The Blog

2 Power Tools You Need to Help Manage the Stress of a Busy Day

07/27/2011 By Nancy Borg With 6 comments

I have yet to meet a person that does not complain about how busy they are.  It’s seems to be the new standard reply to “how are you?” No more “I’m fine”, just “busy.” The truth is, it is indeed the sign of the times.  We are all guilty of immersing ourselves into over-scheduled days, action packed with juggling commitments, meeting deadlines, racing to appointments, and circuitous car pool runs.  Mornings are hectic, work days grow longer, and conventional mealtimes have become more spontaneous than scheduled.

Don’t fool yourself; as a result of this daily chaos, we all suffer.  We are all overextended, overbooked, at high speed overload doomed to crash and burn.

Being busy can be challenging but doable, but being too busy is arguably dangerous.  Mistakes are inevitable, and if you have not planned well, important dates, commitments, possessions, etc. can be overlooked, lost, or forgotten.  Is your busy schedule robbing you of things that matter to you? Are you lacking balance in your life?

What if I told you that if you stopped being so busy for a hot minute and relinquished a bit more more time to organize your lifestyle better, you’d actually have MORE time?

As to not unravel, I suggest two imperative tools to balance your life.  Meet ORGANIZE and EXERCISE.  They go hand in hand because they work in the same way for your mind, body, and soul. Hopefully most of us take to the gym to work out the stress we lug around,  and strive to keep our bodies healthy and fit.  Physical exercise is an excellent outlet to relieve our stress and provide the balance we require to function.  Just as exercising targets specific muscle groups, mental organizing can target specific tasks and accelerate productivity.  Take time out and focus on what matters to you.

EXERCISE your brain and ORGANIZE your priorities.

WARM-UP: Consider preparedness as your warm-up before a busy stressful day.  It could prevent you from spiraling out of control.  Consider your day at a glance, and make adjustments if your schedule looks too full.  Paradoxically, if your life’s treadmill is running too fast, slow down and customize the speed that works for you.

STRETCH: Use bits of time that you can carve out as as an opportunity to stretch your potential and make positive changes in your harried schedule.

TRAIN: Train your mind to stay on task.  Be aware of your actions and deliberate.  Time is invaluable, don’t waste it, get a value from it.

ALIGN: Organizing your daily plan will keep you in alignment. Be clear and realistic about your daily goals.

BREATHE: Adhering to an agenda that is not abusive will enable you to pause and breathe. It’s important to catch a breath during a hectic day.  Build in some wiggle room into your schedule, allowing for the unforeseen and unexpected.

Manage your settings; modify both your workout or work ethic. Take back the control. Being ORGANIZED, like EXERCISE, means having a routine, a plan, and a system.

Exercising daily is empowering and feeds your productivity.  Active planning and organizing will do the same.  In both scenarios, if you don’t schedule it, it won’t happen.  Make time-management just another EXERCISE of your day.

ORGANIZE and EXERCISE are powerful tools to manage and balance our lifestyles and can help us live our best life. Make them part of  your daily routine. Careers, marriages, relationships depend on it. 

Are you too busy?

 

 

 

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The Trade-offs of a Digital World: Are We Losing Touch?

07/20/2011 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

 

I’m all for advanced technology, don’t get me wrong, it makes so many things more efficient, more organized, and streamlines processes better and faster.  We have found countless paperless solutions, but perhaps we might have also surrendered one of our most valuable senses, the ability to touch.

If you’re like me and a tactile person, you might be resistant to abandoning the notion of reading an actual book, and opt out of buying a Kindle.  I appreciate the portability of this kind of technology when traveling, but when I’m in the comforts of my own home, I prefer to turn a page.  It’s an opinion and nothing more.

So many of us upload all of our pictures to organized folders and photo galleries, with no thought to ever print them out. How often do we visit them? Do you remember they are even there? They live in our computers, not on on our coffee tables. Speaking from my right-sided brain, my photos bring me more joy in photo albums, where I can reach out and touch a picture, and with each turn of a page, reminisce my past. I love to sit back, relax and share with others. But that’s just me.  I want to touch, not click.

Regarding files, I like thumbing through certain files, knowing that I can access them, and can physically touch a piece of paper to refer to. However, I do appreciate the paperless trend regarding bills.  Those kinds of papers I’m happy to relinquish to the digital world.

Regarding catalogs and magazines, I’m on the fence.  Sometimes I like to flip through catalog pages (instead of scrolling a page), and maybe even tear out a page for future reference.  But truth be told, when I want to hunt down a particular item, I really love that I can rely on the computer to be my expert search engine. So efficient, so easy. Which brings me to the joys of shopping on-line.  Need I say more?  Seamless, immediately gratifying with a simple click.

Let’s face it.  Technology is morphing at such a rapid speed, it’s our future.  For those born unto this, it’s exciting and for those who are first finding their way, it’s scary.   Blackberrys and cell phones have certainly impeded on our face to face interaction, as for the most part, people are choosing to text rather than talk (yet another consequence of techno-mania) As a result, conversations feel less personal and too often are misinterpreted.  It’s difficult to feel emotion, sarcasm, or humor through a text.  Sometimes it’s nice to have a real conversation.

At this point in time, I don’t want to have my faced glued to a computer screen for every aspect of my life.  I’m not ready for that exclusivity yet.  Are you?  Let me know me what you YOU think, let’s tay in touch.

 

 

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Getting to Know The Master Organizer: Your Two-sided Brain

07/13/2011 By Nancy Borg With 1 comment

 

There is no cookie cutter design to organizing. Clearly, there are no two people alike and so there cannot be only one way to organize.  Everybody has their own preferred learning styles and processing modalities.  Let’s enter the Left and Right brain. We know that Right-brained people are creative, intuitive, emotional,  kinesthetic, and are usually visually oriented.  A Left-brain-er is more structured, cognitive, logical, precise, analytical, neat, and punctual.

For me, I switch back and forth depending on the task. In my workspace, I am very Right-brained. I like to keep most of my current files or notes out in the open and visible.  If I file them away or put them in a drawer,  I fear they will be forgettable, almost invisible to me.  And yet, at the end of the day, I still like to clear my desk and organize for the following day.  I can’t have papers scattered all over the place.  Very Left-brain.  But to ensure that things don’t get buried, I still feel compelled to leave some notes and files out on my desk.  Very Right-brain.

At home, I like to consider myself as the straighten up-er.  I love to put things away in their place, roaming around the house picking up random things and replacing back where they belong. Works for me, it’s my natural style to be neat and organized.   At yet, in other areas of my life, I’m back to Right-brain thinking. When it comes to putting things together, I rarely look at directions; I learn by doing, I’m kinesthetic.  I’m emotional and random, and sometimes I get so entrenched in what I’m doing, I lose all track of time.

We all have our own unique approaches of doing things and we must pay attention to how we learn, and how we function best. We should not have to adapt to any particular system to be a perfectly organized person.  You can’t fit a square peg into a circle. Whether you’re a visual, auditory, verbal, tactile, cognitive, kinesthetic, or someone who struggles with ADD, be aware that the brain is complex and completely individualized in terms of how it functions. In order to be a better YOU,  just be mindful of your strengths and allow them to work for you.

Do you SEE what I’m trying to say, or do you HEAR what I’m trying to say? What is your preferred style of thinking?  Are you a righty or a lefty?  I’d love to hear from you.

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Shedding the Clutter Without the Guilt

07/06/2011 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

Don’t some days just feel like you’ve had enough? Your spaces are getting more cluttered, but you’re stuck and stressed about getting rid of anything.  Everything is everywhere and there doesn’t seem to be enough space for anything.  Where to begin?

First, face the facts.  You have a lot of stuff,  I’m guessing way too much stuff.  And if you’re not using most of it,  you’re probably not even enjoying having it at all. Let it go.  Shed it.  I don’t mean to sound heartless, I’m just talking about the stuff that doesn’t really serve a purpose anymore, other than to clutter your spaces.  I’m certainly not referring to cherished photographs or an irreplaceable sentimental treasure or two,  it’s the old stuff that no longer seems to bring you joy.  It could be an old hobby that no longer holds your interest or connects to who you are today, or perhaps you’re holding onto sad memorabilia, useless broken collectibles, or souvenirs from bad vacations. So what’s the point of hanging on to them?  Embrace the fact that at one time the stuff  really mattered to you, and at the same time, acknowledge that you have already reaped its full reward. You enjoy-ed. Time to say; so long, farewell, bye bye.  Purge, baby, purge.  Toss it or donate it.  Maybe somebody else can enjoy it now. Take a good pic and let it all go, along with the guilt.

Enhance your life with your favorite current stuff , don’t be enslaved by your old stuff.  Have no remorse, liberate.  Have less, live more.

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