I am super excited to welcome you to the next Organize 365® Podcast series. I am sharing my conversations with members of the Dream Team while we are in the messy middle of some of our current transitions. In this 4 part series we will be unpacking the most commonly asked FAQs for different parts of the Organize 365® transformational journey. I want to keep you updated on changes and improvements as we declutter and organize before our 10th Anniversary in January 2022. We are not eliminating anything, or raising our prices on any existing products. We are simply doing some decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity.

This podcast is all treats --  no tricks!

This week, Emily Kelly and I go back to the foundation of home organization and talk about the Sunday Basket®. Emily is our Director of Customer Success and my sister. Emily has been making phone calls to  many of you and has gotten to connect with you on a personal level, just like I did during the summer book tour. We are hearing about how you found Organize 365®, where you live, and what your transformational journey looks like so far. We are taking what we learn in those conversations to make our programs even better!

During our opportunity to interact with all the members of this community, the same questions came up over and over. Change is nerve-wracking, especially after the out of control experiences so many of us faced during the pandemic. As your organizing teacher, I want to give you the lesson plan for how to get started and make progress getting your home and paper organized. 

Today, Emily and I share the top ten questions we have been getting about the Complete Sunday Basket® System. Listen in and let me know what you learn from our discussion!

Top 10 Sunday Basket® FAQ:

1. What is the Sunday Basket®? 

At the most basic level, it is a box that sits on your counter and acts as a place to hold all your ideas, actionable to-dos, kitchen counter papers, and mail. It is also a cadence to check those items and prioritize them for maximum efficiency throughout the week. It is your brain in a box! This clears up your brain for higher level thinking, problem solving, or even to rest. Although the “brain in a box” started as a joke, the Sunday Basket® actually does externalize your executive functioning part of your brain. Anyone can find success using this system, but it is especially effective for people diagnosed with ADHD. 

2. What does the Complete Sunday Basket® System include?

As a teacher, I wanted to ensure that any kind of learner could use and be successful with this system. For that reason, the training materials and support cover a variety of learning styles. The physical products include all the supplies you will need to use your Sunday Basket®: a collapsible box in your choice of color, 25 slash pockets to organize your actionable paper, and a training booklet. There is an online dashboard with training videos. And, every purchase includes access to the online community with a weekly Sunday Basket® Club - an online co-working and accountability session. As with all Organize 365® products, this includes lifetime access.

3. How long does it take to know if this system will work for me? 

Some people catch on quickly, and have it down in two weeks. For the majority of people, it takes four to six weeks to develop the Sunday Basket® habit. It takes some time for you to change your habits, and learn a new way of keeping track of your to-dos and making good decisions about how and when to do them. You are moving from living in a reactive mode to a proactive mode. 

The to-do list isn’t going away; finishing your to-do list faster is not the answer. It takes your brain at least a month to trust yourself and the new system. Initially, your brain will pester you, but if you consistently use the Sunday Basket® your brain will learn to calm down and trust that the Sunday Basket® works!

4. What if Sunday at 5 pm doesn’t work for me to do the Sunday Basket® Club live?

Do it every week when it works for you. Watch the Sunday Basket® replay! The day and time you do your Sunday Basket® does not matter as long as you are consistent and develop the habit. Make a rule for yourself, and stick to the time that works in your life

5. I don’t have enough paper to do my Sunday Basket® every week. What should I do?

It’s ok to adjust to what you need. If you are just getting started, still develop a routine habit of working in your Sunday Basket®. You can start with once a month or every two weeks to get in the habit, and then increase to every week.

If you have been doing your Sunday Basket® for a long time, you may be more proactive and you likely have cleared out a lot of your previous backlog. It’s ok to do it less frequently just don’t stop entirely! You can try every other week, or the first two weeks of each month, or a different cadence.

Whenever you feel stressed or anxious, consider going through your Sunday Basket® to get back on track. Chaotic times of year like May, August, and the last six weeks of the year benefit from weekly attention.

6. I have the opposite problem. I can’t wait a whole week without going into my Sunday Basket® again, there’s too much going on. Can I do it twice in the same week?

This situation is more typical, especially as people are learning the skills of organization or in a transition time of life. When going through my Sunday Basket®, I (Lisa) typically only plan through Thursday. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are too far away to plan effectively. I front load my week to get as much as I can done on Monday and Tuesday, and then I adjust as the week goes on. Of course, if needed, you can do your Sunday Basket® twice! 

7. You say to do the Sunday Basket® first when getting organized. Can I do the Sunday Basket® and the 100 Day Home Organization Program at the same time? If so, how would you recommend I do them together?

Yes! Emily recommends picking one day to do your Sunday Basket® and make that your only organizing task that day. Then, the rest of the week, do as much of the 100 Days as you reasonably can - focusing on progress over perfection and giving yourself grace for what is not done.

Lisa recommends - reframe your sense of time. “Most people underestimate what taking a full 365 days to focus on getting organized will do to transform the next ten years of your life” ~ Lisa Woodruff. Take a deep breath. You are on a journey moving toward proactivity and organization. You have everything that you need. What do you want to do first?

Start with your most pressing need or what you are most excited to do. Make it work for you. You have made an investment, so keep working towards your goals. 

8. I am drowning!! What if I don’t have the time to dedicate to my Sunday Basket® in order to get my five hours a week back? Is there a way to “start smaller” on the Sunday Basket® concept?

If you literally have no time or energy to get started, this can feel overwhelming. We know that spending about 90 minutes per week going through your Sunday Basket® gives you five hours of free time later in the week once you establish the habit. The Sunday Basket® moves you into proactive anticipation, and that results in more efficiency and effectiveness. The net result is you have more free time.

If you are listening to the podcast, you are taking the first step. You are mentally becoming a more organized and proactive person. It can take 9-18 months for your mindset to change enough that you are ready to take physical action. You are doing it right, and you are already saving yourself time just by the learning you do when listening to the podcast!

Unfortunately, there is ultimately no smaller step to getting organized than the Sunday Basket®. In order to pivot from reactive to proactive living, you need a system. The Sunday Basket® is the system you need to create change. You need to refocus your time and priorities to make changes in your life. Find one whole day before the end of the year and use it to stop and completely change direction. Set up your Sunday Basket® and see how your life changes.  

9. Talk to me about the lifetime access part of Organize 365® programs. I have purchased programs from other companies and I haven’t done them. I don’t trust myself to follow through with this either. Can you convince me?

I don’t follow the most common online selling practices. I don’t want people to feel pressured or anxious about purchasing or participating. I want to offer a transformational experience that I know is going to work and will be available for you as you go through life. Financial situations change. Emotional and physical demands change. Unexpected events are part of every single life. Organize 365® is here for you when you are making progress, and when you step away and come back.

Making a purchase can take things to the next level. It tells your brain you are serious and that you are investing in making a change. The membership aspect to our paid programs also helps to build community, gives you support, and strengthens your commitment. When you are in the Sunday Basket® Club, you have a membership in a group of people who focus on prioritizing what they are accomplishing for the upcoming week.

With lifetime access, you can start today. Some progress is always better than NO progress. Start now and take the first step. Join and start making progress. And, with the Sunday Basket® Club, you have weekly educational courses from certified organizers. Slowly improving over time can lead to big changes.

10. Does the Sunday Basket® organize ALL my papers?

No! The Sunday Basket® is only for your actionable to-do related papers. When you start your Sunday Basket® we have you collect the loose papers from everywhere in your home. You then divide them into actionable and reference/archive.

Any papers that do not require action should live outside of your Sunday Basket®. Organize 365® recommends storing your archival papers in portable, space-limited binders. Listen to podcast 456 next week for more information about that. 

BONUS: OK I think it might work, Is there a way for me to try it out before I buy it? 

We have a seven day mini course where you get more information on the Sunday Basket® delivered by email. Sign up at organize365.com/minicourse

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, 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 get Organized!

This week, I am sharing my interview with Mary G. She lives with her husband and two daughters. She shares about her journey with anxiety and helping her kids deal with their ADHD. Mary shares how getting (more) organized and learning to think proactively helped her family survive some very challenging unexpected events. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I do! 

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

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket®

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

We have a big announcement for you! We wanted our amazing community to be the first to know. We are leaving Facebook!

I have wanted to leave Facebook for three years. The Organize 365® mission, vision, and values includes building life in community. In the past, some people who purchased a Sunday Basket®, the 100 Day Program, or All Access were unable to participate in the community aspect of our programs. Some did not have an account, and others chose not to have one. That limitation has always bothered me. The community that goes along with the Organize 365® transformation should be available to everyone who wants to participate.

We have been upgrading our technology and support for your transformation for several years already. The online community was especially difficult because it took us a long time to find the right way to create it. I wanted an app for our community that was truly independent of any other platform or company. 

We finally found our solution. We are creating our own custom Organize 365® community app. Now, everyone can be in community on this app specifically with other people who have invested in their transformational journey with Organize 365®. I wanted a way to host a community that was positive, productive, and purposeful. Everything in the new community app will help grow your mindset, increase your positivity, and help you organize your home to live a positive, proactive, purposeful life. 

Here’s what it will look like:

• Organize 365® app for people who have purchased Organize 365® products
• The app is free to download, but participation is limited to those who have purchased specified products
• It will provide the same community groups we currently have on Facebook
• The Dream Team and Certified Organizers will be there to help you along your journey
• All Access members will have a curated, private podcast starting December 5th, available only in the app
• The current Organize 365® app is going away once the new app is ready
• The website is optimized for mobile and you have access to your dashboard directly on your smartphone
• Near the end of 2021, we will archive all of the Facebook groups associated with our purchased products
• The free Facebook groups will continue including my lives and the Blitzes

We are giving you information to help you be proactive about this transition. The app is not launching today. We’re hoping to have it live in the next 2-6 weeks - ideally sometime in November 2021. You will get an email inviting you to join once the app is ready.

We have been working on this transition for three years already. It’s the right time for us to make this happen. We are looking forward to seeing you in our new community as soon as everything is in place.

Welcome to our new Wednesday series of transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements!

On Wednesdays, I normally 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. 

Today, I am sharing my conversation with Jennifer Butler. Jennifer is one of our newest Friday Workbox Certified Organizers. Jennifer brings experience as a parent of a child with a serious medical illness, and as an entrepreneur. She also has experience with autism, ADHD, and living internationally with her family. She brings all of this life experience and knowledge to her services.

You can find Jennifer at House of Order, on Instagram, and Facebook.

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 with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket®

All AccessCCESS

Friday Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Organize 365® Certified Organizers

Four years ago, on a plane from Los Angeles to New York, I wrote out the Organize 365® mission, vision, and values. Today, we are a much larger team making a bigger impact in the world, but our values have stayed true. 

What is truly amazing is that these five values are not just held by the Dream Team, but these are the values that the Organize 365 community has as well. When we focus on these values, we arrive at the “after” feel of organization and productivity I shared with you last week. (Don’t forget to tag us in your after photos of what you are doing now that you have increased your capacity by getting organized!)

Organize 365® guides you along a transformational journey that organizes both your heart and your mind. Our values are:

• Power of Positivity 
• Building Community
• Life in Abundance 
• Transformational Freedom
• Proactive Anticipation

Let me know what value you think is the strongest for you and how you are seeing it in your transformational journey!

Welcome to our new Wednesday series of transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements!

On Wednesdays, I normally 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. 

Today, I am sharing my conversation with Jenn Dickel. Jenn shared about finding a Mastermind back in early 2020. She is back today to share her experience in our newest Mastermind to improve the Friday Workbox and become a Friday Workbox Certified Organizer. Jenn is a businesswoman and entrepreneur who loves to help others focus on improving their productivity. 

You can find Jenn at Seasonal Navigation Organizing, on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. 

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 with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket®

All AccessCCESS

Friday Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Organize 365® Certified Organizers

Most professional organization companies like Organize 365® want to show before and after photos. We all love to see a big change - we love makeover shows, decluttering shows, and even dating shows. Magazine pictures and Pinterest show some drool-worthy before and after photos, and many of us are striving to achieve that “after” look of perfectly aligned shelves, and color coded produce bins in the refrigerator. But, those pictures aren’t reflective of real life. Those photo-worthy moments don't last when life is lived and stuff is used. 

The real change that comes from getting organized is hard to put into words, impossible to quantify, and can’t be demonstrated on social media. The photos we can take in our homes can sometimes show a partial improvement or a sample of the transformation. When you get organized, how you feel changes dramatically! 

Listening to this podcast starts to shift your mindset toward living an organized and proactive life. You incrementally get better at using your time to achieve your own priorities. When you add on our courses and products, you add rocket fuel to your transformation. 

Getting organized enough to feel different can happen in a weekend or a month, but your home (your outer reflection) will not look perfect. It’s actually not about your stuff.

Before

We have all had at least one season of life where our feelings were the “before” of living an organized life. When you live reactively, feeling stressed, depressed, overwhelmed, and anxious is typical. When your life is driven by someone else’s agenda and the obligations others place upon  you, all you can do is react. 

As I share in Organization is a Learnable Skill, during my most reactive times, I was afraid of letting other people down and not meeting external expectations. My emotions were just like a before picture of a disorganized kitchen. Thoughts were everywhere. I couldn’t focus and I knew I was not keeping up. Even worse, I was unbelievably stressed and I wasn’t meeting my own expectations. I didn’t have capacity for anything more. My house, brain, and heart were all disorganized.

After

As I developed the Sunday Basket®, I got a grip on my life again. Taking 60-90 minutes a week to look ahead and plan, gave me much more mental capacity and less stress. As I have continued to be more proactive in my own life, I have more time for myself, for self-care, for my passions, and for building relationships. I also have more capacity to pour into Organize 365® so that I can help you get organized so that you can live out your unique purpose. 

As you get organized and learn to live proactively, the way you feel inside changes. You are more calm and less overwhelmed. When unexpected events occur, you can adjust what is on your calendar, defer and delete the things that are no longer important, and handle what is actually happening. Your capacity increases - in almost every area of your life. You have more time for yourself, your relationships, your passion projects, and your life. 

Show us your afters!

We want to see your after photos. Not the cluttered and then empty kitchen counter, though that is great too! The after is you, living the life you are uniquely created to live!  

What is the essence of you? What do you love doing?

Maybe it’s being with your family, reading a great book, hiking in nature, starting a business, writing a book, spending time supporting a charity, or something we haven’t even thought about yet. 

The more you increase your organization and proactivity, the more capacity you have for what you want to do. The possibilities are limitless. Each of us has a story that keeps expanding.

So, on Saturdays, we want to see your afters on Instagram! We’ll be sharing some from the Dream Team, and we want you to share with us.

Welcome to our new Wednesday series of transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements!

On Wednesdays, I normally 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. 

Today, I am sharing my conversation with Sheri MacGregor. Sheri was a Wednesday Transformation guest in 2020 and is back today as a Friday Workbox Certified Organizer. She has experience as a teacher, running a construction business, dealing with medical paperwork, has worked on IEP’s, and has settled an estate. We talk about how she has adapted her professional organizing business in COVID and while moving. There’s so much to learn here!

You can find Sheri at Peaceful Paper Peaceful Spaces, on Instagram and on Facebook. 

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 with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday

For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links:

Organize 365

The Sunday Basket®

All AccessCCESS

Friday Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Organize 365® Certified Organizers

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

For our final podcast in the Friday Workbox series, I want to teach you how I am able to get so much done, so that you can use the same tools to transform your life.

I am a naturally productive person. My productivity is the result of my ability to plan. One of my gifts is my orientation to time. I have always been good at assigning an accurate amount of time to a task. As I moved from my to-do list to my Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox™, I began to schedule time to complete tasks directly on my calendar.

Every week, I take time to work through my Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox™. As I do so, I pull out the tasks that must be done in the upcoming week, determine how long it will take, and schedule when I will do them. I can immediately see if there are conflicts between what I need to do and the time available so that I can prioritize and make decisions proactively.   

Every seven days, I make new decisions about what I will take action on. The reason a Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox™ are so effective is because all of my dreams, ideas, research materials and goals are safely captured in my boxes. I may not get to those dreams as soon as I would like, but nothing is ever forgotten. 

My secret sauce to productivity and success is the act of planning. I want to share with you how I use Planning Day and Workbox Planning Day with every new season as the ultimate task stacking habit. 

Home

At home, Planning Day occurs just prior to the new cycle of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. During that week, I look at how I will use my time in the upcoming 17 weeks, set new goals, and deep review through any 2.0 slash pockets that have been on hold.  

Work

At the end of each calendar quarter, I deep dive into my plan for my business. On the 13th week of the quarter, just before my new quarter starts, I use the last week to reconcile expenses, set new goals, update the social media agenda, and do a deep review of every business slash pocket I have created. Then, I execute that plan for the next 12 weeks.

Win

By being realistic about what I can complete in the upcoming quarter, I am able to actually achieve my goals and finish my projects. Anything that I will not have the time, money, motivation, or energy to address goes back into holding. Those ideas and projects are ready and waiting for their right time to shine. I know all of those slash pockets will be reviewed at the next planning day, and I can take action on them then if the time is right. 

The better you get at planning and improving your productivity, the more capacity and impact you will create. You will win at home, work, relationships, and in your community. You will learn to live with excellence, ease, and enjoyment. Planning is the key to unlocking your ability to achieve your goals!