Wed, 31 January 2024
In this episode, I introduce you to Lydia M. who has two daughters, ages 4 and 9 months, is married and living in Florida. She has the capacity to run her business, invest in her family, and partake in her hobbies or simply scroll through Instagram. But it wasn’t always like this. Lydia was getting ready to start her bookkeeping business, DAC Balance, so she searched for podcasts to motivate and educate her. She came across the Professional Organizer Think Tank Podcast in 2006 which still exists!! When Lydia heard me say that there was a regular podcast, Lydia found it and has been a loyal listener every Friday since 2017. It was fascinating to learn about what Lydia does, the business sizes that she works with, and compared Organize 365®’s business as it pertained to her business. Simply put, she’s the middle man between the data entry person at a business and a CPA. Some businesses do not need a full time “controller” so they hire Lydia to fill that gap. Lydia and her husband were fortunate enough to move into her great aunt and uncle’s home after losing her aunt. Since her aunt’s passing was somewhat sudden, all their things were still in the home when they moved in. Lydia’s family was happy to not have to purchase something for this home that was new to them but it also meant estate sales, garage sales, and multiple trips to donation centers over the next 4 years to clear it all out. In 2019, Lydia found out she was pregnant. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit not too much later. The idea of becoming a mom and the pandemic gave Lydia time to get organized with the 100 Day Program she’d received as a gift for Christmas. Now that the house had been cleared out, it was time to declutter her stuff. This resulted in items being in the correct rooms…but also meant all the stuff needed to be gone through again. I shared a little tip we competitive puzzle solvers use, and it’s that we go through the pieces three times to complete the puzzle. We declutter to be able to organize to be able to get optimized and the result is productivity. This is why we go through The Productive Home Solution® three times. Lydia went on to describe how she is resetting her home every three months-ish due to her 9 month old growing and developing. With babies, there is a 3-4 monthly cycle in and out of clothes, toys, and safety in your home. Once our children are about 5 that turns into the first half of the school year, the second half, and then summer. This is why we do the home blitzes in that same pattern. Lydia wants to set an example of planning for her girls. I brought up that meme: Choose your hard…Planning is hard and not planning is hard. Lydia wants her girls to know it’s normal to plan for the upcoming week. She wishes someone had taught her that way earlier in life. We talked about the impact on our mental and cognitive load when we use the Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox®. Speaking of planning and the benefits, you think I rabbit trailed on shipping in the past two episodes? No, we really trailed off getting into what the heck I am doing with my PhD and what my coach and I discussed. Turns out I have had a good chunk of research completed towards putting together a Household Organization/Productivity Theory! Lydia’s advice is, “Buy all the things. Do the blitzes to get a sense of how it feels to be organized in a season.” EPISODE RESOURCES: On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! |
Fri, 26 January 2024
The number one reason cited as to why people do not feel like they are more organized or they do not start getting organized is they don't know HOW to start. They don't know WHERE to start. They don't know how long it's going to take...something else always gets in the way. Today's episode is going to help give you the tools to overcome this hurdle. So when you're at home and you feel like you're disorganized and you have a little bit of time, how do you use it? How do you get started? That's what I've been wrestling with the last 6 months. Looking at customer service emails, listening to things on social media, watching how people are implementing the tools that Organize 365® has to get you more organized, which ultimately give you more time. But - if you don't have any time, how do you get organized? What does it look like when your closet, bathroom, and bedroom are declared "organized"? Your closet is done when anyone could go in there, choose an outfit, and you'd put it on and walk out the door immediately. Your bathroom is done when you have everything you need for your morning, afternoon, and evening routines. No extras of anything and duplicates of everything you couldn't go a day without. Your bedroom is done when it doesn't look like you're living in your storage room. It should be intentional. When you are organized there is no negative self talk, you wake up and have a more productive day, and you are moving forward faster. You have more mental capacity at your discretion in the morning and the evening to reflect on your day. This allows you to go to bed calmer and with less stress, all small but significant benefits - just from being organized! Personal organization is a YOU game. You need to get your space organized first, then you will start to live an organized life 50% of the time. If you start February 15th, you will be personally organized by April 1st. How amazing would it feel to be personally organized in 6 weeks and living 50% of your life as an organized person?! The first Jump Start cycle begins on February 15th, and runs every 6 weeks. You will have dashboard access to the course, and be invited into a private community group in the App. You will also get weekly recordings of The Productive Home Solution® Club. More details can be found at https://organize365.com/jump-start/. Next week I'll give you all the details on the Kitchen + Meal Planning Jump Start Program! EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! |
Wed, 24 January 2024
In this episode, I introduce you to Wendy T. She's married with a 13 year old son, a 10 year old daughter, one cat and one dog. She lives in Southern Australia and owns 2 Air BNB’s. Talking to Wendy gave me a lot of ideas about traveling to Australia, and how to fulfill my wish list. I hope Greg joins me in 2026! It was interesting to learn that Wendy found Organize 365® through the ADHD Podcast which brought her to the Sunday Basket® Podcast and then to the main podcast. In learning about the Sunday Basket®, she thought this could be the way to gain calm in her home. In 2020, Wendy was in the process of moving. She purchased the old The Productive Home Solution® and found permission to let go of things. Back then it was the IDLE “process” and we laughed at the placement of the phone book mentioned. She’d experimented with Marie Kondo, but what she found different with Organize 365® were the systems, processes, and schedules. It was more than just decluttering. Wendy used to have paper piles in each room and she’d throw papers in them thinking, “Oh yeah, I’ll deal with it later.” When those paper piles started to disappear, that’s when she knew Organize 365® was effective in her life. Our homes don’t have administration offices like work, but Wendy saw her Sunday Basket® as a mini administration space. She could hold things in there until they needed to be dealt with. She loves the ability to think less and follows the tried and true systems of Organize 365®. We got on a shipping 2.0 conversation (1.0 was the Canadian shipping last episode), this time about Australia. This held Wendy back for a time. We feel selfish spending this money because it seems like it’s for us. The reality is that the family eats better, the Sunday Basket® user is more calm, and the house runs more smoothly. We pay a lot of money for summer camps and soccer, we should spend money to maintain our homes too! After Wendy splurged on the Organize 365® products and shipping them to Australia, she realized it’s like self care. She doesn’t spend money on shoes or handbags; so this is her splurge. Wendy pointed out that because shipping is so high, she appreciates the planning and implementation days to still be part of organizing life with Organize 365®. Planning Day is where she learned about permission for something else…naps! The planning days brought us to discovering each other's calendars. Australians celebrate different holidays. Their seasons are different from ours. And their school year is different. This got me thinking about America’s natural energy/cadence to organizing and how it matches up, or didn’t in most cases, to Australia’s. Her Golden Window is NOW! We determined Wendy’s weather must be like that of Arizona’s. It’s summer now and can get up to 40 degrees C or 104 degrees F. It’s also one of the busiest times for the Air BNB’s with the gardens. She values her Friday Workbox® even more now with managing people. She’s not doing so much physical work, but she is managing! Wendy’s advice is, “Go back to ‘Lisa Basics’. Give yourself grace. Done is better than perfect. Keep at it - chip away. Just start! It’s just a habit. If you build the habit, it just gets so much easier!” EPISODE RESOURCES: On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! |
Fri, 19 January 2024
Alright, it's time for the last organizational domino - Don't Quit! When you have mastered something, when you have persevered and you have learned something at a new level, you can easily forget what it was like to learn that skill. For many adults, we don't often have to push through any resistance in order to learn something new. When things get rough, we can choose to be comfortable instead of doing something hard or pushing through the resistance. Quitting is fine. You're allowed to quit. The reason why I didn't quit in 2012 in getting my home organized was because I didn't have any options left. I was turning 40, I started Organize 365®, I was getting our house organized and I had become a Professional Organizer. If I couldn't get my own house organized, how was I going to keep being a Professional Organizer? It was part of my identity of who I was becoming. The next time I wanted to quit was with growing Organize 365®. There have been a lot of things that have happened in 12 years in business that I didn't know how to do. I don't have a business degree, so I am learning how to be a business owner by being in masterminds, hiring coaches, taking courses, going to seminars and conferences. Being an entrepreneur is a never ending professional development course. As an adult you want to quit...or you just figure out how to do it. It's not about being afraid of the effort or the work; it's about not knowing how to do it, or what to do next. Go back to your WHY - why do you want to get organized to begin with? When you know your why, then you know your limits, strengths and weaknesses...and realize that you will need resources, help, expertise, advice and so forth in order to get further and grow more. Organization can be the solution to having a plan and getting your time back. I know you're probably thinking: "it's ridiculous to pay money to Organize 365® to learn how to organize, when I should just know how to do this myself." Why should you know how to do something just because you've always lived in a household? Everything is taught to us, or modeled for us. If you weren't TAUGHT how to be organized, you have to go to class. When you get stuck - join the community, get in the app, go to the coworking time. Get with people who are like minded. Sign up for a 1:1 session with a Certified Organizer. Everyone is going to get stuck. I'm not going to let you quit. Keep pushing through, because on the other side is the organized life and unlocked time freedom that you're looking for. EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!
Direct download: 575_-_Organizational_Dominos-_Step_3_-_Dont_Quit.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT |
Wed, 17 January 2024
In this episode, I introduce you to Francie G. Francie found herself googling for basement organization podcasts when her mother-in-law decided to downsize from her home of 46 years in November of 2022. She came across the “arranging your hot mess rooms” episode and was hooked. For her mother-in-law's move, which turned into her move too…she invested in The Productive Home Solution®. She grasped the idea of “same with same” and ease of access based on frequency of use. She then chose her own organizational adventure. At the same time, Francie, her husband, and two children, Thomas and Joanne, were living in a condo. Francie and her husband started their lives there 18 years ago, but knew it was not their forever home. Her mother-in-law downsizing meant they would be acquiring some furniture, memorabilia, and other items from this transition. They knew it was more than their condo could hold. They temporarily rented a storage space, but knew that money could instead go towards a mortgage for a house that was plenty big to have all their stuff in their home. This was the perfect time to start the search for their new home. We got to talking about our children getting older and that means their bodies get bigger too! It’s like 4 adults were living in their home. They were at a point in life where a little more space would be nice. And I don’t think we talk enough about buying your first nice piece of furniture or your first home in your 40’s. We don’t move into our first home and everything is perfect and brand new! Cue the The Paper Solution® Financial Binder. They needed to be more diligent with their money and she wanted peace of mind to know things would be ok. Francie and her husband have always been intentional with their spending despite esteemed professions. They have never owned a car, stayed in their condo till they felt they needed to move, and hired a nanny that had capabilities to drive. Francie’s first investment actually was the ADHD Bundle, and we might have gone down a rabbit hole about shipping internationally and how things have changed. She also explained that because of the public transportation and the nanny, she was able to work from home with both children attending different schools, uninterrupted. When the children were in school, the nanny would run errands or help with housework. If Francie needed to go anywhere, she could hop on the public transportation. With all this change for her mother-in-law and their family, Francie started thinking she too may have ADHD. Re-establishing the systems she’s learned, she realized she just has a lot of complexities in her life and no ADHD. Those complexities can suppress executive function. She laughed thinking “Well, I had gestational diabetes while I was pregnant. So maybe I’ll have ADHD while the kids live at home!” She’s realized that Organize 365® is the cure for that! She’s regaining her work/life balance and knows she can do hard things. Francie’s advice is, “the systems, routines, and schedules at home that Organize 365® teaches are the external scaffolding that keeps life organized. ” EPISODE RESOURCES: On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! |
Tue, 16 January 2024
I just want all my podcast listeners to be in the know. Now in the Shop are the two new Portable Sunday Basket® color options. I really don’t understand the obsession with all black…so I had to throw in a new fun one too!! The School Memory Binder is back, redesigned, and you can choose a color for that too! Food for thought: each one of your children could have different colors. A gentle reminder that the first Paper Organizing Retreat of 2024 will be here in Cincinnati on March 2nd. You have time…but do you?? Finalize plans and I look forward to seeing you in March! New Portable Sunday Basket Colors
School Memory Binder is Back
Don’t Forget the next Paper Organizing Retreat is March 2nd
EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!
Direct download: Coffee_Chat_-_New_Portables_and_the_School_Memories_Binder_is_Back.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT |
Fri, 12 January 2024
Are you ready for organizational dominos Step 2? Step 1 was getting started - in decluttering and organizing; and understanding that organization is different than housework. It is putting systems in place that will support you and will last for more than a day or a week and give you foundation. Step 2 is how long will this take? I need you to give me more time. If we could do it in a weekend, I would let you know. If we could do it in a month, I would let you know. Even if it was your full time job, we couldn't do it in that short amount of time...there's just too much to do. It's going to take one to three years. I know you don't like that answer but this is not new information, and this is not a marketing scheme. If anything, it's an anti-marketing scheme. It takes a MINIMUM of one year to get organized. Part of why it takes a minimum of one year is because you just finished December. If you're starting brand new now in January, do you remember what all you did in the beginning of December? Thanksgiving? Halloween? There are things that you did seasonally that you don't remember right now as you're organizing in January. There is a seasonality to organizing your physical spaces. Year One During your first year of organizing, your only job is to do 15 minute tasks every single day. Keep doing those 15 minute tasks every single day in every space until it's completely organized. A completely organized space has only 2 requirements. 1. When you walk into that space, it isn't "talking back" to you. The space isn't demanding your attention. 2. There are no more decisions to be made. There's no more thinking about what you're doing (or need to do) in that space. Year Two By the end of your first year, you've been through all the seasons and your house will be pretty much organized. So in year two - you're going to go through your house AGAIN because now you can declutter more, add some organizational systems, make it prettier, etc. You're going to get into the cadence of reflecting on the last 4 months and then planning for the next 4 months. You're going to create better systems, better cadences, start using the Sunday Basket® and The Paper Solution® Binders (if you haven't already). Year Three You are living an organized life in your home and in your work, and you identify as an organized person. Unexpected events happen in your life, but they don't become all consuming. You're better able to handle the complexity. You're going to be able to flex with the unexpected events because your house is under control, your work is under control, and you really do have work-life balance. You know the visible and invisible work that needs to be done in both, and you've set up systems in both that are supporting you so that when the unexpected happens - you're the one that can bounce right back and still maintain your goals. You know where all your time goes, where all your money goes, where all your intention goes, where your energy goes. You know you have capacity to do MORE. Why? Because YOU. ARE. ORGANIZED. EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!
Direct download: 574_-_Organizational_Dominos-_Step_2_-_Extend_Your_Timeline_1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT |
Thu, 11 January 2024
Organizational math. As a math teacher, I knew that if there were any holes in my student’s learning, they would struggle with future math concepts. Math skills build upon each other… just like organizing skills.
The skill of being a productive person starts with decluttering spaces, calendars, commitments, and sometimes people. Adding the weekly cadence of organizing your time, your priorities, and your actionable to-dos leaves you with a manageable action plan. I used to think productivity = being busy. Now I know that everyone is busy. Ironically, the people who look least busy are usually the most productive. Podcast episode 463: Learning the Skill of Organizing: Step 3 Increase Productivity Next year at this time, do you want to be more productive? More purposeful? More peaceful? The organizational level you are at today is a reflection of the cumulative minutes you invested in the full organizational cycle this year. Decluttering + organization = increased productivity. It would be my honor to walk with you through your organizational journey. Productivity is a fickle friend. It will not spontaneously happen. Productivity must be planned. It's time to make a plan! EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!
Direct download: Organize_365_Cycle_of_Organizing-_Step_3_Increase_Productivity.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT |
Wed, 10 January 2024
In this episode, I introduce you to Christa G. Christa is from a little town not too far from me; but about six years ago moved to Michigan from Georgia. Christa is married and has two children that are almost 12 and 16. Christa ended up hearing one of my interviews on the Boss Mom podcast around 2015/2016. She knew when they got to Michigan that she wanted to start a wedding planning business. She got the Friday Workbox® to keep her on track and organized before they moved. She now runs her wedding planning business full time! She’s known for planning unconventional weddings that reflect the character of the bride and groom. When Christa first found me, my kids were about her kids' ages. We laughed about having these humans that look like adults in our homes and how they take up more space, have opinions, and different food preferences. Christa has been such a proactive mom that these little adults do their own laundry and can prepare meals for themselves…even if it’s just frosted flakes! We rabbit trailed to what I call “selfish” laundry. Christa mentioned that she’d like to see her son wash more than just a uniform he needs for his sports team. When Greg says he’s going to do the laundry and I see only his jeans got washed; I give him a hard time saying “Oh, we’re doing selfish laundry today?” Christa and I agree to just put a full load in the wash instead. She plans her meals for the week when she processes her Sunday Basket® and then the family sees what she’ll be making and what nights they’ll have to fend for themselves. We kind of have this going on at my house except we all have cars and we all have money. So we are all shopping and not all of the food is getting eaten. I remember my mom doing the “refrigerator review” which meant she’d heat up all the leftovers the night before garbage day. Whatever didn’t get eaten, she’d toss. This was one more attempt at that food getting eaten instead of wasted. The Woodruff’s are a work in progress in this area! Christa managed to get her home life running pretty smooth and then she focused on her business. She has learned to become a person of excellence in one area and then build on her skill set. Weddings look so different for each couple. I shared that Greg and I were married 6 months after Greg finally proposed, it took him three years. Christa shared that she eloped. She normally hears “you made this process so much more calm than I expected it to be.” Wedding planners are there to have your back. They will read through all the contracts, search for options for flowers or other items you need, and pivot when needed. This way the bride doesn’t get lost in the weeds of the details. She offered some wedding planning advice:
Hot button alert!! You wanna hear a good story about a good venue and contracts? I shared what happened to Organize 365® with the Savannah Center. You will not see me doing business with them! Christa shared how she had to fight for a couple when at the last minute a venue decided to have their ballroom renovated leaving them to deal with a less than ideal wedding. You bet Christa got that money back!! That’s the blessing of a wedding planner. Christa’s advice is, “learn to be flexible, readjust when needed and not be so rigid in what you want to happen. But feel out what is supposed to happen and what feels right.” EPISODE RESOURCES: On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!
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Fri, 5 January 2024
Happy New Year! Today, I'm kicking off a three-part series called Organizational Dominos. We're starting with Step 1: Start. Next week will be Step 2: Extend Your Timeline, and then comes Step 3: Don't Quit! We all want to quit at some point, but we're going to push through and we are NOT going to quit. But let's talk about getting started first. Getting started is the hardest part when you're trying something new, doing something different, or not really sure where you're going...or confident that you know how to get there. We've been doing Thursday Throwback episodes of the most popular podcast series we've ever had called The Stages of Organization. Step 1 of that cycle is decluttering. Decluttering leads to organization, and organization leads to increased productivity. Decluttering is easy. It gives you the big "WOW" result when you're done. You can do that for a couple of weeks and feel lighter. However, there are problems with decluttering. One is that you don't declutter enough, and the second is if you've already decluttered but what is left isn't organized - then you need to move on to step 2. Over decluttering is a thing! We tend to do this if we don't know how to get organized, and think instead that we just need to get rid of more things. Set a timer for 15 minutes, grab a black trash bag, and fill it up. Even if you just start with trash or broken items, do that. Then go back through and collect anything that you can donate. Stop by the donation place of your choice every single week until you can't fill the car anymore. Declutter 15 minutes a day, and whatever is going to be donated - put it straight in your car. Getting started - declutter. Throw out all the trash and broken items, decide to sell or not sell, establish a donation cadence. Time to move on to organizing. 15 minutes a day. If you use that 15 minutes a day for housework instead of organizing, you're not going to get organized - EVER. What's the difference between housework and organizing? That's what I'm focusing on in my PhD. No joke - in the American Time Use Study, working on a boat is considered housework! Emptying ashtrays, shoveling coal, waiting for your electric car to charge - all housework. Mind blown! Housework is anything you do weekly that is basically undone by the time you finish it. Dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, planning meals, cleaning the refrigerator, you get it. So the 15 minutes a day you are spending on ORGANIZING (not housework!) should be for something that will last at least a month. There isn't enough information out in the world about how to actually get organized. There is for decluttering and productivity - but not organizing. So when you're looking this year to follow someone to inspire you to get organized, look for these things:
I might not be your person. I may not be enough organization for you. And that's ok. Are you ready to get organized in 2024? I want to encourage you that it is literally impossible to be behind when you are organizing. All you have to do is START! EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!
Direct download: 573_-_Organizational_Dominos-__Step_1_-_Start.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT |
Thu, 4 January 2024
Ok, I’m letting you in on some of the behind the scenes stuff I do to prepare for planning days. Yes, I plan for prep for planning days. And I implement after. I think it’s high time I show you live how I do it! Here are the next two additional opportunities you don’t want to miss. The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Prep Event I normally spend three days at the end of the year just planning. I know it’s crazy, right? And now all my secrets will be revealed. I will be using my real life Sunday Baskets® and my real life slash pockets. This is not in place of the Sunday Basket® Club co-working time. This is a deep dive day! We are going to the next level! I will show you how I go through each slash pocket and update my binders. I will go through all my 2.0 slash pockets and decide on projects. I will take all of my Holiday Blitz papers and place them into the Home Operations Binder for next year’s holidays. We will transform that Sunday Basket® into the Taxes Basket. You’ll look at last year and the new year baskets and consolidate into one Sunday Basket®. I will also go through both the workbook for The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day and The Productive Home Solution® Playbook. Friday Workbox® Planning Day Implementation Event “Do I need this information for the next 12 weeks?” This is the big question for this day. This will happen on the 13th Friday of each quarter. We do the planning day. We get clear on your goals. Then you usually need to meet with your team OR meet with yourself. After discussing the goals and how to reach them, you may scale down or change how you initially thought you would accomplish those goals. People are in place to get these goals accomplished. Then comes Implementation Day! I will expose all 6 of my Workboxes and will go through them live. You will see me go through my slash pockets and relabel them. This will freshen up all your systems and get the ball rolling on your new goals you put in your purple slash pockets. Ooooh, I just love planning! Two New Opportunities:
All aboard…let’s get both trains (home and work) running efficiently to create the impact we all deeply desire. EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! |
Thu, 4 January 2024
Last week we went over the first step to the cycle of getting organized; decluttering. I shared that decluttering leads to organization. I defined organization as lasting change in your home - not like housework that needs to be done daily or weekly. In this episode, I take that definition one layer deeper. Your rooms should not be talking to you…what does that mean? There IS seasonality to our homes; our choice of shoes, meals we cook, our diets, activities we enjoy. Naturally, we need different items for each season. This is why here at Organize 365® we have divided the year into trimesters; 4 month segments to plan for the next phase of seasonality your home and life will be facing. Now that we are done with the holidays, when is the next time you’ll be making a turkey? Likely in 11 months. So you could put that turkey pan and the lifters in your storage...but you can’t because your storage area is a hot mess like every other storage area I’ve seen ever. THIS is why it’s nice to be organized. You can tailor your spaces with the seasonality and have an appropriate organized storage area to do that! Each planning day helps you to anticipate these seasons and the “unexpected” events that come our way with each season. Did you know that this year Easter is in March?? Yes! Our last planning day we talked about that, which will change spring break for many of us. How do you “Spring Break”? You may need to make hotel reservations or talk to people you travel to for Easter. It’s inevitable that after Easter our brains switch to summer - but the reality is that we have a lot of weeks left in school until summer. I also brought awareness to taxes. Yes, they are coming!! It’s funny how these “unexpected” events come out of nowhere and can throw everything off track. This is why we have the planning days. For this reason, you get the first planning day included when you get The Productive Home Solution®. We want to give you all the support we can to get you organized and stay that way even if an unexpected or routine “unexpected” event comes your way. Year One After a year of going through all your spaces (15 minutes at a time) decluttering and organizing, you will no longer have rooms talking to you. No room is reminding you to change the light bulb, order a backup of a product you use daily, or a repair that is needed. You have backup of products you use and systems in place to resupply. You are no longer using your decision making allowance on what you are going to wear, what is for breakfast, or other simple decisions throughout your day. This process of decluttering will result in organization. This will not look like everything is labeled and “pretty.” This kind of organization will look like more time and more free thinking space in your brain. You can start to mentally prepare for your day as you get ready or drive to work. You can focus on accomplishing your goals. You may not be organized now, but you could be a year from now. So where do you start? I always advise starting in your personal spaces and storage, and then you get to choose your own adventure. You can choose your paper, family spaces, or kids spaces. I will note that kids' spaces need to be done in the summer; so consider where you are in the year when you choose where you will organize next. Once you get to fall, you need to do the spaces you didn’t do in summer. This will take you about a year. If you think about how much time you spent on just your bathroom, you can expect your full home to take about a year! Year Two Now that your spaces aren’t talking to you, it’s time to refine. You get life long access to The Productive Home Solution® and can really go through it as many times as you’d like. This time you will go through all of your spaces again…but during this round you will get rid of some things you didn’t last time. You may have set up your Sunday Basket®, but you may find that you are not really making everything wait until Sunday. This year, you will start to understand the importance of waiting until Sunday to free up decision making and time. You will also start to better utilize The Paper Solution® Binders. You will find yourself going through the free blitzes at a deeper level. You are a productive planner. This is the year most people will add the Friday Workbox® too. You have seen the impact of the Sunday Basket® at home and you desire that same level of organization at work, too. Year Three THIS is the year you recognize “I am an organized person.” You finally feel it. No rooms are talking to you. You know the visible and invisible work that needs to get done and you have systems in place to support you in work and life. Work is in control. Life is in control. You can flux when unexpected life events come your way. Your home and work will not fall apart. Now you can gather all the time from both areas and think about whatever you want to all the time. You can now start to do what you are uniquely created to do! I’m not going to lie…you are going to want to quit sometime in these three years. So make sure to catch next week’s episode on what to do when you get the urge to quit. EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!
Direct download: Organize_365_Cycle_of_Organizing-_Step_2_Organizing.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00am EDT |
Wed, 3 January 2024
You all love when Emily comes on the podcast! Here’s the update… Pretty safe to say the two of us like to plan. And there’s a cadence or a cycle to organizing. We dream, make it real, complete the idea, and then we get to start dreaming again. Emily shared that she looks at these areas of her life the last week of the year or the first week of the new year: financial, spiritual, relational, emotional, mental, and vocational. She decides the next steps she wants to take to improve those areas and then strives towards the next step over the next six weeks which takes her to her birthday. She can audition new ideas and keep what works and what needs to be revamped. "Forcing things never prosper.” Emily and I agree I have a pretty high awareness of my intuition. I have always been more focused on the destination rather than how I get there. I asked Emily when she decided to start trusting her intuition. She acknowledged that she used to force things and go against her gut. And it was no surprise that things haven’t worked out with this strategy. At Quality IP, she was tired of forcing square pegs into round holes. Once she relinquished control, she felt God putting things into place to keep her afloat as she started down her entrepreneurial journey. She has hustled. And let me tell you, in general, the hustle is back. The pandemic is over and we are back to the hustle and bustle of life. She has found a couple of marketing clients and she’s done some odd jobs to supplement. She’s always been a fantastic networker and those relationships are paying off. There’s no forcing anything and she’s listening to her intuition. She knows she’s not in control. She reminded us all that we are only in charge of our thoughts, attitude, and our efforts. Emily pointed out not to count eggs that have not hatched. She shared that she had calls lined up that ended up canceling. But Emily didn’t sweat it because she’d taken advantage of all opportunities that had come her way. Don’t say no to a money making opportunity today because you may have money coming in a week or two. A Friday Workbox® can really help a person to keep track of odd jobs while organizing your main stream of income. Emily has found herself to be more productive when she starts the day with a list of priorities from the end of yesterday’s work day. She made her list at the end of the day what was most important to complete the next day while it was fresh. Emily took advantage of her good credit score before she was let go to get a bank loan as a safety net. Keep your credit score in good standings. Things are moving faster since Covid. I remember many years ago learning about the Singularity Theory from Ray Kurzweil, that at some point everyone would know everything. I had the hardest time wrapping my brain around this concept. This has been made possible mostly due to the internet. The rate at which we learn new information is exponentially faster than 10 years ago. There’s not the lag of relaying of the information that there used to be. And now… Visit organize365.com/EmilyKelly to read more. EPISODE RESOURCES:
Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! |