Organizing Blogs by Professional Organizers
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Tag >> productivity
As an Entrepreneur or the owner of a home-based business it is typically necessary for you to hold meeting outside of your home office. You probably have your favorite coffee shop where you can meet with potential clients or network your business. But how do you handle the need to carry all of the materials required for you to show your  professionalism. Do you have a briefcase that you carry everything in? Are you too embarrassed to have a potential client "see" your briefcase because it is a disaster? Are you embarrassed for anyone to see your car (since you "live" in your car, it can have a tendency to look like a bomb has gone off in it)? I started this journey over 10 years ago when I signed on with a National MLM Company - which I won't name. In the 7 years with the company I noticed one major flaw. It seemed that every quarter someone (probably from Corporate), came up with a "better and easier" way to organize all of my supplies. This usually meant me making a purchase of some kind of organizing bag for display purposes and reorganizing, yet again, how I was transporting my materials in order to hold appointments. Here are my top 3 Lessons Learned regarding having a Traveling Office. Now, as a true Entrepreneur, the issue is the same. I need to have brochures, business cards, potential client forms, etc. available - and a way to make notes (and then follow-up with those notes). Here are a few tips I have learned over the years: 1. Have a specific plan for where everything goes. Don't allow yourself to be lazy and just place an item "somewhere" (for right now). Odds are that you won't remember where you put it, get frustrated and then your first thought will be...this systems doesn't work for me! When, actually, you aren't working with your system. Consistency in where everything is kept is crucial when organizing your Traveling Office. I recommend using a portable portfolio or file box if you need to carry paperwork. Keep extra copies of what you need filed away so that they can be found quickly and easily. For your computer or tablet use a traveling tote that shows your professionalism. To work with other professionals, you must be a professional yourself. 2. Don't allow papers to run around "loose" in your car. They will get damaged or torn. If you are carrying around brochures, your image will be based on whether your paperwork is neat and tidy or whether your paperwork has corners that have been turned down and torn. And remember...you paid good money for those brochures - having to throw them away would not be a good ROI. Again, keep everything within your Portable Portfolio or File Box in your car.
This Article was contributed by Melanie Yost, LCSW. Author, Speaker and Business Mentor Time Management is an oxymoron. I've always said that we can't manage time...we are in charge of what, when and how we use our time every day. Distractions are unavoidable, and how we gather ourselves up from the dust and continue onto the next obstacle will dictate our progress. My good friend, mentor and business coach just wrote this article yesterday and I just had to share her words of wisdom. Time management is a hot topic! There are all kinds of tools, techniques and trainings to help you take control and manage your time. The funny thing is, I really don't believe that you can manage time. Albert Einstein proved with his theory of relativity that time as we think of it doesn't really exist and that we have the ability to expand or contract our perception of time with where we focus our thoughts and energy.
So, instead of talking about time management to help us be more productive, I think the real issues are actually self management and schedule management.
When you are a business owner, you are the one who establishes priorities, determines deadlines and sets your schedule. Because you have to wear so many hats every day, it is very easy to become distracted by the people, tasks and priorities competing for your attention. In order to be productive and feel accomplished at the end of the day, you need to exercise some self management and schedule management strategies.
Identify your time wasters. What are the things you do that eat up a lot of your time? For the next week, carry a note book around and keep track of everything you do and how much time you spend doing it during your work day. This will only work if you are willing to be really honest with yourself.
Remove distractions. Once you have identified your time wasters, eliminate them from your work day. If there are things that are necessary to your business but end up eating up a lot of your time (social media, email), then plan them into your schedule for specific amounts of time and use a timer to indicate it's time to move on. During times when you really need to focus on a task, turn off your email, silence your phone and text alerts and close out your social media pages. Know what works best for your personality. Are you someone who needs large chunks of time to complete projects and tasks all at once or do you do better breaking the project into bite sized chunks and completing it in multiple small increments of time? I personally do better with large chunks of time so I can really focus on a task or project. When I am transitioning between tasks, I can end up getting distracted and wasting a lot of time. Other people get overwhelmed with too much time and allow themselves to be distracted because they think they have plenty of time and end feeling frustrated and non-productive.
Cluster your activities. This is a tactic I have used for many years to manage my schedule. Because I know I waste a lot of time during transitions, I group similar activities together. When I have phone appointments, I do my best to schedule them around each other. On days when I have a meeting or appointment out of the office, I schedule all my other out of office meetings on that day if possible. As much as possible, I schedule meetings and appointments back to back. I always leave one day a week with no scheduled appointments so that I can take care of the creative and administrative tasks of my business (newsletter, copy writing, content creation, marketing strategies).
Make a list of tasks you need to complete during the week and plan them into your schedule. I still keep a paper schedule (yes, I'm old fashioned) so after I have clustered my appointments and meetings, I estimate how much time my creative and administrative tasks are going to take me and I write them into my schedule. If you find yourself spending hours managing your email, schedule time to check it twice a day for ½ hour each time. When the time allotted for the task is over, move on to the next task.
Schedule mini breaks into your day so that you can refocus and re-energize. Every 90 minutes, take a 10 minute break to stretch, get some tea, step outside, get a snack . . . whatever it takes to refresh yourself.
By managing myself and my schedule in these ways, I was able to build my coaching business from the ground up while running my full time therapy practice and being a hands-on mom to my young daughter. I would love to hear what you are able to accomplish with using these tools and techniques. Linda Clevenger, Speaker and Professional Organizer Organization Direct www.organizationdirect.com
Don't Give Up on Yourself Well, we are 10 weeks into the year and how are you feeling about your goals for this year? Have you given up already or are you feeling regenerated about how much you have achieved? Remember that the goals that you made at the beginning of the year may have already changed. And if getting yourself, your life or your business organized was one of your goals events may have occurred that took you off track - just a little. Don't be discouraged. That is the great thing about goals, they can always be readjusted, reworked and reset. The only person getting in the way of you reaching your goals is you! The key to reaching goals is consistency in your reality and persistency in your pursuit. If you are like me, obstacles have already presented themselves. Things just came up last week that tried to refocus my concentration from what is important. And it wasn't just one thing but, as Murphy's Law would suggest, there were 3 things back to back that required my attention and in a really short period of time too.
Taking Action to Get Organized What is it going to take to organized your home or office? The more that you think about it, the more it makes you feel yucky. You just don't feel like doing it and yet, you are too embarrassed to have someone come in to help. It is going to require your time, energy, motivation, encouragement, desire and taking action. It isn't going to get done by itself. You have made the decision, and not it's time to take action. Where to begin? The logistics of getting a space organized can be mind boggling. Do you start with the paperwork and filing or maybe the elimination of items that you just can't seem to get rid of. Do you possibly need help getting rid of things? And when will it fit into your schedule because, there are three ways that it will get done. 1. Rearrange your schedule so that you can still keep your family and business up and running. If you are a morning person, get up and spend an extra 30-60 minutes each morning on organizing. I recommend that you take the time, the evening before, to write down what it is that you are going to do, since you'll be starting it first thing! 2. Find your time-suckers. I guarantee that you will be able to find wasted time during your day. What is it that drains your time? The most common time-sucker is email. Putting a time limit on checking your emails will give you "found time" that you can use to get yourself organized.
Do you seem busier than ever, but feel like you can't get anything accomplished?This problem seems exaggerated by all of these high tech communication tools we use every day. Personally, I struggle with getting my "real work" accomplished while I respond to emails, phone calls, Internet research, and now social media. Even though I know how to manage it, I find it hard to have the discipline needed to spend time working on the "real work" instead of spending time on the "fun stuff". Getting real about the time you spend on all of your daily activities helps you understand how to better manage your time. How to "Get Real" * Track the time time you spend each day on ALL of your activities. I recommend an online stopwatch tool (www.online-stopwatch.com). Start and stop the clock when you switch activities. Since it runs in your web browser, keep it open throughout the day.
* Write each activity down in your calendar or on a sheet of paper. At this point, do not change your normal behavior. You need to have a realistic picture of actual time spent, not what you think you should be spending.
* Track how many times you go in and out of email.
Last week I attended the annual conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers! If you can imagine a conference that is run more smoothly and organized, let me know!!! We had a blast in Orlando discovering new products, new services, new books, new ideas (yes, I am rambling) and rekindling friendships from all over the world. Who knew there is a need for organizing in areas like Bermuda, Japan, New Zealand and France? It just goes to show how everyone is looking for a little more order in their lives, no matter where they live.
You may think as we all meet that we are learning new ways to put items in a pretty container, but it was so much more. As organizers, our goal is to help you discover why you are disorganized and ways to help you create new habits to overcome disorganization.
We've all heard the phrase "waste not, want not". It means that if we don't waste what we have, we will not be in need in the future. In general, I think this is a great rule to follow. The recent recession has caused a lot of us to rethink how we spend our time, money and efforts, and motivated us to reuse and recycle a lot more. But what happens when you take this philosophy too far? As I talk to my organizing clients about why they keep as much as they do, I often hear them say "It would be a shame to let anything go to waste". The irony here is that they are, in fact, wasting an awful lot by hanging on to so much stuff.
The old saying was, "A stitch in time saves nine." Recently I did something on two separate occasions with regard to shopping expeditions that would validate this statement. From a time management point of view, I had meant to save time but instead ended up turning an extra five minutes into additional trips consuming more than an hour each.
The issue was trying on clothes, deciding which to purchase, heading for the cash register, and being sidetracked by another item-impulse buying. I would add that new item to my soon-to-be purchases. Instead of going back and trying this new piece on, I decided it should be fine. I really didn't want to spend the time returning to the dressing room and trying on one more thing-another five minutes. I continued to the cash register, paid for everything, and then after I got home found that there were problems with the last items that I couldn't have noticed without actually trying them on.
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