by Eileen Roth
Get a charge card for phone orders, such as having pharmacy or groceries delivered.
If you pay the bills, have them mailed directly to you.
Sign up for automatic withdrawals and deposits at the bank.
If your loved one doesn’t drive, get a state picture ID good for everything from airplane travel to writing checks at the grocery store.
If appropriate, consider a facility where other people, bus services, and activities can improve your loved one’s quality of life and take a burden off you.
Managing Your Health
It seems everybody is managing their own medical care these days, and the job can get overwhelming. Protect the precious asset of your health with a few proactive habits. Here are some to get you started:
Keep a list of all your doctors in your date book, including name, phone number, and type of practitioner. Add all medicines you regularly take, including grams and what they’re for. Throw in your insurance policy number and the number to call to authorize procedures and admissions. This is a quick reference for you — and for someone else in case of an emergency.
Make annual doctor appointments just before your birthday or at the same time each year. This includes general practitioner, dentist, optometrist, gynecologist, and possibly the dermatologist for a mole check.
Schedule school physicals in July so that you’re not caught in the August appointment rush and to be sure your child is covered for the full year for any sports.
Keep all open insurance claims in a dedicated file so you know to follow up and can pull papers quickly.
Create a medical history for each family member by keeping a running list of major injuries or illnesses such as chicken pox, broken bones, surgeries, and so forth. Pitch the rest of the documentation; no doctor needs to know that you took penicillin for strep throat in 1983.
If you take more than two pills on a daily basis, including supplements and vitamins, get a weekly pillbox. Fill each compartment on Saturday so you can cruise through the week without thinking. Call the pharmacy for a refill when the last week’s worth is sorted. Use the drive-up windows at some pharmacies for quick service or have medicines delivered.
Take vitamins and medications at the same time each day. Write it in your planner if you’re trying to get in the habit of something new.
Consumers are flooded with health information every day, so hold on only to things that are helpful today. Yes to a diet you’re currently on, no to one that didn’t work. Toss documentation on any illness or disease you don’t have. The information will be outdated if you should ever need it.
Scheduling Physical Fitness
I know there are people who love to exercise. I sure wish I were one of them. Because I’m not, I refer to the compelling reasons to keep a move on: to be more productive, enjoy better health, live longer, and think clearer. There’s no point in investing in an IRA if you’re not investing in your muscles and bones to last long enough to reap the benefits. Furthermore, an hour at the gym tonight could improve your performance in tomorrow’s important presentation and even bolster your resistance to next week’s virus. It’s never too late to start on fitness and enjoy daily and long-term rewards. There’s just no way out—and this is where a well-organized approach to fitness comes into play.
Join a health club or class. Watching and working out with others can help keep you going.
Find a workout buddy to walk, jog, swim, or play tennis with, or make a standing date to meet at the gym.
Do you love watching basketball, baseball, or hockey? Get off the bench and play.
Bike to work to take care of your commute and your workout at the same time. A set of panniers over your rear wheel can hold your briefcase and laptop.
Work out over your lunch hour. There’s no need to worry about getting child care or cutting into your evening, and you’ll return to work reenergized and sharp.
Mix up your exercise from one session to the next—running, yoga, weights, swimming, kickboxing, biking, hip hop dance—for cross- training and to keep from getting bored.
Studies have found that any bouts of physical activity at any time of day all contribute to your fitness level—so take the stairs, park farther away, take a quick walk, wash your own windows. Every little bit counts!
Entertainment and Recreation
Yes, it’s true: You can even have fun more efficiently, and do you know what that means? More fun! Scheduling recreation into your life is as important as anything else. Pleasure is good for your health, strengthens bonds with fam-ily and friends, and can even up your productivity.
At least once a month (and more if you can manage), block off some time in your calendar to do something you love. Whether going to the movies or climbing mountains, singing karaoke or going to hear a concert featuring your favorite singer, do whatever floats your boat with no ulterior motive but feeling good.
In our hyperachieving society, it can be surprisingly easy to forget about fun or get stuck in an entertainment rut, so I recommend making and keeping a list in two categories: a) things that you know give you pleasure, and b) new things you want to try. Schedule at least one of each into each month. Here are some ideas to get you started:
Make a lunch date with a nonwork friend. Invite a small group to gather for dinner at a restaurant. Stage a dinner party with your dream menu, but don’t do all the cooking yourself—assign each guest a dish and send the recipe with the invite.
Take up a musical instrument. Sign up for lessons or join a group.
Join a club or take a class to share your existing or potential passion—bowling, golf, bridge, painting, writing, reading, collecting coins, computer gaming, and so forth.
Indulge your inner child with a visit to a water park, the zoo, a mini golf course, or entertainment parks. Ride the roller coaster—or not.
Go to museums or art institutes. They’re much more fun than you may remember. Traveling art exhibits are turning out to be the place to see and be seen, while science museums have become highly entertaining, interactive playgrounds. Okay, so you may discover something too.
Go roller blading, ice-skating, horseback riding, sledding, or skiing on snow or water.
Get into the swing of things and go dancing. Salsa, swing, country line, techno rave—it burns calories and boosts mood!
Use your favorite form of entertainment as a reward for a goal achieved (see Chapter 18 on setting and achieving goals).
Finding a Special Someone
Being organized leaves more time for love . . . and being in love makes the rewards of being organized all the sweeter. Don’t neglect this important part of life.
Finding love
Love is a goal like any other, and you don’t want to leave it to pure chance any more than you may expect to find a needle in a haystack or a paper in a pile on your desk. Here are some organized approaches to the amorous task:
Join a singles club or an organization of people with similar interests. Whether you go to a dance, a gourmet dinner, or a group hike, getting out and chatting is half the battle.
Hit the Internet. Personal ads have gone high-tech and gained legitimacy with all the Web-based ways to post everything from what sort of person you’re looking for to your tastes in music and food to a photo or video clip—and then you can search it all by keywords. Chat rooms and news groups are another place to hook up with like-minded people. If you don’t like singles bars, skip the rooms and groups aimed at singles and find one allied with one of your interests or hobbies instead.
You know even less about people you meet on the Web than those you encounter in singles bars, so be cautious. Schedule initial meetings for public places and don’t give out your address or phone number until you know a person well.
If your work is currently the love of your life, go to a networking group for your field. Networking has many meanings.
Tell your friends and family that you�
�d like to date. The old-fashioned matchmaker is still alive and well.
Making time for love
You need a To Do List to expedite your projects, your tasks, and your love life. If love always comes last in your busy life, perhaps you schedule everything but the very thing you live for. Make prioritizing your paramour easy by writing up a Love List of all the special things, big and small, that you can do to make the most of your time together. Keep your list on hand for easy reference both for spontaneous moments and for when you’re sitting down to plan your week or month. Make time for love, and all the time of your life will be nicer.
Schedule a date night, even—especially!—if you’re married or have been together so long that your idea of a night out is in with the VCR. Follow all the proper steps: Call your partner on the phone and ask him or her out. Make a reservation for dinner. Plan a movie. Get dressed up.
Send flowers. This works for both sexes.
Send a card—cute, funny, flowery, an inspirational poem — for no reason at all.
Tuck a love note in your partner’s purse or briefcase, or mail the note to their place of work.
Have a scavenger hunt to find a rose or a poem.
Make a book of gift certificates for items from a hug to a hand-delivered massage to a romantic getaway weekend. Give it for Valentine’s Day or the anniversary of the day you met.
Put on some sultry music and have a romantic dinner by candlelight at home.
Go out dancing, whatever style you like.
Rent a romantic video and cozy up on the couch or carpet with a bottle of wine.
Rent a rowboat or canoe and spend a lazy afternoon afloat.
Go on a picnic and lie around in the grass looking at the sky.
Trade off fantasy nights—yours one time, your partner’s the next.
Share a candlelit bubble bath.
Put a red light bulb in the lamp and Johnny Mathis on the stereo.
Circle the full moon on your calendar and take advantage of the evening to sneak away and sit in a convertible or on a blanket on the grass. Stare at the stars, bask in the moonbeams, and talk all night!
Chapter 21
Going Mobile: Trips Near and Far
In This Chapter
Getting out the door and doing more
Picking and packing your briefcase and purse
Considering your commuting options
Taking the driver’s seat with assurance
Packing for a trip in a snap
T hese days, high-performance living is all about being mobile and taking your whole life with you when you go. Everybody seems to be in the business of accumulating miles, whether commuting, carting kids, taking business trips, seeing the world, or simply rushing from one engagement to the next.
Staying organized while you move and interfacing the systems you use on the road with those at the office and home can make all your mobile operations more efficient. You’ll get out the door stress-free, grease the wheels of your trip, and come back home with a smile on your lips.
The Power Briefcase and Purse
Organized people are always prepared but they’re not packhorses. The first move in your mobile lifestyle should be assessing what you need to take along for the ride, and then assembling the power briefcase, purse, or chic over-the- shoulder bag that puts everything at your fingertips without slowing you down.
Your carry-along bag and its contents can keep you comfortable and productive everywhere you go if you take an organized approach to putting your tote together. Do you really need your full cosmetic kit if all you ever touch up is your lipstick? Could you do more efficient work on your commute if you had a small ruler and red pen for underlining within easy reach? Why carry separate laptop and briefcases when you can get a model that combines both functions? Tap the power of packing right for each day.
Feeling things first: The wallet
By definition, your wallet generally holds your most valuable assets. You want to be able to quickly spot what’s there and what’s not. Start your quest for a smart wallet by choosing a model that keeps your assets organized and in view. Of the dozens of shapes and sizes available, four basic features comprise a wallet that works:
A section for unfolded currency
Slots for charge cards (about eight)
An ID/driver’s license window holder
A closed (zipper or snap) change pocket
Guys, skip the money clip. Every time you need to put cash on the table it takes two steps to pull off the money clip and unfold the money, and likewise in the other direction. A wallet, on the other hand, is like a minifiling cabinet where you can easily slip the twenty behind the ten and find it when you need it in one quick move, which can be critical when you’re trying to smoothly pick up the tab.
Next, take a hard look at your cards. You may have 20, even 30 cards that do everything from proving who you are to earning you a discount on a restaurant meal or frequent-flyer miles on your trip to New York. Do you really need to carry every one with you every day?
Most people can get through the average day with about eight cards in their wallets:
Driver’s license
ATM card
Charge card
Grocery check cashing/discount card
Medical insurance card
Prescription card
Discount club store card (Sam’s Club, Costco, and so on)
Library card (You do have one, don’t you? It gives you instant access to all those books and magazines that you don’t need to store on your own shelves!)
Some cards come in miniature form to add to your keychain, leaving your wallet space free. This can be convenient, depending on the size of your keychain, but if you have to open your wallet to complete the transaction anyway, do you really want to reach for your keys too?
The rest of your cards can stay at home — backup charge cards, restaurant discount cards, membership cards, and so forth. You can keep airline cards in a cardholder tucked into your carry-on luggage, in case you have to swap flights (keep a list of numbers in a file for making reservations). If your health club membership card is in your gym bag, you’ll always have it when you need it. And do you really regularly shop more than one supermarket? Keep just your primary supplier’s card in your wallet.
You can use a major credit card at any gas station or department store — so cut up those single-vendor cards! They just take up space and complicate your finances.
If you’re a professional, you probably want to carry one other all-important card you always want: your business card. You never know who you’ll meet, so whenever you hit the street, make sure you have about 20 business cards on hand. Have cards will travel!
Use a separate holder to carry your business cards so you can whip your cards out quickly and leave your wallet unstuffed and safely put away.
Packing less than the kitchen sink: The purse
Women love their purses—and why not? A fashion accessory that can hold everything you think you may need (whether you really need it or not), a purse is like a best pal. Women’s purses are also notorious for packing away far more stuff than any person needs in a day. If yours has become a piece of luggage, the time has come to pare down to the basics. I suggest you carry only the following:
Wallet
Checkbook (two if you have a separate business account)
Datebook/organizer
Keys
Glasses (sunglasses if you’re not operating out of your car)
Only the cosmetics you regularly touch up with during the day
Comb and mirror
Nail file, if you use one
3-x-5-inch notepad, for your Master List and/or notes
Two pens: One blue or black (for normal use) and one red (for high- priority entries in your calendar and underlining as you read)
Six-inch ruler for underlining as you read
Business c
ards
Choosing the right purse is the next step to polishing up your mobile look. A round purse wastes space, just as anything else round does (think about all those stolen corners). When selecting a purse, start with a rectangle, and then look for
The right size to hold just what you need and no more. Murphy’s Law states that you’ll fill any available space, so resist temptation by keeping your purse on the small side. The weight of a small purse will be easier on your back and you’ll find things faster too.
A reader’s pocket if you like to carry a book to read. This outside pocket, which is wide enough to hold a paperback, allows you to grab your book without digging through other things.
A front zipper pocket, that extends about halfway up the purse, to hold pens, a ruler, and business cards. Again, the pocket gives you quick access without having to open the main compartment.
A zipper or locking flap closure at the top to keep thieves’ hands out of your purse and valuable items in.
Though separate compartments inside a purse may seem organized, what happens if you look for something in the wrong compartment? You have to start all over again by looking in another one. I prefer a single section so you can see everything at once.
Taking care of business: The briefcase
Business of any sort calls for a briefcase, which is sized and shaped to hold and protect papers and files. Basically an abbreviated suitcase, your briefcase should get you through all the day’s business with efficiency and ease.