Wouldn’t you like to have more time this summer to enjoy yourself?  Would you like to have time to play with your kids, go on neighborhood walks, go fishing, go to the beach, have family bbqs,  or go to the park?  Maybe you’re dying to take the family on a summer vacation.  But who has time for all those things? 

How much free time do you really have on the weekends?  Just because it’s summer time doesn’t mean your life is any less busy than the rest of the year.  Between summer camps, the kids’ summer sports, work, dishes, laundry, and other necessary home chores that keep our families dressed, fed, and clean, who has time to schedule fun activities?

If you’re like my family, having time to play in the summer is a huge priority.  We live in Alaska and are stuck indoors all winter long, so making the most of our short summer months is really important to us.  At the same time,  your weekends may be busier than your weekdays.  Just because you have the day off work doesn’t mean you don’t have a dozen projects at home on your to-do list that you haven’t had time to start yet. 

The Connection Between Possessions and Freedom (Things and Time)

There is a concrete relationship between the things you have (or possessions) and the free time you have (freedom).  For example, buying a bigger house adds extra bedrooms and bathrooms that have to be cleaned.  The more toys your kids have, the longer it takes them to clean up and the longer it takes you to help them organize.  Finding places for all of our things is tough.  The more clothes your kids have, the longer it takes you to sort through what’s too small, wash and pack it all away, or try to sell it all on eBay, or take it to the donation drop-off.  Plus, then you still have to dig out the bigger clothes from the garage for them to grow into.  Since your garage or shed is probably packed full, it will probably take you quite a while to accomplish that task too.

You see, any way you look at it, more stuff = the more time you have to give to your stuff.  Less stuff means you have more free time to spend doing things you enjoy, whether it’s an outing to the playground with your kids or just having a Saturday morning to have coffee with your spouse. 

Do you want to spend more time with your stuff or with people and on activities you choose?  We already know the answer.  Choosing time over stuff is the easy part.  The hard part is letting go of the stuff and emptying your house so you have more time.

Start With a Good Declutter – And be Ruthless

So you want to have more time this summer?  Start with a good declutter of your house, and be absolutely ruthless!  This means using some very strict guidelines and getting rid of at least 10% of your stuff.  10% might seem like a lot to give up at the outset, so let’s break it down into simpler terms.  Have 20 lipsticks?  Get rid of 2.  See?  That wasn’t so bad!

Pick a spot in your home (the middle of the floor in your garage is a perfect spot) to start building a mountain out of all the decluttered items. 

Now, I realize decluttering is challenging because it can be difficult to let go of your stuff.  I’ve been through the decluttering process many times and it goes much better if you have a good plan in place.  Here are a few tips for different kinds of decluttering that you might find helpful:

• Decluttering the Bathroom Closet
• Declutter Your Closet: Why is it So Hard to Let Go of Clothes?
• Simple Decluttering Criteria for Clothes and Criteria part 2
• Declutter by Returning Borrowed Items
• Clutter Busting: The One in, One Out Rule
• Decluttering All The Paper – Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3
• Decluttering with a Big Family

Next Comes the Garage Sale

Take all your decluttered items and smile!  Your house is about to get emptier.  First, sort all your items that you intend to get rid of into what can be sold at a garage sale and what needs to be thrown in the trash. 

One big, heavy duty garage sale should do wonders for clearing out all the unneeded items as well as bringing in a little extra cash for your efforts!  Plan your garage sale and get it listed on Craigslist for free for extra traffic.  It helps to take pictures of some of your big items and put them in your garage sale listing with prices. 

After the garage sale is over, its really up to you what to do with the leftovers.  Do you have the stamina to have another garage sale with the leftovers?  If not, find a place to donate your unsold items, such as Goodwill or a local homeless shelter.

Evaluate Your Progress

Did you really declutter enough?  Is there a remarkable difference in your house that you and your family can both feel?  If you still feel congested in your home or find yourself spending time looking for things or moving and organizing stored items, it’s time to go through the house for yet another purge.  Remember that each item you give up now gives you extra time to spend with your family doing things you actually want to do!

Remember the all important 1 in 1 out rule so you make your progress and your clean house permanent.  Good luck on your decluttering process, and enjoy all the extra time you just freed up this summer!

Whether you work outside the home, work at home, are a student, or are just a stay-at-home parent, email is an essential component in most people’s lives.  Multiply a regular email quantity times all your different functions (parent, volunteer, boss, employee, blogger, or whichever apply to you) and you end up with what could be a full-time job on its own: processing email. 

We’re always interested in ways for people, especially homemakers, parents, and work at home professionals, to balance the different aspects of their lives.  Decluttering the email process is an important step to living a more organized, simple, and stress-free life.  Next in this series, we’ll be looking at ways to manage email overload and streamline your processes to free up time.  Today, we’re talking about how you compare to others as far as the volume of your email influx.

Email Overload: Where do you draw the line?

We asked some prominent business people to give us a little insight into their email situations.  I added myself into the list as well to see how I compared with the respondents.  We asked questions like how much time they spend on email per day, how many email inboxes they maintain, and if they have any special methods of handling email so that it doesn’t take up all their time.  The answers were not surprising, but a bit overwhelming when you put them into context.

Shellie, Full-Time Accountant by Day and Blogger at Saving with Shellie

“I check email all day. Between blog email, work email, survey email, junk email and personal email, I probably get close to 400 emails a day.”

Tiffany, Mom of 3, Blogger at Lattes And Life

“Checking e-mail is part of my morning routine. After I get my toddler settled down with breakfast and morning cartoons, I grab my coffee and breakfast and head to the computer. I have two inboxes and average 200 to 400 e-mails a day, easily.

I try to tackle the easy ones first…read only or quick responses. Sometimes I save the more detailed ones for my son’s naptime. I check my inboxes throughout the day, and try to get them mostly caught up before I shut down at the end of the day.”

Brad Wilson, Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Brads Deals

“As editor of BradsDeals.com, I’m at the center of an email storm.  Questions and ideas from shoppers, retailers, colleagues, the media – you name it.  All told, I get at least 300 emails per day.  If I spent all day glancing at my inbox, it would consume and distract me to such a degree I’d never get work done! 

To make it manageable, I have to have dedicated email time and dedicated no-email time.  It also keeps things in perspective because email plays a trick on us: if we see one come in, the importance and urgency of that lone email is heightened; if we wait until later in the day and then look at 10, that one looks less important in context.”

Cindi Matthews, Business Owner, Virtual Assistant, Timeless Bliss Editor

“I have 4 email addresses.  2 for blogs and online boutique businesses, One for Virtual Assistant business; the other for Editor of Timeless Bliss at Blissfully Domestic.  I go through each email address in the morning and respond as necessary.  I check each address throughout the day via my cell phone and reply as necessary.  As I am away from my computer, I can’t respond with any attachments.  In the evening, I review each email address again and reply as necessary.

As Editor, I also must do outreach for contributors, followup, and spend quite a bit of time answering technical questions.  For my blogs, I follow up on comments through email.  As a product reviewer, I contact PR companies and discuss review information.  I also seek out and respond to advertising questions.

All in all, I would estimate I spend at least 2 or more hours per day just on the email aspect of these businesses alone.  I have no help, and am a solo businesswoman.  I also work a full-time job.”

Danelle Ice, Mom of 3, Editor of IS World Media, Problogger, Entrepreneur

“With over 50 email addresses between all my companies, I have 20 inboxes that I personally monitor each day.  I start the day with an average of 300-400 new emails, and over the course of a typical day 400-600 more messages will come in.  So I get approximately 1000 emails per day, many of which require not only reading, but response and possibly action.

I have constant communication with staff, our contributors and writers, colleagues, media  and PR reps.  It’s not always possible to have dedicated non-email time, because I often find myself waiting for certain items to arrive so that I can complete a task or project I’m working on.  I also get tips, freebie alerts, and comments from readers, Facebook requests, Twitter alerts,  and more.  There is also a bit of personal email, although I’m sorry to say that it usually gets pushed into last place!”

The craziness and sheer volume of my incoming emails (and the fact that email processing felt all-consuming) prompted the research for this series of articles.  Next up, we address different strategies for getting your email overload under control. 

Which above example can you most identify with?  How do you handle your email?  What is your volume like?  Are you overwhelmed or find it impossible to deal with?  Let us know in the comments.

Photo by idogcow.

Two days ago I opened the refrigerator, only to be accosted by a freak accident from a relatively organized appliance.  As I opened the door, the top plastic compartment flung open, hurling a box of butter at me, which – in turn- emptied itself as butter cubes took flight across the kitchen! 

So what?  It’s not the accident that was important, but the OUTCOME.  I recovered the unharmed whole and partial butter cubes, and put the empty butter package into the trash.  Somehow in the scuffle, the cardboard box mysteriously ripped the end off its own box!  Only ONE THING remained on the floor, right in front of my big toe:  the end of the butter box which said: “FIRST QUALITY”

Was it a sign?  What kind of message was the butter trying to give me?!  My mind raced to figure out the possible significance of this cryptic note.  Am I putting first quality into all I do?  Is my website getting first quality?  What about my home, my family, myself?

People tend to get caught up in trying to do so much that they end up spreading themselves thin.  We may get the meals cooked, the homeschooling done, the house cleaned, but did we give any one of those things our full attention?  I am guilty as charged – I try to do it all, but haven’t given my house or my family “first quality” lately.

How can we make time for First Quality?

We’re all busy, it’s inevitable.  Homemakers, moms, dads, household managers: we wear so many hats, are responsible for so many people other than ourselves, and many times bear the weight of all these chores alone.  How can we possibly give first quality in any area when there’s barely enough time to get our work done and still have time to sleep?

1.  Decide what is most important.  Does it really matter if all the DVDs are alphabetized?  Is it essential that all the toothpaste streaks are out of the sink each morning after the kids brush their teeth?  If your answer is no, you can stand to simplify your list of responsibilities you have given yourself. 

2.  Make a “now” list.  Write down all of the chores and responsibilities you have NOW.  Put a star next to the most important things.  Cross out the jobs that can go without making your life crumble! 

Example:  Giving the kids a bath?  Star.  Volunteering for the PTA’s Thanksgiving Carnival?  You volunteered for Halloween already.  Cross it off.

3. Write a “new” list called FIRST QUALITY.  Write down all the starred items from your other list.  This new list should be much shorter and more focused.  Put it on the refrigerator, the bathroom mirror, or wherever you will see it every day.  This new list is to remind you of the things you give first quality effort to.

4.  Work hard on only the most important things.  Don’t feel bad if you spend extra time on homeschool lesson preparation, or do a fantastic job on organizing your kitchen.  If it’s on your list, it gets to claim your time.  If it’s not on the list, feel free to quickly breeze through it – or forget about it altogether.

5.  Don’t feel guilty.  YOU design your life, YOU are in charge of your time.  Feel good about the choices you make!

Every person’s First Quality list will look different, and that’s okay.  My list contains my top priorities, which are:

1. My marriage
2. My family
3. My businesses
4. My home organization and systems
5. My home cleaning

Notice that cleaning is last?!  Don’t get me wrong, I love a clean house as much as the next homemaker.  However, since I also have two children and run two businesses, I’d rather spend an hour on a family meeting than cleaning dust bunnies from under my bed.  Make sense? 

The butter attack gave me a great reminder: I need to keep my priorities in mind and NOT try to do it all.  Life is meant to be enjoyed, not hurried away.  It’s easy to feel good about hard work when you give it your all, your best, your first quality.  If you can look at your project and feel proud of what you’ve done, that feeling will fill you up and spill out to others. 

Whether you give your all to your kids, your house, your job, your blog, your artwork – give it your best and feel great about delivering first quality.  Stop trying to do it all.  Then feel proud – you’ve earned it.

Time management is an important topic to everyone, especially moms with multiple roles to fill in limited time periods. We want to save time and do things efficiently, but at the same time be the most cost-effective. Many things that save us money also end up using a lot of our time. Cooking from scratch takes more time than throwing a Hamburger Helper on the stove. Making things instead of buying them in finished form (baby wipes, household cleaners, etc.) takes more time than just throwing them into the cart during our weekly shopping. Teaching our children the skills of how to do things for themselves instead of just doing it quickly ourselves takes extra time also. That, by the way, is my number one priority when it comes to acceptable time expenditure. As mothers, teaching our children to become capable persons is one of our main responsibilities in life. An added benefit to taking the time to teach your child how to do a task today is that he or she will be able to do it in the future, freeing up your time for things that only you can do! It’s all one big circle!

So how do you decide what is okay for you? Do you spend the extra $3 a box to buy premade baby wipes at the store, or spend 30 minutes making up 2 batches at home for pennies?

What it comes down to is setting the time/money priorities that are right for you and your family. What is most important that you have time for each day? Below is an example to get you started on evaluating your time/money priorities:

Is it a must for you to read 3 books to your child each night after you get home from work?
or
Is it a must for you to spend time doing something fun with your child to help them learn each night after work?

The first priority is very specific; the second is more general. If the wording on your priority matched the first question, you’d better buy tomorrow’s PTA meeting cookies at the grocery store so you can have time tonight to read 3 books with your son! Making sure you fill that priority is definitely worth the $4.99 for premade cookies.

However, if your priority more closely matched the 2nd question, you are more flexible in how your time is spent with your child. Spending an hour teaching your son to make cookies tonight for the PTA meeting tomorrow is cheaper than buying them premade. This activity also allows you to spend time with your son, teach him a skill he will use in the future and have fun together!

Either way, you get your cookies, and you spend time with your son, filling both of your needs. The only difference is that you get there in the way that best meets your family’s time/money priorities.

Schedule a time to sit down with your spouse/significant other and go over what your most important priorities as a family are for your time and money. Being deliberate with our time allows us to make sure we get what is most important to us out of life. As Tony Robbins says, we all have the same amount of time; that is the only thing that is equal to all people. The difference is how we decide to use it.

Keeping a list of who gave the gifts, cards and cash is a job no one wants to be in charge of during the party! If you don’t have this all-important list, you won’t be able to write thank you cards to show your appreciation to the gift-givers.

Thank you cards can take a lot of time to write out, address, stamp, and mail. When I had my baby shower, each gift basket or bag was filled with multiple items. In each card I tried to mention as many specific items as possible, because I wanted the giver to know how much I liked everything. However, writing those cards was an enormous project which had to broken down over WEEKS!

Solution:  Before you leave your event, gather all the presents, stand behind them and have your photo taken. Use your photo for the front of a custom photo card. Write a heartfelt thank you verse for the inside and you’re done. Since all the gifts are pictured on the front, there is no need to hand-write personal thank you messages!

You save the valuable time of having to hand-write each card and the gift-givers will know how much you appreciated their gifts.