Here are a few tips:

1. Say out loud what you want to remember. (I don’t care who can hear you.)
“When I see this red ribbon I’m going to check my planner for appointments.”

2. Find something bright and shiny to leave near your purse and other strategic places. (This is called “The Shiny Object Syndrome” only you WANT to be distracted by THIS shiny object. It’s going to help you to remember.)

3. Keep your planner in plain view. If you have to, set up a stand, use a counter top, or anything that is in or near the central area of the home; the place you spend most of your time.

4. At night, leave your planner on your dresser above your underwear drawer. (Of course if you don’t wear underwear, this tip won’t work for you.)

5. Leave your planner open on the front seat of your car.

6. Keep it in your purse with The Busy Woman’s Daily Planner® all in one Carry All. (And it’s washable for when the baby throws up on you or the dog slobbers.)

7. Constantly work in your planner so that it becomes a habit.

Send your “How To Remember Tips” to: Susie AT thebusywoman.com

* Keep a box of office supplies on hand and where you can find it.
* Have an empty table to pull, pack, seal, and meter your orders.
* Get rid of trash as soon as it accumulates.
* Clearly label everything ahead of time.
* Recycling boxes is a good way to be frugal and help the environment. Only keep ones that aren’t too beat up.
* Section off your inventory and shipping areas so that everything has it’s own place.
* Get free priority shipping supplies from the US Post Office.
* Purchase containers that will help you keep things in order and keep light off of items that could get stains from the lights, florescent or otherwise.
* Categorize items in alphabetical order, by kind, or however you can to make everything easy to find.
* Consolidate items as you sell them.
* Keep copies of receipts from orders with how you shipped and on what date.
* Don’t forget to have a box of kleenex on hand too.

An inventory management system is the best investment you can make in your business. Download trial versions. Ask around for recommendations. If you start off right, life will be SO much easier. Take it from someone who knows first hand how hard it can be to run an inventory business with a computer system that doesn’t meet your needs.

Make sure to have your computers networked so that everyone can work in the database at the same time. This will make it so the right hand will know what the left hand is doing. If you take the order, you’ll need to be able to know when and how it shipped, if the customer calls to find out details.

What is it with special occasions and chocolate? I can eat chocolate any day of the week. It’s available, it’s inexpensive and it makes me feel good. Why can’t I do the same thing with special occasions? Why do I have to wait for a specific date on the calendar to do something special for myself or my loved ones?

I don’t! And neither do you! Relationships are important enough to remember year round. As my friend Hilde says, “I think people use Valentine’s Day as an excuse not to remember to send flowers, candy, a kind note, etc… throughout the year.” I kind of agree with her.

When my mother sees something she thinks I’ll like and just has to get it, she tries to wait for an occasion to give it to me. Usually, her excitement gets the best of her and she’ll give it to me while saying, “I saw this and just HAD to get it for you. So consider it an early Birthday, Mother’s Day, etc… present.” I HATE that! Why does she think she has to wait for an occasion? I think it’s her conditioning from childhood. Times were different then. She was taught not to squander money. To me that meant she was taught to be frugal or thrifty. So buying gifts when there without an occasion was not frugal.

I’ve broken THAT cycle for our family. When I see something and I have the money, I buy it for the person I’m thinking of.

While today was a day to go overboard in showing the ones you love just how much you love them. It shouldn’t be a substitute for showing you care year round. So take out your day planner, calendar, whatever you use and schedule at least one day a month to do something nice for the people you care about. Write down exactly what you want to do for them on your calendar. If you can’t think of something right at that moment, put their name on a list and take it with you every time you go grocery shopping or to the mall. That way if you see something cute, you can look at your list to see if there’s someone you think would enjoy it. =c)

Here are some suggestions for fun little things you can do:

* Send an email card to your spouse.
* Put a chocolate bar on your bosses desk with a note saying, “Thanks”
* Leave a new colorful pad of post it notes on your secretaries desk with a note that says you appreciate them.
* Schedule in 1 hour to go to Starbucks with a friend and NOT talk about work. ;c)
* Call someone who lives far away.
* Write an letter to your mom and/or dad.
* Surprise your sibling(s) with a bag of cookies.

We hope you had a WONDERFUL Valentine’s Day.

Marriage is a big commitment. The relationship needs to be able to withstand little imperfections and times of change. The little things that bother you while you’re dating may bother you even more after the honeymoon. It’s important to put those little things into perspective so that most of your marriage can be just as good as when you’re dating. As long as you realize that no one you choose can be perfect, and you can’t change them, you can get past these things.

There are also times when couples go through change. Each individual has a time in their life where they will feel differently than before they first started out on this journey through life together. It is completely natural for people to go through different seasons of life. During any of these times it’s important to go back to the principles of dating.

1. Think through your feelings. This is the time to decide what a “big” deal is. If you could over look certain things while dating, can you find a way to not let it bother you now? I remember when it started to bother me that my husband squeezed the tube of toothpaste from the middle or the top. Before half of the tube was used up, the side would crack, leaving a hole for toothpaste to seep through. I used to come in to brush my teeth only to have to go through the regiment of redoing the tube of toothpaste first. One day my husband was away for more than a week and the tube was not crumpled. I started to wish he were home already.

2. During times of change start dating again. Go out on a real date and ask questions. Do not talk about the kids, family, or other people. Try to give the other person a chance to talk about what they need and why they might be feeling the way they do. What has changed in “their” life? Give them your undivided attention and understanding. Then take your turn.

3. Have fun. What did you do as a new couple that was fun? Will reliving some of those fun times give you pleasure? If so, do it.

4. Find new interests that both of you enjoy. As we get older, we won’t necessarily like all of the same things we did before. Find one new interest or hobby you can enjoy together.

5. Doing things without your spouse is not a crime. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Men need men and women need women. If the two of you do different things you enjoy separate of each other now and again it gives you new, “fun” things to share. Your together time won’t be stale.

6. You were a couple before you were parents. Kids tend to throw a monkey wrench into the equation. But if you put your marriage first, the rest falls into place. This also teaches the children about marriage relationships during a confusing time in the world.

So plan ahead for some exciting dates and fun things to do, separately and together.

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To deal with your overbearing schedule, try starting with the monthly page in your daily planner.

First identify and write in ONLY your “have-to-do” items. These are the things you REALLY have to do. If you find tons of things on your “have-to’s” list, go back and decide if each item is really a “want-to” or a valid “have-to”. Many of our “have to’s” aren’t really so urgent that they all had to be done yesterday. At the same time, so many of us have such full schedules that we don’t allow enough time for making dinner, doing chores, grocery shopping, and so on. Writing things down on our monthly pages really helps us reorganize and actually remember those things that we think we won’t forget.

Secondly, plan to give yourself at least one day a week with some free time in it. After scheduling in as few “have-to’s” as you can, write in this personal FREE TIME.

Then review your schedule to see what other “have–to’s” you can combine at one time or get rid of!

Next, remember the things you need to do with your children, parents, spouse or friends. Here’s something I would like you all to try: schedule time once a week with each family member and maybe one friend. For example, I give my friends 3 hours of phone time each weekend.

* To review:
* #1 – Schedule your “have-to-do’s”.
* #2 – Schedule in FREE TIME and seriously, write in your planner, FREE TIME!
* #3 – Reassess your must do’s.
* #4 – Schedule in time needed for and with family and friends. Some examples could include softball practice, lessons of any sort, Starbucks, movies, driving kids to a friend’s house, chatting on the phone, or writing a note.

If you find your schedule rapidly filling up and your free time disappearing, then stop and really focus on where your time is going and how your week will pan out. What happens to many women is that we think we can do it all. We often don’t think to write down on our schedule that we need to cook dinner by 5:30, and end up planning something else during that time.

For example, if I schedule softball for one of the kids on Wednesday at 2:30 after school and then a meeting Wednesday night, then is there housework, dinner, or anything else I will not be doing because I used my afternoon time to go to the softball game? That doesn’t mean I don’t go to the game. It means that I have to figure out when I can take some extra time to do those things I didn’t do at home that afternoon, or else eat out. If I was going to the softball game instead of doing chores, I’d do my best to get up early that morning, shower and eat earlier that morning, and make an easy meal to put in the oven, or do some extra chores to catch up or move ahead of schedule. This way, when I NEEDED to leave, I could go without worrying about what wasn’t getting done.

Don’t let your schedule drive you, but remember that you control your schedule!

This is what I do at least 2 times a year, if not more often. And this time I’m getting ready to get rid of things I’m attached to. Now I’ve been really good about doing this before but I think there is more I can part with. So I promised myself that I will get rid of things I haven’t looked at in the last 2 years. I know, it’s supposed to be 1 year, but baby steps.

Break Large Projects Into Small – The best advice I can give is to:

1. Make a calm environment for yourself to plan the project.

2. Get out your planner and start writing on your project planning pages.

3. Break it down into baby steps by only planning a little bit of it for each session you plan to work on.

4. Once you take that first leap of planning it all out, don’t look at the project as a whole again, but rather as small baby steps.

Goal Projects Planning – How does a baby learn to walk, one step at a time. Before they know it they’re toddling around without thinking about each step individually. Write each step down on a scratch paper. Put them in order. Then transfer them to your Goal Project Planning Page.

That’s how it works with projects. If you can just make it through the first and hardest part of the planning, the rest will flow. Worst case scenario, hire a professional organizer just to get you started and lay the groundwork.

In many cases, once you get started on a project you’ll know what you can & can’t handle. Some days you’ll work for 15 minutes and that will be enough. Some days you won’t want to stop for hours.

If you need a pep talk, join our Facebook List. There are awesome women there who love to nurture and support.

Let me preface the following by saying that I live by my planner! Without it I would be absolutely lost. I use the Busy Woman’s Daily Planner and it’s worked soooo well for me! First, the whole concept behind the planner (and the company) is that it’s personality based. Each of us has a different personality – personally, I’m very organized, and have been for many years, so it’s been an easy thing for me to adjust to using a planner. However, I know women that aren’t naturally organized and have a very hard time adjusting to using a planner…..this planner/company will HELP you determine your personality and then start using your planner – I think that is one of the MAJOR things that sets the Busy Woman’s Daily Planner apart from all the others!

So, this is how I manage to maintain my productivity and “make time” for everything that I need to do.

1. First, I use the monthly/weekly/and daily goal pages – so that I have a clear outline of what steps need to be done every day/week/month.
2. I prioritize EVERYTHING (this has been difficult at times – initially, everything was high priority….it took time for me to get it through my head that EVERYTHING can’t be the highest priority every day).
3. Next, I use two pages for every day (this can be tough at times – and I know, through speaking with other women and the owner of The Busy Woman’s Daily Planner, this is too much for many people) – I use Appointment pages AND regular daily pages. In the appointment pages, I literally block out time periods to work on various projects.
4. I keep my planner on my desk – right in front of me (I have one that will detach from my purse – so I can easily attach it when I’m going out of the house and always have it with me) – and make sure I stick to the time blocks that I set up.
5. I ALSO use a program on my computer that will sound an alarm at certain times throughout the day. This helps me from watching the clock – I simply focus on work and when the alarm sounds, I check my planner and move on to the next task.
6. I block all my time in 2.5 hour segments – with a 1/2 hour break in between. Not only does this help me focus (on average, people will get more done in short blocks of time than longer blocks of time – 2.5 hour segments work really well for me, but I’ve known people who chose 1.5 hour time blocks with 15 minute breaks in between), but this also helps me “build in” time for any “urgent” needs of my kids (for example, the baby isn’t very good about following MY time lines….she seems to think if she’s hungry, she’s hungry NOW!).
7. Finally, I make sure that I block some time EVERY DAY with all the kids individually and together – this helps them feel like I’m not ignoring them and cuts down on interruptions (at least with the older ones). I’ve done that since my children were toddlers – and it’s almost always worked.
8. I also make sure I take “me” time every morning and “planner” time every evening (right before bed) – this helps me feel better…AND keeps me on track with what I have in my planner. : )

I would suggest reading some of the articles on The Busy Woman’s Daily Planner site – http://www.thebusywoman.com . The owner of the company also is a mom to three…so, she has some experience juggling business and family as well. She is also available to chat via email, phone, etc to help you figure out what is going to work well for you – Susie (the owner) is a real gem, and is very good at figuring out what will work best for people and walking them through managing their time.

I will gladly help further, if you would like – but I would highly recommend going straight to the source, so to speak, and speaking with Susie.

After my first day I had completed all of my tasks and rewarded myself by going out with the family to see a movie (Pirates Of the Caribbean if you’re curious). It was a FUN night. I even splurged on the $10 popcorn and soda deal. WOW what a deal. HA!

After only my 5th day of consistently using this method, I am experiencing great results. For the purpose of this article we’re going to give examples based on using two planner pages per day, appointment and daily.

I understand you may not be comfortable using two pages per day. In that case you have several other options, such as using the back of the weekly pages with appointment pages or using only monthly and appointment pages. BE CREATIVE! It has to feel right for you or it’s not right for you.

1. Block your time on the appointment page the night before. When you work on this the night before, you’re lessening the chance of having to change your schedule as well as committing it to memory. This is quite helpful when you start out the next morning. Instead of feeling rushed to do your schedule as the day’s priorities are waiting, you will have the opportunity to plan your day without that pressure.

2. If you have a lot of simple things to accomplish that won’t take more than a few minutes each, try blocking them into the same time frame. I did this with return phone calls that I KNEW I could keep down to a minimum. And if you know me you’d know how difficult that is. But it worked so well! When you remind yourself that this will free up more of your time, you’ll be able to just tackle it and move on.

3. 3.Use one of our methods shown in our pictures here:
(click on an image to enlarge)
Appointment & Daily Page
appointment & daily planner
daily planner & appointment pages
or how to code on the website here: http://www.thebusywoman.com/articles/planner-coding.php to see our recommendations. Putting a line through or around the time frame you block off will give you a visual to focus on. Then writing short details will give you reminders of what you’re to do during that time. Look over at your daily page. You’ll write more details when needed for specific tasks or appointments on your daily page. A picture is worth a thousand words, so we have included graphics of the various visual blocking methods.

4. If your new schedule doesn’t work well one day, try something different the next. When I first started, I would give myself 1/2 hour for something that would take an hour. There’s a learning curve and adjustment period, so change the time around a bit to find what works. Another example: I scheduled phone calls and emails first. Then workers came in to pack orders and they weren’t input into the database yet. Therefore time was wasted waiting for me to finish. Now I input orders first.

5. When you have a long list of calls to be made and you’ve blocked out that time frame for them, list the names, phone numbers, and possibly a note to remind you of what the call was about. Again, this will save you much time in searching for the numbers and why you need to call. Our example on the website is from a technology company. Therefore, there are codes that only they know of. But you’ll see their in house references, the first name of the contact person, and their time zone. And because they have files for everyone, the files are laid out on the desk for further reference when calling.

6. I personally schedule in breaks. If I don’t, I’ll work until I drop. That increases burn out. So if you were to see my schedule, you’d see all capital letters saying, “EAT!” When I schedule in a break, you’ll see, “BREAK!” Otherwise I forget the importance.

7. Keep appointments on monthly tabs, but definitely try to put them in the appointments section of your daily page so you have a second reference. Make sure to block off time for outside appointments on your actual appointment page as well. Just draw a diagonal line through or draw a line around that time. Otherwise you might be like me where in the beginning, I saw a lot of unblocked time and assumed it was my FREE TIME because I forgot to check my monthly. It was disasterous!

8. Last, don’t forget about gathering your things and travel time to appointments. It takes me about 5 minutes to clean up from what I’m doing; get my purse/planner in order and head out the door with a water bottle in hand. Then there’s the driving time. If you need details, write down travel time or you might leave too late to arrive at your appointment on time. If you need directions, put them in the notes section of your appointment or daily page.

From this we hope you can see that there are possibilities to combat your scheduling problems and fit most everything into your day. Now if you’re trying to fit in more than can possibly be done in any one day, you’re going to run into problems.

So learn to:
Prioritize
Say No
Take time to plan out your day in advance
Schedule in FREE TIME
Change things around if they don’t work at first

However, as I explained to my uncle, “If you start giving the kids presents on their birthday or Christmas, they will come to expect it and then be disappointed if you don’t follow through every year.” The same goes for when we raise our children. If we give our children lots of presents each year or give them what they want most of the time, they will not understand how to take no for an answer. They won’t appreciate what they have as much as they would otherwise.

How many of you want to give everything you possibly can to your children? I know I do. With all that my friends are sharing about their children and with all that I’ve experienced with my children, I felt the need to share with other parents.

Your children were all born with their own unique personalities. Everything we do helps them throughout their lives. However, they still have free will. And it is that free will that will shock you or make you feel happy they are yours.

We truly have nothing to do with how they behave when they’re older. We’ve done the best we can and at a certain point in time it’s up to them to take over. Oh the stories I’ve heard still shock me. We can give our children everything, but when they get older there’s really no telling what they will do with all we’ve given them. And let me tell you that giving my children everything only made it more difficult at least with one of them. Somehow while thinking we’re giving them all that we didn’t get when we were children gave one an entitlement attitude. And it’s that entitlement mind set that will cause them problems out in the real world. Giving less teaches them appreciation.

This is such a fine line. There are so many phases children go through that right when you figure them out, they change. And the agony parents go through trying to figure out when to give in and when to say no. There are not always clear-cut answers.

We are thrilled when our children make us proud, behave well and listen to us. But we’re not as prepared when they do things that embarrass us, go against what we’ve taught them, or choose a different path than we think they should.

Tips to help when trying to determine what to do when:

1. Set up guidelines ahead of time for each area of reward and discipline.
2. Be consistent with your rules and discipline.
3. Decide ahead of time at what age you will allow dating and driving.
4. Discuss the amount of gifts for holidays.
5. Discuss what chores everyone is expected to do.
6. Give more hugs and one on one time instead of presents or toys.