Posts Tagged ‘professional organizer’

Grease is the word

826 LA needs tutors for the summer! There are great projects coming up…like this one I posted about recently….

Tonight someone told me Grease was filmed at John Marshall HS.  This is so funny to me – not only because Grease was my favorite movie of all time for the first 12 years of my life but also because I just finished a project volunteering there with the 11th and 12th graders through the organization 826LA.  There was no singing and dancing (thank goodness) but there were words. Lots of them. Enough for 826LA to publish a  book in fact.

John Marshall HS book cover

Tonight some of  kids read their stories from the book at a reception at Skylight Bookstore in Los Filez. I can’t tell you how inspiring it was to hear those kids bravely telling their stories. So proud to see their words in print. Their hard work paying off. The staff at 826LA is extraordinary – working around the clock to make literary projects like this happen. Word.

Tune-up (Photo by Robert Couse-Baker)

I had a new client today and I think I might have learned more from him than he did from me. My lesson: We don’t have to wait for a break-down or a break-up to have a break-through and want to make improvements in our life.

This guy’s story is he that he needed a professional organizer more for a tune up than an engine overhaul. He had some systems set up already and wanted my opinion of them. We did some tweaking to see if we could turn productivity up a notch: Weekly planning session, daily priority list,  intern for calls and email overflow.

When all was said and done I gave him a clean bill of organizational health (should I start handing out badges?) and went on my merry (Poppins) way.

I really loved my lesson…it’s one we use in some areas (trainer to get to the next level even when we are already in great shape) but not in others (the garage is in a shambles).

So nice to be reminded since I most often get someone at the end of their proverbial rope but it doesn’t always have to be back against the wall, wall on fire. Thank you, dear client. I’m learning.

My Sticky Note List

Yesterday I did a video about the daily priority list – that daily list of the 5 most important things you must, absolutely-must-do-today-no-matter-what. That doesn’t sound like so much fun to me. It probably didn’t to you either. (unless you make sure one of the 5 is fun! I’m glad you did!) I hate to be the one to break the news to you,  but sometimes we have to do things that aren’t fun.

The good news is there are things we get to do that are lots and lots of fun. Even lists. The “category” lists I spoke of yesterday are, well, in that category of things we get to do that are fun. For me at least. Because I love making lists of fun things to do. And typically that is what these lists are about. For example, lists of books you may want to read, music you want to listen to, bands you want to see when they come to town, places you’d like to visit,  what you want to be when you grow up, kinds of dogs you may want to purchase, and…the list goes on.

So much fun to be had, so many lists to be made. Where on earth are we going to house so much information? Evernote.com seems to be the front runner for this category.  You can put in photos you find online, photos you take with your phone, voice recordings, web pages, pdfs, notes….it is like a sticky note on steroids! My love for this program, free program I might add, is in its full bloom. I still have yet to see a wart let a lone a mere blemish. If you are in love with some other such program or system please do tell! Options are good…but we all know how we felt about first love…ahh. I may never leave my Evernote.

You can have your lists with you at all times and who wouldn’t want that? When you are at the bookstore the list in the file at home does you no good. When you are at Home Depot that file of gardening information you’ve been adding to for years is useless.

The smartphones all have list funtionality but to be able to marry a list with a photo or just to throw in a pdf…just makes it so much more likely that you’ll use the thing. I think we get hung up sometimes because the information we receive that we’d like to remember comes in so many formats and medias.  With Evernote you’ll have all of that information with you on your phone, tagged for easy retrieval, no matter where it came from.  See…I told you that making lists would be fun! (at least easy!)

Better have a few extra hammers...just in case.

Do you keep things just in case you’ll need them or know that you’ll have what you need just in time for when you need it?  Martha Beck, a very accomplished life coach, wrote an article in Oprah magazine awhile back about this concept and it stuck with me.  It is at the core of organizing.  I think it is difficult to let go of things if you have that “just in case” philosophy.

It will cause you to hold on to every newspaper and magazine article you’ve ever pulled about fitness even though you can access almost anything you need to know online. It will cause you to hold onto clothes that are too big for you when you have lost weight – just in case you gain it again. Or…hold on to clothing that has been too small for a long time – just in case you lose the weight.

It isn’t about having or not having the information you want (articles) or being an optimist or pessimist (will you lose the weight? or will you gain it?). I am asking you to think about the goal of the goal of keeping something. In terms of information you want the most up to date information and for that matter – clothing!

If you want fitness information isn’t it better to get it from 2010 rather than from 2000? Or pants from 2010 rather than from 2000? If you gain or lose weight it is almost never in the same way…or place….that is a whole different article. Book even. I digress.

Point is that if you trust that you will have what you need when you need it then it becomes easier to let go of the clutter. Trust you will have the information and the items you need when you need them. Guess it is time to get rid of those packing boxes that are in the bathtub just in case I decided to move. Sigh.

Powerful words

When someone says you’re not alone suddenly anything is possible. I think the most daunting thing about getting most organizing tasks started is that feeling of being alone. I hear many of my clients say this – that the overwhelm comes from feeling alone with a project and not even knowing where to start in order to solve it.

Can the mind that created the problem also solve it?

Some say the mind that created the problem can’t solve it. I don’t know if it is true but what I do know is that bringing in outside resources has always been a relief and a great help.  Not that you/we don’t know how to do these things we get stuck on. I know how to run but I’m not going to do it unless I have a trainer running with me! (Or I’m being chased.)

A trainer is also – well – trained. I also have resources and years of know-how. But a lot of the magic in the mix is that people feel they have a partner in the process when they bring me or other pros in to work with them on whatever is at hand.  This is no little thing either. I say magic purposefully.

Suddenly the piles and the clutter don’t seem quite so menacing. Organization is a place that doesn’t seem so far away. The scene is set for success. They start to have my eyes. Because I see it all done, how it can be, the potential. Ahh. This is the beauty of partnership.

Dance (Photo by Clearly Ambiguous)

Do interventions work? I don’t think so. In my experience the people who reap the benefits of lasting improvement do so because they want to.  They are asking for direction and assistance.

I ask prospective clients how committed they are to getting organized during our consultation. Their answer, among others, will decide whether or not we are a good fit.  If someone isn’t committed to a process then there is no moving them. I am a guide in the process, and similar to weight loss, building a lasting relationship or learning to dance, take some time and dedication. There will also be some of the proverbial 10 steps forward, 2 back, another 4 forward, 1 back. Cha-cha-cha. Want to dance?