Organize 365 Podcast

I have always wanted to record a podcast about what I am saying "Yes!" to and what I am saying "No!" to. Today, I am sharing my YES! list. What I realized people are doing when they share these kinds of lists are actually different ways of thinking about how you are using your time. For me, the "no list" is about decluttering my decision making stress and setting boundaries. On the other hand, my "yes" list is about supporting my priorities. This week, I will be sharing my "yes" list for the next of my New Year's - the Summer (May to August). The things on my "yes" list will not get my complete focus, but I will be finding extra pockets of time to use for these things. This Summer, I am saying YES! to: Traveling safely in the US! I have been home for the entire pandemic, and I am ready to travel. I'm fully vaccinated. I will be following the most current CDC recommendations during my travel. But, my big news is that I am preparing for a book tour! I'll be touring my newest book Organization is a Learnable Skill from July 8 to August 10th. My kids' requests for my time! As I said last week, I will be focusing on getting my kids to do more of their own #adulting responsibilities. However, any requests to just spend time together will be met with a YES! from me. Makeup, fun hair, beauty routines, and enjoying a corporate casual look! I have been having a lot of fun trying out new makeup, a new curling iron, playing with my hair and makeup, and working on my wardrobe. I don't own yoga pants or sweatpants. We have the freedom to choose what looks good on our bodies and works best for our current life stage. Making our home a place we love to be! Greg and I are doubling down on optimizing our home. We want it to be a place we love to be, function well for us, upgrade anything we can, and to make it work for everyone who lives there. I encourage you to do the same for your home - no matter what budget you are working with. I hope that my "yes" and "no" lists help you to figure out if there are any things for your Summer that you want to firmly establish as a yes or a no for you right now.

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/ Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Cailla M. She lives with her husband, daughter, and a cat. She shares her story of facing some very difficult events in 2020, both as a teacher and in some health challenges for her husband. Despite all she went through, Cailla shares how she has been able to change her mindset, her self-talk, and her home to better care for her family and herself. I hope you find her story as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I have always wanted to record a podcast about what I am saying "Yes!" to and what I am saying "No!" to. Today, I am sharing my no list. What I realized people are doing when they share these kinds of lists are actually different ways of thinking about how you are using your time. It's not necessarily calling different things good and bad. It's about prioritizing (what things get your yes) and decluttering and setting better boundaries (what things get your no). Over the next 100 Day cycle, I will be saying no to four main things. Different times of year call for attention to different kinds of tasks and areas of focus. When you make a yes or no list, you are creating a rule that helps you spend less energy making decisions. These rules can be for your next of the Lisa's New Years, or it can be permanent. You get to choose. Listen in and I'll explain why I am saying no to these things. This list helps me declutter activities that are taking time on my mind and in my schedule. These are either things on my calendar or a mindset I am letting go. I am decluttering these things - at least for now. Perfectionism Diet ideas Working in the evening Doing things for my kids

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Jordan B. She lives with her husband and two teenage sons. Jordan started with her Sunday Basket®. After doing the 100 Day Program, she finds it much easier to have guests over without stress. I hope you find her story as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am super excited today to introduce you to Jay Papasan. He is the co-author of The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results with Gary Keller. Jay is a best selling author and executive at Keller Williams Realty. I quote the ONE Thing mantra regularly - What's the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?" Clarifying our number one priority ensures that we make great decisions. We know what to say yes to; and then say no to everything else. Jay and I explore the origins of the ONE Thing question, and how I have applied it to my life and business. My understanding of the ONE Thing has grown over time and can be applied in any arena at different levels at different times in our lives. Jay shares how you can use this ONE Thing question to figure out what to do today, and in life. He graciously explains what his own lifetime ONE Thing is in his own life. There are limitless possibilities for how we can use our time, so the ONE Thing question can break down your choices so you can clarify what makes the biggest impact for you. Making decisions proactively ensures a better investment of your hours and your minutes so that you have fewer regrets. Time is not renewable. It is a precious resource and who you give it to matters greatly. Jay also gives some great guidance on how our habits decide our futures. He shares his ideas about making rules for how you choose to spend your time. Listen in for his amazing advice! He explains how he balances openness to new people with those he already has decided are the most important. Jay also teaches us about how to best set goals and the secret to improving our chances of achieving them. He talks about accountability and how to set the steps to stay on track to reach our goals. Systematically working backwards from the goal helps to create a straight line of actions that will move the needle and he shares how to set up a system. This is a proven process that naturally narrows our focus on key goals. Perfection is overrated. Let's make progress. Follow Jay and learn more at the1thing.com .

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Amber Z. She lives with her husband and four kids. She's been working on the 100 Day Program since 2018 and shares about her progress (but not perfection!).I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This is part four of a four part podcast series on discovering YOU. This week, I will be talking with you about how to curate your life with Gail Golden. Gail is a management psychologist who helps businesses build better leaders. She helps to create powerful interventions and boost the bottom line. So far, you have learned how you think and get something done. You now also know how to follow your energy and trust your intuition. Then, we covered how to create and trust your plan - for a day, a week, or a season. I invited Gail to the podcast this week to share knowledge from her new book Curating Your Life: Ending the Struggle for Work-Life Balance. I want to introduce her to the Organize 365 audience. We are all on a journey from a reactive to a productive life. Everything we organize gives us more time, and some women now have 12-15 hours a week and are wondering "now what?" Gail shares how she has figured out what she is doing next, and how she is curating her next season of life. Gail recommends The Power of Full Engagement. She shares how instead of asking "Do I have time for that?" she asks herself "Do I want to spend energy on that?" For Gail, the management of energy is how she makes decisions about how to spend her time and her life. Gail shares how many of her clients feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and inadequate most of the time. She also noticed that people never seemed to develop a work life balance - at least until they curated their life. There are things that matter, but are not important, so we can just do them good enough. This leaves energy left over for the things you want to be great at. Lisa and Gail talk about how to increase your energy, and even your energy capacity. Organizing your space means you don't waste energy looking for things. Knowing yourself and awareness of your energy means you can manage your energy by selecting environments that give us energy. Also - sleep, water, healthy diet, and regular breaks can all contribute to our optimum energy levels. No matter what we do - our energy capacity is finite. This means, we still need to make decisions about how to spend our energy. They also talk about mid-life re-curating. Sometimes life happens to you and something changes (divorce, COVID, job loss). Other times, we have changed and we recognize that we need something different in our lives and we elect to re-curate and make choices about our next steps in life. The theme of re-curating honors that our earlier choices were right for us at the time, but do not have to be followed forever. Gail also gifts us by exposing the "obnoxious roommate" in our heads that speaks against every decision we make. You know that voice! If you stay home with your family, the voice asks why you are not at work. If you stay home, the voice asks why you "wasted" college or are not contributing more to the world. Gail calls that roommate out, and gives advice for talking back to that cruel voice and ensuring that our decisions about what to curate reflect what is best for us. Gail also shares some incredible insights on how we live out our curation as social creatures. When we curate our lives, we do so in the context of many relationships. Listen in for her amazing explanation of how to balance individual needs with those you love. We finish up by talking about how to manage our energy as we begin to re-enter the world after COVID. Gail gives some great questions for each of us to consider as we figure out what things to reincorporate into our lives, and what things are no longer best for us and can be left in the past. Listen in and see what you are called to curate in your life.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Kristin B. She lives with her spouse and her daughter. Her transformational journey has had some major ups and downs! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This is part three of a four part podcast series on discovering YOU. This week, I will be talking with you about how to create and trust your plan. I want to help you discover how you might be able to change your future. So far, you have learned how you think and get something done. You now also know how to follow your energy and trust your intuition. Now, I want you to see how to create and trust your plan - for a day, a week, or a season. These plans are not for the rest of your life, they are to make specific progress on a goal, right now. Planning is the antidote to decision fatigue. The thing that drains my energy faster than anything else is to make a bunch of decisions. The more rules you can create, the less decisions you will have to make, so the more brain power and energy you have to do what is more important. Think about something you have to decide all of the time (like what's for dinner) - make a rule! Taco Tuesday is a classic for a reason. It's a easy rule. It might be boring, but it saves me time, energy, and frustration to make this a rule. This is a proactive solution to decisions and helps to reduce decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is only combated when you take responsibility and ownership of the questions and decisions that are being requested of you. Create rules, and eliminate the questions. In this season, it is easier for me to make a set plan and know what it is going to be rather than arguing about whether or not I should be in charge of these decisions. Planning allows you more energy, more bandwidth, more time for the things you want to do more of in your life. Think about one thing you want to achieve. Identify one goal. What is the sprint? What is the timeframe for that goal? Start thinking about making a plan for that goal. Are there any rules related to that plan that will make it easier for you to create a habit? What time of day will you have energy to pursue this goal? Setting and achieving goals is the way you change your future. Creating an action plan and then trusting (and following) your plan is how you make progress. When you set aside the time, you will get to your goal, and see your new life. I hope you discover something about yourself in this podcast, and I'd love to hear all about it on Facebook or Instagram!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Deborah I. She lives with her significant other and their cat. She graciously shares her transformation while dealing with mental health issues. Deborah shares how giving herself grace was more powerful than focusing on perfection. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This is part two of a four part podcast series on discovering you. This week, I will be talking with you about how to follow your energy and intuition. I want to help you discover how you might be able to follow your energy and intuition to get things done - more so than you could ever do with just a todo list. As I pay attention to thought leaders, I see a major paradigm shift towards following your energy and intuition. This is the latest evolution in productivity. Over time, we can see how new ideas have progressed through our society, with people in different places on the acceptance curve, so I want to bring you along if these are new mindsets for you. Intuition is hearing your inner voice, and trusting that knowing feeling in your gut. As you pay attention to your intuition, I think you will find that we have more knowledge inside of us than we believe. I also want to share some stories with you about energy and intuition, to start you thinking about your intuition and energy. There are multiple kinds of energy to consider - mental, physical, spiritual, and relational to start. In exploring these ideas, I recommend The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. They share paradigm shifts about energy that you may want to consider. I share my experience with changing from a detailed weekly schedule made in advance to building a schedule and making choices to follow your energy. I hope you discover something about yourself in this podcast, and I'd love to hear all about it on Facebook or Instagram!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Melissa G. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two dogs. She started her organizational journey by tackling her paperwork! That's jumping in with both feet. She also shares some of her challenges facing unexpected events. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Debbye C. Debbye has been married for 44 years to her high school sweetheart, and she has a son with high functioning Asperger's Syndrome who lives in a basement apartment. Today, she shares about her transition from the survival to legacy phase of life. She is now growing her career as a professional organizer. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Happy Birthday Sunday Basket® The physical Sunday Basket® is THREE years old today. Today, I want to invite you to celebrate the Sunday Basket® with me! I am re-sharing and re-airing The Sunday Basket® podcast. I share where the Sunday Basket came from, how it starts at the introductory level, how we sell it, what support is available to you, and where to learn more. You can learn more at sundaybasket.com

How to Multiply Time with Rory Vaden I love the way Rory Vaden looks at time and prioritization. I first learned about him when I was getting started in multiple direct sales companies. He is an expert in the principles of success - time management, goals, and positive attitudes. I reviewed two of his books - Take the Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose on the Organize 365 YouTube channel in 2020. I even have an older podcast about what I learned from his books - Episode 152. I am delighted to share our conversation about time with you today. We talk about leadership, motivating others, achieving goals, and multiplying time. Rory shares some amazing thoughts about how to achieve your dreams - he says: It's not that people struggle from a lack of discipline, as they do from a lack of vision. The amount of our endurance is directly proportionate to the clarity of our vision. The number one cause of all procrastination is self-criticism [perfectionism]. We also talk about how to make steady, consistent progress towards any kind of goals (work, home organization, or anything else). He explains how he makes decisions about prioritizing his to do items. And, then he drops his bomb, he teaches me how to multiply time by changing how I think about the items on my list. You multiply time by giving yourself the emotional permission to spend time on things today that create more time tomorrow. As Rory talks about how getting organized is a way you can multiply time, we share how my own lessons for you are helping you to multiply time in your own lives. Things like the Sunday Basket® and the 100 Day Home Organization Program can lead you to freeing up ten to fifteen hours a week once you set up the systems. Automation of your organizing can lead to exponentially more time as you continue to build and refine systems. Any time you create a process today, it saves you time tomorrow, and then saves you time every day moving forward. Invest in good habits, invest in your self-discipline, and invest in how you think about and use your time - you will get exponential rewards in the future. If you want to systematize and grow your business, I recommend you consider working with Rory Vaden and Brand Builders. We help people monetize and build their personal brand. Organize 365 is partnering with them and you can get a free call at freebrandcall.com/organize365

Organizing Holiday Decorations Why do we keep the decorations we keep, and what is the best way to store them? As we go through life stages and unexpected events, our holiday items take on new meaning and sometimes add to our guilt or depression. That was true in my case. This week, your challenge is to organize your holiday decorations. Visit http://organize365.com/40-weeks-1-whole-house-week-19-organizing-holiday-decorations for the full blog post. Find all the blog posts, podcasts and more right at your fingertips! Get the APP: http://organize365.com/app/ If you are old school like me, or use your email inbox as your to-do list, you might want the challenge delivered to your inbox instead. Sign up for emails here: http://organize365.com/40-weeks-email/ This episode is brought to you by Onnit the makers of Alpha Brain Click here to save 10% off your first order: getonnit.com/365

Blog post available at organize365.com/word-of-the-year-2021 Last week, I reviewed my 2021 first quarter pink slash pocket projects with you. I shared what has been going well, and what projects I have deferred (or even abandoned without guilt!). The one project I did not deep dive into with you yet is my health slash pocket. In 2021, I am focusing on my health. I started out by using my 100 Day Home Organization Program planner to track habits and metrics. Knowing where I start means I can see how I am changing inside of my life. Transformational Freedom: As you let go of one thing, you are open to receiving the next. We strive to unlock your life's purpose through the process of decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. I am tracking and analyzing multiple aspects of my health including sleep, food, steps, and supplements. For 2021, my word of the year is health. I am focusing on my physical, emotional, spiritual, relationship health, and the health of Organize 365. In the podcast, I also talk about the Organize 365 focus word for 2021: impact. We are working to make our mission, vision, and values come to life for the growing team. If you don't already have a word for 2021, take some time and reflect on what your word might be. You are not bound to your choice - but let it serve as a reminder of the goals we have for ourselves and our intentions for who we want to become. I hope you choose a word you can grow into and want to be reminded of this year. I hope to see you progress on your transformational journey and unlock the potential you have inside of yourself.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2020. You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

For the very first podcast of 2021, I shared what my pink slash pockets will be for the first New Year of 2021. Now that we are halfway through that first quarter, I want to share what I have completed, what I have completely let go, and why this has been the best experiment I have ever done inside of my Sunday Basket®. My Sunday Basket® is my habit and weekly system that keeps my actionable to dos, my ideas, my mail, keeps my family running smoothly, and allows me to focus on work during the week without worrying about household tasks. Consistent use of the Sunday Basket® helps your brain move from reactive to proactive. After about six weeks, most users find they have capacity for the Sunday Basket® 2.0 slash pockets. These slash pockets hold the papers and ideas related to larger projects that require a consistent infusion of time, money, and/or motivation to be completed. The 2.0 slash pockets focus on four major life areas: home, family, money, and self. In today's podcast, I am sharing what I've been doing so far in my personal pink slash pockets so far in 2021. I was focusing on launching my kids into #adulting, family photo memories, creating an Organize 365 scrapbook, systematizing beauty, and my to be read list. Listen in as I share what projects I have completed, what projects I called "good enough to be done," and which things I have decided to abandon or ignore. And, I'd love to hear about YOUR pink slash pockets in 2021 on Facebook or Instagram! Also mentioned in this episode: Organize 365 Kids Program Organize 365 Launch Bundle Organize 365 Memorabilia Binder

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2020. You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

The older you get and the more #adulting you do, the more you realize there are taxes for everything. There are almost as many kinds of taxes as there are kinds of insurance. When I was younger, and taxes seemed easier, I used to do our taxes myself using TurboTax. Now, our finances are much more complicated, and we use an accountant to file our taxes. However, I have a process that lets me get my paperwork ready in three to four hours total! When I was an in home professional organizer, I saw many people request extension on their personal income tax filings. Not because they didn't know how to do their taxes. Not because they didn't have the money to pay the taxes. All because they did not have their tax documentation in order.They have to get their paperwork under control in order to complete their taxes. I want to help you become proactive instead of reactive in approaching your taxes, so today I am sharing some of my own processes for making taxes easy. I always work on my taxes in February (usually during the Super Bowl). Back when I was a Creative Memories consultant, I learned to organize my business taxes using the IRS Schedule C categories. First, every January 1, I add a green slash pocket to my Sunday Basket® labeled "Taxes" to keep all of my incoming paperwork together and organized. As I have shared before, I recommend you make your decisions in advance whenever possible. Establish habits and routines to reduce decision fatigue. Here are my lessons to make tax time easier. If you have a business, figure out how you will categorize expenses related to Schedule C categories. A few years ago, I made a cheatsheet of my categories and how I group expenses to keep my categories uniform from year to year. I also recommend making checklists for yourself of annual tasks (writing down mileage for vehicles) and for the papers you are expecting in the mail (income, mortgage, bank, investment statements). Keep up with recording your expenses monthly. I recommend the Organize 365 Income and Expense Binder as your one place to keep your receipts, documentation, and to track your expenses. This way you will know how your expenses are affecting your profitability every month and can adjust as needed. Record your income monthly. This will help you to recognize the many ways you are generating income in your business and you can adjust where you spend your energy so that you are focusing on the most effective parts of your business. If you spend a few hours each month, then at the end of the year you can do your inventory counts and be ready for tax time. The Organize 365 Income and Expense Binder is what I have used in all of my businesses to keep track of income, expenses, and mileage. If you do not have a similar system set up for your business finances already, you can purchase this from our shop at https://organize365.com/product/annual-income-expense-binder I am excited to share my simple system for income taxes with you. However, I am not a tax advisor or accountant, so these are my personal thoughts. Please do not use them as tax advice and consult your own professional for information about your specific situation.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2020. You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

Today, I want to talk with you about diversity and inclusion at Organize 365. I have always been intentional and purposeful about creating an inclusive and diverse company over the last nine years. Organize 365 is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I get to see the great work that Procter & Gamble does to actively work towards diversity and inclusion. I have learned so much from their approach to building intentional depth and breath of their employees. As we grow and expand, we will continue to strive to represent the beautiful colors, thought patterns, races, and religions of the world. While race is one important facet of diversity and inclusion, I also want to share some other ways that Organize 365 strives to build a team of people who represent all different kinds of diversity. In the podcast, I share many of the ways we are already diverse some of which include generation, family structure, and awareness and empathy for people with special needs. I am also delighted that the Organize 365 community is wonderfully diverse and so inclusive of all who join us on the journey.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2020. You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience on our website.

As we get ready to celebrate February as Black History Month in the United States, I want to share some of the history I have learned about the differences between Black and White Americans owning houses in the US. I am doing my best to use preferred terms and inclusive language, so I am asking for grace as you listen. I am always open to learning new things, but I also want to use this platform to share information about the US history with people who may not have learned these things in school and who have not yet added this topic to their learning journey. During the Summer of 2020, I dove into reading and learning about the historical differences between the experiences of Black and White Americans. I am a lifelong learner. I love history. I love to learn about different cultures. I love to learn about all people all over the world. I am learning about myself, my home, and broadening my horizons by learning about the experiences of others in the world. As a White woman celebrating Black History month, I want to be respectful, and I want to share information that would be relevant to my primary topic of organizing your home. I also want to acknowledge that my experience is different than that of African Americans, and I thought back to all the things I have been reading and learning about home ownership. I believe that the more we understand the differences that shape our lives, the better we are together and the more empathetic we are towards one another. In my history studies last summer, I began to learn how many White people were able to gain college educations and grow their wealth because of home ownership. I was initially shocked to learn about some of the differences I describe on the podcast. My family of origin had very different experiences, and by learning about the history of US housing, my eyes were opened to the reality of the differences in the US. I want to share some of the fascinating, eye-opening information I researched last summer. Links to several of these resources are below: Black Wall Street - Podcast The Color of Law - book by Richard Rothstein NPR interview with The Color of Law author Richard Rothstein The Banker - Movie In the podcast, I share some of my own learning, insights, and a raising awareness of my own biases and assumptions. I offer you some resources to do your own research and learning. Knowing each other's stories will bring us better understanding, and better conversations. I want all of us to leave more educated. What unites us is far greater than what divides us.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Zetty M. She lives with her husband and three daughters (9, 11, and 14). They have been a nomadic sailing family for the last five years, but are now settled down in Wisconsin for the next nine years while the kids finish school. She shares how she has transformed her home and life along her organizing journey. And, she started her own business! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! You can find Zetty at https://zippypt.com I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you. My evening routine is the shortest of all of my routines, and it is my least consistent routine. I like to use this time to focus on my hygiene and care of my body. I take a hot bath, do some skin care, and take my vitamins. Before the pandemic, I used to do something productive before doing these getting ready for bed activities. During the pandemic, I spent that time on my phone - on social media, reading about news events, reading hundreds of emails, and following different internet rabbit holes that were not particularly productive. For the next 120 days, I am focusing on incorporating habits of planning my outfits for the week on Sundays. I want to plan my food for the next day in advance. I also want to get back to reading physical books. Projects from my updated slash pockets are also things I may include in this time. I am focusing on writing out my notecard with the next day's schedule and plan each evening. Think about what would make the biggest impact for you in the next 120 days. You cannot do it all. But, when you pick what you want to do, you can focus on doing those things with excellence. Do not take on too much - pick small easy things. Find ways to remind yourself about these changes, and see how it goes.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Anna D. She lives with her husband of 25 years and shares two dogs with her adult daughter. She found Lisa from the ADDitude webcast. Anna began her transformational journey during some major unexpected life events. She settled her sister's estate, remodeled her mom's house, and was dealing with her own ADD. She shares her story of learning to thrive despite chaos. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you. When I consider daily routines, I look at the morning, afternoon, and evening time periods. I am going to discuss each of these and share what I was doing pre-pandemic, how 2020 dramatically changed these times of day, and what I want these routines to look like in 2021. I actually think afternoon routines are one of the most important and often overlooked transition periods, especially for women. I first introduced my 2017 afternoon routine in Podcast Episode 193. You can listen to that if you want more information about my morning routine before the pandemic of 2020. As you adjust and adapt your routines, I really recommend small changes. Small changes over time are more successful and create more lasting change than big sweeping changes that are difficult to sustain. Afternoon routines are the transition from work or school back to home and family time. It is the bridge from your daytime activity to the dinner hour. The afternoon routine is one you have to be conscious about setting up, especially if you want to be deliberate about what you do during this time. Depending on your phase of life, the afternoon routine can include dinner preparation, cleaning up the house, checking kids homework, and sometimes driving to and from activities. But, it is the change over from work to house life. For many years, I did not actually stop working at a typical time, so my afternoon routine was a pause to just get my family on track. However, as Organize 365 has grown, I worked to develop the habit of stopping work at a reasonable time to give my family my full attention. I delighted in my habit of spending time with Greg every day. During the Pandemic, Greg and I both began to work later everyday. We both worked a lot more and did not end at our normal times anymore. I did run to Culvers almost every day to give myself a commute and some alone time. Over the summer, I began to spend more time at the warehouse and continued to work more than my basic 40 hours a week. In the Fall, I began to work more at the warehouse and office. I still need a transition from work to home and some private, quiet, alone time for my thoughts. I want to keep the transition, but I no longer enjoy eating all this fast food. Updating my pink slash pockets has already given me more motivation and desire to work on my own projects after my work hours. This is a more desirable way to use my time than driving to get fast food. And, we are spending more time sharing meals together as a family. Of the three routines, this one is the most nebulous for me, and the one that is still in process. I am not fully sure how I am going to achieve these changes to my routine, but I am giving myself grace as I figure this out. So, as you figure out what you want to adjust in your afternoon routine, be patient and observe what is working and not working right now. Do you want to spend time with family? Is this a helpful time to tackle your 100 Day Home Organization Program task of the day? Do you need to focus on your food and nutrition? Do you have hobbies or personal projects you will focus on? I would love if you can share your afternoon routine ideas in the Facebook group or on Instagram and tag me!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Melinda K. She lives with her retired husband, college age step-daughter, and 2 dogs. In our conversation, Melinda shares how she was inspired to clean up her office (and how she started her 100 Day Home Organization Program doing double time and following her energy. She's also a bit of rebel, so she can encourage others who don't want to be told what to do, even by me! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you. When I consider daily routines, I look at the morning, afternoon, and evening time periods. I am going to discuss each of these and share what I was doing pre-pandemic, how 2020 dramatically changed these times of day, and what I want these routines to look like in 2021. I first shared my thoughts about a morning routine back in Episode 192. You can listen to that if you want more information about my morning routine before the pandemic of 2020. We are going to start with the morning routine, because that is when our day first starts. Traditionally, morning routine strategies are written by men without children who take over an hour to get their day started - even without showering, hair or makeup. My reality is that my mornings have almost always been dictated by what my family needs. My basic morning routine takes me about 45 minutes just to get prepared to leave the house and start my day. When I get up, I get ready for the day and then leave my bedroom. I do not lounge around the house in the morning. I get ready for the most dressy event of the day and stay dressed all day long. I do not ever go back and change my clothes. With the pandemic, my morning routine faced several disruptions. I had all this content that I felt like I had to consume before I could get out of bed and start my day. My spouse and whole family were home too, which changed how I was working. Around this time, my mental mindset was changing and the podcasts I listened to completely changed. We had to quarantine several times as a family due to COVID exposures (everyone was thankfully safe and negative). Joey totaled his car, which meant he needed more rides. Honestly, I just abdicated my morning routine in so many ways, and became reactive to the changes happening in my life. As you build your morning routine for 2021, ask yourself: What do you want? When do you want to get up? When do you want to start your work day or tasks? What things do you want in your morning routine? What do you want done early in the day? Do you want to change what media you are consuming in the morning? Please feel free to share your morning routine ideas in the Organize 365 Facebook Group!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Jamie J. She lives with her husband, and two twin daughters. Her daughters were born prematurely and have overcome some challenges (including extra paperwork!). Jamie says "I just thought I was born to be unorganized and that was the way it would always be." But she found the Sunday Basket® and has gotten her papers under control. Next up, IEP and homeschooling binders! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday You can find the Mini Medical Binder downloads mentioned today at organize365.com/emergency

Happy New Year 2021! We did it! We made it through 2020! When I look back on 2020, there is of course the pandemic, and all of the things that were unexpected, not desirable, and even terrible. But, there were also great things that happened in 2020. In 2020, we did a lot of pivoting, adjusting, and adapting. Organize 365 moved to a bigger warehouse and hired more full time staff members. As a family, we had family members home at different times, and came out ok. As I look forward to 2021, it feels really hard to plan and set goals. The first quarter of 2021, is not going to be the best time of (most) of our lives. But, once we are safe at home, we are mostly in control of what happens inside of our home, our mindset, and our planning for that. When I reflect on 2020, my core personality and gifts did not change, but my habits changed drastically. When the pandemic first arrived, I filled my days with work. As the year went on, I was able to return to the rhythm of working mostly during work hours, but I filled my free time with habits that were not serving me. Those habits were wasting two to four hours of my day (and I'll tell you all about them in the next three podcasts). But, you need a proactive plan when removing less useful habits from your life. My Pink slash pockets remind me to make time for hobbies and relationships that are important to me. When I looked at my Pink slash pockets in my Sunday Basket® the other day, I realized I had not changed them at all during the pandemic. I had pockets for travel and restaurant dates with Greg. I did not want the pandemic to interfere with these dreams and goals, so I kept them throughout all of 2020. As I look at the next 120 days (the first of my 3 new years in a calendar year), I will likely not be traveling or eating in a restaurant. My heart goes out to those industries and the very hard season they are still experiencing. I was resistant to changing my pink slash pockets, and that meant that I limited my own hobbies and interests to just jigsaw puzzles. I definitely enjoyed doing lots of puzzles, and do not plan to stop enjoying them in 2021. But, I do want to incorporate new pink slash pockets for myself. I am saving my former Pink slash pockets for now, but I am starting some new projects in the next 120 days. Listen in and I will share my new possibilities for my free time and self improvement projects for January through April of 2021. What do you want your first 120 days of 2021 to look like? Start to dream about the different ways you can possibly use your time, and when the time presents itself, you can jump into one of your possible projects! Mentioned in the episode: Launch Bundle with Binder

Blog post at organize365.com/podcast/content-consumption-teddy-roosevelt I am constantly consuming books, podcasts, webinars, and social media. These sources allow me to connect with people, ideas, and passions that I have, but to do so on my own time when I am ready for it. I love to learn and have an insatiable capacity for knowledge and learning. Because I follow my interests and seek out new things to learn, I constantly change what I am listening to. During the holidays this year, I am making an effort to provide lots of content for those in the audience who may be lonely or looking for a friend during this difficult year of the pandemic and social distancing. I will take you along with me, and I remember years that the holidays were difficult in my own life. I want to be there for you as much as I can this year. I often view Instagram stories as a virtual reality show with my own personal friends (even if the people I am following do not know me!). So many of you ask me about what books, podcasts, Netflix series, webinar, and social media I am reading and watching. The reason I do not answer is because it would take over half an hour each week just to explain what I am consuming this week. It is constantly changing, and a lot of it builds on things I have already learned and consumed. Also, I consume a lot of content. This week, I am sharing some of the tips from an article about President Teddy Roosevelt - another productivity nut! In 2019, Erin McCarthy published 13 Reading Tips from Theodore Roosevelt, and today I am sharing some of them with you, along with a few of my own thoughts about them. Listen in, and I will share what I listen, watch, and do around the house, and how I choose what to consume next!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Jennifer B. She lives with her husband, daughter, 2 cats, and 2 dogs. She also has a son who recently moved out and lives nearby. Jennifer says she decided to get organized when "autoimmune illness and spinal arthritis forced me to quit working as a veterinarian and left me with little to no energy and a lot of pain/depression. I could no longer keep up with the management of all the stuff and the people and the pets and the events. I felt like a failure. I needed less stuff, less stress and better systems to manage it all so I could stop being a victim of this disease and disorder." She started with listening to the podcast and slowly getting rid of the excess stuff in her home. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, I want to encourage you to embrace organizational math. With organization, you can move your life from reactive to proactive, but doing so takes focus and determination. First, we change your mental model, and then you layer on the practical and physical skills. I was a middle school math teacher, and I share how I apply the same benefits of basic math skills to your transformational journey into organization. For any of you who are math phobic, I promise we will only talk about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Addition When you decide to get organized, the first thing you will want to do is to add a new habit into your life routine. Habits require focused efforts to ensure their successful adoption. When we want to improve our lives, we often try to add many new habits all at one. However, being able to cement a new habit into your routine usually requires about 120 days, but if you tackle fewer goals more effectively you will ensure achieving a lasting change. Spoiler alert: the first habit to add when working towards organization is the Sunday Basket®. Subtraction When you think about applying subtraction to organization, it is the first step we take in the 100 Day Home Organization Program - decluttering. Decluttering naturally starts with removing excess physical objects from your home - things you no longer need, want, use, or have space for. After that, you can gain further space from subtracting obligations, negative people, negative thoughts, and inefficiencies from your life. Multiplication This is where organizational math begins to gain major power. Organization always gives you more time. When you start with gaining extra time planning your week and task stacking by using your Sunday Basket® each week, you will gain time to work through the 100 Day Home Organization Program. Then, as you gain control of your home and paper, you can tackle your paper binders, kids rooms, and photos. Moving through decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity helps you to make space for what you are uniquely created to do. Division This is the most powerful part of organizational math. With your increased ability to focus as the result of your organizing, you can now divide time into fewer but more powerful roles in your life. When you get to this stage of your transformational journey - you will divide your time into three major baskets: your Friday Workbox for the work you are uniquely created to do, your Sunday Basket® to manage all of your household obligations and to-dos, and your passion projects (hobbies and personal satisfaction). This is when Planning Day and time blocking your calendar powers up your life and your capacity. As you move along Maslow's Hierarchy, keep working on learning your organizational math skills and adding on new ones as you continue along your transformational journey!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I share my conversation with Sara P. She lives with her husband of 9 years, son who is 6.5. and daughter who just turned 5. She started with the Sunday Basket® and said: "I was sick of getting irritated and cranky when I got home from traveling to see papers everywhere. I needed a paper system before the next traveling contract started." She's had great success in changing so many of her mindsets and household systems. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

The Organize 365 Mission, Vision, and Values. I will also be sharing our Vivid Vision for the next 3 years! Our Mission Organize 365® helps busy women, in all phases of life, learn the skill of home and paper organization in one year with functional organizing systems that work. By acquiring these skills, women are free to pursue their passions and gift the world with their unique, God-given talent. Back in Spring 2017, I started to realize that Organize 365 was becoming bigger than me. I needed to build a team to see my vision for the future of the company materialize. I hired 7 people in 7 weeks, and we began to work towards the 3 year goals I set back then. In those three years, we have created and sold a physical Sunday Basket®, binders, and a traditionally published book The Paper Solution. The mission statement I wrote back in 2017 is still the foundation of the service we provide today, though it has been expanded a bit over the years. In the podcast, I share my mission, vision, and values with you directly. We have achieved all of the practical, actionable goals I set back in 2017, and today I am sharing where I see Organize 365 going over the next three years. I want you to know exactly how we will be improving the customer journey, how we will continue to refine and add value to the lifetime programs you have already purchased, and the new content we will be creating to continue to help you achieve home and paper organization. I have always envisioned Organize 365 as an educational and transformational company. You come to Organize 365 when you need to learn how to get organized. As your teacher, I can ensure that you can really truly learn the skill of getting organized, reduce the number of hours it takes to organize and maintain your home, and have your house be a haven that does not talk back to you, so you are free to get out there and do what you are uniquely created to do. I look forward to helping YOU get organized!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I talk with Stephanie S. She lives with her husband, her mother, and 5 kids. She shares how her husband now is working on projects that have been on hold for over 3 years! Together they balance a family, a kinship placement, homeschooling, and the rest of family life. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Take Control of Your Thoughts Today, I want to talk with you about metacognition (thinking about your thinking) and how that helps you to take control of your thoughts. It really is a cognitive choice to see the positive in every situation. I start by sharing a letter from a member of the Organize 365 community who is struggling with her negative thoughts about the could have, should have, and would have things that she missed out on before having a functioning Sunday Basket®. From the many of you who have reached out, I know she is not alone in struggling with giving herself grace and celebrating progress (not demanding perfection). In the podcast, I will share with you some experiences in my own home and family that could definitely have been seen through a negative light. However, I share with you how I practice thinking about the good even in these challenges and sometimes even disappointing events. I am giving you concrete examples of how I choose to see the positive side of whatever life brings my way. Shifting your mindset in this way requires practice and you will not always get it right. I even share how I had some (brief) tantrums when things did not go as planned, but how I was able to practice taking control of my thoughts and reframing what was happening in my life. I want to help you learn to become a more positive, proactive person. I want you to move towards the future you dream of for yourself and your family. The future that will have will be the result of your design. Adjust your mindset so you can see what you want for your own future, and then we will work together to transform your life and make it happen.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I talk with Sarah T about how her life has been transformed and how she is learning to identify as an organized person. Sarah has a full house with her husband, 10 year old daughter, 8 year old son, 5 year old son, 2 dogs, and some other small animals. We talk about how she has adopted multiple systems to stay organized while working and schooling from home and getting a new dog in 2020! Listen in to hear how she organizes her clothing in a way that works perfectly for her! (#permissiongranted to do what works in your home and family!!!) I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

This episode, Understanding Inventory at Home, is directly related to Episodes 361 and 362 on the different kinds of work. I am sharing some of my thoughts about analyzing how we use the principles we use to run a business and relate them to how we run our households. I think this is super useful because it allows us to take the emotion out of our thinking, and to realize that there is work to be done. Our work will never be done - at work or at home. Once we recognize that, it reduces our stress. We can then conscientiously pace ourselves to prioritize what is truly important and urgent. Because of the COVID pandemic, we are home more and we are using our homes differently than before. This means that the nature of our work and our homes is changing. We are now keeping a larger stockpile of many home goods (toilet paper anyone?). My previous productivity advice to outsource, hire help, or automate things is not always available or economically feasible anymore. Let's start over and look at the home through a different lens. I want us to think about our household inventory in terms of time, money, and physical items inside our homes. In the podcast, I share with you some business terms, and then apply them to our homes and lives. Bottom line: The goal of living an organized and productive life is to achieve as many goals as possible using the least amount of time and energy. Then, you can use the remaining time, energy, and money to do what you are uniquely created to do. Right now, I am looking at the inventory we keep in our house. Is it the right amount? Is it in the right location? And, I think the key question is: how many of those to do list items and goals are even necessary at all? Listen in and I'll explain how our inventory continues to change (and what I predict will happen after the pandemic is finally gone). I even include some of the ways I am thinking about inventory inside my own home and family. Vocabulary Lesson (based on The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford): Throughput Business - the rate at which the systems generate money through sales Household - the number of to do and goal items you can accomplish (per day) Inventory Business - all the money the system has invested in things it intends to sell Household - all of the items the home has that it intends to turn into to do items or goals Operational Expenses Business - all the money the system spends on turning inventory into throughput Household - all the time and energy we spend turning inventory into finished to dos or goals

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/ Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, our transformation will focus on being able to see the positive and the good that is happening in every single situation. 2020 has been a challenge in so many ways. I definitely do not want to repeat 2020 in any way. However, I would love to give you a perspective shift and help you to see all of the wonderful things and blessings we have had in 2020. Today, I want to share some of the blessings that have been experienced by the Organize 365 community in this crazy, unprecedented, extraordinary year.

This week, we are continuing to look at the different kinds of work. Having labels for things like types of work allows us to see things differently and sometimes leads to better communication. Prior to founding Organize 365, my entire life was reactive. Everyone else got to tell me what to do - the economy, my family, my stuff. I just kept reacting to what was happening in my environment. In 2011, I drew a line in the sand. Sink or swim, I am in charge of my life from here on out. I started by taking care of my home and began proactively attacking my life. Unless you actively decide to do planned work and work to create a life where the majority of your work is planned, you will remain in firefighting mode and continue to be reactive. Until I read The Phoenix Project, I did not even have a mindset for types of work like this. I did not realize the two other kinds of work we are talking about today were a thing that existed. Last week, we explored proactive and reactive types of work. Today, we add in maintenance and change orders. Work: Maintenance - maintenance is the repeating tasks that result in the care and upkeep of your home and life. Many people ask Organize 365 for a cleaning checklist or a home maintenance checklist. There are tons of them on Pinterest. However, if you are using the internet for a list consider how often you need to do the tasks. Are you sure everything you are doing on your checklist needs to be done (at all) or needs to be done as often as you are doing it? Your standard and comfort level is unique to you. Maintain at the level at which you want to maintain your home. Make a list of the tasks you want to be done - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly timeline. Make sure that the frequency you assign each task matches with the home you want to have. Work: Change Orders - anytime things change, it creates work. When a person, assignment, or locations changes, you need to think through the new situation, and you need to do the work to make the change happen. Change is part of life - try not to add a lot of drama. Pivot, adjust, and keep making progress. Often, these kinds of change orders are reactive. Tip! With meetings, book 5-30 minutes after them for your change order work meeting. Follow up as immediately as possible - adjust the agenda (maintenance), and then get your to do items into your Sunday Basket or Friday Box, make decisions, give approvals, or adjust deadlines. At home, you may need to adjust to new dietary requirements or adjust for your energy level or adjust to someone else (sick kid, spouse stuck late at work, etc.). I have learned to proactively adjust my plans based on my energy levels. As I analyze my own patterns, I have learned that I need to have a certain kind of energy in order to be effective at content creation - writing books or recording podcasts. Other kinds of work I can do no matter what my energy level is at a given moment. I adjust my schedule each evening for the next day based on my energy level. I am giving you permission to make your own maintenance checklists and your own change orders. Just because we have work to do in our own homes, does not mean that we need to do it at a certain time or in a certain order or on a certain day. I give you permission to loosen the standards you have set for yourself that are so high. They may be robbing you of your joy. Do what is right for you. Try it without worrying. There is no failure, it is just an experiment.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I am answering a listener request to do a virtual organizing session on the podcast. Betsy reached out and requested my assistance to help her tackle the 100 Day Home Organization Program. She had already purchased a membership, but is trying to balance kids at home, multiple part time jobs, and ADHD in the midst of our current global pandemic. Together, we rethink how she can participate in the 100 Days in this challenging season. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket ® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

I have recently been enjoying parable based books to learn new things and to gain confidence that my own analysis and plans are "right" in the world of business.Reading a fictionalized version of important information helps me to apply learning and see nuances rather than just read dry facts. Recently, I listened to The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim and learned how they describe four different kinds of work. In this podcast, I will introduce you to the first two kinds of work. I then also share my thinking about how these kinds of work are also present in our home and household lives. By thinking about these kinds of work, we can get better work patterns and be more effective in the work we do. Constraints - constraints are limits that are difficult or impossible to change - in this episode, I give examples of time, money, and space. When we do not have enough of these things, it can be a limit on our organization and productivity, and changing our situation can require a major effort. Bottlenecks - are problems that can be analyzed and solved - in this episode, I give examples of time, money, and space. I explain how we are not using what we have effectively. It is vital to discern whether you are facing a constraint or a bottleneck - many times there are effective changes you can make. Work: Firefighting - reactive work that has deadlines, stress, or feels like a crisis. This work shows up unexpectedly and causes us to pivot, iterate, and adapt rapidly. In the home, the Sunday Basket® contains and then puts out fires. Firefighting is reactive by its very nature. Work: Planned Work - Planned work is proactive. When you plan your work, you use your time, money, and space more effectively. Organize 365 members accomplish large goals without stress, overwork, or being hurried. The 100 Day Home Organization Program focuses on planned work. Each day is planned out for you and you make progress in 15 minute chunks. Try it! For the next 10 days, every evening I want you to write out your plan for the next day in the order you will accomplish your tasks on a notecard. Write down your appointments, any household tasks you need to accomplish (pick up a prescription or clean the oven or do laundry). When you write out a plan for your day in order, you can see if you days are smoother. Bonus: the evening before, also add to the index card what clothing you will wear and write down what you will eat. Spoiler alert - there are no perfect days and no perfect plans! The goal is to move from reactive to proactive. You can learn more about using notecards in Episode 310: Ditch Your To Do List with Notecards. Listen in next week for the other two kinds of work! Books mentioned in this episode (affiliate links): Traction - Gino Wickman Lisa's YouTube Review Get a Grip - Gino Wickman and Mike Paton The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford The Goal - Eliyahu Goldratt

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/ Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! Today's Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Stephanie Fowler of Austin|Fowler: Chic Bags That Simplify Your Life on the Go. We talk about how she has progressed in her own organizing transformational journey and now has time to create and run her own company. I know many of you are either ready to take this next step, or are dreaming of the day when you can do what you are uniquely created to do, and I want to share this conversation with you. She and her husband have 4 kids at home and she runs her business! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!