March Moves In!

March is here! That transitional month between winter and spring.
March is a month of action. The Earth prepares for another season of growth, and this month, as it comes “in like a lion out like a lamb” we get a taste of nature’s own order.
Nature knows what is needed and what needs to be shed, and it’s cycle of productivity can be a great lesson to us.
For example, we look at the trees. Every Fall the trees shed their leaves. It is a beautiful show, but it is also a necessary part of the tree’s life cycle. The trees can’t hold onto their leaves year after year, because the new leaves are needed. The old must be dropped to the ground to make room for the new, and in their own way the old leaves do good for the soil.
Over the winter and early spring, heavy snows and winds cause the dead wood to be broken off and cleared from the treetops so that the new, productive sprouts and buds can form.
We can learn to clear out our own “dead wood” and shed the clutter that is keeping us from being positive and productive. We can wake up to the light and sunshine of Spring and find that restless lion inside as we pace around our overfilled homes.
Use the feelings of restlessness and invigoration that come with Spring. Open the windows, let in the fresh air and open up the space inside as well.
Welcome the new season as a chance to clear out the things that have been a burden and make room for the things that make life truly enjoyable.
Set a goal to make a significant change in your habits as you work this month. Be like the tree, make shedding the old stuff a habit, so that you can welcome the new!

Grocery IQ

A friend put me on to a really helpful new way to keep my grocery list.
It’s an application called “Grocery IQ” that is available online and also as an app for smartphones. I have been using it all week and I love it!
You can add items by typing them into the list, or by scanning a barcode with your phone’s camera!
You can break down the list by store, and it also will automatically separate your items by the aisle that you will find them in.
You can print coupons right from your list and each item that you enter has brand name suggestions.
You can also break down your shopping by adding the names of the stores and entering the items to purchase at each one.
This is an extremely helpful tool and it will keep you from always having paper lists to find. You should know where to find the computer, if you don’t you definitely need to give me a call.

Keeping Your Electrons in Order

It is enough of a challenge to keep our physical homes in order, but today we have another layer of stuff to add to the physical things that clutter up our space. The stuff that I am referring to is electronic clutter, and while it is easier to ignore it, it can be just a s big a problem as it piles up and slows us down.
Email, files, pictures, documents, and other electronic flotsam and jetsam, must be sorted, purged and organized as frequently as possible.
For most of us, email is a way of life. At work it is how we communicate and share information. In the marketplace, it is a way to find the best deals on items and services that we purchase. In our personal lives, it is a way to stay in touch and it is fast, so the birthday pictures that you took can get to Aunt Jane the day of the party! However, it needs constant attention, or it can be an albatross and the things that we need to attend to can be lost in the shuffle.
Try to go to your email at least once a day. Sort through it just as you do your paper mail. Junk the things that you know you don’t need to look at, and organize what is left by creating folders or labels. Spend time answering the emails that you need to get to, and try not to leave anything in the inbox for more than a couple of days. If you are on a large number of mailing lists, spend a little extra time unsubscribing and after a while there won’t be as much to work through.
In the same way, the files and folders that we squirrel away in our hard drives can become a problem if we never spend anytime attending to what we have there.
Too many items can eventually slow the computer down, and there is always the potential for a crash that can destroy a lot of hard work and personal information. Go through your documents occasionally and get rid of anything that is no longer relevant or necessary. Backup the things that you need to keep on an external drive or an online backup system.
Pictures saved electronically are a joy forever, but only if they are safe from digital destruction. They are large and can add up faster, especially if you are an avid photographer and take many, high quality, photos. It might be a good idea to buy an external drive just for photos. They are secure, can’t be accessed by anyone on the internet, and they are protection in the event of a crash. You can leave copies of anything that you want to work on in the computer, but you will have your originals somewhere else for safekeeping.
Just a few things to keep in mind as the time for filing taxes approaches. It is always better to be able to find what we need, when we need it, and the electronic world is no exception.