Progressive Organizing Solutions
Don’t Agonize; Get Organized!

My last blog was all about cutting the fat from office practices and how to make Kaizen, Six Sigma and all those wonderful lean processes work for you at work, making your life easier.

This week I want to bring those same basics home and help you live a leaner, more productive life at home.

If you’ve been reading my blogs for any time at all you already know that I totally support the being more productive means cutting out the time wasting events that take place daily in our lives. So, as I sat here thinking about waste I realized that waste is in everything we do.

Here’s a quick example.

For several weeks now I have been going through a phase of not wasting my money on paper plates. They come in a package of about 100. I tend to buy one package a week or a week and a half. Every time someone in the house has anything that is not greasy or moist to eat they grab a paper plate. I have done this for quite a few years thinking that I was saving money by having paper plates. So, for the past two to three weeks I refused to buy paper plates to see exactly what my family of four adults would do.

Ah yes, I performed an experiment on waste in my own household.

The biggest thing I noticed was that the first week someone was always telling me. “We’re out of paper plates.” The second week they would open the drawer where the plates have been for the longest time, stare in the drawer and then close the drawer a little bit loudly and walk across the galley way and open the door to the cabinet where the china plates are. They stopped telling me there were no paper plates.
I then began to notice that the dishwasher was beginning to fill up with china three times a week, instead of twice. This is what happens when you have four adults in one house.

Alright, so waste number one was that over a hundred of paper plates were being used in about a week’s time. I really thought it would have been better to not have paper plates. What do you think?

I then looked at waste number two. I have a finite amount of dishes and a finite amount of space in my dishwasher. I almost typed dishwaster. Let’s think about this process for a moment. Paper or China?

The second waster in this really has to do with something that is four-fold.
Water.
Electricity.
Soap.
Money.

Every time I use china they have to be washed. I use water, soap and electricity to do this with if I use the dishwasher. If I do this in the sink I still use water and soap. The biggest issue here is money.

I pay for water.
I pay for soap.
I pay for electricity.
I pay for all of this with time and money, no matter which process I use.

For the sake of argument in this experiment let’s look at which is the biggest waster.

Paper Plates? or China that needs to be washed either by hand, also bringing the amount of time into the mix or by using the dishwasher up to three times a week.

Which choice is more economical in time and money?

For me, the result was that today, when I went to the store, I purchased paper plates!

Water is a precious commodity. Electricity is a commodity that I pay for as is soap and time and water. So, economically speaking both monetarily and time wise, it is more LEAN to use paper plates in my household than it is to run the dishwasher three plus times a week.

Let me know what you think. I am curious to see if you can run this experiment in your home.

Til next time,

Denise

As a solopreneur and small business owner I want to talk to you today about a huge responsibility you have to yourself and your employees and customers. As a productivity consultant and time management coach I feel that now is the time to reveal how you can increase your bottom line by following some simple rules for your business.

If you are like everyone else in America then you have heard how bad the economy is, you have probably lost customers to their own slashing of their budgets. If I’m correct you have probably cut back on quite a few things yourself. So, how can what I have to say make any difference to you or your business?

Manufacturing companies have been using a Six Sigma Black Belt approach to business for quite a few years. Knowing what to cut, how much to cut and how to create a successful business without waste has turned many businesses around to be not only more productive, but to also be creatively lucrative as well.

You can achieve the same type of success in your office or small business just as easily, if not more so since you have or probably have a smaller business and less employees than a large corporation or manufacturing business has to deal with.

So, today I want to talk about these practices that you can implement in your business that can help you to cut the fat and increase your bottom line.

The first thing that I suggest is for you to take the time to map out your work flow. Who does what, when and how they do it. You may think that you already know what goes on in your office, who does what and how long it takes them to do it, but if you take a closer look you may find that someone needs some extra training to make them more efficient in their daily work habits.

Step by step mapping is the basis for my next suggestion. Procedures manuals create a method for your people to know exactly how to do their jobs. It gives you the ability to measure your employees ability to do their jobs. As well it gives you a “handbook” for new employees to get up to speed faster, and less time in one on one training that causes you to lose more productivity due to the need to have a well trained employee training a new employee. There are consultants in the workplace who can help you to write a procedures manual.

The third suggestion would be to have a productivity consultant come in and do an audit on your business. Interviewing your employees, yourself to see where people feel their weak points are. Some employees may feel that they are organized and productive, others may feel they never get things done because they are bombarded and overloaded with stacks of paperwork. You may wonder as you walk past someone’s desk why it is their desk is always filled with paperwork when the employees around them always seem to get their work completed and put away.

This is the person that needs an evaluation on work place practices, work completion and methods that could help them to complete their work faster and more efficiently. They may need some time management coaching or how to manage their paperwork better.

The bottom line here is that the better your people work, the faster they are able to accomplish their work, the more work they will be able to accomplish, increasing productivity which increases the potential for your business to grow.

Lean business practices include the following:

1. Define the problems your business is having which you feel are preventing you from growing your business.

2. Measuring how your employees are doing their jobs. Knowing what they are doing and how well they are doing it is the basis of creating a method for them to follow (a procedures manual).

3. Analyzing the step by step processes that are in place and working toward helping those employees that are not producing the best results so they can help you build your business.

4. Improving the methods, the way the work is done and cutting the fat in the process increases your ability to run a lean business.

5. Controlling what goes on in your business, knowing what your people are doing, following up on their attempts, their work and how they are doing business for you is the next step in creating a successful business for yourself. A review system to see where your employee is not following the processes you put into place can help you eliminate the deviation in your workplace.

All of these steps are created to be a method for an improvement system for existing processes. If you use them in this method you will have a lean system for doing business. You will cut the fat, or unproductive practices in your business and your overhead will drop as a result, because your bottom line has increased. Your employees will be getting more things done, completed on time and in an efficient manner.

Try the Six Sigma/Lean Office method and enjoy a more productive business!

Talk to you soon,
Denise

Hi everyone,

I want to invite everyone who checks in here to join  Http://organizemylife.ning.com

This site will be a place for you  to connect with others like you and organizers alike.  You will find lots of information (giving us time to upload it) and be able to ask those burning questions you have about organizing.

This is a brand new members website (free for now) and we hope you enjoy it.

Make sure you tell all your friends!

I’d like to invite all of you on a journey.  A journey to bringing order to your lives.  This is a journey of lessening your stress, of enjoying the sunshine, and of learning what makes you happy.

We can all assume that the sun is going to shine (in between rain showers that is) and that we will be able to enjoy it every day.

But what you want to look forward to is an office or your home where you can walk into it and relax.

Now, I can hear you say ‘ Why would I want to relax at work?’

While I could go on and on about the reasons I have for saying this I want to point to one very specific reason.

Your brain works better!

?

Yes I said without clutter, without distractions, without all the stuff sitting around your brain works better.

How so?

The brain works from what the eyes see.  If the paperwork sitting next to you on your desk has nothing to do with what you are trying to accomplish then it becomes a distraction.

Someone may walk into your work area or office and ask for somehting that is sitting in the stack you are not working on.  Okay, you now have to stop what you are doing and go through the stack to find what they want.  The first distraction was them walking into your office, but the second is the complete time waster and it stops your brain from focusing in on what you are working on.

So, let’s try a different scenario.

Someone walks into your office and asks for some paperwork you are not working on.  You tell them it’s in the files.  They leave and you are back to work on the current problem.

Which scenario would you find more to your liking?

Thinking on this same wavelength, take a look around your workspace.  If you just have a desk and nothing else then see exactly what is on the desktop.  Are there pictures of family, birthday cards from months ago, a cup of pens or other miscellaneous items?

Take a picture with everything the way it is right this minute.

Take a few minutes and remove everything that isn’t tied down to the desk.  Usually  that means only leaving the computer on the desk.  Put the photos, personal memorabilia into a box (we’re just giving you a moment here to see what this would look like) and put the box into a closet or outside the office, just somewhere you can’t see it.

Take a picture with everything removed.

I want you to take a few minutes now to sit and examine those pictures.

Which picture makes you feel more relaxed.  Which one creates a feeling of mild anxiety?

Why do I say anxiety?  Here I want to give you the idea that having too many things in your work area can create a feeling of never completing something.  You may actually be finishing your work, but it may seem as if your area is always busy because there are no cleared spaces.

So, your homework, if you are willing to give it a try, is to clear your desk for two weeks.  Take all the personal items and put them away for two weeks.  The files, paperwork, all business items have to be put in neat order either back in their files and back into the file cabinet every day or into a desktop file box for current projects so they are locatable each and every day, yet have a home for when you move to the next project.

I want to hear from you about the problems you are having.  I also want to hear if you actually tried to use this process.

And I want to offer a 30 minute free consultation and you have to say you read this blog.  On this website you will find a link at the top of the page for making an appointment.  The free 30 minute consultation is there.  So, go there and make one.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Denise

It’s March already and everywhere, but here it snowed this week.

I was reading an email from Lisa Diane this morning when I realized something. I knew it already, but as I was reading her email I looked outside and recognized that everywhere in nature there are measures of order. Depending on where the sun shines, the plants grow. Where there is water the animals are prevalent. Just the natural order of life from beginning to end is so orderly that I just sat here and marveled at it.

You see, when you look at humanity, people themselves are not so overwhelmingly in tune with nature. Yes we have our own set of orderly behaviors, but everyone marches to their own tune.

I can hear my friends thinking, what has she been taking! Honestly, nothing I promise!

What I am trying to impart here is that there are reasons we as a society, worldwide, are disorganized.

If everyone followed simple rules about paperwork, closets, cabinets and the like then we would not be so disorganized.

So here are some simple rules to follow:

1. Stop printing everything you find on the internet.

Instead, create an online folder, like on Google. Put those wonderful articles, recipes, etc onto Google Documents and you will never lose them. And you will have cut down on the amount of loose paper flying around your home. I use Google Documents and I love it.

2. Use one calendar or planner for everything. If you have to have more then again, go to Google.com and use their online calendar that you can pull up on any computer, anywhere in the world. Even your phone (Iphone or Instinct or Blackberry) or your PDA if you link in.

Think ahead here and when you say “online” that you are going to an event, load that event into your Google calendar, or Ical. It can’t be any more simple than clicking the button that asks you if you want to add the event to your calendar.

3. If you know you have to work late in the evening, and you need a dinner to come home to, make sure you are fixing enough the evening before to accommodate your needs the following evening. Plan ahead your meals, shopping list, and if you have the capability to use the notes section on your phone, then put the shopping list there. So what if you left the paper list at home. It’s right there in your phone.

4. We are all struggling with the economy. It is stressing out the world if the truth were known. Has it never happened before? No! Life over the past several hundred years has seen many crises and will come back to being ‘in the money’ eventually.

So, what do you plan to do to survive this crisis?

Yes, I said PLAN. If you are flying by the seat of your pants in this economy then you are extraordinarily rich.

Life is a series of goals. If your goal is to come out ahead in this economy you have to have a plan.

So tip #4 is to Write a Plan. Start simple and use the goals you want to reach as a benchmark.

5. Reducing stress is a major component in almost every one’s lives that I know. We as a society have so much stress that we are constantly searching for ways to reduce the causes. How can you we do that?

a) become a minimalist.

Minimalism is the act of removing from your life the things around you that cause clutter in your life.

That may be too many dishes, cups, saucers, etc in your cabinets. If you don’t entertain and it’s just you and the family then see about getting dishes and other things that fit your personality and that you love, instead of having so many things that do not fit in except for once a year or so.

b) get in tune with what you really want out of life.

Set those goal for everything you want to achieve. Make a list of 100 things that you want to do. Sometimes people get overwhelmed by the word goals. What is a goal? My generation was not brought up to use the word goal in any definitive way. You had to decide what you were going to college for, if you went to college at all. Or, what type of job you wanted to do, if you even had a choice (i.e. your dad was a farmer and it was assumed you would be too)

A goal is something you want to do. Not necessarily that you have to do. It can also be something that you feel you need to achieve it, but start with a list of things you want to do, then move into the list of need to do’s.

Getting organized helps you in many ways. Starting with these five things can help you to reduce stress, get more done on a daily, weeky,monthly and yearly basis. Try to take things one step at a time and work toward your overall feeling of stressless environment!

Remember that Nature is Orderly and you can be too.

http://astore.amazon.com/progreorganis-20

Normally, when you read my blogs I do not recommend very many websites.

The website above however is my own.

You see, I received several requests for resources and wanted to share with all of you a great way to find those resources.

So, I went to Amazon and built a store just for you!

This store has a lot of categories and I’d like you to go and check it out.

Let me know if it is what you would be looking for in a resource site.

Have a great evening!

Email me at :  denise@progressiveorganizingsolutions.com

Hello everyone,

I have started a new venture where you can all participate!

Http://www.blogtalkradio.com/right-way-organizing which happened on Monday February 16th was a huge success!

I want to invite you to start listening in as we continue the series of shows with Cynthia Carstens of Red Leaf Professional Organizing Services near Redding, California.

The theme of the show has been Why do you want to get organized.

As we follow the theme our next show will specifically cover how to recognize what you want to accomplish, the obstacles you face, the tools and steps that you need to use to reach your goal!

Now all of that sounds overwhelming, right?

Believe me, we can not talk about all of that in 30 minutes, so that is why we have created a schedule for the shows.

This way, you will know what’s coming up and we can truly cover the topics.

So, the next Blog Talk Radio show will also have a new name!

Organize My Life

Organize My Life has been a special piece of work that I have been working on for months.  It is ready for you to start taking advantage of.  It is a membership site (FREE).  Yes, I said free.  This may only be for the next few months, but I am trying out the free end of things.

I am probably like you, or switch that up.  You are probably like me in that I don’t like to spend money on something I have not tried.  So, I created what is known as a PBWiki.

Http://organizemylife.pbwiki.com

This is a site that you can join.  If you want access, you have to ask, so why not join?

The site is all about helping you with articles, surveys that you can send back to me.  It’s a place for you to drop me a line and get one on one help.

Now, I didn’t say the help would be free, especially if you ask for a lot of one on one help.

So, go ahead and join and enjoy the site.

My next blog here will be about what we’re going to cover in the radio show!  I hope you are able to  come back here and get the link for the show.

Denise

Okay, I’ve finally realized.  Saying you want to be organized does not mean you want to change your time wasting habits so you can stay organized.  I realize also that you may want to get organized for what you think may be the right reasons, but I can tell you that your reasons may not go deep enough to ensure you stay organized.

How can I say these things?  Experience.  Plain and simple I’ve worked with enough people over the last two years of home organizing to know that people do not think beyond “let’s get some help.”  You, they, or us.  It doesn’t matter what our original reasoning is when we decide that we want to do a project, there are steps that you must take to reach the end result.

One of those reasons you must define for yourself, if not for me, your organizer, is why you want to get organized.  I can tell you that if you want to get organized because your boss said you have to, or if your mom hires an organizer to help and you are rebelling against interference from your parent, that getting organized will not work for you.

You have to want being organized.

Let me say that again.

You Have to Want to Be Organized.

Without knowing that you want this for yourself any money you spend on having an organizer come to help you will be wasted.

Why?  Simply because your mind will not be paying attention to the lessons you should be learning/remembering while working with your organizer.

The next thing you need to know is What is expected of you, and what to expect from your organizer!

I can hear some of you saying, ‘well isn’t the organizer supposed to be organizing?’ or ‘I’ll have her come in, but I have too much to do to work with her.’

What is expected of you?  A dear question to my heart.  If you don’t know what involvement is required of you then you should ask.  You wouldn’t start a project at work without knowing the parameters of the job.  So why would you hire someone to help you get organized if you didn’t want to stay organized?  Obviously you wouldn’t.  However some people do.  They want the organizer to come in and basically clean up their clutter and mess and then wonder why it costs so much more than a house cleaner.

So what should be expected of you is that you are expected to pay attention to the questions the organizer is asking you about your belongings.  Pay attention to the methods she or he is using to help you make decisions about your belongings.  Even if you have to write them down.  Then make sure you ask questions yourself.

What do you expect of your organizer?  Honestly only you can answer that.  There are some guidelines though.  Check out their website and see the services they offer.  Use it as a guideline for yourself when you ask what their service will entail for you.  Every job is different and every organizer has different services they offer.

You need to decide what you want out of getting organized.  Once you have your reasons down pat, take the time to research organizers in your area and find one that you like, that can encourage you, guide you, tease you or incite you to action.  Then get busy getting organized and put into place the methods and processes that will keep you organized.

Well, enough for now.  This weekend is my 30th high school reunion and I am so looking forward to it all that I’m off to bed to rest up for the hours of fun ahead!

Do you feel your productivity needs a boost?  If you’re not completing tasks that are helping you reach your goals then productivity is an issue for you.  What’s behind the lack of productivity could be any number of things, but today time management is what we’re going to focus on.

Time management is really a misnomer.  There is only so much time in any given day.  So the real, the only way to rephrase time management is by saying self management.

Take a look at the distractors in your work day.    If you wake up late is your entire day ruined?  When you are at work do you take long breaks between working on different projects.  Do you have the skill and knowledge to complete the work you are working on?  Do the office cronies come in and distract you by talking about personal issues or asking you to do something at the weekend?

These are all valid distractors at work.  Think about how you would stop them from occurring.

The first one, waking up later than you should, as long as it is not a habit of being late to work should be okay if you still have time to focus in on what needs to be done.  Just remember that “the early bird gets the worm” addage.  If the boss is at work early, and he or she constantly sees that you have his or her work ethics of being there early then they may trust you more to be getting your work done and give you bigger and better projects.

Taking long breaks can break your concentration, but is at times unavoidable.  We do need to restore our energy levels.  I have been reading Life Hacker and found a neat 10 step blog entry on the Top Ten Ways to Stay Energized http://lifehacker.com/5054947/top-10-ways-to-stay-energized.

What you don’t want to do is to stand in the kitchen or at the water cooler and lose all focus.  Certainly go out to lunch instead of staying in even if you brought lunch from home.  If you can go listen to the birds, sit outside to eat and let your brain rejuvenate.  It’s when we refuse to allow our bodies and minds to rejuvenate that we start to lose our edge in whatever we’re doing.  Yes, I guess this means meditation is a good thing.

Know your stuff.  If you’re given a project, a report to write or something similar and you do not know how to get started or how to complete it and you keep putting it off how does that make you look to the boss?  The key here is to use those strategic alliances you have been building with all the networking you’ve been doing.  Call or email someone who does know how to do what you’re seeking to learn.  Is there any harm in asking?  NO!  Is there harm in not getting the project done?  YES!  So ask!

Cronies, friends, and family interrupting your train of thought when you’re on a roll and working as hard as you can, can destroy a thought process quicker than anything I know of.  It can stop you dead in your tracks.  Your mind will go off to Fiji with your cronie’s vacation plans or you’ll be stuck in the kitchen with the grandmother who can’t decide if your child should have soup or a sandwich for lunch.

Controlling interruptions is perhaps one of the hardest things to get past.  Previously, I’ve written that if you can, turn off the phone ringer, close your door, hang signs that you’re busy or on a deadline, but the biggest one you need to remember is self-management.  Only you can say to your co-worker, I’m busy.  When grandma calls, and you answer, say to her, I trust your judgment.  She will call less.  Your co-worker will realize he or she should be working too and the boss will see that you don’t waste time.

Well try these things out and let me know how it goes.  I’m always open for ways to help others get organized, be more productive and share them with others.

Denise