How I do it! 10 Organizing Tips from Certified Professional Organizer Ellen Delap

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I love to keep things simple.  I am a born organized person who wants to help others simplify, create order and help people live the life they imagined.  So I wanted to share some tips that I use to make each day a little more organized.

  • I love my planner! It helps me keep the big picture of my activities in a place where I can see them.  I am always going to be a paper type planner person, but I do back up recurring events on a technology calendar.  As soon as I commit to a date, I add it immediately to my planner.  I break tasks into small, baby steps to make sure I can accomplish them and add this to my planner too.
  • I seldom print out anything. If I have a paper, I only handle it once.  I know that I can find anything I need on the internet when I need it especially when I am looking for new information, a recipe, or even financial data.  I find what I need, when I need it.  (I recently made vegan cupcakes!)
  • I add partners or delegate when I need help on a task.  I work best on a team and my team members usually possess strengths I don’t have.
  • I keep my perfectionism under control.  I weigh the “Return On Investment” on whether to keep plugging at a task or know when it is done.
  • My closet is organized by color and I keep a bag to drop donations in regularly. Some people find it more useful to organize by type of clothing, such as work, play,  or party.
  • Lists rock! I use them for every day tasks, shopping, and reminders.
  • I sync my iphone and outlook to keep both my personal and business contacts together.  Having all my connections together and easily accessible makes it easy to stay connected.  Its easy to do this with any email program.
  • My favorite apps are Reminders and Notes.  I set alarms in Reminders and keep lists in Notes.  These apps are free on any smartphone.
  • I am a woman of great consistency. I love having the same bedtime, adhering to my weekly planning and admin time, and knowing that these routines serve me well.
  • I keep in touch with my priorities.  We can have it all, but not all at the same time.  We have seasons in our life and I am enjoying my current season of working as a professional organizer and productivity consultant.

 Learn more on my pinterest board! http://pinterest.com/EllenDelap/how-i-do-it-organizing-tips-and-more/

 

Spring Organizing: Its the Little Things: Junk Drawer

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Get started on your spring organizing with the little things! Your junk drawer may be out of control! Spend just 5 minutes getting it back to organized!

Click and see this junk drawer!

How’s your junk drawer? 

Work at Home: Apps and More

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  Work at Home

Our world is filled with organizing automation and technology.  Work at home requires effectiveness and efficiency. These apps can help you make a difference.

Below are a few of my favorite apps for making life easier and more organized.

Evernote~ Use this app to consolidate ideas, makes notes to remember things like books or websites, and help keep infomation easy to access.

CardStar~ Use this app to keep up with all those store loyalty cards.

MomMaps~ Families want to know places to go and activities to do and this app finds them for you.

OurGroceries~ The nightmare of grocery shopping made easier with a list that multiple people can access and shop.

ScanBizCards~ This app is a great way to eliminate all those biz cards floating around your house and keeps them in your phone.

Shoeboxed~ This app is an easy way to keep up with receipts, either for your home or office.

Mint.com~ This app and computer accessed program helps you gather data for budgeting, keep a record of what you are spending your money on and even suggests improvements.

Aboutone.com~Consolidate your calendar, contacts, health information and home inventory in one spot!

List type apps including Ziplist, Wunderlist, Things, Toodledo.  No need for a paper list to lose! These apps help you stay up on what you need to do, buy, and more!

What apps are your favorites?

Work at Home: Organizing your technology

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Working from home is what we do! Whether it is a part time second income or an extension of what you do every day, we add on worktime through out the day.  Being organized to work at home makes a difference in productivity and efficiency.  To do both, we need great technology tools! Here are a few suggestions to make your work more successful.

  • Log Me In.  This is a service that logs you in to your base computer. Easy to use and free, you can do your work remotely on your base computer.
  • Dropbox.  This is a service that permits file sharing.  You create an account and save your files to Dropbox to use remotely, share with others while working on a project, or save as a backup for files in the cloud.
  • GoogleDrive.  This is one of the many free google products for you to use saving and sharing files.  It can be accessed by logging into google from anywhere.
  • Skype.  This free service is for free phone and video services between users.  Download it on your computer and choose the skype phone number to call and see others.
  • Task list.  There are many to choose from, including ziplist, toodle doo, wunderlist, and remember the milk.  A task list helps you prioritize and keep all your lists in one spot!
  • Evernote. This free app for computer and smart phone allows you to capture and organize notes, audio clips, photos, and more. 

What tech tools help you be more organized to work at home?

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!

Less IS more!

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Over and over we hear this phrase.  What does it really mean?

  • Less mail is less overwhelming. Take 5 minutes every day to recycle and review your mail. Keep what remains in your command center to work on during admin time.
  • Less to do means you are doing what you love. Our biggest burdens are our time commitments. We say yes and then feel completely overwhelmed.  Commit to less to do and feel the serenity.
  • Less stuff is less to take care of and more energy to do what we love.  Is your stuff becoming a burden? Its time to let it go and have less in your space.

For me I am using this mantra every week to decide how much time and energy I use in projects, with people and my own stuff.  It shapes how I think and what I do.  My goal this year is to do less and accomplish more. 

What do you want to do less of or have less of and feel more energy?

Find great ideas on Houzz.com

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It is always important to have a vision when you are organizing. It might be you are looking for a space that is decluttered or a space that is brimming with organizing products.  Take a look on Houzz.com and see what you find!

You can find my professional profile at http://www.houzz.com/pro/edelap.

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

NAPO Get Organized Month: Have your scheduled your Power Period today?

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Have you scheduled your Power Period today?

Check out my blog post for the National Association of Professional Organizers Get Organized Month!

www.napo.net

http://napogetorganized.com/2013/01/04/have-you-scheduled-your-power-period-today/