Prepare for 2009 taxes

Have these documents ready for your 2009 Taxes: -Your tax return from 2008 and the cost of preparing it, if prepared by someone other than yourself -Any forms that have W-2, 1098, 1099 etc. printed on them -The total amount of local and state taxes you paid in 2009 -All relevant social security numbers and birthdates required on your tax return (children, spouse, other dependents etc.) -Documentation of all contributions you made to retirement plans or IRAs -Any expenses related to your investments -The purchase date and total investment in all stocks or other property you sold -Records of additional income, such as rental property, a hobby, jury duty, alimony, gambling etc. -Expense and income documentation for work that is not already shown on your W-2 or 1099 -Income from unemployment and expenses related to your job search, if applicable -Expenses related to your job, such as publications, travel, tools, dues, uniform etc. -Records for personal property tax, real estate and mortgage interest -Total miles driven for medical purposes or charitable purposes -Non-cash charitable donation records -Amounts donated to charitable organizations, schools and religious establishments -Documentation to support higher education and childcare costs -Amounts paid for health care insurance and also to doctors, hospitals etc.

Take the stress out of tax season

As you prepare for tax season it can be a mad rush to find all the appropriate receipts and calculate the numbers. Not to mention the overwhelming tax document that still needs to be filled out. Who wants to spend all that time and frustration doing taxes? While it may be too late this year to change the organization of all your tax preparation, start 2010 off right with these simple steps:

-Create a folder for your taxes. You can use a thick hanging file, manila folder or an expandable file. Any forms, tax documents etc. should go in here. Your finished tax return will eventually be filed in this folder.

-Create sub folders within the main folder for charitable donation letters, tax deductible receipts and any other tax information you find pertinent.

-To eliminate last minute reconciling, try to maintain a log or Excel spreadsheet tracking tax deductible expenses. At the end of the year you can simply tally all the numbers instead of going through all your receipts one at a time.

-Consider paying an accountant to do your taxes for you. It is much easier to hire a professional than to navigate the tax document yourself. As an alternative, consider using a software like Turbo Tax to do your state and federal taxes. It is reliable, much faster and allows you to not only print and save electronic copies of your return, but you can mail the return directly or file it electronically. Many of these programs can be purchased for businesses, too.

10 simple ways to organize your office and manage your time

1) Keep a master list of your projects. Draw weekly and daily tasks from this list. 2) To minimize papers on your desk, keep all current projects in folders, either in a filing cabinet or a desk-top file. Pull a file only when you intend to work on it. 3) Designate a time everyday to answer emails and return phone calls. This reduces distractions and the tendency to get caught up in lower priority issues. 4) Do not stuff a filing cabinet drawer. Filling a drawer to its maximum capacity makes the drawer nearly impossible to flip through. 5) Designate a place in your office for all supplies, electronics, multimedia, papers and desktop necessities so your office is divided into zones. 6) Make sure the supplies for the activities you do the most are closet to your desk or at least easily accessible. 7) Retain the information, toss the paper. 8) Utilize the vertical space in your office by using wall pockets, memo boards and shelves. 9) Use drawer dividers and trays to help organize drawer contents. 10) Tidy up your desk at the end of the day. This gives you a fresh start every morning, as well as allowing you to return everything to its proper home.

Starting the New Year right

January is the time to start fresh or upgrade your plan from the previous year. Here are some pointers to keep in mind when you put together a strategy:

1. Look at your priorities. Are you focusing on projects that directly relate to your goals and priorities or are you spending time and energy on unimportant activities?

2. Ask yourself "why". When you reorganize your life and schedule, ask why your current situation isn't working.

3. Tackle one project at a time. In the excitement of starting fresh it is easy to begin several new initiatives at once. Before you tackle each individual project, lay out the exact steps needed to accomplish each goal.

4. Reward your efforts. Change can be hard so acknowledge your forward progress, no matter how small!

The problem with overcommitment

I have been reading ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life by Judith Kolberg and Kathleen Nadeau. This small portion on over committing our time was quite accurate. We cannot possibly organize our physical space if our time is stretched too thin: 

 Overcommitment is the commitment of your time beyond its availability

"If overcommitment is typical for you, you may even feel a sense of pride, at times, about the number of things you are involved in. As you rush from one activity to the next, you may not be aware of the cost, to yourself and to the people around you, of overcommitment. When you're up against the wall, struggling to meet a deadline, you quickly look for that individual that it is least costly to disappoint. Many people have fallen into a pattern of robbing their personal lives to compensate for professional overcommitment.

 For others... overcommitment results from approval seeking and difficulty in setting limits on the demands made by others. Some individuals live with a frantic seesaw of imbalance, trying to measure on a daily basis whether they should sortchange their jobs to meet their family's needs, or whether to disappoint the family and keep the boss happy. You pay a high cost for overcommitment on a daily basis. 

You pay with a high stress level because you are habitually late. You pay with chronic fatigue becuase your overcommitment doesn't leave time for eight hours of restful sleep. Many people... become almost proud of their ability to meet the crisis (often a crisis of their own creation) and prove the critics wrong. "I told you I'd get it done!" Sometimes adults... become hooked on the excitement of crisis management as a lifestyle. For others, overcommitment only leads to chronic anxiety because their life feels out of control and they can't find a way to keep a balance."

Preparing for Christmas

Simplify your Christmas meal prep: Store your seasonal china and crystal in a cabinet separate from everyday dishes. You will always know where to find the entire set and also minimize the risk of your special sets getting damaged by day to day preparations. Do you have seasonal bakeware and servers? Store them all together but away from your regular cooking ware, too. Be creative, like a shelf in the basement. Why take up room in your cabinet with the turkey roaster you use once a year? Good product: China storage sets and cases available at ContainterStore.com. "Trim" decorating time: Create a "decorations zone" where you can conveniently store seasonal trappings. Sort by season (i.e. autumn, winter) or by holiday (July 4th, Thanksgiving). Each category can be kept in clear, labeled tubs with color-coded covers. Group trimmings that have similar functions or that are used in a particular part of your home, and utilize varying sized tubs. Good product: Light winders and ornament boxes at ContainerStore.com. Wrapping: Keep your wrapping supplies corralled in easy to transport paper towers. Some have compartments on top for scissors and tape. Bows and ribbons can be packed into small plastic storage boxes with handles. See through is best, or you can create an all in one caddy with a plastic tote to keep accessories together and roll out friendly.  Good product: Gift wrap organizer at ContainerStore.com. Card and gift giving: Assign a small space gift nook duty. A consistent home for gifts you purchase throughout the year will eliminate extra time spent trying to find a gift when it is time to give it. This will work great for people outside your home, but you'll need to be creative to stump the amateur sleuths in your home! Keep mailing lists and gift lifts in Word or Excel. They can be alphabetized easily, updated and transferred to mailing labels. Be sure to back it up regularly, and you can dedicate separate sheets to family and friends.

Manage email so it does not manage you

Business and home email communication have a tendency to be overwhelming and disorganized. So many of my clients are frustrated by the volume of email they receive and the difficulty they have finding important messages in a packed inbox. There are a few simple guidelines I use to help others and myself keep emailing clean, organized and simple. 1) Do not sign up for every offer and newsletter available. This is like putting your name on a list for paper junk mail. Only subscribe to a publication if you have time to read it, want to read it and want it taking up space in your inbox. 2) Create folders for subjects or people. This gets the emails you have to keep out of the main inbox and into different sections. You can find the emails quickly and they are available only when you need them. To take things a step further, you can create rules in almost any email program that allow you to automatically route messages to specified folders as they come in. 3) Do not save everything. Just like regular paper, ask yourself, “Do I need it? Want it? Will I truly look at it again? Can I get this information elsewhere or on the internet?” 4) Finally, have specific times (or a single time) of the day when you respond to email. Being aware of what is coming in is ok, but to answer every message as it arrives is time consuming and inefficient. It also can contribute to a general feeling of being overwhelmed and as if you are at the mercy of the newest need.