Nov 04

Home Organizing: Going on an Information Diet

By Sherry Borsheim Blog, Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Home Organizing, Organizing Paper Files No Comments

Our day sets us up for information overload. Social media, Magazines, T.V., Online Subscriptions, Newspapers, the list goes on. If we don’t learn how to regulate our information you can become overwhelmed. Your home and mind become cluttered. Business and home organizing suffer. We are far from the productive people we could be.

Here’s four simple steps to decrease your information and improve your home organizing, business organizing, and mental space:

Step 1 – Limit Times Checking Email

Harvard Business Review did a study on multi-tasking and time wasted on the psychological switching gears back and forth. Multi-tasking decreases your productivity by up to 50% and the switching back and forth between tasks or projects also wastes time of 10-45 minutes.

No wonder our to do lists are bulging, desks are piled high with unfinished paperwork, and people are drowning in email. Think about the business and home organizing you could get done with almost an entire hour added to your productive time.

Step 2 – Group like Activities Together

Depending on your type of work, set 2-5 times a day to check your email. Turn off all notifications and ringers.

For other activities like project work, making phone calls, responding to emails, meetings, coaching hours, service hours, invoicing, home organizing, and planning to name a few, block out times in your schedule to do similar tasks. This is also known as batching. Want to know where your times goes, track your activities for a week! It will be an eye-opening experience and you’ll get to the root issues of your productivity much faster.

Step 3 – Set boundaries

Get clear on your desired outcomes and goals and you’ll be more selective on what type of information you keep and let into your world. Create space by organizing your paper, books, magazines, photos and electronic files. Only keep what is useful, relevant and easy to access. Keeping something for “just in case I may need it someday” doesn’t cut it. This is where people get into overwhelm, waste time, procrastinate and create unnecessary piles of clutter in their offices, homes and computers. Home organizing suffers greatly!

Also, keep a small basket for magazines and reading material. When it’s full, its time to purge! When the filing cabinets are full, it’s time to purge and the same goes for bookshelves, your Inbox and other areas of your office and home.

Step 4 – Decrease Volume

When you know what your retention guidelines are for keeping computer files, financial files, project and paper files, meeting notebooks, emails, client files, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and so on, deciding what to keep and what to purge is simple. You take the heavy thinking out of business and home organizing. Write out your retention policy for the different areas of your business or home office and have it handy on your computer for easy reference.

Recently, an Office Manager asked me what to do with 17 years of meeting notebooks. After discussing it for 30 minutes and talking with the Health Director, we were clear that all meeting minutes and financials were saved electronically and any other information that may be lingering in the notebooks were safe to let go. A week later, I received an email saying “I did it! I shredded 17 years of notebooks and I feel better. Out with the old, towards the future we go. The past is the past!” A huge load of stress was released, freed up some mental space for creative thinking, and space opened up in his office.

High performers practice the above steps because they are clear about where they are going, what information to let into their world and focus on doing the right actions on a consistent basis. Going on an information diet will free up physical space as well as space in your mind to be more creative and productive.

Want to improve business and home organizing? This is where it starts. What does your information diet include? Leave your comment below.

Oct 29

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How to Organize Your Desk Drawers

By Sherry Borsheim Business Organizing, Home Office Organization, Home Organizing No Comments

This past year I have been making it my goal to go increasingly paperless. If you’ve been following along you know the process is ongoing! While you may first think of your paper files when you think of “going paperless” your desk is a prime offender as well. As your primary workstation having a clean organized desk is crucial to your daily success. Having a clear top of your desk to start each day is important and having organized desk drawers helps this happen. It’s time to learn how to organize your desk drawers.

How to Organize Your Desk Drawers

* Remember to schedule time to do it. You will need to block out an appointment with yourself to get your desk drawers organized, how long that takes may vary on a number of factors. Next make a reoccurring appointment with yourself to straighten your drawers and remove things that don’t belong. This can be as minimal as 10 minutes a week, just make sure you do it.

* Replace the Post-its. Post-its can lead to a lot of visual (not to mention physical) clutter. There are great apps available on phones and other devices as well as through Microsoft Outlook to store your reminders and lists. Or create virtual post-its on your computer. With so many options available you’ll be able to select one that will work reliably for you without all the paper clutter.

* Don’t buy bulk, unless it ACTUALLY makes sense for you. That is right, want to know how to organize your desk drawers? Avoid collecting stuff. It is easy to buy office supplies in bulk. Avoid the pitfall. Pens dry out, paperclips get lost in the bottom of drawers, ink needs changing, the list goes on. And think about the space you are dedicating to these things in the long run. Even shared office space often has the problem of overstocked office supplies. Ask yourself if you really even know what you have. Will you re-buy that supply anyway rather than try to remember where you stored it or if you owned it? Don’t wade through a drawer full of pens and paperclips to find what you need, own only the office supplies you really need.

*Scan it if you can. Remember our goal to get rid of paper? Rather than keeping papers on your desk or jammed into a drawer, scan and save them in your computer for when you need them. Always make sure you are appropriately backing up your electronic copies.

*Keep your file drawers within reach. Here is a good reminder, if your files are close enough for you to reach or easily roll a chair to, you are more likely to keep your things filed. File folders that make it back to their drawers mean they aren’t sitting on top of your desk or blocking up a drawer. Keep the things, like primary file drawers, that you need to use closer to you when working at your desk. You know what else should be easily accessible? The PAPER SHREDDER!

Learning how to organize a desk doesn’t have to be complicated, these 5 steps will have you on your way!

What do you think is the most important thing to remember when learning how to organize your desk drawers?

Aug 16

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Before and After School Checklists

By Sherry Borsheim Blog, Home Organizing, Inspiration, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

back to school routine

Making a list and checking it twice starts at Back to School!

Last post we released on Back To School Planning was a bit of on introduction on Back To School. The goal was to help busy, hard working parents like yourself get a head start on the year to increase productivity and decrease stress.

We’ve since had quite a bit of feedback on that post which really brought a lot of inspiration to us for future content. So to continue this thought process and follow through with some of our previous promises, we thought we we get into something a little more specific.

The before and after school routine. Some might think it’s easy to set and keep a routine in the mornings – but with an entrepreneur super mom on our team (Cijaye DePradine) we know that it only LOOKS easy unless you are really on top of your game.

The number one secret to success according to Cijaye is making lists! She lives by them. Not just because she has a high functioning A.D.D. but she also has two school aged children and a business to run from the break of dawn onwards.

Without lists — everything can be a distraction! So, as we said last time….

Don’t forget the little things – make checklists NOW

If you take inventory of all the little things you really do need to do to start your day properly – it will be that much easier to make them a part of your routine. And it’s always a great first step to make checklists for them so that they don’t become routinely chaotic for everyone. For example:

The daily before school schedule may consist of all the dress and hygiene tasks that are an absolute in everyone’s daily lives, but don’t forget to schedule breakfast (it’s the most important meal of the day) even if it’s a glass of OJ or water and some fresh cut fruit or bagels — breakfast is critical. Along with breakfast you and your child might need to take medications or vitamins.

Have a reminder list and doing this together as a team ensures that everyone is doing it. PLUS it gives you extra quality time together as a family.

Lastly but certainly not least, a “double check” rule should be in order daily as well. This “double check” rule ensures that each and every morning your child takes a look at his or her agenda, books, binders and bag to ensure that they have everything they need for the day. Kids tend to carry more of what they don’t need and less of what they do.

They are often quite forgetful as well. If they are forced to double check every morning – they will be more on the ball than anyone can hope for, I promise.

TIP: Make a reminder list for this in the evenings so that they know exactly what to look for in the mornings.

The after school schedule is definitely different. In many homes – the children are HUNGRY as soon as they walk in the door. If you hire an in-home nanny or sitter for this time, you might want to ask them to prepare light snacks/meals for the kids that will be ready upon their return.

If you don’t have a sitter and your children are not of age to do this on their own – it might be important to schedule yourself to step in here. If your child is of age, having a list to remind them which meals are acceptable after school and which are not may be helpful. (Afterall you don’t want your children eating a triple dose of sugar filled cereal mid afternoon – let alone any other time of day).

This way everyone simply goes on about their days and stays focused. Also, although some parents do not believe in chores, many do and in those homes, chores and homework are always a top priority. The challenge is putting them in order. Which comes first in your home is going to be up to you. But do make sure you schedule the time for each. It is important.

Finally if your children have after school sports or activities – make plans for this too. If you must arrange another carpool or two – do that. If it’s all on you – that’s okay – but just make sure you set your OWN schedule to make room for this. Your children will need to get their uniforms, dressy clothes or costumes on. They may need their water bottles filled and they will always need some sort of healthy snack in them before they go (if not dinner).

A good rule of thumb is to give yourself at least 1.5 hours between the end of your work and the beginning of sports to make it all run smoothly.

Of course this is just a small list of the many things you can do to keep your daily routine in check – but it’s all important. If you run a home business it’s VITAL.