Get Organized!

Get It Done!
Karen Sencich
December 7, 2006
The following article appeared in the 2007 Winter edition of “Women with Vision” magazine. Often the clients in my organizing practice suffer less from lack of space than from lack of time or lack of motivation to store things away into the space that they have available. From time to time we are all guilty of procrastination or postponing decisions. Left unattended, decisions, paper and piles of stuff simply clutter up our lives.

Therefore, I am proposing that Canada creates a semi-annual Get it Done Day. I am recommending that we assign all of those tasks that we’ve been meaning to do and “get it done” on the day that daylight savings time starts and repeat our To Do list again in the fall when the clocks switch back. Remember that daylight savings time starts earlier this year. It’s been moved forward from April to Sunday, March 11, 2007 and I couldn’t be happier. It gives us all a chance to get something done before the end of the first quarter of 2007 and if you have children, you’ll have them home for March Break so delegate some of the household workload.

Get it Done ActivitiesHere are some health and safety related items to put on your “get it done” list.

 Switch to Daylight Savings Time – set clocks ahead one hour on March 11, 2007.

 Change the batteries in your smoke alarm, carbon dioxide alarm and all flashlights.

 Prepare and practice a family emergency plan including fire escape routines.

 Review your emergency supplies and replenish or replace water and food supplies.

 Label your circuit breaker panel or fuse box and in older homes, tighten the fuses to ensure that they are working.

 Makeover your medicine chest. Discard expired medications and dispose of them at your local pharmacy.

 Create a medication checklist of prescriptions and over the counter items you regularly use so it’s easy to stock up next time.

 Assemble a comprehensive first aid kit and store it where it can be easily accessed, almost anywhere except the bathroom.

 Make an appointment for everyone’s semi annual dental checkup.

 Make an appointment for annual physicals for each family member.

 Put your car in for a tune up and regular maintenance.

 Flip the mattresses in each bedroom.

We live in a society starved for what I call “completion energy”. Many of the outstanding tasks in our lives such as preparing our tax return are either overwhelming, boring or time consuming. That is why it is important to knock off some of these important items from our “to do” list before there is an urgent need.