Organize a Successful Tailgate Party

Sports fans everywhere are studying up on their favorite teams' starting quarterbacks, injury reports and expected totals for wins as well as losses, but that's not the only conversation circling around football.

Pregame festivities are the ultimate excuse to gather with friends for cornhole, crack open a cold beverage and fire up the grill. Maybe you are an ACC fan celebrating the season for your Demon Deacons, Tar Heels, Wolfpack, Blue Devils and Clemson Tigers or you're an SEC fan excited about the prospects for this year's Gators, Bulldogs, LSU Tigers and Crimson Tide; maybe you're an NFL fan who's eagerly awaiting the start of the 100th season coming up on Thursday. No matter what logo is on your jersey, chances are good you'll be tailgating soon.

Whether you're planning a football tailgate for tomorrow, next week or next month, here are some tools to make the process of planning your pregame festivities a little easier:

• Make sure you bring the right supplies. If you know right off exactly what you and your crew need, don't rely on your unreliable brain; capture the checklist for what to prepare, pack and bring within your Evernote account. If you are an Android user, you can use the already drafted list within the Tailgating Planner app, which is easily customizable as your list evolves and syncs between all your Android devices. If you are an iPhone user, you can create food and drink menus as well as collect attendees' fees from the Tailgate Nation app, making it easy to host the party.

• Efficiently answer your friends' "What can I bring?" question. Whether you update the list built into the Thing2Bring app on your iPhone or you use an event list from SignUpGenius.com, having folks choose from a list will better ensure all elements needed are covered without too many folks bringing the same thing. Ice is important, but you don't want everyone bringing only a bag of ice, just like too many desserts won't cover all needs.

• Be weather aware before and during your tailgate. Check the weather beforehand to be sure you dress appropriately as well as take whatever accessories will be needed for what Mother Nature is sending, like tents, jackets, umbrellas and sunglasses. Then, setup alerts from your preferred weather app to be notified when there are changes or a weather system gets nearby, whether that's via the app for your local TV station, what's built into your mobile device or from The Weather Channel.

• Ensure attendees painlessly find the party. The Map My Tailgate app on Android as well as iOS allows hosts to share exactly where the tailgate is, choosing to share that with invited guests or inviting anyone with the app to come share your fun. Alternatively, if you used the Tailgate Info app to plan who will be bringing what, it includes Point to Point Navigation for easily finding your precise location. Plus, whether stars, footballs or something else, a bundle of helium balloons from Dollar Tree will last a long time, giving great visibility for those roaming the lot in search of your tailgate. 

• Avoid FOMO by staying abreast of all the other games. You could use an app like ESPN or Yahoo! Sports to get notifications of all the others' scores and important plays. Or you could setup an actual TV in your truck tailgate to broadcast what's happening elsewhere.

Going beyond these basics, make sure to checkout BuzzFeed's 41 Tailgating Tips That Are Borderline Genius. These best practices are guaranteed to take your pregaming from great to amazing in the snap of your finger, and you will certainly say "Wow!" when reading at least one.

Once you have nailed how to organize a successful tailgate party, if you are in the state of North Carolina, consider submitting your next tailgate to the David Glenn Radio Show to win big prizes as the tailgate of the week or of the year via the Big Tailgate Tour. DG will definitely bring even more excitement to your already fantastic celebration.

What's your favorite way to prepare the ultimate tailgate? Which element is essential for your most fabulous tailgate?

Regularly Perform a Time Audit for Optimum Output

Productivity is efficiently working at effectively achieving desired results, and there are so many thoughts about how to best boost productivity. People often refer to work-life balance as a viable option; yet, in thinking about "balance", I see a seesaw, forcing a perception of costs needed for success. I don't believe my work competes with my life, seeing how they regularly complement each other instead. Further, although balance would be static, life is certainly not and requires fluid solutions to address one's ever-changing priorities for the various layers of work, home, community or society and the private realm of mind, body and spirit, known as work-life integration.

As Stephen R. Covey explains, "The sum is greater than the parts... When it comes to organizing your life, nothing happens in isolation. As you take an active role in planning your days, weeks and months, the choices you make influence each aspect of your life, multiplying and amplifying your results". It is when all elements of life work in harmony that we are more effective in attaining our goals; the return on time invested in one element can enhance results experienced from investing time elsewhere, like how skills garnered from leading a volunteer committee can transfer to running a household more efficiently or parenting teenage children.

Whereas operating with harmony between how we invest our time and what matters most amplifies success, misalignment between one's actions and one's goals, priorities or values causes burnout. Achieving this necessary alignment gets complicated as our priorities fluctuate daily, weekly, monthly... Some days will need a greater investment of time in work while others should focus more on community or home, requiring fluidity to shift between work, home, community or society and the private realm of mind, body and spirit as needed. Without regular reflection, there is often a discrepancy between the way we spend our time and how our time should be invested to achieve what outcomes we most want or need. Encourage harmony while discouraging misalignment by regularly completing a time audit to verify each action is in agreement with what matters most.

A time audit is an assessment that can be done at whatever interval is necessary, making it the best tool for looking at exactly how our time is being used to better understand where our time is going and evaluate whether using any minutes in a different way would more quickly move us toward more efficiently attaining our goals. This can be completed by keeping a log of how each minute is used, whether paper or electronic, and, then, taking time to reflect upon what the log says regarding how our time is being used and verifying that it's how we'd really like to spend our time, highlighting time wasted versus time invested.

How do you monitor the ways you're investing your time? How often do you examine that investment to make sure your actions align with your goals, priorities and values? How will you utilize a time audit to amplify your success?

Location, Location, Location

Although you might be familiar with the phrase "location, location, location" that's frequently used by realtors when you are searching for the ideal spot to live or work, but did you know it's equally applicable for organizing your workspace to be another tool in your productivity toolbox? It is with this mantra that you can be certain each item in your office is assigned a home that works for your needs.

In real estate, "location, location, location" applies to finding a home that's close to what amenities or destinations you want to easily access for an ideal life or finding a business spot that's in close proximity to your clients. Alternatively, when it comes to organizing your workspace, this refrain applies equally well to prioritizing the space within arm's reach from where you spend most of your working hours, assigning homes to what's in your office based on how frequently you use each item.

The second Monday of January each year is recognized as National Clean Off Your Desk Day, making today the ideal opportunity to begin your new year with a clean and organized workspace. Whether in a private or shared office, in your home or in a cubicle, having a desk that is uncluttered and designed for your success helps you work more efficiently, making today the perfect time to consider the "location, location, location" of what's atop your desk.

Step one is to evaluate anything atop your desk and make sure you need or want to keep it there. Retain only what is accurate, applicable, useful or bringing you joy. Decide what to trash, recycle, donate, move elsewhere or keep in your space. Remember that the less you have in your office then the less you need to sift through to quickly find what's needed.

Step two is to determine how often you utilize each item you are planning to keep. Physical items, papers, files or tools that you use more frequently earn a higher priority and can be kept closer to where you sit; alternatively, anything used rarely can be moved farther away. It is by knowing how often something is used that you can proceed through the organizing process.

Step three is to use those determinations in assigning homes for what's to remain. When something is assigned a home, you can more seamlessly return it to that location after each time you use it, meaning assigned homes can save time while lessening the stress of decision-making. When possible, group related items together, and position items near where they will be used. Anything used more frequently should be assigned space closer to you while less frequently used items move further away based on how much often less they get utilized.

Step four is to replicate the same process you used in cleaning off your physical desktop to clean off your computer's desktop. Those same principles that I mentioned previously apply to your technology; plus, when your computer home screen is cluttered, it slows down how well your laptop or desktop works, particularly if you use a PC as opposed to a Mac.

Pause for a moment to celebrate all the desktop you can now see and, then, schedule time to maintain the systems you created. Maybe you'll schedule time at the end of each day to put away what items have found their ways atop your desk. Maybe you'll commit to getting caught back up at the end of each week. Choose a maintenance system that works for your specific workflow and personality, but make sure to select some method of keeping that desk cleaned off so you continue to reap the benefits of greater organization and enhanced productivity.

Use a Timer to Boost Productivity

Maybe you are struggling with procrastination and simply cannot get started. Maybe you get distracted easily and want to better stay on track. Maybe you are overwhelmed by all that needs to get done and are drowning in what you're doing. No matter what might be your challenge for getting organized to boost productivity, a timer might be the most powerful tool to help you get things done.

Here are a handful of ways in which using a timer can help you better achieve your priority goals:

• Build momentum by getting started - As the old adage goes, activity breeds activity, which means working on a given task to a limited amount of time can propel you to continue working on it, making more progress towards its completion. Working on any task can energize you to get it all done.

• Eliminate procrastination - When struggling to find time to get started working on a big, hairy, audacious goal, it could be that you are frozen by the thought of all the time needed for the entire project rather than the individual tasks going into that overall project. Setting a timer for 5 minutes, 10 minutes or, even 30 minutes can get the ball rolling on any of those smaller, more manageable action items, giving a more realistic view of how long the entire project will take as compared to the intimidating mountain created in your mind.

• Shorter work times feel less overwhelming - If the task you have been avoiding is something you really don't want to do, knocking it out in shorter sessions of time can make it much less daunting. I mean, you can do anything for a short amount of time, right? When you envision something you truly dislike doing, it can be much less bad if attacked for a shorter interval.

• Work harder if for shorter durations - If you have all afternoon to complete a task, it is likely to take that entire time; however, if you set a timer for a much shorter amount of time, you will race to beat the clock. Shorter spans of effort energize greater results, and you are likely to get the task accomplished much more quickly, maybe even finishing the entire task in that shorter amount of time.

• Compete against prior times to do tasks - When faced with a to-do item that you complete regularly, it might feel more mundane and tend to drag on more with each iteration. If you set a timer for slightly less time than it took to complete the task previously, you race the clock, competing against yourself, and can often get it done more quickly.

• Stay on task to make greater progress - It is easy to get pulled away from the task at hand, running off on a tangent or following some distraction. Does "Ooooo... Bright shiny thing!" or "chasing squirrels" sound familiar? If so, setting a timer for the length of time you want to invest in any given task can keep you on track; when the timer goes off, if you are still working on the task at hand, you are success, but, if you've followed a distraction, you have to start the timer over again. Set a timer for short intervals and repeat that for whatever number of intervals is needed to achieve your desired result, making sure you are still on task after each interval.

Whether you implement the timer built into your phone, utilize a kitchen timer or try out the Time Timer app, this tool in your productivity toolbox will prove helpful in moving you more efficiently toward achieving your priority goals.

How do you currently utilize a timer? How have you seen using a timer boost your focus and productivity? What are some of your greatest success stories? If not yet, by when can you give a timer a try? How do you envision a timer fueling desired results?

Knowing Where You're Headed Helps in Getting There

At times, it seems like the world is conspiring against anyone's attempts at productivity. You sit down at your computer to work on a major project, and your mind wanders to all the things you've forgotten to address; you see a pop-up notifying you of a new email, and an alert appears on your smartphone that someone liked your photo on Facebook. The phone begins ringing. Then, someone appears at your office door in a panic and needing your help. How can anyone actually get anything done?!?

When you know where you're headed, you are better enabled to get there. If you create a strategy each week for how to best address what matters most, you have a clear, meaningful path for achieving your priority goals. To make this work, it's important to utilize your weekly strategy as a protective barrier, warding off time stealers and others' priorities, like your own personal suit of armor.

With a weekly strategy, you know which tasks, communications, time commitments and development opportunities focus on your priorities, fueling achievement of your goals. If you don't use this strategy to protect yourself from the world's distractions and conflicting priorities, it's easy to get swept up in reactionary measures, losing vision of what matters most.

Stop getting swept up in what's urgent but unimportant. Stop reacting. Start using your weekly strategy to proactively invest in what's important. Grow confident that you can consistently work toward your priority goals by wearing your protective barrior.

How do you utilize your weekly strategy to ward off time stealers and others' priorities? Have you ever considered how your strategy can protect you from deviating away from what matters most?

Be Proactive with a Weekly Strategy Session

Imagine it's Friday afternoon and you're preparing to walk out the door for the weekend. Looking back on the work week that's ending, how accomplished are you feeling? Did you effectively address what was important for work, home, your community and yourself? Or did you get pulled into others' priorities, spend your week putting out fires and neglect your goals?

If you feel less successful than you'd like, take steps to better address what matters most in upcoming weeks.

Those who have ever played or worked in athletics know there are many preparations that occur before each game, including scouting the opponent, preparing equipment and creating a game plan. Yes, during the game itself, there will be adjustments based off how the other team plays, but coaches would never lead their teams into athletic competitions without creating a game plan beforehand. It is about proactively creating the direction in which you will proceed rather than simply reacting to what's thrown your way, and the same philosophy applies to addressing your priorities for work, home, your community and making yourself the best possible.

Take control of your productivity by creating your own weekly strategy, which is a specific game plan for how you'll address your priorities in each of the following ways:

• Carryover Tasks - Evaluate which of the tasks you'd planned to do during the week that's ending were actually completed; determine what's left undone and when those undone tasks can be rescheduled. Be honest with yourself about what you are actually willing to do. If not you, then who can accomplish what needs to get done? What can you delegate? Does each incomplete task truly need to happen or can any be deleted? 

• Team Communications - Get in-depth updates from each member of your team (at work, at home, involved with the community projects you're currently addressing or those with whom you've contracted to get more done), seeking input on what is working, what is not working and what needs attention.

• Client Communications - Catch-up on processing outstanding emails, phone calls and snail mail. Reach out to schedule time with those who have been needing your attention. Touch bases with clients from whom you've not heard lately, whether with gratitude, to wish a happy birthday or simply seeing how things are going. Sometimes, reaching out should include a call to action; however, realize that reaching out without a call to action can provide even greater results in certain scenarios.

• New Tasks - As every project should be broken down into smaller, more manageable action steps with associated deadlines for their timely completion, there is a good chance upcoming deadlines are approaching, and there are tasks related to those deadlines that need addressing in the upcoming week. Decide which new tasks should be added to your to-do list, ensure you are clear on their associated deadlines, and make time for taking action to get them done.

• Time Commitments - Review the next week's appointments to make certain you're prepared for all related tasks, ensuring there is time for necessary preparations and travel to each. Do you need to incorporate any additional buffers for traffic or unforeseen things that'll pop up? Do you know which will occur in person, over the phone or via video conference? Are you clear about how to get to each of the in-person commitments?

• Development - Never neglect a focus on continually improving yourself. Determine opportunities for personal and professional growth; what will move you towards your goals? This could be training, networking or anything focused on fueling your desired results. Review what upcoming options have come to you via email, snail mail, websites you've seen or conversations you've had, and make decisions about which can earn space on your calendar, registering to attend once you've determined you will.

It is less important when you complete this process as compared to whether or not you get it done at all; many like to wrap-up the week with a weekly strategy session on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, but choose which works best for your unique situation.

Be strategic and map out a specific game plan for addressing all that needs your attention. Keep in mind each of the elements for work-life integration: work, home, community or society as well as the private realm of mind, body and spirit. As each of these elements is a layer of life with rotating levels of emphasis, focus on how you can best invest the upcoming week's 168 hours to address the current priorities within each realm of your life.

Especially when you first start implementing the weekly strategy session, set a timer. Knowing you have a certain amount of time in which to complete this checklist will keep you focused and better ensure your planning doesn't run longer than necessary.

Do you take time at the end of each week to properly plan the week ahead and proactively address your priorities? How does this equip you for greater productivity? On the flip side, what issues have you encountered when you haven't been able to plan adequately before starting your week?

Utilize Priorities as a Filter for Determining What To Do

Throughout the day, we are bombarded with items and people demanding our attention. Tasks come to us via email, calls, meeting notes and folks stopping by our offices in addition to the many, ongoing projects that need time to move towards completion. Amidst all the overwhelm, it's hard to know where to start, let alone how to get it all properly accomplished.

With all the attention on comic superheroes, it's easy to feel like Superman, Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel, but each of us is human and, therefore, can do only what's feasible within each day's constraints. Due to how many interruptions we face daily, it is realistic to plan 3 to 5 items that we intend on completing by the end of the day, leaving buffers for issues that arise.

To decide which of the many tasks on your running data dump of to-do items will make the cut for each day's must-do list, reflect on your top priorities. Which of the tasks on your list will fuel your success with your goals? Which tasks address what matters most for home, work, your community and taking care of yourself?

It's important to schedule your priorities rather than simply prioritizing whatever randomly falls onto your schedule. What you have established as your priorities should be what matters most, providing guidance for how you should best invest your limited resource of time. This allows you to proactively address the important things instead of reacting to others' priorities.

How many items are on your to-do list for today? If you're looking at a never-ending list right now, what steps can you take to focus on 3-5 items for this particular workday? What are your priorities, and how can you filter the never-ending list of what needs your attention through those to focus on what matters most?

Clarify Your Priorities

Within each day's 24 hours, we are gifted only 1,440 minutes; coupled with the fact each minute can be invested once, time is the most limited and valuable resource of all.

Saying "yes" to doing one thing is inherently saying "no" to doing something else, and you have to choose wisely in what activities you invest each minute in your limited inventory.

When a dollar is invested, it is with the hope that you will get more dollars in return. When a minute is invested, it is with the hope of an alternative return on investment, and what return you are seeking depends heavily on your priorities. Only when you know what matters most can you align your actions with those priorities to achieve your greatest goals.

Photo: Children's Ministry Magazine

Think of each day as a jar with limited space to fill. In that jar, you'd like to stuff tons of rocks, pebbles and sand. If you start with the sand, you may be able to shove in some pebbles, but you'll never be able to fit all the necessary rocks. Alternatively, if you start with the rocks, you can fill the spaces around those rocks with the pebbles and still fill the sand in amongst the remaining space. Comparing this to your day, think of the rocks as your highest priorities, for which you need to make time in your schedule first; then, the pebbles are lower priorities while the sand is even less important. Only by allocating time to your priorities first can you fit everything that matters into an already busy schedule.

One of the most effective methods for determining priorities is to consider the ramifications for completing each task versus leaving it undone. Depending on how well doing the task fuels your desired results, you can more easily rank that as what needs to be done first instead of later. Rather than getting swept up in what is urgent or on fire, focus on making time for what is most important.

What are your rocks or top priorities? How can you make sure time in your schedule is allocated for addressing those first, working the pebbles and sand into what time remains afterward?

Over 60 Gift Ideas to Eliminate Clutter for Loved Ones

It's the holiday season, and, whether you're celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah or Boxing Day, chances are good that your shopping list feels endless. While giving the gift of your time, access to an experience or consumable items (edible, personal care, art supplies) offer excellent alternatives, we often want to give a tangible item that can immediately improve the recipient's life. When determining which such gifts to consider, it is important to think about lifestyle elements for the recipient. Here are some of my favorite, clutter-free gifts for folks on your list:

• Mornings can be tough for some of us, but the BEDDI Glow help.s This intelligent alarm clock enables waking up naturally with sunrise simulated wake up light paired with your favorite music from Spotify, Apple Music or other music players. Set multiple alarms on different days, and receive traffic / weather information once you wake up. You can also sleep well every night with soothing white noise or choose from five, relaxing, nature sounds while charging your phone and tablet.

• As a huge fan of music for motivation, I love starting my day by singing in the shower, and Kohler's Moxie 1-spray showerhead with wireless speaker offers a great tool to facilitate this. It enables streaming music wirelessly with any Bluetooth-enabled device, and the speaker can be easily removed from the showerhead for recharging. If gifting this great find, pair this with an Apple iTunes gift card, and your gift recipient will be ready to jumpstart the day.

• Misfit Ray is an exceptionally versatile tracker while offering a sleek style for those preferring a minimal option. It automatically tracks steps, distance, calories and light versus restful sleep; it can count swim laps, too. Its vibration alerts provide notification of calls, texts, when to move and set alarms. It is smart button enabled to control connected household devices while never needing charging and is water-resistant up to 50 meters so it can be worn constantly, providing more data, better insights and greater motivation.

• If one of your gift recipients gets frustrated by how photos aren't printed anymore, consider the Polaroid ZIP Mobile Printer or the Lifeprint Wireless Photo and Video Printer, both using ZINK Zero Ink Printing Technology as well as working with Apple iOS and Android devices alike.

• For those of us on-the-go throughout each day, it's easy to have devices that need refueling while out and about. The QBracelet merges technology with modern style to offer a sleek, lightweight bracelet that can charge an iPhone, holding its charge for up to 30 days and charging your phone up to 50% in 40 minutes. Offering size and color options, it works with iPhones 5 and up, including the iPhone 8, 8+ and X.

• With all the buzz around Meghan Markle these days, I'm inspired by an item she considers a "travel essential", but be forewarned that the associated cost makes this more of an investment piece. The Personalized Stow Leather Zipper Tech Case is made from buttery soft Spanish leather and helps keep track of all your tech accessories in one place, regardless of whether you're home, at work or on-the-go. As described on its website, "there's a spare leather pocket and loop, perfect for headphones and extra cables, and a leather pen loop centrally placed. Travel essentials such as passport, boarding cards, reward cards and receipts are organized neatly to the right." 

• For those who struggle to have a "home" for their iPhones or iPads, the DOCK+ Charging Station with Lightning Cable sits elegantly on a desk, nightstand or any flat surface for a sleek, stable base in minimalist design to charge a device while allowing comfortable use or viewing the screen at a glance.

• Speaking of those Apple mobile devices, if your gift recipients have had issues with the cords that came with their iPhones and iPads, they will appreciate Paracable's 5' Apple Lightning Cables,  Belkin MIXIT Duratek Kevlar Lightning to USB Cable or Anker PowerLine 10' Apple-Certified Lightning Cables, which charge and sync Apple devices in style with longer, more durable cables in various, fun colors.

• For those with multiple devices needing homes for charging at once, Hammacher Schlemmer's 7 Device Charging Station is ideal. This charging station supplies power to seven USB devices simultaneously. The hub draws power from a standard wall outlet and supplies up to 14 amps to tablets, smartphones and other electronic devices via two 2.4-amp, three 1-amp and two 3-amp ports. The dock's integrated smart-charging technology adjusts the energy output of each USB port to optimize recharging speeds of plugged-in devices. The 3-amp ports also feature Quick Charge 3.0 technology for compatible Qualcomm devices that can recharge a completely drained battery to 80% full in just 35 minutes. It turns off automatically after devices are charged, occupies as little space as an alarm clock by standing devices on end and includes plastic dividers that help protect screens while minimizing cord tangles.

• Whether your gift recipient's phone or tablet is an Android or Apple iOS device, Neet Products can protect the charging cords, make them easier to wind up for traveling and differentiate between similar cords in the same household by giving each person an assigned color. The Cable Tie Wrap is available in 36-inch and 8-inch options, comes in 11 colors, reduces everyday wear and tear, eliminates tangles, reduces strain on cable tips and is a lightweight addition to tech tools.

• Power Perch is a charging shelf that can be added to any single outlet. This is a great gift for folks who travel a bunch and need to keep mobile devices perched atop outlets across the room from any tables or flat surfaces. It can also help for those living in smaller spaces where it doesn't make sense to take up floor space near the outlet for resting what will be plugged into it. or where there is a desire to keep mobile devices off limited countertop space.

• It's easy to get grossed out by what happens to our tech tools, but PhoneSoap will keep anyone's smartphone disinfected as it charges; plus, the brand-new version adds wireless charging for your device that offers this functionality already. Pair this with the screen cleaning wipes from Spruce and Co to make life a little brighter with the cleanest mobile devices possible.

• Many of us hover between a love of technology and a dependence on the effectiveness of paper solutions; if you have someone on your list that fits that description, consider gifting the Bamboo Slate Smartpad, which is a board that holds your own paper so you take handwritten notes naturally, push a button on the board to upload to the cloud and organize, edit or share those saved notes and sketches how its easiest for you to use and get things done. Turn your handwritten notes into text and, then, sync across devices. Work smarter, not harder.

• If your loved one likes swimming laps at the local gym or riding the waves off the coast, protecting technology from water is a key consideration. The Unifun 10400mAh Waterproof External Battery Power Bank Charger includes a strong LED flashlight and strap hole for devices. Its creative design is waterproof, dustproof, anti-shock and skid resistant, making it ideal for campers, hikers, skiers, construction workers and outdoor enthusiasts alike. It can fast-charge two devices simultaneously. To help your gift recipient protect mobile devices, consider the Ace Teah Waterproof Phone Pouch Underwater Dry Bag, which is snowproof, and dirtproof in addition to waterproof. Cellphones, IDs, credit cards, cash and keys are protected from water, snow, dust, sand and dirt when diving, swimming or partaking in other outdoor activities while the crystal clear transparent window remains sensitive to touch so typing, taking photos or videos and making calls continue. Plus, Finis' Duo™ Underwater MP3 Player uses bone conduction audio transmission for incredibly clear sound, making it a game changer for swimming laps. Its integrated clip design secures to google straps to rest on the cheekbones for a comfortable and streamlined fit; there are four buttons to easily navigate between songs, podcasts, audiobooks and other supported audio files. The device offers 4GB of flash memory and a Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery life of up to 7 hours.

• Although it can often appear that electronic storage space is limitless, we're regularly reminded of the limits to our physical space. Combat the space constraints of drawers in your gift recipient's home with a couple items from The Container Store. The Dream Drawer collection offers organizers and dividers to make better use of each drawer's space; likewise, the 5-Section Boobie Trap Bra Organizer is created specifically to store up to 10 bras while preserving their shape, protecting delicate lace and guarding against snags.

• Sharper Image's Motorized Tie Rack offers the ultimate tie organizing, holding more than 45 ties, belts and accessories within a smaller space and making it possible to find the perfect one with the press of a button. The rack includes 3 bright white LEDs to illuminate all items, making it easier to quickly find what's needed, and they shut off automatically.

• For the person on your list who loves the outdoors, the CGear Sand-Free Multimat has a double layer weave made from 100% PE, which is perfect for camping and the beach. It is easily cleaned and dries instantly should drinks be spilled; plus, as you lift it off the ground, sand, dirt and dust disappear before your eyes. Its D-Rings around the edges help to affix it firmly to the ground, and it is UV stabilized to prevent fading. Choose which size and color is preferred.

• No matter why your loved one is headed out into the cold, you can help prepare them with Ravean heated down jackets and gloves. With these tools, anyone can control the temperature whenever and wherever needed. Plus, the same cord that heats the jacket can charge a mobile device, making sure no one suffers from a dead battery. As an alternative, consider the EnergyFlux Enduro Rechargeable Hand Warmer, which doubles as a USB portable charger power bank to make sure your hands stay warm while keeping your device charged. As a bonus, it includes a built-in flashlight, too.

• For family trips to the beach, afternoons at the park or protection during outdoor concerts, the Sport-Brella Portable All-Weather and Sun Umbrella offers an 8-foot canopy with UPF 50+ protection to keep your skin safe and protected from over 99.5% of UVA and UVB rays. Side panels offer extra protection while wind flaps provide ventilation. It is water repellent to keep everything inside dry and relaxed on rainy game days or cool from the warm summer sun at the beach. The kit is easily portable, collapsing down to a 54" x 4" x 4" unit, which weighs only 9 lbs and can be carried in one bag with the 8 steel ground stakes and 3 tie-down cords.

• For the yogi in your life, consider YoYo Mats from The Grommet. This self-rolling fitness and yoga mat helps maintain the Zen moment well after each class. With two, patented steel bands hidden inside, you can give it a toss while holding on to one end to unroll; then, push and click the other end down to keep the mat flat. To roll it back, give it another quick toss, which will make it snap shut like a slap bracelet, and it will stay put. The lightweight mat is made from a recyclable, eco-alternative material that's nontoxic and free of latex, PVC as well as phthalates; further, its closed cell construction blocks out moisture, bacteria and odors.

• As I explained in last year's gift guide, the S'well water bottle is an excellent tool to keep hydrated as it keeps beverages cold for 24 hours or hot for 12 hours; when I shared that tidbit, the only option was the original S'well bottles and accessories, but, now, they have expanded to include travelers and tumblers, which ensure the S'well brand meets all the beverage needs while eliminating use of disposable bottles. Choose from a wide variety of colors and exterior textures to best reflect the personality of your gift recipient.

• We all need socks; however, the gift of socks can be yet another something to fill your drawers unless you give Bombas socks. Each pair purchased leads to one pair donated to someone in need. Yet, these aren't normal socks... At Bombas, the "goal is to make socks that feel better than anything you've ever put on your feet." These socks offer superior comfort, support and softness. Click here to learn all about Bombas' higher level sock tech and prepare to be amazed.

• Does the stylista on your list love the most beautiful shoes that always make her feet absolutely ache? It's tough being gorgeous, but your gift can help. Sole Serum's essential oil and lidocaine-infused lotion relieves foot pain and discomfort instantly, lasts for hours, reduces inflammation, dries quickly, is easy to carry, doesn't leave a stain, refreshes skin, offers non-greasy moisturizing and has a soothing scent.

• Although a local fine jewelry store claims that every woman wants one of their boxes, I must admit that I prefer more eclectic jewelry, and many of my friends feel the same way. If someone on your shopping list fits that description, consider The Painted Pearl for your gift-giving needs. The artist making these small paintings and hand-crafted jewelry is Courtney Frye, and her signature oyster necklaces are both unique and beautiful with every necklace being different from any other. Other items of note include Courtney's tassel and City of Oaks acorn earrings as well as her watercolor calendars.

• Rumpl blankets utilize technologies developed for activewear, outdoor gear and sporting goods to modernize the everyday blanket; these high-quality, versatile blankets keep their users comfortable anywhere and everywhere. Offered in a variety of colors and sizes, you can get the original or down puffy, which can each be rolled up in their bags for easy transport.

• Batteries run out at the most inopportune times, which is why it's so helpful to keep a stash of back-up batteries in the sizes you use most frequently. The Battery Organizer Storage Case by Range Kleen holds 82 batteries of various sizes in one tiny space, organizing the batteries by type to keep every size easy to see, access and keep stocked. The case includes a detachable battery tester, and it can be stored in a drawer or mounted on the wall, offering a unique, durable design.

• For the person in your life who loves to cook, consider Agatha, who will hold your spoon and release the steam from your bubbling pot, adding a playfulness to what work is happening in that kitchen. The Dreamfarm Spadle is a versatile, silicone spoon that features a flat squeegee tip to scrape, a deep 1/2 cup scooping head and useful measuring lines. It's designed to sit up in your pot while also offering the option to be a serving ladle with its unique shape. Simply twist the handle to transform from spoon to ladle and back again. The MasterPlan non-stick 3-section meal skillet lets recipients use only 1 pan to cook a full meal with 3 compartments to cook 3 different elements of the meal at once. Its non-stick and stain resistant surface is oven and dishwasher safe, making life much easier. The Honey Can Do herb preserver keeps herbs fresh for up to two weeks. The Taylor Weighing Bowl and Scale measures up to 11 pounds to give your chef the knowledge necessary to create a sensational finished product. Likewise, the bakers in your life might prefer the Flower Pot Bread Making Kit from Terrain, which includes four terracotta baking pots plus the dry ingredients needed to make tasty flower pot bread and lavender butter. All your chef would need to add are butter and parchment paper. Plus, any BergHOFF Perfect Slice plan set with slicer tool provides a grid around the dishwasher-safe, nonstick baking surface so you can line the silicone cutting tool up to make all servings equal sized and of the size you desire.

• Whether your gift recipients love to cook or to eat, chances are good they'll enjoy Jacobsen Salt Co.'s tasty offerings. I recommend the Sourced Salt Vial Set to get a cost-effective taste for their variety; however, the many infused salts (black and white truffle, cherrywood, garlic, ghost chili, habanero, lemon zest, pinot noir, rosemary, vanilla bean and more) beckon deeper analysis to find the best option for giving.

• Although we don't always find an easy way to get our daily quota of greens by eating the right foods, 8Greens' tablets make it so much more simplistic. Made of aloe vera, barley grass, blue green algae, chlorella, kale, spinach, spirulina and wheatgrass, one tablet of 8Greens is high in vitamins and minerals, detoxes organs, oxygenates the body, helps reduce the effects of aging, promotes collagen, encourages organ functioning, balances PH levels, helps circulation, decreases inflammation and provides a key source of antioxidants. Your gift recipient would simply drop the tablet in 8 ounces of water, let it fizz until it completely dissolves and, then, sip.

• If your loved one struggles to get a good night's sleep, the Alaska Bear® Natural Silk Sleep Mask provides a sleep aid and eye relaxer made of 100% top-quality 19 momme natural mulberry silk on both sides, offering the breathable, cool relaxation of the soothing masks found at the world's premier spas. To even better ensure boosting the probability of a good night's sleep, gift a Blackout Bedroom Curtains Set, which has grommets at the top of each room darkening panel with thermal insulating draperies for saving energy, reducing noise, blocking UV rays and limiting distractions to getting more sleep.

• Speaking of getting better sleep, it is not simply about making it easier to get to sleep; the Eden Pillow features luxurious, gel-infused, cooling memory foam and a gusseted design that allows for maximum edge-to-edge support so you stay asleep and get better rest. Pair this with the Outlast Woven All Season Temperature Regulating Blanket, and you help your loved one balance the temperature around one's body to maintain optimal sleep temperature.

• Until any of those solutions kick in to create a more rested individual, provide your loved one with Honest Hazel Eye Gels, which use powerful natural ingredients to reduce puffiness, brighten dark circles, firm fine lines and hydrate the delicate under-eye skin. It's like the gift of refreshment!

• Norwex started as only these miraculous cloths that effectively kill 99% of the germs on a surface by using microfiber and water, but it's grown to be so much more: laundry detergent, dusting mitts, body towels, dish cloths, cutting boards, pot scrubbers, mop collections, cleaning paste, descaler, glasses' cleaners, chenille hand towels, sink or bath mats, footstones and the list goes on and on. Further, Norwex products improve quality of life by radically reducing chemicals in our homes. My friend Heather Hooper is an authorized consultant so a purchase from the aforementioned link supports her local business. It's such a win-win to shop local.

• If your gift recipient is local to Raleigh, NC, a gift certificate to Skin Sense will give access to the Himalayan Salt Cave; however, for those living elsewhere, consider a salt lamp from Kohl's, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Walmart or wherever you prefer. The salt aids the body to draw out impurities and toxins, leaving your loved one better balanced.

• Pinhole Press creates beautiful, customized, photo gifts, many of which help engage kids in activities to bring the entire family together. For younger children starting to learn family members, consider gifting the custom board book of names and faces; beyond that, look into the photo puzzles, photo memory games and family faces photo sticker book. There's still time to get your custom order completed before Christmas Eve, but check online for Pinhole Press' important holiday deadlines.

• The future of play is met by the many kids' activities from Seedling. Choose your youngster's fun from activities like Design Your Own Superhero Cape, Maze: A DIY Virtual Reality Adventure, Color The Galaxy Inflatable Ball and Make Your Own Dreamcatcher.

• As described on their website, "Usborne and Kane Miller books are the most exciting, engaging and educational books on the market today. They are high-quality, innovative, lavishly-illustrated and, best of all, they are the books kids love to read." I was recently introduced to them by my local consultant, Jennifer Hammond, and I can attest to the high quality of these engaging books. They offer a wide variety of styles, topics and book formats so there's something for all ages and interests.

• Sometimes, the best way to get a little one who is a picky eater to actually chow down is via distraction, making eating more fun. The Construction Plate and Utensils or Garden Plate and Utensils from UncommonGoods are such helpful options.

• When searching for the perfect gift to give the mother or father of a four-legged friend, consider something that would benefit the dog or cat. Casper's dog mattresses are made with the same expertise used for its people beds. Gosh EasyFeed Smart Pet Feeder is a revolutionary food and water dispenser that allows you to program a pet's meals from wherever you are and check in via webcam; it holds a liter of water and 20 cups of food, which can be released in portions at scheduled mealtimes. As seen on Shark Tank, the mind-blowing Fresh Patch is a hydroponically grown grass patch that simulates an all-natural potty for dogs to use indoors; it is easy to clean, is environmentally friendly and can be shipped across the US.

• We never know when an emergency is going to strike so preparedness can be one of the best gifts to give. Consider the ER310 E+Ready Emergency Crank Weather Radio to provide valuable information, allow for recharging USB compatible devices, provide a Cree LED flashlight for power outages or navigating low light areas and include a high frequency dog whistle. The Preppi GoBox is an emergency kit for individuals with a briefcase handle on its compact box to easily tote around; it contains all the basic survival essentials needed: first-aid kit, 3-day water supply, 3-day food rations, Swiss Army multi-tool, LED flashlight, glow stick, mylar emergency space blanket, rain poncho, waterproofing utility bags, notepad, pencil, dust mask, safety matches, 4-hour candles, emergency whistle and playing cards. The Mini Firefighter is a fire extinguishing foam, which operates like a can of hairspray and uses foam to smother electrical, solid, fat or petroleum-based fires; push the nozzle, and its foam expands up to 40 times its size around the fire, contracting to prevent re-ignition. Once it cools, the foam transforms into a gel you can wipe off; plus, the nontoxic formula biodegrades, making it perfect for the great outdoors. If your gift recipient lives upstairs, the Easy Deploy Fire Escape Ladder might provide a necessary exit when the home is ablaze.

• One of the more creative gifting options that I've seen is Ancestry Service from 23andMe, where recipients get a comprehensive understanding of their genetics, including a breakdown of global ancestry by percentage and connections to DNA relatives. Through December 26th, you can save up to $50 off each kit and get free gift wrap; then, fulfillment is super simple for the recipient as it's a matter of simply mailing a saliva sample back to 23andMe's US-based lab in the same kit it came in using the pre-paid postage provided.

• Lindsay Sherbondy is a graphic designer who fell madly in love with lettering, opening the online shop for Lindsay Letters in 2012 from her belief that surrounding ourselves with beautiful and meaningful goods makes us feel special, happier and more hopeful; her latest creation is The Creatives Calendar™, and it is one of the most productive juxtapositions of beauty, meaning and function that I've ever seen. Lindsay wanted a big wall calendar that was simple yet functional and beautiful, being big enough to record all important things (appointments, meetings, social media planning, deadlines, new ideas, brainstorming and more) and with a plexiglass cover to accommodate everyone's rapidly changing minds / plans. Choose what design, size and framing option would be best.

• If you have a gift recipient who runs a business, will be making big changes in the new year, has tons of new ideas to be implemented or is looking to up-level goals moving forward, consider the Powersheets® Intentional Goal Planner, which pairs nicely with your favorite planner as you strategically invest your limited resource of time each week and day.

• There is a great deal of research linking gratitude with productivity, which is why FranklinPlanner's A Year of Gratitude Kit can be the gift that continues giving all year long. This is a kit to inspire 52 weeks of giving thanks, which is a habit that leads to many rewards.

Feel free to utilize these ideas for the holidays or throughout the entire new year... There are plenty of upcoming opportunities for gift-giving, including birthdays, thank yous and so many different types of celebrations. Still, since it is hard to go wrong with gift cards and gift certificates, keep in mind options like Cardpool, Gift Card Granny, Gyft or Raise to buy, send, organize and redeem discounted gift cards while the Yiftee app will let you send certificates for what's local to any recipient via text or email.

I recommend culling together all your gift-giving ideas, what you've bought for whom, where each present is stored and whether it has been wrapped thus far. Evernote provides an excellent option to organize those details amidst all the other information you must remember; however, if you are seeking an app designated for tracking only your gift-giving activities, The Christmas List and GiftPlanner are really fabulous iOS alternatives while Gift List Manager and Christmas List Snowball are great Android options, and Christmas List works cross-platform.

Above all, realize we are still 2 weeks from Christmas so there is time to pull together all the loose ends. Take a deep breath, remember to take care of yourself amidst the craziness and start breaking the big projects down into manageable action items. You can stay sane while addressing all priorities.

Finally, make sure you are getting the best deal possible. If you are shopping in stores, you can compare prices with the Buy VIA and Flipp apps; alternatively, if you are shopping online, use Amazon Assistant, camelcamelcamel, Coupons.com, Honey, PromotionCode, RetailMeNot and SlickDeals to find ways of saving money instantly. Plus, with Ebates, you can earn cash back by shopping at the stores you love while seeing the best coupons and deals available.

What gifts do you have in mind to help your loved ones boost productivity while taming technology or limiting clutter? What tools do you currently utilize in your own work-life integration efforts? What are your go-to gifts that are functional for folks? I am always looking for more and would love your ideas!

Is It Time To Simplify Your Life?

The first week of August is celebrated as "Simplify Your Life Week"; however, I feel confident that any time of the year can be ideal for streamlining. With a little effort, you can determine what matters most and develop razor-sharp focus of your resources on those priority goals; you can best invest your limited time in efficiently and effectively achieving the results desired.

Clutter is the greatest deterrent when working to organize for success. Whether the clutter is in your space, your mind, your technology or your calendar, beyond simply robbing you of precious time, it can be physically, mentally and emotionally draining. Clutter makes each of us overwhelmed, enhancing the difficulty of forward-thinking decision-making and creating a scenario where it is more challenging to best achieve your goals.

Taking time to simplify can tame some of this stress, making it easier to quickly find what you need and effortlessly know what needs to be done at any moment. Here are some strategies that can be implemented this month to eliminate the unnecessary:

- Deliberately choose how you invest your time. By developing habits for a weekly strategy session and daily wrap-up, you can map out a specific game plan to guide you throughout the week and, then, stay on track amidst the world's distractions.

- Stay true to your priorities. Yes, priorities can shift by the day, week, month or year; sometimes, there are shifts minute-by-minute. Yet, if you have a flexible game plan that can act as your protective barrier, you can shuffle how you invest your time accordingly, filling each day's 1,440 minutes with only what matters most and keeping your actions aligned with your goals.

- Respect the value of your space. Whether it's in your physical space, electronic files, email folders or calendar, keep only what is accurate, applicable, useful or bringing you joy. When anything not meeting one of those requirements is maintained, there's more to dig through, leading to overwhelm, distractions and stress.

- Be positively present. Try to live in the current moment instead of worrying about the future or what is outside of your control. Listen intently to others, focusing on understanding rather than planning how you will respond. Accept that none of us is perfect, and work to bring folks together rather than fueling divisiveness.

- Learn to say "no". What can you keep out of your space? What can be deleted in general? What tasks or time commitments can be delegated? With tips from mindbodygreen, it's easier to master the art of saying no, which eliminates what doesn't rank high enough in your priorities to earn space in your files or time on your schedule.

- Incorporate tactics for success from work-life integration. Through research by Wharton's Work / Life Integration Project along with my clients' best practices, yes, you can create harmony with goals for work, home, community and self complementing one another rather than competing with each other. Focus on outcomes over activities, and invest your time in activities that accomplish wins in more than one area of life at the same time.

What steps do you take to simplify your life? Will you try any new tactics for this year's Simplify Your Life Week?

Make Summer More Productive

Summer officially kicks off today, and you might be feeling a little more sluggish, laid back or easy going than during other seasons. When someone mentions summer, many folks' minds drift to being on vacation, hanging out by the pool or lounging on the beach with toes in the sand. Alternatively, you might reflect immediately on the rising temperatures and how difficult it is to concentrate in the heat. Yet, there are steps we all can take to make summer more productive. Here are a few ways to boost productivity this summer:

1. Calendar the craziness. Line up calendars for the next three months along your wall so you can see everything coming up at a glance. These might be wall-hanging paper calendars or dry-erase calendars; the key is to have the next three months visible at once. Then, add vacations for you and your team members, holiday celebrations, impending deadlines and family commitments, including swim meets and camp registrations alike. Include all elements of your life (work, home, community and self), considering different colors for each of those buckets. When you know what is coming, you can more proactively invest your time in achieving all of your desired results for each area of life.

2. Establish your non-negotiables from the get-go. As summer schedules tend to become a little more erratic than normal, you and your team need to know which items have less flexibility than others. For me, I absolutely must maintain my weekly strategy session and daily wrap-up, but the good habits that keep each individual on track productively will vary from person to person. Do you expect your team members to have certain hours during which they always work in the office rather than operate remotely? Is there an expectation for how team members should request vacation time or notify the rest of the team about a hiccup related to impending deadlines, which can be especially vital with varying schedules for summer vacations? This would be a good time to communicate leadership's expectations to everyone. Be as clear, concise and transparent as you can.

3. Focus your efforts on tasks, not projects. It's not possible to check a project off your to-do list in one sitting. "Plan a party" is not a single action item; instead, there are many actions that make up that project. As you are mapping out the next three months, take time to break larger goals into smaller, bite-sized action items that can be completed as individual tasks. Start each task with a verb so as to fuel action, break each task down to as simple of a function as possible, estimate how long each action item will take to complete so you readily know those tasks taking 10 or 30 minutes, and and assign a deadline for each task's completion.

4. Invest some time to reflect inward. With erratic schedules during the summer, many companies have fewer meetings that would otherwise be held at normal intervals; this can be the ideal time to review and reset some of your organization's key elements. When was the last time your team updated its mission, vision, core values, annual goals, processes and workspace organization? If it has been awhile, block out time during the dog days of summer to look them over and adjust as needed. Maybe you'll want to freshen up your customers' experiences, update what messages you are conveying across all mediums and put yourself in the client's shoes. Further, this can be an ideal time for a personal audit, where you assess what you have learned and achieved thus far this year, what priorities need attention in the coming months and what "someday" actions need to be scheduled so they move from to-do to done. Do your goals for work, home, community or self need to be adjusted, and how can you realign your actions to focus on achieving each?

5. Make time for fun and frivolity. If you block out time to truly enjoy the season, you'll be less distracted by what you are missing when you are focusing intently on getting things done. The "Fun Summer Activities Checklist" from Real Simple and "31 Totally Free Things to Do This Summer" from PureWow are excellent places to brainstorm what cool things you can do to dive into summer enjoyment; then, once you've blocked off time for those activities, your mind will be less likely to drift from working towards wondering when you'll actually be able to celebrate summer fun. Plus, when you are taking time to enjoy all this season offers, you can truly take a break from everything else since you've planned for when those other goals will be addressed.

What steps do you take to make summer more productive? Will you be implementing or attempting any of these here?

Emily Parks' Travel Tips

After 8 full weeks of counting down to Memorial Day with interviews highlighting the preferences and best practices of several superstars who travel quite frequently (Laura Doerre, Geralin Thomas, Coach Dave Clawson, Olalah Njenga, Natalie Perkins, Coach Jay Vidovich, David Glenn and Ashley Christensen), giving you tidbits about what works for them as well as takeaways to try for your next trip, I have been asked to share my own answers to those same questions. Therefore, today, I bring you my travel hacks:

Q: Do you travel mainly for business, pleasure or both?

A: Usually, I travel for business; however, I make it a point to incorporate some fun along the way, whether it's a concert, sporting event, sightseeing, trying a highly recommended restaurant or catching up with friends in the area.

Q: Do you prefer traveling via plane, train, boat or automobile?

A: I've never really tried traveling by train or boat, and I'm not a fan of driving; hence, I'd have to say plane. It takes me out of the driver's seat and lets me use that time however I choose.

Q: What is your favorite destination and why?

A: These days, my favorite destination city is a three-way tie between Nashville, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and San Antonio, Texas. For more on what I like best about those destinations, check out my "Top Ten Favorite Cities" blog post.

Q: What is your preference for airlines?

A: I prefer to fly on Southwest Airlines. It matters to me that they don't nickel and dime you with added fees for anything and everything you could want. When I buy a ticket from Southwest Airlines, it includes 2 checked bags as well as a complimentary beverage and snack; plus, there is no charge to make changes to my reservation as long as I stay within the same level of ticket purchase, like Wanna Get Away or Business Select. Further, I really like how the employees of Southwest Airlines seem to enjoy their jobs more than what I've experienced with employees of other airlines. They make flying more enjoyable overall!

Q: What is your preference for hotels or accommodations?

A: Although I take advantage of my memberships in loyalty programs for Hilton, Kimpton, Marriott and Starwood Hotels whenever possible, for me, it's more important to make sure I'm staying at a hotel that is convenient to what I'll be doing when in that city. Further, I look for accommodations that are clean, safe and include complimentary WiFi as much as I can.

Q: Do you book your own travel or prefer a travel agency?

A: I usually book my own travel. Between Expedia, Google Trips, Hopper, Skiplagged and each airline's or hotel's own app, there are so many tools to make booking my own travel easier, particularly empowering me to get the best deal while allowing me to travel whenever it works best for my own schedule restrictions. I like to travel at random times, like nights, so I can utilize all my daylight hours to their fullest, and I can finagle travel around my unique preferences most easily on my own. Still, if I'm looking for some help, the Lola app is an on-demand, personal travel service to assist me in booking flights, travel or whatever I might need.

Q: Do you have any suggestions for making the most of loyalty programs or points?

A: Know what is included in your membership because you can't utilize benefits about which you are unaware. For example, with the Starwood Preferred Guest program, I get complimentary in-room Internet access when I book through their websites or mobile app as well as complimentary in-room bottled water. Marriott Rewards provides complimentary in-room Internet access when I book direct through any of their own channels. Best yet, Kimpton Karma Rewards provides free WiFi, a "raid the bar" or happy hour option, in-room spa credit, the ability to maintain a record of my custom stay preferences and a complimentary room stay during my birthday month no matter how many credits I've accumulated towards a free night stay. Keep your email address on record with your account up-to-date so you can be notified of changes to your benefits or birthday rewards when they roll around.

Q: When flying, what do you ensure is in your carry-on?

A: It's important to me that all my tech tools (MacBook Air, iPad and iPhone) as well as corresponding charging cords are safely with me in my carry-on throughout my travels. I have a Leather Charger Roll Up from Mark And Graham that includes my ESP initials which I use to keep organized an extra cord and plug for my smartphone and tablet, earbuds and cord for charging my iPad keyboard; additionally, I have Zippered Cable Tie Wraps from Neet Products that protect each of my cords while keeping them securely rolled up. Beyond that, I like to have a printed magazine to peruse during takeoff and landing, an empty S'well® bottle that I can fill up as needed along the way, IMAK Compression Pain Relief Mask and Eye Pillow, my Total Pillow microbead portable pillow, extra cardigan or sweater, meds, BandAids, toothbrush and toothpaste.

Q: Do you keep an extra bag of toiletries packed?

A: Absolutely! It makes it so much simpler to ensure I don't forget any of my necessities, particularly for my skincare routine.

Q: How do you organize your time while on-the-go?

A: I've learned to do as much prep-work as possible beforehand, meaning I'll investigate what I want to accomplish before leaving Raleigh (restaurants where I want to eat, attractions to visit, details to cover during scheduled meetings) and note as much as possible in an Evernote notebook dedicated to that trip. Then, I put as many details as I can into my electronic calendar for all my commitments, whether for conference sessions, hotel / restaurant reservations or events to which I've purchased tickets.

Q: What tools or tactics do you use to keep your accommodations organized while traveling?

A: There seems to be a trend amongst hotels, especially those that haven't been updated recently, to not have enough electrical outlets, particularly near the bed where you need to easily access phones and tablets; therefore, I make sure to take my Audiovox multi-plug surge protector. Further, I pack with all the details of what outfits I'll wear in mind so, upon arrival at the hotel, I try to unpack quickly, hanging up my apparel with all elements of each outfit grouped together on the hangers. That way, I can more easily get ready each morning, grabbing all I need at once.

Q: Do you use technology to help stay productive and organized? If so, what's your favorite program, app, website or tech tool for surviving the chaos of daily life? And what's your favorite for being your best while traveling?

A: Very much so! My favorites for maintaining my sanity while traveling are Evernote, Calendar, The Weather Channel, Dialpad, Reminders and Morning Kit. Before leaving, I like PackPoint for helping make sure I pack whatever I'll need, and, while traversing the country, I prefer using Lyft or Citymapper for on-demand transportation. Meanwhile, I depend on AroundMe, CurEat, Detour, Field Trip, Find. Eat. Drink., Offline, Peek, RootsRated, Spot, The Scoop, Time Out, Trip.com and Viator to find the hidden gems no matter what is my destination. Finally, if I need a place to work, I peruse the local options via Breather, LiquidSpace and WeWork.

Q: Across all your travels, which restaurants did you enjoy most and why were they your favorites?

A: In Nashville, my friend Beth and I enjoyed a delicious Sunday brunch at Adele's, which is housed in the old Universal Tire Center; with my background in the automotive industry, I was enthused by reusing this old service center for such a nice restaurant. Then, in Pittsburgh, I joined fellow members of the National Association of Professional Organizers Deb and Kathy for an amazing dinner that exceeded expectations at the highly-recommended Butcher and the Rye, following which we were rescued from a downpour of rain by the wonderful Coach Jay Vidovich, which certainly made for a memorable experience as Kathy watched the dramatic storm coming our way while we ate outside. Finally, in San Antonio, my friend Heather and I enjoyed a tasty Italian meal while overlooking the beautiful riverfront along the sidewalk of the riverwalk. Overall, I find it much easier to associate magical memories with dining experiences since they incorporate so many of our senses, especially pairing incredible food with wonderful dining companions. For more on which restaurants I've liked best, check out my "Top Ten Favorite Restaurants" blog post.

Q: If you could have one super power to make traveling (or life in general) a little better, what would it be?

A: As I've always envied Dorothy's ability to click her heels together and immediately return home in The Wizard of Oz, I would love the super power of teleportation. Eliminate wasted time!

Readers, do your preferences mirror mine? Do you use any of the tools or hacks that I've learned over my many travels? Which tip do you plan to implement in the future?

Top Ten Tips to Spring Clean Your Vehicle

Organize for Success® Turns 10 

In honor of 10 years of business for Organize for Success®, I will be posting a "top 10" list to this blog each day through Wednesday, May 31st. Each Sunday, my team will randomly select from those who commented on the prior week's "top 10" blog posts for a gift card giveaway and free download of one eBook via OrganizeForSuccess.biz/shop The grand prize for celebrating Organize for Success, LLC's 10 years will be awarded on Thursday, June 1st, randomly selecting from all those who commented on any of the month's "top 10" blog posts as well as those who have subscribed to my eNewsletter for a winner to receive downloads of all 5 eBooks, a pass for my Stress and Time Management online video course as well as a 60-minute video productivity consultation.

In honor of this month being Clean Car Month, today, let's cover my top 10 tips to keep your car clean. Here are ways to spring clean your vehicle inside and out this upcoming weekend:

10. Create a clean slate. Remove everything, throw away any trash and decide what will be kept. Clean everything off from the floor; then, empty the glove compartment, center console, door pockets, trunk and any hidden storage areas.

9. Give the outside of your vehicle a good bath. Roof, windows, tires, wheels, bumpers and everything in between needs to be cleaned thoroughly, particularly to remove any remaining pollen. To clean headlights, smear toothpaste across each plastic lens cover and, then, rub them with a soft cloth; rinse the toothpaste off with cold water and wait for it to dry.

8. Don't forget to clean the inside, too. From the front windshield to the rear windows, including the dash, gauges, floor, seats and every nook or cranny that needs dusting, cleaning, wiping down and vacuuming to be ready for summer travels.

7. Add a trash bag for future purging. Whenever you stop for gas, pull this out and empty it while your gas is pumping.

6. Group like with like. Whether it's pulling all coloring materials together, segmenting off each child's goodies or corralling related materials for technology, cleaning, emergencies and shopping, the concept of grouping similar items applies as much to your vehicle as any other functional space in your life.

5. Contain what you retain. Now that you know which items are being kept, have grouped them with similar items and are planning for putting them back in the vehicle, you can choose which, if any, organizing gadgets or gizmos you will need and, then, put them to good use. It's always good to have a fabric bin of snacks that will hold up equally well in the heat and cold so you are equipped to stave off the early symptoms of "hangry", feeding yourself before getting angry. Additionally, I encourage you to keep another fabric bin full of car cleaning supplies so you can maintain your vehicle's cleanliness throughout your travels.

4. Perform regular maintenance services. The entire weight of your vehicle rests on its tires, not to mention how well your vehicle connects with the pavement as you drive along; make sure to regularly check the condition of your tires. Yet, don't stop there; regularly get your oil and filter changed while checking the battery, charging system, antifreeze level, windshield wipers, engine, brakes, exhaust system and headlamps.

3. Stock your glove compartment. You'll want to make sure a hidden storage space keeps convenient your owner's manual, vehicle registration information, auto club details, accident report form, notepad, pen, flashlight, tire gauge, paper napkins and re-sealable plastic bags for everything from park rocks to wet clothes as well as any items you use frequently.

2. Boost your preparedness. Be ready for emergencies year-round, not simply during winter weather months; make sure you have a kit in the trunk or rear space that includes jumper cables, another tire gauge, flares, reflective tape, a help sign, a screwdriver, pliers, first aid kit, work gloves, blanket, old towel, rags, adhesive remover, jar of water and motor oil. Schedule time on your calendar this fall for adding a winter weather survival kit with candles, waterproof matches, energy bars, large plastic garbage bags, rubber bands, cat litter, a collapsible shovel, an extra blanket, heavy socks, gloves and a warm, winter hat.

1. Adjust your driving as needed for greater fuel savings. I think it's a constant battle to follow these guidelines, but those pennies pinched add up: Accelerate and brake more smoothly, slow down, reduce idling, keep tires properly inflated, avoid adding extra weight to your vehicle, close windows at high speeds and consolidate trips so there's much less stopping.

Which are your favorite tactics for getting or keeping your vehicle clean? Will you try any of those listed here?