Did you know that...

Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 03:48 PM

 
On average we experience one interruption every 8 minutes or approximately 6-7 per hour. in an 8-hour day , that totals around 50 - 60 interruptions in the day. The average interruption takes approximately 5 minute. (Some take several hours or days; others may only take a few seconds.) If you are receiving 50 interruptions in the day and each takes 5 minutes, that totals 250 minutes, or just over 4 hours out of 8, or about 50% of the workday.

Americans spend 9 million hours each year looking for things.

A piece of paper is moved at least 8 times before it is tossed or filed.

The use of office paper has tripled since the birth of the computer.

Statistics have shown that 80% of all papers filed are never looked at again and 50% of all filed material going to storage has no retention value and should have been destroyed.  Secretaries have estimated that 20% of their time is spent on filing and retrieving.  That is equivalent to one work day each week. 

The average American receives 49,060 pieces of mail in their lifetime; one third of it is junk mail.

For every hour spent in the planning phase, three to four hours are saved during the execution stage.  Save yourself time by being proactive.

**Jaw drop**
 

How do your areas look on average?  Don’t worry, it’s ‘human, but disorder is our greatest enemy’.  Solider, we can’t let our enemy get to our strong point, but it will, if we let it gnaw at our weak points.  Strengthen the fence, would you, and do it quickly, efficiently and systematically, no matter the cost – 'an hour saved is an hour earned.' 

We can't afford to be disorganized, for we can't do anything the best when we let into temptation and don't fulfill the responsibility given us.  God chose us to be stewards of this world, and I do not want to let him down!

Jess

Up to the Work, the Standards, and the Heart

Posted on Monday, June 2, 2008 at 08:58 AM

‘The habits of diligence, thoroughness, honor, and endurance you build will prove invaluable later.  What matters is not where you worked or what you did but who you became in the process.  As you do you job, remember faithfulness in little things prepares you for greater opportunity.  Never settle for anything less than your best.’a

Know and Do Your Duty

‘Recognize how your job contributes to your organization’s goals and fits into the organizational structure’b

 1 Corinthians 12: 21, 27:

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ and the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’… You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

In everything, we have a part to play; in God’s kingdom, our home, and our commitments’ area, whatever – we are needed.  Who’s going to pray for their next community project?  The bins require emptying thoroughly.  Jesus wants a willing, humble heart, ready for any small task – what’s more though; he will assign us a job we are uniquely designed for. 

Be Accountable

‘Work as though you are being watched.  Inspect your own work according to the highest standards.’c

“Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”  Psalm 139:7.8

Throughout every moment of our day, the Lord is watching us; not for a millionth of a second will he turn his eyes from us. 

“Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether slave or free” Ephesians 6:7, 8

The Lord is watching, and you never know if someone else is watching too, but regardless of our circumstances, we need to meet up to our own standards; what we expect of others, being honest with ourselves.  When we’re faced with the question, ‘did I do my job to the best of my ability?’ we can look ourselves in the face knowing we have.

Honor your Word

‘Tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth’ - traditional

Know your boundaries.  When you know you can’t keep up to what has come out of your mouth (meaning everything), change it.

Being a responsible person includes living completely up to your words (without being legalistic), and staying faithful to your commitments; if that’s not possible, showing accountability and accepting the consequences for the moves you make.

Oh God, Grant us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference. – Reinhold Neibuhr

Make No Excuses

Another word for responsibility is faithfulness - when the going gets tough, the tough keep going!  Carry on; finish every job.

Give it your Best

‘Reject the temptation to think in terms of ‘getting by’.’d

Genesis 39:2-4

“The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.  When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant… and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.”

Humbly coming into Potiphars home, Joseph worked his very best to live up to what was expected of him – if Potiphar expected so much of him, Joseph would do that much; and more; he lived up to others standards, and if he could do better, he did it better.

So make high your standards – you have a choice for everything you do; nothing anyone else tells you is ok can dictate how high you expect of your actions.  Although making sure you completely complete your task to your authorities’ standards, continually choose to do the job – no matter how small – to your upmost abilities and standards; like Joseph, show what God wants you to show – your best.

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13

What do you expect from yourself?

What do your authorities expect of you?

What does God expect from you?

The little things are the foundations for the big things – Joseph started off as the lowest household servant, doing the littlest jobs, and ended up running Egypt – the second biggest job of the whole country!  Although it’s someone else who gave you the responsibility, and it’s you who will choose to do everything the best to your capability, remember that all things come from the hand – and the heart – of God; he gives you the qualifications, he gives you the success, and he gives you the standards.

a, b, c, d -Experts taken from Responsibility Character First Bulletin

Preventing Unmuddledness!

Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 at 04:50 PM

“Organization is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.” A.A Milne

Think about it!

Jess

Kids Organizational Stragety: Be Happy

Posted on Monday, May 5, 2008 at 06:36 PM

I’m really sorry I haven’t been updating you; I am trying to do better!  A few months ago, we went on holidays, and I lost my personal journal, in which I had a list of ideas to write about on here.  That was pretty discouraging; but I’ve written up a new list and I really have no excuse to give you except that I’m slack.  (wait a minute, I’m the author; I can’t be slack!) 

Actually, as a piece of encouragement, we all can get slack and unwilling to do jobs – even me.  I don’t always like to clean the kitchen (although my brother can’t believe it; he thinks I’m a human vacuum cleaner, mopper, blitzer, dishwasher-emptier, pan-scrubber and clothe-washer all put together) even though I normally don’t mind cleaning.  And you know you want to have a good attitude, but you just want to go and make that scientific breakthrough, or the final touch to your da Vinci piece, or your latest invention which has a radio inside your watch (let me know when its invented ok; I want one!) and the list goes on and on, but, we have to clean out the ‘fridge, or scrub the bath, or hang out all of the washing, or iron all of the ironing….

Arrrrrrrgh!

Then there’s the bedroom – which is personally my favorite room to clean… coz its mine!  I share a room with my sister, Nomi, but we both have our own wall space and bedside table; we don’t bother making everything match.  She does her thing in her artistic style, and I do mine in my conservative way; put it together and you get a very inviting, Jess n Noms look.  I can decorate it in any way I like (well, nothing exotic), and so can Noms.

What does your room and space reflect?  Does it look like a cyclones' just past through, or does it reflect peace, fun, and who you are?

The point is, that you have to do it.  We all need to learn the basics of how a house works, and we need to understand the concept of and experience responsibility.  I understand it this way:

If you gotta do it, you may as well do it with a happy heart.

This applies to everything, including outside cleaning.  School, family commitments – whatever.  Be different; do something against this world and ‘be happy’

Love Jess

Tag for Aunt Minnie McGranahan

Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:44 AM

This is a tag/questionnaire about your life with Aunt Minnie in mind.  You might want to read the previous post before you ‘fill’ this out.  You might want to copy and paste this onto word, and click ‘return’ in between every question.  It would be great if you could also comment to me if you take this quiz.  Pray as well; think about this and think about any other questions that may come to mind: take the time!  Be descriptive; use more than ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘maybe’ whenever you can!

 
What are some things that you do that takes up a lot of your time?  Is it creative?  Is it a time-waster?  Is it helpful?  Is it spending your time wisely?  Do you have a choice whether you do it or not?  Are you showing a good balance of what you do?

 
Are you happy with yourself?  Could you boldly stand up and proclaim: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”?  Can you focus on others more than yourself?

 
What about your system - do you have a way of getting what you want done, when you want it done – or is everything a mess?  Are you organized enough that you can be flexible with change of plans, or helping others?  Does your system involve God?  Does it line up with your family’s plans?

 
Can you keep the peace – that should be much more important than outward appearances?  “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”  Displaying the fruit of the Spirit should always come first.

 
 Love Jessica

Book Review: Aunt Minnie McGranahan

Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 10:55 AM

Book review today – Aunt Minnie McGranahan, by Mary Skillings Prigger.

 
We read this book a few weeks ago as a part of our orderliness lessons through Character First.  It is a fantastic book; I highly recommend it – if you see it around, or any book in the Aunt Minnie McGranahan series (I’m sure they’re all good), take a peek at it and see for yourself what it’s like!

 
Aunt Minnie McGranahan is a little old lady who is very neat and tidy, and keeps a very strict system – on certain days she did only certain things, and she always was ready for company.  Unfortunately, her nieces and nephews are suddenly left orphaned and she is their closest relative – it’s all on the mothers’ side, you see.  Her neighbors think it’s impossible.  Aunt Minnie pays them no mind and adopts them, and immediately adjusts her system so that they help her with the chores.  Her system was simply this: – the oldest looks after the youngest, the middle ones look after each other, and Aunt Minnie looks after them all.

 
“Many hands make light work, and fun makes work lighter” is what she believed – and she put it into action.  No idle hands were there on her farm, but lots of happy bodies – making the jobs into races, games, and competitions.  It’s a great book, full of laughs for the whole family.

 We discussed her actions quite a bit in line with our homes’ four character traits.  Mum and Dad have chosen four character traits that, if anything, they want our home to show.  Order, Peace, Wisdom and Creativity. It’s interesting, because those are the things that you can see aspects of in us kids as individuals.  You can see those things in Aunt Minnie and her home as well.  Obviously, her home – and attire – showed order, and was the foundation of peace in her home.  What she spent her time doing on certain days was creative – baking and quilting, for example.  She was wise with what she chose to do, and with her time management.  When she adopted the children, she chose lots of creativity with how they completed their tasks, and was wise with what each child was given as a responsibility, when it came to maturity and age.  She kept the peace and the order on her farm, which was important. 

 
I hope you enjoyed hearing about Aunt Minnie McGranahan, and how she handled her situations.  A questionnaire coming up soon about your life – with Aunt Minnie McGranahan in mind!

 
Jessica

Kid's Organizational Stragety: Procrastination

Posted on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 01:41 PM

The other day I was reading an Organizational book called Organize Your Office! By Ronni Eisenberg and Kate Kelly.  In the book, one of the chapters was dedicated to procrastination, which inspired me to write about that today. 

“Procrastination is the thief of time” proclaimed 18-century poet, Edward young – I guess it’s a kinda poetical proverb to write – and it’s true, which is important!  When we procrastinate in anything – whether in schoolwork, or cleaning, or piles – it takes away our time, and we’ll find ourselves racing behind the clock. 

Effective people move right in to their day, where as ineffective people put it off – if I may give you a piece of advice, JUST DO IT!  Don’t hesitate in getting out of bed; this is the only day you’ll get that’s like this; don’t be jammed up wall-to-wall with regret on one side and dread on the other – soak up God’s goodness, jump out of bed, and from that moment on, do it all enthusiastically!  “Whatever your hands find to do; do it with all your heart”

According to Character First, Enthusiasm is: Expressing Joy in each task as I give it my best effort.  Don’t show Apathy, which is the opposite, be enthusiastic! 

-Character First defines Enthusiasim as:

- Being an energy-giver

- Smiling!

-Treating every job as important

- Putting my whole heart into what I do

- Not being discouraged by failure

Jessica

Notices, and an long article from a thought

Posted on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 01:42 PM

I’m back!!!

I’m ready to start writing again (I hope!).   I have a few different changes that I’m going to make that I want to share with you...

1. I’m going to write shorter articles.   I catch ‘writing block’ really easily… so what I write will be shorter articles with a thought I’ve had, or/and maybe a tip or two, but not excessively long articles that I can’t keep writing

2. I’m quitting the sergeant major talk... I’m retiring from my office, you could say!  Mum is often pointing out that it doesn’t quite suit me – and she’s right (she normally is).

 3.Finally, I’m not going to put any pressure on me to write weekly.  None at all.  I’m going to try to write regularly, but why keep a thought till it goes ‘stale’?  I might not write for two weeks, but I’ll keep in touch!

So, hmm, what’s a thought I’ve been having?  Oh yes!

Organizing is either something you’re born with or without, right?  Guess again! 

Conveniently, everyone can learn to be orderly!  Remember what I talked about in the first lesson?  We are all created in God’s image, and God wants us to be orderly, like Him, but when we sinned, we chose to express those traits we inherited from God differently.  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13)

I used to hoard things.  I would hoard anything that was proclaimed mine!  Until I was about six/seven/eight, I wasn’t organized.  When we had our house extended though, I was taught to make my bed, clean up after myself, you know, be tidy – and I’ve just become an orderly person after that, although, I’ll admit, I sometimes do find I have to tighten myself up a bit if I’ve become a little slack about putting stuff back where they belong.  My Mum was the same.  My Grandma taught my Mum to be orderly – and in our house, my Mum might find it harder to keep on top of paper because she works better with her paper in sight (meaning the paper needs to be on the desk), but her eye sees it that the system should be in the desk – but that system doesn’t work.  Honestly, we really have too much stuff and too little space.  Anyway, it’ll take training and disciplne, creativity and time – lots of time – but your stuff can have its place!  Keep working at it, until you find a system that works – you mightn’t be able to throw away stuff, so work on building a place for everything using a kind of order (i.e. alphabetical order, colour order).  The problem might be that the things you want are stored in inconvienent places, so maybe take a few days sometime and re-organize your room so that what you want is easy to get.  Paper lists might work for you, or maybe a handheld will work better with keeping lists – if you need them.  Experiment with your area.  Although you need to be considerate of others who may share that area, and keep within the borders of your home, make it something to do with your friends, or make it a game, or SOMETHING – whatever works!  Also, don't be afraid to ask for help!

Jessica

Taking a break...

Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at 06:02 PM

Lesson # 1 for Kid's Organizational Strategy! : Blitzing

Posted on Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 11:16 AM

Lesson # 1 for Kids’ Organizational Strategy! : Blitzing

Sorry I haven’t blogged for a while!  I am extremely sorry and give my deepest apologies and as a general will try to do better bla bla bla!

Now, after all of the formalities, lets get down to business! 
What you need is a form of strategy to keep you in order.  I propose a united attack and defence plan: Blitzing.  Blitzing is our family word for a ‘spot check’ or ‘quick clean’  - it sounds much more fun than ‘clean up’ doesn’t it? 

Attack and defence mechanism: Blitzing

Meaning: Quick Clean

Area of use: Anywhere

Deadline: Anytime, all the time (preferably before the grandparents come to visit!)

Privileged soldiers:  All who register must be trained in this area

Efficiency Rating: five-stars

How will this work?  The main plan is to be able to keep your area in order all the time by spending five-fifteen minutes on it. 

We ‘blitz’ by spending five-fifteen minutes cleaning up the ‘assigned’ area.  As for me, at 5:00 job time, it’s my responsibility to go through the house (with the exception of the kitchen, bedrooms, side rooms and office) and pick up the toys, papers, pens and the like, all of the ‘loose stuff’ and put it away.  In the morning, whoever is Mum’s helper for the week, also does a quick blitz in the living area.   All of us are responsible for our part of the room and our desks, which should stay clean for the whole day. 

One thing we are still learning is to blitz during the day.  To put our pencil back in the pencil case after math and to put the CD case away after we take the CD out of the CD player.  Something I struggle with is to ‘leave a room better than I found it’, even if it’s not my mess!  Although it’s tough, I know that when I blitz thoroughly, or leave a room better than when I found it, my day just falls into place easier!

It takes discipline, but if you can put everything away after we’re finished, and have a place for everything, and are thorough in our jobs, our side will have a much, much better chance of winning the battle!  The word blitz actually originated from the word “blitzkrieg”, which meant ‘lightning war’, a German term for attacking very quickly.  Your process to getting your areas organized may be slow, but blitzing needs to be lightning war!

Dismissed!

Jessica Lee

Introduction to Kid's Organization Stragety

Posted on Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 02:09 PM

Introduction to Kids’ Organization Strategy! 

Welcome to my blog!   This is the introduction to my series of (drum roll please): Kids Organization Strategy!   I love mess (in a way) – I have a ball when I can organize a cupboard, write up a list, or clean up a room!  This series I’ve written for kids’, girls in particular, who are around my age that wants a few lessons in organization – but I hope all will find this useful!  I’m trying to write this in a way that will be fun for you to read ~ funky and as if you were in the army!

You, yeah, you over there, looking into the computer, how’s your bedroom looking?  Not looking so flash?  Is it in need of a makeover?  You’ve come to the right blog!

Knowing you need to be organized and want to be organized is the first step.  You’re ready to acknowledge that you don’t have a very important skill – orderliness.

Good Character Trates:

When you are orderly, you show that you are being responsible to your things and being a good steward.  You are using your time wisely, and can be available to others because you know where everything is.  When in the process of being orderly, of actually doing it, you can be diligent and show initiative.  People can depend on you to do things, all because you are orderly.

OK, I’ll admit it – our house isn’t orderly (no embarrassment intended, Mum)!  Mum sometimes calls our house a battleground, or a training ground, when referring to me organizing our home!  It’s true; I may love to organize stuff, but our house is suffering from the invading allied enemy – disorder, mess and clutter!  Actually, we are studying orderliness at the moment, and we are conquering the mess, regaining our land!

God is a God of order, and He wants us to live orderly too – we are made in His image, right?  We have inherited God’s traits, but when man fell, we chose to display those traits differently.

“Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven”

Job 25:2.

Every week for the next however long it goes for, I’ll be posting articles about being orderly.  I’ll talk about organizing under your bed, in your cupboard, your paper work, craft supplies, good organization and cleaning tools, book resources, photos ((I don’t think I told you I enjoy taking before and after photos?) and other stuff along the way!  I’m going to try to also post about some other things like recipes and craft activities.  With God’s helping hand, I’ll get you organized yet! Have fun!

Jessica Lee

PS: Don’t forget to comment me if you’ve read this!  I would love your opinion and feel free to ask for advice!

PPS: I forgot to mention - when you see and the writings in blue, that is just an extra little addition (a text box     won't work) - you can read on without reading the blue and you'll still get the main idea.

Hi!

Posted on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 12:32 PM