What I learned was that they all work too much. Most of them got up at like 4AM to check email, read reports, etc. Some did this while on a treadmill, which apparently makes it ok. A lot of them followed this up with working incredibly late, leaving the office at 8 or 9 PM. Apparently, the lesson is that if we all get up before the sun, we can overwork ourselves to death and burn out as quickly as humanly possible.

I’ve actually become quite a fan of getting up a little earlier in the morning, despite years of decidedly being “not a morning person.” I’m not alone in this – I’ve seen it written about on Time Management Ninja, Zen Habits, and other great blogs. The difference, with both my mindset and theirs, is that we’re not advocating getting up insanely early in order to squeeze in as much work as possible. There are better ways to use your time in the mornings.

First, and I have written about this before, don’t sacrifice your sleep. If you want to get up half an hour earlier, try to get to bed half an hour earlier. The importance of getting a good night’s sleep is well documented and I’m not about to tell you to sleep less so you can do more. Get enough sleep.

OK, so now that we have that out of the way…

I am not going to tell you to wake up at four in the morning, unless you’re already waking up at four thirty. I’m advocating getting up half an hour to one hour earlier than you usually do. In that time, you can:

- Get a sense of your day. Use the time to take a look at your calendar and to-do list, check out what’s going on with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, check the weather report. See what lies ahead and plan for it instead of reacting to it.

- Read or watch the news. Find out what’s going on in the world, and take time to do more than just read the headlines about the parts you are interested in. This ties in really well with actually enjoying your morning coffee and not just chugging it down while running out the door.

- Read a book or magazine. Again, with the morning coffee. Enjoy the silence before the rest of the house wakes up.

- Eat breakfast. A real breakfast, that involves cooking. And a plate. And sitting down.

- Get outside. Remember when you got your place and imagined yourself sitting on the back deck, watching the sun come up (or set)? Now is the time to live out the dream.

- Get a workout in. It doesn’t have to be anything dramatic or high-impact if your body is not up to it yet. Take a walk, do some yoga, stretch, hit the treadmill.

- Pray. Meditate. Read a devotional. Whatever it takes for you to spiritually and mentally center yourself and prepare yourself for the day, do it.

- Spend time with your partner. If you can convince them to wake up early with you, you can use the time to catch up on each others’ lives. Especially if you have hectic schedules – kids, multiple jobs, etc., you can end up feeling like strangers passing in the night. Wake up a little earlier and tell each other about your days, discuss the latest Hollywood gossip, pore over the stats for your fantasy teams – whatever makes you happy. Reconnect.

• Medication reminders – if you have a medication you have to take biweekly, or a heartworm pill to give to a pet once a month – basically anything that’s not daily, you can put a reminder on your calendar so that you don’t forget it.
• Your work schedule – if you don’t work standard hours, you can put your work schedule on your calendar. This is especially useful if you have a family calendar – it lets everyone know when you will and will not be home. It’s also helpful in setting up appointments for yourself. If you work a regular schedule with unusual days – 4 days on, 4 days off or something like that – you can write in your working days so that you know in advance what your availability is. Trying to count forward every time you want to schedule something is a pain in the neck and an opportunity for error.
• Work events outside of regular hours. You may not use your personal/family calendar to keep track of your workday meetings, but if you have a business trip, after hours meeting, or work dinner to attend, you can put it on your personal calendar, since it eats into your personal time.
• Time you need to get something done. If you need time to work on a work project, a freelance project, costumes for the school play, etc. write it in on the calendar. It will ensure that you actually have the time to do what you need to, and if you are sharing your calendar it lets everyone else know that this is a time when you cannot be disturbed.
• Appointment reminders. Make notes in your calendar one month ahead of when you need to schedule appointments at the dentist, pediatrician, etc. if you can’t schedule the appointment at the time of your last visit so you don’t forget to call and set something up. If you need to make separate appointments for sports physicals or something like that, add those reminders in as well.
• Your to-do list. Some online calendars, like Google Calendar, will integrate your to-do list with your calendar, so that if you assign a due date to something, it will show up on your calendar that day. This is particularly useful for reminders to get cards in the mail, pick up dry cleaning, etc.
• Errands. If you have a particularly busy schedule, use your calendar to block off time to run errands, go to the grocery store, etc. so that it gets done before an emergency hits.
• Chores. Similarly, if you have a busy schedule or an event planned at your house, block off time on your calendar to get some cleaning done. It’s much easier to make sure chores are accomplished if you make a point of setting aside time to do them.
• Family time. When things get crazy, block off a night and write “NO ONE MAKE PLANS.” Then make plans together.

Setting up a good calendar can be time consuming, but once you are up and running, you’ll find it to be one of the most useful tools in your organization arsenal and will wonder how you ever lived without it.

The first choice you have is whether to use a paper or online calendar. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. A paper calendar hung prominently in your home can be like a command center for the house. Everyone can look at it and see what they have planned for the day, where other people are and when they can be expected home, etc. Everyone can add or change appointments easily, and children will find it easier to use. On the downside, you can’t take it with you and will probably end up supplementing it with a day planner or notebook, and you will have to transfer any changes to the paper calendar when you get home. Since you don’t have your calendar with you at all times, you may end up doing more rescheduling as you discover conflicts when you do get in front of the calendar.

An online calendar’s main advantage is in its portability. You can view it online or on your smart phone, and set it up so that everyone in the house can view/modify as you allow. You can take the calendar with you anywhere, making it easier to make appointments and commitments and check your schedule while you are out and about. The downside is that you have to have some electronic device available in order to use it, so if you find yourself with a dead battery or away from a computer, you can’t get to your information. Online calendars are also not as easy for small children to use and navigate.

The best of both worlds is probably the day planner, and if you’re only managing your own time then this is definitely the way to go. You can bring it with you anywhere, and updates and changes are a snap. The downside is that only you can see it, so if you need to share your schedule with a spouse or other household member, or you are making appointments on their behalf, that’s a challenge.

There are a lot of options out there for calendar systems. If you like a paper calendar, check out these offerings from Post-It; and Real Simple;. They both offer lots of space to write, color coding for different family members or categories, and easy changes and updates.

If you’re more into the idea of a digital calendar, check out Family Time Planner and Google Calendar (which is what my family uses). These calendars have the advantage of mobile access, shared ownership, color coding, and reminders. They also tie in to-do lists and messaging if you choose to use those options.

There are more day planner options than I could ever hope to list here, so shop around and find something that works for you. Look for something durable, with a strong cover, and portable. You may also want to consider one that holds your money, cards, etc. and therefore performs double-duty as a wallet. Some day planners also have address books built in, which can be a useful function.

If you’re managing calendars for more than one person, assign each person their own distinct color – either a different pen or a different color on the calendar app. You’ll also probably want to set aside a color for group or family events and one for holidays, birthdays, etc. Keep in mind that colors like yellow and orange can be hard to see, but colors like black and navy can be hard to distinguish from one another. Try to keep everyone’s color visible, but unique.

Once you have your calendar and your colors, grab every other calendar that you use – your company’s holiday schedule, the kids’ school calendar, your book club’s meeting schedule – anything else that lists dates and times that you need to know. You’re going to take all that information and consolidate it into your new calendar so it’s all in one place.

OK, so you have your calendar, you have your colors, you have your information…you’re ready to go!

The first step is the easiest – use last year’s calendar and write in all of the birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.

Next, write in recurring appointments – practices, rehearsals, meetings, classes, etc. I know that you know that you have Girl Scouts every Tuesday at 6, but write it down every Tuesday, anyway. This way you don’t have to remember it, and you won’t run into a situation where you make a conflicting appointment because you forgot it was Girl Scout day when you were checking out at the doctor’s office. When in doubt, write it down.

The third step is to take all of those other calendars in your life and add that information to your calendar. Write in the days your office is closed, the days your kids have half days of school, the days you are scheduled to volunteer someplace. Write in the school concerts, picture days, bake sales, etc. All of the stuff you have to know about or prepare for. You can leave out the stuff you’re not going to do. If you never go to the YMCA’s movie night, don’t clog up your calendar with the information.

Last, add in any upcoming appointments that you already know about – play dates, doctor visits, promises to pick a friend up from the airport. Take this opportunity to add in reminders for appointments you need to make in the future, as well – notes early in the month that the family is due at the dentist or you have to make a well-baby visits, or that registrations are due.

If you are working with a paper calendar, show the end result to your family. Hang it in a prominent location and set ground rules about who can make changes to whose schedules. Introduce everyone to their colors and make sure they use them. If you’re going digital, set up permissions for what other people can see and make changes to, and make sure they know the color system as well.

Calendar setup is only step one – you still have to maintain and use the calendar in order for it to be effective. It may take you a couple weeks to figure out the systems that work best for your house, but once you do, you will find that a good calendar is something that no house can run well without.

Most people make some sort of resolution to kick off the new year, and the vast majority give up on or even forget them my mid-February. Do you even remember what you resolved to do in 2011? Did you get it done?

You can make 2012 different by employing a few basic resolution strategies:

1) Make a plan. If you want to achieve something, you have to come up with a way to do it. Losing weight is a common resolution, and a noble one. But how will you do it? “Eat better” is not a good plan. There’s not enough detail; there are no real rules. Will you join Weight Watchers? Count Calories? Limit Carbs? Maybe you want to save up a month of expenses in an emergency fund. Put a dollar figure on that, and divide by 12 to see how much you need to save each month. Can you do that on your current income, or do you need to consider additional employment?

2) Have a goal. A lot of people resolve to do something “better” or “more,” but there’s no way for them to really measure if they’re accomplishing anything. Resolving to work out more? How much more – give it a number – twice a week, three times a week – and a duration – half an hour, one hour, whatever. Take that goal and back into a plan – joining a gym, taking a fitness class, finding a partner to run with. I’ve also seen a few people resolve to make better use of their time, and this is harder than one would think. Consider why you think you are currently using your time poorly, and what good time management looks like to you. Are you looking for more free time, more family time, a better ability to hit deadlines at work? How, specifically, are you going to do that?

3) Go public. Get support. It doesn’t have to be someone who has the same resolution as you, but find a friend, partner, coworker, even one of your kids, to be your cheerleader. Share your successes with them and give them permission to call you out on your stumbles. There’s no reason to go it alone. That only makes it harder on you, not to mention easier to throw in the towel.

Also, a couple points about resolutions that seem kind of obvious, but are still worth mentioning:

1) You don’t have to give up if you mess up. You have a whole year in front of you. If you fall off the wagon, dust yourself of and get back on. It’s not a big deal. Similarly, if you realize your resolution is not making your life better – you had the best of intentions in starting that website, but now blogging is something you dread and you’re just not that into it – then stop.

2) You don’t have to start on January 1. Maybe it’s just not a good day for you. The morning you wake up hung over on your buddy’s couch is not the best day to start your new exercise program. The afternoon you spend at a family holiday dinner is not the best day to start your new diet. Go ahead, wait for the second, or even the third. You’re going to learn to cook and classes don’t start until Spring Semester? That’s OK, it still counts.

3) Resolutions are not just for the new year. If you find something you are interested in, if your doctor tells you there is something you need to do, if there is something going wrong with your relationships, don’t wait until next January to put a plan in place. Make a resolution because it’s the beginning of the month, or the beginning of the week. Make a resolution because you woke up some random morning and realized you needed to make a change. You don’t have to wait until it’s “in season.”

Kind of piggy-backing on that, you can check out my new facebook page, 12 months 12 challenges. The idea is that everyone picks a goal, challenge, resolution, etc. on a monthly basis and then tries to do it every day for 30 days. It could be something as simple as eating breakfast in the morning, taking time out for a daily prayer or meditation, or putting all of the dishes in the dishwasher before bed. My January resolution involves twitter. Anyway, I think it’s a neat idea and if you’re so inclined, I’d love to see you join up at www.facebook.com/12challenges.

Here’s to a fantastic, healthy, exciting, and amazing 2012!

It was a fun book, and I’d recommend it for a quick, easy read. The end result, though, is that she doesn’t do it. She flails around for the entire story, and just when everything starts to fall apart in epic fashion, she pitches it all to start over.  Most of us do not have that luxury. We are pretty much stuck with the lives we have.

So, here is how I do it, and how you can do it, too:

1) Prioritize. It’s just not all that important. This goes not only for the big-picture issues (keeping your job, family time, care for a sick relative) but the little things. For example, you may need to get the laundry, dishes, and vacuuming done, but not have enough time to do them all. Do the most important first. Being completely out of clean socks will bump the laundry up on the list, having enough to get through the next couple days may push it down.

2) Say No. I cannot emphasize this enough. This fall I went to the open house at my son’s school, and his teacher mentioned they were still looking for someone to volunteer to be class parent. My husband looked right at me and said, “Don’t even think about it.” He was right. I don’t have the time to do it well and I can’t make the commitment to be there for class parties, etc. because of work. Being class Mom would have stretched me entirely too thin, and I’m better off volunteering for individual class events as time allows. If you don’t have time to commit to something, don’t commit. This goes for volunteer activities as well as work assignments, helping friends, and even doing things for your extended family. It’s not easy, but you have to learn to say no to things you just don’t have the capacity to do.

3) Ask for help. If you are overloaded at work, bring it to your boss’s attention before it becomes a major emergency. If you need help around the house, enlist your partner, get someone from craigslist to clean your bathrooms, or send your laundry out for washing. Teach your kids to pick up after themselves, help fold and put away laundry, and make their own snacks – whatever they can handle based on their ages.

4) Plan. Take the time to set up a calendar, then maintain it so that you know where you have to be and when you have to be there. Look at your calendar a couple days ahead of time and figure out if there’s planning, shopping, etc. that you have to do before an appointment. Make a weekly menu and grocery list. Use your bank’s online tools and whatever program you like to keep track of your finances on a regular basis – know your balances and plan for the month’s expenses at the beginning of the month, or based on your paydays. Write it down. Write everything down. Don’t let it clog up your brain.

5) Let it go..Sometimes things do not get done and sometimes you will not be perfect. That’s OK. Readjust. You meant to bake cookies for a party but you don’t have time. Fine. Pick some up at the store. No one will crucify you. You have to unload the dishwasher but your kid needs help with their homework. The dishes can wait. The laundry will not decompose if you leave it in the dryer and fold it tomorrow instead of today. The meeting will go on without you – or can be rescheduled – if you need that time to meet a deadline. You do not have to show up at every social event you are invited to. You can give 100%, but no more. The world will not stop spinning.

6) Get some sleep. Seriously. There’s so much to do and it seems like there is so little time, and we often end up staying up late to get everything accomplished. Or we’ve worked so hard all day that we end up sitting in front of the tv, mindlessly snacking to SportsCenter until way past bedtime. Stop. Get some sleep. Let what can wait until the morning wait until the morning, and don’t lose hours half-watching shows you don’t even care that much about. Get yourself to bed. Not reading in bed, not iPhone in bed, sleeping in bed. If you follow no other rule, follow this one. You cannot function without enough sleep. You will burn out, you will get sick, you will get cranky, and you will make mistakes. Sleep.

Now that the colder weather is upon us, it’s time to pack away the shorts and tank tops and take out the sweaters and heavy coats.

What a pain.

Why are you switching closets with the seasons? Is it because you have too much clothing to begin with?

I’m issuing a challenge – stop switching closets. Pare your wardrobe down to what you can fit in your closet and drawers. All at once. No storage.

Get rid of what doesn’t fit, what you don’t wear, what you keep for “sentimental reasons.” Donate what you can and scrap the rest. Be brutal. Don’t keep jeans that you hope you will fit into someday. Keep the ones that fit now. Ditch the expensive-but-trendy belts that you don’t use because the trend is way over. Donate the duplicate items. Remember that job where you had to wear a red shirt every day, so you ended up with like 15 red shirts? You don’t have that job anymore. You don’t need that many red shirts.

Everything in your wardrobe should meet ALL of the following criteria:

1) It fits (well, and now)
2) I wear it
3) I love it

That’s it. If it fits and you don’t love it, you won’t wear it and you don’t need it. If you love it but it doesn’t fit, you shouldn’t wear it. If it fits but you don’t love it, get rid of it. Regardless of what you paid for it. There is very little that “must” be in your wardrobe. The rest is just filler. Fill your wardrobe with the clothes you need for the life you have, and only wear what you love. Drop the rest of at the nearest donation center, and stop wasting time switching closets every season.

If it takes less than two minutes to do, do it right away. If you address a card, get a stamp and put it in the mailbox immediately. If your trash is full, take it out. If you pop a button, sew it back on. Don’t leave two minute tasks for later. They tend to pile up, and we tend to leave them out in plain view so we don’t forget about them. The end result is both physical and mental clutter.

If it’s trash, throw it out. When your pen runs out of ink, throw it in the garbage, not back in the drawer. When you finish the chips, don’t leave the bag on the coffee table. When you take the tags off new clothes, throw the tags in the trash, not on your dresser. It only takes a second.

Be realistic about saving and repurposing. I’m all for creative uses, but not everything can be re-used, and just because something can doesn’t mean that you personally have another use for it. Some people give their kids unmatched socks to use as chalkboard erasers. It’s a great idea – unless they already have a bunch, or you don’t have kids, or you don’t have a chalkboard. There are about a million things you can store in an old shoebox – but if you don’t have anything that needs storing or you don’t have anywhere to put the box, then there’s really no point in keeping it around just to have. If you don’t have a specific and immediate use for something, don’t keep it.

Be realistic about projects, hobbies, and pursuits. Crafters and artists are particularly vulnerable to this. They tend to see projects and possibilities in all kinds of items. But if you don’t have the time or resources to see the project through, whether it’s a can of paint, a piece of hardware, or a half-empty notebook, then you don’t have space for that item in your life. It just becomes something else on your to-do list, shuffled from location to location and ultimately becoming unused clutter. Don’t keep things because you can do something with them. Only keep things because you will do something with them. Then do that something, within a set time frame, or get rid of the object.

The more I think about this advice, the more I disagree with it. The grocery store is a great place to teach your kids all kind of lessons, at any age.

Babies: Talk to your child while you’re in the store. Narrate what you are doing. Show them the items you pick up and tell them what they are. Talk about how cold it is in the freezer aisle, show them the lobsters swimming in the tank, describe the dinner you are going to make with a specific ingredient. Kids are like sponges at that age, and the more you talk to them, the more they will learn about the world around them. It doesn’t matter if they don’t understand you. It doesn’t matter if people look at you funny. I ran my mouth the entire time I was in the store with my infants. “Ok, here’s the baking aisle. We’re going to get some Splenda for Mommy’s coffee and then we’re going to get some muffin mix so I can make breakfast for everyone this week. Do you think we should get the cranberry or the blueberry? Let’s get the blueberry, we got the cranberry last week…” There are about a million reasons to talk to your young child as much as possible – developmental, educational, emotional. The grocery store is a great place to do that.

Toddlers: Toddlers will ask you to buy everything they see. It can be hard to say no, and they may not take to hearing it all that well. What they may like more is making their own choices, and if you set the parameters you can let them do this and still stay within your budget. Let them decide whether you get apples or oranges this week. Hold up 2 boxes of cereal they like and tell them they get to decide which one you get. When they ask you for cookies, tell them that if you get the cookies you will have to put back the chips; which one do they want? They get to feel like they have a little bit of power, and they get to learn decision making skills, (plus you get foods they are more likely to eat) and your budget isn’t completely blown.

Pre-schoolers: At this age, kids can start to help. They’ll still ask you for everything in sight and you’ll still have to find a way around that, but giving them a choice between two items will still work most of the time. You can also start explaining things like “These paper towels are $1.50 a roll, but these other ones are only $1 a roll. $1 is less than $1.50, so we’re going to get these.” They may not have a grasp on addition and subtraction, but they are starting to understand concepts like “more” and “less.” They can also help identify items on the shelf and put them in the cart. Ask them if they can find the bananas and pick out a fresh bunch; show them how you know the bananas are ripe. This is also not too early to start talking to them about picking up healthy snacks instead of unhealthy ones: “Let’s get the string cheese instead of the Doritos; they’re better for us and will help you grow big and strong.”

School-age: By the time your kid hits school, they are being advertised to nonstop. Use the time at the grocery store to explain some of this to them. “That yogurt has Dora on it, but it’s really the same as this other yogurt with the cow on the package, and the one with the cow costs less. They put Dora on the package to make you want to buy it, but it’s really not any better. Let’s be smart and get the one with the cow.” They can also help you with the grocery list. Let them make their own list and find what’s on it when you get to the store. Maybe you can assign them to “breakfast foods” or “fruit” and that can be their job for the trip. If their list is too long or extravagant, you can use the opportunity to explain to them that if you buy all that fruit it will go bad before you can eat it all, so we should only get 2 kinds this time and save the rest for later. You can explain that if you buy waffles, muffins, cereal, pop tarts, and toaster strudel, that will be way too much breakfast food and you won’t have enough money to buy anything else; what are their favorites? You can also start to talk to them about budgeting and finding the best prices for items, or using coupons if you’re a coupon clipper. Keep it simple and on their level, and there’s a lot they can learn. Also, keep talking to them about nutrition and smart food choices, and show them how to identify healthy vs. non-healthy foods.

I’m the first to admit that sometimes, I am overjoyed to be in the grocery store alone. Kids are loud, they run off, they get antsy and want to go home. There’s a certain peacefulness to being able to walk the aisles and shop without having to supervise. That being said, there are also times when bringing the kids to the store can’t be avoided, so you might as well make the most of it. You just may end up with a little foodie on your hands.

School supplies:
If the teacher sent a list, use the list. Exactly. Some teachers will provide detail as to the type of supplies they want each student to have (plastic folders, glue sticks rather than liquid glue, etc.), or the school may have rules about the types of supplies allowed (no metal lunchboxes, no book bags with wheels, etc.). These details are provided for a reason. Most teachers are managing a classroom of 20+ students and use the supply list to help with their own organization and systems. Don’t make their life difficult. If they want plastic folders, get plastic folders. If they want a 24 pack of crayons, get the 24 pack. This is not a place to get creative.
Get everything on the list, in the quantity requested, even if it’s an odd request or you’re not sure why your child will need it. Again, the teacher provided the list for a reason.
Before you head to the store, go shopping in your own house. Do you have supplies left over from last year (half a box of pencils) or that can be re-used (book bags)? If so, there’s no need to re-purchase them as long as they conform to this year’s list. You’ll save time and money and have less stuff lying around your house if you only buy what you need to and not what you already have.
Bring a hard copy of the list to the store with you. This will help avoid multiple trips or mistaken purchases.
Label your child’s items. You can go high-tech and get a p-touch label maker, you can use address labels printed out from your home computer, or you can use a sharpie. No matter how responsible your child may be, things do get misplaced or forgotten, and without a label the school has no way to know what belongs to whom.

Clothes:
Again, before you go shopping at the mall, go shopping in your house. Check your child’s shoes and clothing to see what they already have, so that you only purchase what they actually need. Write down what you want to purchase and bring the list to the store with you so that nothing gets forgotten or duplicated. If your child wears a uniform to school, review the school’s uniform policy to make sure that your child’s wardrobe is complete and up to date. Similarly, check your school’s dress policy to make sure that their clothes conform to the rules – for example, some schools do not allow flip-flops or require shorts to be a certain length.

Paperwork:
I am amazed at how much paperwork school can generate. Even though there is a lot of it, it all needs to be dealt with, and you may have to look at some of it prior to the school year actually starting. Now is the time to make sure the school has up-to-date vaccination records for your child and physical records if they need them (for example, if they are playing sports). You may also want to join or renew your membership to the PTA, have emergency contact forms to complete, or school lunch purchase paperwork. Get everything together and get it ready to go before the first day of school. Mail in what you can ahead of time rather than sending it in with your child.

Home:
There’s a good chance that your child will have homework of one sort or another. They will need a space at home to complete it. Whether this is the kitchen table, a desk in their bedroom, or a space in your home office, make sure that supplies are nearby and that your child can focus and work uninterrupted in the space. Now is also a good time to talk to your child about when you expect them to complete their homework – before dinner, after dinner, on Fridays or by Sunday afternoon. It will help head off fights down the line.

Schedule:
Make sure that you know what time school begins and ends, what time the bus is coming, what time you can drop your children off, etc. Also, check schedules for clubs and sports that your child is participating in if they’re available, and take the time now to plan pick-ups, drops-offs, and child care. The first couple weeks will probably be bumpy anyway, but you can at least smooth some of the bumps over with advance planning.

Remember, a little preparation can go a long way in setting up your young scholar for their best school year yet!

While we’ve all been inundated with 24 hour news coverage of emergency meetings, late night sessions, and hastily written budget plans for the past several weeks, the truth is that the debt ceiling discussion began months ago. It just wasn’t treated with that much urgency until we were up against the August 2 deadline. Why is that? Parkinson’s law.

Parkinson’s law states that “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” On a related note, the Stock-Sanford Corollary to Parkinson’s Law is that “If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.” I would add a further corollary that “If you wait until the last minute, and the project should have taken longer than that, your end result will not be as good as it could have been.” This is exactly what we witnessed happening in Congress. They took longer than was likely necessary to reach an agreement because the work expanded to take up the time up to the last possible minute. The end result was a bill done in that very last minute that everyone seems to either classify as “not good” or “barely good enough,” but very few, if any, of the people involved would classify as objectively “good,” let alone “excellent.”

It’s likely that you have been in a similar situation, even though chances are you are not a member of Congress.

Remember that last paper that you wrote, the one that you knew about from the beginning of the semester but waited until the last week of classes to complete? You hastily wrote it in three coffee-fueled days, and the end result probably wasn’t as good as it would have been if you had started work earlier and devoted more time to the project. If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do – but how much better would that paper (and your grade) have been if you had used the allotted time more wisely?

How about that pile of boxes in the corner of your attic? How long has it been sitting there? Maybe you go through a box or so, once in awhile, with no particular urgency. The work of sorting through those boxes continues to expand the time you have to go through them, because without a deadline you have an infinite amount of time to get the job done. That is, until you decide to move and the un-sorted boxes become an emergency.

Parkinson’s law and its related corollaries can affect anyone, sabotaging your projects and causing all sorts of stress, only to result in missed deadlines and inferior results. So how can you stop this from happening to you?

1) Set deadlines. Have a firm date in which you intend (or are required) to have your project completed. Even if you have to pick an arbitrary date, pick something, and stick to it.

2) If you can, set a fake deadline prior to the real one. Have a report due on Friday? Commit to having it done Wednesday. Leaving for vacation on Saturday morning? Pack on Thursday night.

3) Break a project up, and give each small part its own deadline. This will help keep your project moving along and prevent everything from piling up against the final due date.

4) Be realistic about how long it will take you to complete a project. There’s no point in giving yourself an unmanageable deadline. If your deadline is dictated by somebody else, and it is categorically unreasonable, speak up sooner rather than later. If you wait until the day before something is due, you’ll be accused of procrastinating (whether you have or not). If you speak up immediately, it’s more likely that the timeline can be reassessed, or you can enlist assistance to meet the deadline. Conversely, if you give yourself three months to complete a project that really only requires three weeks, you’ll spend the whole three months on it rather than getting it done sooner.

If there’s one thing that everyone can agree on with the debt ceiling debacle, it’s that it did not go well. Depending on your political leanings (and tolerances), there may be other lessons you can learn, but if nothing else, take it as an example of how NOT to get things done on time, well, and without panic.