(8083,1,'2019-07-27 05:15:26','2019-07-27 05:15:26','<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>And How it is Saying More than You Think</strong></p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\nIt’s that time of year when Managers and Directors all of the world are conducting reviews of their employees. They are letting you know what they liked about your work product and your personality and what they didn’t like.\r\n\r\nOne question that inevitably shows up on evaluations is “Do they keep a clean and tidy work-space” or something to that extent. Many people overlook the importance of this question in their day to day job, because let’s face it, if I’m getting the job done why does it matter what my work-space looks like?\r\n<h2>Is Your Disorganization Affecting Your Office Relationships?</h2>\r\nMany many years ago, I went for a job interview and upon approaching this Attorney\'s office I was met with an office I could barely enter. I literally had to turn sideways to enter the office and even in doing so was scared I would knock over the stack of papers that was teetering on the Attorney\'s desk corner.\r\n\r\nAlthough my interviewer at the time seemed to be extremely nice, I could barely focus on the words coming out of her mouth because I was processing all of the things I saw in the environment I was in. Now granted I was processing the items thinking if hired how I could organize the space, but most people wouldn\'t be doing that. More than likely they would be sitting stiffly wondering when they could get out of there!\r\n\r\nUltimately, I was hired to assist this individual and within a week her office was neat and tidy to the point that other Attorneys were taking field trips to see her space. Apparently, she was notorious for having a messy office.\r\n\r\nShe later confided in me that she hired me mainly because I didn\'t balk at the state of her space. I shared with her I didn\'t balk because I knew if hired it wouldn\'t stay that way. The beauty is that the change we made in her environment also changed the way Attorneys interacted with her. They began coming by her office instead of just calling or emailing her when they worked together.\r\n\r\nThe point that I\'m trying to make here is that it does matter what your space looks like, because it tends to affect your office relationships. No, I’m not talking about romantic relationships…I’m talking about your interpersonal relationships with your co-workers. So imagine for just a minute, I need to discuss an issue with you.\r\n\r\nYour office is always a mess to the point of needing a path to find a seat. Do you have to remove papers from my line of sight to see you or from the chair itself so I can sit down? How welcoming do you think that makes me feel? How much time do you think I am going to spend with you truly troubleshooting the issue at hand?\r\n\r\nI can answer that without hesitation, very little.\r\n\r\nWhat is going to happen is I will avoid your office like the plague because it’s more than just the uncomfortable feeling I get when I am in your space. I feel claustrophobic and that something could topple over with even a slight miscalculation in my step. My breathing may become a little irregular because I\'m going to breathe as little as possible while in your office because I fear what I might smell if I inhale too deeply.\r\n<h2>Is There More To Your Messy Office?</h2>\r\nYou see, a lot of times when a person’s office/space is cluttered there are also other health risks that sneak up on you. You can’t correctly clean the space because there is too much stuff and the cleaning staff isn’t going to move it because that is a liability.\r\n\r\nHow about that abandoned cup of coffee or food fragment from last week that inadvertently got pushed up against the wall behind the latest stack of papers. Got Mold?\r\n\r\nYes, you think I exaggerate, but sadly I do not. In my time working in office spaces I have experienced and seen a lot.\r\n\r\nAnother risk of having a messy office is that you often will misplace important documents (think original signatures and contracts) or missed deadlines, which ultimately can cost you a lot in the end.\r\n\r\nOf the people that are notoriously late or ill-prepared what state is their office in?\r\n\r\n<img class=\"wp-image-7483 aligncenter\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/board-1273117_1920-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"The Truth About Your Messy Office - The Next Step | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"542\" height=\"361\" />\r\n<h2>Your Organization Action Plan</h2>\r\nSo, this year, I encourage you to spend a little time cleaning your space. Remove the clutter that is not serving a purpose in your day to day work life. Create systems that allow you to easily find what you need when you need it. If you are an out of sight out of mind type of person, create a system that allows you to keep out what you are currently working on (meaning that day or week) and putting up the things you are not.\r\n\r\nThis can easily be done by reviewing your tasks for the next day and retrieving those items before you leave for the day. This achieves two things (1) you know before you come in what you need to work on and (2) you put away anything you don’t immediately need the next day.\r\n\r\nWhen selecting what you \"need\" make sure you are only getting out what you truly \"need\" to do the work you are doing, and not keeping the five redwell files out just because they are associated with the Client\'s file. Create what I like to call a working file which is essentially a file folder or redwell (expandable for those outside the legal community) which keeps the current items for that Client accessible and the rest stay in your filing cabinet for access if needed.\r\n\r\nAlso, don\'t be afraid to go paperless for items that are no longer needed on a regular basis. If the Client is archived, scan the hard-copy papers and shred the originals (unless they contain an original signature or have to be maintained for legal purposes). If scanning the files, create a mirror of your hard-copy files in electronic form, so you always know where to look when trying to locate something. Ultimately, create your process around the rules you set for your office.\r\n\r\nFor the Attorney I told you about earlier, the rule we established was that I maintained all of her non-active files. She only kept active files in her office filing cabinet, and the only files that stayed out on her desk were active that week. She had a bin where she placed paper that needed to be filed back in the Client files and I handled that for her. All of her electronic files mirrored her hard-copy files and had a specific naming convention that made locating things easier.\r\n<h2><strong>Addressing your Tchotchkes</strong></h2>\r\nAnother area that you need to focus on is all the tchotchkes you have laying around. Do you need ten mugs from your Clients? Or all those photos on your tabletops? It\'s okay to have nice decor in your office but when it starts to become a distraction or take up valuable real estate in your space you should rethink it.\r\n\r\nA rule of thumb I use with Clients is that they should keep their immediate work zone clear of tchotchkes and only place these items above and on the outskirts of their work zone. This allows you to see them when you are taking a visual break to stretch your eyes, but they aren\'t distracting you when you are working.\r\n<blockquote>To identify your work zone, sit facing forward anything in your immediate line of sight without moving your head up or down is part of your work zone. Now swivel your head to the left and right. What you see when you do this is also included in your work zone.</blockquote>\r\nSo ultimately, cleaning and organizing your office space is vitally important and it affects many things in your life. Once you go through this organizing process your office will be void of the mountains of paper that aren’t really helpful or needed any longer. Guests will feel welcomed into your space and you can take a breath because when you face the facts you know that your DIY Fort O’ Paper was just stressing you out anyway.\r\n\r\nI encourage you to continue to work on removing the clutter from your life in the coming year. Take it one day at a time. You will begin to see the positive changes to both your work product and your life.\r\n\r\nDana is a Professional Organizer, Project Manager and Life Coach in Nashville, TN.  Join the <a href=\"https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/247793?v=7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\">Happiness Deposits</a> newsletter for more organizing tips related to space, life, soul and business.','The Truth About Your Messy Office','','inherit','closed','closed','','7482-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:15:26','2019-07-27 05:15:26','',7482,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7482-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8084,1,'2019-07-27 05:15:26','2019-07-27 05:15:26','hello everybody is dayna morales with the happiness buckets productivity tool box and today\'s training tip is going to be about mind mapping mind mapping is really a graphical way to represent your ideas and your concepts on paper so or on the computer whichever medium you want to use but ultimately it\'s just another way to brainstorm and to get the ideas out of your head and onto paper I really recommend that people specifically small business owners or anyone who\'s trying to produce a product or look at a process or implement a new implement a new product that you go through this process this is something that is really heavily used in project management and it\'s not necessarily mind mapping in general but just the brainstorming process and really breaking down the project into workable tasks so that\'s what I want to kind of talk to you about today and walk you through the tech this specific technique of mind mapping to help get you to those granular tasks that you can focus on so the ultimately the reason why I love this this method or this process is because it allows you to get the ideas and the thoughts out of your head and on paper which then allows you to see where you\'re missing some key components or where you need to think more deeply about something so for example I\'d like to use the example of a wedding because everybody can kind of relate to that so if if I say come on let\'s sit down and plan a wedding for some that would be completely and totally overwhelming you wouldn\'t know where to start or you\'d be afraid you\'re missing something or what should come first or any of that and so what I say is ok let\'s start planning the wedding but we\'re going to use mind mapping to do that so I can show you how this process works so what I have done here and what you see here on the screen is actually am I a free mind mapping tool now let me just say this my mapping you do not have to have any kind of tool you don\'t have to go by any software you don\'t have to do anything like that I just needed a way to graphically show you without showing you a piece of paper right and so I knew there were tools out here so i just googled free mind mapping tool and found this one and popped it up so we\'re going to give mine mop calm a shout out because that\'s who came up first and it looks like it\'s gonna work i have never used this software oh we\'re just gonna jump right in and and make sure that hopefully it\'ll work the way it\'s supposed to work for me today so in most my mapping tools or even if you\'re just joining us on your own you want to have just your nucleus your center um topic or whatever you are trying to do so in this particular example i use planning your wedding right and you can say you know Bob and James wedding whatever you want to say here but ultimately I\'m just going to a wedding for now and so you want to branch off of that so you have your Center idea and then you\'re going to say ok now I need to branch off of that so what do you need when you have a wedding ok you need to have a location you need to have food you need to have and all of this is coming off of the main right you need to have people attendees ok what else you need to have a dress or well that\'s off of that let me click here you need to have a tire for the party ok that made me think about ok under people we can branch off of that and say ok we meet we have the the wedding party and then we also have the people who are attending right the actual attendees and then under attendees we have two different lists we have really four different lists if you know about weddings you have the bride\'s list and you have the groom\'s list one the bride\'s you have hers and her parents but I\'m not even going to go there right now we\'ve got the groom\'s list and then you have the parent the bride\'s parents list and some of you are laughing because you dealt with with this and so you know why i\'m adding this here right so you have your attendees okay so your location you need your reception location and you need your ceremony location sometimes those are one in the same but sometimes they\'re not so there needs to be a thought process in that you need let\'s see what else we\'ve got food so from food we know we need cake right and the cake you have your main cake and you also have a groom\'s cake right and then additional food so are you having a a some kind of you know a sit-down dinner or is this a branch I don\'t know how to replicate that but just say attending food choice just cuz I don\'t really know how you know is it a brunch or is it whatever you can say see beverages and maybe you don\'t know so here you can say beverages alcohol or non alcohol or maybe you have both but that\'s just something for you to think about so this is the way the Chi Mon meant no granted right now I\'m struggling because I have never used this program and so I\'m having to click and and do this a little slower one on camera but ultimately on a piece of paper you can see where this cold pretty quickly so you\'re just branching off a wedding what are the things you need for a wedding and you\'re putting those down so like even right now is just thinking okay you need your your table you\'re thinking about your table your decor I should call that the cool right and so we\'re thinking what kind of decor do we want you\'ve got your tables oh that\'s another parent node will fill that one in later okay so you\'ve got your table decorations you have your venue entry may not need that but you want to think about it you need your cake table before right gift table and we\'re going to say this is the guest guest tables let\'s differentiate this okay so then this branching off of here we know that you need a guest book right and there may be some other other things that you want to branch off of here you know any of these so this is pretty much how you go about doing a mind map and you\'re just building off of these so based on those first few things that I came up with then it started branching off and as I thought of other things you know as I start you know reception ceremony ok what does i have in our reception or what do you need at your reception what do i need to think about you know with the parties the attendees I need to think okay from the wedding party I need to think about wedding gifts so this is the way that you start building off of your mind map and how you can can pretty much think through your entire process your entire project implementation a new product launch anything that you have going on you can do a mind map and make sure that you have all of the granular pieces now this to me is the first step because I think an important second secondary step is first of all you need to walk away from this you need to to do your initial mind map take a break a day or two maybe a couple of hours or a day or two and then come back to it and read through it and see if anything else triggers you when you look at it so are you thinking about anything else that\'s may be needed so the first thing you know while I was sitting here talking to you I was thinking okay we have our attendees we have all of this but ultimately somewhere in here we\'re going to need to get invitations so we know our attendees list but we need invitations as well and like in this particular case I\'m not really sure where it should fall should it fall under the core or the people that I\'m going to put it here and then you know figure out you know all of the different things that you need when it comes to your invitation okay and so you just build off of it so you\'ll start thinking more and more so that\'s kind of second layer so the first layer is you are just going to do a brain dump and get it all out you\'re going to walk away come back to your second layer which is to just bring you know read what you have and see if anything else comes up just in your own mind of you know you thought about it some more you looked at something and realize oh yeah what about this the third layer and this is a really important layer in my opinion is that you need to get someone out someone else to look at it so specifically in this case maybe you get your parents or you know your mother or your groom or someone else to really think about it who wasn\'t involved in the initial process right get someone else to look at it and see if they see any holes this is one of the things that I do with my clients is that on that third layer right they\'ve kind of gone through the initial process and then they provide it to me so I say go ahead you know do your mind map let\'s brainstorm get it on paper and then we\'re going to come together and I\'m going to look at your mind map and see where I see hold and what it is if you\'re trying to do and and that helps them build out the process and determine you know what all they need to take care of to make this successful this also helps you to find your overall timeline because if you see you have all of this you need to start thinking through okay so how can I knock these out I need to get answers to these so then I can say okay how many people are we really going to have because all the locations require us to know kind of a general count you know when you\'re looking at them so if you think you\'re going to have anywhere from a hundred different set of locations than if you give you a perfect example when I my husband and I were getting married we have set a you know we said we\'re going to have a hundred and fifty people we\'re we don\'t think it means you didn\'t want a really large wedding well hello lesson learn which is why I added this bride\'s parents and groom\'s parents because my parents came up well my parents ie my mother came up with this whole long list of people I didn\'t even know that she wanted to invite to the wedding and so our wedding balloons from a hundred and chain the number or the type of location that I can have my event at right and so luckily for me it did you know we had kind of planned for we kind of knew those numbers before going in and finalizing a location but that\'s important for you to know especially if you have your eyes set on a specific location for your event or whatever it is that you\'re doing let\'s say you\'re doing a live event and you have it at a little quaint place that only can hold have to make that kind of a well known fact in your in your public publications that\'s not the work for I want to use your advertisements that you only have waiting list if you choose to have one or you say there\'s not going to be any walk up sells or you know whatever your answer to that is you know that you only decide instead of having one event maybe you have three different events at different time slots to allow for more people so those are things that you need to think through ahead of time so hopefully you find this helpful and you can now sit down and do your your mind map so one thing that I am going to do for our facebook group members is if you create your mind map and and post it in the group i will add you know first of all I think it\'s just beneficial for you to add it to the group so that others can provide their feedback to you because I\'m not just the wrong you know I don\'t not the only one who can provide feedback I think that you you should do that and get feedback from your peers right but I will commit to responding to those who post in the facebook group it\'s a week after I post this in the group I will respond to anyone posts a mind map there and I will respond to those and let you know where I see holes okay so hopefully you found this helpful and until the next time I\'ll talk to you later bye','','','inherit','closed','closed','','7474-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:15:26','2019-07-27 05:15:26','',7474,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7474-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8085,1,'2019-07-27 05:15:59','2019-07-27 05:15:59','hello everybody this is dayna morales with the happiness bucket and I\'m so happy that you are joining me today for our first scope ever I\'m so excited I\'m a little nervous but this is something that I\'ve wanted to do for a while we have been looking at ways to really get the information out there the different information out there for people to ingest because our clients our followers you all are very busy hi hot stuff how are you doing thanks for joining us today but our clients are very busy individuals and they have a lot going on and so we\'ve been looking for ways that we could reach you in a new format the happiness bucket educates and assists busy individuals with organizing their space their life in their soul and so we\'re really excited about helping people get to their next level helping them reach their ultimate happiness okay and so um what do what does all that mean it ultimately means that we assist people holistically we deal with the entire person and not just their space because what most people think about when they think about organizing is that they think about you know homes and offices and ain\'t moving stuff around and getting it perfectly set up in your home and that is a big bulk of what we do but what we also do is we assist individuals with clearing the noise and the clutter from their minds allowing them to really focus on what truly makes them happy because you know once we get your home or your space organized and get all of that clutter and that noise out of that space then you\'re left with okay this was my existence for so long what is gonna make me happy I have time to do things I I have desires and things that I want to accomplish in my life and so we assist our followers and our viewers with identifying with is and reaching towards that in obtaining that in their lives and ultimately living their happiest life and and going on their happiness journey and so we like to go on those journeys with you and and assist you in achieving that okay so that is ultimately what the happiness bucket is about so without further ado I want to get into the meat of what today\'s scope is about and today we are talking about the keys to organizing and decluttering and be successful in organizing and decluttering and so this is a very simple well simple to me because I do this all the time but it\'s a pretty simple concept once you really understand it okay and so ultimately when I talk to an to individuals about organizing and decluttering the what I hear most common from them is you know what I try to organize and I try you know they don\'t really say the clutter but I try to organize my home and I\'m always organizing over and over again and it just never stays that way and i feel myself constantly organizing my home and what i like to say is you know organizing your home should really only be done once and then maintained over time right so ultimately organizing is about creating systems in your home that enable you to recover that is ultimately what organizing is about i\'m going to say that one more time organizing is about creating systems in your home that enable you to recover and so i\'m going to explain that because for me that is the ultimate key to being successful with organized and and decluttering in your home so what is a system a system is something that is organically created for you it is unique to you and your family in your space it is very unique for you guys so in other words I cannot create you I have my system my family we have our system in our home I cannot pick up my system and place it in your home and think that it\'s going to work perfectly it is not because it is unique to the Morales household okay so you can use my system as an inspiration but ultimately you have to develop your own system that is unique to your environment it is an organic system something that is is developed organically some of the actions and things that you all do in your home and so you know my system has evolved when I was single I had a completely different system and it was a lot easier because it was just me I didn\'t have to take into account other people in our in my space and so that system changed a little bit when I got married we were in the same space but there was another person that had to be considered within that system and so we developed a system for my married life well then we had a child and moved we happen to do that at the same time but we marry got married and moved I\'m sorry we moved and had a baby at the same time and so that was a completely different system in our new home because our old system no longer really worked in our new home and so that\'s what I\'m talking about this system is very key to your organizing understanding what that system is and how it organically is created okay and so what do I mean when I say and it enables you to recover you know organizing is you know the system is important for your organizing journey but also being able to recover means that yes I have a system but that doesn\'t mean that my home is not going to get in disarray it doesn\'t mean that I\'m not going to have mrs. in my home what it means is that you\'re living right that you are actually living in your home you\'re not a statue in your home and so it is going to get messy there are going to be things that you have to pick up or clean up from time to time but being able to recover means that if someone called me right now instead you know what Dana I am in the neighborhood and I plan to be there at twelve thirty or I plan on going to be there and my response will be sure come on now is my house perfectly organized I mean not organized is it clean and perfect and pristine right now no it is not do I have my system established in my home yes I do would I be able to immediately after this periscope get up and pick up the space based on my system pick up the space and get it organized to a point where someone walking in thinks its pristine sure I can in I I could do that but the main living space could be have organic systems developed in my home that enabled me to recover quickly in order to continue to live my life so in essence my if my house is a mess from top to bottom it still does not take me all day to get my home back into organized status right or and I hate to use organizing that in that in that way because your home if it is truly organized using a true system then it\'s still organized it\'s just a matter of you having to recover you have to put the stuff back where it belongs it doesn\'t mean that it\'s disorganized it just means that things are not where they belong so there\'s there\'s a fine line there\'s the line of I need to clean up my home and there\'s the line of i need to actually create a system and organize my home those are two totally different things and so for those who have read the book i cannot think of the title right now but is a big right now the comp the continent mari method where in the book she talks about you once you are organized you no longer have to do that that is the same concept it is once you truly are organized and you have things in a place you have a you know a unique place for every single thing then you don\'t have to continue to do that you may have to adjust it from time to time which we call maintenance but you don\'t have to constantly do reorganization you ultimately are just recovering and maintaining so those are the keys to organizing and decluttering and I probably shouldn\'t even put the cluttering in that title because you that has nothing I mean decluttering it\'s part of that as part of creating your system and getting to the ultimate system but organizing it\'s more than just having pretty boxes on the shelf that\'s beautiful and I love I\'m visual and I love to see those things but ultimately you can you can be organized without having that stuff organization does not have to cost you a dime organization is more about the concepts and the thought processes behind how you place things in your home ok so I hope you found this information helpful it got a little deep a little bit but hopefully you understand the point and I\'m going to repeat it one more time here organization is about developing systems in your home that enable you to recover','','','inherit','closed','closed','','7466-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:15:59','2019-07-27 05:15:59','',7466,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7466-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8086,1,'2019-07-27 05:15:59','2019-07-27 05:15:59','<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">As a small business owner, you understand your craft. You are great at getting the job done. I want to ask you, in those areas where your work relies on information from your customer are you struggling? Do you find that you have to go to your client multiple times to get the exact information you need? Do you see confusion between how you interpret information and what the customer actually wants or needs? Do you even know what your customer actually wants and why? Today we are going to talk about developing a business process map to improve customer satisfaction.<!--more--></p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">In my time working with small business owners, I find that most process maps fall into two categories</p>\r\n\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">You have a great initial meeting presentation that gives a great overview of the overall plan and what is going to happen on the project, but once the work actually starts there is no real process map; or</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">You follow the plan that was laid out in the initial meeting/consultation, but the overall process map you have isn\'t clearly defined, is extremely clunky, or has a number of <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/broken-processes/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">business leaks</a> including repetitive or unnecessary steps for the Client.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<h1>Your Process Map is Like a Recipe</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">Most of this is because you understand how to do what you do, but you haven\'t broken it down from point A to point Z. It reminds me of my dad. He is a fabulous cook, but whenever we ask him how he made something he could never tell us. The reason was because he didn\'t use a recipe and there were times he was trying something and would add a little bit of this and a little bit of that. He couldn\'t explain it to us because he just did it without really thinking about it. Cooking is his craft...he just gets it. Well, cooking isn\'t our craft, so we don\'t and we need the recipe - the process map.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">You want to clearly explain the process and all that goes into it in enough detail so that your client understands, but not enough where they are glassy-eyed. You want to ensure you get the information you need to do your job from the Client before you need it and that you explain how the information they provide and the choices they make effect and/or fit together to create the end product. If you don\'t explain it to your customer they won\'t know and having that understanding may change the way you create or design.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\">Understanding your Client\'s Needs</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7423\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Business-Process-Map-200x300.png\" alt=\"Business Process Map | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />Additionally, you need to understand how what you are creating fits into the world of your customer. Having that understanding may change the way you create or design something. It may also give you an opportunity to offer a better solution for what your Clients actually need. I can\'t tell you how many times I thought I knew exactly what I wanted but once I spoke with an expert I realized I wasn\'t asking for the right thing or that I wanted something else. It\'s because I really didn\'t know what I didn\'t know.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\">This can also be a great opportunity to exceed your client\'s expectations too. If a customer comes to you expecting to order a three-tier wedding cake, because they think that\'s all they can afford, and they leave instead with a five-tier cake that is still in their budget that is a win for the baker and for the customer. The baker didn\'t necessarily provide the customer with free cake, they explained that they can add in two foam layers to give the illusion of a larger cake. The customer may not have known that was a possibility, but because the baker was used to this and had a process for guiding them through the options, they educated the customer, gave more than was expected and won not only a new customer but probably referrals too. They accomplished all of this because they had a clearly defined process...a business recipe.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\">Ensure Your Process Map is Adaptive</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\">Once you define your process and determine what your customers actually need, you may find that your process is not very adaptive. Now, in some cases, it doesn\'t make sense to adapt your process, especially if it is detrimental to the overall creation or the end result of the service. In other cases, there is a little wiggle room to move things around. If you don\'t know where this wiggle room is you can\'t know how to adapt for it when it comes up.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\">Take for example, you are helping a client set up a new piece of software. Your process has them identifying the number of accounts they need to migrate and in what buckets they are going to fall. The client explains they are going through a system cleanup, so what they give you won\'t be accurate and can you work on setting up another part of the system first. Giving them time to clean up the data prior to migration.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\">If you understand what parts of the setup process are reliant on the other parts and which aren\'t then you know you have a little wiggle room and can set up the other pieces first. If you didn\'t know that, you may feel that setting up the Users is a roadblock and begin pushing the client to provide information before you move forward, ultimately halting the project unnecessarily.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\">What is the Overall Purpose of this Action?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">Before asking a client for anything you should understand the purpose of what you are asking for and ensure you are getting everything you need during the ask, if possible (or lay out the various phases for them in the beginning and what they will be doing or producing in each). Mapping out the creative flow to your Client is imperative to ensure clear communication and helps to ensure your project meets both your needs and your customers. You may have multiple paths but if you don\'t think about and plan for each you will be flailing when you are presented with a roadblock.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">Again, each client is unique, but your process should have a defined path that is followed by small variation paths where appropriate.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;ff&quot;:&quot;arial,roboto,sans-serif&quot;,&quot;size&quot;:&quot;10.50&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fs&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fv&quot;:&quot;normal&quot;,&quot;fgc&quot;:&quot;rgb(51, 51, 51)&quot;,&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;cs&quot;:&quot;0pt&quot;,&quot;bgc&quot;:&quot;rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;va&quot;:&quot;baseline&quot;}\">Remember, You Are the Expert</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">Ultimately, your customers don\'t understand your craft like you do. They just know they want a website built, a cake made or their graphics developed, they don\'t know all the pieces and decisions that must go into it, so it is your responsibility to educate them and break it down so they get it.  As a customer, I need to understand the end gain and how the small pieces fit together to get me the result that I want.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">So now that you know you need to have and understand your process map and also provide your clients with an understanding of your roadmap, do you have one? If you need help defining a streamlined process map or a client facing roadmap, feel free to set up your mapping session today.</p>','Process Map Improves Customer Satisfaction','','inherit','closed','closed','','7383-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:15:59','2019-07-27 05:15:59','',7383,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7383-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8087,1,'2019-07-27 05:15:59','2019-07-27 05:15:59','<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-doc-id=\"4817100000000352001\">Starting any journey can be a very stressful and scary thing. First, you are changing a pattern or process that you have known for a while. You also may not know what to expect and that in itself can be extremely disconcerting. This is mainly because change isn\'t easy and you are really focusing on making changes in your life, not anyone else\'s. You aren\'t dependent on anyone but yourself to make these changes happen which means you can\'t blame someone else for your success or failure. It\'s all on you.  So I am going to talk to you about how to start a weight loss journey, specifically how I began my ketogenic lifestyle weightloss journey.<!--more--></p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7427\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ClubKetoPinnableGraphic-200x300.png\" alt=\"How to Start a Keto Lifestyle| The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />Yes, you can plan to go on a journey with someone else, but in the end it is all reliant on your willpower and drive to succeed. That is scary and refreshing at the same time right?</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Well, as you guys know I am on my very own weight loss journey and I decided to share it with you so you can see that I don\'t just teach you to do these things I am doing and living by everything I share with you. You can follow my journey by connecting on my Instagram account <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/truthstoryofdana/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Truth Story of Dana</a> or by connecting on my <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/DanaLaRiealMorales/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">coaching facebook page</a>.</p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"iframe-container\"> <span style=\"font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold;\">My Weight Loss Journey</span></div>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">This isn\'t my first run at a weight loss journey, in fact...back in 2010 I inadvertently began one while I was training for the half marathon. My goal at the time was to complete the half marathon by any means necessary, but a bonus benefit of focusing on that goal was that I lost weight and went from a size 20 to a size 14/16. I was amazed at how easy it was, because I didn\'t change my eating habits I just trained...and truth be told, I didn\'t even train like I was supposed to, but that\'s a story for another day.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">After that, I got married and subsequently got pregnant, but only gained 20 lbs with my pregnancy. I salsa danced up until I was 7 months, so I\'m sure that helped keep some of the weight off. After the birth of little bit I lost what I had gained and a little more because I was breastfeeding...I was the same size I had been in college. Then...(deep breath) I discovered vanilla oreos!!!! yes (shaking my head), I not only discovered them I was devouring them on a regular basis!!!! Looking back it was a crying shame how many of those little cookies I ate in a week. Lets just say I was woofing down a family pack every week to week and a half! Between that and me no longer salsa dancing the weight began to pile on and five years later I weighed my heaviest at 275!!!</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">I remember the day I stepped on that scale and saw that number it was devastating! Now, understand I knew before that day I needed to do something.  I was uncomfortable and just didn\'t feel attractive.  My clothes weren\'t fitting right and I knew I either had to lose weight or go up another size.  Ultimately, that was the straw that broke the camels back and I knew I had to kick it into gear and make a change. I needed to be about it and not just talk about it.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">My Mindset Stage</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">As you guys know I teach about the <a href=\"https://thechangeacademy.thinkific.com/courses/organizational-roadmap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">five stages of organizing</a>, and one of the most important steps is the mindset stage.  The entire four to six months before I bit the bullet I was getting inspiration and affirmations from people around me.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">[Inspiration #1] A long-time acquaintance and Change Academy Member (and his wife) posted pictures of their amazing weight loss journey. [Inspiration #2] One of my Alum (and Change Academy Member) had a health scare and began watching his diet and exercising and [Inspiration #3] my co-worker and friend (and his wife) began his ketogenic lifestyle and I was able to see his 100 lb weight loss in person.</p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Inspirations are around every corner, you just have to open your eyes to see them.</p>\r\n</blockquote>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\">I realized that I was teaching you how to live a faithful life and take action on your change journey and I wasn\'t doing that when it came to my health. It was time to make a change and for accountability purposes I decided I would share it with you.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\">My Ketogenic Lifestyle</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\">So if you have been following my <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/truthstoryofdana/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Instagram account</a> or our <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/DanaLaRiealMorales/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook page</a> you know that I have been sharing most of my meals and lessons with you in the form of posts and videos. Well now Walter Thompson and I have opened <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/clubketo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Club Keto</a> to provide instructions and help for those beginning their Ketogenic lifestyle, because it can get overwhelming and confusing.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\">I am participating in dirty keto, which means I focus on my net carb intake and although I keep an eye on the other macros I don\'t stress on them and I don\'t worry about the ingredients in what I\'m eating. As long as I maintain my carb counts I\'m good.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7413\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]<img class=\"wp-image-7413 size-medium\" title=\"Weight loss journey with Keto\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Keto-1-Mth-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Weight Loss Journey Keto Results 1 Month\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /> One month on ketogenic weigh loss journey. Photo on the right is from May, but didn\'t start journey until June 28th. The swelling in my face is down and you can really see it in my chin area.[/caption]\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\">I started my journey on June 28, 2018. I started actually as a test and just never stopped because I saw the weight falling off within the first four days and my cognitive function and energy levels were so high that I didn\'t want to stop. As of August 20, 2018, I had lost 18 lbs and 2.7 inches (actually more inches but I didn\'t measure until I\'d been on three weeks). My jeans can be taken off without unbuttoning or unzipping them, my face is even thinner than my first result photo (see image to the right) and as I mentioned my thinking is sharper and my energy level is so much higher. I just feel better and I\'m not even near my goal yet.</p>\r\n<p data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\">As of January 2019, I officially reached my goal of getting back in my wedding dress.  I went from a size 22 to a size 16.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\">I share my story as an inspiration to you, because sometimes you need to see that someone else did it...and learn from their wins and their mistakes. Walter and I hold nothing back in <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/ClubKeto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Club Keto</a> because I don\'t think it does any good to paint incomplete stories.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\">I hope you join us over in the club so you can begin your journey too...and don\'t worry even if you aren\'t doing keto and are doing some other weight loss journey, join us over in the Club...we can still support you in what you are doing!</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;,&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;none&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\"> </span></p>','Weight Loss Journey - How to Start Keto Lifestyle','','inherit','closed','closed','','7412-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:15:59','2019-07-27 05:15:59','',7412,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7412-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8088,1,'2019-07-27 05:15:59','2019-07-27 05:15:59','The unsubscribe process has always been one that has irritated me as a consumer, but with the introduction of GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation, businesses are now beginning to have a much-needed conversation about unsubscribe links and being transparent regarding how consumer information is being used.\r\n\r\nNow don\'t get me wrong, as a business owner I fully understand the frustration and disappointment you experience when someone unsubscribes from your mailing list, but there could be many reasons why someone no longer wants to receive your information.  In some cases, it is because you didn\'t provide any alternatives.  That is what I want to talk about today, the ways to identify if you have a broken unsubscribe process that could get you an invitation to the email blacklist.\r\n<h1>Is Your Process Following the Law?</h1>\r\nFor those of you who didn\'t know, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 established the first national standards for sending commercial e-mail.  It has a number of requirements that I encourage you to read, but the sections I want to bring your attention to today are <a href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">15 U.S.C. § 7704</a>(3) Inclusion of return address or comparable mechanism in commercial electronic mail and <a href=\"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">15 U.S.C. § 7704</a>(5) - Inclusion of identifier, opt-out and physical address in commerical electronic mail.  In summary, a few key things you need to provide are:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>A clear identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation, however this does not apply if the recipient has given prior affirmative consent to receive the message;</li>\r\n 	<li>A notice of the opportunity to decline further messages from the sender - there is a lot of specific details related to this; and</li>\r\n 	<li>a valid physical postal address of the sender.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h1>My Personal Experience with Bad Unsubscribe Links</h1>\r\nIn attempting to unsubscribe from an email, I experience a lot of frustration when I come across broken unsubscribe links.\r\n\r\nMy normal process as a consumer is to first use the unsubscribe link or to reply to the email requesting that the sender unsubscribe me from their list.  As stated above, providing this ability is the law.  Well, today when I went to unsubscribe, the company\'s unsubscribe link didn\'t work. What was I supposed to do?  In this case, most people do one of two things, they either try to respond to the email or they just mark it as spam or junk mail. Assuming, of course, that it isn\'t a no reply email. If it had been, it would have technically been against the law since the unsubscribe link didn\'t work.\r\n\r\nObviously, as a business owner, you don\'t want your clients or potential clients marking your emails as spam or junk mail as it sends up red flags in the internet world.  This could cause your emails to skip the inboxes of your recipients and end up in the junk folder or worse yet on the email blacklist.\r\n<h1>What Process Changes Do You Need to Make?<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7405\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/spam-mail-box-2636258_1920-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Spam Mailbox | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></h1>\r\nNo one wants to end up in the junk folder or on the spam or email blacklist.  That means you aren\'t getting through to your potential customers.  So in light of this, I want to share a few things that you want to avoid:\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li><strong data-redactor-tag=\"strong\" data-verified=\"redactor\">You don\'t provide a way for the recipient to unsubscribe</strong> - this first of all is against the CAN-SPAM law and if you have an internet business with potential EU customers this is against GDPR as well.  You should always provide a way for people to unsubscribe from your list.  Even if your direction is to reply with unsubscribe in the subject. Albeit the latter method isn\'t the most efficient or preferred way but works as long as you remove people manually who send those emails.</li>\r\n 	<li><strong data-redactor-tag=\"strong\" data-verified=\"redactor\">Your link requires the individual to enter an email address</strong> - this is a pet peeve of mine when it comes to the unsubscribing process.  Explain to me why I must enter my email address to unsubscribe from an email that you just sent me?  You should code the link to populate that information.  A recipient should just need to confirm it.  On your end, it may be innocent, but to the recipient, it is suspect behavior.  What is the purpose of asking me to supply an email? I am trying to get off your list.  I see this type of link more times than not when a person is using a simplified mailing system. The system is too simplified or they just aren\'t familiar with the inner workings of it.  Ask your support team of your mailing system how to do it if you don\'t know.</li>\r\n 	<li><strong data-redactor-tag=\"strong\" data-verified=\"redactor\">You only provide an all or nothing path</strong> - You provide an unsubscribe link, but maybe the person just doesn\'t want to hear about the baby topics you send out but want to know about the meal planning info you send out.  Give your recipients a choice if you offer different types of content.  This is something that may seem to be a limitation of your mailing system, but most can give you a workaround if you just ask them.  By having options (Unsubscribe from this topic, unsubscribe from the company or provide a suppression list) you raise the possibility of retaining valuable clients or potential clients that may just not be interested in the baby content you send out.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\n<h1>Identification of your Subsidiaries, Associated programs or Alternate Lists</h1>\r\nSomething I am beginning to see with the passing of the GDPR deadline is that many companies are burying an unsubscribe from this and all subsidiaries link in their privacy policy.  A much better way to handle this is to offer one unsubscribe page.  On it show the individual\'s email address and everywhere you use it.  This allows the person to pick and choose what they want to receive.  Since GDPR just passed in May 2018, I suspect that many mailing services are going to be introducing new options for unsubscribing from their lists as a way to combat this issue.\r\n\r\nOne other thing to think about is when consumers want to unsubscribe from a topic or division of your company. This happens when a special program or email is sent under a different division of your company or a different header.  Because the company provides this information, some will change their mind about unsubscribing from everything and instead ensure they are subscribed for what interests them.  If the choices aren\'t given as options they weigh which is more important, what they want or what they don\'t want.\r\n\r\nSo, be clear about your associated programs and divisions. When people are unsubscribing, consider offering a resubscribe link in case they made a mistake.\r\n\r\nFinally, I encourage you to walk through your email process to determine what your customer is actually experiencing.  Set up a testing email account and walk through the process from subscribing through to the unsubscribe process.  You want to see what your customers will experience.  You can also ask someone else to walk through the process for you and provide feedback.\r\n\r\nBy taking these precautions and thinking about your consumer\'s process, you will be more apt to stay off the blacklist.','How to Resolve the Broken Unsubscribe Process','','inherit','closed','closed','','7390-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:15:59','2019-07-27 05:15:59','',7390,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7390-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8089,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','<p data-header=\"0\" data-doc-rid=\"4kih3bc478e9152b5499aadc3d0f32028b9e9\">Have you ever walked into a business and just felt it was disorganized or discombobulated?  I see this a lot and wonder how many customers turned and walked out or didn\'t buy as much as they normally would have because of the problems in the business.  What about registering for an event and the instructions or steps people were taking to get registered and signed in were clunky or just didn\'t make sense.  You asked questions and no one really knew the answers.  If you or your customers can relate to this, you are relating to a common problem in business.  In most cases, this is a result of a broken, bloated or undefined business process.  These can all result in the loss of potential customers, bad reviews and ultimately the lost revenue.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 data-header=\"0\" data-doc-rid=\"4kih3bc478e9152b5499aadc3d0f32028b9e9\">Determine if you have a hybrid system</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-doc-rid=\"4kih3bc478e9152b5499aadc3d0f32028b9e9\">I want you to take some time and really look at the problems in your business.  Are they caused by having too many processes, if so...are they all needed? Do they cover or answer everything you need them to as you move further into your business \"web\"?  Have you re-evaluated the number of steps it takes you to do something, what you are using to do it or how easy the process is for your customer?<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/broken-processes/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7182 size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/How-to-Fix-Business-Processes.jpg\" alt=\"How to Fix Business Processes | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" /></a></p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-doc-rid=\"4kih3bc478e9152b5499aadc3d0f32028b9e9\">A common mistake I see businesses make is that they blindly adopt new processes and procedures because it\'s the newest thing, but they never address the ones that were left behind. This often results in a hybrid system where they are using the new system for some things and the old system for other things. Sometimes the old system or process is just left untouched. I refer to these as business leaks.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 data-header=\"0\" data-doc-rid=\"4kih3bc478e9152b5499aadc3d0f32028b9e9\">What about your Customer</h1>\r\nAnother common issue I see is that changes are made in a business to ease the process for the business, but the customer and their needs are lost.  The process the customer has to go through is clunky or has a lot of problems that prevent them from getting the information they need in an easy and timely fashion.  Ultimately having to jump through hoops just to purchase or access something.  This is not good and you will lose customers if this problem isn\'t resolved quickly.\r\n<h1 data-header=\"0\" data-doc-rid=\"4kih3bc478e9152b5499aadc3d0f32028b9e9\">Conduct Regular Review to Identify Problems</h1>\r\n<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-7189 \" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Identify-Problems-in-Your-Business-683x1024.png\" alt=\"How to Identify Problems in Your Business | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"277\" height=\"416\" />\r\n<p data-header=\"0\" data-doc-rid=\"4kih3bc478e9152b5499aadc3d0f32028b9e9\">So as you can see, leaks can cause not only confusion among your business employees, but it can also cause confusion among your customers.  Even if you aren\'t using a certain product or link anymore, if it is still available there is a possibility that someone will find and use it.</p>\r\n<p data-header=\"0\" data-doc-rid=\"4kih3bc478e9152b5499aadc3d0f32028b9e9\">Now I\'m not saying you will never change processes or that you won\'t have small leaks from time to time because change is inevitable, but I want you to be aware of them and develop a process where you review and address them as quickly as possible once they are discovered or as you are bringing on new systems or eliminating old systems.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\">Eradicate as Many Problems as Possible </span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">It\'s important for you to start searching for and addressing any problems in your business that you find, so you can eradicate as many as possible...as quickly as possible. This process can save you money, time and the security of your business. It also solidifies the path potential customers can take to become new customers.</p>\r\n<p data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">I mean think back to the scenarios I gave you earlier, in most of the cases that I experienced I avoided going to those businesses or using those company\'s whenever possible.  In the cases where I couldn\'t avoid it, I didn\'t particularly enjoy the experience and definitely didn\'t refer others.  Listen to your customer\'s questions and complaints to help you identify leaks before they become a bigger issue than they need to be.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Map Your Current Process</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">The first step in this review is to identify and document your current processes. Identify the flow of business and how you do what you do. Then identify what you use or need to do each of the stages in your process map.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">You will see where time or resources are wasted. You might even determine that your current product isn\'t meeting your needs any longer. In some cases, I have helped Clients to identify and eliminate unnecessary products...in turn, saving money and streamlining their processes.  In other cases, I have helped Clients identify a system that encompassed everything they needed.  This enabled them to eliminate multiple products and just using one.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Ultimately, don\'t sleep on your business processes and products. Regularly review what you are doing in your business to ensure it meets your business needs and goals.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\"> Set up a Discovery Session</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">I understand sometimes we are too close to something to really see the truth about it. Therefore, I have developed a discovery session that will do just that. The purpose of a <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/business-organization-2/\">discovery session</a> is for me to help you go through the process of identifying your current processes and what tools you use to complete each stage to see where you have bloat or leaks in your processes.  I help you identify areas where you can streamline your business or where you need to plug holes.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" style=\"text-align: center;\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><a href=\"mailto: dana@thehappinessbucket.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7185 size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Discovery-Sessison.jpg\" alt=\"Discovery Session | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" /></a></p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-tab-info=\"[{&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;5.625in&quot;}]\" data-tabpoints=\"[{&quot;leader&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;align&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;point&quot;:&quot;5.625in&quot;}]\" data-header=\"0\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;td&quot;:&quot;none solid rgb(0, 0, 0)&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Regardless of whether you conduct your own discovery or you get my assistance, take action today.  I want you to resolve the problems in your business processes!</p>','How to Identify Problems in Your Business','','inherit','closed','closed','','7181-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','',7181,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7181-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8090,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">So below I have listed out my favorite freezer meals and a number of freezer cooking tips that I have learned along the way.  I hope you enjoy this list and find the information helpful in not only saving you time in the kitchen but in organizing your overall meal prep process.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Spaghetti and/or Spaghetti Sauce</h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">The part of spaghetti that takes the longest time is making the meat sauce, so you could always make a large batch of it the next time you make spaghetti using what you need that night and then freezing the sauce and/or spaghetti mixed with the sauce. You could even make baked spaghetti which is where you would layer sauce, cheese and noodles OR layer the mixed sauce and noodles with cheese and freeze. Test it out and see which you like best.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\">Lasagna and/or Lasagna Sauce </span></h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">As with the spaghetti, sometimes by the time I get to the end of the process I run out of cheese or another ingredient, so instead of freaking out about it, I just take the sauce and freeze it in a ziplock bag. I flash freeze it flat and then once it is frozen we stand it in the freezer. This is great over different types of pasta noodles.</p>\r\n<p data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Of course, as mentioned earlier, you can build your lasagna\'s in small aluminum or freezer/oven safe containers and freeze them instead of cooking them.  This is equivalent to those freezer meals you see in the grocery store.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Chicken Tortilla Soup</h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">This soup is one of the first soups I ever made for my husband. It can be made with all canned goods and frozen vegetables and boneless skinless chicken. I just put it all in the crockpot and let it cook. Once complete I split it into freezer safe containers the same as I do the other soups and call it a day. Make sure to check out <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/exploring-the-pinterest-kitchen-chicken-tortilla-soup-pollo-con-tortilla-sopa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Exploring the Pinterest Kitchen: Chicken Tortilla Soup (Pollo Con Tortilla Sopa)</a> to get the recipe that I use and how I adapted it.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Beef Soup</h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">The most important and time-consuming part of this soup is making sure to brown the meat. Also <img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7069\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Meal-Planning-1-200x300.png\" alt=\"Meal Planning | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />prepping the veggies a day or so before is helpful too.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\"> </span>Sicilian Chicken Soup</h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">This soup I actually prep at the same time as the beef soup because they use all the same veggies. Again, the beauty of this one is to prep the veggies a day or so before.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Macaroni and Cheese</h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">This one I recently tested because we had a ton of macaroni left over after Thanksgiving. Let me say this is absolutely fantastic! I love macaroni and cheese and so does my daughter so to know that I can prep a large supply and freeze it is totally fantastic.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">I would recommend freezing these in small portion sizes and not in a gallon size bag (unless that is your portion). This will ensure you only pull out what you need since you will need to warm it up all at once.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Also, I wouldn\'t pack it too tight or your macaroni will be squished. The one tip I can give you here is to put your bag in a bowl or glass and flip your ziplock bag top down over the sides so as you fill it you don\'t get the food on the outside of the bag. [enter bag holder here] I have recently discovered bag holders, so we will see how they work once I receive mine.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Freezing Bread (Both store-bought and homemade)</h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">I absolutely love freezing bread because it keeps us from wasting it. We like different types of bread and there is no way to eat them all. So, we regularly put hamburger buns, sourdough, muffins homemade biscuits and rolls in the freezer. The only bread we don\'t freeze as often anymore is white bread, and that\'s because we eat it too fast.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">My mom likes to wrap her buns in saran wrap and then put them all in the same ziplock bag. My husband and I just put the bag in the freezer. The beauty of my mom\'s method is that they don\'t freezer burn as fast and they don\'t stick together. You decide based on the frequency of your use and your preference.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Vegetables</h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">We chopped and froze items from our garden to preserve them, but you can do this with store bought vegetables too. Buy them when they are in season and/or on sale and then chop and place in a Ziplock bag. I would, however, recommend you measure each veggie prior to adding it to the bag. For example, if you are chopping up an entire thing of celery, chop one stock and measure it. Write that measurement on the bag so if a person is wondering how many cups one stock is they can easily figure it out.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">If your recipes usually call for a specific amount I\'d recommend freezing them that way to eliminate the guesswork. With veggies, you can choose to flash freeze them first before adding them to the freezer bag that will make the individual servings less necessary. If you don\'t take this step first they will freeze together in the bag.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Cake</h2>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Now, who doesn\'t like cake! Cut the leftover cake that you have into slices and wrap them individually in plastic wrap. Then you can either wrap them in aluminum foil or you can just add them to a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to eat it, take it out the freezer and let it get to room temperature.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\">Additional Freezer Cooking Tips</span></h1>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Additionally, freezer cooking is a great way to use up ingredients that are nearing an expiration date or that you have too many of;</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Use the sale ads to help you determine what freezer meal you are going to make. If you are making dinner tonight, consider cooking double portions and freezing part of it;</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">This is great to do with more than one person if you have the ability or you can do it alone, but I\'d recommend not trying to do it all at the same time;</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Labeling is key to freezer cooking because you want to make sure you know what is in each package and also when it was put there. That way you don\'t eat the newer stuff first;</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Cook things with common ingredients during your cooking sessions;</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Do some of the cooking ahead of time. One great thing that we oopsed upon is pre-cooking ground beef. This was great this past Christmas because I was cooking lasagna for our Christmas Eve dinner but was still wrapping gifts. My husband took on the task of cooking the ground beef and we put it in a ziplock bag and in the frig. This is great in general, but the next day I was able to just add the additional sauce ingredients and build the lasagnas;</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Flash freeze sauces flat. This allows them to stack better in the freezer.</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Buy/or DIY shredded cheese in bulk and freeze them separate use sizes.</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Buy meats in the family package and split it.</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Leftover pizza? Freeze it too.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nThese things will not only save you time but it will also save you money too.\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\"> I hope you found this information helpful.  Do you know of any additional tricks that you have learned along the way?  Please, by all means, share them!  We are always building our freezer cooking skills and knowledge.</span></p>','Favorite Freezer Meals and Freezer Cooking Tips','','inherit','closed','closed','','7051-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','',7051,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7051-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8091,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">In my last post, <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/freezer-cooking/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">User Freezer Cooking and Meal Planning to Organize Your Life</a>, I shared with you the benefits of freezer cooking. I hope this encouraged you to think about it in a new way. To think about how freezer cooking can fit into your life to ease your stress and overwhelm. Well, today I am going to share with you my freezer meal process. I eluded to it in the last post, but we will get into more detail today.</p>\r\n<p data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Before we go any further I do want to make you aware that this post has a few affiliate links for products that I use in my freezer cooking process.  I have included the purchase links here for your ease of identifying and purchasing the items.  By clicking these links I do get a percentage of the sale, but I would share these with you regardless of my benefit from them.  Hope you find it helpful.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\">My Freezer Cooking Process (Case Study)</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">My most common freezer meals are soups and pasta dishes. This is because it is easy and cheap to make on both accounts. Another great thing that I didn\'t mention in my last post is that you can easily adapt recipes to suit your needs and dietary restrictions.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\">What Storage to Use</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">So let\'s assume we are making soups today because I recently did this and it yielded us about 12 different freezer meals. The one thing I like to do for soups is to put them in <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FE4GH4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B000FE4GH4&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thehappines0e-20&amp;linkId=360967f215f4a9d9e652e340e26d9d87\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ziploc Twist \'N Loc Containers</a><img style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thehappines0e-20&amp;l=am2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000FE4GH4\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" />, so I used four different containers. Of course, if you don\'t have a lot of room in your freezer you will want to let it cool and put them in <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UEGZNE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B003UEGZNE&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thehappines0e-20&amp;linkId=74e514ba67b426049212e49bda3b92f2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gallon sized Ziploc freezer bags</a>, laying them flat until they solidify.</p>\r\n<p data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">We also have a <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D5TMBE0/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B01D5TMBE0&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thehappines0e-20&amp;linkId=4ebb78573c60ba80519b3d6390bd8c36\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FoodSaver Vacuum Sealing System</a><img style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thehappines0e-20&amp;l=am2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B01D5TMBE0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" /> that we love to use to freeze meats, but that\'s a post for another time.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\">Deciding What to Make</span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">On the day that I made the soups, I made two. I had considered making three, but not knowing how much each soup would yield I decided to just go with the two most related soups and save the third for a later time. The other reason that I decided to do this was because the third one was a crockpot meal, so it wouldn\'t take much time to make it on another day.<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-7057 alignleft\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Freezer-and-Meal-Planning-200x300.png\" alt=\"Freezer and Meal Planning | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" /></p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\">Prepping for your Freezer Cooking Session </span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Now, one thing I recently discovered, hence my suggestion to involve the family is that pre-prep work makes the process so much easier. This particular time I asked my husband to chop up the vegetables that I would need for both soups. Both called for celery, carrots, and onions. One needed potatoes too, but I did that the day of. My husband is much better at chopping veggies, so he knocked that out. I just had to convert my measurements to know how much of each to use in each soup.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">My daughter (4 1/2 at time of this post) was really excited to help, so I let her take the items I measured out and put them in the soup pot. It was something that was easy but excited her and allowed her to help.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">The Eating and Prepping for the Freezer</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">I followed the directions on each soup recipe (one is more complicated than the other) and then let them simmer for a few hours based on the directions. Once they were finished, we ate the soups we wanted and let the remainder of them cool.<a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MF8VPO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B000MF8VPO&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thehappines0e-20&amp;linkId=cf917560039144b2a1a8f3eff2b79e5b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ASIN=B000MF8VPO&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;WS=1&amp;Format=_SL160_&amp;tag=thehappines0e-20\" border=\"0\" /></a></p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Once the soups were completely cooled, we packaged them in the Ziplock containers. I added the date and type of soup to a<img style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thehappines0e-20&amp;l=am2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000MF8VPO\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" /> <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MF8VPO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B000MF8VPO&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thehappines0e-20&amp;linkId=fe53fa32e76676577dd22ee5d058794b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Freezer Label</a><img style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thehappines0e-20&amp;l=am2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000MF8VPO\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" /> and put it on each container and placed them in our deep freezer.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Now, if you don\'t have a deep freezer it is ok, you just have to prep on a smaller scale and do it more often. So instead of cooking two soups you\'d cook one and freeze half and eat the other half or place them all in ziplock bags instead of the containers.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\"><span class=\"EOP\">Breaking Your Recipe Down </span></h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Now, when I cook the lasagna I prep the sauce as the recipe says, but when it comes time to build it I do it in <a href=\"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MXUZZP3/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B01MXUZZP3&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=thehappines0e-20&amp;linkId=4ee58b50a348cc4c89c6952fc6d4d53f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">small aluminum pans</a><img style=\"border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;\" src=\"//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=thehappines0e-20&amp;l=am2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B01MXUZZP3\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" /> instead of one big one. <b> </b>This is one of those things that you can adjust to your lifestyle. The size of the pan is up to you, the key is to freeze them in serving sizes that match your lifestyle and family size.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">The most important thing to remember is not to think of it as a meal with leftovers (unless that is what you want), but consider it as a meal with a side. So you are making a Lasagna serving for two or four with a side salad. We tend to overeat if it\'s a whole lasagna so this also helps with portion control too.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Once prepped in the small aluminum pans, I add the cooking instructions to the white lid along with the date and dish name. This way if my husband pulls out the meal he will know how to warm it up without pulling out the recipe.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Important Freezer Cooking Tools</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">SO a couple of tools that would be great to have if you can financially afford to get them. If you can\'t, you can work around not having them. I have placed asterisks beside the ones that I definitely recommend before starting the process. You can always ask for gift cards or save up for the remaining items, trust...they are well worth it.</p>\r\n\r\n<ul data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-format=\"{&quot;level0&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:6,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1},&quot;level1&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:7,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1},&quot;level2&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:8,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1},&quot;level3&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:6,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1},&quot;level4&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:7,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1},&quot;level5&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:8,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1},&quot;level6&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:6,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1},&quot;level7&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:7,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1},&quot;level8&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:8,&quot;startsWith&quot;:1}}\" data-spl-bullet-format=\"{}\">\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Deep Freezer</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Large Crockpot w/timer</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Food Saver</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Aluminum Pans or other freezer/oven safe containers</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Ziploc or Gladware Containers (screw lids)</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Ziploc or Gladware Freezer bags*</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Freezer Labels</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Sharpie*</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Wax Paper</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Saran Wrap*</li>\r\n 	<li class=\"zw-paragraph\" data-list-id=\"25765475\" data-list-info=\"{&quot;id&quot;:25765475,&quot;l&quot;:0}\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">Aluminum Foil*</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<p data-textformat=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\">In the next post, I will share some of my favorite freezer meals and some tips I think you will find helpful.</p>','Defining Your Freezer Cooking Process to Save Time','','inherit','closed','closed','','7049-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','',7049,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7049-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8092,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" style=\"text-align: left;\" data-header=\"0\" data-doc-id=\"4817100000000373033\">I am often asked the question regarding the best project management system on the market and although I know most are looking for me to rattle off some PM tools like Smartsheet, Trello, Asana, MS Project, etc. The truth is this won\'t really answer the question. You see there are many things that go into picking the best project management system and I want to discuss those with you today.<!--more--></p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/VgnXJCocztM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"></iframe></p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading1\" data-header=\"1\" data-hd-info=\"1\">What Constitutes as Best?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">The first thing I need to address is the parameters around \"Best\" in your eyes. What is best for me may not be best for you and your environment. When working with Clients I am often faced with the task of bursting bubbles because I can\'t give the simple and easy answer to this question. It requires you to look at your internal needs, your likes, and dislikes, your growth plan, etc. Your environment may need something completely different from mine so by pushing my best on you, it could easily be the most expensive worst product you ever purchased or used.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading1\" data-header=\"1\" data-hd-info=\"1\">Do You Already Have A Project Management System?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">Alright, so now that we understand \"Best\" is subjective, I want to evaluate your current situation. Do you already have a project management system that you are using or are you starting from scratch and realizing that you need to do something different? This again requires some introspection because we need to determine why the current tool that you have isn\'t working or if you don\'t have one, how do you envision a PM tool helping you in the future.</p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">A current PM system also adds a layer of difficulty in the tool selection process because you have to take into account the learning curve and the migration process. Can you start with a tool from scratch manually porting information over or can you migrate it in an automated fashion? Will it take you a long time to adapt to the new system and do you have time to do that in your day to day world?</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading1\" data-header=\"1\" data-hd-info=\"1\">Are Your Processes Developed?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\"><img class=\"zw-image alignnone\" title=\"The Best Project Management System for Small Business | The Happiness Bucket\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Best-Tool-for-Project-Management-200x300.png\" alt=\"The Best Project Management System for Small Business | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" align=\"bottom\" /></p>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">You see, tools are just that they take your current process and make them easier. I often find that people purchase a tool and then develop their processes around a tool. This is the worst thing you can do. A tool is a proprietary way of addressing an issue or a process and it is developed in a unique way. If that tool goes away, how does the process translate to another one? If the tool breaks how do you handle the process manually? You should always have a developed process in place first before you select or incorporate a tool. This again will help you determine which is best for you.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading1\" data-header=\"1\" data-hd-info=\"1\">Who Will Use the Tool and How?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">This is another important factor in determining the best tool for you and your business. Different types of people and different roles of people will need to use the tool in different ways. What are those roles and ways in which the tool will be used? This is essential for determining the features you need and whether it will accommodate all those involved. A seasoned Project Manager may need a much more robust tool than a novice Project Manager. A person helping on the project may feel they don\'t need the tool at all, they just want a checklist.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading1\" data-header=\"1\" data-hd-info=\"1\">What is Your PM Tool Budget?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">Budget is often the overall deciding factor when selecting a tool, but is often the last thing discussed. You can get all the features, bells and whistles but those often have a pretty big price tag. So, take this into consideration when identifying the \"Best\" tool for you and your environment.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 class=\"zw-paragraph heading1\" data-header=\"1\" data-hd-info=\"1\">So What Do I Think is the Best Project Management System?</h1>\r\n<p class=\"zw-paragraph heading0\" data-header=\"0\">In a nutshell, I believe many tools are great and have their purposes...and all can be crowned the best. There is no one answer to this question and it will require a lot more introspection of you and your team to determine what is best for you...sorry the answer is still the same. Build your requirements list first before delving too deeply into product selection. In my opinion, YOU are the best tool. As long as you can get what you need when you need it and the return on investment is high, you are good to go. I have used products like excel and word to do my PM processes and depending on the project it was the best at the time. I have also used some other tools, some free and some at cost. I have<a href=\"https://thechangeacademy.thinkific.com/courses/THBBusinessToolbox\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> a list of the best project management systems for small business</a> that you can evaluate yourself.</p>','Best Project Management System for Small Business','','inherit','closed','closed','','6878-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','',6878,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/6878-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8093,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Let’s talk electronic bill pay.  This is something that has been around since the mid 90s, but I know many of you still don’t take advantage of it.  I honestly can’t tell you when I swapped from writing checks to paying electronically through my bank, but I can tell you I now pay all but one thing via electronic bill pay and that is our tithes to the church…although I could do that electronically, I just like having something to physically put in the collection plate each Sunday.</p>\r\nThe reason I am broaching this subject is because bills and the papers produced by them create a mountain of unnecessary paper in your home.  Add to that paper checks, boxes of checks, bank statements, etc. and you have a ton of paper and processes that can easily be eliminated.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h1><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Setup Your Payee Accounts</span></h1>\r\nI set up all of the companies/Individuals I pay as payee accounts in my online bank account.  All you need is the bill or payee information in front of you to do this.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3700\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"364\"]<a href=\"https://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/boa.jpg\"><img class=\" wp-image-3700\" src=\"https://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/boa.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"Bank of America Manage Pay to Accounts area (Note: Your bank\'s area may look different)\" width=\"364\" height=\"147\" /></a> Bank of America Manage Pay to Accounts area (Note: Your bank\'s area may look different)[/caption]\r\n\r\nYou can actually stop here in the process and decide that every time you need to pay a bill you will just go online and “schedule a payment”.  If you choose to do this, just open your bill get the amount, go to your bill pay area of your bank website and enter the amount and date to pay.  Most banks have a two day processing time, so make sure to keep that in mind when scheduling the payment.\r\n<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Setup Reoccurring Payments</span></h1>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I choose to set all of my bills as reoccurring payments unless it isn’t something that comes regularly or the change in amount is too drastic (i.e., credit card - we don’t ever have a set amount because we try to pay it off each month).  Now, for those things that often change, but the change isn\'t drastic like our electric, gas and water bills, I put in an average amount as the reoccurring payment.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Note:  The two steps above theoretically only have to be done once, unless you are adding a new payee account or changing your reoccurring payment.</em></p>\r\n\r\n<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Review Your Account </span></h1>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When the bill comes in each month, I look at the amount of the bill and the amount in my bill pay area, if they are different I update it with the correct amount for that payment.  This step literally takes me 5 - 10 mins, if that, twice a month (my routine is to go into my account twice a month to schedule payments, but sometimes I’m feeling froggy and I schedule them as soon as I get the bill. It usually depends on if I\'m at the computer/phone or not at the time I open the bill, whether electronic or hard-copy)  You can set your own schedule based on your <a href=\"https://thechangeacademy.thinkific.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">monthly budget</a>.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1>Benefits of Electronic Bill Pay</h1>\r\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">There are a number of benefits to using electronic bill pay.  Here are just a few that I have noted over time:</span>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>I never miss a due date.  Life happens and sometimes you just get busy and a bill accidentally gets misplaced between the mailbox and your hands.  The way I have guesstimated my utilities they are more often on the high side, so I get a small credit on the next bill if I don\'t go in and change it in time;</li>\r\n 	<li>It is much easier than pulling out the checkbook and/or going to the location to pay in person;</li>\r\n 	<li>It eliminates the need to have a bill pay center in your home;</li>\r\n 	<li>It eliminates the need for postage;</li>\r\n 	<li>It eliminates or reduces the need for physical bill files - for utility type accounts or other monthly accounts that you pay in full, I only have one file.  I keep one month of each bill.  As soon as I get the next bill that shows the amount was paid in full, I discard the previous month, which eliminates the need to keep a separate file for each bill;</li>\r\n 	<li>Historical information is kept online, so no need to keep the physical paper and if you absolutely must have the information you can download and save the electronic copy of your payment history and/or bank statement;</li>\r\n 	<li>You get discounts when you receive your bank statement online and/or for some banks you get a perk when you activate online bill pay; and</li>\r\n 	<li>The information feeds into most personal/business accounting software systems like Mint</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h1>Lets Discuss Your Concerns</h1>\r\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>What if I\'m barely making ends meet?</strong></span></h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So let\'s evaluate this for a minute because it is a valid concern.  If you are living paycheck to paycheck, I would suggest scheduling all the \"have to pay\" items, I discussed in the <a href=\"https://thechangeacademy.thinkific.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">budgeting course</a>, through your bank so you ensure they are paid on time and you don\'t incur late fees.  In my example, I get paid twice a month - the last day of the month and the 15th.  All of our bills are scheduled to come out around those two dates.  Even if the bill is due on the 25th I pay it on the 16th.  That way I know once those are paid how much money is left for the rest of that two week period.  If your due date is in the middle of that time frame, see if you can get it changed and/or pay it early.  There are a number of factors that need to be considered in this situation, but the first step is completing your budget so you know when and how you need to pay your bills.  This will allow you to compare when bills are due versus when the money will be in the account.  If you still need help after completing the <a href=\"https://thechangeacademy.thinkific.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">free budgeting course</a>, I recommend, <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/lifeorganization/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scheduling a coaching session</a> with me to discuss your individual needs.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>What about direct debit?</strong></span></h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Well, I much prefer electronic bill pay through your bank over the direct debit system.  There is just something about companies having access to my checking account that I don\'t like.  I\'d rather an issue be on my end than on a computer or another person\'s end.  I\'ve had a situation where the person entered the information erroneously and debited my account twice in one month.  I understand mistakes, but if I had been struggling or living pay check to pay check that would have caused a ton of problems.  That being said, I do have a few of those set up because there was no other option offered (insurance/student loans).</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\"><strong>What about security?</strong></span></h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">With all of the system hacks companies are experiencing these days I can understand why you may be concerned with banking online.  I can tell you that they adhere to a pretty stringent security standard and I have never felt compromised when it came to online banking.  Also, banks are FDIC insured so your money is protected (up to $250,000).   I would say if you are concerned to contact your bank and discuss how they protect your online data and your account.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">All in all, you can decide what method of online payment you want to test out, scheduled payments or reoccurring payments.  It is just one more way you can eliminate clutter in your home, streamline and better manage the bill paying process and set up a system to better control and organize your life.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you like this post, please make sure to signup for our mailing list so you know when more like it are posted.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"></p>','How Electronic Bill Pay Helps You Declutter','','inherit','closed','closed','','3699-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','',3699,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3699-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8094,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In honor of National Move month, we are going to take a trip back in time to March/April of 2013.  This is when my husband and I were anticipating the arrival of our daughter.  It was also the time when we decided it was time to move into a stand-alone home.  My goal when I began the process of planning our move, was that I wanted to make sure that my husband and family would know where I wanted things to go and what was in which box in case I was not able to be there. I knew that I wouldn\'t be able to move around as quickly as I wanted because I was carrying this extra load (my daughter) and I also couldn\'t be at the condo, new house and storage shelter all at the same time. So knowing the goal I set out to find a way to organize the move so anyone could jump in and help.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img class=\" wp-image-636 alignleft\" src=\"https://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/20120305-192257.jpg\" alt=\"20120305-192257.jpg\" width=\"138\" height=\"138\" /></p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I want to share with you some key tips on how to plan a move, and don\'t worry...being pregnant isn\'t a prerequisite:</p>\r\n\r\n<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold;\">Create a Move Binder</span></h1>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is the master binder that will help keep you sane.  You will have one place to reference everything related to your move.  Check out my post <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/move-binder/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Increase Your Chances of a Successful Move with a Move Binder</a> for more detailed information.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1>Establish Responsibilities</h1>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you and your spouse/helper are available on move day, delegate move day responsibilities. In our scenario, my hubby was responsible for getting the truck loaded/moving the heavy stuff and I was responsible for the little things, last minute packing and new space coordination.  This helped eliminate the need for everyone to contact me for every decision. If delegation isn\'t possible, you definitely want the next three items.</p>\r\n\r\n<h1>Create a Floor Plan Map</h1>\r\nThis is invaluable in helping to plan out where everything needs to go in your new space.  I learned this trick from our many many office moves at the law firm.  It was standard practice that you would draw out how you want your office set up with your desk, filing cabinets, computer, etc.  That way the people moving you would know where to place your items and wouldn\'t need you there to show them.  You tape the floor plan on the wall outside the space and/or place it in the space so the movers can see where to place your large items.  Check out <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organize-move-floor-plan-map/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to Organize Your Move with a Floor Plan Map</a> for more information.\r\n<h1>Create a Kitchen Map</h1>\r\nThis is also an invaluable tool if you are able to create one.  In a future blog post I will detail the specifics of how you create one.  The kitchen is usually the first one you organize and the one that you can easily delegate to someone else to arrange if you have a map.  It is also the one area (other than setting up your bed(s) and cleaning your bathroom) that you want to make sure is up and running so you can eat and make coffee during your first week in your new home.\r\n<h1>Have a Move Meeting</h1>\r\nYes, a meeting...one with everyone involved in the move.  When you have four or more people involved moving and packing items it can get chaotic really quickly.  It is helpful to have everyone in one space so you can ensure they are all on the same page.  Use this time to explain the space colors, floor plan maps, responsibility delegation, timing, break or eating schedule and any other instructions that are needed.\r\n<h1>Declutter</h1>\r\nNow you knew this one was going to be on here!  Just think about it, moving is costly so why would you want to waste time and money moving items you don\'t need or want?  For those with short notice, it may be more difficult, but you can still do it.  If you pick up an item to pack, and you think to yourself - what is this or why do I still have this?  Then don\'t pack it, put it in a predetermined giveaway/throwaway box or bag.  Think about the space/home you are going to and whether or not the item(s) are needed in your new situation.\r\n<h1>Pack Based on your New Space</h1>\r\nI think this is one of the most important tips (other than the one above) that I can give you.  Think about your new space and how it will be arranged.  Pack your boxes based on the new space not the old.  This will definitely come in handy if you are used to keeping non-room related items in a space just because you didn\'t have a dedicated space for it.  For us, we were moving from a 1355 sq ft home to a 3000 sq ft home.  My guest room, guest bathroom, overflow closet, baby room and office didn\'t have to share space any longer.  If I had packed all the items together as they were in the old space, I would have had to travel up and down the stairs just to put items away.<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-6763 \" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/14-Organizing-and-Planning-A-Move-Tips-683x1024.png\" alt=\"Organizing and Planning A Move | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"305\" height=\"458\" />\r\n<h1>Color Code your Rooms</h1>\r\nThis will be helpful for you and for your movers.  We will get more into this in a future post, but you want to assign a dot color to each room.  We got our dots at an office supply store, but most big box stores have them in the office supply section.  We used one package that had all the primary colors and one that had pastel colors.\r\n<h1>Create a Box Inventory</h1>\r\nFor those going on long moves across the country, this can be extremely important to prove you had an item in case of loss or damage.  This is also helpful when you are trying to find something, in your new space, before you get completely unpacked.\r\n<h1>Pack a bag...or Two</h1>\r\nReally, each person in your home should probably pack as though they were going on a week or weekend-long trip.  You are going to be exhausted when you finish moving everything and all you will want to see is your bed and MAYBE a shower before you go to sleep.  So when you wake, you will need to be able to locate your toiletries and a change of clothes.  Now, devils advocate, what are you going to spend the day doing on day two?  Are you going to unpack everything?  Well, okay in my case, yes...but it was very helpful to not HAVE to do this.  Make sure to put your valuables in this bag as well or include it with the next suggestion.\r\n<h1>Pack a Box...OR Two</h1>\r\nUsing the same premise above,  you need to be able to quickly find your sheets, coffee, snacks, hand-towel/towels, etc.  Yes, some of this you could pack in your suitcases, but I would suggest you have a separate box for the more bulkier items and that you carry them in your vehicle to ensure it arrives safely and you know where it is.  The thought is to pack items in this box that you will need right away...again think a week-long trip where you have to bring everything, what would you need?\r\n<h1>Cleaning Supplies</h1>\r\nThis is another set of items you want to have set aside for easy access.  You will need to clean your old space once everything is out and clean your new space before you put everything in.  If nothing else make sure these items are the last thing loaded on your moving truck, unless you are moving cross country then you may consider putting them in your vehicle as you may arrive before your stuff.\r\n<h1>Schedule Utility Start and End Times</h1>\r\nYou need to ensure you have your utilities (water, electric and gas) turned on at your new location as well as shut off at the old space.  It will be hard to clean your new home if you don\'t have water or electricity.  You also want to verify how they will calculate your new and old bill, so you don\'t get overcharged.\r\n<h1>Eat a Healthy Breakfast</h1>\r\nThis seems so simple, but so many people forget about this step.  You will be really active on move day and you don\'t want to run out of energy or worse have a medical issue due to your blood sugar dropping.  Eat something substantial, but leave cracker barrel for another day.  You don\'t want to be so satisfied that you are sluggish most of the day.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Happy Moving!!!</p>\r\n&nbsp;','14 Tips When Organizing and Planning A Move','','inherit','closed','closed','','2982-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','',2982,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/2982-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8095,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','Recently, I posted an article titled, <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/thborganize-14-tips-when-organizing-and-planning-a-move/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">14 Tips When Organizing and Planning A Move</a>.  In it, I mentioned an invaluable tool called a floor map.  This is a rough sketch of how you want the room setup.  Now, this map can be as detailed or as basic as you wish, the main purpose of it is to help those who will be helping you move know where things should go without your assistance.\r\n\r\nOn most move maps you want to focus on the big furniture items and any large electrical items that may need to be connected.  There is nothing like having a ton of help on move day to only realize after everyone is gone that things aren\'t quite where they need to be.  It is so much easier to get the heavy items placed right the first time.\r\n<h1>How to Draw Your Floor Plan</h1>\r\nNow, first things first...most of the time I create floor maps with a good ol pencil/pen and a piece of paper.  Again, this doesn\'t have to be to scale or overly complicated.  You just want to give a general idea of where things should go.  On your sketch, you should make it clear where the windows and doors are so those looking at it clearly understand the directions.  Think about the heaviest items in the room and how you ideally want it placed.  Draw or write on the map where these go.  (i.e., a square with the word bed in the middle of it).  Also designated where you\'d like for them to stack the boxes that go with that room.  Ideally again they will be placed against a wall in the space (that doesn\'t require other items).  No need in having to go through a maze to try and find your bed after a long day of moving.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-6767\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Move-Floor-Plan-200x300.png\" alt=\"Move Floor Plan | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />\r\n\r\nI would also recommend that you measure your space prior to making your map to ensure your layout will actually work.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h1>Other Considerations for your Floor Plan</h1>\r\nOnce you finish drawing your floor map, you should make sure your room color is clearly notated on the page.  We use the color dots you get from office supply stores to label not only the move map but also the boxes that belong in the designated space.\r\n\r\nYou will find that most dots are in primary colors, but if you are moving into a larger home you may need to get the pastels too so each room can have a distinct color.  This makes it easy for movers to know where the boxes go and it also makes it easier for you to identify the items in a box from across the room.\r\n<h1>Developing Your Master Move Legend</h1>\r\nI recommend you develop a few master move legends that just have the room color, name and location (upstairs or downstairs, left or right arrows) so movers can know with a quick glance where they need to go.  You know boxes and large furniture are pretty heavy, so no need in prolonging the processes with indecisiveness.  Tape your room maps on the door frame of each room and make sure to strategically place the master maps at key direction points throughout the house.\r\n\r\nAnother place where you want to put the move legend is in your storage shelter (if applicable).  It will allow you to identify items quickly at a glance.\r\n\r\nI hope you have found this moving tip helpful.  If you have, please let us know by commenting below and make sure to signup to regularly receive our organizational tips.\r\n\r\nI wish you a successful and easy move!','How to Organize Your Move with a Floor Plan Map ','','inherit','closed','closed','','3402-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:00','2019-07-27 05:16:00','',3402,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3402-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8096,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:01','2019-07-27 05:16:01','.\r\n\r\nWhen you enter your closet do you hear yourself saying, \"I have nothing to wear!\", yet you have a closet full of clothes? This is a problem that many people experience. The truth is you can\'t see the things you have to wear, because of all the clutter in your closet, which I like to call noise.  Today, let\'s talk about organizing your closet and getting rid of the noise...setting it free so you can hear (see) the clothes you were meant to wear.\r\n\r\nAs many of you know I had a <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/how-to-get-rid-of-excess-weight/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">clothing dilemma</a> due to my weight gain...although I regularly went through my closet I realized I had a lot of excess noise in it.  I had removed most of the too little clothes and put them in bins in our attic, but I still had a number of items in my closet that I skipped over on a daily basis.   It was time for me to face<img class=\"wp-image-3739 alignleft\" src=\"https://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/dresses-53319_1280.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"dresses-53319_1280\" width=\"229\" height=\"185\" />\r\n\r\nthe reality in my life that I had gained my weight back and although I had a few pieces left from my larger days, many were old and faded, some I just didn\'t like, but to keep from purchasing something I forced myself to keep the items. Truth is they just frustrated and complicated my mornings and still remained in my closet unworn (well, more like on the floor or in the side chair). One day I had had enough and decided to tackle my closet once and for all! I was determined to set these clothes and myself free.\r\n<h2>Organizing Starts with Decluttering</h2>\r\nWe all want to look nice in our clothes. We want to look sexy and to feel good and the truth is many of the items in my closet did just the opposite of that. I decided to just release those items...one by one. I let my gut and heart guide me, literally and figuratively. I entered my closet and grabbed anything I didn\'t like.  I grabbed items I regularly skipped over and items I put on and immediately took off...not because I didn\'t like it, but because it didn\'t fit properly.  I know you are thinking...but if I do that I wouldn\'t have anything to wear...I will have to wear the same thing every day!  Well, let me dispel this falsity right now...\r\n\r\n1. You weren\'t wearing it, to begin with, so let it go;\r\n\r\n2.  Many people wear the same clothes all the time.  Observe the people around you and you will see that people just alternate and match things in new ways..  Even if they don\'t so what...DO YOU;\r\n\r\n3.  Getting rid of the noise will help you determine what you really need.\r\n\r\nI decided to live in my now instead of what is to be...yes I\'m working on losing weight, but until then I\'ve decided to embrace the body I have and dress it impeccably.  Since organizing my closet, you know what I have experienced???\r\n<h2>How Clearing the Noise Helped Me</h2>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Getting dressed is now easy and fun;</li>\r\n 	<li>I\'ve discovered new combinations of clothing I\'ve never paired together before;</li>\r\n 	<li>People are regularly commenting on how good I look or how nice my outfit is;</li>\r\n 	<li>Many think I have new clothes when they are the same items I\'ve worn for years, just in a bad combination.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3176\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"225\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3176 size-medium\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/img_5835-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_5835\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /> My closet before my purge.[/caption]\r\n\r\nI encourage you to take a step out on faith and try it...organize your closet today and I promise you, you will feel free! Trust me, you will thank me later. Visually my closet wasn\'t cluttered, in fact, it was very organized...a bunch of organized noise.\r\n\r\nGo ahead and tackle your closet today!  I\'d love to see your results so feel free to <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/groups/changeacademy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">join my Facebook Group</a> to share with the rest of the THB Family so we can cheer you on!  You might also enjoy some of our other post <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/new-closet-system/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Creating a New Closet System</a>','How to Organize your Closet and Get Rid of the Noise','','inherit','closed','closed','','3729-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:01','2019-07-27 05:16:01','',3729,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3729-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8097,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:32','2019-07-27 05:16:32','The never ending purging cycle...where does all the clutter come from?  Do you feel like you are having to purge stuff every few months because there is just too much???  Well, I have good news...I have a solution to help you eliminate clutter, but if I\'m honest...it never goes completely away, but it is definitely something that is manageable with the right systems in place.\r\n\r\nNow, if you have followed me for a while you have heard me refer to the <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizational-roadmap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">organizational roadmap stages</a>, but I want to specifically break down one important area - how to apply the key questions to help you eliminate the clutter coming into your space.\r\n<h1>Observation of Clutter Causes</h1>\r\nThere is usually a specific area that plagues you and your family on a regular basis and it is important that you observe and/or discuss how these items come into your home and/or how they become a problem.  This is really the first step in identifying the problem for you.  You see until you review what got you there in the first place you can\'t really address it.  Instead you will be placing temporary solutions (actually more clutter) in the space, creating sometimes more problems instead of solutions.\r\n<h1>Ask the Key Questions to Eliminate Clutter</h1>\r\n<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-6218\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/KeyQuestions-200x300.png\" alt=\"Eliminate Clutter - Ask these key questions | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />To begin this process you need to ask yourself the key questions - who, what, when, where and why.  These questions help to remove the opinions and the guesswork and get to the facts of what needs to be done to eliminate clutter from your space. I also encourage you to ask the questions until you can\'t ask anymore...sometimes that may mean going four or five levels deep.\r\n\r\nFor example, if paper is an issue for you and those around you, I\'d find out what all the sources are of the paper entering the space.  Where does it come from? How does it enter the space?  What type of paper is it?  Why are you keeping it?  Who needs it? How often do they need it?  Who normally brings it in?  When does it seem to be at it\'s worst? etc. etc.  The answers to these questions give you a foundational view into the problem at hand.  It also lets you know where you can consolidate or eliminate issues. Keep asking questions until you can\'t ask any more.\r\n\r\nI used paper as the example here because this was one of the main areas of frustration when we moved into our home.  It seemed to always multiply and congregate on our dining room table and kitchen cabinets (ha like it\'s a person) and only got worse once our daughter started school.  We were able to identify and isolate the main problem, create a system that worked for our family and identify a purging plan.  We also identified ways we could reduce the paper coming into the house.  The key questions were especially helpful in identifying what paper clutter we could eliminate, where we stored each type of paper and how long we stored it.\r\n\r\nI encourage you to evaluate your situation today and apply my <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizational-roadmap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">organizational roadmap concepts</a> to determine where you can reduce or eliminate clutter from your life.  If you would like more detailed direction as to how to eliminate clutter and organize your space, I encourage you to signup for my <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/GettingOrganized\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Organize Like a Pro Course</a>.','How to Eliminate Clutter by Asking Key Questions','','inherit','closed','closed','','5829-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:32','2019-07-27 05:16:32','',5829,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5829-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8098,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','Think about all the entry points to your business - Your website, in person events, all your social media sites, etc.  Do you know the steps individuals are taking to connect with you?  Do they need to connect to specific sites to get to unique information and is their experience on each different? Unless you are intentionally marketing in different ways (i.e., you are appealing to the visual learner on one site and the auditory learner on another) you should ask yourself if your voice is unified. And just to note, even if you are appealing to different types of learners...you still need a unified brand voice when you are doing it.  For example, I may post two different visual representations of a single blog post on pinterest.  The pictures are different and the text written on each is different, but the colors, font and style are all similar.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Business-Leaks.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6397 size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Fix-Broken-Processes.png\" alt=\"Fix Broken Processes Audio | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" /></a>\r\n\r\n[audio mp3=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Business-Leaks.mp3\"][/audio]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h1>Mapping Out Your Process Flow</h1>\r\nThe first thing I recommend you do, is take some time and map out the flow that your customers are taking when they encounter your business.  Think through all the different types of customers you have as well as all the methods by which they can access you or your business. Don\'t belittle any connection or path because they all count in this process.  By doing this, you get a birds eye view of your business, which helps you see problems in a much faster way.  You can quickly pick up on processes that don\'t make sense or processes that are old.  You may even decide you don\'t want a particular process based on where your business is now.\r\n<h1>Identifying Your Leaks</h1>\r\nOnce you have fully mapped out your current processes, you will need to identify areas for improvement. Determine how can you unify the routes you have so they are all similar no matter the platform. You want to identify routes that should be eliminated and those that should be added.\r\n\r\nIf I click on the get to know me button on your facebook page, does it have the same or similar wording, coloring, branding as the one on your website or on instagram?  These are just a few of the things I call leaks in your business.  They are process flows or lack there of that cause customers to have to stop the forward process of getting to you or your product.\r\n<h1>Unifying Process Routes</h1>\r\nOnce you have identified the leaks, you will want to resolve the process route problems.  Ultimately <img class=\"wp-image-6399 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Fix-Broken-Processes-Pin-200x300.png\" alt=\"Fix Broken Processes Pin | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />the goal is to ensure that no matter how people are trying to join your newsletter, their experience/route will be the same or similar.  Each platform is a little different, but the actual route they take should be the same and should be the fastest route possible for what they are trying to do.\r\n\r\nIf you identify routes with drop-offs (they don\'t have a path to you or your product), then you will need to rectify that or make a plan to rectify it.  These of course are pretty serious <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/business-leaks-guide/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">leaks in your </a><a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/business-leaks-guide/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">business</a> and once identified, you always want to fill these as quickly as possible.\r\n<h1>Schedule Regular Process Reviews</h1>\r\nNow, leak filling is never a hit and quit type of action.  Just like I teach in the <a href=\"https://thechangeacademy.thinkific.com/courses/organizational-roadmap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">organizational roadmap</a>, there is always a maintenance stage that needs to be completed.  The amount of time between maintenance sessions depends on your developed systems and the number of changes you have had in your business since the last one.  A person who adds a new service, opt-in or product on a regular basis would need much more frequent review periods than the person who rarely has changes.  If you notice a software update or change in your provider(s) platform, this should also trigger a maintenance review.  My standard recommendation is for a monthly review for those who add regularly and a quarterly review for those who change things less often.\r\n\r\nThis will ensure everything is working and flowing as expected.','How to Fix Broken Processes in Your Business','','inherit','closed','closed','','5865-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','',5865,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5865-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8099,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','You guys know I am all about saving time and money, but what you may not know is that I absolutely love using routing to improve my overall productivity.  What is routing?  It is the act or process by which you plan out and route your journey so you follow the path of least resistance.\r\n\r\nAlright, I know that was a lot of words, so let me give you an example.  Lets say today you have a meeting you need to attend, you need to drop off a sales packet and run by a supplier.  In planning those events for today I would map out the path these take and basically make a circle. Determine if you have any downtime between meetings and plan in a site visit or look up the nearest Starbucks where you can work.  You also would need to ensure you have the files you need to work on while at Starbucks.\r\n<h2>How Does Routing Improve Productivity?</h2>\r\nYou see unless you have a delivery service, most people don\'t realize how much time is truly wasted when they fail to route their day.  In the above mentioned scenario it is often that people will go to work then go to the supplier, then back to work...to leave 45 minutes later to drop off the sales packet, etc.  The result of this is wasted time and money.\r\n\r\nOnce you begin the process of routing, you will find that early planning helps you better plan your route.  You may start by just routing one day and see how it helps, but think about how applying <a href=\"http://ctt.ec/UB4F9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"http://clicktotweet.com/img/tweet-graphic-3.png\" alt=\"Tweet: Start by routing one day and see how it helps increase your productivity. Learn how here http://ctt.ec/UB4F9+ #productivity #timemanagement\" /></a>routing to your entire week will save you a lot of time.  How planning one particular day of the week as the day to schedule out of office meetings or maybe you service one side of the city on certain days?  The possibilities are endless, just think outside the box about what you are doing on a daily basis and see where you can route your activities.<a href=\"http://ctt.ec/UB4F9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6407 size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Click-to-tweet-768-x-150.png\" alt=\"Click to tweet - Routing Your Day | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"768\" height=\"150\" /></a>\r\n<h2>How Do You \"Route\" to Improve Productivity?</h2>\r\nSo, now that I\'ve told you all about this fabulousness, how do you do it?  Well, it is easier than you think.  In a nutshell, you figure out all the things you need to do for the day and then you map out a plan to accomplish it with as little effort as possible.  So, start by looking at your calendar for today...does it require you to leave your office or your desk?  If you are a solopreneur or someone trying to work a full-time job and build a business at a same time, I encourage you to include your personal items as well.  Why?  because you are often times struggling to find pockets of time in your life as a whole, not just your business.  Alright so lets walk through it:\r\n<h3>Create your List of Things To Do</h3>\r\nStart the process of routing by just writing down everything that needs to be done for the day. On your schedule today you have to do the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Take the dog to the vet, which closes at 5 (5 miles from your home);</li>\r\n 	<li>Drop off your upcoming event invitations at the printer;</li>\r\n 	<li>Conduct a consultation with a potential client;</li>\r\n 	<li>Pick up your child from school at 4 (10 miles from home);</li>\r\n 	<li>Go grocery shopping for dinner (2 miles from home);</li>\r\n 	<li>Get stamps at the post office to mail the invitations; and</li>\r\n 	<li>Take your child to practice (you normally just sit and wait).</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h3>Begin the Routing Process</h3>\r\n<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5791\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Routing-101-200x300.png\" alt=\"How to Increase Productivity with Routing | www.thehappinessbucket.com\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />\r\n\r\nIn looking at what has to be done, see where things can be done together.  In looking at the list above, I would route it as follows (I have included the why):\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li> I\'d work to conduct the consultation with the potential client as early as possible.  You want to make sure you are fresh.  This also gives the client time to get settled and allows you to avoid rush hour.  You want to be able to wear something a little more professional as you are a representative of your business.</li>\r\n 	<li>Depending on when the consultation is I would drop off the event invites at the printer before or after the consultation.</li>\r\n 	<li>On the way home I\'d go to the grocery store and knock out the grocery shopping, at the same time I\'d pick up the stamps (assuming I absolutely want to add a stamp, otherwise I\'d just plan to hand deliver these to the post office and have them stamp them there with the machine). This allows me to drop off the groceries at home, change my clothes and pick up the dog (I would also try to figure out a less busy day to grocery shop if possible).</li>\r\n 	<li>I\'d then take the dog to the vet on my way to pick up the kids from school (if there was enough time and if it wasn\'t an overnight visit).  I\'d work on my report while waiting on the dog to finish, if it wasn\'t overnight.</li>\r\n 	<li>Take my child to their practice and continue to work on the consultation report from that morning.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nBy developing this routing schedule, I know exactly what I need to do and how to do it in the most efficient way possible.\r\n<h2>The Productivity Benefits of Routing</h2>\r\nWhen you start routing your calendar, you begin to identify your optimal times of the day and week. You will begin to see how much easier things are and how much time you can recover.  You will begin to make deliberate decisions as to when and how you are going to do something.  No more doing things randomly, each action is calculated as to how it effects the day and your desired deliverables.\r\n<h3>The Birth of Batching</h3>\r\nSuccessful routing eventually grows into batching, which I talk about in <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/batching/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Organizing and Increasing Productivity Using Batching</a>.  You will also begin to see patterns and areas where you can move things around.  Why do you grocery shop during the week?  Can you pick a different day of the week when you aren\'t as busy or are naturally in the area.  You will figure out when you have must haves versus like to haves or I wanna\'s.  You will also be able to eliminate things that you really don\'t need to do.\r\n\r\nSo I\'m curious, prior to reading this post had you ever routed?  If so, share any ideas or ways you use routing to improve your overall productivity.  If this is your first time hearing about routing? How will try to incorporate it in your day?','Improve Personal Productivity by Routing Your Day','','inherit','closed','closed','','5124-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','',5124,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5124-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8100,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','How many of you have been contemplating cutting cable, but have a fear of missing something? Come on, I know I wasn\'t and aren\'t the only one who has had these types of thoughts.  You know you are paying way too much to sit and watch tv.  You ponder regularly as to how you can get everything done that needs to be done, yet you catch every episode of your favorite tv shows.\r\n\r\nYou see I know the truth!  Why...because I\'ve been there too.  In fact, I just officially cut the cable cord and it feels sooooooooooo good!  My husband and I have been talking about doing this for almost two years and we finally made the decision to make it happen.  When I calculate how much we could have saved in those two years that we tetered with the idea (approximately $2400 dollars if not more) I just shake my head!\r\n\r\nI want to share with you a little about our cutting cable process (we aren\'t finished with everything yet), in hopes that I encourage you to let go of the fear and take the next step along your journey.\r\n<h1>Getting Your Cutting Cable Mindset Right</h1>\r\nAs you know, In the <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizational-roadmap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Organizational Roadmap Workshop</a>, I teach that the first thing you must do in any new endeavor is get your mind right. This particular situation is no exception, in fact...if I\'m being honest with you and myself, I think my husband and I stayed in <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizational-roadmap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this stage</a> a little too long! Knowing that, I want to help you overcome some of the fears you may be experiencing as it pertains to cutting cable.\r\n\r\n[convertkit form=5064088]\r\n<h2>Cable is Entertainment Not a Necessity</h2>\r\nFirst of all, as with most people, we knew that we were being totally overcharged for the entertainment of television.  I mean, lets get real...that\'s what it is, it\'s entertainment.  It\'s extra, it\'s not a necessity (unless your livelihood requirements i.e., news reporter or an entertainment blogger).  We complained about how much we were paying each month that we paid the bill, but month after month we still paid it.  So if this is you, lets get your mindset right.\r\n<h2>Money Saved from Cutting Cable Could Fund More Important Goals</h2>\r\nLets say you could save $75 - $100 each month.  Would this help you with the goals you have for your life?  Could you reallocate that money to help pay off something else or save up for something you\'ve been wanting to do?  Most people will admit that they could do something better with that money.  Now, if you are someone who has a lot of extra expendable income and you don\'t need to save then this really isn\'t something that you need to overcome.  To my understanding, most cable cord cutters are looking to save money and stop giving companies money unnecessarily.  So, if this is you, definitely read on.\r\n<h2>Acknowledge and Eliminate Your Fears</h2>\r\n<img class=\"wp-image-5767 size-medium alignright\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CableCuttingPin-200x300.png\" alt=\"Eliminating the fear of cutting cable | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />\r\n\r\nSo the next thing we need to do in this mindset journey is to tackle some of the fears you may be feeling.  One thing is what about all the shows I love.  Okay, so this is a big one that we can help put into perspective, so to help you overcome this fear I want you to do a few things:\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li>\r\n<h3>List out all the shows you watch</h3>\r\nThe first thing you need to do is get a list of all your favorite shows.  If you have a DVR, this may be a little easier for you as you can just look at your recording history or your wishlist to develop your list of shows.</li>\r\n 	<li>\r\n<h3>Prioritize your List</h3>\r\nNow it\'s time to prioritize your list.  I know you have those shows you usually watch as soon as they come on or shortly there after.  If you are anything like me, you also have a number of shows you are behind on, this should be a clue to you that they shouldn\'t be #1 on your priority list.  By prioritizing your list, it will help you eliminate and determine, which platforms you need and which you don\'t.</li>\r\n 	<li>\r\n<h3>Identify what platforms the show(s) are on</h3>\r\nAt this point, you can identify which platforms each of the shows is on.  When I did this I realized that a lot of what we watch is on regular television networks.  These networks are absolutely free using the over the air (OTA) signal.  You just need an antenna to get the signal.  It just came down to identifying what other networks are represented on our list.\r\n\r\nIn our tivo box, it was easy to identify each show\'s platform(s). You just go into the info section of the shows in your record list and it shows the platforms at the top near the show image.  Just write these down so you can evaluate the list as a whole. I found that many of the shows we watch, air on up to four platforms.</li>\r\n 	<li>\r\n<h3>Identify the platforms and their fees</h3>\r\nNow that you have your prioritized show list and have identified their associated platforms, you need to research their costs.  When I did this for our list I learned about a number of platforms I didn\'t really knew existed.  Most of what I watched was isolated down to OTA, Amazon, Vudu or Hulu.  You need to look at each platform and see how much it costs for a monthly subscription and/or the purchase of an entire season. One example I can give you is there are two shows that come on the OWN network that I love to watch - Greenleaf and Queen Sugar.  Both of these<img class=\"wp-image-5765 alignleft\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Research-Savings-300x300.png\" alt=\"Eliminating the fear of cutting cable\" width=\"216\" height=\"216\" /> are available on Amazon and Vudu.  I can purchase by the season fox approximately $20ish dollars or I can pay $1.99 - $2.99 per episode.  The other option is for me to get a subscription service that provides that channel.  Think about the cost of a subscription vs. purchasing the two series outright.  As an example we are talking ~$50 for both full seasons vs. $60 to add the special package on Sling that provides that channel. In our case, we had planned to get Sling anyway, so to me it makes sense to purchase access to the channel so I can get those shows plus a few more that were lower on my priority list.  In your case, if you aren\'t planning to or don\'t want to get sling, then you would compare the ~$50 to your setup fees etc.\r\n<h2>The Point I Want to Make</h2>\r\nThe point of all of this is to deal in facts and not your fears.  Focus on wrapping your mind around the task at hand.  Understand what you will gain vs. what you will truly lose.  Do the math, break it down and see exactly what you are dealing with.\r\n\r\nThe hesitation that most of us feel is actually the fear of letting go. The fear of the unknown; the fear of missing out; and the fear of what you will do without. I encourage you to focus on the truth...the facts of what you will gain if you take a chance.  You will get gain time in your day; you will discover things that you didn\'t know were out there; you will gain more money in your pocket/bank account; you will gain the reassurance that you can do it; and you might even gain time with your family.\r\n\r\nIt never hurts to just try it and see...you can always go back to cable if you absolutely hate it.</li>\r\n</ol>','Eliminate the Fear of Cutting Cable - Save Money','','inherit','closed','closed','','5760-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','',5760,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5760-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8101,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','Are you building self-care into your day or week? I see moms all the time running so much that they burn out and get overwhelmed by the mere thought of one more added task/errand. So the question I have for you is are you putting moments of breathing room into your day.\r\n\r\nBreathing room can be anything that forces you to take a moment. It could be a 30 min coffee break, a walk around the block, just sitting on your porch. Everyone has their own way of breathing, but here are the rules you need to follow:\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li>Your self-care moments must be for you and only you;</li>\r\n 	<li>You can invite others, but they must be participating in breathing too (no worrying about children, spouses, work, etc. You are there to relax and breathe);</li>\r\n 	<li>Your self-care must be for at least 30 mins, but there is no real limit on how long you should take, but realistically if you are doing this once a day it should be limited to probably 30 mins to an hour. If once a week then you can extend that to 2 - 4 hours. Some even take one full day of self-care. Look at your family and your abilities and work around that but make it happen...shoot you could even say every week it\'s 30 and once a month it\'s a full day. The key is don\'t be afraid to voice what you need;</li>\r\n 	<li>Notify your family/friends when that time is...and that they should not bother you during your breathing time. Even with little kids, you can tell them you are in your breathing corner, encourage them to use that time as their breathing time too. Get a timer or a special chime or music that plays during your breathing time so when they hear it they know what time it is. Think about schools and their nap times and their coordinated events, kids learn fast and they understand what it means when you set expectations and rules for it; and\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_5730\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"200\"]<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-5730\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Self-Care-200x300.png\" alt=\"How to use self-care\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" /> How to use self-care to reduce your overwhelm[/caption]</li>\r\n 	<li>Don\'t feel one ounce of guilt. You DESERVE the ability to take a moment to yourself to breathe. If you think about it your kids take self-care moments, when they quietly occupy themselves playing a book or vegging on the couch watching tv. You don\'t bother them...and they are left to their own devices. Your spouse takes their self-care time to do it too...what makes you less deserving than them?</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nSo today, I want you to commit to yourself that you will take your breathing time seriously. Put an appointment on your calendar, have the conversation with your family and friends and then thank me later lol. I\'d love to hear about your plan of action! Please share below or in our <a href=\"http://www.facebook.com/groups/changeacademy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">community facebook group</a>','How to Use Self-Care to Reduce Your Overwhelm','','inherit','closed','closed','','5722-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','',5722,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5722-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8102,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','<header class=\"page-header\">Have you ever looked at a space and felt totally frozen in your tracks?  I mean you can\'t think...you can\'t take action, you just keep looking at that same pile of clothes, papers, closet, etc. knowing you need to do something, but not knowing what that something is.  Well, I encourage you to use the <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizational-roadmap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">organizational roadmap stages</a> to help you regain clarity.  You see these stages were designed to help you systematically walk through your road blocks with little to no emotional attachment.  </header>I recommend starting with a small space like your bathroom counter top, in fact, that is where I started.  I was having a hard time keeping it clean and it frustrated me because there always seemed to be a mountain of stuff on it.  One day I looked at the contents of the counter and realized half the stuff didn’t belong there or I rarely used it.  That day I decided to do an experiment to see what I really used.  The steps that developed during this experiment are the steps that I am now sharing with you.  This experiment helped me realize that I was shifting the unused things around to get to items I needed. Ultimately, it wasn’t giving me the feeling I wanted when I entered my beautiful bathroom.  These steps provided an easy way to determine what I really needed without feeling overwhelmed.  Now, let me show you the steps I used so you can regain clarity in your space too:\r\n\r\n<header></header><section id=\"post-4041\" class=\"post-4041 page type-page status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry\"><article id=\"post-4041\" class=\"post-4041 page type-page status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry\">\r\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\r\n<h2>Step 1 - Identify the space you want to address</h2>\r\nIn this exercise, I want you to make sure the space is small...especially if this is your first time.  We have to crawl before we walk, so I don\'t want you to bite off too much right out the gate. It should be a space that can be handled pretty quickly (i.e., a desk, your bathroom countertop/drawers, your kitchen countertop, etc.)\r\n<h2>Step 2 - Identify your goal and purpose for the space</h2>\r\n<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5649\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Regain-Clarity-200x300.png\" alt=\"How to Regain Clarity\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />Think about how you currently use the space, what is working and what isn\'t.  Don\'t overthink this process, you can consider this your first round of decluttering.  You see many people get so overwhelmed with the state of their space that they overthink the process.  Start small then build momentum as you go.  You can always revisit the area once you are full steam ahead to see if you want to make any additional tweaks.\r\n<h2>Step 3 - Clear your space of everything</h2>\r\nThis is the easiest and honestly most stress relieving action (well to me it is).  Think of it as starting fresh, having a clean slate and being able to make the rules up as you go.  Just remove everything from the space as if you were moving.  I recommend using an empty box to help you clear the space (you guys know how I feel about my paper boxes)!  That being said, if you don\'t have a box the floor or a nearby table will do just fine.\r\n<h2>Step 4 - Process and Return Necessary Items</h2>\r\nNow this is where a lot of people get into trouble LOL.  Seriously, think very carefully here...I want you to think through how you use the space and what you need to do whatever it is that you do. As you think about that process, return only the things that enable you to complete it.  For example, a bathroom sink you need your eyeglasses and contact solution near.  The question is do you need them on top of the cabinet or in the top drawer where they are easily accessible?  Go with your first instinct, it is usually right.\r\n<h2>Step 5 - System Development and Test</h2>\r\nNow that you have made your decisions in step 4, you probably have a number of items left in your box.  All remaining items should remain in this box and be placed out of the way.  It should be close enough so you can access it if you are looking for or needing something, but far enough away so that it is out of your immediate sight.  The purpose of this step is to identify items that you REALLY need versus those that you THINK you need.  You should live with this setup for 7 - 14 days.\r\n<h2>Step 6 - Evaluate</h2>\r\nAt the end of your 7 - 14 day period you will have an understanding as to what you really use and what you don\'t.  You will have pulled out items that you needed out of the box...is there anything in the space that you originally placed there that you really didn\'t need?  Now, there may be some items that are seasonal or are things that make you happy when you see them...this is a personal choice that you will need to think through.  The key is to get yourself to a point where you feel better about your space.  A place where your happiness levels are higher.\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n</article></section>','How to Regain Clarity with 6 Easy Declutter Steps','','inherit','closed','closed','','5470-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','',5470,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5470-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8103,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','Today, we are making a deposit in our business bucket, because I\'m seeing something that needs to be addressed.  As moms and small business owners, we are often juggling many things at the same time and one of those things is our business. In observing small businesses around the area and on online, I have found that many are missing some basic business processes.  Now, I know many of us learn on the job, myself included...but there are a few business processes that are important for you to get right out of the gate.\r\n\r\nNow, don\'t fret if you find that you need to resolve a number of these areas in your business. Business processes aren\'t necessarily a small business owner\'s specialty, your craft is...but don\'t worry because it is my specialty and I\'m gonna help you through it all. By making a few of these small changes in your processes, you can turn from being a reactive business to a proactive one and drive potential customers to your product or service, instead of to your competitors.\r\n\r\nSo lets get into these business process tips:\r\n<h2>Anticipate Your Customer\'s Needs</h2>\r\nWhen you are creating processes in your business, you should do so by anticipating your customer\'s needs.  This enables you to prepare to answer their questions and deliver the supporting items to help meet their needs.  By taking this small step, it makes your customers feel understood, supported and safe doing business with you.\r\n<h2>Create Business Policies</h2>\r\nMany customers want to know their risk level upfront before they commit to doing business with you.  Think about the things you want to put into place to protect not only your business, but your customers too.  A few of the common policies you need to have in place are:  refund/return/cancellation policy, payment policy, travel policy, etc.  Think about the things you would want to know about a company if you were the customer and ensure you have those same policies and guidelines in place.\r\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions</h2>\r\n<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-5743 alignleft\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Reactive-Proactive-200x300.png\" alt=\"Reactive vs. Proactive Business Processes\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />\r\n\r\nAnother area where you can anticipate need is by having a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list.  You can easily build this list from the questions people regularly ask you.  You can choose where you provide access to this information, it may be once a person shows interest in your service/product that you provide it then, or you may just list it on your website for easy access.  I find this usually depends on your industry and whether or not you provide a service or a product.  I personally don\'t think there is a right or wrong answer, just do what works best for you and makes you and your customer feel comfortable.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h2>Identify Customer Requirements</h2>\r\nPlace yourself in the position of your customer and try to think through the expectation or requirements they may have for your service or product.  For example, a landscaper needs a customer to make specific decisions or provide specific information.  This information will help you complete the job as expected by the customer.  For example, how low do you want the grass cut, are there restrictions in your neighborhood, how often should you come, etc.  By obtaining this information ahead of time, it sets the expectations and the requirements for the job.  Creating customer information forms or questionnaires can help identify and capture these requirements from the customer.\r\n<h2>Quality Assurance</h2>\r\nThis is an area that is often missed.  Testing and looking for quality within your product or service is critical for retaining clients.  You should test your processes in both a controlled and uncontrolled environment.  Walk through your processes as though you are your ideal customer, to ensure you have thought through all the possible scenarios (or the top three) that could come up.   Once you feel comfortable with your processes, have someone else walk through it without your assistance to see if they notice anything that isn\'t right or to see if they have any questions about the process.\r\n\r\nI hope you have found this information helpful.  Feel free to watch the video below, which covers this information in a little more detail.  If you feel you need a little more guidance in reviewing your business processes, I encourage you to <a href=\"mailto: dana@thehappinessbucket.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">connect with me to set up your business consultation.</a> or consider purchasing my <a href=\"https://gumroad.com/l/sEes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">business process leaks ebook</a>.\r\n\r\n[embed]https://youtu.be/yfPE2XG7wFM[/embed]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Be More Proactive with Defined Business Processes','','inherit','closed','closed','','5236-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','',5236,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5236-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8104,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','<iframe title=\"Productivity Toolbox - Being Proactive vs. Reactive in your Business\" width=\"810\" height=\"608\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/yfPE2XG7wFM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>','','','publish','closed','closed','','0f2e92e6d05575b106b2093b2615c6a5','','','2019-07-27 05:16:33','2019-07-27 05:16:33','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/0f2e92e6d05575b106b2093b2615c6a5/',0,'oembed_cache','',0),(8105,1,'2019-07-27 05:16:34','2019-07-27 05:16:34','When life gets hectic and you don\'t have enough time in the day to get everything done, how do you feel?  Are you anxious, frustrated or overwhelmed?  Well, as you know here at The Happiness bucket I like to give you tools to help you reduce and eventually eliminate those feelings and replace them with calm and happiness.  So I\'m going to help you out!  Lets talk about the Get Things Done Challenge, because it will help you identify and prioritize all the things you need to do to get things done.  It helps you learn how to plan things out in your day, week and month so you begin to <a href=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/batch-organizing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">batch</a> your to do\'s to be more efficient and even find ways to delegate tasks to other people.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nIn an ideal world you will have a master book of to do\'s and yes your THB Journal would be a great place to put these lists.  In total, you should plan for 12 - 24 pages for your Get Things Done Challenge lists in your journal, so make sure you have enough room.  You will need 1 - 2 pages per month, depending on how big you write or how many lines there are per page in your journal.  As the challenge progresses, you will find yourself anticipating your needs for the following months, plugging in to dos early and anticipating things that you must get done before you actually need them.  Seriously, it\'s a beautiful thing!  So, now that you know the overall plan of action, lets talk about the steps to the challenge.\r\n<h1>The Steps to the Get Things Done Challenge</h1>\r\nFor those who are new to this, the challenge is set up to hold you accountable.  To make you think through what you have to do, write it down and take action.  This is how it works:\r\n\r\n1.  Number a piece of paper (or your spreadsheet for you techy\'s) using the number of days in a month (i.e., November has 30).  So using this example your page should be numbered 1 - 30.\r\n\r\n2.  On each of those lines identify something you need to do.  Make your holiday card list, Wash the car, clean out your purse, make the Thanksgiving menu, take items to goodwill, read a book for a bookclub mtg, etc.\r\n\r\n3.  On November 1 (or whatever day you start the challenge) you are to take a photo of your list and post it in the <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChangeAcademy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">group</a> with #gtdchallenge.\r\n\r\n<img class=\" wp-image-5528 alignleft\" src=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Planning-200x300.png\" alt=\"Get Things Done Challenge\" width=\"195\" height=\"293\" />\r\n\r\n4.  Each day, you should complete at least one thing on your list and post in the group what you completed (note:  if it is a personal task, just say I completed task number 3 today!) I would love for you to take a photo of the completed task (if that is possible) and/or list how it made you feel to have it done. Remember to use the #gtdchallenge.\r\n\r\n5.  On November 30 (or whatever day you end the challenge) share a summary of how the challenge helped you.\r\n\r\nIf these tasks are things for the house, I encourage you to incorporate the entire family.  I mean who said you have to be the only one getting things done?!?!?\r\n<h2>Identifying the Challenge Goal</h2>\r\nThe goal of this challenge is to get you to take action and to learn how to plan, even if it is small action.  This challenge will ultimately help you organize your thoughts and plan ahead for things that normally would cause you stress.  Now, that being said...I don\'t want you to panic if you don\'t finish your whole list.  As time goes on you will learn how to accomplish the tasks and goals you have on your list.  You will also learn how to pair down and be realistic in the overall goals you set for yourself.  So, if you don\'t finish the list this month, just move any items you haven\'t completed to a new list for the following month and pick additional items so that your list totals the number of days in the month (i.e., December has 31 days).  You continue this through to the end of the year and if you decide to keep the list you can see what all you accomplished throughout the year...but ummmm lets discard it at the end of the year.  Seriously, no need to hold on to clutter.\r\n\r\nNow speaking of clutter, one suggested way to use this list...specifically those of you who are working on an organizing project...is to make the list things that will help you meet your organizational goals.  You could make a declutter list, or a project list of to do\'s, maybe you are planning a move or a life transition.  You figure out what works for you.  I love to use this list around the <a href=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/holiday-planning-guide-pt1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October - December</a> time frame because the <a href=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/holidayorganizing/\">holiday\'s</a> can always get really hectic for me and since it is my favorite time of the year, I want to be able to enjoy it.\r\n\r\nIn the process of developing the list.  It\'s also okay to put fun stuff on the list, I mean all work and no play makes you well...not so much fun LOL.\r\n\r\nGet creative.  Enjoy yourself and see how much you can take action on today!','The Get Things Done Challenge Helps You Organize','','inherit','closed','closed','','4765-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:16:34','2019-07-27 05:16:34','',4765,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/4765-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8106,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:04','2019-07-27 05:17:04','This is our third post in our photo organizing series.  If you missed the first two posts:  <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizing-physical-photos/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Organizing your Printed Photos</a> and <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizing-digital-photos/\">Organizing your Digital Photos</a> make sure to check them out so you get the steps used to prep for preparing your next lesson, photo books.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">As we discussed in our previous post, we began the process of creating photo books out of our family photos to help preserve them and to also make it easy for us to give gifts to our family that live out of the country.  It is such a nice way to present your photos without having to print each one or having them permanently in one location.  I will say, if you prefer to touch your photos, you may want to use a photo album or scrapbook to store your photos or even just use the photo box method discussed in our <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizing-physical-photos/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first post of the series</a>.  This post is specific to creating a photo book.<!--more--></p>\r\n\r\n<h1>Identify the Photos for your Photo Book</h1>\r\nSo the first step to creating your photo book is to determine the various categories you want in the book.  As you can see in this image, I created the various book categories that I wanted to use, so\r\n\r\n<img class=\"size-full wp-image-3901 alignleft\" src=\"http://ecbiz182.inmotionhosting.com/~thehap27/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/digital-photo.jpg\" alt=\"Photo Folder List\" width=\"228\" height=\"197\" />\r\n\r\nI could sort the photos into the appropriate folder. By sorting in this fashion it makes the process of book creation much easier.  For example, in my daughter\'s first book we wanted to focus on birth to her 1st year birthday party. Needless to say there were literally 100\'s (if not 1,000\'s) of photos to go through, but this really wasn\'t as hard as you might think.   Once you get all the photos for the categories you have and start reviewing them you will notice as with the physical photos you have duplicates or very similar images.  Look at the photos carefully and pick your favorite ones.  Now, I would suggest getting rid of the others.  If they aren\'t good enough to go in the book why are you keeping them?  Okay okay I know there are some that look better based on the layout, so if this is the case it is perfectly fine to keep them.  I, however would suggest creating a sub-folder or category so you don\'t mix those up with the ones you are keeping for the book.\r\n<h1>Identify your Photo book Creation Software</h1>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOnce you have the photos you want for the photo book you will want to choose your photo book creator.  I chose to use Shutterfly mainly because they are the ones that offer regular discounts and that our Pamper points (yes you earn points when you buy diapers) at the time converted to...and you know how I am about my discounts! lol.  You may choose a different book creation tool and that is perfectly fine.  They are all pretty much created equal with a few minor differences, but for the purposes of this post I will refer to shutterfly.\r\n\r\nSo most photo book creators require you to create a password.  You want to make sure you read the fine print carefully to see what it says about selling your photos or using them for promotional purposes, prior to uploading them to the site.  Ultimately, make sure you are ok with what you are agreeing to...don\'t just blindly accept the terms.\r\n<h1>Determine the Photo book Style and Theme</h1>\r\nOnce your account is created you can pick the type of book you want to create.  I would suggest making sure you pick something you can easily maintain.  What I mean by that is to pick a style of book that isn\'t seasonal or being offered as a special so your books all look similar. In my case, we use the basic book which is small, but it is perfect for our purposes so our books aren\'t too large and it is also the one that is often offered free or at a discounted rate.\r\n\r\nAfter choosing your book type, you then will pick your layout.  There are a lot of cute designs that you can apply to your book to bring life to it.  For our wedding book we used a wedding theme which gave us cute images and wording that we could apply between photos.  For my daughters we used more of a modern layout.  Get creative here, you can even get your family involved if they are age appropriate.\r\n<h1>Design your Photo Layout - Get Creative</h1>\r\nYou then will arrange your photos on the page as you want them to appear.  I suggest once you get <img class=\"size-medium wp-image-6195 alignright\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/How-to-Create-Photobooks-200x300.png\" alt=\"How to Organize your Photos into Photobooks | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />all the photos in the book layout that you want, you save it and take a break away from it.  I like to let it \"marinate\" and then come back to it to see if I still like the way it looks.  If not, don\'t be afraid to make a few adjustments.  Once finished you can enter your discount code (if you have one) and pay for your book or better yet just the shipping.  I definitely encourage you to wait until there is a special or you get a discount code whenever possible so you can get it for free and just pay for the shipping. Well, that\'s it...I told you it wasn\'t hard. I really love this process because I love making them and I feel good knowing we are going to have volumes of our lives preserved for easy digesting for many many years to come.  So, are you going to make your photo book today?\r\n\r\nPlease comment below and let me know what you liked most about this series and what you would like to see in the future.\r\n\r\nUntil the next post, stay happy!\r\n\r\nOh, if you are interested in the other posts in the series, check them out here:\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizing-physical-photos/\">Series Post 1:  Organizing Printed Photos</a>\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizing-digital-photos/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Series Post 2:  Organizing Digital Photos</a>','Organizing your Photos by Creating Photo books','','inherit','closed','closed','','3933-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:04','2019-07-27 05:17:04','',3933,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3933-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8107,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:04','2019-07-27 05:17:04','Organizing photos can be one of the most difficult jobs you have when it comes to organizing and decluttering in your home.  It is mainly because photos tend to hold more memories then basic objects.  Just looking at them can cause instant emotions, that you may not have known were there.  It is hard to just toss those memories in the trash because they hold historical significance and many times just bring us joy. To compound this problem you have to organize not only your physical photos but your digital photos as well.  Each category holds it\'s own challenges, which is why we are doing a mini-series on photo organizing.  Today, we are going to discuss the process of organizing our physical photos.<!--more-->\r\n<h1>Gathering your Physical Photos</h1>\r\nT<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-3892 size-medium\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/photo-256887_1920-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"photo-256887_1920\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" />he first step we would suggest when tackling a physical photo project is to gather all of your photos into one place.  A lot of times people have photos stored in numerous locations, so following our normal process you should bring them together in one place so you can see/know just how many photos you are needing to organize.  This will also help you determine if your storage plan is practical for the amount of photos you possess.\r\n<h1>Sorting and Evaluating your Physical Photos</h1>\r\nOnce you have all of your photos in one place, you need to begin sorting them into categories. My suggestion is to start with broad categories such as vacations, special occasions, children, family group photos, etc.  You can always break it down further if these categories end up being too big, but this is a great place to start.  Once you have everything sorted, you need to evaluate them very carefully.  You should eliminate duplicates (give them to family members if that is applicable) and get rid of any that don\'t have any real significance to you.  The measuring stick that I like to use is...when you first look at each picture, did it give you a positive or negative reaction...did you frown, smile, cry or think of a story?  Let those reactions guide your decisions to keep or toss, not your guilt or feeling of obligation.<a href=\"https://ctt.ec/8sF53\"><img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6409\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Click-to-Tweet-Photo-Organizing.png\" alt=\"Click to Tweet Photo Organizing | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"768\" height=\"150\" /></a>\r\n<h1>Preserving your Physical Photos</h1>\r\nOnce you have gone through the photo evaluation process you will have the pictures that you want to keep and can begin determining how you want to preserve them.  You can choose to digitize them or you may want to create physical photo albums or scrapbook with the photos. It is perfectly okay if you just want to store them.\r\n\r\nThe beauty is at this point you can store them in a secure and safe photo box being sure to clearly label the categories within the box.  One suggestion I do have is that you store your photos by filing them like in a filing cabinet vs. stacking them on top of each other.  Stacking photos can cause them to stick together and ultimately damage the photo.\r\n\r\nAlright, so now that we have tackled your physical photos, make sure to check out the other posts in this series:\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizing-digital-photos/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Organizing your Digital Photos</a>\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/creating-photobooks/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Creating your Photo Book</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Organizing your Printed Photos','','inherit','closed','closed','','3766-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:04','2019-07-27 05:17:04','',3766,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3766-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8108,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:04','2019-07-27 05:17:04','It\'s October and you know what that means!!!  It\'s time to start you holiday organizing! It’s officially the holiday season and although I know many of you just let out a collective moan.  I love this time of year so I get in hyper-drive.\r\n\r\nOctober is all about Fall Festivals, Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos, November is Thanksgiving (in the states) and December is Christmas! In the Morales household, this is the time of year that our attic space gets a lot of love because I visit it at least once a month, if not more. This is also the time of year when things begin getting hectic because we are doing a lot of holiday organizing.  It\'s the time for holiday party invitations, weddings, family gatherings, gift shopping, baking and home decoration. <!--more-->I\'m sure for many it can be a stressful time because there is so much to do, but I want you to enjoy your holiday season! My recommendation is to plan out the season, batch as much work as you can and take it one day at a time. Sounds easy right? Well, it is and I\'m going to teach you how!\r\n<h2>Make Your High-Level Plan</h2>\r\nThe first step to holiday organizing is to plug anything you already know is happening into your calendar. I\'ll use myself as an example: on October 5th, we begin taking preorders for our hand-made crafts, mid-Oct is our wedding anniversary, a work conference and a family vacation. When we return it will be Halloween. We want to send a holiday gift box to my in-laws sometime in November. Thanksgiving is at our house again this year and Christmas is in Nashville so guests will come then. Looking at that I already know things are going to be busssssy!!!\r\n<h2>Break your plan down into To Do Lists</h2>\r\nSo the second step to holiday organizing is to look at each of those things and figure out what needs to happen for each.  You want to ask yourself what needs to happen in relation to X to be successful.  Add those items to your calendar so they become your due dates.\r\n\r\nFor some of you, you will need to add buffer tasks, but do what works best for you.  For example, I need to develop our Thanksgiving menu so I can send out the signup list to those coming who are bringing something. For the trip, I have to make sure I have what I need from a business standpoint and I need to start packing as soon as possible...not only for me but for my family as well! I need to purchase Halloween candy and begin making the food signup list for the holidays, etc etc.\r\n<h2>Batch Your To Do\'s</h2>\r\nNext on your holiday organizing plan, you want to sit down and think through the events you have planned.  By doing this, you can begin to determine your overall list of to do\'s and see where you can easily batch them together. For example, when I\'m sitting around waiting on others or have a little downtime, I can think about what I\'d like to get for my in-laws, I can also start drafting my Thanksgiving menu...all of this is of course documented in my Evernote app so it is always with me (read more about <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organizing-with-evernote/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how I use Evernote to simplify my life</a>).  I also use all the steps previously mentioned in my <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/holiday-planning-guide-pt1/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Ultimate Holiday Planning Guide (Part 1)</a> and <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/holiday-planning-guide-pt2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Ultimate Holiday Planning Guide (Part 2)</a>.\r\n<h2>Be Realistic</h2>\r\nI encourage you to look at your \"plan\" with an editing eye, especially if you are overwhelmed just by looking at it.  Look into areas where you can lessen your load or even delegate responsibilities.  This will help you have an enjoyable holiday season without the stress and frustration so many experience.\r\n\r\nIf you like what you read here, please share it with someone close to you.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Organizing for the Holidays','','inherit','closed','closed','','3834-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:04','2019-07-27 05:17:04','',3834,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3834-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8109,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:04','2019-07-27 05:17:04','\"Only touch things one time\"...I\'m sure you have heard this saying several times.  Every time I hear it, I shake my head because it isn\'t realistic in my house and I feel at times it can be really inefficient. Take for example when I am in the kitchen cleaning or organizing.  I am focused on the room I\'m in, not on taking items upstairs. I believe in organizing with containers and I\'m going to explain just how I do it.<!--more-->\r\n<h2>Use Containers to Batch Items</h2>\r\n<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-5579 size-medium\" title=\"Organizing with Containers | The Happiness Bucket\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Container-Organizing-200x300.png\" alt=\"Organizing with Containers | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" /> I typically coral items in a container and keep it moving.  I do this with too little clothes in my daughter\'s room too.  For anyone with a young child, you know you can blink and the same pair of shorts she/he had on the week before are now too snug to even pull up.  In our house, they are quickly and efficiently tossed into the \"too little\" bin until we have a full container and can <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/batching/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">address the clothes in batches</a>. I\'m all about efficiency and there is something about only touching something once that just irritates my being lol.  So, one way I like to \"Batch\" items throughout my home is by using containers (baskets mostly), to help corral items that belong together or in another room.  This helps cut down on the disorganized and cluttered piles that can appear seemingly out of nowhere.  I have a few in my home, but the one I use more than any other is my upstairs/downstairs basket.\r\n<h2>Efficiency of an Upstairs/Downstairs Container</h2>\r\nWe only have one container for organizing that lives downstairs, but I have known people to have one at the top and bottom of their stairs. This container serves multiple purposes (1) it keeps you from making multiple trips up and down the stairs (2) it makes the trip a little safer as you are carrying a container of items and not trying to balance individual items as you navigate the stairs (3) allows you to not waste a trip, by multi-tasking the trip you are already taking up the stairs.\r\n<h2>The Kitchen - Organizing with Containers</h2>\r\nNow those who have followed THB for a while you know I am <a href=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/decontainerizing-how-to-discover-untapped-space-in-your-pantry/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pro-decontainerizing</a>, but many times, I am decontainerizing into a container.  Sounds counter intuitive doesn\'t it lol.  Well, <img class=\"alignright wp-image-5581 size-medium\" title=\"Pasta - Organizing with Containers | The Happiness Bucket\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/pasta-300x300.png\" alt=\"Pasta - Organizing with Containers | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" />remember, when you decontainerize you are removing the items from their original packaging to make more room.  A lot of prepackaged items are 1/4 - 1/3 filled with air.  I use containers to coral similar items like snacks and drink packets.  I also use acrylic containers to hold sugar, flour, pasta grains, coffee and more.  You will see that many of the containers you use, reduce the footprint in your pantry.\r\n\r\nI encourage you to think of ways you can use containers to batch your tasks throughout your home.','Organize by Corralling Items with Containers','','inherit','closed','closed','','3752-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:04','2019-07-27 05:17:04','',3752,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3752-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8110,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','Batches of brownies or batches of cookies? well, I hate to break it to ya but I\'m referring to batching work lol...but we will get back to the cookies and brownies in a minute.  I know, go ahead and furrow your brow at the sneaky way I pulled you in, but my goal was to get you to start reading, because I want to explain how batching your work can be one of the most efficient uses of your time.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nOne person who uses batching extremely successfully is Marie Kondo.  In her book, the Magic of Tidying Up she encourages you to batch your items, so you literally take all of the shoes you own and tackle them at the same time.  There is something very rewarding in knowing you have set out to finish one thing and you accomplished that goal.  It is also easier to see what you do and don\'t need when all of the shoes are right there together.  I remember back in early 2008 when I did this with my shoes, I had an overabundance of black shoes.  It was very shocking and funny all at the same time.  It\'s hard to be in denial when the reality is staring you in the face.\r\n<h2>Batching Helps You Complete Work More Efficiently</h2>\r\nYou see, when you batch your work your focus is on doing that one thing...you get tunnel vision and tend to complete the job faster than if you were doing multiple things at one time.  This is one of the techniques we use when we help our Clients <a href=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/portfolio/space-organization-getting-control-of-the-physical-stuff/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">declutter</a> their lives and spaces.  Take for example, when you are trying to declutter your closet.  Most clients find it easier to focus on their shirts or shoes vs focusing on their shirts, shoes, pants, belts, ties, etc., all at the same time. The reason is because dealing with all those things at one time is overwhelming and in many cases causes the person to quit and never return.  Having a short spirt of focus gives your mind a clear understanding of how long you need to be focused and then you know you will receive a reward/break.  Then you go for the next round.  Often times I find Clients accomplish more when we tackle things in this way than if I were to give them a long list of homework.  That is why I rarely do in-home consultation reports anymore, I more often set up 15 - 30 min coaching sessions to touch base and discuss next steps.  Consider it the agile version of organizing.\r\n<h2>Batching Helps You Focus</h2>\r\nBy batching the work, you have a focus...you can see a beginning and an end...and if it is a big job, you can set realistic goals.  If I have 10 boxes of random paperwork to go through, the best way to handle it is to batch the work and sort through all the paper first placing them into like piles.  The next step would be to tackle each pile as individual batches, sorting into category batches (shredding, filing, scanning, etc.).  You will find you have strategically and systematically broken that big job down in less time than it would take you to do all 10 boxes at one time.  Yes, you may have to touch the pieces of paper multiple times, but you are being much more efficient.  Your mind has a clear focus and isn\'t easily distracted.\r\n<h2>Batching Helps You Work in Time Blocks</h2>\r\nBy batching it also allows you to work in dedicated windows of time.  If you only have 15 - 30 minutes to work you can continue sorting your boxes until that job is done and you also know you are making progress as you empty each box.  You can batch just about any job you have, the key is understanding your bottom denominator.  What is the \"batch\" you are trying to get to - phone calls, emails, cleaning, packing, etc.  You know what you can accomplish in a short period of time and you pick the appropriate batch to coincide with that.  If you don\'t finish, it\'s ok because you have a clear goal and it is much easier to start and stop than if you were trying to do it all at once.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-6922\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cookies-28423_1920-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"247\" height=\"185\" />One of the other areas I love to batch is cooking...see I told you we would get back to the brownies and cookies!\r\n<h2>Batching Works in the Kitchen Too</h2>\r\nBatch cooking (<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/exploring-the-pinterest-kitchen-chicken-tortilla-soup-pollo-con-tortilla-sopa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">freezer cooking</a>) is one area we are working on re-applying in my home, because the few times we have instituted it, it worked beautifully.  There are a number of websites out there that are dedicated to batch cooking so make sure to look them up, you can even batch cook cookies and brownies.  The idea is pretty ingenious and the few times we have focused on doing this for the week/month it has made a huge difference in not only the amount of time required to produce a meal but financially too.  I have successfully batched soup, biscuits, homemade baby food, cake, lasagna and more.\r\n\r\nTell us, what have you batched lately and did you find it made a difference in your overall efficiency?  Tell me by commenting below or share in our <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/thehappinessbucket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">facebook page</a>.','Organizing and Increasing Productivity Using Batching','','inherit','closed','closed','','3754-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','',3754,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3754-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8111,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','<img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3723\" src=\"https://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wooden-box-349703_1280.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"wooden-box-349703_1280\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" />Facing the clutter of your space is never a fun thing to think about but we all have it.  Ask yourself, do you have an attic, basement, or outside storage facility where you currently store things?  If so, when was the last time you accessed the items in it?  When was the last time you actually went to those spaces and inventoried what was on and in the boxes, bags, and shelves?\r\n\r\nI know it’s a hard thing to think about, but the reality is we often take items we don\'t need and store them.  Ultimately forgetting they even exist because out of sight, out of mind is definitely a true statement.  I encourage you to make a promise and a plan to go through your storage space and really access everything that\'s in it.\r\n\r\nAsk yourself these key questions:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>When was the last time I used this item?</li>\r\n 	<li>Do I like this item?</li>\r\n 	<li>Does it meet the lifestyle I have today?</li>\r\n 	<li>Am I storing this for me or someone else?</li>\r\n 	<li>Why am I storing this?</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nThese questions will help you identify items you are keeping unnecessarily.\r\n\r\nFor those of you who have lived in your home for a long period of time, you will discover things that were from a different lifetime.  For example, are you storing baby items and you have no plans of having another child?  If so, why are you keeping them?  Are the items for someone else? If so, give them to the other person or better yet, ask them if they even want it.\r\n\r\nAs we discussed in a few of our earlier posts, many times people don\'t want the stuff we think they do.  What about the drawings and items from your child’s school days?  You know, the child that is now a man with his own family.  Yes, it’s time to let those drawings from 5<sup>th</sup> grade go.  Better yet, you can scan them into a book and make a coffee table book out of his/her art.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/why-create-photobook/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">[See our photobook post here]</a>  <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/why-create-photobook/\"><img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6196 size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Creating-Photobooks.png\" alt=\"Creating Your Photobooks | The Happiness Bucket\" width=\"768\" height=\"480\" /></a></p>\r\nThat to me is a much better way to honor their childhood art than in a box in your storage area.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3725\" src=\"https://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/clutter-360058_1280.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"clutter-360058_1280\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" />\r\n\r\nI don\'t mean to give you a hard time, but I find it is better to rip the band-aid off than to try to gently take it off...that takes longer and ultimately causes more pain in the end.  So, today commit to tackling your storage area.  I guarantee you will thank me in the end.\r\n<h1>Navigating the Storage Facility</h1>\r\nNow, for those of you who are storing items in storage facilities that you have to pay for, I encourage you to set a goal of getting to the smallest storage space possible and/or eliminating it altogether.  This will take a little work but you can do it.  In many cases, you are storing items that you don’t need or want, or you are holding onto a dream you had years ago.\r\n\r\nIf you have a snow shovel and live in Florida, I think you can probably let that item go.  It no longer meets your environment or lifestyle.  It’s ok, sale or donate it.\r\n\r\nThe key is that often the storage spaces are the easiest to declutter because you have already detached yourself from the items.  It makes it a little easier than with items in the living space of your home.  Start with just one box and begin to really review what is in it.  I promise you it won’t be as hard as you think it is.\r\n\r\nFor the items that you end up keeping, make sure to inventory them and clearly label your box.  Also, write the date of the box and commit to reviewing the items again in 6 months to a year.  This will allow you to regularly review the items to see if they should be kept.\r\n\r\nCheck out my <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/resources/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">resource library</a> for further assistance in getting rid of the clutter.','How to Face the Clutter','','inherit','closed','closed','','3719-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','',3719,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3719-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8112,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','<h1>Bringing Order To Your Mobile Life</h1>\r\nToday, we are going to talk about the area that all of us have to address at some point or another...your car! Yes, the space most of us spend at least 20% of our time in, if not more.  This is a space that can easily get out of hand  if we don\'t create a system that works. I want to tell you how I am able to keep a clean car even with a child in tow.\r\n\r\nWell, for the past couple of months I have really been focusing on this space, because it was driving me nuts!  You see before I had my daughter I had an organized and clean car. Now, don\'t get me wrong...it was never spotless, there were always the random runaway fries under my seat or dust on the dashboard, but <img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4923\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/refuel-2157211_640-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Refuel Gas\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" />the car itself was organized and clean.  .\r\n\r\nWell, fast forward to almost a year and a half later and I was about to lose my mind...I felt like I\'d never see a clean car again.  It was always a mess.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https://ctt.ec/5aw53\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img src=\"http://clicktotweet.com/img/bg-twitter.png\" alt=\"Tweet: I\'m not going to use the \" /></a><strong>Well, I decided enough was enough and I wasn\'t going to use that \"I\'m a mom, you wouldn\'t understand\" excuse to justify my lack of order any more. </strong>\r\n<h2>My Clean Car Plan</h2>\r\nSo, I created a plan...I decided every time I stopped for gas I would do a clean sweep of the car. This entailed throwing out any trash I could see -receipts, cups, napkins, etc. I had purchased a collapsible trunk organizer that had two compartments and several mesh pockets along with Velcro strips on the bottom. I put anything that didn\'t have an immediate need, was a return or needed to go into the house in one of the two compartments.\r\n\r\nI also cleaned out the door pockets and inner console and designated what went in each...again assigning an address to my belongings. So...once all this was determined the key question is did my plan work?\r\n<h2>A Small Window of Time</h2>\r\nYes, I kept with it, and I once again have a clean car (most of the time)!  It has been great!\r\n\r\nBy using the gas filling time to maintenance the inside of my car I knew I would do it at least once a week. It gave me a small window of time to knock it out and I always knew where everything was in my car. Now, this still didn\'t address the runaway fries, which now had multiplied because there were mine and my daughters in there, but we can only tackle one thing at a time!\r\n\r\nI can say that as of the writing of this post all runaway fries and other things lint and dirt that sneak under your seat, have found their way to the inside of a vacuum.  Apparently I got a bee in my bonnet about seeing all that stuff.\r\n\r\nOne other thing I do is I now keep a few grocery bags in the pocket of my backseat. This is really helpful when you are stuck in traffic to gather trash or to go through your glove compartment.  You can also use them when corralling toys or other things to take in the house.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI hope you found this content helpful.  If so, join our community to ensure you receive all the organizational content we have to share with you.\r\n\r\nUntil next time, happy organizing!','How You Can Keep Your Car Clean','','inherit','closed','closed','','3613-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','',3613,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3613-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8113,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">How many times have you looked into your full closet and said, \"I have nothing to wear\"?  It is a mantra that is repeated all over the world on a regular basis.  It is a common issue because a number of us have excess weight that we are trying to let go of.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I\'m not just talking about the actual excess weight you may be carrying.  I\'m talking about all those unused clothes taking up space in your closet that need to be removed.  It is a well known fact that you wear 20% of your clothing 80% of the time.  So, why have all those unused clothes in there?</p>\r\n\r\n<h2>My Unintentional Experiment</h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I recently proved the 80/20 rule to myself because of my excess weight issue.  None of my clothes were fitting properly and I refused to purchase new ones.  I knew I needed to buckle down and lose the weight and decided I\'d \"suffer\" until I did.</p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>Want to learn my secrets to losing 4 dress sizes and almost 40 pounds the healthy way with no exercise?  <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/weight-loss-journey/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Check out my weight loss journey</a>.</blockquote>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What actually happened is I made it through the entire winter wearing the same five pairs of pants and a few dresses.  It was amazing that it really didn\'t cause me any problems other than making sure the pants were washed and dried before I needed to wear them.  I began to really think about this and decided that enough was enough.  It was time for my closet to shed its excess weight.</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_3175\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"306\"]<img class=\"wp-image-3175\" src=\"https://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/img_5831-e1435294954431.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_5831\" width=\"306\" height=\"278\" /> Organized Clutter[/caption]\r\n<h2>Shedding the Excess Weight</h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You see many of us go through the process of decluttering and organizing our home and that is great...it looks orderly and everything is in its place, but when you really look at what is there, you realize you don\'t use any of it.  That it is orderly junk...orderly waste...orderly clutter.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I admit it, I had clothes in my closet that fit my body, but I didn\'t like.  So what would happen?  I\'d go to my closet push clothes around on the rod skipping over those detested items and gravitate to the same 20%.  Well, one day I got a bee in my bonnet and I said enough is enough.  I removed all those items that I didn\'t really like...those items I regularly skipped over.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I put all of those items in a box and immediately took them to the local shelter.  Ask me if I miss any of those items and the answer is NO!  What I did discover were the remaining clothes!  They all of a sudden had a new life...I began to see color I had never seen before.  I started experimenting with new combinations of tops and bottoms, with scarves.  It honestly was like I was going into a new closet.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Getting Clarity in Your Closet</h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The other thing this did for me is that now I know exactly what I need to \"complete\" my wardrobe. No more thinking I have something I could use.  I got rid of anything that I didn\'t like as well as anything that was worn or had tears or discoloration.  It didn\'t matter if I wore it or not...you have to draw a line somewhere.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I encourage you, to take a sweep through your closet.  Don\'t think about it, just go through it and pull out anything that isn\'t high on your list of things you WANT to wear.  You may be tempted to keep it due to how much it cost or who gave it to you, but the reality is you haven\'t been wearing so why keep it in your closet?</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Take the plunge, rid yourself and your closet of the excess baggage and let me know how it feels to be free.  Also, if you are worried about not having enough clothes to wear, just remember you wear the same 20% anyway...so letting go of the stuff you avoid isn\'t going to hurt you...it\'s going to free you.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I hope you have found these words helpful and that you will begin making the necessary changes in your life so you can be the happiest you possible.</p>','How to Get Rid of Excess Weight','','inherit','closed','closed','','3593-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','',3593,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3593-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8114,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','Downsizing Seniors is often a difficult task, because many times they have lived in one space a long time and have accumulated years and years of personal belongings.  We encourage you, whether you or your parents are of a senior age, to begin the process early.  We typically know when there will be a need for living arrangement shifts or changes within the next few years.  I like to say don\'t anticipate the worst, but plan for the future.  It is never a good idea to wait until tragedy strikes or an ailment forces living arrangement changes and you have to deal not only with the incident, but also the clutter at the same time.\r\n\r\nHere are six great tips given by Mary Kay Buysse, executive director for the National Association of Senior Move Managers in an article I recently ran across by <em>Marni Jameson </em>on www.nola.com:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><strong>Bring in an outsider:</strong> Parents, no matter how old, will always see their children as children. When the adult child takes control, that upsets the equilibrium. \"It can get messy,\" Buysse said. Couples often resort to blaming each other for the excess. Having an unrelated objective party helps a lot.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><strong>It gets easier:</strong> Start with the easiest places, Buysse said. Clear out the basement, the garage, and the kids\' bedrooms. Over time, you get desensitized to the downsizing process, so it gets easier.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><strong>Attitude is everything:</strong> Moves to downsize are easier when seniors choose to move..., rather than when the move chooses them, which happens when they become too frail, have an accident, lose a spouse who made independent living possible or start having cognitive issues.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><strong>Find the silver lining:</strong> \"At first glance, moving into a smaller home or into assisted living may seem to seniors like their independence is shrinking, but it\'s actually expanding,\" Buysse said. \"Going to the right level of care can expand independence and quality of life and extend life.\"</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><strong>For a fee:</strong> Most senior move managers charge between $25 and $60 per hour, according to an NASMM survey; most (82 percent) spend between 17 and 33 hours total per client.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><strong>Allow time:</strong> It took 40 years to build a home. You don\'t have to dispose of it all in two weekends. Give the process the dignity it deserves. But do keep moving.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nHopefully these tips and insights will give you the courage you need to start on your decluttering journey.  You will thank yourself later.  Please use the following link if you would like to read the entire article <a href=\"http://www.nola.com/homegarden/index.ssf/2015/03/how_to_help_a_senior_downsize.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to Help A Senior Downsize</a> on www.nola.com\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Tips for Downsizing Seniors','','inherit','closed','closed','','3524-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:05','2019-07-27 05:17:05','',3524,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3524-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8115,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:06','2019-07-27 05:17:06','<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">Have you ever just stopped to watch your child play?  Just stopped and really watched their thought process and the joy with which they approach everything they do?  Well, being the mother of a toddler I have and I can tell you they have such a sweet yet intense spirit.  They don\'t really know fear, they are full of love, they have tons of determination, they are extremely curious and the smallest little things excite them.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">Just think about your life, can you say the same?  Do you let fear hold you back from your dreams?  From trying new things that could be rewarding?  Do you limit who you love based on society or what your \"friends or family\" may think...and lets not just talk about love love...lets talk about love thy neighbor love...the Jesus love.  Oh and the determination of a child to do something they have set their minds out to do!  Let me tell ya, they are serious about try and try again...now, they may cry from frustration from time to time...but they don\'t stop do they.  They just keep trying and trying.  Man what a lesson we could learn from the babies.  Now, lets not forget their heightened level of curiosity because everywhere they turn there is something new to learn.  We all know you never stop learning, but where did our curiosity for new things go? When did we stop wanting to know about new and different things?  Finally, that brings me to their excitement for life.  Oh they love the small things in life...squirts from a water bottle, the arrival of mom or dad, finding a penny, getting to water the flowers, helping to mix the cake, having imaginary tea, and so much more.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">I challenge you to approach this next week with a child\'s view...try to let go of the small stuff and just enjoy your life.  Go to work with the desire to learn and discover new things.  As you encounter other people, put on a child\'s compassion and love and see if your day doesn\'t look a little different.  Sometimes we get so caught up in living our lives that we don\'t realize we have acquired such a huge shield that it is not only heavy but burdensome.  Let the shield go people and know that you don\'t need it, because if we had...God would have given it to us when we were born.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">I hope you have found these words helpful and that you will begin making the necessary changes in your life so you can be the happiest you possible.  If you haven\'t already, make sure you join our facebook group <a title=\"The C.H.A.N.G.E Center Community\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/THBNoMoreDebt/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The C.H.A.N.G.E Center Community</a> and subscribe to our blog to ensure you are the first to receive all of our posts.</p>','#THBChange: Viewing Life with a Child\'s Lense','','inherit','closed','closed','','3529-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:06','2019-07-27 05:17:06','',3529,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3529-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8116,1,'2019-07-27 05:17:06','2019-07-27 05:17:06','<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We have all encountered the awkward situation when a family member offers you something that you really don\'t want or need, but to prevent hurt feelings you begrudgingly accept it into your home or worse yet get a storage facility to house said belongings, when what you really want to do is get rid of it.  <!--more-->I have done it myself and later was upset for accepting something I knew I didn\'t want. Yes, I know what some of you are saying...you\'d rather sacrifice your space than hurt your family member\'s feelings.  I definitely understand that thought process, but I also think honesty is best for everyone.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Begin the \"get rid of it\" Conversation</h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I truly believe that there is a way to begin the conversation with your loved one(s) so you don\'t intentionally hurt their feelings. I also encourage you to start the conversation as early as possible, this gives them time to process what you are saying.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My parents and I have regularly discussed death in our family, but we are a military family so this is par for the course.  You are prepared to know things may change in the blink of an eye, although you pray it doesn\'t.  Well, once my father retired we continued these discussions and also began discussing how to handle their belongings upon their death.  I used it as an opportunity to ask what they wanted us to do with their stuff...making sure to mention specific pieces so we could open the discussion.  One such item was the china cabinet that my parents had, which was older than me.  It <img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5569\" src=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/dining-room-740231_640-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Dining Cabinet\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" />was beautiful, but I didn\'t feel it suited my decor and I also didn\'t have space for it in my home. After determining that no one wanted it, she decided to try and sell it so she could get something that better suited their current needs. [stay tuned for the final results of my parent\'s new dining room]</p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Use the Conversation Flip Technique</h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Using the conversation flip is a great tactic to use when your loved ones are trying to give or save something for you that you don\'t want.  Ask the question, \"Why are you getting rid of it?\", then use some of the same words they use to explain why you can\'t use it either.  For example your mom says, \"I\'m moving into a one bedroom nursing facility so I can\'t take it with me, I want you to take it.\" Your response could be, \"You know mom I definitely understand that, and as beautiful as I feel it is I just don\'t feel like we have the room in our home either.  Why don\'t you see if there is a nursing facility or other organization that could use it and appreciate it as much as we do?\" Then talk about the memories you have of the item.</p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h2>How to Avoid Hurt Feelings</h2>\r\n<img class=\"size-medium wp-image-5570 alignright\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" src=\"http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Getting-Rid-200x300.png\" alt=\"Getting Rid of Your Parent\'s Stuff\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The key is to start the conversation before it is necessary. Mention it in passing so when the time  comes it isn\'t a shock to your loved one. Over time, you will find a diplomatic way to not accept other people\'s stuff into your space (those things you don\'t want nor need) and no one will be left  with a broken heart. I think many times we are assuming that is how the other person would feel, when honestly they just want it out of their house. Now, there are some situations where you would be completely correct and the individual\'s feelings would be hurt...and I get it. So, if you have gotten suckered...I mean agree to take something you know you don\'t want or need, I suggest you set a time limit as to how long it will remain in your home or space out of guilt.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2>After Loved Ones Are Gone</h2>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now, for those who had the unfortunate experience of inheriting a loved one\'s possessions after they have passed away I can only imagine how difficult this may be for you.  I would suggest trying to select a few key pieces that mean the most to you and letting go of the rest, once you have mourned. To bring a house full of furniture to a home that is already packed to the hilt, or to get a storage facility to store it forever (because that is usually what happens) is not giving the items any more honor than if you sold them or donated them to a charity that could really use them.  Stop and really look at the items and determine why you want to keep them. If it is for memory sake only, I encourage you to work towards giving them to a place or a person who could really use them...THIS will be honoring your loved one in the best way possible. Identify an organization or cause that was important to your loved one and donate items to them.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">All in all, I believe the key is starting the conversation before you need it. This will help set the mindset (Stage 1 of my <a href=\"https://thechangeacademy.thinkific.com/courses/organizational-roadmap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Organizational Roadmap</a>), so when the time comes you are ready and willing to let go of those items that no longer serve a purpose in your life or the life of your loved one.</p>','How to Get Rid of Our Parent\'s Stuff and Not Add to Our Clutter','','inherit','closed','closed','','3507-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:17:06','2019-07-27 05:17:06','',3507,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3507-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8117,1,'2019-07-27 05:18:06','2019-07-27 05:18:06','In 2013, when I began the process of packing up our then 1355 sq ft condo, my goal was to make sure that my husband and family would know where I wanted things to go and what was in which box, in case I was not able to be there.  You see, I would be 7 months pregnant by the time we listed our house on the market. I knew there was a possibility that I wouldn\'t be able to help with the move and if I was there that I wouldn\'t be able to move around as quickly as I wanted carrying the extra load that was my daughter.  I also knew that I couldn\'t be everywhere at one time (at the condo, at the new house and at the storage shelter all at the same time). So knowing the goal, I set out to find a way to organize the move so anyone could jump in and help. Enter the creation of my Move Binder.\r\n<h1>Purpose of the Move Binder</h1>\r\nAs I mentioned earlier, the reason I created the move binder was to provide instructions and guidance to anyone filling in for me if I wasn\'t available.  I recommend everyone create a move binder, whether they are available or not as a way to have everything they need in one place.  It enables you to quickly and efficiently manage the in\'s and out\'s of the move.  As you could see in my <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/thborganize-14-tips-when-organizing-and-planning-a-move/\">14 Tips When Organizing and Planning a Move</a> post, there are a lot of things you need to do and keep track of when you are moving.  A move binder just enables you to track things a little easier.  Consider it your move book of knowledge that you refer to for all things move related.\r\n<h1>How I Started My Move Binder</h1>\r\nIt was just what I needed! I had an old binder lying around and was able to begin the process. I based my room categories on what I had in my house that we were looking for in our new home. You see we hadn\'t yet bought the home...at the time the binder was created we were just decluttering and packing up extra stuff to prep to put the house on the market. I had to use my wanted rooms instead of my actual rooms. The categories I had were:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Master Bedroom</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Master Bathroom</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Guest Bathroom</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Guest Room</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Baby\'s Room</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Office</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Kitchen</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Dining Room</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Decor/Misc.</li>\r\n 	<li style=\"text-align: left;\">Living Room</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<h1>Color-Coding Your Rooms in Your Move Binder</h1>\r\nThe next step was to color-code my rooms, so I could easily identify what boxes/items went in which space.  I used the small circular dots you get from office supply stores.  Luckily, I had found a package of prime color dots during one of my decluttering moments in my office and since that wasn\'t enough of a color variety (based on my room list) I went and picked up some pastel colors as well. I Then assigned each room a color.  I don\'t remember all of the color assignments, but I do remember the Kitchen was red and my daughter\'s room was pink.\r\n<h1>Developing Your Move Inventory Sheets</h1>\r\nYour move inventory sheets are a running list of all your boxes per room and a high level and secondary level of what is in them.  You don\'t have to write anything for the secondary level, but I found that some high-level categories needed more than one box (i.e., books).  If I was looking for a specific author or book type, I could refer to the secondary level in the inventory.  I could identify the room color and the box number based on the contents.  You will find that the high-level description was helpful when looking at items when you didn\'t have the inventory sheet handy, but the inventory sheet was helpful when you were looking for that one specific item.\r\n\r\nThe sheet also was helpful in determining how many boxes you had for one particular room.  This would allow you to take a count to ensure all boxes were loaded and all boxes were delivered.\r\n<h1>The Kitchen Map</h1>\r\n<ul>The kitchen map is something I absolutely fell in love with.  You can\'t always do this step, but if you can it will be so very helpful for you or anyone else who is helping you unpack.</ul>\r\n<ul>To create this map you have to have photos of the kitchen.  You can take these yourself during a walkthrough or you can create them from the online photos of the house.  You want to number all of the cabinets and drawers.  I actually created my map electronically by importing the photo into powerpoint and overlaying the numbers on each drawer/cabinet (you can also do this in word or another app or by hand).  In the notes section or on another sheet of paper, I listed the number and beside it what would be going in it.  For example, Drawer 1: Everyday Silverware; Drawer 2: Dish Towels; Drawer 3: Tupperware, etc.</ul>\r\n<ul>This process is not only fun, but it allows you to dream a little and plan ahead too.  You could also use your inventory to help you ensure you have identified a place for everything.  When you get in the space you may change your mind, but having an idea of how it should go and having a plan so someone else can pitch in and help is beyond amazing!  Needless to say, my kitchen was the easiest space to unpack and organize.</ul>\r\n<h1>Room Floor Plan Maps</h1>\r\nRoom <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organize-move-floor-plan-map/\">floor plans maps</a> are similar to your kitchen map, except most rooms are empty.  Instead of numbering the drawers and cabinets you draw the walls of the room and then draw the pieces of furniture where you want them to go.  The floor plans should also have a corresponding colored dot to that of the boxes that go into them.  This way the movers aren\'t calling you asking you were or how the furniture should go...or worse yet they won\'t just sit the furniture haphazardly in the room. By having things clearly drawn out, at the end of move day most of your heavy furniture is where it belongs and boxes are stacked in the proper rooms out of the way.  Click here to<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organize-move-floor-plan-map/\"> learn more about creating and using the floor plan maps</a> .\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold;\">The Pros of Using a Move Binder</span>\r\n\r\nWould I do this again? Heck yeah!!!! This system allowed me to know that I had X number of boxes for the living room. X number for the kitchen etc. I also knew at a glance which box number to look for if we were hunting for something specific. The storage facility not only looked heavenly but made it easy to locate things if we needed them. My mother even commented on how great it looked and how we were able to use every single inch. When we did finally get to the house and were beginning to unpack, the system was great because we knew to look for all the red dots when we were washing and putting up all the dishes. When I got ready to do the baby\'s room I knew to look for all the pink dots. It made those processes a lot easier.\r\n<h1><strong>The Possible Cons of Using a Move Binder</strong></h1>\r\nIn our case, the bad was the craziness of our move (not the normal situation) so we had to just go for what we knew vs the organized way I imagined/planned the move to be.  Our house closing was delayed, and since we closed on our condo on the same day we had to be out of the house.  We ended up having to move our house items before the storage unit items and all of the last minute items that remained in our condo unpacked.  As with any space that hasn\'t been completely packed, the contents seemed to multiply, so there was no time to label and properly inventory those items and needless to say some items were lost because in a rush I don\'t know how they were removed from the house...my gut says they accidentally got mixed up with our last Goodwill run.\r\n<h1><strong>The Lessons Learned</strong></h1>\r\nDue to the closing debacle, it was unfortunate that we had to move our items into the garage of the house vs into the house itself.  This caused stuff to just be stacked on top of one another in a limited amount of space. When we were finally able to move into the house, it did help because we just grabbed the stuff closest to the door and put it where it belonged based on the color-coded tags. We were able to quickly assess where things went if it had a label on the box, but those random last minute things were all over the place. In a perfect world, you can move from one place to another all at once or in a slow controlled fashion.  I would also highly recommend that you have EVERYTHING packed.  If that isn\'t possible, plan to move those unpacked things last or have them all grouped together.  A gradual move over two or more days is ideal, but not always possible, so you should plan a large enough workforce so you can take all the items to the rooms where they belong instead of putting them in a staging area (unless that\'s what you want). You could also put up your room labels with colors on them, which would be helpful for those who don\'t know which rooms are what or if you aren\'t there to help unload. The first load that we unloaded, I was there to supervise and the guys began stacking the items by room/color in the garage, but as time slipped away, I was needed elsewhere and the garage got too full.  The guys abandoned the color coding idea and they started piling it in...however it would fit.  In the flurry of activity, I also forgot to check off boxes as we loaded and unpacked them, so in hindsight it would be better to assign that task to someone else, maybe someone who isn\'t in high demand.\r\n\r\nThe good thing about the move binder is that even though we had a few hiccups during move day it still came in very handy.  I was able to keep up with all the important dates, contracts, vendors, etc.  I was able to use the inventory as we unpacked the boxes.  The color coding was absolutely fabulous and helpful and the room diagrams were super helpful too.  Also, you can use this binder method even if you didn\'t have the amount of time we did to move it to storage first. It actually may work better for you since all the boxes would be in one place in your home and therefore would already be altogether based on room.  In that case, I would definitely encourage you to have everything packed and ready to go the night before move day.\r\n<ul>The Bottom Line - The move binder is a win win pin and a definite keeper. Here are a few other posts that may help you with your move:</ul>\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/thborganize-14-tips-when-organizing-and-planning-a-move/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">14 Tips When Organizing and Planning a Move</a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/organize-move-floor-plan-map/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to Organize Your Move with a Floor Plan Map</a>','Increase Your Chances of a Successful Move with a Move Binder','','inherit','closed','closed','','3376-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:18:06','2019-07-27 05:18:06','',3376,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3376-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8118,1,'2019-07-27 05:18:07','2019-07-27 05:18:07','Do you find that your inbox gets more junk than mail? Well today we are going to cover three tips you can use to declutter your email inbox.  I call these emails noise in your inbox because you can\'t really focus on the important things coming into your box for all the \"noise\" around it.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->\r\n\r\nAs always let me provide a disclaimer here and say that these tips won\'t work for everyone.  You have to base which tips you use on your lifestyle and needs.  If these don\'t meet your needs feel free to <a href=\"mailto:dana@thehappinessbucket.com\">contact me</a> so we can discuss what types of things could assist you.\r\n\r\nNow, onto the tips:\r\n<h1><strong>Blog or Vendor Emails and Newsletters</strong></h1>\r\nThese are the emails you get after you subscribe to a blog or you purchase a product from a company.  The main purpose of these emails is to provide information of what is going on with that company or blog.  Now here is what typically happens with these types of emails.  You typically have a handful that you actual read and the rest just add noise to your mailbox.\r\n\r\nThe method you use will depend on whether you like living in your inbox or if you would prefer to live outside your inbox on social media or on a platform like feedly.  There are pros and cons of both methods, but for now I am going to speak specifically to the person who wants to keep the emails in their inbox.\r\n<h2><strong>Determine If A Viable Resource</strong></h2>\r\nThe first thing I\'d recommend is that you determine if you actually like the company and the content they send out.  If the answer is yes, then move on to the Setup a Resource Folder section.  If the answer is no, scroll to the bottom of that particular email and click on the unsubscribe link.  If for some reason they don\'t have one or it\'s not working, right click on the email and mark it as junk.  Then sort your inbox by the sender and delete all of the emails associated with the sender.  You can always resubscribe later if your situation changes.\r\n<h2>Setup A Resource Folder</h2>\r\nIf you are interested in continuing to receive the content, I\'d recommend you set up a folder for that company or blog.  For example, you should have a folder titled THB or The Happiness Bucket. The purpose of this folder is so you can move all items received from THB into a folder and when you have time to review the content or need to find the content you can click on the folder and immediately get to the information you need.\r\n\r\nThis enables you to move the emails out of your inbox and batch review them ultimately turning down the volume of the noise in your inbox.\r\n\r\nI would recommend that you hold your declutter or review process for those you think you are interested in until after you have sorted (batched) all the emails into the folder.  It makes the review process easier  You may find with this new found order that you actually see the emails and start reading them more often.\r\n<h1>Mixed Bag of Tricks</h1>\r\nSome companies (especially companies selling physical products) mix in their advertisements for sales with their blog posts and other information with no differentiation between the email address that it comes from. You may just be interested in the blog posts and not all the other promotional materials.\r\n\r\nCheck the bottom of the email to see if they have a link that allows you to unsubscribe from just that type of email.  If not, click on the unsubscribe button and see if they have an option to unsubscribe from certain parts of their mailings.\r\n\r\nLarger companies or those that have many different publications tend to have this option, if not again you have to decide what is more important to you - getting the info you are waiting for or the junk.  If you do want the information, see if there is specific wording for those emails that you don’t like and create a rule that automatically deletes it upon arrival.\r\n\r\nConsider the main purpose of the email vs. what you signed up for.  For blog content, my rule of thumb is I allow promotional content from those who offer value first.  If all you do is sell to me I\'m not interested.  Physical products are a little different, so you should take this into consideration too.\r\n<h1><strong>Social Media and Vendor Alerts</strong></h1>\r\nSocial Media alert emails are some of the biggest noise creators out there.  Do you really use these alerts?  Many social media sites have a number of options for notifying or alerting you of activity on your account.  I recommend you evaluate the ones you actually look at and eliminate all the extra noise from your email box.  You can usually find these options under settings on those social media platforms.\r\n<h1><strong>Add-On Store Deals</strong></h1>\r\nThere are some companies that sell your contact information to other companies and/or they have so many subsidiaries that when you subscribe to one list all the others get it (it’s in the fine print). Just unsubscribe from those “extra” lists and remember next time to read the fine print.\r\n\r\nIt is also ok to tell the store no when they ask you for an email address, they usually suggest you subscribe for an additional discount or to receive information about sales...which adds you to all their mailing lists.  Well, I suggest you connect with their text, twitter, facebook or google+ feeds for that information instead.\r\n\r\nOne thing I did years ago is I set up a promotional only email account so when companies ask me for that information I give that email address instead.  I also set up an automatic filter to delete anything older than two weeks.  This helps me have one place to go to search for current deals and it\'s not junking up my normal inbox.\r\n\r\nSo in summary, your inbox doesn\'t have to be like the wild wild west, you can corral these emails (why did I just go all western on you?!?!).  Remember folders are your friends, unsubscribe from emails you aren\'t reading and don\'t want, read the fine print and check boxes before you signup and don\'t be afraid to think outside the box.\r\n\r\nI hope you found this information helpful.  If you are interested in setting up a consultation session to have me work with you <a href=\"Mailto:dana@thehappinessbucket.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here</a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','3 Tips to Help You Declutter Your Email Inbox','Do you find that an email address you own gets more junk than mail and you really didn’t plan it that way?  Start tackling it one day at a time.  Starting today, take action on at least 5 of the items that come into your email box. Your email system should mimic that of your snail mail system…wait what you don’t have a snail mail system?  Well that’s a discussion for another day &#x263a;.  Today, I am talking specifically about those items that come into your email box that fall into the trash category.  You know the items you typically skip over or just delete.  Here are a few steps you can take to tackle the extra noise of your email box:','inherit','closed','closed','','3086-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:18:07','2019-07-27 05:18:07','',3086,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3086-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8119,1,'2019-07-27 05:18:47','2019-07-27 05:18:47','So, today I was organizing some information I have (I won\'t bore you with the details) and I started thinking, you know they should make all \"legal pads\" three hole punched!  It just makes more sense incase you want to tear out a sheet and put it in a notebook.  I mean I know I do that and I\'m sure EVERYONE else in the world does it too right?!?!?!  And who wants to pay more just to have a notepad with holes in it?!?!?!  LOL during this conversation with myself my smart brain cell decided to contribute to the conversation and said...why don\'t you just try to hole punch a regular notepad yourself.  WHAT?!?!?!  Now that will be too much like right!  I mean I\'m SURE the pad of paper is too big for the hole punch to handle and that just won\'t work!\r\n\r\nUmmmm people, do you hear the angels singing, the birds chirping and do you have to put on your sunglasses because of the gleam from my pearly whites?!?!?!  YES, it did work and I am ohhhhh so happy!  It wasn\'t hard, I didn\'t even have to put any effort into the \"hole punching\" lol it just cut the paper and board like butter.  No problamo!  Man, this just proves sometimes it\'s the little things that make such a profound difference in your day.\r\n\r\nOne more level in my bucket was filled today. What happiness!!!!  Hey don\'t laugh!  You can smile though &#x263a;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Organizing - It\'s The Small Stuff','','inherit','closed','closed','','1520-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:18:47','2019-07-27 05:18:47','',1520,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/1520-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8120,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:15','2019-07-27 05:19:15','&nbsp;\r\n\r\nIf you recently read my Life Deposits post The Curse of Squirrel Organizing you know that this Chicken Tortilla Soup Pinterest recipe almost derailed my plans for the day.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/20121101-161448.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full alignleft\" title=\"Pollo con tortilla sopa\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/20121101-161448.jpg\" alt=\"20121101-161448.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>\r\n\r\nYou see like many of you I peruse Pinterest for new and interesting recipes like the rest of you. Well, this is one of the first recipes from Pinterest I made because I was trying at the time to impress my boyfriend at the time (hubby now). Ha guess it was just that good!\r\n\r\nCredit goes to <a title=\"Miller Musings - Chicken Tortilla Soup\" href=\"http://jonandjenmiller.blogspot.com/2010/09/crockpot-chicken-tortilla-soup.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Miller Musings </a>for posting such a fabulous recipe which subsequently was posted numerous times on Pinterest. As with all my adventures, I will share what I actually did which was just a tad bit different from the recipe Jen posted. I would advise you to read my version and also hers and then read all the comments underneath and adapt it to your lifestyle. See how you get to choose?!?!?\r\n\r\nI will say that this recipe received two thumbs up from Luis and I know it was true because he ate it three days in a row! It yields A LOT of soup, so have some <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/freezer-cooking-tips/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">freezer containers or bags</a> available if you aren\'t feeding a lot of people. Also, as with all soups, it\'s even better the next day. Don\'t be concerned with the amount of liquid in it on the first day...it gets soaked up the more days go by.\r\n\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Soup Ingredients:</strong></span>\r\n\r\n2 boneless skinless chicken breasts\r\n2 - 10oz cans of Ro-Tel Lime and Cilantro\r\n2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained\r\n3/4 pkg of frozen corn (Kroger had a 10/10 sale)\r\n1/2 pkg of frozen chopped onion (Kroger had a 10/10 sale)\r\n29 oz\'s of low sodium chicken broth\r\n2 cups water\r\n1 Tbsp chile powder*\r\n1 Tbsp garlic powder\r\n1 Tbsp ground cumin\r\n\r\n<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Topper Ingredients:</strong></span>\r\n\r\nTortilla Chips\r\nSour Cream (low fat)\r\nMexican Blend Shredded Cheddar (low fat)\r\n\r\n<strong>Cooking Process:</strong>\r\nDump soup ingredients (except for chicken) into a crockpot and stir. Lay chicken on top of mixture so that it is partially submerged. Place the lid on and set it for 6 hrs. Walk away with a smile on your face. 5 or 6 hrs later take the lid off and use a spoon to break up the chicken breasts. It will fall apart. Make sure all pieces are the thin shredded pieces.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"]<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/20121101-161413.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full \" title=\"After 6 Hrs and Chicken Shredded\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/20121101-161413.jpg\" alt=\"20121101-161413.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a> <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/20121101-161421.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/20121101-161421.jpg\" alt=\"20121101-161421.jpg\" /></a> Soup after chicken has been broken up/shredded in soup.[/caption]\r\n\r\nI prepped mine the day before so I actually left it out (covered) because it was too hot to put in the refrigerator. Placed it in the refrigerator in the morning.\r\n\r\n<em><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Preparation Notes</span>:</strong> </em>\r\n\r\n<em>I used frozen corn and onion. I wasn\'t sure what the equivalent measurement was to Jen\'s recipe so I just eyeballed adding about half a bag. Next time I made it I added a full bag of corn. Also, note I used 2 cans of black beans because I don\'t care for kidney beans. I did put the tablespoon of chile powder but my mouth was tingling and my nose was running, so if you are sensitive to hot things you might make that 1/2 - 3/4 a TBSP. Of course, it didn\'t even affect mi Esposo, he put additional green hot sauce in his (blank stare on my face). </em>\r\n\r\n<strong>Eating Process:  </strong>\r\n\r\nWhen ready to eat place soup in the bowl and warm if not fresh out of the crockpot. Add your topper ingredients (if you choose) and get to eating!  Happy Eating!!!\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/20121101-161440.jpg\"><img class=\" aligncenter\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/20121101-161440.jpg\" alt=\"20121101-161440.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a></p>\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent3.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-928\" title=\"The-Happiness-Bucket transparent\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent3.png?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"125\" /></a>','Exploring the Pinterest Kitchen:  Chicken Tortilla Soup (Pollo Con Tortilla Sopa)','','inherit','closed','closed','','1378-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:15','2019-07-27 05:19:15','',1378,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/1378-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8121,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:15','2019-07-27 05:19:15','<img title=\"Charitable couple offering food to a homeless man\" src=\"http://officeimg.vo.msecnd.net/en-us/images/MB900427741.jpg\" alt=\"Charitable couple offering food to a homeless man\" />The Happiness Bucket is a big supporter of Volunteering and giving back to your community, so we want to encourage you to get involved this Fall, don\'t wait for the Holiday season.  One easy way is for your to donate and volunteer in one of the United Way\'s day of actions.  This requires very little of your time and will help so many in your community.  For those who were in Nashville in May of 2010 you remember the \"Great Flood of Nashville\".  Many people who never imagined they would need help were lined up at United Way\'s Community Centers for assistance.  By taking time to volunteer now, you never know who you will be helping in their time of need.  Check your local papers and organizations to see if anyone in your area is holding any donation drives or opportunities to Volunteer.\r\n\r\nThere is a large need for basic needs items in the Nashville community, so to help fill this need, this fall the United Way of Metro Nashville is filling their trailer with items that are in high demand, as identified by their Family Resource Center directors.  The Fall Trailer Fill will be held on Sept. 28th and Oct. 5th at 250 Venture Circle, Nashville, TN 37228.\r\n\r\n<strong>Items Needed:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Standard School Attire (Solid Color Collared Shirts; Pants, Skirts or Shorts in Khaki, Navy or Black)</li>\r\n 	<li>Socks</li>\r\n 	<li>Underwear</li>\r\n 	<li>Detergent</li>\r\n 	<li>Soap</li>\r\n 	<li>Toothbrushes &amp; Toothpaste</li>\r\n 	<li>Toilet Tissue</li>\r\n 	<li>Cleaning Supplies: Sponges, Cleansers, Dish Detergent, Paper Towels</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nThey are also holding several other activities during their <a title=\"Autumn in Action 2012\" href=\"http://www.unitedwaynashville.org/volunteer/day-of-action/autumn-in-action-2012/archive/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Autumn in Action 2012</a> event.  Check them out and see if something peaks our interest.  Not in the Nashville area?  that\'s ok, contact your local United Way, Food Bank or Homeless Shelter to see if they have any opportunities for you to Volunteer.\r\n\r\nLets Fill Someone\'s Happiness Bucket Today!<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent7.png\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1025\" title=\"The-Happiness-Bucket transparent\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent7.png?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"125\" /></a>','Autumn in Action - When Was Your Last Time?','','inherit','closed','closed','','970-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:15','2019-07-27 05:19:15','',970,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/970-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8122,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:15','2019-07-27 05:19:15','As many of you know I have been working on a lifestyle change for 2012 (well truth be told I think I set that same goal in 2010 and 2011 too lol, but I digress).  This year, my goals have been to try to eat more fruit and vegetables and to make small food related changes.  This was a little hard at first but with Luis\' help I think I am getting the hang of it...well some of it.  I have gotten into the habit of bringing fruit to work in the morning.  Now this isn\'t me bringing an apple to work or anything like that...it is a cup of sliced, diced and plucked fruit that is ready to eat.  My favorites have been orange slices, grapes and pineapple.  Additionally, watermelon is another favorite of mine.  So here is how I do it:\n\n<span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">Pre-prepare fruit</span> - I am one that dreads having to prepare something when I am hungry and tired.  This was one of the biggest issues and excuses I had for not preparing food at home and eating out instead.  After watching some vlogs and reading a few blogs on freezer meals and meal planning I discovered a common theme was to prepare the meals/items ahead of time.  This is a pretty easy yet fabulous idea.  My first attempt at this pre-preparing \"trick\" was to buy some grapes and wash and remove them from the vine as soon as I got home.  Now before you tell me that doing this reduces the products freshness I am going to tell you that one bag of grapes only lasts me three - four days using this method.  When I say it only lasts me that long it\'s because I EAT them LOL...so they don\'t have time to go bad...hummm novel idea huh.  Buy and actually eat the fruit...  [enter a blank stare and a moment of silence while that sinks in].  &#x263a;\n\nOk, so I used my fabulous green plastic ball containers...\n\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ball-freezer-containers.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-988\" title=\"Ball Freezer Containers\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ball-freezer-containers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"115\" height=\"115\" /></a>\n\nyes these are originally meant for canning and I think I shared them once before, but for those who may have missed it...here is a photo of them.  I got mine from Wal-mart, but I know they carry them in various places.  The lid is a screw top which helps with freshness (in my opinion).  Anywho, so I washed and dried my grapes and plucked them from the vine.  I added them to my container.\n\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/grapes2.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone  wp-image-991\" title=\"Grapes Top Down\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/grapes2.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"258\" height=\"195\" /></a>                       <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/grapes.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone  wp-image-990\" style=\"width:185px;height:233px;\" title=\"grapes\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/grapes.jpg?w=225\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"277\" /></a>\n\nThe first time I did this I chose to prepare my cup o\' grapes the night before so each night I had to wash and prep them, but that was because it was a trial to see if it worked for me.  In the morning I grabbed the cup and was able to eat the grapes on the way to work or while at work (if I forgot or didn\'t finish them).  It is usually enough grapes to eat during breakfast and a snack, but it depends on my hunger level at the time of consumption. &#x263a;  I am blessed because my sweetheart prepares cups of orange, pineapple and grapes pieces for me.  So I am able to just grab the cup on those days and go.\n\nBy doing this it has solved a few issues for me:  1.  I am actually eating breakfast on the go without thinking about it;  2.  I am craving the fruit in the morning;  3.  I\'m not starving at lunch time;  4.  I am adding more fruits to my diet.\n\nI have also chosen to prep my watermelon\'s this way too.  I got the idea for this from my parents who had a container of cubed watermelon in the fridge one day but told me to take it all because they weren\'t going to eat it.  I was throwin\' down on that watermelon during my 40 min drive home from their house...I didn\'t even need a fork.  So, that got me to thinking.  Soon there after I cubed up a watermelon we purchased and put it in a bowl.  That following Saturday while I was working around the house...I got hungry but didn\'t feel like doing any cooking so I grabbed the bowl and started smacking my lips...once again &#x263a;.\n\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/watermelon.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-992\" title=\"watermelon\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/watermelon.jpg?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>\n\nYou can do this pre-preparing process on just about any snack in your home.  Conduct a search on pinterest using \"prepared snacks\" as the search term and a few will popup.  Just ignore the unhealthy options &#x263a;.\n\nI hope you gain a little inspiration from my experience and start making some healthy changes in your life as well.\n\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent4.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-994\" title=\"The-Happiness-Bucket transparent\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent4.png?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"125\" /></a>','My Eating Life:  A Trick to Add Fruit to My Life','','inherit','closed','closed','','941-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:15','2019-07-27 05:19:15','',941,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/941-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8123,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:16','2019-07-27 05:19:16','Many years ago I had \"organized\" my warranties and manuals into this old curtain or sham bag...you know the bags that the items come in when you first purchase them.  Well, I love to repurpose these bags because they are clear and contained.  So, I just loaded it down with any manual I could find. \n\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-002023.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-002023.jpg\" alt=\"20120813-002023.jpg\" /></a>\n\n It actually worked for the most part because I knew exactly where to go.  The downside to this wonderful creation of mine is that each time I needed to find a manual, I\'d have to take everything out or at least flip through half the contents before I found what I needed.  Well, in flew Alejandra with her special organizing cape once again!  I was recently inspired by <a href=\"http://youtu.be/_sqrChfq5ck\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alejandra\'s video on organizing manuals and warranties</a>.  After seeing how she organized her manuals I was in love! I had previously done exactly what she warned against in her video regarding the sleeve protectors- FAIL. But hearing her explain the difference with these pockets, I immediately started my quest to reorganize my manuals and warranties.\n\nFirst, I did exactly what she did, I sorted everything into categories that made since to me: electronics, furniture, gadgets, appliances.  All these categories are represented on the top row. The second row is trash (items I had donated or thrown away), items I wasn\'t sure I owned, and items I didn\'t think I owned but wanted to make sure.\n\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-002046.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-002046.jpg\" alt=\"20120813-002046.jpg\" /></a>\n\nI then placed the four stacks on the top row in the pockets and included them in my binders.  Ok, first thing you should know if you go looking for these pockets is to ask someone in the store if at first glance you don\'t locate them. At the Staples I went to it was not with the other pockets but with the binder folders.  They also come in multiple colors and they have them in the box in alternating colors (red, blue, yellow, clear...red, blue... Etc.). I made the brave attempt to go on my pocket quest during tax free weekend...I will never be the same!\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-004629.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-004629.jpg\" alt=\"20120813-004629.jpg\" /></a>\n\nAnother issue or lesson learned is I got the wrong sized binders.  In the store the larger binders seemed so big...so I went with the 1in.  Needless to say I HAVE to sacrifice and go get two larger binders...but since it waaaas my fault I\'ll just keep the others and use them for something else.  (enter long pause and deep breath) now you guys know this is no sacrifice lol I LOOOOOVE these freaking binders! Ill get the larger ones, but I\'m not exchanging the others lol.  \n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-004638.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-004638.jpg\" alt=\"20120813-004638.jpg\" /></a>\n\nAnyway, I\'m extremely pleased with my binders and I\'m thankful to my organizing hero Alejandra for sharing her methods so graciously.  I still need to add my front and sleeve labels, but this was a success if I say so myself.\n\nMy HappinessBucket is filled, is yours?\n\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent.png\"><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-887\" title=\"The-Happiness-Bucket transparent\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent.png?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"125\" /></a>','Organizing My Manuals and Warranties','','inherit','closed','closed','','854-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:16','2019-07-27 05:19:16','',854,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/854-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8124,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:16','2019-07-27 05:19:16','One of the most important parts of The Happiness Bucket is our focus on self development and for many of our members that translates into living a healthier lifestyle.  When most think of healthy lifestyles they think about weight loss and dieting.  Well today I want to give you a window into my healthy lifestyle journey.\r\n<h1>Determine What Works For You</h1>\r\nThe first thing I want to make clear to you is that I, like many, have my ups and downs when it comes to weight loss and living a healthy lifestyle.  I have finally found something that works, but that wasn\'t always the case and my way may not be your way.  So, I really want you to understand that you have to find what works for you and your life today.\r\n\r\nDon\'t try to be a marathon runner if that doesn\'t bring you joy or isn\'t something you feel is sustainable.  Now, I\'m not saying not to try new or hard things, so make sure you put this into perspective.  Challenge yourself but also be real with yourself too.  Identify things that you find interest in from a healthy lifestyle standpoint and cultivate that.\r\n<h1>Make Healthy Living Fun</h1>\r\nThe one thing I standby when it comes to having a healthy lifestyle, specifically exercising is it has to be fun for me.  If I enjoy it, I am more likely to keep it up.  Think about it, when your friends say come on and lets go play basketball, if you like to play basketball you are like cool lets go. If you detest basketball then you are going to come up with excuse after excuse of why you can\'t go or will drag your feet.\r\n\r\nWhen I was looking for something to get me started the one thing I found that I thoroughly enjoyed was dancing.  I mean think about it, back in the day you would go to the club and dance your booty off for hours.  You were just having fun, but you were getting your heart rate up and sweating up a storm...but you were having fun.  Well, I decided to take up salsa dancing and boy oh boy was it fun!  I learned a new skill, met lots of new people, got exercise AND met my dear husband in the process.\r\n<h1>Get Healthy With Workout DVDs</h1>\r\nOk, so for some of you dancing isn\'t your thing and you just want to do something at home, well I\'ve been there too.  I went through a period when I was wanting something I could do at home by myself.  I didn\'t want to have to buy a bunch of equipment either.  While I was on vacation, I saw an infomercial for both P90X and Insanity.  Both looked intriguing but I wasn\'t sure which was best.\r\n\r\nI began researching and asking around and a very fit friend of mine said he had done both videos and suggested I get insanity because it was more cardio based.  Well, I borrowed the Insanity CD from a friend and man!!!!\r\n\r\nNow to be fair, the DVD set came with two CDs.  Insanity CD 1 included a test that you are supposed to complete every other week (I think) and Insanity CD 2 was the cardio session. I watched these CDs and although inspired I immediate got scared. I was afraid I would get discouraged part of the way through because many of his background exercisers weren\'t smiling and having a great time as you see in most videos, 10 mins in many were bending over (in the middle of the exercise) as though they were about to throw up! On one they showed them throwing up!!! I though what the world, usually on videos they have the most fit people doing the exercises so if they are reacting that way I can only imagine how I will react!!!\r\n\r\nI figure for him to show that on the CD that it was reality and that this CD was no joke! That being said, the overall method Sean T uses seems to make a lot of sense...you give high intensity cardio for 3 mins and rest for 30 secs. (The normal method is you do moderate exercise for 3 mins and do high intensity for 30 secs). Each time you go back after the break/rest period the exercise changes. Although the exercises being performed aren\'t hard, it\'s the sheer intensity level that shocks your system.\r\n\r\nSooooo, needless to say, after watching these CDs and giving myself a reality check I decided to do another video that Sean T has called Hip Hop Abs.  I know that exercising requires motivation and drive and I am one that if discouraged won\'t do it...but if I do something that I can handle and it either begins getting too easy or I start seeing results I add more and more to it...so my hope was that I would work up to the insanity level of exercise.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-000504.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-000504.jpg\" alt=\"20120813-000504.jpg\" /></a>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-000510.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/20120813-000510.jpg\" alt=\"20120813-000510.jpg\" /></a>\r\n\r\nI was really drawn to the Hip Hop Abs video because you don\'t have to get on the ground and you are still working your abdominal muscles. It has a lot of isolation using dance moves so it works other areas since you are standing up and doing cardio in the process. I can tell you it definitely affected some of my muscles since I felt pain the next day and all I did was the intro session, which was about 20 mins and about 10 mins of the cardio section, which is 45 mins. The part I did was fun and it wasn\'t too hard to follow.  I could definitely see how it could help my abs and my problem areas.  Now, some of the things Sean says on the CD was a little corny or dated, but who cares...the music was cool and he gave great instruction. [Note: this was back in 2017, so I am not sure how \"cool\" the music would be today.  The exercises would still work but it was dated then so I\'m sure it is really dated now]\r\n\r\nI have shifted to living a ketogenic lifestyle and it is working like gangbusters for me.  If you are interested in learning all my tips and tricks on how to begin your keto journey, join me and Walter in <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/clubketo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Club Keto</a>.\r\n\r\nI would love to hear about your healthy journey.  What are you doing to stay healthy, get healthy or just get started?  No more excuses people!\r\n\r\nLets Move!!!!  Come on, fill your Healthy Bucket today!\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Healthy Lifestyle - How to Start Your New Journey','','inherit','closed','closed','','844-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:16','2019-07-27 05:19:16','',844,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/844-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8125,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:16','2019-07-27 05:19:16','As you all know, I am addicted to Pinterest! It is one of the best technology creations I\'ve experienced in a while. So, in an effort to challenge myself and to put all these fabulous pins to work, I decided I was going to start incorporating my many pins into real life experiences.\r\n\r\nNow that I have so eloquently set this up for you...It is time to open the blinds on my DIY antics for the second time.  I figured this was ok since my first one <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/clutter-buster-recycling-candles-and-my-scentsy-warmer/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Recycling Candles Using My Scentsy Warmer</a> was so successful.\r\n\r\nOk, so many months ago I found a pin that \"claimed\" to have the recipe for chick-fil-a nuggets. Supposedly the secret, believe it or not, is dill pickle juice and powdered sugar. When I read this I was immediately skeptical because that just didn\'t seem right, but I read the reviews at the bottom of the post and 99.9% of them were raving at how close these nuggets were to the real thing. Well, that\'s all I needed to read since I eat there so much I should have stock in the company...is it just me???  Yeah, I know it isn\'t...which is why I\'m sharing this with you!\r\n<h1>My Lucy Experience</h1>\r\nNow...let me just start this by saying my experience was a lot like the I Love Lucy episode when they switched roles...\r\n\r\n[embed]https://youtu.be/gvYZ3gpZMpY?t=1m31s[/embed]\r\n\r\nThe marinade bag fell over so there was an egg, milk, pickle juice mixture all on the cabinet...and THEN, the pan was too hot so as soon as I put the nuggets in the pan they started to brown!!! Needless to say, I was able to make the necessary adjustments and cooked all the nuggets without burning the house down (barely). The end result...FABULOUS!!! It was not exactly like Chick-fil-a\'s nuggets, but it was extremely close. My sweetheart even put his stamp of approval on them.\r\n<h1>Lessons Learned</h1>\r\nThe beauty is that even though I had a few mistakes, I learned from them as I went along.  I decided it would only be fair for me to go ahead and share these lessons learned with you so you can spare yourself the drama...although it was kind of funny:\r\n\r\n1. Start off with your temperature a little lower than what the recipe says because on my stove it was hotter than it needed to be.  You can always turn it up as you go.\r\n2. Get all your chicken out the marinade and into the flour mixture before you start cooking.  This just makes for a cleaner and smoother kitchen.  I mean do you really need pickle juice all over your cabinet?\r\n3. Double the flour mixture if cooking more than one cut up breast. I had two and almost ran out of the mixture.\r\n4. Oil amount seemed low but not extremely...this may have been due to the heat level I started with.\r\n\r\nSooooo I\'m sorry I ate all the nuggets before I even thought to take a pic, but it\'s ok you can look at the pic on the original blog post. Now all I need is the recipe for their BBQ sauce!\r\n\r\nHere is the full recipe from the original blog:  <a href=\"http://iowagirleats.com/2012/03/01/chick-fil-a-bites-with-honey-mustard-dipping-sauce/comment-page-1/#comment-1045866\">http://iowagirleats.com/2012/03/01/chick-fil-a-bites-with-honey-mustard-dipping-sauce/comment-page-1/#comment-1045866</a>\r\n\r\nI believe this one has filled my Happiness Bucket!','How to Make DIY Chick-fil-a Chicken Nuggets','','inherit','closed','closed','','759-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:16','2019-07-27 05:19:16','',759,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/759-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8126,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:16','2019-07-27 05:19:16','<iframe title=\"I Love Lucy : Job Switching\" width=\"810\" height=\"608\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/gvYZ3gpZMpY?start=91&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen></iframe>','','','publish','closed','closed','','6a20f098e40559766c1a2c42bb1efb16','','','2019-07-27 05:19:16','2019-07-27 05:19:16','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/6a20f098e40559766c1a2c42bb1efb16/',0,'oembed_cache','',0),(8127,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:39','2019-07-27 05:19:39','Now that you have started all of this decluttering and organizing, I hope that you have identified \"tons\" of stuff that you don\'t need...well, if you are anything like me, you don\'t want to just throw away non-trash items, because I\'m always thinking about paying it forward (who could use this stuff). Well, I have a couple of ideas for you to consider:\r\n<h1>Identify Similar Sized Friends (clothing)</h1>\r\nIdentify a couple of friends who are similar in size as you (both larger and smaller). These individuals can benefit from any clothes you have that are too large or too small. It helps keep them from having to go and purchase stuff, especially if they are on a journey just like you. Now this can be a delicate situation for some in that they don\'t want to offend. Just offer from your heart and your true friends won\'t mind you offering.  Just don\'t have any expectations of them taking it.  Remember you don\'t want anyone to take something they don\'t need.\r\n<h1>Adopt a few Non-Profit Organizations</h1>\r\nAdopt a couple of non-profit organizations and obtain their wish list. Most have them posted online or you can call and obtain the information and instructions for drop off.\r\n<h1>Locate your Local Recycle Center</h1>\r\nMost residential areas now have these and they have specific rules over what they will and won\'t take.  Familiarize yourself with their rules and schedules.\r\n\r\nI would start there and as you get your process down, your list will get more and more defined. Remember you are working in zones so you will have stuff that should leave your space at various stages of the game. My suggestion is not to wait until all spaces are decluttered to remove unnecessary items from your space, but to do it one zone at a time. This keeps you from getting the urge to sneak it back in.\r\n<h1>My Personal Donation List</h1>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Friends are big benefactors of stuff I really treasure and for which I want to find a good home.</li>\r\n 	<li>Co-workers are a great resource. We have what is know as classified ads, so if there is something strange (sewing filler) that I think someone may want I post it. We can give away or sell items. It\'s like a little online yard sale. Many times they can direct me to a group who could use the item(s) too.</li>\r\n 	<li>Nashville Rescue Mission: I spend a lot of my time volunteering here so I have a special connection and know the things they need. They also have a wishlist posted on their website that keeps me in tune with items they need. I give them clothing items mostly.</li>\r\n 	<li>Goodwill: I drop off a lot of items there because they are everywhere and have made it extremely convenient to drop off items with their drive through centers. I usually give them more household items.</li>\r\n 	<li>McKays Book Store: this is a used bookstore that takes videos, books, games, CDs and DVDs. They review them and offer you a price for the items. You can decide to get either cash or store credit...or you can just take your stuff. Sometimes your items aren\'t worth anything, but they have a free bin available too. Just don\'t take it back home!  You could also consider your local library.</li>\r\n 	<li>Grocery Stores: many recycle plastic bags you obtain from stores. I had an overabundance at one time and took them, but most of the time if I have any I use them as trash can liners. I don\'t get many anymore now that I take my own cloth bags. And many stores give you a discount for doing so.</li>\r\n 	<li>Overseas Bases: groups take expired coupons because soldiers can use for up to 6 mths after the expiration date. I just started this and I\'m still hunting for a group from Ft. Campbell to connect with overseas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Old cell phones/chargers etc: domestic violence shelters. Or the little plastic bags provided many times with your new purchase.</li>\r\n 	<li>Old computers: technical schools or recycle days offered by various agencies during the summer and spring (make sure to remove your hard drive and properly destroy it to protect your information).</li>\r\n 	<li>Local recycling centers: many cities now have recycled centers that you can go to and take care of everything at once. Goodwill/salvation army, trash, metal, plastic, cans, etc.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nYou can see a full list of suggestions for decluttering, organizing and business needs by visiting our <a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/resources/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">resource library</a>.','Decluttering: Now What Do You Do With All That Stuff?','','inherit','closed','closed','','452-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:39','2019-07-27 05:19:39','',452,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/452-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8128,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:39','2019-07-27 05:19:39','Stop and take a look around (hopefully you are reading this at home and not in someone else\'s house). Identify the key areas that could use some decluttering...come on I know you have some, we all do. Well, it\'s time to take back your space and get rid of the junk, the unnecessary, the clothes that you never or can\'t wear, that item that you don\'t know what it goes to or what it does...you get the point, why are you holding onto it?\r\n\r\nHere at the Happiness Bucket I have a moto and it is that we should...\r\n<blockquote>Let go of the things that no longer serve a purpose in your life today</blockquote>\r\n<h1>The Challenge Steps</h1>\r\nSo what is the challenge? The challenge is to begin working on one decluttering project a day or week...see not hard right? Rome wasn\'t built in a day and neither was your clutter.  It will take you some time to get everything back in order, and that time is now.  So, if you are up for the challenge, here is what you should do:\r\n<h2>Step 1: Identify the Area to be Decluttered</h2>\r\nBe specific as to what area it is for the day/week...you can confess that area in our Change <a href=\"https://facebook.com/groups/changeacademy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Academy Facebook Group</a> or here in the comments...that\'s up to you just pick one.  Now, if the area is large set some small obtainable goals to reach by the end of the week.  Remember avoidance is not an option.\r\n<h2>Step 2: Take a before photo</h2>\r\nYou don\'t have to share this image, but it is proven that sharing will help to hold you accountable. It\'s something about airing your \"dirty laundry\" that makes you want to succeed and show it in it\'s changed state.  I know accountability does wonders for me.\r\n<h2>Step 3:  Set a timer</h2>\r\nEvery day during the day/week set an alarm or timer to 30+ minutes and work on tackling the chosen area. You will be amazed at how dedicated segments of time will focus your attention to the task at hand.  Go ahead if you don\'t believe me...try it.\r\n<h2>Step 4:  Take an After Photo</h2>\r\nI believe that you should always celebrate your accomplishments no matter how big or small.  It takes commitment to set a goal and then work to reach it, no matter the size...so look at the before and after and see what you have done.\r\n<h2>Step 5:  Develop Your Maintenance Plan</h2>\r\nNow the most important part of all of this is determining how you are going to keep it looking that way.  Many times we put in all the work to get a place looking just right and then we omit the most important part which is to determine how to maintain it over time.\r\n<h1>Do Not Get Distracted</h1>\r\nDo not get sidetracked by trying to develop systems or to beautify, the goal is to declutter. Place like items together, rid yourself of the unnecessary. Once you get rid of the junk and unnecessary items, THEN you can organize it...but don\'t go buying a bunch of unnecessary organizational stuff just yet, it serves as a distraction.\r\n\r\nSo look at this example, of a drawer declutter.  Remember the job doesn\'t have to be a huge project. The photos below show both the before and after.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/20111114-231610.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/20111114-231610.jpg\" alt=\"20111114-231610.jpg\" />  </a><a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/20111114-231706.jpg\"><img class=\"alignnone size-full\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/20111114-231706.jpg\" alt=\"20111114-231706.jpg\" /></a></p>\r\nGood luck and keep me posted regarding your progress!','Take this Easy 5 Step Decluttering Challenge','','inherit','closed','closed','','400-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:39','2019-07-27 05:19:39','',400,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/400-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8129,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:40','2019-07-27 05:19:40','Ok lets take a poll, how many of you currently have a all of your life\'s important papers?  Okay let me be more specific...do you have a will in place? A living will???  What about life insurance?  I know this is a morbid topic but ignoring it doesn\'t make the need for it go away.  If you have anything of worth (a car, home, china, jewelry, furniture, etc.) you should have a will....definitely if you have a child you should have a Will.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-5758 size-medium\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Are-You-Ready-200x300.png\" alt=\"Are you Ready for Life\'s Unexpected\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" />\r\n\r\nThis piece of paper makes things a lot easier for your loved ones in the event of your passing...and ensures things are handled the way you want.  As a military brat, it was common practice in our house to discuss the \"what if\'s\".  We never thought of death as a topic not to discuss because we talked about it all the time...yes so much so that my mom has practically planned her own funeral...I just have to make it happen.  I made sure that things are handled in the case of my passing...because I don\'t want to be a burden on my family...because I\'d like to think they\'d be so upset they couldn\'t think straight...(see how our humor is a little off??)\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nOk so on a serious note...how many of you know someone who was in a serious car accident or was affected by a hurricane, tornado or wildfire?  I can add many things to this list.  The point is, what if any of these devastating life events happened to you?  Would your family know your wishes?  Do they know whether you want your organs donated or not (and don\'t say its on the back of your license)? Do you want to leave it for someone else to decide whether you live or die...whether you are fed through a tube for the rest of your life or not?    What about your funeral expenses?  Do you want to burden your family with having to come up with $6,000 - $8,000 extra dollars to bury you?\r\n\r\nAs hard as it is to think about, it is vitally important that you handle these things while you can and that you have an honest and open conversation with your family about your wishes.  Think of it as your last act of kindness at your families biggest time of need.\r\n\r\n[convertkit form=5067895]\r\n\r\nI also recommend that you begin to gather all the vital records and important papers together to ensure you and your loved ones can find them when needed.  Preparing ahead in the case of an emergency goes beyond having random fire drills in your home, you have to think and plan for life\'s unexpected events.  You can\'t predict everything that is going to happen in your life and you certainly can\'t stop or dictate it.  The best you can do is prepare as much as possible and ease the pain of those around you when it does.\r\n\r\nIf you need help identifying those key records and information, <a href=\"mailto: dana@thehappinessbucket.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contact me</a> for a House In Order Discovery session.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Collect and Organize Life\'s most important papers','','inherit','closed','closed','','223-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:40','2019-07-27 05:19:40','',223,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/223-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8130,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:40','2019-07-27 05:19:40','Many of you probably didn\'t know but I was actually a customer service representative (CSR) for the Internal Revenue Service back in the day.  It was a great experience and made me realize the mistakes that people make on a regular basis as it relates to their personal income tax.  I decided it would be good for me to share some of the most common issues I used to and still do see (almost twenty years later), to help you avoid them.\r\n\r\nNow I know that many of you get anxious and itching to file your taxes in January, because that is like an instant payday to you.  I mean I totally get it, but seriously people CALM DOWN!!!!  I promise you taking a little time and ensuring you have crossed the T\'s and dotted the I\'s can save you not only time but money and frustration.\r\n\r\nOk now before I provide you with these tips I want to put out a disclaimer:  I am not a tax professional.  I am providing you information based on my own experiences as a CSR for those filing personal tax returns and want you to use your own judgement as to whether or not you should implement these tips in your own life.\r\n\r\nAlright, now that that\'s out of the way, lets get to it:\r\n<h2>1.  Don\'t File Too Fast</h2>\r\nMany of you only worked at one place, so you get your W2 and you want to go ahead and file.  I say, \"whoaaaaaa nelly\"!!!  Do you really have all the documents you need to file?  You need to really think about what assets and liabilities you have and ensure you properly account for them in all the places on your tax form.  You\'d hate to receive your refund and then have to pay back money or amend your return because you omitted something in error.  By law, all tax documents should be postmarked by Jan 31st...so at least wait until Feb 5th. to ensure you have what you need.\r\n<h2>2.  Avoid Anticipation Loans</h2>\r\nNow, I don\'t want any of these companies trying to sue me for telling the truth here.  The truth is that by going to these places you are essentially taking out a loan on your own money!  Did you know by filing electronically you can get your money in as quick as 7 days?!?!  Why pay someone to do the same thing that you can do for free?  Just go directly to the source, file your taxes electronically...provide them with an account number and they will deposit your money into it directly.  If you want to <a href=\"https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">get the status of your refund</a>, you can go to the IRS website directly.\r\n<h2>3.  Mind Who You Claim</h2>\r\nIf you have a person that may be claimable by someone else you need to ensure you can claim them before you put them on your taxes.  Just because they live with you during the year does not mean you can claim them.  It\'s based on five tests:  Relationship, age, residency, support and joint return and the answers aren\'t necessarily what you may think. Divorce decrees and/or written declarations can also change the rules. Chapter 3 of <a title=\"Publication 17\" href=\"http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IRS Publication 17</a> details this out.\r\n\r\nIf all else fails <a href=\"https://www.irs.gov/help/telephone-assistance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">call and ask</a> a CSR, but be honest in your responses so they can give you the real answer.  Claiming someone on your taxes that someone else should claim could delay your refund or cause you to owe money back.  This is also true if the actual person you are claiming files and claim\'s them self.\r\n<h2>4.  Get Help Preparing Your Taxes</h2>\r\nFor those who make $54,000 or less you can receive free help at a <a href=\"https://www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-you-by-volunteers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">VITA site</a>.  Those over the age of 60 can participate in the Tax Counseling for the elderly program and there are some things for a few other specific groups as well.  For everyone else don\'t be afraid to call 1-800-829-1040, the IRS help line, to get assistance (after the government shutdown ends).  Also, use <a title=\"Publication 17\" href=\"http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IRS Publication 17 </a>to assist you in preparing your taxes.\r\n<h2>5.  Use Free Online Filing Options</h2>\r\nYou should use the <a title=\"E-File Through IRS\" href=\"https://www.irs.gov/uac/Free-File:-Do-Your-Federal-Taxes-for-Free\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IRS Free File links</a> to identify all available offers.  Many \"other\" sites have tricky extras that end up costing you when using their links.  Make sure you read and understand (especially the fine print) before clicking the button of sites outside of the list the IRS provides and even read those too.\r\n<h2>6.  Appropriately Apply Deductions and Credits</h2>\r\n<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-5751 \" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/tax-filing-683x1024.png\" alt=\"Organize for Tax Filing - Common Mistakes\" width=\"306\" height=\"459\" />\r\n\r\nThere are many deductions and credits out there that people miss because they don\'t educate themselves.  The online filing sites ask questions that help determine whether you are or aren\'t eligible for specific deductions and credits.  If you are using a preparer and the deduction or credit seems too good to be true, always ask for a detailed explanation of how they came up with it or what makes you eligible.  Every deduction and credit has an <a href=\"https://www.irs.gov/publications\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IRS Publication</a> associated with it.  It doesn\'t take an extremely long time to review them...empower yourself!\r\n\r\nAdditionally, you can review the <a href=\"https://taxchanges.us/?source=ttk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">latest changes to the IRS regulations here</a> from the Taxpayer Advocates Office.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h2>7.  Get a Copy of <a title=\"Publication 17\" href=\"http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">IRS Publication 17</a></h2>\r\nIt explains most of the scenarios you will need to have covered.  If when reading it refers to another publication, just get it or download it from the website, they are all there.  This is a great place to start when researching changes in the tax code each year too.\r\n<h2>8.  Keep Good Records</h2>\r\nYou always want to make sure you have records of anything you plan on claiming...or have a way of proving it if you are ever audited.  Most people have a general idea of what those things are so start keeping a running file of those items, be that electronic or physical.  If you know you will have a lot of receipts, have a way of categorizing them to make it easier come tax time.\r\n\r\nJust to note, everyone now files a Form 1040, (<a href=\"https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1040\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">see recent changes</a>).  Additionally, with the new tax law changes the standard deduction will probably be more beneficial for most people, but you never know until you crunch the numbers...so plan for it until you identify what is best for you.\r\n<h2>9.  Know Tax Year Changes</h2>\r\nWe all experience life happenings, some of the biggest ones are caused by natural disasters, job loss, home loss and other national happenings.  Along with these changes comes changes to the tax rules, some good and some bad.  Please educate yourselves so you don\'t miss out or make a mistake when it comes to <a href=\"https://www.irs.gov/Credits-&amp;-Deductions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">credits and deductions</a>. (i.e., If you claim the <a title=\"Earned Income Tax Credit\" href=\"https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"4acaffc8-4b32-479f-af7c-6bc23902a13f\">Earned Income Tax Credit</a> or <a title=\"Does My Child/Dependent Qualify for the Child Tax Credit or the Credit for Other Dependents?  \" href=\"https://www.irs.gov/help/ita/does-my-childdependent-qualify-for-the-child-tax-credit-or-the-credit-for-other-dependents\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"6b0e6fb6-274b-40df-963f-02bae20a5ede\">Additional Child Tax Credit</a>, the IRS cannot issue refunds before mid-February).\r\n\r\nDon\'t let this one scare you, you have the ability to do this on your own.  Again, most of the information you need to know is covered in Publication 17 or you can check out the <a href=\"https://taxchanges.us/?source=ttk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taxpayer Advocate Office\'s list of changes here</a>.  One tip is to look for the green or red arrows to identify items you need to pay close attention to.\r\n\r\nThe key is for you to be aware so you can ensure there isn\'t a credit, deduction or additional tax that you didn\'t have to pay in years past (marriage/divorce, birth/death, new home, etc.) or new ones that you do.  Don\'t leave money on the table.\r\n<h2>10.  Don\'t Miss the Deadline</h2>\r\nWhatever you do, do not miss the April 15th deadline if you owe!  File an extension, but don\'t just try to ignore it as though it\'s going to go away because it is not.  In fact, all that\'s going to happen is interest and penalties will continue to add up (these are calculated daily!).   If it is just a matter of you don\'t have the money, it\'s okay!!!  Just call and tell them you want to make an arrangement to pay.  They will set you up on a payment plan that works for your budget...no matter the amount.  I actually had to do this myself shortly after college when I was categorized as an Independent Contractor and didn\'t realize I had to pay my own taxes (I was young).  The letter I received from the IRS stated that I owed $20,000 and I of course went into a mass panic.  The key to this story is that I was able to make arrangements and pay it off.  It took me a while, but I did it...and you can too.\r\n<h1>A Few Bonus Tax Tips</h1>\r\nOk, so after writing #10 above, I felt obligated to add a couple of bonus tips for you small business owners...\r\n<h2>Bonus 1:  Know Small Business Requirements</h2>\r\nMake sure you know what taxes you owe, both for your Federal and State taxes.  As a person who experienced the stress of owing the Government, you want to make sure you know and understand your requirements as a business owner, especially all of you who are independent contractors.  If you don\'t pay quarterly taxes you need to ensure you are taking the appropriate taxes out of the money you make from every sell.  If not, you risk getting shocked at the end of the year.\r\n<h2>Bonus 2:  Business Tax and Sale Log</h2>\r\nNow for some small businesses you haven\'t made enough sells to justify purchasing an accounting software for your business.  There are mixed feelings about this, but I say do what is best for your business.  If you are diligent about keeping track of what is going in and out of your business, you can do it by hand without a problem.  Of course the more successful you are, the more complicated your in-take and out-take procedures and processes are and the riskier and more difficult it becomes.\r\n<h2>Bonus 3:  Know What You Are Filing</h2>\r\nEven if you have your taxes prepared by someone else, you should always have a clear understanding and approve of what is being filed on your behalf.  You are ultimately responsible, whether someone else made the decision to do it or not.  By signing the last line on your physical and electronic return, you are certifying that you are taking the responsibility for everything on the document, so take it seriously.  Don\'t let someone rush you through the explanation of your taxes. If you are paying them, you are paying for their time...so use it.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI hope you found these tips helpful!  Please let me know if you do by sharing, liking and/or commenting on this post below, I\'d love your feedback.','10 Tax Filing Tips to Help Organize Your Filing Process with the IRS','','inherit','closed','closed','','145-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:40','2019-07-27 05:19:40','',145,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/145-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8131,1,'2019-07-27 05:19:41','2019-07-27 05:19:41','<p class=\"mceTemp\">Think back to when you were a young\'un LOL.  If you are over the age of 30 you will remember when your mom used to make food that would seemingly feed the masses.  How did she do that?  Back then we probably didn\'t think about it too much or you thought she was just magic.  Well, the reality of the situation is that she probably made a lot of meals that were inexpensive and would stretch...Spaghetti (or really any type of pasta dish), Casseroles with rice at the base, Stew, Pot pies, etc.  In an attempt to cook more at home, my family has been adding more freezer meals, soups and casseroles to our meal lineup.  This will help us to not only save money, but to save time and meet some of our health goals as well.  Talk about life transitions!!!</p>\r\n\r\n<h1>Identifying the Lies We Tell Ourselves</h1>\r\n<p class=\"mceTemp\">I remember when I first started doing this, I really had to sit back and be honest with myself as to why I wasn\'t cooking as much as I could.  At the time I was single, but I know you\'ve used those same excuses before, some may have used them more recently than they\'d like to admit.</p>\r\n<p class=\"mceTemp\">You know the excuses I\'m talking about...I\'m too busy to cook, it\'s cheaper for me to eat out or I\'m too tired, it\'s too hard to cook for one person...yeah yeah yadda yadda.  Lets just be honest with ourselves...we are just being L.A.Z.Y...yeah I can say it, because when I used to make those excuses I was being lazy.  Now, that\'s not to say we weren\'t busy, but we always find time for what we really want to do.</p>\r\nWell, I realize that you can\'t change a habit overnight, but I can definitely help you to change one small step at a time.  I have for years made this dish that is absolutely delicious and it doesn\'t take much at all.  I am going to post the recipe here (as I make it) and will link to the recipe.\r\n<h1><strong><a title=\"Full Recipe from Recipe.com\" href=\"http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/anniversary-chicken-i/Detail.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anniversary Chicken</a></strong> (my adapted recipe from allrecipe.com click the title for the full recipe)</h1>\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\"]<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/anniversary-chicken.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1148 \" title=\"Anniversary Chicken\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/anniversary-chicken.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" /></a> HtCasey\'s Photo from allrecipes.com[/caption]\r\n<p class=\"mceTemp\"><strong>Ingredients</strong></p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li>Chicken (however much you want)</li>\r\n 	<li>1/2 cup teriyaki basting sauce (low sodium)</li>\r\n 	<li>1/2 cup Ranch-style salad dressing</li>\r\n 	<li>Shredded Cheese (whichever kind you prefer)*</li>\r\n 	<li>Bacon bits (real or canned)*</li>\r\n 	<li>Rice (enough to serve number you are feeding)</li>\r\n 	<li>Water (enough to cover the rice)</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li>Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).</li>\r\n 	<li>Place chicken in a baking dish, pour teriyaki sauce and then the ranch dressing over chicken evenly.</li>\r\n 	<li>Sprinkle rice in between the chicken pieces and pour water over rice (Don\'t add too much water at the beginning, you can add more later to thin sauce out if necessary).</li>\r\n 	<li>Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear. Baste chicken with sauce halfway through cooking time.</li>\r\n 	<li>*Optional - You can add bacon bits and cheese to the top of your chicken at the end of cooking until melted. Garnish and serve.</li>\r\n</ol>\r\nTips:  The teriyaki sauce and ranch dressing and water create this delicious sauce that the chicken and rice cook in, so depending on your preference you can make the sauce thick or more liquid by adding more water.  I usually turn and baste the chicken (stirring and blending the sauce some) halfway through the cooking time.  Remember teriyaki sauce is sweet and can be high in sodium so I usually buy the low sodium sauce.  You can adjust your teriyaki to ranch dressing measurements based on your preference.\r\n\r\nThis meal is very inexpensive and can feed a ton of people based on how you make it.  It takes me maybe 5 mins to prepare and the magic happens all on its own.  You can omit the rice from the recipe and make it separately if you choose...I just like one pot cooking whenever possible and the sauce that is made is mixed with the rice which is delicious.  So, try this recipe and let me know how it works for you.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent7.png\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1025\" title=\"The-Happiness-Bucket transparent\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent7.png?w=300\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"125\" /></a>','Returning to Casserole Basics with Surprise Chicken','','inherit','closed','closed','','129-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:19:41','2019-07-27 05:19:41','',129,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/129-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8132,1,'2019-07-27 05:21:31','2019-07-27 05:21:31','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>[enter social sharing]</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>High-level summary of what the podcast is about.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>Listen to the Episode</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I\'d love to hear your thoughts, listen to the episode and then use the call-in link to call and leave me a message.  I may just respond to your comment or question on the next episode.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<iframe src=\"https://anchor.fm/organizedholistically/embed/episodes/ep-evq2s/a-a1amsc\" height=\"200px\" width=\"900px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"></iframe>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:separator {\"className\":\"is-style-wide\"} -->\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"/>\n<!-- /wp:separator -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>Mentioned Links and Resources</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list -->\n<ul><li>Item 1</li><li>Item 2</li><li>Item 3</li></ul>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','Podcast','','inherit','closed','closed','','8069-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:21:31','2019-07-27 05:21:31','',8069,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/8069-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8133,1,'2019-07-27 05:22:02','2019-07-27 05:22:02','<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>[enter social sharing]</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>High-level summary of what the podcast is about.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>Listen to the Episode</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I\'d love to hear your thoughts, listen to the episode and then use the call-in link to call and leave me a message.  I may just respond to your comment or question on the next episode.</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<iframe src=\"https://anchor.fm/organizedholistically/embed/episodes/ep-evq2s/a-a1amsc\" height=\"200px\" width=\"800px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"></iframe>\n<!-- /wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:separator {\"className\":\"is-style-wide\"} -->\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide\"/>\n<!-- /wp:separator -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2>Mentioned Links and Resources</h2>\n<!-- /wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:list -->\n<ul><li>Item 1</li><li>Item 2</li><li>Item 3</li></ul>\n<!-- /wp:list -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p></p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','Podcast','','inherit','closed','closed','','8069-revision-v1','','','2019-07-27 05:22:02','2019-07-27 05:22:02','',8069,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/8069-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8136,1,'2019-07-27 20:49:12','2019-07-27 20:49:12','','Brand U Version 2.0 Masterclass is Coming Soon!','','publish','closed','closed','','buv2-interest-2019','','','2019-07-27 21:18:43','2019-07-27 21:18:43','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/?post_type=subscribe-form&#038;p=8136',0,'subscribe-form','',0),(8142,1,'2019-08-24 00:34:04','2019-08-24 00:34:04','<div id=\"pl-7337\" class=\"panel-layout\">\n<div id=\"pg-7337-0\" class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_image_attachment&quot;:false,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;,&quot;bottom_margin&quot;:&quot;10px&quot;,&quot;cell_alignment&quot;:&quot;flex-start&quot;}\" data-ratio=\"1\" data-ratio-direction=\"right\">\n<div id=\"pgc-7337-0-0\" class=\"panel-grid-cell\" data-weight=\"1\">\n<div id=\"panel-7337-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_media_image panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_image_attachment&quot;:false,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\"><span style=\"color: #e02073; font-size: 2em; font-weight: 600;\">Your Business Roadmap</span></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n<div id=\"pg-7337-1\" class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;,&quot;bottom_margin&quot;:&quot;10px&quot;,&quot;cell_alignment&quot;:&quot;flex-start&quot;}\">\n<div id=\"pgc-7337-1-0\" class=\"panel-grid-cell\" data-weight=\"1\">\n<div id=\"panel-7337-1-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child\" data-index=\"1\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_image_attachment&quot;:false,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\">\n<div class=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\">\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"><span style=\"color: #2b5669;\"><strong>Step 1:  Schedule your Business Discovery session - </strong>this session is designed to ensure the processes in your business are still in alignment with the goals of your business.  </span></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"><span style=\"color: #2b5669;\"><strong>Step 2:  Schedule your Strategy Session - </strong>once we identify the path you need to take, this session will assist us in developing, implementing and streamlining your processes to help eliminate business leaks.  </span></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"><span style=\"color: #2b5669;\"><strong>Step 3:  Schedule your Accountability Call(s) - </strong>once we have developed your plan of action it is time to do the work! These calls are established to provide support as you make the necessary changes in your business.  </span></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"><span style=\"color: #2b5669;\"><strong>Are you ready to get started?  Select your appointment type below...</strong></span></p>\n<p data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"> </p>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<iframe src=\"https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=17298481&appointmentType=9348191\" width=\"100%\" height=\"800\" frameBorder=\"0\"></iframe>																																  <script src=\"https://embed.acuityscheduling.com/js/embed.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n			\n<!-- /wp:html -->','Business Bucket','','inherit','closed','closed','','7337-revision-v1','','','2019-08-24 00:34:04','2019-08-24 00:34:04','',7337,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7337-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8143,1,'2019-08-24 00:40:47','2019-08-24 00:40:47','<div id=\"pl-7337\" class=\"panel-layout\">\n<div id=\"pg-7337-0\" class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_image_attachment&quot;:false,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;,&quot;bottom_margin&quot;:&quot;10px&quot;,&quot;cell_alignment&quot;:&quot;flex-start&quot;}\" data-ratio=\"1\" data-ratio-direction=\"right\">\n<div id=\"pgc-7337-0-0\" class=\"panel-grid-cell\" data-weight=\"1\">\n<div id=\"panel-7337-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_media_image panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_image_attachment&quot;:false,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\"><span style=\"color: #e02073; font-size: 2em; font-weight: 600;\">Your Business Roadmap</span></div>\n</div>\n</div>\n<div id=\"pg-7337-1\" class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;,&quot;bottom_margin&quot;:&quot;10px&quot;,&quot;cell_alignment&quot;:&quot;flex-start&quot;}\">\n<div id=\"pgc-7337-1-0\" class=\"panel-grid-cell\" data-weight=\"1\">\n<div id=\"panel-7337-1-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child\" data-index=\"1\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_image_attachment&quot;:false,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\">\n<div class=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\">\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"><span style=\"color: #2b5669;\"><strong>Step 1:  Schedule your Business Discovery session - </strong>this session is designed to ensure the processes in your business are still in alignment with the goals of your business.  </span></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"><span style=\"color: #2b5669;\"><strong>Step 2:  Schedule your Strategy Session - </strong>once we identify the path you need to take, this session will assist us in developing, implementing and streamlining your processes to help eliminate business leaks.  </span></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"><span style=\"color: #2b5669;\"><strong>Step 3:  Schedule your Accountability Call(s) - </strong>once we have developed your plan of action it is time to do the work! These calls are established to provide support as you make the necessary changes in your business.  </span></p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"><span style=\"color: #2b5669;\"><strong>Are you ready to get started?  Select your appointment type below...</strong></span></p>\n<p data-textformat=\"{&quot;fw&quot;:&quot;bold&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;text&quot;}\" data-doc-rid=\"1ca7kc48b5deb01fc4147a6ca7a6f1afe33eb\"> </p>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n</div>\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<iframe src=\"https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=17298481&appointmentType=9348191\" width=\"100%\" height=\"800\" frameBorder=\"0\"></iframe>																																  <script src=\"https://embed.acuityscheduling.com/js/embed.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n			\n<!-- /wp:html -->','Business Bucket','','inherit','closed','closed','','7337-autosave-v1','','','2019-08-24 00:40:47','2019-08-24 00:40:47','',7337,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/7337-autosave-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8147,1,'2019-09-15 19:36:08','2019-09-15 19:36:08','Today, I want to talk to you about developing a requirements document for your projects to help align yourself and your team to what it is you are trying to accomplish.  It never fails when I am brought in to work on trouble projects one of the common issues is that there are no true requirements for the project.\n\nThe requirements are often made up as the project goes along or are added and removed willy nilly throughout the project.  This causes clunky development, wasted money and time not to mentioned a disjointed final product.\n\n[embed]https://youtu.be/7xQGBetgado[/embed]\n\nIn project management, the requirements document is very important.  It provides you with the framework of what your project is about.  Regardless of whether you are on the personal or business track, the requirements document will help provide the project roadmap.\n<h2>Develop Your Requirements Documents by Brainstorming</h2>\nThere are many ways you can go about creating your requirements document. A common method I like to use is brainstorming or mindmapping.  Brainstorming can be done as an individual (mindmapping) or with a team.  It is similar to a brain dump of what needs to be done on the project.  Often when you begin writing out one thing or idea, it can trigger something else in your mind.\n\nFor teams, it is important that all members participate in this exercise so everyone has a voice. This also helps because participants can feed off one another to fill in the gaps. Everyone comes at issues and situations differently.  Having the different perspectives can help guide decisions and lead to better understanding of goals and needs\n<h2>Examples of Brainstorming and It\'s Benefits</h2>\nBrainstorming can be used in all types of scenarios in both our Business and Personal tracks.  it can be used for planning Events or Launches, organizing an office or space in your home, planning your garden or swapping systems, etc.\n\nOne great example of group brainstorming is setting up the kitchen after a big move.  In this scenario, most would think the cook would make the decision, but that is the worst thing you can do.  It\'s best to bring the entire family in to discuss how the kitchen and areas are used.  Who needs what and when.  What did you dislike about your old kitchen layout and can you improve on it in the new one.  This of course will change over time as people grow older (kids and adults).\n<blockquote>Your system may make sense to you, but because you are so close to it, often times we over complicate or forget things.  Multiple brains are always better than just one. -Dana LaRieal Morales</blockquote>\nAnother example of group brainstorming is planning a live event.  Thinking through all the pieces that come into play when you are planning an online event versus an in person event.  There are many moving parts, so it is important to think through and brainstorm out all those parts.  Many of these are dependent on others as well.  Knowing what those are can be helpful in developing your budget and timeline as well.\n<h2>Identifying your Project Boundaries</h2>\nOnce you have brainstormed things out you will be able to determine your must-haves. Your must haves are those things that regardless of anything else they have to be included.  I often call these needs.  Your wants or your like to haves are those things that would be great, but if you can\'t do it or if you run out of time (or money) they can be cut.  Finally, you will have your absolutely not\'s or your \"out of scope\" items.  These are things that you won\'t be including or doing with this project.\n\nAll of these categories are extremely important because it creates a playbook by which the team is working. Whenever there is doubt or confusion on a project, the team as a whole should refer back to the requirements document or project playbook or roadmap.  This will allow everyone to regroup and get back into the game. (Why am I all of a sudden giving all these sports analogies?).\n\nSo on your next project, take a little time and really think out what you are trying to accomplish.  Define not only your goals but your requirements for the project and how you plan to complete it.  This will save you a lot of time, money and headaches in the long run and will make it much more likely that you will have a successful project.','How to Develop A Requirements Document for Small Business and Personal Projects','','inherit','closed','closed','','5779-revision-v1','','','2019-09-15 19:36:08','2019-09-15 19:36:08','',5779,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5779-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8148,1,'2019-09-15 20:17:52','2019-09-15 20:17:52','Batches of brownies or batches of cookies? well, I hate to break it to ya but I\'m referring to batching work lol...but we will get back to the cookies and brownies in a minute.  I know, go ahead and furrow your brow at the sneaky way I pulled you in, but my goal was to get you to start reading, because I want to explain how batching your work can be one of the most efficient uses of your time.<!--more-->\n\nOne person who uses batching extremely successfully is Marie Kondo.  In her book, the Magic of Tidying Up she encourages you to batch your items, so you literally take all of the shoes you own and tackle them at the same time.  There is something very rewarding in knowing you have set out to finish one thing and you accomplished that goal.  It is also easier to see what you do and don\'t need when all of the shoes are right there together.  I remember back in early 2008 when I did this with my shoes, I had an overabundance of black shoes.  It was very shocking and funny all at the same time.  It\'s hard to be in denial when the reality is staring you in the face.\n<h2>Batching Helps You Complete Work More Efficiently</h2>\nYou see, when you batch your work your focus is on doing that one thing...you get tunnel vision and tend to complete the job faster than if you were doing multiple things at one time.  This is one of the techniques we use when we help our Clients declutter their lives and spaces.  Take for example, when you are trying to declutter your closet.  Most clients find it easier to focus on their shirts or shoes vs focusing on their shirts, shoes, pants, belts, ties, etc., all at the same time. The reason is because dealing with all those things at one time is overwhelming and in many cases causes the person to quit and never return.  Having a short spirt of focus gives your mind a clear understanding of how long you need to be focused and then you know you will receive a reward/break.  Then you go for the next round.  Often times I find Clients accomplish more when we tackle things in this way than if I were to give them a long list of homework.  That is why I rarely do in-home consultation reports anymore, I more often set up 15 - 30 min coaching sessions to touch base and discuss next steps.  Consider it the agile version of organizing.\n<h2>Batching Helps You Focus</h2>\nBy batching the work, you have a focus...you can see a beginning and an end...and if it is a big job, you can set realistic goals.  If I have 10 boxes of random paperwork to go through, the best way to handle it is to batch the work and sort through all the paper first placing them into like piles.  The next step would be to tackle each pile as individual batches, sorting into category batches (shredding, filing, scanning, etc.).  You will find you have strategically and systematically broken that big job down in less time than it would take you to do all 10 boxes at one time.  Yes, you may have to touch the pieces of paper multiple times, but you are being much more efficient.  Your mind has a clear focus and isn\'t easily distracted.\n<h2>Batching Helps You Work in Time Blocks</h2>\nBy batching it also allows you to work in dedicated windows of time.  If you only have 15 - 30 minutes to work you can continue sorting your boxes until that job is done and you also know you are making progress as you empty each box.  You can batch just about any job you have, the key is understanding your bottom denominator.  What is the \"batch\" you are trying to get to - phone calls, emails, cleaning, packing, etc.  You know what you can accomplish in a short period of time and you pick the appropriate batch to coincide with that.  If you don\'t finish, it\'s ok because you have a clear goal and it is much easier to start and stop than if you were trying to do it all at once.\n\n<img class=\"alignleft wp-image-6922\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cookies-28423_1920-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"247\" height=\"185\" />One of the other areas I love to batch is cooking...see I told you we would get back to the brownies and cookies!\n<h2>Batching Works in the Kitchen Too</h2>\nBatch cooking (<a href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/exploring-the-pinterest-kitchen-chicken-tortilla-soup-pollo-con-tortilla-sopa/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">freezer cooking</a>) is one area we are working on re-applying in my home, because the few times we have instituted it, it worked beautifully.  There are a number of websites out there that are dedicated to batch cooking so make sure to look them up, you can even batch cook cookies and brownies.  The idea is pretty ingenious and the few times we have focused on doing this for the week/month it has made a huge difference in not only the amount of time required to produce a meal but financially too.  I have successfully batched soup, biscuits, homemade baby food, cake, lasagna and more.\n\nTell us, what have you batched lately and did you find it made a difference in your overall efficiency?  Tell me by commenting below or share in our <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/thehappinessbucket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">facebook page</a>.','Organizing and Increasing Productivity Using Batching','','inherit','closed','closed','','3754-revision-v1','','','2019-09-15 20:17:52','2019-09-15 20:17:52','',3754,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3754-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8149,1,'2019-09-18 20:13:49','2019-09-18 20:13:49','<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\">DO I HAVE TO SCHEDULE FOR A 3 HOUR SESSION?</h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Our in-person organizing sessions are scheduled in 3 hours increments because most small sessions require at least that. &nbsp;If you feel your session wouldn\'t take that long, it is more economical for you to physically handle the organization process yourself with coaching from us. &nbsp;In this instance, we recommend using our <a title=\"Project Management Services\" href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/project-management-services/\">1 hour virtual session(s)</a>.</p>\n\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\">WHEN DO WE PAY YOU AND WHAT TYPE OF PAYMENTS DO YOU TAKE?</h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Payments are due at the end of each session.&nbsp; You can purchase hours in advance or as gifts <a title=\"Project Management Services\" href=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/project-management-services/\">here</a>.&nbsp; We invoice and use PayPal for payment processing accepting all major credit cards and cash.&nbsp; Checks are accepted, but they must clear the bank prior to your scheduled session.</p>\n\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\">HOW ARE EXPENSES HANDLED?</h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">You are responsible for your own expenses, including supplies. &nbsp;Shopping services are available at our normal Professional Organizing rate of $45 an hour and we will add the purchased items (unless paid for in advance) to your bill at cost. &nbsp;If subcontractors are needed, you are responsible for paying their bill directly unless otherwise arranged in advance. &nbsp;We do offer our Project Management services at a&nbsp;rate of $60 an hour, these are services that are needed to coordinate and manage subcontractors or space improvements that fall outside of organizing (i.e, painting, repair, furniture assembly, etc.). &nbsp;We also offer furniture assembly for a rate of $30&nbsp;an hour.</p>\n\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\">HOW FAR DO YOU GO FOR IN-PERSON SESSIONS?</h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We go within a 40 mile radius of Smyrna, TN at no additional charge. &nbsp;We charge our hourly rate for all mileage outside of that&nbsp;radius, unless otherwise negotiated in advance.</p>\n\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\">WHAT IS YOUR CANCELLATION POLICY?</h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We understand the need to reschedule or cancel a session, however due to the demand of our time a 50% fee will be charged for cancellations made with less than 24 hours notice and a 10% fee for sessions that have been rescheduled more than one time, unless the session has been paid for in advance.&nbsp; There is no charge for cancelled consultation appointments.</p>\n\n<h6 style=\"text-align: justify;\">DO YOU PROVIDE CLEANING SERVICES?</h6>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Although we will perform very high level cleaning (sweep and wipe down pantry prior to putting items back) we do not offer cleaning services.&nbsp; Please have someone available to handle any heavy cleaning that may be needed.&nbsp; If a deep clean is needed, many times we will work in distinctive phases to allow you time to get that done prior to restocking/organizing your space.</p>','Professional Organizing Frequently Asked Questions','','inherit','closed','closed','','3441-autosave-v1','','','2019-09-18 20:13:49','2019-09-18 20:13:49','',3441,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/3441-autosave-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8151,1,'2019-10-31 23:18:39','2019-10-31 23:18:39','<!-- wp:button {\"backgroundColor\":\"luminous-vivid-amber\",\"customTextColor\":\"#e02073\",\"align\":\"center\",\"className\":\"is-style-outline\"} -->\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter is-style-outline\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color has-background has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheSupportCircle/\" style=\"color:#e02073\"><strong>JOIN THE CIRCLE</strong></a></div>\n<!-- /wp:button -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p> The Circle, our free online community for determined Entrepreneurs and Professionals who are looking to set their business and life up for success.  We focus on teaching you how to holistically organize by developing, implementing and streamlining processes in both your business and personal life so that you can have better work-life balance and integration.   </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>  It is my hope that you find this community to be a lifeline of support for you, your business and your life and that I can assist you in developing the processes you need no matter where you are on the journey. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\n\nWelcome to The Circle!\n\n</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','','','publish','closed','closed','','thecircle','','','2019-11-04 22:53:18','2019-11-04 22:53:18','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/?page_id=8151',0,'page','',0),(8153,1,'2019-10-31 23:17:16','2019-10-31 23:17:16','','The Circle','','inherit','open','closed','','the-circle','','','2019-10-31 23:17:28','2019-10-31 23:17:28','',8151,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Circle.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(8154,1,'2019-10-31 23:17:36','2019-10-31 23:17:36','<!-- wp:button {\"backgroundColor\":\"luminous-vivid-amber\",\"customTextColor\":\"#e02073\",\"align\":\"center\",\"className\":\"is-style-outline\"} -->\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter is-style-outline\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color has-background has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheSupportCircle/\" style=\"color:#e02073\"><strong>JOIN THE CIRCLE</strong></a></div>\n<!-- /wp:button -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p> The Circle, is a free Facebook community for determined Entrepreneurs and Professionals who are looking to set their business and life up for success.  We focus on teaching you how to holistically organize by developing, implementing and streamlining processes in both your business and personal life so that you can have better work-life balance and integration.   </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>  It is my hope that you find this community to be a lifeline of support for you, your business and your life and that I can assist you in developing the processes you need no matter where you are on the journey. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\n\nWelcome to The Circle!\n\n</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','','','inherit','closed','closed','','8151-revision-v1','','','2019-10-31 23:17:36','2019-10-31 23:17:36','',8151,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/8151-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8156,1,'2019-10-31 23:20:35','2019-10-31 23:20:35','','The Circle','','publish','closed','closed','','the-circle-2','','','2020-02-04 05:32:51','2020-02-04 05:32:51','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/?p=8156',9,'nav_menu_item','',0),(8157,1,'2019-07-26 03:03:11','2019-07-26 03:03:11','','Business and Process Leaks 2019 Masterclass','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-07-26 03:03:11','2019-07-26 03:03:11','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8158,1,'2019-07-25 16:47:29','2019-07-25 16:47:29','','Dana LaRieal Morales','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-07-25 16:49:36','2019-07-25 16:49:36','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8159,1,'2019-05-16 19:35:11','2019-05-16 19:35:11','','Learning to Accept The Things We Can&#039;t Control |','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-05-16 19:35:11','2019-05-16 19:35:11','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8160,1,'2019-04-19 16:28:41','2019-04-19 16:28:41','','Organizational Roadmap - 5 Stages of Organizing','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-04-19 16:29:08','2019-04-19 16:29:08','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8161,1,'2019-04-11 17:14:50','2019-04-11 17:14:50','','Business Leaks Guide','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-04-11 17:14:50','2019-04-11 17:14:50','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8162,1,'2019-04-10 15:47:20','2019-04-10 15:47:20','','organizing-containers','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-04-10 15:47:20','2019-04-10 15:47:20','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8163,1,'2019-04-08 20:33:00','2019-04-08 20:33:00','','Pinterest + Bolillo&#039;s + Dr. Pepper BBQ Ribs = Easy Fantabulousness - Dana LaRieal Morales','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-04-08 20:33:00','2019-04-08 20:33:00','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8164,1,'2019-04-08 20:32:08','2019-04-08 20:32:08','','Exploring the Pinterest Kitchen - Mongolian Beef - Dana LaRieal Morales','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-04-08 20:32:08','2019-04-08 20:32:08','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8165,1,'2019-04-08 20:31:13','2019-04-08 20:31:13','','Let&#039;s Move On Up! 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Assessment','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-11-01 14:59:20','2019-11-01 14:59:20','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8225,1,'2017-06-20 17:58:34','2017-06-20 17:58:34','','Full Needs Assessment','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-11-01 14:59:20','2019-11-01 14:59:20','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8226,1,'2017-03-03 16:41:28','2017-03-03 16:41:28','','The Happiness Bucket&#039;s Resource Library','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-11-01 14:59:20','2019-11-01 14:59:20','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8227,1,'2016-11-03 15:22:57','2016-11-03 15:22:57','','The THB Network','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-11-01 14:59:20','2019-11-01 14:59:20','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8228,1,'2016-10-28 17:04:27','2016-10-28 17:04:27','','The C.H.A.N.G.E. Academy','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-11-01 14:59:20','2019-11-01 14:59:20','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8229,1,'2016-10-05 18:00:28','2016-10-05 18:00:28','','National Association of Legal Professionals','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-11-01 14:59:20','2019-11-01 14:59:20','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8230,1,'2016-04-15 18:45:50','2016-04-15 18:45:50','','5 Step Clarity Cleanse','','publish','0','0','','','','','2019-11-01 14:59:20','2019-11-01 14:59:20','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8231,1,'2016-04-07 09:48:49','2016-04-07 09:48:49','','THB C.H.A.N.G.E Academy Facebook Group','','publish','0','0','','','','','2018-09-14 15:49:04','2018-09-14 15:49:04','',0,'',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8232,1,'2019-11-01 15:04:25','2019-11-01 15:04:25','','Join Our Online Community - \"The Circle\"','','publish','closed','closed','','join-our-online-community-the-circle','','','2019-11-01 15:05:40','2019-11-01 15:05:40','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/?post_type=subscribe-form&#038;p=8232',0,'subscribe-form','',0),(8235,1,'2019-11-04 17:48:48','2019-11-04 17:48:48','<img class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5196\" src=\"http://thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Optin-Thank-You-Page.png\" alt=\"Thank You Page\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" />\n\n<strong>What You Can Do While You Wait!</strong>\n<ol>\n 	<li>Click on over to Facebook and join our Facebook Group <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/thesupportcircle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Circle</a> - this is our community of support and where you can have direct access to me and other members of the family.</li>\n 	<li>Tell a friend, coworker or family about this great resource!  You can do it via social media, email, phone or even in person  I\'d really appreciate it.</li>\n</ol>','Thank You','','inherit','closed','closed','','5195-revision-v1','','','2019-11-04 17:48:48','2019-11-04 17:48:48','',5195,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/5195-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8236,1,'2019-11-04 20:31:46','2019-11-04 20:31:46','','Business and Process Leaks Intake','','publish','closed','closed','','business-and-process-leaks-intake','','','2019-11-07 18:24:35','2019-11-07 18:24:35','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/?post_type=pretty-link&#038;p=8236',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8237,1,'2019-11-04 22:36:45','2019-11-04 22:36:45','<!-- wp:button {\"backgroundColor\":\"luminous-vivid-amber\",\"customTextColor\":\"#e02073\",\"align\":\"center\",\"className\":\"is-style-outline\"} -->\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter is-style-outline\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color has-background has-luminous-vivid-amber-background-color\" href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheSupportCircle/\" style=\"color:#e02073\"><strong>JOIN THE CIRCLE</strong></a></div>\n<!-- /wp:button -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p> The Circle, our free online community for determined Entrepreneurs and Professionals who are looking to set their business and life up for success.  We focus on teaching you how to holistically organize by developing, implementing and streamlining processes in both your business and personal life so that you can have better work-life balance and integration.   </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>  It is my hope that you find this community to be a lifeline of support for you, your business and your life and that I can assist you in developing the processes you need no matter where you are on the journey. </p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\n\nWelcome to The Circle!\n\n</p>\n<!-- /wp:paragraph -->','','','inherit','closed','closed','','8151-revision-v1','','','2019-11-04 22:36:45','2019-11-04 22:36:45','',8151,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/8151-revision-v1/',0,'revision','',0),(8250,1,'2020-01-13 20:53:43','2020-01-13 20:53:43','<h1>Affiliate Program Terms of Service</h1>\n<h2>Agreement</h2>\nBy signing up to be an Affiliate in the Affiliate Program (\"Program\") you are agreeing to be bound by the following terms and conditions (\"Terms of Service\").\n\nThe Happiness Bucket (\"THB\") reserves the right to update and change the Terms of Service from time to time without notice. Any new features that augment or enhance the current Program, including the release of new tools and resources, shall be subject to the Terms of Service. Continued use of the Program after any such changes shall constitute your consent to such changes.\n\nViolation of any of the terms below will result in the termination of your Account and for forfeiture of any outstanding affiliate commission payments earned during the violation. You agree to use the Affiliate Program at your own risk.\n<h2>Account Terms</h2>\n<ul>\n 	<li>You must be 18 years or older to be part of this Program.</li>\n 	<li>You must live in the United States to be an Affiliate.</li>\n 	<li>You must be a human. Accounts registered by \"bots\" or other automated methods are not permitted.</li>\n 	<li>You must provide your legal full name, a valid email address, and any other information requested in order to complete the signup process.</li>\n 	<li>Your login may only be used by one person - a single login shared by multiple people is not permitted.</li>\n 	<li>You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password. THB cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage from your failure to comply with this security obligation.</li>\n 	<li>You are responsible for all Content posted and activity that occurs under your account.</li>\n 	<li>One person or legal entity may not maintain more than one account.</li>\n 	<li>You may not use the Affiliate Program for any illegal or unauthorized purpose. You must not, in the use of the Service, violate any laws in your jurisdiction (including but not limited to copyright laws).</li>\n 	<li>You may not use the Affiliate Program to earn money on your own product accounts.</li>\n</ul>\n<h2>Links/graphics on your site, in your emails, or other communications</h2>\nOnce you have signed up for the Affiliate Program, you will be assigned a unique Affiliate Code. You are permitted to place links, banners, or other graphics we provide with your Affiliate Code on your site, in your emails, or in other communications. We will provide you with guidelines, link styles, and graphical artwork to use in linking to THB. We may change the design of the artwork at any time without notice, but we won\'t change the dimensions of the images without proper notice.\n\nTo permit accurate tracking, reporting, and referral fee accrual, we will provide you with special link formats to be used in all links between your site and THB. You must ensure that each of the links between your site and THB  properly utilizes such special link formats. Links to THB  placed on your site pursuant to this Agreement and which properly utilize such special link formats are referred to as \"Special Links.\" You will earn referral fees only with respect to sales on a product occurring directly through Special Links; we will not be liable to you with respect to any failure by you or someone you refer to use Special Links or incorrectly type your Affiliate Code, including to the extent that such failure may result in any reduction of amounts that would otherwise be paid to you pursuant to this Agreement.\n\nAffiliate links should point to the page of the product being promoted.\n<h2>Referral fees/commissions and payment</h2>\nFor a Product sale to be eligible to earn a referral fee, the customer must click-through a Special Link from your site, email, or other communications to <strong>http://thehappinessbucket.com</strong> and complete an order for a product during that session.\n\nWe will only pay commissions on links that are automatically tracked and reported by our systems. We will not pay commissions if someone says they purchased or someone says they entered a referral code if it was not tracked by our system. We can only pay commissions on business generated through properly formatted special links that were automatically tracked by our systems.\n\nWe reserve the right to disqualify commissions earned through fraudulent, illegal, or overly aggressive, questionable sales or marketing methods.\n\nPayments only begin once you\'ve earned more than <strong>$20</strong> in affiliate income. If your affiliate account never crosses the <strong>$20</strong> threshold, your commissions will not be realized or paid. We are only responsible for paying accounts that have crossed the <strong>$20</strong> threshold.\n<h2>Identifying yourself as a Affiliate</h2>\nYou may not issue any press release with respect to this Agreement or your participation in the Program; such action may result in your termination from the Program. In addition, you may not in any manner misrepresent or embellish the relationship between us and you, say you develop our products, say you are part of or express or imply any relationship or affiliation between us and you or any other person or entity except as expressly permitted by this Agreement (including by expressing or implying that we support, sponsor, endorse, or contribute money to any charity or other cause).\n\nYou may not purchase products through your affiliate links for your own use. Such purchases may result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees and/or the termination of this Agreement.\n<h2>Payment schedule</h2>\nAs long as your current affiliate earning are over <strong>$20</strong>, you\'ll be paid each month. If you haven\'t earned <strong>$20</strong> since your last payment, we\'ll pay you the following month after you\'ve crossed the threshold.\n<h2>Customer definition</h2>\nCustomers who buy products through this Program will be deemed to be our customers. Accordingly, all of our rules, policies, and operating procedures concerning customer orders, customer service, and product sales will apply to those customers. We may change our policies and operating procedures at any time. For example, we will determine the prices to be charged for products sold under this Program in accordance with our own pricing policies. Product prices and availability may vary from time to time. Because price changes may affect Products that you have listed on your site, you should not display product prices on your site. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to present accurate information, but we cannot guarantee the availability or price of any particular product.\n<h2>Your responsibilities</h2>\nYou will be solely responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of your site and for all materials that appear on your site. For example, you will be solely responsible for:\n\n- The technical operation of your site and all related equipment\n- Ensuring the display of Special Links on your site does not violate any agreement between you and any third party (including without limitation any restrictions or requirements placed on you by a third party that hosts your site)\n- The accuracy, truth, and appropriateness of materials posted on your site (including, among other things, all Product-related materials and any information you include within or associate with Special Links)\n- Ensuring that materials posted on your site do not violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party (including, for example, copyrights, trademarks, privacy, or other personal or proprietary rights)\n- Ensuring that materials posted on your site are not libelous or otherwise illegal\n- Ensuring that your site accurately and adequately discloses, either through a privacy policy or otherwise, how you collect, use, store, and disclose data collected from visitors, including, where applicable, that third parties (including advertisers) may serve content and/or advertisements and collect information directly from visitors and may place or recognize cookies on visitors\' browsers.\n<h2>Compliance with Laws</h2>\nAs a condition to your participation in the Program, you agree that while you are a Program participant you will comply with all laws, ordinances, rules, regulations, orders, licenses, permits, judgments, decisions or other requirements of any governmental authority that has jurisdiction over you, whether those laws, etc. are now in effect or later come into effect during the time you are a Program participant. Without limiting the foregoing obligation, you agree that as a condition of your participation in the Program you will comply with all applicable laws (federal, state or otherwise) that govern marketing email, including without limitation, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and all other anti-spam laws.\n<h2>Term of the Agreement and Program</h2>\nThe term of this Agreement will begin upon our acceptance of your Program application and will end when terminated by either party. Either you or we may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or without cause, by giving the other party written notice of termination. Upon the termination of this Agreement for any reason, you will immediately cease use of, and remove from your site, all links to <strong>http://thehappinessbucket.com</strong>, and all of our trademarks, trade dress, and logos, and all other materials provided by or on behalf of us to you pursuant hereto or in connection with the Program. reserves the right to end the Program at any time. Upon program termination, will pay any outstanding earnings accrued above <strong>$20</strong>.\n<h2>Termination</h2>\nTHB, in its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Program, or any other service, for any reason at any time. Such termination of the Service will result in the deactivation or deletion of your Account or your access to your Account, and the forfeiture and relinquishment of all potential or to-be-paid commissions in your Account if they were earned through fraudulent, illegal, or overly aggressive, questionable sales or marketing methods. reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time.\n<h2>Relationship of Parties</h2>\nYou and we are independent contractors, and nothing in this Agreement will create any partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, sales representative, or employment relationship between the parties. You will have no authority to make or accept any offers or representations on our behalf. You will not make any statement, whether on your site or otherwise, that reasonably would contradict anything in this Section.\n<h2>Limitations of Liability</h2>\nWe will not be liable for indirect, special, or consequential damages (or any loss of revenue, profits, or data) arising in connection with this Agreement or the Program, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Further, our aggregate liability arising with respect to this Agreement and the Program will not exceed the total referral fees paid or payable to you under this Agreement.\n<h2>Disclaimers</h2>\nWe make no express or implied warranties or representations with respect to the Program or any products sold through the Program (including, without limitation, warranties of fitness, merchantability, noninfringement, or any implied warranties arising out of a course of performance, dealing, or trade usage). In addition, we make no representation that the operation of the will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we will not be liable for the consequences of any interruptions or errors.\n<h2>Independent Investigation</h2>\nYOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WE MAY AT ANY TIME (DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY) SOLICIT CUSTOMER REFERRALS ON TERMS THAT MAY DIFFER FROM THOSE CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT OR OPERATE WEB SITES THAT ARE SIMILAR TO OR COMPETE WITH YOUR WEB SITE. YOU HAVE INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED THE DESIRABILITY OF PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAM AND ARE NOT RELYING ON ANY REPRESENTATION, GUARANTEE, OR STATEMENT OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT.\n<h2>Arbitration</h2>\nAny dispute relating in any way to this Agreement (including any actual or alleged breach hereof), any transactions or activities under this Agreement or your relationship with us or any of our affiliates shall be submitted to confidential arbitration, except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate our intellectual property rights, we may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in any state or federal court (and you consent to non-exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts) or any other court of competent jurisdiction. Arbitration under this agreement shall be conducted under the rules then prevailing of the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator\'s award shall be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through class arbitration proceedings or otherwise.\n<h2>Miscellaneous</h2>\nThis Agreement will be governed by the laws of The United States, without reference to rules governing choice of laws. You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Subject to that restriction, this Agreement will be binding on, inure to the benefit of, and be enforceable against the parties and their respective successors and assigns. Our failure to enforce your strict performance of any provision of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of our right to subsequently enforce such provision or any other provision of this Agreement.\n\nThe failure of to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Service shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. The Terms of Service constitutes the entire agreement between you and and govern your use of the Service, superceding any prior agreements between you and (including, but not limited to, any prior versions of the Terms of Service).','Terms and Conditions','','publish','closed','closed','','terms-and-conditions','','','2020-01-14 17:58:43','2020-01-14 17:58:43','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/terms-and-conditions/',0,'page','',0),(8253,1,'2020-01-14 17:24:30','2020-01-14 17:24:30','','Business Process Starter Kit','','publish','closed','closed','','business-process-starter-kit','','','2020-01-14 17:25:50','2020-01-14 17:25:50','',0,'http://thehappinessbucket.com/?post_type=pretty-link&#038;p=8253',0,'pretty-link','',0),(8255,1,'2020-01-14 17:58:42','2020-01-14 17:58:42','<h1>Affiliate Program Terms of Service</h1>\n<h2>Agreement</h2>\nBy signing up to be an Affiliate in the Affiliate Program (\"Program\") you are agreeing to be bound by the following terms and conditions (\"Terms of Service\").\n\nThe Happiness Bucket (\"THB\") reserves the right to update and change the Terms of Service from time to time without notice. Any new features that augment or enhance the current Program, including the release of new tools and resources, shall be subject to the Terms of Service. Continued use of the Program after any such changes shall constitute your consent to such changes.\n\nViolation of any of the terms below will result in the termination of your Account and for forfeiture of any outstanding affiliate commission payments earned during the violation. You agree to use the Affiliate Program at your own risk.\n<h2>Account Terms</h2>\n<ul>\n 	<li>You must be 18 years or older to be part of this Program.</li>\n 	<li>You must live in the United States to be an Affiliate.</li>\n 	<li>You must be a human. Accounts registered by \"bots\" or other automated methods are not permitted.</li>\n 	<li>You must provide your legal full name, a valid email address, and any other information requested in order to complete the signup process.</li>\n 	<li>Your login may only be used by one person - a single login shared by multiple people is not permitted.</li>\n 	<li>You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account and password. THB cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage from your failure to comply with this security obligation.</li>\n 	<li>You are responsible for all Content posted and activity that occurs under your account.</li>\n 	<li>One person or legal entity may not maintain more than one account.</li>\n 	<li>You may not use the Affiliate Program for any illegal or unauthorized purpose. You must not, in the use of the Service, violate any laws in your jurisdiction (including but not limited to copyright laws).</li>\n 	<li>You may not use the Affiliate Program to earn money on your own product accounts.</li>\n</ul>\n<h2>Links/graphics on your site, in your emails, or other communications</h2>\nOnce you have signed up for the Affiliate Program, you will be assigned a unique Affiliate Code. You are permitted to place links, banners, or other graphics we provide with your Affiliate Code on your site, in your emails, or in other communications. We will provide you with guidelines, link styles, and graphical artwork to use in linking to THB. We may change the design of the artwork at any time without notice, but we won\'t change the dimensions of the images without proper notice.\n\nTo permit accurate tracking, reporting, and referral fee accrual, we will provide you with special link formats to be used in all links between your site and THB. You must ensure that each of the links between your site and THB  properly utilizes such special link formats. Links to THB  placed on your site pursuant to this Agreement and which properly utilize such special link formats are referred to as \"Special Links.\" You will earn referral fees only with respect to sales on a product occurring directly through Special Links; we will not be liable to you with respect to any failure by you or someone you refer to use Special Links or incorrectly type your Affiliate Code, including to the extent that such failure may result in any reduction of amounts that would otherwise be paid to you pursuant to this Agreement.\n\nAffiliate links should point to the page of the product being promoted.\n<h2>Referral fees/commissions and payment</h2>\nFor a Product sale to be eligible to earn a referral fee, the customer must click-through a Special Link from your site, email, or other communications to <strong>http://thehappinessbucket.com</strong> and complete an order for a product during that session.\n\nWe will only pay commissions on links that are automatically tracked and reported by our systems. We will not pay commissions if someone says they purchased or someone says they entered a referral code if it was not tracked by our system. We can only pay commissions on business generated through properly formatted special links that were automatically tracked by our systems.\n\nWe reserve the right to disqualify commissions earned through fraudulent, illegal, or overly aggressive, questionable sales or marketing methods.\n\nPayments only begin once you\'ve earned more than <strong>$20</strong> in affiliate income. If your affiliate account never crosses the <strong>$20</strong> threshold, your commissions will not be realized or paid. We are only responsible for paying accounts that have crossed the <strong>$20</strong> threshold.\n<h2>Identifying yourself as a Affiliate</h2>\nYou may not issue any press release with respect to this Agreement or your participation in the Program; such action may result in your termination from the Program. In addition, you may not in any manner misrepresent or embellish the relationship between us and you, say you develop our products, say you are part of or express or imply any relationship or affiliation between us and you or any other person or entity except as expressly permitted by this Agreement (including by expressing or implying that we support, sponsor, endorse, or contribute money to any charity or other cause).\n\nYou may not purchase products through your affiliate links for your own use. Such purchases may result (in our sole discretion) in the withholding of referral fees and/or the termination of this Agreement.\n<h2>Payment schedule</h2>\nAs long as your current affiliate earning are over <strong>$20</strong>, you\'ll be paid each month. If you haven\'t earned <strong>$20</strong> since your last payment, we\'ll pay you the following month after you\'ve crossed the threshold.\n<h2>Customer definition</h2>\nCustomers who buy products through this Program will be deemed to be our customers. Accordingly, all of our rules, policies, and operating procedures concerning customer orders, customer service, and product sales will apply to those customers. We may change our policies and operating procedures at any time. For example, we will determine the prices to be charged for products sold under this Program in accordance with our own pricing policies. Product prices and availability may vary from time to time. Because price changes may affect Products that you have listed on your site, you should not display product prices on your site. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to present accurate information, but we cannot guarantee the availability or price of any particular product.\n<h2>Your responsibilities</h2>\nYou will be solely responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of your site and for all materials that appear on your site. For example, you will be solely responsible for:\n\n- The technical operation of your site and all related equipment\n- Ensuring the display of Special Links on your site does not violate any agreement between you and any third party (including without limitation any restrictions or requirements placed on you by a third party that hosts your site)\n- The accuracy, truth, and appropriateness of materials posted on your site (including, among other things, all Product-related materials and any information you include within or associate with Special Links)\n- Ensuring that materials posted on your site do not violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party (including, for example, copyrights, trademarks, privacy, or other personal or proprietary rights)\n- Ensuring that materials posted on your site are not libelous or otherwise illegal\n- Ensuring that your site accurately and adequately discloses, either through a privacy policy or otherwise, how you collect, use, store, and disclose data collected from visitors, including, where applicable, that third parties (including advertisers) may serve content and/or advertisements and collect information directly from visitors and may place or recognize cookies on visitors\' browsers.\n<h2>Compliance with Laws</h2>\nAs a condition to your participation in the Program, you agree that while you are a Program participant you will comply with all laws, ordinances, rules, regulations, orders, licenses, permits, judgments, decisions or other requirements of any governmental authority that has jurisdiction over you, whether those laws, etc. are now in effect or later come into effect during the time you are a Program participant. Without limiting the foregoing obligation, you agree that as a condition of your participation in the Program you will comply with all applicable laws (federal, state or otherwise) that govern marketing email, including without limitation, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and all other anti-spam laws.\n<h2>Term of the Agreement and Program</h2>\nThe term of this Agreement will begin upon our acceptance of your Program application and will end when terminated by either party. Either you or we may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or without cause, by giving the other party written notice of termination. Upon the termination of this Agreement for any reason, you will immediately cease use of, and remove from your site, all links to <strong>http://thehappinessbucket.com</strong>, and all of our trademarks, trade dress, and logos, and all other materials provided by or on behalf of us to you pursuant hereto or in connection with the Program. reserves the right to end the Program at any time. Upon program termination, will pay any outstanding earnings accrued above <strong>$20</strong>.\n<h2>Termination</h2>\nTHB, in its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Program, or any other service, for any reason at any time. Such termination of the Service will result in the deactivation or deletion of your Account or your access to your Account, and the forfeiture and relinquishment of all potential or to-be-paid commissions in your Account if they were earned through fraudulent, illegal, or overly aggressive, questionable sales or marketing methods. reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time.\n<h2>Relationship of Parties</h2>\nYou and we are independent contractors, and nothing in this Agreement will create any partnership, joint venture, agency, franchise, sales representative, or employment relationship between the parties. You will have no authority to make or accept any offers or representations on our behalf. You will not make any statement, whether on your site or otherwise, that reasonably would contradict anything in this Section.\n<h2>Limitations of Liability</h2>\nWe will not be liable for indirect, special, or consequential damages (or any loss of revenue, profits, or data) arising in connection with this Agreement or the Program, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Further, our aggregate liability arising with respect to this Agreement and the Program will not exceed the total referral fees paid or payable to you under this Agreement.\n<h2>Disclaimers</h2>\nWe make no express or implied warranties or representations with respect to the Program or any products sold through the Program (including, without limitation, warranties of fitness, merchantability, noninfringement, or any implied warranties arising out of a course of performance, dealing, or trade usage). In addition, we make no representation that the operation of the will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we will not be liable for the consequences of any interruptions or errors.\n<h2>Independent Investigation</h2>\nYOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO ALL ITS TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WE MAY AT ANY TIME (DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY) SOLICIT CUSTOMER REFERRALS ON TERMS THAT MAY DIFFER FROM THOSE CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT OR OPERATE WEB SITES THAT ARE SIMILAR TO OR COMPETE WITH YOUR WEB SITE. YOU HAVE INDEPENDENTLY EVALUATED THE DESIRABILITY OF PARTICIPATING IN THE PROGRAM AND ARE NOT RELYING ON ANY REPRESENTATION, GUARANTEE, OR STATEMENT OTHER THAN AS SET FORTH IN THIS AGREEMENT.\n<h2>Arbitration</h2>\nAny dispute relating in any way to this Agreement (including any actual or alleged breach hereof), any transactions or activities under this Agreement or your relationship with us or any of our affiliates shall be submitted to confidential arbitration, except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate our intellectual property rights, we may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief in any state or federal court (and you consent to non-exclusive jurisdiction and venue in such courts) or any other court of competent jurisdiction. Arbitration under this agreement shall be conducted under the rules then prevailing of the American Arbitration Association. The arbitrator\'s award shall be binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, no arbitration under this Agreement shall be joined to an arbitration involving any other party subject to this Agreement, whether through class arbitration proceedings or otherwise.\n<h2>Miscellaneous</h2>\nThis Agreement will be governed by the laws of The United States, without reference to rules governing choice of laws. You may not assign this Agreement, by operation of law or otherwise, without our prior written consent. Subject to that restriction, this Agreement will be binding on, inure to the benefit of, and be enforceable against the parties and their respective successors and assigns. Our failure to enforce your strict performance of any provision of this Agreement will not constitute a waiver of our right to subsequently enforce such provision or any other provision of this Agreement.\n\nThe failure of to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Service shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. 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