Don’t let a dirty car interior ruin another Saturday! Keep it clean, keep the kids happy, and get things done while you drive by creating a mobile office or “mommy station” in your vehicle.

Here’s a checklist of things you’ll need:

 Soft-sided nylon organizer, preferably with a handle or adjustable compartments. I like soft-sided because they squish into almost any space no matter what you drive. Most megamarts carry things you can use like:

Car organizers, Soft-sided sewing organizers, Soft-sided tackle box
Trunk, CD & Glove Box Organizers
Soft-sided trash containers & Catch-Alls

 Industrial strength Velcro (to keep everything in place)
 Hand sanitizer
 Trash or grocery bags
 All purpose wipes & glass wipes
 Febreeze
 Pens
 Lip Balm/Gloss
 Hand lotion
 Gum
 Travel tissues
 Notebook
 Mail station (accordian file with stamps, blank cards & envelopes, and a contact list)

For a mobile office, you can also fill your organizer with:
 Business cards
 Bank deposit slips
 Mileage notebook
 Office supplies like paperclips, binder clips, small stapler, business card holders, calculator
 Accordion file with client literature, vendor info, intake forms, bank forms, tax forms, place to collect receipts

For a “Mommy Station”, you can also fill your organizer with:
 Paper towels
 Diapers
 Burp cloth & pacifier
 One change of clothes for each child
 Things to keep kids occupied like coloring books, crayons, toys, DVDs
 Juice boxes, bottled water, granola bars & snacks
 First aid kit
 Behind the seat organizer or bin for kids toys
 School & Sports calendar

Once your Mobile, here are some tips for keeping the car clean:

• Keep a trash bag open at all times to prevent pitching trash to the floor. If you have a minivan or SUV, hang a trash bag in every row. Empty it when you’re pumping gas.
• Ask kids for help to clean up their toys and put them in the back-of-the-seat organizer or toy bin before they get out of the car.
• Wipe down your dash and windshield at long red lights to keep them dirt-free.
• Spray Febreeze before you head into the mall, grocery store, or Megamart. Chances are you’ll be there a while and it’ll give the upholstery a chance to dry before you get back into your fresh smelling vehicle.

If the thought of getting on the treadmill AGAIN makes you cringe, try these fun tips for staying motivated during your workouts. They keep your mind moving forward even when you’re walking in place.

• Find something interesting to listen to like podcasts, foreign language CDs or a book on tape. Audible.com has lots of good stuff to download to your iPod.
• Compile a 30 minute mix of dance or techno music that starts and ends with a song with slower beat for your warm up and cool down, and crank everthing in between with pumping beats that you can fall in step with and will keep you at your target heart rate.
• Time your workout with your favorite TV show so you know your mind will be occupied and entertained.
• Tune to a TV show that caters to short attention spans. The News or Hollywood gossip shows are great for this because there’s a new topic to distract you every 15 seconds.
• Mute a cheap TV show and play dance music instead. I like to do this with shows that I’d never understand anyway like Spanish soap operas (because I don’t speak Spanish), or TV shows like “Cops”, “Cheaters” or “The Steve Wilcos Show”. You’ll be amazed how you can still glean what’s going on and playing music will keep your pace up!
• Watch a movie. It can span one long workout or several smaller ones and give you something to look forward to.
• Watch a Musical or Workout show. Seeing other healthy bodies in motion will keep you focused and keep your body moving! Movies like “Chicago” and “Moulin Rouge” have great soundtracks and constant changes in scenery and anything on FitTV will make you strive for better glutes.

With a little set up and some patience to get caught up if your backlogged, keeping your emails organized and your inbox clean can be easy with these tips:

• Block off time for checking email. Checking emails as they come in can become compulsive and can chew up productive time, so block off 20-30 minutes at the beginning, middle, and end of each day to manage your emails.
• Create folders. Create folders based on topic or client so incoming emails have a place to be filed. Two main categories are “Administrative” (for personal items, corporate communications, vendors, and financial info) and “Clients” with subfolders by client name. Create additional subfolders if needed.
• Process immediately. During your blocked off email time, keep your inbox clean by processing an email as soon as you read it instead of letting it sit in your inbox to “do something about” later. Immediately:
  1. Delete unusable emails
  2. File informational emails
  3. Color code actionable emails
• Your inbox is your to-do list. Use your inbox like a to-do list and only keep open actionable items there. When an action is complete, file the email in the appropriate folder.
• Prioritize by color. Use flags or create rules to color code and prioritize incoming emails.
  1. Red for urgent or “must be done today”
  2. Green for “need to follow up”
  3. Black for normal priority action items
• Forward with “Task” in the subject. If an email subject doesn’t clearly identify or remind you what your action item is, forward the email to yourself and change the Subject like to TASK: (enter to-do item here) so you can quickly scan your inbox and not have to re-read an email to know why you saved it.
• Drag & Drop. If using Outlook, you can drag and drop an email onto a task list or calendar icon to quickly create a task list or meeting.
• Preview your emails. Use a preview pane or reading pane so emails are viewable without having to double-click on them.
• Hide unused icons. Shrink or hide any unused email functions so the icons don’t clutter up your screen.
• Sort by date. Sort emails by date so the newest incoming items are at the top and you can quickly see how many you need to process.

Remember, when you’re starting out and have a thousand emails in your inbox, be patient. It will take a little time at first to get caught up on existing emails while new ones are still coming in, but it will happen. And from then on, your inbox will stay clean and your task list will be manageable!

If the stacks of business cards you’ve collected are beginning to look like the mountain in Close Encounters, or your wallet rivals George Castanza’s, oh yes, it’s time to do something. But who’s got time to key in all that info to your contact database, or scan & categorize all those receipts? Wish you could just hand the stack to someone and for less than dinner out one night, it’s all taken care of? YOU’RE IN LUCK!

My favorite service for this is Shoeboxed.com and they’ll scan, automatically categorize & send back or recycle your receipts (depending on your tier). It works like Netflix where you get an envelope that you stuff full and mail back (postage is already taken care of) and they send you a new envelope for your next wad.

They recently added business card scanning to their list of services too!

After they scan, everything is downloadable to Quicken, Excel, PDF, or CSV so you can import to your contact database or financial system. The IRS now accepts scanned receipts for tax purposes, and if ever there’s a dispute, you can click on a full size picture of the original receipt.

They’ve also have a great reporting tool so you can see spending charts to get a handle on your budget.

So if you want to clear the stacks of cards and be able to sit without leaning because your wallet’s too fat, click here to learn more or sign up.

I want to know, what do you keep in your wallet? Is it fat or skinny? What are your essentials for leaving the house?

One of my tips for clients who are facing a task they don’t want to do is to use a timer. Pick a time, say 20 minutes, set the timer, and get to it! When the timer goes off, STOP! It helps break a daunting, boring, or overwhelming task into manageable pieces, makes people feel like they’ve accomplished something, and prevents burn out. This trick works on everything from cleaning to filing to folding laundry to yardwork.

Don’t have a timer? Don’t worry! TV commercials can act as great “timers” for getting things done quickly while limiting the time a task will take.

During a commercial, here are 10 things you can get done:

1. Dust the den or living room (TIP: Keep preloaded wipes in the room in a basket or drawer!)
2. Have a treasure hunt with your kids by having them pick up items that don’t belong in the room. Whoever puts the most stuff in the treasure chest (aka, an empty box in the closet) wins!
3. Do sit ups, push ups, or lunges
4. Cuddle with the kids or your spouse
5. Make a grocery list
6. Send a thank you note
7. Call a friend to touch base quickly
8. Clean out the fridge
9. Throw in some laundry
10. Fold or put away clothes

These quick hits will prevent having to schedule big clean ups because messes never get the chance to accumulate or become overwhelming, which is why most people procrastinate. Try it and let me know how it works for you!

Who’s got time for Time Management? We all do. Time management is really all about what I like to call the “in between” minutes — that is, the few extra moments you have while you’re waiting for something else to get done.

Here are my top 5 favorite tips to use your “in between” time to keep on top of housework:

1. While waiting for the coffee to brew, wipe down the kitchen countertops. (Estimated time: 1 1/2 minutes)
2. While breakfast is cooking, empty the dishwasher. When breakfast is done, load the dishes in your empty dishwasher so nothing stacks up in the sink. Run it before bedtime, and it’ll be ready to unload again in the morning. (Estimated time: 4 minutes)
3. While your shower water is heating up, use disinfecting wipes to clean the bathroom sink & toilet. (TIP: Keep wipes under every sink in your house so they’re ready when you are!) (Estimated time: 1 minute.)
4. Keep a magic eraser or sponge in your shower to wipe it down before you get out. There’s no more gross scum build up, and no need to schedule a time to clean! (Estimated time: 3 minutes.)
5. Next time you’re on the phone, sweep the kitchen floor. (Estimated time: 2 minutes.)

I find that people think small tasks take longer than they actually do, so next time you do a chore, try timing yourself and you’ll probably be surprised at how long it doesn’t take. And once you see how much gets done “in between,” you’ll have plenty of extra time to do something fun!