Learning. Life.

I’ve decided to merge this blog with my blog for educators, “Edumusings”, as many of the topics I want to cover are really for both educators and learners. I’m also going to be including more general posts on personal and home organisation.

You can find the new blog, still called “Learning. Life”, here. I hope I’ll see you there

Click to view original.  Source: http://xkcd.com/557/

I don’t know about you, but when I have this dream, it’s usually a sign I’m procrastinating on something I know I need to get doing

Visual Learners might find this article on mind-mapping interesting. Check out the other articles on the site too, for some graphical representations of different thinking concepts.

Are your poor, unloved possessions lying around the place, with no home to go to?

Look around: if you have piles of “stuff” and you don’t know where to put it … watch out – the SPCC (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Clutter) might be on your tail! Find homes for all that poor stuff now!

Why: stuff without a home will lie on your tables, floors and shelves, begging for attention and cluttering up your home.

How to find your stuff a home in 3 easy steps:

If something is just lying around because you don’t know where to put it –

1. Pick it up.

2. Decide if it is (a) useful or (b) beautiful. If not, give it to a home that loves it. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

3. If it’s useful or beautiful, find a home for it, close to where you use it.

• If you use it often, put it somewhere handy.
• If you hardly ever use it, repeat step 1 then, if you still have it, put it somewhere a bit harder to get at. If you haven’t used it in 6 months’ time, repeat step 1.
• If you think it’s beautiful, display it somewhere. If you have too much to display, repeat step 1. If you still have it, consider storing some things away and rotating what you display.

A note on notes: if you have piles of notes and assignments from old courses, consider carefully whether they will be useful to you in the future. If you think they will, file them away, and review in a year’s time. Next year it may seem basic – or out of date.

For any paperwork, consider going electronic for non-legal documents (for accounting, tax and legal documents keep the original safely).

Happy home hunting!

Disclaimer: this is an obvious suggestion. Feel free to stop reading now. Of course, if you’re not organised, you may want to keep reading …

The best way to get more organised is to spend time organising.

It doesn’t have to be lots of time – just more than you do now. And it’s most effective if you do it regularly.

What I do: Every day when I get home I do Flylady’s “5 minute room rescue“: 5 minutes tidying one room. Unbelievably, such a small thing keeps the house pretty much tidy.

To do this:
1. Choose a regular time – e.g. when you get home or before you go to bed.
2. Set your timer for 5 minutes.
3. Tidy til it beeps. Don’t do anything else, don’t get distracted – just do it.

You’ll be amazed how well it works.