Peace of Mind Organizing

My iPhone-versary

18 March 2013

Okay, this anniversary might not seem noteworthy. But it’s very special to me. I’m still truly, madly, deeply in love with my iPhone 4S.

It’s been one year and four days since I bought my iPhone. How do I know? I marked it on my calendar, that’s how important it was to me.

My iPhone has been such a useful tool and boost to my productivity. It meshes really well with my philosophy of letting things be easy. My iPhone allows me to do things in a few seconds with a few touches that two years ago might have taken me minutes and several devices.

That's my cat, Joe, on my opening screen.

I pay about $148 each month for my iPhone service, which includes 900 minutes, unlimited texts and 5 gigs of data. I don’t use anywhere near 5 gigs of data typically, but that level allows me to use my phone as a wifi hotspot, which is invaluable. When I’m notified that that $148 has been charged to my credit card, I never, ever think, “That’s so expensive!” Though the amount is higher than I’ve ever paid for cell phone I’m happy to pay it.

Here are just a few ways my iPhone makes my life easier:

• I can set reminders, so that I don’t forget to do things I’ve promised to do.
• I have a wonderful, gentle alarm clock (I use the app SleepCycle).
• I save a lot of time by texting—I barely texted with my old phones.
• My calendar and contacts are always with me.
• I was able to get rid of my landline, saving me $80 a month, and I don’t even miss it.
• I can take pictures of things I need to remember, rather than writing them down (and my camera’s always with me).
• I don’t have to worry about WiFi being available (or insecure) when I’m out and about with my laptop.
• Thanks to Siri, I can send and receive text messages while driving without even looking at the phone.

And that’s just off the top of my head.

Am I tempted to trade in my beloved iPhone 4S for an iPhone 5? Not so much. (Though I do covet the 5’s sleekness when I handle it.) My 4S rocks just as much today as it did a year ago. When I’m eligible for an upgrade in another year I might go for it. But for now, I’m happy as a clam.

Happy anniversary, baby! I look forward to many more!

Simple fix = big results

13 March 2013

I rearranged my office furniture last weekend, the most notable shift being moving my desk 90 degrees. I also moved a stand that holds a laser printer and Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner, so that the stand now backs up to my desk.

It’s great because it allows me to hide cords. But there was a negative side effect: When I sit at my desk, I now have a view of the back of the printer and the scanner. The problem with that is the scanner back is covered with electrical and warning labels. They’re not only ugly, but sort of urgent and stressful. That absolutely wasn’t going to fly. Check it out:

In a moment of inspiration—the type of inspiration that doesn’t usually come easy to me, so I’m particularly excited about it —I thought of just the thing to turn this situation around.

My friend, Sally Brown of Roll Over Rover Threads is an amazingly talented illustrator. Her pet-related designs decorate her fabulous t-shirt line. I help her every year at trade shows and am in love with these designs. So I simply went to her website and (with her permission) copied some of my favorite illustrations into a Pages document. (Pages is the Mac’s word-processing program.) They illustrations were in squares and four squares in a row was just the width I needed. I printed them out on my color ink-jet, cut out the strip and taped it to the back of the scanner, using double-sided tape. I used two removable Avery labels to cover the areas between the two cords.

Here’s the result.

When I look up from my keyboard, I now see beautiful illustrations that make me happy and that are infused with the love and support of my dear friend, instead of ugly manufacturing labels.

It was such a simple fix. And it changed everything.

Take a look around your space. Are there any simple improvements you could make to make the space more beautiful and comfortable?

Shifting your perspective by shifting your furniture

11 March 2013

I’m not somebody who switches furniture around. I know there are people who consider that fun, but I’m not one of them. I typically agonize over the placement of furniture and once it’s done, that’s that.

I’ve been in this home office (in what was a bedroom of our house) for 12 years. I rearranged the furniture in it in 2005, after a feng shui consult.

This year, I decided that another change was important. I’d heard a speaker say, “Change your space as you change” and that made an impact on me.

Trouble was, I didn’t have a clue as to how to change my space. (Space planning is not one of my strengths.) Then I read the description of the Workspace and Studio Redesign program from Jen Hofmann of Inspired Home Office. That really resonated with me and I signed up.

We had three terrific phone sessions. She helped me create a vision for my space and realize that what I was after was a clean space, clear of non-essential items. I decluttered my desk and then the rest of the office, to great effect. At our second session, she suggested I try the desk rotated 90 degrees, so that the left edge, rather than the front of the desk, was against the wall. She also suggested I rotate it another 90 degrees so my back was against the wall.

I got out the furniture movers, unplugged everything and gave it a try. I immediately liked the first iteration, the 90-degree rotation. I tried the 180-degree rotation, but it did not feel right at all.

So with the desk turned 90 degrees, so that I’m now facing the door and a set of bookshelves, I set about plugging everything back in. I realized that if I moved a fabric-covered computer desk upon which a laser printer and scanner rested so that its back was to the front of my desk, I could hide all my cables.

Oh my goodness! My quest for better cable management was complete! I can’t tell you how exciting it is that my cable mess is all but gone.

Here’s a before photo, taken after the initial declutter, of what my desk was like against the wall.

Here’s a photo I took today to give you a sense of the new placement of the desk.

And here’s a photo taken from the door, to show how relatively cord-free the space now is.

It’s been just over a week and I’ve found this shift quite interesting. I love having a fresh perspective on my office. Above my monitor I see the top two shelves of my bookshelves, so I moved to the top shelf the copies of the books I’ve written. It reminds me of my accomplishments and gives me confidence to glance up and see them.

To my left, on the wall, underneath the fabric-covered bulletin board that was already there, I mounted a magnetic strip so that I can post my daily task list and my weekly social media checklist. I also mounted my bingo board on the wall next to the bulletin board. I store the magnets for covering my bingo squares on the magnetic strip. And I hang my bluetooth headset from a hook on the magnetic strip.

Behind me, on the radiator in a desktop organizer, are the items I used to keep close at hand on my desk. I feel like my desk has become a cockpit, with everything right where I need it.

Since everything has a place, I’ve had absolutely no difficulty putting things away. My desk is effortlessly clear at the end of each workday and, pretty much, throughout the workday. It may just be the novelty of the situation, but I’m really enjoying how easy it is for me to keep this clean. There’s just no extraneous stuff.

Same goes for the floor of my office, which traditionally gets pretty easily cluttered. I now have less floor space to clutter up and it hasn’t even been a bit tempting to put something on the floor instead of putting it away.

I did have one little problem caused by turning the desk that I addressed in a stroke of brilliance (if I say so myself). I’ll describe in Wednesday’s blog post.

I’m still in awe of the difference this change has made. I love no longer facing the wall. I love the fact that everything is so neat and that I’d rid myself of the extraneous. I love that everything in the room represents who I am and where I’m going, rather than who I’ve been.

This is powerful stuff. If you’ve been tempted to switch things up in your office, I urge you to give it a try!

Coffitivity brings the ambient noise of a coffee shop to your computer

7 March 2013

If you’re like many people, you love to work at coffee shops. It gets you out of the house and the noise and hubbub allows you to focus. But what if you could get the noise without the hubbub—and without leaving the house? Now you can.

Coffitivity is a webapp that does nothing more than play the ambient sound of a coffee shop, complete with the murmur of people talking, and clank of dishes being put down occasional laughter. You can practically smell the coffee.

Research shows that a moderate level of ambient noise enhances performance on creative tasks (and increases the likelihood of buying innovative products). It also increases creativity.

The Coffitivity folks suggest you put your headphones in and listen to music slightly louder than the background coffee-house sound. Btw, I learned about Coffitivity from the wonderful blog Lifehacker.

If you don’t read Lifehacker regularly, you’re missing out!

Intriguing!

Worth repeating: Store things near where you use them

4 March 2013

Just over a year ago, I wrote a blog post about one of the most important (and common sensical) organizing axioms: store items near where you use them. I think it’s such an important message, I’m posting it here again.

One thing I always tell my clients—and I mention it when I give talks—is that it makes life a lot easier if you store items near where you use them. If you select a distant place to store stuff, it gets that much more difficult to put things away when you’re through with them.

Here’s the example I use in talks to illustrate this important principle.

My husband I are dog lovers, accustomed to having a pair of standard poodles (though right now we have just one). Our poodles have a complete wardrobe of leashes and collars, passed down through the years and supplemented by absolutely gorgeous ones from my friends at Paw Paws.

When we first moved back into our house in 2001, I decided we should store our leashes and collars in a hanging shoe organizer in the coat closet. Because our house is old and odd, however, the coat closet is probably 25 feet away from the front door we use. Right next to that front door is a table.

So I bet you can guess what happened: Rather than walk 25 feet to put away the leashes and collars after a walk (our dogs go naked in the house), we had a natural tendency to put the collars and leashes down on the table just inside the door. For a little while, I tried to put them away properly and I tried to get my husband to do the same, but it really made a lot more sense to just put them down right next to wear we use them.

So I stopped getting frustrated and instead got a basket. I put it right under the pile of leashes and now they’re contained. The messy pile is gone and a basket is in its place. And heaven knows how many minutes have been saved over the last ten years!

Special sale on my Organizing Guides!

1 March 2013

I recently had the immense pleasure of working with Alexandra Franzen, an outrageously imaginative and intuitive marketing writer, in one of her Velocity Sessions. One of things I asked her to help me with was the titles and descriptions of my Organizing Guides, the series of concise downloadable PDFs I wrote and introduced in 2010.

As you can see from the new titles and descriptions page, Alexandra has a much greater gift for writing sales copy than I do. I love what she came up with!

Alexandra helped me in other areas of my website as well, particularly the About Janine page. I love how, after spending just a couple of hours talking with me, she captured my essence and message. I’m so appreciative.

To celebrate these kicky new Organizing Guide titles, I’m offering a limited-time sale. Buy one guide at the regular price of $9 and choose a second one free of charge. Just use the coupon code VELOCITY at checkout. This will expire at midnight central time on Saint Patty’s day, March 17.

Getting a handle on task management

27 February 2013

I’m a bit obsessed with trying to find a great way to stay on top of my tasks. I find that when I’m a task-management groove, life is good. But when a system stops working for me and I get into task-management limbo, I feel out of control and tense.

That happened recently. I found myself drifting through the day, working on urgent items but not being very focused. I tried to use electronic task management tools, like WorkFlowy and Wunderlist. I was drawn to how they could sync with my iPhone, so I’d always have my list with me.

But I’m convinced I’m someone who really likes to use pen and paper for tasks. I’m fine with an electronic calendar (more than fine, actually…I love it), but for tasks, give me the scratch of pen on paper.

So in January I created a “Today” form that’s been working for me well. Each evening at the close of the work day, I write down the top four things I want to get done the next day. Four seems like a reasonable number to actually accomplish, and it’s an easy way for me to prioritize. (I put an asterisk next to the Current Initiative, aka the thing I want to do first.) In addition to the top four tasks, I have a checklist of tasks below that I strive do daily. Things like blogging, social media, entering Quickbooks data. I also try to get a bingo every day.

Here’s a picture of the blank form. I have to say, it’s working for me.

On Sundays, I also create a list of priorities for the week. I write them on an index card and use a note card holder from Levenger that I bought 15 or more years ago to keep them in my face. I’ll often put a daily or project card there as well.

The combination of these two things, plus a social-media checklist form I created, has kept me feeling more in control. And that’s a nice feeling.

Incidentally, yesterday I read an blog post from my favorite time-management guy, Mark Forster, about his simple and effective system for task management. He has you keep a list of three things to do, in the order in which you intend to do them. Once you’ve done two, you cross them off and add two more to the list. It’s that simple. I’m testing it out today, and I’m finding it amazingly effective. But then again I always find Mark’s systems effective on the first day I try them. So I’ll keep experimenting and write a post here in a couple of weeks and let you know how it goes.