Need helping staying organized? Here are a few tips on how you can make that perfect ‘to-do list’ while you’re on the go!

wOw’s Question: How do I make a to-do list?
Julie’s Answer: One of the most common mistakes people make when creating their to-do list is generating an endless inventory of everything in their heads – which is not particularly practical for getting things done. The secret sauce is creating what I call an “intelligent” to-do list, which goes way beyond just asking “what” we need to do; it addresses how long each item will take, and when we are going to do it — so that we can make realistic plans for each day.

The W.A.D.E. formula is a practical plan for sorting through your to-dos, making wise decisions and feeling the unbeatable sense of accomplishment that comes with checking things off your list.

Try applying my W.A.D.E. formula to properly manage your to-dos.

W — WRITE IT DOWN. Record every meeting, appointment, to-do, call and project in one place – whether using an iPhone, Google applications, the Julie Morgenstern Balanced Life Planner, Outlook Task List or just a simple notepad. Once you get into the habit of consistently writing everything down in a single location, you’ll stop worrying that you’re forgetting something and will be able to actually concentrate on getting things done.

A — ADD IT UP. Next to each item, write a time estimate of how long each task will take. Knowing how long things take is the No. 1 gateway skill to good time management. It takes the emotion out of our choices, and focuses on the math. To become better at time estimating – choose a few things you tend to procrastinate on, and time yourself doing them three times each. You’ll be shocked at how much you were underestimating OR, in many cases, overestimating. Years ago, I timed myself doing the dishes (which I used to procrastinate on for three hours) and discovered it only took seven minutes to do them! Upon adding up the tasks on your to-do list, you can determine if there is enough room in your day for all that needs to be done? If you only have four open hours, but have scheduled six hours’ worth of tasks, you need to make a few adjustments.

Christine Hohlbaum interviews ‘Multitasking’ Master Kathleen Matthews

D — DECIDE. Once you are looking at the real math, you’ll discover what you’ve feared all along: That you indeed have way more tasks than time. Have no fear, there’s a bailout strategy – it’s what I call the Four Ds. Take out your virtual hatchet and decide what you can Delete (don’t do at all), Delay (schedule for a more appropriate time), Diminish (design a shortcut that gets it done quicker) or Delegate (give it to someone else to do) to create a more doable plan. For those items that you will actually Do — decide when you will do them. A to-do not connected to a “when” rarely gets done. Therefore, for each to-do that made the cut, determine the specific day you will actually make the call, do the project or run the errand, and post it directly into your calendar for that day.

E — EXECUTE YOUR  PLAN. Of course, there’s no point in making a plan if you aren’t going to implement it. This means referring to your planner frequently and completing the tasks you set forth on the days you decided to do them. The secret, underrated technique for increasing your chances of implementing your plan is to review your list the night before, not the morning of. Too many people wait until the morning to review, or create their to-do list for the day. That’s way too late; the pressure of the day, and all its little interruptions are already crashing down upon you, and you have no time to be objective. Instead, conclude every day by planning tomorrow-plus-two (tomorrow plus two days beyond that). Having a three-day arc gives you context for each activity on your schedule, frees you from worry about what you might be forgetting and prevents you from getting caught up in unimportant urgencies.

10 Ways to Gain an Hour in Each Day

This formula will help you plan your to-do list intelligently and realistically so you feel excited, rather than overwhelmed. It will help you stay on track all day long, so you get the right things done and feel satisfied when you go to sleep at night.

What about you, reader? Do your tasks seem easier once you have them written down in one place? How are your time-estimating skills? What to-do system have you chosen for yourself: paper, electronic, sticky notes, notecards or the back of your hand? Share your systems, solutions and philosophies with your fellow wowOwow’ers or ask Julie your own ‘How do I?’

Source

Summertime and water play go hand and hand during the Summer months. Have a fun and safe summer with your children with these Water Play Safety Tips.

1. Keep Your Eyes Locked in at ALL TIMES. Stay focused on your precious little ones and save the good book for your personal beach or pool time. Don’t depend on anyone else to watch your children in the water no matter who the are. If you or one of your children need to take a bathroom break. Signal for everyone to get out of the pool.

2. Bright Colored Swimsuit- dress all your children in the same color bright color. Always remember the color of the swim suit to alert authorities in case they become lost, plus they will be easy to spot while you are watching them.

3. Life Jackets a Must for little ones especially while on a boat. Express this to your children so they will know the importance of wearing a life jacket. To send a strong message put one on yourself to reinforce the family rule.

4. Look for the GREEN flag at the beach. It is usually located by the lifeguard deck. The green flag let’s you know it is safe to swim.

5. Observe if there is a lifeguard on duty. Search locations that have one or more lifeguards. In case of an emergency, you have a trained professional on hand and necessary backup to easy your situation.

5. Always use a sun block on children. Protect and prevent sunburned skin. And don’t forget to reapply sunblock between water breaks.

6. Keep water on hand. Store bottles of water in a cooler to keep cold for your family to remain hydrated. The sun can be draining when directly exposed for a period of time.

7. Every 30 minutes or so, call everyone out the pool for a break. At this time you can access  your child as to whether or not they have had too much sun and are lethargic, need a snack or something to drink, taken in too much water, or just need to relax.

You are walking in your front door and your blackberry is buzzing, your children are hungry, your partner needs to chat and what do you do? Run to the computer to finish up one more thing at work. Learn how to leave work and work and create a balanced life. Work will be there tomorrow. You, INC…needs attention!

Change your route home On bad or overly stressful days at work, take a different route, preferably longer, way home. Turn the radio off and think about what you have to accomplish at work and how you will go about it. Once you feel comfortable with your gameplan, turn on your favorite tunes and think about things not related to work for the rest of the ride home.

Vent it out Lose your top, blow your lid, whatever term you like to use, just give warning to the members of the house that you would like the time to do that with them. Tell them you only need them to listen, they probably wont know who or what you are talking about anyway, and then stop! No more work talk after 15 minutes.

Big boss at home Being the boss at work does not mean that you get to make demands at home. Your family is not paid to listen to commands. Imagine your little 9 year old making a spreadsheet detailing their allowance expenditures — frightening. Treat the ones you love better even than those who report to you.

Power off There will inevitably be occasions that work needs to be completed at home. Ensure that your project is actually important enough for this to happen. Otherwise, keep the electronics (blackberries, laptops, etc) off when you are at home. Regarding email; sure you may be tempted to check, but reserve this “special” time with your inbox for the office, otherwise you may end up completing tasks at home.

Ask When you get home, ask your spouse how their day was. The key here is to actually listen to their response. Ask your children about their day, and then summarize yours by ending on a positive note.

Get up earlier Rise and shine, go-getter! While it may be difficult to fall into this routine at first, getting up earlier and starting to accomplish some small tasks can lead to more free time for the family later.

Be realistic There are very few women that can pull off the dual role of supermom and superworker, so factor in the core requirements of your job and make necessary adjustments. You may consider approaching your boss about a flexible schedule if you feel strongly that this will help your work performance.

Gang up A support system is a key to surviving the switch between work and home. Start using your family and then extend to friends and trustworthy colleagues. Eventually you will come to know who to rely on for what situation.

Delegate Delegation is simple and effective. Trust your employees or family members to execute tasks and live up to responsibilities so that you can be spared doing those items. This will allow you more free time to concentrate on the core of your own responsibilities.

Since there are very few places that sound a horn at quitting time any longer, it’s up to each individual to be able to sound the virtual horn in their head and get ready to “punch out” and head home.

Source: Sheknows.com Suzi Milovanovic is a busy wife and working mother of two who, in addition to her writing contributions to SheKnows and Real Moms Guide, publishes 2 local parenting websites for Phoenix families, EastValleyParent.com and WestValleyParent.com. You can keep up with Suzi on Twitter as @SuziSays.

Feeling stress about juggling work and the kids? As moms we are nurtures and we want everyone to be happy. At times it can be tough when we try to satisfy family, co-workers, and clients. It’s an unending cycle for working moms to master most of the time on our own. Get helpful tips now from our friends at sheknows.com and start balancing your life.

SHARE THE LOAD
More often these days, dads are stepping in to take on parenting duties. A recent study by the Families and Work Institute found that fathers spend an hour more a day with their kids than dads did 25 years ago. Dad’s participation can come in especially handy when the kids get sick or when you just cannot make that parent-teacher conference. So when it comes to parenting, do not hesitate to share the load of responsibilities with your husband.

MAKE YOUR SCHEDULE FLEXIBLE
If you are feeling super stressed, ask your employer about rearranging your schedule so that you work four days instead of five, or have every other Friday off. This may incur a pay cut, but it might be worth it to strike that delicate balance between your career and kids. But if a flexible schedule is not feasible, try to pick one evening or weekend day when you can focus solely on your family. That means turn off the laptop, leave your cell at home and hit the playground. In addition to being a stellar mom, this play time away from the job will recharge your batteries, and you can return to work fresh and less stressed.

FIND PERSPECTIVE
If you are at work right now, you are probably wishing you were at home. But guess what? You may not be that much more satisfied if you stayed at home fulltime. According to Dr. Leon Hoffman, director of the Pacella Parent Child Center, many working mothers wish they were home with their children, and while at home, wish they were back at work. Bottom line? Being a mom is a tough job, no matter how you slice it. But if you gain perspective on your situation and are confident about why you are working (or staying at home – whatever the case may be), you can get through even the toughest days with less guilt.

STRESS LESS FOR THE KIDS
Here is some good news for working moms. Research shows that children who go to daycare are not destined for delinquency. A study measuring the development of more than 6,000 children found that those with moms who work outside the home experience no permanent damage because of the maternal absence. And according to Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute, more kids prefer to have their parents be less stressed out and tired than actually with them 24/7.

Research shows we’re at our lowest ebb this week, disgusted at our over-indulgence at Christmas. That might explain why nearly half of us will have abandoned our well-intentioned pledges before the end of January, according to a poll by insurance company Go compare. So, if you really want to stop smoking, shift some flab or run a marathon, how can you make sure it will happen?

Sue Carpenter, a Glasgow-based life coach, believes the secret is to plan your resolution well. She said: “If you plan it quite carefully, and follow six easy steps, New Year resolutions can really work.”

STEP 1: MAKE SURE THE RESOLUTION IS YOUR OWN – NOT SOMEONE ELSE’S
If you’re being nagged to do something, there’s no point in making it your New Year resolution. You won’t see it through unless you really want it yourself. You won’t give up smoking just because someone else says you should. Do it because you want to.

STEP 2: PLAN IT OUT
You need to develop a strategy to reach your target. Break it down into small, achievable “chunks”. If you want to give up smoking, book a place on a smoking cessation group or organise an appointment at the doctor to get patches. Then tick that off as a first step. If you want to get fit, buy yourself a pair of trainers or some sportswear. Then you can mark that down as your first bit of progress.

STEP 3: WRITE IT DOWN
When you put something down in black and white it seems much more real – it’s no longer just a notion in your head. Writing down your resolution is like a pledge with yourself. Stick it on the fridge or to your computer – or anywhere else you will see it regularly.

STEP 4: MAKE IT SPECIFIC, TIME-BOUND AND MEASURABLE
Set a specific target but make it an achievable one. For instance, don’t say you’ll lose half a stone in a week. You probably won’t. But you might achieve it over a period of weeks or even months. Without being specific about what you want to do, and how long you realistically expect it to take, your resolution is too whimsical and is likely to fail. So give yourself deadlines and monitor your progress towards them.

STEP 5: TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT
Don’t make your resolution a secret. Tell people who are important to you about it. See if someone will act as your “resolution buddy” by encouraging and helping you through the difficult times.

STEP 6: FORGIVE YOURSELF
Don’t abandon your resolution if you slip up. You will make mistakes but the important thing is not to be too harsh on yourself and not to lose sight of what you’re trying to achieve. If you have a difficult week, just double your resolve the next week.

Source: Daily Record

It is possible, especially if you focus on a few goals at a time, to get your life in order at work and at home as the new year begins. We’ve rounded up some of the wisest experts often found blogging on Yahoo! Shine about money, work, and home projects to help you get going.

YOUR MONEY

Dayana Yochim of The Motley Fool says getting organized about your money, how you spend it, and how you (hopefully) invest it starts with finding out where your money goes every month.

- Follow the money

Every budget starts with sniffing out your spending habits and determining exactly where your money goes on a day-to-day basis,” Yochim says. Start with your debit card or if you use one credit card to pay most of your monthly bills and other expenses for an easy way to track your spending habits. If you use cash, for at least one week, write down what you spend every day, then multiply it by four and add it to the monthly recurring bills you pay to approximate how much you spend a month.

- Get a spending plan

Aside from the bills you know you need to pay month in, month out, now’s the time to write down what you will need to—and want to—spend money on in the next three to six months. “These could be physical purchases (like new tires for the car, airfare for the family vacation) or financial plans (such as paying off a credit card, maxing out this year’s IRA or adding to your emergency fund,” Yochim says. Once you attach dollar amounts to these goals, and you decide how many months until you’ll be spending on them, you’ll be able to figure how much you need to save every month to reach one or more of your goals.

- Save automatically

“The best way to save your money is to keep your cash out of spending reach by diverting it to a separate savings account–one different from the checking account you use for everyday expenditures,” Yochim says. Set up automatic transfers from your regular checking account to savings account so you can put the money out of reach before you spend it on something else.

YOUR CAREER

When you tend to the professional relationships in your life you are tending to your career because chances are good you will find your way to your next job through someone you already know. With that in mind, Marci Alboher, who blogged about Working the New Economy here on Yahoo! Shine and is now a senior fellow at Civic Ventures, has these tips for the new year:

- Focus on the people you know

Tend to strong relationships you already have, rather than making new contacts. “In the course of a career, people can usually trace the most significant opportunities to a small handful of people,” Alboher says.

- Say thank you

Identify those who have done something helpful in your career in the past year and find your own way to say thanks. “A colleague recently made my week by hand delivering a box of chocolates from her hometown’s confectioner,” Alboher says. “An out-of-the-blue recommendation on LinkedIn or a handwritten thank you note would have a similar result.”

- Be a mentor

The dark of winter is an ideal time to think about nurturing others, so look around for someone to mentor. You’ll feel great about helping an up-and-comer and at the same time, you’ll be plugging yourself in to where your industry is going.

YOUR HOME

Once all traces of holiday decorations and entertaining are put away, keep going. It’s a good time to pare down and get rid of clutter that keeps you from enjoying your home—and fearing an unannounced drop-in visit.

- Start small

Create a gadget-charging area so you can tame the wires and know where to look for smartphones, iPods, and cameras when you need them. Pay your bills online to cut down on the paper coming into the house, and set up an accordion file by month for the paper bills you still get once they’re paid.

The heart of the winter is also a good time to freshen up your home, but home projects don’t have to be daunting or expensive.

- A splash of fresh paint

“If you want to freshen up a room but don’t have time for a decorative overhaul, try painting one wall in a bold accent color. Apply it to the least prominent wall and the pop of color will always be a pleasant surprise as you move about the space,” says PointClickHome.com Executive Editor, Anne E. Collins.

- Think storage

Keep things you use in view, and store clutter-y items like DVDs and other media behind closed doors. As for the items you keep in plain view, don’t overdo it. “It’s okay to have a few tchotchkes—if you consolidate them. Grouping similar items on a shelf or two will make them look like a curated collection rather than a hodgepodge of stuff,” Collins says.

What’s on your get-organized list for your goals at work and home at the start of the new year?

Source: Yahoo Shine

1. Try this cheapo and festive decorating trick that Katie uses: Fill vases and hurricane candle-holders with fresh cranberries. Stick a sprig of evergreen in the center and place the arrangements around your living room.

2. Make a playlist rather than putting your iPod on random. Katie suggests sticking to upbeat, festive music for cocktail hour and mellow tunes for dinner. Download these must-have albums to really get the party started.

3. You don’t have to deep-clean your pad before a party, but you should stash clutter. Use decorative tins, baskets, and hampers to hide messes. Or if you’re really pressed for time, toss everything in your boudoir and declare that room off-limits.

4. At a dinner party, serve simple comfort foods like meatloaf or fried chicken. Or these quick and easy chicken and dumplings. They’re crowd-pleasers and don’t require a lot of effort to cook. Plus, Katie claims these atypical main dishes are awesome icebreakers.

5. Break out the bubbly, girl! Champagne never goes out of style, and it makes any party feel instantly sophisticated. Prosecco tastes almost as good and costs a fraction of the price. Before you pop open a bottle, read this primer on how to uncork without making a mess.

6. Forgo the full bar and instead serve up one signature cocktail. Katie treats her guests to a big pitcher of sangria. Try mixing up one of these Cosmo cocktails.

Source: Cosmopolitan

· Making the List, Checking it Twice – Organizing your holiday party begins with colorful, festive and fun invitations that help to set the mood for your party and get your guests excited about the upcoming festivities. You can create your own invitations or consider sending free online invitations via Web sites like Evite.com that also send reminders to your guests before the big day and keep track of your guest count.

12 Days of Holiday Party Shopping – Before your big party you don’t have to fight your way through crowds at your local stores. You can shop online from your home or on the road with a notebook computer or PDA. But while you’re shopping online, make sure you have a safe and secure experience:

· It is generally safer to buy from established sites, or sites from companies that you’ve heard of, rather than unknown, smaller operations that might not be secure or legit.

· To make sure you’re buying from a secure site, look for a “lock icon” on the screen. Make sure it says “https://” in your browser. The “s” signifies that the site is secure.

Photos of Christmas Past – As you begin to plan your holiday party this year, the Geek Squad suggests using technology to share favorite digital videos, music files and photos from the year’s most memorable moments with all of your party guests.

· Geek Squad Agents can help consumers stream all of their digital media – including pictures, music and even video – from the bedroom computer to the living room flat-screen television. Visit Geeksquad.com for a free tutorial.

· For outdoor festivities, you can also stream your music outdoors with products that plug into outdoor grounded outlets or battery operated mp3 docks. Plus, wireless networking allows you to bring the music from your laptop outside to listen to a specific playlist or stream music from an online radio site such as Pandora or Yahoo! Launchcast.

Winterize Your Home – If you’re looking to turn your front yard into the envy of your neighbors and guests with a spectacular Winter Wonderland, you could remotely control the entire light display system. Check out real life examples on this Web site www.planetchristmas.com

· Home Automation Systems (such as SMARTHOME or Planet Christmas) have software that allows you to control your home remotely via the Internet. Let a Geek Squad Agent show you how to control your entire light and decoration display from your laptop.

· Similar programs can help you control the heat in your home from a PDA to get your home warm before you or any of your guests arrive. Stop by any Geek Squad Precinct and an Agent can show you how.

For help with all your technology needs, call 1.800 GEEK SQUAD to set up an onsite consultation, find a location near you at www.geeksquad.com, or visit the Geek Squad Precinct at Best Buy and other locations to speak with an Agent directly. We provide our services wherever and whenever you need them – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Perhaps you are on the fence too. You may find your answer after reading this post by Karen Leland. Will you pull out the boxes or stay put? Let Karen help you decide.

At latest count I’ve sold off 10 pieces of furniture; donated over 200 books, assorted dishware and clothing for Goodwill; thrown out a small dumpsters worth of garbage and cut my candle collection in half. All this and I still have many days worth of sorting and clutter clearing to go before the big day next week when we move.

If you read my column last month, you know that my husband and are facing a downsizing. We sold the house we’ve owned for the past 12 years and are moving to a rental. Were we forced to sell our house in a fit of foreclosure? No. But like many of our fellow citizens we were swept up in the irrational enthusiasm of leveraged real estate investments and a mortgage that looked liked it was too good to be true – and it was.

And while I now see this downsizing as a necessary step and nested opportunity – it has not been easy. Facing our fiscal choices and just confronting the amount of stuff (from houses to housewares) that we have bought, collected, been gifted, picked up at conferences, purchased at other people’s garage sales and one way or another acquired, has been painful at best and gut wrenching at worst.

Twenty years ago I took a financial course where the instructor said the goal was sufficiency. I’ve often thought of this as the three bears method of money and stuff – not too much, not too little, but just enough to have a sense of freedom and things working well. I’ve never forgotten that concept. I only wish I’d made a little bit more of an effort to live by it over the past 10 years.

Even so, I can’t help but feel grateful. I know many people who have lost much more. This move and the subsequent shedding of much of the stuff that has been hanging around my life sucking up time, energy and money is my opportunity to declare a sufficiency ‘do over’ and begin righsizing. It’s a chance to retool my goals and priorities and spend more of my life on the things that matter most to me.

If you’re tempted to judge me too harshly as a disgraceful example of over-consumerism, I challenge you to open a few closets and drawers in your own home (or worse take a good hard look into the belly of the beast known as your garage) and tell me what you find. More than likely there will be an abundance of things you thought you wanted and needed but didn’t.

The pressure to buy now, pay later; stay on top of the latest trends and own what’s being touted on Oprah as the next favorite thing, is a strong one in our culture. It’s a problem facing our nation as a whole, not just a group of catalog crazy, sale enticed individuals. It’s a battle that takes constant personal vigilance to fight. One – if we stay on top of it – we can often win, and are bound by circumstances to occasionally lose.

Oh and just in case that trip to the garage inspired you to do a little rightsizing of your own stuff, here’s the method I used from my book Time Management In An Instant: 60 Ways to Make The Most of Your Day.

Do a ‘T’ scan

Moving in a logical direction (right to left, top to bottom, front to back) Scan the stuff in front of you and as you come across each item, assign it a category and act accordingly.

Trash – This is an item that no longer works, you no longer need or you no longer like. It has outlived its usefulness and is ready to make the journey from your office to the wastebasket. Action: Throw this out now! If the item is still in good working shape put it in a box to be given to charity.

Treasure – This is an item you need, you like and/or you use. It belongs exactly where it is. Action: Don’t do a thing. Leave it as it and be glad you found it.

Hot Hint: If the item is one you want, but just needs to be repaired ask yourself if its worth the time and effort to fix this item or would it be better to replace it? If the answer is repair it, schedule a specific time to take care of it within the next week.

Transfer – This is an item that you want to keep, but does not belong in the location where you found it. Action: Put the item in a box for transfer to its proper place when the sorting session is over.

Temptation – This is an item that you feel conflicted over. Part of you wants to keep it and part of you is not sure you will ever use it. To help decide ask yourself:

Do I have more than one of these?
How useful will this really be in the future?
When was the last time I used this?
Is this something I need to keep for legal reasons?
What is the worst thing that could happen if I get rid of this?

Karen Leland is author of Watercooler Wisdom: How Smart People Prosper in the Face of Conflict, Pressure and Change. She writes the Productivity Superstar column for Web Worker Daily. Read more at www.karenleland.com
Source: Huffington Post

On the first day try to get to work 30 minutes early to organize your workspace. If your workspace looks like a hurricane hit it…try and hour early. Make sure you have plenty of files and labels on hand.

Before you start work
Your desk is where it all happens so let’s get rid of the clutter!

1. File all current projects and tasks in a file organizer that sits on your desk. Having your “must have tasks” at the tip of your finger tips is key for easy access.
2. Put all old paperwork, proposals, and other papers in a file with a label that indicates the name of the task and the year. Recycle the paper of all duplicate information.
3. Surf through emails and detect the ones that are most important. If an email only needs a quick response take care of it quickly. In doing this, you have eliminated a task and your co-worker can move on with their task because of your speedy reply. For emails that need a little more time move them into a To Do file on your computer. Make sure you write the email task on your To Do list for the day so you won’t forget.
4. Check Voicemail and return all calls

Sidebar: Checking email and voice mail are tasks that you do every day. Couple them along with other tasks you must complete every day. I like to call these my Bundle Routine Tasks (BRT). Just like the phone company you can bundle your tasks that are reoccurring, so can you. Do you have daily or weekly tasks? Think about them and create a daily bundle routine and a weekly bundle routine to keep you on track.

During Work

1. Create a To Do List for the day (In the beginning of the week and month create a To Do List for the Week and for the month to keep you on schedule)
2. Pick up where you left off the previous day. Start your day with the most vital tasks. Once you have completed a task, send it off to your co-workers that are in need the information and put a nice big check next to the item on your To Do List.(smile) Move on to the next task on your To Do List.
3. Mid morning email check: Surf through your email and reply to vital emails.
4. Mid morning voice mail check: Review your voice mail and return important phone calls.
5. Any important tasks that you could not take care of during your mid morning email and voice mail check put them down on your To Do List.

Lunch- Enjoy your time to yourself. Leave work at work and indulge in a good lunch and Me Time. You not only deserve it, but you body needs to regroup.

After Lunch

1. Continue to work tasks on To Do List
2. Do you have any afternoon Bundle Routine Tasks? Complete them now.
3. Afternoon email check
4. Afternoon voicemail check

End of the day wrap up
10 Minute Prep: Take the last 10 minutes of the day prepping for tomorrow. Organize the tasks you will be working on tomorrow and place them on your desk so they will be the first thing you see when you arrive at work. File items you no longer need. Begin your To Do List for tomorrow and place your new To Do List next to your tasks for the next day. Finally, your workday is complete. Enjoy your evening.

Karen Vaughn is the founder of the Working Divas Blog. A lifestyle blog that is geared towards work/life balance for women.  She is an awarding winning Radio Personality who is currently the evening host on Star 99.7 in Charleston and has worked in Miami, Indianapolis, Washington, DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Follow Karen On Twitter @ www.twitter.com/karenvaughn