Reasons for Good Time Management

Ready Set Christmas – Hiding Gifts

Do you struggle to find suitable places around the house to hide gifts until Christmas time?  Here are some clues –

• at the store for as long as possible (e.g. on layby)
• at someone else’s house – a neighbour or family member
• somewhere in plain sight.  If there’s chance on earth your children will volunteer to cook or put dishes away, you can easily hide gifts in the pots and pans cupboard.
• wrap them right away and pop them under the tree

Have you ever been so organised you bought gifts nice and early and then hid them away, only to forget where they were hidden?  Keep a master list, coded if necessary!

or not 😉

 

Ready Set Christmas – the Hostess Gift

Going anywhere special tonight? Are the invitations coming thick and fast? If you’ll be a guest in someone’s home, have you thought about a hostess gift?

Let’s make it easy. Here are ten suggestions –

• a bottle of wine
• a jar of something special, like jam, chutney, brandied cherries
• chocolates
• a festive dish with biscuits
• something handmade
• a Christmas decoration
• a framed photo
• flowers
• a plant
• something from the Gift Hoard

So, go out and have some fun, but don’t forget the host or hostess.

or not 😉

Christmas Past 1

Back in December 2009, I wrote a series called Angela’s Advent.  The series offered daily ideas for clutter-free gifts.

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?  Are you stuck for ideas?  Feel free to use any of these suggestions.  I hope they spark ideas that will keep your Christmas clutter-free.

A Word with Kate Eldred

Kate Eldred from Off the Page eMarketing helps businesses get their message out in a most productive way. She knows how to get them the most bang for their buck, so I’m thrilled she took time out to have a word with us.

Kate, tell us, how did you get into the work you do?  I wanted to do something I could wake up and look forward to every day….that and not spend over two hours on a bus to get to and from each day!

And how do you stay on top of your to do list?  I update my trusty Spirex notebook at the start of every week with what needs to be done…. Then I use pretty highlighters to cross things of my list as they get done! The more I get through, the prettier my to do list looks!

Love that!  Now, I know you have a lot of work coming in. Which tasks do you delegate?  Complex programming issues and troubleshooting. I love solving these types of problems, but when it takes a hours out of my day, it’s often cheaper (financially and emotionally!) to outsource to a super geek.

Good move.  Do you have a favourite iPhone app?  Dropbox – helps me to feel completely in control when I’m not in the office.

Is your diary paper or electronic?  Electronic – updating my outlook calendar quickly at my desk, and syncing it to my phone to have on the go with me.

What’s the hardest thing about getting/staying organised?  Emails….you can be completely organized for the day, but a few emails (or phone calls) can completely derail best laid plans!

I think many people can relate to that.  And finally, how do you spend your down time?  Walking the dog or going for a jog.

Thanks Kate.  You’re an inspiration!

 

Stuck for Ideas? – Write a List

Meal Planning Monday back again and we’re talking about getting stuck.  Sometimes you can lose your creative groove when it comes to providing healthy, family-friendly meals.

When this happens I like to go back to basics and write a list of all my favourite foods and ingredients.  If you have all family members do the same, I guarantee you’ll find some inspiration, or at least a surprise or two.

What would be at the top of your list?

Each Monday we celebrate Meal Planning. Learn all there is to know about meal planning with our ebook, the Meal Planning Made Easy eWorkbook.  Click here to get yours.

Kids in the Kitchen

I am a big fan of family communication, as well as giving children responsibilities and some input into family life. And this applies to meal planning as well.

What would happen if you gave over the task of meal planning to the children of the family, just for one week?

Think about it, here’s an opportunity to introduce discussions about nutrition (making good choices), time management (selecting meals which are achievable), budgeting (they could even do research about costs) and consideration for others.

If this sounds too extreme, could you give over control for one day each week?

Remember, this is also an opportunity to delegate in the long term.

What’s on your Bucket List?

Thanks to the past 3 wonderful weeks, my Bucket List is looking shorter.  What an amazing time I’ve had in Canada and Alaska, and cruising between the two.

Things that I ticked off my Bucket List include:

• lunching at Chateau Lake Louise
• seeing Banff
• going on a cruise
• watching a glacier calve right before my very eyes
• seeing the Northern Lights
• seeing Mt McKinley (well, almost all of her – she usually hides under a blanket of cloud, and we got to see all but the very tip)
• seeing bears right up close in the wild
• celebrating 30 years marriage with my wonderful husband

Off course that’s not the end of my Bucket List.  I imagine there will always be things I want to see, do and strive for.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What’s on your Bucket List?  What are you doing to reach those goals?  And how will you celebrate when you achieve them?

PS: In case you’re wondering, a Bucket List is a list of all the things you want to see, do and achieve before you “kick the bucket”.

Paprika – my favourite app not too spicy just sweet!

Thanks to Helen Crozier for this product review. You can read more reviews and posts by Helen, Business Productivity Genius, at her blog www.helencrozier.com/blog

Paprika  is an easy to use, time saving and fun app available for both the iPhone and iPad.

I’ve been using it for over 12 months and am slowly adding my collection of recipes to it. This app is ideal for those who’ve seen the light and like to plan their menus at week or even month in advance.

Here’s how I use Paprika during my week.  On Monday morning I evaluate my pantry and freezer to see what’s in store. I also find out who’s around for meals. I am generally able to take one-two home cooked meals out of the freezer if I have a busy day. For the other meals I select 1-2 favourites from within Paprika and I also add in 1-2 recipes so that my database slowly gets larger! There is a browser inside the app so when you’ve located your desired recipe on the web you simply click ‘add recipe’ and it does all the formatting for you. A photo of the meal is added, ingredients and method all appear in the right columns.

Each recipe has the option to add to meal plan or add to shopping list so I do this as I go and then tick off any items that I already have. The next part is brilliant –  my Paprika account actually syncs my recipes to all devices. Why this is great is that I don’t generally shop with my iPad but often take my iPhone. When I’m out at the shops I can quickly call up my shopping list or if I decide to spontaneously add something to the week’s menu I can call up the recipe to see what I need for it.  I often put the iPad on a stand on the kitchen bench and keep checking the recipe regularly. It has an inbuilt timer and stays on until you turn it off avoiding sticky smears across the screen.

My long term plan is to have all my favourite recipes from the books I have plus any out there on the web inside Paprika and nicely categorised. As it is possible to export the recipes or share them one day I hope to be able to pass the collection on to my son and daughter in particular. You can of course manually add your own recipes with photos but if you do find the recipe on the web it is quicker to use Paprika’s add function. Browsing for what to cook is easy as you can add multiple categories to your recipes. Mine are the standard main, dessert, chicken, beef, pork, seafood etc but I also have my categories for my celebrity chefs – Nigella, Bill, Jamie.

Paprika for iPad and iPhone is $5.49AUD, with free cloud sync subscription. A MAC version of the desktop software is available for $20.99AUD which also includes free cloud sync. Unfortunately there is not a desktop version for Windows. So far I’m happy enough with just syncing between the iPad and iPhone but for those who don’t have an iPad but do own a MAC, the Desktop version is an attractive alternative.

I give this app, along with all the other reviews in the iTunes store, five stars!

Top 5 Tunes for Getting the Housework Done

I do my best housework when I’m mad. All that frustration turns into elbow grease and speed and before you know it, my house is clean and tidy.

But, thankfully, I don’t often get that mad. Which is great. But not so great for my housework.

So to get that same effect, I substitute “mad” for music. Something with some energy and a good beat works for me.

My Top 5 Tunes for Getting the Housework Done are

1. Get the Party Started, by Pink
2. You Can’t Stop the Beat, from the Hairspray soundtrack
3. Let Me Entertain You, by Robbie Williams
4. Hurricane, by Bob Dylan
5. Eve of Destruction, my favourite is the Screaming Jets version

Which tunes get your housework juices flowing?