Organize 365 Podcast

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 Jacqui I. She lives with her husband and adult son, but has also been responsible for her aging parents and their estate. Listen in to hear how getting organized has helped her cope with the emotional rollercoaster of some unexpected events over the last year. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I'm so excited to have Eve Rodsky on the podcast again! Eve first joined me on the podcast back in episode #312 where she discussed her book Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live). I highly recommend going back and listening to that episode so you have a foundational understanding of the concept of Fair Play. Since she was here last time, she has released the Fair Play Documentary that I also think you should go watch. In this episode, Eve and I discuss the invisible work being done at home and how society has tried to erase the gender division of labor in the home. So much focus has been on women and giving women tools to better balance work life and home life. Eve found it difficult through Fair Play to give solutions to families who said that both the man and the woman in the household were doing a task. Enter the mustard. How did the mustard get into your refrigerator? This is a great example that you have to hear Eve use to explain the difference between the execution of a task versus the cognitive labor related to a task. It's eye-opening! We then discuss some of Eve's family background growing up with a single mom as well as my daughter Abby's life as a single mom today. A large number of children each year are both to single moms. These single moms are unfortunately at a disadvantage because they are usually holding all of the cards for their families and therefore have fewer work and income opportunities available. Eve also walks me through an exercise that I hope you will also do for yourself. First, what is an activity outside of your roles that you love to do and share with the world? This goes beyond self-care or exercise or pleasure reading. Second, what is something you love to do? What values does doing this thing bring up for you? I of course talked about travel and learning, but Eve helped me see how understanding the values underneath these things will help you find activities that can bring up these values for you even when you're unable to do the activities you really want to do. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Eve Rodsky as much as I did! Connect with Eve Rodsky Visit FairPlayLife.com Watch the Fair Play Documentary Follow Fair Play Life on Instagram Listen to episode #312 - Fair Play with Eve Rodsky

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 conversation with Shea B. She lives with her husband, her 12-year-old daughter, and her 8-year-old son who has special needs. Shea found Organize 365® because she needed something to pick up her after listening to true crime podcasts. She stayed because she related to my stories about raising my kids who also have special needs. Shea says that she appeared organized, but she didn't feel organized. She ordered The Productive Home Solution™ and while her family was away, she did a year of organizing in 4 days! The freedom of an empty house allowed her to move quickly. The other resource that Shea found helpful is the Warrior MAMA Binder. She tells how she was able to better advocate for her son and receive needed services for him. Now she has more time to give back to the community that supported her when her son was a newborn. What a great way to use her extra time! Can you relate to Shea's story? Do you need a system to manage all of the paper and information related to a disability diagnosis for your child? The Warrior MAMA Binder is the resource you've been looking for! I walk you through gathering all of the paperwork from medical to IEP/504 and more so you can be a better advocate for your child. 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™ The Paper Solution® Warrior MAMA Binder I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

Over the last several weeks, we've been talking about the history and importance of Home Economics. Listen to all of the episodes in this series: The History of Home Economics In Lisa's Family - #492 The Secret History of Home Economics Part 1 (1800-1940) - #493 The Secret History of Home Economics Part 2 (1940 - Now) - #494 I left you last week with the promise of the story of how my house didn't fall apart while I was on the book tour last summer. This story really begins in 2012. So, back in 2012, I started getting organized. In Organization is a Learnable Skill, I share this story and how I went from being overweight and depressed to organized and starting a company. What happened next was the realization that I could teach this skill of organization through a podcast and courses. The problem? Well, about 5 or 6 years ago, I found that I was out of time. With everything I was doing at home, I only had about 6 hours a day to devote to Organize 365®. I tried working until late at night. I tried working on the weekends. My family wasn't happy because they only saw my working hours and it looked like I was always working. I just didn't have any additional time in my days to grow my business and I didn't have the finances to hire any more people. In this episode, I want to share with you how I worked myself out of jobs at home to make time to do what I'm uniquely created to do! At that time, my kids were in high school and I was driving them 25 hours a week. I was doing all of the household chores except taking out the trash and mowing the lawn. So, I made some decisions. I abdicated everything related to cooking, except doing the dishes. Greg took this area on. I delegated the house cleaning to a housekeeper. For a period of time, I even hired out most of the laundry to our local dry cleaner. The Sunday Basket® and my weekly Sunday Basket® routine took the load of many of the invisible things. The routine running of the household takes place during my Sunday Basket® time. Bill paying, holiday planning, date night planning, vacation planning, reordering prescriptions, making doctor appointments, placing online orders, scheduling car maintenance, and more. Anything related to running errands, I place orders to be shipped or picked up instead of running around town. As far as organization is concerned, there wasn't much left. My husband and kids handled their own personal organization, I was personally organized, the storage area was organized, and my paper was organized. These things only needed maintenance. That only left family and communal spaces. Because I have a house cleaner, all that's left is for me to just make sure that those spaces are picked up regularly. When I left for the book tour last summer, Greg was sure that the house would fall apart without me. But, it didn't! Everyone continued to do the things they do and they figured out how to handle the dishes. Every member of our family is now capable of making a meal, cleaning, and doing their laundry. They handle their own personal and paper organizing needs. I have worked myself out of these jobs! What job can you start working yourself out of so you have more time to do what YOU are uniquely created to do? The Productive Home Solution™ and the Sunday Basket® System can help you take control of your home and paper starting today! The Sunday Basket® System alone can give you back 5 hours a week of your time!

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 conversation with Lauren S. She lives with her husband and 4 kids. She has a daughter who is non-verbal and wheelchair-bound from a genetic condition. Lauren shares the chaos of the last couple of years from two job changes for her husband to issues with access to services and changes to special ed teachers for her daughter during the pandemic. She decided that she could not continue to live in survival mode permanently! She joined The Productive Home Solution™ and jumped in with both feet. This self-proclaimed creative who struggled with organization decided that organization is a learnable skill. She made organizing her part-time job and plowed through the 100 Day Home Organization Program and more in less than 100 Days! Lauren pushed past grief and faced the emotional paperwork for her daughter to create her Warrior Mama Binder in time for an IEP meeting as well as boxing up belongings of her late brother for safekeeping that had been taking up space in her home office. The community app and the Sunday Basket® Club were essential to her success especially when she struggled with figuring out what her next step should be. Can you relate to Lauren's story? Do you have a special needs family member for whom you are the primary caregiver? Are you tired of living in the chaos of survival mode? Regain control of your home and paper with The Productive Home Solution™ and the Sunday Basket® System like Lauren did! 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™ The Paper Solution® Warrior MAMA Binder I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

This is the third episode is a series on Home Economics and the book The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger. In the first episode, I talked to you about my personal family history. In the last episode, we talked about how Home Economics grew and moved outside of personal homes in the 1800s and early 1900s. Listen to all of the episodes in this series: The History of Home Economics In Lisa's Family - #492 The Secret History of Home Economics Part 1 (1800-1940) - #493 In this episode, we pick up the timeline at World War II. The ending of the war brought a change with fewer women in the workforce and fewer women going to college. Two-thirds of women were married by the time they reached age 24. Despite new technology, in the 1950s, these women were still spending 52 hours a week on housework. At this time the American Home Economics Association defined Home Economics as being concerned with strengthening family life. A divide emerged. On one side were women who understood the original definition of Home Economics. They believed that what happens at home is important, is a science, and should be studied in higher education. On the other hand, there were children of the next generation like me who were taught that Home Economics was about socialization and based on what the government and consumer brands wanted for society. You either had to be a fulltime homemaker or have a fulltime career. Jobs held by men generally brought in enough income for women to have the luxury of being primary homemakers. There were still scientific advancements being made in the field of Home Economics during this time period, but brands like Betty Crocker and Johnson & Johnson were driving the narrative of what it meant to run your family. I love digging into the history of divides in thinking like this. My grandmother never understood the controversy. She said to just do the work! It doesn't matter where the work is or what the work pays. Just do the work. As we move forward, I want to talk more about the division of housework. How did housework go from being all women's work to now being a discussion about having equity at home? What I really want you to see is the invisible work that is being done at home. Much of what we do is on autopilot and was learned from our mothers and grandmothers. There is a shift in process. Everyone in the family wants to feel valued for the work that they are contributing to the family. In the next episode, I'll share how I worked myself out of being a fulltime stay-at-home mom to being a working mom who traveled for six weeks last summer. (Spoiler alert! Nothing fell apart at home while I was gone!)

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 conversation with Tracy S. She lives with her husband and three high school and college-age kids. Tracy is a former special education teacher and homeschooler. She used to have so much anxiety at night that it would drive her out of bed. Everything was in her brain and she was terrified of forgetting an important piece of information or not being able to find an important piece of paper. The Sunday Basket® reduced her anxiety and helps her sleep better. Tracy also found the Kids Program helpful and wishes that she'd had that resource available when her kids were younger. Can you relate to Tracy's story? Do you have paper and informational stress and anxiety that keeps your brain awake at night? 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™ Kids Program I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

Last week, I shared with you some of the history of my family of origin, which has given me the perspective that I have regarding home economics. You can listen to that episode here. In this episode, I'm diving into the content of The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger. This is a meaty book and a fascinating read! Home Economics was the path that was created for women to enter college and earn college degrees. Women like Catherine Beecher, Ellen Swallow, and Margaret Murray Washington led the way in the field. Home Economics at that time was about an ideal home life that was unhampered by tradition and which utilized modern science for better productivity. It was about the study of food properties and diets as well as experiments with bacteria, standardization of clothing measurements, and so much more. This is the time in which MY grandmothers were living and earning their Home Economics degrees. They were learning that what you do at home affects the larger American economy. Running your home like a business is a thing and it impacts more than just your family! I hope that you found this history as informative and as interesting as I did! I shared a few ways that we are making changes in our home to be better examples for and to teach our children how to stretch their budget and food supplies. How will you use this knowledge about Home Economics to make changes in how you run YOUR home? What missing skills will you be teaching your children now in light of the current state of the economy? In the next episode, we will talk about how the view of home economics shifted after World War II. The Launching Life Skills Bundle is a great resource for the young adults in your life! We've put together digital training and the essential portions of our physical resources to help your high schooler, college student, or young professional prepare to transition from living at home as a kid to being an independent adult. Learn more here about this and the rest of our Kids Program here.

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 conversation with Nancy B. She lives with her husband and their two young children. Nancy is a nurse practitioner in Canada. She first learned about Organize 365® through a former grad school professor who was sharing about her Sunday Basket®. Nancy had used the Marie Kondo method successfully for herself but quickly found that she needed something more to keep her growing family organized. She really saw the benefits of her new systems during a medical emergency when she was able to quickly gather medications and information for her husband when he experienced a heart attack a few weeks after their second child was born. Can you relate to Nancy's story? Are you a somewhat organized person but your systems aren't working now that you're a wife and mom? Have you had a medical emergency in your family and not been able to quickly gather the needed medical details and paperwork? This episode is for you! Related episodes: My Depression Story & How Depression Affects Organization - #69 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! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

Last summer while I was on The Paper Solution® book tour in Chicago, an attendee recommended that I read The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger. It sounded interesting so I grabbed the audiobook. Oh my! I couldn't listen fast enough! When I got home, I had to have a paper copy of the book to take notes and dive deeper. Over the last year, I've been digesting and contemplating what I read in this book. I'm now ready to share my thoughts and reflections over the course of several podcast episodes this month. First, I want to talk to you about my latest reflection on my family of origin and how this reflection has created a greater understanding for me of the role women in my history have had and then next week we will dive into the content of the book. In this episode, I share about the families on both my dad's side and my mom's side and the difference between the two in terms of average life span, education, and family practices. I go into depth about my mom's side of the family where we have a long history of women going to college and becoming entrepreneurs. The Secret History of Home Economics helped me understand why each generation in my family thought about and experienced a different college and work experience - even with the same college subject degree! This was the foundation from which I went to college, became an entrepreneur, developed a love for travel, and now understand home economics. I also share with you the origin of my "grandma name" that I hope Grayson will use once he starts talking! - but so far I respond to anything!! What was your family of origin like? What is your background in understanding home economics? History is SO fascinating! There is an economy at home and work to be done at home that is valuable. At Organize 365®, we're figuring out what that work is, defining it, and eliminating Swiss Cheese organization. The journey begins with the Sunday Basket® System to organize your actionable paper and continues to organizing the rest of your home with The Productive Home Solution™. Then you can take that success into your work with the Friday Workbox®. Join me as I teach you the skill of home organization and make visible the invisible work that is done at home!

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 conversation with Laurie W. She lives with her husband. They are empty nesters with boys who come home frequently for long visits. Laurie found Organize 365® through the podcast. She was about to start working on organizing her youngest son's room while listening to an episode of the podcast when she heard me say to work first on the room where you spend the most time. Laurie dropped everything and moved to the living room to start her journey to a lasting organization. We talk about the pandemic, family working from home, organizing storage spaces, how bigger houses just mean more places to put things, Sunday Basket® insights, The Paper Solution® book, Home Planning Day, and more. Can you relate to Laurie's story? Are you an empty nester ready to take advantage of this golden window? Are you surrounded by family working and schooling from home? Are you struggling to get your Sunday Basket® habit started? 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™ The Paper Solution® book Home Planning Day I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins! Read the full show notes with links here: https://organize365.com/podcast/transformation-with-laurie-w

I'm changing and iterating again! I'm a teacher and a life-long learner and it's time to pass new knowledge on to you. We are finally ready to release to you the changes to The Productive Home Solution™ that I've been talking about in some of the recent podcasts. Over the last 18 months, our Organize 365® Research has revealed that 87% of you believe that organization is a learnable skill, but only 13-18% of you feel organized in any of the four essential areas of organization. So, a large percentage of us feel like horrific failures when it comes to organization! It's time for that to change! It's now time for The Productive Home Solution™ to be re-organized to reflect these four essential areas of organization. Beginning today, The Productive Home Solution™ Dashboard will have the content and videos from the 100 Day Home Organization Program split into Slash Pockets for the four essential areas of organization. Now you get to decide which area you want to organize first and declare that you are organized in that space. You'll also find four new corresponding groups in our community app where you can share and chat with others who are working on that same essential organizational space with you. In this episode, I give you more background and information about these changes. I also give you some advice and considerations for which space to tackle first. If you've not yet taken the leap to join The Productive Home Solution™, now is the perfect time! No more waiting for the next session to start. You can begin with any of the 4 organizational spaces starting today! Learn more here. Which area will you choose to get fully organized first this fall? Your personal spaces? Your family & communal spaces? Your storage spaces? Your paper management? Read the full show notes with links here: https://organize365.com/podcast/bite-size-organizing-how-to-declare-you-are-organized-

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This week I am sharing my conversation with Samantha S. She is a teacher who lives with her husband and her three kids under four years old. Samantha found that by going through The Productive Home Solution™ to organize her home, moving to a new home was easier but it also made for much less stress when both her second and third children were born four weeks early in 2019 and 2021. Samantha loves following along with the Sunday Basket® Club using the recording and is able to process her 1.0 Slash Pocket system in less than an hour each week. She says that following along with the Sunday Basket® Club removes analysis paralysis. She doesn't have to think about what needs to be done to process her Sunday Basket® because we guide her through each week! Next up on her list is to get her The Paper Solution® Binders organized. Can you relate to Samantha's story? Has The Productive Home Solution™ helped you survive a move or unexpected event? Do you join us each week in the Organize 365® app for the Sunday Basket® Club? 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™ (formerly All Access) The Paper Solution® Binders I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

Have you seen the organization in a kindergarten classroom? It's full of cubbies and bins. Any classroom from preschool through high school is designed to function well. The environment is organized in a way that there is a place for everything to be put away. There's a place for the books and the toys. There are stations designated for different activities. Classrooms are also set up to be age-appropriate. You won't find baby toys in the middle school classroom! The classroom environment is set up so that when the kids enter, they have the age-appropriate things they need and everything is where it is supposed to be. Your home can be set up this way too! If you are teaching the skill of organizing to someone else, you first need a picture of what done looks like. Have an orientation when you organize a space in your home. This shows your family where things are located, the rules of that area, and what it should look like when it is clean up after using that space. Next, you need a lesson plan. You have to know the right amount of work to give to your student so that they neither become bored or overwhelmed when learning how to organize. Finally, the person you're teaching needs to have a spark ignited to want to learn the skill of organization. You cannot create this spark in someone else, but once they have it, it's game on! In this episode, I help you think about what your space should look like to make it function like a classroom. I also walk you through how to teach the skill of organization to someone else. What will your first step be in making your home function like a classroom? The Productive Home Solution™ gives you all of the information and tools that you need to organize your home so that it is age-appropriate and functions well for your current life stage. It's also set up in bite-sized chunks so you can do as little or as much as you want to do at a time. Join The Productive Home Solution™ here.

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 conversation with Andrea P. She lives with her husband, their young son, and their dog in the UK. Andrea with diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. She sought the diagnosis because while she compensated well into her adult years while she was single, life became too much when in a space of 3 years she married, bought a house, adopted a dog, and had a baby. I'm sure many of you can relate! She found that organization is a learnable skill and is now thriving! What resonates with YOU about Andrea's story? Do you have ADHD? I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday 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™ (formerly All Access) The Paper Solution® Binders I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

Do you know your preferred learning style? If you don't know your learning style, think back to your highest level of formal education. How did you make it through or study for tests? That's likely your preferred learning style. You may find that you use more than one learning style, but you have a natural bent toward one of them. There are four main learning styles: Auditory Kinesthetic Visual Reading / Writing In this episode, I'm sharing details about these four learning styles to help you figure out which one works best for you. Then, I want you to use these learning styles to see your home (and your work) in a different way. Because I am a teacher at heart, I have created our systems at Organize 365® to work for any learning style. I explain some of the features of our products and how to make better use of those things from the perspective of your learning style. From podcasts to coworking times, from videos to written materials, I've given you the content in multiple formats to help you succeed in becoming organized. It's your home! Focus on consuming and implementing new information in your preferred way of learning. Give yourself the grace to learn as an adult learner the way that you are uniquely wired to learn! How do you learn best? What features of Organize 365® programs and products have you found work best for your learning style?

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 conversation with Sarah K. She lives with her husband and two of her adult children. Sarah shares how she tamed the paper monster! She used to dread her husband asking for a receipt or important paper, but not anymore. She went from 13 (yes, 13!) file cabinets down to 1/2 a desk file drawer and organized binders. Now she can find the papers she needs for her family, her home, and her rental properties quickly and easily in her Sunday Basket®, Business Workbox®, and The Paper Solution® Binders. I also love how organizing became a family project for this tight-knit former homeschooling family. What resonates with YOU about Sarah's story? Are you dealing with medical issues in your family or drowning in paper? 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

Angela Watson is here again! If you're a teacher and you don't know Angela, you need to meet her! She was a classroom teacher for 11 years and has spent over a decade as an instructional coach. She has a podcast called Truth for Teachers and created the 40 hour Teacher Workweek program to help teachers take back control of their time. In this episode, Angela and I dive into what's going on in education and the classroom post-pandemic. A survey from the NEA says that 55% of teachers are looking to retire sooner than they had the previous fall. That's a scary number when the typical attrition rate for teachers is 8%. Education Week says that teachers work an average of 54 hours a week and half of that time is spent on non-teaching time work. Angela's surveys have found that the average in her audience is 62 hours per week. Teachers know when they go into this profession that work doesn't end at 3pm, but at the same time, teachers are being taken advantage of because of their deep care for their work. What's the solution? How can teachers work fewer hours and be more productive? Angela and I have both spent a lot of time working on different angles of this issue so we chat about ways to fix this problem! It comes back to boundaries and organization. Angela's contribution to the solution is the 40 hour Teacher Workweek program. One of the things she does in this program is help teachers understand the difference between hobby work and required work. We have a long discussion about what hobby work is and how to cut back your work hours by reducing this type of work. Using Angela's program, most members have been able to cut 5 hours off of their work week in the first month in the same way that Sunday Basket® users are able to save 5 hours a week after using the system for 6 weeks! My contribution to the solution is the Education Friday Workbox®. This system compliments Angela's solution by helping you organize the administrative and paperwork side of teaching. Instead of missing deadlines and spending time looking for important papers, you have more time to focus on the lesson planning and the teaching that you love. I love talking with Angela! I hope you teachers out there find help and hope in these solutions!

For the final episode in this series about the Education Friday Workbox®, I'm talking with Kate McDonnell. Kate is single and lives with her cat in Colorado. She has been a teacher for over 15 years. Her career started with teaching science but her background is in computer programming. She now teaches many different technology-related courses in different formats with a schedule that changes every week. Kate is also a certified organizer. You can find out more about working with her here. In this episode, Kate and I discuss the challenges of teaching and organizing so many different classes and then the administrative work that goes along with that. Kate loves using the portable Sunday Basket® to carry her Slash pockets and papers with her to her various schools. We also talk a little about managing email. You know that I'm not your digital organizer, but I do have some tips for organizing email. (I share even more about email organization in the email course inside of The Productive Home Solution™.) Learn more about the Education Friday Workbox® here. Registration for Teacher Camp is now open. Click here to learn more and sign up.

In this final week of the series on spaces to organize, I'm talking about the second optional space to organize: memories and photos. Now, I don't personally believe that this is an optional space to organize for me and my family. It's kind of a passion of mine! After you have sorted through the four essential areas of paper -- medical, financial, household reference, and household operations -- you're still left with a lot of paper that I categorize as memories and photos. What do you do with all of these things? In this episode, I explain that there are different levels of final organization of memories and photos that you could choose to end at from simple boxes of collated photos to photo albums and binders. I love creating topic-based albums: holidays, vacations, birthdays, etc. I also personally love creating binders and albums because my family is more likely to pull them off the shelf and look at them over items kept in a box. Organizing your memories and photos can be such a source of joy for your family as they look back at the family history you've gathered and fun memories from their lives. In our Saving Your Story Photo Organization Program, I walk you through sorting all of your photos, eliminating duplicates, and creating final albums with those photos. Is organizing memories and photos optional for you? What is keeping you from organing this space?

Over the last few weeks, we've been talking about the updated Education Friday Workbox®. This week, I'm talking with Michele Vinje. She's been an educator for over 28 years in the same school and the same building for her entire career. She has taught various history and economics courses to sophomores, juniors, and seniors over the years. You can hear more of Michele's personal story in her transformation episode. Michele is also a certified organizer. You can find out more about working with her here. In this episode, Michele and I discuss how the education system has changed since the pandemic. We talk about how the Education Friday Workbox® is a place to hold all of those administrative tasks that are important but not urgent so you can get to them once a week and before something is due. Michelle describes how the Education Friday Workbox® frees up your brain and that it is a system that is inclusive for all educators and administrators but customizable for anyone in the education world. And don't forget about the colors! The colored Slash pockets make it easy to find a category of information quickly. Learn more about the Education Friday Workbox® here. Registration for Teacher Camp is now open. Click here to learn more and sign up.

We've been talking about essential organizing for the last several podcast episodes. Listen to the rest of the episodes in this series: Organizing Personal Spaces Organizing Family & Communal Spaces Organizing Storage Spaces Organizing Paper Management This week, we are transitioning to the first of two optional spaces to organize. The first space is kids. Organizing anything related to kids is optional! But, if you have kids, I really think you do need to organize the things and spaces related to them. I've tried to organize my kids in a way that is Pinterest-worthy but let me tell you, it just doesn't work. It's not functional. I have three mindset shifts for you when it comes to organizing kids: It's good enough. Establish how long it takes to achieve good enough. Remember that organization is a learnable skill, even for your kids. In this episode, I go deeper into these three thoughts. I also break down the ages and stages of organizing kids and give you tips for each of those stages. Whether you have 0-5-year-olds, 6-12-year-olds, or teens, I have suggestions for not only organizing your kids but also teaching them how to organize themselves! What do you find hardest about organizing your kids? How are you teaching them to organize for themselves? Take the next step in organizing your kids with our Kids Program. For your teens and young adults heading out into the world, take a look at our Launching Life Skills Bundle or Launch Bundle. Also talked about in this episode: Kids One Clip

This week, Annie Sisemore joins me to tell you how she uses her workbox in her job as an educator. Annie began her teaching career by substitute teaching right out of high school and has experience over the years in middle school math, instructional coaching at the district level, and as an adjunct professor teaching college students who want to be teachers. You can hear more of Annie's personal story in her transformation episode. In this episode, Annie shares some great insights from her personal experience for using your Education Friday Workbox® such as how she uses slash pockets for her college students who she never sees in person and for gathering information for training new teachers in her district. We also talk more about the philosophy behind and changes we made to the Education Friday Workbox®. Get the presale Education Friday Workbox® with special bonus here while supplies last. Registration for Teacher Camp is now open. Click here to learn more and sign up.

In this podcast series, we've been talking about essential organizing. You can catch up on this series by listening to these episodes: Organizing Personal Spaces Organizing Family & Communal Spaces Organizing Storage Spaces This week, we are moving to organizing your paper management in our quest for functional organization in your home. You know how much I love to talk about paper organization! People are FINALLY coming around to the fact that paper is not going away, and it needs to be organized. You could organize your paper first or last, and you could also choose to only organize portions of your paper. We found in our research study that 54% of people have piles of paper everywhere. Only 18% of people have a system in place for organizing that paper. In addition, 70% of Millenials perceive a reduction in stress when their paper is organized. You see, we all have paper. You could have less paper, but you're never going to be paperless. Paper is different than other areas of your home. It's different because 85% of what you store in your filing cabinet you will NEVER need again. The remaining 15% is paper that you do need and you need to be able to find it when you go looking for it. You only go looking for these important papers when there's a problem. Binders are the solution! Trust me, your future self in crisis will thank you when you have your paper organized and can find what you need. But here's the other problem you will run into with paper: Only about 20% of what I suggest that you put into your binders is actually in your filing cabinet or it is actually paper at all. The other 80% of what needs to be in your binders is either on the computer where only you know how to find it or it is stored in your brain. If something happens to you, how does anyone else take care of anything in your home or for your family? In this episode, you'll find encouragement for why and how to get your paper organized. Are your papers organized? What is keeping you from organizing your paper? Mentioned in this episode: Podcast #420 - The Weight of Paper Paper Organizing Retreats The Paper Solution® Binders

In this podcast series, I have talked with you about organizing your personal spaces and then about organizing your family and communal spaces. Now, we're ready to move into your storage spaces. Storage spaces are not easy to organize, but once you set your mind to it, they can be maintained for the rest of your life! Really, they can! Whether it is your attic, basement, or an off-site storage unit, once you have a system in place, this storage space can stay organized for decades. With the exception of some transient storage spaces, your storage space is generally a hidden area of organization. People don't see these spaces so we tend to put off organizing them. What I want you to understand is the mindset of organizing a storage space. You must start thinking of it as a store. It is your on-demand, already paid-for store, where you're storing things for when you need them. In this episode, I share with you about creating a storage mindset, what kinds of things you might find in your storage space, and how to group those items. I also talk about why you might consider tackling your storage space BEFORE the rest of your home. Ready to organize your storage space? You'll find more detailed guidance for organizing your storage space in The Productive Home Solution™. What do you keep in your storage spaces? What have you been holding onto in your storage space that really needs to go?

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 conversation with Krys H. She lives with her husband and their 21-year-old cat, but she is also mom to 11 grown children. Krys talks about the medical issues in her family and how having The Paper Solution® Medical Binder paperwork with her helped the first responders care for her during a recent accident. She also shares how she packed for a long-distance move that included downsizing from 3,000 sq ft to 1,400 sq ft. Krys is also a faithful keeper of her Sunday Basket®, which she does on Friday each week. There are so many fun nuggets of inspiration in this conversation! What resonates with YOU about Krys' story? Are you dealing with medical issues in your family or preparing for a move? 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™ (formerly All Access) The Paper Solution® Binders I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

This week we are moving from personal organization to the next area of organization: family and communal spaces. These are the areas that you will want to organize first because people see them when they come into your home, but they are the hardest areas to organize and maintain. I know, there can be judgment anxiety over these spaces. There is also a tension between wanting these spaces to look good but also being able to live in them comfortably. In our research study, we found that only 14% of people say that they have their family and communal spaces organized. Why is this? Well... How often have you spent so much time cleaning and organizing just to turn around and find that space trashed again? I'm sure you've been through these seasons or you might be living in one of those seasons right now! Sometimes, it's like shoveling snow in a snow storm! As you can see, family and communal spaces are hard and that's why I recommend that you start with organizing your personal spaces. Build your organizational muscles and habits there first. When you do get to the family and communal spaces, start with your kitchen. You'll feel a difference when you know where everything is in your kitchen and when you know that everything in there is purposeful. After the kitchen, move on to your other shared spaces: the family room, communal bathrooms, dining room, front hall closet, and cleaning supplies. Listen to this episode for more encouragement and inspiration for tackling the organization of these hard-to-organize family and communal spaces. What makes these family and communal spaces so hard for you to organize and maintain? Do you have toddlers? Teens? Lack of time? Too much stuff? Ready to get these family and communal spaces organized? Learn more about The Productive Home Solution™ and how the program can help you reach that goal.

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 conversation with Catherine D. She lives with her husband and their blended family of 6 kids. They also have a dog, two bunnies, and fish. (And backyard chickens are on the wish list!) Catherine talks about wrestling through paper, passion projects, and storage spaces. She put the effort into creating spaces in her home that were functional during the pandemic. There's even a little retreat space for Catherine to relax with decor that makes her happy. She says that Organize 365® has helped her look at the spaces in her home differently! What resonates with YOU about Catherine's story? Do you have any special retreat spaces in your home? 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 Productive Home Solution (formerly All Access) I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

Oh my goodness!!! The Organize 365® Podcast launched in September of 2014 and has now reached a major milestone: A few weeks ago, we crossed 15 million downloads! In this quick coffee chat, I simply want to say thank you for listening. But, in true Lisa fashion, I want to turn the tables and encourage you to pursue your unique calling even when it seems like that thing doesn't even exist yet. Be sure to listen to Emily's farewell episode to hear how Emily's dream job appeared when she was ready for it: http://organize365.com/farewell-emily.

I'll be honest: Organization is optional. While cleaning and tasks of daily living are not optional, you CAN survive without organizing. Even though this next-level step of organization is optional, when you do choose to do it, it is a current investment of time today for a future exponential return on time later. Organization always pays you back in time and sometimes money. You can't make anyone else be organized, so you have to start with yourself and your personal spaces. Organization must become a habit starting with these personal spaces. It needs to be something that you do regularly, spending 15 minutes a day or an hour once a week working on building your organizational muscles. The best place to begin? Your closet! You are 100% in control of your clothing. After that, you can move on to your portion of the bathroom space and bedroom space, your wallet or purse, and your transportation. Remember: This is NOT about perfection. Organized means that everything has a place and everything is in its place. When it comes to organizing these spaces, there are no rules. I'm not going to come judge you and your space. Make it how you want it to be! In our research study, "Organization is Not an Optional Hobby for Women," we found that 62% of women reported that anxiety prevents them from organizing their personal spaces. I just want to hug you and tell you that this doesn't have to be stressful. In this episode, I share more about what personal spaces are and some encouragement and instruction for building your habit of organizing in these spaces. There are also some changes coming to the 100 Day Home Organization Program in the fall based on this research that I share too. Are you ready to get your personal space organized? Read more about our research studies here. Ready to start organizing? Read more about The Productive Home Solution™ here. Want more inspiration? Listen to my morning, afternoon, and evening routines episodes to hear more about how I use and organize my personal spaces.

On Wednesdays, I usually 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. This Wednesday Transformation is a little different. In this episode, I sat down with my sister, Emily Kelly, to talk about her personal and professional transformation. Emily came to work with me at Organize 365® over 4 years ago. During that time, her mindset has shifted. Emily has been leveling up. She has regained control of her finances. She's gone through hard seasons. Now she's ready for a new adventure. I said I'd never fire Emily and she said she'd never quit, but the time came recently for Emily to leave Organize 365® because her dream job appeared. She didn't go looking for it. It found her. Listen in as Emily tells the whole story in this episode. Mentioned in this episode: You can listen to my depression story in episode #069. I hope you find Emily's story encouraging as you're working towards your transformation! How are you leveling up? 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 I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

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 conversation with Jackie S. She lives with her husband, two young children, and their dog. Jackie is also my cousin! Jackie describes herself as an under-buyer until the pandemic made her change a few of her habits. She talks about how Planning Day gives her more realistic expectations of her time constraints and keeps her from "should-ing" on herself. She shares how she's learning to balance her time between family, home, and work responsibilities with creative twists when needed. She also wants to have more than three priorities in a day, but I reign her in and explain the difference between three deeper priorities and a million shallow tasks. We also geek out together on topics like task-stacking and habits. Jackie and I could have talked forever! I hope you enjoy our conversation! What resonates with YOU about Jackie's story? 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® The Productive Home Solution (formerly All Access) Planning Day I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

It's time for a little Organize 365® history lesson! Let's retrace the 10-year journey of Organize 365® and the various iterations of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. I was a very organized child. My mom used to take me shopping with a bag of buttons in hand. While she tried on clothes, I'd sit on the floor and sort the buttons. I love sorting things and I love finding new ways to organize things. Over the course of my lifetime, I've had seasons where I was extremely organized, such as when I was a teacher. At other times, I was completely unorganized, like when we adopted our babies or when my father passed away and I was managing his estate. I found that when I was disorganized, I felt so out of control. Listen in to hear more about how the 100 Day Home Organization Program was born and continued to change over the years. We're making changes to the program again now that it is a part of The Productive Home Solution™ (formerly called All Access). Based on our research, I'm excited to reveal the new choose your own adventure format that will enable you to make progress on what you need to organize in your current season of life. Note: If you're a current member of The Productive Home Solution™ you will continue to have legacy access to anything you have access to now. Learn more about and join The Productive Home Solution™ here.

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 conversation with Jullia R. She lives with her husband, two teenagers, and their pet cat. Jullia shares how the Sunday Basket® tamed her mail and papers. She loves that system creates vertical, color-coded piles that do NOT take over her counters. She also tells how a simple change she made while going through the 100 Day Home Organization Program made a world of difference in the functionality of her kitchen. In between the extra trips to the donation center and the dumps, she's found more control. What resonates with YOU about Jullia's story? 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® The Productive Home Solution (formerly All Access) I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

In this podcast series, I will be diving into organizing the business of work. I will be taking you along with me for a workweek that I recorded in November 2021. At Organize 365®, we divide our work into four categories. As a shortcut, we use the Friday Workbox® colors to categorize the different kinds of work. These colors are pink, purple, blue, and green. Creating a shared vocabulary and defining different kinds of work gets all of our team on the same page. Together, we move faster in the same direction and have fewer episodes of miscommunication. Today is Friday - It is a hodgepodge day for me with a little green, a little blue, and a little purple work, but little to no pink work. On this Friday, I start my day with purple by talking to YOU live online about this week's podcast episode topic. Because I record my podcasts so far in advance, by the time an episode airs, I usually have a little more to share with you. Another purple activity for today is a masterclass I'm teaching called "Your Most Productive Year Ever." I'm spending some extra time with the team today by having Thanksgiving lunch together. Many people on the team will be taking extra time off for the holiday next week. Most of you probably do your Friday Workbox on Friday afternoons, as I counsel you to do. While I will do a deep dive into my email, I will wait until over the weekend to do my Friday Workbox. It sounds blasphemous, but I purposely do this so I don't overwhelm my team with new ideas going into the weekend. I just tie up the loose ends from my email, handle anything left on my desk, and prepare for the very beginning of the week. Then, I will spend 4-5 hours working over the weekend and during that time, I will go through my Friday Workbox®. I don't talk much on the podcast about working over the weekend. I know many of you don't want to work over the weekend, but this is what works for me in this season. This also gives me the margin to spend more of my Friday on social connections with my team. I love the life I've created for myself, but by the end of the day on Friday, I'm ready to go home to spend time with Greg and snuggle Grayson. In this podcast, I will take you along and talk to you at different times during my workday. Listen in to hear more about how I spend Fridays with my team, why we don't do Black Friday sales, and how I use Google docs over email when possible. How do you spend your Fridays? Do you do your Friday Workbox® on Fridays? Learn more about the Friday Workbox® here.

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 conversation with Kristina S. She lives with her husband and two young girls in Germany. She shares how she and her husband stay organized as teachers without a permanent classroom space as well as how the Sunday Basket® has been the solution to her family's paper organization needs. I always love these international stories! 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® The Productive Home Solution (formerly All Access) Workboxes I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

In this podcast series, I will be diving into organizing the business of work. I will be taking you along with me for a workweek that I recorded in November 2021. At Organize 365®, we divide our work into four categories. As a shortcut, we use the Friday Workbox® colors to categorize the different kinds of work. These colors are pink, purple, blue, and green. Creating a shared vocabulary and defining different kinds of work gets all of our team on the same page. Together, we move faster in the same direction and have fewer episodes of miscommunication. Today is Thursday - It is an all pink day for me. It is important to both work in and on your business. Working on your business means taking time for your personal development, your growth, your mindset, your skillset, and thinking about where you're headed in the future. You need days like this when you can step back to work on yourself and dream for your business. On Thursdays, I usually focus on myself. I spend time raising my lid so I can lead Organize 365® and the dream team to the next level. I use these days for coaching programs, conferences, webinars, podcasts, and books. Instead of joining a coaching program right now, I've instead joined a couple of round tables for C-level executives and for business owners in the Cincinnati area. I have been spending my Thursday mornings meeting with other members of these round tables. On Thursday afternoons, I'll often do things that I personally need to do like doctor's appointments or clothes shopping. No one expects me in the office on Thursdays and I can do whatever I want! In this podcast, I will take you along and talk to you at different times during my workday. I'll share with you who I'm meeting with today, how I got a rare lunch with my husband, and how I handled some unexpected changes to my schedule. What activities and resources are you using for your pink days to work on yourself and on your business?

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 conversation with Natalie H. She lives with her husband and two (soon to be three!) kids. She shares how she set out to declutter 25% of her stuff and changed her mindset along the way. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution (formerly All Access) Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

In this podcast series, I will be diving into organizing the business of work. I will be taking you along with me for a workweek that I recorded in November 2021. At Organize 365®, we divide our work into four categories. As a shortcut, we use the Friday Workbox® colors to categorize the different kinds of work. These colors are pink, purple, blue, and green. Creating a shared vocabulary and defining different kinds of work gets all of our team on the same page. Together, we move faster in the same direction and have fewer episodes of miscommunication. Today is Wednesday - it is a mix of purple and blue work. Wednesday tends to have some departmental meetings and I use the rest of my time to focus on some purple work to meet end-of-year deadlines. In this podcast, I will take you along and talk to you at different times during my workday. Part of what I share is some different productivity habits I have slowly added in over the past 30 years that help me to be more effective and get so much done. Listen in and I'll share about my meetings with Amy, Mary, and Sue. I also share some of the details of how Organize 365® functions, how I make decisions, and how I go through my workday. Sometimes, you need to do a whole bunch of different kinds of work on the same day. In many ways, Wednesday is a rainbow day for me. What systems or tools do you use to keep your work organized during a rainbow day?

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 conversation with Valarie H. She lives with her husband and their two dogs. They have two adult children who visit. She shares how her stay-at-home move helped her get the house organized and gave her more time for hiking. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution (formerly All Access) Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Organize 365 wants to support your decluttering efforts in an organized way to support the refugees fleeing from Ukraine. Join us in the Adult Spring Break Blitz March 21-25 to declutter with a purpose or to deep dive into ONE area of your home. Register here https://organize365.com/adult-spring-break-blitz and join us in the Organize 365 app!

Today is Tuesday, and this is a blue day. This is my most structured day of the workweek. It is meeting day. Organize 365® is 10 years old, and we were a 2 million dollar company in 2021. We have 20 team members:14 in the office and several remote contractors. We also work with outside vendors and support companies. I will be in meetings all day with the team. I'll be working in the business. How Organize 365® Keeps Meetings Productive I have created the most productive way of communicating with the team with a weekly check-in to make sure we are on the same page. Communication is the number one obstacle to growth inside of a profitable company. At Organize 365®, we have shared meeting agendas in Google Docs for every single scheduled meeting (and for some of our major projects). I put my own thoughts, questions, and ideas at the top. The team enters their questions for me in the next section for things that need approval, a budget, a signed contract, extra help, or other things to move forward. Within the document, there are topics for the team discussion. Each team member types in a different color, and often we are able to resolve questions or collect ideas in advance of the actual meeting. If we are able to resolve things outside of the meeting, the team can move forward in their work. As an organization, we very rarely email other team members. All projects are in shared documents and can link out to other files if needed. No one needs to comb through an email thread or hunt for an email. I check all of the agendas a few times a week and add anything I can answer at the time. By keeping all our ideas and communication in one place, we make better and quicker decisions. Today's Meetings Listen in as I take you along on my meetings with Vanessa, Shona, Stephanie, Pat, Monique, and Erin. I used to fit my meetings into my calendar, but now I have dedicated a full day to the meeting necessary to keep the company running smoothly. I schedule every meeting to start at the top of the hour, and if we finish early, I fill in the time by making progress on other tasks. When my meetings are done for the day, I use any time left to complete administrative work, review meeting agendas to find my actionable items to add to my Friday Workbox®, and deep-diving into some projects. What can you do to make your team days more productive?

I'm so excited. It's my birthday! I am 50 years old today!!! The women in my family have lived to be old—into their 90s and 100s. I have always been in awe of all they have done in their lives. Organize 365® just turned 10 years old. I think I am going to live to 100, so I am just getting started. I have an innate understanding of time and money that I call "Lisa math." It doesn't follow the traditional rules about these things, but I am able to use it to show how I understand the world. We all have constraints in life. We are naturally limited by our time, money, and energy. Getting organized helps you to develop more capacity by investing your current time for a future return of more time. Improving your capacity allows you to do more things in life, handle unexpected events, and live out your unique purpose. The mission of Organize 365® is to help busy people get their home and paper organized so that they can do what they are uniquely created to do. Over the last 20 years, my Sunday Basket® has given me an extra 5,200 hours. I have poured that extra time into creating Organize 365®. I have been able to help many of you save more time by using your Sunday Baskets®. And, boy, have those hours added up! By end of 2020, the Organize 365® customers saved over 1 million hours!!! At the end of 2021, we have saved over 2.5 million hours. Your time and capacity have been unlocked. So many of you have been gracious enough to share how you are living your unique purpose using the hashtag #myextra5. That is the best birthday gift ever.

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 conversation with Jennifer M. She and her husband are empty-nesters who are also snowbirds. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution (formerly All Access) Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

In this podcast series, I will be diving into organizing the business of work. I will be taking you along with me for a workweek that I recorded in November 2021. At Organize 365®, we divide our work into four categories. As a shortcut, we use the Friday Workbox® colors to categorize the different kinds of work. These colors are pink, purple, blue, and green. Creating a shared vocabulary and defining different kinds of work gets all of our team on the same page. Together, we move faster in the same direction and have fewer episodes of miscommunication. Today is Monday, and Mondays are pink days in my work. Pink work is about ideas and possibilities—new projects, new ideas, new partners, possible process improvements, and other future ideas that might become a reality. Because I am the CEO and visionary of Organize 365®, I give myself two full workdays each week to focus on my pink work. I take time to think, to dream, to process, and to move forward about what might be in our future. I spend a lot of time and research exploring possibilities, and sometimes I put the ideas on hold, and sometimes I decide that we are never going to do a particular project. In this podcast, I will take you along and talk to you at different times during my workday. Part of what I share is some different productivity habits I have slowly added in over the past 30 years that help me to be more effective and get so much done.

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 conversation with Tiera A. She lives with her husband and middle school daughter. She shares all about how she got her house in order, lost 30 pounds, and found lost time. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution (formerly All Access) Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

In this podcast series, I will be sharing how my habits, routines, and the different ways I think about time. This week I'll be sharing my evening routines. I always learn more from listening to real-life stories of how other women are "getting it done." Thanks for letting me share mine with you! Evening routines help us transition from day to night. They take place after dinner and as we wind down for the day. It's time to relax, get ready for bed, and do any prep for the morning. A Day in the Life Evening Routines When the sun goes down, I'm done for the day. I love being at home, taking my bath, and then sitting on my bed. I might watch TV, work on a puzzle, read a book, or snuggle Grayson. I went to record my evening routine for you, and I don't really have one. It doesn't change much. I don't want to talk about it at night, because that's my low energy time. I take a hot bath every night. The length of time varies, but I use my Epsom salts and some other skincare and self-care. I put on my pajamas and a cozy jacket. I get ready for my evening. In the past, I would prep for the day ahead. I would pack a lunch and lay out my clothes. I also review my calendar and think through my schedule for the next day. Now, I tend to do this at the end of my workday during my afternoon routine. I'm also including a recording of an older evening routine that I followed when the kids were younger. Different seasons of life have different needs for structure. Do you have an evening routine? Which of your routines are the most effective for you?

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 conversation with Martine E. She lives in France with her husband and their two daughters. She started with a DIY Sunday Basket® and then upgraded to a Friday Workbox™ and The Productive Home Solution™. She shares about her newfound peace of mind and exploring to find her unique purpose. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I do! I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution/ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!

In this podcast series, I will be sharing how my habits, routines, and the different ways I think about time. This week I'll be sharing my afternoon routines. I always learn more from listening to real-life stories of how other women are "getting it done." Thanks for letting me share mine with you! Afternoon routines are those things we do between our daytime activities (work or school) and dinner. A Day in the Life Afternoon Routines Adding an afternoon routine to my schedule in my 40s was a game changer! Today my commute home from the office provides that natural transition. In my 30s, my transition came at the end of the school day, driving in the carpool, or collecting the kids from the bus stop. Recognizing your transition may be all you need for your brain to make a switch in priority and production. Ultimately daily routines add structure and reduce decision-making fatigue. Listen in as I share how I "bucket" my morning routine to line up with the kind of work I'll be doing each day of the week. As a bonus, I added my afternoon routine when my kids were in high school to this podcast episode. This podcast series is not for you to compare yours and my schedules, but to open your thoughts to explore the possibilities of what could be in your everyday life. My afternoon routine has continued to change and evolve over the years and will continue to do so in the future. Do you have an afternoon routine? Is it time to add or take something away from your afternoon routine?

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I normally get to talk with members of the Organize 365 community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! This month, I have a special treat for you! Normally, you get to hear the transformational story of ONE member of our community. This month, I want to share some of the very special breakthroughs of women just like you as they attended Embrace 2021. You can learn more about the 2022 Embrace experience on our website. In 2022, we have both virtual and in-person options. Save the date of June 25 & 26, 2022!!!