Buttoned Up » Everyday Life

Get happier: commit 5 acts of random organizational kindness

Sarah — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:33:58 +0000

As the dark, somewhat dreary days of winter drag on, it’s easy to fall into a funk. Get up, slog through the daily grind, eat, sleep, repeat. Fortunately that funk is both easy to avoid and, should you have already fallen prey to it, easy to shake. How? The answer is simple: help someone else cross something off of their list, just because.

Evidence from scientists in fields as varied as neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral economics is mounting: altruistic acts are not only a fundamental fabric of our human communities, but they are also a surefire route to happiness and health. For example, Emory University neuroscientists James Rilling and Gregory Berns found that the act of helping another person triggers the same parts of your brain as self-gratification; so, when you help someone else, you get the same “reward,” neurologically speaking, as if you had done something to fulfill your own desires. Researcher Stephen Post says helping a neighbor, volunteering, or donating goods and services results in a “helper’s high,” and you get more health benefits than you would from exercise or quitting smoking. And researchers at Happiness360.org have found that committing random acts of kindness is strongly correlated with higher levels of happiness.

Because time is one thing most people wished they had more of, one of the kindest acts you could do for another is to help cross something off of an already overstuffed to-do list. We’ve adapted these from our February #GetButtonedUp Challenge (if you haven’t joined in – it’s not too late – just click on the Challenge link, comment to join and start checking in on Facebook).

In addition to the aforementioned health and happiness benefits, we’ll bet you’ll gain another benefit too: motivation to tackle some of your own organizational to-do’s. We humans have a tendency to perceive them as much harder and more time-intensive than they actually are. By volunteering to tackle an organizational task for another you’ll be reminded of how much easier it was to deal with than you had made it out to be in your head.

1. Organize Someone Else’s Closet.

There are few organizational tasks as visually transformative as cleaning out a closet. In a relatively short period of time, you can take one from total disaster to pretty neat, and the benefits can be enjoyed every day for weeks on end. So, if you’re married, clean out your spouse’s closet. If you’re not, treat your best friend, a parent, or a sibling. Have fun with it; try to incorporate the element of surprise if you can. For quick tips on how to make a dent in short order, watch this video.

2. Reach Out and Babysit for a Stressed Mom Friend or Relative.

Motherhood is hard, hard work. Moms need, but don’t often get, enough time to decompress and relax – especially moms with young children. Schedule time to babysit for a mom you know that could use a little “me” time. While you’re babysitting, do a load of laundry for her and you’ll give (and get) an added dose of happiness.

3. Detoxify a Friend’s Car.

Most people we know have cars that could use a little TLC. When life is hectic, picking up that water bottle rolling around on the floor of the back seat often falls to the bottom of the priority list. Give a colleague or friend a certificate to a local car wash just because. Or surprise your spouse, sibling, or parent by giving their car a deep clean by yourself.

4. Run an Errand for Someone Harried.

Time: nobody has enough of it. Lend a hand in a way that gives somebody more of this precious commodity. Take an errand off of their hands: whether it’s something small, like picking up dry cleaning or making a phone call for them – or something bigger, like doing a grocery run, you will absolutely make their day…and yours too.

5. Help Someone Map Out a Plan to Achieve a Goal.

We all typically start off the year with good intentions, but by now at least two-thirds have ditched their resolutions. Be the planning guru for a friend or family member. Grab a few of these free printable goal sheets and help them break their big goal down into smaller steps, schedule them, and plan ahead for ways to get back on track if they get distracted or fall off course.

9 immutable laws of time management

Sarah — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:55:41 +0000

1. In anything, 20% of tasks are critical, 80% are trivial.

Of all the things most people do, most really aren’t that important. Sure, being busy may feel like progress, but it’s important not to confuse activity with progress. Time management masters take the time to identify which tasks on their list are truly critical and focus their attention there. The benefit: they get a lot farther, faster. Of course, to know what tasks are important, you have to be clear on your goals. Buttoned Up has two free goal list printables for getting clarity on that front. Organize multiple goals within a big picture with this printable and use this printable to reach individual goals.

2. Delegating is the only way to get more done in less time.

By enabling others to take on some of the work load, you’ll not only have more time to focus on what really matters (see law #1), but you’ll also give them the opportunity to stretch their full potential as well. Learn more about the art of delegation (LINK: http://getbuttonedup.com/2009/02/11/the-art-of-delegation/).

3. Inertia is a powerful force.

Starting something is the most difficult part of any project, particularly big ones. Your brain may come up with lots of excuses as to why something is too difficult to tackle now, #1 being: I don’t have enough time to get to that right now. Fortunately overcoming project or task inertia is easy. First, break the bigger task into smaller parts. Then, simply grab an egg timer and set it for 10 minutes. Go! It doesn’t matter how much you get done in those ten minutes, but you will have started – and once momentum is on your side, it is much more likely to stay there.

4. Work will fill up whatever time you have allotted for it.

This statement is otherwise known as Parkinson’s Law. Working with simple and clear deadlines forces you to focus your attention on getting the essentials of the task done. When you give yourself too much time to do something, you tend to make a mountain out of a molehill (and suffer all the anxiety that goes along with having a big, looming task hanging over your head). If you are struggling with this concept, ask yourself the question, “If I had to complete my most pressing project in half the time, how would I do it?”

5. Multi-tasking impairs intelligence (& tanks your efficiency).

Researchers at the University of Michigan have shown that multitaskers actually take longer to finish tasks than those who did each task sequentially. That’s because our brains work sequentially. Instead of doing two tasks at once, the brain actually toggles between whatever tasks are under way. Other studies at top-tier institutions like UCLA have shown switching between tasks impairs our ability to learn and even impairs our IQ more than smoking marijuana. Bottom line: multi-tasking is a giant waste of time.

6. Nothing goes according to plan.

Arnold Bennett said it best, “A first-rate organizer is never in a hurry. She is never late. She always keeps up her sleeve a margin for the unexpected.” The unexpected WILL happen. Kids get sick. Websites crash. Skilled time managers know this and build time into every day for dealing with unexpected, unforeseeable issues.

7. What you write down – and schedule – gets done.

Parkinson’s Law (#4) has a corollary: if you haven’t allotted any time to complete something you can bet that your empty time slot will be filled with crap or whatever seems most urgent. Have a basic plan for your day, and actually go so far as to schedule critical tasks so that they get crossed off your list.

8. Every person has a “prime time.”

Some people have much more energy first thing in the morning. Others find their levels of energy and ability to concentrate peak in the mid-afternoon. Understand your personal rhythms and schedule tasks that require the most effort and energy during that optimal “prime time” window.

9. Batteries run out.

Human beings need to take time to recharge. A relentless schedule that does not allow for a break from the stress impacts everything from our cardiovascular health to our weight, our ability to learn, our mood, our creativity levels and even our immune systems. Build in time each day, each week, each month, and each year to take care of yourself and renew your energy. Skipping things like exercise may seem like a more efficient thing to do, but it really makes you less efficient.

Are you a skilled time manager or do you struggle with it? What (if any) “law” do you break most often?

January #GetButtonedUp Challenge Winners!

Sarah — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:52:35 +0000

As I typed the words “Day 31 check in” yesterday on Facebook I couldn’t quite believe how fast this month, and the challenge, has sped by. It has been such fun to go through a daily detoxification step each day with all of you. I’ve been inspired by your ideas and your determination to complete an organizational task each day.

Better still, I feel like I’ve grown rich in added friendships.

I almost can’t believe I have to pick winners! If I had a million dollars, I’d give each and every one of you a grand prize for crossing the finish line! But alas…I have to keep playing the lottery a bit more to make that dream a reality!

So, without further ado…I used random.org to pick the following winners:

Grand Prize Winner

The grand prize is a fabulous Hoover Max Extract 60 Pressure Pro carpet cleaner. Hoover kindly sent me one last year to test and I now swear by it (I use it once a quarter on the most trafficked carpets in the house). My oldest son ground some pink slime he got at a birthday party into our brand new playroom carpet last summer – and even after it had dried, it was no match for the Hoover. So this is one machine I put my recommendation behind 1000%.

And the winner is: Heidi Foss

Well done!

Two Runner Up Prizes

We are awarding two runner up prizes – Hoover Presto 2-in-1 Cordless Stick Vacuums.

I personally have one of these that I keep out in the kitchen (hidden behind our high chair). My kids actually fight over who gets to “help” mommy vacuum. The stick vacuum is super light and yet powerful enough to get pretty much every bit of food my kids manage to throw on the floor. And the had vac is just always nice to have around for quick little jobs.

The first runner up winner is: Christy Olsen
The second runner up winner is: Cathy Gray

Congratulations!

Week 4 Winner

The winner of the $20 Walmart Gift Card is: Filomena Alves! Huzzah!

Well done to all who participated in the challenge. Whether you did the whole thing – or even just a few days – hopefully it helped you feel less daunted by organizational work and generally more buttoned up. We’d love to here what you thought of the challenge, so be sure to let us know in the comments below. And if you haven’t signed up for the February challenge yet – what are you waiting for?

How to battle with a picky eater and win (UPDATED WITH WINNER)

Sarah — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:30:35 +0000

The winner of the Speedy Sneaky Chef is: Bryanna Smith

Congratulations Byranna! Please email sarah @ getbuttonedup dot com with your details.

This contest is now closed.

REVIEW & GIVEAWAY

As I lamented in my BabyCenter post this week, motherhood is humbling. Just when you think you have it all figured out, you get knocked on your smug tush.

My latest knockdown came at the dinner (and breakfast and lunch) table. My youngest has suddenly taken an offense to vegetables of all kind. I’ve tried cutting them up into microscopic pieces and hiding those in spoonfuls of rice. But the second his precious little tongue feels even one little bit of healthy veg – he shrieks, “too much!” and spits out whatever he has in his mouth.

It was kind of funny the first time he did it. I think we laughed.

We should have kept it in. This kid has a thing for making people laugh. And the problem is, once he got a laugh, it stuck – even as our initial guffaw turned to tears. I’ve tried bribery, dips, making animal and face shapes, everything I could think of to make the veggies palatable – all to no avail.

I swore I would never puree veggies and hide them in their food. But Lachlan had other plans for me.

Last week I finally admitted that to get him to eat anything I was going to have to get my sneak on.

The Universe must agree because guess what book just hit the shelves: The Speedy Sneaky Chef.

The New York Times bestselling author’s new book offers over 85 new, faster, healthy recipes, with added fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, that are lower-calorie, higher in nutrients, and can be whipped up in just minutes. There are dozens of quick fixes for store-bought foods using innovative short cuts for tried and true Sneaky Chef purees.

I tested one of the recipes for protein-packed pancakes this weekend and my little guy inhaled them. So, so far so good. The process wasn’t nearly as daunting as I had made it out to be in my head. I’m looking forward to putting them all to the test, including making a cauliflower and zucchini puree to put into spaghetti sauce.

Mwahahahahahahaha.

The great thing about motherhood is that eventually, even if it takes a few months, you always get back up off your tush. A little bruised perhaps, but always wiser.

giveaway Details

The Sneaky Chef is offering a signed copy of her latest book The Speedy Sneaky Chef and an apron to one lucky reader!

To win, simply leave a comment on this post.

This giveaway will end Friday, February 3rd. We’ll announce the winner soon after. Hope you win!

Join in the February #GetButtonedUp Challenge!

Sarah — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:50:10 +0000

It’s time to get your love buttoned up!

February is all about the heart. Not only does Valentine’s Day fall smack, dab in the middle of the month, but it’s also “American Heart Month” and therefore time to take care of that all important organ. With this theme in mind, we’ve put together another great monthly challenge for you!

By the end of this challenge, you will:

Actually have enjoyed Valentine’s Day because you were prepared for it!

Be ready to remember every important day (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) in the lives of your loved ones in 2012.

Have taken concrete steps to care for your health.

Actually have figured out how to carve out (and enjoy) some me time.

And much, much more!

How the February #GetButtonedUp Challenge Will Work

Each day during the month of February we have a specific organizational task for you to complete. Download the 29 day calendar by clicking on the link below.

Get Buttoned Up Challenge – February

When you complete the task, let the buttoned up team know your status by commenting on the Facebook check-in post for that day and either email or Tweet the picture of your completed task. We will enter anyone who has completed all 29 days of the challenge successfully into a grand prize drawing. All winners will be selected using random.org.

Participating in the #GetButtonedUp Challenge is as easy as 1-2-3:

Let us know you’re in by commenting on this post below AND by heading over to Facebook to comment under the post about being a part of the February Challenge.

Letting us know you completed your daily task by commenting on the Facebook GetButtonedUp Challenge Check-In post each day

Sending a picture of your completed task to Sarah – via email sarah @ getbuttonedup dot com OR via TwitPic to @SarahButtonedUp & using the #getbuttonedup hashtag.

Grand Prize

Grand Prize: $100 donation to the charity of your choice in your name
2 Runner Up Prizes: $50 donation to the charity of your choice in your name

Join In By Commenting Below!

NOTE: All are welcome to join in the challenge.

15 cures for your toy hangover

Sarah — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:16:38 +0000

As I settled back into my routines this week, I had a fleeting thought: did the holidays even happen this year?

One glance at the playroom confirms it most certainly did. And good GAWD, this momma needs to learn restraint! The onslaught of toys has completely overwhelmed our rather simple organization system consisting of two bins. Time to upgrade.

I went looking and found 15 organizational tools and hacks that would help any overwhelmed parent deal with their toy tsunami & thought I’d share.

What about you, Did you go a little overboard on the Holiday gifts without having done a little toy purging in advance? What’s your favorite trick for corralling the toys?

{Feature Photo Credit}

Strategies for organizing spices

Sarah — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:06:01 +0000

Day 13 of our 31-day January GetButtonedUp Challenge was all about organizing spices. The problem most have with spices is that they lack an organizational structure for them, resulting (inevitably) in a big, hot jumbled mess.

A cluttered and disorganized spice shelf/drawer/bin wastes precious moments, which makes the entire meal prep process more stressful than it needs to be. It also is probably costing you money too; if you can’t find the spice you’re looking for, you’re more likely to buy duplicates. In fact one challenge participant admitted to having 3 bottles of cinnamon she didn’t even know about…

So what are the secrets to whipping a spice cabinet, or drawer, or basket, or…whatever into shape? There are really only two pieces to this puzzle: containment and arrangement.

Part I: Containment

Some people organize their spices in drawers, others in pantries, still others on cabinet shelves – or even along the back of a stove. No matter where you put them, you need a way to keep them from spreading out in a jumbled sprawl. Fortunately, there are a lot of ingenious ways to do just that.

An expandable spice drawer insert

I personally use one of these expandable spice drawer inserts in my kitchen and I love it. At $17.99 from Amazon.com, it is one of the best $20 I have ever spent.

A revolving spice rack
Whether you go with a specially made revolving spice rack, like this one from Pfaltzgraff, or a simple lazy susan, like Michelle does in the picture below, both make containing AND finding the spices you’re looking for much easier.

Plastic bins
Challenge participant, Elli, uses a simple plastic bin to great effect in her pantry. This is a wonderful option if you want to keep your spice jars from taking over precious pantry shelf real estate unnecessarily.

Other great options include wall-mounted spice racks, magnetic spice bins that you can keep on a fridge or even on a metal tray, or built in spice drawers (Sheila, yours made us jealous!).

Great ideas for organizing loose spices

Two of our challenge participants, interestingly both living outside the USofA, had loose spices to organize. Buying in bulk is a wonderful way to save significant amounts on spices – but it also poses an interesting organizational challenge.

Filomena cleverly recycled old fruit juice bottles as spice jars, which is a wonderfully inexpensive way to achieve a uniform look.

Joy also used recycled jars, although on a larger scale – think Folgers vs. apple juice. While not all the bottles she used were the same, they do have a useful degree of uniformity based on their relatively large size.

Other free upcycle/recycle ideas for containers include: mason jars, old jam jars, and baby food jars. Just be sure to go with jars that have a wide enough opening to fit in a tablespoon.

Another, albeit more expensive, option for containing loose and bulk spices that ensures uniformity is to purchase a set of jars.

The Quattro Stagioni Spice Jars available at The Container Store for about $2 each have a wonderful shape and mouths wide enough for a tablespoon.

Take your organizing one step further by creating labels for each one. Cut out a little round sticker for the top or a rectangular one for the front and write what’s inside with a sharpie. If you want each label to have the same shape, use a label template like this one we created. Print out on a sticker sheet and cut around the outlines.

Part II: Arranging them intelligently

To alphabetize or not to alphabetize, that is the question.

Fundamentally, it comes down to you and how your brain likes to categorize and organize. Personally, I’m a fan of organizing by type of cuisine. So I arrange the Indian curry spices together, the sweet baking spices together, and so on. But the bottom line is: whatever is more intuitive to you is what will work best. The one thing you can’t do is skip this step. Trust me, it’s the fastest route to spice perdition.

Cathy, a challenge participant keeps weekly spices on the lower shelf, large jars on the next shelf up and the ones she only uses occasionally up toward the top. Looks pretty darn organized, doesn’t it.

{feature photo via: Dav.I.Son – amazing tutorial on how to transform baby food jars into magnetic spic holders}

Tell us about your spices? Are they organized or a mess? If they’re buttoned up, what’s your system? If not – how much time (and money) do you think you waste because of it? Challenge participants – how long on average did you spend organizing your spices? Has it been worth the energy?

4 Ways to break productivity-torpedoing digital habits

Sarah — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:08:04 +0000

A few years ago, Disney Pixar released the movie Up. It’s a sweet little film about a rather crotchety old widower and a young scout who accidentally end up on an adventure together. Not long after they touch down in a far-off land they are greeted by a dog named Dug. He’s a loveable golden retriever who bounds affectionately into their arms and then shocks them both when he speaks English via a special collar translator worn around his neck. The only trouble is, he often interrupts what he’s saying mid-sentence, shouts “squirrel,” and points for a second or two.

In a lot of ways, we humans are a lot like cute, furry Dug. Only our “squirrels” are the bings and buzzes emanating from our digital devices. One minute we’re working productively on something, but the second our phone vibrates, we will drop everything and turn to it…squirrel!

These constant interruptions literally torpedo our productivity. It is estimated the average person wastes 2 hours/day on email, 40 minutes/day on Facebook, 12 minutes/day on Twitter, 10 minutes/day on LinkedIn – and an additional 96 minutes/day switching back and forth between tasks. That means all of our squirrel chasing is costing each of us about 22.5 hours in lost productivity a week. That’s a staggering amount!

Why are we “addicted” to our phones, email, and other e-communications?

There are two big reasons why we feel compelled to incessantly check our phones, emails, facebook pages, twitter accounts, and the like.

The first is because there is a powerful conditioning loop at work. Our digital devices often “reward” us with feelings of belonging and significance when we respond to them; that email from mom, the high-five from a boss, they make us feel good. These two emotions are paramount to humans. If we were rats, they would be our cheese. When a stimuli, like an email ping, is paired with a powerful reward and then delivered at unpredictable intervals, just as happens with our digital devices, we will literally become addicted to the behavior associated with getting the powerful reward. In this case that means we literally can’t resist the urge to check email or grab our phones when they beep at us.

The second reason we’re addicted is because of a little human trait social scientists call reciprocity, or the compulsion to respond in kind to others. It is a trait that enables individuals to make contributions to the larger social group without worrying they are losing out. We are all taught from a very young age to return favors, lest we be shunned as an ingrate. Guess what, it applies to communications too. One social scientist, Professor Robert Cialdini, actually conducted an experiment a few decades ago in which he sent holiday greeting cards to a few hundred people he chose at random from the AZ white pages. Low and behold, he was soon inundated with holiday cards from them, even though they had no idea who he was. You see, our compulsion to respond is hard-wired.

4 strategies for overcoming your compulsion

Although the pull to drop everything and respond is strong, we are not at the mercy of our digital devices. Here are four, relatively simple strategies for resisting their siren call.

1. Reduce the intrusiveness of the stimuli.

Since the stimuli trigger a conditioning loop most of us are unable to resist, one of the most effective things you can do is reduce the intrusiveness of the stimuli when you need to focus on something. That means, turning off all alerts, buzzes, dings, pop-ups that could distract you from your work at hand. If you have a Mac, you can also “hide” your dock while you are working on something, so you won’t see any visual indicators that you have mail. We recommend turning them off for good because you don’t ever really need to be at their mercy.

2. Remove the reward dispensers from your environment (temporarily).

There are programs, like Freedom, and Concentrate that enable you to lock yourself out of “rewarding” programs like email social media sites when you need to really focus on a task. The programs are $10 and $29 respectively, but worth their weight in gold. Using them elevates you from rat in a cage being conditioned by external forces to that of the scientist who is actually doing the conditioning.

3. Reward yourself for good behavior.

Use the powerful emotional rewards of significance and belonging to strengthen new, more productive behavior. For example, if you currently respond to every email, text, etc. the second it comes in, try rewarding yourself with a peek at those emails after you finish a task successfully.

4. Send fewer emails/texts and make what you do send brief and to the point.

Did you know that you can use the power of reciprocity to actually curtail the amount of email you receive? Consider this, Kim Davis, a woman we interviewed for our book Pretty Neat, tried a little experiment. She added a signature line to all of her emails that simply said, “Please keep our email boxes uncluttered, only reply all if it is critical everyone receives your reply.” She immediately noticed a drop in reply all clutter in her inbox. She also noticed others in her department, and then in other departments, adopting her signature line as well. In that spirit, if you send fewer emails, you will receive fewer emails. And if you make a point of sending brief, concise emails, you are more likely to get that same kind of missive in return. Make reciprocity work for you, not against you.

Do you have these four areas buttoned up? If not, which of these areas do you struggle with? Have you ever tried a program like Concentrate or Freedom?

Day 3: What does a mail/key drop look like?

Sarah — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:05:42 +0000

The answer is: it doesn’t matter as long as it is functional!

Nonetheless, here are some very simple and chic options from some of the people who have checked in so far today.

I love, love Jen’s milk glass display that doubles as a key drop.

Eileen scored a winner on Craigslist with this Pottery Barn classic. Loving the lack of junk mail too!

These “domestic pirates” sure know how to put a mail station & key drop together. That dish is beautiful – looks like a cross between a shell and a sculpture.

One basket for collecting mail, another for dumping keys. What’s not to love about Dana’s setup?
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Cathy gets a gold star for adding an emergency planning twist to her key drop. Can you spot the emergency gas shut off key?

Why not use a pretty tumbler as a key drop? Looks good from here!

Bonnie’s wine cork board is neat, isn’t it? I want one…

I love how Tiffany’s mail drop is literally the first thing you hit on your way in from the garage! Without a mail sorter there, I’ll bet it ends up all over that side area next to the steps.

Finally, Filomena keeps things very simple & chic. I wonder if the smaller mail basket is actually better because it forces you to deal with the clutter before it becomes an overwhelming pile… Is the junk mail as much a problem in Portugal as it is in the USA?

Reader question: organizing incoming payments

Sarah — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:58:39 +0000

Last night we got an interesting question from Shirley on Facebook:

Does anyone have any interesting and crafty ideas for me collecting “board” [rent] from my kids and marking it off weekly…I thought of an envelope with a calendar on it to mark off…but thats as far as I got.

I trolled Pinterest a bit for ideas, and thought these options looked pretty interesting.

You could create a custom clipboard using Wallies chalkboard stickers to record incoming payments. You could affix hooks at the bottom of the board and hang envelopes off of the bottom – one for each child. If you want, you could have a clipboard for each child and then arrange them in a pretty way on the wall.

Another Facebook reader suggested looking at Advent calendars, which I did. When I saw this clothespin-based one, I thought it could also be a neat way to collect the rent. All you would need is one pin for each week of the month. You would probably also want to have a chart or checklist above the pinboard to note payments due and received.

Here’s a pinboard with a string stapled on for clothespins

And another with binder clips on strings.

What do you think? Do you have any good ideas for Shirley?