I’m a huge believer in the value of routines. They keep my life running smoothly. But right now, my routines are all messed up. I was away for a week, attending the ICD conference. Then I was home for four days and too busy to focus on my surroundings. Then I left home for a lovely, relaxing weekend in Nashville with friends.
Tagged with: 15 minutes, aby garvey, habits, routines, travel
I went on a week-long trip to visit my parents in mid-July. It involved air travel, car rental, and hotel stay (my parents live in a small condo, so I don’t stay with them).
Tagged with: paper management, smead, travel
I’ve been doing my family’s taxes on TurboTax now for four years. I worked on them almost to the point of completion last weekend (let’s hear it for refunds!) and it went remarkably smoothly.
Tagged with: apps, milebug, taxes, technology, travel
I’m all for saving money. But last week I learned a valuable lesson about how saving money at the expense of time isn’t always such a great idea.
Tagged with: mistakes, money, priorities, travel
I’m leaving for a weekend trip to attend a family wedding. As I think about packing, I thought I’d share my method for ensuring I don’t overpack.
I’ve been doing this for years — decades, really. I think I invented this system. And I’m happy to share it.
I leave in an hour or so to fly to Los Angeles to attend the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization’s annual conference I love this conference and have gone every year since I became an organizer.
I’ve been home from Australia for six days now. Apart from the very first night home, when I slept long and hard after 24 consecutive hours of travel, I haven’t been sleeping properly. I’m a good sleeper (my mom’s narcoleptic…it’s in my genes) but I’ve experienced what it must be like to be an insomniac. Most nights, I’ve just not been getting sleepy at bedtime.
Tagged with: margaret lukens, productivity, routines, travel, wendy davie
I’m going to write a blog post about the wonderful AAPO conference, but I’m tired today, so I’ll just share some photos. I’m still loving Australia!
My brother, Larry, his daughter, Miranda and I took a trip a couple hours up the coast to the Sunshine Coast where we paid a visit to Larry’s sister- and brother-in-law in Caloundra. We had such a lovely time.
I’m here to tell you that Qantas rocks. My flight across the ocean was really quite easy. It was an overnight flight that lasted 14 hours (we left LA at 10:30 p.m. Thursday and arrived in Sydney at 6:30 a.m. Saturday, crossing the international date line). The captain cheerfully told us that the duration of our flight was “just over half a day.”
I’m kind of nerdily excited because I’m writing (and will be posting) this blog post while on an airplane. In the air. My American Airlines flight to Los Angeles has WiFi. I wish I could say it was free, but they did give us a coupon for 25 percent off, so it’s only $6 to use WiFi for the duration of the flight.
I am so excited. Three weeks from today I fly to Brisbane, Australia. While I’m there, I’ll be attending the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers annual conference. I’m one of the presenters at the two-day conference. I’ll be speaking about using the internet to work with clients all over the world.
I’ve been in the Pacific Northwest visiting my parents for the last week or so. I took along my computer, fully expecting to do a little blogging, but got caught up in the combination of family activities and not really thinking about work, so there’s been pretty much radio silence from me.
Tagged with: family, travel, walla walla
Peter Shankman, the innovator of the service Help a Reporter Out which matches reporters who need sources with sources who need publicity, logs something like 400,000 miles a year. He recently wrote a blog post with wonderfully detailed tips on the tricks and gadgets he uses to make business travel a little easier.
Tagged with: peter shankman, travel
Sometimes I feel like a broken record when I write here (or in my newsletter) about the importance of routines. It’s just that I’m reminded very frequently about how much of an impact they can have on order, productivity and overall peace of mind.
Tagged with: don't break the chain, joe's goals, jott, productivity, routines, travel
I’m home from my latest trip. And I’m here to stay for awhile! It’s nice to be back sleeping in my own bed, though I’m feeling a little foggy. I blame Pip, my standard poodle, who had me up in the night several times last night needing to go out.
Yesterday, I wrote a long (and trust me, really well written) blog post about my hometown of Walla Walla, Washington, where I am right now visiting family. It went on about the Norman Rockwellian nature of this town, which often seems like the land that time forgot.
Tagged with: sally brown, travel, walla walla
I leave this morning for Chicago, where I’m going to staff my friend Sally’s booth at the H.H. Backer Christmas Trade Show. Sally is the creative and business genius behind Roll Over Rover, a company that sells design-conscious apparel for dog lovers. Sally’s illustrations are whimsical and sophisticated. I’m a proud booster.
Tagged with: pets, roll over rover, sally brown, travel
I’m typing this from the Las Vegas airport en route home to St. Louis. (Man, do I hate the Las Vegas airport…it’s hard to find any peace with all the slot machines and so forth. Plus it doesn’t appear you can even purchase a wifi connection.) Anyway, I just heard this announcement, “Attention, Marge Simpson [I changed the name], please return to security. You picked up the wrong computer.” Gulp. They made that announcement twice, then made another one asking her to pick up a white courtesy phone and call the operator.
Tagged with: travel
I’m leaving today on a 7:30 a.m. flight to Portland, Oregon, where I’ll attend the annual educational symposium of the Garden Writers Association. I’ve been going to these conferences every year since 1989 (I think I’ve missed three in 20 years) and even though I no longer make my living by writing and have never been a gardener, I continue to go. (I started attending when I worked in PR at the Missouri Botanical Garden.)
Tagged with: garden writers association, travel
Over at Unclutterer today, professional organizer Monica Ricci has written a guest column about travelling light. She offers some great tips on packing so that you don’t have to check a bag and incur extra charges.
Tagged with: bed bath and beyond, monica ricci, packing, travel, unclutterer
Whether you’re staying at home or traveling on this very busy weekend for travel, I hope you have fun and stay safe.
Tagged with: gas prices, travel
American Airlines has announced it will start charging $15 for the first bag a passenger checks. I remember being shocked when airlines starting charging for bag number two. Now you can’t check any bags free of charge (on American, at least). Passengers will start bringing even more carry-on luggage on board. That’s going to make flying an even bigger hassle. Sigh.
I’m catching a 6:25 a.m. flight to Baltimore this morning to attend the HH Backer 20th Annual Pet Industry Spring Trade Show and Educational Conference . It’s funny: for ten years I was a pet writer and always wanted to attend this show. But I never found a magazine to send me and didn’t have an excuse to go.
Tagged with: pets, roll over rover, sally brown, travel
I’m flying home from Hawaii late this afternoon. It’s an overnight flight and I arrive in St. Louis at 8 in the morning. That’s an eleven hour journey, not counting the time I spend waiting for my flight at the Honolulu airport.
Tagged with: knitting, mark forster, packing, travel
I’m the luckiest organizer. I worked with a wonderful client here in St. Louis for eighteen months. Last month she moved to Hawaii. Last week, her family’s stuff, which was shipped by boat, arrived. This week, I’m going there to help her set up household. I leave early (and I mean early) tomorrow morning.
Tagged with: travel
I leave today for Reno, Nevada, to attend the national conference of my professional organization, the National Association of Professional Organizers. This is my third national NAPO conference in as many years and I’m very excited.
Tagged with: napo, oprah, peter walsh, travel
One of the wonderful things about being a knitter is that when you’re away from home you can almost always find a comfortable place to hang out.
Tagged with: socks, travel, yarn, yarn stores
Janine Adams, CPO®, CPO-CD®, specializes in working with chronically disorganized clients.
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