Organizing your time with Lisa Lelas

New Haven (WTNH) - We are deep into a busy time for a lot of families and finding time for everything or anything can be tough. Unless, you have six simple rules from Organizing Expert Lisa Lelas.

Information provided by our guest:

Professional organizer, Lisa Lelas of LIFE STYLING, of Guilford
www.LifeStylingwithLisa.com

Tips for adding more TIME to your day!

It's a busy time of the year. September brings us back-to-school & work routines with more activities, projects and appointments to squeeze into your day. But where do you find the time? By following these six simple time saving tips, we'll show you how you can win back an extra hour of free time, every day!

1. .Get ready the night before. This is really a time saver each day! Whatever you can do the night before...laying out your outfit, setting the coffee maker, filling your gas tank...the more you'll be able to get done, without frustration, the next day. My young daughters have gotten in the habit of laying out their clothes from shirt to shorts to socks (dressing what they call their "flat girl") right on the floor in front of their closet. This definitely cuts out the much of the morning chaos!

2. .Use a To-Do List or a carefully scheduled Day planner with room for weekly To-Do's on the pages. It has been proven that people who use lists and planners accomplish much more than those who face the day in a random, unplanned way.

3. .Don't check your emails first thing in the morning. It inevitably throws your day off-course. Instead, accomplish at least one item on your to-do list and set a regular time, mid-morning to check in.

4. .Set Timers! Putting a wall of time around any home or office task or project simply keeps you focused on it and allows you to accomplish it sooner. This is especially good for people who tend to start many projects but get distracted and end up getting off track. Even housekeeping can be a breeze when using a basic kitchen timer. Go room to room and set the timer for even just 15 or 20 minutes and see for yourself how much you'll get done in each room when you hear that ticking and want to 'race to finish' before the buzzer goes off!

5. .Clear the clutter. Clutter is one of the biggest barriers of productivity. A cluttered desk will not allow you to be as creative or efficient as you could be. A cluttered kitchen will steer you out for another take-out dinner instead of cooking a meal at home. By breaking a big project down into smaller more manageable tasks, you'll be amazed as what you can get done.

6. .Use Tickler files so you'll never misplace paperwork or miss an event or appointment again! There are 3 types of tickler reminder files: An office tickler file (using a hanging folder for each month and 31 insert files for each day...when paperwork comes to you, decide when you need to respond to it and tuck it into that file number matching up to the day), A kitchen Countertop file (10 hanging files with various household tabs such as events for holding tickets and wedding invitations, phone/address lists, receipts, coupons, recipes, and more), and a daily card file (with Monday-Sunday divider cards and daily, weekly and special activity file cards in different colors).

www.LifeStylingwithLisa.com