Even though my sister is still disorganized — she’s fine with it — she knows it’s possible for anyone to get organized. But some people are stubborn and refuse to get organized because they believe a few misconceptions about organization.

I want to set the record straight.

Misconception #1—Handle paper once.

This is not only impossible, it’s unrealistic. Whenever I hear an organizing expert tell others to handle paper once, I cringe. Instead of pressuring yourself to handle paper once, get in the habit of doing something to move each piece forward. The point is to keep the paper in play until it lands in a file or in the recycle bin. It’s a waste of time to pick up the same piece of paper and put it back repeatedly.

Misconception #2—Always keep papers stored out of sight.

Some people work better when their desk is clear, while others swear they can’t work unless they’re surrounded by stacks of paper. A company I consulted with a few years ago, made their administrative assistants clear off their desks at the end of the day. In the morning, everyone wasted around 20 minutes setting up their desks.

You don’t have to keep your desk clear. Instead set up systems so you can find the papers you need when you need them.

Misconception #3—Everyone should be organized to the same degree.

Different people work differently. Although a neighbor or a friend works a certain way in his or her home office, you can work differently. Find the level of organization that works for you, and then work to maintain it.

Misconception #4—One planning system should fit everyone’s needs.

One of the companies that hired me last year to present a seminar, wanted me to “fix” the associates who were now even more disorganized and confused after attending a two-day time management seminar (That’s an oxymoron, don’t you think?) The company giving the seminar sold one type of planning system and expected everyone to use it.

Keep in mind that planning systems (both paper-based and electronic) are designed by a few people for everyone to use. Pick the system that fits your working style and if after a month or two it doesn’t work, find another system.

It’s easy to believe things you’ve heard for years, especially when you haven’t challenged them. Instead of following a certain way of working, change what you’re doing, especially if you’re not getting the results you want.

What misconceptions have you stopped believing?

source: ganesha.isis

Some people think I’m extra organized because I always enter notes in my iPhone. The truth is that I have the world’s worst memory. I can remember faces, not names, and directions, not addresses.

Over the years, I’ve taken a few steps to try to improve my memory or at least fake that I have a better memory than I do. By using the simple strategies below, I’m able to finish projects on time, avoid annoying friends and clients, and remember important dates.

Consider these four steps tips for improving your memory.

Add an attachment to your e-mail before you write your message.

Have you had to send a follow-up e-mail after you’re forgotten to include an attachment? I have. By adding the attachment before I write the message, I don’t have to send the follow-up message. The best part is that my friends and clients have stopped sending me e-mails — some of them in an annoying tone — asking about attachments I was supposed to include.

To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.

Some people can help others get organized and still keep their relationship in tact. Others wind up frustrated and stop talking to each other for a few days.

Whether your spouse or someone else you know is organizationally challenged, you can help him or her get organized. The only catch is that they have to want to change.

The New Year is a good time for all of us to do things differently and change what isn’t working. While you’re making your own changes, consider helping others change their organizing habits.

Be non-threatening

If you call someone a slob, they’re going to be less interested in cleaning up than if you offer to help. If you see scraps of paper and sticky notes everywhere on your spouse or your associate’s desk, help him or her find a better planning system. The notes they’re using to remind them of tasks they need to handle are easy to lose and too hard to track. They could use a simple spiral notebook to list tasks, find a computer program to track to-dos, or use their smartphone for more than just making calls. Anything works better than sticky notes to keep track of to-dos.

Use positive reinforcement

Rather than focus on someone’s disorganization, give him or her compliments when they make even a small effort to get organized. A few words of encouragement can go a long way, and it’s easier to keep moving forward when you feel you’re making progress.

Teach by example

If your spouse or associate needs to improve his or her organizing skills, don’t expect that person to be organized if you’re not. If you’ve changed from being disorganized to organized, be willing to share the secrets behind your transformation.

Be patient

It helps to realize that not everyone is organized to the same degree. Keep in mind that if someone changes one bad organizing habit, his or her productivity will increase slightly. Give the other person time to make changes, no matter how small the changes may be.

The next time you decide to help someone make any change, remember the old joke: How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the light bulb has to want to change. It may take time, but a slight nudge, a bit of encouragement and a few strategies you share with others can make a difference.

How have you helped someone else get organized?

source: balanced.crafts

A good friend of mine refuses to see a doctor (she hasn’t seen one in years) because she’s afraid that a doctor will find something wrong with her. What she doesn’t understand is that if she never gets a checkup, she may not discover a medical problem until it’s well advanced (and too late).

Change isn’t easy, and some people can’t get motivated to change their habits until they’ve had a bad experience. Or they may hear about something bad happening to someone else, which finally triggers them to make a change.

When you work for yourself, a bad experience could be losing an account, missing an important deadline, or double-booking appointments with two important clients. Bad days are part of life, but you’re a lot less likely to experience these types of setbacks if you take steps to get organized.

To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.

source: NatalieMaynor

A few days ago, my refrigerator stopped working.

When I opened the refrigerator door, the light turned on but everything felt a little warmer than it should. When I opened the freezer and squished an ice cream sandwich that should have been frozen solid, I knew I didn’t have much time to clear everything out.

While I cleared out my freezer, I tossed a few things I’d had a bit too long. I did the same thing with some of the food from my refrigerator. I was making a clean start (no pun intended).

My forced refrigerator and freezer purging and cleaning made me think about people who struggle to toss papers they don’t need. What if the papers scattered all over your home office were fruit, vegetables, or meat that had an expiration date? You’d be forced to deal with them within days instead of within weeks or months from when they hit your desk.

You may have stacks of papers on your desk that you want to get rid of, but don’t know how. There are a few ways to get started.

To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.

This is the ideal e-book (it’s also available in paperback) for entrepreneurs, home-based corporate employees, telecommuters, and stay-at-home moms and dads who need a space to manage a business or run a busy household.

How it all started

Eighteen years ago, I wrote the first edition of this book because I started getting two types of phone calls: one from business owners who wanted individual home office consultations, and the other from people who wanted suggestions for books they could use to organize their home offices on their own.

When I looked for a home office book to recommend, I couldn’t find one. It didn’t exist. There were plenty of home organizing books, but nothing that focused specifically on home offices and the challenges of working from home.

Sometimes ignorance pays off

After at least a dozen calls from home-based business owners looking for a home office book, the light bulb went off (finally). I realized I needed to be the one who wrote that book. I also knew that I was going to need a literary agent to sell it for me.

A few days later, I read an article about a literary agent who worked from home (and would understand the audience for this book). I sent her my proposal, she agreed to represent me, and within three weeks she had bids from three major publishers. Everything happened so quickly and easily.

When I look back, I realize how naive I had been to think an agent would take an unknown writer’s book and sell it to a publisher. I later found out that publishing doesn’t work that way! I’m glad I didn’t know better because fear of rejection probably would have kept me from approaching the agent.

New and improved

From the time my first book was published until now, the book has been through three revisions. Considering how much technology has affected the way we work from home, along with new challenges that those of us who work from home face, I knew it was time to do one more update, especially since the last update was in 2002.

The goal of this book is to help you organize your home office (of course), but in a way that makes sense and fits your working style. Think of it this way: I could come in, change your office, tell you to come back in, and watch as you struggle to find the papers you need, search for the notes you wrote last week, and try to make sense of your new filing system. That would be a waste of your time and mine, and the bottom line is that your home office wouldn’t stay organized because you wouldn’t have played a part in the organizing process.

When you take the time to organize your home office using proven methods in this book (the same ones I recommend to my clients and audiences), not only will your office get organized…it will stay organized.

Without sounding too infomercial-like, here’s what others are saying:

“Lisa – where have you been all my home-office life? As a ‘not naturally organized’ person who loves working at home, I’ve been ‘surviving’ my workspaces for years! Chapter 3 alone is worth the price of the book. Honestly, this book is the next best thing to having you come over and ‘get me sorted!’ As a coach to thousands of work at home professionals, I will absolutely be recommending this resource to them! I am breathing easier already!”

—Carrie Wilkerson, Author, The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom

“Your office is a reflection of you. If it’s a mess, then so are you. Lisa’s no-nonsense approach to decluttering your home office, will in fact declutter your entire business.”

—Mike Michalowicz, Author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

“Filled with real-life scenarios, tips and strategies, Organize Your Home Office for Success is more than just a book, it’s a complete guide to setting yourself up to achieve work-at-home success. Lisa not only shares the pros of working from home, but she discusses the cons, and offers up solutions to some of the most common challenges that home-based workers encounter. This book is a must-read for all telecommuters and home-based entrepreneurs alike.”

– Holly Reisem Hanna, Publisher of The Work at Home Woman

“I was thrilled to read Lisa Kanarek’s newest edition to Organize Your Home Office for Success: Expert Strategies That Can Work for You, that included a chapter specifically on clearing off your desk. What’s most helpful about the book is that Lisa recognizes that when it comes to organizing, one size does not fit all and she provides a variety of tips and tools so you can use strategies that work best for you. Lisa gives you the information you need to set up a home office designed for productivity and profitability. “

— Leslie Truex, Author of The Work-At-Home Success Bible and Jobs Online: How To Find and Get Hired to a Work-At-Home Job, and Founder of Work At Home Success

Without giving away too much of the book, it definitely has a tidy ending.

Click the link below to order Organize Your Home Office for Success!

Clients calling at all hours, weekend showings and indecisive buyers can take their toll on any businessperson, including a realtor. This 24/7 realtor has been working from home in the same spare bedroom for 16 years. She was fine working in her “creative” space until some important papers got lost in the shuffle (literally).

She has two workspaces: one is a computer workstation and the other is a desk she uses to spread out papers. To the right of her computer desk is a four-drawer lateral file cabinet. To the left is a small two-drawer cabinet with her huge printer balanced on top.

Behind the desk is a tall bookcase with a copier and a vertical file holder on top.

What Works:

Between the six file drawers, plus the drawers in her desk and computer workstation, filing space isn’t an issue.

Both desk chairs are ergonomically correct.

She has room to spread out papers, and has all the technology she needs to run her business.

Prescription for change:

Combine the two separate work spaces into one, by turning the desk 90 degrees to the right so it faces the door and creates an L-shape arrangement with her computer workstation. At that point, she will need only one desk chair, not two.

Move the four-drawer cabinet to the wall opposite from the computer workstation and put the bookcase behind the desk. Move the computer desk to the left a few feet and then put the two-drawer cabinet to the right side of the computer desk. By moving the computer desk to the left, there will be room for the two-drawer cabinet to open without hitting the bookcase.

Create extra workspace on the computer workstation by moving the CPU to the floor.

Replace the photos on the bookcase shelves with a desktop file holder that uses hanging folders with manila (interior) folders inside. Also, use decorative containersto store the supplies that are currently on the four-drawer file cabinet and on the desk and put them on the bookcase shelves within reach.

One final suggestion, after sorting through the pieces of paper on the desk, consider finding a better way to store cash.

Last week, I gave a seminar to an incredible group of business owners and after the session I spoke to a few of the attendees.

One woman stood out.

She waited until everyone had left the room and then sheepishly admitted to me that her home office was a disaster. She was ashamed, upset and convinced she was a failure.

The more questions I asked her about her office, the better she felt. I focused on what she was doing right, instead of on the description of her home office that included piles of paper, supplies stashed everywhere and old magazines piled in the corner of her office.

She said that she uses a daily planner, backs up her computer every week and uses an adjustable desk chair on wheels instead of a kitchen table chair. These three things may seem insignificant, but they’re helping her stay productive.

This woman was so focused on the mess in her home office and what she wasn’t doing, that she hadn’t taken the time to pat herself on the back for doing a few things right.

She knows that her office won’t look anything like the home offices on the All Dressed Up page, but that’s OK.

So the next time someone makes a snide comment about your office, brush it off. You’re doing at least one or two things right, and for most of us, that’s enough.

They invite me over because they know I can’t stand to see a disorganized home office that could be arranged better. Here’s a perfect example:

A friend I’ve known for years invited me to her home. I took the obligatory tour that ended with her home office.

I couldn’t stand it.

It was a mess.

So I asked her if I could make a few changes, and she couldn’t say yes fast enough.

The entire change took less than an hour. During that time, we took the wooden top off her lateral file cabinet and then moved the cabinet near her desk. Then we moved a bookcase to where the file cabinet was and put her TV on top of it.

The cords running from the front of her office to her desk, had to go. We moved her surge protector to the wall near her desk and unplugged the Ethernet cable (she has wireless Internet throughout her house).

We moved the files she uses often, out of the lateral file cabinet, and moved them to the lower drawers in the rolling file cart next to her desk. Then we put extra supplies in the top drawers of the cart. The supplies she uses often are in the small drawers in her desk.

She was surprised at how the few changes we made, made a big difference in her home office. She still has some work to do including organizing the rest of her desk drawers and hanging artwork, but now she’s motivated to keep working on her office.

When I checked my e-mail this morning, I saw an invitation to a housewarming party. It must be the amazing spinach artichoke dip I brought to the last party.

The trend for “living small” continues to grow. That includes less square footage, less expenses and less stuff.

Until I downsized a few years ago, I didn’t understand what people meant when they described how freeing it was to live small.

They were right.

In the past two years, I haven’t missed the stupidly high property taxes, outrageous utility bills and all of the other things I left behind in my old house. Now I’m the one saying that living with less can be freeing…and I’m saying it often.

Is the extra stuff in your home office keeping you from being productive, causing you stress or holding you hostage? Today or sometime this weekend, take 15 minutes to decide what you don’t need to keep in your home office, or at all. There are a few things you can do to get started.

1)   Take three bags and label them toss, donate and other room. The last bag keeps you from leaving your home office and getting distracted. 

2)   Put old magazines and newspapers that you’ve already read or know you’ll never read, in the toss bag. If you like to store a year’s worth of magazines at a time, keep them in magazine holders.

3)   Take extra supply holders, stacking trays and anything else you bought to help you get organized — but didn’t work — and put them in the donate bag.

4)   Fill the other room bag with anything that somehow made it into your home office but belongs somewhere else in your home.

5)   Take out duplicates, broken equipment and anything else that you haven’t used within the last year or two. If you haven’t used it by now, you probably won’t use it.

You can spend hours or days sorting through everything in your home office — many people do — but the goal is to spend short bursts of time each week to get rid of excess stuff. The freeing feeling is an added bonus.