Here are some of my favorite gift suggestions that might come in handy as Mother’s Day approaches!

• Alphabetize her spices, you will save her time and money
• Create a mail center with stamps, envelopes, and return address labels
• Organize her files with a Homefile System so important papers will be at her finger tips
• Organize her photos on CD’s, in albums, or in picture frames
• Cosmetic organizer
• Coupon organizer
• Garden tools tote bag
• Jewelry organizer
• Key rack
• Passport case
• Donation to her favorite non-profit
• Gift certificates to movies, restaurants.
• Health Club membership
• Manicure/Pedicure
• Massage
• Personal Chef Services

Many of these gifts can be purchased on line!

Gift Certificates from Organization Plus also make a great Mother’s Day gift.

Call our office at (978) 922-6136 to order or click here to download a Gift Certificate order form.

 

Nancy Black is Now Affiliated with Life Elephant

Top  10 Reasons to Join Life Elephant
Remembering and Securing Your Life’s Key Information

10. While scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef, you lose a contact lens.  Log on to your account to quickly find your optometrist’s contact information or download a copy of your prescription.

9. You’ve just been in an accident and are taken by ambulance to the ER.  A family member who has access to your account logs on and downloads a copy of your medical directive.

8. You’re always late with your mother’s birthday card.  Set up e-mail reminders on your account to remind you of important dates – you pick the advance time for the notification.

7. While away on vacation, you begin to wonder if you stopped your newspaper delivery or if you have any packages on your porch.  Log on to your account to quickly find contact info for your neighbors so they can check for you.

6. A natural disaster has caused damage to your home and ruined important documents.  Your account has digital copies of your insurance policies, tax returns, and other papers.

5. You’ve always paid your own bills, but you’re starting to become forgetful.  Log on to your account to help remember your billing cycles or give access to a family member who can offer assistance.

4.  A death has occurred in the family.  Your loved one had an account and named you as an authorized user.  You can log in to retrieve information about location of assets to help with the settlement process.

3.There are too many passwords to remember in today’s digital world.  Why not just remember 1?  Then log on to your account to view the passwords to everything else.

2. Life happens – isn’t it a good idea to be better prepared?

1. Being part of a herd is simply a fun thing to say!

Join the Herd at http://www.lifeelephant.com

Use the code 0P2012 for 10% off an annual membership.

2012, Life Elephant LLC
Colchester, Vermont • (800) 528-5881

This week I worked with a widow ,who had an appointment with her Financial Planner, and was overwhelmed by the mounds of manilla folders covering her kitchen table. .

After about an hour of working together she said “I feel better already.”

Together we organized her files and established retention guidelines. She was amazed at the amount of  documents that went into the “shred” or “recycle” boxes.

We set up a box with the files that she needed for her meeting.

The next step will be creating a filing system in her metal file drawers.

If you, or someone you know, is overwhelmed by their paper piles, help is only an email: nancy@organizationplus.com;  or a phone call away 978-922-6136..

February 24, 2012
Panel Discussion: Get to Know NSBF
Nancy Black, Organization Plus, and Katie Finch, Windhill Realty

Nancy Black is a Professional Organizer who creates customized organizing and time management systems for busy professionals in their offices and homes. She offers on site hands-on organizing, telephone consults, and organizing product research. She was included in the list of the Organizational Elite in the Forbes FYI Supplement, quoted in the NY Times, and has been featured in Entrepreneur. In January 2012, she was listed in the inaugural edition of the Getting Organized Magazine. She is a Golden Circle member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and is an avid networker in North Shore business groups. She was the first woman to attend the NSBF, and the only woman for many years.

Katie Finch was an Elementary teacher in upstate NY. She spent 11 years in Sydney, Australia where she had a series of jobs including: teacher, engineering library assistant, John Fairfax newspapers library assistant, reading and language consultant for 2 educational publishers. She moved to Massachusetts where she was an adjunct English instructor at North Shore Community College for 18 years, and on the North Shore Workforce Investment Board – Workforce Development/School to Career. She became a Realtor in 2006 – REALPRO Associates and has the designations: ABR, SRES, SRS. Katie is currently working at Windhill Realty in Ipswich.

For details:www.nsbforum.org

Change your life in only 3 hours! Organization Plus is offering a Sweetheart Deal through February 28th!

The first 10 people who book a 3 Hour Transformation in February will get a 10% discount.

This special offer is only for the first 10  new clients who book in February. For information call Nancy Black today!

(978) 922-6136 or use this convenient online inquiry form!

Do you find yourself frustrated and stressed-out? Are you buried in paper? Are you having trouble finding paperwork, bills, receipts, or invoices? Maybe there was a time when you enjoyed Mondays, but now you dread Monday morning!  My name is Nancy Black and since 1983 I’ve been helping people get more organized, become more effective at work, have more fun at work, and get more done in less time. I can change your life and all it takes is…. 3 hours! For more information call me today at (978) 922-6136 or use this online inquiry form.

Are You Suffering From the “Terrible Too’s” ?
Top 10 Tips On How to Manage Them

The Terrible Too’s are a term I coined a few years ago to describe having too much to do and too little time to do it in. In this newsletter I thought I’d share some of the advice I’ve given to clients over the years to help them manage the Terrible Too’s.

1) Goals and Priorities

One of the most effective ways to begin managing the Terrible Too’s is to set goals and determine your top priorities. Make time daily, ideally first thing in the morning, where you can sit quietly to create and review your goals for the day, week, month, and year. Some people like to do that at the end of the day, before they go to bed. Do whatever works best for you. When you are clearer about your priorities you’ll be less likely to get distracted.

2) Time Management

We all have 24 hours in a day. The difference is how we choose to use that time. One exercise I’ve recommended to my clients involves writing down everything they do over a three to five day period. Then we look at it to analyze if they are using their time effectively or wasting it on activities that are not priorities.

3) Focus on Top Priorities

Once you have gone through the exercise of analyzing how you’ve spent your time over the past several days, take a moment to determine if your activities are related to your top priorities. Are the activities moving you closer to your goals and objectives or further away?

4) See, Think, Live Your Priorities

Keeping your top priorities in front of you, literally in front of you, will help you stay focused on the most important things to do. List your top priorities on a white board in your office, carry them on a card in your purse or wallet, keep them on the first page of your daily planner, or on an electronic program.

5) Delegate

Now that you have a better idea of what you should be doing, versus not be doing, it’s time to delegate. I tell my clients to live by these words: “Do what you do best and delegate the rest!”

6) Say NO to Multi-Tasking

Study after study shows that multi-tasking is most often NOT an effective way to get things done. The best way to consistently reach your goals and objectives is to start one task and focus on it until it is complete. Use your daily/weekly planner to schedule time for specific items – and stick to that schedule!

7) Computers

Many people have turned to their computers as a tool to help them save time. Unfortunately, some computer programs and Internet activities actually waste your time. Make a list of how you spend your time on your computer or on the Internet. Which things waste your time? Are you spending time on Facebook when you should be returning customer calls? Are you building a new website when you should be prospecting for new clients?

8) EMAIL

Managing EMAIL can become a very time-consuming and distracting process. I recommend that my clients set specific times for checking and responding to email. If you do this for just a few days I think you’ll be amazed at the results. After 21 days it will become a habit.

9) Ask: “What’s More Important?”

Distractions are inevitable, that’s just how it is. But what you can do when distractions occur is be more discerning as to whether the task you’re working on, or the interruption, is the top priority. Based on my years of experience working with clients, in the majority of cases, interruptions can usually wait, or wait long enough so that a more highly prioritized task can be completed.

10) Rewards

Most people focus on what they have not done and do not give themselves credit for their accomplishments.

The human mind responds to incentives. As a result, you’ll find you are more fulfilled if you reward yourself for completing your prioritized goals and objectives than if you do not . You should reward yourself for your accomplishments. It might be as simple as going out for an ice-cream! It could be a round of golf on Friday afternoon, or maybe a walk in the park after you’ve accomplished what you set out to accomplish for the week. Whatever the case, rewards are an important part of managing your time as well as your life!