File Papers using Album Covers

Gotta love a fun new way to use the clutter of our former lives.
Look at how DIY shows us how to turn old album covers into paper organizers.
FUN FUN FUN!
= > Allison

Systems = Freedom

Many creatives think they can only be creative if they are free and unstructured. But most of us have come to realize that there must be some kind of process and systems in place so you can really do what needs to be done to create and be productive.
Coach Laura Howard West says it sooooo well in her article Systems = Freedom.
((Laura will also be a guest on The Organizing Playground radio/podcast on Sept. 23, 2008)

Systems = Freedom!
By Laura Howard West
Center for Joyful Business, http:/www.joyfulbusiness.com

I have a sticky note in my office that says “Systems = Freedom”. I have become an avid fan of systems. I used to be rebellious of systems as though they would take away all my creativity and spontaneity. What I have found is that they give me the freedom to be creative, enjoy life and it keep me enjoying my business! Nothing is worse than waking up one day and realizing that you’ve created a successful business but it’s over taken your life and you are afraid you can’t maintain all these great marketing vehicles. We’ve all faced that – gotten caught up in the excitement of launching a new newsletter, blog or podcast only to realize that we have to keep it going for it to have real impact!

Here are five reasons for you to embrace the idea of looking for and commiting the initial time to develop systems:

1. To Grow Your Business You Have to Grow Your Capacity

This is a fundamental truth. If you want to grow bigger – more clients, sell more products, work with larger more high paying clients – then you have to increase your capacity to get more done in less time. This doesn’t mean that you personally have to learn to do more work. The first place to start is being willing to look at the areas in your business, specific projects, tasks and the giant never-ending-to-do list and see what you can delegate and what you can let go of. Many people get stuck right here because they aren’t willing to let go. I can guarantee if you don’t let go – you won’t grow!

2. Creating Systems Gives You Valuable Creative Time

One of the most common complaints I hear from clients is they don’t have enough time to write the article, the book or the create their new information product. When you create systems for those things you do over and over again, you free up time which you can use for getting those creative projects done. For example, I have a lot of clients who start out creating their own newsletter. They are doing the graphics, the layout, finding the photos and writing the articles. They are struggling with making things fit and the layout looking professional. This could easily become a full day project. If you spend all your time here you’ll run out of steam for finding inspiration to write the article! It actually depletes your energy, and it will keep you chained to your computer doing routine work instead of getting you out there thinking about and creating that new product! You want to be doing work that keeps your energy flowing!

3. Systems Give You More Time for “Focus and Flow”

Every morning I spend reflection time on my day and my business. I lovingly call it “Creative Bagel Time” as I get the boys off to school and then head to one of the local cafes or bakeries for some inspiration time (with or without bagels!). You might wonder why as a busy mom-preneur who does most of my work from the bus pickup time to the bus dropoff time, that I can afford the time reflecting over cream cheese and tea? I can tell you that this morning time is invaluable to me in helping me get so much done in a few short hours. I consciously line up my energy behind what’s important about my day. I review my Intention Cards so I’m connecting to my bigger vision and then I create my 3 Daily Giggle Goals so my energy is focused for the day and then I let go and let it flow! I am able to do this because I make the morning time a “system” – I have a special bag for my “Focus and Flow” time, I block it out on my calendar in the mo rning and I protect this time (which is a calendar system) so that I have dedicated time to line up my energy for me and my business several times a week. The power that comes from this “focused energy” helps me get more done in less time – certainly more than if I went straight for my computer and sat there all day trying to push a lot of work around.

4. Systems Allow You To Enthusiastically Take Time Off

By creating systems for handling billing, the administrative work, my podcast interviews, and my blog postings, I can comfortably and enthusiastically (meaning without a ton of stress that my business will fall apart without me!) take time off and enjoy life. In fact, my husband and I are on a 10 day trip to England to visit his family as you read this. I can sit back and enjoy because I know that my marketing is still getting done and is consistently getting out there – in fact, this newsletter is set to go out while I’m away! All because of using technology systems and creating systems with my team who are clear about what to do and when.

5. Systems Give You Time to Grow and Learn Without Being Stressed

Look at what you do consistently, over and over again. Chances are there is a way to create a template, a form, or a system for recycling your information into new formats that will free you up to have more time to attend workshops and mastermind groups so that you are continuing to grow personally and professionally. Better yet, work with your team to create the systems so everything flows quicker and more smoothly. Then book time to spend on you and nurturing your brilliance. As you grow – your business grows!

Written by Laura Howard West, Center for Joyful Business, http:/www.joyfulbusiness.com

Laura West is an award-winning online entrepreneur and president of The Center for Joyful Business. If you are ready to shift your marketing and mindset for more success with joy and ease, get your free report: Business Attraction Success Kit

Email folders and labels for ideas

Right brainers have some different organizing needs that are often overlooked in the run-of-the-mill organizing books and articles. That’s because many of them are written by lefties who don’t feel compelled to save every idea for when they’re ready to act on it.
And email and the internet are full of great idea triggers!!!

If you’re an idea saver, how can you work with your need/desire to save?

1. Save based on what kind of idea it is
Make files or labels based on what you will most likely use the idea for.
For instance:

• Book ideas

• Article ideas

• Painting ideas

• Coaching ideas

• Decor ideas

You get the gist. Then when you get an email you want to save, it has a place to go and sit until you’re ready.

2. Save the ideas based on how soon you want to get to it. In this case you can make a limited number of files:

• Act now (this week)
• Soon (this month)
• This year
• Someday (these are just to have but don’t have any urgency)

3. If you just don’t like to file or tag much, dump all ideas into one big file called ideas and use your computer’s search function.

Do you have another method that’s working for you?

Email Organizing with folders

Can Righties organize email with folders? Why yes we can.
The trick to using the folder approach is to make the folder titles mean something.
There are 3 kinds of folders
1. Action – emails you drop here are still in the cooker. Some on low heat, some on high. Each still needs some kind of attention.
Action items can be broken down into sub folders such as:
To pay
To read /sites to go to
To reply
To research
Pending orders
To Call
To Go (classes, parties, meetings)

2. Reference – keep info for future reference
This is where labeling of folders gets a little complicated.
a. The folder names work best if they match the names of any real physical files in your file drawers
b. The titles have to be broad enough categories so that you don’t create zillions of files.
c. The titles have to be obvious to you

Some example reference file folders
Work
Personal
Kids stuff
Clubs
Recipes
Humor/inspiration
Account /password info
Stuff from Mom (that’s real for me)

Business files:
Client correspondence
Website information
Writing ideas
Marketing ideas
Memos from boss/workplace/HR

3. Project files
These are for information to be collected for a short time, then discarded (including deleting the folder icon)
RSVPs for event
Decor project bids

The second trick is to use your in-box as your to-do list.
I know this is a huge no-no, taboo, frowned-upon way to operate – but for some of us it just works better. The reason is because if you’re already looking at mail in the in-box, your brain is triggered to attend to the stuff that is still sitting there.
It works great with a running list of urgent to-dos and non-urgent to-dos.
You can mark the urgents with flags or by color marking them if your email system allows it.

Next – how to get less email and be a better emailer friend.

Right Brain Email Organizing

Email has become a huge big monster to organize over the last several years.
Remember the early days when we just got a few emails a day?
There are so many ways to organize email I’ll try to comment on a few over the next few entries.
For me – I have been using folders since I got my first email using outlook express back in the 1990′s.
Now I use applemail and still use folders.
But I wish I had switched to gmail years ago – and I’ll tell you why.
It is made for Righties!
The system uses labels instead of folders – which allows you to SEE the subject and the label(s) at the same time.
Labeling means SEEing!
Lets look at the usual ways people deal with email:

Filers - this is how it all began – and why it’s so hard to turn the corner. We would (and many still do) create folder upon folder within folder to house our email archives so that we may find them again if needed. Some people have more than 100 folders and that doesn’t make it easy to find what you need after a while.

Searchers - Hate to put things in a folder, so they leave everything in their In-box, Deleted folder, or Sent mail folder. When they want to find older emails, they just search for it. They love the apple Spotlight function because it can find just about anything using keywords. They use the in-box to house just about everything.

Taggers/Labelers - these are the wise ones who have adopted the tagging system that google created with gmail. It took me days to figure out I was never going to find a way to make a folder in the gmail program.
Instead, you put a label on each email with key phrases you would use for it. Each can have more than one tag as well. Labels can be action – Do, Read, Pending. And they can also be about the sender or the information – Work, Mom, friends.
Labels allow us to SEE everything we need to SEE while simultaneously showing us the label we gave it.
So if you’re thinking about finding another way to organize your email, consider the gmail approach.

Read some other great blog entries about how to use gmail
James Melzer’s Blog entry on google and outlook – includes a photo of tagging done right.
4 steps to banish email from Think Simple Now blog

When to use Color Coding

These fabu Index Chopping Boards are a perfect example of color coding outta-the-box.
* Each color MEANS something.
* The color will help you stay organized (or at least less contaminated in this case).

The color also happens to be fun for those who love a splash of color about the home and office.
You can get the index chopping boards at the Museum of Modern Art online store.

The Organized Writer

I have been a SARK follower for years and years.
I always imagined that she lived in a cluttered, messy, colorful, wild space full of toys and tzatchkes to give her inspiration (of course).
In her books, she is often discussing procrastination and avoidance…and how to avoid avoidance, so I just assumed she was disorganized.
So when I went to the book signing for her new book last night, I asked her. I wanted to know what her clutter issues were.
It was a big surprise to me to find out the truth:

She confessed to the crowd that she is coming out:
She is creative AND she is organized… like uber-organized!
She said, quote – ” I am wildly creative AND organized.”
“If I ever get married, it will be at someplace like The Container Store.”
And this is from a woman who is about as right brainy as it gets!!
YOU CAN BE CREATIVE AND ORGANIZED!

SARK also said she doesn’t talk about it and I inferred that it is because being organized is sometimes mis-perceived as NOT being creative.

More organizing quotes from SARK, the queen of napping and juiciness:

On time: “There is no such thing as not enough time. It’s an invention of the mind.”

On perfectionism: “Allow it – then allow it to change form. Do more things badly and see that there is no consequence and no one cares.”

On getting help from others: We can’t solve the problem with the same mind that created the problem in the first place” – quoting Einstein’s phrase:
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Photo is of SARK blessing me with her big purple crayon (as in Harold and the Purple Crayon.)
Between the rainbow and the blessing I just know I’m going to have an interesting year!

Color Coding vs. Using Color

Creative, visual, sparkly people love to use lots of color when organizing. (like colorful paper trays)
And there are lots of people who recommend color coding methods to stay organized.
The two are not the same thing.
Using color is not the same as color coding.

Color coding is making color significant and giving it meaning.
It is usually done in order to separate parts of your life and make the sections easily identifiable at a glance.
For instance: my home files are purple and my business files are orange. Or if using desk trays: green for to-do, blue for to file, white for in-box, etc.

Using color is when you add a dose of color to make a boring situation less boring. Or even to make it exciting! Weeeeee, colored paper trays!

I love using color and patterned products to jazz things up.

And I don’t recommend doing much color coding for most of my clients and I’ll tell you why.
I think it is just more difficult to keep up.
Maintenance is usually a challenge for right brainers (and many moooooorrrre).
When you color code, you then have to keep a stockpile of those colored things around and store them.
It means having a stack of colored files in all your colors so you have some when you need a new one.
It means colored pens for the calendar (withing reach).
It may mean colored towels, colored notebooks, and on and on.
No problem for the organized lefties.
For us righties – you gotta be kidding.
Does color coding work for many? Sure. I’m not saying it doesn’t work. It’s just more work.

My mother had an organizer (she has actually had 9 now, including me) and this organizer had her compartmentalize her office and do special labels for the files to color code them. Now she is chronically disorganized with paper. So organizing them in a complicated way is, well, too complicated. She had to hunt down those special labels every time she wanted to make a new file. Looking for the labels was enough to make me stop and say hmmmmm. Didn’t the oranizer know upkeep is not her stong suit? Eventually the color coding was abandoned. She still has remnants of that original system, but now she just writes on the files as is (or gets her organizer to).
See a video on how to color code here

To all the Righties who are not the best at maintenance, filing, putting away, complicated systems – my best advice is this: Keep it simple. If a process sounds like it takes more than one step or two easy ones, think twice about it.
Take the lid off the hamper
Use open topped bins
Keep you most used files in open carts or crates so you don’t even have to open a drawer.

Structure for Creatives

Structure stinks. Whenever I add formal structure to my day, my inner rebel sticks out her wicked tongue and gives me a raspberry. Thbfffft!

I know that structure and routine bring freedom from worry, and yet I can’t stand the thought of being tied down to a time just because I said so.
(Self parenting is even harder than parenting real kids.)
Even when I write down “make calls” at 3:00-3:30pm, I won’t follow my own instructions.

If you’re anything like me, you may like the “blob” method. Or you can call it “block” if you want to be all like that.
The blob method goes something like this:

1. Make a list of the stuff you gotta get done.
2. Look at your calender and identify the large and small blobs of time between appointments.
3. Pick small tasks to do during the short blobs.
4. Pick more difficult and time consuming to-do’s for the bigger blobs of time.
5. If you’re working on an ongoing project, just do part of it over series of blobs to get it done.

Visualize & Estimate Time
If you like to draw (and even if you don’t) you can help visualize how long each to-do is going to take.
Make your to-do list for the day randomly all over the page.
Draw a blob around each task and make each blob bigger or smaller depending upon how much time you think it will take.
Now you have a visual map of your tasks and can easily identify the big ones and small ones.
Draw lines between any blobs that should be grouped together (errands, things at the computer, etc.)
Color in your blobs when you finish them. You can even color in a pie slice or an inner blob if you only get part of your task done.

This may sound a little weired to some, but the only method that matters is the one that works for you.

I got Butlerized!

From this to that -
I can’t believe I finally took the plunge — I plunked down a small chunk to get myself a purse that is beautiful AND functional.
After months and months of waffling I finally decided I couldn’t take another day of my beautiful artsy iro purse (photo left). I love it for it’s flowy lines and color but it just didn’t have enough inner pockets for keeping all my stuff separated and easy to find.

So now – ta da – I got my Butler Bag
thanks to a sample sale (nearly 1/2 off – send me an email and I’ll send you the link, and thanks to Monica Ricci and Monica Premo who luuuuuv em so much they want to marry them)
It is not only knock-out gorgeous on the outside (Orange is the new black), but it also has the fantastic original and ultimately organized interior design.. (Does the bin-thing have a name???)

What do you look for in a purse girls?
Shouldn’t men carry bags? Wouldn’t it be easier than stuffing their pockets? Or asking their gals for pens and other stuff that doesn’t fit in a pocket?