Featured Article 10-Minute Organizing Tricks by Maria Gracia Whoever thought you'd be able to get organized in just 10 minutes?! Here are a few simple ideas. • 10-Minute Chore Box: Rather than spending hours organizing and doing it all yourself, create a 10 minute Chore Box for yourself, and one for each family member. Each person's box would contain specific chores or tasks that need to be completed. The chores are written on slips of paper, and take a maximum of 10 minutes each to accomplish. You can gear the tasks towards the person's abilities (e.g. while older kids can help out with vacuuming, a 3-year old may instead be responsible for putting away his/her toys.) Each day, as a chore is completed, that slip of paper is placed in a holding envelope until the Chore Box is empty. Then, when empty, the boxes are refilled, and the system starts over again. This also works well at the office! • 10-Minute Pick-Up: Control the chaos. Schedule a consistent, “10 minute Pick-up” each night. Set a timer to sound an alarm in 10 minutes. While the clock is ticking, all family members are responsible for clearing out and putting away their belongings from the main family area. When the timer sounds, you're all done. Give yourselves a warm round of applause for all you've accomplished. • 10-Minute “When I Have Time Goals”: One of the oldest phrases in the book is, “I'll do that, when I have the time.” Problem is, that time never seems to come. If you REALLY want to do something, the time can generally be found pretty easily. For example, if you just won an all- expenses paid trip to the land of your dreams, you'd probably find time to fit it into your busy schedule without much of a problem. So, it's time to begin fitting in those things you want to do, and 10-Minute Goals can help. Schedule 10 minutes a day to catch up on your reading, or to begin learning that foreign language, or to simply spend having fun with your children. Then, work on those goals when the schedule date and time rolls around. • 10-Minute Luxuries: Don't forget to schedule a few 10 Minute Luxuries per day to do something nice for yourself. Sometimes the day is so rushed and chaotic that it's easy to forget the really important things like family, health, spirituality, and personal time.