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Summer and Kids: How to Stay Organized by Coach Juli

May 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

If you are a parent of a student-aged child you may not be as excited for school to end and summer to begin as your child. For kids it is a time for long lazy mornings, random meal times, playing outside in the middle of the day, and mid-week sleepovers, but for parents it’s another story all together!

For the adults in the equation, it’s days of interrupted routines, minimal structure, bored children, and often the need to work with children being left to their own devices during the weekdays.

Staying organized for the summer months takes a bit more planning because of the lack of structure when school isn’t in session. Start by finding out what activities your kids wish to do during the summer days. If they want to sit around and color pictures all day, that’s great, but if they want to do things that require you to drive them around everywhere you might need to work on that with them and come up with a reasonable schedule that works for everyone.

Don’t panic! Here are three tips for staying organized for the summer:
1.    Keep easy to grab snacks and small meals for children so they can feed themselves when they are hungry. Family mealtimes may be a just a few weekly dinners, so for breakfasts and lunches they can learn to fend for themselves – with your providing good food in the cupboards & fridge.
2.    Make a list and post it on the fridge entitled: “Things I can do” that you compile with the children so you don’t have that constant “Mom, I’m bored!” whine coming from down the hall every few hours.
3.    If you have really young kids, you might want to secure a ‘mother’s helper’ over the summer to keep the kids safe and entertained while you are home or running errands. Jr. and Sr. high school students who can’t work out in the community yet often love these opportunities.

Attempt to keep some structure to the days as best as you can as children tend to do better with some routines.

Coach Juli is a Professional Certified Coach with a specialty in Productivity specifically those with ADHD. She works with individuals at any stage of life who find themselves stuck and wish assistance and skills to better organize their lives both in the workplace and at home. For more information, go to www.coachjuli.com.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Big Picture of Health Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Technology and Your Healthy Living by Coach Juli

March 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Technology and You –
Out with stress, in with effective and efficient healthy living!

There are several ways that productivity has been, and can be, improved simply by taking advantage of the technology available to us today. Basically, any time that a task can be simplified, or the labor required to complete the task is reduced, stress will be decreased and productivity will increase.

Innovative technology is making it easier and faster for most people to take care of daily tasks – here are a few that are pretty simple for most to employ:

1.    Automatic or Online Bill Paying – Years ago when I started teaching people how to better manage their lives and save hundreds of dollars in late fees from not paying their bills, there were piles of paper to deal with, due dates to calculate, and then filing the bill once it was paid. No more! Now you can have most of your bills (think utilities!) deducted directly from your bank or credit card account and never worry about a late fee or worse, discontinued service. You can have your credit card statements emailed to you, and you can transfer funds, pay your bills, and manage your balances any time from the privacy of your computer or smartphone. Take a screen shot of the statement, or download it and store it in a receipt file on your computer. Paperless and Paid!

2.    Shopping & Coupon Clipping – newspapers, circulars, magazines…I think not. You can get deals emailed to you, sent to your phone, or simply Google® what you want and see if there is a coupon you can use when shopping online or at a brick & mortar. You can print your own coupons and only get the one you want for what you plan to purchase. Shopping online. Need I say more?

3.    Video Calling – I remember when there was talk of how someday we would be able to talk to people all over the world live! Wow! It seemed so miraculous. Well, it’s daily practice for most of us these days. Live far away from the kids? Jump on Skype, ooVoo, or Google Hangout and voila, instant quality time!

Contributed by Coach Juli, CPC: Efficiency & ADHD Coach. Efficiency Expert since 1984, and author of the eBook, Order! A Logical Approach to an Organized Way of Life, www.getordernow.com. Contact at jshulem@gmail.com 805-964-2389 or www.julishulem.com

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Decrease Clutter! By Coach Juli Shulem

January 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment

It would be easy to just say, “throw away stuff you don’t need” but therein lies the problem. Those with clutter issues generally cannot discern between what they need to keep and what they should get rid of.

Here are 3 tips to making a big impact on decreasing the clutter in your physical space:

1.    Increase border control.
Don’t let anything through your door that isn’t an asset to your life. This means start by not even buying things you don’t absolutely need.  Don’t go ‘shopping’ for things. Go ‘buying.’ That means you go for the items you need, with a list in hand, and nothing more. If you don’t let unnecessary items come into your home in the first place you will have less to deal with in the near and distant future. Not having the item around to begin with will stop the process of cluttering at the root.
This goes for not accepting things from others as well. If friends or family don’t want an item any longer, why do you need it?

2.    Don’t buy more containers.
I see in my coaching practice that those who are trying to get organized instantly want to go out and acquire storage containers thinking that this will help them become organized. Actually, you want to first get rid of things and then, based on what is left and where the items will be kept, you can get appropriate containers. If you get dozens of plastic boxes first you will have more clutter that you had to begin with and chances are you won’t need all those containers either.

3.    Delete dupes .
If you have a lot of things, and they have had ‘offspring,’ you can generally get rid of all but one (perhaps two) of the item and be just fine. Often the reason people have many of the same items is that they can’t locate it when needed, so they go out and purchase another only to find the original one days, weeks, or months later. This can happen over and over resulting in ridiculous amounts of something where one is sufficient.

Contributed by Coach Juli, CPC: Efficiency & ADHD Coach. Efficiency Expert since 1984, and author of the eBook, Order! A Logical Approach to an Organized Way of Life, www.getordernow.com. Contact at jshulem@gmail.com 805-964-2389 or www.julishulem.com.

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Eliminate Holiday Stress by Juli Shulem

November 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Holidays and Party Stress –
Want to avoid it this year?

Much of the holiday stress begins right about this time of year – November and continues through the beginning of January. For some that could mean nearly a quarter of the year depressed or stressed at a time that is supposed to be celebratory and enjoyable.

So many social functions in which to participate! Perhaps you are hosting a party or event that requires just too much of your time, energy and attention, yet you do it anyway. For others, simply attending parties is too anxiety-inducing, overwhelming and stressful.

Here are reasons why Holiday parties can be stressful:
1.    We must be in the right frame of mind to be sociable in a crowd of people.
2.    We have to get dressed up which can become an extra chore.
3.    We may have to arrange childcare or re-arrange other plans to attend.
4.    Finding extra time to either shop for or make a hostess gift.
5.    Keeping later hours, making for longer days than which we are accustomed.
6.    Eating and drinking more often than during other times in the year.
7.    Suffering headaches and poor sleep from the extra events.
8.    Experiencing unproductive days and unhappiness in anticipation of a party.

When dealing with something potentially stressful, look at all aspects of the concern and break it down. Answer the following questions:

What is there really to be stressed about?

Why must there be stress?

Is there a way to enjoy the activity coming up without having stress?

Many times attending an event just seems like the thing to do because that’s what it feels like everyone else is doing.  THIS year, reframe the situation and don’t buy into the stress game!

You know what is going to come up, right? Treat holiday parties just like other social engagements during the year. Decide as soon as you receive the invitation if you are going to attend. Know what you must do right at the beginning, and remember, you always have the prerogative to decline. Just because you are invited doesn’t mean you have to attend. Do what brings you joy, and allows you to spend the holiday season with those who make you happy.

Contributed by Juli Shulem (jshulem@gmail.com/805-964-2389), Efficiency/ ADHD Coach.www.julishulem.com, Efficiency Expert since 1984, and author of the eBook, Order! A Logical Approach to an Organized Way of Life, www.getordernow.com.

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How to Increase your Happiness by Snowden McFall

May 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Increase Your Happiness with Three Easy Steps

Many people believe that when you get to a certain level of income or achievement, that you will be truly happy. However, research at Harvard University shows just the opposite. You need to be happy first, and then the success and accomplishment will come.

Why is this important and how does it work?

Americans are extremely stressed. 80% say they are burnt-out and 50% need help managing their stress according to the American Psychological Association. Stress is the antithesis of happiness, and dramatically decreases your likelihood of being happy or successful.

The latest research on happiness is that the most successful people are happy first. Our brains are actually predisposed to work at maximum creativity, resilience and effectiveness when we are in a state of relaxation and joy.

Here are three quick techniques for increasing your happiness:

Celebrate your successes- large and small. Create a victory wall to post your achievements of any level- articles that have been published about you, goals achieved, races you’ve run, charity work you participated in, family achievements, etc.

Find something to look forward to. It might be a weekend away, an upcoming conference, a vacation, or special time with friends. In one study, people who just thought about watching their favorite movie had an increase of 27% in endorphins (the ‘feel good’ hormone)- just from thinking about it. Every time something stressful occurs, think about what you are looking forward to and shift your state of mind. It works!

Look for evidence that what you do makes a difference. Believe that your actions, either directly or indirectly improve the quality of people’s lives with your product or service, through the loving way you raise your family, or the kindness you extend at your charity work. People who have a sense of purpose about their lives are much happier.
 

Snowden McFall, professional speaker, trainer and author, is the owner of Fired Up Keynote Speaking. She has written 5 books, including Fired Up!, which has sold  63,000+ copies, and her new book Stress Express! 15 Instant Stress Relievers. An expert on stress and motivation, appeared on 320 radio shows, CNN Financial News, The Home Shopping Network, Bloomberg Television, Success Magazine, Investors Business Daily, and foxnews.com. She was named National Women in Business Advocate of the Year by the Small Business Administration and was honored at the White House and Congress. She can be reached at www.firedupnow.com

 

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