I remember reading Highlights Magazine during my younger days, and always appreciating the Goofus and Gallant adventure stories. For those of you unfamiliar with these stories, they were about two fictitious boys brought to life in side-by-side drawings to illustrate a bad way and a good way to handle a situation.

In relation to Goofus and Gallant, there are always going to be situations that depend on you making either a disorganized or organized decision. Here are some examples of Mr. or Mrs. Disorganized versus Mr. or Mrs. Organized:

1. Situation: It's Friday and the mail carrier begins walking towards your front door, holding a big pile of mail.

Mr. Disorganized: Adds it to the pile of mail that has been building up since Monday. It's currently about 2 feet high. Just looking at it overwhelms him.

Mr. Organized: Quickly glances through his mail, tossing definite junk mail away immediately. He then sorts the mail into 4 piles: a) To Do b) To Read c) To File d) To Distribute. He then tackles each pile, one by one, until every pile is either done, read, filed, given to the appropriate person or tossed.

2. Situation: Using your smart phone, you snapped a bunch of photos from a town festival you just attended.

Mrs. Disorganized: Places the phone on her dining room table, figuring she'll get the photos off of it when she has extra time. Another event comes up, and she snaps more photos. Another event, more photos. Another event, yet more photos. Before she knows it, she has filled up her phone's memory and doesn't even know what's on the camera roll anymore.

Mrs. Organized: Uploads the photos to her computer the day after the town festival. Handles any photo editting. Deletes the bad ones. Prints out a few to scrapbook. Stores the rest in her online photo storage program.

3. Situation: It's Thursday. You have to run to the grocery store to pick up snacks and beverages for a Friday morning playgroup you're hosting.

Mrs. Disorganized: Figures she doesn't have time to make a list. She runs to the store and wings it. When she arrives back home, she realizes she had forgotten to buy juice boxes, and has to make a second trip out to the store.

Mrs. Organized: Takes the time to think about what the kids and moms at playgroup may like to snack on. She makes a list including snacks and beverages. She looks through her coupon organizer to see if she has a coupon for anything she needs. She then makes ONE successful trip to the store.

4. Situation: You just started a new job, and the person who you've replaced has left you with a pile of paperwork that your boss says needs to be filed.

Mr. Disorganized: Decides he'll get to it eventually and continues to pile more papers on top. A week later, his boss asks him to find an important report he needs to reference. Mr. Disorganized wastes over two hours before he locates the report.

Mr. Organized: Divides the big pile into seven little piles. Each day, he works for 20 minutes until all papers from one of those piles, is filed away. By the end of the week, he's done filing. When his boss asks him to find an important report he needs to reference, Mr. Organized simply opens the cabinet and pulls it out, all in a matter of five seconds.

5. Situation: You're waiting for an important call to come in from your doctor. He finally calls with the information you need.

Mrs. Disorganized: Jots the information on a sticky note and leaves it on the kitchen table. The kids come home from school and toss their school books on top of the note. They later grab their books and head to their rooms to do their homework. Later, when she's looking for the note, she can't find it. She ends up having to call the doctor again, who isn't too happy that she just wasted his time. Later that night, she finds the original sticky note in her daughter's room attached to the bottom of her school book.

Mrs. Organized: Jots the information into a 3-ring binder where she stores all of her family's medical information. She then stores the binder on a designated shelf in her home office. Later, when she needs the information, she retrieves the binder and follows the doctor's instructions.

P.S. Be in-the-know when it comes to getting and staying organized and get more organized than you ever thought possible. Check out my I'm Finally Organized Tool Kit!

Just a very quick shout out to let you know that my latest issue of Anything and Everything is now available. It's the FEBRUARY 2022 issue, 12-pages and all in full color. I know you're going to love it. Check it out:

https://www.getorganizednow.com/rd-ae.html

If you don't already receive it, it's a great time to get your hands on a full year of Anything and Everything because, when you do, we're giving away 10 Bonuses, AND ALL of the back issues...complimentary!

Here are the topics in the FEBRUARY Issue...

The Best Gifts We Can Give Ourselves
These 10 gifts can be given at any time, will not cost you a cent, and will make life lighter and brighter

Making a Good First Impression
Ensure your first impressions are the best...9 ways

Plan an Enjoyable Day or Night Out
Here's a 5-step strategy to make it happen and to prepare yourself before you go

Your Personal Self-Care Checklist
21 'Do Good' Things for Your Body, Mind, and Soul

Never Look Bad in a Photo Again
Make every photo you take or have taken of you look great

Unexpected Ways to Use Olive Oil
12 Helpful Ways to Use Olive Oil in Our Day-to-Day Lives

Our Recipes of the Month
--Light Lemon Pesto Pasta
--Chickpea Salad

Stronger, Healthier Nails
12 Strategies to Strengthen Nails that are Weak and/or Brittle

If you don't already subscribe to my 'Anything and Everything' resource, you can learn about how to do so here:

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We have thousands of readers who LOVE it...and I'm certain you will too!

Maria

P.S. BONUS SPECIAL...Only Until 11:59 p.m. on FEBRUARY 4. When you sign up for your Anything and Everything Subscription, you will receive tons of bonuses, plus ALL the BACK ISSUES COMPLIMENTARY!

___ 1. Do today's task on my January Monthly Organizing Checklist. The January 30 TO DO focuses on jeans. Visit GetOrganizedNow.com to access my January Monthly Organizing Checklist.

___ 2. File some papers today. Do you have a backlog of papers that need to be filed into your filing system? Work on doing this task today for at least 15 minutes.

___ 3. Assess your progress. We're now at the end of January. How are you progressing with your January organizing goals? Visit GetOrganizedNow.com to access and review my article, '6 Tips for Getting Organized in the New Year.'

'If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.' (Neil Peart)

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