Organize 365® Podcast (general)

In this episode, I introduce you to Christa G. Christa is from a little town not too far from me; but about six years ago moved to Michigan from Georgia. Christa is married and has two children that are almost 12 and 16. Christa ended up hearing one of my interviews on the Boss Mom podcast around 2015/2016. She knew when they got to Michigan that she wanted to start a wedding planning business. She got the Friday Workbox® to keep her on track and organized before they moved. She now runs her wedding planning business full time! She’s known for planning unconventional weddings that reflect the character of the bride and groom. 

When Christa first found me, my kids were about her kids' ages. We laughed about having these humans that look like adults in our homes and how they take up more space, have opinions, and different food preferences. Christa has been such a proactive mom that these little adults do their own laundry and can prepare meals for themselves…even if it’s just frosted flakes! We rabbit trailed to what I call “selfish” laundry. Christa mentioned that she’d like to see her son wash more than just a uniform he needs for his sports team. When Greg says he’s going to do the laundry and I see only his jeans got washed; I give him a hard time saying “Oh, we’re doing selfish laundry today?” Christa and I agree to just put a full load in the wash instead. 

She plans her meals for the week when she processes her Sunday Basket® and then the family sees what she’ll be making and what nights they’ll have to fend for themselves. We kind of have this going on at my house except we all have cars and we all have money. So we are all shopping and not all of the food is getting eaten. I remember my mom doing the “refrigerator review” which meant she’d heat up all the leftovers the night before garbage day. Whatever didn’t get eaten, she’d toss. This was one more attempt at that food getting eaten instead of wasted. The Woodruff’s are a work in progress in this area! 

Christa managed to get her home life running pretty smooth and then she focused on her business. She has learned to become a person of excellence in one area and then build on her skill set. Weddings look so different for each couple. I shared that Greg and I were married 6 months after Greg finally proposed, it took him three years. Christa shared that she eloped. She normally hears “you made this process so much more calm than I expected it to be.” Wedding planners are there to have your back. They will read through all the contracts, search for options for flowers or other items you need, and pivot when needed. This way the bride doesn’t get lost in the weeds of the details. She offered some wedding planning advice:

  • Get help planning your wedding. Ideally a wedding planner, but if not rely on your wedding party to help. 

  • Your budget will depend on the number of guests you have attending. So to stay within your budget you may consider a smaller invite list. 

  • Find a venue that fits your vision to prevent additional spending in order to transform the space. 

Hot button alert!!  You wanna hear a good story about a good venue and contracts? I shared what happened to Organize 365® with the Savannah Center. You will not see me doing business with them! Christa shared how she had to fight for a couple when at the last minute a venue decided to have their ballroom renovated leaving them to deal with a less than ideal wedding. You bet Christa got that money back!! That’s the blessing of a wedding planner. 

Christa’s advice is, “learn to be flexible, readjust when needed and not be so rigid in what you want to happen. But feel out what is supposed to happen and what feels right.” 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. 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!

 

Direct download: Transformation_with_Christa_G.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Happy New Year!

Today, I'm kicking off a three-part series called Organizational Dominos. We're starting with Step 1: Start. Next week will be Step 2: Extend Your Timeline, and then comes Step 3: Don't Quit! 

We all want to quit at some point, but we're going to push through and we are NOT going to quit. But let's talk about getting started first. Getting started is the hardest part when you're trying something new, doing something different, or not really sure where you're going...or confident that you know how to get there. 

We've been doing Thursday Throwback episodes of the most popular podcast series we've ever had called The Stages of Organization. Step 1 of that cycle is decluttering. Decluttering leads to organization, and organization leads to increased productivity. Decluttering is easy. It gives you the big "WOW" result when you're done. You can do that for a couple of weeks and feel lighter. However, there are problems with decluttering. One is that you don't declutter enough, and the second is if you've already decluttered but what is left isn't organized - then you need to move on to step 2. Over decluttering is a thing! We tend to do this if we don't know how to get organized, and think instead that we just need to get rid of more things. Set a timer for 15 minutes, grab a black trash bag, and fill it up. Even if you just start with trash or broken items, do that. Then go back through and collect anything that you can donate. 

Stop by the donation place of your choice every single week until you can't fill the car anymore. Declutter 15 minutes a day, and whatever is going to be donated - put it straight in your car. 

Getting started - declutter. Throw out all the trash and broken items, decide to sell or not sell, establish a donation cadence. Time to move on to organizing. 

15 minutes a day. If you use that 15 minutes a day for housework instead of organizing, you're not going to get organized - EVER. What's the difference between housework and organizing? That's what I'm focusing on in my PhD. No joke - in the American Time Use Study, working on a boat is considered housework! Emptying ashtrays, shoveling coal, waiting for your electric car to charge - all housework. Mind blown! 

Housework is anything you do weekly that is basically undone by the time you finish it. Dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, planning meals, cleaning the refrigerator, you get it. So the 15 minutes a day you are spending on ORGANIZING (not housework!) should be for something that will last at least a month. There isn't enough information out in the world about how to actually get organized. There is for decluttering and productivity - but not organizing. So when you're looking this year to follow someone to inspire you to get organized, look for these things: 

  • Someone who has the plan and the results that you want

  • Does their lifestyle match yours? 

  • Their rigidity - Do they have lots of checklists? Do their checklists have checklists? 

  • How they pivot during unexpected events: Do they pivot the way that you would? 

I might not be your person. I may not be enough organization for you. And that's ok.

Are you ready to get organized in 2024? I want to encourage you that it is literally impossible to be behind when you are organizing. All you have to do is START! 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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!

Direct download: 573_-_Organizational_Dominos-__Step_1_-_Start.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Ok, I’m letting you in on some of the behind the scenes stuff I do to prepare for planning days. Yes, I plan for prep for planning days. And I implement after. I think it’s high time I show you live how I do it! Here are the next two additional opportunities you don’t want to miss.

The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Prep Event

I normally spend three days at the end of the year just planning. I know it’s crazy, right? And now all my secrets will be revealed. I will be using my real life Sunday Baskets® and my real life slash pockets. This is not in place of the Sunday Basket® Club co-working time. This is a deep dive day! We are going to the next level! I will show you how I go through each slash pocket and update my binders. I will go through all my 2.0 slash pockets and decide on projects. I will take all of my Holiday Blitz papers and place them into the Home Operations Binder for next year’s holidays. We will transform that Sunday Basket® into the Taxes Basket. You’ll look at last year and the new year baskets and consolidate into one Sunday Basket®. I will also go through both the workbook for The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day and The Productive Home Solution® Playbook. 

Friday Workbox® Planning Day Implementation Event

“Do I need this information for the next 12 weeks?” This is the big question for this day. This will happen on the 13th Friday of each quarter. We do the planning day. We get clear on your goals. Then you usually need to meet with your team OR meet with yourself. After discussing the goals and how to reach them, you may scale down or change how you initially thought you would accomplish those goals. People are in place to get these goals accomplished. Then comes Implementation Day! I will expose all 6 of my Workboxes and will go through them live. You will see me go through my slash pockets and relabel them. This will freshen up all your systems and get the ball rolling on your new goals you put in your purple slash pockets. Ooooh, I just love planning!

Two New Opportunities:

  • Planning Day Prep Dec 28th (the last Thursday of the year) 

    • 2 hour live webinar

    • Replay through Jan 8, 2024

    • Prep Workbook/Playbook

    • Update Binders

    • Weed through 2.0 Slash Pockets

    • If you did the Holiday Blitz, you’ll consolidate and repurpose those Sunday Baskets®

    • No Prerequisite

  • Friday Workbox® Planning Day Implementation Dec 29th (last Friday of the year) 
    • Replay through Jan 8, 2024

    • About three weeks after Friday Workbox® Planning Day

    • 2 hour live webinar

    • Will always be the 13th Friday of each quarter going forward

    • Weed through 2.0 Slash Pockets and relabel them

    • No Prerequisite

All aboard…let’s get both trains (home and work) running efficiently to create the impact we all deeply desire.

 EPISODE RESOURCES:

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!

Direct download: Coffee_Chat_-_Planning_X_3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:25pm EDT

Last week we went over the first step to the cycle of getting organized; decluttering. I shared that decluttering leads to organization. I defined organization as lasting change in your home - not like housework that needs to be done daily or weekly. In this episode, I take that definition one layer deeper. Your rooms should not be talking to you…what does that mean?

There IS seasonality to our homes; our choice of shoes, meals we cook, our diets, activities we enjoy. Naturally, we need different items for each season. This is why here at Organize 365® we have divided the year into trimesters; 4 month segments to plan for the next phase of seasonality your home and life will be facing. Now that we are done with the holidays, when is the next time you’ll be making a turkey? Likely in 11 months. So you could put that turkey pan and the lifters in your storage...but you can’t because your storage area is a hot mess like every other storage area I’ve seen ever. THIS is why it’s nice to be organized. You can tailor your spaces with the seasonality and have an appropriate organized storage area to do that! Each planning day helps you to anticipate these seasons and the “unexpected” events that come our way with each season. 

Did you know that this year Easter is in March??  Yes! Our last planning day we talked about that, which will change spring break for many of us. How do you “Spring Break”? You may need to make hotel reservations or talk to people you travel to for Easter. It’s inevitable that after Easter our brains switch to summer - but the reality is that we have a lot of weeks left in school until summer. I also brought awareness to taxes. Yes, they are coming!!  It’s funny how these “unexpected” events come out of nowhere and can throw everything off track. This is why we have the planning days. For this reason, you get the first planning day included when you get The Productive Home Solution®. We want to give you all the support we can to get you organized and stay that way even if an unexpected or routine “unexpected” event comes your way. 

Year One

After a year of going through all your spaces (15 minutes at a time) decluttering and organizing, you will no longer have rooms talking to you. No room is reminding you to change the light bulb, order a backup of a product you use daily, or a repair that is needed. You have backup of products you use and systems in place to resupply. You are no longer using your decision making allowance on what you are going to wear, what is for breakfast, or other simple decisions throughout your day. This process of decluttering will result in organization. This will not look like everything is labeled and “pretty.” This kind of organization will look like more time and more free thinking space in your brain. You can start to mentally prepare for your day as you get ready or drive to work. You can focus on accomplishing your goals. You may not be organized now, but you could be a year from now. So where do you start? 

I always advise starting in your personal spaces and storage, and then you get to choose your own adventure. You can choose your paper, family spaces, or kids spaces. I will note that kids' spaces need to be done in the summer; so consider where you are in the year when you choose where you will organize next. Once you get to fall, you need to do the spaces you didn’t do in summer. This will take you about a year. If you think about how much time you spent on just your bathroom, you can expect your full home to take about a year!

Year Two

Now that your spaces aren’t talking to you, it’s time to refine. You get life long access to The Productive Home Solution® and can really go through it as many times as you’d like. This time you will go through all of your spaces again…but during this round you will get rid of some things you didn’t last time. You may have set up your Sunday Basket®, but you may find that you are not really making everything wait until Sunday. This year, you will start to understand the importance of waiting until Sunday to free up decision making and time. You will also start to better utilize The Paper Solution® Binders. You will find yourself going through the free blitzes at a deeper level. You are a productive planner. This is the year most people will add the Friday Workbox® too. You have seen the impact of the Sunday Basket® at home and you desire that same level of organization at work, too.

Year Three

THIS is the year you recognize “I am an organized person.” You finally feel it. No rooms are talking to you. You know the visible and invisible work that needs to get done and you have systems in place to support you in work and life. Work is in control. Life is in control. You can flux when unexpected life events come your way. Your home and work will not fall apart. Now you can gather all the time from both areas and think about whatever you want to all the time. You can now start to do what you are uniquely created to do!  I’m not going to lie…you are going to want to quit sometime in these three years. So make sure to catch next week’s episode on what to do when you get the urge to quit. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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!

Direct download: Organize_365_Cycle_of_Organizing-_Step_2_Organizing.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

You all love when Emily comes on the podcast! Here’s the update…

Pretty safe to say the two of us like to plan. And there’s a cadence or a cycle to organizing. We dream, make it real, complete the idea, and then we get to start dreaming again. Emily shared that she looks at these areas of her life the last week of the year or the first week of the new year: financial, spiritual, relational, emotional, mental, and vocational. She decides the next steps she wants to take to improve those areas and then strives towards the next step over the next six weeks which takes her to her birthday. She can audition new ideas and keep what works and what needs to be revamped.

"Forcing things never prosper.” Emily and I agree I have a pretty high awareness of my intuition. I have always been more focused on the destination rather than how I get there. I asked Emily when she decided to start trusting her intuition. She acknowledged that she used to force things and go against her gut. And it was no surprise that things haven’t worked out with this strategy. At Quality IP, she was tired of forcing square pegs into round holes. Once she relinquished control, she felt God putting things into place to keep her afloat as she started down her entrepreneurial journey. She has hustled.

And let me tell you, in general, the hustle is back. The pandemic is over and we are back to the hustle and bustle of life. She has found a couple of marketing clients and she’s done some odd jobs to supplement. She’s always been a fantastic networker and those relationships are paying off. There’s no forcing anything and she’s listening to her intuition. She knows she’s not in control. She reminded us all that we are only in charge of our thoughts, attitude, and our efforts.

Emily pointed out not to count eggs that have not hatched. She shared that she had calls lined up that ended up canceling. But Emily didn’t sweat it because she’d taken advantage of all opportunities that had come her way. Don’t say no to a money making opportunity today because you may have money coming in a week or two. A Friday Workbox® can really help a person to keep track of odd jobs while organizing your main stream of income.

Emily has found herself to be more productive when she starts the day with a list of priorities from the end of yesterday’s work day. She made her list at the end of the day what was most important to complete the next day while it was fresh.

Emily took advantage of her good credit score before she was let go to get a bank loan as a safety net. Keep your credit score in good standings.

Things are moving faster since Covid. I remember many years ago learning about the Singularity Theory from Ray Kurzweil, that at some point everyone would know everything. I had the hardest time wrapping my brain around this concept. This has been made possible mostly due to the internet. The rate at which we learn new information is exponentially faster than 10 years ago. There’s not the lag of relaying of the information that there used to be. And now…

Visit organize365.com/EmilyKelly to read more.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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!

Direct download: Emily_Kelly.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

You did it! You made it to the end of 2023. What lies before us are all the hopes, dreams, and possibilities of 2024.

This is what I like to call the Golden Week. The week after Christmas and before New Years where you're culminating the end of a year and getting ready for the beginning of a new year. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, the last week of December is magical for everyone. For some of us, we're like "Bye bye 2023! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" 

What's the cost of not being organized? What's the cost of not making a choice about not making a resolution to get organized? The cost is usually time and money. Everything costs you time and everything costs you money.

The first and easiest way that you can save money is by planning your food and meals. You use the Sunday Basket® System to help you meal plan. Use this Golden Week to reflect, make changes or pivots. Take 15 or 20 minutes a week and really start to think about your grocery shopping and meal planning. 

How can we get a handle on our time? For me, I've always captured every single second of my time to try to get as much out of that time as possible; to be as productive as possible. Now my goal is to get more of my time back so that I can do NOTHING. Yes, you heard that right! I really want to see if I can stop working by 8 pm every night. I know what needs to be moved into daytime hours or completely eliminated. Very few people know where their time goes. Not me. I keep track of everything - every minute spent at work, on school, with Grayson, Greg, Joey, Abby...all of it.

So when you look at your 2024, is there one way in which you want to focus on your money? One way in which you want to focus on your time? One way in which you want to focus on your wellness? How can you take the first step to do that? The Sunday Basket® helps you get through as many tasks as possible and plan for the upcoming week of what you anticipate to happen. You can go to organize365.com to try the free week of the Sunday Basket®.

What do you want out of your 2024? Where do you need to improve your organization so that you can have more time and money?

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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!

Direct download: 572_-_The_GOLDEN_Week_-_Reflect_on_2023__Jump_Into_2024.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Throw-back time…We are going to revisit a 3 part series that includes our most listened to episodes. I’m going to revisit what each step looks like and how to complete them. It’s a domino effect - decluttering leads to organization which leads to productivity! There is so much information about decluttering and productivity but where is the handbook to organization? The middle step is missing. It’s a common thought that housework is organization. I am here to set the record straight. Housework is those daily or weekly chores that never seem to be completed, and organization is the lasting result. Decluttering the utensil drawer and making it more functional for your home is organization. Putting things into the drawer from the dishwasher is housework. Vacuuming and laundry is housework. Once you organize something it usually stays that way for a while unless it's a family space and the results don’t last as long. You know!

Declutter → Organization → Productivity

Step one is decluttering. All you have to do is set a 15 minute timer. Now to complete a housework task. Go to your bathroom or closet and declutter for 15 minutes. At the end of that 15 minutes decide where the items you no longer want will go. Will you toss them? Recycle them? Sell them? Donate them? 

In my book “Organization Is a Learnable Skill,” I took 4 months to declutter. Then I decided to sell a few things. For those four months, I placed items in one room. Then I held a garage sale. I wasn’t in a position to work and I wanted to contribute to the family so this was a way I could. You can sell online or however is most convenient for you. BUT I have three rules. 

In my opinion, sell the items that will bring in $25 or more. It will take you time to set up a garage sale or post and monitor online so make sure it’s worth your time. Then set a deadline to have the items sold. If you haven't sold them by the deadline, then it’s time to trash or donate. You could spend a lot of time trying to re-post or sell elsewhere. Call a spade a spade and move on. Decide before you sell specifically what you are going to use that money for. Like I mentioned, this was my way to contribute to my family. You could go on vacation, buy something for the house, remodel something, buy a new piece of furniture, The Productive Home Solution®…lol, just sayin’.

If you have decided to donate…just relocate the items immediately to your car trunk. I encourage you to get a routine down daily or weekly. Maybe every Thursday after work, you stop by your donation center and drop off your items. Maybe you want to get through as much as you can in one week. Before you start the next 15 minute decluttering session the next day, you go drop off your items. Head home and complete as many 15 minute sessions as you have energy for. 

You CAN spend too long decluttering…

Once you are happy with what is in your home, stop decluttering. It’s possible that you keep decluttering things you actually want in search of that sense of control. Or you want to feel like the heavens have parted and are shining down on your hard work. Not yet. The idea is just to get rid of your broken or no longer used items so you can organize the things you do want in your home. I want you to know where they are and have your home functional for you. The next step of organization is where you will feel more confident and in control of your home. 

Look into my crystal ball

These 15 minutes of decluttering sessions are sustainable for about 2 months on your own. And that brings us to the end of February. At that point you are going to think “I love the spaces I have decluttered and organized. I’d really like support to keep going on with the rest of my home. I’d like to try something more with Organize 365®” OR you will think “I did it! I organized the few spaces I spend time in and I’m at peace with that.” I don’t really have a crystal ball but I have observed clients and the Organize 365® community and have seen this play out time and time again. I’d love to be the one to help you get organized in 2024!

Who are you gonna follow? 

Are you ready to get organized in 2024? I am not everyone’s cup of tea and I am ok with that. I am a functional organizer. I strive for excellence not perfection. Greg grew up in a minimalist setting so he gives me grief over the house not being organized. He would not follow me! I am extremely organized, but I am not a minimalist. I like books and memorabilia. I like my things, and the things I have are organized. I hope you do see the value that I am offering. I hope you see how I pivoted during Covid and it seemed approachable for you. I hope you saw me take the challenge of Greg’s shoulder surgery last week and see how the holiday was still successful. It just looked different this year. Whoever you decide to guide you down the road of organization - do you like their lifestyle, daily accomplishments, rigidity? Choose a person that tackles life events and organization in a way that feels good to you. You want results, right? 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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!

Direct download: Organize_365_Cycle_of_Organizing-_Step_1_Declutter.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

I just love sharing this journey with this community! I love that while processing my thoughts auditorily, I get to connect with you and pick your brains. Just like you all do in the online community! I shared with you about the Teacher Pilot and now I want to fill you in on the Kids Program Pilot.

“How did you come up with the Kids Program?”

I should have expected this question. Of course, they didn’t have many organizational questions because they had just completed the after school program their parents signed them up for - The Kids Pilot. And there should have been no surprise that it was predominantly boys. Mom wanted little Johnny to pick up after himself better, I guess! We had 14 children participate. 

They wanted to know how I came up with the Kids Program. 

First Thing’s First

First things first, what is the Kids Program? In my years of professional home organizing, I developed some rules for organizing the kids' rooms.

First, no parents. I wanted the child to feel comfortable to say yes or no to items or clothes they didn’t want in their room. And let me tell you, you can force your child, guilt your child into keeping something in their room, but it isn’t getting played with or worn! Speaking of stuffed animals, and you can apply this to other “collections,” there's a process of elimination I explained. Our brains can get all mixed up when the things we definitely want to keep are mixed up with the things we are ok to let go. 

Also, if the child has a rock collection you don’t want them to have, come up with a compromise. It’s like their passion project and you are completely dismissing it. So instead allow them a certain amount of space or number of items that they can keep. It’s their little passion project, their treasures. You can have an organized room with passion projects in them. 

And clothes are a whole other battle. When dealing with smaller children, the only real question they are considering is how do these clothes make me feel? They don’t care about the occasion they may need it for. They never knew how you dressed as a child or how you envision your child dressing. They wanna be able to play in comfort. I always found in boys it was jeans vs. “swishy” pants. You can buy them all the jeans you want but if they like swishy pants, swishy pants are the only thing getting worn. I want to save the child from the battle with the parent over what they want to wear. And I want the parent to spend wisely on clothing their children will actually wear. I talk to the child in my only Lisa voice and help them to respectfully articulate to their parents their preferences and why. I know we all want an organized child and an organized child is much more likely to be confident. Organization breeds confidence. 

There are about 14 steps between “You know how” and “Do it like this”

There is no system in place of how we “hand down” how to #adult. This applies to baby steps like helping our children to organize their mini apartments, to our emerging adults to their independent living spaces. That is why we offer the Kids Program and Launch Program for ages 16-25. We go out on our own and overnight gain a ton of responsibility. 

Did you know that one out of three children are born with organizational skills? So it isn’t any wonder that 87% of adults don’t feel organized. So if we don’t learn organization in school or college, I mean, where are we to learn these skills? It’s not like we wake up adults one day with the skill of organization! The Launch Binder is a great way to comprehensively hand down the skills and systems we have learned along the way for an organized lifestyle. How do we all learn grocery shopping, a cleaning schedule, managing prescriptions, health insurance, buying a car, routine things like oil changes and getting new tires? As parents we just figured it out with each new stage of life. And oh my gosh, throw a kid in the mix and now it just got a lot more complex! Now you are managing a house instead of an apartment, managing other people’s messes and your emotions about those messes, and you are balancing work and home life - not just school and the other stuff mom and dad take care of. Kids don’t know what they don’t know and I believe we all want to better inform our children to reduce their stress and boost their confidence.

How do we get this into the educational system?

So again I want to ask you, my community…how can we get this into all educational systems? At what age? Senior in high school? At the college level? We NEED to be teaching the skill of organization! Did you know that children who aren’t organized also have increased negative self talk? And as we get older and gain more responsibilities to juggle, do you think the self-talk improves? If we can teach these students how to get organized and maintain it, we’ll have mentally healthier confident children with skills that transfer into the rest of their lives. That will result in them moving through their goals faster and making an impact. Please let me know what you are thinking as I am sharing this information. 

This is the last frontier AI will approach. And I’m not confident it’ll ever be able to manage the administration of life! So we’ve got to figure this out and teach them how to help themselves in whatever phase of life they are in. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

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. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. 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!

Direct download: Thoughts_on_Visiting_the_Kids_Program_School_Pilot_Program.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Happy Boxing Day! Oh my goodness! This is another holiday that I now celebrate that other people may not celebrate. I've basically curated for myself a year full of fake holidays! I don't know any woman that wakes up on the 26th that doesn't want to declutter everything in their house. It's after the holidays, it's at the end of the year, you're getting ready for a new year, new you. This year on Boxing Day, I wanted to let you know that we are going to have a book club on January 12th, going through the book Organization is a Learnable Skill. I self-published this book in 2021 and did a book tour as well. This is the story of getting myself organized in 2012, the year I turned 40 and the same year I started Organize 365®. I wanted to publish this book for a long time because I like to follow someone's story through the highs and lows about how something happens.

So often when we are trying to do something new, all we see are the courses, communities, lessons...the whole long list of everything there is to do in order to end up organized at the end of the year. But what happens all the time, during that year? What are the milestones where you start to feel organized? When are the milestones where other people start to notice? What trips you up as you move along through organization?

You don't need to re-buy the book to attend the book club. The ticket to attend the live event is $12. Don't worry if you can't attend live, there will be a replay after the event that's available to watch for 25 days. If you need the book and the book club we have that option, too. If you like listening to books - the book is also on Audible! You can submit questions in advance and I'll answer as many as I can. You will also receive a downloadable Journal Prompt booklet in the email with the replay link.

So as you're looking to 2024 and want to start getting organized or continue on your organizing journey, these journal prompts walk you through each month of Organization is a Learnable Skill. This book is written almost like a monthly diary, what I did in January, what I did in February...how I felt about that and the progress that I made from being the least organized I've ever been in my entire life. 

Good luck decluttering everything. Try not to declutter anything with a heartbeat! Make sure the cats, dogs, and children are out of the way as you are frantically decluttering your house getting ready for an amazing, amazing 2024!

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Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

How do we move from being a productive person who can get a lot done in a day to someone who can really set and achieve bigger goals that are going to make a marked difference in the world? The way to become more impactful doesn't come from productivity, it doesn't come from apps, and it doesn't come from digitizing things. It comes from increasing your organization. 

In order to build the tracks for your work train, you have to establish work systems, processes and habits. In Workbox Planning Day, we talk about having a beginning of the day routine, a midday routine, and an end of the day routine. Then you can add in Friday Workbox® coworking time each Friday, and Planning Day every quarter. Now there will be the new Workbox Planning Day Implementation event that will kick off next week, and will continually happen every quarter. You have to build these tracks first so that you can move forward faster. Having these three routines each day gives you guardrails and allows you to task stack different things at different times of the day so that you have more capacity and more time to work on your purple projects and move new initiatives forward through the company. 

Now you're moving faster because these habits and routines have reduced your decision making fatigue. You've task stacked as many of your green tasks into these bucketed times each day and week so that you have more free time to work on the other colors - pink, purple and blue. Now it's time to build the train cars. How you build your work train cars is very customized. What your train looks like throughout your career is also very customized. Interestingly, you can get your work train up and running faster than your home train. Typically it only takes a year - if you're an employee. If you're a business owner, it's a lifetime pursuit. You're never going to be done because you're always reorganizing the train tracks, moving around the cars or adding and subtracting them. It's basically one big game. 

The first work train car will be the Business Friday Workbox®. This will teach you there are four different kinds of work; four different roles you play in your job. Everyone has four: pink, purple, blue and green. Once you figure out what those are, we're going to optimize those four kinds of work over the course of one year. The second train car are the Workbox Planning Days. Until you learn how to plan, how to use your Friday Workbox®, it's really just a pretty way of organizing your to do list. Until you learn to plan the work that's within the workbox, it's very reactive. You might speed up a little, but you will not have the impact that you want to have. How do you take the green work (administrative) and task stack it in as small amount of time as possible at regular intervals throughout the day so that you can increase the capacity you have for the pink, purple and blue work?

Once you start going through the Planning Days, you start to proactively and purposefully plan out what your initiatives are going to be in the next 90 days. You start doing less, but getting more in depth. You delete or delegate projects, you streamline your goals and stop overcommitting. You realize how cyclical work is and how much it's related to home. 

There are other things that are going to slow down your train - like losing a team member, adding a team member, a new product, losing a product, and so on. Every time you pull into the station, you will go through every single train car. Every 90 days, every quarter. I would love for you to join me for the Workbox Planning Day Implementation event next week. It will be the 13th week of every quarter from now on, so you can add this into your coaching package in order to keep your train running. My job is to get you more productive and profitable so that you can avail yourself of all of those great coaches thereafter. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Business Friday Workbox®

Workbox Planning Day

Friday Workbox® Planning Day Monthly Subscription

Workbox Implementation Day

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Direct download: 571_-_Creating_a_WORK_Organizing_Train.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT