Organize Your Time

Money Mondays: Are You Paying Your Money Enough Attention?

By Hazel Thornton | February 22, 2024 |

            Call it what you will — The Law of Circulation, Feng Shui, The Principle-of-Not-Getting-Your-Lights-Turned-Off-Because-You-Forgot-to-Pay-the-Bill — money ebbs and flows and takes on a life of its own. Managing money is like raising children who act up, demanding negative attention if they aren’t getting enough positive attention. Whether you think…

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Success Breeds Success: Finish Something!

By Hazel Thornton | June 19, 2023 |

A senior coworker once gave me a great piece of advice early in my corporate career. I was feeling overwhelmed and whiny about all the projects I had been assigned. I was paralyzed with indecision about what to work on next. What was his advice? Finish something.        

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80/20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule is Your Friend

By Hazel Thornton | June 21, 2021 |

One of my favorite concepts in life is The 80/20 Rule. What is it? The 80/20 Rule, a.k.a. the Pareto principle, stems from observations made by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1906, including the fact that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Or, generalizing to other situations, roughly…

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Are you wasting your “free time”?

By Hazel Thornton | May 1, 2020 |

Which type of person are you? Are you spending your quarantine time at home, reading books, watching Netflix, doing jigsaw puzzles, and enjoying the heck out of it? Or maybe you’re industriously cooking and gardening, retooling your business to provide virtual services, cleaning and organizing your entire house, catching up on home repairs, learning a…

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Organizing to De-Stress Your Holidays (all of them)

By Hazel Thornton | November 18, 2019 |

What are “holidays” and why are they so stressful? A holiday is any special occasion, all year round, which involves extra preparations; extra time, money and energy; and extra people, families in particular. Examples include birthdays, weddings, religious holidays, and secular holidays. Holiday stress comes from having unrealistic expectations of yourself and others. Sometimes it’s the…

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The 21 Day Habit Myth (Don’t Break the Chain!)

By Hazel Thornton | November 4, 2019 |

I hate to be a party pooper, but I just don’t believe it takes 21 days to create a habit. Or 30 days. Or however long people are saying. It’s true that you can’t simply do something for only 3 days, or 10, and expect it to “stick”. And the effort required to create a…

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The Procrastitivity Zone

By Hazel Thornton | September 19, 2019 |

Sometimes I think procrastination gets a bad rap. Most articles I’ve read (and written) focus on the negative consequences of delaying a task or project. They also talk about how we trick ourselves into feeling productive by accomplishing one thing while we’re delaying doing another. I call that procrastitivity. And I don’t think it’s always…

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Why you need a Project Box & a Master To-Do List

By Hazel Thornton | September 9, 2019 |

Do you have unfinished household projects lying around? I can tell what my clients’ projects are at a glance – there are light bulbs that need changing; clothing that needs repairing; pictures that need to be framed and hung; and gifts that need to be wrapped. They are sitting out on the counters, tables, and…

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WHY I Love Chores

By Hazel Thornton | May 7, 2018 |

WHY do I love chores? OK, I don’t. Not really. But hear me out…. I LOVE having someone else clean my house. But, for the most part, I prefer to clean it myself for various financial and Zen reasons. I’ve often thought of housework and exercise as the cheapest forms of therapy. Whenever I feel…

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Six Organizing Systems Everyone Needs — System #6: Getting Stuff Done

By Hazel Thornton | November 27, 2017 |

How well are your organizing systems working for you? In the introduction to this series I shared the following: What is a system? What 6 organizing systems do I think everyone needs? What 5 questions can you ask yourself to see if your systems are still working for you, or if they need tweaking? Now…

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