As parents, our time is limited. Between shuttling the kids from school to sports practice to play rehearsal and back home, our time is precious. And let’s not forget about the hours we spend away from our families working. But everyone has the same 24 hour day to complete their tasks. Some of us are better at time management while others need a little help.

There are some time management secrets that will make you feel like you have more hours in your day. Ready?

1. Set Priorities. There are really only four choices:
2. Most important
3. Most urgent
4. Least important
5. Least urgent

When you identify tasks and set your priorities carefully by what is important, as well as avoid having issues of urgency each day, you can get a handle on your time in ways that you never thought possible.

Learn the Power of No : Saying no is probably one of the most important, and hardest, things you’ll ever learn to say. If something is not right for you, is too “urgent”, causes you stress, or you just do not want to do it and it doesn’t fit in with meeting your goals, say no. Saying no will free up untold amounts of time to focus on your priorities.

Disconnect from Technology : Unplug the phone, turn off email notifications, and for goodness sake get off Facebook (unless you are coming to check out our ideas!). If you’ve not completed the most important tasks on your daily list, you have no business messing around with technology. The idea of multitasking is overrated, so unplug and tune in to the tasks at hand. You’ll work faster, smarter, and gain the time you need for other things.

Schedule Everything : Your priorities need to be added to your calendar. Everything from the 15 minutes you need to use social media for marketing purposes, to the one hour you need to take your kids to the park. Everything needs to be put into your calendar. Some people even have to put taking a shower on their list! If you have a project due in a week, you should have five days of scheduled time to work on the project prior to the due date. This helps avoid those urgencies mentioned earlier.

Ignore Interruptions : Check your email at scheduled times during the day, explain to your children, spouse and family when you are working, and otherwise ignore the door bell ringing. If you didn’t schedule it, you don’t need it. This is where unplugging comes into play!

Once and You’re Done : Multitasking is not really a bastion of efficiency. Instead, seek to touch each task only once and finish it. For example, when you check the mail immediately throw out the trash, schedule bills to be paid, and deal with any issues that came up with a letter – right then. Of course, your mail time should be scheduled as well so that you can stay on track.

Check Your Schedule : At least twice a day, set out the time to check your schedule. Usually the morning is good while drinking your cup of coffee and at the end of the day is good. Ensure that you have your priorities in order, add anything new to your schedule that needs to be added, and remind yourself of what is expected the next day. Checking your schedule helps you feel accomplished at the end of the day, and reminds you of what’s coming up tomorrow.

Finally, it’s important to be very serious about following your schedule and calendar. Use technology to help such as Google Calendar or Outlook, synced to your smartphone to help you remember what it is that you should be doing now, and next. Go old school with a paper planner. Or use a combination of both. It may seem geeky to be so serious about a schedule, but it’s this one factor that makes these surprising time management tips work.

The Best Times to Sift Through Your Stuff

There are times throughout the year and our lives where it makes the most sense to clean hour and get rid of our stuff. You can fall into two camps when it comes to these times: those that take advantage of the time and those that let that time pass them by.

Take advantage of these opportunities to go through your stuff to clean out your home and downsize your belongings.

When you moving from one house to another is the best time to get rid of things you no longer need. Why move stuff you haven’t used to your new home where you won’t use it either? Think kitchen gadgets and closets as your best place to start.

Do you have a wok but can’t remember the last time you cooked anything stir-fried? If you rarely entertain, do you really need all those wine glasses and extra sets of dishes? How many plastic containers are in the cupboard and how many do you really use on a weekly basis? Get rid of the sizes you never use. Spend a little time to consider how much of your stuff you really use and make up your mind to let go of what is just taking up space.

Look at your linen closet- how many of those sets of sheets to you really use? If you have towels that have lost their fluff, out they go. Old makeup and medical supplies should be tossed, especially if it’s now past the expiration date.

If there is stuff in the basement or garage still in boxes from the last move, it’s safe to say you won’t use it again. Test your courage by just tossing the boxes without even looking in them. If you can’t manage this without your palms starting to sweat, then check to make sure there wasn’t a hidden treasure in one of them.

When your kids grow up and move out, it’s time to clean out the stuff they didn’t take with them. Don’t feel you should keep your kids’ room as a shrine to them. While I understand you want to keep your memories, you don’t need to keep sports equipment from high school or every trophy they ever won. If it’s not important enough for your kids to take with them to their new place, you shouldn’t hold onto it either. Offer them the chance to keep what they want, but set a deadline for them to move out their things.

If you’ve always wanted a reading room or a place to work on your crafts, now you’ll have it. Or, make this into the fancy room your guests will be thrilled to spend the night in. Redecorate, renovate and make that room your own!

At some point as you get older, you may decide your house is too much to keep up and you’ll move to a smaller place such as a condo. Now you will absolutely need to decide what to get rid of since storage space will be limited. Once again, your kitchen and closets are the best areas that can be downsized. At this point, your lifestyle may also change- you may dine out more often than at home, causing you to need less kitchen gizmos. Consider your new routine and decide what you will no longer need.
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Top Four New Year’s Resolutions for Home Decorating

It's the New Year! Have you made any resolutions? Do any of those resolutions include home finishing? Once in a while, the most ideal approach to get a venture finished is to make plans to do it! Think about putting as some home brightening objectives on your rundown of resolutions this year. 

Instead of posting the tasks and vowing to complete them, you may attempt a marginally diverse methodology – set out to have a beneficial state of mind! Likewise, setting out to finish little steps can help also. 

Here are four New Year's resolutions for home embellishing to offer you some assistance with getting started. 

Clear the Clutter Step by Step. 

Getting out the disarray. Isn't that something we all wish we could do each year? What's more, don't we definitely wind up overpowered and more covered in disarray than any time in recent memory? Not this year! 

Set out to clear jumble in steps. It's in reality overpowering to take a gander at your entire house and envision handling it at the same time, not ceasing until it's done. Rather, approach it on a room-by-room premise, setting out to clear the disorder from, say, one room a month.
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