"Picture Yourself Organized!"

February 2012

Hello

John Salmons and Demarcus Cousins

We're on a win streak.....3 in a row!  This picture was taken at the beginning of the NBA season.  I'm standing with my daughter-in-law Tanya and good friend Shirley Johnson.  We gave John Salmons and Demarcus Cousins advice on court shot selection and defensive strategies.  Demarcus was absolutely giddy with our knowledge.  They appreciated our input and wanted a photo with us for their NBA scrapbooks (LOL).   GO KINGS.

February - Gather, Sort and Shred

Choose one or more of the following tasks to do this month

1. Get last year's tax files in order; create a system for this year's taxes

• Gather all your tax support papers, receipts, statements into one place
• Use last year's tax filing statements to determine each major tax category in which you file (such as income, interest, medical, charitable contributions, etc.). If you do not itemize deductions, this will be easier; just gather your end-of-year income and tax forms.
• Sort your tax papers into your major tax categories. Put the papers into folders, envelopes, or an accordion file, labeled with each of your tax categories (or use one of the special tax organizers made for this). [see the Dome Product tax receipt saving book here]
• BONUS: This would be a good time to set up a duplicate organizing file system for next year so you can sort your tax documents throughout the current year. 
• Make an appointment with your tax preparer or schedule time on your calendar to do your taxes yourself.

 2. Review and edit subscriptions

• Gather all your magazines and determine when the subscription will expire. Generally the expiration date will appear somewhere on the mailing label. Checkbooks or on-line banking statements may also provide you with renewal dates and costs for recurring subscriptions.
• Make a list of all these annual commitments, their renewal dates and cost.
• Decide to reduce the amount of paper and time clutter by keeping only those subscriptions that you actually read and that support your personal goals.
• Do these same steps for any annual memberships you may have.

 3. Review and edit files on your computer, email boxes, and address books

• If you do not purge computer files, emails, or addresses regularly, plan to do a clean up at least twice a year. Schedule this now on your calendar for this month and six months from now.
• Remove and delete any non-critical electronic documents. Sometimes it is easiest to sort emails or contacts by sender, or search files by date or topic, before deleting unnecessary files.
• If you keep a paper address book, review this once a year and make corrections. Now is a good time after holiday cards are sent and received.
• Enter new contacts into your address book (electronic or paper) from all the business cards and bits of paper you have, and then toss the papers.

If you need help getting starting with any of these tasks, contact me.