You know how it can be: You have an overwhelming to-do list as long as your arm, and it never gets any shorter. There are some things you want to accomplish, but weeks, months and even years slip by with no progress. You are tempted to laugh out loud when someone suggests adding daily exercise,…
Category Archives: Benefits of Organizing
Keeping the Clutter Busters In Line
As I headed to Baltimore last week for the annual conference of NAPO (National Association of Professional Organizers) where I presented a workshop on writing a business plan for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses, Angela Wallace, our association president, sat down with a reporter from the New York Times to talk about the organizing industry…
Flaubert on the Need For Order – a quote
Be neat and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and creative in your work. Gustave Flaubert
Want To Save Hours Every Week? Read This Fast!
For years I considered myself a slow reader. But it wasn’t until I began to use an electronic reader that I understood just how slow. Routinely I would dawdle over a page of newspaper text for so long, that my iPad would time out and close up the document, thinking I wasn’t there anymore. I…
What’s In It For You? How to Reward Yourself For Meeting Your Goals
How can I motivate and reward myself when I am both the boss and the employee? So, one of the skills I teach in my Plan to Thrive productivity program is how to use a four-month rolling plan to keep up your momentum. And one essential part of the rolling plan is a way to…
Clutter Can Be Funny? Just Ask Lois
Lois Morton is the Gilbert and Sullivan of professional organizing. Watch her music video, here: Lois Morton’s “Confessions of a Clutterholic” And she’ll make you laugh, make you wince, and give you courage. Can you ask for more?
Worth Repeating – May posts from New Leaf News
Looking ahead to summer. Remembering the past on Memorial Day. Listening as commencement speakers recall prior achievements and give advice for a lifetime. May is filled with beginnings and endings. What would you like to begin? What would you like to end? Here are a few posts from past Mays to help make today more…
White Space
When you look at your office or your calendar, consider the use of white space. What do I mean by white space? In graphic or visual arts, white space is the portion of a page left unmarked. In radio, white space is the space between channels that is left unused to avoid interference. Why do…
How Much Time Should Planning Take?
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. – Seneca Once in a while a client avoids planning on the ground that it takes too much time. They’d much rather dive right in and spend that time getting some of their work done, instead of reviewing goals, choosing…
Why Tasks Hang On – Three Productivity Traps to Avoid
Take a look at your to-do list. Are there things that have been lurking there for weeks, maybe months? How do you feel when you think of those tenacious tasks? Tired? Discouraged? You can get rid of those “Velcro jobs” faster if you know how they got to be clinging to your days in the…