Peace of Mind Organizing

App of the week: Siri

18 May 2012

I love Siri, the intelligent voice-recognition software on my iPhone 4S, but I understand that not everyone does. It gets frustrating when Siri doesn’t understand you and you to repeat yourself. Luckily for me, I don’t often have that problem. Siri understands me better than most people do.

In my weekly (for now) App of the Week blog post, I want to highlight some of the things that Siri allows me to do with my phone hands-free. This is especially great when I’m driving. And it feels so futuristic.

To activate Siri, I simply press the home button lightly to turn on the phone, then pick it up and hold it to my ear. (Alternatively, I can hold the home button down for a couple of seconds.) From there, I can just talk to Siri. Here are some examples of things I can do—I put the actual request in quotation marks, though variations work too; there isn’t a formula:

• Dictate an email or text message (“Send a text Aby to have a good day”)
• Play a specific song, a playlist or all songs by an artist from the music collection on my phone (“Play all Simon & Garfunkel songs”)
• Call someone in my contact list (“Call my husband, mobile”)
• Call a business, even it’s not in my contact list (“Call Niche Restaurant, St. Louis”)
• Find out the temperature and hourly forecast (“How warm is it outside?”)
• Send myself reminders (“In three hours, remind me to do ankle exercises”)

Requests require a confirmation, which I can do orally.

That’s just the hands-free stuff. And I expect it’s just the tip of the iceberg. The other great thing about Siri is that whenever the touch-screen keyboard comes up, I can press the microphone icon and dictate, rather than type. And it’s remarkably accurate (and easy to correct when there are mistakes).

I’ve had my phone two months (well, two months and four days, but who’s counting?). I still marvel whenever I use Siri handsfree to get stuff done.

If you have an iPhone 4S and never quite became enamored of Siri, I’d recommend trying some of these functions. Perhaps you’ll come to love her as much as I do.

Getting back on track with the clean desk

17 May 2012

In January of 2008, I created a habit of clearing off my desk at end of every work day. I blogged about it relentlessly, since it was one of the first daily habits I really managed to create and it had such an impact on my productivity.

But you know what’s weird? Sometime at the beginning of 2012 (and intermittently in 2011), that habit fell by the wayside. I think it might have started with my allowing one pile to remain on the corner of the desk (the pile was related to immediate tasks and task lists). And then I stopped putting away little stuff and before I knew it, I just stopped worrying about clearing my desk at all.

It never got to a ridiculous level and I was functioning fine. But the habit I was so proud of had vanished.

So last weekend, I decided to take it back. I cleared off my desk entirely. I dusted it. I admired the expanse of wood. And then I started working on family history research and, when I was through, I put everything away.

I’m happy to say that every day since, I’ve cleared off my desk. And, I observed, as I discovered before, it’s very easy to clear off the desk when there’s just one day’s worth of stuff out.

The key to having a clean desk is to have a place for everything, so that you can actually put stuff away. It’s that simple, really. I allowed one pile to grow because I hadn’t created a space for that stuff. And that one made it easy for disorder to creep back. That pile is gone, permanently.

Seeing the clean desk first thing in the morning is a great reward. And it makes it easy for me to get right to work without distractions.

I’m back on track, baby.

Worth repeating: my role model in persistence

16 May 2012

I just came across this blog post, which I originally wrote in August of 2009, and it tickled me. I think it’s as true today as it was then, so I offer it up again today for those of you who haven’t read it.

I adore my orange tabby cat, Joe, of course. But he does a great job of annoying me on a regular basis. But when I pause to reflect on it, he’s also teaching me stuff.

As I posted about over a year ago, Joe regularly hampers my productivity by loving on me while I’m trying to work. He plants his furry self between me and my monitor, sometimes rubbing his face against mine, even getting a little drool on me. And sometimes he just lies on the keyboard, like he did the other day:

It's hard to type when Joe does this.

So as I’m getting annoyed (and sneezy because of the fur in my face) sometimes I can’t help but admire him. Why? Because in doing this, Joe is gratifying himself. And he’s figured out how to turn the situation around to work in his favor.

Scenario A: He gets to keep loving on me and I give in and pet him. Or invite him on my lap. He gets what he wants: my attention and love.

Scenario B: I push his butt out of the way and he lies down on my desk and stares at me. He’s comfy and in my presence. He leaves when he’s ready and not a moment before.

Scenario C: I pick him up and place him on the comfy upholstered chair behind me. He immediately jumps back up and starts rubbing my face again. I relocate him again. He does it again. I throw my hands in the air and leave the room. He runs out of the room ahead of me and jumps on the guest bed where he’s often given treats. And because I admire his cunning, I usually give it to him.

See? Joe always wins. And so what is Joe teaching me?

• Know what you want
• Keep trying to get it
• Shift the goal line so you still win if things don’t work out exactly as planned
• When efforts seem to fail, figure out a great consolation prize

Now I just need to figure out how to apply that lesson to my business!

Are you backing up your computer?

15 May 2012

We all know it’s smart to back up our computers. (We also know it’s smart to do lots of other stuff we might not be doing, like changing our oil religiously every 3,000 miles.) Sometimes actually backing up the computer feels like a big deal.

Sometimes it comes down to too many choices. Should I back up in the cloud? On an external hard drive? Some other way?

Several years ago I blogged about how hard it was for me to bite the bullet and use Time Machine to back up my hard drive. Once I did that, the whole process was automatic. So now I have the comfort of knowing that my computer is completely backed up onto a hard drive.

But what if there’s a fire? Or a break in and both my laptop and external hard drive, which sits next to it, are stolen? Then my Time Machine back up wouldn’t do me any good.

So I decided a year ago that I needed to have a secondary back up. It’s a belt and suspenders approach. I selected Carbonite as my back up service, because it’s highly regarded. That was fine, until I noticed that my MacBook Pro’s battery didn’t seem to be holding a charge very well, despite being quite new. I took it to the Apple store and learned that Carbonite was running all the time and chewing up my battery life. Unfortunately, Mac users can’t schedule back ups in Carbonite. The backup had to be either enabled or disabled. And I knew that if I had to remember to manually enable it, it wasn’t going to happen.

So there I was again, faced with more choices. There are lots of online back up systems. I started doing research. I asked around among colleagues. And then I decided that, in this case as in so many things, good enough was better than perfect. I just needed to make a decision, so that my computer wouldn’t be unprotected. I went with CrashPlan Pro , which allows me a variety of ways to work with my back ups and avoid draining my battery.

What about you? Are you backing up your computer regularly? Is it automatic, so that you don’t have to think about it? I have such peace of mind knowing that my data are backed up in two places. If this is on your should do list, I encourage you to bite the bullet and get it onto your done list!

Get involved

14 May 2012

Todayis my last day serving on the board of directors of the St. Louis chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO-St. Louis). That feels big. In my seven years as a professional organizer, I’ve always served on the NAPO-St. Louis board.

NAPO-St. Louis was chartered in 2006. Before that, it was a chapter in formation for maybe a year. I wasn’t part of those original formation meetings, but as soon as the founders reached out to me (due to my membership in the national NAPO association), I jumped at the chance to get involved. Prior to that, I felt alone as I explored this new career. Once I went to my first meeting of the not-yet-a-chapter NAPO-St. Louis, I knew I was home.

I was tapped to be on that first board. I served as Membership Director for a couple of years, and back then everybody did everything, so I was also instrumental in setting up the chapter’s website. I worked side by side on that with Aby Garvey, another of the original board members.

In my second year as Membership Director, I also served as Vice President and when the President, Lori Bickel, left the industry and dropped her membership at the end of 2007, I finished her term. Then I served two terms as President. And now I’m finishing up two terms as Immediate Past President. As of Wednesday, I won’t be a board member any more.

I have such mixed emotions about this! Part of me is thrilled. I’ve logged a lot of hours on behalf of NAPO-St. Louis and this will free up some time in my schedule.

But part of me is sad, too. It’ll be very strange not to be part of the leadership of this tremendous chapter.

The largest part of me is proud, though. I am so proud of what this chapter has become.

My successor, Tiffany Engler has taken the chapter to the next level. We now have 36 regular members and 10 associate members. We have a really happy, collegial membership. We have active volunteers. Back in the day, there were just a few of us doing everything (because at the beginning we had fewer than 20 members). Now we have a multitude of volunteer positions and people stepping up to do them.

We have a community service project and we’re planning a big public event in 2013. Tiffany and the board have done an amazing job.

Tiffany becomes Immediate Past President on Wednesday, succeeded by Denise Lee, who is going to be another tremendous leader. Denise is supported a by a terrific board and I’m confident she’ll take the chapter to yet another level.

If you’re a professional organizer and you have a NAPO chapter in your area, I urge you to get involved. I don’t know where I’d be in my business if it weren’t for NAPO-St. Louis. Being involved in the chapter on the board level has had so many benefits for me and my business. It’s developed my leadership skills, it’s increased my profile in the community, it’s allowed to get to know other terrific organizers whom I use on my teams. It’s given me a community. Its given me many precious friends. And I’m grateful.

App of the week: Square

11 May 2012

I’m still in the honeymoon phase of my relationship with my iPhone 4S. (I hope it never ends!) A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about why I love my iPhone.

Because I marvel about it every day, I thought I’d try writing about an app I love every Friday until I run out of them. (Will I ever run out?)

I’m going to start with Square. You probably know about Square, but in case you don’t, Square is an app and a small plastic device that allow anyone to accept credit cards via their smartphones or other mobile devices.

Back when I started my business, the options for accepting credit cards were limited to PayPal or a merchant service which typically assessed a hefty monthly fee and a per-transaction fee.

PayPal is problematic for me, since it requires logging on to a computer if I want payment at the time of services. (I know that PayPal is now developing a device for mobile use.)

Square charges no monthly fee, its transaction fees are low, and it’s easy to carry around with me. The device itself (pictured below) plugs into the earphone jack of the phone. It’s mailed to users free of charge.

I sometimes have to swipe a few times before it accepts the credit card, but otherwise I’ve had no problems with it. A day or two after I swipe the card, the money (less the transaction fee) is deposited into my business bank account. For certain clients (in particular, one who has me help him in his office and who pays with a company credit card), it’s a real convenience. Square helps me let accepting credit cards be easy.

I’m proud to say that the inventors of Square, Jack Dorsey (who also created Twitter) and Jim McKelvey are St. Louisans. Here’s an interesting Vanity Fair article on Jack, who, incidentally, grew up just around the corner from me.

Thumbs up to Square! It’s a great innovation that empowers small business owners.

The power of commitment

10 May 2012

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, I made a 30-day blogging commitment with my friend, Shannon Wilkinson. We each vowed to blog daily, Monday through Friday, for at least 30 days.

It’s been great. I don’t know if you noticed, but I haven’t missed a day. And there have been a few days that I definitely would not have blogged (like right after I sprained my ankle last week), if it weren’t for the commitment.

Today is one of those days. I forgot to blog. (Rather, I thought about it several times during the day, but I was busy doing other things and didn’t make it a priority.) At 9 pm I was in the living room watching TV and was not interested in going back downstairs and getting my computer. I even decided to skip achieving my usual daily inbox zero.

But then I remembered the blog post. And my commitment to Shannon. And there was no way I was going to back away from that commitment.

So here I am blogging. I don’t think I can have too many of those commitments going at any given time, but a strong one like that is really valuable. And guess what, since I was back at my computer, I went ahead and got my inbox down to zero.

Is there something you’d like to do on a regular basis that you could make a commitment to do? Do you have an accountability partner who will notice if you fail to meet your commitment? Don’t overlook the power of commitment!