Organize 365 Podcast

For 2022, we are adding to the Lisa glossary. This week, we are talking about ditching the file cabinet and establishing essential household binders. I also want to be your teacher to help you get your home and work paper organized and functional. 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. As a professional organizer, I used to teach people how to build (and hopefully maintain) a color-coded file cabinet at home. But, in 2017, I had a sickening revelation that what I was teaching was not working. In a short time, I heard from two audience members who needed to emergently evacuate. No matter how organized their files were, their paper was not portable. I am a functional organizer, and I learned that our paper needs to be portable and limited to a reasonable amount of space. It was time to ditch the file cabinets and organize reference papers into essential household binders. File cabinets are typically not well-maintained and they are certainly not portable. America needs a better solution for reference paperwork. After some ongoing analysis, I realized that household paper generally fits into four categories. I look at my own life experience caring for my ill father and settling his estate. I look at my life as a homeowner. I thought about all of the information it took to keep my household organized and my family functioning. There were no ready-made systems for being a caregiver and executor when my father passed away. I have worked with the members of the team who have gone through similar life challenges to try and make our binders as broad and effective as possible. But, because they are binders, they can also be adapted to handle any life situation you encounter. I created a reference binder for each of the four areas of essential household paperwork. Tax forms and kid's memories live outside of this system, but everything else that needs to be saved can typically be fit into one of the four essential binders. The Four Essential Household Binders Organize 365® sells physical binders to help with your household paper organization. The contents for each binder are also detailed in The Paper Solution book. However, our physical binders have multiple pages of worksheets that help get the information from the many places it lives organized into one location. Setting up the binders will make your life more organized and easier. But, it is also a gift for your family. If anyone else ever needs to take over any portion of your #adulting, they will have what they need at their fingertips. Financial Organizing Binder This binder details your current and future financial information. It includes retirement accounts, vehicles, insurance, home inventory, estate planning, and funeral plans. This binder was originally designed for someone to be able to take over your financial life and close your estate. It can help with tracking bills, setting a house, or cancelling a lease. I estimate that in order to have a comprehensive financial binder, you will get 30% from your file cabinet, 30-40% digital information, and 30-40% in your memory or on random papers in your home. Medical Reference Binder This binder is designed to be used mainly by a caregiver. You can set one up if you are caring for someone else, or you can set one up to make it easier for a friend or family member to care for you. Although medical records are electronic, they are siloed in each medical practice. Many of the software systems do not effectively share information. Pharmacy, doctors, dentists, specialists, and insurance companies all have their own record systems in America. I estimate that 5-10% of this information lives in your file cabinet right now. 40-50% is online in some kind of medical record system. The other 40-55% is not recorded anywhere (yet!). Your medical binder is also a perfect place to keep a list of questions for your next appointment, write down observations, record behavior changes, and communicate with other caregivers. This binder has a comprehensive workbook that includes a health history, childhood milestone tracker, symptom recorder, and place to record what you have already attempted. Life is short and the unexpected happens. We will either need caregivers or be caregivers. Having a portable, concise medical reference binder will help you to get the best care. Household Reference Binder This binder is the one I use most frequently. It is designed for people who are homeowners but can be used if you rent too. This binder is designed to have all the reference information you would keep organized if your house was a person. If you were selling your house tomorrow, you could hand over the binder to the new owners. The binder contains home improvement information, paint colors, appliance informa

For 2022, we are adding to the Lisa glossary. This week, we are talking about The Paper Solution. In 2020, I published a book called The Paper Solution. I also want to be your teacher to help you get your home and work paper organized and functional. 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. Paper is my thing. I love writing on paper, I love organizing paper, I love everything about paper. But, as a professional organizer, I realized there is very little information available about how to organize paper, the categories of paper we deal with in our lives, and how to actually use paper in everyday life. Less Paper, not Paperless. Although we have been promised a "paperless" society, the reality is that the US is a paper-based society. We are able to handle more things digitally than ever before, but we still need physical paper for many things in life. In America, our vaccine cards, birth certificates, vehicle titles, and medical records are all physical paper. Other parts of the world have digital systems for these things, but because of the uniqueness of our government and our focus on freedoms, we do not have universal, digital records for these things. In my own life, physical paper has saved me over and over. Paper means that I can avoid expensive professional fees, and it gives me authority with lawyers, doctors, and school principles. In America, paper is the way I (and you) can substantiate claims and provide proof of what you know. Paper is useful in settling estates, advocating for children during IEP meetings, and for communicating vital health information during a medical emergency. The Paper Solution The Sunday Basket® is the foundation of an organized home. The Sunday Basket® starts as a physical basket that holds actionable papers. But, really, it is so much more. It is a weekly habit of processing and looking proactively at the upcoming week that keeps the household running more smoothly. In 2020, I published The Paper Solution as a physical book. It is written to change your mindset about papers, and to give you the practical tools to get your household papers organized. The Big Purge As a professional organizer working in people's homes, I saw over and over that file cabinets allow us to save much more paper than we ever in. Surprisingly, most Americans can get rid of 80% of their filed papers and will never need them again. You can declutter your papers in as little as 15 minutes a day. Take a few file folders out and review them. Make piles for papers to recycle, shred, and save. Put the "save" papers back in the file cabinet. If you have ever taken care of a loved one's papers, you know how vital it is to have important papers organized and easy to find. Take care of the people you love by clearing out all the old papers that no longer need to be stored or saved. Types of Paper - Actionable and Reference Of the papers that should be kept, there are two main categories. Actionable papers are papers that require you to take some action — bills to pay, grocery lists to buy, or a note to book that vacation hotel. Reference papers are all of the other papers we save — bank account numbers, retirement statements, wedding cards, and love letters. These we may look at again sometime in the future, but they mostly need to be kept safe. Ditch the File Cabinet After years of helping people get their files color-coded and organized in a file cabinet, I had several clients who were facing emergency evacuations. The reality was that they did not have time to pull out important documents during their emergency. That is when I realized that our reference papers need to be portable and there must be a constraint on how much paper we keep. It's not realistic to load up an entire file cabinet when trying to get away from a forest fire or a hurricane. For several years, I have been teaching people to ditch the file cabinet and replace it with several essential reference binders. (More on this in the next podcast). Certified Organizers America is going to need a team of trained professionals who understand the skill of organizing to teach it to others. The Organize 365® system offers different levels of assistance for learners depending on their personal needs. Certified Organizers are trained by Organize 365® to provide 1:1 or small group coaching, assistance, and support. I want you to have what you need to get organized and to be successful. We all need to have our paperwork organized. You can do it now, or you can do it after an emergency. It is a blessing to do it now — it is a gift to yourself and those who love you. Organize 365® offers The Paper Solution for any type of paper you have. Actionable, household, reference, or work. Learn more at organize365.com! This episode

See the full blog post at organize365.com/special-circumstances-organize-365-story-part8 This is part eight of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about some special circumstances that impact your organizational journey. As always, I start with helping you to get the right mindset about home organization. I want to give you the ability to look at your life circumstances and understand the ways in which they are impacting your organization. Getting your thoughts and mindset ordered is vital to ordering your physical spaces. I want to share with you some life circumstances and talk about how they affect your thinking and your organizing work. This week, I want to share some special circumstances you may face in order to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. 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 how I special circumstances and their impact on organization. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization in order to progress along your transformational journey. See all eight parts of this series at organize365.com/glossary This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the show notes at organize365.com/redefining-work-organize-365-story-part7 This is part seven of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about how you define "work." As always, I want to share my mindset and thinking with you. I also want to share how owning a home or running a household can also be your work. In this podcast, I also share many of the words I use surrounding the concept of work that help me to be more efficient, productive, and effective. This week, I want to share my perspectives on work to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. 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 how I think about work. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the blog post at organize365.com/redefining-time-organize-365-story-part6 This is part six of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about how you look at time affects your organization and productivity. As always, I focus on helping you get the right mindset about how you spend your time. Time is the most abstract concept that will have the longest impact on how you spend the rest of your life. I want to share with you some of the ways you can change your mindset and how I think about time has changed over time and has helped me to grow in productivity. This week, I want to share my perspectives on time to help the Organize 365 community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. 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 how I think about time. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the full blog post at: organize365.com/home-organization-perspective-organize-365-story-part5 This is part five of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about getting your home organized. As always, I start with helping you to get the right mindset about home organization. I want to give you the ability to figure out how to organize your home for yourself. Getting your thoughts and mindset ordered is much more effective than ordering your physical spaces. I want to share with you some of the ways you can change your mindset and the way you name the spaces in your home. This week, I want to share my home organization perspectives to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. 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 how I think about how we get our homes organized. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the full blog post at: organize365.com/renaming-home-spaces-organize-365-story-part4 This is part four of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to share how you rename the spaces in your home to make them more functional as part of your transformational journey to an organized life. I define and explain things like a hot mess room and a drink station. I share how the names you give different spaces in your home can dramatically affect how you think about them. This podcast and our new glossary will help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. 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 different ways I organize homes to make them functional. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the full blog post at: overwhelm-to-plan-organize-365-story-part3 This is part three of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to talk with you about what happens as we move from one phase to the next. Typically, we get overwhelmed, feel like we are living in chaos, and struggle to have a plan. We struggle to keep pace with the new change while we are trying to learn a new level of organization, and the transition takes longer than we expect. As things get moving faster and you begin to feel overwhelmed, the way to regain clarity and be able to adjust from being reactive to productivity is the Sunday Basket®. This week, I want to share the details of the Sunday Basket® to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. 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 how I think about how we get our homes organized. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Check out the blog post at organize365.com/cycles-seasons-organize-365-story-part2 This is part two of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to share the cycles and seasons you will experience along your transformational journey to an organized life. This podcast and our new glossary will help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. 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 cycles and seasons that influence your organizing journey and that are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Check out the blog post and more details here: organize365.com/organizing-foundation-organize-365-story-part1 This week on the blog, I am starting a series sharing the foundation of Organize 365®. I share the five foundational principles that are the bedrock of everything I teach inside of Organize 365®. I want to ensure that we have a common vocabulary and you know what the foundational principles are. No matter when you being your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Has your New Year's energy kicked in yet? It's time to capitalize on that energy! We know you have goals and we have the tools you need to get you there! One of the things that I have learned over the last decade is that life is work. There's unpaid work at home and paid work at work and sometimes there's unpaid work at work and sometimes there's paid work at home. It's all work. In order for me to be the best me I can be I need to plan for both the unpaid and the paid work that is my privilege and responsibility as a contributing member of society. We have heard from many of you that you are trying to decide or pick what your focus will be in 2023 and I say we should just have it all. An organized person unlocks their time, allowing them to pursue what they are uniquely created to do! The start of the new year feels like the turning of a page, a clean slate to make lasting organizational change in our lives - at home and at work. Organization is a learnable skill. One that will take you wherever you want to go. Follow your renewed energy that the new year brings and use it to maximize your progress! Half the battle in learning the skill of organization is deciding what to do next. The "Organization Is For ME 2023" Bundle can make those decisions for you. This bundle will assist you with getting organized and making consistent progress towards your goals at HOME and at WORK. Why can't we have it all? Why can't you be organized with your paid work and your unpaid (but oh so fulfilling) unpaid work? That's why we've put together the Organization is for Me in 2023 Bundle - to help you do just that. You don't have to choose between work and home. This bundle is going to give you the courses and tools you need to excel at both. In this bundle you'll get The Productive Home Solution™ with Planning Day. As well as The Friday Workbox® system with the Goal Planner and Planning Day for your work. Imagine how amazing it will feel to unlock your time in 2023?! How it would feel to come home to an organized house and create a system and routine for managing your work, passion projects or business? This is your YEAR! Be all you can be with the Organization is for Me 2023 Bundle! Episode Resources: Watch the video Organization is for Me 2023 Bundle The Productive Home Solution™

Last week I shared with you that one of my weaknesses has been overcoming the fact that I usually "ready, fire, aim" as opposed to "ready, set, go." Learning to do the SET step in Ready, Set, Go has been my weakness. What I have found from nearly 11 years of working with the Organize 365® community is that GO is the area that tends to trip you up. Being able to GO - actually getting started or keep moving on your goals and overcome your self-limiting doubt - can paralyze us. I used to be where you are. I used to worry about what others would think of me. Will Greg (my husband) judge me? Can I meet or exceed my own goals? What if I can't do what I want to do? What if I can't live up to my own expectations? What if I invest time or money and fail? The what ifs would paralyze me and keep me from starting. It allowed me to stay stuck. Stuck in my reactive and negative life. I would start a cycle of getting ready and set but never going. Ready, Set, repeat. There was no risk with ready and set. I didn't have to step too far out on a limb or too far out of my comfort zone. Then one day I asked myself - what if everything happened for me? What if everything was easy? What if I did achieve these goals? What if I was able to achieve a bigger impact on my family, community and ultimately the world? And I ask you - What if I had never started Organize 365®? What if I stopped podcasting tomorrow because I worry about looking silly or foolish? What if all of the Organize 365® products went away and were no longer resources to you? How did that make you feel? I don't know what it is that you have to offer the world. I don't know what a more organized life with less stress and more time will do for your family, your community and your work - but I bet it is more than you even realize now. And ultimately the only way we will know is if you GO. If you actually get started. Stop holding onto that branch of self-limiting beliefs and negative what-ifs. It's time to take the next step in your organizing journey - it's time for you to go. What great timing! We are headed into a new year - clear out your house, clear out the cobwebs in your mind. Get ready, set, and let's GOOOOO. I believe in you. You can do this, you have what it takes, and the time is now. Please join me. We are going to do this together. If your goal is to reclaim your home and your time - I have the solution for you. The Productive Home Solution™ is a new way of thinking about your space and time! Half of the battle with anything we are ready and set to do is deciding what the next step is (and then the next step after that). Avoid decision fatigue and use The Productive Home Solution™ as your roadmap to guide you through the journey of getting organized. Organization will carry you through so many of your goals; and was the first step for me getting to where I am today. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Organize 365® Year End Bundle The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day - December 31, 2022 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!

Meet Michelle. She's the voice behind the mailbag introductions on the podcast and the Customer Service Team lead here at Organize 365®. Michelle is SO loved by the Organize 365® team and customers! She got quite the surprise when I asked if I could come and organize her storage area and video it for The Productive Home Solution™! You guys…my home is already SO organized, including my storage area. I've already shown everyone in The Productive Home Solution™ my storage area too many times. It was time for me to tackle someone else's storage room. The progress we made in ONE DAY may seem unbelievable; but it is all very doable when you know the order of the tasks you need to complete to get organized! Michelle picked me up at the airport and we got to work. Thank goodness we had a dumpster. We started by focusing on what could go in that dumpster. We were able to tackle a tucked away storage area with old shelving and her garage. Michelle, who described the experience as "humbling", almost had us pass on that tucked away storage area. But looking back, that was the most rewarding space to get organized. We really forced Michelle to focus on what we could get rid of first by repeatedly saying "You have the dumpster, we are here, what can go?". Then we focused on cleaning and reloading the storage area by zones. Michelle said it felt like a 40 year old weight had been lifted off her shoulders at the end of the day. Her mom (who also lives in the home) was so pleased at what we accomplished in one day. When you listen to this episode, I want you to be inspired and know that you too can learn how to get an organized storage area and then go do it. Once you have it organized properly, it should stay organized for a very long time…if not forever. EPISODE RESOURCES: Limited Time - watch the video of Lisa Organizing Michelle's Storage Room (only available through 12/31/22). Shelving Units Bins 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!

In part two of this three part Ready, Set, Go series, we are going to discuss the middle child of the Ready, Set, Go family - SET. What does it mean to get SET and to be SET? The running joke for visionary entrepreneurs like myself is the quote, "Ready, Fire, Aim!" And boy have I lived that quote in the past! At first, in my 20s, it was because I didn't know what I was doing - at home, at work, or as a parent. I learned the hard way - every time! But later in my 30s, it wasn't really my fault anymore. There wasn't enough time to prepare or aim. Life was moving so fast that I was missing important things while running at Mach 1 speed! It wasn't my fault. And it's not yours either. The last time we had "preparation time" in our calendars was in grade school where our teachers carefully planned our assignments and workload so we had time to complete things. By the time high school arrived: extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs and sleep filled in all the cracks and then some. No one has enough time. And no one is going to give us more time. #truth Work colleagues, parents, children, partners, neighbors and friends all want our time. Some demand, some plead, some expect it without question. And we give it…gladly, lovingly, freely. We get up earlier, stay up later, eliminate hobbies and rearrange our days. Eve Rodsky compares our time this way, "Men's time is worth diamonds, and women's time is like sand." Ouch. You can't unhear that. But, it's true for me. Greg has a golf night. He goes on fishing and golf trips. I haven't had a hobby night or gone on a trip with friends since having children (22 years ago)! After work, Greg makes dinner and then watches TV. Now, I do the dishes (sometimes), take a bath and do a puzzle. But I feel weird about it. Until a few years ago, my after-work activities involved driving kids, cleaning the kitchen, laundry, straightening up, etc. until I felt it was an acceptable time for me to stop "working" and take my bath. When are we going to give ourselves the permission to take back a little of our time? Last week we talked about being ready. The truth is you and I are OVER ready. We have been for decades. But we don't make the plan and run the race to a different end. Why is this? SET is all about saying your time is not more important, but AS important as everyone else's. For me, in this season, it means I am going to start my Ph.D program and travel - A LOT. For work, for pleasure, and for me. Let me be clear. My family is not happy about it. They intellectually support it, but in words and actions, they are not pleased with the change. Am I being selfish? Maybe. Would I want it for every single one of them? Absolutely! When one of my family members wants to…further their education, move out, have a baby, take a trip, find a new doctor, pursue a new passion…I facilitate the how, when, where, and payments. I am happy for the sacrifices of time and self-focus I have devoted to my family over the last 25 years, and for the ability to grow Organize 365® around my family. But now I want to pour more of my time and talent into my unique gifting. So, how do we get SET to do the things we want and need to do in life? We know how to help others in our lives get set. We set our kids up for school, set-up their school supplies, bookbags, dorm rooms, etc. We set our partners up for their endeavors and trips. We know how to get set-up; we just don't often look at doing it for ourselves the way we do for others. How do we SET ourselves up for success? Getting SET comes after getting ready because when you are getting SET you are already ready. You are doing the final steps before you GO (more on that next week). What do you need to GO? Get that together now. How can you get SET for a productive and proactive new year? If your goal is to reclaim your home and your time - I have the solution for you. The Productive Home Solution™ is a new way of thinking about your space and time! Half of the battle with anything we are ready and set to do is deciding what the next step is (and then the next step after that). Avoid decision fatigue and use The Productive Home Solution™ as your roadmap to guide you through the journey of getting organized. Organization will carry you through so many of your goals and was the first step for me getting to where I am today. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Organize 365® Year End Bundle The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day - December 31, 2022 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! Amber N. shared her transformation with me! She's the mom of two children who are a senior in high school and 14 years old, and she has a Greg of her own! Amber had always been inspired to be organized; but at some point life just got in her way. She was no longer organized but desperately wanted to be. Amber had tried other organization systems, including hiring a professional organizer. The funny part is, once she got through some of the Organize 365® resources, she no longer needed that professional organizer to come back in for a "refresh". She had learned the skill of organization and now she can do it on her own! I keep telling you, organization is a learnable skill people! Amber had to come to terms with what "being organized" actually means. Did it mean mimicking the pictures from Pinterest; or was it more important for it to be done? Picture vs. Reality. Cute vs. Organized. We put so much pressure on ourselves to give our children these picture perfect parties or bedrooms. Honestly, our kids aren't on social media and do not see the pictures we see. They are not on Pinterest. They are not looking for these tiny details. They are just happy to spend time with us, and to celebrate their birthday. Give yourself some grace. Amber had to start with baby steps…but ultimately she ended in a sprint. She started with her mail and the Sunday Basket® despite all the paper in her house. She was so excited with the results that she wanted more and wanted it more quickly. Now she's The Paper Solution Certified and can help people on their own organizational journeys! I encourage everyone to evaluate what your energy level is during each season, and what area you want to focus on - such as the house, school & work, or maybe it's being a more intentional mom. Then set the expectation at the beginning that 'something is better than nothing' when it comes to getting organized. Amber has learned so much from Organize 365®. Her major takeaway is to extend herself grace. Her other biggest takeaways are: If you put a process in place, you can move through it Good is good enough and focus on macro not micro Don't get bogged down Now that she is organized, she has time to spend with her family and on her business too. She also has more money because she isn't paying late fees and more grace that she gives to herself! EPISODE RESOURCES: The 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!

Are you READY to think differently? Are you READY to evaluate your past new years goals and productivity? Are you READY to put in the work and reap the rewards of your focus & labor? Are you physically READY? Mentally READY? Emotionally READY? Today's episode is about readiness. And I'm so excited to share my ideas for what it means to be READY. My favorite activity is to think about my thinking. It is a habit that I have cultivated into an art form and can no longer do without. It's my habit. And that is the thing about habits. Bad ones are easy to fall into and hard to break. Good ones take thought, planning, discipline and determination to establish. Yet, habits are the ONE thing that separates the life you have today and the future you envision for yourself. You cannot fall into productivity (it doesn't just happen) Your house will not magically clean and organize itself As I get ready for the new year, I want to share with you how I think about this coming season. As the December days quickly pass by, I look forward to the new year. This is the official day I start running my race for a productive 2023 - when new opportunities like starting college for my Ph.D program begin. I am getting ahead of myself. Today. Today is about being READY. Readiness is a state of being. You will never be 100% ready. And that's 100% okay! You don't have to be 100% ready in order to start! Readiness is an understanding of the strengths and limitations you are experiencing in THIS phase of your life. What unique seasons are you experiencing right now that you can leverage to move forward in your home organization goals? Are you in a season where you are home more? Do you have more energy at a certain time of day, or day of the week? Is there a big event coming up that will motivate you to work faster? Do you have a companion who is motivated to pace with you? Is this a season where you have money in the budget to add to your efforts? Would selling unused past purchases help you fund your new years goals? You may not be in a season where you are READY to devote more time and energy to your personal home. And that is OK. However, what I have found to be true more often is that there is always a seed of readiness in each season, but we miss it. I mentioned that I think about my thinking - constantly. I love sharing my unique thinking with you - to motivate you to do the same! Think about where you are right now and what you are ready for! Change is normal. Most people spend their whole life trying to avoid change. But change is where transformation comes from. Change unlocks the future. And it starts with READINESS. READINESS is fragile READINESS is fleeting READINESS holds all the potential for the future Next week I will share with you my thoughts on SET, but this week focus on your READINESS. READINESS is the first step in your new year. Don't miss it! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Organize 365® Year End Bundle The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day - December 31, 2022 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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! Today I am so excited for you to meet Maura. Over the summer I put out a social media post requesting a family that would allow me to get their kid's rooms organized and FILM IT ALL for a movie about Kids Organization. Maura was jumping up and down saying "pick me"! Maura is a mom of four - Bode (12), Lucy Belle (10), Finley (7) and Blaise (4). She runs a bakery out of her house (oh my goodness - she makes the BEST cookies) and her husband also works from home. As Maura put it, "the spigot never stops." Which leads us to talking about OVERWHELM as a parent. The overwhelm is beautiful and messy all at the same time. And I'm so glad I was welcomed into Maura's house to put into action the principles of Organize 365®'s Kids Program. I LOVE ORGANIZING CHILDREN. I LOVE IT. I was able to come one day early, meet these kiddos, and look at the task ahead of me. I spent a total of 2-3 hours with each child individually and we focused on the oldest three. We are all looking for ways to connect with and spend quality time with our children. Did you know that time spent teaching kids the skills of organization while organizing their room with them can be the BEST quality time? Get the kids involved! Working with your kid to organize their room is quality time you can spend with them. They love the one on one time. They love talking about their stuff. They love getting to make decisions. They love the result and the process. You are teaching them the valuable skill of organizing while spending time with them. Make it an enjoyable process for both of you! Listen to their stories. Everything in their room has a story for them. These are their little treasures! Now when Maura tucks her kids in at night, she can actually go into their rooms and not get filled with so much frustration over the mess. Listen for the update since my visit. I can't come to everyone's house but trust me - you can do this! The Organize 365® Kids Program is like I am there with you and we go through all the areas. Harness your kids excitement to your benefit NOW is just as good a time as any. Since the kids are out of school and there's anticipation building for the holidays…declutter and organize. Make room for all the new stuff that will be coming into your home. I also shared some tips you may want to use for other ideal times that you want to declutter and organize. EPISODE RESOURCES: Watch the Kids Organization Movie featuring Maura's lovely family LIVE this Friday with me at 7 pm ET. Want to get organized as a family? The Limited Time Year Bundle is the perfect resource to get yourself and kids organized in 2023. Sign-up for the Kids Program Orientation on December 27 at 11 am ET The Kids Program The Launch Program Maura's Cookies 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 look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

show notes

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 Ashley C. She lives with husband, three children and some fun pets! She shares her struggle with living up to the Pinterest perfect bar she set for herself when she had her first baby. Ashley has been a dedicated podcast listener for years. The Organize 365® podcast gave her the permission to forgo the Pinterest perfect nursery rooms and scrapbooks and get things done a little less than perfect. We discuss how we have all these long to-do lists and so much pressure on ourselves but the funny thing is, no one is checking that list. No one is disappointed that we didn't accomplish something or accomplish it in the way we planned. Ashley is somewhat of a reformed perfectionist now. In her business, she uses the phrase "experiments in imperfection." She joined The Productive Home Solution™ and got her new home organized. Only recently did she purchase the Sunday Basket®. Why now? Lisa helped her to unveil feelings of fear of failure. Ashley knew about all the resources Organize 365® has to offer but she subconsciously felt that maybe she wouldn't do them justice. I encourage everyone to not sit on the sidelines due to fear of failure. Is it time for you to get off the sidelines and make the commitment with the Sunday Basket® system? I am happy to say Ashley is organized and on her way to the next chapter of life. Her transformation story is ongoing as she is now working her way into business and just got started with the Friday Workbox®. EPISODE RESOURCES: 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!

In today's episode as we wrap up our series on my ADHD journey and exploration of executive functions, I am excited to introduce you to Keith Boswell, Vice President of Marketing at ADHD Online. ADHD Online is transforming the diagnosis and treatment of people dealing with neurodiversity. Organize 365® and ADHD Online have partnered several times over the past year to present organizational solutions that I have found to work for others struggling with ADHD. Keith brings a new level to this conversation we've been having - he is open about his diagnosis of ADHD and his own organization challenges and triumphs. We talk about his familys' problem areas, the progression of aging children, and roles that will come with the organization of their house. Find out how we met and how our partnership is evolving. Keith and ADHD Online are doing some important work for awareness and helping people function with ADHD. They are helping people to get a faster diagnosis and move on to finding solutions. ADHD Online has medical professionals providing the diagnosis and from there you can choose to work with them or your primary doctors and pharmacies. And, they are proud to say that the solution is not always medicine! They really work with their clients to help them succeed. Organize 365® is excited to work with them to provide solutions that work for helping their clients live a more organized and proactive life. EPISODE RESOURCES: ADHD Online ADHD Awareness Resources 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 episode we wrap up our four part series on exploring the executive functions and the role they play in our ability to be organized. I've always believed that you won't just "be organized." Organization is a learnable skill. This means that it's not something you have to be born with. If you're currently not organized, that's okay too! You can absolutely learn how to be organized. I have always had a strong belief that organization is a learnable skill. So, I wasn't surprised to learn that 87% of Americans also believe that organization is a learnable skill. However, I was surprised to find that of those same Americans - only 18% believed that they are organized. Organize 365® courses and programs teach you how to be organized. If you struggle with initiating and task monitoring, then you need community. That's why adding the Organize 365® Community App was important to me. Initiation is simply the "start" factor. Task Monitoring is the ability to look at how far you have come and understand how much still needs to be accomplished. EPISODE RESOURCES: Organize 365® Blitz (Free) Organize 365® Community The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan Listen to today's episode to learn how community and grace play a huge role in helping you learn a new skill (like organizing). 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!

As we continue our series exploring executive functions today we get to talk about planning. Can you hear it in my voice? Planning is my FAVORITE-IST thing! Planning is so much more than filling in a planner or checking boxes. Planning is purposefully setting aside time and deciding how you want to show up in the next season. Decide what rules you want to make for your next season so you can be as proactive as you want to be. It's time to dream about what is possible, about what you want to change, and about what you don't want to change. At Organize 365®, I offer LIVE Planning Days for home and work where I teach you how to proactively plan. They are conveniently scheduled around natural Golden Windows. Golden windows is a phrase I created to help articulate different times that are optimal for getting started on your transformational journey to organizing. Learn more about golden windows in podcast 242 - Golden Windows of Organizing Opportunity. You do realize, without knowing it, there are about three times a year we shift in life? These are what I like to call Golden Windows. This is a time to organize and plan. Effective planning going into these golden windows can have a profound impact on your organizational transformation because your organizing energy is naturally higher than normal. And with a plan in hand you can really capitalize on that energy. Planning is everything! Planning will help you make the invisible work visible. See how I've applied this to so many seemingly "invisible" tasks in life such as putting up and taking down my Christmas tree. There are a lot of layers to this conversation - listen to the full episode and join me for the next part of this executive function series where we will be talking about initiation & task monitoring. EPISODE RESOURCES: Organize 365® Blitz Business Friday Workbox® Starter Bundle with Planning Day Friday Workbox® Planning Day Bundle The Productive Home Solution® with first Planning Day included Home Planning Day Bundle - Essentials Home Planning Day Bundle - Deluxe ALL IN Work & Home Planning Day 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!

Today's coffee chat is a special Holiday Blitz Edition. Every year I host my annual FREE Holiday Blitz. The goal of the Holiday Blitz is to help you strategically plan for your holiday season by making the invisible work of the holidays visible. The Holiday Blitz includes 13 free downloadable planning pages and 5 course videos where I walk you through planning the holiday season. We talk about how you can simplify your holidays, embrace your uniqueness and be present, proactive and productive throughout the season. Listen in as I interview busy CEO and mom Jessica Evans of Ultimate Bundles. Jessica shares with us how she used the Holiday Blitz to plan out her holiday traditions. Find out what traditions she loves, which ones she doesn't enjoy as much and how she is setting herself up for success this holiday season. Jessica also shares some really fun holiday ideas! Do you want to plan your holiday season with The Holiday Blitz? There's still time! Join the Holiday Blitz On Demand now. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Holiday Blitz On Demand The Holiday Blitz 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!

Does it ever feel like you have a two year old in your brain talking to you all day reminding you of things you need to do and demanding what to do next? Do you feel like you are playing an adult version of Memory or Go Fish when it comes to your paperwork? Now that I've learned that I have ADHD, I'm ready to dive deeper into this topic of executive function and organization with formal research. Lots of times ADHD can be diagnosed when the person's executive functions are analyzed. In this episode I explain the Executive Function of the Organization of Materials. Did you know most people organize their closets and kitchens first? Why do you think that is? Listen to the full episode to understand. At Organize 365®, I have designed systems with enough structure to get the job done and with a little wiggle room for customization, because we're all unique. Here are the rules to keep you on track… Everything should have a place. True - but you (not Pinterest, not society - you) get to pick that place. We tend to reorganize about every twenty years due to stages of life and unexpected life events. This is totally NORMAL! Maintain what is working for you. You only need to implement systems for what is unorganized. Organization of Materials has an order (think stages of life) Organization of Materials is about personal rules you create to maintain sustainable organization. Through learning the skill of functional organization; you will literally unlock your time and be able to spend it doing what you are uniquely created to do. EPISODE RESOURCES: Lisa School Binder Organize 365® Lattice Binders Organize 365® 1.0 Slash Pockets Learn more about "zones" and functional organizing in 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!

What's next for research at Organize 365®? Now that I've learned that I have ADHD, I'm ready to dive deeper into this topic of executive function and organization with formal research. Lots of times ADHD can be diagnosed when the person's executive functions are analyzed. In this episode, I shared three examples of me relying on my working memory. I analyze if my working memory helped or hindered the situation and explore explanations as to why I responded, the way I did, in each situation. The executive function of working memory holds information in your head for a short amount of time so you can manipulate that information and do something. Example: A math problem. You take in the information of the numbers and functions that are being requested. When you do the problem in your head you are using your working memory to solve the problem. All hope is not lost - yes we can improve our executive functions according to Psychology today. They suggest to identify which executive function you want to improve and then pick a strategy to help you improve. Strategies to improve your executive functions include: Chunk things into smaller tasks Externalize information using notepads, to do lists, or reminders (had you completed the math problem, mentioned earlier, on paper, you would be helping your working memory by reducing demand upon your working memory so it is available for other items you need to remember) Buddy up with a peer to foster accountability Blocking access to distractions such as your phone in a drawer while focusing on a task Use rewards to motivate periods of consistent effort EPISODE RESOURCES: Psychology Today Strategies for improving executive function The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Holiday Blitz Planning Day for Home Planning Day for Work Notepads and Notecards Find me on Instagram @Organize365 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's next for research at Organize 365®? Now that I've learned that I have ADHD, I'm ready to dive deeper into this topic of executive function and organization with formal research. There are five areas of executive function that involve organization: Initiating - getting started Working Memory - holding information Planning - planning ahead Monitoring - knowing what needs to be done next Organizing Materials - organizing your home I believe that you can impact and change your executive functioning by learning the skill of organization so you can have more time to do what you're uniquely created to do. At Organize 365® we have programs, systems, and products to help you in each of these areas. In this episode, I explain where I am going next and the massive decision that I have made in order to take the next step. I've talked about doing it for years, but finally, in January of 2023, I will begin a one-year program that will lead me into a Ph.D. program. No one else will do this research for me. If we are going to take on this project as a company, I want to be the one not just leading the team, but leading the research. To do that, I have to have a Ph.D. I've already been rearranging my schedule and preparing myself, my family, and my team for what this will look like. I'm dividing my week into three parts so my family, my company, and my studies all get the attention they need. Come along with me on the journey! 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!

Do I have ADHD or not? This has become so confusing! According to ADHD Online, I have a medical diagnosis of ADHD. According to Barbara Hunter's analysis of my BRIEF-A assessment, my executive functioning indicates that I do NOT have ADHD. Who is right? I took my questions to a psychologist in Cincinnati for a final answer. Why? Well, first, I want to give good recommendations to the Organize 365® community. If ADHD Online is not a good resource, I don't want to refer you to them. Second, I want to continue to do executive function research related to ADHD and organization, so I want to know if I actually have ADHD or not as I go into that project. Organization is a learnable skill. If we learn the skill of organizing, can we mitigate or eliminate the effects of ADHD? In this episode, I share with you my story of gathering supporting information from my childhood, taking additional assessments, and speaking with the psychologist to get the final answer. I explain the criteria for an ADHD diagnosis. I also share how in the process, we determined first that I do NOT have dyslexia as I have always been told. Two interesting things were the clinchers for my final answer. One was speeding tickets, and the other was how I handle money and debt. Listen to this episode to hear how in the beginning, the psychologist believed there was no way that I could have ADHD and how this all came together to finally find out if I do have ADHD. More Resources Book: How ADHD Affects Home Organization Organize 365® ADHD Playlist 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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I am sharing my interview with Carrie F. She lives with her husband and they have two teens at home and one away at college. She's a retired veterinarian. Paper was her greatest organizational struggle at home, especially after closing her practice. We talk about how she overcame her piles of paper by pressing through, starting with the current paper, and then working her way back through the rest of the paper. Is paper your nemesis? The Sunday Basket® System is the first step to getting your paper organized! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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 month I've been exploring the topic of ADHD and more specifically, discovering if I have ADHD. Last week, I shared my journey to reach the point of deciding to be tested for ADHD. First I took the assessment from ADHD Online and was told that I DO have a medical ADHD diagnosis. In this episode, I'm talking with my friend Barbara Hunter about whether she thinks I have ADHD... or not. She gave me The BRIEF-A to make her determination. This is the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function® Adult Version. The BRIEF-A is given in three parts: I took the assessment. Then both my husband, Greg, and my chief of staff, Stephanie, took the assessment to give their perspective on me. Barbara walked through the sections of the test with me to explain what the various sections mean and my results compared to Greg and Stephanie's opinions of me, as well as ways to improve my executive functioning in some areas. The final result? According to The BRIEF-A, Barbara says that this current assessment of my executive function says that I do NOT have ADHD. So, where do I go from here? I contacted a doctor in the Cincinnati area to do more testing so I can definitively find out if I have ADHD or not. More to come! Looking for more information on ADHD and Organization? Start with my book, How ADHD Affects Home Organization. It's available for free as an audiobook on the ADHD Playlist! Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: How ADHD Affects Home Organization ADHD Online Springer School and Center Barbara Hunter and Integrated Learning Designs The BRIEF-A 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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I am sharing my interview with Kat S. She lives with her husband and together they run her music studio out of their home. Kat feels like she learned to be organized at a young age because her mom had hoarding tendencies, but she has learned so much more since implementing Organize 365® systems. She and her husband trend to the minimalist side and have great systems in place for living and working together. Kat was able to bring her husband home to work in her business in part because she was able to show him using her Business Friday Workbox® and her stack of pink slash pockets all of the ideas that she had for her business that she needed help to bring to life. What's in your pink slash pockets? Visit Kat's website at KatStarrMusic.com. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ Friday Workbox® I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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!

Do I have ADHD? My mom doesn't think I have ADHD. I didn't think I had ADHD. At one point, I adamantly opposed people who suggested I had ADHD. But, in more recent years, I have thought: Maybe I do have ADHD? When I would organize women in the Cincinnati area, many would start their appointments by telling me that they had or thought they had ADHD. My kids received their ADHD diagnoses when they were children and attended Springer School and Center for many years. I was a teacher and I saw many kids receive their ADHD diagnosis and the support put in place for them. My book How ADHD Affects Home Organization came out of this time of discovery and research about ADHD and research about organization. (By the way, you can now get the audiobook for free on our new Organize 365® ADHD Playlist!) People who have ADHD need more structure and support. It's not an issue of intellect. It's an issue of executive functioning. Everyone learns at a different pace and organization is a learnable skill. It's just that people who have ADHD tend to need a person to help put structure in place for them to learn the skill of organizing. In this episode, I fill you in on my journey of learning about ADHD and then coming to the point of deciding to find out if I actually have ADHD... or not. Many things came together recently for me to reach this point personally. I have done some biohacking with my Oura Ring and Apple Watch. I began a partnership and series of webinars with ADHD Online and learned more about their services. But, it was my recent meeting with Barbara Hunter that pushed me over the edge. She was at Springer School and Center for over 20 years. I took any class they offered as my kids were students there. They often bring in top-notch experts in conjunction with Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Barbara is now doing executive function coaching through her company Integrated Learning Designs. In this meeting, we were discussing how there are many resources for students and employees with ADHD, but no one is really addressing how ADHD affects your home life. So, then, I pondered out loud whether I actually have ADHD or not. Do I really want to know? What would it change if I knew? I wouldn't medicate for ADHD at this point in my life if I have a diagnosis because I have skills and systems already in place to make my life run smoothly. What would knowing that I have or do not have ADHD do for me? What I really want to know is my level of executive functioning and how to optimize that, whether I have ADHD or not! Barbara tells me there's a test for that! It's called The BRIEF-A. I was in! Just in our casual conversation, Barbara saw signs in me that pointed towards an ADHD diagnosis. And I saw more signs. I always had a floating "C" in school, I'm a talker, I interrupt people, I'm a busybody who doesn't vacation well, and I can't sit to watch TV without a puzzle to work on or laundry to fold. So, I made arrangements to take the test with Barbara. Before that, still unsure of if I really wanted to know the answer, I decided with some trepidation and some encouragement from Joey to first take the test from ADHD Online to see what they had to say. The results? According to ADHD Online and their assessment, I have ADHD. Next week, I talk about my results from The BRIEF-A and my meeting with Barbara Hunter. What does Barbara have to say about my executive functioning based on The BRIEF-A? Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: How ADHD Affects Home Organization ADHD Online Springer School and Center Barbara Hunter and Integrated Learning Designs The BRIEF-A 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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I am sharing my interview with Jennifer S. She lives with her husband and three kids, two of whom are off to college. Jennifer is an attorney and has always worked full-time outside of the home. We have a great discussion about wills, trusts, power of attorney for your adult children, inventories, caring for aging parents, and so much more. Jennifer shares how the Sunday Basket® kept her life running in a hard season while caring for her grandmother at the end of her life and her own aging parents. Jennifer loves Planning Days for both home and business but needed a little extra help. She gives a thank you to Stefanie at Island Organizing for her services related to the Business Friday Workbox® organization and the community she's found there. Jennifer, like many of us, tends to be a perfectionist. She's learning to say, "I am a person of excellence!" How are you pursuing excellence? I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ Friday Workbox® Home Planning Day Business Planning Day Stefanie at Island Organizing I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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 over a decade of studying female heads of households in their homes and researching what it takes to get them organized, I've thought a lot about time and the invisible work we are doing. The big thing when I started my business was hitting six figures. Everyone wanted to hit $100,000 in yearly income. Back then, I had just quit my teaching job in a private school making $24,000 a year in take-home pay. I couldn't even wrap my mind around ever being a six-figure income earner! Over the years, as I've looked at how women use their time, I've come to this conclusion: You can have six-figure time without the six-figure income. It's all about mindset and how you choose to spend your time. In this episode, I share my observations of six-figure income earners and my suggestions for developing a six-figure time mindset. How Six-Figure Income Earners Spend Their Time As a professional organizer, I went into the homes of many six-figure earners with million-dollar homes. These were often doctors, lawyers, business owners, and C-Suite executives. I had the opportunity to see how they run their lives and the type of help they hired. Having a six-figure income gave these women and their families a choice in how they spend their time. Can you have this six-figure time mindset without the six-figure income? I think you can! Many millionaires are time-poor while many who have no income at all are time rich. What's the difference between time poverty and being rich in time? Time Passing vs Making a Difference Most people see time in terms of how much time is passing and what they can get done. Truly productive people see a third dimension: If I spend my time doing this today, will it make a difference in the future? Will it make a difference a month, a year, 5 years, or 10 years from now? People who are time multipliers always make their time decisions based on the significance factor. If you could get the to-do list done, what would you do with your free time? Too many of us just add more to-do items to the list. I think we most want time freedom. To reach that goal, you must be proactive and not reactive. I talk about this all the time at Organize 365®. This is not a new concept. But, this is more than just planning out the big projects. You have to develop the habit muscle of proactivity in every area of your life. It means not doing every little thing when you have the thought. You write the thought on the index card, drop it into the Sunday Basket®, and do those little things all batched together to save time. Six-figure time takes being proactive a step further. Instead of waiting to have the thought about the dog's medicine or the bills that need to be paid, you put it on a schedule with a plan for how to get it done or create other automations for the task like using bill pay. You purposely plan ahead for how the task will be done. What in your life can be systematized, scheduled, and automated to save you time and mental space? Forward Thinking and Planning Days Everyone is a forward thinker according to Ben Hardy. The difference is how far ahead into the future you think. It's great to have 15 minutes of free time and do something that your future self will appreciate like emptying the dishwasher or starting the laundry, but this is reactive productivity. How do you move to the next step and think farther into the future? The answer is planning days. Planning days for your home and your work give you the focused time to get more done and have more impact. The goal isn't a longer to-do list. The goal is more time to do what you're uniquely created to do so you can have more impact. I'll be honest: It's more comfortable to add to the to-do list and check off the low-level tasks because it makes me feel productive. It takes time to wrestle with the question of what you're uniquely created to do and to try things out to see if that's the right thing for you. It takes time to develop skills and practice those skills. Six-figure income earners spend a lot of time growing their skills. Six-figure income earners also spend a lot of time networking and making connections with like-minded people. Surround yourself with people who are investing their time and resources into being more productive so they can have an impact on the world. They also change their role as they grow. Six-figure income earners do the things that are the highest use of their time. You have to focus on working your way out of jobs. This might mean delegating jobs to other people or services that can do the work for you. This might be other family members. Consider meal planning services or hire a house cleaner. It might also mean changing the standard at which you do a task in your home. Can you lengthen the time between dusting or changing your sheets? Building Relationships I think that the true freedom of six-figure time comes when you can start to think about not just the work that needs to be done at home or in the office, but how you can imp

On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. For the rest of this month, I have a treat for you on the Wednesday Transformation episodes I want to share with you some of the extraordinary breakthroughs from women just like you who attended Embrace 2022. Listen in for Part 3 of the transformations! Embrace is now available on demand! You can learn more about the Embrace Self-Guided Retreat here. 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 four types of work that we all do at home. In this episode, I go through these four types of work in detail and discuss how to reduce the amount of time spent on the first three so you can do more unique purpose work. Housework We've talked a lot over the last couple of years about housework. As a part of our Organize 365® Research, I have honed in on and defined this type of work. There are three main types of housework: cleaning, tasks of daily living, and organization. You must clean your home to some standard you set, do all the tasks that make you a human, like showering and brushing your teeth, plus the things in your house must have a home. Housework is like a part-time job of 18-25 hours each week for the average household without children! Listen to these episodes for more about how I define housework: #422 - Defining Housework Part 1 - Cleaning #424 - Defining Housework Part 2 - Tasks of Daily Living #426 - Defining Housework Part 3 - Organization #428 - Defining Housework Part 4 - Maintenance #495 - The Process of Equitably Dividing Housework #497 - Housework: The Hot Mess Theory Part 1 with Jacqui Ioli #498 - Housework: The Hot Mess Theory Part 2 with Jacqui Ioli #499 - Effort: The 80/20 of Housework - Not All Housework is Equal Invisible Work This is the work that happens in your Sunday Basket®. I talked about this with Eve Rodsky. Invisible work is the mental load and related tasks to running a household. These are things like paying the bills and planning for holidays. This type of work doesn't fit into the housework category and we have a hard time labeling and quantifying it. The Sunday Basket® System helps with invisible work. The first six weeks of setup and habit-building can take a lot of time because you're setting up systems and processes. You have a set time to handle all these little one-off or recurring tasks. It might take you 90 minutes to 3 hours in the beginning, but then something magical happens. The time savings (and lightened mental load) that you experience during the week is exponential. The average Sunday Basket® user saves 5 hours each week! There is a second type of invisible work: emergency invisible work. Illnesses, scheduled changes, and childcare/adult care fall into this category. When you or someone else gets sick in your family, the world around you doesn't stop and wait for you. The regular work doesn't go away and the emergency itself often creates more work. There are also schedule changes that are really just a part of life and we have to just roll with them. Not everyone has the final category, but childcare and caregiving for adults is a full-time 24/7 job all on its own. Hobby Work Angela Watson and I talked a lot about hobby work earlier this summer in relation to teachers. We naturally fill our time with work, but it's not all essential work. Sometimes, we do extra work to make ourselves feel better or make something look the way we want. That's hobby work. This often involves trying to be perfect or redoing work. When I talked to Jacqui, she called this overwork. Whatever you call it, it is robbing you of your free time! This is refolding the clothes in the drawer, matching the socks, folding the underwear, micro-organizing the toys, and over-cleaning. Unique Purpose Work The female head of household struggles the most to prioritize unique purpose work over all other work. Unique purpose work is the work that you're uniquely created to do. No one else can do this work except you. But, too many of us feel that we must have an "A" in the first three areas before we can move into unique purpose work. Your family will push back. Your internal thoughts will push back. It's easier to search the internet for a fun printable about cleaning and press into hobby work. The reality is this: The pain of not doing what you're uniquely created to do must become greater than the pain of continuing to prioritize housework, invisible work, and hobby work for you to choose to prioritize your unique purpose work. How Do I Find What I'm Uniquely Created to Do? I'm asked all of the time: How do I find what I'm uniquely created to do? First, I suggest that you go through the Embrace Self-Guided Retreat. We've set it up as an on-demand experience that you can do alone or make a weekend of it with friends. The sessions will help you focus on yourself and show you how to begin to dream again. Second, you need to understand that finding your unique purpose takes time. I told you when we talked about passive organizing that it takes 12-18 months of research before you get started on organizing. It's natural then that it will take just as much time and research to find what you're uniquely created to do. You need focused thinking time. At Organize 365®, our mission is to help you get organized so you have the free time to do what you're uniquely created to do. Take your time back through organization! Find what you're uniquely created to do and press into it! Did you enj

On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. For the rest of this month, I have a treat for you on the Wednesday Transformation episodes I want to share with you some of the extraordinary breakthroughs from women just like you who attended Embrace 2022. Listen in for Part 2 of the transformations! Embrace is now available on demand! You can learn more about the Embrace Self-Guided Retreat here. 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!

Marie Kondo is like the Atkins Diet of organizing. Yes, it's true. Let me explain. Please understand that this is NOT an anti-Marie Kondo episode! I think Marie Kondo is awesome in so many ways. She's done so much to raise awareness for organizing and decluttering in the media and the general public. There are benefits to her method, but I do feel that the Marie Kondo method is not the best long-term solution for the average American woman or home. Last week I kicked off this podcast series by talking about passive organizing. When you're in this information-gathering stage, your interest and initial motivation can be sparked by things like Marie Kondo's book or TV show. In this episode, I explain why Marie Kondo's organizational method is like the Atkins Diet of organizing. First, ultra-low-carb diets like the Atkins Diet can give you quick results. You can get really, really quick results using the Marie Kondo method. That quick win can give you the motivation that is needed to keep going in the beginning. The problem is that you have to get rid of nearly everything to get those results! Americans (and Australians) in particular tend to have larger homes and more stuff in those homes. Japanese homes are usually much smaller and rooms are more often multifunctional. When an American woman uses the Marie Kondo method of organizing, there's a lot of pain and chaos that goes along with pulling everything out of a particular space. It's like the headache you get when you go through carb withdrawal. Second, the Atkins Diet is very one-size-fits-all, as is the Marie Kondo Method. There are strict rules to follow without deviation to get those results. Marie Kondo's Method is very prescriptive, telling you exactly how you should have each area of your home. Do you have paper? She says get rid of it all except a tiny folder. This doesn't work for the typical American because so many important documents must be kept and presented in paper format. My grandson, Grayson, is a toddler and he already has two pieces of paper that must be kept track of for the rest of his life: his birth certificate and his social security card. We are not and cannot be paperless in the United States at this point in time. There are too many variables in the American household, especially in terms of paper, making a one-size-fits-all approach difficult to follow. Don't even get me started on books. Marie Kondo says to get rid of all of your books. I did it. I got rid of all of my books. And I regret it! I love books and bookshelves. I have a couple of custom bookshelves in my home and I want more. I have hundreds of books on Audible and I'm in the process of buying many of those again in paper format so I can highlight them and write in them. (Side note: I'm so used to thinking in terms of pink, purple, blue, and green work that I'm starting to highlight information in my books this way using our Organize 365® highlighters.) Third, the Atkins Diet is very restrictive and not as filling. The Marie Kondo Method is very restrictive and not as fun. There is one way to follow her program. If you don't follow the program to the detail, you don't get an A. But, I want an A in organizing. The problem is, I like stuff. I'm organized, but I like stuff. I don't have a ridiculous amount of stuff, like clothes, but my closet is far from being a capsule wardrobe. These types of prescriptive systems tell you exactly what the end should look like to be considered organized. Minimal. Rainbow ordered. What if you have 35 pieces in your wardrobe instead of 33? What if you kept your books instead of getting rid of them all? Then you didn't follow the method and you don't get an A. You're not organized. Lastly, most people cannot maintain the Atkins Diet for the rest of their lives. In a similar way, it is difficult to maintain organization like Marie Kondo. As soon as you stop following the prescriptive directions, the organization falls apart. It doesn't last. The Marie Kondo method of organizing gets you started, but it's not a sustainable way for most Americans to live. Organization is a skill that must be learned. You must know how and why you want to get organized. Your phase of life and the type of order that you want play a part. You need to practice making decisions that become rules and then habits for your life and home so that in the long term, you deal with less decision fatigue. Marie Kondo's method of tidying is a wonderful place to start your journey. You can make some great visible progress with her system, but if you are not naturally a minimalist, it is not a sustainable lifestyle. If you're like me and you like stuff (and are a bit of a rebel), it's time instead to focus on learning the skill of organization. Use the momentum of these quick-start methods to propel yourself into lifelong organization rather than endless cycles of decluttering and feelings of lack. Here at Organize 365®, we're not about Pinterest-perfect organizing. Our focu

On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. For the rest of this month, I have a treat for you on the Wednesday Transformation episodes I want to share with you some of the extraordinary breakthroughs from women just like you who attended Embrace 2022. Listen in for Part 1 of the transformations! Embrace is now available on demand! You can learn more about the Embrace Self-Guided Retreat here. 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!

It's time to add a new term to our organizing glossary: passive organizing. I've said for years that it really takes three years to get organized, but the first 12-18 months are not easily recognized in that process. The reason is that this first chunk of time is spent in passive organizing. What is passive organizing? Passive organizing is the time period during which you're becoming aware that maybe organization could help you become more productive. Maybe organization could help you get back your time. You're thinking, you're researching, and you're listening. This is passive organization. The change is happening in your mind, in your emotions, in your heart, and in your beliefs. Passive organizing is the "pink" work of organizing. This is the time frame when you're working on yourself. You haven't committed to organizing, but you're gathering information and working on your mindset. You're thinking about the when, the how, and the order. You're deciding who you want your teacher to be. In passive organizing, you're consuming exorbitant amounts of information. Sometimes, this can cause information overload and paralysis. You might struggle to take action because you see the best in all the options. Let's take a little rabbit trail. The Kolbe Assessment is a quantitative test that helps you determine how you think. Among other things, it tells you how you leverage these three areas of thinking and processing in order to complete a project: How much do you need to research something before you can do it? How much structure do you need before you can take action? How much do you need to talk before taking action? I am a "quick start." I spend the majority of my time talking about a project and then the active work portion of the project comes out really quickly at the end. I verbally process everything and I change my mind a lot. My team on the other hand tends to be much higher in research and/or structure. An example of this is how I wrote the book How ADHD Affects Home Organization. I completed the writing of the book in a weekend, but I spent two years preparing to write the book and talking about it first! How much research, structure, and talking do YOU need before you can take action on getting organized? The other obstacle to deciding to get started with organing is having a tipping point. You have to reach a point when the pain of continuing to live in the current state of life is greater than the pain of change and learning a new skill to get the result you want. You have to realize that organization is a learnable skill. Another tipping point is a golden window. These are big life events: a milestone birthday, a new baby, a new house, a new job, a loss, a health diagnosis, etc. Many times, multiple big events happen at the same time. These are seasons of opportunity. Disorganization leads to more disorganization, but when you seize the opportunity, these are major turning points. I want to remind you that I was once where you are. Back in 2012, I quit my teaching job, I was overweight, I was depressed, and everything was falling apart around me. You can read my story in Organization is a Learnable Skill and listen to my depression story in episode #69. I was negative and pessimistic. You would not have wanted to be my friend back then. What you see of me now is the after picture! You must also believe that you can get organized. You must make a decision that you are now going to live proactively instead of reactively. This is where you draw a line in the sand and step over it. And one day, you will find yourself listening to an Organize 365® Podcast episode and you just get up and start organizing while you listen instead of just gathering information! Are you ready to draw your line and get started on your organizing journey? Resources Mentioned in This Episode The Kolbe Assessment Book: How ADHD Affects Home Organization Book: Organization is a Learnable Skill Get Started: The Sunday Basket® System Get Started: The Productive Home Solution™ Related Episodes #69 - My Depression Story #242 - Golden Windows of Organizing Opportunity 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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I am sharing my interview with Loren S. She lives with her boyfriend and her 10 houseplants. Loren describes herself as a natural "piler" but implementing the Sunday Basket® System means that she now has fewer piles around her home. She and her boyfriend participated in the Adult Spring Break Blitz by cleaning out and reorganizing their linen closet together. Loren also introduced me to The Conqueror Challenge, which is an app that gamifies exercise. I do some teaching in my conversation with Loren about how to manage her Sunday Basket®. We talk about having only 5 slash pockets in each color and how to manage an ideas slash pocket for each color. Loren shares how she tried to DIY a Sunday Basket® for herself before committing and purchasing the Sunday Basket® System. She found the extra teaching you get with the Sunday Basket® System precisely what she needed to mentally grasp the system and be successful. Is it time for you to make the commitment and purchase the Sunday Basket® System? I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ Related Episodes Swiss Cheese Organizing - Organize 365® Research Findings - #481 I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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!

One of the most impactful books I've ever read is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. This book taught me so much about consistency, well before Organize 365® was even an idea. We've reached a major milestone with this episode here at Organize 365®. This episode is our 500th Friday podcast episode. This doesn't count the extra episodes we've done over the years with Wednesday Transformations, Coffee Chats, and more. Counting those would bring us to well over 700 episodes in total and you've downloaded these episodes over 16 million times as of July 2022. Those numbers and that amount of content creation only come with consistency. In all these years, I've NEVER missed publishing a Friday episode! I was in my late 20s or early 30s when first read The Slight Edge and it stuck with me. I didn't fully understand back then the impact of a habit over time. You don't see that until you look back later. I knew I had to find ways to unlock more time in my life. I dived deep into how organization could unlock more time for me. Now, with the creation and implementation of the Sunday Basket® System, YOU have collectively unlocked 3 million hours and counting in YOUR lives! Wow! In this episode, I'm sharing quotes from The Slight Edge and things I learned from the book. Here are some of my takeaways: I had to see things in life not as being "to" me, but rather "for" me. Consistency beats talent. Most businesses take 10 years to really get started. Things will take longer than you want, but you need to look at time differently. Stop looking for permission! Podcasts that take breaks don't last. I have higher self-standards now, but there are no "shoulds" and much more "grace" in my life. Focus on what you can change. Visionaries make people uncomfortable. I'm odd. You probably are too. There are fewer people to talk to as you move up. You have to live more in your mind than in reality to see the next big thing happen. It's time to stop filling your days with to-do lists and household tasks. Quit doing things that don't matter in the long term. Focus instead on being consistent in what WILL make a difference over time. Consistency beats talent, money, and pedigree every time. I'd love to hear how you're using your extra time to do what you're uniquely created to do! Join me on a Wednesday Transformation episode, tag me on Instagram (@Organize365), or share your story in our community app. Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson The Sunday Basket System® 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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I am sharing my interview with Laurie R. She lives with her husband and three kids, including one with special needs. When Laurie lost her job in 2015, she looked for organizing podcasts to listen to and found Organize 365®. At the time she was frustrated because her 1800s-era home had no closets and everything felt cluttered. You might be surprised to learn that she actually tackled her paper management first! We talk about Swiss cheese organizing, how hiring a house cleaner is a form of accountability, and permission to let go of things. Laurie also gave a great tip for creating a "jobs binder" to hold copies of professional licensure paperwork, performance reviews, and portfolio samples. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ Friday Workbox® The Paper Solution® Warrior MAMA Binder Related Episodes Swiss Cheese Organizing - Organize 365® Research Findings - #481 I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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!

Time to plan out the next quarter of your work? Learn more about the Friday Workbox® Planning Day in this orientation replay. Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

Time to your work? Learn more about the Friday Workbox® in this orientation replay. Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

The Pareto Principle says that 80% of the fruit comes from 20% of the labor. I first learned about this principle when reading 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More by Perry Marshall. This is not just a sales thing. It can be seen in nature, road traffic, and math. So, I started thinking about how this 80/20 principle applies to our homes and housework. I know that perfection is not attainable. Instead, I've resolved to strive for excellence. What does it look like to be an excellent homemaker? We tend to equate cleanliness with organization. We are looking for order but "cleaning" your house doesn't bring that order. In this episode, I share with you how I have employed the 80/20 principle in my house to bring it to excellence but not perfection while also giving me time to do what I'm uniquely created to do. (Spoiler alert: We're going to talk more next week about using that extra time!) What do 80% and excellence look like for my floors, counters/flat surfaces, laundry, and straightening/tidying in my home? What does it mean to get to 80% in your Sunday Basket® routine and The Productive Home Solution™? Read the full show notes here: https://organize365.com/podcast/effort-the-80-20-of-housework-not-all-housework-is-equal Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More by Perry Marshall The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ Organize 365® Research Paper Organizing Retreats Related Episodes Swiss Cheese Organizing - Organize 365® Research Findings - #481 Organizing Personal Spaces - #482 Organizing Family & Communal Spaces - #483 Organizing Storage Spaces - #484 Organizing Paper Management - #485 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!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, Holly P. is joining me again to update us on her transformation. You can listen to her previous transformation story here. Holly is back to talk about the Friday Workbox®, quick moves, self-care, and more. I love how Holly put together a Workbox® just for her pink slash pockets and how her dreaming and rising self-confidence brought her a promotion to management in her company. Way to go Holly! Holly's story is a great example of what happens when you use those pink slash pockets and start dreaming. What is in your pink slash pockets? I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® The Sunday Basket System Friday Workbox® Book: Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo Transformation with Katherine Z. The Paper Solution® Certification Program I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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!

Time to get your paper organized? Learn more about our paper organizing retreat in this orientation replay. Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

Jacqui Ioli is back with me on the podcast to finish the conversation that we started last week. Be sure to listen to her Wednesday Transformation to hear more about who she is and her story. Before you listen to this episode, go back and listen to the first part of our conversation about Jacqui's Hot Mess Theory of work and the concepts of overwork, underwork, rework, and workarounds. In this episode, Jacqui and I get into real-world examples of how you can eliminate overwork, underwork, rework, and workarounds, especially in terms of creating correct paths using the Sunday Basket® System. Many people have gotten organized using Marie Kondo's system of pulling everything out and going through it all until it's done. Unfortunately, this doesn't work well for the average woman, especially moms. It causes more chaos because you don't have big blocks of time to work with. The Organize 365® method gets you organized in 15-minute, bite-sized chunks of time that you can expand into larger blocks when the time and energy are available. You will still have some of the hot mess chaos between the stages of decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity, but it will not be catastrophic to you personally and your life in general. The Sunday Basket® specifically helps you eliminate the four types of work that Jacqui discusses and gives you back time. Our research says you can get back on average 5 hours a week by developing a Sunday Basket® routine! Having a place to gather the actionable paper but also a time to sit down and process those papers and random thoughts gives you the space to develop procedures and eliminate the problem of no correct path. Jacqui describes how she has a procedure for when she finds a pair of work pants that don't meet her needs. She has a correct path for removing those pants from her closet and home. Could you create your own Sunday Basket® System? Could you create your own curriculum like The Productive Home Solution™ to organize your home? Sure, but as Jacqui describes, it's faster and easier to buy the programs and modify anything to fit your specific needs rather than to create it from scratch. Eliminate the overwork! Jacqui also talks about signs and systems for taking care of an aging parent. If you're caregiving for an aging parent or another relative, you need to hear how Jacqui talks about vital signs for determining their capacity for caring for themselves. She also gives this great tip about creating a duplicate binder of their paperwork to keep at your home. What about paper versus digital? Yes, we went there too in this conversation! By all means, keep digital copies, and feel free to create complimentary digital systems. But, paper is powerful! When you walk into doctor's appointments or IEP meetings, you will save time, get more accomplished, and be taken more seriously if you can hand over a physical piece of paper. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Jacqui. I loved hearing about her research and examples of how and why the Sunday Basket® system works to eliminate the hot mess chaos in your life! Be sure to visit the post for this episode because you can download Jacqui's slides from her presentation as well as some medical forms that she graciously shared with us and links to other things we discussed.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week, I am sharing my interview with Lisa J. She lives with her husband on a farm in a remote area of Western Australia. They also have two teens who go to boarding school because of their remote location. Their 17,000-acre crop-oriented farm and they have employees who live onsite. Lisa found Organize 365® when she was searching for a better way to organize their business. We had a great conversation about Australia, the Friday Workbox®, Lisa's partial digital system with her Friday Workbox®, anxiety, and community involvement. I even snuck in a little business coaching about hiring and training new employees. Lisa's story is a great example of what happens when you get your work life organized. If you're looking to get your business or work life organized, you need the Friday Workbox®! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® Workboxes I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave us a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. See this post and coffee chat episode for help setting up a podcast app as well as how to leave a rating and a review. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Jacqui Ioli is my guest today on the podcast. If you're not familiar with Jacqui's story, be sure to go back and listen to her Wednesday Transformation episode. I asked Jacqui to join me to talk in-depth about why the Sunday Basket® works and how the concepts spill over into your work with the Friday Workbox®. Jacqui has been a registered nurse for 40 years and a nurse practitioner for 25 years. She went back to school in her 50s to get her Ph.D. in nursing education and research. She's brilliant! (And talking with her makes me want to get a Ph.D. even more!) I know you're going to love hearing how she explains these concepts. Jacqui got into research because she wanted to figure out why work was such a mess for the outpatient nurses she was supervising. She found grounded theory research, which is simply the basic way people solve day-to-day problems in a particular setting. She applies her knowledge of grounded theory to my theory of organizing: Declutter, organize, and increase productivity. After some insight into how a medical practice operates, we dive into types of work as well as the concept of invisible work. Invisible work is everywhere at home and at work! Making the invisible work visible allows you to reduce it, systematize it, and talk about it. Next, we dig into Jacqui's Hot Mess Theory of work. The Hot Mess Theory consists of four different types of work that are happening simultaneously. These are: Overwork Underwork Rework Workarounds In this episode, Jacqui fabulously explains these four types of work in detail and how they relate to the Sunday Basket® and your work life. Overwork is too much work or too many steps. Jacqui explains this in terms of dusting. You could dust daily, but is that necessary? Could you stretch out dusting to my standard of six weeks or maybe every four weeks works between at your house? In this area it is important to ask two questions: Where am I doing too much? Where can I delegate? If you are overworking, you are also underworking. Underwork is working below your level of skill and training. If you say that it is just easier to do it yourself rather than delegate a task, you are both underworking and overworking yourself at the same time. This brings us to rework. This is work that wasn't done right the first time and must be done again. At home, this can be related to looking for something that you lost. The Sunday Basket® rescues you here because you can use it as the holding place for those important and actionable items. In terms of paperwork, where can a task be automated that has to be done over and over again? In housework, why are you refolding clothes or reloading the dishwasher? Let good enough, be good enough! Doing rework leads back to overwork. Workarounds happen when you don't follow the process or there is no correct path. You don't have time to think when you're in the midst of overwork, underwork, and rework. You then end up taking the workarounds because there's no correct path. The Sunday Basket® System and Friday Workbox® routines give you the opportunity to process the work, iterate, and create the correct path. These systems help you reduce barriers to your work and you make forward progress! Jacqui and I just kept talking and talking so we split this conversation into two parts. she will be back next week to talk more about her Hot Mess Theory. Be sure to check out the full show notes on the website for this episode to get the download of Jacqui's slides from her presentation.