Thanksgiving

A very peaceful and joyful Thanksgiving to all our American readers.

Where is Everything - Policies and Procedures

Do you have current policies and procedures for your company?
Do you know where they are?
Do your employees know where they are?
Do they know what they say?
Do you have document retention policies?
Do you know what the means?
Do you know what the law in your jurisdiction says about retaining documents?
Do your employees know what the law in your jurisdiction says about retaining documents?
Do your employees know what your company mission is?
Do they share the vision?
Are your mission, vision and values reflected in your policies and procedures?

Top Five Series - Reasons for Procrastination

And you thought you could duck under the radar screen! Sorry my friend, upon review of the posts this year I realized it has been a long time since I confronted the big, ugly enemy of procrastination.

Are you a procrastinator? ("Oh yeah" - I can hear you whisper under your breath.) You are wondering why and what you can do about it? The following list is an adaptation from the book Making Time Work for You, by the Time Guru himself, Harold L. Taylor.

1. A procrastinator's view of time is distorted. With 2 weeks before the due date, you think yo have lots of time to get that report finished. The reality is, no where in those two weeks do you have the 9 hours of time free to actually finish the report. The solution: as soon as you know the report is due - book in the time to complete it. Now book in extra time since we both know it will take twice as long as you think it will.
2. A procrastinator is often a perfectionist. The perfectionist is often afraid to start something for fear it won't be perfect. The solution: get started to that you have lots of time to make it good enough which is much closer to perfect than not done at all.
3. A procrastinator often sees tasks as overwhelming. Solution: just do it. Start with any small piece of the project even if it is just five minutes. Break the rest of the project down into bite size pieces that you can manage.
4. A procrastinator is often someone who thrives on the adrenaline of crisis and deadlines. If you work in the publishing industry you likely have a busy, rewarding life. For the rest of us, it is important to understand that always running late is inefficient, disorganized and often problematic for everyone else around you. Solution: learn to get your adrenaline kick by getting the project done early.
5. A procrastinator is often just plain disorganized. Some individuals avoid starting projects because they are too disorganized to arrange the information and material they need to get it done. In the meantime, they are still scrambling to find the information and material for the previous project or report which is late. Solution: plan ahead. Plan your year, months, weeks and days by blocking time to accomplish your goals and projects.

Organize with the Blues at Holiday Time

This is a follow up from my earlier post on Organizing with Depression. Holiday time can be, for many, many people far from a joyful celebration of anything. For many people it becomes an overwhelming time of year that they learn to dread and fear. Celebrating holidays both and home and in the business environment comes with many expectations that some people simply can not meet. Does this sound familiar and contribute to your feelings of overwhelm? Hlidays come with:

• extra food that maybe you have been trying to avoid all year to loose weight
• expectations of gift giving that maybe you can't afford or don't have the energy to arrange
• visits with family that perhaps aren't your favourite friends
• multiple distractions (lunch/parties/people collecting for gifts) at the office interrupting attempts to put together projections for next year

Whatever contributes to your blue mood and feelings of overwhelm, the first step is to acknowledge the problem. Next take a good look at what you can control and what you can't. Can't avoid the office party? Can you control the length of time you are there or whether or not you nap before hand to ward off fatigue and frustration. With the downturn in the global economy, gift giving is going to be a very serious financial trial for many, many people. Can you pear down your list? Consider making a contribution to a charity in lieu of sending gifts to clients - then send them a card that discribes your gift on their behalf.

Take back control of what you can. It will help that blue be a little more rosy.

Organize Without the But

For today's post, I'm sending you over to millionairemummynextdoor to read about removing buts from our lives i.e all the reasons why we think we will not, should not or could not be successful. Check it out.

When do I Shred?

As a professional organizer, I am frequently asked by clients whether or not they need to shred paper that is being sent to the recycling bin.

In business, as in the residential setting, anything that identifies you and can be traced back to you via account number, address and the worst identifier - payment account number - must be shredded to protect your identity. You do not want this material wondering around once the the recycling material gets into the public domain i.e. out of your hands.

In addition, int he case of business, you must protect the identify of your clients. So, if your clients or their business with you, which, in most cases you are obliged to keep confidential, you must shred the material.

When in doubt, shred.

What's Your Organizing Personality Type?

Are you visual person susceptible to the noise of many different items of different sizes and colours on a shelf?

Are you a tosser who like to "toss" items into a storage bin/basket/file/drawer?

Are you auditorily inclined? Do you find yourself talking to yourself all the way through the next year's budget preparation complete with a "There, that's done for a year!" when its complete?

Much the same way we have preferences in the way we process information and respond to new opportunities, we all have organizing personalities. Your organizing personality is related to your learning preferences and generally falls into the categories of visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. There are however, many other ways to organize. Some people have a tendency to organize by time.

Understanding what your personality will help you to tailor your oranizing systems and process to match your personality. A mismatch wil lead to systems which don't get used and process which fall apart with the resulting disorganization that ensues.

To determine your personality, what and listen to how you organize at your desk. Do you talk out loud (auditory)? Do you like to sort your files by colour (visual)? So you like to sort by date? Do you prefer all your surfaces to be clear but don't care about the inside of your drawers or cupboards? Do you need everthing out where you can see it (visual). Do you like to get up and file or toss things in your office (kinetic)?

Stick to your Agenda

If you are in the habit of holding meetings, make sure you commit to using and sticking to an agenda. Make the purpose of the meeting clear along with the time you expect that objective to take. If necessary, time out the items on the agenda to ensure you and your meeting participants keep to the time allotted for the meeting. Keep this a habit and people will be happy to attend meetings that you chair.

Calm the Visual Noise

If you are working from a home office, you may be struggling with getting everything to fit into a relatively small space. One of the challenges is to keep the space visually calm while keeping all the tools and supplies of the home office contained.

To accomplish this, consider using same colour containers. Whether they are the same style or even shape won't matter so much if they are all the same colour. The result will be a visually quiet space. Multiple colours create visually noise and can be distracting while you are working.

If you use different coloured containers as a mechanism to identify them, consider using complimentary colours. While they may be different, the appearance with be less like noise and more like music.

Time Tamers - Prepare Ahead

Simple concept isn't it: be prepared. If you were a Boy Scout or Girl Guide, you would have memorized this motto along the way somewhere.

In application to business and time organization, the concept is no different. The more you can prepare ahead of time, the more relaxed, organized, polished and professional will be your presentation and performance. By preparing your material ahead of time, and confirming everything is ready in advance, you will also be able to avoid most technical hangups, forgetting things, or other people forgetting things.

Because you are a professional business person, your dates are already carefully mapped out on your daytimer right? Good. Now schedule in preparation time well in advance. Finally, follow up by scheduling in time, no later than the day before, to confirm that everything and everyone is in place. Now you can relax.

Time Tamers - Schedule, Schedule, Schedule

So often we struggle with those not-so-fun tasks that every job, business, company can claim. If you work in a SOHO it might be organizing your receipts to send to the book keeper. Oh, you do your own book keeping and the receipts are still in a box/envelop/pile on the desk?

Here's a strategy for tackling that not-so-fun chore: schedule, subdivide into bites, conquer.

Start by scheduling some time to tackle the job. Without a Level 10 Intention, its not going to happen. By scheduling time on the calendar, you can at least get your intention close to 10.

Next divide the project into bites, something you can chew without choking. Maybe start by sorting the receipts into months and filing them into separate envelopes one for each month. Already separated? Try dividing or labelling them into your expense categories. Can't find the receipts? There's you first bite: spend the scheduled time collecting all the receipts you can find in your office and put them into envelopes, one for each month of the year. (Try an accordian file and you don't need to worry about labelling the envelopes!).

Too often we fail to accomplish a task because it never gets scheduled into our calendars. Other bits and pieces of our business gobble up the day, the week, the month. If the task is an unpleasant or difficult one and you are procrastinating as a result, you probably find yourself doing almost anything else than sitting down to tackle it. Schedule a date with yourself to take it down.

The weather is chilly, the snow is threatening and winter is looming in the shape of a big, grey, cold cloud. I promised last week that I would report on the success of Bob McGee's (CHFI, Toronto) coat drive from last weekend.

Toronto has proven once again it is a city with lots of heart and closets with lightening potential. Over 10,000 coats were collected which will be distributed to children where needed. Here's a picture of the truck loads. Way to go TO!

Business Development

I have just returned from three days at the Professional Organizers in Canada annual conference here in Toronto. It was an information packed, fun filled and industry driving conference with almost 25% of the organization's membership in attendance.

The talent in attendance was exceptional. Harold Taylor and Krista Green were both in attendance to reveal their latest training and business development programs. Elaine Shannon from the Organizing Connection and Laura from I'm an Organizing Junkie brought us up to date with the latest in online business development. Authors Karen Shinn and Gail Shields launched their new book GO! The Essential Guide to Organizing and Moving.

Having filled up my brain and note book with enough ideas to keep me planning for centuries, the conference finished off with a powerful presentation on The Courage to Succeed by Tanya Chernova and Joanna Andros of Courageous Living. They challenged the audience to step right out of the box, break the old neuro-receptor patterns that lead us down predictable roads and start to form new thoughts around our ability to accomplish those goals we desire for ourselves or our businesses.

It's a simple enough message but one which we often forget. When was the last time you took a courageous step to move your business forward? I did; I accepted the invitation to be a tip host on the Organizing Connection.

Vendor Expo - 8th Annual POC Conference

If you live in the Toronto area, consider joining the Professional Organizers of Canada this Friday November 7th, 9 am to 4 pm, at the Delta East Hotel at Kennedy and the 401. This year POC has opened up the vendor expo to the public. If you are in the area, come by and check out the latest tools and strategies for keeping organized.

Warming up the City - Clear out the Coats

OK folks, time to clear out the closets. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find as many unused coats in your closets as possible. Think of the space you could free up! Think of the warmth you could pass on to someone else!

Bob McGee from Toronto's CHFI FM radio station is, for the 5th year, collecting coats for children this weekend. Here is the link to the details where you can drop off the coats.

http://www.chfi.com/events/more.jsp?content=20081020_142107_26440

Let's make this a challenge. I'd like to see how many coats this blog can send out to Bob and friends to help keep the kids warm. Add your comments and tell me how many coats you are send up. I'll report the tally on Monday.

Organizing with Depression - Are you Depressed?

You can't get to sleep but you don't want to get up. You can't seem to concentrate at work and you have no energy to apply yourself. You are becoming less and less organized and slipping futher and further behind in your work. And the strange thing is - you've noticed that you don't really care any more. In fact, you really don't care about very much right now. Even those golf clubs which you used to keep busy every weekend, haven't left the cupboard in months.

You may be suffering from depression. One of the key symptoms is a lack of energy and diminished interest in things that used to be important to you. With the lack of energy comes an inability to organize. Filing, sorting and especially deciding all take emotional energy. An individual suffering from depression doesn't have the energy it takes to focus on some of these tasks and see them through to completion.

If this sounds like you, it is important that you get treatment from a physician or other health care professional. There are many different medications available for the treatment of depression. There are other treatments available as well. Don't let depression deprive you of enjoying the beautiful life you deserve.