How I do it! 10 Organizing Tips by Janice Simon, MA, CPO

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 I love the concept of sharing our inside secrets as organizers. Throughout the month of May I have asked my colleagues to share what works for them.  I know you will enjoy this post from Janice Simon, in house organizer at M.D.Anderson.

 

Janice Marie Simon

I work as an in-house organizer at a Houston area hospital, and I also have a home I’m trying to renovate. Here are a few of the ways I organize myself.

  • Go digital whenever possible. I use Dropbox to house my documents and photos, Evernote to capture my ideas and things that catch my eye, Wunderlist keeps my action list handy, and the calendar with my email lets me know where I’m supposed to be. At work, I use a scanner to create PDF’s of anything that didn’t come to me electronically, and I’m starting the same process at home.
  • Write Stuff Down (WSD). I stumbled across this concept from a couple of bloggers, and it’s brilliant. I don’t keep things in my head, and I will readily admit that my head is not the best organizing tool. I write down everything I need to do or to buy on my calendar or action list. It doesn’t stay in my head, swirling around to wake me up at 3 a.m.
  • I have to be in love. If I don’t love something any longer or don’t use it, I donate it or give it to a friend who admired it. If something brings up bad feelings and bad mojo, it goes away.
  • Establish boundaries. I’ve learned to say no over the years, and I’ve set strong boundaries. When I go on vacation, I don’t look at work email. It can wait.
  • Take time off. And speaking of vacations, I take them. Since I work for a company, I practice what I preach to my colleagues. I don’t lose vacation time at the end of the fiscal year because I didn’t take enough time off.
  • Remember birthdays. Because I have 14 nieces, nephews, godchildren and other small fries who call me Auntie Janice, I keep all of their birthdays on my digital calendar. Since all but two live outside of Houston, I set the reminder to remind me a week ahead.
  • Everything in the closet must fit. If clothing doesn’t fit or I don’t like it or wear it, it goes. I only keep the items that I actually wear. I have a box in my closet where donated items go. Anything that is stained, torn, faded or otherwise unwearable goes in the trash. Charities spend millions of dollars sorting out trashed items in their donations, and I don’t want to be part of the problem.
  • Repurpose, reuse or recycle. I recycle all that I can recycle. If something can repurposed or reused in another manner, I’ll do that. It may take a little imagination, spray paint and creativity, but it’s nice to save money when you can reuse something.
  • The New Year Purge. The end of December is a great time to go through things at home to clear out anything I no longer love. I also go through digital and paper documents as well. At work, I clean out things at the end of the fiscal year and again at the end of the calendar year.
  • Pay bills online or automatically. All of my bills are either automatically withdrawn or paid online by going to their individual websites. I don’t go through my bank itself to do their bill pay, and this is because I don’t want to do it through them. Not that I’m bitter after the way they treated most of us during the recession. At least not much.
  • (BONUS TIP!) Reward yourself! When I make progress on a project, I reward myself with little things, such as dark chocolate or a pedicure. It’s important to remind yourself to take care of yourself and get plenty of rest.

  Janice Marie Simon, MA, CPO, is an in-house professional organizer at a Houston hospital and is  The Clutter Princess at www.theclutterprincess.com.

 

Work at Home: Organizing Your Home Office

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Working at home requires setting up a space that will work for you! It can be a challenge to carve out a spot to get your work done, just because there are lots of distractions. 

  • Decide on what works best for you! Some families relinquish the dining room to become an office, some families work well in the midst of the media area.  Decide if you need quiet or not, paper management and printing capability, and what tools you will use to work.  You are ready to set up your space after thinking this through.
  • Set up office hours.  With a start and end time, your time will be most productive. 
  • Paper and work go hand in hand.  For portability from the office, there are products suited just for this! You can also set up a command center for work at home and work at the office with the same tabs keeping paperwork consistently.  A file cart is a great option to slot papers in, keep them close by, and keep them organized.
  • Decide on a time you will shut down for the evening. Working at home can interfere with a good night’s sleep.  Sleep is the best way to work efficiently and effectively!

Check out my Work At Home pinterest board! http://pinterest.com/EllenDelap/work-at-home/

Plentiful Powerful Productivity= Success

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productivity

 

Powerful productivity come when we create an environment that works with our strengths.  Improve your effectiveness and efficiency with these tips.

  • Your planner is the visual guide to your productivity.  Use it like a map, writing in what your destination is for your day, your week and longer.  When you write tasks and projects into your planner, you are making yourself accountable and breaking the job into smaller, manageable pieces.
  • Use paper management skills to go from overwhelmed to in control.  Break down the flood of paper by eliminating first what is junk and recycle this.  Create a command center where you drop recycling in and separate the paper into actions. Your command center should be at the spot where paper comes to you and you drop it in a pile. Create a fun and inviting command center using color!  Not sure what decisions to make about paper?  Be brutal and just keep what you absolutely need to work on, not maybe, someday projects.
  • Turn overwhelming email into 10 in your inbox by taking time three times a day to sort and clear email. Color code  your email and important email stands out.  Designate a power period to work on email that needs lengthy responses and relates to projects.  Your paper and email folders should be named the same to keep consistent and find what you need.
  • Add routines to your week to consolidate activities. Even grocery shopping is less stressful if you tack it on to an existing weekly activity.
  • Too much to do and too much on the brain? Use a notebook to capture your lists, dating the top of the list.  Then choose 3 – 7 tasks to do that day.
  • Use technology to help you increase your productivity.  Turn off alarms, email, texting and more when you really want to focus on a project.

What success tips do you have for plentiful productivity?

 

More ideas on powerful productivity here!

Get Organizing Month IKEA Event on January 19

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YOU ARE INVITED!

Free Workshops at IKEA Houston offer Organization Tips for New Year

Reduce clutter with the help of National Association of Professional Organizers

 

January is officially “Get Organized Month!” To celebrate, IKEA Houston is partnering with National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and Houston-area vendors to host free organization workshops and offer donation drop-off locations to help you clear the clutter.

 

WHEN: Saturday, January 19 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

WHERE: IKEA Houston (I-10 and Antoine)

WHAT: Enjoy complimentary one-hour workshops offering post-holiday organizing tips and win fun prizes while you watch! NAPO’s professional organizers and an IKEA Houston visual merchandiser and blogger will lead interactive demonstrations about creatively reducing clutter and utilizing storage spaces to the fullest.

 Workshop Schedule:

• 11:30 a.m.: “Junk Drawer Diaries” with Neitra Blair

• 12:30 p.m.: “The 5 S’s and You—Streamlining Your Space (and Life)” with Alynn Blakemore

• 1:30 p.m.: “From Piles to Smiles: Making Paper Disappear!” with Certified Professional Organizer and Family Manager Coach Ellen Delap

• 2:30 p.m.: “Getting Organized with Technology” with Janice Simon

• 3:30 p.m.: Meet the Blogger; DIY workshop with Ashley Rose of SugarandCloth.com

• 4:30 p.m.: DIY Workshop with Genna Riggins, IKEA Visual Merchandiser

RSVP: Workshops are free, so sign up for as many as you’d like! To RSVP and learn more, visit www.inspiringlifeathome.com/getorganized. Please RSVP and use my name! I love that IKEA will know who is sending attendees their way!

 

Recycle, Shred and Donate:

Donate and recycle books, old furniture, computers and clothes and bring documents for FREE shredding! Friends of the Houston Public Library, Houston Computer Recycling, Houston Furniture Bank and Salvation Army will be onsite to available to collect books, computers, furniture and clothes, and Southern Shred will be on site to shred your personal documents.

 

Hope to see you there!

– IKEA + NAPO

Organize Your Life Webinar Series

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Save your sanity and get organized in 2013!

Is getting organized one of your New Year’s resolutions? Then Join me this January for 10 amazing webinars from a dream team of presenters for Get Organized month. These classes will help you focus, plan, and organize your time, space, and information.
http://theprofessionalorganizer.com/events/organize-your-life-webinar-series/ …. get a special facebook discount with code “fbdeal” for 10% off all classes.

Webinar classes include how to organize your time, your paper, your kids, your students, your technology, hoarding and more!

  • Classes offered share specific tools and techniques to impact your daily life. 
  • Nationally known professional organizers and productivity coaches available to you in your home by webinar.
  • Affordable solutions to learn about organizing and take that next step in your home or office. 

 Classes begin January 3 and run all through Get Organized Month 2013.  Take a step to make 2013  your most organized year yet!

10 Tips for an Organized Home

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10 tips for an organize home

 

Home should be where we feel the most nurtured and in control. However that is not always the case with too many papers coming in, too many toys and too little time.  Follow these 10 tips to make a difference and create an organized home.

  • Start with a place for everything and everything in its place. Every item in your home should have a home.
  • When shopping, know where the new stuff is going in your home when it arrives
  • Set a timer to declutter.  Just 15 minutes makes a difference!
  • Set a time each evening for the 7 minute sprint.  During this time, your family gets everything back to where it goes and everyone works together.
  • Establish a paper command center with your calendar, slots for paper (action, pay, file) and a bulletin board for invitations and reminders.  Set a time weekly for your admin time to go through and work through your papers.
  • Lists make a difference in keeping clutter out of your head.  Keep your list in a notebook in categories. Go back and prioritize what’s on the list before starting to tackle it.   Decide on 3 Most Important Tasks to get knocked out early in the day.
  • Create routines for each day to conquer the regular stuff like laundry and dinner.  Decide if you are doing one load daily of laundry or assigning days to colors of laundry.  Make dinner early in the day with a crockpot or do a series of dinners on Sunday. Routines should fit your personal style.
  • Host a family meeting weekly to communication and collaborate.  At the meeting write in activities on the family calendar, talk about upcoming events and have some family fun!
  • Ask for help! Whether it is clearing the table or cleaning the toilets, ask your family to be a part of the organizing and cleaning.  Post a chart with everyone’s responsibilities, including deadlines.
  • Once a season, set a Saturday to do a little catch up.  Busy families need a day to restore order in their homes, in their closet, and in their pantries.

Share your tip for home organizing too!

10 Tips for Time Management at Work

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So much to do and so little time to do it all! It is no wonder we feel drained, unproductive and overwhelmed at work.  Follow these 10 tips to make a difference in your efficiency and effectiveness at work. 

  • Choose a planner that works for you. It can be as simple as a spiral notebook or a Google calendar.  Having one place to consolidate dates makes it easy to keep up with activities, projects and tasks.
  • Use lists. Consolidate your list in one spot.  Making the list is the first step, prioritizing your activities is the next step.
  • Set your day’s priorities the night before.  When you come in to work and you know your focus, you get started right away.
  • Choose 3 Most Important Tasks and get these done early in the day.  Every day is filled with distractions and interruptions.  Getting the most important tasks done early helps you feel productive!
  • Establish times to work hard.  Have a power period in the morning and the afternoon.  These are times where you just work on one project. Turn off all distractions, including your cell phone, email, and post a note on the door for your colleagues, to keep this time sacred.
  • Keep your action items in a desktop sorter in files.  Finding papers you need to work on saves time and energy.
  • Delegate lower level tasks to an assistant.  Know what is worth your time and what is less important. Set up a process for your assistant to check back in with a time line and specific deliverables.
  • Take a break during the day to eat, walk a little and get refreshed.  You will work better with brain food. You may think you have too much to do, but a break will help you be more efficient.
  • Set specific times for email.  Do an email triage, with a quick scan and filing, and then consolidate projects and tasks on your list to work on during your power period.
  • Set a time to end your day.  It’s important to get out of your office and connect with others too. 

What are your tips for time management at work?

Getting started and Getting done ~ Paper Management

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paper management

 

 

The hardest part of any project may be to get started or get done. This is especially true with your papers!  Choose one of these ten tips to help you make a difference, get going and get finished.

 

  • Put your perfectionism aside. Set a minimum expectation for yourself that can be accomplished by creating a project scope that allows for success. Instead of creating the “perfect” filing system, work with the big picture and use general, larger categories such as home and auto, finance, and personal.  Or just have one box marked 2012.  There is no one perfect way to file, so design what you need.

 

  • Make the project less overwhelming by making a list of the steps and products needed.  This will make the process more manageable. Start by getting the first step going and then the task falls into place. Make a list of the tasks for paper work. The list may include: pay bills, sort papers by alphabetical groups, file papers, eliminate junk for 5 minutes, or purchase extra files.

 

  • Break your work into smaller steps.  Use a timer and work just 15 minutes. Have a quick file group set up in the desk file drawer instead of the file cabinet.  For papers that arrive very frequently or that you use frequently, it is easy to just reach in.

 

  • Set a deadline to start or finalize your project and write it on your calendar.  As busy as we all are, there is never enough time to do all we want to do. Set a date on your calendar that is your administrative day to work on papers.

 

  • Give yourself permission to take all the time you need to work on papers. With a realistic time frame, you will get more accomplished on discarding, sorting and filing.   Assess your schedule and double the time you think it will take to finish.

 

  • Set the mood with music.  Having a soundtrack gets us moving. Choose your favorite background music, whether it is a playlist, country or classical.  Making it more fun makes paperwork easier.

 

  • Partner with someone who has the skills that match your skills. You pay the bills, your husband files the papers. You can delegate filing to your very organized teen too!

 

  • Make it routine.  Set the time aside and work regularly at your admin tasks with weekly admin time. Start with small bits of sorting and filing regularly and once the routine takes hold add on more.

 

  • Start when you are high energy.  Get a good night’s rest, have a small snack and work at your best time. Work at a time that works best for you, morning or evening.

 

  • Re-frame the work. Get a new perspective on why and how to work with your papers. Know what papers you want to keep and why.  Keep only what you need and be brutal about eliminating other papers.  The best resource for this is Oprah.com ABCs of Important Papers.

 

Paper management is much easier! What’s your first tip to try to make your paper work disappear?

 

5 Simple Filing Solutions

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Filing! Everyone hates filing! However, you can make filing less painful with a few simple solutions.

  • The easiest way to file is to have one box for a one year’s worth of paper. Have an easy to access, attractive box to drop in paper as it arrives. You can find what you need by going through the paper in chronological order. It saves time and energy to have just one box for all papers.
  • Have big categories for your files. Remember that filing is for retrieval! Having categories that include important areas can help you file quickly. Categories include home and auto, financial, personal and work. This filing is best accomplished with hanging files. But don’t just file everything. Be sure to keep just what you will want to retrieve. 
  • Make a list of your files. Often we are not sure where a paper goes, so we don’t file it. With a list, you have choices of where to file and what the options are.
  • File for fun! (Really!) Add music, your favorite tv show, with a friend, or with an adult beverage to add fun to your filing.
  • Use filing products you love. I recently found the filertek dry erase hanging file tabs. Having dry erase tabs means you can add names to your files easily. Also having lots of colored hanging files or beautiful file folders makes your work lovely to look at. Companies like www.officecandy, www.seejanework.com and www.containerstore.com make fabulous products for you to love and use.

I love to share my personal filing secret! I file 4 times a year and when I file I watch foodtv. What is your personal filing secret?

Going Paperless

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It seems like an impossibility – going paperless! But it can be done!  With the wonderful new digital technology we have, having less paper can happen.

Start with an investment in technology. The Fujitsu ScanSnap ( http://scansnapcommunity.com/) or the Neat Desk (www.neat.com)   are both incredible machines!  Learn which will work best with your existing operating system and computer.

  • Knowing what to keep is important, regardles of whether is in a paper or electronic form.  I love to refer to Julie Morgenstern’s ABCs of Important Papers (http://www.oprah.com/home/The-ABCs-of-Important-Papers/)  Remember, just because you have more opportunity to keep documents digitally does not mean you should keep everything! Be discerning about what you scan and know that to keep.
  • Set up a retrieval system that will work for you.  Keeping documents digitally means you can keep these in categories that work for you.  Outline what your categories will be, create these digitally, and then you are ready to scan and move documents into your categories.
  • Routinely scan and shred.  Have a plan about your scanning.  Establish a spot for papers that are to be scanned and a time to do the scanning.  Having a back up in place is also mandatory. Carbonite automatically backs up your computer.

With your new paperless office, you will feel accomplished!  And think about the s’mores you can make after you burn the paper!   

Ready to make the jump to paperless? Here are some more resources.

http://www.documentsnap.com/

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/how-to-go-paperless-bury-the-paper-before-it-buries-you.html