Simple concept isn’t it: be prepared. If you were a Boy Scout or Girl Guide, you would have memorized this motto along the way somewhere.
In application to business and time organization, the concept is no different. The more you can prepare ahead of time, the more relaxed, organized, polished and professional will be your presentation and performance. By preparing your material ahead of time, and confirming everything is ready in advance, you will also be able to avoid most technical hangups, forgetting things, or other people forgetting things.
Because you are a professional business person, your dates are already carefully mapped out on your daytimer right? Good. Now schedule in preparation time well in advance. Finally, follow up by scheduling in time, no later than the day before, to confirm that everything and everyone is in place. Now you can relax.
Archive for November 2008 – Page 3
So often we struggle with those not-so-fun tasks that every job, business, company can claim. If you work in a SOHO it might be organizing your receipts to send to the book keeper. Oh, you do your own book keeping and the receipts are still in a box/envelop/pile on the desk?
Here’s a strategy for tackling that not-so-fun chore: schedule, subdivide into bites, conquer.
Start by scheduling some time to tackle the job. Without a Level 10 Intention, its not going to happen. By scheduling time on the calendar, you can at least get your intention close to 10.
Next divide the project into bites, something you can chew without choking. Maybe start by sorting the receipts into months and filing them into separate envelopes one for each month. Already separated? Try dividing or labelling them into your expense categories. Can’t find the receipts? There’s you first bite: spend the scheduled time collecting all the receipts you can find in your office and put them into envelopes, one for each month of the year. (Try an accordian file and you don’t need to worry about labelling the envelopes!).
Too often we fail to accomplish a task because it never gets scheduled into our calendars. Other bits and pieces of our business gobble up the day, the week, the month. If the task is an unpleasant or difficult one and you are procrastinating as a result, you probably find yourself doing almost anything else than sitting down to tackle it. Schedule a date with yourself to take it down.
You have to love Blogland as my friend Laura calls it. I can sit here in my office and find friends all over the world who are reading this. Welcome to my lastest discovery – we have friends in South Africa! You might want to take a look at Marcia’s blog from the other side, and other end of the world.
Meanwhile, many of us who consider ourselves reasonably well organized – maybe not you but maybe someone you know – still have a corner of our lives that remains the Last Organizing Frontier. I have one cupboard in the kitchen that defies organization. It’s going down next week. There, I’ve made a public statement. Stay tuned for the oh – so – revealing pictures.
Strategy for the really tough stuff: schedule, subdivide into bites, conquer.
What’s your last frontier?
Still trying to get that seasonal clear out completed? Hop over to Dim Sum Mom and hear how she accomplished it for a family of six: that would be Mom and Dad, son and triplets!
The weather is chilly, the snow is threatening and winter is looming in the shape of a big, grey, cold cloud. I promised last week that I would report on the success of Bob McGee’s (CHFI, Toronto) coat drive from last weekend.
Toronto has proven once again it is a city with lots of heart and closets with lightening potential. Over 10,000 coats were collected which will be distributed to children where needed. Here’s a picture of the truck loads. Way to go TO!
The weather is chilly, the snow is threatening and winter is looming in the shape of a big, grey, cold cloud. I promised last week that I would report on the success of Bob McGee’s (CHFI, Toronto) coat drive from last weekend. Toronto has proven once again it is a city with lots of heart and closets with lightening potential. Over 10,000 coats were collected which will be distributed to children where needed. Here’s a picture of the truck loads. Way to go TO!
It seems the longer I work as a professional organizer, the less organizing is about the stuff and the more it is about stuff behind the stuff.
What is your vision for your life? What is your vision for your home? What is your vision for your favourite place in your home? Do you have a vision?
If we don’t have a clear understanding of what we desire for ourselves it is very hard to get there – sort of like that preverbial trip, not knowing where you are going and no map to get there.
Before you start your next organizing project, develop a really clear vision of what the space, room, area, corner or cupboard will look, feel, smell, sound or function like when you are done. If you are more kinetic than visual, try imagining what the space or place will feel like and how you will function in it. Likewise, if you are more auditorily inclined (listening) try describing outloud how the space will look, feel or function.
Start with a clear vision – its much easier to know when you get there.
I have just returned from three days at the Professional Organizers in Canada annual conference here in Toronto. It was an information packed, fun filled and industry driving conference with almost 25% of the organization’s membership in attendance.
The talent in attendance was exceptional. Harold Taylor and Krista Green were both in attendance to reveal their latest training and business development programs. Elaine Shannon from the Organizing Connection and Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie brought us up to date with the latest in online business development. Authors Karen Shinn and Gail Shields launched their new book GO! The Essential Guide to Organizing and Moving.
Having filled up my brain and note book with enough ideas to keep me planning for centuries, the conference finished off with a powerful presentation on The Courage to Succeed by Tanya Chernova and Joanna Andros of Courageous Living. They challenged the audience to step right out of the box, break the old neuro-receptor patterns that lead us down predictable roads and start to form new thoughts around our ability to accomplish those goals we never seem to reach.
It’s a simple enough message but one which we often forget. When was the last time you took a courageous step? I did; I accepted the invitation to be a tip host on the Organizing Connection.
