Proven Organizational Methods to Restore Order for Yourself and Your Family During and After a Divorce.

Tips to reduce stress & keep you sane.

Denise Caron-Quinn

What do you want the future to hold for you and your family??

• Bus riddle

• What are we after? Define what you want.

• IMAGINE – Reconnect with your dreams.

• What are your BIG PICTURE goals?

• What can you do to reestablish life balance?

Time is precious

“There is never enough time unless you’re serving it.”

Malcolm Forbes

Using Personal Productivity pearls which maximize your use of time

“You delay but time does not”.

Benjamin Franklin

The Overworked American

Americans work 163 additional hours or one month a year more today than in 1969.

The Employee Benefits Research Institute tells us that Americans work more hours per year than any other industrialized nation – putting in an avg. of 6.5 weeks longer than the French workforce and 8 weeks longer than Germany’s.

Can we really manage time?

Nearly half of employees polled in a nationwide survey stated that time management was the #1 source of stress in their lives

Time MapTime Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

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Time Management vs. Action Management

The Ready State of the Martial Artist

• Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax

• The “Mind like Water Simile”

• “If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything – it is open to everything.” - Shurnyu Suzuki

Dealing Effectively with Internal Committments

• “There is usually an inverse relationship between how much something is on your mind and how much it’s getting done.”

David Allen

• #1. Using a Master List

• Get it out of your head –

Begin to work with the Master List

• Initial Step: List everything, capture all your open loops . . .

anything you have full or shared responsibility for, commitments to yourself and others. do not analyze or organize this list just put it all down so you can later arrange them into some meaningful fashion. This is just a data dump – do not feel compelled to do anything about any of this yet

(ie. Broken needs fixing , Committee minutes to be typed and distributed, Performance Appraisal, Travel Arrangements, Present s to buy, schedule car for service, dental appointment to . . . )

Keep it simple

Realistic Expectations

Creative minds always have more ideas than the physical body can carry out.

Recognize that fact and spend time planning to identify the most crucial activities

Actual vs. Someday/Maybe

Decide upon what to do when stuff shows up . . . . . not blows up!

Carpenter’s motto:

“measure twice . . . saw once”

Ancient Asian Proverb:

“the more you sweat in peace the less you’ll bleed in war”

Working with the Master List

• Categorization

• Portability

• Review constantly and keep it current

• Organize your reminders – prioritize

• Break down complex projects into smaller parts

• Determine next steps

• Delegate and share wherever possible.

Managing the Master List

• Collect it. Create the list.

• Process it. Decide what actions must be taken to get each thing done.

• Organize it. System for reminders of projects and next action steps

• Review it. Maintain the list, keeping it current and complete.

• Do it! Getting it done.

E - Organizing

Make time to declutter and reorganize

Managing Clutter

The average US executive wastes one hour per day searching for missing information in messy desks and files according to the Wall Street Journal

Decluttering at home

Getting rid of clutter would eliminate 40% of housework in the average American home (National Soap and Detergent Association)

Less is more

“Our lives are frittered away by detail.

. . . . Simplify, simplify

Henry David Thoreau

Fung Shui –

Literal translation = wind and water. The Chinese tradition says the more things you own the more problems you have in life.

Does anyone really know what time it is?

A person with one watch knows what time it is . . . a person with two watches is never quite sure.

Lee Segall

Aim for success . . . not perfection

“Besides the noble art of getting things done there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists of the elimination of non-essentials”.

Dr. Lin Yutang

More pearls

• A place for everything and everything in it’s place

• Build upon what is working

• Make the most of short windows of time

• Crunch your container

• Make time for yourself

• Backward scheduling

• Identify and manage recurrent time wasters

Steps to bring about order and reduced stress.

• Motivate

• Evaluate

• Don’t Procrastinate

• Regulate

• Automate

• Delegate

• Donate

• Celebrate

Make it happen – a step at a time!