Address the Mess at University of Houston Small Business Development Center. January 19.

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Join us for Address the Mess! 

Join the UH SBDC as they team up with the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) to bring you an exciting and informative session on the latest ideas and solutions for organizing your business.  NAPO is a group of over 4,000 professional organizers dedicated to helping individuals and businesses bring order and efficiency to their lives. January is national GO – Get Organized month so make plans now to attend.  You will receive strategies for email productivity, must-have guidelines for organizing your business finances, and secrets for organizing and preparing your desk and workspace for immediate impact.

NAPO speakers include:

Holly Uverity, CPO®, Office Organizers – The Entrepreneur’s Organizer™

Ellen R. Delap, CPO®, Professional-Organizer.com

Gayle Goddard, The Clutter Fairy

Breakfast included.

Kingwood/Humble/Atascocita ADDA-SR Group ~ ADD and Productivity

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Please join me at the October meeting of the Kingwood/Humble/Atascocita ADDA-SR Group for this presentation

 ADD and Productivity

Good Shepherd Episcopal Church

October 20 at 7pm

Room 211

At this session  you will learn

  • tools for time management including paper and digital calendars
  • ways to manage your paper flow
  • techniques for tasks and lists
  • contact management methods

For more information contact Susan McHugh at MrsQ123@aol.com

Organize Your Office to Boost Your Productivity

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Get a boost in your effectiveness and efficiency with these tips!  Thanks to Meridith Levinson of www.cio.com for capturing this and creating an awesome article and slideshow.

http://www.cio.com/article/689818/How_to_Organize_Your_Office_and_Boost_Your_Productivity?page=1#slideshow

Overwhelmed? Breaking through Decluttering, Organizing and Productivity

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Often my clients’ biggest challenges are making decisions.  Organizing is overwhelming and they need help simplifying.   They need help limiting choices.  There are many options and they are not sure which is the right one.  Having three questions will help you be more aware and focus on how your choices relate to your goals. 

~For questions of productivity and time management, ask yourself:   Does this activity align with my priorities, goals and dreams?  There is that famous saying, we can have it all, just not at the same time.  Our priorities need to help us make decisions, help us focus, and help us use our time to our best advantage.

~For questions about stuff, ask yourself: Do I love it or use it?   If you really love it, is it being honored? Loving something means you treat it as a precious item.  With functional items, how much do you use it? Not just “might need it some day”, but really use it?

~For questions about paper, ask yourself:  Can I find this information elsewhere,  like the internet, the library or by calling a friend?  We keep too much paper because we are afraid of needing it later.  There are so many ways to keep the information in a manner other than a file cabinet. 

What helps the most is often to have questions to ask, but also a partner to help coach you through the questions.  What question(s) do you ask yourself to help you achieve your organizing goals?

Staying on top of the paper tsunami!

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Getting on top of the incoming flood of paper takes getting a great plan and personalized routines into action!  Without a doubt, dealing with paper is one of the most overwhelming tasks. Attack it with gusto!

This Smead Stadium Sorter is just the tool it takes to combat paper.  It is 12 tiered pockets so that you can see all your categories simultaneously.  Labels are included, such as by month, or household subject, or you can make your own with your personal categories, including your kids, your partner, receipts, dinner menus, coupons and other common categories of paper. It is a small enough size to fit on the counter, right by your phone.  It is large enough to hold  up to 900 sheets of paper!

Let’s go step by step with this sorter. 

  • First decide what your categories should include for your family.  I recommend not only the names of your kids and partner, but also Action, File, and Pending.  Label the files with the labels included, your sharpie pen or your label maker. 
  • Now place this in the spot that you can see it daily, and set it up as a work zone for incoming mail and kids’ papers.
  • Every evening, sort into your sorter. If you miss an evening, try to sort at least twice a week.
  • Once a week, go back into your sorter and have your administrative time.  This is the time to review what is in the sorter, do your filing into your real files, toss out expired, and make a list of actions left to do.  Having this time weekly means you are up to date on your papers. 
  • Now the bonus! Give yourself a reward for your hard work!  That can include a walk, bubble bath, time at Starbucks or Jamba Juice, or  your choice.  Working with paper is not for sissies!

What is your best tip for staying on top of paper?

Organizing for College

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college organizing

 

 

Its time to send your baby off to college, and there is a lot of preparation to do!  Not only will they be working on academics, they will be working on real life!  Your kid may be ready to fly the coop, and you are not sure they are as prepared as you might like.  Having an organized approach will make for an A+ transition!  Organizing for college is a collaboration with your child.

 

  • Talk through the college day with your student. No longer will they be going to one spot all day long. What will their day be like? Help them write up a schedule that will work for them, taking into account their class times, and their high energy times.

 

  • Help them set up a planner that will work for them.  Getting started in college is where real life time management begins. Having a great week at a glance planner in paper or technology will be the first step in making real decisions about their time, their priorities and their schedules.   Record all the day’s details in their planner so they can see just how busy they are.  Using their phone is a great option since it is with them all the time, they can set reminders and recurring events, and they can check it whenever and wherever.  You can also recommended a toodledoo or notes for reminders on tasks.

 

  • Paper is a reality for college kids.  Help them set up a small filing system in a file box for their important papers such as enrollment documents. Encourage them to pay bills online  and use ways to eliminate paper as much as possible. For their class notes and more, what will work best for them? Spiral notebooks, pads, or ??? As long as their system works, that is what is most important.

 

  • The realities of dorm living mean two kids in a space about the same size as their bathroom at home.   Consolidating, communicating and coordinating are key components to getting along in a small space.    Encourage your student to do all of these in a positive, open and honest way for sharing a living space.  Storage is always at a premium.   Look for creative ways to maximize the space you have and use labeled uniform bins to store less frequently used items.

 

  • Encourage your kids to rely on their strengths and core values. They are entering a time when there is a lot of new information and lots to think about.  When they rely on their true strengths, they are most comfortable with their decisions.  Core values like tenacity, honesty, creativity, and determination all make for college success.

 

  • Keep communication going with the home front. Our kids will “fondly” remember that Sunday was the day to call home!  Having one day to be sure to touch base, even in this time of texting, makes it a little easier on everyone.

 

  • Parents can forever seem like worriers, but encourage them to keep safety in mind.  Have a flashlight, jumper cables and a real first aid kit in their car.  Just in case!

How is your organizing coming for your best college year yet?

10 Easy Eliminations

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10 easy eliminations

 

Ready to make a big break in decluttering?  Not sure where to start?  Sometimes it is best to start with the easy eliminations to make a quick visual and emotional difference.  Choose a few that are really easy for you!  Here are 10 easy eliminations for your home or office.

1. Boxes

I find that families keep toy boxes, shirt boxes, shoe boxes and boxes galore!  Now that boxes are free at the post office for shipping, keep only a small number of different size boxes for mailing.  If you think you may return a product, keep the box only until you have confirmed your decision.  Only keep 2 of those shoes boxes for upcoming school projects please!

2. Tee shirts

Each race we run, vacation bible school we attend, and school alumni celebration adds to our tee shirt collection.  It is time to pare down to a number that can fit in a drawer or hang in a section of your closet.  What number depends on you.   A memory quilt is a good next step if you are not ready to part with these.

3. Ball caps

We all have our favorite!  Pull a few together, hang them in an easy access space, and part with the remainder.

4.  Single use kitchen items

Some of the least useful are often the most space hogging items!  If you have more than one miscellaneous kitchen drawer, go through and pare down to one drawer.  In the newly empty drawer you can fit hand towels or pot holders.   When was the last time you used that breadmaker, fondue pot, or air popcorn popper?

5. Toys that your kids have outgrown.

Our kids are blessed with an abundance of toys.  Keep a few that you consider to be keepsakes.  Ask you kids to be a part of the decision making process. Donate to local philanthropies to make a difference.

6. Cookbooks

Who doesn’t want to have a wonderful home cooked dinner on the table? But having more cookbooks than needed does not make you a better mom or an Iron Chef.  Pare down to what you really love and use.  Think about using allrecipes.com or the internet to find recipes too.

7. Extra towels

You get new towels, but the old ones are put in the back of the closet or in the garage.  Keep a few for those big spills, a few for padding, and move the rest on!

8. Cell phones

Cellphones for Soldiers takes your old cell phone and turns it into a phone card for our service people.  It is free to send it off too!  As soon as you get your new phone, send the old one packing.

9.  Junk mail

Stand over the recycle bin, just inside the garage before you enter the house, and drop in the junk mail.  Right away you feel better!  We are overwhelmed when the mail comes, so just have this baby step as the first step to getting in gear with paper.

10.  Receipts

More than ever, the clerk asks if you want your receipt.  Answer no if it is at Starbucks, at the gas station if you don’t keep a mileage record, at locations with small purchases, and where you think a return is not necessary.  Having fewer receipts keeps them from piling up!

What are the easiest eliminations for you?

 

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Getting Your New Business Organized

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I am honored to post again on D. Allison Lee’s blog, Organize to Revitalize.

If you have just started your new business, getting organized is vital to long term success! Check out this post to learn the critical organizing success factors!

http://dallisonlee.com/blog/2011/07/14/get-your-new-business-started-right-get-organized/

In every job there must be done, there is an element of fun!

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making organizing fun

 

 

Just a quick quote from Mary Poppins, but it is so true!  What if you knew that getting organized would be fun? You find the fun and …. (you finish the quote here!).

Here are a few ways to add in fun:

  • Add music you love listening to Sirius radio
  • Create a Pandora station just for when you are organizing
  • Add people to the mix like your family or friends
  • Set the timer and play Beat the Clock
  • Gather up your junk mail, use it to build a fire in your barbeque pit, and roast marshmellows
  • Play 27 fling bogey (Fly Lady’s decluttering trick: fill a garbage bag with 27 items to eliminate)
  • Purchase bins to organize using colors that you love and make you smile
  • Write a letter to your stuff, about breaking up with it.
  • Gather up your goodies and host a swap with friends, especially for kids clothes.
  • Rent a dumpster and toss it in (Really over the top!  But, I have heard this is really a thrill!)

So just how do you make organizing fun?

Travel Organized with the Smead Travel Organizer

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Getting organized for your upcoming travels is the best way to ensure happy holidays!  Keeping all your documents, coupons, and papers together is important, especially when away from home.

Keep these papers together for your upcoming trip.

  • Hotel
  • Airlines/transportation
  • Sightseeing
  • Itineraries

In addition, you may need these personal items.

  • Prescriptions
  • Medical instructions or allergy information
  • Contact information for emergency
  • Contact information to meet friends while on vacation
  • Copy of your credit cards, passport and driver’s license

Using the Smead Travel Organizer, you can divide up your documents by category for easy access.  The clear exterior with pockets makes it very visual, so you always know where items are. A small front pocket is a great spot to keep your receipts! 

Keep your credit card, passport and driver’s license separate to prevent theft of both, just in case. 

For more information on this product, visit www.smead.com.  For reviewing this product, I was given one was a gift by Smead.

Enjoy this printable travel checklist, free from Smead!  http://www.smead.com/hot-topics/printable-travel-checklist-1792.asp