Marie Leslie
Resources for a Productive & Creative Life
Is your email inbox like mine? If I don’t keep a close eye on mine (meaning every 12 minutes), it somehow seeks revenge and its contents multiply faster than the hangers in my closet. Since I don’t want to spend my day babysitting the inbox, I’ve developed a few strategies that allow me to handle …
Are you a victim of the dreaded 5 p.m. fridge stare? You know—the one where you stare blankly into the refrigerator desperately hoping for a little dinner inspiration? There is a solution. This simple solution will not only end the nightly fridge stare but will also free you from having to stop by the store …
Fall is nearly here. We’ve already had our first snowfall here in Colorado. Thankfully, it confined itself to the high mountains and we are not yet a winter wonderland. But it was a good wakeup call. It’s time to get organized for fall. The days are getting shorter and the weather will soon be getting …
Are you tired of feeling like your calendar has been hijacked? Do you constantly feel like you never have enough time to finish tasks and projects? Do you start on projects only to be interrupted by things that feel less important? Does your lack of progress on your to-do list or toward your goals frustrate …
Once upon a time, my calendar was bursting at the seams. With four active children, a retail photography studio, church service, and community volunteer work, my color-coded calendar looked like a rainbow threw up on it. I was busy 24/7 and the word “relax” was not a part of my vocabulary. I felt like I …
Business apps are an essential for all entrepreneurs today. Subscriptions and purchases can add up quickly, though, for the solo entrepreneur. How do you choose which apps to use for your business and which are the best value? I recommend looking for free apps to increase your productivity, as a starting point. Whether the app …
Are you a perfectionist? Does it bring joy to your life? I’m pretty sure if the answer to the first question is yes, the answer to question number two is definitely a great big NO. How do I know that? Because I am a recovering perfectionist. I spent way too many miserable years trying to …
If you can organize your kitchen it’s a beautiful thing. Having a place for everything—and being able to find it—makes cooking more enjoyable and less stressful, especially after a long day at work. But sometimes, especially after those long days at work, the thought of coming home and spending your evening on an organizing project …
Your home office can start to feel cluttered and confining, especially when you’ve been so busy working in it that you haven’t paid much attention to your surroundings. It doesn’t have to stay that way, though. There are many things you can do to make your office more inviting, whether it’s a home office, or …
Are you overwhelmed with demands on your time? Are obligations, commitments and activities that don’t fit your core purpose sucking the life out of you? There’s an answer to this overload. It’s learning to say no. Life is full of choices and demands. Every day there will be things that come up, demands for your …
Would you like to painlessly boost your productivity today? Here are two simple ways to improve your productivity, save you time and give you a little clarity. 1. Clean off the top of your desk or workstation. Really. Remove everything from the top of your desk. Leave the computer monitor and the phone. You don’t …
Who doesn’t want to get more done with less stress? What if you could double your productivity without doubling your workload? When you learn to prioritize your tasks, doubling your productivity is a frequent outcome. I don’t know about you but getting all the important stuff done without spending more time working makes me happy. …
Do you Need a Home Office Declutter? Home offices are unique. Unlike a traditional business office most home offices must do at least double duty. These days there are few who work at home who aren’t sharing office space with a partner, a spouse, or even children learning remotely. Home offices often become catch-all creativity …
Winter is just around the corner, and for most of the country, that means cold, rain, and snow. Add to that our social restrictions and limitations this year, and most of us will be spending much of the winter at home. Being at home doesn’t need to mean boring, though. We have many options for …
Is being organized a lost cause for you? Has the key to successful organization eluded you? Have you decided to give up and embrace disorganization as a sign of your genius? To organize or not to organize seems like the endless debate. Everyone has an opinion—and a system to go along with it. There is …
Does your house feel cluttered? Does it feel like no matter what you do, it never gets better? I know that feeling. When you have a houseful of people—and especially when they’re all home all day long—the clutter can quickly become overwhelming. It can make you feel claustrophobic, closed in, and stressed out. While your …
Do you look forward to meetings? No? I don’t either. I don’t know anyone who really loves meetings (ok, I know one person but for their own protection, they shall remain anonymous). In the business world, meetings are inevitable. Some are even essential. But that doesn’t mean they have to turn into a time suck. …
Do you feel like the holiday season is a slope that you can’t stop yourself from sliding down? Once it’s here, it comes in full force, and there is no stopping it. It’s never too early to start planning everything that goes into the holidays. Getting prepared for this time of the year is helpful, …
Are you hanging on to clutter that’s passed its expiration date? Are you hanging on to things you can’t/won’t use for any number of reasons or because you might need it someday? While I could easily make this list a LOT longer, here are eight things you need to toss today to unclutter your home …
I didn’t sleep much last night. Again. It’s a regular occurrence for me. On a good night, I may sleep between four and six hours. On a bad night? Maybe just an hour or two. Insomnia sucks. But apparently I’m not alone in my lack of sleep. Approximately one in four Americans develop insomnia each …
We all love vacations. The end of vacation isn’t so much fun, though. While you can rarely choose to extend your vacation indefinitely, you can do a few things that will help make the end of vacation better, and ease your transition to everyday life. Here are 10 simple ways that we use to make …
Creating a cozy and comfortable home is not always an easy task. We have to take all the things we’ve gathered along the way and decide what is necessary and what is not. The means choosing which items create the kind of home we’re aiming for and which items have become clutter. Clutter can be …
Is your budget out of control? Is your bank account bleeding red every month? Do you sometimes feel like a money launderer—your paycheck just passes through on its way to somewhere else? Would you like to keep more of what you make? Here are 20 simple ways to slash your spending and get your finances …
Today is Pack Rat Day. I did not make this up. I heard it on the news. I also found it on the internet. Impeachable sources, clearly. Note: this is an update of a post I originally wrote in 2011. I’ve added a few new resources to help you become an anti-pack-rat and keep …
