On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

I’m excited to welcome back my sister, Emily Kelly, to the podcast for part 2 of 3 in this series. This has been much anticipated by the Organize 365® community and I was waiting for the perfect time for her to tell her story.

In part one of this podcast series, Emily Kelly shares her experience for the last year. Today she is sharing how she has organized her personal and work life during this time. Listen to Emily as she describes how she is using her Sunday Basket®, Friday Workbox®, and her slash pockets to sync her bills, goals, and her calendar.

Emily and I share what we looked like before slash pockets and binders while working together to settle our Dad’s estate. I share my CliffsNotes™ on how we handled this important time in our lives.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Friday Workbox®

• Athena International

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

The way I see the world in color is helping me organize my PhD studies and the work I am doing in school. Being able to use color allows me to chunk the information I am learning and help me remember it better.

Pink: For home it is anything related to your uniqueness and for work it is your ideas and marketing.

Purple: For home it is anything related to household work and projects and for work it is the visible work and projects.

Blue: For home it is anything related to your family and pets and for work it is your team and people.

Green: For home and work it is anything related to money and your invisible work.

I was able to learn how to do a literature review, how to do an annotated bibliography, and how to write a proposal for a conference using color for each of these key components. Whenever we talk about introductions it will be pink, whenever we talk about methods it will be blue, and whenever we talk about results it will be purple.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button

• Organize 365® Research Podcast

• Organize 365® Research

• Organize 365® Business Friday Workbox®

• Organize 365® Sunday Basket®

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

When we left off in the previous episode, I was in the pit of despair. I wish I could say I was out of it by 2012. Spoiler alert - not quite. But 2012 is when a monumental shift began to happen.

I was 39 years old by this point. I quit my job. Our family was sinking into debt. Our kids medical needs were still high. I didn’t even recognize my own house (it was a wreck). And my marriage was feeling the strain.

My inherent organization ability had gotten me this far in life but now everything I knew about organization was not enough. I didn’t have a playbook or framework for being the person I needed to be - hosting the holidays, having kids with busy schedules (and going to two different schools), and all the other positions I found myself filling.

Which leads me to explore how we become disorganized. I think part of it is that we get to a point in our lives where we no longer have a story we are working towards.

This episode is really important because when you find Organize 365®, you're likely a pretty organized person and looking for more tips and tricks to be even more productive. But more of us stumble across Organize 365® when they realize “I can no longer continue this way for the rest of my life, there has to be another way.” And the good news is that if you have had this thought - there is another way. Change can be uncomfortable. But it is through this discomfort that you transform. I’ve seen it time and time again in the Organize 365® community.

What you may not be expecting is that when you need to learn the skill of organization the most is usually at a point in your life where you don’t have the time and money to do so. But by not budgeting the resources to get organized, you won’t be able to easily get out of re-living the same story you are trying to get out of. This is where I found myself in 2012. I was in the wrong story. Tune in and find out how I began to turn it around in 2012.

Also in this episode:

• The Friday Workbox® takes center stage

• Tips and Rules for Organizing Passion Projects & Hobbies

Want to hear more about my 2012 story and my 5 tips for organizing with depression? Listen to this podcast.

What is the organized story of me going forward? Stay tuned next week to find out! What is the organized story of you?

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• FREE Sunday Basket® Mini Course

• Organization is a Learnable Skill

• The Friday Workbox®

• The Sunday Basket®

• Saving Your Story Photo Organization Program

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too!

I’m excited to welcome back my sister, Emily Kelly, to the podcast. This has been much anticipated by the Organize 365® community. And I was waiting for the perfect time for her to tell her story.

Emily Kelly worked for Organize 365® for about 5 years. When I last interviewed her on the podcast, she was embarking on a new adventure. She had found, what she believed to be, her DREAM JOB.

This is a three part series where we are going to get all the details on Emily’s journey since she left Organize 365®, but you are also going to get an in depth look at the relationship between Emily and me. Sibling relationships are unique because this is likely the longest relationship you will have in your life. Longer than your parents, your spouse, your children and your friends. You and your sibling(s) are in a unique position and have experienced things together that will forever just be an experience shared between you and them.

Emily experienced some very unexpected life events. And one of the lessons that she had learned during her time at Organize 365® kept her going in the right direction. Grace. Give it freely. To yourself and others. 

Flash forward to today and we find Emily, a new version of herself, ready to share the broken road that led her to exactly where she needs to be. But you will hear more about that in Part 3.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Jesus Calling Book

• The Sunday Basket®

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Starting the PhD, I was as planned as you could possibly be. I even took care of all the possible health visits I could have before starting school just so I didn’t have to take away any time to do that once I started; now that is planning!

This journey is not easy, but I prefer to be positive and upbeat, not sharing everything that’s not working. I don’t pay attention to the things that I don’t have control over, but I am going to tell you the things that have gone wrong in the first 3 weeks just so I can point back to this episode and be like, “remember week 3”, not everything is perfect.

In preparing, I began by pretending, since I’m a pretty productive person, I could add in this extra 30 hours of work and nothing else would really be sacrificed. That’s not a thing because there aren’t 186 hours in a week, there are only 168 hours in a week. I’m hoping that the learnings that I take from this can be beneficial to you and whatever it is that you are adding to your plate and whatever you are striving to be as well.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button

• Laura Vanderkam - 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

• Oura Ring

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

The year was 2007. And I was ROADKILL. Unexpected life events had run me over.

Divorce had unexpectedly hit my family. My father was in poor health. I was raising young children with medical diagnosis. I had attended one HUNDRED and ten doctors appointments. I came unglued. I reached my breaking point.

There I was standing in my kitchen. Not making sense. Tapping on a cabinet. Greg swooped in and got the kids out of the house. As I stood there pleading with myself, “You’ve got to get it together, Lisa!” 

I went upstairs to my room to figure out why I felt like I was falling apart. At the time, I had a physical planner. I flipped backwards through my planner and realized a pattern. I was spending so much time at doctor’s appointments. I started to tally it up and found that in the past year, I had gone to 110 doctor’s appointments.

Doctor’s appointments are not only time consuming, but they are expensive. So at the same time, I had become a “jill of all trades.” I was running my Creative Memories business, cleaning houses, organizing, tutoring, working for Scholastic book fairs and several other direct sales related jobs. 

No wonder I was falling behind and apart.

When it rains, it pours. My Sunday Basket® became my umbrella. I was overwhelmed. And I was being pushed to new limits. But I wasn’t disorganized. I cannot even imagine what this phase of my life would have looked like if I had not already had my Sunday Basket® system and routine in place.

I was not home much at all during this phase of life, but I always had my Sunday Basket® with me. Which meant I was able to still be productive while waiting at the doctor’s office or in the car pick-up line. This helped me keep up when life started moving way too fast.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Free Sunday Basket® 5 Day Mini Course

• The Sunday Basket®

• The Warrior MAMA Binder

• The Paper Solution®

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

show notes

I’m so excited to introduce you to The Paper Solution® Binder & Course Bundle.

When I wrote the The Paper Solution® book, I knew I wanted to provide this offering. And we have finally been able to do it.

The Paper Solution® provides a complete solution to the unseen but impactful organization that allows you to have confidence and peace of mind during life's unexpected events.

Learning to become an organized person is both an outer and inner game.

It doesn't always look perfect but it provides calm in the storm, order in the midst of chaos, breathing room and clarity for you to think and make a plan as life continually pivots.

Life is a dance. A dance between the known and unknown. The necessary and unnecessary. How you want to spend your time and how you need to spend your time.

Along the way we have different levels of organization. Often when we talk about getting organized, we talk about our storage room, closet, kitchen or car. Places we can see with our eyes.

Mental organization and unexpected life event organization is often invisible. But oh so impactful when done properly.

If you have experienced one of these events:

• Moved houses/apartments
• Gotten married
• Had a baby
• Experienced a medical event for yourself or loved one
• Lost a loved one

The invisible work that goes into navigating these life events is very stressful, and organization is your life raft.

The Organize 365® Binders were created out of all the unexpected events that I have lived through. I was looking for a solution. A solution to organize the invisible work I was doing and provide a playbook for what needed to be done.

The Paper Solution® provides you with everything you need:

• The Medical Binder
• The Financial Binder
• The Household Operations Binder
• The Household Reference Binder
• Lifetime Access to The Paper Solution® Course Dashboard
• Which includes: Editable downloads, lessons for each binder, tips from Certified Organizers
• Organize 365® Virtual Paper Organizing Retreat on Demand
• Access to the Organize 365® Community App and The Paper Solution® Community Group

Ready to learn more? Visit The Paper Solution® Course page.

There is a difference between perfectionism and setting up a system. My first writing assignment should have taken me just an hour or two but instead it took me eight hours. I shared my new adventure on Instagram stories and many of you told me to take a page from my own book and embrace progress over perfection. YES! I hear you but let me explain…

I wasn’t trying to be perfect. I was trying to spend some time now to set-up my systems and create a template for myself to save me time in the future. Does this sound familiar to you? This is EXACTLY what organizing does. Organizing is an investment in time today for a future exponential return on time.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button
• Organize 365® Research Podcast
• Organize 365® Research
• Zotero

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! 

This podcast is the first in a series of five that will walk you through different life phases and stages I’ve experienced, and how The Sunday Basket® has been my partner in productivity along the way!

Join me in my time machine as we take a glimpse into what my life looked like in 2002 and how The Sunday Basket® was created to support me during this phase of life.

In 2002, I had two babies, a successful career in direct sales, the same house I still live in today and of course, Greg! I also had a paper pile problem. And everyday I was playing “the paper pile game”. I would leave my ever-growing pile of papers (bills, mail, to-do lists, calls to make, checks to be deposited and everything in between) on one side of my kitchen island. Each day I would have the best of intentions to tackle that paper pile; but often I would have just enough time to shuffle the papers around before one of the babies needed me and then right back on the counter it would go. That process was repeated day in and day out.

How could I make this paper pile more actionable? 

One night as my family slept, I finally laid out all the papers in front of me. I began to sort the paper piles into categories. By the end of that evening, I had 40 separate “piles” that were now categorized.

The next day I was able to grab just one of those categories (I had separated them all into binder dividers I had on hand) and take immediate action. Oh my goodness! What a profound impact this had on me. It felt so good to finally be taking action and little by little I watched the paper pile shrink. 

I put all the binder dividers in a Longaberger basket (remember those?) and I began to add any new mail, paper, notes, to-dos, etc. into the basket. Then each Sunday, I would sit down and go through it. This is where I learned how to prioritize things that needed to be done before the next Sunday and plan my week ahead as a mother and direct sales leader. 

The impact of breaking down my paper piles into actionable chunks was HUGE. This is how The Sunday Basket® was born!

Want to have your own The Sunday Basket® experience like I did? 

We have a FREE 5 Day Sunday Basket® Mini Course that you can join now. This course will walk you through gathering your paper piles and how to sort them in 5 daily tasks. 

Join me next episode as my journey takes a stark turn from babies and bliss to chaotic and unexpected. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• The Sunday Basket® Mini Course
• The Sunday Basket®
• Organize 365® Paper Organizing Retreat
• See photos from 2002 on Instagram

Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!