Free Ecourse Sign Up Page

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Originally posted 2010-02-26 18:51:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

So, you want to get organized but you’re not quite ready to hire an organizer. Or maybe you know you can do it yourself, but you need a little guidance and hand holding. This ecourse, Seven Steps to Successful Organizing, may be just the thing.

You’ll learn important, basic concepts that you can use for any organizing project. I’ll take you through each step and give you specific homework to do for each step. You’ll feel calm and in control even if your project isn’t finished because now you know how to finish it. If you do the work, I guarantee you’ll make progress!

Why am I offering this for free? Well, I’m passionate about helping people live the way they want to live and spend their time the way that fulfills them. It’s true that clients pay me for clutter coaching, in person and on the phone, but if all they need is a little push, a bit of hand holding, I’m happy to offer that. I don’t want someone to hire me and then find out that they could’ve gotten the help they needed for free! That’s a lose/lose situation.

That said, some folks learn best with me right beside them, guiding them. They want a real person to ask questions and bounce ideas off of. Personal connection with me is what spurs their progress. I offer free clutter coaching in person if you’re in my area and over the phone (video calls are available!) if you’re not. You can read about my in-person service here and phone coaching here.

I suggest starting with the ecourse. You might find that it’s all you need. If that turns out to be true, I’d love to have our comments about how well the steps worked for you. By doing the ecourse, you’ll also learn about my style and what I can offer if you hire me or if you just stay in touch via the ezine and reading my blog.

When you sign up for the ecourse, you’ll also be getting a free subscription to my monthly ezine. The ezine is a short, sweet tip for the month, or a product review, or some news from the organizing field that I think you can use. It’s also another way to stay engaged with your organizing projects.

Below are the seven steps. Each one builds on the previous one. Keep these emails after you finish the course. They’ll be a valuable resource to use over and over. Although you’ll learn a lot, what’s really important is the habits you build. Repeating the ecourse will cement those new practices into your daily life so you can get to that ideal state: not having to think about them! They’ll come naturally, just like brushing your teeth.

  1. Why get organized?
  • Develop your vision
  • Have your own compelling reasons, not someone else’s
  • How motivated are you?

    2.    Habits and Decisions

  • Habits make tasks easier and go faster
  • Decide to decide. Not deciding means a decision will be made for you
  • Start with one; pick one specific thing you want to change and practice it
  • Start small; choose a situation where you can make a low risk decision

    3.    Evaluate your space

  • Learn tricks to be objective about your space
  • Notice what currently differs from your vision and make specific notes
  • Also note what is working and why you think it works

    4.    Evaluate your behavior

  • Be honest about the way you live in your space
  • What did you try that worked? What didn’t work?
  • Embrace your personal preferences and lifestyle

    5.    Make a plan

  • It doesn’t need to be perfect or complete, but you need to start
  • Write your plan down; don’t keep it in your head. Writing clarifies.
  • Look for the best solution that is closest to what you do now; the shortest distance between two points
  • Be able to switch back and forth between the master plan and the specific steps you take to get there
  • Gather supplies

    6.    Make the time

  • You do not have spare time. You must make time.
  • Be realistic about how much time you have to devote to getting organized
  • You don’t need large chunks of time. You just need to fit the right tasks into the right time slots
  • Schedule your time on the calendar so you won’t give it away 
  • Don’t wait till you know everything, just start

    7.    Make it a lifestyle

  • Staying organized is a journey, not a destination
  • Remember, habits are your friends 
  • Don’t get caught up in the process; remember why you’re doing this
  • You may need to scale back your vision to make it do-able. There’s nothing wrong with that
  • Become as organized as you need to be and no more

Below is the link to sign up. Just enter your first name and email address and the robot-prevention code and you’re good to go! I look forward sending you Step 1!

You’ll get an email asking you to confirm your subscription. After you do that, your first Ecourse step will arrive very soon. Thanks!


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Reduce Gift Clutter

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Originally posted 2010-10-21 12:44:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Cover design2 It's book chapter Wednesday (um, Thursday). Here you go! Like it? You can buy the ebook here.

Simple Way #8

Reduce Gift Clutter

Request non-cluttering gifts such gourmet food, show tickets, donations in your name, wine, flowers, etc. It may seem awkward at first to tell friends and family about your new policy; after all, they’re giving you a gift! But it can also help them to know that you’re going to like what they give you and they don’t have to try to read your mind. There may always be an Aunt Martha who insists on giving you an unwanted fruitcake. Refer back to Simple Way #7 for advice.

Make it your policy to give clutter-free gifts yourself. Ask what they want. Develop your own selection of gifts such as memberships, special excursions or a personal service that you provide.

Right now:
Make a list of gifts you’d like to get so when people ask you, or when holidays are coming up, you can suggest them.

 

Nag Me, Please

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Originally posted 2007-11-02 10:16:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Nagging is just another form of reminding, isn’t it? How you feel about the subject dictates whether you think of a reminder as a nag or as a helpful productivity tool.

There are lots of ways to nag yourself; put books by the door that you have to kick out of the way if you’re not going to pick them up (and return them to the library), stick Post-Its on the mirror where they block your view, leave things out where they’ll visually bug you till you do something about them.

And now there’s HassleMe. This service lets you compose your own nagging emails and then sends them to you on an irregular schedule. Since you won’t be expecting them, you can’t tune them out quite as well as your own homegrown nags.

I could also see using this service for non-nagging purposes, such as sending myself encouraging notes. Or to remind myself  of things I actually want to do, but tend to forget about.

Thanks to this Mashable post for enlightening me about HassleMe and 99 other nifty productivity tools.

Sentimental Clutter

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In her book Let Go of Clutter, Harriet Schechter writes about how to let go of sentimental clutter. This kind of clutter is stuff with valid emotional attachments, and logic doesn’t play any part in whether you decide to keep it or not.

Items that make you feel joyful with the memories they bring back, such as love letters and home movies, you’ll want to keep.

We all have items that bring up less than happy feelings, but they are parts of our personal history, so we want to keep them too. The trick is that not all negative emotions are created equal.

What you need to know is: is it sad or is it bad?

Items that make you feel sad, such as condolence cards or pet mementos, are worth keeping in spite of the memories they hold. Even if they make us sad, they give us the warm fuzzies as we remember how much we loved those who aren’t with us now.

Items that make you feel bad should go. These are angry letters, heirlooms from relatives who make you feel bad about yourself, gifts from embittered ex-spouses, etc.

Certainly, into each life a little rain must fall, but that’s no reason to keep a bucket full of it in your closet.

Let the mementos you keep inspire happy memories, or tender ones. Mementos should be reminders of a full, rich life.

Another way to pare down sentimental clutter is by keeping only the “greatest hits.”

 

Which Papers Do You Need to Keep?

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Originally posted 2008-07-18 09:49:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Retention schedules come in many flavors. I’ve rounded up a few here. These lists are all for home record keeping, which are harder to find online than business retention schedules.File cabinet 

Caveat: always consult your accountant, tax preparer or lawyer if you’re in doubt. This is one area where it’s actually better to keep something than toss it if you’re unsure.

Here’s a simple one from an accounting website. Here’s one from North Dakota State University that has good tips on why to keep records and how to do it. Extension.org offers a fairly long one complete with the reason to keep each document.

Quick Tip: Whenever you open a folder to file something, take a moment to glance through it and see if there’s anything you can get rid of. If you’re filing in reverse chronological order (newest items in the front; I recommend this method), look in the back of the folder first for potential shredder fodder.

Repurposed file cabinet courtesy of ARTS’ photostream.

Calendar

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Originally posted 2008-10-06 16:05:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

  • Paper vs. electronic
  • If paper: wall or portable
  • To do’s vs. appointments
  • Personal vs. business
  • Repeating events
  • Family calendar
  • Where to keep it
  • When to look at it

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The Organized Cook

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This week’s guest blogger is Jacki Rosen, professional chef. I interviewed her about how busy people can cook healthy food quickly and how they can organize their fridges and cooking schedules to make that happen. Jacki says, I love teaching people how to cook healthy. So many people think health food can’t taste good.

You can make a delicious healthy meal in 30 minutes if your kitchen is set up properly.

Spend a little time on the weekend preparing. Roast a chicken and a pan of vegetables. You can top pasta with one or both and also make sandwiches and salads from them all week. Cook a package of bacon and use it to add a burst of flavor to salads. Wash all your lettuce and store it carefully in a paper towel-lined bag in the fridge to keep it fresh.

Pasta is wonderful because you can put a lot of stuff in it. You’ll want to have grated cheese, some kind of sausage and butter on hand. No margarine! says Jacki. Butter and olive oil have nutrients in them, and you just need a small amount to add big flavor.

If you eat pasta more than once a week, cook the whole box, rinse it till its cold, then coat it thinly with olive oil so it doesn’t stick together. Then you can divide it into portions and store them in plastic bags. For dinner, heat up your toppings, dump in the pasta, sprinkle on the cheese and you’re set.

Speedy soup: Chop up an onion, a carrot and a celery stalk and saute them in olive oil till soft. Add a carton of stock. Cut up some of your roasted chicken and toss it in along with precooked pasta and a handful of herbs. Voila: hearty soup in 20 minutes.

Eggs are another easy go-to food to have on hand. An omelette with sausage or veggies or a little cheese is a simple, fast dinner. Bacon is a great fridge staple. Not only is it great with eggs, but it can be crumbled onto salads and pasta dishes. Nuts are equally versatile, adding tasty protein to salads, pasta and veggie dishes. Toast them quickly in a frying pan until they smell nutty.

A baked potato is a nice easy dinner; just add butter and some crumbled bacon and serve with a green salad topped with toasted nuts.

For breakfast, cook several days worth of oatmeal at a time. Spend 20 minutes making a simple compote with apples or other fruit. Now you’ve got fancy breakfast makings.

Fun time saving tip: peel your carrots and then keep using the peeler to add carrot shavings to your salad. No need to switch to a knife or a grater.

Jacki works with clients to develop a repertoire of recipes they can cycle through, based on the time they have to cook and their eating preferences. She suggests getting family members involved. Many hands make light work. Even if you don’t have help, start thinking of cooking well as taking care of your body and rewarding it for serving you well. It runs better and more effectively on quality fuel.

Seeing that good food helps remind you to eat it, so keep it visible! Most fruit can be stored in a bowl on the counter. Some, like strawberries, get moldy fast in the fridge. Zucchini and tomatoes also fare better outside the fridge.

The staples: onions, carrots, celery, potatoes, salad greens, nuts, eggs, fruit, bacon or sausage, broth, canned tomatoes, canned beans, pasta, butter, olive oil, herbs. Olives and roasted peppers keep almost indefinitely and add lots of flavor to pasta dishes.

Keep your refrigerator lean and clean it out regularly. Make a point of using what’s in there and if you don’t, don’t buy it anymore. This goes for cabinets too. Many homes have deep kitchen cabinets and five year old cans of soup get lost in the back.

Try the professional kitchen trick of putting your new purchases at the back of the cabinet so the oldest stock is always in front. Again, if you find you’re not using it, get rid of it instead of pushing it to the back. Unopened jars and canned goods are donate-able. To avoid that in the future, shop with a list.

I told Jacki, so the great news is that you don’t have to become Julia Child to eat well at home quickly. Jacki responded, you can bet that Julia Child did not make fancy French cuisine every night! She more likely said, there are mushrooms and onions and eggs. I can make an omelette! Hurray, I’m happy!

Final comments, Jacki? “I just want everyone to cook one thing. Cooking one thing is better than no things. If you cook for yourself, you feel better and if you feel better, you look better.”

Jacki Rosen has been cooking her entire life but started cooking officially in 1993 when she went to the CIA (that’s the Culinary Institute of America, not the other one). She’s cooked for fine dining restaurants, for catering companies and has taught cooking at college and through private companies. You can learn more on her website here: www.jackirosen.com and reach her at jacki@jackirosen.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tips for Taming Distractions at Work

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Originally posted 2007-10-02 20:10:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I often hear from people that they come in to the office early in the morning or on weekends just to get some work done in peace. They don’t particularly like doing it, but they do like the quiet and the lack of interruptions from phone, email and coworkers.

Lifehacker yesterday ran a post about “guerilla tactics” people use to get some distraction-free time at work. This was a favorite:

“A couple colleagues of mine and I schedule fake meetings so we can sit
and get an hours work done. If it’s just the three of us, it’s quiet
and easy because we know why we’re there.”

Over at 43Folders, there were several good ideas for managing emails and meetings, such as “filter any email that contains the string “to unsubscribe.”
Although many of these certainly will be valuable (sign-ups, Google
lists), that string means there’s a good chance they’re also bulk messages
that are being generated automatically. And some folks want to only see
those sorts of emails, again, once or twice a day — and only when they
have extra time”

Email in this category is being referred to these days as bacn. It’s not as bad as spam but it significantly clogs inboxes.

Pay Your Bills

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Next week is National Pay Your Bills Week. Isn’t that exciting? Okay, so it’s not. It’s important though. Like filing, death, taxes and going to the dentist, bill paying is a must.

How could it be easier?

Use online banking. I believe this is a very safe way to pay, despite recent alarms. You have to do your part to make it safe, however.

Remember:

  • Don’t click on links from bank emails! Just don’t ever do it. Many intelligent people have been scammed this way. Go to your bank website, log in and check for messages.
  • Check that the website address starts with https instead of just http. The “s” means the site uses encryption. Windows users will see a closed padlock indicating encryption at the bottom right of their screens.
  • Create passwords using letters and numbers, not common words. Here’s a post I wrote about how to make good passwords. Keep them safe! I record mine using hints only as described in the post.
  • Change your passwords regularly, at least twice a year.

Even if you don’t want to bank online, you can save trees and reduce clutter by getting your bills electronically. And don’t print them out! I do recommend downloading the PDF version if you want to keep a record. Sometimes your bills are only on the website for a few years and you may have to pay a fee to recover old ones.

Schedule days every month to pay bills and put them in your datebook. I use email reminders in iCal to pay my bills twice a month. Choose dates that allow for online processing or mail delivery so your payments aren’t late.

What’s to be gained by doing this?

  • Freedom from worrying about what is due when, and paying bills multiple times per month.
  • No more late fees!
  • Spending less time on a task you don’t really like anyway ;)

Packing List for Holiday Travel

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Originally posted 2007-11-09 18:42:51. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Holiday travel season is coming up! If you’re going somewhere, use a packing list. It will ease your travel considerably.

I use checklists a lot, all kinds of them. They’re very helpful for making sure nothing falls through the cracks, and I get the satisfaction of checking off items as I do them. I put everything on my checklists because I find that the most common things I forget are the ones that seem most obvious (my toothbrush, for example). When my checklist is as complete as I can make it, I can stop worrying about forgetting things and focus on worrying about missing the plane (!)

There are many generic packing lists on the Internet, such as this one on a travel website. It includes tasks to take care of before leaving home; a great addition. I recommend cobbling together several lists and then editing them to suit your own travel style and to comply with current security regulations.

Again, it’s important to add in everything you can thing of and be specific. For example, the entry for arranging for pet care might also include: make sure this person has a key to get into your home! On the other hand, a checklist is great because it helps you avoid packing unnecessary items; you’ve already decided what you need to take. As this site points out, a packing list

"…defends against last-minute attacks of "I might need this." The worst possible time to be considering what to take on a trip is while you are packing for the trip!"

Hindsight, of course, is 20-20. You can refine your list by making notes while you’re on your trip. Was there something important you forgot? Did you bring some clothes you never wore? Did you have the right shoes? Would it be great next time to have a book light so you can read in bed (I’m always amazed at how poor hotel room lighting can be)? If you’re traveling domestically, what about bringing stamps with you so you can actually mail those postcards from your destination?

Happy trails!