Get Organised Challenge: Week Three

The Get Organised Challenge: Week Three

organiser_100 If you feel like you never have enough time, especially for the activities and people you love, it's time to reorganise your daily tasks - expert Helen Foster shows you how to create an extra hour a day

Create time, cut out stress
Why is it that, despite all the conveniences of the modern world, we seem to have less time than ever before? As well as making your environment clearer and cleaner, the aim of this workshop is to free up more time for you to spend on the things you enjoy.

Stress has reached almost epidemic levels in Britain. At work and home, there seems to be an endless stream of little tasks which makes it nearly impossible for you to feel like you can relax, having done everything you need to. Stress is often just regarded as an inevitable by-product of today's hectic lifestyle. But do we really need to be this hectic?

A lot of time is wasted because of bad planning, procrastination, and other people?s unnecessary demands; leaving us with much less time for the important tasks or for essential relaxation. This week you're going to learn how to be firm with yourself and others.

An extra hour a day
Cleaning out your clutter will make an impact on the amount of time you have - clutter experts say a proper purge cuts cleaning time by around 40 per cent. By establishing the simple organisational systems from Week Two, you shouldn't be wasting as much time looking for things: you've already saved yourself roughly 22 minutes a day. Now we're going to take that further and teach you how to make time in your day in other ways.

Action plan: five steps to more time and a relaxed life

Creating more time in your day may sound hard, but in fact it's easy - all we're asking is that for the next seven days, you take the following five steps:

1. Every day, make a list of what needs doing and plan how: we get things done 20 per cent faster if we do this, but the key to success is to list only the three most vital things. This reduces stress and ensures you don't do all the easy things first and end up starting major tasks at 3.30 in the afternoon.

2. The exception to this is if you have something (relatively quick) you don't want to do: this should be done first each day. When you leave unpleasant tasks looming, you work more slowly to avoid them, creating your own time-sapper.

3. Touch things only once: staggeringly, the average person handles 300 pieces of paper a day and reads each five times before they actually tackle them. Make it a rule to act on letters, bills and invites the first time you touch them, using one of the three Ds: Deal with it, Dump it or Delegate it. Ninety per cent of things we handle each day will be tackled immediately, the other 10 per cent should be tackled as soon as possible.

4. Use dead time: write letters on the train; make phone calls as you walk (only if you feel safe); pay bills as the kettle boils. Using these sneaky seconds we all have each day frees up time - particularly in the evening, which can get eaten up by mundane tasks.

5. Learn to say no, Most of the things that use up our time aren't things we planned to do, but added extras from friends, family and colleagues. Ask yourself how vital is it that you do this for this other person. If the answer is, not very, then say no (nicely - suggesting an alternative solution usually works here).

These tips alone should save you at least an hour a day. And while they may sound office-orientated, they work just as well if you apply them to your weekends or if you work from home or are a full-time mum.

Are you an expert procrastinator? Share your time-wasting secrets and get help managing your time from other iVillagers on the Get Organised message board: