Organize 365 Podcast

I want to end this series by talking about how I'm planning for the next trimester and beyond and what is different now than what I was living with before I started this journey. The beginning of this journey started with trying to get naps in, still working a bit on days that I planned to do school, but it has moved to no naps and no work on Mondays and Thursdays. Looking at my past trimester will help me to better plan my next trimester. This has been such a joy being able to verbally process this change with you. Whenever you take on something new, you are changing your identity, adding to the person you already are and the person you are going to become. I have recently gotten to the point where I identify as a PhD student and that I am thinking what it will be like when I am actually Dr. Woodruff. That was the first time I said that out loud! Join me thinking about what it is going to be like when I finish this PhD journey. What journey are you on that you can imagine where you will be at the completion of that journey? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

There are times when getting organized is going to be easier. I call these Golden Windows. Some Golden Windows are given to all of us - like January (new year), spring and fall. The new year is all about starting the year off with a fresh start and achieving new goals. Spring and fall are both times of the year when there are big season shifts and you get a burst of energy. The spring energy lends itself well to planning and the fall energy lends itself well to productivity. Common Golden Windows include: Expecting a child Moving or selling your home When your youngest child starts school When your youngest child starts middle school When your youngest child starts driving Milestone birthdays If you want to hear a more in depth definition of Golden Windows, listen to this podcast. Today's episode is going to focus on a question I get a lot - how long do Golden Windows last? This depends on the type of Golden Window you're experiencing. There are long and short Golden Windows. A long Golden Window is something you can anticipate. A short Golden Window is one where you don't realize you're in a Golden Window until you're already in it. In a short Golden Window, you don't get to plan ahead so the energy fizzles out fast. An example of a long Golden Window could be pregnancy. You know you are going to have a baby so you have months and months to plan, re-organize, nest and prepare. An example of a short Golden Window could be adoption. When we adopted Joey, we got a call at 5 pm and by 7 pm we had a baby! Each Golden Window, no matter whether it is short or long, is an opportunity not to be overlooked! And while the length of time that Golden Window will be open for you depends on a lot of factors (outside of your control) there are certain things you can do to get the most out of it. Here are my three recommendations for making the most of a Golden Window: Anticipate Optimize Extend Understanding your Golden Windows allows you to get so much more out of these amazing bursts of energy. Listen in to find out how to anticipate, optimize and extend your Golden Windows for maximum impact. EPISODE RESOURCES: Golden Windows Podcast Organize 365® Home Planning Day The Productive Home Solution® Complete Home Organization Bundle Embrace - Self-Guide Retreat - now available on-demand Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Pamela A. to discuss her organizing journey and transformation. Pamela spent many years looking for her solutions to get herself and her home organized. With two small boys and a husband, she was on an endless search for organizing solutions. She found the Organize 365® Podcast through a Google search. She was hooked and binged all the old episodes while driving to and from work. That's SO many episodes. If you are also new around here - I highly recommend using our Organize 365® Podcast Playlists to find what you're looking for. Flash forward to today - Pamela's boys are now 27 and 33 years old. Pamela works full-time at a hospital. She has been living in the same house for the past 29 years (similar to me). There are upsides and downsides of staying in the same house for so long. When you move, it forces you to make decisions about your stuff. Pamela and I discuss that over the years she has accumulated a lot of stuff - that's not hers. Pamela's house is home to all her sons' stuff, her grandparents' stuff and now her own mother's belongings as well. It's a lot. Pamela watched the video I made where I show the process of organizing a storage room and she said she's going to need a dumpster like we used in this video. Watch it for free. Listen in to this interview to hear our in-depth conversation about: Why do we keep all of this stuff? How much should we realistically be keeping of things like children's artwork, books, American Girls, Legos, etc? How to organize a storage room and how long will it stay organized? Why we use our basements and storage rooms for delayed decision making and how to avoid this in the future. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Process of Organizing Your Storage Space Movie The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution™ 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Proactive versus Reactive Listen in to how I map out someone going from a completely reactive life to a proactive one. Since I don't have a lot of margin in my life right now, there are things I used to do regularly that I'm unable to do. I now have a 2-week break from school and I will be sharing how I plan to continue my proactive living without the additional margin in my life. At first I thought I would take the additional time off from school and put it to working more, but SURPRISE, I have decided to take some additional time off from work to do more personal and family related things. I want to have the flexibility to do whatever my energy is in allowing myself the freedom to do all these things in whatever order and be even better prepared for my next school semester. Here are some of the things I plan to take care of during my break: Reorganize the storage rooms Clean out the family room and toys Move into outside living Personal organizing - closet, bathroom, purse, car, supplements, and personal care Stock the house for the next 4 months Deep cleaning Catching up on podcasts Listen to audiobooks Sunday Basket® deep dive Binder updates Photo printing Puzzles and TV watching with Greg Fun family outings I am in a season where I am running really fast and I love it! What season are you in and how are you planning for these areas of your life? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This episode answers a question I get a lot. How do you know when you are organized? What does it mean to be fully organized? Does anyone ever feel finished? Is there an organization finish line? Let's get into it! First, you're going to want to follow along with the Organize 365® Research - get a FREE copy of our newly released research magazine here. Our most recent research study aimed to answer these questions about what it means to be organized and where the finish line might be. In order to do this, we broke organization up into the four categories we defined - personal, storage, family & communal spaces and paper. This allowed us to zero in on different areas and give people an opportunity to rank if they felt organized in any of these areas of their lives. 15% of respondents felt they were personally organized 14% of respondents felt that their storage rooms were organized 18% of respondents felt that their paper was organized 13% of respondents felt that their family & communal spaces were organized This is a huge problem because our research has already revealed that 87% of Americans believe organization is a learnable skill. So the majority of people believe this to be learnable, but yet they have not achieved it. My concern is that people start to think they are the problem. When in fact, the real problem is that we don't have a good way to learn the skill of organization or know when you've accomplished it. Listen in to hear more about how Swiss Cheese Organizing is only exacerbating the problem. Which leads to one of the most important points of this podcast: The order in which you attack organizing your home is MORE important than the amount you get done in any one area. Learning to be organized and becoming organized is a commitment. Just like any other new skill or lifestyle choice you may make - getting healthier, getting out of debt, getting a degree. It's going to take time. Probably eighteen months to three years. Once you understand that it is going to take time - there's a relief in that. A release of pressure. Let go of the idea that you can get this done in a weekend. That if you don't instantly start feeling and operating more organized, you've failed. You cannot get a transformation overnight or in the nooks and crannies of your everyday life. This is a commitment. But here's the really important thing to remember - in three of the four areas of organization we have defined (personal, storage and paper), once you get these areas organized they will stay organized for a long time. Today's episode includes approximate timelines for each area and tips for maintaining them once they are organized. There is so much organization goodness in this podcast and I want you to take from this that there is no one finish line for organization. There really are four finish lines, but also we are going for excellence not perfection. Create your own benchmarks and allow yourself the time you need to make this transformation and learn this skill. EPISODE RESOURCES: The State of Home Organization Research Magazine - my free gift to you! Watch me organize Michelle's Storage Room Excellence vs. Perfection in Home Mangement The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ Course + Planning Day Home ALL IN Bundle Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Today I'm interviewing Lindsey S. She's a high school special education teacher that found me through my podcast with Angela Watson. What's so interesting about this interview is that Lindsey S. was already living an organized life when she found Organize 365®. But her life was speeding up and she had the wherewithal to know she had to implement some new organizational systems and skills if she was going to keep up. She lives with her husband, twin 5 year old daughters, and 9 year old daughter. Lindsey holds nothing back in the hopes that her story will help others. One of her daughters has a learning disability and one has autism. Her openness in sharing her journey advocating for her children is admirable. Even as a special education teacher of 12 years (knowing the ins and outs of the systems in place), she still needed a system for organizing and presenting her documentation for each of her daughters. She uses the Warrior MAMA Binder! We talk about parent intuition and observation which is something I've always known (anecdotally) is a thing. But I'm learning more and more about it in my PhD program. Lindsey has thoughts on this also! Switching topics to how Lindsey organizes herself and her household - you have to hear how Lindsey is "chunking" out her Sunday Basket® time! If you are in a busy season of life and can't seem to find the time to do your Sunday Basket®, this podcast is for you! I am floored to find out Lindsey also has Sunday Baskets® for each of her girls! She walks me through how these are set up and it is absolutely genius! She gave me some ideas to implement in my own life with my daughter. Then, she walks us through her Friday Workbox® which has been amazing for her since she has so much administrative work that she's been able to make visible (and pretty) with a Friday Workbox®. The Friday Workbox® helps her easily glide through her day. It's given her more capacity and time. How is Lindsey using the time she's unlocked through implementing Organize 365® systems and courses? Listen in to find out! EPISODE RESOURCES: Organize 365® Warrior Mama Binder The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution™ 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

We are nearing the end of my first trimester and I am now in the mindset to be successful in this 4 year journey. In this podcast, I'm talking to you about planning. Processing this journey, I am a whole to part learner, looking at the end of the journey to understand what I will need to move through this journey. I am spending time attending webinars and meetings finding out more about the field I am studying and what else I may want to focus on to further the impact I could have. Once you make a decision, it is not set in stone; you can re-decide, modify, and make changes. As I move forward, I will continue to re-evaluate and plan my PhD experience. Planning for me is the key to not slip back into a reactive life, but to continually be looking at how I am using my days, weeks, months, trimesters, and the next 4 years, for the most impact possible; for myself personally, for my company, and for the people I am doing the research for. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I used to think that once my kids got older that summer wouldn't be so much of a challenge. Wrong. Adults get summers, too. Have you heard motivation coaches say "you only have so many summers left" OR "you only have so many summers left with your kids?" It may sound cliche, but it's true! When you put it in this context, it becomes very clear that you should absolutely prioritize your summer experiences! In today's podcast, I have some questions for you about your summer plans! We break it all down and I'm giving you my tips for planning your summer! It can be whatever you want it to be! Questions to ask yourself: What are your summer traditions? When you think about summer, what do you think about? What are things you do in the summer season exclusively? What have you done in the past that you want to repeat this summer? What is something new you want to do this summer? Are there any big milestones or birthdays or events that will be happening over summer? You MUST plan your seasons. There are natural points throughout the year to do this. Listen to this podcast about what I call Golden Windows to learn more. Here's why this is important - it's natural to be reactive at home. The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day trains you how to plan and proactively prepare for all the foreseeable stuff. It's not enough to just think about or want it - you have to make a plan for it or it won't happen. Planning Day helps you understand the cycles and seasons. You learn to create plans for how you will use your home, what your schedule and capacity will look like during that season and how to tap into energy for optimum success. Planning Day is part of the Organize 365® courses that make the invisible work visible so you aren't in reactive mode and you can unlock your time for yourself, your family and community! What do you want your summer to look like? Join me on Planning Day and let's put thought and planning into making your summer amazing. It's your turn to plan and I'm so excited to be your teacher! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ Course + Planning Day Home ALL IN Bundle Embrace - Self-Guide Retreat - now available on-demand Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! You are in for a treat because in this episode we meet Deanne. She found Organize 365® through the book "How ADHD Affects Home Organization." She's a mental health professional who was seeking resources for her clients, but also found the book to be helpful for her and she wanted to learn more about functional organization! Deanne lives with her husband, her 15 year old son and an 18 year old exchange student from Norway! She also has two older sons that have launched. Since Deanne is a mental health professional, we jump right into the connection between organization and mental health. How does organization impact our mental health? We speak anecdotally about the physiological and emotional distress that organization can cause. Deanne started her own functional organizing journey with The Sunday Basket®. It's a great place to start! She now has a Sunday Basket® she manages on her mom's behalf, a Friday Workbox® for her business and has gotten her oldest son using his own Sunday Basket®. Deanne plays many roles in life - she is a wife, mother, business owner, caregiver for her mother and I'm sure many other things. We get into what functional organization and systems like The Paper Solution® Binders can do for you as you are balancing these roles and having to advocate for others. As Deanne took on caregiving for her mom, she became the power of healthcare and power of attorney. She set up a Sunday Basket® for her and had to sort through a room's worth of paper on her mom's behalf. She has made it a point to set up her own binders. We discuss how doing our binders is (1) a gift we give to those that will one day have to advocate for us or settle our estates and (2) a project that doesn't need to be perfect. If you are using The Paper Solution® Binders and they are at 80%, that is absolutely an A+ and will save you and your family time in the future. We discuss the process of implementing the Sunday Basket® and our learning styles. How did you implement your Sunday Basket®? Did you do it all at once or one step at a time? Deanne waited until she had a big chunk of time and could get it all set up the way she wanted. She's now well on her way. This interview covers so many topics, tips and positive organizing affirmations! EPISODE RESOURCES: How ADHD Affects Home Organization The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Paper Solution® Binders Additional Resources for Getting Organized with ADHD 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Why is it that when we decide to undertake something that's going to make a difference in our lives, we still try to cut corners? When I decided to go back to school in pursuit of a PhD, my mindset was initially to make the supplies and things I already had work for my school venture. But when I've needed something, I've found it's just better to go ahead and get it. Some of these supplies help me move forward faster, be more productive and/or just be able to get my assignments and reading done in different places. Do you have the supplies or tools you need where you need them? It makes all the difference. Listen to my story about scissors to find out why. Here are some of my favorite supplies mentioned in today's podcast: Fiskars scissors Shokz Wireless Open-Ear Bluetooth Headset Organize 365® 2.0 Highlighters Organize 365® 2.0 Productivity Tabs Organize 365® Slash Pockets Jergens Cherry Almond Lotion Don't live in frustration over not having what you need where you need it. The time and sanity savings will offset the investment. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today's podcast, we will discuss how you can get your home organized when you are never home. There are different seasons in our lives in which we will need to change our organization. How does your home change for different seasons of your life? The seasons I've identified that require the most functional organizing changes are: Children 0-5 years old Children in middle and high school Empty nesting Caregiving for a loved one Settling an estate Welcoming another generation of your family into your home - listen to this podcast on multigenerational living There will be seasons of life when you will not be home much. When I started podcasting in 2012, I was going through a season of life where I was never home. My children were in two different schools that both required me to drive for hours a day. Looking back now, I can safely say it's a season. So if you are in a season where you are never home, just know that this is a season. Some seasons feel never ending, but all of these seasons do end. I encourage you to take from these seasons the best that they have to offer knowing that one day you will be on the other side. Why do we want to get our home organized when we are never home anyway? Organizing gives us a sense of control. In a season where you are already pressed for time and feeling a loss of control, you may be wanting to feel organized, proactive and productive when you are at home. Where to begin? At Organize 365®, we've identified four areas in every home that need to be organized in different ways and at different times and intervals. These are personal, family and communal, storage and paper. During a season where you aren't home very much, I'm going to recommend you focus on personal organization. Start with your car. I've always defined personal organization as your closet, bathroom, bedroom and car! You need to think about your car completely differently during this season. It's now an extension of your home. In 2012, I turned my car into my portable house! The trunk was my "car closet" and the front area was my personal cockpit. I set up my car to serve my changing needs. Your secondary focus should be just your personal spaces (as time permits at home). Focus on your bathroom, closet and your side of the bedroom. Do quick tasks that you can complete in 15-20 minutes. Write everything down. If you are away from home as you are listening to this podcast, something you can start doing today, from anywhere, is to start writing everything down. Everywhere you have a thought, you should have a notepad to write it down. Take your Sunday Basket® with you. You need your Sunday Basket® more than ever during this season, but you may want your portable Sunday Basket® to be your primary Sunday Basket®. When you are out and about throughout the day, you will get 15 minute breaks in the action. Look at your portable Sunday Basket® and think "what's one thing I can get done in this 15 minute pocket of time?" I processed through my Sunday Basket® in waiting rooms, in my car while waiting for my kids and so many other places. It won't be perfect. Focus on the moments. Build the future life and future person as you go. Support yourself along the way with personal organization that works for you. And bring your Sunday Basket® along for the ride. EPISODE RESOURCES: Portable Sunday Basket® with Pencil Pouch The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Organizing Personal Spaces Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Meet Marie. This podcast has been a long time in the making. Marie started listening to the Organize 365® podcast back in 2015! She's had all the versions of The Sunday Basket®. Marie lives with her husband of 23 years, 18 year old daughter and 15 year old twin daughters. She also has a 20 year old son who lives in an apartment nearby. Marie is experiencing the teenage years with her children and is wondering why she still doesn't feel as organized as she would like and where all of her time is going. This is an all too common theme. I've seen it time and time again. You think because your kids are now teenagers that you should be organized. Your kids are much more independent than they were so surely you should be getting your time back. Not so fast. This is a transitional time period where your kids may act and speak as though they are independent - they have independent thoughts, make decisions and it's a really fun season of parenting. But you are still very much in active parenting. Whenever you're in a transitional period of time, there's a push and pull between the now and the soon-to-be. You are still very much in the current season, but starting to wonder what you are going to do next and wanting to get into the next season. You're in the inbetween. Embrace it. What's one more experience you want to have during this season? What's one more memory you want to make? If you've ever wanted to hear what goes on during a virtual organizing session - this is it! This interview quickly turns into a session similar to what I used to have with my clients when I did professional organizing. Want to try it for yourself? Ask yourself: What lights you up? What don't you like to do? What are your family/household members into? How organized do you want to be? What really needs to happen in the next 12-18 months or in the season you're in? When you think about having your home organized, what does that look like for you? Have you implemented The Sunday Basket® and how is that working for you? Tune in as we also discuss what it truly means to save five hours with The Sunday Basket® and leadership versus management! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Paper Solution® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

When someone tells you what to do and they have experience - you should probably listen to them. I was told by someone in the know to get my eyes checked before I started my PhD. I didn't. I felt confident that my over-the-counter readers were just fine. Well, here I am in Week 11 with new glasses! In this episode, I share two things I learned this week through my PhD journey: You need to have the right tools when you are doing anything. A PhD is so reading intensive that you do need to get your eyes checked! Speed reading allows you to take in a lot of information, but details matter in the PhD program. I started using a ruler to read and highlight! EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This podcast episode will give you tactical and functional organizing tips for multigenerational living. If you are in a multigenerational home or considering this option - this is for you! Multigenerational living is near and dear to my heart these days. I am cherishing this life phase that I'm currently in - sharing my home with Abby (my daughter) and Grayson (my grandson). I know many members of the Organize 365® team and community are also living in multi-generational homes. I realize that there are different circumstances that may lead you to be in a multigenerational home. The three main situations that I've seen for multigenerational living are: Caregiving. If you are currently living the "sandwich" generation lifestyle - taking care of your parents while also trying to keep up with your adult children - I have a BIG HUG for you! Being a caregiver can be extremely isolating. I've been there and it can be a long road. Consciously merging households. This seems to be a more recent phenomenon (in the United States at least). Families consciously decide to live together because they enjoy each other, it makes economic sense and they can share in the work and experience running the household together. Life circumstances. Sometimes it's not a conscious decision but life circumstances create a situation where multigenerational living is necessary. Regardless of how you ended up in a multigenerational home, here are my top organizational tips for making the most of the situation: Be purposeful about transitioning the home to support a multigenerational home. Ensure that everyone (INCLUDING YOU) have your own space. Everyone needs their own space. In my home, this means that Abby and Grayson have the basement apartment to themselves. They get to decide what they want down there, what it looks like and they are responsible for everything in this space. I also have my own spaces in the house that are just mine. Create rules for communal spaces, but be willing to renegotiate and evolve those rules as the situation changes. For example, the communal spaces in our home are the living room, kitchen, laundry room and garage. These areas get to be cleaned and organized to my standards. There are rules for how we all operate and take care of these areas. Laundry Days - This one has been great in our household. We have designated laundry days to ensure that we can get laundry done for ourselves on the days that our most convenient for all of us in the household. Don't feel guilty to say what you want in terms of the communal spaces. Organizing the kitchen and food in a multigenerational home - start by considering the stages of life each of you are in. In my household we have the toddler phase, Greg and I are working away from home and Abby is a stay at home mom. Our kitchen is supporting three very different phases of life. We have created dedicated space for everyone's food and Grayson's adorable toddler eating utensils, plates and sippy cups. How I've maintained my cleanliness standards in communal spaces: Baby Gates - Living Room, Dining Room and Laundry - Grayson doesn't go in those areas so they stay picked up. Weekly Cleaning - We have a weekly cleaner come and every Thursday we know the house is being cleaned and everything needs to be picked up. Minimalized toys in the family room - Constantly decluttering and rotating the toys in the family room - not minimalist but definitely minimized. When you live in a multigenerational home, there will be some frustrations. If you are feeling frustrated (and I've been there), try to do a mindset swap and remember the many blessings that come with this experience. Your home needs to be organized differently and you need to establish different rules for yourself for all the phases of life you go through and different people or peoples living in your home with you. Top 2 takeaways for living in a multigenerational home: Pick your battles. Create rules. See the episode resources below for your supply list to help keep each member of the family and the entire household running smoothly. You'll be sharing a lot, but you don't need to share your own brain! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® - one for each adult in your home Household Reference Binder - one per house Medical Binder - each family member needs their own Financial Binder - each family unit or couple has their own Household Operations Binder - you would have this for each family unit - like teachers at a school - they would each have their own lessons. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! This week, I am sharing my interview with Christine M. She lives with her husband and well loved cat in Ontario, Canada! When Christine M. experienced three moves in a short period of time, she learned the skill of organization through Organize 365®. Christine is a former teacher turned grad student so we had a lot to talk about. Christine found her way to Organize 365® through my friend and fellow podcaster, Angela Watson. She was going through teacher burn-out, something we have been hearing all about. I cannot tell you enough how much I appreciate teachers. If you are a teacher, this podcast is a hug from me to you - thank you for all that you do! Christine's interest in Organize 365® started through her Teacher Friday Workbox® which is now the Education Friday Workbox®. She wanted to implement systems into her teacher role to help her be more productive and purposeful with her time. Her organizational journey went into overdrive when she found that she and her husband would be moving across Canada to Ontario. She utilized Organize 365® Ten Steps to an Organized Move (which is available inside The Productive Home Solution™) to pull off the most organized move imaginable. Getting organized BEFORE you move is key. In the years that followed her move, she transformed into an even more organized person. We discuss the key principles and learning that she did to fully transform herself into a positive, productive and proactive person. She loves the idea that items in her home are auditioning for their place. Listen in to hear all about her journey and how she is now using her Education Friday Workbox® to organize her grad school journey! I love to hear how the Organize 365® products and courses evolve with your life. EPISODE RESOURCES: Education Friday Workbox® - organizational system designed for teachers The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® The Portable Sunday Sunday Basket® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I gave myself the gift of a mid-semester review and reset my PhD organization. It was the BEST gift. I've hit the halfway mark in my semester. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything and make sure I'm on target. Here's how I hit the reset button: Re-read the syllabus for each class (HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS) Compiled and organized all my notes for all my classes into a notebook by class Planned ahead for the second half of the semester by looking ahead and doing anything I could do to organize my remaining assignments and classes Our brain's desire organizational planning time. Are you giving yourself time to plan and organize your work, home and life? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Slash pockets The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Have you ever thought about how much your home is a business? Our homes are businesses. The entire US economy runs on the economy of your house. If the American family is doing well, the American economy is doing well. When I talk about our homes as businesses, I don't mean that you should be just going through the motions and checking boxes or anything even similar to that. In this episode, I share how you can use tools and systems (similar to what you would do at work) to gain a bigger impact and less stress at home. A business usually has a CEO and COO. Your home most likely does, too. Sometimes you may be acting as the CEO and COO, sometimes you may just have one of those roles. The CEO creates the strategy of the company, manages the capacity and resources, and plans for execution. Some of the things you may do as the CEO of your home are: During your weekly Sunday Basket® routine, you look at what constraints you have in the upcoming week, what needs to get done Planning your week and trimester in advance The COO plays a critical role in running the day-to-day actionables that will accomplish the strategy the CEO has created for the team. The key to success is that the CEO and COO are both operating proactively and strategically. Making choices about what to work on, how to spend time and money, and what experiences and impact they want to create within their household. In this episode, I deep dive into how The Friday Workbox® operates for your business and apply this to how the Sunday Basket® helps you run the business of home and family. I'd love to hear your feedback on this one! Do you see the parallels between running your home as a business? Come learn how to plan like the CEO of your home! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Today I'm excited to talk with fellow podcaster, Sarah Hart-Unger. Sarah hosts the podcast Best Laid Plans, co-hosts the podcast Best of Both Worlds with Laura Vanderkam, is the mother of three children, married to a surgeon, and works as pediatric endocrinologist! So, needless to say, she stays busy! Organization and planning are a big part of her ability to do so much and we will be talking about the systems she has in place. First things first, we talk about parenting! Sarah is experiencing a golden window because her youngest child just turned 5! For parents of children younger than 5, things are just changing so frequently every 6-8 weeks that it is hard to catch your breath in terms of getting organized. We discuss how when you go through different stages and phases of life, you learn how to use your organization and time management skills in different ways. Sarah is a big believer in functional organization. It doesn't have to be pretty, but it needs to work for you! She shares how she is ruthless about getting rid of things and enjoys knowing where things are. Organizing her time is one of her favorite things to do. Mine, too! We dig deep into how planning your home life by quarters just does not work. It creates weird cut-offs like July. Who wants to start a new plan in the middle of summer? You need to have your entire summer planned out. The quarters of the year aren't actually new energies. The Organize 365® approach to planning is by trimesters. Planning allows you to make room for your own explosive growth! We both discuss how during busy seasons of life, our respective calendars and planners bring us a sense of peace and allow us to have more capacity. Do you have a plan that you love to look at? That gives you peace, not stress? That creates calm in chaos? Do you have a plan for the upcoming trimester and summer season? Sarah also shares how she has organized her children. We discuss a very hot topic - how to organize kids' artwork! Check out the episode resources if you want to share the Kids Movie Sarah references with your kids as well! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® Lattice Binder for kid's artwork Organize 365® Kids Movie Learn more about Golden Windows and Season of Organizing Watch the video on YouTube to see the sneak peek of Lisa's Weekly Planning Sheet 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

There is administration time related to getting your PhD. The Sunday Basket® and the Business Friday Workbox® teaches you there are invisible tasks you do at home and work. Once these tasks are made visible, you can eliminate as many as possible. Mid-semester, I realized I need PhD administrative time. Listen in as I review what types of administrative tasks I have while working on my PhD. Planning my work Organizing my email Signing up for teacher office hours Cleaning up Zotero files Next week, I will share with you how I took a pause and reoriented myself. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Zotero Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are you playing Checkers or Chess? Of course, you are playing Checkers. We all are. But, some of us are playing (and winning) Chess, too! In today's episode, I breakdown how you can "play" the game of life better with an emphasis on strategy. As I breakdown the "game of life" in this episode, we discuss: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Marie Kondo's life with three kids Generational norms The strategy of living life with a planned approach Which leads us to the free Organize 365® blitzes. These blitzes were designed to help you get ahead. They may seem like "small wins" but they have a huge impact on how we look at our time in a more strategic (chess-like) way. These blitzes teach us how to incorporate forward planning into our game of life. In the next four months, you are going to experience Memorial Day, Mother's Day, tax day and the summer season. These things are coming whether you plan ahead or not. But, if you do join our blitzes and planning day, you'll be able to approach the next four months with a planned and strategic approach. This will allow you to enjoy summer experiences with your family, sign your kids up for their favorite camps, purchase plane tickets before they sell out and look forward to your summer. Playing Chess allows you to get out of the reactiveness of the Checkers game. Organize 365® Planning Days allow you to do the mental work ahead of time so you can enjoy the upcoming season. I hope you'll join me! EPISODE RESOURCES: Routine Reset Blitz Organize 365® Home Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! During this month we have been talking to women about how women in their 30s are getting it done. Stephanie represents women that are not working from home. She began her career as a corporate executive before she left to continue to grow the company she founded with her husband, Vince. She and Vince have 4 kids, 11, 9 (twins), and 6. She worked from home for the last couple of years, but got physical space last Spring and she is back working in an office. She enjoyed her time working from home, but realized she needed more thinking and planning time and has since moved into a physical office space. She moved to a condensed schedule, Monday to Thursday available for meetings and in the office with Fridays off, to give her the ability to have some parts of a stay-at-home mom. Never being able to fully work on just Austin Fowler, she has found time saving activities. Her time is very full with her own business and a family of 6 so it is important to her to plan and prepare for her weeks and weekends. She is very disciplined and uses her Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox® to plan while using her bags to pack and prepare. Listen in to find out what things work well for Stephanie and her family during this season of growing children and a growing business. EPISODE RESOURCES: AustinFowler.com Instagram @austinandfowler 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are we really talking about clothing again? What does this really have to do with getting a PhD anyway?! Organization unlocks our time and productivity unlocks our capacity. I'm using my PhD as the example for these stories, but everything I'm sharing with you is how I am taking past organizational strengths, learning, or habits that I have had or am developing now and how I'm refining those in order to get more time and have more capacity. The way in which we free up our time in order to be able to do the next thing, that's organization. As we organize, we create a habit. A habit is just doing the thing you've already organized without consciously thinking about it. In order to really get more time, you have to over analyze some basic habits to figure out if there is a more efficient way to do these things and somehow create this new habit and put it on autopilot so we don't have to even think about it. This brings us back to clothing! Listen in as we talk about how creating a uniform for the different hats you wear will help you to transition into the role that you're playing and mentally enter into that space. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

There is no such thing as perfection. There just isn't. Don't let social media fool you. What about those pictures you see as you're scrolling your phone? Those aren't real. Perfection isn't real. But how do we get our brain and subconscious mind to understand this? When you see me, you are getting the 100% real me. I don't use filters. As a matter of fact, I don't even know how to use filters. It's important for me to show you the real me. What you see is what you get. I am not a perfectionist. I am a woman of excellence. This episode is going to help you understand how you are also a person of excellence and what that means. Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do..therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit." The habits taught through the Organize 365® systems and courses lead us to be people of excellence. These same habits help us free our brains and time to do what we are uniquely created to do. Habits are so purposeful. Negative habits tend to happen naturally. But positive habits rarely happen naturally. I want you to think about your habits - are they helping you be a person of excellence? Are they allowing you the time you need to do what you are uniquely created to do? I want you to choose a life of excellence over perfectionism. Don't expect perfectionism from yourself or others. A person of excellence is able to focus on substance, richer conversations, better solutions and live a more productive life. A word of the wise, choosing not to be a perfectionist is not an excuse to be lazy. You still need to strive for excellence. This will look different depending on your phase of life and priorities. I want to leave you with three things in this episode: Perfectionism is not a thing. Excellence is a great middle ground for you to strive for. You will never be done working on yourself, learning, growing and creating the person you want to be. It's a journey. As you think about your journey, I want you to also think about your home and the three seasons per year within your home. You need different things in those seasons. A person of excellence is continually improving and evolving the way they organize and use their home and time. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ The Paper Solution® The Friday Workbox® Aristotle Quotes Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Welcome back Andrea to the podcast. Andrea, 37, is married to her husband, age 41 and together they have 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys ages 11, 8, 7, and 5. Listen in as we talk about how she stays organized in her 30's with a young family. Andrea discusses her focus of functional organizing for a family of six. We also get to hear how interesting her time and scheduling works, and what she does to make the different seasons of her life work within a schedule. We all know feeding a family can be challenging and the desire to make the right food choices is a priority. Andrea shows us her process of making food changes in her family when change doesn't come easy for anyone. Andrea mentions the quote "Build a life you don't need to escape from" and how she and her family have built that life where she feels energized and isn't looking for a vacation to bring her rest. She doesn't feel the need to take days off to recharge her batteries, because it seems to work itself into each and every day. EPISODE RESOURCES: AndreaDekker.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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Have you wondered why you don't seem to have enough time in your day? I use my Google calendar to organize my time, everything that would naturally occur in my life gets a time block on my calendar, including commute time. Then when I look at my week, I can play with those time blocks. Am I spending enough time in certain areas or too much time? I've been able to see all this time in my calendar and I've gotten better at estimating my time for my classes and assignments. This allows me to figure out where I have extra time and where I don't have enough time. Have you asked yourself, why don't I get everything done? Or do I have the capacity to take on something new? Start looking at the pockets of time on your calendar that do not have anything associated with. Document how you use that time for a week or two and then you know if you have time you can actually give to something new and maximize your productivity. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Google Calendar Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Let's break down one of the fastest spreading organizational news stories I've ever seen - Marie Kondo is admitting that her home is no longer tidy and she's embracing it! The news of Marie Kondo's house being no longer organized spread like wildfire. This was not an accident. Marie Kondo is a worldwide sensation. She did an amazing job marketing her book and herself. She's a renowned organizer and businesswoman. Here are some past episodes I've done on Marie Kondo: Why the Magic Art of Tidying Up Doesn't Work for American Women What Do You Do with Items that Don't Spark Joy? How Marie Kondo is the Atkins Diet of Organizing We all can feel better knowing that Marie Kondo is saying perfection does not exist. Although, if you have been following my podcast all this time, you know that I have always valued progress over perfection. In this episode, I take the conversation in the media about organization a step further. What does it mean to feel organized? Can you recognize and observe organization or is it a feeling? Is organization the ability to quickly take action? How do we know when we are organized or when we are no longer organized? Your home and your organizational systems should be a representation of YOU. What's important to you? What works for you? What doesn't work for you? I LOVE my home. I love how I decorated it. I love how I organized it. I love what I've saved over the years. And I want you to love your home also. I want you to love the stuff you are maintaining, dusting and living with. I want you to look forward to being at home, walking around your own home and loving the things you see on the walls, shelves, even inside your storage room. Organization and being organized is SO much more than minimalism. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ The Paper Solution® The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Meet Jamie and Jason Balmet in Oklahoma running a small business, raising 7 children, and homeschooling: 10 year old twin boys 7 year old twin boys 5 year old girl 2 year old boy 3 month old boy Jamie and Jason are currently in the accumulation phase and we talk today about how they handle this phase of life with home and work. We discussed how their housework is divided, they've got a great mix going on, and how the kids are involved in this. They have some great tips on how to get the kids involved at home. One of the tips for this was to talk a lot about their family vision and how that plays into giving responsibility to everyone in the family. Listen in as they tell us how their family began traveling full time to now putting down roots in Oklahoma. We also get to hear about how they organize things at work and home and how different their systems are; Jamie loves her paper and Jason is all about the digital side of things. Because their business blends with work deadlines plus having family time, the communication aspect is key for the two of them. Being honest with each other about their needs and their mental space is important to keeping things running smoothly. How have they gotten to this place in their lives? They are very clear on what their goals are. Working in the business and on the business and being purposeful and intentional with planning plays a large part in how they have been able to succeed. Tips from Jamie: Be clear on your vision What are your family values What are you saying yes to and what are you saying no to Planning meetings annually and quarterly about Business Homeschool Family Be realistic with your time EPISODE RESOURCES: eMyth by Michael E. Gerber The Productive Home Solution™ and Planning Day Finding Joy in Your Home Finding Joy in Your Home Podcast 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This week I am talking about how I organize my assignments. Some of the things I use are Organize 365® Slash Pockets that are colored red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. These slash pockets help you organize the basic tasks you do at home and at work inside of a Sunday Basket® or a Friday Workbox®. These organize the everyday events, not the projects. I am using colored slash pockets, productivity tabs, and highlighted documents to keep track of everything within my courses. Red: Research Lab Orange: Wednesday Class - Psych 501 Yellow: Thursday Class - Psych 502 The game changer for me was creating the excel spreadsheet with all assignments and reading ordered by due date and color coded. I cannot explain how much more grounded I felt when I could see in totality everything I needed to do inside of a 2-page spread. This gives me the extra buffer I need by allowing me to stay ahead. If you have different moving deadlines, moving pieces, or moving parts that need to be done over a period of time, it may be helpful to put all of those into one big document in order of when things need to happen, versus keeping things separate in separate categories of your life. What would happen if in very busy seasons of your life you would use this one big document to go by what is due next versus what role you are playing in your life? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Slash Pockets 1.0 Sunday Basket® Business Friday Workbox® Kolbe Organize 365® Productivity Tabs Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

When I started this podcast series looking at how I've used the Sunday Basket® over the years, I thought I'd be sharing with you the tactical details of how I use the Sunday Basket®. What I realized is that the Sunday Basket® is a habit. Like brushing your teeth, making the bed, getting ready in the morning. Things we didn't do at one point and eventually they become part of your everyday life and routines. And that's what the Sunday Basket® has become. It's part of my everyday routine. In this episode we are back in my present day life. My kids are now adulting. Their day to day needs are off my plate. I've outsourced a lot of the tasks that have to do with my home and I have a whole team at Organize 365®. Presently, my Sunday Basket® is running like a well-oiled machine. And it's serving its purpose for Grayson, my grandson, as well. I end up with lots of toys that need batteries on Sunday. I drop those in there throughout the week and all the incoming mail. My Portable Sunday Basket® goes back and forth between my home and my office. I have a slash pocket for calls that need to be made during business hours and things that can't be dealt with on Sundays. What has really increased over the years, and if you listened to the previous episodes in this series, you have probably noticed the evolution of my Friday Workbox®. I have multiple Friday Workboxes® and pretty much always have. I used to have Friday Workboxes® set-up for different income streams. Now I have Friday Workboxes® for departments, teams and initiatives within Organize 365®. But the biggest shift in my life right now is the transition I just made to becoming a student again. This was a big decision for me. And as I was trying to make the decision to take this leap, I asked myself "what if?" What if I do get my PhD? How will I feel? What if I don't do this? And I decided, definitively, that if I didn't say yes to this at this point in my life I would be disappointed. I would still want it four years from now. And this is the time to do it. To jump in with both feet and go for my dream of becoming a PhD. So now I want to ask you, what if? What if you had the real Sunday Basket® with the playbook, the properly color coded slash pockets? What if you had access to the Sunday Basket® Club every Sunday as your accountability and success partner? What if you came to Planning Days with me and truly planned out your goals, assessed your routines and created a plan for your upcoming trimester? What if you took the courses inside The Productive Home Solution™ and learned to be organized while getting your entire home organized? What if everything in your home had a place and you had more time? What if you had a Friday Workbox® and Friday Workbox® Planning Day to help structure your work and deliver on your projects with ease? What if you knew what you were uniquely created to do? Keep moving forward and keep making progress and thinking about what is possible. I can't wait to continue this series in five years. I'm excited about what's to come for me and Organize 365®! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® Portable Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ Home Planning Day Work Planning Day Embrace - Discover what you are uniquely created to do. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Listen in as Emily and I come back together for the final episode of our podcast series. The things we are talking about we regularly talk about privately, but we feel that what we are sharing is meant for more than just ourselves. People really don't talk about this: how you stay organized at home, how you survive hard things, how you transition through unexpected events. I am such a forward motion focused person, I'm always thinking about what is next. And this is what excites me and lights me up. We talk about what you are uniquely created to do. It is not necessarily ONE thing, it is always evolving, changing, and growing. The Organize 365® mission is to help you get organized so that you have more time so you can do what you are uniquely created to do. My only goal is to show you the invisible work that you're doing and you can decide if you want to continue doing it or not, organize it, habitualize it, or declutter it, so that you can get time to do what you are uniquely created to do. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Victim's Assistance in Akron 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

During week 4, we talked about how I think in color and how it helps me to learn things faster. When focusing on learning something new, being able to chunk the information into at least 4 color categories as I am learning is really helpful. I've learned how to add colors into writing my papers to help me remember which journals I am citing, which information is mine, and which information is from different authors. As I am going through this PhD podcast, I hope that learning how you organize in one phase of life can inform and help you in the next phase of life. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Zotero Organize 365® Research Podcast Organize 365® Research Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are you ready for the positive, productive and proactive Lisa to make her debut? Welcome to 2017! In this podcast, we explore the paradigm of personal and professional growth. By 2017, I was running my in-home professional organizing business. It was BOOMING. But I had this gut feeling that it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing. I was noticing that a lot of the women I was organizing were diagnosed or self-diagnosed with ADHD. I enjoyed what I was doing so much that I wanted to reach more people. I wanted to make a strategic pivot in my business so I could have a larger impact. During this period of my life, my Friday Workbox® took center stage. I went to an office supply store to get more slash pockets and found that they were no longer offering packs of solid colors - only the multi-colored packs. That's when I realized that I needed to manufacture these slash pockets and bring this all together so people could master these systems and save time. Talking through my ideas with my mom helped me think even beyond just manufacturing the slash pockets. She had me walk her through exactly how I would create a Sunday Basket® or Friday Workbox® if I were to create my own. And then she got to work with her sewing machine and the first Sunday Basket® prototype was born. Looking back, it was such an exciting time of growth for me - both personally and professionally. I knew I needed to become a different kind of company (beyond in-home professional organizing). I needed a team. For the first time ever I was starting to trust my own intuition as a business owner. This is when I started to make the leap into the business owner and CEO you see today. I hired my first coach. I needed to invest in myself to grow as a business owner. I knew that the cap to my business growth was me. I had to (and still do) grow for my business to grow. All those things that I did gave me the investment in myself that I needed to understand my worth and grow into the role I wanted for myself. It's okay for not every single thing I do in my business to be direct income generating. I wanted to create systems and processes that anyone in the world could get a Sunday Basket® to save 5 hours per week to use for The Productive Home Solution™ to unlock their time for what they were uniquely created to do. And that's what I've done. All of these organizing solutions and courses are available to you today because 2017 Lisa had a bigger vision for herself and for YOU! How do you want to change your future? Learning to be organized can get you there. The time I spent as a professional organizer was what helped me create the courses we now offer at Organize 365®. I saw how much organization had a larger impact on people's ability to achieve results. I share stories of this in this episode. What impact could living an organized life have on you? EPISODE RESOURCES: FREE Sunday Basket® Mini Course The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution™ 1.0 Slash Pockets 2.0 Slash Pockets Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! I'm excited to welcome back my sister, Emily Kelly, to the podcast for part 2 of 3 in this series. This has been much anticipated by the Organize 365® community and I was waiting for the perfect time for her to tell her story. In part one of this podcast series, Emily Kelly shares her experience for the last year. Today she is sharing how she has organized her personal and work life during this time. Listen to Emily as she describes how she is using her Sunday Basket®, Friday Workbox®, and her slash pockets to sync her bills, goals, and her calendar. Emily and I share what we looked like before slash pockets and binders while working together to settle our Dad's estate. I share my CliffsNotes™ on how we handled this important time in our lives. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Athena International 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

The way I see the world in color is helping me organize my PhD studies and the work I am doing in school. Being able to use color allows me to chunk the information I am learning and help me remember it better. Pink: For home it is anything related to your uniqueness and for work it is your ideas and marketing. Purple: For home it is anything related to household work and projects and for work it is the visible work and projects. Blue: For home it is anything related to your family and pets and for work it is your team and people. Green: For home and work it is anything related to money and your invisible work. I was able to learn how to do a literature review, how to do an annotated bibliography, and how to write a proposal for a conference using color for each of these key components. Whenever we talk about introductions it will be pink, whenever we talk about methods it will be blue, and whenever we talk about results it will be purple. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Research Podcast Organize 365® Research Organize 365® Business Friday Workbox® Organize 365® Sunday Basket® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

When we left off in the previous episode, I was in the pit of despair. I wish I could say I was out of it by 2012. Spoiler alert - not quite. But 2012 is when a monumental shift began to happen. I was 39 years old by this point. I quit my job. Our family was sinking into debt. Our kids medical needs were still high. I didn't even recognize my own house (it was a wreck). And my marriage was feeling the strain. My inherent organization ability had gotten me this far in life but now everything I knew about organization was not enough. I didn't have a playbook or framework for being the person I needed to be - hosting the holidays, having kids with busy schedules (and going to two different schools), and all the other positions I found myself filling. Which leads me to explore how we become disorganized. I think part of it is that we get to a point in our lives where we no longer have a story we are working towards. This episode is really important because when you find Organize 365®, you're likely a pretty organized person and looking for more tips and tricks to be even more productive. But more of us stumble across Organize 365® when they realize "I can no longer continue this way for the rest of my life, there has to be another way." And the good news is that if you have had this thought - there is another way. Change can be uncomfortable. But it is through this discomfort that you transform. I've seen it time and time again in the Organize 365® community. What you may not be expecting is that when you need to learn the skill of organization the most is usually at a point in your life where you don't have the time and money to do so. But by not budgeting the resources to get organized, you won't be able to easily get out of re-living the same story you are trying to get out of. This is where I found myself in 2012. I was in the wrong story. Tune in and find out how I began to turn it around in 2012. Also in this episode: The Friday Workbox® takes center stage Tips and Rules for Organizing Passion Projects & Hobbies Want to hear more about my 2012 story and my 5 tips for organizing with depression? Listen to this podcast. What is the organized story of me going forward? Stay tuned next week to find out! What is the organized story of you? EPISODE RESOURCES: FREE Sunday Basket® Mini Course Organization is a Learnable Skill The Friday Workbox® The Sunday Basket® Saving Your Story Photo Organization Program Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! I'm excited to welcome back my sister, Emily Kelly, to the podcast. This has been much anticipated by the Organize 365® community. And I was waiting for the perfect time for her to tell her story. Emily Kelly worked for Organize 365® for about 5 years. When I last interviewed her on the podcast, she was embarking on a new adventure. She had found, what she believed to be, her DREAM JOB. This is a three part series where we are going to get all the details on Emily's journey since she left Organize 365®, but you are also going to get an in depth look at the relationship between Emily and me. Sibling relationships are unique because this is likely the longest relationship you will have in your life. Longer than your parents, your spouse, your children and your friends. You and your sibling(s) are in a unique position and have experienced things together that will forever just be an experience shared between you and them. Emily experienced some very unexpected life events. And one of the lessons that she had learned during her time at Organize 365® kept her going in the right direction. Grace. Give it freely. To yourself and others. Flash forward to today and we find Emily, a new version of herself, ready to share the broken road that led her to exactly where she needs to be. But you will hear more about that in Part 3. EPISODE RESOURCES: Jesus Calling Book The Sunday Basket® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Starting the PhD, I was as planned as you could possibly be. I even took care of all the possible health visits I could have before starting school just so I didn't have to take away any time to do that once I started; now that is planning! This journey is not easy, but I prefer to be positive and upbeat, not sharing everything that's not working. I don't pay attention to the things that I don't have control over, but I am going to tell you the things that have gone wrong in the first 3 weeks just so I can point back to this episode and be like, "remember week 3", not everything is perfect. In preparing, I began by pretending, since I'm a pretty productive person, I could add in this extra 30 hours of work and nothing else would really be sacrificed. That's not a thing because there aren't 186 hours in a week, there are only 168 hours in a week. I'm hoping that the learnings that I take from this can be beneficial to you and whatever it is that you are adding to your plate and whatever you are striving to be as well. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Laura Vanderkam - 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think Oura Ring Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

The year was 2007. And I was ROADKILL. Unexpected life events had run me over. Divorce had unexpectedly hit my family. My father was in poor health. I was raising young children with medical diagnosis. I had attended one HUNDRED and ten doctors appointments. I came unglued. I reached my breaking point. There I was standing in my kitchen. Not making sense. Tapping on a cabinet. Greg swooped in and got the kids out of the house. As I stood there pleading with myself, "You've got to get it together, Lisa!" I went upstairs to my room to figure out why I felt like I was falling apart. At the time, I had a physical planner. I flipped backwards through my planner and realized a pattern. I was spending so much time at doctor's appointments. I started to tally it up and found that in the past year, I had gone to 110 doctor's appointments. Doctor's appointments are not only time consuming, but they are expensive. So at the same time, I had become a "jill of all trades." I was running my Creative Memories business, cleaning houses, organizing, tutoring, working for Scholastic book fairs and several other direct sales related jobs. No wonder I was falling behind and apart. When it rains, it pours. My Sunday Basket® became my umbrella. I was overwhelmed. And I was being pushed to new limits. But I wasn't disorganized. I cannot even imagine what this phase of my life would have looked like if I had not already had my Sunday Basket® system and routine in place. I was not home much at all during this phase of life, but I always had my Sunday Basket® with me. Which meant I was able to still be productive while waiting at the doctor's office or in the car pick-up line. This helped me keep up when life started moving way too fast. EPISODE RESOURCES: Free Sunday Basket® 5 Day Mini Course The Sunday Basket® The Warrior MAMA Binder The Paper Solution® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

show notes

There is a difference between perfectionism and setting up a system. My first writing assignment should have taken me just an hour or two but instead it took me eight hours. I shared my new adventure on Instagram stories and many of you told me to take a page from my own book and embrace progress over perfection. YES! I hear you but let me explain… I wasn't trying to be perfect. I was trying to spend some time now to set-up my systems and create a template for myself to save me time in the future. Does this sound familiar to you? This is EXACTLY what organizing does. Organizing is an investment in time today for a future exponential return on time. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Research Podcast Organize 365® Research Zotero Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This podcast is the first in a series of five that will walk you through different life phases and stages I've experienced, and how The Sunday Basket® has been my partner in productivity along the way! Join me in my time machine as we take a glimpse into what my life looked like in 2002 and how The Sunday Basket® was created to support me during this phase of life. In 2002, I had two babies, a successful career in direct sales, the same house I still live in today and of course, Greg! I also had a paper pile problem. And everyday I was playing "the paper pile game". I would leave my ever-growing pile of papers (bills, mail, to-do lists, calls to make, checks to be deposited and everything in between) on one side of my kitchen island. Each day I would have the best of intentions to tackle that paper pile; but often I would have just enough time to shuffle the papers around before one of the babies needed me and then right back on the counter it would go. That process was repeated day in and day out. How could I make this paper pile more actionable? One night as my family slept, I finally laid out all the papers in front of me. I began to sort the paper piles into categories. By the end of that evening, I had 40 separate "piles" that were now categorized. The next day I was able to grab just one of those categories (I had separated them all into binder dividers I had on hand) and take immediate action. Oh my goodness! What a profound impact this had on me. It felt so good to finally be taking action and little by little I watched the paper pile shrink. I put all the binder dividers in a Longaberger basket (remember those?) and I began to add any new mail, paper, notes, to-dos, etc. into the basket. Then each Sunday, I would sit down and go through it. This is where I learned how to prioritize things that needed to be done before the next Sunday and plan my week ahead as a mother and direct sales leader. The impact of breaking down my paper piles into actionable chunks was HUGE. This is how The Sunday Basket® was born! Want to have your own The Sunday Basket® experience like I did? We have a FREE 5 Day Sunday Basket® Mini Course that you can join now. This course will walk you through gathering your paper piles and how to sort them in 5 daily tasks. Join me next episode as my journey takes a stark turn from babies and bliss to chaotic and unexpected. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Mini Course The Sunday Basket® Organize 365® Paper Organizing Retreat See photos from 2002 on Instagram Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Today I'm so excited to introduce you to Laura L. During the pandemic she found me via the Organize 365 podcast. Laura started her Organize 365® journey with The Sunday Basket® and the binders. She also created binders for her parents. The day she got the MS diagnosis, the Medical Binder and the Sunday Basket® became monumental to her daily success. Laura got into the habit of taking her Medical Binder with her to doctor's appointments. She loves having everything at her fingertips. She has noticed that she gets a poor cellular signal in the medical buildings; so it's nice to have the paper copy to reference. Laura was already a fan of all things Organize 365®; but she felt compelled to share her success story with others. Laura launched her business and is The Paper Solution® Certified. She is thankful for the peace of mind that comes from the organization offered by the Sunday Basket®. Recently at her daughter's wedding the portable Sunday Basket® was called "The Bag with All the Nuclear Codes." She was organized and had all the information with her in her portable Sunday Basket ®. Then again the very next day it held the information needed for her mother because she had a doctor's appointment to take her to. Her advice if you are just getting started: "Just carve out the time to do it!" EPISODE RESOURCES: The Paper Solution® Binders Paper Organizing Retreats The Sunday Basket® The Organize 365® Medical Binder The Friday Workbox® The Portable Sunday Basket® The Paper Solution® Certification 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Episode 1 - Over Prepared Even though I am the CEO of Organize 365® I am not exempt from life events that can throw a person off track. I only got a 48 hour honeymoon phase of balancing life, work and school until life showed up! But we are in it now - I'm juggling home and school and family! As I pondered the week I have concluded to only try to be seven days ahead, not four years! I was so over prepared I didn't know what to do with myself and then it dawned on me that I could work ahead. I learned I could even test ahead if I'm prepared. And I just may do that because who knows when life is going to show up again! Listen in to hear how my family has handled the transition! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I am not a CPA and neither am I on my way to becoming one…but I have learned so much about how to get organized for optimal results when it comes to doing or getting your taxes done. And I'd love to share some ideas on how to organize the paperwork you need for your taxes and make the tax season easier for you. Whether you do your taxes yourself or have someone do them for you - it is in your best interest to have organized documentation. Documentation is key! The Organize 365® Income and Expense Binder holds all your substantiating documentation for your business. Did you know you need 7 years of substantiating documentation? Now there is a way to effortlessly keep track of everything. This binder will give you peace of mind at tax time. EPISODE RESOURCES: Free Organize 365® Tax Organizer Worksheet Organize 365® Income and Expense Binder Green Slash Pockets Mimi's Cookie Recipe (as mentioned in the mailbag) Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share their challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too! I have spoken about life events and how they derail us from time to time. Rosa E. came to the paper workshop and was energized to get her home organized. Little did she know that shortly thereafter her mother would be moving in with her permanently. A life event was about to derail her. Now that her mother has moved in, her family is finding a new normal. I offered some ways she could spend some special and intentional time with her mother. I speculate that this model of multigenerational homes may become popular due to the economy and all the demands on two parents in the workforce. I also shared how this works in my house with Abby and Grayson living there. Each family's space is considered mini condos or apartments. And I teach this starting in the Organize 365® Kids Program. It's easier to divide common spaces up and identify personal spaces. Everyone needs a "safe space" to decompress and do what they want to do without answering to anyone. I also pointed out that we all like the Sunday Basket® because it speaks to us, we're all just 12 year olds at heart. And now she's implementing a Sunday Basket® for her mother too. To top it all off, Rosa is also starting a new career. She's home organizing and The Paper Solution® Certified. She has been using the Friday Workbox® as her partner in success as she's starting her business. She attributes the Friday Workbox® to helping her schedule her week, think ahead to marketing and networking, and grow her organizational business in Arizona. EPISODE RESOURCES: Organize 365® Paper Organizing Retreats The Paper Solution® Certification The Business Friday Workbox® The Sunday Basket® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I just experienced a Golden Window and I want to share with you how I got organized to embark on my back-to-school journey! When I shared with you all that I'm going back to school to earn a PhD, I got a lot of suggestions. So many amazing suggestions that I literally started a pink slash pocket so I wouldn't lose any of these valuable ideas. And, of course, I want to share everything with you. Here's why - this journey is super helpful if you are also going back to school (whether you're working towards a PhD or a different degree). And it's also helpful to apply my journey and my experiences to any and all of life's changes. The type of organizing I'm doing to get ready for my PhD experience is no different than the type of organizing and preparation I would recommend for any life change or transition - having a baby, moving, starting a new job, getting ready to retire, getting ready to welcome grandchildren. When you are getting ready to make a change (especially one that will impact your daily schedules and routines) it's important to look around your home and at your organizational systems to make them as functional, organized and efficient as possible for what life is going to look like for the foreseeable future. This is a whole new life transition. Remember recently when I explained the difference between Ready…Set…Go? I have completed all household projects, put systems in place, reorganized my schedule, and I am in "Go" mode. This has been a major transition for me and I really evaluated how I spend my time, my habits, my routines, and looked for 30 hours I could devote to my post-baccalaureate first, and then my PhD. I will be taking you all on this journey with me. I could not be more excited and in four short years I will have earned my General PhD in Psychology from Fielding University! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Happy Doc Student Podcast How to PhD Podcast The PhD Life Raft Podcast PhD Pending A PhD Rollercoaster: A Diary of Ups and Downs of Being a Doctoral Student Stay connected with me and see behind the scenes on Instagram. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share their challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too! Kristen K. had a demanding full time job and a demanding two year old. When she "broke", she found herself searching for productivity podcasts. Lucky me, Organize 365® came up and Kristen was listening so she could gain control over her boxes of mail. Kristen was taking vacation days just to address these boxes of mail; and she knew there had to be a more productive way. Paper can easily get the better of anyone. After listening to multiple episodes, she knew the next step was the Sunday Basket. You guys, she still has her original Sunday Basket and uses it faithfully! She's even gone further to become a certified organizer so she can help others. She knows the struggle and doesn't want others to go through the same struggle. Kristen made an interesting side comment during this episode. She said, "I mean I had to do it, I knew my husband wasn't going to help." Too often we think our family is going to join us in this organization endeavor. No, they may not - and that's ok. You have to go into it knowing this is a "you" thing. We also discussed productivity vs. priority! Being productive is NOT prioritizing your tasks. Pick your priority, and that priority is ONE. You can prioritize ONE section of your life or ONE room in your house. We go over all the ins and outs of this topic in the episode. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ The Paper Solution® Certification 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Is it possible? Can you put enough systems in place to correct or manage ADHD? After diving into ADHD and running all the tests, the ADHD expert was convinced I did not have ADHD. However, when we took a deeper dive into my childhood and who I was before Organize 365®; it was a clear picture of a person with ADHD. The expert explained that all the systems I have put in place, combined with hiring out the tasks that I struggle with…I have masked the fact that I have ADHD! I didn't always believe in an ADHD diagnosis. When I was young and thought I knew everything, I was convinced children just needed a little more discipline and manners. Some children just had a lot of energy is how I explained it. But then I had one student who put me in my place. I thought it was crazy for mom and dad to try medication for the little girl during the VERY last week of school. But much to my surprise; she was a very bright student and the medication helped ADHD get out of her way! I realized I knew nothing about anything. Isn't it funny how the more you know, the more you realize that you know very little? Once we adopted children, I loved to play preschool with them. It wasn't until a routine doctor visit that it was brought to my attention that I would be raising a child with ADHD. At this point, I craved information to help my children to succeed. I was lucky enough to attend seminars in Cincinnati with all the best doctors and learn about ADHD! Now I'm embarking on my PhD journey, where I'll be focusing on the brain and the eight executive functions. That's right! I'm a lifelong learner and am confident that I have the systems in place that I need to be organized and succeed. It has come full circle – and I'm here to share it with all of you! EPISODE RESOURCES: ADHD Resources Page ADHD Online Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

What does it mean to be organized? How do you know when you're done organizing? No one has ever officially defined "organized." I decided I would define it. We started by conducting academic-level research using our surveys. You can read more about Organize 365® Research and the finding on our Research page. For most Americans, organization happens as Swiss cheese organizing. You're a little organized here and a little organized there. You can't confidently say, "I AM organized," because you think that being organized means perfection while not being organized is hoarding. You don't have language for what happens in the middle of these two! We need to consider the idea of done rather than perfect. In this episode, I share many statistics and findings from our research, which is all leading us to change the way we present and teach the material in The Productive Home Solution™. If you just get through the first 42 days of the 100 Day Home Organization Program, you will have 80% of the spaces you use on a daily basis organized. You CAN call yourself organized. But many of you don't FEEL organized. It doesn't fully check off any single category of organizing as complete for you. It just marks a couple more spaces in your Swiss cheese organizing. I want to see you get to the point where you can say that you are personally organized or storage organized or paper organized, etc. You get to pick and choose which areas you want to tackle and master and declare organized in your life. Coming in the fall in The Productive Home Solution™, you will be able to pick an area, focus on it for 5 or 6 weeks, and then declare that area of your life organized. You'll work in baby steps to mark a full area as done so you can move on to the next area you want to organize. But what does it mean to be organized? Both men and women declare their home organized when… You'll have to listen in to find out the answer! Learn more about and join The Productive Home Solution™ here. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

For 2022, we are adding to the Lisa glossary. This week, we are talking about the Organize 365® Research projects. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about the ideas and beliefs that are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing. Several years ago, as I was writing the Organize 365® vision, I knew that I wanted to conduct research to bring to light the organizational needs of Americans. I want to be the go-to resource for knowledge about home and paper organization. I legitimately had no idea how to do research surveys and data analysis. Recently, I have been learning about the difference between market research and academic research. Organize 365® is now sponsoring academic-level study and third-party data collection backed by Harrisburg University. Research always starts with a hypothesis — what you think the result will be. I wanted research results that showed that women are doing the majority of the work at home. But, that's now what we found. We have started to share our initial research findings. As I learn more about research, we really end up with more questions. One of the steps in research is to define every term used in study surveys. For example, you cannot ask a participant about "mental health" because that term is too broad and open to interpretation. However, you can ask about anxiety or depression. When we developed the first survey, I needed to figure out how to define "housework." The research questions ended up focusing on four different types of housework. Cleaning - Cleaning is related to the dwelling and covers any task a cleaning company would do. Learn more back in Podcast 422. Tasks of Daily Living - These are tasks related to the person regardless of where they live. These are the tasks defined by Social Security Disability and include things like preparing food, consuming food, running errands, planning meals, and washing laundry. Learn more back in Podcast 424. Maintenance - is an optional housework activity where the property owner makes an additional infusion of money into their investment (property) to maintain and improve their property. In the long run, maintenance expenses increase the value of the initial investment. Learn more back in Podcast 428. Organizing - is an optional housework activity where a person makes an investment of current time for a future return of time. This is completely optional and customizable. Time spent today organizing results in an exponential time in the future. Often this involves setting up systems of organization and can be applied to renters and owners. Learn more back in Podcast 426. Literature Review As part of academic research, researchers look at other studies done on similar topics. The Organize 365® review looked at the role of women in the 21st century home. As I mentioned above, I thought women were doing all of the housework. It turns out that everyone thinks they are doing the majority of the work at home. There is so much work to be done. Defining housework and recognizing these four areas makes housework feel overwhelming and never-ending. As women become more effective at articulating their role in housework, families will be able to better understand how much work is being done and proactively decide if the work should continue to be done at all. Our next study survey has been completed and we are busy analyzing the results. Learn more back in Podcast 430. #myextra5 The Sunday Basket® consistently saves people at least five hours a week by getting organized and being proactive. Through organization, you get extra time, and we all need more time. Follow or tag Organize365® on Instagram and share how you are spending your extra time once you get organized! — #myextra5 This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.