Julie Morgenstern Quotations

Paper is the No. 1 problem for people. File as you go so you're not pulling out things at the end of the year that are stuffed in drawers and briefcases and boxes and handbags.

Once you have a baby, you can't hold all this stuff in your memory.

Pull away, even though it feels like career suicide. Go home. Rest, sleep, recharge, have fun with your kids, play with the dog and watch how much more effective you will be.

Each time we go through a major life change (getting married or divorced, moving, having a family, switching careers, starting a new business, going back to school), we experience a breakdown of our organizational systems. It's inevitable-we are dealing with a new set of realities-and it takes time to process the information and to actually see what there is to organize.

Organizing time is exactly like organizing space. Just as a closet is a limited amount of space into which you must fit a certain number of objects, a schedule is a limited space into which you must fit a certain number of tasks. Each day and each week is simply a container, a storage unit with a definite capacity. The trick is to treat time not as an abstraction but as something solid that you can hold on to and move around.

Clean and restock your car at the end of each trip. No matter how tired you are, resist the temptation to let that empty muffin bag wait until mañana. Tomorrow turns into next week, next month...

We all get attached to frayed towels, mismatched sheets and shapeless pillows, associating them with years of comfort, but they have ceased to be functional! As for the plethora of hotel freebies, gather them in a basket to be offered as a hospitality service to your overnight guests. They'll be pleased by your thoughtfulness-and amazed that you're so organized.

People figure they'll get to the personal stuff as soon as the work is finished,

The influx of e-mail never stops, particularly in a global economy, ... You could always check e-mail. And people are still programmed to wait for things to calm down in order to do proactive stuff: 'When it quiets down, when I get through this flood, this batch, these to-dos, I will get proactive.' But there never is a quiet time.

If there's an emergency, someone will come get you. Use this time to think strategically about your work.