This is something that I am trying really hard to work on. I check my email WAY too much and I find that it steals valuable time away from my day. This is a motivation I need and plan on applying this to my work day. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Post from: Blisstree

Put Limits on Your Email – Motivate Me Monday

I did this exact thing this morning. My family and I are leaving for that whirlwind trip to Colorado that I’ve mentioned and I have so many things to do that my head is spinning. So, I started off the day making a huge list of everything that came to my mind – things I need to bring on our trip, shopping I need to do, calls I need to make – you name it, it’s on that list. Now I have a central location to write things down as they come to me and I also can mark things off as I do them, which is a great feeling!

So my challenge for you today is to make a list. Get everything out of your head and onto paper. Maybe this will help you feel a little more at ease this holiday season.

Post from: Blisstree

Make a List and Check it Twice – Motivate Me Monday

For those of you that are new and have no clue what I am talking about, lol, here is a list of my Monday through Friday topics:

• Motivate Me Monday
• Tick Tock Tuesday
• Where’s My Desk Wednesdays
• Tame Those Toys Thursdays
• Find It Friday

Here’s a brief description for each day which I posted awhile back:

• Motivate Me Mondays - Every Monday I will issue you a challenge. Either to go through one drawer in your house and purge and organize it. Or, to take a trash bag, go through one room in your house, set the timer for 5 minutes, and get rid of some stuff. Or, to sit down and write out a step by step plan for the room that bothers you the most. This plan would involve everything it is going to take to get your room back! From beginning to end.

• Tick Tock, There Goes That Darn Clock Tuesdays – This day is all about time management. We will learn together how to get back our days and weeks and be able to look back on them with a smile on our face.

• Where is My Desk? Wednesdays - This day is all about that home office. From bills to files to piles and piles of paper. We will also cover the computer, your office supplies and when to turn off that phone so you can get some work done. We have voice mail for a reason people!!

• Tame Those Toys Thursdays - This isn’t just going to be about toys. Toys just happened to start with a T. This day is all about your kids. (If you don’t have any, well, email this day to a friend who does.) We will be talking about kids’ schedules, bedrooms, school work and whatever else is in between. Teaching our kids good organization skills at a young age is something they will take with them and benefit from for the rest of their lives.

• Find It Fridays – Are you sick and tired of always looking for things? Do you find yourself rummaging through drawers and closets and under the bed for who knows what? Well, this day is all about finding everything within a few seconds. It really is a good thing to know where your keys are as you are leaving the house. Or to know exactly where those twin sheets are when you need them. Or to be able to look in your closet and see exactly what you have in your wardrobe.

I’m also adding a topic to Saturdays and Sundays:

• Supper Saturdays will be all about meal planning, grocery shopping and kitchen related organizing.
• Sweep Through Sundays will be a day that I “sweep” through the b5media blogs and find topics that other bloggers have written that I feel you can benefit from. We have an amazing group of bloggers here and they all have something great to share.

Alright, I think that does it! Let’s get started….

Post from: Blisstree

A Note from Declutter It!

I was just telling you about SELF magazine’s 30 days to getting organized and Make Your Bed was their first tip. I think this was an excellent choice for the first tip to share because it’s simple enough for anyone to do.

So, for this whole week make every effort you can to make your bed as soon as you get out of it. Unless of course someone else is still in there, lol! Then make them do it!

Here’s a quote from SELF’s tip:

It’s the fastest way to render your boudoir peaceful and presentable.

I always feel much better walking into a room with a made bed. Your whole room can be a mess, but if the bed is made, it can help the room look a bit more presentable.

Image Source

Post from: Blisstree

Make Your Bed!

Some of the tips include making your bed, setting the table for breakfast and make paying your bills a breeze. I really enjoyed this article and I thought, what a great idea! I haven’t been doing my Motivate Me Monday posts, but thought that getting back to that would be a very good idea.

So, Every Monday I’ll give you an organizing tip to streamline the things in your life. It sounds like a great way to start out the week. If you have any tips that you would like to be included, please always feel free to share.

Post from: Blisstree

November Issue of SELF Magazine

“It’s the little things that drive you crazy; the broken heel, the stain, the drip. If you take care of the little things, the big things become manageable.” Heloise

That statement is true in my book. It’s always those little things that don’t get done that just really get to you. We have several little things in our home that need to be taken care of but they are so easy to just push aside, but then when I have to deal with them, it puts me in an irritable mood.

For this Motivate Me Monday post, take a pad and pen and walk around your house. Write down those little things that have just been eating at you and need to be taken care of. If there are a lot of little things, don’t write them all down, just start with the ones that bother you the most and you have to deal with on a daily basis. Writing down too much will just overwhelm and stall you.

Here’s my little list:

• Fix tub handle in kids’ bathroom
• Buy new curtain brackets and re-hang curtains in laundry room
• Finish ripping down wallpaper in kids’ bathroom
• Paint daughter’s room

As you can see, my kids’ bathroom needs some help. I am in the middle of re-decorating and it just keeps getting pushed aside. Finding the time to rip down that wallpaper is hard, but everytime I walk in there I cringe.

Thanks to a friend who gave me some of her leftover paint, I now have no excuse not to paint my daughter’s room. She’s decided that her pink walls are 2nd and 3rd grade-ish and we are redecorating her room in blues and browns. Definitely more for a 4th grader she says.

If we let the little things that are broken and the projects that need to be done just sit there, our houses can begin to control us. Tackling those projects one at a time and just getting them done, will give you such a sense of accomplishment. Try it and see how it makes you feel.

Post from: Blisstree

Taking Care of the Little Things

With all the digital music these days, you don’t need to collect every cd in the world. Especially the cd that has one song that you listen to. I’ve done that before. I heard a really great song on the radio, went to the store, bought the cd and then realized that was the only song I liked.

So, for this Motivate Me Monday  post, I am encouraging you to do 2 things: take a look at your cd collection and see if you can weed out some and take a look at the digital music world which allows you to have all of your favorite songs on a little bitty iPod.

What? Did you say you know nothing about digital music and you have no idea where to start? No worries, b5media to the rescue!

b5media’s new Music Channel launched today and there are some awesome blogs there. The one that caught my eye first was Our Digital Music. It’s all about the digital music revolution. There really is no need to have an out-of-control cd collection these days.

Oh and did I hear you say you want an iPod but can’t buy one right now? No worries again, just enter b5media’s contest which is part of the Music channel’s launch. They are giving away 3 iPod shuffles, 3 Memorex MP3 players pre-loaded with MusicIP’s discovery software and 3 $25 iTunes certificates.

All you need to do is blog about the music channel’s launch, and send an e-mail to musiccontest@b5media along with the URL for your post. Pretty simple huh?

I am very excited about this new addition to b5media. You can read the entire press release below the cut. Enjoy! And go enter that contest!

b5media Inc. is extremely pleased to announce
the launch of its new music channel featuring 30 blogs focused on a wide
variety of genres and geographical locations.

This is b5media’s 14th channel and increases the number of blogs within
the network to more than 230.

“Since b5media first launched in September of 2005, we’ve felt the music
scene was being vastly underserved by professional blogs,” said Jeremy
Wright, b5media’s CEO. “We believe that by bringing together thought
leaders in the music space, new music bloggers and plain old music
phreaks that we can provide a real place where music lovers from around
the world can find bands, music, reviews and content they’ll love!”

The music channel portfolio, headed by channel editor Mike Laba,
features blogs about the indie, metal, jazz, blues and crooner scenes as
well as hotspots such as Austin, Nashville, , the U.K., Australia and
Toronto.

“I’m a huge music fan, and I think music lovers are going to find our
blogs to be rewarding places to discover new and exciting bands and
artists within various genres and styles,” Laba said. “We’ve assembled a
great group of passionate bloggers so whether it’s music discovery or
re-discovery, this channel will rock all expectations.

As part of the music channel’s launch b5media is giving away three iPod
Shuffles, three Memorex MP3 players pre-loaded with MusicIP’s kick-ass
discovery software,, and three $25 iTunes certificates.

To enter the contest, all you need to do is blog about the music
channel’s launch, and send send an e-mail to musiccontest@b5media along
with the URL for your post. We’ll put all entries into a hat and pick
the winners.

Post from: Blisstree

Motivate Me Monday – Get Rid of all Those CDs! (Psst. Contest Below!!)

For this Motivate Me Monday, let’s start with the simple. Pull out 5 things that you don’t wear anymore, put them in your car and take them to your local Goodwill or another store that accepts donations.

That is a great start to decluttering your closet. For some people who really love to hang on to their clothes, it’s sometimes best to do it in small chunks instead of getting rid of everything all at once.

Post from: Blisstree

Motivate Me Monday

One of my pet peeves is a messy car. It drives me nuts! My husband and I are pretty good about keeping our cars clean of clutter. We could use a little work on keeping the car clean of dirt though. We always tend to keep our cars cleaner in the summer because the kiddos love to help hose down the car. It’s a great hot summer day activity.

Speaking of keeping my car clean reminds me of a time the principal at my kids’ school gave them a ride to school one day. My daughter hopped in her car and said, “Wow, my mom never lets her car get this dirty!” Oh dear. We had to have the “some things you need to keep to yourself” conversation that day.

So, my challenge for you this week is to take a look at your car. Could it use some tender lovin’ care? Take two trash bags out to the car with you. One is for the trash. Just start chunkin’ stuff. Trust me, it will feel good.

The second trash bag you can put everything that isn’t trash, but doesn’t belong in the car, in there. Tell your kids to take everything that is theirs out of the bag and put it away.

If you happen to be really motivated, clean the interior, vacuum the seats and floors and spray some good smelling stuff in there. The next time you get in your car, I guarantee you, you will smile.

Post from: Blisstree

Motivate Me Monday – Do You Live in Your Car?

I can organize “things” in my house. I love to spend time tackling a messy drawer or closet, but when it comes to thinking about my body being cluttered, I cringe.

I’m going to confess something on this Motivate Me Monday…I have the eating habits of a picky 5 year old. There, I said it. If my kids eat pb & j sandwiches, that’s what I eat. It’s all because I am picky and I just do not take the time to think about what I am feeding my body with.

So, starting yesterday (Sunday) I made a major lifestyle change. You can read all about it on my personal blog, Julie Anne Bonner. I plan on blogging about it to keep me motivated and accountable. I also plan on writing out a menu for myself and cooking some of the meats I can eat ahead of time. I’m going to make eating healthy as easy as fixing a pb & j sandwich. If I am organized about it, then it will work so much better.

For this Motivate Me Monday, my challenge to you is to take a look at your eating habits. Do they need some changing? Why don’t you eat well – is it because you don’t plan well? If you would like to join me in this little adventure, then drop me a note over at my other blog.

I am looking forward to looking better, feeling better about myself and having more energy. Oh – and getting in the pool with the kids this summer! I love to swim!!

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow for Tick Tock Tuesday.

Post from: Blisstree

Motivate Me Monday – Organizing My Diet