Peace of Mind Organizing

Mark Forster's latest task-management system

30 April 2012

If you’ve been reading my blog awhile, you know that I’m a big fan of Mark Forster, one of the most creative time-management gurus out there.

From his book, Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management, to all four of his versions of Autofocus, to his DWM task-management system then Superfocus, I’ve followed him and tried all the things he suggests.

Most recently, I’d gone back to Autofocus’s first rendition.

But then, after months of teasing, he came out with what he says is his ultimate task-management system, which he’s calling Final Version. That’s how confident he is that this thing is great—he says it’s his last one. (Time will tell…I find that a little hard to believe.)

I’ve been trying out Final Version. I’m intrigued, but the jury is still out for me. That’s partly because I haven’t had a lot of time at my desk these days. I do like it, though. For the first time I’m trying to use electronic task management, rather than paper. FV lends itself to that. Thanks to the FV forums at Mark’s website, I was turned onto Wunderlist, which syncs nicely with my iPhone, so it’s been very portable and handy.

If you’re curious about Final Version, go to Mark’s website and sign up to receive the (free) instructions.

I’ll write more about it after I’ve drawn some conclusions. I just didn’t want to go any longer without letting you know that it exists!

Fun product: The Magnetic Glass Dry Erase Weekly Planner

27 April 2012

I love functional organizing products. To me, function trumps beauty. But if you can make a product both functional and beautiful, that’s fantastic. Throw in fun on top of functional and beautiful and you have a glorious hat trick!

The products from the company Three by Three earn that hat trick. They make a variety of products that help people organize their lives beautifully. I’ve long loved their little Mighties, outrageously strong little magnets. (I use them on my Bingo board.) Three by Three created the first magnetic strip bulletin board. They offer a variety of magnetic strips and boards.

Their dry-erase products are terrific, too. They have an attractive desktop dry-erase board intended for to-dos. They have bamboo dry erase boards, which I think is a cool concept. They have these great new stick-it! silicone weekly planners (great for refrigerators that aren’t magnetic). And they have beautiful magnetic glass dry-erase boards.

Three by Three was kind enough to send me a Magnetic Glass Dry Erase Weekly Planner to try out. It’s a vertical board, divided into seven sections, one for each day of the week:

What I love about this planner is that, like other Three by Three products, it’s not only functional, but pretty and fun (I have the spring green). The smooth, tempered-glass surface is really a pleasure to write on. And the fact that it’s magnetic (which feels sort of impossible, since it’s glass) is a great bonus. The sections are large enough to actually use, though it means that it takes up a bit of wall space.

I love the planner for planning my week. I think I’m going to start using it to plan my daily blog posts during my current 30-day blogging challenge. I could also see using it in the kitchen (though it currently resides in my office) to help keep my husband abreast of my activities.

For me, the only down side to this board is that it needs to be wall mounted and I have 100-year-old plaster walls. Despite the fact that it comes with mounting hardware, mounting anything is always a little scary (but worth it!). If you have that same problem, the identical silicone weekly planner might be a better bet, though you’d miss out on the magnetic part.

I always enjoy looking at Three by Three’s products at The Container Store. But until I saw their website, I didn’t realize how many I hadn’t seen. It’s worth checking out!

Dispose of old medications this Saturday

26 April 2012

Getting rid of old medications isn’t as easy as I’d like it to be. Flushing them down the toilet (which is what my family did when I was a kid) isn’t environmentally sound. Throwing them in the trash, where others can get them and use or sell them, obviously isn’t a good idea either. And hanging on to them creates clutter and is potentially dangerous, since some drugs can become toxic with age.

From 10 am to 2 pm this Saturday, April 28, the US government will help you dispose of all those pill bottles collecting dust in your bathroom. Saturday is the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s third National Drug Take-Back Day. Collection sites for unwanted or unused prescription drugs have been set up all around the country. Go the the National Take-Back Initiative’s website to search for a collection site near you. When I entered my zip code, 10 sites within 10 miles were listed. Couldn’t be easier.

Saturday morning sounds like a great time to clean out your medicine chest!

I'm in love with my iPhone 4S

25 April 2012

Seriously, what took me so long to buy an iPhone? I bought a MacBook in 2007. An iPod Touch in 2008. (It was my third iPod.) An iPad in 2010. I loved them all dearly. Why did it take me so long to buy an iPhone?

I don’t know, but all that matters is that I have one now. I’m paying $100 more per month than I did for my cheap plan on my uber-cheap Droid smartphone from T-Mobile. And you know what? I’m happy to pay that money.

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

As much as I love my second-generation iPod Touch and first-generation iPad (click the links to read my love letters to them), my iPhone 4S has two things that they don’t have. A camera and Siri, the intelligent voice recognition software that turns my phone into the closest thing I’ve had to an administrative assistant since I became an entrepreneur.

In the spirit of my prior techno love letters, here are nine of the reasons I love my iPhone. I bought it six weeks ago today. I’m sure there will be many more reasons as time goes on.

1. The reminders. Many times a day, I’ll use Siri to create a reminder for myself. It can be something as simple as calling someone at a certain time or even putting the laundry into the dryer. I just speak the request, “Remind me to switch the laundry in an hour” and an hour later a reminder pops up on my phone, my MacBook and my iPad.

2. Easy texting. On my last cell phone I hated texting. On this phone, I can press the little microphone icon and speak my message. The voice recognition is amazingly accurate. When I’m in a quiet place, I can text with my thumbs and the autocorrect is also amazingly accurate. (I haven’t had any embarrassing autocorrects yet.) So now, texting is a viable—and handy—communication tool for me. Here’s something cool: I can even ask Siri to send a text message to someone in my contacts without having to look at my phone.

3. The amazing camera. I used to carry a digital camera with me. No longer. The camera on the iPhone 4S is actually better than my point and shoot. And I can easily send the photos to my computer, or my friends, or my social networks.

4. The size. I do love my iPad for web surfing. But the phone is just so easy to carry around. It fits in my back pocket. And since I love it so much, I do carry it around.

5. The seamless way it has integrated into my life. Since I was accustomed to using an iPod Touch and an iPad, there was no learning curve whatsoever for me. All the apps I had on those devices were transferred to the phone. So I didn’t have to learn a bunch of new stuff or give up anything.

6. The Maps program. If I’m on my way somewhere, I can easily check the route (not while I’m driving, of course) and even choose which route to take based on current traffic conditions. If I’m going to the home or office of someone in my contacts, I just touch their address and a map appears. It’s tremendously convenient. I no longer use a GPS.

7. iCloud. I was a Mobile Me user, but not entirely satisfied. iCloud has replaced Mobile Me and it seems to be working perfectly. Plus, it’s free. Anything I add to my phone appears on my Mac and iPad, including photos I take and music I download. Any appointments I make are automatically synched to the other devices, as are new contacts. It’s fantastic.

8. The apps. Of course I loved the apps on the iPad and iPod Touch. But I was missing out on the apps that required a camera or microphone. So whole new worlds of apps are now open to me. I’ll do another blog post on my favorite apps. I’m just so happy that I have so many to choose from.

9. The speedy internet access. When Wifi is available, I use it on my phone. But when it isn’t, I use the speedy 4G cellular network. I was able to ditch the $25 a month 3G plan for my iPad, since I can use my phone as a wireless hotspot for both my iPad and MacBook. How cool is that? (It requires me to buy the 5 gigabyte data plan for an additional $20 a month.)

I used my old cell phone to place calls and that’s about it. I use my iPhone for calls, emailing, texting, reminders, calculating, listening to music, web surfing, checking my calendar, adding to my task list, reading books, waking myself up, taking credit card payments…the list goes on. (In fairness, I was going a lot of that with my iPad, but in general, my iPhone is more convenient.)

There’s some serious infatuation here. But I think this love is here to stay.

The 30-day blogging challenge

24 April 2012

My friend and collaborator, Shannon Wilkinson, was in St. Louis last week for a visit. We held the workshop, Create Freedom and Ease with Habits and Routines, did some great bargain shopping at the Scholarshop and had some great discussions about our businesses.

We both talked about blogging more and about how it can be easier to blog more often. And we challenged one another. For the next 30 days, we committed to blogging five times a week. Since the challenge starts on a Tuesday, Shannon’s first day back in the office, we’ll be blogging four times this week.

My intention (and commitment) is to publish a blog post each Monday through Friday between now and May 24. My blogging goal for the past two years was to blog three times a week. Lately, that’s dropped off a bit. Today, I’m ready to get back on the horse and blog more frequently.

Here’s how I think blogging five times a week will benefit me:

• It will help engrain the habit of daily blogging
• It takes the pressure off of each post to be brilliant, since it will be replaced in about 24 hours
• It will allow me to get creative…I suspect I’ll be doing a few photo blog posts and maybe even a video blog post or two (something I’ve been wanting to try)
• It will help me see the world through the eyes of a blogger again. Blogging that frequently makes everything a potential blog post.

So watch this space (and keep an eye on Shannon’s blog too!) and I hope you’ll see a fun array of blog posts about organizing, knitting, perhaps some family history research and who knows what else!

Finding the best place to donate

20 April 2012

I send out a newsletter on the 15th of every month. This month, I liked the feature story I wrote for it so much that I thought I’d share it here as well.

It can be easier to let go of items if you think they’re going to just the right charity. If you feel like the item wlll used, even loved, you can release it with fewer twinges of regret.

I get that. I’ve experienced it in my own decluttering and I see it in my clients all the time.

But I think looking for the best charity is actually a bad idea. That search can keep you from actually getting the stuff out of your house. You hang on to it while you do your research. That research can take awhile, since you’re looking for the very best place. Soon, the boxes or bags become part of the landscape and the urgency to make the donation recedes.

You know what’s better? Getting the stuff out of your house in one fell swoop. Preferably the day you make the decision to let it go. Call a charity to pick it all up. Or take it all to a place like Goodwill that will make sure that nothing ends up in the landfill. If you hire me to bring in an organizing team, the team members will take away your donations.

The best charity for your donations is the one that makes it easy to donate. Once you’ve made the decision, the best thing you can do for yourself is to act on your decision to let something go and actually make the donation.

If you’re not already receiving my monthly newsletter in your email inbox, you can sign up on the newsletter page of my website. When you sign up, you’ll automatically receive my guide, “Top Ten Organizing Mistakes.”

Is my purse perfect? Almost.

16 April 2012

Three years ago, I blogged about how I loved my Butler Bag. This dandy little purse has a rigid compartmentalized insert in the bottom that allowed me to keep every in easy reach.

I loved it, and I used it daily for a year and a half. And then I bought an iPad. I wanted to carry my iPad with me all the time, but it was too big for my Butler Bag. I tried a larger Butler Bag tote, but the tote was so deep that the rigid compartments on the bottom couldn’t keep everything organized. I’d sink my arms in elbow deep and have to feel around for things.

So I switched to a Franklin Covey tote (I’m on my second one) and while it’s not as fabulous as the Butler Bag was, I felt like it was okay. Until now. Now it’s great.

That’s because I was given a Purse Perfector, a niftyhandbag organizer insert, as a thank you for writing an upcoming post for their website. (I’ll let you know when that goes live; it’s about keeping the household desk functioning.) I had seen the Purse Perfector at the NAPO conference and was intrigued. I just hadn’t tried it out before now.

Here’s the bottom line: the Purse Perfector has made my Franklin Covey tote as functional as a Butler Bag. And that’s a wonderful thing.

At the NAPO conference, I let Purse Perfector inventor Lyn Marstellar take a “before” picture of my bag. It was particularly out of control since I was at a conference.

Here’s that photo:

My purse was chaotic, at best

I took my Purse Perfector back to my room and had an enjoyable 10 minutes reorganizing my purse. The next morning, Lyn took an “after” shot.

There's a lot of stuff in my purse, but now I can find it

I don’t usually carry that much stuff around, but these were extraordinary times. Thanks to the Purse Perfector insert, I was able to add my ARC notebook rather than carrying it around separately.

One thing that Purse Perfector has going over the Butler Bag is that I can move it from bag to bag. I haven’t done that yet, but I like that I can. And it consists of two compartmentalized units that zip together (creating a chasm in between where my wallet resides). You can unzip them and take just one with you, if you don’t need as many compartments.

The Purse Perfector has made a big difference in making my big bag more wieldy. I’m now the proud owner of an iPhone and seem to be using my iPad less and less. So my next step will to move my Purse Perfector into a smaller bag and see how it works. (Another possibility: pull out my small Butler Bag and leave the Purse Perfector in the big bag.)

if you have trouble finding stuff in your purse, the Purse Perfector might make a big difference. I’m glad I tried it!