BJ Gallagher is an inspirational author, speaker, and seminar leader. She writes popular women's books as well as bestselling business books.

CHAPTER 1

get Organized: TIPS and TIME-SAVERS

If managing your life feels like a war, then half of every battle is gettingthings in order. For me it's no fun at all. I have this nagging feeling that Ihave two lives going on simultaneously: the fun stuff and the rest of it. Forexample, I love to cook but despise washing dishes. I love the feeling of payingoff the monthly bills, but often can't get myself together to do it until a weekpast the deadline, and then I feel miserable about the cumulative effect on mycredit score. And any upheaval—a move, an emergency, or just getting a bad headcold—throws me for a loop. How did I let this go?! I ask myself, crazed. Why ismy house filled with paper?! (One in every five pieces is really important, Iswear.)

Well, it's time for a detox, a deep cleansing, spring cleaning. Doing yourtaxes. Clearing and sorting your wardrobe. Getting rid of the magazines you'vebeen unwittingly storing since college. What a wonderful release. Now, those arethe big projects, and don't worry yourself into trying to do them all at once.Just pick a project each month and do it a little at a time or set aside a wholeweekend to blast through, whatever suits your style.

And for the rest of the month take aim at the little, repetitive, everydaystuff. Work hard to make it a habit to sort your mail right away, clean out yourpockets and purse every day, and dream up new ways to multitask effectively.Train yourself to make a difference in tiny ways all day long, and soon you'llforget it's an annoyance because when it all adds up, you're way ahead of thegame. If you can coax yourself into making the art of organization secondnature, I promise it will serve you forever.

Find Your Focus

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.

AYN RAND

Sometimes I still lose my head, even though it is attached to my body. But ifI've left myself a note, I can usually find it again.

MARLO THOMAS

Detail is electric.

BONNI GOLDBERG

To know where you can find a thing is the chief part of learning.

UNKNOWN

Only when your consciousness is totally focused on the moment you are in can youreceive whatever gift, lesson, or delight that moment has to offer.

BARBARA DE ANGELIS

On clutter: chaos begets chaos in our homes, and in our minds.

CAROL WISEMAN

A place for everything, and everything in its place.

ISABELLA MARY BEETON

Just before bedtime prayers, evaluate each day. Make plans for tomorrow thatwill move you toward your long-range goal.

FLORENCE S. JACOBSEN

You may not be able to foresee what the universe has planned for you, but thatdoesn't mean your own plans should be unpredictable.

SANDRA OLIVER

Most of what you obtain in life will be because of your discipline. Disciplineis perhaps more important than ability.

CHRISTINE DARDEN

Never walk into or out of a meeting without a clear agenda.

MARY JANE RYAN

Many a woman has a "to do list" that resembles the phone book! Don't over doyour "to do" list. Keep it reasonable and keep it doable.

LESLIE ROSSMAN

I want minimum information given with maximum politeness.

JACKIE KENNEDY

Out your problem on a piece of paper, stick the paper in a drawer and close it.Do not allow yourself to look at or think about the list until the end of theweek. By then, you may will look at your problems differently and will havesolutions.

MICHELLE STRONG

I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind mustknow it has got to get down to work.

PEARL S. BUCK

Plan and Prepare

Look twice before you leap.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË

The very best impromptu speeches are the ones written well in advance.

RUTH GORDON

What I've learned from fairy tales: Invest in some good string rather than merebreadcrumbs.

That way, you can always find the path back to the gingerbread house.

WENDY ST. CHARLES

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

EFFIE JONES

If one asks for success and prepares for failure, she will get the situation shehas prepared for.

FLORENCE SCOVEL SHINN

Don't agonize. Organize.

FLORYNCE KENNEDY

Plans are necessary to life and achievement in any sphere. But they should neverovercome our powers of flexibility.

DIXIE MARTIN

Lack of confidence is born from a lack of preparation.

SHANNON WILBURN

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

OPRAH WINFREY

You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; fortoday is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows thatfollow.

HARRIET MARTINEAU

Winning is the science of being totally prepared.

GRACIE ALLEN

Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.

AMELIA EARHART

Dream On!

Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dressrehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination.

BARBARA GRIZZUTI HARRISON

What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.

PEARL BAILEY

If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we wantto get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks'vacation, we would be startled at the aimless procession of our busy days.

DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER

I want to so order my life that its impression, its impact, might always bepositive and spiritually constructive.

DOROTHY BROWN

For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open tochance.

MIGNON MCLAUGHLIN

To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.

ROSABETH MOSS KANTER

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.

PROVERB

Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble and logicalplan never dies, but long after we are gone will be a living thing.

LITA BANE

It's never too late—in fiction or in life—to revise.

NANCY THAYER

Take Your Life in Your Own Hands

It's true that life's gifts come with responsibilities. When I don't feel likecleaning up my desk or my car or my house or my general existence, I try toremember the people who would be desperate to have all the things I take forgranted.

RACHEL CLARKSON

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens?A terrible thing: no one to blame.

ERICA JONG

Make decisions in a...