Organize 365® Podcast

Happy New Year’s Eve!

It’s hard to believe, but ten years ago, I started along this journey to create and share Organize 365®. I share the details of this story in my memoir Organization is a Learnable Skill. I was in a place where my world was spinning out of control, I had quit my job.

I could never have in my wildest dreams imagined that so many good things would happen. A podcast, physical Sunday Basket® system, and published books were not even in the realm of possibility in my future. 

But, I had written down my biggest possible goal for Organize 365®. I have all of my dreams recorded in my special pink notebook. I went back and looked at it.

That year I took to focus on my home and family changed my life. I changed my mindset from overwhelmed and reactive, to productive and proactive. I knew that my zone of genius was organizing. I set some goals for growing my business, but I have pivoted and exceeded my wildest dreams!

Sometimes it’s hard to dream forward ten years. Instead, take a little bit of time and look backward ten years. 

  • What have you accomplished in the last decade? 
  • What life experiences have you added to your journey? 
  • Who are you today that you weren’t ten years ago?

Over the last few months, Organize 365® has been making a lot of changes. We are planning to be settled into our new normal by January 2022. We are working to make the transformational journey easier to start (and to finish) for everyone! We have been busy bees at the office getting everything decluttered and organized to better support your journey.

You can learn more about:

The Complete Sunday Basket® System

The Productive Home Solution™ (formerly known as All Access)

The Kids Program

The Friday Workbox™ 

Organization is an inside job. But, it is also a learnable skill. It’s not as simple as tying your shoes. It’s more like learning a foreign language. It typically takes about 365 days. You can start anytime you want. The sooner you start, the faster you will transform your life. Join us! I look forward to helping you get organized!

Thank you for being on this journey with me! Thank you for listening, downloading, sharing, and rating the podcast. We are going to celebrate ten years next week, and I cannot wait!

Direct download: Org365-465.mp3
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If you and I were at a family holiday gathering together this week, the podcast today is the conversation I would start. 

I have always been inquisitive. Asking big questions and researching new interests is something I have always done. I see it in my husband, Greg, and our kids too. Whenever we wonder about something, we grab our phones and start to Google.

It’s a great thing really, the ability to question and get answers to your questions right away. Access to information has become a great equalizer and I find more and more of my friends have caught the questioning and researching bug that I have always had.

The last two years have brought an unprecedented amount of change in every single area of our lives, and it is the pace of that change that is hard to comprehend.  

I do not have a big revelation, actionable plan, or solution to share. These are partly mindset shifts, and some observations, thoughts, and musings. 

Listen in and have a mental conversation with me this weekend. YOU are the person I would most like to talk to at the party. 

Direct download: Org365-464.mp3
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Be My Guest! Read more and apply here: https://organize365.com/wednesday

Direct download: Org365-W-BeMyGuest.mp3
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What do you think of when you think of productivity?

Remember last week when I said that when I am organized I feel like I can make forward progress on my goals and projects.

For me productivity means doing MORE usually in LESS time or with less resistance. 

If you break down the 3 steps to getting organized: 

  • Decluttering = Removing.
  • Organizing = Rearranging.
  • Increasing Productivity = Moving forward faster.

Let's look specifically at Increasing Productivity. Productivity comes from thinking and planning. Every minute you spend planning SAVES 4-5 minutes in executing your plan.

Planning = TIME SAVED.

While it may be hard to find time to plan your day, your meals or your vacation, you KNOW that when you do - everything goes easier and faster.

Once again I have one caution... to be most effective, you need to have decluttered and organized the area you want to increase productivity in. These steps do need to be done in order.

5 Steps to Increased Productivity.

  1. Use the organized system.
  2. Plan.
  3. Refine and reorder.
  4. Evaluate / maintain.
  5. Execute.

Get your FREE printable of the 3 stages of decluttering here!

 

Direct download: Org365-463.mp3
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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 Sarah H. She is a physician and a single mom. She shares how she has worked to become more proactive even during an unpredictable phase of life. 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®

The Productive Home Solution/ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Direct download: Org365-SarahH.mp3
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Get your FREE printable of the 3 stages of decluttering here!

FINALLY!

Don't you just want to jump right to the step where you get to go buy cute matching containers when you are organizing a space? ME TOO!

BUT every time I do that... it influences what I keep and how I store things instead of my THINGS influencing those decisions. (In the podcast I share how I figured that out as a professional organizer.)

First, let's talk about what being organized means. For me it means:

  • Everything has a place.
  • I know where to find things.
  • I do not spend time LOOKING for things. 
  • I FEEL organized and put together.
  • I can have friends over and feel great.
  • My house looks good - not perfect - but good.
  • I feel confident in my abilities.
  • I don't have too little or too much.
  • I have choices of how to spend my time.
  • I am able to make forward progress on my goals and projects.

Before I dive into the 5 steps to organizing I want to give you one caution...

You will not get it 100% right the first time. 

Yep, no matter what you are organizing, your goal is to get 80-90% better. The last 10% comes in step 3. Which I will cover next week.

Ok, so you know how you will feel and are not going for perfection, let's dive in!

5 Steps to Organizing

  1. Get a big picture plan for the space.
  2. Combine like items.
  3. Match your items to the space.
  4. Buy organizers.
  5. Clean and finish.

Organizing feels amazing! But after a while... you realize something is missing. The last 10% is Step 3 of organizing — Increased Productivity.

Links to things mentioned in the podcast:

Try one FREE week of the 100 Day Home Organization Program - now available inside The Productive Home Solution.

Direct download: Org365-462.mp3
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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 Kerensa P. She lives with her spouse and young daughter. She shares her story of how a medical binder helped in her infertility journey and helped her to grow her family. She also shares how much she has benefited from working with a Sunday Basket® Certified Organizer. 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®

The Productive Home Solution/ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-KerensaP.mp3
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 5 Steps to Decluttering 
  1. Eliminate all trash, food and broken items.
  2. Sell or consign anything of value you want to sell. 
  3. Bag up any donatable items and deliver them to the donation center. (Including consignment items they wouldn't take)
  4. Collect everything that goes in another room and locate it in that room.
  5. Make a list of any spaces that need organizers, or items that need to be replaced. 

Decluttering feels good, but not finished. Step 2 of organizing needs to follow quickly to bring order into your newly emptied space. 

Try the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge free at https://organize365.com/try100/

Get your FREE printable of the 3 stages of decluttering here!

Direct download: Org365-461.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 AJ C. She lives with her spouse, two kids, and a pandemic puppy. AJ shares how she has made progress in her storage room, kids rooms, and how she has increased her capacity to handle more projects with less stress. 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®

The Productive Home Solution/ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Direct download: Org365-AJC.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the US. It’s a time my family uses to catch up with family and friends. Thanksgiving kicks off the busy memory making, holiday filled end of the year.

Today, I want to share how thankful I am that I have been able to connect with you through this podcast for the last seven years. Even more mind-boggling, Organize 365® will turn ten years old in January 2022. 

Now that we are nearly a decade in, I am thinking about what Organize 365® will look like in another ten years. What do we want to take along as we move forward? What do we want to refine?

The podcast is not going anywhere. The Organize 365® team is here to help you with your life transformation, and we want to be sure the podcasts we share align with helping you to achieve your goal. I am deeply exploring the question: Are the quantity and quality of the podcasts we share actually helping you transform?

So much of our foundational teaching about the skills of organizing are buried back in the beginning of the podcast. The skills of organization are built on decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity.

I want to really create some foundational podcasts that you can listen to on Fridays. They are concepts from older podcasts, but they will be refreshed for our new normal. There are a limited number of skills you need to learn to be able to get organized. Once you learn, then you need to apply the skills to actually create change! I am super excited about these curated podcasts we are putting together. I am looking forward to seeing their impact.  

What have you been running hard and holding your breath to get through over the last eighteen months? Where do you need to refine your own life to make it more sustainable going forward?

Direct download: Org365-460.mp3
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Monique Horb is back, and today is the day!!!

Our community app is now live and available for download!!!

Our old app with access to some of your dashboard has been removed from the App Store and Google Play Store, but we have a brand new online community ready for you. 

Today, we are launching our Organize  365® online community app. This will function similarly to Facebook, but it is private and less distracting.

We have simplified everything to make this app more productive. There is nothing there to take you away from your organizational interactions. When you are in the app, you can enjoy the other members and a supportive community, but the distractions have been eliminated.

You will have as much community as you desire, but you will also be able to stay focused on your own transformation and make progress along your own organizational journey. The app is directly connected to our website, so all of your specialized online communities will open automatically when you log in.

We have been working behind the scenes for months to get ready to host this community. We built this specifically for you. We want to have one place where it is easy for you to find what you need, and where it is easier for us to get you news, information, updates, and encouragement. This new community will save you time, help you be more productive, and give you encouragement. 

We have organized the community app to match your organizational journey. There are only six groups in the app.

  • News & Updates - will have all the current news about Blitzes, Masterclasses, and whatever Lisa dreams up
  • The Sunday Basket® Club - everything from the Facebook group has moved here including the weekly Sunday Basket® Club live and the replays
  • 100 Day Program - motivation, encouragement, and interaction for completing the 100 Day Home Organization Program tasks
  • All Access Program - content related to the extra step of All Access including the Tuesday Binder tips, photos, planning day, and the new All Access Podcast by Lisa
  • Friday Workbox™ Club - all the support and encouragement you need for maximizing your Friday Workbox™ including the Friday Workbox™ sessions and replays
  • Certified Organizer Group - community support and interaction for all of our Sunday Basket® Certified Organizers, our The Paper Solution® Certified Organizers, and Friday Workbox™ Certified Organizers

We hope that you jump in, make connections with the rest of the Organize 365® community, and continue to move along your journey!

We are still learning about the amazing ways we can support and encourage you using this technology - please give us grace as we continue to increase the value for you.

Things we do know the new app offers - badges to show what groups people belong to (including the Dream Team and Certified Organizers), direct messaging capabilities, and direct access to many of the printables. 

We are so excited about having a new community app. We would love for you to download it and come check it out!

Please download the official mobile app through the iOS App Store  or Google Play Store. You can also access the community on your desktop

  • When you create your account, please use the email address that is associated with your Organize 365® dashboard access.
  • Once logged in, check out “Start Here" to learn about this new platform.
  • Have questions? Please click here for app FAQs
Direct download: Org365-459.mp3
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In the current 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 four 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 week, I am sharing my conversation with Monique Horb. Monique is the Organize 365® Director of Business Development. We have spent most of the last year taking the Friday Workboxes to 110%. We have upgraded our Friday Workboxes into two overarching categories - Business and Education. 

We look at work differently here at Organize 365®. For us, work includes anything you do for the majority of your hours from Monday to Friday. We want to help you organize the different kinds of work that you do so that you can get more life and spend time in your unique purpose.

Friday Workbox FAQ

  • What is the Friday Workbox™ and why might I want one?

    At home, we are used to thinking about having paper. However, at work, it feels like we are always on a computer.
    The Business Friday Workbox™ is a physical representation of your work inside of a box. Our brain is not digital.This system will hold all of your ideas and actionable to-do in a single place where you can quantitatively see it. Printing your emails and other digitials items helps you and others see the quantity of work you are handling.
  • What is the difference between a Sunday Basket® and a Friday Workbox™?

    The physical components are the exact same physical tools as the Sunday Basket®. But, it goes deep because business is more complex and nuanced. For most of us, our brains make connections better when we are not in front of digital screens.
     

    The Sunday Basket® is for anything related to your home, and the Friday Workbox™ is for anything related to work. Both help to eliminate your to-do list, and hold your ideas for future possibilities. Both help you to prioritize how you will spend your time and energy over the upcoming week.
  • I understand how the Friday Workbox ™ can hold ideas, but what other things go in there?

    As a leader of a company, it is easy to spend a lot of time talking about ideas. If you have a more traditional job, the systematic approach of the Friday Workbox™ will still work for you. It works for anyone in any kind of business.


    Every job has four core components. Once you identify the components that relate to your job, you can optimize them and make your approach more productive. 
  • What colors are used in the Friday Workbox™?

    Pink - anything that is only done by you

    Purple - your assignment or job description
    Blue - the team that helps you get your work done (direct reports and supervisors)
    Green - financial OR administrative and repetitive tasks
  • If I get a Friday Workbox™, how long will it take to work? What do I have to do for this to be useful?

    This is not a one and done system. The Sunday Basket® takes four to six weeks to build the habit. The Workbox takes a bit longer to set up and build the habit. We ask you to give it a full quarter of the year; give it a full 13 weeks.

  • You keep talking about planning. I don’t feel like I have the time or authority to stop my work and plan for my next quarter. How does your planning system work?

    When I think about my planning, I realize that I am a teacher, and teachers always spend so much time planning. I’ve always been a salaried employee, not an hourly one. When I tried to limit my hours in the past, I had to plan a lot to be a really good teacher. As the owner of Organize 365®, I am spending at least 20 hours a week thinking and planning. The more prepared
    I am, the faster and easier the work is for the rest of the team.

    For you, start with five minutes after each meeting. Go through what you have been asked to do, and add it to your actionable to-do list. See how much your productivity improved. Next, add on five minutes before meetings and review the notes from the previous meeting, write down any questions you have for the meeting, and then do your five minute post review.
  • I know that a Friday Workbox ™ is the place to store the actionable to-dos and the Friday Workbox ™ Planner is the place to plan. What makes the Organize 365® planner different from others?

    I was an unusual child and I have had a planner since the fourth grade. I
    love planners. Most planners sold are really more of a date book or calendar; they record dates. Our planners have actual education for how to plan your time. The front of the planner has pages to guide you in thinking about your goals in all four kinds of work. I then guide you through an audit of how you actually spent your time. Then, we realign your time decisions so you can create what you are trying to create. The calendar keeps track of your appointments, and the planner gives you the vision of what you are going to accomplish.

    Planning and purposeful thought makes everything happen. Every single person is busy, but the goal in life is not to do more. The goal is to organize your time, thoughts, and energy so that you can make the biggest impact in the world. This system will increase your impact. Using a common language improves your communication tools. Improving your communication tools helps more people collaborate effectively without requiring more complexity.
  • I have a lot of paper for my job. Does it all live in the Friday Workbox™?

    Each slash pocket represents and holds the paper for a single idea or project. Lisa has multiple boxes of slash pockets — one at work and one at home. The most active ones live in an active workbox or portable bag for this quarter, and the rest tend to stay in one place.


    Frequently accessed reference papers are printed and kept physically in binders, and they are also kept digitally. The binders are color coded to match the workbox and hold the reference materials for easy access when needed. The contents of each binder is reviewed quarterly to ensure they are up to date and to identify any decisions that need to be made on the contents.
  • I have heard about a Friday Workbox™ Club. What is that and how can I join?

    As a teacher, I know there are many different kinds of students and learners. They need different levels of support and tutoring to be successful. Organize 365® provides three different ways to help you be successful in implementing the Friday Workbox™ system.
  • On demand dashboard training videos
  • Friday Workbox™ Club  - 90 minute virtual sessions in an online community for co-working and accountability
  • Friday Workbox™ Certified Organizers - individuals who partner with Organize 365® and can provide 1:1 or small group assistance
  • I have purchased other programs and not followed through. What support or access is there for the Friday Workbox™?

    Organize 365® is an education company. When you invest in our programs, I want you to have access to the teachers, the community, and the support you need to achieve organization. There is a lot included in your initial purchase — we want you to succeed!


    This is your professional development and an investment in yoru time management and productivity. It will multiply your time going forward, and we are not going to take it away from you.
  • Is there a way to try this before I make a purchase?

    Absolutely! Please go to organize365.com/workboxes and read all about the workboxes. A Masterclass is coming soon! And, there is a
    free five day mini course available to you. 
Direct download: Org365-458.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 Holan S. Holan lives with her husband and young son. She is a rebel dealing with family medical emergencies, and shares how she has been successful despite not following directions for the 100 Day Program. 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!

Direct download: Org365-HolanS.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 Jessica E. Jessica has a very unique living situation. She has her son at home, her husband works out of the country, and her mom lives with them part -time. As a full time college instructor who will soon be moving overseas, she shares all about how now that she is organized she has more free time and more increased capacity to meet her goals.  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!

Direct download: Org365-JessicaE-2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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

Direct download: Org365-454.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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!

Direct download: Org365-MaryG.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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.

Direct download: Org365-452.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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

Direct download: Org365-Workboxes-JenniferB.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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!

Direct download: Org365-450.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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

Direct download: Org365-Workboxes-JennD.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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.

Direct download: Org365-448.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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!

Direct download: Org365-Workboxes-SheriM.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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!

Direct download: Org365-446.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 Tanya Blackburn. Tanya is a professional organizer in Winston-Salem, NC. She is a Friday Workbox Certified Organizer who has experience in both corporate settings and as a small business owner. We talk about setting and meeting goals, finances, business operations, and the new slash pocket colors

You can find Tanya at Prime Organizing, on Facebook, and on Instagram

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 Access

Friday Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Organize 365® Certified Organizers

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-Workboxes-TanyaB.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

This week, I want to teach you all about the green slash pockets in the Friday Workbox System. Green slash pockets are for financial responsibilities and repetitive administrative tasks.

At first, I thought green slash pockets were optional. I worked in direct sales for a long time, and I realized that most direct sellers did not look at the financial side of the business. We had a passion for the products and companies we were representing, but did not pay attention to the money. Unfortunately, many of us were not making enough sales to be profitable, and it was also easy to spend money faster than it came in on new samples and gifts.

Creative Memories introduced me to the idea of looking at my business finances on a monthly basis. By keeping my sales and purchases organized, I was able to know every month if I was making a profit or experiencing a loss. This simple financial organization was the inspiration for the Organize 365® Annual Income & Expense Binder.  Money in the door is not profit, and it is vital to update the financial situation of a business at least monthly to ensure your financial picture is realistic. 

Not everyone owns a small business or deals with financial tasks as a part of their work. When not used for finances, the green slash pockets are repetitive administrative tasks that need attention on a regular basis. Tasks repeat at different intervals in different work settings, but consider what tasks you do over and over every day, week, month, quarter, and year. Creating checklists and systems for ensuring these repeating tasks are handled will improve your efficiency and productivity. 

As you begin to reach your maximum capacity at work, I recommend hiring an administrative assistant or an executive assistant. These staff members can begin to take over these repetitive administrative tasks, especially those that are easy to explain and delegate. Training someone to handle your email, calendar, correspondence, and errands is an investment in leveling up your own capacity for your most important work. Having your checklists established helps ensure your assistant is cost-effective. 

Despite having over twenty team members at Organize 365®, there are administrative tasks I must do every single week. I share more detail in the podcast, but I still need to ensure that every week I make time for email, errands and orders, checklists, and my Friday Workbox. 

My Friday Workbox time is not optional. This is the time when I review all of my slash pockets and active projects, update my calendar, plan time to work on each slash pocket in the upcoming week, and update all of my meeting agendas. I need to ensure I move projects forward so our company stays healthy. 

Effective and productive work is the result of good habits and systems. If you want to succeed at work, your green (administrative) work is not optional. 

Direct download: Org365-444.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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 Adriane McGraw. Adriane is a professional organizer in Fostoria, OH. She has experience in HR for a Fortune 500 manufacturing operation. Her business Paper & Progress is dedicated to helping small businesses and working professionals streamline their operations and systematize their success. We also share about how the Business Friday Workboxes have been made even better by the certified organizers mastermind team.

You can find Adriane at Paper and Progress. She is also on Facebook and Instagram

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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Organize 365® Certified Organizers

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-Workboxes-AdrieneM.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today, I want to teach you how I think about the blue slash pocket topics in my Friday Workbox. At first, blue is for you. Then, as your business or role grows, blue becomes the color for your team.

In the Friday Workbox, the slash pockets build upon one another, and need to evolve in order, especially if you are the owner of a business. Pink possibilities become purple projects. Purple projects then inspire you to grow a team to help you meet your business goals. 

When you first begin working, blue slash pockets are for your professional development, meetings, and your human resources records. You need to know and understand yourself first, before you can lead a team. After you know yourself, you can learn more and better understand your family members and work team members. 

Learning and developing yourself and your team can only make your work better and more effective. As you better understand who you naturally attract and how you best deliver your message, your impact will grow. As you reach more people, you will need to add people to your team. 

If you are a female head of household, it is best and easiest to add housework assistance to your team first. This can be a housecleaner, laundry assistance, child care, pet care, or car care. Freeing yourself from household tasks gives you more capacity for your work. In Organization is a Learnable Skill, I tell my own story of growing a team at home and at work. 

Growing your team at work, especially if you are directly hiring people, is a new skill set that you will need to develop. If you are a business owner, when you hire employees or contractors, you will have to generate pink and purple work for those people and you will want to ensure their efforts are worth the financial expense. Blue slash pockets will help you keep your team organized, and will provide reminders to learn about your worker’s styles for learning, feedback, and motivation. 

As your team grows, your personal development should focus on growing your own skills in communication, overseeing workloads, and running meetings. Organize 365® also has some unique approaches to meetings. I share how we use one-to-one, daily huddles, department, and team meetings in the podcast - be sure to listen in to hear the details!

Direct download: Org365-442.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

On the last podcast, I taught you about how to create a plan for your work. In this next series of podcasts, I will be taking you behind the scenes and sharing how the Friday Workbox system was organically developed from my own experiences. Today, I want to teach you how I think about the pink and purple slash pocket topics in my Friday Workbox. 

I am the daughter of a salesman father and an entrepreneur mother. I also have been a classroom teacher, so when I look back on my own work history, I can see the ways I am different from other business owners. I am also highly analytical about how I work, and I am extremely productivity minded.

My earliest work included over twenty direct sales businesses. In observing successful direct sales leaders, they were good at selling their products, providing VIP customer service, and creating a  team who also had these skills. 

Because of my interest in productivity, I not only adopted these skills, but I focused my efforts on my most profitable customers. I had the same earnings and success with a team that was only 25% as large as the other industry leaders, and with only 20% of the typical customer base. I don't like to waste time, materials, or effort. 

Throughout my working years, I am able to educate, sell, and support my customers. Over time, I have realized that I am successful in these things because I think of my business as having a total of four pillars. In this and upcoming podcasts, I will share with you how pink, purple, blue, and green colors correlate with different parts of your work and how they build upon each other.

 

PINK = POTENTIAL

When I turn to my Friday Workbox, all of the different ideas, dreams, possibilities, and potential goes into pink slash pockets. These are not commitments or goals, they are dreams and ideas. Sometimes, they become active right away, other times they take years to materialize. They are truly about potential; things that may happen in the future. Because the possibilities are endless, collect as many pink slash pockets as inspire you. By keeping my possibilities in pink slash pockets, I physically review them quarterly and update, add, dream, and rethink how they may apply to my business.

 

PURPLE = PROJECTS

In the Friday Workbox system, purple are the actionable, goal-oriented, deadline-driven, dollars-committed, projects. Once your pink item becomes an actionable project with a deadline, and other people become involved, it moves to a purple slash pocket. Most people can only take action and make progress on one to five slash pockets at any one time. As your team grows, you can increase your capacity by having other people complete purple projects at the same time and increase your impact. 

Any kind of business or work requires both pink and purple working together. In some workplaces this is potential leads being upgraded to actual customers. In other jobs, this is article ideas turned into publications. Both together are required to sustain your business. Once you have a cycle of both, you can move onto the next step of work - blue. Check back next week for more on that!

Direct download: Org365-440.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

We are back from our 2021 summer break, and I am so excited to let you know that we have some exciting new episodes! Starting today, I will be sharing 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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, I am sharing my conversation with Stefanie Ardoin. Stefanie is a professional organizer in Hilton Head, SC. She is a registered Health Information Administrator with over thirty years in the medical field. She is also an expert in both paper and digital organizing. She has so much to share with us about her own journey and the many ways she is already helping the Organize 365® community. We also share about how the Business Friday Workboxes have been made even better by the certified organizers mastermind team.

You can find Stefanie at Island Organizing. Her digital community is Paper & Digital Simplified. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Organize 365® Certified Organizers

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-Workbox-StephanieA.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Throughout September, I will be teaching you how to proactively plan your work, control your work situations, and make decisions about what your work is going to look like, now and in the future.

It is time to plan our work. I have always been a non-traditional worker, so we use a very broad definition of work at Organize 365®. I want you to make a plan for your work and make thoughtful decisions about how to manage this part of your life. 

No one will ever get everything on their to-do list done. Getting a system in place to manage your to-dos will allow you to optimize your work and have more time for your life. 

 

What is work?

Work is whatever you are doing for the majority of your Monday to Friday hours. Your priority for the majority of the week in this season of life is your work. It can be volunteering, caregiving, working a traditional job, or being an entrepreneur. It can also include being a stay at home parent, or a homeschooling parent. 

There are many different kinds of work. Work is a mindset about how you approach your activities, and may or may not be related to what you do to earn an income. 

 

Where do you work?

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed where we work. Because of our new experiences, now we all can discuss in-person work, remote work, and hybrid work. Where each of us works will likely continue to change over the coming months and years. I started Organize 365® at my kitchen table, moved into a corner of my bedroom, briefly used a spare bedroom, had an office in a loft space at home, and then finally moved to the Organize 365® office. 

No matter what kind of work you do, you need to consciously decide where you will do your work. Many homes do not have a dedicated home office. Some work requires working in different locations on different days. However, establishing where you work is vital to effectively getting your work done. 

No matter where you do your work, you need a consistent place to capture your work papers, ideas, and to-do items. For your household, the Sunday Basket® handles all of your home paperwork. At work, the solution is the Friday Workbox

 

What hours do you work?

I love working. I love creating impact through my work. I have never been successful setting work hours for myself, but I have learned to set non-work hours so that I have time and energy for my home and family. I set aside Sunday as a  day when I do not do work, and I lavish my attention on my family. This is my approach, but yours may be different.

You may be in a season where your focus and priorities are on parts of your life outside of work. In those times, you may need to fit your work hours into firm boundaries. In this situation, determine when you will start and stop your work day. Be clear about what can be flexible and what cannot change. Try different approaches to your work hours and determine what is best for you at this time.

 

Where will your work supplies be put away?

No matter what your work situation is, you need to have a place where you can put all the parts of your work away. This is especially important if you are working from home or working from multiple mobile locations. Just like in kindergarten, at the end of the day, your workspace needs to be clean.

The Friday Workbox is designed to hold all of your active work papers, and to keep them organized so that you make consistent progress towards your work goals. When you have your Friday Workbox, a computer, and a phone, you can work anywhere. This is a system that is easy to grab, ready for you to easily access your work and take action, and safe for storing your work when you are done for the day. 

As more people are working and schooling from home, it can be hard to be done working for the day especially if our work is out in the open. Putting everything into the Friday Workbox (including the laptop) and putting it away, allows your work space to return to the other functional purpose. Putting away things we are not actively using improves the family enjoyment of our spaces. 

I am a multi-faceted, multi-passionate person. I know many of you are too. Over time, I have found that having a separate box to store the pieces of a project or job helps me to organize my brain. Prior to using boxes to store my projects, I had multiple unfinished projects in the open around my home. It was overwhelming, and I did not make as much progress as I thought I would by keeping these things visible. 

At the end of each work session, develop a transition routine. Check your email one last time. Close your computer. Drop any notes for action items or reminders in your Friday Workbox. Put your papers back in the Friday Workbox. Put your Friday Workbox away and enjoy your non-working time with the others in your home. 

If you need more help getting your Friday Workbox system started or optimized, we now have Certified Organizers who are specialists in the Friday Workbox System. They are specially trained to help you as an individual, or can help you get the Friday Workbox installed in your workplace. For more information, please check out our directory.

Direct download: Org365-438.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

It’s time to decide and make a plan. Last week, we talked about what is in your control. Control is about the decisions you make, how often you decide, and the impact of the decisions you make. These things matter much more than how many decisions you make.

Today, we will talk about different aspects of decision making. Deciding seems so final. It’s really not. I will teach you about making deliberate decisions today, and then reassessing them when the information you have changes. 

Almost a decade ago, I decided what to have for breakfast, and I haven’t needed to decide again. I just grab the same breakfast and coffee and I’m ready to go. Who thinks this much about breakfast? We all do! We just don’t realize how much effort we put into decision making if we aren’t actively paying attention to our decisions. When choosing my breakfast, I thought about calories, energy level, hunger, and how different food choices affect my energy level. I weighed all these factors and made a decision about what I will eat every single day. 

I have shared about ways that other leaders make decisions once to avoid decision fatigue in podcast 271. Anyone can learn to make decisions about the little things like simple meals, clothing uniforms, or putting items into a Sunday Basket®. Deciding once spends more energy up front, but it reduces decision fatigue and exhaustion over things that do not really matter in the long run.

Another important factor in making good decisions is controlling how many decisions you need to make in a given day. In the past, I used to think it was a sign of success that I made all of the decisions in the company; everyone answered to me! Now almost all of the decisions at home and work are happening without me - this is growth and success that can scale and be sustained! Organize 365® uses a decision making ladder similar to Michael Hyatt’s Delegation Levels and the Phoenix Project Levels of Decision Making

We all have a finite capacity for making decisions. It’s a physical reality. You can only make so many decisions. If you want to make more impact, you must empower and teach people how to make decisions the way you would make them. This means they can make decisions without you. Freeing up your own capacity and investing in your team furthers your mission and vision so much more than you can do alone. 

One important lesson I’ve learned about decision making is that you can only make decisions about your own home, work, and life. Decisions become easier once you truly embrace that you only control yourself. Other people will make their own decisions. I can see the beauty in all of the decisions that people make. The decisions that others make don’t bother me. I love to learn how other people come to the conclusions and decisions that they make. You can’t make a decision to control another person. You can only decide how you want to work, live, or do life. 

Very few decisions we make are permanent or irreversible. At certain times in life, and certain seasons of our lives, we will need to re-make our decisions. Whenever you get more information, you should reflect and reconsider your decision. Ask yourself: Does it still work in this season of life? What has changed and how should my decision adapt? 

I now look at what decisions may need to change at the start of each of my mini new years (January, May, and September). I make my decisions at the beginning of each 4 month stretch, and then I see how it goes. I don’t mind taking 120 days to research and try new decisions, and the final decision tends to last five to ten years. I work on one or two big decisions each trimester; this system doesn’t work with 30 new decisions. 

September is the most productive planning time of the year. Every year, I set aside a Planning Day for my home and set goals for myself, home, family, and finances for the next 120 days. I also set aside a day every quarter for myself and my team to do a Workbox Planning Day. I’d love to have you join me and make progress on your own decision making and goals! 

Direct download: Org365-436.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Here’s the thing, you don’t have very much control over almost anything. But, you have so much control over a few things.

I recorded a bunch of podcasts before I left for the book tour, but I like my podcasts to be as relevant as possible. I want it to feel like we are talking on the phone together in real time. But, I can’t see the future. COVID keeps changing our lives. It is one of the things that we cannot control. We all desire a sense of control. But, when you focus on things outside of your control, it causes stress, anxiety, and worry. 

If you choose to focus on what you do control, you can reduce or eliminate the stress, anxiety, and worry. We have control over our mind, our home, our media inputs, and our impact in the world. COVID is extremely important, but it is not urgent. It is distracting most of us from our purpose and our impact on the world. 

Today, I want to talk with you about making decisions about the things you actually can control. You set the tone and cadence in your home. You control the decision making. Identify what you can control. Then, make decisions so that you can get some of your time back. I want you to be able to control what you can, and free up your time to do what you want to do. For me, stress and anxiety come from the unknowns in life. The more I focus on what I do control, the less I worry. I want this for you too. 

Direct download: Org365-434.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

In August, I start planning and thinking about the next mini new year - the school year. During July, I like to reflect and review the past year and begin to dream and plan for the future. No matter the season, I spent a lot of time thinking about and pondering how I invest the minutes of my life. I have always valued every minute and think through how to optimize, prioritize, and maximize each one. 

Time management is the process of evaluating where you are in all the areas of your life, determining your priorities, allocating the resources available to you, and making a plan to achieve your goals. 

In this podcast, I recap some podcasts on time management. In episode 134, I share how I plan my life in mini years (trimesters). In episode 426, I share how organizing is an optional investment of time today for a potential increase in your time in the future. The Sunday Basket® is an organizational system that will take 60-90 minutes of planning time to free up an extra 5 hours of time each week. More importantly, when you are organized, your brain is free to think and dream, instead of just trying to keep track of to-dos. 

Episode 366 is about organizational math. I share how I apply the same benefits of basic math skills to your transformational journey into organization. For any of you who are math phobic, I promise we only talk about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In episode 269 I discuss how we make decisions to prioritize either time, money, or motivation. Understanding what is most important in our current situation helps us to decide what approach will result in the most effective outcomes. 

I no longer measure value strictly in terms of time or money. Instead, I look for the tangible outcomes of my daily actions. The 100 Day Home Organization Program is priced at 10% of the cost of in-home professional organizers helping to declutter and organize an entire home. However, most of us do not value our time as much as we do our money. Committing financial resources to getting organized helps to motivate people to engage in the 15 minute a day tasks of the 100 Day Program, and actually achieve a transformation of their homes and lives. 

Which of your goals are worth an investment of your time, money, and motivation in the next four months?

Direct download: Org365-432.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today, I am bringing back the Organize 365 lead researcher, Sarah Dyson. We are sharing about our soon to be published literature review scheduled to be in the The Journal of the Arkansas Psychological Association

We share how we needed to define a shared language in order to collect data and discuss solutions. The submitted article is titled The Role Women play in the 21st Century Home and Gender Equality- A State of the Art Literature Review. As soon as it is available, we will share a copy of the publication on our research page at organize365.com/research.

My initial hypothesis was that women were doing more work at home than men. Interestingly, those are not the results of our research! Members of younger generations share housework far more equitably than we expected. Gender roles have changed and we need solutions for all genders, all age groups, and all types of households. Organize 365® is adjusting based on this information. 

The literature review covers four major topics in the home: cueing and goal attainment, gender roles, female entrepreneurship, and future research. Listen in for a sneak preview of all these topics.

Direct download: Org365-430.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 Adrienne W. She lives with her husband and 2 kids under 5 years old and she works as a teacher. She shares about getting her home organized has given her control over the whole household. She also shares her tip for using her Sunday Basket® to improve communication with her husband. 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-AdrienneW.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Learn more at organize365.com/podcast/defining-housework-maintenance

In November of 2020, I did a two part podcast on the four kinds of work in business (361 & 362). It turns out, there are also four kinds of housework, and I introduced these in Podcast 418. There are many of these business concepts that also equate to our homes, we just don’t think of running our household like it is a business. We hear a lot about work/life balance as though these are two separate ways of getting things done. There are so many parallels between your day job and your home job. 

A few podcasts ago, I shared that Organize 365 is pursuing research about organization. One of the first challenges we faced is that we do not have a common vocabulary around work inside the house like we have for work in the workplace. As part of our research, we needed to define the words we were using in the survey questions. That meant, we needed to define housework. This is the final episode of a four part series that defines and explains the different kinds of work we all do inside of our homes. 

Today, I am sharing some details about the fourth kind of housework - maintenance. Home maintenance tasks are the tasks that the owner of the property is responsible for in order to increase the value of the home. This includes things like painting, updating flooring, replacing HVAC units, and purchasing a new roof. It is technically optional, but it is in the best interest of the property owner to keep the maintenance up to date. It is an investment the owner makes to protect the value of the property. Maintenance can be done directly by the owner, or it can be done indirectly by hired help. Renters have very little, if any, maintenance expenses and responsibilities. 

In the most recent research, Organize 365® discovered two important things. Home maintenance is the kind of housework where external help is most often hired by the homeowner. Home maintenance is also the only category of housework that is most often completed by men. 

When Greg and I first purchased our home, my dad taught me a very important lesson. His advice was to make any desired improvements to our home as soon as possible, so we would get the most enjoyment from our purchase. He was so right!

I also remember my aunt recommending an annual home maintenance budget of 5% of the value of the home. That is a lot of money. You may not spend the whole amount every year, but larger expenses can use up several years worth of the budget. 

If you own your home, I want you to think about being the landlord of your home. This will help you determine what maintenance tasks are most important. The Organize 365® Household Reference Binder is helpful in keeping track of your maintenance needs and documentation that the necessary tasks have been completed. Having an organized system for my documents and information has helped me to make decisions about when to replace and when to fix certain appliances. I can also better predict my maintenance expenses because all of my papers are easily accessible and organized. 

I hope that you find these descriptions of housework helpful and I want you to think about how you can become more efficient with your housework to do the work you are uniquely created to do!

Direct download: Org365-428.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 Lisa F. She lives with her husband, three kids, and a whole bunch of animals. She shares so much about how she has slowly increased her organization over the last few years. Lisa found Lisa from podcasts, and has consistently worked to transform her home, her family, and her life!  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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-LisaF.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 Sheila M. She has been through the 100 Day Program nine times already! She lives with her husband and two sons. Listen in to hear how she has gotten control of her paper and is ready to take on her newest life event - retirement! 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-SheilaM.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

In November of 2020, I did a two part podcast on the four kinds of work in business (361 & 362). It turns out, there are also four kinds of housework, and I introduced these in Podcast 418. There are many of these business concepts that also equate to our homes, we just don’t think of running our household like it is a business. We hear a lot about work/life balance as though these are two separate ways of getting things done. There are so many parallels between your day job and your home job. 

A few podcasts ago, I shared that Organize 365 is pursuing research about organization. One of the first challenges we faced is that we do not have a common vocabulary around work inside the house like we have for work in the workplace. As part of our research, we needed to define the words we were using in the survey questions. That meant, we needed to define housework. This is the second of a four part series that defines and explains the different kinds of work we all have to do inside of our homes. 

Today, I am sharing some details about a second kind of housework, tasks of daily living. This type of housework is a set of skills we all need to do or have done for us for our survival. Tasks of daily living are related to the Social Security Disability definition of disability and include things like grooming, grocery shopping and meal preparation, transportation, and paying bills. Some transitional high schools offer training in these skills through Project search and other programs. 

Tasks of daily living follow the individual. In college, as a new parent, and as a grandparent, you will always have to feed yourself and do laundry. Conversely, the amount of cleaning likely went up and down depending on your stage of life. However, once you share a home with another person, you begin to negotiate to divide and conquer the tasks for convenience and productivity. Generally, these tasks become consolidated as the responsibility for the person who is home more often. 

Tasks of daily living are the hardest and most expensive to delegate. Some small portions of them can be outsourced, but it is not convenient to have help with these items. Most of those surveyed reported they did their own tasks of daily living. In the study, we also asked what the major barriers to doing these tasks were, and most of the general population reported a lack of motivation or being too tired. See more about the research at organize365.com/research.

The major solution to keeping your tasks of daily living organized and getting them completed proactively is the Sunday Basket®. You need to create better systems, better habits, and reduce your expectations!  

Direct download: Org365-424.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 Lori W. She lives alone with her rescue chihuahua and does not have any children. She shares how she is downsizing her paper and clutter collections while caregiving for family members. Lori also shares how The Paper Solution has been helpful in her journey. 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-LoriW.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

In November of 2020, I did a two part podcast on the four kinds of work in business (361 & 362). It turns out, there are also four kinds of housework, and I introduced these in Podcast 418. There are many of these business concepts that also equate to our homes, we just don’t think of running our household like it is a business. We hear a lot about work/life balance as though these are two separate ways of getting things done. There are so many parallels between your day job and your home job. 

A few podcasts ago, I shared that Organize 365 is pursuing research about organization. One of the first challenges we faced is that we do not have a common vocabulary around work inside the house like we have for work in the workplace. As part of our research, we needed to define the words we were using in the survey questions. That meant, we needed to define housework. This is the first of a four part series that defines and explains the different kinds of work we all have to do inside of our homes. 

Today, I want to explain the first kind of housework - cleaning. This is a type of housework that we all think about when we consider housework. But, we rarely agree on exactly what “clean” looks like. I define cleaning as anything that a cleaning company would do inside your house. There is a level of cleanliness that is necessary for health. Cleaning will always cost you time, and sometimes it can cost you money. Regardless, someone is responsible for the level of cleanliness and the frequency of cleaning in your home. Setting rules for cleaning, determining an action plan, and establishing habits of actually cleaning will help you ensure this kind of housework gets done. 

Remember to find more at organize365.com/research

Direct download: Org365-422.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I want to talk with you about the Weight of Paper in American Households. I began talking about paper in 2012, when I shared a DIY version of the Sunday Basket® that transformed my paper organization at home. At that point, I had been using my own Sunday Basket® for ten years. I began using this paper organization system when I had two kids under two years old, and I needed a way to get my actionable to-do’s actually accomplished. I needed a way to manage the mail, the kitchen counter piles, and the kids paperwork. Looking at random papers all over the house kept me reactive, and I wanted to be more proactive and effective when managing my home. 

I learned to delay the things that initially seemed urgent and important to one day a week. By developing the system of giving these things regular attention on Sunday, I was able to have more weekday time to run my direct sales business, be a stay at home mom, and manage our house too. 

This system results in an immediate change, and over time (usually about six weeks) the habit of addressing all of your paper weekly will give you back five hours every week. There was a long time when people believed they didn’t have or need paper, and there has been an expectation of a paperless society. 

In early 2021, Organize 365 sponsored research about the State of the Household in the 21st Century. As part of that survey, I wanted to learn more about how different generations were dealing with their paper. In today’s podcast, I share the outcomes of the research we did on the weight of paper in the American home. For the purpose of this study, the Sunday Basket® refers to a safe holding place for all of your actionable papers, ongoing household projects, kitchen counter piles, and to-do items. 

Here are the main findings I want to share with you today: 

  • Both men and women agreed the Sunday Basket® would be a useful solution for five different kinds of paper clutter: mental piles, kitchen counter piles, unfinished project papers, unorganized reference papers, and important papers. 
  • The same research subjects also agreed that the four main binders offered by Organize 365 would be a useful solution for finding their important reference papers. 

 

  • 84% of Americans believe that organization is a learnable skill!

 

It is so exciting to have the statistical, quantitative research done to back what I have known for years. As a result of this research, I have more information to give you better resources to help YOU get organized!

Direct download: Org365-420.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 Beth Guckenberger. I shared this interview as part of Embrace last weekend. Beth and her husband have 11 children (biological, foster, and adopted). Together, they are the executive directors of Back2Back Ministries. During the interview, she shares how she uses note cards to stay organized and dream. 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-Embrace-BethG.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today, I am excited to announce our very special guest, Sarah Dyson, PhD. I want to introduce you to Sarah who is our new lead researcher here at Organize 365. She is the reason we have been able to launch our research efforts. Sarah has been a listener since 2014 and she has done the 100 Day Program and uses several Friday Workboxes

Sarah is passionate about research because, as she explains, it can be used to find evidence and data to solve almost any problem. After Episode 365, she reached out to Lisa to offer her services and experience to assist Organize 365 to conduct empirical research to prove that the Organize 365 systems work. She has helped us pivot from business research to real, rigorous, significant, academic research.

As Lisa explains, Organize 365 has a great foundation and is building the systems to support what is coming, but we definitely need the help of our audience and supporters to bring our mission and vision to life. Sarah is one of many people who have stepped up to join us - and there’s always room for more!

Sarah and Lisa share about the IRB, literature review, survey construction, and some specific definitions we used in the research. One of the most mind blowing things is that there are no standard definitions of “housework” in the US. Sarah and I talk about four major kinds of housework that we focused on in this first research study - cleaning, maintenance, tasks of daily living, and organization were all defined and studied separately. We also talk quite a bit about how gender roles, depression, and anxiety all play into how we deal with housework.

For more information on the Organize 365 research - check out organize365.com/research

Direct download: Org365-418.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 speaking with Lizzie D. She lives with her husband, their 4 year old son, 2 year old daughter, and a dog. Her husband works at home, and she works full time outside of their home. She felt like a “bad adult” for a long time, but found success with the Sunday Basket® and was able to gain capacity to tackle the 100 Days. She’s a recovering perfectionist and doing such a good job!  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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-LizzieD.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today, I want to share with you about my new CEO home office. I’ll be sharing the video of this process in the 100 Day Home Organization Program Facebook Group. 

I share my dream home office, command center, launch pad - a place where everything I want is readily accessible in one space. I want a place to run my household - a dedicated space separate from the planning desk typically found in the kitchen. I have always wanted a place to have to plan and direct everything that happens in my household - a place for my Sunday Basket®, bill paying, processing paper, planning meals, crafting, and mending not related to income producing work. 

I’m definitely not moving to a new home, and our family is changing. But, I’ve been dreaming about changes we can make to our home right now. In the podcast, I tell you about some changes I want to make to our storage spaces and how I’ll move those things into our actual living spaces to enjoy. I also will share how I am planning to update some other rooms to make them more functional. I am planning for about the next three years or so.

I share my thoughts about how I am analyzing how we use our space, the way our family and home is changing, and how I can adapt to the life we are living. In this season of life, becoming a grandma, owning a business, traveling for the book tour, and simplifying, I want you to understand how I think about adapting our living space, so you can figure out how to best use your home. Be sure to check out the video if you’re a member of the 100 Day Facebook Group!

Direct download: Org365-416.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 speaking with Annie S. She lives with her husband and 3 of her 4 sons. She’s gone from stress and anxiety to joy and confidence. She shares how she left Marie Kondo for Lisa’s message of grace and letting go of perfection. 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-AnnieS.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today, I want to spend some time reflecting on the COVID -19 pandemic and share some thoughts that a member of this community shared with me. In many ways, getting through the pandemic of the last year and a half is mirrored in the four life phases I teach you about in The Mindset of Organization.

Although we each had unique experiences over the last 18 months, we all experienced the pandemic together, and looking at how these phases of life are applicable to life events can help us to figure out how to get organized when we face unexpected events.

The four phases of life each require different organizational needs. This means, you may be organized in one phase, but struggle in another. There are different kinds of organization you’ll learn throughout your life, and organization is a learnable skill - you can figure out how to be organized in any phase or unexpected event in your life. 

Childhood - birth to 21

Children learn organizational skills on a micro level during childhood. Everything is in one location, they are generally responsible for only a small area like a mini-apartment, and there is a weekly rhythm that helps instill the skills of getting and maintaining organization.

Pandemic - In the first few weeks of the pandemic, we were safe at home for a short term (at least that was the expectation), we had a focus on fun, learning new things, and having a dedicated time to make progress. However, this time passed very quickly, and often whole families were home together and had to rapidly figure out how to balance work, school, and continuously sharing a space. 

Accumulation - moving out of your childhood home until 39 years old

As soon as you leave your parents’ home, you begin acquiring the “stuff” of adulthood and have responsibilities for the whole home. There is also mental, emotional, and educational accumulations of relationships, schooling, and career paths.

Pandemic - Generations continue to be cyclical, and the minimalism peak of 2000 has reversed course and we are headed back towards maximizing. The toilet paper shortages, need for cleaners and disinfectants, and supply chain issues will likely continue to remind people they are no longer able to have what they want as soon as they want it. One solution is to set up storage areas in the home to maintain a little bit more supply or stock on hand. 

Survival - Generally 40-55 years old

As women approach their 40th birthday, there is a mindset shift when they are more comfortable in their own skin and stop caring about what others think. There is also a general acceptance of what and who we are, so people begin to declutter stuff, aspirational expectations, and jobs. By 40, you are truly a “grown up” and feel the responsibility of being an adult. For many of us, our time is not our own and we are sandwiched between elders, children, and our community and work commitments. 

Pandemic - First, I know we did not all survive the pandemic intact. There have been losses of businesses, income, jobs, homes, health and even lives. Those of us who are surviving have been impacted by this difficult, scary, and exhausting time. The greater world is not done with the pandemic, and the results of this worldwide event will be felt for years to come. 

Legacy & Downsizing - 55 and over

Although this generally occurs around the age of 55, moving into a focus on legacy and downsizing is greatly impacted by our life events. I’m becoming a grandma! I have also lost a parent. The lessons we learn about how short life can be, the burdens of leaving too much stuff for others to deal with, and a fatigue that encourages us to minimize our responsibilities are all part of this phase. There can also be an element of wanting to enjoy the reminders of our success and achievements.

Pandemic - For those of us who have survived the pandemic and are beginning to look to the future, we need to look clearly at what our lives will look like going forward. Some people are downsizing habits and routines for a simpler life. Others are making time and space to do more of what has been missed over the last year. 

Tomorrow has never been guaranteed, but the pandemic has given us a renewed appreciation for our opportunities. Give grace, accept grace, and spend time with the people you love when you can!

Direct download: Org365-414.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 speaking with Jennifer V. She lives at home with her husband and daughter. She shares about how Lisa is helping her in the survival phase of the sandwich generation, and how she benefitted from upgrading to a real Sunday Basket®. 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-JenniferV.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I am excited to have Milana back on the podcast today as our guest. She was our summer intern in 2020, and she’s back to talk with me today about #adulting. She was able to go through our Launch Program (a part of the Organize 365 Kids’ Program) to give us feedback.

Today, we are talking about the Launching Life Skills Bundle - now available in the Organize 365 Shop! Launch is aimed at helping older kids and young adults from 16-25 transition from living at home with parents to launching into independence. The Launching Life Skills Bundle includes

  • The Videos from the Launch portion of the Kids’ Program 
  • A starter Sunday Basket® - just the 1.0 weekly folders
  • The Launch Binder - a simplified personal reference binder with slash pockets and printables covering green (money), red (medical), and blue (housing, cleaning, and wardrobe)

Lisa and Milana share how this course gives you everything you need to be an adult and teaches life skills for independent living. These are resources and references for 16-25 year olds to learn the skills of adult living including meal planning, cleaning, basic budgeting, paper management and reference information, and more!

 

If you have a young adult in your life you’d like to gift lessons in the skills of organization and empowerment towards becoming an adult, consider this complete system!

Direct download: Org365-412.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Ami W. She lives with her husband, daughter (8) and son (5) who joined their family via foster to adopt in 2018. Ami was diagnosed with ADHD about a year ago at the age of 44. She’s also caring for her father in hospice care and has been helping him to downsize and declutter. 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-AmiW.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

You guys, it’s finally here! My newest book - Organization is a Learnable Skill is available for pre-order on Amazon. It officially publishes on June 25, 2021. Listen in to hear about purchase and pre-order bonuses!

Today, I want to share Chapter 1 from the book as a podcast. Remember, if you preorder, you can listen to the audio version of this book on a website up until the book launch. 

This chapter reveals just how reactive and disorganized my life had become, and how much I was struggling in my own life. It is not a matter of if you will experience unorganized periods in your life, it is a matter of when. My relatable story will have you laughing out loud and emotionally releasing the clutter that you have in your life and in your home.

Unlike my previously actionable and tactical books, this book is my story. This is my personal memoir. I share my raw and unfiltered thoughts and I take you along on my transformational journey as I transitioned from a reactive person who moved with the ebbs and flows of life to the proactive person I am today. I share the mindsets and emotional challenges that I experienced during the year that I reclaimed my home.

And, I hope to see you on the book tour in July and August!!! All of the details can be found at organize365.com/booktour (please note tickets MUST be purchased in advance and are limited). 

Direct download: 410_-_Organization_is_a_Learnable_Skill_Chapter_1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Leslie S. She has a husband and five children. Today, she’s sharing about her #decluttering2021 journey and progress! I hope you find her story as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-LeslieS.mp3
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Direct download: Org365-408.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Mickela M. She lives at home with her (almost) high school aged daughter and her college aged son. She recently moved, has a family business, and has had both kids at home during the pandemic. Mickela shares her growth using the Friday Workbox (and Lisa shares a secret Workbox update!). I hope you find her story as inspiring as I do! 

Bonus - Hat tip to Mickela for the Stress vs. Chaos podcast topic last week!

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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-MickelaM.mp3
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Direct download: Org365-CC-011.mp3
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Today, I want to process through some observations for you about what I am expecting for the Summer of 2021. The pandemic continues to change, and we are starting to have updated recommendations and increasing freedom to do more once again. Almost all of us have something that the pandemic took from us, but getting back to our old “normal” brings up feelings of both stress and chaos. I actually expect that we will have at least two more years of life disruptions as a result of the pandemic. 

Stress is a constraint, but is also a force that causes change. Stress makes coal into diamonds. In our lives, stress can be what helps us prioritize the most important thing and eliminate everything else. 

Chaos, on the other hand, is a threat to our survival or resources. Chaos affects our needs, not our wants. It is panic inducing and fear provoking. Think back to the toilet paper shortages of the early lockdowns - that was chaos. 

I want to talk with you about how to apply these definitions to your upcoming summer so that you can use stress to maximize the good, and avoid chaos.

Direct download: Org365-406.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Amanda P. Amanda has been the podcast editor since the beginning of the Organize 365 Podcast. She also lives full time (and homeschools) in an RV with her husband, and 4 boys (14, 10, 7, and 5). She also has experienced some health challenges during her time with Organize 365. Amanda is sharing her lesson “that less stuff would make life feel lighter and more agile.” I hope you find her story as inspiring as I do! 

Amanda is currently taking new audio clients, and you can find her at https://thepelsersmedia.com/

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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-AmandaP.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

This is going to be a bit of a coffee chat style episode. I want to share about an unexpected event that is ushering in my next life stage.

I’m going to be a grandma! Abby is expecting her baby at the end of September. We are super excited about adding a little baby blessing to our lives!!!

I am still processing how this will affect all of us, but I am SO excited to be a grandma! Abby and the baby will be living with us. As many of you know, I have never been pregnant. And, I have never been a grandma before. I am saying yes to this whole new phase of all of our lives - I want to experience all of it and be there for everything. 

I have always seen Greg and myself as a mentor and coach for our kids. I want to be as present and supportive as possible as I help my kids reach adulthood, and beyond. We work together on critical thinking about why we do things, and this transition is no exception. 

So, in addition to sharing this amazing news today, I want to talk through how our family is planning for this change in our lives - especially with a little baby in the house. I am adapting the book tour. I am thinking through how we will support Abby and the baby as they transition to their next phases of life. And, we are reorganizing our house as we will now have three generations living under the same roof. 

Listen in and you can hear my thoughts about this exciting unexpected event!

Direct download: Org365-404.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Amy M. She lives with her Husband, four children, and her aging father-in-law. Amy has this to share about her journey “Organizing your life really is the secret to making your dreams come true - you just have to plan and execute every single day with baby steps. It's playing the long game.” I hope you find her story as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-AmyM.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I have always wanted to record a podcast about what I am saying “Yes!” to and what I am saying “No!” to. Today, I am sharing my YES! list. 

What I realized people are doing when they share these kinds of lists are actually different ways of thinking about how you are using your time. For me, the “no list” is about decluttering my decision making stress and setting boundaries. On the other hand, my “yes” list is about supporting my priorities.

This week, I will be sharing my “yes” list for the next of my New Year’s - the Summer (May to August). The things on my “yes” list will not get my complete focus, but I will be finding extra pockets of time to use for these things.

This Summer, I am saying YES! to:

  1. Traveling safely in the US! I have been home for the entire pandemic, and I am ready to travel. I’m fully vaccinated. I will be following the most current CDC recommendations during my travel. But, my big news is that I am preparing for a book tour! I’ll be touring my newest book Organization is a Learnable Skill from July 8 to August 10th.
  2. My kids’ requests for my time! As I said last week, I will be focusing on getting my kids to do more of their own #adulting responsibilities. However, any requests to just spend time together will be met with a YES! from me. 
  3. Makeup, fun hair, beauty routines, and enjoying a corporate casual look! I have been having a lot of fun trying out new makeup, a new curling iron, playing with my hair and makeup, and working on my wardrobe. I don’t own yoga pants or sweatpants. We have the freedom to choose what looks good on our bodies and works best for our current life stage. 
  4. Making our home a place we love to be! Greg and I are doubling down on optimizing our home. We want it to be a place we love to be, function well for us, upgrade anything we can, and to make it work for everyone who lives there. I encourage you to do the same for your home - no matter what budget you are working with.

I hope that my “yes” and “no” lists help you to figure out if there are any things for your Summer that you want to firmly establish as a yes or a no for you right now.

Direct download: Org365-402.mp3
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Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/

 

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 share my conversation with Cailla M. She lives with her husband, daughter, and a cat. She shares her story of facing some very difficult events in 2020, both as a teacher and in some health challenges for her husband. Despite all she went through, Cailla shares how she has been able to change her mindset, her self-talk, and her home to better care for her family and herself. I hope you find her story as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-CaillaM.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I have always wanted to record a podcast about what I am saying “Yes!” to and what I am saying “No!” to. Today, I am sharing my no list. 

What I realized people are doing when they share these kinds of lists are actually different ways of thinking about how you are using your time. It’s not necessarily calling different things good and bad. It’s about prioritizing (what things get your yes) and decluttering and setting better boundaries (what things get your no).

Over the next 100 Day cycle, I will be saying no to four main things. Different times of year call for attention to different kinds of tasks and areas of focus. When you make a yes or no list, you are creating a rule that helps you spend less energy making decisions. These rules can be for your next of the Lisa’s New Years, or it can be permanent. You get to choose. 

Listen in and I’ll explain why I am saying no to these things. This list helps me declutter activities that are taking time on my mind and in my schedule. These are either things on my calendar or a mindset I am letting go. I am decluttering these things - at least for now. 

  1. Perfectionism
  2. Diet ideas
  3. Working in the evening
  4. Doing things for my kids
Direct download: Org365-400.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Jordan B. She lives with her husband and two teenage sons. Jordan started with her Sunday Basket®. After doing the 100 Day Program, she finds it much easier to have guests over without stress. I hope you find her story as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-JordanB.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

I am super excited today to introduce you to Jay Papasan. He is the co-author of The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results with Gary Keller. Jay is a best selling author and executive at Keller Williams Realty. 

I quote the ONE Thing mantra regularly - What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it

everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”  Clarifying our number one priority ensures that we make great decisions. We know what to say yes to; and then say no to everything else. 

Jay and I explore the origins of the ONE Thing question, and how I have applied it to my life and business. My understanding of the ONE Thing has grown over time and can be applied in any arena at different levels at different times in our lives. Jay shares how you can use this ONE Thing question to figure out what to do today, and in life. He graciously explains what his own lifetime ONE Thing is in his own life. 

There are limitless possibilities for how we can use our time, so the ONE Thing question can break down your choices so you can clarify what makes the biggest impact for you. Making decisions proactively ensures a better investment of your hours and your minutes so that you have fewer regrets. Time is not renewable. It is a precious resource and who you give it to matters greatly. 

Jay also gives some great guidance on how our habits decide our futures. He shares his ideas about making rules for how you choose to spend your time. Listen in for his amazing advice! He explains how he balances openness to new people with those he already has decided are the most important. 

Jay also teaches us about how to best set goals and the secret to improving our chances of achieving them. He talks about accountability and how to set the steps to stay on track to reach our goals. Systematically working backwards from the goal helps to create a straight line of actions that will move the needle and he shares how to set up a system. This is a proven process that naturally narrows our focus on key goals. 

Perfection is overrated. Let’s make progress.

Follow Jay and learn more at the1thing.com

Direct download: Org365-398.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Amber Z. She lives with her husband and four kids. She’s been working on the 100 Day Program since 2018 and shares about her progress (but not perfection!).I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-AmberZ.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

This is part four of a four part podcast series on discovering YOU. This week, I will be talking with you about how to curate your life with Gail Golden. Gail is a management psychologist who helps businesses build better leaders. She helps to create powerful interventions and boost the bottom line. 

So far, you have learned how you think and get something done. You now also know how to follow your energy and trust your intuition. Then, we covered how to create and trust your plan - for a day, a week, or a season

I invited Gail to the podcast this week to share knowledge from her new book Curating Your Life: Ending the Struggle for Work-Life Balance.

I want to introduce her to the Organize 365 audience. We are all on a journey from a reactive to a productive life. Everything we organize gives us more time, and some women now have 12-15 hours a week and are wondering “now what?”

Gail shares how she has figured out what she is doing next, and how she is curating her next season of life. 

Gail recommends The Power of Full Engagement. She shares how instead of asking “Do I have time for that?” she asks herself “Do I want to spend energy on that?” For Gail, the management of energy is how she makes decisions about how to spend her time and her life. 

Gail shares how many of her clients feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and inadequate most of the time. She also noticed that people never seemed to develop a work life balance - at least until they curated their life. There are things that matter, but are not important, so we can just do them good enough. This leaves energy left over for the things you want to be great at. 

Lisa and Gail talk about how to increase your energy, and even your energy capacity. Organizing your space means you don’t waste energy looking for things. Knowing yourself and awareness of your energy means you can manage your energy by selecting environments that give us energy. Also - sleep, water, healthy diet, and regular breaks can all contribute to our optimum energy levels. No matter what we do - our energy capacity is finite. This means, we still need to make decisions about how to spend our energy. 

They also talk about mid-life re-curating. Sometimes life happens to you and something changes (divorce, COVID, job loss). Other times, we have changed and we recognize that we need something different in our lives and we elect to re-curate and make choices about our next steps in life. The theme of re-curating honors that our earlier choices were right for us at the time, but do not have to be followed forever. 

Gail also gifts us by exposing the “obnoxious roommate” in our heads that speaks against every decision we make. You know that voice! If you stay home with your family, the voice asks why you are not at work. If you stay home, the voice asks why you “wasted” college or are not contributing more to the world. Gail calls that roommate out, and gives advice for talking back to that cruel voice and ensuring that our decisions about what to curate reflect what is best for us. 

Gail also shares some incredible insights on how we live out our curation as social creatures. When we curate our lives, we do so in the context of many relationships. Listen in for her amazing explanation of how to balance individual needs with those you love. 

We finish up by talking about how to manage our energy as we begin to re-enter the world after COVID. Gail gives some great questions for each of us to consider as we figure out what things to reincorporate into our lives, and what things are no longer best for us and can be left in the past. Listen in and see what you are called to curate in your life. 

Direct download: Org365-396.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Kristin B. She lives with her spouse and her daughter. Her transformational journey has had some major ups and downs! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

 

Direct download: Org365-KristinB.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

This is part three of a four part podcast series on discovering YOU. This week, I will be talking with you about how to create and trust your plan. I want to help you discover how you might be able to change your future. 

So far, you have learned how you think and get something done. You now also know how to follow your energy and trust your intuition. Now, I want you to see how to create and trust your plan - for a day, a week, or a season. These plans are not for the rest of your life, they are to make specific progress on a goal, right now. 

Planning is the antidote to decision fatigue. The thing that drains my energy faster than anything else is to make a bunch of decisions. The more rules you can create, the less decisions you will have to make, so the more brain power and energy you have to do what is more important.

Think about something you have to decide all of the time (like what’s for dinner) - make a rule! Taco Tuesday is a classic for a reason. It’s a easy rule. It might be boring, but it saves me time, energy, and frustration to make this a rule. This is a proactive solution to decisions and helps to reduce decision fatigue. 

Decision fatigue is only combated when you take responsibility and ownership of the questions and decisions that are being requested of you. Create rules, and eliminate the questions. 

In this season, it is easier for me to make a set plan and know what it is going to be rather than arguing about whether or not I should be in charge of these decisions.

Planning allows you more energy, more bandwidth, more time for the things you want to do more of in your life. 

Think about one thing you want to achieve. Identify one goal. What is the sprint? What is the timeframe for that goal? Start thinking about making a plan for that goal. Are there any rules related to that plan that will make it easier for you to create a habit? What time of day will you have energy to pursue this goal? 

Setting and achieving goals is the way you change your future. Creating an action plan and then trusting (and following) your plan is how you make progress. When you set aside the time, you will get to your goal, and see your new life. 

I hope you discover something about yourself in this podcast, and I’d love to hear all about it on Facebook or Instagram!

Direct download: Org365-394.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Deborah I. She lives with her significant other and their cat. She graciously shares her transformation while dealing with mental health issues. Deborah shares how giving herself grace was more powerful than focusing on perfection. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-DeborahI.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

This is part two of a four part podcast series on discovering you. This week, I will be talking with you about how to follow your energy and intuition. I want to help you discover how you might be able to follow your energy and intuition to get things done - more so than you could ever do with just a todo list. 

As I pay attention to thought leaders, I see a major paradigm shift towards following your energy and intuition. This is the latest evolution in productivity. Over time, we can see how new ideas have progressed through our society, with people in different places on the acceptance curve, so I want to bring you along if these are new mindsets for you. 

Intuition is hearing your inner voice, and trusting that knowing feeling in your gut. As you pay attention to your intuition, I think you will find that we have more knowledge inside of us than we believe. 

I also want to share some stories with you about energy and intuition, to start you thinking about your intuition and energy. There are multiple kinds of energy to consider - mental, physical, spiritual, and relational to start. 

In exploring these ideas, I recommend The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. They share paradigm shifts about energy that you may want to consider. I share my experience with changing from a detailed weekly schedule made in advance to building a schedule and making choices to follow your energy. I hope you discover something about yourself in this podcast, and I’d love to hear all about it on Facebook or Instagram!

Direct download: Org365-392.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Melissa G. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two dogs. She started her organizational journey by tackling her paperwork! That’s jumping in with both feet. She also shares some of her challenges facing unexpected events. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-MelissaG.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Direct download: Org365-390.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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 share my conversation with Debbye C. Debbye has been married for 44 years to her high school sweetheart, and she has a son with high functioning Asperger's Syndrome who lives in a basement apartment. Today, she shares about her transition from the survival to legacy phase of life. She is now growing her career as a professional organizer. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-DebbyeC.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Direct download: Org365-CC-006.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Happy Birthday Sunday Basket®

The physical Sunday Basket® is THREE years old today. Today, I want to invite you to celebrate the Sunday Basket® with me!

I am re-sharing and re-airing The Sunday Basket® podcast. I share where the Sunday Basket came from, how it starts at the introductory level, how we sell it, what support is available to you, and where to learn more. 

You can learn more at sundaybasket.com

Direct download: Org365-388.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

How to Multiply Time with Rory Vaden

I love the way Rory Vaden looks at time and prioritization. I first learned about him when I was getting started in multiple direct sales companies. He is an expert in the principles of success - time management, goals, and positive attitudes. I reviewed two of his books - Take the Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose on the Organize 365 YouTube channel in 2020. I even have an older podcast about what I learned from his books - Episode 152

I am delighted to share our conversation about time with you today. We talk about leadership, motivating others, achieving goals, and multiplying time. Rory shares some amazing thoughts about how to achieve your dreams - he says:

 

  • It’s not that people struggle from a lack of discipline, as they do from a lack of vision. 
  • The amount of our endurance is directly proportionate to the clarity of our vision.
  • The number one cause of all procrastination is self-criticism [perfectionism]. 

 

We also talk about how to make steady, consistent progress towards any kind of goals (work, home organization, or anything else). He explains how he makes decisions about prioritizing his to do items. And, then he drops his bomb, he teaches me how to multiply time by changing how I think about the items on my list. You multiply time by giving yourself the emotional permission to spend time on things today that create more time tomorrow. 

As Rory talks about how getting organized is a way you can multiply time, we share how my own lessons for you are helping you to multiply time in your own lives. Things like the Sunday Basket® and the 100 Day Home Organization Program can lead you to freeing up ten to fifteen hours a week once you set up the systems. Automation of your organizing can lead to exponentially more time as you continue to build and refine systems. Any time you create a process today, it saves you time tomorrow, and then saves you time every day moving forward. Invest in good habits, invest in your self-discipline, and invest in how you think about and use your time - you will get exponential rewards in the future.

If you want to systematize and grow your business, I recommend you consider working with Rory Vaden and Brand Builders. We help people monetize and build their personal brand. Organize 365 is partnering with them and you can get a free call at freebrandcall.com/organize365

Direct download: Org365-386.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Organizing Holiday Decorations

Why do we keep the decorations we keep, and what is the best way to store them? As we go through life stages and unexpected events, our holiday items take on new meaning and sometimes add to our guilt or depression. That was true in my case.

This week, your challenge is to organize your holiday decorations.

Visit http://organize365.com/40-weeks-1-whole-house-week-19-organizing-holiday-decorations  for the full blog post.

Find all the blog posts, podcasts and more right at your fingertips!

Get the APP: http://organize365.com/app/

If you are old school like me, or use your email inbox as your to-do list, you might want the challenge delivered to your inbox instead. 

Sign up for emails here: http://organize365.com/40-weeks-email/

This episode is brought to you by Onnit the makers of Alpha Brain
Click here to save 10% off your first order: getonnit.com/365

Direct download: Org365-40Weeks-19.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:38pm EDT

Blog post available at organize365.com/word-of-the-year-2021

Last week, I reviewed my 2021 first quarter pink slash pocket projects with you. I shared what has been going well, and what projects I have deferred (or even abandoned without guilt!). The one project I did not deep dive into with you yet is my health slash pocket.

In 2021, I am focusing on my health. I started out by using my 100 Day Home Organization Program planner to track habits and metrics. Knowing where I start means I can see how I am changing inside of my life. 

Transformational Freedom: As you let go of one thing, you are open to receiving the next. We strive to unlock your life’s purpose through the process of decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. 

I am tracking and analyzing multiple aspects of my health including sleep, food, steps, and supplements. For 2021, my word of the year is health. I am focusing on my physical, emotional, spiritual, relationship health, and the health of Organize 365. 

In the podcast, I also talk about the Organize 365 focus word for 2021: impact. We are working to make our mission, vision, and values come to life for the growing team

If you don’t already have a word for 2021, take some time and reflect on what your word might be. You are not bound to your choice - but let it serve as a reminder of the goals we have for ourselves and our intentions for who we want to become. 

I hope you choose a word you can grow into and want to be reminded of this year. I hope to see you progress on your transformational journey and unlock the potential you have inside of yourself. 

Direct download: Org365-384.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2020.

You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

Direct download: Org365-Embrace-4.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

For the very first podcast of 2021, I shared what my pink slash pockets will be for the first New Year of 2021. Now that we are halfway through that first quarter, I want to share what I have completed, what I have completely let go, and why this has been the best experiment I have ever done inside of my Sunday Basket®.

My Sunday Basket® is my habit and weekly system that keeps my actionable to dos, my ideas, my mail, keeps my family running smoothly, and allows me to focus on work during the week without worrying about household tasks. 

Consistent use of the Sunday Basket® helps your brain move from reactive to proactive. After about six weeks, most users find they have capacity for the Sunday Basket® 2.0 slash pockets. These slash pockets hold the papers and ideas related to larger projects that require a consistent infusion of time, money, and/or motivation to be completed. The 2.0 slash pockets focus on four major life areas: home, family, money, and self. 

In today’s podcast, I am sharing what I’ve been doing so far in my personal pink slash pockets so far in 2021. I was focusing on launching my kids into #adulting, family photo memories, creating an Organize 365 scrapbook, systematizing beauty, and my to be read list. 

Listen in as I share what projects I have completed, what projects I called “good enough to be done,” and which things I have decided to abandon or ignore. And, I’d love to hear about YOUR pink slash pockets in 2021 on Facebook or Instagram

Also mentioned in this episode:

Organize 365 Kids Program

Organize 365 Launch Bundle

Organize 365 Memorabilia Binder

Direct download: Org365-382.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2020.

You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

Direct download: Org365-Embrace-3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

The older you get and the more #adulting you do, the more you realize there are taxes for everything. There are almost as many kinds of taxes as there are kinds of insurance. When I was younger, and taxes seemed easier, I used to do our taxes myself using TurboTax. Now, our finances are much more complicated, and we use an accountant to file our taxes. However, I have a process that lets me get my paperwork ready in three to four hours total!

When I was an in home professional organizer, I saw many people request extension on their personal income tax filings. Not because they didn’t know how to do their taxes. Not because they didn’t have the money to pay the taxes. All because they did not have their tax documentation in order.They have to get their paperwork under control in order to complete their taxes.

I want to help you become proactive instead of reactive in approaching your taxes, so today I am sharing some of my own processes for making taxes easy. I always work on my taxes in February (usually during the Super Bowl). Back when I was a Creative Memories consultant, I learned to organize my business taxes using the IRS Schedule C categories. 

First, every January 1, I add a green slash pocket to my Sunday Basket® labeled “Taxes” to keep all of my incoming paperwork together and organized. 

As I have shared before, I recommend you make your decisions in advance whenever possible. Establish habits and routines to reduce decision fatigue. Here are my lessons to make tax time easier.

  1. If you have a business, figure out how you will categorize expenses related to Schedule C categories. A few years ago, I made a cheatsheet of my categories and how I group expenses to keep my categories uniform from year to year. I also recommend making checklists for yourself of annual tasks (writing down mileage for vehicles) and for the papers you are expecting in the mail (income, mortgage, bank, investment statements). 

  2. Keep up with recording your expenses monthly. I recommend the Organize 365 Income and Expense Binder as your one place to keep your receipts, documentation, and to track your expenses. This way you will know how your expenses are affecting your profitability every month and can adjust as needed.

  3. Record your income monthly. This will help you to recognize the many ways you are generating income in your business and you can adjust where you spend your energy so that you are focusing on the most effective parts of your business. 

If you spend a few hours each month, then at the end of the year you can do your inventory counts and be ready for tax time. 

The Organize 365 Income and Expense Binder is what I have used in all of my businesses to keep track of income, expenses, and mileage. If you do not have a similar system set up for your business finances already, you can purchase this from our shop at https://organize365.com/product/annual-income-expense-binder 

I am excited to share my simple system for income taxes with you. However, I am not a tax advisor or accountant, so these are my personal thoughts. Please do not use them as tax advice and consult your own professional for information about your specific situation.

Direct download: Org365-380-Create_A_Simple_System_for_Filing_Taxes.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2020.

You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

Direct download: Org365-Embrace-2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Today, I want to talk with you about diversity and inclusion at Organize 365. I have always been intentional and purposeful about creating an inclusive and diverse company over the last nine years.
 
Organize 365 is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I get to see the great work that Procter & Gamble does to actively work towards diversity and inclusion. I have learned so much from their approach to building intentional depth and breath of their employees. As we grow and expand, we will continue to strive to represent the beautiful colors, thought patterns, races, and religions of the world.
 
While race is one important facet of diversity and inclusion, I also want to share some other ways that Organize 365 strives to build a team of people who represent all different kinds of diversity. In the podcast, I share many of the ways we are already diverse some of which include generation, family structure, and awareness and empathy for people with special needs. I am also delighted that the Organize 365 community is wonderfully diverse and so inclusive of all who join us on the journey.
Direct download: Org365-378.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!
 
This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2020.
 
You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience on our website. 
Direct download: Org365-Embrace-1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

As we get ready to celebrate February as Black History Month in the United States, I want to share some of the history I have learned about the differences between Black and White Americans owning houses in the US. I am doing my best to use preferred terms and inclusive language, so I am asking for grace as you listen. I am always open to learning new things, but I also want to use this platform to share information about the US history with people who may not have learned these things in school and who have not yet added this topic to their learning journey. 

During the Summer of 2020, I dove into reading and learning about the historical differences between the experiences of Black and White Americans. I am a lifelong learner. I love history. I love to learn about different cultures. I love to learn about all people all over the world. I am learning about myself, my home, and broadening my horizons by learning about the experiences of others in the world. 

As a White woman celebrating Black History month, I want to be respectful, and I want to share information that would be relevant to my primary topic of organizing your home. I also want to acknowledge that my experience is different than that of African Americans, and I thought back to all the things I have been reading and learning about home ownership. I believe that the more we understand the differences that shape our lives, the better we are together and the more empathetic we are towards one another. 

In my history studies last summer, I began to learn how many White people were able to gain college educations and grow their wealth because of home ownership. I was initially shocked to learn about some of the differences I describe on the podcast. My family of origin had very different experiences, and by learning about the history of US housing, my eyes were opened to the reality of the differences in the US. I want to share some of the fascinating, eye-opening information I researched last summer. Links to several of these resources are below:

Black Wall Street - Podcast

The Color of Law - book by Richard Rothstein

NPR interview with The Color of Law author Richard Rothstein 

The Banker - Movie 

In the podcast, I share some of my own learning, insights, and a raising awareness of my own biases and assumptions. I offer you some resources to do your own research and learning. Knowing each other’s stories will bring us better understanding, and better conversations. I want all of us to leave more educated. What unites us is far greater than what divides us.

Direct download: Org365-376.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

 

This week, I share my conversation with Zetty M. She lives with her husband and three daughters (9, 11, and 14). They have been a nomadic sailing family for the last five years, but are now settled down in Wisconsin for the next nine years while the kids finish school. She shares how she has transformed her home and life along her organizing journey. And, she started her own business! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! You can find Zetty at https://zippypt.com 

  

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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Direct download: Org365-ZettyM.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

This is a special Coffee Chat episode, available only in your podcast player. Coffee Chats are time sensitive, so this episode will disappear once the content is no longer relevant.

Listen in for all of the new Organize 365 products available in our brand new Merch Store!

Direct download: Org365-CC-002.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you. 

My evening routine is the shortest of all of my routines, and it is my least consistent routine. I like to use this time to focus on my hygiene and care of my body. I take a hot bath, do some skin care, and take my vitamins. Before the pandemic, I used to do something productive before doing these getting ready for bed activities. During the pandemic, I spent that time on my phone - on social media, reading about news events, reading hundreds of emails, and following different internet rabbit holes that were not particularly productive. 

For the next 120 days, I am focusing on incorporating habits of planning my outfits for the week on Sundays. I want to plan my food for the next day in advance. I also want to get back to reading physical books. Projects from my updated slash pockets are also things I may include in this time. I am focusing on writing out my notecard with the next day’s schedule and plan each evening. 

Think about what would make the biggest impact for you in the next 120 days. You cannot do it all. But, when you pick what you want to do, you can focus on doing those things with excellence. Do not take on too much - pick small easy things. Find ways to remind yourself about these changes, and see how it goes.

Direct download: Org365-374.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

 

This week, I share my conversation with Anna D. She lives with her husband of 25 years and shares two dogs with her adult daughter. She found Lisa from the ADDitude webcast. Anna began her transformational journey during some major unexpected life events. She settled her sister’s estate, remodeled her mom’s house, and was dealing with her own ADD. She shares her story of learning to thrive despite chaos. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

Direct download: Org365-AnnaD.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you.

When I consider daily routines, I look at the morning, afternoon, and evening time periods. I am going to discuss each of these and share what I was doing pre-pandemic, how 2020 dramatically changed these times of day, and what I want these routines to look like in 2021. 

I actually think afternoon routines are one of the most important and often overlooked transition periods, especially for women. I first introduced my 2017 afternoon routine in Podcast Episode 193. You can listen to that if you want more information about my morning routine before the pandemic of 2020.

As you adjust and adapt your routines, I really recommend small changes. Small changes over time are more successful and create more lasting change than big sweeping changes that are difficult to sustain. Afternoon routines are the transition from work or school back to home and family time. It is the bridge from your daytime activity to the dinner hour. The afternoon routine is one you have to be conscious about setting up, especially if you want to be deliberate about what you do during this time. 

Depending on your phase of life, the afternoon routine can include dinner preparation, cleaning up the house, checking kids homework, and sometimes driving to and from activities. But, it is the change over from work to house life. 

For many years, I did not actually stop working at a typical time, so my afternoon routine was a pause to just get my family on track. However, as Organize 365 has grown, I worked to develop the habit of stopping work at a reasonable time to give my family my full attention. I delighted in my habit of spending time with Greg every day. 

During the Pandemic, Greg and I both began to work later everyday. We both worked a lot more and did not end at our normal times anymore. I did run to Culvers almost every day to give myself a commute and some alone time. Over the summer, I began to spend more time at the warehouse and continued to work more than my basic 40 hours a week. In the Fall, I began to work more at the warehouse and office. I still need a transition from work to home and some private, quiet, alone time for my thoughts. I want to keep the transition, but I no longer enjoy eating all this fast food. 

Updating my pink slash pockets has already given me more motivation and desire to work on my own projects after my work hours. This is a more desirable way to use my time than driving to get fast food. And, we are spending more time sharing meals together as a family.

Of the three routines, this one is the most nebulous for me, and the one that is still in process. I am not fully sure how I am going to achieve these changes to my routine, but I am giving myself grace as I figure this out. 

So, as you figure out what you want to adjust in your afternoon routine, be patient and observe what is working and not working right now. Do you want to spend time with family? Is this a helpful time to tackle your 100 Day Home Organization Program task of the day? Do you need to focus on your food and nutrition? Do you have hobbies or personal projects you will focus on? 

I would love if you can share your afternoon routine ideas in the Facebook group or on Instagram and tag me!

Direct download: Org365-372.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This week, I share my conversation with Melinda K. She lives with her retired husband, college age step-daughter, and 2 dogs. In our conversation, Melinda shares how she was inspired to clean up her office (and how she started her 100 Day Home Organization Program doing double time and following her energy. She’s also a bit of rebel, so she can encourage others who don’t want to be told what to do, even by me! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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®

100 Day Home Organization Program

ALL ACCESS

Workboxes

Paper Organizing Retreats

I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

 

Direct download: Org365-MelindaK.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you.

When I consider daily routines, I look at the morning, afternoon, and evening time periods. I am going to discuss each of these and share what I was doing pre-pandemic, how 2020 dramatically changed these times of day, and what I want these routines to look like in 2021. 

I first shared my thoughts about a morning routine back in Episode 192. You can listen to that if you want more information about my morning routine before the pandemic of 2020. 

We are going to start with the morning routine, because that is when our day first starts. Traditionally, morning routine strategies are written by men without children who take over an hour to get their day started - even without showering, hair or makeup. My reality is that my mornings have almost always been dictated by what my family needs. 

My basic morning routine takes me about 45 minutes just to get prepared to leave the house and start my day. When I get up, I get ready for the day and then leave my bedroom. I do not lounge around the house in the morning. I get ready for the most dressy event of the day and stay dressed all day long. I do not ever go back and change my clothes. 

With the pandemic, my morning routine faced several disruptions. I had all this content that I felt like I had to consume before I could get out of bed and start my day. My spouse and whole family were home too, which changed how I was working. Around this time, my mental mindset was changing and the podcasts I listened to completely changed. We had to quarantine several times as a family due to COVID exposures (everyone was thankfully safe and negative). Joey totaled his car, which meant he needed more rides. Honestly, I just abdicated my morning routine in so many ways, and became reactive to the changes happening in my life. 

As you build your morning routine for 2021, ask yourself: What do you want?

  • When do you want to get up?
  • When do you want to start your work day or tasks?
  • What things do you want in your morning routine?
  • What do you want done early in the day?
  • Do you want to change what media you are consuming in the morning?

Please feel free to share your morning routine ideas in the Organize 365 Facebook Group!

Direct download: Org365-370.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! 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. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!
 
This week, I share my conversation with Jamie J. She lives with her husband, and two twin daughters. Her daughters were born prematurely and have overcome some challenges (including extra paperwork!). Jamie says “I just thought I was born to be unorganized and that was the way it would always be.” But she found the Sunday Basket® and has gotten her papers under control. Next up, IEP and homeschooling binders! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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
 
You can find the Mini Medical Binder downloads mentioned today at organize365.com/emergency
Direct download: Org365-JamieJ.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

There's a new Organize 365 pop up podcast! I'll be doing some Coffee Chat episodes on Tuesdays - but they'll only be available in your favorite podcast player. These are time sensitive episodes about products, events, or specific information. And, they will self-destruct (disappear) when they are no longer relevant. So, make sure you are subscribed to the podcast and you will never miss an episode!

Direct download: Org365-CC-001.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

Happy New Year 2021! We did it! We made it through 2020! When I look back on 2020, there is of course the pandemic, and all of the things that were unexpected, not desirable, and even terrible. But, there were also great things that happened in 2020.

In 2020, we did a lot of pivoting, adjusting, and adapting. Organize 365 moved to a bigger warehouse and hired more full time staff members. As a family, we had family members home at different times, and came out ok.

As I look forward to 2021, it feels really hard to plan and set goals. The first quarter of 2021, is not going to be the best time of (most) of our lives. But, once we are safe at home, we are mostly in control of what happens inside of our home, our mindset, and our planning for that. When I reflect on 2020, my core personality and gifts did not change, but my habits changed drastically. 

When the pandemic first arrived, I filled my days with work. As the year went on, I was able to return to the rhythm of working mostly during work hours, but I filled my free time with habits that were not serving me. Those habits were wasting two to four hours of my day (and I’ll tell you all about them in the next three podcasts). But, you need a proactive plan when removing less useful habits from your life. My Pink slash pockets remind me to make time for hobbies and relationships that are important to me. 

When I looked at my Pink slash pockets in my Sunday Basket® the other day, I realized I had not changed them at all during the pandemic. I had pockets for travel and restaurant dates with Greg. I did not want the pandemic to interfere with these dreams and goals, so I kept them throughout all of 2020. 

As I look at the next 120 days (the first of my 3 new years in a calendar year), I will likely not be traveling or eating in a restaurant. My heart goes out to those industries and the very hard season they are still experiencing. 

I was resistant to changing my pink slash pockets, and that meant that I limited my own hobbies and interests to just jigsaw puzzles. I definitely enjoyed doing lots of puzzles, and do not plan to stop enjoying them in 2021. But, I do want to incorporate new pink slash pockets for myself.

I am saving my former Pink slash pockets for now, but I am starting some new projects in the next 120 days. Listen in and I will share my new possibilities for my free time and self improvement projects for January through April of 2021. 

What do you want your first 120 days of 2021 to look like? Start to dream about the different ways you can possibly use your time, and when the time presents itself, you can jump into one of your possible projects!

 

Mentioned in the episode: Launch Bundle with Binder

Direct download: Org365-368.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:00am EDT

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