Peace of Mind Organizing

Renowned time management expert coming to St. Louis

6 May 2011

Twenty years ago, I read Harold L. Taylor’s book, Making Time Work For You. At the time I was in a 9 to 5 job and I remember this time-management book rocking my world.

A few years later, still in the same job, I happened to attend the public day of a NAPO conference (back when they did that), and I met Harold L. Taylor in person. I was thrilled to pieces.

I’m delighted that NAPO St. Louis is bringing Harold Taylor to St. Louis to do a half-day workshop on September 23 called “Time Management Strategies that Will Make Your Life Easier.” Who doesn’t want to make their life easier?

Recognizing that people are busier and more stressed than ever, Harold Taylor will discuss why some time management strategies are no longer getting results, which ones are becoming more important, and the newer strategies that will become even more critical in the future.

For a more complete description, go the NAPO St. Louis’s website and scroll to the bottom of the front page. The cost for the workshop is $95. It will be held at the Brentwood Community Center.

Register for the event now and block out the time on your calendar. You’re not going to want to miss this. I know I’ll be there.

Are you prepared for a disaster?

4 May 2011

Here in St. Louis, we’ve taken shelter in the basement because of tornadoes at least five times this year, including the tornado on April 22 that flattened whole blocks of homes (and damaged the airport). Less than a week after that, Alabama suffered much greater tragedy in a series of tornadoes that killed 300 people.

It’s not just tornadoes, of course. In recent times we’ve seen earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes…all these disasters that aren’t within our control and can’t really be foreseen.

What we can control, though, is how prepared we are. I have to admit that I’m not particularly prepared and the idea of listening to a talk or reading an article (or blog post) about disaster preparedness can make me feel stressed.

But at the NAPO conference last month, I attended Margaret Lukens’ talk called, Peace of Mind in the Face of Disaster—Preparing Clients for Any Emergency. Margaret is owner of Preparation Nation a business that helps people prepare for disaster. (Full disclosure: Margaret’s a good friend of mine and was one of my conference roommates.) The talk was fantastic (if you’re interested, you can buy a recording of it at VW Tapes.)

One of the biggest takeaways for me was this great tip that Margaret shared:

If disaster strikes, change the outgoing message on your cell phone to let people know you’re okay (or if you’re not, what your status is) and where you are. That way, if your cell phone battery dies or if cell service in your area is disrupted, people can get information.

Another big takeaway was the need to have all my important documents in one place so I can grab them if I ever need to evacuate my home. I’m talking about stuff that’s irreplaceable or stuff that I would need during a disaster, like home owner’s insurance information. I could imagine that people who rely on medications might need their medications list handy as well.

Margaret’s a big fan of the Vital Records PortaVault, a binder that helps you compile and keep safe vital information and document. (Margaret’s such a fan that she has a business relationship with PortaVault.) She’s having a Get It Done Teleclass on May 14, during which you can put together your own Porta Vault and take a big step toward being ready for disaster.

I get overwhelmed when I think about disaster preparation. But one thing I learned from Margaret’s talk is that it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. Like so many other things, it’s better to something than nothing. I think gathering documents can be a great first step.

What challenges does the postman bring?

2 May 2011

I love helping people with their mail. It can be such a challenge for so many that I created an e-course, Make Peace with Your Mail about it. At only $59, I think the e-course is a bargain. But you can get one for free (and get a one-hour phone consult with me for some personalized advice on your mail situation) through my contest.

That’s right, I’m running a contest (the first one I’ve ever held). All you have to do is click on the contest link and it will take you to the contest site. To enter, just fill out the form, including a sentence or two that answers the contest question:

What’s your biggest challenge in dealing with your (postal) mail?

As I’ve been reading the entries, I’ve been struck by what challenges people about their mail. For example:

• Teenagers who scatter the mail throughout the house
• The non-junk mail that just ends up in piles
• Catalogs
• Flat out hating the mail
• Procrastination in handling the mail

Do any of these strike a chord? Got your own set of mail problems? Please go to the contest entry form and enter! Free help for your problem might be yours.

(If you’re anxious for help right now, feel free to purchase Make Peace with Your Mail. If you feel you need just a little bit of help, consider my Organizing Guide, How to Fall In Love with the Mail Carrier All Over Again. It comes with the e-course, but you can purchase it separately. If you end up winning the contest, I’ll gladly refund your money for the e-course or the guide.)

Safely dispose of medications tomorrow

29 April 2011

Tomorrow’s the big day for the Drug Enforcement Agency’s National Take-Back Initiative for disposing of prescription drugs.

According to the DEA, abuse of prescription drugs among teens is rampant and the majority of those drugs come from family and friends, including the home medicine cabinet. The DEA wants to make it easy for you to get that temptation out of the medicine cabinet, so they’ve arranged for take-back sites around the country where you can drop off unwanted and unused prescription drugs on April 30. Go to the Take-Back Initiative’s website to search for a collection site near you.

On the first Take-Back Day, last September, 121 tons of pills were collected. Wow.

How can you dispose of your medications the other 363 days a year? I blogged about safe drug disposal last month. If you miss tomorrow’s event, you can find more information in that blog post.

Give yourself a power hour

27 April 2011

I had a client cancellation on Monday and found myself with about six hours of desk time that I hadn’t been expecting. Bliss.

Thanks to Mark Forster’s Superfocus task-management system (of which I’m an unabashed fan), I didn’t have to try to remember all the stuff I needed to do.

So I started working the list and got a couple of fairly major things done that had been lingering there forever. I looked at the clock and realized that I had about an hour before a phone appointment and I decided to give myself a Power Hour. I told myself that I would try to cross 10 things off my list in the next hour.

Oh my goodness, it was great! I worked through my task notebook, following the SuperFocus rules (meaning that I had to at least start at least one thing per page of my list — I had about 11 pages) and I got some really great things done. There were a couple of software programs and other resources I’d been meaning to look into that I made decisions on. There was an email glitch that had been plaguing me for literally months that I found a solution for. (Hooray!) By the hour’s end, I had completed ten tasks. (I kept track of how many tasks I’d accomplished with simple ticks on a scrap of paper.) I felt very accomplished and jazzed up when I finished the hour.

Power Hour is obviously good for ticking off one-off tasks that tend to accumulate. But it can also be useful for just getting started on some tasks. Something about the focus of the hour and the drive to achieve the goal of getting a certain number of tasks crossed off in that time was really motivating.

If you find yourself with an extra hour (or even a half hour) and a long to-do list, I urge you to give it a shot!

Treat yourself to a creative work session

25 April 2011

Maybe you have a germ of an idea you want to develop. Perhaps you have a problem you haven’t figured out how to find the solution for. Maybe you’ve planned out a project but haven’t found the time to actually work on it. Perhaps you just want to figure out which way is up.

Professional organizers (including me) love to tell clients to put themselves first, to actually schedule time in their calendars to work on meaningful stuff.

It’s a great idea. And here’s an even better one. It’s the Society of the Secret Playdate, the brainchild of my friend Maryann Devine of Smarts and Culture.

Maryann believes that great stuff happens in our head when we’re not really thinking about them. At the Society of the Secret Playdate sessions, you might work on the project or issue you’re wanting to work on, but then you can put it on the backburner and do some sort of creative endeavor (anything, really) while in the background your mind is working away at the project. Or perhaps it’s figuring a way through an obstacle. Or solving a problem.

Your hands are busy doing something creative while your mind does its own thing.

Here’s how the calls work. You connect with other people on the call and talk about what you’re going to work on during the playdate. You check back 60 minutes later and share your breakthroughs. (This brief description doesn’t do it justice. Please check out the Society of the Secret Playdate page.)

I love this idea. And one of the things I love most about it is that signing up you’re making the commitment to set time aside to do something you’ve been wanting to do. You place the call. And then you do your thing, because you know you’re going to report on it. I love that kind of gentle accountability.

Maryann is launching a new Society of the Secret Date membership program. If you get in on it soon, it’s only $13 a month for two 90-minute calls a month. (After May 24, it goes up to $19 a month, still a bargain, in my opinion.)

Right now, she’s offering a few sample calls so you can try it out. The first is full. But she’s just added one on Tuesday, May 3 at 3 pm eastern (I’ve signed up for that one!) and another on Saturday, May 14 at 3 pm eastern. Sign up here.

I just love creative people.

Keeping Mother's Day clutter-free

22 April 2011

Mother’s Day is one of those holidays that seems to invite clutter, in the form of gifts. I know I have a hard time coming up with gifts for my mother, who pretty much has all the stuff she needs. I don’t want to add another knick knack to her shelves, so I usually resort to flowers.

A couple of years ago, Atlanta professional organizer, Allison Carter, posted a fantastic post called Organizing Mom that details some services you can give your mom for Mother’s Day that will make her life easier without adding clutter. It’s definitely worth a read.

I found out about this oldie-but-goodie via another one of my favorite blogs, Unclutterer.