Labels for LifeLabels for Life will give tips for organizing your life, home and office.

Help turn home office hell into divine order.

First separate and categorize the paperwork. Half the chaos occurs from not physically separating personal from professional. Next categorize each pile and store in manila file folders. This helps you deal with the paperwork in small bites. It wrests the control from the paperwork mess to you. Now you decide what you’ll work on. You don’t get hijacked by the nearest sighted due bill or renewal notice.

To physically segregate use extra shelving, filing cabinets and bins.

If your desk is a virtual catchall, free it up as well for its intended purpose. Sort all papers that you need, toss out that expired notice that seemed so important at the time. Maybe it was important, you just couldn’t lay your hands on it. File all paperwork in the folders created and store in accordance with its purpose, in filing cabinet, on shelf or bin. For instance, you can house all home expenses and bills to one side and business materials and invoices on the other.

Next create a system for inflow and outflow. One option: Mount an inexpensive wire-mesh file to the left of the desk. Use it to keep track of paper flowing back and forth from the office. Use the upper slot as your Inbox. Store three manila folders labeled clearly: BILLS, Bank Statements and Filing. Toss bills, bank statements and papers to file in the appropriate file folder. The lower slot is your Outbox. Similarly tuck in outgoing mail, notes, any URGENT to do messages right there where it can be seen easily. Never leave behind anything you need to take with you to meetings, when you errands, anytime you leave your house any more! Stow right under it a portable filing box (shown in the picture next to the desk on the floor). Toss into it whatever you need to carry with you as you leave your house. Voila! no more running back to pick up things left behind or postponing chores just because all essentials are not with you to complete your errand.

Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate. Are there home office paraphernalia strewn all over your abode. Corral them all right at hand near your desk. Books can be stored right on the new shelves. How-to manuals for your computer can go right there next to the books. Office supplies can be a dull lot. Inject some oomph by coordinating magazine holders, file boxes and flat boxes.

Use bulletin boards to keep track of the various areas in your life.

Things rarely used can be archived. A future blog will give detailed instructions as to how you can do this safely and securely. Children’s report cards, artwork etc. can be stored in plain sight. Use labeled boxes for these and other things like stationery, waivers, and other business paperwork. Various boxes can be neatly stacked right on the shelves providing both organization and decoration.

Supplies used on an everyday basis can go into open trays where they can be readily accessed. Another box, basket or tray can be used (such as the pink basket in the picture) to store materials for a special project.

There you have it! Order out of chaos, and pretty to boot!

Monica Ricci, professional organizer, categorizes people according to their work styles. Know your work style and you’ll know how to plan and organize your work life.

She categorizes people as:

• the planner
• the perfectionist
• the go-getter
• the procrastinator

The planner sees ahead and is very well organized, reliable and has a terrific work ethic. However, thinking ahead, s/he tend to horde lots of material in case of future necessity.

One modus operandi would be to create an accordion file, or two or three and loosely categorize and file away material with labels for each eventuality. Every now and then the planner then needs to briefly glance through the labels. Whatever is no longer useful, can then be purged.

The perfectionist, too, is very work oriented and motivated. They figure they must always do everything themselves so they can do it just so. However, this can become very overwhelming. The perfectionist needs to learn to check out others who can help them in their task, grow their trust in them and start gradually delegating first small portions of the work and then larger as time goes on. With big assignments they should be able to hire outside services who they have thus checked out over a period of time and start delegating, being able to supervise and monitor the entire project eventually.

The go-getter can attract projects and is invariably very involved with various people on a wide range of stuff. They often travel in the line of work. They may have a desktop, a laptop, many to-do lists. They need to develop a system through which they can always access all the scattered information. Technology comes rushing through for such individuals. There are many products on the market that helps go-getters access their computer from remote. The NomaDesk is one such which helps a go-getter access any number of computers once s/he is granted access to it by its owner. They can swoop in and use or share software and files on the accessed computer. They don’t need to travel with all the software they normally use on their notebook. For smaller workloads there are the handy flash-drives so readily available.

For the not-so techno-friendly there’s always the good old three-ring binder with all information appropriately labeled and easily accessed from anywhere.

Lastly, the procrastinator! The procrastinator always means to do everything. The question becomes when. It is as if Time is too abstract a concept for them. They never seem to fully grasp that, “Time and tide waits for no man……” They need to transform Time in a more concrete manner. Color coded planners can help them create a timeline in the here and now. It will help them create deadlines. Larger tasks can be broken up and have a series of smaller deadlines to meet.

Thus each work type can use their own means of organization that can serve them well and help them to not only achieve their goals but get less stressed out as well.

Do you shudder when tax-time comes? Do shoeboxes of bills and receipts confront you in April? Organize yourself for tax-time all year round.

Mom and Dad at Taxtime

All is not lost. There’s still time to get ready for April 2009 without getting flustered. You can do one better for 2009 records. At the very beginning of the year grab a file folder, duly label it Tax year 2009. In you pop those DMV bills that let you claim license fees on your 1040. If you have medical bills, prescription, flex or HSA claims, pop them in or better yet, have a separate sub-folder for them. An accordion file, subcategorized with appropriate labels, is another device for all your tax papers.

If you have a home office and who doesn’t these days, have a separate file for your mortgage bills. If you claim your home office on your personal income tax it’s a sound idea to have your mortgage bills readily available. Have you made charitable contributions? Those receipts should also be safely tucked away to claim your deductions. For small business home offices you might have other claims. Do you claim a percentage of your utility bills, landscaping and gardening and other such expenses? All this paperwork should also be ready at hand.

When February rolls around, the bank will send you your mortgage annual statements. 1099s will arrive daily in the mail. All your annual stock statements will be arriving. Immediately stock them away in your 1040 file. As soon as they are all there, you can easily start on your income tax return.

Once those returns are done, you can begin to relax. Maybe for once you can actually enjoy those April showers and flowers and Spring! There’s one more chore, however. If there are credit card statements and other expenses that you couldn’t take any deductions for, if you don’t need them for anything else, do shred and discard them. Returns from previous years and back-up paperwork for them can be archived and put away so they don’t clutter up your new filing system. If you follow these simple tips, when tax-time rolls around again, you will be less stressed. With no disorganization and chaos to deal with, come tax-time you will save time and tax-time will become less taxing!

Related articles

• 5 Reasons to Take A Home Inventory – A Guest Post (thecoolconsumer.com)
• 4 Urban Legends About Paralegals (thisblogrules.com)

Credit card companies, financial institutions and others are constantly pushing everyone to save some trees and request ebills. One reason why people are reluctant is probably their limited access to digital storage. But no more. These days all sorts of storage is available in the internet “cloud.”

Digital photographs, videos, all sorts of electronic files, your daily backups can all be stored in a safe, remote location right from your own desktop. There are many advantages to this not the least of which is being invariably forced to sort through all the digital data cluttering up your hard drive, categorize them in some way, choose and pick from them and in short, get organized!

Digital storage totally bypasses the need to buy and burn and make custom labels for CDs or DVDs and store them in boxes on shelves. However, if you do choose to use CDs or DVDs make sure to label and mark them as you go. With web storage, digital information is freed from one computer and /or location. It can be accessed from almost anywhere via any internet-connected device.

Earlier this month Microsoft launched its SkyDrive service that offers 5GB of free, safe storage accessed via one’s Live ID. SkyDrive offers personal, shared and public folders which facilitates safe file-sharing with friends and family and the public at large.

Free, unlimited storage is available from MediaFire. One doesn’t need to register for this site. The site is accessed via a cookie stored in the individual’s computer. However, it is recommended that one register for their free account. This way there is no chance of unwittingly deleting the cookie and losing all one’s stored files. MediaFire, at the moment, offers unlimited uploads but each file is limited to 100 MB. MediaFire also offers safe, personal file storage and the ability to safely share files with others.

Mozy

Xdrive offers 5GB of free storage for backups. However, for under $10 a month or an annual charge of $99.50, it is possible to get 50 GB for backup of one’s personal data. Carbonite offers only paid but unlimited storage for backups. Box.net offers 1 GB for free and 5GB for a charge of $7.95 a month. Mozy Online Backup Home offers 2GB for free and unlimited storage for $4.95 a month.

Goods shipping are hollering on the phone that they have run out of shipping labels and the re-order for the new ones has not arrived.

Do you:

(a)    Tell them to write them out by hand on sticky labels;

(b)   Tell them the person who usually does the ordering has fallen into the Grand Canyon and not done the re-order;  or

(c)    Get online and find a supplier who will deliver the new shipping labels at the right quality, right price and right now!

Pretty obviously the answer is c., but when you get online you will be confronted by hundreds of thousands of print stores offering you shipping labels yesterday!

So how do you choose which supplier to fulfill the order?

To get the labels on time and looking as they should follow these tips when ordering online.

First, deal with established print and design outlets that have a physical base in the country.  Many of the internet sites are glossy fronts for overseas print companies with many offering very cheap pricing because they are based in the Far East and especially China.  Your delivery will not be seen for possibly several weeks and certainly not this week.  You can check this by looking for a physical mailing address and a landline telephone number; if the web site you have selected shows neither, avoid them and move on to the next potential supplier on your list.

Second, online purchasing is becoming more the norm than the exception.  Modern online security is very safety conscious and you are fully protected in the event of mishap.  But you do need to make sure you are dealing with a print provider who is operating a retail website and has the necessary “back-end” to provide the security.  When you are looking at a payment screen on your computer, look in the browser bar where the website address is entered – you are looking for https://websitename.com – note that little “s” after http; that means it is a secure and protected section of the site which is safe for you to use with your banking and credit card information.  If it doesn’t have this – move on to the next supplier on your list.

Third, look for customer reviews elsewhere on the internet.  Once you have found a potential supplier, simply put their name into your search engine along with something like, “customer reviews” and see what comes up.  Bad news travel fast and furious especially if the company behaves unscrupulously or badly towards customers, so in this instance, treat no news as good news though it is always assuring to read positive comments.

Fourth, if this is truly a rush order, call the company up and explain the situation to them.  Be prepared to pay a little extra for the privilege but you can also negotiate with other business that you have too.  Shipping labels are something you are going to use again and again, so be sure to ask the supplier questions such as will the price be the same for re-order and what are the minimum (and maximum) order quantities they are able to handle as well as typical turnaround times.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Increasing Customer Flow Through Your Retail Premises with a Controlled Parking Policy (easyorderparkingpermits.com)
• How to Understand Natural Food Labels (ihowtovideos.com)
• Save on Shipping! (empirepatiocovers-blog.com)
• 7 Coupon and Bargain Sites to Save You a Bundle of Cash (verybestsites.com)
• Best Of Business Advertisement Labels Articles (lawrencereaves.com)

I’ve always loved dogs. People always say, “There are dog people and there are cat people.” While I do like cats, I really have always gotten along so well with dogs. I worked in an office for years but my heart just wasn’t in it. It was a job…you know what I mean? But I always smiled when I came home to my dog. I think a lot of people are that way. So when my company closed in this lousy economy I took a leap of faith and started what I’d always dreamed of: a doggy daycare. I named it See Spot Run Doggy Daycare – cute right? I found the perfect storefront and several college kids to take care of dogs with me. It was perfect. Except I didn’t think about how to promote my business!

I really started to panic. I mean, I’d put so much time, money and myself into this business. But my husband said, “What about bumper stickers?” He travels a lot on the road for business and he always likes to tell me about funny bumper stickers he’s seen. He’s even called me from the road about a good one – so I realized that if my husband is looking at bumper stickers then other people are too! I placed an order that afternoon for full color bumper stickers.

It was really easy to order the bumper stickers. I added my logo of “Spot” the mascot dog and chose my font. I wanted a bright and colorful bumper sticker. I chose purple and yellow – something I knew would really get attention out there and looked fun. I added our company name and our telephone number and website url. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on those bumper stickers.

When the bumper stickers came in, I gave them to friends and family and to the clients I had. “How cute!” one of my customers said as she attached it to her convertible. I smiled as I watched her drive away. With her dog leaning out the car, it was like the perfect advertisement for my doggy daycare.

After a few days, the telephone started to ring and people and their dogs were walking in. My business picked up by 35% in just two weeks! I know it was because of those bumper stickers because I didn’t have a chance to do any other advertising. And the best thing about the bumper stickers is I didn’t have to wait for a magazine or newspaper advertisement deadline. The bumper  stickers also last and last on someone’s vehicle. I designed them to look so cute that I knew people would enjoy driving around with them!

My days are pretty busy now, walking dogs and taking care of them all day. Some people think when you run a doggy daycare that it is all fun and games but it is really a hard job sometimes. But I love it, I really do. I mean where else am I going to get to spend my entire day around all of these great dogs and make them all happy? And I think my office days are behind me.

So I’m really glad I listened to my husband about those bumper stickers. They were the easiest thing I’ve done to let people know about my doggy daycare – and at a price that simply can’t be beat!

Related articles by Zemanta

• What Makes a Good Bumper Sticker? (easyorderbumperstickers.com)
• How to Remove A Bumper Sticker (ihowtovideos.com)
• Bumper Sticker Collectibles (easyorderbumperstickers.com)