May 8th, 2011 → 11:15 am @ admin
Julie Bestry is a prolific writer and may be the contributor with the highest number of published tips in the Sync or Swim ebook. I’ve known Julie since I started organizing and have watched her business grow and flourish as she established herself as an expert on paper management and time management. Julie is President of Best Results Organizing in Chattanooga, TN, is a Certified Professional Organizer®, speaker and author. Julie helps overwhelmed individuals and businesses save time and money, reduce stress and increase productivity through new organizational skills and systems.
Julie does it all, and really shines brightly when discussing ways to conquer paper clutter. You can view more of her organizing ideas, tips, and tricks in the Paper Doll, a blog devoted to paper management. She has also written a popular ebook all about paper management called Tickle Yourself Organized. Her website also contains numerous free articles about paper clutter and a variety of organizing strategies.
We’re proud to include Julie Bestry’s tips in this ebook!
– Allison
May 4th, 2011 → 8:00 am @ admin
Contributor Profile: Ramona Creel
“Who is this crazy person?” — That is the opening of her website’s information page and that sums it up! Ramona Creel cannot be defined easily (and wouldn’t want to be.) Creel is a uniquely talented, innovative, creative organizer and business owner like no other. Let’s start with her accomplishments: She was early on the Professional Organizing scene and started a business in Atlanta, Georgia long before Oprah discovered and popularized getting organized. Creel saw a need for a website to get organizing information and products and find organizers, and so she founded OnlineOrganizing.com and ran it for many years winning numerous awards.(Now it is under new ownership).
Currently, Creel has adopted RVing life and travels around the country while organizing and training new organizers. There is much more to this woman, but I’ll let you explore her website, http://ramonacreel.com, and find out more about her love of travel, photography, film, art, and simplicity.
May 2nd, 2011 → 6:20 am @ admin
Sync or Swim contributor Kim Oser values order and simplicity
(New series profiling ebook contributors)
Kim Oser, owner of Put It Away!SM changes lives as she helps people find order. Oser runs a full time, full service organizing business specializing in residential and small business organization in the Washington D.C. area. Like many organizers, Oser works side-by-side with clients to develop organizing systems that work for their personality, their lifestyle, and their space. Put It Away! helps clients make decisions to reduce clutter and the accompanying stress.
Though she doesn’t mention this in great detail on her website, Oser is also a gadget geek and can help clients to overcome the overwhelm that happens as they purchase a new productivity tool, but have trouble setting it up and using it. She has provided some of our tips on syncing and backing-up and sharing information.
In addition, Oser is an expert at The Clutter Diet, an online service that provides weekly plans to help people get organized. Oser and Sync or Swim author Allison Carter are both experts there and answer members’ questions online about. Questions are about everything under the sun from setting up a launch pad to helping determine which kind of gadget to get for organizing.
Kim brings over 10 years of experience in the corporate world where she worked in pharmaceutical sales and hospitality sales and catering. Her experiences gave her an understanding of how illness can impact disorganization and clutter. She also learned the importance of planning and follow-through to reduce confusion and stress. Kim holds a Bachelor’s of Science from University of Maryland and a Certified Medical Representative Degree in Disease Management. She passed the inaugural Certified Professional Organizer(CPO)® exam in 2007 and is one of only seven CPOs® in Maryland. Kim was awarded the inaugural NAPO-WDC Key Leaders Award in 2007.
Kim has been recognized and quoted as an Organizational Expert both locally and nationally. She worked with the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007 on their two part show titled, “Inside The Lives of Hoarders.” She has been featured on FOX-5 TV in Washington, DC and in numerous print and online newspapers.
March 4th, 2011 → 6:27 am @ admin
QR codes are the next big thing in marketing and communication. They’re already here and all around us, but not many people know what they are or what to do with them.
From a Sync or Swim point of view, we’re going to show you why you should love them!
QR codes, also known as Quick Response codes, are little black and white codes, much like a bar code, that tell someone who reads the code (with a smart phone camera usually) some kind of information, or links you to a video, form, or some other link. They can give you instant answers or more information.
Imagine the uses:
Instead of carrying a stack of business cards to a meeting, you put your QR code on your name tag and your colleagues hold up their phone, take a photo of the little square, and voila! All of your contact information is sucked directly into their contact management program. NO paper wasted. NO money spent. The code on this page is my business contact information.
Imagine hiking through the woods and feeling a little lost. On the tree in front of you, the trail is marked with a sign pointing right and left for two different paths. On each arrow there is a QR code. When you capture the QR you get a picture of a map showing you where each path leads.
Imagine being in a store and looking some shoes you like and wondering what else the company makes. Click on the QR sticker on the shoe or shoebox, and you are immediately transported to the company’s website where you learn more about that shoe and can see what else they produce.
The uses are innumerable!
How to make your own QR code coming up in the next post.
March 1st, 2011 → 5:23 pm @ admin
Do you suffer from tech overload?
This article from USA Today (Feb. 2011) sums up the situation for many of us pretty well. This is one of the many reasons we put this book together for you. There is so much information coming at us from all angles, it’s tough not to be overwhelmed.
I personally have cut back from at least an hour a day on social media (twitter, facebook, linked-in, blogs) to more like 20-30 minutes. I reached a point of exhaustion and had to call it quits. But some sites are more fun than others for me. I still really like the interaction on facebook the most. How about you?
– Allison
February 12th, 2011 → 12:10 pm @ admin
Watch this space for the official Sync or Swim launch!!
– Allison