Tired of digging for misplaced keys or the cell phone? The key to having an organized purse — and a simpler life — is in the bag.

If your purse has become a chaotic carryall — a dark pit where things go to get lost — I share your plight. The right-sized shoulder bag can bring order to your life. Consider these four tips when shopping for a new hand-bag:

1. Don’t go too small.  
Many women mistakenly think, “If I don’t have much room, I can’t carry too much around with me.” Good thinking, up to a point.  If you don’t have room for all of your essentials, some items will wind up in your pants pocket — and you’ll lose them.

2. Don’t go too large.  
Too many items (old trick-or-treat candy or broken glasses) in a large bag make it tough to find essentials.

3. Don’t go with too many pockets. 
I made this mistake once. “Just look at those pockets!” I thought. “I can use one for my cell phone, one for keys....” The problem? I didn’t know which items were in which pockets, and I had to hunt for what I was looking for.

4. Go with one that is “just right.”   Look for a purse with a cell phone pocket and a handy place to store or attach your keys.  It should comfortably accommodate your wallet, make-up bag, and one or two other essential items.  That’s it.  A shoulder strap is good, to free your hands for important things, like steering your child through the toy aisle.

Time-management strategies -- stay on time and organized.

Toni can feel the knot in her neck as she sits in traffic. She is running late for work (again), and she’s heading to a project meeting, for which she is unprepared. Lately, she’s been losing patience with the kids more easily, and she seems to have no time to just enjoy being with them. Feeling rushed, like Toni? Here are time-management strategies to slow down and get better organized.
Cure yourself of “one-more-thing-itis.”

One reason some of us feel rushed is that we habitually try to cram in “one more thing,” the additional task that so often derails plans.

One-more-thing-itis is a form of distractibility — the phone rings, you answer it, you notice that the table needs to be cleared, or a plant needs to be watered, and, once again, you run late.

Strategy:  Think through the steps you’ll take before you leave the house. Gather belongings and double-check directions, if needed, the night before. Avoid getting sidetracked as you head to the door by reminding yourself, out loud and repeatedly, “I’m leaving now; I’m going to the car.”

Plan ahead to arrive early.

Aim to arrive 15 minutes before your appointment time. If the prospect of facing empty time if you do arrive early horrifies you, keep a magazine, book, or stack of bills that need to be paid in a bag near the door, and grab it on the way out.

Calculate your departure time by adding 10 minutes to each half hour of travel time. With the extra time, you’ll feel much less rushed, should you run into traffic or another unforeseen delay.

Strategy: Set two alarms (a clock, a cell phone, or a computer), one that will go off five minutes before departure time and a second that will sound when it’s time to leave. When the first alarm goes off, stop what you are doing. Try to be out the door before the second alarm goes off.

Build routine tasks into your weekly schedule.

When do you feel most stressed — in the morning, before work or school, or before dinner, when the kids need picking up and dinner needs preparing?

Instead of filling the gas tank or stopping to grab the ingredients for dinner on the fly, map out—and stick to—a weekly schedule that accounts for each of these tasks. Lock in times for doing necessary weekly chores, such as grocery shopping and laundry, to prevent running out of milk or clean clothes.

Strategy:  Shift to-do items into less stressful times. For example, if mornings are more rushed, fill the gas tank on the way home.

Don’t say “yes” out of habit — or guilt.

Many of us over-commit out of a desire to please our family, friends, or co-workers.

Strategy:  Get in the habit of saying, “I’d like to, but let me check my schedule,” instead of giving an automatic “yes.” In the end, you’ll please others more by being able to get things done on time, rather than always being late and rushed.

Set realistic goals.

Can you really make a stew and pick up the kids in half an hour? Deliver yourself from trying to be supermom (or dad).

Strategy:  It’s OK to plan a quick-fix meal (or to have take-out!) on busier nights. Don’t feel you have to cram in three errands when you have time for only two.

Enlist the help of a time tutor.

Ask a friend or family member, someone who has witnessed how you spend your time, to help you identify the patterns that create time crunches in your life.

Strategy:  Do only what you can, and delegate or delete what you can’t. You’ll be happier (and more productive) when you are not living in a constant rush.

(Part 3 of a 3 part series on personal finance)  Link to Part 2:  Adopt Smart Saving Strategies

Put money away while paying off the balance on your zero-percent or low-interest rate credit card.  Figure out how much you’re saving from using this credit card, refinancing big-ticket bills, and sticking to a budget.  Designate this amount for savings.  Studies show that people are more likely to save if the money is deposited automatically.  Have your bank deposit this amount each week into two savings accounts:

1) An emergency fund, invested in a money market account. To find the highest-yielding rates, log on to bankrate.com or fidelity.com.  You will have to fill out an application online, authorizing the money market company to transfer funds from your bank each month.

2) A retirement fund, invested in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or cash.  Log on to fidelity.com or vanguard.com to explore mutual fund options.  If you want to invest in individual stocks and bonds, log on to schwab.com or tdameritrade.com to set up a brokerage account.  Again, you’ll fill out an application online, and the company will take it from there, making sure that your bank transfers the funds electronically every pay period.  Even easier, if your employer has a 401(k) plan, talk with your benefits department about having a portion of each paycheck deposited into the plan.  Many employers will match your savings (up to a certain percentage).

Remember: Don’t tell yourself that saving just a little won’t make a difference.  You’re developing a habit – the longer you save something each month, the more likely you will be to continue doing it.  Increase your contributions to these accounts as you pay down your credit card debt and curb your spending habits.

Congratulations!  You are, finally, building wealth for your future.

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Play Dough

Just because you’re saving doesn’t mean you can’t occasionally treat yourself.  Use this strategy to accumulate what I call “mad money.” 

• Empty your pockets or change purse every evening into a jar.
• Every month, bring your jar to a change-counting machine (the “Penny Arcades” at TD Bank branches won’t deduct a fee; most change machines at supermarkets withhold about 8 percent), and exchange your coins for bills.
• Keep your “mad money” in a separate envelope in your wallet.  Just knowing it’s there will help you discipline yourself not to “leak” money on small purchases that add up to big spending over the course of a month.
• Every once in a while, use your mad money to reward yourself for your new self-discipline.