Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Keeping Things on Track: Organize for Success

Back to school! We all start the year with the intention to be organized and on top of schoolwork, bills, work, and obligations. It doesn’t take long for the best intentions to turn into the worst habits. Let these organizing tips help you start the year off right and keep things on track all year.

The Two-Minute Rule. If it takes less than two minutes to do, do it now. Your friends can wait two minutes for you to finish something. This will prevent you from having to sit for hours sorting through papers and will ensure you have a clean workspace so you don’t end up doing your homework on your bed (where falling asleep is a big possibility!). Keeping on top of your piles of papers will help prevent forgotten assignments, lost phone messages, misplaced email addresses and damaged forms and applications.

Don’t Carry Around a Bottomless Pit. Don’t let your schoolbag become a bottomless pit of papers and garbage. Make a habit of cleaning out your back pack every night when you take your textbooks and notebooks out. Stray papers shoved into your bag on your way out of class, at extracurricular events, and picked up around school (promotional flyers, brochures, newspapers) have a way of getting crumpled up at the bottom of your bag and forgotten. Put them in their proper place! If you don’t need the information or don’t intend to go to the event –throw out the flyer. Put graded assignments in a designated binder or folder for that class. If you need to dispute your course grade later you want to have all of your graded materials. You may also want to study from your past tests.

Inboxes Aren’t Just for Email. Desktop inboxes aren’t just for corporate executives. Having an inbox for things you need to complete and an outbox for things that need to be dropped off (mail, assignments, forms, money owed) can be a great way to stay on top of what needs to be done. As long as you don’t allow things to pile up and get forgotten at the bottom of your inbox, it can keep you moving through things.

File This Under ‘Awesome’. An accordion file is a portable and affordable alternative to a filing cabinet. Make sections for bills, school, jobs, housing, health, and extracurricular activities. Keep all your information in the accordion file so you only have to look in one place when you need something. This will help keep your bulletin board clear of clutter so you have more room for photos, mementos, and current event information. It’s also easy to move.

Don’t Let a Red Sock Ruin Your Day. Try using a sectioned hamper or two separate hampers so that you can sort lights from darks as soon as they are dirty. This will save you time when you are ready to do a load of wash (and prevent a red sock from turning your whites pink!). Having two different colored hampers will help you remember which is which. Try keeping laundry soap, fabric softener, quarters, and other laundry necessities in a basket so that you can easily carry everything you need without losing anything on your way to the laundry room.

Following these tips will save you time and give you a great start to staying organized this school year. After all, there are more important things to be doing than tidying up!

If you enjoyed this article, please pass it along to others who would find it useful and sign up for our Organize Anything newsletter on our homepage at www.organizeanything.com
© 2010 Colette Robicheau
The Organizing Coach
Organize Anything
Phone: (902) 233-1577

Permission to reuse or redistribute these materials is hereby granted provided they are reproduced or redistributed in their entirety with full attribution.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Roadmap for a Healthy Business Trip

A good business trip takes careful planning. So does maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a healthy weight. If you travel frequently in your line of work, or for your business, you know how difficult it can be to keep up good habits and how easy it is to slip into bad ones. The good news is that, with a little added preparation and smart choices, you can considerably reduce that risk. Here’s how:

Set realistic goals – Goals will help you stay focused while you are away, but be realistic. For example, instead of losing weight, why not set maintaining your current weight as your goal?

Be prepared – It’s easier to maintain your health and weight with a little preparation. For example, call ahead to the hotel where you are staying and see if they have a fitness centre. Or, for frequent stays, consider a pass to a local facility. And be sure to take along your workout gear.

Scan the menu – Taking time to review your choices will help you make healthy ones.

Consider avoiding foods with descriptions such as ‘fried,’ ‘crispy,’ or ‘battered.’ They are likely high in fat. Instead, look for high-fiber meals, like a baked potato or salad.

For baked potatoes and salads, avoid high-calorie dressings and sour cream, or extras such as meat, cheese, egg and croutons. Or, ask to have dressings and toppings on the side so you can control your portions.

Ordering a small or kid-size portion. This is a great way to reduce the amount of calories, sodium and fat you consume.

Eat on schedule – Skipping meals or not eating for long periods increases your hunger and the risk that you will overeat when you finally make time for food.

Curb the urge to splurge – Keep snacks like graham crackers and fruit on hand in your car, bag or briefcase. This will help keep your appetite in check when standing at the buffet table or ordering a meal.

Forego fast food where possible – If fast-food restaurants are your only option, remember that many now have health-smart choices. Be sure to ask for the nutritional information and check the calorie, fat and fiber counts before ordering. Often, these choices aren’t healthier than what is on the main menu. Avoid the value meals; the calorie content is generally equal to two meals.

If you enjoyed this article, please pass it along to others who would find it useful and sign up for our Organize Anything newsletter on our homepage at www.organizeanything.com

Colette Robicheau
The Organizing Coach
Organize Anything
Phone: (902) 233-1577
www.organizeanything.com
Permission to reuse or redistribute these materials is hereby granted provided they are reproduced or redistributed in their entirety with full attribution.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Study Strategies

Exam time can be a stressful time of year, especially for new college and university students. For most students, it’s not WHAT they have to study that gives them the stress, but HOW to study it. Organize your study time and exam-writing strategies to have a calm and collected exam period.

1) Make sure you have sufficient time to study everything: Review chapters every week so that you don’t have to cram everything in the night before. This is why attending class is so important. If you have questions, go to the instructor weeks before the exam, not the day before.

2) Attend all tutorials: If there aren’t any, find a tutor; it is worth the money. Most instructors will be able to provide you with a list of tutors. Arrive with a list of questions to ask, and make sure the most important ones are covered. If you are still unsure about anything, ask the instructor.

3) Ask the instructor what to expect: Are there multiple-choice or essay questions? If you know what to expect, you are less likely to panic and go blank during the exam.

4) Get copies of past exams: Even if the questions aren’t recycled, the format may be similar. It can give you an idea of what questions might be asked and which areas to focus on when you’re studying. Save one old exam that you haven’t even looked at to use as a pre-test. How well you do on this will give you an indication of how prepared you are.

5) Study in the library or someplace quiet: Sit alone at a desk or in a cubicle. Leave your cell phone, laptop and anything else that will distract you at home. If you aren’t the type who can learn by yourself, bring a friend to quiz you.

6) Make a list of all the topics that you need to know: Cover each of them one by one and cross them off of the list as you become an expert on each one. If it helps, make up a list of possible questions and have a friend quiz you.

7) Create acronyms: If the answer is in a list, use the first letter of each word. For essay questions, you can either make a list of the key points or key words to use throughout the essay.

8) Go to bed early: It is important to be well rested for an exam. Any time spent studying while you are exhausted will be wasted anyway, as you are less likely to retain the information. Wake up early, have a well-balanced breakfast and review your notes before the exam.

9) Read through the exam before you start: Sometimes, later questions can give you hints or trigger your memory for earlier questions. Answer the easiest questions first. Don’t panic if you don’t know the answer right away; move on to the next question and come back to the ones you missed later on.

10) If time allows, make a brain map before you even look at the exam: Take the first five minutes to write down everything you can remember, including all of the acronyms you created while studying, on a scrap piece of paper or the back of the exam.

11) Use correct grammar and write legibly: If the instructor cannot understand what you are trying to say, he or she cannot grade your exam.

12) If you are unsure of what a question is asking for, ask the instructor to clarify: Don’t be afraid to ask, because other people are probably wondering the same thing.

13) Divide your time and don’t rush: Some instructors will even give you suggested time allotments for questions. Spend the most time on the questions that are worth the most. Make sure to leave enough time to answer all questions.

14) Even if you only know part of the answer, write it down: Most instructors give partial marks, and sometimes that partial mark can be the difference between a pass and a fail or an A and an A+.

Remember to plan ahead so that you aren’t cramming everything in at the last minute. Over preparation for an exam trumps under preparation every time.

If you enjoyed this article, please pass it along to others who would find it useful and sign up for our Organize Anything newsletter on our homepage at www.organizeanything.com

© 2010 Colette Robicheau
The Organizing Coach
Organize Anything
Phone: (902) 233-1577
www.organizeanything.com

Permission to reuse or redistribute these materials is hereby granted provided they are reproduced or redistributed in their entirety with full attribution.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Tight and Bright: How Decluttering Your Language

Many people dread putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to write letters, memos and reports. They don’t know what to say and they don’t know how to say it. They end up cluttering their composition with fancy phrases and stilted language, and their message gets lost in the muddle. Here are some tips to avoid that trap:

1. Know your audience. Are you writing to invite your cousins to a family reunion? Then you can be informal and conversational. Or are you writing an annual report that will be scrutinized by the executives at head office? Your tone will be formal, but not flowery. Simple words are always appropriate.

2. Pare it down. Write “now” instead of “at this point in time,” for example, or “money” instead of “monetary units.”

3. Use the active voice. Write “I made a list of writing tips,” not “I have been occupied in the writing of a list of composition tips.”

4. Use the right tools for the job. Keep a dictionary and style book handy. Look for templates and writing samples online. Use a word-processing program that fixes spelling mistakes and alerts you to grammatical errors.

5. Don’t use slang: It will not be understood by many of your readers, and it won’t stand the test of time.

6. Ask a friend or colleague to edit and proofread your work. A fresh set of eyes can often spot spelling mistakes and missing words. If they don’t understand a phrase, you can be sure most of your other readers won’t understand it, either.

7. Read it aloud: If you stumble over a passage, so will your readers.

8. Keep a list of common writing problems. And refer to it often.

By applying these simple rules you can clean up your text and your message will be bright and clear. Once you know what to say and how to say it, writing those letters, memos and reports will no longer seem like such a daunting task.

If you enjoyed this article, please pass it along to others who would find it useful and sign up for our Organize Anything newsletter on our homepage at www.organizeanything.com

© 2010 Colette Robicheau
The Organizing Coach
Organize Anything
Phone: (902) 233-1577
www.organizeanything.com

Permission to reuse or redistribute these materials is hereby granted provided they are reproduced or redistributed in their entirety with full attribution.