sort, you can purge or plan the next meal based on what you find.  I want to make my own bread crumbs, and I know there are some neglected ends of bread loaves I can start with!

Review and Purge the bookshelves:

We just did this a few days ago and it’s a great project to do with your kids.

Put all the books together (meaning, collect them from around the room / house if necessary), and sort what you have.  Consider your child’s reading levels, and purge the books that are too young for them (keep some treasured keepsakes, of course, but not too many).  We have some more shelves to review, but we already have a bag of books set aside for our young cousins, and one bag to donate to the local library.

Put Things AWAY.

Have you been waiting for the right time to finally put xxxx, yyyyy or zzzz way?  Well, guess what?  Today is that day.  Per my friends on Facebook, many of you may have the following things to put away:

  • Recycling
  • Business cards and Christmas greeting card envelopes, to update your contact list
  • Socks to finally get matched up
  • Home / personal paper filing, recipes and paperwork
  • The last few Christmas decorations that you took down last weekend
  • DVDs / Wii games to put back in cases
  • Photos!  Every seems to have photos to print / use / put away / scrapbook / file
  • Shoe clutter by the back door, as well as weeks worth of hats / gloves / sweatshirts / etc.
  • Business receipts to file
  • Cords and connectors
  • Kitchen counter clutter
  • craft items of every description!

Today is that day!  Set a timer, and spend half an hour just putting stuff AWAY!  OR longer – again, with another snow day, you all have the time!

So, stay warm, relax and hang out in your jammies, if you’d like.  And spend a little time creating order in your home with your family members.  Today is the day!

Little Pieces: Paper Management to Fix My Dinner Dilemma

To sum up the article you are about to read:Image

  1. Create paper management systems that work for you, and look at them critically once in a while to make sure they are still working;
  2. Regular maintenance is key to the success of any system;
  3. Binders are a great way to store papers that you plan to use again;
  4. Look critically at your practices regularly, and be open and willing to change; and
  5. Imagine different ways that new technology can make your life easier or solve a problem

Some of you may stop there, and that’s fine.  But read on for the rest of the story….

It’s almost 2014.  And my personal resolutions revolve around healthier eating for my family, and getting fit.  So I admit to you, instead of writing my blog, I really want to clean up / clear out my recipe binder. My recipe binder project is a study in good paper management

There are a few motivators working here:

  • I just placed a 3 month order for my awesome nutritional supplements (Reliv, ask me about them!)
  • I also just signed up for a “Figure Friendly Freezer Meal Party” in January
  • I need to menu plan for the next two weeks now that we’re done traveling and hosting parties
    I plowed through my reading pile over the weekend while traveling, and have a pile of new recipes
  • I have a backlog of recipes to try

I read a couple of magazines regularly, pulling out the recipes to use later.  There seems to be so much promise, so much hope and happiness in those shiny pictures in a magazine.  Years ago, I created a binder to keep my favorite recipes close at hand.  My binder is separated into categories that work for me and my family – favorites, appetizers, main dishes, baking, sides and salads.  When I collect recipes from my magazines, I tuck them in the front pocket of the binder.  When I feel like trying something new, I pick one out and we try it.  If my family likes it, I’ll file it in the right category area.  If they don’t, I’ll toss it.  I have purged the occasional cook book, too, when I go back to it for only one recipe repeatedly.  I’ll tear the page out or make a copy in my printer, and purge the cookbook.

So here are the problems I am facing:

  • The front pocket has gotten very full, and I have more to add.
  • There are recipes that have been in the pocket for months and even years, and I have yet to try them.  Which means they no longer appeal to me, and probably never will.
  • I am turning over a new, healthier leaf and many of the backlog recipes don’t fit that vision.
  • I sometimes collect recipes on-line now.

So, this evening or tomorrow, I will spend an hour and

  1. Re-file all the favorites that we’ve pulled out over the holidays (recipes for our favorite holiday cookie recipes, sugared walnuts, and a lovely sauce for our Christmas roast
  2. Grab a sheet protector, put two new soup recipes we’ve tried and loved into it, and add it to the binder.
  3. Look very critically at this weekend’s new pile and the handful of recipes in the front pocket, and ask myself some questions.  Such as:  Is it just too complicated?  Does it contain ingredients I can not pronounce or easily find at my regular grocery stores?  Will my family turn up their collective noses?  Is it healthy?  Do I already have a recipe that is very similar?  Can I find the recipe again on-line?
  4. Start “collecting” more recipes on-line, bookmarking the pages and adding a link to my menu plan spreadsheet so I can find the recipe again when I need it.  An article I read suggested using Evernote (which I love!!) to catalog and organize recipes, too.

What can you spend an hour on this week, a small project, that will reap big rewards?  Imagine, and get to it!  Happy New Year!

Slow Down. Smile. Breathe. Merry Christmas!

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I spend a lot of time organizing others and myself, but I remind myself often “Why?”.  My personal “Why to be organized” reasons include running our home efficiently, using our resources responsibly, setting an example for my kids, and taking care of tasks so we have time for other things.  Above all, to me, being organized means I take good care of my family.

I attended a scripture reflection gathering last weekend.  60 minutes with 4 wonderful women, and my mindset for the holidays was blessedly changed.  I was reminded that everything we do for others this time of year is a blessing. Our labors and service are all a gift, to us and to others and to God.  Hope and Faith and Glory.  Ahhhh….  (that was me sighing a contented sigh).

We discussed how the ornaments on our tree reflect all the different places our lives have been.  For example, the ornaments my husband and I brought from our childhoods when we got married, and the ones we have received over the years since.  The “baby’s first Christmas” ornaments from each son, the cactus ornament from our anniversary in Arizona, the Irish ones we received at a family ornament exchange, the Mickey-shaped one we carefully brought home from Disney.  The hand-made ornaments from many school parties: angels with little hand-shaped wings; the same photo ornament of each boy holding the Velveteen rabbit in the same preschool classroom; banners and bells and beads and glitter.

A friend stopped by the other day and exclaimed over my handmade ornaments on my tree.  Since I consider myself totally not-crafty, I hadn’t really realized that we had more or less handmade ornaments than anyone else.  I did look at my tree anew though, admiring my sons’ crafty work: the ornaments they have made, and the fact that we all decorated the tree together and they chose which ornaments to put out.  My heart warmed when I realized how they have come to value the history and present life that the ornaments represent.

Our lives have gotten busier and busier as the boys have gotten older.  And I have been cranky at several points this holiday season about the apparent lack of time for our family traditions.  But I guess they still understand and appreciate and love our traditions, even if they haven’t figured out how to help, or haven’t made them their own.  And that’s ok.

So my organizing idea for you this week is to slow down and appreciate the Holidays for what they are.  An opportunity to get closer to God, to your community, your friends, your family and to your own self.   Admire and embrace anew your own traditions.  Appreciate the time and focus that being organized has afforded you, and reap the benefits now.   Slow down and smile and breathe.  I know I will.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Give Wonderful Gifts, Not Clutter!

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Some years, I struggle with gift-giving, mainly because I don’t want to add to someone’s clutter!  So here are some ideas to keep your gift-giving personal and awesome and Clutter Free!

  1. Give an activity, as my friend and fellow organizer Emily Smith suggested last week.  Offer experiences, not stuff.  And actually schedule the experience, so your loved-one is more apt to follow up (checking their calendar first, of course).  We bought my dad concert tickets last year, for a specific event.  A few years ago, my hubby bought me a spa gift certificate for Mother’s Day.  He checked my calendar, booked the appointment, then took that day off of work so I wouldn’t have to rush home for parent duties.  Awesome.
  2. Don’t underestimate simple, personal gifts.  I have a tray of rocks.  Yes, rocks. They’re garden variety rocks, with words written on them in a gold sharpie.  Basic and not terribly exciting on the surface, right.  But they came from a good friend, with an explanation, based on the book the 12 Ways of Christmas, and are one of my personally prized Christmas decorations.  They are in a pretty tray on my dresser.
  3. Give a tradition.  Last Christmas, I received a special occasion place setting from TP, a friend / client.  In TP’s family, you receive a special occasion table setting when you are old enough to appreciate it, and you can use it when you choose.  For yourself, or for a loved one on their special occasion like Mother’s Day or birthdays or graduations.  TP had told me about her family’s tradition when we worked together in her home, so I was moved and blessed when she gave me my own.  It came protected in a pretty hat box, and she told me why she chose the pattern and colors for me.  So wonderful.  And I think about starting the tradition in my family, too.
  4. Give something personal, with a note.  I help many people downsize.  Sometimes the client sets aside an item to give to a loved one later or upon their passing.  I always encourage my client to write a note to the recipient, explaining why the item is important, a little about the history of the item, and why the giver chose to leave it to the recipient.  Let your gift recipient know why they and the gift are special.
  5. Give the gift of Organization:  Gift giving is about the receiver, not the giver.  And using gift-giving as an opportunity to fix a perceived flaw in someone is rather rude.  “Here, honey, I got you some workout DVDs because you should exercise more” is totally about your opinion, not your loved one.
    All of that being said, sometimes our loved ones would like to be more organized, or could use inspiration from us to use their space and stuff better and live a more streamlined life.  So, here are a few ideas to pair beautiful function with good intentions.
    • Just read about this, Stick N Find (found on Smead Organomics) – you can use GPS and blue tooth technology to attach trackers to often-lost-things, to help you find them again
    • An “Ish” Hook: Find a unique and beautiful hook to mount on a wall or over a closet door.  The gift recipient can use it to hang up tomorrow’s clothes, or as a hook to hang up their ‘clean-“ish”’ clothes for another day.
    • A counter top charging station
    • A decorative and perhaps non-breakable (like wood or leather or acrylic) bowl for your loved one to place near the door for their cell phone, car keys, lip gloss, wallet, and whatever else goes in and out of their pockets when they go through the door.

Hope this provides some un-cluttered last minute gift ideas!  Merry Christmas!

Stay Productive When All The World Is a Distraction!

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This time of year, do you struggle to maintain focus in the midst of all the holiday hustle, bustle and hype?  I know I do.  After a busy family weekend of volunteering, parties and activities, I sat down Monday morning at my desk already tired, and opened my in-boxes to hundreds of email.  Gah!  I fought the temptation to run and hide, but it got me thinking about how to Stay Productive and On Task When all the World Seems Like a Distraction!

So here are some tips to help us all out:

1.  Clear the clutter in your work space.  Spend 10 minutes and file your filing, tidy your resources, clear the trash, wash your coffee mug (and swap it out for a holiday themed one).  Take a few deep breaths and enjoy your cleared space. Then get back to work.

2.  Clear the clutter in your in-box.  Ruthlessly delete emails. A tip from my paper management classes that applies to email, too:  Catalogs and email advertisements are sent with the specific intention of making you buy stuff.  If you don’t want to shop right now, delete the emails.  Or put them in a folder to open later, and put “Review sale emails” on your to-do list with a date and time and time allotment attached (give it 10 or 15 minutes, then move on).

3.  Decorate your work space, but just a little. For safety sake, no candles.  And for health sake, no candy jar or food-scented anything (it will just make you hungry)!  I have a single lovely large decoration hanging in my window.  I bought it from a crafty friend, and it is the extent of my decorations around my desk.  Remember, any decorations you put out now will be clutter in 4 weeks.

4.  Clear the clutter in your calendar and on your to-do list.  I started the day with a dozen quick and easy tasks on my work to-do list – send invoices, follow-up with emails / schedule a client for Wednesday, etc. (and I deleted over 200 emails accumulated over the weekend in my personal and business email accounts).  Whew!

5.  Employ hard stops.  We all know when an event will start, but we don’t always know when it will / should end.  A friend opened her home to a group of us over the weekend, and served us a lovely meal.  It was wonderful.  And then we all packed up and left 2 hours after we started, so she could get to her next event.  She gave us a hard stop, a specific end time, before we began and we tried to stick to it.  We should employ hard stops all year ‘round, but especially when time and productivity are at a premium.

6.  Don’t get distracted.  Check in many, many times a day / hour / minute to make sure you are on-task and doing what you actually intended to do today, and not mindlessly browsing the internet, watching tear-jerking videos on Facebook, or chatting too long with a friend at the grocery store (a little while was awesome, though, catching up with a friend in the produce section).  Compartmentalize, and set timers if you must.

7.  Multitask.  Put the cookies in the oven, then write your blog (oh, maybe that’s just me – molasses cookies with white chocolate kisses right now).  I don’t often recommend multitasking, but sometimes we must.   Run errands on your commute, use your time well.  I have taken to checking my email remotely on my phone so I know how to order my tasks when I get home.

8.  Set professional goals, even though you’re busy with other things.  Keep your professional focus, and make one or two more goals for this month, to give you some accountability and keep you on track.

I hope this helps you clear some brain and life clutter and maintain focus on your professional goals this time of year.  Merry Christmas!  Now get back to business!

The Holidays Are Here. Don’t Say You Didn’t Know.

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Here’s a head’s up – the holidays are here. Don’t say you didn’t know.  And Do not allow your procrastination to create emergencies for others.

I know the holidays are busy, but on December 23rd, you are not allowed to freak out and cause other people angst of any kind.  Not your family members or the poor unsuspecting store clerk who gets stuck waiting on the cranky-freaked-out you or your loved one who doesn’t receive the really nice gift they deserve.  If you don’t plan ahead now and take care of business, you don’t get to be crabby, or whine that the holidays just crept up on you and now you are too busy to get things done.

However, if someone else’s lack of planning causes you stress, you have my permission to say “No” to bailing them out, or at least expect a little something extra in your stocking for your troubles. 🙂

I was at Mass this weekend, and two of the three scripture readings said “Wake Up! Be Alert!  Be Prepared!”  Now is the time to wake up. Now is the time to prepare.  So let’s go!  Here is some tough love, friends.  You can get everything done, yes you can.  But you have to start now and you have to keep moving.

Take a couple of deep breaths, remind yourself It’s all Baby Bear, and get busy.

  1. Make a Plan – There is still time.  State your purpose.  Schedule the big stuff, put the events and necessary tasks on the calendar, assume that you will need to step up your usual pace for a few days to get things started.
  2. (Here is my purpose:  I am celebrating the gift of the Birth of our Savior.  I will open my home and heart to friends, family and strangers.  I will remember that the gift of my time      is the most unique gift I can give to friends, family and strangers, and plan accordingly.  I will give of myself and my resources joyfully, in the example of God and Jesus.  My mantra remains God, Family & Community.)
  3. Santa was right – make a list.  Make that list and check it twice.  As I sit here writing this, random ideas are popping into my head.  Work related – follow up with that client, remember to (fill in blank here). Holiday related – text sister-in-law about gift idea for (insert name here).  If it’s a quick task, do it.  It if requires a little more time, put it on the list.  Keep those ideas from getting lost, and then act on them.
  4. If you have something you need to do, Do It Today.  For goodness sake, why would you wait?  If you have the idea, and a little bit of time, take action!  Make the phone call, order the gift, run the errands, hang the lights, etc. Do it today.
  5. Do Good.  Donate your time or money or stuff to a worthy cause.  It is always the right time to do Good.
  6. Be prepared.  But be prepared to be surprised.  Prepare for work and life and the holidays, but expect that the unexpected will happen in the next month.  There will be big and little emergencies and surprises.  Prepare as much as you can, but expect pitfalls.
  7. Go to bed on time (Click here for my friend Erin Dubich’s Facebook page for more motivation:  https://www.facebook.com/erindubichnutrition.  And get out of bed on time.
  8. Make a January List.  There are already a number of tasks on my to-do list that I realize I won’t get to until the New Year.  So I’ve moved those tasks to January already, to clear more space in December.

Get busy, friends, get things done and make some progress towards great holidays this week!

Quiet That Critic In Your Head. It’s All Baby Bear.

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Ya’ know – Baby Bear?  From Goldilocks and the Three Bears?  Baby Bear’s chair was not too hard, not too soft. His porridge?  Not too cold, not too hot.  His bed?  Not too big, not too small.  It was all Just Right.

Baby-Polar-BearAre you feeling things a little too strongly lately, or maybe not enough?  Or perhaps some days it feels like time is just dragging, and then suddenly deadlines or holidays loom up right in front of us?

Hang out with me this week in Baby Bear – It’s all Just Right.

You see, my mind was swirling last week, spinning wildly through to-do lists and client projects and kid activities.  My nagging internal voice kept whispering “there’s not enough time, you haven’t done enough, you’ve done too much, you’re going to be late, what did you do… blah, blah, blah.”  Swirl, swirl, swirl.

The everyday demands of work, home, family and health are enough to keep us busy most days, but then toss in the extra thoughts – albeit good and wonderful thoughts –  about travels and holidays and special meals and logistics, and, well, your brain may be swirling too.  Is it?

It’s OK, friend.  Everything will be fine.  It’s all Baby Bear, Just Right.

Looking at the story, of course we want to be Baby Bear!  Papa Bear was big, gruff and cranky, from sitting on a hard chair and eating overly hot porridge.  Mama Bear was sort of mushy, from sitting in a squishy chair and eating cold porridge.  And Goldilocks was the worst house guest ever: ate all the food, broke stuff, took a nap and then ran screaming out the front door.

Yep. Baby Bear had it right.  Say it with me.  It’s all Baby Bear.  It will all be Just Right.

Now, don’t misunderstand me:  I am NOT suggesting that the next month or 6 weeks will be all sunshine and lollipops and sugar-plum fairies.  No way.  Some days we will be cranky like Papa Bear, or squishy like Mama Bear.  We may even break stuff, need a nap or run screaming from the room like Goldilocks.  If we allow it, our internal critic will whisper words to trip us up, and diminish our joy and purpose this Holiday season.

But we can remind ourselves that every day is a mix of hard and soft, cold and hot, big and small.  That’s life and there is no way around it.

And let me suggest – be grateful for the ups and downs and all-arounds this season.  A friend got a flat tire this morning on the way to church.  And when I saw her, she said she was ready to cry.  But cry tears of joy, because as she was calling friends to help, a tow truck pulled up behind her, the driver helped her with her tire, and got her on her way with a “God Bless You”.  God is so good.  See, it really can be All Baby Bear, Just Right.

So, change your internal critic’s monologue.  Or play Christmas carols so loud you can’t hear that insidious whisper.  You DO have enough time, you CAN get the important stuff done.  You might be late, but is that so bad?  You ARE smart enough, skinny enough, talented enough, wonderful enough.

Take a couple of deep cleansing breaths and tell that critic’s voice in your head that sounds remarkably like you to back off, get lost and let you get to work.

It’s all Baby Bear.  Things will turn out Just Right.

Healthy Time Management: 10 tips in 5 Minutes or Less

breakfast2The Holidays are a wonderful time of year!  Unless you come down with a cold or flu, and then you’re miserable, regardless of the decorations and parties.  Your best time management would be to not get sick or rundown this time of year, right?!

I worked with a very wise client today – one of the first goals she mentioned is “making time for self care around the holidays”.  Awesome!!!

Make room in your schedule for these healthy habits.  Use your time better, be organized and less stressed, feel and live better.

  1. Drink a large glass of ice-cold water every morning when you wake up, to stay hydrated and boost your metabolism.
  2. Make a habit (maybe buy a pill sorter?) to regularly take your medications and supplements – with breakfast?  Dinner?  At bedtime?  Just make the habit.
  3. Clean out your briefcase, stand straighter and travel lighter.  Clean out the backpack, handbag, etc.  Pare down to what you really need.
  4. Strapped for time in the morning?  Grab a healthy and portable breakfast, like an apple and granola bar, on your way out the door.
  5. Pack your lunch – saves money, saves time, is much healthier!
  6. Every week, grab an antibacterial wipe and wipe down your computer area, keyboard, desk phone and cell phone.  And if you or people around you are sick, do it every day!
  7. Grab your calendar, and make your medical appointments for your annual physical and screenings, and twice annual dental visit.
  8. Take the stairs / park farther from the door
  9. Floss.
  10. Go to bed.  Early.  You know you want to, so just go to bed!  You’ll feel better, be more productive and more positive tomorrow!

Use your time better, feel better, live better – Enjoy!

What will you do with the next 8 weeks, the final months of 2013 (no pressure!)?

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hourglass-hiThis article is not about the holidays.  Nope.  Not shopping, turkey or decorations.  Clear those from your minds

This is all about you.  You.  What will You do with the rest of Your year?

I attended a workshop this past weekend, where I met wonderful women doing great things,  explored creative writing and encountered inspiration!  One article our speaker mentioned was “The Final Stretch of 2013: Three Questions to Ask Yourself” (www.eatyourcareer.com) .

The three questions are:

  1. What have I accomplished so far?
  2. If I had to choose just two priorities for the rest of the year (one personal and one professional), what would they be?
  3. What intention do I want to set for the next two months?

So……

Accomplishments so far?  (This is often really tough for people.)

Recall your new year’s resolutions, if you can.  I won’t share my whole January self’s list, but I am proud of what I have accomplished this year:

      I raised over $1,000 for children’s cancer research by shaving my head for St. Baldrick’s, and registered to be a bone marrow donor through Be the Match (www.BeTheMatch.org).  I went “back to school”, taking coaching classes to expand my mind, business and skill set.  I met with and shopped with a wardrobe consultant.  I said yes to people and invitations. I’ve worked regularly with my accountability partner to move my business forward in great ways.

Next – Priorities and intentions.  These are very important, but you have to determine these for yourself.  Let me share a few suggestions, to help You determine Your priorities and intentions:

  1. Turn your thinking around.  My client today admitted to fearing the unknown. Just last week, a client, making a huge life transition, was fearful of ‘what could happen’.  She stated “This could be the worst situation ever.”  But it’s the ‘unknown’, right?  Which means it could also be the best, most amazing situation ever.  We just don’t know.  So let’s assume the best for a change.
  2. Find self-care that works for you.  I’ll never tell you to take a bubble bath, drink more wine or carve out “me” time.  Look instead for small and regular moments to nurture your spirit.  A friend mentioned getting together with friends to put together a self-care calendar for the next few months.  Just meeting with friends would count, right?!  Personally, I head to a local coffee shop and spend an hour with pen and paper, letting creative ideas flow.  And in this moment, I promise myself that I will blow off an afternoon and see a movie in the next 8 weeks, something that no one else in my house would ever see.   And I’ll eat all the popcorn myself.
  3. Who do you want to spend time with?  Spend the time.  Honey, can we watch more movies together?  Watching the scary one last night, and having you laugh when I hid my face behind a blanket made me laugh, too.  We need to do that more often.
  4. Get connected.  The word “connected” keeps coming up.  Listen to it.  Reach out to a friend you’ve lost contact with.  And I mean actually reach out, and not just on Facebook.  Hand-write some thank-you notes this month, to people you are thankful for.
  5. Forgive yourself.  I’m forgiving myself in advance for not getting through my reading pile by 2014. I am confident that it will not happen.  But I will read more of what I really want to read, and less extraneous stuff that just appears in front of me.  To that end, this moment I just purchased a kindle book for my IPad from one of my favorite authors.  Can’t wait to start it!
  6. Here’s a thought – take on less!  Perhaps you don’t take on more for the next 8 weeks – how about you take on less?  Get more sleep, take more breaks.
  7. Get just a little uncomfortable.  Stretch, try something new, feel just a little nervous.  Nothing new will happen unless something new happens. Get it?

So, what’s it going to be?  How will you choose to make the most of the end of the year?  Share!  And talk to you next week.