A great take on hiring a professional organizer
I think one of the biggest barriers organizers face when it comes to getting clients is that getting organized, or being organized, is something that people think they should be able to do on their own. They don’t acknowledge that it’s naturally easier for some people to be organized than others. And that you can save a lot of money and time in the long run when you hire a professional organizer.
I gave a talk yesterday with life coach Jill Farmer for the Academic Women’s Network at Washington University School of Medicine. During that talk, Jill made an absolutely genius analogy.
She shared this dialogue, which took place when she suggested that a coaching client hire a professional organizer.
Client: Oh no, I can get organized myself.
Jill: Can you walk?
Client: Yes…
Jill: Then why do drive to work if you can walk?
Client: A car makes it easier and more efficient to get to work.
Jill: A professional organizer makes it easier and more efficient to get organized.
I love it!
Bingo works for me!
I wouldn’t be writing this (or any) blog post today if it weren’t for To-Do List Bingo. At the end of the day today, I took a look at my bingo board and covered the tasks that I had already done.
I discovered that I can get a double bingo (!) today if I write a blog post. So that’s what I’m doing. I am now experiencing the thrill of a bingo.
As you can see, To-Do List Bingo is very motivating for me. It gets me to do important-but-not-urgent things that I wouldn’t otherwise do. For me, getting a bingo is a great reward.
If you’re intrigued by the notion of what might seem like a childish game making you more productive, you might want to check out my Organizing Guide, Making Tasks Fun with To-Do List Bingo. (All my concise organizing guides—downloadable pdfs—are $9 each but right now I’m offering a buy one, get one free deal with the coupon code GUIDEME.)
Special thanks to Jacquelyn Kittredge of e-bakery social media for inspiring me to create my first bingo board!
A fabulous opportunity for personal growth
My friend and life coach Shannon Wilkinson is going to turn 45 in a little while. (Hard to believe when you look at that picture, isn’t it?) To put a positive spin on this milestone (which puts her into a different age group and jacks up her insurance rates), she’s doing a series of challenges related to the number 45. You can read all about it on her blog. In brief, between now and her birthday in mid-March, she’s exercising for 45 minutes, 45 times; she’s being still for 45 minutes, 45 times; she’s leaving 45 random love notes; and (here’s the part that could affect you), she’s offering to coach 45 people in 45-minute laser-coaching sessions for $45.
Shannon is an amazing coach who uses NLP techniques and hypnosis to create transformational internal shifts. I can tell you from personal experience that a single session can be life changing. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but it isn’t.
So here’s your chance, for the small investment of only $45, to work through a challenge you’ve been trying to resolve. If you ask me, it’s the deal of the century. Oh, and one other great aspect of it: Shannon is giving $4.50 of every $45 session to fund microloans through Kiva.
Tempted? Go to Shannon’s website to read all the details and sign up now.
Incidentally, on her blog Shannon is reporting on her progress with her challenges. I love that she’s using Joe’s Goals to track everything brilliantly. It’s a great use of that free service. Check it out.
Low-cost ways to tap into my expertise
I love working one-on-one with clients (and I also love supervising a team of organizers to help clients) and we get great results. But sometimes budgetary or geographic constraints make that impossible.
That’s why I’m glad to bring up some opportunities for ways you can tap into my expertise even if you’re on a budget and/or you don’t live in St. Louis.
You can hear me speak
Mom’s Blast Off I’ll be participating in the Mom’s Blast Off workshop on February 24, where I’m joining life coach Jill Farmer and social-media expert Allison Collinger in a three-hour event designed to help you launch your best year ever. All this for $49.
Letting Go of the Tough Stuff I’ll be teaching a 90-minute class at the Thomas Dunn Memorials in south St. Louis on February 28 on how to let go of sentimental and other objects that might be cluttering up your life. The cost for the class is only $10.
You can take my online workshop
Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines I’m absolutely delighted to be teaching this online workshop once again for simplify 101. The three-lesson, four-week workshop will help you create beneficial habits and routines and let go of bad habits. The special sauce of these workshops is the online forum, where your can interact with the instructor (me!), along with your to get accountability and support, which is so important with habit creation. The cost is only $59 and if you register today it’s an even better deal at $47.20. (The early-bird registration ends today.)
You can purchase one of my Organizing Guides
Organizing Guides I wrote these concise pdfs after hearing the same sorts of questions from my clients over and over. I wanted to give them something in writing to answer their questions. When you hire me to work with you, you get certain guides free of charge. But you can also download them on their own for $9 each. Right now, through the end of February, I’m offering a buy one, get one free special. Use the coupon code GUIDEME to get an instant $9 off when you buy two or more guides.
You can take one of my e-courses
Make Peace with Your Mail Most of my clients have difficulty dealing with the onslaught of mail that comes into their lives. I created an e-course that uses printed and video lessons to help you learn how to get (and stay) on top of your mail. The price is $59 but I’ll let you in on a little secret: the GUIDEME code will also get you $9 off the e-course if you purchase it separately.
Declutter Happy Hour I created this e-course with life coach Shannon Wilkinson as a way to help folks get past the emotional barriers to decluttering and actually get the job done. Shannon helps you with the emotional stuff and I help you tackle the physical side of decluttering. The course is presented as a series of audio lessons, along with daily emails for 28 days to inspire and motivate you to keep up the good work. The price? $97 for the core course/$127 for the premium course.
Terrific new donation resource
My friend and colleague, Sue Anderson of Simplified Living Solutions, a fellow professional organizer here in St. Louis, has created a really terrific resource for folks wanting donate unwanted items.
The Stuff Stop is a website that lists worthy charities who are seeking donated items and what they’re after. Sue’s who has a passion for connecting people’s unwanted stuff with people who need stuff and creating this site is a dream come true for her. The site debuted just last week, but it’s already chock full of great resources and it promises to get even better as more item-needing charities are added.
Post are tagged by item category as well as location, so you can click on “Missouri” for example, and see all the Missouri-based charities. Or you can click on “Glass Bottles” and see that there are two charities listed that are interested in glass bottle donations. (Who knew?)
If you’re looking to declutter and would like to donate some of your unwanted belongings, this is a great place to find folks who would really like your stuff.
Bravo to Sue for following her dream and creating this great resource!
Postal increase
I just happened across an article online today telling me that, as of yesterday, the U.S. postal service has raised the price of a first-class stamp by a penny to 45 cents. I’m surprised, because in the past I’ve known about that sort of thing in advance. This one was just under the radar for me.
So I wanted to share it here, in case it had escaped your notice as well.
Here’s a summary of what’s going on:
- The price of a first-class stamp went up by a penny to 45 cents
- The price of a postcard stamp went up by 3 cents to 32 cents
- One-ounce letters to Canada and Mexico went up by 5 cents to 85 cents
- Letters to other foreign countries went up by 7 cents to $1.05.
- For first-class postage, the price of additional ounces remains the same at 20 cents per ounce.
- Forever stamps purchased at lower prices before yesterday’s rate hike remain valid
I still think that 45 cents to mail a letter door to door is an amazing deal. It’s been 2.5 years since there was a rate hike. I worry about whether the postal service will be able to remain afloat in the midst of all the electronic options and I certainly don’t begrudge them a rate increase.
Personally, I think the postal service should sell ads on stamp booklets or the backs of stamps to raise revenue. There are ads everywhere else, why not on stamps?
Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines workshop now open
Last fall I developed and taught a fun online workshop for Simplify 101 called Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines. I’m delighted that it’s being offered again, February 21 through March 20. You can sign up now and get early-bird pricing (20 percent off!) through January 27.
My friend and colleague, Aby Garvey, owns Simplify 101 with her husband, Jay. They put on a variety of online organizing workshops. (I’m honored to be their first guest instructor.) Believe me, they run a top-notch operation. What makes Simplify 101 workshops special is that on top of excellent information, students can interact in online forums.
When you sign up for this workshop, you’ll get three lessons, released a week apart. Each lesson is available to be read on the website, or as a pdf, or as an mp3. Your choice. And you also get access to the glorious forums where you’ll not only have the chance to ask me questions but also gain encouragement and wisdom from your classmates. It’s a very special arrangement, if you ask me.
In Simplify Your Life with Habits + Routines I’ll be helping students identify good habits they already have, ones they’d like to create, and figure out how to link habits together to form simple routines. I’ll also be helping students let go of habits that are less desirable.
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I’m all about habits and routines as a way of making life run more smoothly. If you’re intrigued about how to harness the power of great habits and routines, I urge you to sign up for this online workshop!
