Progressive Organizing Solutions

Well ladies (and gents too):

It’s that time of year again.  We’re all tired of our winter clothes and want to throw that horrible coaat into the donate bin.  Yet, going into your closet you see the same old clothes time after time.

Organizing your clothing can be a great way to give yourself a fresh view of them.  They will still be the same clothes, but by organizing them, categorizing them, matching them up with same color or styled pieces you can literally create a new wardrobe.

Alright ladies, let’s begin with you.  Women, in my experience, usually have an upper and a lower hanging bar for their clothing.

Tops, blouses, sweaters and jackets, blazers, coats, scarves, etc. all get crammed onto the upper rod on one side of a two sided closet.  It doesn’t matter what sleeve length or how wrinkled the items are going to get, you can always stand in the closet and search for what you want to wear forever and a day, then have to iron the piece you finally choose.

You know I am talking to you!

So, let’s give you a few rules to live by.  The rules will help you to walk into your closet, put together an outfit and walk out in just a few minutes, instead of a half an hour.

Closets are meant to be a place where you can store clothing that you can see.  So being organized in your closet is like getting close to heaven!  Well, at least it is for me.

1.  I suggest taking everything out of your closet.  Start with a clean slate.

2.  Piece by piece decide if you use the piece. Asking yourself questions about the piece, examining it for tears, wearability, stylishness, and finally but not least, ask yourself if you love it.  If you don’t, do not take up valuable real estate in that closet with something you can’t stand.

3.  On your bed, arrange the tops in this fashion:

a.  Sleeveless

b.  Cap Sleeve

c.  Short Sleeve

d.  3/4 length Sleeve

e.  Long Sleeve.

About now,  you’re going, hmmm, if I get this organizing project out of the way just look at what else I can accomplish!!

If you complete this portion of the project, then move on to the bottom hanging rod.  Go through the pants with the same precision as above.  Shorts, 3/4 length pants, long pants.  Decide if you ever wear them, when was the last time, do you pass them over for something else or if they have ever fit correctly.

Okay, I know that was a terrible run-on sentence, but you get the message.

I want to hear from all of you on how this works for you.

I’m thinking of starting a call session for people who want to hash out ideas on their organizing problems.

Let me know what you think!

That’s it for tonight’s ideas on organizing your closet.  So take a gamble and risk it all for you to be better organized!

For now have a great weekend getting organized!

Denise

Too many times we work in places that we never feel like we get our work accomplished.  There are days that we constantly seem to be interrupted over and over again, so much so that by the time we leave work we realize that nothing that was supposed to get done, actually got done!

Here are some statistics about how typical office workers feel about their days at work.

“Research shows that this is how office workers spend their typical work day:

- 28%: Unnecessary interruptions (with recovery time)
- 25%: Creating content (productive work)
- 20%: Meetings (may or may not be conclusive with action plan)
- 15%: Searching for information (half the time, search does not yield results)
- 12%: Thinking and reflecting (productive, creative work)

So what do you do?

1. Have a clear objective of what you want to achieve for the day or the next 2 hours and let nothing distract you. If you need to focus and concentrate then turn off the chats (digital or not) and the email alerts.

2. Get a draft copy of your work out in the designated time – even if it is not perfect. Start with a framework and fill in the content as you go along. Keep the momentum going, it is progress against perfection.

3. Do not allow yourself to be interrupted unnecessarily – turn off the emails alerts, online chats and let the answering machine does its work if you are doing creative or productive work. Manage your emails with filters and rules.

4. Take breaks in between chunks of concentrated work time - enjoy your brief coffee break. Do a little stretching, take a deep breath, relax your neck and your shoulders and then come back to more focus work.

5. Keep it simple and clean – your work place, desk and filing needs to be simple and streamlined. Make good use of the trash bin. This un-cluttering will clear you mind for more creative and productive work.

6. Set yourself up for efficient work before hand – get your documents, files, references organized each time before you wrap up work so you do not waste time looking for files and tools the next time you start work.

7. Enjoy your work - that will fuel you to be productive at work.”      Retrieved from The Desk Demon Network

Wow!  Can you imagine feeling that if you work every day for four hours a day that you really only get one hour of  work done every day?  That’s such a tremendous waste of time!

So let’s say you use the formula above to be more efficient at work.  Do you think this is feasible?

There are two of the items above that I want you to focus on.

The first is #1.  Have a clear objective.  Write it down and pretend it’s written in Gold and decide you will achieve that goal!

The second is #3.  Stop letting interruptions rule your day.

Recently I’ve had a co-worker interrupt me 11 times in one day.  Her interruptions hit the high time today when knowing that I was on the phone she walked into my office, talking to me very loudly, so loudly I couldn’t hear the person on the phone.

You may be that person who is interrupting your co-workers and not getting your work done because of it.

If you are, then work on understanding why.  Are you a person who needs to be around other people more than working alone? Whatever the reason, work on focusing on your work in shorter stretches of time and then taking a break.

There are many ways to increase your productivity at work, and time management is just one of them.

Hope this helps,

Denise

i folks,

Sorry I’ve been away for a bit. I’ve been in training for the past two months on making my website, my blog and my connections work better for me and for you!

Today’s topic is dear to my heart and if you are in the need for organizing you really should take a look at a possibility you may not have considered before.

Virtual Organizing!

Virtual organizing is a method that is growing around the U.S. and possibly the world. I know this because I am a virtual organizer. I can sit in my office and work with people from around the world, helping them to de-clutter their homes and offices, their garages and attics even though I am sitting at home in my pajamas. (My last International client was in the Netherlands and my domestic virtual clients are in Texas, North Carolina, and West Virginia.)

I know you have all heard about people working from home before. Telecommuting has been a trend for several years. Well, in essence, that is what I do for some of my clients. I coach my clients from home.

I have to say, I do not coach all of my clients from home. Probably half of my clients are virtual clients and the other half I drive, using expensive gas, because they need me to be with them when I work with them.

So, how exactly does this work?

Virtually, of course. I begin by asking key questions about the space you want organized. I ask about your hot spots, your most needy situations and then when I receive pictures and text by email I will then formulate a plan to work through with you.

If I were working with you in person I would formulate an outline to work by, and then when we’ve finished the job I would work out a maintenance schedule with you and then be on the phone to you every few weeks, months, then years to check in and see if the processes we put into place are still working.

With virtual work the long distance contact is more frequent, but just as important. Preset schedules for phone calls, following prescribed directions, homework and making sure you show up for online appointments can be crucial to your success.

Today I spoke with an organizer in Denver, Colorado called me to ask me all about virtual organizing. I waxed on lyrically until an hour later we finally hung up and I knew this was something that I loved to do.

CALL TO ACTION!

If you are interested in learning how I can help you with your organizing project (even helping you to de-clutter and make your space what you want it to be!! Then I want to invite you to call me, or email me, or respond to this blog in the comments section.

I am writing my August Newsletter: Organize Your Life and want you to submit ideas for articles to appear in the newsletter. Let me know what you want to hear about.

For now, remember “Organizing is an art.” A quote from Barbara Hemphill

Traveling is such a wonderful thing unless it’s back to back and you’re coming off of vacation.  The coffee pot just finished and I’m sure my eyes will open soon.  I really am sure about that.

I’m sitting here doing what most of you would do.  Recounting everything I packed, going over my list of things to do before I head out the door for another business trip, wondering where the office supply stores are at where I’m going, just in case my client doesn’t have everything we need.

As well, because I was on vacation and the rest of my household was not I had a ton of mail to go through when I came home yesterday.  I am thankful my husband keeps up with the bulk of the mail.  I’ve never had to redefine his system, it works for him.  The big thing though was I left home only once yesterday.  I caught up on recorded television and laundry.

The gist of today’s blog is maintenance.  When you’re organized maintaining your success is easy.  Yes, you might have a small mess to contend with, but the overall organization is still intact.  That is the joy of being organized.  Being able to spend thirty minutes to an hour getting it back in shape after being away is the epitome to being organized.

If I had not prepared for the trip ahead of time, knowing I was going away on vacation and then eighteen hours later leaving for another few days would have been overwhelming.  However, because I had a to-do list, a way to get things done that caused the least stress (other than having to get up before the crack of dawn) I made my life so much easier and less stressful.

I’ll let you ruminate on this a while.  I need coffee and need to get on the road.  More tonight!!

Later Gators!

Tags: traveling, being organized between trips

Wow, did the summer pass as fast for you as it did for me?  I have been attempting to catch up here as well as every where else for the past week.  School started up again last week, which for me is always the signal to the end of ’summer’.  Fortunately, that just means most of the touristas have returned to their northern abodes.  I do follow a southern tradition, which is truly funny for most southerners realize this.  I was born and raised in North Carolina and have lived my entire life within a two hundred mile range.  I have visited many places from sea to shining sea (well desert really) and I have found that if a person moves from up north to down south, it takes at least five to ten years for them to adjust.  Am I prejudiced that North Carolina has the best of a lot of things to see and do?  Of course!  I live almost as far east as you can live without dipping your toes in the water, but I grew up in the city of Cary, which is now Mecca to Research Triangle Park. I have traveled from the tip of Maine to the depths off of the Bahamas (literally), and as far west as Phoenix, Arizona and I notice one thing that doesn’t seem to naturally occur anywhere but here at home.  People actually acknowledge you, they speak to you, they are truly interested in you when they ask about you and they answer you when you speak to them.  And they remember what you say nine tenths of the time.

So, my point here is that the rest of the US needs to slow down, take a hard look at relaxing a bit more and paying more attention to what is going on around them.

Now, for today’s Tip of the New Year!

The neater you keep your office, your home, the faster you will find things.  Whether that means filing once a day, putting clean dishes, clean clothing away, or if it means taking fifteen minutes to walk around the house or office and clean up messes, the only way to keep it so you can find what you are looking for is to genuinely spend time at doing it.

So today’s tip is Do Something!  If, as above, that means putting things away, then Do It!

For the new school year, the new ecclesiastical year (if you are Orthodox) or just for a wonderful fresh start get busy now and enjoy the rewards later!

I do believe that all good things come to us one way or another.  Tonight I checked a forum posting to find out the answer I needed to create a way to link all my social networking sites together.  Just so ya know, productivity is my game and wasting time is not.  Productivity means you spend less time doing the things that don’t make you money and more time being focused on the things that do.  I love keeping up with my friends, family, co-organizers, but if I could do this more efficiently then I most certainly will leave the “let’s see who is doing what’ phase behind and stick to the more Productive Way of Doing Things.

So today I want to present to you a great tool for your toolbox.  http://ping.fm

This little website has the capability of getting you to spend less time having to post to all the different social networking sites and more time on what’s important to you.

Now, you know you’ll have to learn the few little tricks that make it work best for you, but if I told you all of those would you remember them later when you wanted to add more to ping.fm?

Alright, go and enjoy ping.fm.  Learn as much as you can and come back to let me know how it goes!

Denise

Have you ever wondered how people who were so successful actually got there?

It seems that no matter what we are trying to accomplish we are always forgetting at least one step of it.

If this is true for you then jump on board the bus.  This is true for most every one.

So how do you get these tasks accomplished without forgetting all the steps?

A big phrase these days is Mind Mapping.

It’s been around for generations, but is just coming back into focus to help people accomplish those larger goals that need to be tasked out.

Here’s an example of how mindmapping could help you.

You’ve joined a team that is working on a sales presentation for a new product that is going to be released soon.  So you and your team are meeting and deciding on how to divvy up the tasks.  Who is responsible for each section like Advertising; Marketing; Product Development; etc.

To use mindmapping each of these categories would be a center hub of activity.  The tasks that are associated with each center are the tasks that go with these.

So the center hub of Advertising would then have arms or tasks of publications, or other forms of advertising.  Each task would then be divided down into sub tasks that are the actual productivity required in each sub task to accomplish the task.

Example:    Advertising-

Publications -

Newspaper – Wilmington Star News – Advertising contact name & number.

Magazine – Wilmington Magazine – Advertising…

Radio -

Different Radio Stations and contact information

Television -

Different Television stations and contact information

Each category will have subcategories and tasks to be accomplished.

So let’s say this is a product that you are creating from scratch.  Your mindmapping could be a method for you to identify the different methods or steps that you use to create your product.

You then have a reproducible methodology that you can also sell, not just the product you have created.

The bottom line here is that by fine tuning your process, you are not wasting time.  Your productivity increases exponentially and you achieve more in less time by knowing what it is you want to achieve and having a formula to achieve it.

To learn more about mindmapping I’d like to recommend a great teacher.  His name is Bob Jenkins and he is really a teacher.  His website http://www.askbobtheteacher.com has a great link to http://www.discoverfreemind.com.

So go to Bob’s websites, download the Free Mind mindmapping software.  Uh, yes it is FREE.  Try it out to start getting your goals accomplished faster every single day of every single month of every single year!

That’s it for today.  Have a great week ahead!

Denise

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

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!