Last week, I shared with you our first Jump Start initiative which is your personal organization, where I would counsel anyone to start getting themselves organized after they’ve implemented the Sunday Basket®. However, some of you are not going to want to start in your personal spaces for various reasons. One, maybe they are already organized. Two, it doesn’t matter how much it would help you if you were organizing yourself - you are drowning so much that you must start in family spaces. Or three, you need your organizing journey to be more visible and not invisible to get a spouse’s approval or buy in for you to continue.  Our second Jump Start option, you could do in place of personal organizing or do after. You could do these in reverse order; it doesn’t matter. We’ve pulled the lessons from The Productive Home Solution® into a Jump Start Kitchen Organization Program and walk you through how to get your kitchen all the way organized in six weeks or less. Typically, you get surface level organized and then move on, because everything else seems so much more disorganized than the kitchen. These Jump Start programs encourage you to get all the way organized - either in your personal or in your kitchen spaces. And all the way organized is pretty detailed.  When you get all the way organized in your kitchen, you’re going to start with figuring out what your zones should be, and what phase of life you are currently in. I want you to pretend that you are moving into this house for the first time. Think about if you were moving in right now, how you would organize this kitchen without looking at anything that’s in any cabinet. Your kitchen is really like a whole house. It does so many things, and every cabinet is like a tiny room that has a purpose for the phase and stage of life you are in. The size of your kitchen doesn’t matter as much as the functionality. Instead of wishing that you had something that you don’t, take what you have and make it as functional as possible. Then if you ever do move or you have the opportunity to make improvements to your house, you’ll know exactly what you want to put in there.  Secondly, when you organize your kitchen, there are so many of the lessons that will carry over into other parts of your house. For example, when you learn how to organize a drawer step by step, you will know how to organize ANY drawer in your house. The next thing is establishing stations. Organizing stations are dependent on the phase of life you are in, as well. If you have kids, you can create a lunch packing station. Do you host a lot of dinners? Make a dinner station. Drink stations, snack stations, the list goes on! What can you add to this kitchen that will give you some extra space? What can you take away that you only need seasonally? Whoever is the primary cook should be the one to establish the organization in the kitchen.  I want you to spend a full three to six weeks in your kitchen because you’re going to add 30% more organization to your life. So if you couple this with the Jump Start Personal Organization Program - you will be living an organized life 80% of the time!  EPISODE RESOURCES: Jump Start Programs The Productive Home Solution® The Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In this episode, I introduce you to Lydia M. who has two daughters, ages 4 and 9 months, is married and living in Florida. She has the capacity to run her business, invest in her family, and partake in her hobbies or simply scroll through Instagram. But it wasn’t always like this. Lydia was getting ready to start her bookkeeping business, DAC Balance, so she searched for podcasts to motivate and educate her. She came across the Professional Organizer Think Tank Podcast in 2006 which still exists!! When Lydia heard me say that there was a regular podcast, Lydia found it and has been a loyal listener every Friday since 2017. It was fascinating to learn about what Lydia does, the business sizes that she works with, and compared Organize 365®’s business as it pertained to her business. Simply put, she’s the middle man between the data entry person at a business and a CPA. Some businesses do not need a full time “controller” so they hire Lydia to fill that gap.  Lydia and her husband were fortunate enough to move into her great aunt and uncle’s home after losing her aunt. Since her aunt’s passing was somewhat sudden, all their things were still in the home when they moved in. Lydia’s family was happy to not have to purchase something for this home that was new to them but it also meant estate sales, garage sales, and multiple trips to donation centers over the next 4 years to clear it all out.  In 2019, Lydia found out she was pregnant. Unfortunately, the pandemic hit not too much later. The idea of becoming a mom and the pandemic gave Lydia time to get organized with the 100 Day Program she’d received as a gift for Christmas. Now that the house had been cleared out, it was time to declutter her stuff. This resulted in items being in the correct rooms…but also meant all the stuff needed to be gone through again. I shared a little tip we competitive puzzle solvers use, and it’s that we go through the pieces three times to complete the puzzle. We declutter to be able to organize to be able to get optimized and the result is productivity. This is why we go through The Productive Home Solution® three times.  Lydia went on to describe how she is resetting her home every three months-ish due to her 9 month old growing and developing. With babies, there is a 3-4 monthly cycle in and out of clothes, toys, and safety in your home. Once our children are about 5 that turns into the first half of the school year, the second half, and then summer. This is why we do the home blitzes in that same pattern. Lydia wants to set an example of planning for her girls. I brought up that meme: Choose your hard…Planning is hard and not planning is hard. Lydia wants her girls to know it’s normal to plan for the upcoming week. She wishes someone had taught her that way earlier in life. We talked about the impact on our mental and cognitive load when we use the Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox®. Speaking of planning and the benefits, you think I rabbit trailed on shipping in the past two episodes? No, we really trailed off getting into what the heck I am doing with my PhD and what my coach and I discussed. Turns out I have had a good chunk of research completed towards putting together a Household Organization/Productivity Theory!  Lydia’s advice is, “Buy all the things. Do the blitzes to get a sense of how it feels to be organized in a season.”  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

The number one reason cited as to why people do not feel like they are more organized or they do not start getting organized is they don't know HOW to start. They don't know WHERE to start. They don't know how long it's going to take...something else always gets in the way. Today's episode is going to help give you the tools to overcome this hurdle. So when you're at home and you feel like you're disorganized and you have a little bit of time, how do you use it? How do you get started? That's what I've been wrestling with the last 6 months. Looking at customer service emails, listening to things on social media, watching how people are implementing the tools that Organize 365® has to get you more organized, which ultimately give you more time. But - if you don't have any time, how do you get organized? What does it look like when your closet, bathroom, and bedroom are declared "organized"? Your closet is done when anyone could go in there, choose an outfit, and you'd put it on and walk out the door immediately. Your bathroom is done when you have everything you need for your morning, afternoon, and evening routines. No extras of anything and duplicates of everything you couldn't go a day without. Your bedroom is done when it doesn't look like you're living in your storage room. It should be intentional.   When you are organized there is no negative self talk, you wake up and have a more productive day, and you are moving forward faster. You have more mental capacity at your discretion in the morning and the evening to reflect on your day. This allows you to go to bed calmer and with less stress, all small but significant benefits - just from being organized! Personal organization is a YOU game. You need to get your space organized first, then you will start to live an organized life 50% of the time. If you start February 15th, you will be personally organized by April 1st. How amazing would it feel to be personally organized in 6 weeks and living 50% of your life as an organized person?! The first Jump Start cycle begins on February 15th, and runs every 6 weeks. You will have dashboard access to the course, and be invited into a private community group in the App. You will also get weekly recordings of The Productive Home Solution® Club. More details can be found at https://organize365.com/jump-start/. Next week I'll give you all the details on the Kitchen + Meal Planning Jump Start Program! EPISODE RESOURCES: Jump Start: Personal Organization Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In this episode, I introduce you to Wendy T. She's married with a 13 year old son, a 10 year old daughter, one cat and one dog. She lives in Southern Australia and owns 2 Air BNB’s. Talking to Wendy gave me a lot of ideas about traveling to Australia, and how to fulfill my wish list. I hope Greg joins me in 2026! It was interesting to learn that Wendy found Organize 365® through the ADHD Podcast which brought her to the Sunday Basket® Podcast and then to the main podcast. In learning about the Sunday Basket®, she thought this could be the way to gain calm in her home. In 2020, Wendy was in the process of moving. She purchased the old The Productive Home Solution® and found permission to let go of things.  Back then it was the IDLE “process” and we laughed at the placement of the phone book mentioned. She’d experimented with Marie Kondo, but what she found different with Organize 365® were the systems, processes, and schedules. It was more than just decluttering.  Wendy used to have paper piles in each room and she’d throw papers in them thinking, “Oh yeah, I’ll deal with it later.” When those paper piles started to disappear, that’s when she knew Organize 365® was effective in her life. Our homes don’t have administration offices like work, but Wendy saw her Sunday Basket® as a mini administration space. She could hold things in there until they needed to be dealt with. She loves the ability to think less and follows the tried and true systems of Organize 365®. We got on a shipping 2.0 conversation (1.0 was the Canadian shipping last episode), this time about Australia. This held Wendy back for a time. We feel selfish spending this money because it seems like it’s for us. The reality is that the family eats better, the Sunday Basket® user is more calm, and the house runs more smoothly. We pay a lot of money for summer camps and soccer, we should spend money to maintain our homes too! After Wendy splurged on the Organize 365® products and shipping them to Australia, she realized it’s like self care. She doesn’t spend money on shoes or handbags; so this is her splurge. Wendy pointed out that because shipping is so high, she appreciates the planning and implementation days to still be part of organizing life with Organize 365®. Planning Day is where she learned about permission for something else…naps! The planning days brought us to discovering each other's calendars. Australians celebrate different holidays. Their seasons are different from ours. And their school year is different. This got me thinking about America’s natural energy/cadence to organizing and how it matches up, or didn’t in most cases, to Australia’s. Her Golden Window is NOW! We determined Wendy’s weather must be like that of Arizona’s. It’s summer now and can get up to 40 degrees C or 104 degrees F. It’s also one of the busiest times for the Air BNB’s with the gardens. She values her Friday Workbox® even more now with managing people. She’s not doing so much physical work, but she is managing!  Wendy’s advice is, “Go back to ‘Lisa Basics’. Give yourself grace. Done is better than perfect. Keep at it - chip away. Just start! It’s just a habit. If you build the habit, it  just gets so much easier!”  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Alright, it's time for the last organizational domino - Don't Quit! When you have mastered something, when you have persevered and you have learned something at a new level, you can easily forget what it was like to learn that skill. For many adults, we don't often have to push through any resistance in order to learn something new. When things get rough, we can choose to be comfortable instead of doing something hard or pushing through the resistance.  Quitting is fine. You're allowed to quit. The reason why I didn't quit in 2012 in getting my home organized was because I didn't have any options left. I was turning 40, I started Organize 365®, I was getting our house organized and I had become a Professional Organizer. If I couldn't get my own house organized, how was I going to keep being a Professional Organizer? It was part of my identity of who I was becoming.  The next time I wanted to quit was with growing Organize 365®. There have been a lot of things that have happened in 12 years in business that I didn't know how to do. I don't have a business degree, so I am learning how to be a business owner by being in masterminds, hiring coaches, taking courses, going to seminars and conferences. Being an entrepreneur is a never ending professional development course.  As an adult you want to quit...or you just figure out how to do it. It's not about being afraid of the effort or the work; it's about not knowing how to do it, or what to do next. Go back to your WHY - why do you want to get organized to begin with? When you know your why, then you know your limits, strengths and weaknesses...and realize that you will need resources, help, expertise, advice and so forth in order to get further and grow more.  Organization can be the solution to having a plan and getting your time back. I know you're probably thinking: "it's ridiculous to pay money to Organize 365® to learn how to organize, when I should just know how to do this myself."  Why should you know how to do something just because you've always lived in a household? Everything is taught to us, or modeled for us. If you weren't TAUGHT how to be organized, you have to go to class. When you get stuck - join the community, get in the app, go to the coworking time. Get with people who are like minded. Sign up for a 1:1 session with a Certified Organizer.  Everyone is going to get stuck. I'm not going to let you quit. Keep pushing through, because on the other side is the organized life and unlocked time freedom that you're looking for.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In this episode, I introduce you to Francie G. Francie found herself googling for basement organization podcasts when her mother-in-law decided to downsize from her home of 46 years in November of 2022. She came across the “arranging your hot mess rooms” episode and was hooked. For her mother-in-law's move, which turned into her move too…she invested in The Productive Home Solution®. She grasped the idea of “same with same” and ease of access based on frequency of use. She then chose her own organizational adventure. At the same time, Francie, her husband, and two children, Thomas and JoAnn, were living in a condo. Francie and her husband started their lives there 18 years ago, but knew it was not their forever home. Her mother-in-law downsizing meant they would be acquiring some furniture, memorabilia, and other items from this transition. They knew it was more than their condo could hold. They temporarily rented a storage space, but knew that money could instead go towards a mortgage for a house that was plenty big to have all their stuff in their home. This was the perfect time to start the search for their new home.  We got to talking about our children getting older and that means their bodies get bigger too! It’s like 4 adults were living in their home. They were at a point in life where a little more space would be nice. And I don’t think we talk enough about buying your first nice piece of furniture or your first home in your 40’s. We don’t move into our first home and everything is perfect and brand new! Cue the The Paper Solution® Financial Binder. They needed to be more diligent with their money and she wanted peace of mind to know things would be ok.   Francie and her husband have always been intentional with their spending despite esteemed professions. They have only had one car, stayed in their condo till they felt they needed to move, and hired a nanny that had capabilities to drive. Francie’s first investment actually was the ADHD Bundle, and we might have gone down a rabbit hole about shipping internationally and how things have changed. She also explained that because of the public transportation and the nanny, she was able to work from home with both children attending different schools, uninterrupted. When the children were in school, the nanny would run errands or help with housework. If Francie needed to go anywhere, she could hop on the public transportation. With all this change for her mother-in-law and their family, Francie started thinking she too may have ADHD. Re-establishing the systems she’s learned, she realized she just has a lot of complexities in her life and no ADHD. Those complexities can suppress executive function. She laughed thinking “Well, I had gestational diabetes while I was pregnant. So maybe I’ll have ADHD while the kids live at home!” She’s realized that Organize 365® is the cure for that! She’s regaining her work/life balance and knows she can do hard things. Francie’s advice is, “the systems, routines, and schedules at home that Organize 365® teaches are the external scaffolding that keeps life organized. ”  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I just want all my podcast listeners to be in the know. Now in the Shop are the two new Portable Sunday Basket® color options. I really don’t understand the obsession with all black…so I had to throw in a new fun one too!!  The School Memory Binder is back, redesigned, and you can choose a color for that too!  Food for thought: each one of your children could have different colors. A gentle reminder that the first Paper Organizing Retreat of 2024 will be here in Cincinnati on March 2nd. You have time…but do you??  Finalize plans and I look forward to seeing you in March! New Portable Sunday Basket Colors  Basic Black Black & Pink Stripes School Memory Binder is Back Lattice color choice of white, pink, purple, green, or blue Now can save school memorabilia through 12th grade Don’t Forget the next Paper Organizing Retreat is March 2nd Seems like a long time from now, but not really! If you need to plan who you are going with, where you will stay, and gathering all the paper you will want to organize - do that soon!. This is part of the Certified Organizer certification. So if it has been on your list of things you want to accomplish, then get registered and plan! EPISODE RESOURCES: Portable Sunday Basket® School Memory Binder Paper Organizing Retreat https://organize365.com/newsletteroptin/ Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are you ready for organizational dominos Step 2? Step 1 was getting started - in decluttering and organizing; and understanding that organization is different than housework. It is putting systems in place that will support you and will last for more than a day or a week and give you foundation. Step 2 is how long will this take? I need you to give me more time. If we could do it in a weekend, I would let you know. If we could do it in a month, I would let you know. Even if it was your full time job, we couldn't do it in that short amount of time...there's just too much to do. It's going to take one to three years. I know you don't like that answer but this is not new information, and this is not a marketing scheme. If anything, it's an anti-marketing scheme. It takes a MINIMUM of one year to get organized. Part of why it takes a minimum of one year is because you just finished December. If you're starting brand new now in January, do you remember what all you did in the beginning of December? Thanksgiving? Halloween? There are things that you did seasonally that you don't remember right now as you're organizing in January. There is a seasonality to organizing your physical spaces.  Year One During your first year of organizing, your only job is to do 15 minute tasks every single day. Keep doing those 15 minute tasks every single day in every space until it's completely organized. A completely organized space has only 2 requirements. 1. When you walk into that space, it isn't "talking back" to you. The space isn't demanding your attention. 2. There are no more decisions to be made. There's no more thinking about what you're doing (or need to do) in that space. Year Two By the end of your first year, you've been through all the seasons and your house will be pretty much organized. So in year two - you're going to go through your house AGAIN because now you can declutter more, add some organizational systems, make it prettier, etc. You're going to get into the cadence of reflecting on the last 4 months and then planning for the next 4 months. You're going to create better systems, better cadences, start using the Sunday Basket® and The Paper Solution® Binders (if you haven't already). Year Three You are living an organized life in your home and in your work, and you identify as an organized person. Unexpected events happen in your life, but they don't become all consuming. You're better able to handle the complexity. You're going to be able to flex with the unexpected events because your house is under control, your work is under control, and you really do have work-life balance. You know the visible and invisible work that needs to be done in both, and you've set up systems in both that are supporting you so that when the unexpected happens - you're the one that can bounce right back and still maintain your goals. You know where all your time goes, where all your money goes, where all your intention goes, where your energy goes. You know you have capacity to do MORE. Why? Because YOU. ARE. ORGANIZED.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution® The Paper Solution® Organize 365® Kids Program Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Organizational math. As a math teacher, I knew that if there were any holes in my student’s learning, they would struggle with future math concepts. Math skills build upon each other… just like organizing skills. There is a reason that most organizational programs start with decluttering (subtraction): you must reduce your pile before you can move on to step 2… organizing. Organization adds minutes to your days (addition) and speeds up your pace as you get through the tedium of everyday household tasks. But, increased productivity is the holy grail we all seek. Once you know how to multiply time, there is no turning back. The skill of being a productive person starts with decluttering spaces, calendars, commitments, and sometimes people. Adding the weekly cadence of organizing your time, your priorities, and your actionable to-dos leaves you with a manageable action plan. I used to think productivity = being busy. Now I know that everyone is busy. Ironically, the people who look least busy are usually the most productive. Podcast episode 463: Learning the Skill of Organizing: Step 3 Increase Productivity Next year at this time, do you want to be more productive? More purposeful? More peaceful? The organizational level you are at today is a reflection of the cumulative minutes you invested in the full organizational cycle this year. Decluttering + organization = increased productivity. It would be my honor to walk with you through your organizational journey. Productivity is a fickle friend. It will not spontaneously happen. Productivity must be planned. It's time to make a plan! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution® The Paper Solution® The Household Operations Binder The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In this episode, I introduce you to Christa G. Christa is from a little town not too far from me; but about six years ago moved to Michigan from Georgia. Christa is married and has two children that are almost 12 and 16. Christa ended up hearing one of my interviews on the Boss Mom podcast around 2015/2016. She knew when they got to Michigan that she wanted to start a wedding planning business. She got the Friday Workbox® to keep her on track and organized before they moved. She now runs her wedding planning business full time! She’s known for planning unconventional weddings that reflect the character of the bride and groom.  When Christa first found me, my kids were about her kids' ages. We laughed about having these humans that look like adults in our homes and how they take up more space, have opinions, and different food preferences. Christa has been such a proactive mom that these little adults do their own laundry and can prepare meals for themselves…even if it’s just frosted flakes! We rabbit trailed to what I call “selfish” laundry. Christa mentioned that she’d like to see her son wash more than just a uniform he needs for his sports team. When Greg says he’s going to do the laundry and I see only his jeans got washed; I give him a hard time saying “Oh, we’re doing selfish laundry today?” Christa and I agree to just put a full load in the wash instead.  She plans her meals for the week when she processes her Sunday Basket® and then the family sees what she’ll be making and what nights they’ll have to fend for themselves. We kind of have this going on at my house except we all have cars and we all have money. So we are all shopping and not all of the food is getting eaten. I remember my mom doing the “refrigerator review” which meant she’d heat up all the leftovers the night before garbage day. Whatever didn’t get eaten, she’d toss. This was one more attempt at that food getting eaten instead of wasted. The Woodruff’s are a work in progress in this area!  Christa managed to get her home life running pretty smooth and then she focused on her business. She has learned to become a person of excellence in one area and then build on her skill set. Weddings look so different for each couple. I shared that Greg and I were married 6 months after Greg finally proposed, it took him three years. Christa shared that she eloped. She normally hears “you made this process so much more calm than I expected it to be.” Wedding planners are there to have your back. They will read through all the contracts, search for options for flowers or other items you need, and pivot when needed. This way the bride doesn’t get lost in the weeds of the details. She offered some wedding planning advice: Get help planning your wedding. Ideally a wedding planner, but if not rely on your wedding party to help.  Your budget will depend on the number of guests you have attending. So to stay within your budget you may consider a smaller invite list.  Find a venue that fits your vision to prevent additional spending in order to transform the space.  Hot button alert!!  You wanna hear a good story about a good venue and contracts? I shared what happened to Organize 365® with the Savannah Center. You will not see me doing business with them! Christa shared how she had to fight for a couple when at the last minute a venue decided to have their ballroom renovated leaving them to deal with a less than ideal wedding. You bet Christa got that money back!! That’s the blessing of a wedding planner.  Christa’s advice is, “learn to be flexible, readjust when needed and not be so rigid in what you want to happen. But feel out what is supposed to happen and what feels right.”  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!  

Happy New Year! Today, I'm kicking off a three-part series called Organizational Dominos. We're starting with Step 1: Start. Next week will be Step 2: Extend Your Timeline, and then comes Step 3: Don't Quit!  We all want to quit at some point, but we're going to push through and we are NOT going to quit. But let's talk about getting started first. Getting started is the hardest part when you're trying something new, doing something different, or not really sure where you're going...or confident that you know how to get there.  We've been doing Thursday Throwback episodes of the most popular podcast series we've ever had called The Stages of Organization. Step 1 of that cycle is decluttering. Decluttering leads to organization, and organization leads to increased productivity. Decluttering is easy. It gives you the big "WOW" result when you're done. You can do that for a couple of weeks and feel lighter. However, there are problems with decluttering. One is that you don't declutter enough, and the second is if you've already decluttered but what is left isn't organized - then you need to move on to step 2. Over decluttering is a thing! We tend to do this if we don't know how to get organized, and think instead that we just need to get rid of more things. Set a timer for 15 minutes, grab a black trash bag, and fill it up. Even if you just start with trash or broken items, do that. Then go back through and collect anything that you can donate.  Stop by the donation place of your choice every single week until you can't fill the car anymore. Declutter 15 minutes a day, and whatever is going to be donated - put it straight in your car.  Getting started - declutter. Throw out all the trash and broken items, decide to sell or not sell, establish a donation cadence. Time to move on to organizing.  15 minutes a day. If you use that 15 minutes a day for housework instead of organizing, you're not going to get organized - EVER. What's the difference between housework and organizing? That's what I'm focusing on in my PhD. No joke - in the American Time Use Study, working on a boat is considered housework! Emptying ashtrays, shoveling coal, waiting for your electric car to charge - all housework. Mind blown!  Housework is anything you do weekly that is basically undone by the time you finish it. Dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, planning meals, cleaning the refrigerator, you get it. So the 15 minutes a day you are spending on ORGANIZING (not housework!) should be for something that will last at least a month. There isn't enough information out in the world about how to actually get organized. There is for decluttering and productivity - but not organizing. So when you're looking this year to follow someone to inspire you to get organized, look for these things:  Someone who has the plan and the results that you want Does their lifestyle match yours?  Their rigidity - Do they have lots of checklists? Do their checklists have checklists?  How they pivot during unexpected events: Do they pivot the way that you would?  I might not be your person. I may not be enough organization for you. And that's ok. Are you ready to get organized in 2024? I want to encourage you that it is literally impossible to be behind when you are organizing. All you have to do is START!  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Last week we went over the first step to the cycle of getting organized; decluttering. I shared that decluttering leads to organization. I defined organization as lasting change in your home - not like housework that needs to be done daily or weekly. In this episode, I take that definition one layer deeper. Your rooms should not be talking to you…what does that mean? There IS seasonality to our homes; our choice of shoes, meals we cook, our diets, activities we enjoy. Naturally, we need different items for each season. This is why here at Organize 365® we have divided the year into trimesters; 4 month segments to plan for the next phase of seasonality your home and life will be facing. Now that we are done with the holidays, when is the next time you’ll be making a turkey? Likely in 11 months. So you could put that turkey pan and the lifters in your storage...but you can’t because your storage area is a hot mess like every other storage area I’ve seen ever. THIS is why it’s nice to be organized. You can tailor your spaces with the seasonality and have an appropriate organized storage area to do that! Each planning day helps you to anticipate these seasons and the “unexpected” events that come our way with each season.  Did you know that this year Easter is in March??  Yes! Our last planning day we talked about that, which will change spring break for many of us. How do you “Spring Break”? You may need to make hotel reservations or talk to people you travel to for Easter. It’s inevitable that after Easter our brains switch to summer - but the reality is that we have a lot of weeks left in school until summer. I also brought awareness to taxes. Yes, they are coming!!  It’s funny how these “unexpected” events come out of nowhere and can throw everything off track. This is why we have the planning days. For this reason, you get the first planning day included when you get The Productive Home Solution®. We want to give you all the support we can to get you organized and stay that way even if an unexpected or routine “unexpected” event comes your way.  Year One After a year of going through all your spaces (15 minutes at a time) decluttering and organizing, you will no longer have rooms talking to you. No room is reminding you to change the light bulb, order a backup of a product you use daily, or a repair that is needed. You have backup of products you use and systems in place to resupply. You are no longer using your decision making allowance on what you are going to wear, what is for breakfast, or other simple decisions throughout your day. This process of decluttering will result in organization. This will not look like everything is labeled and “pretty.” This kind of organization will look like more time and more free thinking space in your brain. You can start to mentally prepare for your day as you get ready or drive to work. You can focus on accomplishing your goals. You may not be organized now, but you could be a year from now. So where do you start?  I always advise starting in your personal spaces and storage, and then you get to choose your own adventure. You can choose your paper, family spaces, or kids spaces. I will note that kids' spaces need to be done in the summer; so consider where you are in the year when you choose where you will organize next. Once you get to fall, you need to do the spaces you didn’t do in summer. This will take you about a year. If you think about how much time you spent on just your bathroom, you can expect your full home to take about a year! Year Two Now that your spaces aren’t talking to you, it’s time to refine. You get life long access to The Productive Home Solution® and can really go through it as many times as you’d like. This time you will go through all of your spaces again…but during this round you will get rid of some things you didn’t last time. You may have set up your Sunday Basket®, but you may find that you are not really making everything wait until Sunday. This year, you will start to understand the importance of waiting until Sunday to free up decision making and time. You will also start to better utilize The Paper Solution® Binders. You will find yourself going through the free blitzes at a deeper level. You are a productive planner. This is the year most people will add the Friday Workbox® too. You have seen the impact of the Sunday Basket® at home and you desire that same level of organization at work, too. Year Three THIS is the year you recognize “I am an organized person.” You finally feel it. No rooms are talking to you. You know the visible and invisible work that needs to get done and you have systems in place to support you in work and life. Work is in control. Life is in control. You can flux when unexpected life events come your way. Your home and work will not fall apart. Now you can gather all the time from both areas and think about whatever you want to all the time. You can now start to do what you are uniquely created to do!  I’m not going to lie…you are going to want to quit sometime in these three years. So make sure to catch next week’s episode on what to do when you get the urge to quit.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution® The Paper Solution® The Household Operations Binder The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

You all love when Emily comes on the podcast! Here’s the update… Pretty safe to say the two of us like to plan. And there’s a cadence or a cycle to organizing. We dream, make it real, complete the idea, and then we get to start dreaming again. Emily shared that she looks at these areas of her life the last week of the year or the first week of the new year: financial, spiritual, relational, emotional, mental, and vocational. She decides the next steps she wants to take to improve those areas and then strives towards the next step over the next six weeks which takes her to her birthday. She can audition new ideas and keep what works and what needs to be revamped. "Forcing things never prosper.” Emily and I agree I have a pretty high awareness of my intuition. I have always been more focused on the destination rather than how I get there. I asked Emily when she decided to start trusting her intuition. She acknowledged that she used to force things and go against her gut. And it was no surprise that things haven’t worked out with this strategy. At Quality IP, she was tired of forcing square pegs into round holes. Once she relinquished control, she felt God putting things into place to keep her afloat as she started down her entrepreneurial journey. She has hustled. And let me tell you, in general, the hustle is back. The pandemic is over and we are back to the hustle and bustle of life. She has found a couple of marketing clients and she’s done some odd jobs to supplement. She’s always been a fantastic networker and those relationships are paying off. There’s no forcing anything and she’s listening to her intuition. She knows she’s not in control. She reminded us all that we are only in charge of our thoughts, attitude, and our efforts. Emily pointed out not to count eggs that have not hatched. She shared that she had calls lined up that ended up canceling. But Emily didn’t sweat it because she’d taken advantage of all opportunities that had come her way. Don’t say no to a money making opportunity today because you may have money coming in a week or two. A Friday Workbox® can really help a person to keep track of odd jobs while organizing your main stream of income. Emily has found herself to be more productive when she starts the day with a list of priorities from the end of yesterday’s work day. She made her list at the end of the day what was most important to complete the next day while it was fresh. Emily took advantage of her good credit score before she was let go to get a bank loan as a safety net. Keep your credit score in good standings. Things are moving faster since Covid. I remember many years ago learning about the Singularity Theory from Ray Kurzweil, that at some point everyone would know everything. I had the hardest time wrapping my brain around this concept. This has been made possible mostly due to the internet. The rate at which we learn new information is exponentially faster than 10 years ago. There’s not the lag of relaying of the information that there used to be. And now… When Covid hit, we all took advantage of technology that would have slowly been utilized. Covid catapulted that forward. Now most know how to Zoom, order groceries online, and alot of us rely on Amazon. And there has been so much ripple effect from Covid and supply shortages we experienced. We’ve seen the minimum wage has also gone up. But one part of the economy doesn’t go up without everything else going up. There was stimulus money that was given to employers who in turn spent it on wages. And of course, the product they needed went up! I have also noticed that the fad of high ticketed coaching and other online sales funnels are starting to shrink. Reminds me of the book “80/20 Sales and Marketing” by Perry Marshall. The idea is if you are in a bar, and you ratchet a shotgun under the table, 20% will look at you. Those are your people. Now build a relationship with those people because they are your client and know others with similar interests. Focus on your target audience. We buy from people we know, like, and trust! Well, there you have it folks. Emily is now an entrepreneur using the unique skill, knowledge, and abilities she has to do what she was uniquely created to do! The two of us aren’t going anywhere. If you need Emily’s services reach out to her via email emilyMkelly@hotmail.com EPISODE RESOURCES: Friday Workbox® 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

You did it! You made it to the end of 2023. What lies before us are all the hopes, dreams, and possibilities of 2024. This is what I like to call the Golden Week. The week after Christmas and before New Years where you're culminating the end of a year and getting ready for the beginning of a new year. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, the last week of December is magical for everyone. For some of us, we're like "Bye bye 2023! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"  What's the cost of not being organized? What's the cost of not making a choice about not making a resolution to get organized? The cost is usually time and money. Everything costs you time and everything costs you money. The first and easiest way that you can save money is by planning your food and meals. You use the Sunday Basket® System to help you meal plan. Use this Golden Week to reflect, make changes or pivots. Take 15 or 20 minutes a week and really start to think about your grocery shopping and meal planning.  How can we get a handle on our time? For me, I've always captured every single second of my time to try to get as much out of that time as possible; to be as productive as possible. Now my goal is to get more of my time back so that I can do NOTHING. Yes, you heard that right! I really want to see if I can stop working by 8 pm every night. I know what needs to be moved into daytime hours or completely eliminated. Very few people know where their time goes. Not me. I keep track of everything - every minute spent at work, on school, with Grayson, Greg, Joey, Abby...all of it. So when you look at your 2024, is there one way in which you want to focus on your money? One way in which you want to focus on your time? One way in which you want to focus on your wellness? How can you take the first step to do that? The Sunday Basket® helps you get through as many tasks as possible and plan for the upcoming week of what you anticipate to happen. You can go to organize365.com to try the free week of the Sunday Basket®. What do you want out of your 2024? Where do you need to improve your organization so that you can have more time and money? EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® Free 5-Day Mini Course Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Throw-back time…We are going to revisit a 3 part series that includes our most listened to episodes. I’m going to revisit what each step looks like and how to complete them. It’s a domino effect - decluttering leads to organization which leads to productivity! There is so much information about decluttering and productivity but where is the handbook to organization? The middle step is missing. It’s a common thought that housework is organization. I am here to set the record straight. Housework is those daily or weekly chores that never seem to be completed, and organization is the lasting result. Decluttering the utensil drawer and making it more functional for your home is organization. Putting things into the drawer from the dishwasher is housework. Vacuuming and laundry is housework. Once you organize something it usually stays that way for a while unless it's a family space and the results don’t last as long. You know! Declutter → Organization → Productivity Step one is decluttering. All you have to do is set a 15 minute timer. Now to complete a housework task. Go to your bathroom or closet and declutter for 15 minutes. At the end of that 15 minutes decide where the items you no longer want will go. Will you toss them? Recycle them? Sell them? Donate them?  In my book “Organization Is a Learnable Skill,” I took 4 months to declutter. Then I decided to sell a few things. For those four months, I placed items in one room. Then I held a garage sale. I wasn’t in a position to work and I wanted to contribute to the family so this was a way I could. You can sell online or however is most convenient for you. BUT I have three rules.  In my opinion, sell the items that will bring in $25 or more. It will take you time to set up a garage sale or post and monitor online so make sure it’s worth your time. Then set a deadline to have the items sold. If you haven't sold them by the deadline, then it’s time to trash or donate. You could spend a lot of time trying to re-post or sell elsewhere. Call a spade a spade and move on. Decide before you sell specifically what you are going to use that money for. Like I mentioned, this was my way to contribute to my family. You could go on vacation, buy something for the house, remodel something, buy a new piece of furniture, The Productive Home Solution®…lol, just sayin’. If you have decided to donate…just relocate the items immediately to your car trunk. I encourage you to get a routine down daily or weekly. Maybe every Thursday after work, you stop by your donation center and drop off your items. Maybe you want to get through as much as you can in one week. Before you start the next 15 minute decluttering session the next day, you go drop off your items. Head home and complete as many 15 minute sessions as you have energy for.  You CAN spend too long decluttering… Once you are happy with what is in your home, stop decluttering. It’s possible that you keep decluttering things you actually want in search of that sense of control. Or you want to feel like the heavens have parted and are shining down on your hard work. Not yet. The idea is just to get rid of your broken or no longer used items so you can organize the things you do want in your home. I want you to know where they are and have your home functional for you. The next step of organization is where you will feel more confident and in control of your home.  Look into my crystal ball These 15 minutes of decluttering sessions are sustainable for about 2 months on your own. And that brings us to the end of February. At that point you are going to think “I love the spaces I have decluttered and organized. I’d really like support to keep going on with the rest of my home. I’d like to try something more with Organize 365®” OR you will think “I did it! I organized the few spaces I spend time in and I’m at peace with that.” I don’t really have a crystal ball but I have observed clients and the Organize 365® community and have seen this play out time and time again. I’d love to be the one to help you get organized in 2024! Who are you gonna follow?  Are you ready to get organized in 2024? I am not everyone’s cup of tea and I am ok with that. I am a functional organizer. I strive for excellence not perfection. Greg grew up in a minimalist setting so he gives me grief over the house not being organized. He would not follow me! I am extremely organized, but I am not a minimalist. I like books and memorabilia. I like my things, and the things I have are organized. I hope you do see the value that I am offering. I hope you see how I pivoted during Covid and it seemed approachable for you. I hope you saw me take the challenge of Greg’s shoulder surgery last week and see how the holiday was still successful. It just looked different this year. Whoever you decide to guide you down the road of organization - do you like their lifestyle, daily accomplishments, rigidity? Choose a person that tackles life events and organization in a way that feels good to you. You want results, right?  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I just love sharing this journey with this community! I love that while processing my thoughts auditorily, I get to connect with you and pick your brains. Just like you all do in the online community! I shared with you about the Teacher Pilot and now I want to fill you in on the Kids Program Pilot. “How did you come up with the Kids Program?” I should have expected this question. Of course, they didn’t have many organizational questions because they had just completed the after school program their parents signed them up for - The Kids Pilot. And there should have been no surprise that it was predominantly boys. Mom wanted little Johnny to pick up after himself better, I guess! We had 14 children participate.  They wanted to know how I came up with the Kids Program.  First Thing’s First First things first, what is the Kids Program? In my years of professional home organizing, I developed some rules for organizing the kids' rooms. First, no parents. I wanted the child to feel comfortable to say yes or no to items or clothes they didn’t want in their room. And let me tell you, you can force your child, guilt your child into keeping something in their room, but it isn’t getting played with or worn! Speaking of stuffed animals, and you can apply this to other “collections,” there's a process of elimination I explained. Our brains can get all mixed up when the things we definitely want to keep are mixed up with the things we are ok to let go.  Also, if the child has a rock collection you don’t want them to have, come up with a compromise. It’s like their passion project and you are completely dismissing it. So instead allow them a certain amount of space or number of items that they can keep. It’s their little passion project, their treasures. You can have an organized room with passion projects in them.  And clothes are a whole other battle. When dealing with smaller children, the only real question they are considering is how do these clothes make me feel? They don’t care about the occasion they may need it for. They never knew how you dressed as a child or how you envision your child dressing. They wanna be able to play in comfort. I always found in boys it was jeans vs. “swishy” pants. You can buy them all the jeans you want but if they like swishy pants, swishy pants are the only thing getting worn. I want to save the child from the battle with the parent over what they want to wear. And I want the parent to spend wisely on clothing their children will actually wear. I talk to the child in my only Lisa voice and help them to respectfully articulate to their parents their preferences and why. I know we all want an organized child and an organized child is much more likely to be confident. Organization breeds confidence.  There are about 14 steps between “You know how” and “Do it like this” There is no system in place of how we “hand down” how to #adult. This applies to baby steps like helping our children to organize their mini apartments, to our emerging adults to their independent living spaces. That is why we offer the Kids Program and Launch Program for ages 16-25. We go out on our own and overnight gain a ton of responsibility.  Did you know that one out of three children are born with organizational skills? So it isn’t any wonder that 87% of adults don’t feel organized. So if we don’t learn organization in school or college, I mean, where are we to learn these skills? It’s not like we wake up adults one day with the skill of organization! The Launch Binder is a great way to comprehensively hand down the skills and systems we have learned along the way for an organized lifestyle. How do we all learn grocery shopping, a cleaning schedule, managing prescriptions, health insurance, buying a car, routine things like oil changes and getting new tires? As parents we just figured it out with each new stage of life. And oh my gosh, throw a kid in the mix and now it just got a lot more complex! Now you are managing a house instead of an apartment, managing other people’s messes and your emotions about those messes, and you are balancing work and home life - not just school and the other stuff mom and dad take care of. Kids don’t know what they don’t know and I believe we all want to better inform our children to reduce their stress and boost their confidence. How do we get this into the educational system? So again I want to ask you, my community…how can we get this into all educational systems? At what age? Senior in high school? At the college level? We NEED to be teaching the skill of organization! Did you know that children who aren’t organized also have increased negative self talk? And as we get older and gain more responsibilities to juggle, do you think the self-talk improves? If we can teach these students how to get organized and maintain it, we’ll have mentally healthier confident children with skills that transfer into the rest of their lives. That will result in them moving through their goals faster and making an impact. Please let me know what you are thinking as I am sharing this information.  This is the last frontier AI will approach. And I’m not confident it’ll ever be able to manage the administration of life! So we’ve got to figure this out and teach them how to help themselves in whatever phase of life they are in.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Kids Program Launch Program Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Happy Boxing Day! Oh my goodness! This is another holiday that I now celebrate that other people may not celebrate. I've basically curated for myself a year full of fake holidays! I don't know any woman that wakes up on the 26th that doesn't want to declutter everything in their house. It's after the holidays, it's at the end of the year, you're getting ready for a new year, new you. This year on Boxing Day, I wanted to let you know that we are going to have a book club on January 12th, going through the book Organization is a Learnable Skill. I self-published this book in 2021 and did a book tour as well. This is the story of getting myself organized in 2012, the year I turned 40 and the same year I started Organize 365®. I wanted to publish this book for a long time because I like to follow someone's story through the highs and lows about how something happens. So often when we are trying to do something new, all we see are the courses, communities, lessons...the whole long list of everything there is to do in order to end up organized at the end of the year. But what happens all the time, during that year? What are the milestones where you start to feel organized? When are the milestones where other people start to notice? What trips you up as you move along through organization? You don't need to re-buy the book to attend the book club. The ticket to attend the live event is $12. Don't worry if you can't attend live, there will be a replay after the event that's available to watch for 25 days. If you need the book and the book club we have that option, too. If you like listening to books - the book is also on Audible! You can submit questions in advance and I'll answer as many as I can. You will also receive a downloadable Journal Prompt booklet in the email with the replay link. So as you're looking to 2024 and want to start getting organized or continue on your organizing journey, these journal prompts walk you through each month of Organization is a Learnable Skill. This book is written almost like a monthly diary, what I did in January, what I did in February...how I felt about that and the progress that I made from being the least organized I've ever been in my entire life.  Good luck decluttering everything. Try not to declutter anything with a heartbeat! Make sure the cats, dogs, and children are out of the way as you are frantically decluttering your house getting ready for an amazing, amazing 2024! EPISODE RESOURCES: Organization is a Learnable Skill Book Club Event Organization is a Learnable Skill Book Club + Organization is a Learnable Skill Book Organization is a Learnable Skill (book only) Audible Version Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

How do we move from being a productive person who can get a lot done in a day to someone who can really set and achieve bigger goals that are going to make a marked difference in the world? The way to become more impactful doesn't come from productivity, it doesn't come from apps, and it doesn't come from digitizing things. It comes from increasing your organization.  In order to build the tracks for your work train, you have to establish work systems, processes and habits. In Workbox Planning Day, we talk about having a beginning of the day routine, a midday routine, and an end of the day routine. Then you can add in Friday Workbox® coworking time each Friday, and Planning Day every quarter. Now there will be the new Workbox Planning Day Implementation event that will kick off next week, and will continually happen every quarter. You have to build these tracks first so that you can move forward faster. Having these three routines each day gives you guardrails and allows you to task stack different things at different times of the day so that you have more capacity and more time to work on your purple projects and move new initiatives forward through the company.  Now you're moving faster because these habits and routines have reduced your decision making fatigue. You've task stacked as many of your green tasks into these bucketed times each day and week so that you have more free time to work on the other colors - pink, purple and blue. Now it's time to build the train cars. How you build your work train cars is very customized. What your train looks like throughout your career is also very customized. Interestingly, you can get your work train up and running faster than your home train. Typically it only takes a year - if you're an employee. If you're a business owner, it's a lifetime pursuit. You're never going to be done because you're always reorganizing the train tracks, moving around the cars or adding and subtracting them. It's basically one big game.  The first work train car will be the Business Friday Workbox®. This will teach you there are four different kinds of work; four different roles you play in your job. Everyone has four: pink, purple, blue and green. Once you figure out what those are, we're going to optimize those four kinds of work over the course of one year. The second train car are the Workbox Planning Days. Until you learn how to plan, how to use your Friday Workbox®, it's really just a pretty way of organizing your to do list. Until you learn to plan the work that's within the workbox, it's very reactive. You might speed up a little, but you will not have the impact that you want to have. How do you take the green work (administrative) and task stack it in as small amount of time as possible at regular intervals throughout the day so that you can increase the capacity you have for the pink, purple and blue work? Once you start going through the Planning Days, you start to proactively and purposefully plan out what your initiatives are going to be in the next 90 days. You start doing less, but getting more in depth. You delete or delegate projects, you streamline your goals and stop overcommitting. You realize how cyclical work is and how much it's related to home.  There are other things that are going to slow down your train - like losing a team member, adding a team member, a new product, losing a product, and so on. Every time you pull into the station, you will go through every single train car. Every 90 days, every quarter. I would love for you to join me for the Workbox Planning Day Implementation event next week. It will be the 13th week of every quarter from now on, so you can add this into your coaching package in order to keep your train running. My job is to get you more productive and profitable so that you can avail yourself of all of those great coaches thereafter.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Business Friday Workbox® Workbox Planning Day Friday Workbox® Planning Day Monthly Subscription Workbox Implementation Day Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I wish you guys could understand the opportunity Jayme gave me when she offered up her school as a pilot school. Jayme had been talking about the Education Friday Workbox® and explaining how she was so organized, but I was still shocked that she was able to get approval overnight! It was an easy “yes” for the superintendent because he knew it was already so effective for Jayme. I am so excited to share how it went! “Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years.” - Bill Gates  The same can be said for our houses. Most people overestimate what they can achieve in one weekend or month and underestimate what they can achieve in one year.  It’s funny, through developing Organize 365® I’ve been able to identify that we do not focus on decluttering or productivity as much as we focus on learning organization. The first one aids organization and the last is allowed due to organization. When I wrote “Organization Is a Learnable Skill”, that’s what I shared; my acts of organization. When we are organized, we get the pay off of productivity. I’m excited to dive into the book study and dig into how you can achieve results, too! Three years after launching Organize 365®, I was able to be the business owner and send my team out into the field. After six years of effectively running Organize 365® due to organization leading to productivity, I was still blogging, had the podcast, the early stages of what is now The Productive Home Solution®, and manufacturing for the Sunday Basket®. I was still in multiple direct sales companies and the train wasn’t stopping any time soon. But If you would have told me I would accomplish all of that, I am not sure I would have expected to. I used to love to stay after school when I was a teacher and organize a fellow teachers’ space. They loved when I bopped into their classrooms.  I say all of that to tell you that at that time, I launched 8 workboxes. I had a box for all the things I was doing. And the Education Friday Workbox® was one of those 8. Being a teacher is so different from any other career. When you need a potty break at work, you get up and go, right? Not a teacher, they are in charge and looking after multiple children. They can’t just leave them unattended. I have such an understanding of the teacher world, workload, and home life. So I knew how to make the Friday Workbox® work for teachers.  I truly believe this should be on each teacher’s supply list. It’s a one time purchase and then a lifetime of organization in the classroom. The real issue becomes who pays for it; I don’t think this should also fall on the teacher! Should it come from the federal budget? The state budget? Or the local educational budget? Each state operates a little differently so we’ll have to cross that bridge when we get to it, I guess. Our teachers really only get paid based on instructional time with students. But what many may not realize is all the administrative tasks they have, the responsibility to meet curriculum, nurturing the relationships with students and parents, and time that takes away from their families and pets that rely on them, too. They do not get paid based on all of the invisible work they do that is not optional! Our teachers make large sacrifices of mental capacity for the career that they love.  Did I call Sally’s mom back? I need 4 toilet paper rolls for that experiment tomorrow. Those are just a few examples of what teachers are trying to remember. We need to help teachers free up their mental overwhelm! They are constantly surpassing their mental capacity. I designed this pilot to teach them how to write those thoughts down quickly, something that can be done right in the middle of class, and continue on with the lesson. Then at the end of the week, sort them into slash pockets and conquer the tasks. It’s so gratifying to free up mental capacity for them in a way that makes them confident everything will still get handled. Because I understand this world so much, I decided to create 3 more slash pocket colors for the Education Friday Workbox®. So, how did it go? What I Discovered It was interesting to me that all three sessions I led were mandatory. There were 52 people in attendance. This was offered to all faculty, not just teachers. Thirty-five staff members took on the opportunity to get organized for a more smoothly run classroom. The special needs teachers showed that they needed additional support. After doing a zoom with the special needs teachers, I decided to offer the Paper Organizing Retreat to all of the special needs teachers. Because what I learned was, almost all of the special needs teachers were new to teaching or new to their school building. That’s a lot of newness and it explained their desire for more support! I had 4 of them attend plus Jayme. I sat down with them and learned more about their students and their workload. We came up with customized solutions for each teacher. That’s the thing about any of the workboxes. They will get you 80% of the way there, but then you have to customize it to work for you and your needs. They all felt that for the third session they would like to learn home organization. I was open to other topics like lesson planning. But of course, I love that they were experiencing organization at work and wanted it for home, too. Yes, get both trains running!! What Puzzled Me I was fascinated to learn that only 2 out of all participants had a digital only organizational process. Which meant that of the remaining participants, 50% were hybrid of both paper and digital while the remaining 50% were paper only. Mind blown because I always hear of people trying to get a digital system perfected. But what I think is actually happening is that they are doing double duty! I’m also curious for the faculty that attended but did not take the Education Friday Workbox®, were the first two mandatory sessions beneficial? Should educators get an Education Friday Workbox® during college or first year teaching? Different states evaluate for IEP’s through different entities. What I Would Love I would love for all teachers to have the Education Friday Workbox® and embrace it! I would love to see professional development for teachers via the Education Friday Workbox®. I’d love to be able to improve their mental health by freeing up their mental capacity. And I’d love to see teacher retention. I’m excited for this to become an actual study. But for now, I am happy with this pilot and it will add credibility to studies in the future. I’d love to help more educators as part of this Education Friday Workbox® pilot. What I Need to Move Forward Do you have knowledge about your state and how things are funded for education? Do I need to be part of a special vendor portal? Is there a certain list for vendors to offer professional development for your schools? Do the districts make the decisions in your state? Does your state have an initiative for teacher retention? Are you on the board, PTO, a teacher or a principal and think this is something you may want to do in your building? Do you want to offer it just to first and second year teachers? Or on a voluntary basis? Who makes the decisions? Who do I need to talk to? Do they want to meet in person? What can I do to advocate for these teachers? Who is open to receiving this information? Please email me at customerservice@organize365.com if you have answers to any of my questions or can aid introductions. I am taking you all on this journey so you can see that  though I do not know the answers, I keep trying. The success or failure of execution will determine my next steps. I have been uniquely created for a time like this.  I have been uniquely created to create online courses to teach people organization through the internet to make visible the invisible work done at home and work. And after my PhD, I will do research to make visible the cognitive and mental load in all these areas at a scientific level to elevate the conversation of systems and structures that need to be in place for adults, just like we have for children, in school, home, work, and teacher environments. I want you too to discover what you are uniquely created to do! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Education Friday Workbox® Paper Organizing Retreat Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are you driving a car, or conducting a train? Today's episode is about your home organizing train.  It takes a lot of effort to stop a train. When you are productive, have a lot of impact, and your life is up and running - you get a couple of unexpected events coming at you but can take the first few of them in stride.  When you are driving a car, there's only so much you can handle. You only have so much capacity, although that car moves fast and is nimble. You can stop it easily, pivot or turn around. The size of your car, how fast it is, how much gas you can keep in the tank has a limit. A train doesn't start or stop very fast - but once you lay those tracks and build those train cars, you can go really far really fast without a lot of effort.  How do you lay the tracks and build the cars? Organizing. Creating and maintaining systems, habits, and productivity at home and work. Once you have those established - which is going to take a while - the only thing that will derail you are really big life events. These can be catastrophic: like a medical diagnosis, a divorce, or someone passes away. Or they can be happy events: getting pregnant, getting married, moving to a new home. Your train will also slow down and speed up during the Golden Windows of a calendar year. You will need to slow down and "come into the station" at the end of each quarter at work and each trimester at home. This is the piece I was missing that I am going to share with you.  You have to establish your systems, routines, and habits that your train will run on; otherwise you can't have the train. You must establish these first, so your train has something to run on. If not, then you're stuck in the car. When you're driving a car, you're just on roads that have been established by other people and you decide in which order you want to take those roads that somebody else created. You have to stop at every red light, decide whether to turn right or left, take the highway or the back roads. Constantly making all these decisions unnecessarily.  Now that you have the engine, it's time to build those train cars. Your first one is the Sunday Basket®. You must become a master at delaying your decision making. You plan your week and stop being pulled by every single decision that comes at you. The next train cars are personal, storage, family, and paper organization - which happens within The Productive Home Solution®. Remember, each of these train cars are going to take a couple of months to build. They will need regular maintenance. This takes discipline and the right mindset. Every car needs to be decluttered and organized every trimester at home. At first, it's going to take more time. To establish the train tracks, move from a car to a locomotive, put the cars on the track, and get the train up to speed takes at least three years. This realization is such a buzzkill, I know. Don't get discouraged though, it's not like it takes this long to see any positive changes. You can run that train at 50% after a year and it's still going to be better than what you had before! But to make the impact you want and need, those train cars need to be running at 80-90% organized so they are running strictly on maintenance. A train that is running on maintenance pulls into the depot and you go through it car by car - this is what happens during Planning Days, and now during the new Prep Event I've created. You will revisit each of your train cars - the Sunday Basket®, your personal, storage, family, and paper. If you are this far in organizing, this will feel weird. You will think that you need to tear it apart and start all over each time. But you know the math: you've subtracted by decluttering, added in what you need, multiplied for productivity and now you're in division. You don't have to start all over again. Even if you have a major event, you can go through it all again - but it will go so much faster.  Moving to a train is a purposeful, disciplined act that requires you to grow organizing muscles, to think long-term instead of short-term, to think strategically instead of giving into immediate gratification. Once you learn this, you will have the skill set with you for the rest of your life.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® Business Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Workbook Monthly Subscription Plan Kids Program The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Prep Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Ready to get to know Lisa Woodruff from the past? I feel like it’s valuable to fill you in on where all this started. Have you ever had an out of body experience? A temper tantrum of sorts? I remember one night in 2005, when I had one. It was as if I was watching myself have this meltdown. Greg was in shock, took the kids, and left for a long time. During that time, I tried to figure out what my problem was and how to get it together. I looked at my planner and realized I had taken the kids to 110 Dr. appointments on top of work and regular life responsibilities. No wonder I was having a melt down. I can remember the added stress of how broke we were in 2007 and 2008. Unfortunately after my parents divorced, my father passed away in 2009. My sister and I found a little financial relief in the sale of his house. Nothing stressful about settling an estate! But I was able to remodel our kitchen with some of that money, but then what? I knew better than to think the debt we had accrued wouldn’t just get racked up again if something didn’t change.  I do have both trains running full steam ahead now. But there was a time when I graded all aspects of my life with an F with the exception of work. I was a teacher at a Montessori school for 18 months. I learned alot from my co teacher, the students, and that school. I learned compassion and was exposed to more diversity than I ever had in my teacher settings before. 2010 was the year of the Tsunami in Japan and the Earthquake in Haiti. Montessori is flexible and allowed for us to have discussions with the students about these current events in a way that expanded their thinking. I really loved my job there. That is, until it was brought to my attention that they didn’t feel like I was doing as great of a job as I thought I had been doing. As I drove home from that difficult conversation, a conversation I tried to pass on because Abby was home very sick and I just wanted to be with her, I knew I needed to make a change. I asked myself, “What am I doing with my life?” If I was appreciated in my work, I knew my family would make a small sacrifice. But that wasn’t the case. So I decided to ditch the job and raise my grades in the other areas of my life. I was spinning way too many plates the way it was.  In December of 2011, I quit my job to be a stay at home mom. I knew the life I wanted to provide for my children. I also knew I needed to make money to replace my teacher salary. I am no stranger to making money and within 6 months I had surpassed that teacher salary. By our 2012 tax refund, I listed 9 schedule C’s! NINE! I was doing it! I was available for my family and making money. Greg and I are very much aligned in two things; doing whatever it takes to help our children and living a life with no regrets, even if that meant money was tight at times. I didn’t want to regret not being home with my children. I don’t regret that we haven’t been able to travel until now but boy am I ready! Europe here we come! And with everything Greg and I have been through, I’m so thankful that my marriage was never in question.  2012 is also the year I launched Organize 365®. I didn’t know what it was going to become. All I knew is that the areas I had been successful in were organization and that it would result in good SEO! I wrote the book “Organization Is A Learnable Skill” for that year. It’s a pretty accurate account of that year. I wrote month by month what I did and how I felt about the actions I was taking. I am a 4th generation female college graduate. I am a 4th generation female business owner! And here we are 12 years later with a podcast that has been consistent for 9 years helping this community. And I am proud to now be pursuing my PhD to better my business, Organize 365®! EPISODE RESOURCES: Episode 69: My Depression Story & How Depression Affects Organization Organization Is a Learnable Skill The Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Ok, I’m letting you in on some of the behind the scenes stuff I do to prepare for planning days. Yes, I plan for prep for planning days. And I implement after. I think it’s high time I show you live how I do it! Here are the next two additional opportunities you don’t want to miss. The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Prep Event I normally spend three days at the end of the year just planning. I know it’s crazy, right? And now all my secrets will be revealed. I will be using my real life Sunday Baskets® and my real life slash pockets. This is not in place of the Sunday Basket® Club co-working time. This is a deep dive day! We are going to the next level! I will show you how I go through each slash pocket and update my binders. I will go through all my 2.0 slash pockets and decide on projects. I will take all of my Holiday Blitz papers and place them into the Home Operations Binder for next year’s holidays. We will transform that Sunday Basket® into the Taxes Basket. You’ll look at last year and the new year baskets and consolidate into one Sunday Basket®. I will also go through both the workbook for The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day and The Productive Home Solution® Playbook.  Friday Workbox® Planning Day Implementation Event “Do I need this information for the next 12 weeks?” This is the big question for this day. This will happen on the 13th Friday of each quarter. We do the planning day. We get clear on your goals. Then you usually need to meet with your team OR meet with yourself. After discussing the goals and how to reach them, you may scale down or change how you initially thought you would accomplish those goals. People are in place to get these goals accomplished. Then comes Implementation Day! I will expose all 6 of my Workboxes and will go through them live. You will see me go through my slash pockets and relabel them. This will freshen up all your systems and get the ball rolling on your new goals you put in your purple slash pockets. Ooooh, I just love planning! Two New Opportunities: Planning Day Prep Dec 28th (the last Thursday of the year)  2 hour live webinar Replay through Jan 8, 2024 Prep Workbook/Playbook Update Binders Weed through 2.0 Slash Pockets If you did the Holiday Blitz, you’ll consolidate and repurpose those Sunday Baskets® No Prerequisite Friday Workbox® Planning Day Implementation Dec 29th (last Friday of the year)  Replay through Jan 8, 2024 About three weeks after Friday Workbox® Planning Day 2 hour live webinar Will always be the 13th Friday of each quarter going forward Weed through 2.0 Slash Pockets and relabel them No Prerequisite All aboard…let’s get both trains (home and work) running efficiently to create the impact we all deeply desire.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Prep Workbox Planning Day Implementation Shop the Planning Category Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Today's episode is going to be a refresher to some of you, and new to a lot of you. I've recorded two podcast series that I'm going to reference, plus a concept I created years ago. This will get us all to the same place of thinking as we end the year. Are you the one thinking: "Ok, I want that productivity that Lisa has and I'm doing #allthethings. So why don't I have what I think I should have as productivity?" You're busy running around like a chicken with your head cut off, trying to make the merriment for everyone around you the entire month of  December. What you're craving and what you want is to figure out how to finally get organized so you could be more productive, so you could be less stressed, so you can get more done.  So why is it that we can declutter, get kind of organized, and then get to productivity - and yet we still don't achieve our goals? Or we get some time back, but not a lot of time...then one little unexpected life event comes and you feel like you've been put behind 6 months at home. Why is it such a regular occurrence that getting sick or an unexpected event can derail us so badly?  Organization is a three-part cycle: Decluttering, Organization, Increased Productivity. I'm going to add a fourth part to the cycle - Impact. This is the one that most people never get to. We're always going for productivity, but really I think we're going for impact and productivity is the step before impact. Now consider the Lisa Math that I do...and let's fit all of this together.  Adding is organizing. Subtraction is decluttering. Multiplication is productivity. Division is the impact.  Impact comes from organization. Not productivity - impact. Productivity will increase the speed of the organization you have, but that's it. If we're only as productive as our organization will let us be, how do we optimize organization? Productivity is time bound. You can only get so much done in a day.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Prep Event Workbox Implementation Event Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I've been talking a lot about planning lately - an obscene amount honestly, but that's ok. Ironically, today is Workbox Planning Day! We're starting off the month getting those purple projects completed and ready for more GREEN in 2024! In today's episode I talk about how this week I'd love for you to come up with a list of planned neglect. It's been a long time since I’ve talked about planned neglect. I remember the first time I ever heard about this concept at a Creative Memories conference. I want you to think about all of the things that you've done for the past 11 months of this year. Out of all those things, what are the things that you are NOT going to do in order to create more margin, more bandwidth, more breathing room for you to actually enjoy the holidays and enjoy the end of this year? Really, honestly think about it - what are the things that you are going to purposefully put off from right now until the end of January? Just like right now with getting my PhD, I know I'm neglecting a lot of things in my life for the next 2 years (I'm almost done with year 1!) This doesn't mean I'll never do those things again, just not right now. Figure out what you can do, when you can do it, and how long it is going to take. What are all the roles and responsibilities that you have inside of your life and what are things you can do to make those easier?  EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Friday Workbox® Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I’m excited to announce that the Complete Sunday Basket® will now be offered at a lower price of $179!! Do you budget for organization?  No, most people do not budget for organization. And when you think about spending money on organization, it usually means a professional is coming to your home to complete the organizing or you will be purchasing cute bins to make everything cute. But this, the Sunday Basket®, is a system for organization. We have not traditionally budgeted or thought about purchasing organization in this way. The Sunday Basket® is a system for your home that you are purchasing that most homes do not have. Placing value on learning the skill of organization is a new phenomenon.  Same Great Basket with the Same Great Value You as the person considering the purchase has to decide if this is of value or not, right? But it’s hard to determine that until you have used it and experienced all the benefits. But once you have, you realize I should charge a lot more because it’s chalked full of value and transformation. For only $179, you will still get everything you got before…the community, the online dashboard, the workbook, slash pockets, and of course the basket in the color you choose. But what you don’t know yet is the confidence you will get from being organized, the relief you will have knowing all things are taken care of or planned for, less negative self talk, and the time you will have for other things than just panicking about being organized.  What Lisa? Why?  In the beginning, I was able to offer lower pricing because I was personally mailing each box out from my home. Now I have the warehouse, labor, and supplies… you know - all the things! So as Organize 365® grew and I was able to offer more, I also needed to increase the price to cover those costs. And if you are feeling like you have no time, no money, like you are under water and overwhelmed…then I want to be able to help. This price point should be able to make this more accessible to more people out there who need more time so they can explore and do what they are uniquely created to do.  Get Your Sunday Basket® now for only $179! After you use your Sunday Basket® for 12 weeks, I promise you will have recouped the price of your Sunday Basket®! EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Happy Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for YOU! Did you know that you can write a note to us when you place orders with Organize 365®? I love to read them! I also love to know what some of your orders are for...they can be so random sometimes! It makes me so curious - and it makes me want to know even more about you! As you're listening to today's episode, I'm probably putting up our Christmas tree. I used to put it up the Monday before Thanksgiving, when the kids were in school. I'd grab my fountain Coke, turn on holiday music, and get to work. Things have definitely changed!  Only in America do you have Thanksgiving, followed by a bazillion days where you spend money. We eat a lot of food and spend a lot of money! I spend an obscene amount of money on Black Friday. I couldn't believe how much money I spent last year, but also how much I saved! I finally realized when you're looking at your household economy (hello food prices!) you have to figure out how to make your money go further at home. Here's my tip: shop for ANYTHING you need on Black Friday!  Think of your house as a small business - when you spend money, you stimulate the economy. You are the CEO of your home; the business owner of your household. You have expenses and ways in which you can make your cashflow last longer. If you see anything that is being sold at a deep discount right now, and you know you will be using that item before March 1st - buy it NOW. Also, think about not only the gifts you can give that people want, but also the things that people need. Items like Apple watches or the Hero medication dispenser may be expensive purchases, but for loved ones who it could be incredibly beneficial to (think elderly parents) it would be a worthwhile purchase. Could you go in on big ticket items with other family members? Would it give you peace of mind or take any burden off of you (or them) in some way? You may come up with gift ideas of things that they don't even realize that they need!  EPISODE RESOURCES: Black Friday Shop Holiday Blitz Shop Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Happy Anniversary Wednesday Podcast! In this episode, I wanted to do something just a little different. Normally I talk to someone who shares their Organize 365®  transformational story. Some way, shape or form they found us, BUT not today’s guest. Today, I am introducing you to the editor of the Organize 365® Podcast, Tiffany Mason with Virtually You! She has been with Organize 365® for a year now. I wanted to know her thoughts about the time she has been with us and the effect we have had on her. She sends me Voxer messages often so I know she has fallen down the same organizational rabbit hole as the rest of us! Recently, Virginia had to leave Organize 365®, but it was Virginia who connected us with Tiffany. There was an interview, we threw a lot at her, she didn’t blink, so we decided to give her a try. Initially, she shared that she felt a little overwhelmed; there were a lot of different episode formats, products she didn’t know about, and lingo she’d not heard before. After a few episodes, it made sense that we had a glossary playlist we needed her to republish for the sake of the Organize 365® Podcast listeners.  It wasn’t long before I could tell she was hooked. I mean, she is paid to listen to the podcast, but I think she would listen regardless. But why? Tiffany shared that she feels seen by me. She feels like my mission is not to sell sell sell - but rather offer systems and products to free up time for my listeners so they can do what they are uniquely created to do. Tiffany can also relate to my husband Greg. Her husband is more like me and she finds humor in the things I share regarding Greg and I! And she shared how impressed she was to learn Organize 365® was the 32nd largest woman run business in Cincinnati. I am proud to share that this year we moved up to the 30th spot! Because Tiffany is in Florida and I am in Ohio, I shared that Cincinnati is the number 1 city for startups. She pointed out that our ranking is even more impressive, being in that environment and climbing.  I wanted to know how her organization has changed. She said she started with the Friday Workbox® and after she was comfortable with that, she wanted to do a planning day. She has had such a great impact from the planning day that she joked about getting on her knees and calling it a PSA post for society that all women should attend a planning day! She saw what it could do for work so naturally she wanted a Sunday Basket® for home life. She aspires to train her family to put things in her Sunday Basket® as you have shared here on the Wednesday Podcast. We got into an interesting conversation about the definition of home roles. Tiffany saw a post where a wife had the kitchen garbage and questioned if she’s crazy to think he should do all of the garbage, if his “chore” is to do garbage. But this is the problem. After the war in the late 40’s, marketing “brainwashed” us all into thinking a woman’s role was homemaker. The guys aren’t at fault either, they are just doing what they saw modeled. There are plenty of great fathers and husbands who are willing to do their part. Tiffany remembered a previous guest sharing that nowadays women are working and don’t only have the house to focus on. In business, job descriptions are written but at home…well??  And in my studies, I have uncovered this is a white woman problem. In other ethnicities, they have well defined roles and housework gets done! Even the children have roles. Tiffany expressed so much gratitude for being a part of Organize 365®. She is impressed with the grace we all extend one another. She has been able to take some of our organization and implement it with her clients. There are so many moving pieces, but she’s proud to work with Organize 365®. She encouraged all of you to share an episode with someone on the drive to Thanksgiving dinner, like a spouse maybe (wink wink). OR if you have had enough Thanksgiving, get some fresh air while you catch up on the Organize 365® Podcast and feel free to tag us! Tiffany’s advice is, “You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just get the products that Lisa has taken the time to perfect.”  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Home Planning Day Workbox Planning Day Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I’m excited to announce that for the first time ever, Organize 365® will be participating in Black Friday!  My mind couldn’t help but remember the movie “Mr. Mom” from the 80’s. Terri Garr is re-entering the workforce in marketing with a bunch of men. They are in the conference room working on marketing for a tuna company “Schooner Tuna.” Terri’s character points out that it’s tough grocery shopping because of the prices. They were in a recession. Those men weren’t in the grocery stores shopping, but she had been. She said, just offer a discount for now. After getting their buy in, the commercial shows Howard Humphrey, the CEO, expressing his awareness of how times are tough, with the American flag waving in the background, and that Schooner Tuna will be dropping prices by $0.50 per can.  And I couldn’t help but draw the parallel to today’s economic climate in the grocery stores. Try as we might to spend less, at the end of the day we all still have to eat!  This hit home with me and I feel, at this time, it’s the right time for Organize 365® to offer a sale. That’s right, a sale! I am purposeful with offering a sale or bundle due to the timing of the year. I saw how much you all loved the bundles I have made this year. I hope this gives you the nudge to get started or give the gift of organization to someone else. ORRRR let this be the excuse to start a conversation with someone with whom you share finances. Heck, put it on your list so this year they get to give you a home run gift!   Black Friday Shopping Tab You’ll find all these deals online under the Black Friday category in the shop. If you are gifting organization this year…you’ll simply choose that it is a gift. And then we’ll send you an email asking for the recipient’s information so they can get started!  Gifts will ship to you so you can wrap them up and watch them open with excitement. So what’s on sale you wonder?  The Complete Sunday Basket® 50% OFF! $125 The Sunday Basket® in the color you choose 1.0 Rainbow Slash Pockets (1 set) Essential Slash Pockets (20 total) Online Dashboard The Sunday Basket® Workbook The Sunday Basket® Community  The Sunday Basket® Club (42 weeks out of the year) Sunday Basket® Stock Up - No Limit $97 1.0 Rainbow Slash Pockets Essential Slash Pockets (pink, purple, green, blue) The Productive Home Solution® Course $997 4 The Paper Solution ®Binders Online Dashboard The Productive Home Solution® Playbook TPHS Community Planning Day (Dec. 30th) Planning Day Workbook The Productive Home Solution® Playbook for only $49 Friday Workbox® Starter Bundle 50% OFF! $373.50 Friday Workbox® in the color of your choice 1.0 Rainbow Slash Pockets Essential Slash Pockets The Business Goal Planner Online Dashboard Friday Workbox® Community Friday Workbox® Club every Friday of the year Planning Day: Dec. 1st at 10 am ET (with replay available for 6 weeks instead of 25 days) Get them all at these amazing prices until it ends on Cyber Monday November 27th at MIDNIGHT! We are here to help you along the way of planning and crushing your personal and professional development goals.  EPISODE RESOURCES: CustomerService@organize365.com Black Friday Shop Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

What do YOU want - and how do YOU want to show up at the holidays? We spend so much time, money, energy, thought, worry, and preparation for the holidays. Always outwardly focused, which is fine. It always seems as if we're constantly in the mindset of...what does the family need? What do elder members or extended members of the family need? What do the kids need? What do we need to keep doing, even though we don't want to do it anymore because somebody still wants us to do it? There are so many things that we spend our time and energy on that are outwardly focused; we do them out of service, out of respect, out of love, whatever it is. In this podcast, I want you to be selfish just for a few minutes. I want you to think about what you want and how do you want to show up at the holidays? You probably just completed the Holiday Blitz. It was free, you got the printables, you watched the videos, you asked your family questions. Then, today at 11 am ET is our first annual Holiday Blitz Mini Planning Day. It's 90 minutes, and if you can't attend live the replay is available to watch through December 31st. This mini planning day will focus on the person we want to show up as at the holidays. Not what you're going to serve, what your house will be decorated like, not if you send out Christmas cards or not. All that was decided in the Holiday Blitz. That is the difference between the planning days and the product. So the Holiday Blitz identifies all the work, all the external, visible things that you see in the holidays - the food, the decorations, and everything in between. The Holiday Blitz Mini Planning Day is about YOU. Planning days are selfish. That's ok. They are selfish because planning days are for you to plan your energy, your financial resources, your intellect, your energy level, your hopes and dreams and desires. I don't think we sit back often enough and ask ourselves what we want, because we're too busy doing all the things that are already on our to-do list and we say: "I'll figure out what I want after ALL this is done." It's time for that to end. You're so used to being the orchestrator, the driver, the director, the doer, the giver, the server. What if someone coordinated the holidays for YOU? How would you want them to orchestrate it? I want to challenge you to give that to yourself because you're worth it and you deserve it. You should be able to enjoy the holidays just like you are making the merriment for everyone else. When you're happier - everybody else is happier too. Remember that. EPISODE RESOURCES: Holiday Blitz Mini Planning Day Holiday Blitz Bundle Holiday Blitz Bundle [+] Complete Sunday Basket® Sunday Basket® FREE Holiday Blitz Sign up for the Newsletter Sunday Basket® & Friday Workbox® Clubs Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In this episode, I introduce you to Trish K. Trish lives at home with her daughter and 3 year old grandson, Wolfie. Trish has a great relationship with her sister, Kathleen, who loves to try all kinds of organizational systems. When she tried Organize 365®, she believed Trish could utilize it too. So about a year ago, she “tricked” Trish into doing “a free thing.”  Once Trish was inspired to take her organizing one step further it got her wondering, what else could she learn from Organize 365® Not only has Trish learned new ideas, but she has sustained her organization. That was the thing. With other organizing systems Trish had tried, she’d fall off the wagon. But with Organize 365®, she’s been keeping up with The Productive Home Solution®. Trish has taken advantage of most of the systems and products from Organize 365®. Lisa pointed out that holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, these all happen annually without fail. Trish expressed how she loved the planning days that help her to be proactive. Trish said she wants to live a proactive life. She loves that she gets to revisit her planning every 120 days. Lisa talked about the age old theory that simply writing down our goals “puts them on our radar.” And sometimes we even accidentally achieve them! Even if you do nothing after planning day, you thought about it and are aware now. No one knows what you are doing and no one knows if you took any action. No one is checking. Trish said it’s like planting seeds; over time they bloom.  Trish has found so much joy throughout her short time learning with Organize 365®. She unintentionally planted seeds in her daughter, too. Trish was so excited about an organization project she had completed that she wanted to show her daughter. Trish’s daughter has ADHD and Autism, so organizational projects can be tough for her. Heck, school and life has been tough for her! Lots of times when Trish talks to her daughter, she feels like her daughter only hears Charlie Brown’s teacher speaking to her. Much to Trish’s surprise, her daughter is watching what she is doing and wants the same for herself. This brought out a lot of similarities for Trish and Lisa to talk about. They both have grown single moms, who have their own struggles, living with them with their grandchildren.  And of course, the conversation turned to their grandsons. They compared weight, the types of beds they are in or about to grow out of, the sizes of clothes they are in, and the pure joy of living with them right now. As grandparents, you get to see life through their eyes because you aren’t worried about dinner or those daily tasks that we do to keep our houses running during the active parenting years. Trish is happy to see her daughter thriving too due to the example Trish is showing.  Trish started with her closet and graduated to her kitchen. She goes by The Productive Home Solution® plan and has done the kitchen three times now. Trish described her old placement of items in the kitchen; how silly that she put the thing she uses the most on the highest shelf.  She has since learned to put those items in a more convenient spot. Trish also appreciates the freedom of “permission” to put into action functional organization over Pinterest organization where all the boxes match.   Trish’s advice is, “Just start!” Even if it’s just one drawer, get started and it will give you energy to do just one more drawer. And that will feel so good, you’ll want to tackle a small closet or room. Get started before your brain has a chance to start coming up with excuses! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

As a teacher, one of my favorite things to do is to figure out a word picture or to take something that is so close to you that you're literally living through it and make it so obvious that you can't unsee it going forward. A couple of months ago, I came up with the title for this podcast and I thought "Yes!" and I've been thinking about how email is the laundry and dishes of work. In this week's episode, I'll explain! Doing laundry and dishes is administrative, it's repetitive, it's hard to outsource. Yet it is essential for your well-being and your cleanliness; and so that you won't be naked when you leave the house! Laundry and dishes are NEVER DONE.  I'm a middle-of-the-road person. I'm not going to leave everything in my inbox, but I'm not going to use one single folder either. If it's in a folder, it doesn't exist to me. That's why file cabinets don't work for me. I had a beautiful color-coded file cabinet. It was pointless. That's my limitation - if it's out of sight, it's literally out of mind. For me, it doesn't exist. Everything in my email that's in process must be visual. STEP ONE: You should only have companies and emails coming into your email inbox that you want to do business with. So that means UNSUBSCRIBE! STEP TWO: Once you have emails coming into your inbox, you need to learn to triage and respond in the appropriate time. I'll never get to inbox zero. I'm fine with it. Also, there's no need to respond to email within 24 hours. Scary, I know. Unless your company has a policy, you're not breaking any laws, I promise. My personal response rate? 7 days. Terrible, horrible I know...I can't believe I said that out loud!  We need to give ourselves grace and understand that laundry, dishes, and email are never going to be done. We need to pace ourselves, and when you stop trying to get email, laundry, and dishes done - you free up so much mental capacity and time for things that are bigger that you're uniquely created to do.  I'll leave you with a couple questions. What if you didn't reply to emails within 24 hours? What if you didn't reply to emails on Sundays? What if you didn't reply to emails from Friday at 5pm until Sunday at 5pm?  EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution® Sign up for our Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In this episode, I invited Lisa J. back for an update because she has some exciting news. She lives in Australia with her husband Kirk on their large farm, and their two teen children go to boarding school. She takes care of the administrative tasks for their farm. She loves what she does but got overwhelmed with all the tasks. If you recall from her previous episode, she got relief with the Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox®. It’s not common for a farm in Australia to have more than one person taking care of the office and associated tasks. She took Lisa’s advice after being on the last podcast and has hired an executive assistant three days a week for the past 3 months. It’s going well and she is now looking more at the corporate farm structure. Family farm, one wife is usually taking care of the office. Corporate farm, there is a “team” doing all of the administrative tasks. She can see their farm going in the Corporate direction.  The Lisas discussed what that may look like. Lisa Woodruff brought up the point that yes, there are a lot of tasks. Yes, you can hire help to get those tasks done BUT it must be in the name of growth. Or be aware that it may just simply enhance your lifestyle. Right? It will free up time that usually a business owner can then use towards strategy and growth. If you are content with where business is then just know you are paying for that extra time. And that is fine but Lisa made a brilliant point about hiring help in this respect. That being said, Lisa J. is in a growth mindset and since the last episode has been able to attend 4 planning days. She said the way Lisa W. breaks down the quarter really helps her. It helps her to spatially visualize what will be taking place. She likes to do a one year plan, break that down to one quarter, then one month, and lastly one week. The planning days help Lisa J. to do just that and accomplish goals. Lisa J. has been able to transition some purple slash pockets to her assistant. Now that she’s in the thick of it, she and Lisa also talked about some blue and green slash pockets Lisa J. could hand over to her assistant. The Australian government has put a lot of paperwork back on the farms which has increased their workload exponentially. These are tasks her assistant can do, as well as handle technology and social media. Lisa J. was good to create slash pockets for her repetitive tasks and can now offload them one by one. Lisa J. wants to share her organization with other farm offices. It’s usually the wife of the farmer. We all know mom’s wear a lot of hats and not all of them have the capacity or skill set to be #allthethings. Both Lisa’s agree the work that one woman is doing is easily the work of 5 people.  Just think of companies as big as Lisa’s farm and there are usually multiple people running HR, bookkeeping, administrative tasks, and more! The beautiful part about Organize 365® systems is that they are kind of like scaffolding and then you, the homeowner or business owner, can customize it to your needs. Anyone can apply these systems to their lives. Drum rolllllll pllllllleassssse….Lisa J. is going to start a podcast to help other farm offices. It will be titled Farm Office Tool Box. She has a burning desire to help other wives/farm offices that may be trying to do it all and feel overwhelmed.  She wants to share how she uses the Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox®, or really how she had kind of combined them to stay consistent and feel in control. And she wants to normalize more people running a farm office. Lisa J. shared that being organized really helps her to feel confident. She trusts herself to make good decisions for the farm. Lisa W. pointed out that all farms, not just Australian farms, will be able to utilize and implement the tips and advice Lisa J. will be sharing.  Lisa’s advice will be in her podcast Farm Office Tool Box Podcast…check it out! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I find it challenging, interesting and exciting to try to break down how I plan and win at home and work, which took me two decades to figure out. It's like working backwards with little Lego bricks that you can replicate to build your own productive and organized house.  There are productivity courses and productivity gurus. For the most part, people who have learned to be productive have done so through a lot of trial and error, thinking, processing, and moving things around in their brains and in real life. Organization is essential for a productive life because if your physical space is disorganized, then it's harder to have enough mental capacity to organize invisible work - which is what productivity is. If your physical space is disorganized, then your productivity doesn't get enough traction to make enough of an impact in your life that you will persist long enough for it to become magical.  The Sunday Basket® is the first step to becoming a productive person, because it moves you from day-to-day thinking to week-to-week thinking. Even if you only do it for 90 minutes on Sundays, it's a monumental lift because the day to day of running a household and being a homeowner is pervasive. There's an inherent, unending task of being a household manager. You can't systematize your house to the point that there's no work to be done. You can reduce your expectations, the amount of stuff you own, the size of the house you live in, outsource your meals, cleaning services...the list goes on and on. But still there's only so much you can automate in your life. You still need to buy clothing and take care of your body (shower, brush your teeth, etc.), eat, sleep, and the like.  The final thing I want to reiterate is that the Sunday Basket® System moving you from day-to-day thinking to week-to-week thinking has a secondary benefit for your whole family. It creates this weekly cadence and this purposeful pause in requests and fulfillment of requests for yourself and your family. Being able to look at your finances on Sunday and then make decisions based on what everyone wants or needs helps you make better money decisions and also better time decisions.  Next week I'm going to talk about why email is the laundry and dishes of work. Oh my gosh! And then in a few weeks I'm going to talk about how to move into season-to-season productivity, both at home and at work. What does it look like to take the Sunday Basket® and turn it into seasonal productivity? What about the Friday Workbox®? Why would you even want that? Stay tuned!  EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In this episode, I introduce you to Kristi L. who has two daughters at home. Rachel is a high school senior and Lydia is in 8th grade. After losing her husband to cancer, Kristi decided to move closer to family in Indiana. Kristi is a rare gem who found Organize 365® before the podcast!  It’s so fun to meet someone who has seen and appreciated the evolution of Organize 365®. Kristi started with my eBook in 2012, then grew her organizing skills through the Sunday Basket®. Kristi relied heavily on the Sunday Basket® to stay organized while she took care of her husband. After his passing and trying to do it all, Kristi decided to sell the horse farm and move. It didn’t sell overnight. While trying to keep the house “showing” ready, she moved a lot of stuff into a pod for later organizing which was smart because it took 2 years.   She decided the taxes were just too high and was tired of spending a lot of time mowing the lawn, just a quick 8 hours! When they got to their new downsized home with only two garages, Kristi took her time settling in. She could have continued to get COBRA health insurance forever, but her girls needed coverage going into 2019. So Kristi decided to go back to work. It was a good thing too because shortly after her daughter, Lydia, would be diagnosed with epilepsy and she’d be using the Warrior MAMA Binder more than ever. She already had the binder because Lydia has an IEP for ADHD.  This is when Kristi decided they needed more structure and she knew the 100 Day Challenge (now The Productive Home Solution®) was just the answer. Shortly after, she added the Friday Workbox® for organization and productivity at work too. She realized a lot of tasks were assigned digitally so admittedly she let the Friday Workbox® go. But then in her review, she was urged to get more training done. It dawned on her they weren’t getting done because it was something the Friday Workbox® used to help with! She was happy to share that she went back to the Friday Workbox® and now has the next three months scheduled, which allowed her to delegate work to others (in different time zones) to help with different tasks associated with the training. She learned her lesson and is sticking with the Friday Workbox®! Kristi now has The Productive Home Solution®. After having a nightmare that she was passing and her daughters were going to have to take care of things and she wasn’t organized, she knew she needed the binders for peace of mind. She pointed out that the Sunday Basket® serves to accomplish actionable tasks while the binders keep your affairs in order. She felt it beneficial to get both which are included in the The Productive Home Solution®. Kristi has a lot less stress these days due to the products and systems from Organize 365®. One the most recent things Kristi treated herself to was the Paper Organizing Retreat! Kristi loved the 1:1 help she received with her paper and binders. She had such a fabulous time at the retreat, not to mention the night in the hotel where she was finally able to charge her car. More importantly, she got to “be” with all her paper that next day and make more progress on what she started at the retreat! Next time she’s bringing her mom! Her mom is 80 and has a lifetime of paper. Kristi likes the idea of being able to shred what she predicts to be 99.99% of that paper at the retreat! Lisa joked that either way, Kristi will be taking care of that paper. So it can be with her mom’s help now or later because it’s not going anywhere otherwise. Kristi’s advice is, “start with the Sunday Basket®, then buy it all.” Kristi says to start with pink and take care of yourself first. Get you organized for two reasons; as a woman you need to get organized first and it’ll take a long time before it needs to be touched up-you’re the only one using your personal space. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day The Paper Solution® Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with the Organize 365® community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

My "party trick" is being able to know what you're thinking; I've been doing it for over a decade. My obsession is figuring out how families and homes work. How to make visible the invisible work so ultimately we can spend more time with family and make more memories. If I stay at least 10 days ahead, I'll have a buffer. If you have a buffer, then it takes A LOT for you to get behind the 8 ball again. Here are the things you need to be thinking about that will happen in the next 10 days. Halloween: candy inventory and costumes Fall Events: pumpkin patch, festivals, trunk or treat, etc. Daylight Savings Time: changing clocks and circadian rhythms Election Day: how and when you will vote When people think about more than themselves, they think like politicians, doctors, teachers and business owners. I think about these types of things on a personal level, and then I put my business owner lens on. The more you are the leader, the Household Manager, the CEO and COO of your home - you get to decide what YOU want. You get to ask yourself: "What do I want?" How do I know what's coming next? I know because I observe my own life, look a couple of weeks into the future, and then I move backwards. I'm obsessive about what is coming next, what is coming next, what is coming next. Always. EPISODE RESOURCES: Holiday Blitz Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Jayme H, a wife and mom of two. In 2016, Jayme was lucky enough to attend a summit where Lisa was a speaker. From there, Jayme went down the Organize 365® rabbit hole. When she found Organize 365®, she had two children in K-8 and was a teacher. Since then, she has been promoted to counselor and is now principal of her school. Jayme is a unique individual that has found so much success with the Sunday Basket®, that she is doing a pilot of the Education Friday Workbox® with the entire staff at her school.  We’re going to report back to everyone in January on the feedback and results.  Jayme really loves the process of organizing. In her teaching years, she was stuck trying to be a perfectionist. But now that she’s attended three years of Planning Days and taken advantage of all the other Organize 365® resources, she knows functional organizing is where it’s at! She and Lisa discussed the importance of knowing when to organize and when to move on to doing what you are uniquely created to do. It’s funny, most people start organizing to get control of life and get time back. It’s advised to do The Productive Home Solution® at least three times. But then what? Keep organizing? No! You have earned the time to focus on you now. Many times people want to stay where it’s comfortable. The idea is to get your home to a place where you are not always starting from zero! The Productive Home Solution® gives you an assignment each week, right? If you feel good about that area, you do not have anything to do so go catch up on your show or use it to be uncomfortable growing in what you are uniquely created to do! You don’t have to focus on the whole house all the time, just that week’s assignment.  She’s one busy lady with her family, her career, and now her side hustle. Jayme and Lisa also discussed household management like the management you see in the workplace. Jayme wanted her home to run as smoothly as work does. When you go to work, you don’t wonder who is going to clean the restrooms. But who is going to clean the restrooms at home? Roles are not defined. Departments are not defined. All of the invisible work in our homes has not been identified, broken down into “departments” and discussed who will take care of what.  Jayme gained so much time that she has been able to grow her organizing business on the side. The first year putting The Productive Home Solution® into action she gained a chunk of time and then again around year 3.When she got motivated to do her binders, it was easy. She had already decluttered and had those papers in their places so she knew where to go for information! This year she finally felt like she could reply, on Planning Day, as feeling organized.  She uses her Sunday Basket® at school too and her actions have caught the attention of the Superintendent. When Jayme asked about the school implementing the Education Friday Workbox®, he asked if that’s how she’s always remembering to follow up (AKA bug him) about projects and checking on the progress. He quickly agreed and we are so thankful for the opportunity to run this pilot…can’t wait to share with you all in January!! Jayme’s advice is, “Hold yourself to your own standards.” Stop comparing yourself to others and make the systems work for you. She has recently come to the conclusion that we all have different standards and capacities. You are one person, complete what you think one person should be able to complete; you can’t do it all.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day The Paper Solution® Education Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!  

I’m excited to announce that you can get 1:1 organization help! As a female, mom, business owner, and head of household, I see all organizing differently. I see it through all those unique lenses. Despite what all the consultants have said, I just have to run Organize 365® in my own Lisa way. At the end of the day, I want to offer as many ways as possible to learn organization because we all agree it’s learnable and yet only 13% FEEL organized in any particular area. I want to offer what works for you so you can have more time to dive into what you are uniquely created to do. Ok, you want a personalized organization roadmap?  Now you can get your own customized, personalized organization road map. I know, with all the free content from the podcast and blitzes, what more could you need? Well, maybe within your business or your household The Productive Home Solution® leaves you with questions or it all just seems too overwhelming. Now all you need to do is email customer service and you will get a form to fill out to get a call schedule with Tanya, Stef or Monique. You can address all the burning questions you have that apply to your unique household or business. At Organize 365®, we understand how the energy of the season and big events impact the home and business. Book your call, get your roadmap from a member of the Education Team, and get to work. No obligation to buy one single thing! You just need to decide: The time you can allocate for organizing  The amount of money you have to spend on organizing at the current time Give this gift to yourself!  Episode Resources: CustomerService@organize365.com Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I had a huge revelation I have to share with you. I'm going to equate my PhD journey to your journey and how you're getting organized with Organize 365®. Hang in there while I explain.  How is what you're doing now getting you ready to get organized? In episode 501 ("Passive Organizing"), I talked about how things like listening to podcasts and doing free blitzes are passive organizing. If you're listening to this podcast and reading this email, then you're learning to become a person who thinks about organization, productivity, and becoming an organized person. You are starting to identify as a person who's learning the skill of organization.  It's the same as when I was doing "passive academia" during the postbaccalaureate program to set me up for extreme success for the PhD program. In the 6 week time frame between being accepted to when the postbaccalaureate started, I didn't know what to do or where to start. The only thing I knew to do (since I knew no one at the university) was to search for PhD podcasts in my podcast player. Doing so helped me to assimilate into the world of academia. It helped me to identify as a person who was getting a PhD. We are always in a process of passively doing the next thing, auditioning for the next thing, or actively doing it. You are so ready to be in the auditioning or active stage because you listen to this podcast and you understand the lingo. We speak the same language and you've been passively organizing...it's time to move to the next step! Audition organizing is when you're investing your time versus your money. There are so many ways you can do this with Organize 365® - so many ways that I don't mention often enough. The podcast, blitzes, free week of The Productive Home Solution® - you can follow me for a long time and never buy anything and still get organized!!  Is that going to keep me in business? NO. So that's where active organizing shows up. You actively organize with your dollars. You've tried with your time already, now it's time to try with your money. You start to take advantage of the paid things to move you forward faster. Do you want to get organized in a longer amount of time with less money or a faster amount of time with more money?  When you have all the resources at your disposal, you make faster progress because you're not wondering how you can get the same effect without the item you need. You can get from passive organizing to audition organizing with the Holiday Blitz. You can get from audition organizing to active organizing with The Productive Home Solution®. If you've already done the Holiday Blitz but you're not ready for The Productive Home Solution® - then start with the Sunday Basket® or the Holiday Blitz Bundle. Try out a planning day by registering for the Holiday Blitz Mini Planning Day! What would set you up best for running even faster and being even more prepared for when you're ready to take advantage of the next opportunity? Everything is happening FOR us, not TO us. You're in the right place at the right time. If you are in the active organizing stage and you've made the investment in Organize 365® and you're seeing the transformation - THANK YOU! Please come be my guest on the Wednesday Podcast if you haven't done so. For everyone in our community app, thank you for nurturing everyone who is new to this journey and affirming and encouraging them along the way. Remember how you felt when you were moving from passive organizing to auditioning? Then auditioning to active? Reminisce on those feelings and use that as fuel to help others be successful the way you have.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Holiday Blitz The Productive Home Solution® Sunday Basket® Sign up for the Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Kathryn P. who found the Organize 365® Podcast when the paper became too overwhelming and she was looking for help. Kathryn is one of the most generous people. She is a mom to her 18 year old, a foster parent, and is also a teacher. In our conversation, it was clear she does not let any of her kids go without. She provides a safe space for them. Each kid comes with a lot of paperwork though. After Kathryn moved from her 2 bedroom apartment to a 4 bedroom home she now owns, there was just too much stuff and too much paper! Who doesn’t shop the estate sale of the home you are buying? LOL! Kathryn was a smart cookie and did just that! Listen in as we discuss Kathryn’s move from the apartment to the home that was partially furnished due to that estate sale. There were also some renovations that were required. Kathryn used painting and other tasks as ways to teach and bond with her foster kids.  Kathryn also set up her “general store” in her attic. She knows where all the extra supplies are for each kid's needs like pencils, luggage, and stuffed animals.  Being a teacher and a foster parent serves Kathryn well because she understands what these kids need in the school setting. She takes the kids to their doctor appointments, obtains the 504C’s, and of course an IEP for school. That equates to a lot of paperwork. She decided to make her own Warrior MAMA Binder for the kiddos to keep things organized. This is also where she keeps the sign in sheet for the social worker’s visits. While discussing the slash pockets, I got such a great idea from Kathryn; each kid gets half of a slash pocket. Yes! We are starting to work with a school on a pilot program and I was thinking they’ll need extra slash pockets, but this solution solves that dilemma! See, we all need a community to share ideas and encourage one another! On another teacher note, we discussed the natural cadence of a teacher's life. We call them Golden Windows. Kathryn and I discussed her floors getting replaced. She was prepared, in her most recent Golden Window, to replace her floor until the contractor told her she was missing something. So now she just knows that it gets shifted to next year, same Golden Window, in summer. That’s why we do the planning days. Maximize these natural breaks the school year gives you and plan because then life gets going fast again and you don’t have that time to plan. The planning days give you an opportunity to think about the next 120 days, what needs to get accomplished, holidays/special occasions, prep for those holidays/special occasions, and establish what you want routines to look like. This helps Kathryn to focus on her classroom and her foster kids and not sweat things because she has planned for them. Kathryn’s advice is, “Focus on one thing and find the joy in it.” If you look at the whole project, you will be frustrated that more isn’t getting done. Kathryn gives her time and attention to the kid(s) when she has them and organizes when she doesn’t. She chooses to focus on the positives.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Paper Solution® Warrior MAMA Binder Education Friday Workbox® The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Like most, I get nostalgic with the anticipation of the holidays. My mom really knew how to make the holidays more difficult on herself, all in the name of quality time and acts of service. She loved the time with me and my sister as we created all these tokens of the holiday spirit. Christmas in July was real in our house. We would make so many ornaments for Junior League that we had to start early, not to mention the elaborate holiday cards that we had next on the to-do list. Not like ordering them from an online photo service…oh no, these were painstakingly hand made with intricate details! Once the holidays were upon us, grandma would come over and mom would decorate the whole house with her. Too bad none of it could be real (like the greenery and flowers) because my allergies to outside things are real. All of this was in the name of her holiday party that first week in December. I remember the elaborate wrapping paper and this fun game my mom had to play to keep me from discovering what gifts were mine. Boy did those beautifully wrapped gifts make a great statement when her party was in full swing! Stop Chasing Your Own Tail  That wrapping paper “game” is one of my favorite memories, but my mom doesn’t remember because she wasn’t focused on it. She just didn’t want me to know what gifts were mine! I loved it because she had to get more clever each year. I wanted my gifts of course, but I really wanted to know what the code was that I had been puzzled over all December. I bring all of this up to remind you not to chase your own tail this holiday season. Download the Holiday Blitz and do the worksheets. You may learn the things you think your family and loved ones value are not the things you thought. I’ll give you an example; I asked my kids many years ago, and then again 2 years ago, what really made the holidays for them. Two years ago, I learned that yes, my kids like to decorate cookies, but not like I had fantasized. See, when I was little, we’d go to grandma’s house and bake and frost cookies of all shapes and sizes. I loved cookie making day. I wanted to continue that tradition. Turns out my kids would rather do it differently, although they do not want it to go away. I desire this cookie day, so how could I appease all parties? I asked more questions. Do you want to bake the cookies? Frost the cookies? How many cookies do you want to decorate? Do you like having different shapes? I adapted cookie day with my children to a tube of sugar cookie dough so they can decorate a handful of cookies and Mimi’s homemade cookies. I am still giving my children what they want to make the holidays feel like the holidays with a reduced to-do list, saving money, and less stress!  But I realized I still want a little more as you may too. I have created Mini Planning Day for this reason! How can you get your cup filled too?  When is the Mini Planning Day and Why Attend?  Friday, November 17, 2023 at 11 a.m. ET This is a day for you - the maker of holiday magic. In the midst of making sure the holidays look and feel the way your family and close loved ones want it to be, we put our own desires aside. This day is to get prepared. What did you learn from the Holiday Blitz? What supplies do you need? Do you need to take a day off to shop or decorate? When will you throw your holiday party? What makes the holidays for you? And how can you take advantage of Black Friday sales? I have intel to make sure you get all the deals. I’m even throwing in a holiday party planning checklist! Then we devise a plan on how to make this less stressful while keeping up your productivity! And if you are in The Productive Home Solution®, you get 50% off this Mini Planning Day! You Gonna Need More Brains With all this planning comes systems, right? During the holidays here at Organize 365®, we agree you need more brains. You need your year round Sunday Basket®. But you also need a sapphire blue Sunday Basket® to file away paperwork and planning for the new year, especially all your tax stuff! And finally, a hunter green Sunday Basket® for holidays, of course. I label my 1.0 slash pockets Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Receipts, and Waiting For. But you label them how it works most effectively for you! When you are pressed for time, it’s a quick grab to go to the holiday Sunday Basket® instead of rummaging through your year round Sunday Basket®. I really want this holiday season to be spent making time for your family and loved ones and enjoying them. You don’t want to end up sick on the couch watching everyone open gifts as the finale to an amazing holiday season you put on but didn’t get to enjoy! Holiday Blitz Bundle [+] Complete Sunday Basket®  Sunday Basket® + 2 Additional Sunday Basket®s One Hunter Green  Rainbow 1.0 Slash Pockets One Sapphire Blue One Complete Sunday Basket® (You choose the color)    Holiday Blitz Bundle 2 additional Sunday Basket®s One Hunter Green  Rainbow 1.0 Slash Pockets One Sapphire Blue   Episode Resources: FREE Holiday Blitz Holiday Blitz Bundle Complete Sunday Basket [+] Holiday Blitz Bundle Holiday Blitz Mini Planning Day Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Today on the podcast, we talk to Jacquie Denny - Founder of Everything But The House which is based in Cincinnati. She is a female business owner I met years ago when I was still doing in-home professional organizing. She and Co-Founder Brian Graves met at a tag sale and began EBTH in 2008. Their first online sale was $10,000. They were so excited that they took their spouses out to dinner! Everything But The House began as a business to bring estate sales online in order to get better prices for their clients and reach a broader market and audience. They would go into a house, photograph everything, then invite buyers into the home to pick up their items. Within about 6 years, they changed their approach and now take all the estate items into a facility so buyers no longer visit the home of the client and potentially damage it or the surrounding property during the transaction. Every single home has these 3 things: saleable, donatable, and disposable items. When Lisa first met Jacquie, she asked: "What about the paper?" to which Jacquie asked: "What paper? - We don't do paper." That's when I knew focusing on paper was the right business model for Organize 365®! We talked about how the generations that Jacquie has worked with have transformed the market place. The Silent Generation stays in the same house their entire lives and never downsizes. The Baby Boomers are more apt to downsize or sell off their items before they end up burdening their children with them. Now Gen X and younger generations are far less interested in valuable items and would much rather spend money on vacations or life experiences. Jacquie says she's currently downsizing the largest generation in history - and they think furniture is their most valuable property. Not a lot of 20 or 30-somethings want the big, ornate dining room sets anymore! Jacquie mentioned a few things she's learned over the years that she thought would be helpful for others to hear. First: don't make the mistake of assuming that the longer you hold on to an item, the more valuable it gets. Everything has a 'shelf life' or a life cycle. So for example, if you have a signed Joe Burrow item - sell it while he's still hot! Don't hold on to it thinking in another 5-10 years it'll be worth more than it is now after he's no longer "at the top of his game". Second: things that will almost always hold value are jewelry, art, and luxury goods (such as purses and shoes). Third: what you paid for something or how much it means to you has no influence on what you'll sell it for...it's all about the market! Fourth: the biggest sin you can commit is this - hanging onto an item you aren't emotionally ready to let go of, putting it into a storage facility where it’s forgotten until someone else finds it after you're gone. The diminishing return on that item while it sits there month after month is harder to swallow than letting go of the emotion attached to it, selling it while you still can and using that money for something else. Some people let go of things to pay for expensive vacations. Some people sell things to pay off medical bills. Greg and I ended up selling our gold class rings in 2008 to keep the kids in school, and selling other items that our families had bought for the kids when they were very young (remember layettes?) in order to pay medical bills and other expenses. Sometimes you have to give up things that you think are valuable in order to survive! Want to find out more about Everything But The House? Browse their "Marketplace For The Uncommon" and see if you can find a treasure, or reach out to them to sell a treasure you might already own. Remember, everything is something to someone! EPISODE RESOURCES: Everything But The House Free Consultation (online) Call 888-965-8672 (or listen to the podcast for Jacquie's number!) Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

You might not be on our email list?  Don’t get me wrong you don’t have to be on the email list but…I don’t always share the same information on the podcast that I do in the emails and vice versa! Soooooo you probably didn’t hear about the flash sale on the Portable Sunday Basket®. Get ‘em while they still come together  As of Tuesday (10/17), we’ll be decoupling the Portable Sunday Basket® and the zipper pencil pouches that come inside. Now’s your chance to snag them while they still come together. We thought it was best to clear out some inventory before we get ready to reorganize all our products. With new products comes new organization. We’re also throwing in both sets of productivity tabs. This could be a great gift for mom or dad to get them organized before you need to take over. Also, what’s better than an organized staff? Sometimes it can be tricky to get a gift for them. Don’t over think it this time, get them a Portable Sunday Basket® so they too can be organized and productive. New Productivity Tabs! That’s right! We know you like the pink, purple, green, and blue ones. Now we offer orange, yellow, white, and red too! You don’t wanna miss out on getting both sets for maximum organization. I use these to label my slash pockets now, then a couple of times a year I actually sit down to freshen up all my labels on my slash pockets.  What’s included: Portable Sunday Basket® (in your color choice) Matching Zipper Pencil Pouch Original Productivity Tabs (previously 2.0): pink, purple, green, blue New Productivity Tabs: orange, yellow, white, and red Episode Resources: CustomerService@organize365.com Portable Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Jacquie Denny, a Cincinnati native and Founder of Everything But The House. I remember calling Jacquie many years ago to have breakfast to talk about Organize 365®. Jacquie had discovered her own successful business through settling her father’s estate and I was looking to pick her brain. She watched as the auctioneer sold her father’s items for pennies on the dollar and thought there just had to be a better way. She also knew that children or loved ones settling an estate likely have full time jobs on top of trying to settle an estate, which is like a full time job of its own. She stumbled into solving a large need for people in her surrounding area by sharing her lived experiences to make others’ lives easier. Now Jacquie finds herself becoming like a family member, almost like a therapist, to families as they navigate this difficult time. Jacquie was an empty nester for 18 months till Jacquie’s dad got a cancer diagnosis. Caring for your parents is so much different than caring for your children. You don’t know how long they will be with you. You may not realize all the appointments they now have, prescriptions that need to be picked up, unexpected lengthy tests they may need. You may even need to cook for them, possibly feed them, and assist in daily hygiene. Unfortunately over the course of 10 years, Jacquie and her husband said goodbye to all of their parents. Jacquie really shared a lot about what it takes to care for loved ones and the toll it takes on the caregiver. And in the end, all of the arrangements that need to be made during an emotional time. Nowadays it's common to not live in the same state as your parents or siblings. Often, parents have remarried and we find ourselves as executors of multiple estates. As their decline begins, it’s a good time to discuss with siblings, or whomever will be helping with caregiving, what the expectations are based on convenience, what your job will allow, and proximity to the loved one.  Jacquie had been a stay at home mom when her father passed. After settling one estate after another, her family defaulted to her because she was a stay at home mom and had done it before. Settling an estate is an all consuming process! Jacquie’s business filled this void. She started working her business on the weekends while her husband traveled for work. Little did she know that her business would explode when she went online, with the help of her business partner Brian in 2008. At the end of the day, one of the things that helps Jacquie with her families is organization! Things are going to change and be unpredictable, but with organization it’s easier to pivot. Jacquie’s hope is that all of us will use our experiences and hand down advice to our children on how to survive it better. Do as we learned, not as we did. Jacquie’s advice is… The more organized you can be, the better off you’ll be because things continually change. Utilize a lot of communication and patience to sustain sibling/other caregiver relationships. Don’t assume your support system knows what you need in your caregiving role.  If your loved one is not in a facility, contribute how you can remotely with: Sporadic visits where you assume a lot of the daily responsibilities to give siblings or whomever a break. Do some deep cleaning or make freezer meals for when you head home. Help them run errands or pick up their kids (your nieces/nephews) from sports or activities. Cold hard cash to cover the meals, gas, prescriptions, personal care items of your loved one. Be creative on how you can lighten the load and show you care. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I recently realized that I haven't fully explained the ADHD Bundle and what my reason is for creating it and selling it the way I do. The # 1 reason why families go bankrupt is because of medical expenses. I want to support families however I can and make it easier to use your Health Spending or Flexible Spending accounts on products and services that are related to your diagnosis. Listen to my Coffee Chat today to hear more explanation about the ADHD Bundle and how it qualifies as a medical expense. If you have an ADHD diagnosis and your doctor and/or therapist has said that you need organizational support - you can buy the Organize 365® ADHD Bundle with your pre-tax dollars. This bundle has all the most beneficial products and programs that Organize 365® offers to support you with your diagnosis. Ask your doctor for a prescription explicitly for this ADHD Bundle so you have justification to provide to the HSA company or for tax purposes. EPISODE RESOURCES: ADHD Bundle ADHD Reference Page ADHD Book Club Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them. Pat's episode will wrap up this podcast series. Believe it or not, this is her FIRST time on the Organize 365® Podcast! I can't believe it took 8 years! It doesn't bother Pat at all though, because she's definitely a more "behind the scenes" kind of person. She's also the most seasoned employee on the Dream Team. She lives with her fur babies (a cat and a dog) and a temporary houseguest - her sister. Earlier this year, Pat's sister had surgery and has been staying with her ever since. She also has some chronic conditions that limit her mobility, so her stay has been longer than expected. They have agreed that she's going to stay at least another 6 months while her house is being repaired and renovated so she can live in it safely. They also realized during this unexpected event that her sister needed help cleaning and organizing the house that she's lived in for over 35 years. It's also a 100+ year old house! More often than not, the relationships with your siblings are the longest ones you'll ever have. Some people choose to never get married or have kids. I have a feeling this 'trend' of seeing older female siblings living with one another (temporarily or long term) will continue for years to come. Pat's message to everyone is this: the bottom line is that everything we do requires effort, but it's always so much easier when you have the right tools to help you. Organize 365® provides these tools, but you still have to do the work. EPISODE RESOURCES: Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® The Paper Solution® Medical Binder The Paper Solution® Financial Binder The Productive Home Solution® Sign up for our Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Andi M. She has a crazy house with lots of ADHD floating around as well as other diagnoses making it pretty difficult to get chaos under control. Cue Organize 365®! Andi started with the ADHD book and then the podcast. Andi sent her three children to three different schools for three different reasons after homeschooling! With that much change, Andi knew her Sunday Basket® would play a vital role.  Andi shared about their move from Iowa back to Ohio. She shared about her son’s IEP and the transfer. We went over the financial benefits and hurdles that come with the options of an IEP or 504C for a child with a learning disability. Please know each state has their own rules so check with your state for clarification.  In the early days of her children being tested for diagnoses, listening to the Organize 365® Podcast let Andi know she was not alone. There was a virtual conversation being had. There were similar stories being shared. There was advice being offered. Lisa seemed to understand what she was going through. Before she knew it, she and Lisa were like virtual best friends. It may surprise you to know that Andi got the Sunday Basket® for the community!  She wanted to chat with others about their organizing and how they were doing it. When we organize, we are in our homes alone. The community lets you know others are experiencing the same hurdles and you can celebrate their wins with them. The Sunday Basket® has never been about the Sunday Basket®; it’s about the families and how they make it work for their lives. Andi’s advice is to start with your paper. When you get your paper organized, it leads to action. Nothing will happen if you don’t have the paper to register for the class, for example.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

How about we have some fun this year for ADHD Awareness Month! So I thought, why not start a BOOK CLUB?! I'll be hosting the first ever Organize 365® Book Club that will feature my book, How ADHD Affects Home Organization. I'm not a psychologist or a doctor, I'm just a former teacher turned stay-at-home-mom that has taught and parented children with ADHD - and I was diagnosed with ADHD in October of last year. I want to use my teaching and organization skills to support any executive function deficits and how they show up in home organization. There are 8 executive functions, and I cover 6 of them in the book. I think about how these executive functions play out in American homes, and what I would put into place in your home to mitigate any deficiencies. Don't ever think anyone has a perfect executive function profile - no one does! Figuring out which of the executive functions that need the most support is half the battle! Book Club Event details: The Book Club is Friday, October 20th from 11am - 12:30pm ET. If you'd like to submit a question before October 20th, click HERE There will be a replay available for 25 days after the event. Register for the Book Club even if you can't join us October 20th. You can listen to the audio version of the book at organize365.com/adhdbook Do you want to join the Book Club, but don't own the book yet? No problem! There's no requirement to own the book before you join the club. You can buy the book + club package - or you can get it later on. You don’t wanna miss book club! EPISODE RESOURCES: ADHD Book link Audio Book link Book Club Ticket Book + Club combo Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them. For episode #5 in this podcast series, it's Virginia's turn! However, this isn't her first time on the Organize 365® Podcast. Virginia lives in Florida with her husband and two boys, and she was with me in Missouri for the Great Homeschool Convention back in March when she realized that being a traveling mom was no longer working for her and her family. She used to travel a lot after she had her first baby, but was living in Maryland at the time and had a lot of family around to support her. Additionally, the complexity of having so many parents contributed to her not being able to travel any longer. Both her and her husband are products of divorce, and each of their parents are remarried. She also has 2 aunts that consider her to be "their child" (her dad was the only one of his siblings who had children) - so that's a lot of older adults in her life!  So naturally, Virginia used this opportunity to talk to her parents, step parents and her husband's parents about the Financial and Medical binders that Organize 365® offers. She made it all about her as she said, and showed them how she was organized and then casually asked "How do I do this for you if I need to?" It's not an easy conversation to have, and we know our parents don't want to leave us with any burdens after they're gone...but how do you get people in their 60's and 70's to do their homework so that we can take care of them in their 80's and 90's?  Living as a powerful, controlled, organized person doesn't happen by accident. It takes proactive anticipation and purposeful planning. Virginia says you have to build in some slack for yourself, that way when someone (or something) pulls on that proverbial leash - you can't feel it and it doesn't hurt! We need to realize that unexpected events are actually expected, you just never know when they are going to come.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Paper Solution® Medical Binder The Paper Solution® Financial Binder The Productive Home Solution® Home Planning Day (must be a member of The Productive Home Solution® to purchase) Sign up for our Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!  

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Laura M. who is a mom and wife living in Kansas. Once Lisa learned she was also an academic researcher, she wanted to go offline and geek out about research and all the things. Lisa refrained and they continued on about how Laura found Organize 365® in the weeks of homeschooling due to the pandemic while also carrying on with her full time job. She bought the Sunday Basket® and it sat. When she knew the program would no longer include the kids program, she felt urgency to take advantage of The Productive Home Solution® while it still included the kids program. She did her first Planning Day in December of 2021.  Laura loves the mental capacity she now has. She has since started and uses the Sunday Basket® regularly. Laura then started to think about her work days and how meetings were really hanging her up. She wanted to find a way to not be working deadline to deadline and micromanaging her team. Cue the Meeting Mastermind. She now has an effective way to communicate with her team and meetings are more efficient. She has more capacity and more bandwidth. Our capacities can shift from hour to hour depending on what we have to deal with. Because she is focusing on the right things that day, she has more capacity and it gives her relief that she only has to do those tasks and not worry about things that are earmarked for a different day. She knows it will all get done.  Laura and Lisa really took a deep dive in the structure of what Organize 365® is building. Laura taught Lisa that Organize 365® is essentially collecting community participatory research!  You all are participating - so thank you! They both agreed that in the long run it is for the benefit of the community, and lives will be transformed as a result of the research and surveys that are being done now. They dissected what generalizations have been made about housework and how they both desire inclusive language. However, little side joke, that academia doesn’t really appreciate corporate speak and vice versa! And with inclusivity, Lisa would love to find a way to help all with their organization and housework; she’s thinking about what that will look like. Organize 365® is really striving to provide an operational definition of housework. There must be no assumptions made like a master bedroom, home owner, or man vs. woman's work (worn out conversation but not the solution!) Laura’s advice is, “Just get started at whatever pace you can.” She pointed out even if you are just thinking about it, it’s on your radar, and you will start to take baby steps towards your organizational goals. If you miss a lesson in The Productive Home Solution®, no problem. Start on the lesson of the day in the course. The reality is that the lesson will come back around. If you have extra time you can go back. Lisa added they are all loops. Each lesson is designed for you to start and complete it, leaving the space better - not perfect. But if you never get back to it - no harm - no residual mess. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Meeting Mastermind Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them. Today's episode with Tanya talks about how she stepped up to the challenge of traveling to the Homeschool Convention and Paper Organizing Retreat in Greenville, SC without hesitation. During this recording, I found out about some other things that took place in her personal life right around this time - I had no idea! Tanya made the move to Florida in January 2023 to combine households with her in-laws. We discussed this multigenerational living in a previous episode (check that out here). The timing of this move was incredible, because by the time they were all settling in and her mother-in-law started visiting new doctors and establishing relationships with them, they discovered that she needed to have a heart catheter and surgeries quickly followed. Let's rewind back to March for a second - we decided not to do the booth at the convention, but we still had to make sure the Paper Organizing Retreat went off without a hitch. Tanya was all in, but then something happened right before she was scheduled to fly to South Carolina. On Tuesday night of that week, her son fell during football practice and hurt his arm. The next day they decided to take him to the ER because he was still in pain. Tanya felt guilty she wasn't the one to take him, but her husband was able to since his schedule was more flexible. Turns out he had a broken arm! Tanya reluctantly flew out the next day to join me in Greenville, but knew her son was fine and would be taken care of. As an owner and manager, I find it important to spend as much time as possible in person with my remote staff to problem solve. This worked out great for Tanya and I on this trip. We spent as much time together as we could to discuss how we were going to handle our company finances, move our website, and which of our existing programs were going to work on WordPress without breaking! During the rapid changes with her work role, she was still dealing with the medical situation with her mother-in-law at home. Her in-laws helped a lot with the kids, so logistics changed for a while with school drop offs and pickups. They had no other family in the area, and hadn't made any new friends yet since moving to Florida. Her husband had also just started a new job about a month before, but thankfully his schedule was flexible. Tanya and her husband were doing what was most necessary to keep their heads above water and focusing on the day-to-day essential tasks. She knew she could leave the rest because when she was ready, it would still be there to deal with. I asked what would've helped at the time if anyone could have or would have offered - and she said three things: food, a clean house, and childcare. She also brought up pet care, because her in-laws have a cat. Sometimes you forget how much work pets can be; they definitely are an added chore on top of all the other things! So if you've been paying attention and wondering why all the sudden the Paper Organizing Retreats are only being hosted in Cincinnati at our headquarters - now you get it! If you aren't able to come to Cincinnati, please visit our Certified Organizer Directory on the website to find a virtual or in person retreat near you! Next week we'll hear about Virginia's unexpected event. Stay tuned for series episode #5! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Certified Organizer Directory Cincinnati Paper Organizing Retreat Sign up for our Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Chelle D. Listen in as we discuss change, how to plan for it, and the shift in mindset Chelle has experienced since doing The Productive Home Solution®. So way way back in 2019 when times were different, Chelle found Organize 365® listening to a different podcast. She then realized she was already a fan when she saw she’d pinned some things in Pinterest. And of course, she had the ebook. What really caught Chelle’s attention was that I had a solution for paper.   Chelle and her husband were both previously nurses and now are real estate agents. She’s been married for 32 years and recently completed her 14th move - that’s what you do when you are in the military. Through all those moves, it’s the paper she has not been able to get under control. Chelle started with 4 boxes that reflected the binders. She shared a few stories where she was able to get whatever she needed without extra stress. She had the paperwork she needed and could readily provide answers. We really dug into the Medical and Financial Binders for her personal life and how they can help her potential home sellers. Having medical knowledge is power, she pointed out. It gives you the power to communicate without a power struggle, to collaborate with healthcare providers, and to get to answers sooner. Also for your own annual visits, you can show up prepared and get your burning questions answered.  “I could use a caddy like that” Chelle’s husband said to her. This is where functional organization comes into play. Functional organization can be complemented with Pinterest, but it’s the functionality that provides the routines and systems to keep you moving through your day. Chelle knows once she’s completed that caddy, she’s ready for the next part of her day and it all goes away neatly and ready for tomorrow. Chelle started The Productive Home Solution® before this last move. She has been able to transfer those skills she learned to the new house for functionality. Functionality is what provides the extra time. Now she’s got the extra time and knows how to plan chunks of time in advance. So when the camp put out the S.O.S. that they needed more ice cream sandwiches, Chelle had the peace of mind to be able to help! It’s not about being perfect, just being better. She has let go of her perfectionist mindset and now just plans as best as she can.  If you find yourself in the season of life of selling your home, Chelle offered advice on how to achieve a smoother sale by: Decluttering - We can help with that (we agree it’s safe to start before the selling process) De-personalizing - Your home becomes a commodity for others when selling Paint! - Help all the realtors out there and document the paint color in your Household Reference Binder. The #1 question realtors get: “What paint color is that?” Chelle’s advice is, “Take the time to plan.”  She’s been using Organize 365® in combination with “The One Thing” process to do this.  It doesn’t change the fact that change will come your way, it just changes how you show up for that change.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I’m excited to announce that we’ve added a new color to the assortment of options for the Sunday Basket®!! But first, when the fall season finally arrives, what is your go to or favorite hot drink? For most people, it seems like it's Pumpkin Spice EVERYTHING! Me? You will always hear me order a hot Caramel Macchiato. Of course, it was only fitting to have that be the name of our newest Sunday Basket® color! But wait there’s more! We have a fun fall treat for you! When you treat yourself to the new Caramel Macchiato Sunday Basket® from now until Sept. 25th (the Complete or the Standalone), we are adding 2 notepads to your order. I use these notepads constantly - the daily ones I leave in my car, desk, purse, kitchen and office so I don't have piles of note cards lying around. The lined notepads I use on the weekends while I'm processing my Sunday Basket®, for big projects, and in meetings when I take notes. These two notepads are game changers and work great with the slash pockets in the Sunday Basket®. Have you seen the new website?  That’s right! We’ve upgraded the Organize 365® website! Your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. Same great content, just a different look and feel. We'll continue to make more improvements throughout the rest of this year. So grab that favorite drink of yours and please check it out! I hope you all are enjoying week three of the 10 most productive weeks of the year! Episode Resources: Complete Sunday Basket-Caramel Macchiato with FREE Notepads Standalone Sunday Basket-Caramel Macchiato with FREE Notepads Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them. Today's podcast features Stefanie and her daughters Haleigh and Hannah. It was definitely a family affair on this episode! Stefanie lives in a multigenerational house - consisting of herself, her husband Adam, Betty (the dog), their daughter Haleigh and husband Kaleb - and their 6 children! Haleigh and Kaleb have been married 11 years and met at ministry school in South Carolina. They have 4 biological and 2 adopted children - their names are Manchan, Parris, Olivia (Liv), Frances (Fran), Charlotte (Lottie), Isaac (Ike). Kaleb is the Lead Pastor at their church (Christian Renewal - Hilton Head and Bluffton, SC) and Haleigh is the creator of the Foster Care Ministry, Free Homeschool Co-op and Kids Ministry at the church. They are also foster parents and Haleigh is on the Foster Parent Advisory Council for the state of South Carolina. Hannah and Sean have been married 7 years and also met at the same ministry school! They were missionaries for 5 years and served in China, Ecuador and Costa Rica. A few years ago, Hannah started experiencing some health and infertility issues, so they decided to move back to the states to focus on her health. She's the Children's Director at the Bluffton campus of Christian Renewal Church and her husband also works for the church as their Media Director. Late 2022, after receiving their fostering license, Hannah and Sean found out they were expecting. What a surprise and what a miracle. Back in March, Stefanie was gearing up to travel for a few Organize 365 events. She says it seems as if every time she travels, something happens - someone in the family gets sick, her daughter has a new foster placement, or someone needs her more than usual. Stefanie was enjoying a Wednesday off with her youngest grandchild (Ike) when she got a call from Hannah. She was having serious back pains, but was only about 5 months along in her pregnancy. Hannah is a self-proclaimed “worrier” - so she called the doctor and went to get checked out. When she arrived at the hospital, she was 3cm dilated. They immediately called an ambulance and had her transported to Charleston to the closest hospital with a NICU. Gabe was born at 26 weeks 6 days, and weighed 2 pounds 11 ounces. The first 20 minutes of his life he was unresponsive and was getting no oxygen to his brain. The doctors told them they would have a very long road ahead of them, and at first weren't sure if he was going to survive. They only got to see him for a few seconds before they whisked him off to the NICU floor. Gabe was definitely a miracle, he blew everyone away just in his first week of life. He was moved off the ventilator within days and all respiratory support on Mother's Day. Hannah kept track of all of his progress and needs with the Warrior MAMA and Medical binders, plus a journal that Stefanie had given her. They left the hospital with him on June 26 - 4 days after his actual due date. Stefanie loves that all her family members consistently use The Sunday Basket®, Friday Workbox®, binders and even the Education Friday Workbox® for homeschool. Haleigh with her diagnosis of ADHD took the longest to implement the products because the implementation felt very overwhelming; but just recently one of the kids found their birth certificate for her within minutes because it was in his binder (where it was supposed to be!). Hannah has had a lot of relief with the mental load of all of Gabe's medical needs, insurance claims and appointments by using the Sunday Basket®. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® The Paper Solution® Binders Education Friday Workbox® Warrior MAMA Binder Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Stefanie Ardoin. She has been part of our Organize 365® Dream Team since 2021 and one of our Certified Organizers since 2018. We are talking about Stef’s transition from empty nester to multigenerational living. We are also talking about her previous roles which transitioned her into her roles inside of the Organize 365® Dream Team - one of those being the administrator of a medical & surgical practice. Once she moved from Louisiana to South Carolina though, we renegotiated Stef’s role within Organize 365® because I definitely wanted to keep her!. Stef and her husband Adam moved next door to her daughter and son in law for two years in South Carolina. Stef wanted to do things a little different with her grandchildren than she had done with her children and this move provided that opportunity. Being neighbors gave them confidence that they could cohabitate. So the two families bought a house together! Stef, her husband, and her daughter’s family (which includes 6 grandchildren) all live together now. Listen in as we discuss the necessity of planning and creating routines. As we talk, you can hear how the process of using the Friday Workbox® is something that productive people naturally lean into. Once Stef was acclimated to Organize 365®, it dawned on her she’d been doing her own form of the Friday Workbox® in the medical practice. Productive people have this natural cadence to reflect on their week, see what’s left to do with pressing deadlines, what can wait, and then plan their next week. Stef shared how she used similar systems in her previous position as an administrator of a medical & surgical practice and how using the Friday Workbox® and Planning Days really helped her to move into the next level of productivity. Once she was on the employee side of things instead of the administrator side, she realized the slash pockets flow in a different order. When you are the business owner and visionary, the slash pockets go pink → purple → blue → green. However when you are the employee, they flow more like green → blue → purple → pink. She was no longer the one coming up or implementing the pink stuff, so it put a different spin on the slash pockets for her. Stef shared how and why there was that shift with her use of the workbox. Stef really took over the Friday Workbox® Club and ran with it! This got us talking about the business owner/administrator’s day, and all the work that is completed before the rest of the employees show up. The keeper of ideas and how those get implemented. The relationship with the employees. It’s important to know them, but not spend so much time getting to know them that you lose chunks of time to work on the business. Offer the element of caring about them, but not that you talk everyday. If they want more time with the CEO, let them learn while you earn. They can always help you at an event or sit in on a presentation. This way you aren't taking away from your valuable time and they are still getting the benefit. Business owners have hard numbers they need to hit to keep the business running, after all. We talked about what that CEO day looks like and the thoughts that are guiding their days.  We then discussed meetings. At Organize 365®, how we have a kind of digital workbox for in between meetings. Everyone can see everything that is going on and what the meeting will cover. We use Google Docs and team members can add to it in between meetings to cut down on texts, Voxer messages, and instant messaging. I discovered the other benefit to this system…ideas aren’t being sprung on employees at the meetings. Everyone has time to process and think. This leads to productive and actionable meetings. And that’s why we started  to share our meeting structures and agendas inside the Meeting Mastermind, to help other businesses accomplish productive meetings. The idea is that your team should be effectively using the Friday Workbox® and Planning Days, now you need effective meetings to make that action take place. Your teams will also be able to look back at the projects you have previously discussed. Projects maybe you started and then halted, only to realize now may be a better time to try again.  You all know I love to spend time in pink work and being the visionary for Organize 365®. I also love to hand things off once I have hatched the idea. The digital systems we have in place allow me to do that and keep ideating on what I was uniquely created to do. After 4 years, this little dream team we have in place allows each team member to step up in their zones of strength and almost be me. This has created more time for me, the business owner, time I am using to get my PhD. What would you do with the extra time?  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Friday Workbox® Meeting Mastermind Certified Organizer Directory Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they navigated them. This is part 2 of Monique’s story. I have a feeling this part of her story will resonate with many of you, and my hope is that someone out there listening might be able to help Monique with this unique situation, or possibly give her answers. Please reach out if you have any similar experiences you could share, resources she may find useful, or anything that might point her in the right direction.  Monique’s 21 year old daughter fell and hit her head on a Friday evening back in March. She has a history of migraines, so by Sunday when she still wasn’t acting like herself they went to the ER to have her checked for a concussion. Monique has dealt with concussions before, when her son (who was 13 at the time) got hit with a baseball in the head and suffered a concussion along with cavernous hemangiomas that had to be surgically removed. If they hadn’t sought help right away, he could have died from the hemangiomas. That was a year-long battle, resulting in 2 surgeries for him. The last thing she wanted was for history to repeat itself with her daughter.  Alina was living her best life. She's 21 years old, had a full time job at Ulta, was a nanny, and was involved in the YA Group at church. Suddenly she couldn’t even take 10 steps to the bathroom without help. The doctors gave them 3 options - take her home and hire a home therapist, start taking her to physical therapy, or get her into a rehabilitation facility. Monique chose the rehab. She knew she couldn’t take care of her the way she needed to, she’s not a physical therapist or a nurse!  As part of Monique’s story, she wanted to give advice to anyone out there who ever finds themselves in a place to help someone else who is dealing with a traumatic life event. Here are some tips on things to do that are helpful.  Give them a place to stay, gas money, or food money if they have to travel. Help with meals/snacks for any other people at home. Mealtrain.com is great for this!  Hire or ask someone to come clean the house, do laundry, or grocery shop for them and their family. Ask the person in need “when would you like my help?” instead of “what do you need?” It takes the pressure off of the person who’s already dealing with a lot to have to ask for help or make more decisions.  Just send money if you don’t know what else to do. Cash, gift cards, Venmo, Paypal. Write a nice handwritten note or card to let them know you’re thinking of them. Sending a text to let them know you’re thinking of them, without expecting a response right away. Zenon finally came home from Ukraine, and Monique was able to travel for work and attend the Missouri Paper Organizing Retreat. She needed to laugh and have some fun, and let her brain and her body be “somewhere else” since she was so weighed down from the stress of the entire situation. She also went to host the Certification in South Carolina 2 weeks later. Other Organize 365® Dream Team members were asked to help fill in for Monique at the event, then one of them had their own unexpected event arise at the last minute.  Listen in next week to hear the reason why Stef, another Dream Team member, couldn’t attend the South Carolina event like she planned to.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Norma C. who is welcoming the next chapter of her life as she gets ready to retire and start a new business with her hubby! Norma was fed up with her disorganization and wanted to get organized as she felt life slowing down. Norma found Organize 365® on YouTube which surprised me, but then it clicked when Norma said she had read the book, too! Now Norma also listens to the podcast for continued learning and motivation.  Listen in as we discuss the golden window Norma is about to experience and how she is taking advantage of it! She’s already conquered her closet and a portion of her storage space so it feels like Norma’s goal is realistic. We talked about a lot of internal conversations that take place when you go through your closet in regards to our weight, what fits, what used to fit, the monetary value of clothes you want to get rid of and how to donate or toss items without it haunting you. What is the right amount of clothes anyway? Remember too, styles change, our taste changes, and so do our bodies - so you don’t need to keep things even if they fit or you could fit in them soon. Norma and I have in common that we have lived in our homes for a long time. We discussed the closets and the reality of emptying a room to declutter and get organized. Lots of times people go through those phases when they move, but when you don’t move, this is another way to accomplish that. She shared that her handyman husband has been able to maximize the use of their closets and anything else necessary for organization. Norma and her husband did a lot of traveling this year so far and have been able to organize it all through the Sunday Basket®; she even took her slash pockets on the road! Norma has a countdown on her phone for the day she’s retiring in 2024, and it’s also the countdown to get organized! Now that she has the hang of the Sunday Basket® and can appreciate all the time she has because of it, she’s doing the whole house. She wants this area of her life settled so she can focus on the next chapter. I reminded Norma that in a slower phase of life you may not have to process your Sunday Basket® as often. But once they start their business, it can serve them and keep them on track. Norma’s advice is, “Definitely start with the Sunday Basket®. Make it part of your life and start with bite sized pieces. In the long run, you will start to see that it saves you time.”  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Organization is a Learnable Skill The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Our Organize 365® Dream Team has experienced way more than its fair share of unexpected events this year. Like...A LOT. Nearly every single one of them has dealt with or is dealing with really big life events. I asked a few of them who were willing to share about those unexpected events and how they are navigating them. Monique is the first to share, but this isn't her first time on the podcast! I love how open, honest, and willing to share her story for the benefit of others she is. Monique has 6 adult children - 3 are biological, and 3 are adopted from Ukraine. Her husband Zenon is a first generation Ukrainian. Within the last 18 months, Monique and her husband have moved to a different state, welcomed their first grandbaby, one of their daughter's got married, and dealt with Zenon losing his job. WHOA! They lived in the same home in Valparaiso, Indiana for 20 years. They also just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary! The move was the best change for their marriage and their family. Then the first wave of unfortunate events hit. Their son and daughter in law who lived in Wisconsin were expecting a baby and he lost his job. Shortly thereafter, her son lost his job. It was then they decided to follow Monique and Zenon to Tennessee and start a new chapter of their lives. Monique stepped in to help as much as possible like any good parent would - on top of dealing with all of life's normal challenges. She quickly learned it was a mistake to assume that adult children know how to do things that they've actually never done on their own! It's a whole different ballgame stepping back into a teaching role as a parent when they are adults. Monique & her husband also have a few children with special needs. Teaching adulting skills to those children who have a different processing ability can be a challenge. They know this will require a lifetime of mentoring, and they might not be moving out someday and will most likely have a different future than their other children. They really had to do a mindset shift and readjust their expectations once they realized they might not become “empty nesters” like they once thought they would. Lisa and Monique also shared about how much they love being grandparents. Monique's grandson Gabe was 4 months old at the time, and Grayson is about to turn 2! The impact you can have on your grandchildren's lives is so unique and different than what you had on your own children. They both hope they can make better choices this time around, and do things differently with them. Monique's husband can't wait until Gabe is 2 so he can take him to Home Depot, and Greg can't wait until Grayson is 5 so he can take him fishing! Next up in Monique's life was her daughter's wedding in May. She still lives in Indiana, and Monique was trying to be supportive in helping her plan the wedding long distance. She would make weekend trips from Tennessee to Indiana to do all the wedding preparations she could along with her daughter. Monique spent the entire week leading up to the wedding with her as well, and was intentional about carving out special time with her before she became a married woman. How does she do it all? As if a move, a grandbaby, and a wedding wasn't enough to make her head spin - she was also working full time at Organize 365®. Along with her full time job, she was taking out of town organizing jobs and coaching sessions in the evenings and on the weekends to earn extra money. She says she and Zenon had to "get scrappy" in their old age to deal with all the extra expenses in order to invest in their children's lives as much as possible. Monique wastes no time feeling sorry for herself or worrying about how she will get it all done. She simply gets up and gets dressed. She figures out what the next step is and problem solves along the way. She uses her Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox® - and focuses on only 7 days at a time. It feels like a game of Tetris to her; fitting all the pieces in, figuring out what the most critical things to get done are for the next 7 days, and flexing that time when something out of the ordinary does come along. Then she experienced another blow - Zenon lost his job. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise - because he was able to go on a trip to Ukraine in March shortly after the war began. He focused his energy on this experience and giving back to his home country. He drove 25 hours in a caravan and made multiple stops along the way, delivering supplies from the western side to the eastern side where people were stuck in war zones. He experienced a once in a lifetime chance to be involved with organizations that help children, bringing people from east to west, taking things that people need from west to east because they couldn't get it, and meeting a relative for the first time. Listen in next week to hear Part 2 of Monique's incredible story - it's unbelievable to think even more unexpected events were right around the corner. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Natasha B., the daughter of immigrant parents. Oh how covid changed so many things for so many of us. Natasha had her own business and lived with her mom. Natasha was ecstatic to learn she’d have two weeks off to tackle some projects she always wished she had time for. But soon their income was affected and ironically, they moved in with her father, step mom, and their 7 month old baby in Florida. She likes to refer to them as “the original modern family!” Natasha took her skills she’d learned after finding Organize 365® and started to organize her dad’s kitchen and house, too. It was a struggle at first, but now they appreciate the method to her madness. Her parents saw how much she loved organizing, so her mom invested in the Sunday Basket® for her. She did at least set it up, but didn’t use it for 2 years. Now she’s in almost all of Lisa’s programs!  Natasha found out she had developed Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2019. Listen in as we discuss the necessity of planning and creating habits to feel in control of a disease that makes you feel like you have no control. At any moment, Natasha can be at the mercy of her energy. When she’s having a flare up, she’s in a lot of pain and it causes low energy. But what she finds is that with help from the Sunday Basket and the ‘spoon theory’, she can prioritize tasks per day according to her energy. Organization is now part of Natasha’s health management - it gives her more time, more energy, and more peace. Up until her diagnosis, Natasha was a competitive ballet dancer. Now she’s almost in her 30’s and already in her second career of running a dance studio. She’s now sharing her love of dance in a different way. And her doctors encourage her to keep dancing!  She has created a podcast that she plans to air someday. It will be titled “We Dance Too” and would love it to be a layer of her business to help her reach out and partner with other businesses focused on Rheumatoid Arthritis. She wants to share what she has learned about organization that others with her disease could utilize, too. Natasha dreams a lot, so who knows what that third career may look like! She now has the confidence to say no to some things and not feel guilty about it. We discussed not permanently closing the door on opportunities that present themselves now. Just look at them as “not right now” and file away in a pink slash pocket.  Natasha wishes that she would’ve known sooner that organization is a learnable skill. But her advice to others is, “Everyone who starts The Productive Home Solution® should just listen to the steps and do one at a time. And follow the energy.”  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter Bachata Fuego Sarasota - Natasha’s business 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

At 40 I knew it was “time to start my company.” But what company should I start? I started simple and have grown with demand. Everyone is working all the time and no one has time to plan. You also don’t have the time NOT TO. You still have to put in the hours - so you can spend the time working on current projects, or reflecting on what you were doing. It’s still work.  The thing is, no company or no one employee will do this perfectly, and no one actually has the time - you have to just do it. My hunch is that this quarterly planning is going to become the norm due to the internet and business changing so rapidly. Gone are the days of having a 10 year plan, because the change in life alone will make predictability difficult. Not bad to have a 5 or ten year plan, just know there will be lots of course corrections. The Singularity theory says that there will be a time where all knowledge will be known from everywhere instantly. This is where we are headed, people.  Cue the Rabbit Trail I took a detour down a rabbit trail in this episode! This rabbit trail began with my recent studies of the Industrial Revolution. It dawned on me that railroads offered transportation, thus lending itself to more communication. Much in the same way when cars were invented. Farmers could get their products much further and visit their families and other farmers because the car could travel further than the standard horse. See, transportation and communication. And now, due largely in part to the pandemic, the internet is the new railroad. The communication and transportation highway. It’s all online, everything.  The Workbox Planning Day is a continual progression of regular reflection, opportunity selection, and course correction: Continued regular reflection; Ask yourself  How has the world changed in the last three years?  Where is my/the business now?  Where is it going? Are we going in the same direction?  How are people buying? Are we still relevant?  Opportunity selection What projects do you want to get to the finish line in this quarter? No more than 5; but ideally 3.  Course correction I gave the example of our new website. We hadn’t planned on it but it was necessary to keep the business going.  Once the issue was identified, we course corrected  Takeaway… Your biggest benefit and your biggest expense in business is the people.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Friday Workbox® Workbox Planning Day Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to September G. who is an ambitious entrepreneur. We talked about her routines pre and post pandemic, and the moment she just couldn’t take it any longer. The pandemic was the opposite of a Golden Window for September! She couldn’t take that they had settled into old habits during the pandemic. When her husband asked if they were on the verge of a divorce due to September’s unsettled behavior and the meltdown she had, she said that is when they banded together and invested in the Sunday Basket® and their marriage. She has been able to make the invisible work visible, so others can accomplish the same tasks in her absence since she travels often. It gave them a chance to renegotiate and reorder responsibilities. Listen in as we discuss the vital role the Sunday Basket® and The Friday Workbox® plays in both her businesses and her home life. She and her husband actually go through their Sunday Basket® on Fridays, and then he knows what his checklist is for the week. She runs a coffee shop with her children, and the Friday Workbox® helps them get things done more efficiently. It systematizes what’s happening and when, they get more done, work faster, and management is much more proactive. It works so effectively that she has peace of mind that things will not fall through the cracks. I hypothesized that maybe the boys are ok with doing the Friday Workbox® on their own because they saw their dad model this behavior. Even when we don’t realize it, our children are watching us. We need to get ready to cheer September on because in March and April of 2024, she embarks on the Southern Tier Bike Ride from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL. September explained the ride and that it is a 2-month commitment. She is confident that Gerety Education Team, the coffee shop, and her household will be taken care of due to the systems and organization that September, her family, and her remote team have put into place thanks to Organize 365®. She has freedom from stress knowing that things won’t fall through the cracks.  September’s advice is, “Just buy all the stuff.” Let Lisa do all the thinking for you and you just fill in the blanks or do the things. Forget struggling to DIY it! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

The Barbie Movie  Have I mentioned I like to plan? It’s like a never ending mental puzzle. I’ve become really skilled at manipulating my time like Lego bricks; I move it around, expand it, replan it in my brain before taking action. This got me thinking: “How can I explain Planning Day to someone who’s never heard of Organize 365®?” It made me think of a few silly examples, like the Barbie movie. Did you see it? OR did you see a lot of other people talk about seeing it and start thinking maybe I should go see it too?!  This is what happens - the more we hear about something, the more we think there must be value in what everyone else is doing. Just like my Culver’s onion rings I talk about all the time, or Madam Secretary being my role model. You see others in the community finding such value in it and I want you to experience the same results with Planning Day.  So much of this is mindset. I talked about this in my last podcast series, the difference between being organized and productive is your mindset. Planning Day is a day to think about the next 4 months, and planning your household 3 times a year is very purposeful.  The Flow - Positive, Productive, Proactive I’ve coined the products and services that Organize 365® offers the flow. Greg says to me quite often, “Lisa, can you please just go with the flow?” The podcasts, blitzes, The Productive Home Solution™, clubs, Instagram - it’s all curated as a positive, productive, proactive flow! When you are in the flow - you will become very productive due to the cadence and “stair step” process of the Organize 365® products. Whether you have kids or not, it’s a flow we have all become conditioned by due to the American education schedule. We all know that we get rejuvenated in summer, then we buckle down from after Labor Day until mid November. We then get organized in January, and ride the wave through spring break until summer arrives again. Organize 365® recognizes this cyclical pattern and has created a flow that compliments it! Our homes are a business - and we need the Organize 365® products and programs to run that business!  What Planning Day Does: Gives you the big picture of where you are going Plan the next 4 months and learn how to “purposefully procrastinate”  You will have bigger time horizons. Look at this 4 month chunk and then you don’t have to spend anymore time planning or reacting. The idea is to have thought of most things and then have more time to address something unexpected or overlooked. Helps you to make better decisions Spend your money, time, and energy better. Establish new habits to the point where they are no longer reactionary. You just know the next step or how to approach the situation. After 4-6 weeks you will have more mental capacity. All those other goals and dreams you have? Plan them accordingly and you’ll know exactly when you’ll meet or complete each one!  What’s Included in Planning Day (first one is included when you purchase of The Productive Home Solution™): 4 hour Zoom Webinar Brain Dump - personal, financial, household, family Where you are right now - Golden Windows, top 3 priorities, etc.  Timed breaks 3-10 min (wherever they fit in)  Year at a glance 168 hour time circles - see where your time goes and plan where you want to spend it going forward. Establish routines for morning, afternoon, and evening Analyze how you spend your time on weekdays vs. weekends Plan ideal weeks going forward Set goals for the next 120 days, and break down those goals into each month Replay for 25 Days; to ensure you get started If it was available forever you would not have any urgency to get started You can watch or listen multiple times. If you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, take a break, sleep on it, and come back to it the next day (or later). The workbook won’t be fully complete or perfect. Remember the only wrong way to do this is to not start.   Workbook (with extra pages so you actually use it! You’ll know why I say this once you listen) Community While there is no live chat (which is nice because then you don’t miss out on anything in replay mode), there is always the community. Many conversations take place during the breaks and after, of course, as everyone continues to take steps towards organization and productivity.   I’d love to have you join me in the classroom and get functionally organized so you can do what you are uniquely created to do! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ Home Planning Day Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode Ryan L. is back, and she’s getting ready for a Golden Window! The last of her three children is getting ready to fly the coop! What will she do with all her new found time and energy? “This is for me! This is my time!” expressed Ryan. She plans to get fully organized. Ryan is a Kolbe Consultant and we dug into that for a bit. She and I shared our Kolbe numbers, what they mean, and how you too can learn from your Kolbe numbers. Ryan stressed that all numbers are a strength; they just simply show how you do things in those 4 categories.  Listen in as we discuss the necessity of planning and creating habits. One of her favorite “Lisa-isms” is Planned Neglect. Set the bar LOW and trust your instincts! It’s impossible to do this incorrectly. Too many times we don’t know how to get started or afraid we’ll do it wrong. The most important thing is to just get started. Ryan plans to start in her laundry room. It’s funny how you can think this is such an insignificant room until you analyze this space. This room is the “workhorse” of the house, the room where every random thing gets dropped. Check out the free week to organize your laundry room, you’ll be surprised! Ryan feels bad that she's so excited for her Golden Window (you know…that mom guilt starts to kick in). She will be able to put time on her calendar and won’t have as many distractions so she will be able to protect that time better. Her goal is to commit 20-25 hours a week to get her home through The Productive Home Solution™ this time around. If you find yourself on the cusp of a Golden Window like Ryan is…immediately fill that new free time as if you’ve hired a Professional Organizer for your house - except you’re the expert!  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ FREE WEEK The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution Planning Day The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Productive people are weird. We just are. We are not going with the flow. We are where the flow comes from. First, I suggest listening to part 1, part 2 and part 3 of this series before doing anything else. In today’s episode we are bringing the entire process of expanding your capacity and productivity together. There’s a process to this and it all comes together today! I have received many requests to record podcasts on how I get so much done. Where do I get the capacity? The energy? How am I so productive? I’m obsessive about being productive and proactive because my sense of significance and purpose is burning so deep in me. I don’t want to waste my time. I am all in on having the most impact I can have on my family, my friends, the Organize 365® community, my team and the community as a whole! But here’s the thing - this was an evolution for me. It didn’t happen overnight or in a weekend. It was a long process. I've been thinking about this series for years, but have never been able to articulate it. I had to dig deep to really pinpoint the things I was doing to get it all done. It was hard for me to remember why or how I got to this skill level. Productivity has everything to do with how you think about your time, energy, capacity and your sense of purpose. It has nothing to do with containers, planners, or checklists. It is your mindset that makes the biggest difference in your own productivity. You can learn how to manipulate your own energy and expand your capacity just by focusing on your personal and professional development. If you also give yourself permission to do things you don’t see other people doing - you will be well on your way. What’s the thing you want to do or learn that will help you take the next step? What’s something you want to do but haven’t for #allthereasons? Today’s podcast is going to have you asking yourself some deep questions: What’s something you can learn to keep growing or developing in order to expand your capacity? What’s something you want to do that's out of your comfort zone? How do you keep maximizing your capacity, then using it with purpose? Are you deriving the energy from your physical space at the most optimal level? Do you truly know how to plan and are you planning enough? A productive person surrounds themselves with physical, mental and emotional space that supports their productivity and growth. Last week, I talked about juggling. I don't feel like I'm juggling, or that my life is imbalanced. This feels more like bouncing balloons up into the air and constantly keeping them from hitting the ground. Productive people have the capacity not only to keep all these balloons in the air, but to have more balloons than they would be physically able to hold all at once. What does it take to do this? Obsessive and relentless planning! I hope you join me and get functionally organized so you can do what you are uniquely created to do! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ Home Planning Day The Friday Workbox® Work Planning Day Jeff Olson - The Slight Edge Rory Vaden - Procrastinate on Purpose Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Mary B. She’s a mom of 4 and after her divorce found Organize 365®. She walked away from that divorce thinking she wasn’t good enough. When she looked around her house, her negative self talk got the better of her, telling her she wasn’t even good at keeping her house organized. Then when she noticed she’d also been gaining weight, she started to dig into why. Mary was very vulnerable and shared the mental health journey she has been on and how Organize 365® played a role in her healing.  Mary saw a naturopath and also saw an EMDR therapist when her anxiety and panic attacks became regular. Through EMDR therapy, she discovered trauma from the divorce hanging around, and unfortunately even more trauma from her childhood. All this trauma was stuck in her body and keeping her cortisol levels high. We discussed how no two people experience the same thing in the same way, and also about how you can move on from a traumatic event without dredging up the past to try and “solve the problem.” Listen in as we discuss the guilt we feel as women - even when we are the ones doing most of the childcare and generating an income too! Research has supported that for each child a woman adds to their life, they gain three and a half hours of extra work while the man gains none. How much leisure time does the dad lose when a child is brought into the family? NONE. How much time does the mom lose when a child is brought into the family? Countless!! It’s time for us. You should not feel guilty about budgeting for home cleaning services then using that time you get back for yourself. Use it for your hobbies and interests - guilt free.  It was so important to have this conversation because it seems as though we are living these isolated lives, even in such a connected world. We keep everything so private to “save face” when really it’s all falling apart behind closed doors. These conversations need to be normalized.  Mary is not stuck anymore and has been able to conquer her paper piles. If you find yourself in a similar situation to Mary’s, you can reach out to her in the Organize 365 community app so you can have a private, candid conversation with her directly. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Let’s unpack the next step in my productivity journey - PLANNING!  First, if you haven’t listened to part 1 and part 2, I highly recommend doing so before delving into planning! Planning is the fun part, but you really need the foundational productivity mindsets discussed in the first two parts of this series. The planning we are going to discuss in this podcast is a completely different kind of planning. This is planning from the ground up! A productive person teaches themselves how to get all the way done.  For me, I really learned how to do this kind of planning in March 2020. This is when reality set in for me and failure was not an option. Planning became my number one priority. The type of planning I’ve learned to do and the type of planning I teach in Planning Days for both Home and Work allows you to look at the big picture as well as what is actually possible in the season you’re in. It’s an awesome way to continue taking next steps without feeling overwhelmed or like you’re drowning! I don’t plan for an entire year at a time. That wouldn’t work for me or my business. I break planning up for Home by my three new years - listen to this podcast to learn more about those. For work, I plan by quarter which allows me to be agile and create efficiencies for my teams and meetings throughout the year. It doesn’t end there - setting up this system for planning and essentially planning out my planning time allows me to have multiple times throughout the year to freshen up my home and work. You know that amazing burst of energy you get at the start of the new year? The whole “new year, new me” energy? Imagine having that multiple times per year? What could that do for your productivity? That’s exactly what these planning days do for me and the Organize 365® community! Ultimately, this podcast series on productivity is going to teach you how to juggle really well. It’s true that life is a juggling act and you need to know how to keep all the balls in the air. Listen in to hear what balls I’m juggling and how I’ve used my productivity skills to juggle better! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Friday Workbox® The Friday Workbox® Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ Home Planning Day® The Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Kristen M. a mom of three, a teacher, podcaster, and a teacher-prenuer.  How does she do it all? Kristen shared that it started with the Sunday Basket®.  She knew she had to get her paper under control first.  Routines are so important and without her knowing it, she had established an afternoon routine of doing 15 min of paperwork between the end of her work day and when her children would be home. Once she experienced the magic of the Sunday Basket®, she quickly layered system upon system and now is a well rounded Organize 365® member! Listen in as we discuss the different uses for Sunday Basket®s throughout the year.  Kristen used one of her Sunday Basket®s to organize her daughter’s senior year and now her daughter will be going off to college with the Launch Program and Binder. And she will use it differently again closer to the holidays. Hear how Kristen’s children love the magic of the Sunday Basket® too, mind you one is only 8 years old!. The Sunday Basket® helps her to be more present because she is not trying to remember everything.  And she can stay aware of her children’s desires due to them contributing to the Sunday Basket® index cards. Kristen also shared the magic of the Sunday Basket® through her eyes. Once she got the hang of it, it was so freeing. Kristen was already organized so why did she need new systems? The reality is the new systems were freeing up her working memory. Instead of trying to remember everything all of the time, now it was physically in her external brains known to us as Sunday Basket®s. She doesn’t have to remember how the school year curriculum went. She just refers to the Sunday Basket® and knows what she can change or do better for the upcoming school year.  She uses her different slash pockets to organize things for her podcast, “The Modern Math Teacher” and her teacher business within each “external brain.” She’s impressed when she looks back and can see all the impact she has been able to have due to the physical systems of her external brains, the Sunday Basket®. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I’m excited to announce that The Productive Home Solution™ enrollment is now open!  The Productive Home Solution™ is your Household Management Solution. This is a 52 week curriculum, and I will be there every step of the way!! You’ve had your lazy summer days and soon the kiddos will be off to school (or start homeschooling). Believe it or not, this is the time of year that your family needs you the LEAST. Once that crisp fall air hits, we all naturally become more productive. You know what that means…another Golden Window is coming! Let’s get you organized and more productive. I would love for you to join me! What is The Productive Home Solution™?  Once a teacher, always a teacher. Now that school is in session, you will be my student. You will systematically go through all the nooks and crannies of your home in a calendar year. Please don’t let that deter you - because you can jump in at any time. Follow your energy and cherry pick tasks. I will spoon feed you every single thing you need to know - even if you are someone who needs to know #allthethings from the very first moment. Labor Day is the official ‘beginning’ of The Productive Home Solution™ - so now is the BEST time to get started!  What is included in The Productive Home Solution™?   Planning Day Workbook The Productive Home Solution™ Playbook The Paper Solution® 4 Binders (Medical, Financial, Household Operations & Household Reference)  Online 52 Week Course with modules, worksheets, videos, and more Online Community via our private app What to expect from The Productive Home Solution™   Current members you may already have your playbook and planning day workbook in the mail due to UPS’s strike. That’s right, UPS is threatening to strike as of the day of this episode. Don’t worry, we used proactive anticipation and are controlling what we can control.  Full details around 10 minutes into this episode.   If new members pay in full, you can expect the entire The Productive Home Solution™ box soon! If you choose the payment plan, you will get your binders after your final payment. Honestly, you don’t need them for the course until next summer when we move into paper management.  The Paper Solution® Members: You will get the option to upgrade! If you sign into your account, the option will be in the drop down menu and then you will have everything you need to keep moving forward on your organization journey.  One thing to note: The Sunday Basket® is not included - but it will SUPER CHARGE all of the time you have to spend doing The Productive Home Solution™. Get a Sunday Basket® too! During your Sunday Basket® time, save these important dates: August 26 - Planning Day - organize and plan for the next 120 days August 31 - Tanya Blackburn will be live in the community to debut The Productive Home Solution™ coworking time. First up - closet organization! First 8-10 weeks - It’s all about you and your personal spaces November & December - You will focus on storage spaces. I’m carving out alone time for you! January - May - Family Spaces. I know you want to do these first, and you can, but there is a method to my madness! You’ll be more confident and less frustrated by the time you get here.  Summer - We’ll hit all the hodge podge spaces and put systems in place for all that paper! Episode Resources: Organize 365® Community App The Sunday Basket® The Production Home Solution® Planning Day Upgrade to The Productive Home Solution™ Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s episode, Expanding Your Productivity: Productive People Part 2, I discuss how the next step on my productivity journey was very much an inside job. A lot of the things that I was doing during this part of my transformative journey were invisible to those around me. But, yet had a massive impact on where I am today. I quickly realized that to have the impact I wanted to have, I would need to create products and courses. The products you need to truly get your papers organized didn’t exist. I would need to create them. The courses you need to learn to get functionally organized and stay organized didn’t exist. I would need to create them.  My in-home professional organizing business was growing rapidly and in the background I was creating a new vision and mission for Organize 365®. Listen in to hear how I was able to create this on an airplane! I had a burning desire to help women learn the skill of organization so they could unlock their time to do what they were uniquely created to do. I was having great success with this with my in-home clients. But how could I do that on a larger scale? This is where I had to just keep taking the next step. You know the long game but you are very much in the weeds, putting one foot in front of the other. To those around you, your transformation may be undetectable at this point.  If you aren’t sure what the next step is…I’m here to affirm that no one else is going to be able to tell you either. I can tell you that you are always capable of more than you realize. You have so much more in the tank than you realize.  Through this period of time in my life, where I was deeply internalized and absorbing information, books and podcasts, I became laser focused on creating the products that now fill the Organize 365® warehouse and are helping people all over the world (literally)! I also created The Productive Home Solution™ as the course that will help you learn to live an organized, productive and proactive life while organizing your entire home - one step at a time. It was through my own experiences of not knowing what that next step was that I was able to create a complete program designed to provide you with the next steps for getting organized in a way that is functional and sustainable for you. Then, once you’re organized, the sky's the limit! You will have unlocked so much time and possibility and I can’t wait to see what’s next for you! It’s so fitting that this podcast happens to be episode 550! We are now half way to 600 episodes because I just keep making the next episode and taking the next step. Whatever stage of life you are in, I want to encourage you to let go of guilt and invest in yourself. Do and get the things you need to feel motivated, be more productive and take the next step. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I am excited for Susan T. to share her Organize 365® journey with you! Susan lives with her husband and adult children - her daughter is 29 and her son is 26. They both live in apartments in Susan’s home and we talk about the blessings and challenges of building strong relationships with our adult children. When she found Organize 365® through an interview I did on another podcast, she was helping a friend get her paper organized. She then, like many of you, binged all of the Organize 365® podcasts and found that our solutions were exactly what she needed!  She had been trying for a while to figure out a system for organizing her work. She had an ever-growing pile sitting on the corner of her desk. The pile was creating overwhelm for her. She struggles to get her work organized and move easily from task to task. She needed a system for her work and her paper pile. The Friday Workbox® transformed how she organizes her work and her ability to keep moving throughout the week at work, especially as someone who works mostly out in the field. Planning Day for Work and Home have also been a gamechanger for her. She subscribes to both Work and Home Planning Days which leads us to a conversation about how Organize 365® is able to help orchestrate a flow for your life through these planning days, which is exactly why Susan goes to them all. She looks at it as an accountability partner for her home and work. The coaching she gets from me during these events is an added bonus! Listen in to hear our tips for organizing your medical history in real time and how to set aside time for yourself to dream and think! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Friday Workbox® Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ The Productive Home Solution™ Home Planning Day Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Where does productivity come from? Planning our day the night before? Having solid routines? Having a beautiful and well-maintained planner?  Those things are all important, but they aren’t necessarily going to make you more or less productive. What are the differences between productive people vs. less productive people? To begin this podcast, I want to offer grace and understanding for those of you in phases of life where you have very little or no control over your productivity (such as a medical diagnosis, depression and active parenting years). I’ve been where you are and I know that these are all very real constraints. Productivity comes from being in control of your time. In order to do this, you need to observe YOURSELF. Look at your day and pay close attention to your energy levels - physically, mentally and emotionally. Become curious about yourself. What makes you more or less energetic? How can you extend periods of productivity? How can you unlock more of your time? In this episode, which is part one of a four-part series, I discuss the very first steps I took in my transformative journey to becoming my most productive self. I didn’t just wake up one day with the energy and capacity to be the CEO of Organize 365® while also getting my PhD. This was a long journey. The first step in this journey was a wake-up call for me. I realized no one is coming to save me. If it’s going to be, it’s up to me. This realization led me to quit my job and other habits that were draining my energy on all levels. Through this series you can follow along on my productivity journey and learn how I had to take total ownership of my life. Productive people are obsessed with knowing what things make them more or less productive, from their diet choices to the amount of sleep they are getting.  A big part of my transformation was looking at the purpose of the things I was trying to do. Productivity is not just about getting more done, it’s about doing things that matter, knowing why you’re doing them and doing them with a sense of calm. Want to instantly boost your productivity? Here are two questions you can start asking yourself to be more productive starting today: What’s one thing I can do right now? Keep moving forward. Even if you are only taking one step at a time. When you feel “stuck” ask yourself, what’s the next step that I can do right now. Do I have 15 more minutes? True productivity is not a check mark on a checklist - it’s a completed project. When you are working on something and running out of time, don’t be afraid to spend extra time to complete the project, especially if it will save you time in the future. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Brooke Castillo and Kris Plachy Podcast Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I have a surprise to share with you!  Embrace is now available on demand!  Want to learn more about the Embrace experience? Listen to this podcast. July is a GREAT time to do Embrace. Learn what is next for you. We are currently offering an Embrace Bundle that includes: Embrace Self Guided Virtual Retreat with surprise gifts! The NEW! Raspberry Embrace Sunday Basket® A pink journal Available now through July 25, 2023. Episode Resources: Limited Edition Embrace Bundle Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Lori S. Lori is married with two adult children. Her daughter has completely left the nest and is getting married next spring and her son is in college. Lori has always been an organized person and loves to plan as much as I do. She found the podcast while looking for new ideas and systems to try on her organizational journey. Lori immediately upgraded the DIY Sunday Basket® in her kitchen to the real Sunday Basket®. She and I discuss how all the solutions ebb and flow, shrink and expand depending on your phase of life.  A real light bulb moment for Lori was when she learned my philosophy on getting your storage room organized. In The Productive Home Solution™, I teach you how to organize your storage room as a store. This has allowed Lorie to transform her home over the past year. Lori has unlocked her time to do what she is uniquely gifted to do and that includes writing a book! We discuss Lori’s book, “One Shade Greener at Home: A Room by Room Guide to Reduce Toxins, Lighten Your Environmental Footprint, and Live Simpler”. Listen in to hear the things I’m doing to live greener! Lori and I both agree that small consistent steps over time make the biggest difference! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

It isn’t really about scissors. It’s about empowering yourself. It’s about taking back your spaces, your time and making things more efficient, functional and enjoyable for YOU. Your home is yours. It is the place where you have the most control. So if there are things at your home like old scissors - now is a great time to re-evaluate your supplies and get better ones if needed! I can’t say it enough - managing your household is a full-time job and you get to be the CEO. So if things aren’t up to par, you get to make it better! What would make your job as the CEO of your household easier? This podcast is airing in the middle of summer because right now is when you are going to find the best sales and the most variety of office and school supplies. Observe what you use and want to stock up on now while it is all on sale. What current supplies are you just tolerating but would be better served by upgrading or updating? Small upgrades to your supplies can yield big results! Grab your favorite beverage, take some time to yourself and go stroll the back to school supplies aisle at your favorite store. EPISODE RESOURCES: Back to School Blitz Upgrade your Organize 365® Supplies Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Janet O. Janet is a mother of two “adult children”, she’s been married for 38 years and she is a Nurse Practitioner in the emergency room! I’ve met her twice at Paper Organizing Retreats as she worked to get all her paper organized once and for all!  Listen in as we discuss her husband’s ALS diagnosis, how his diagnosis catapulted her sense of urgency to get organized and how she found Organize 365®.  There’s a lot that stands out in this interview for me. What I found most interesting about this interview is how medical professionals view the Organize 365® Medical Binder. Sometimes we worry that our medical providers will be offended by bringing these documents with us or we think that they already have all the information so we don’t need to bring anything. This is not the case. Yes, most medical facilities now have digital systems for record keeping, but they aren’t connected in any way. This means if you are visiting multiple providers (which almost everyone does), they don’t have a complete picture of your health and medical history. When I met Janet for the first time at a Paper Organizing Retreat, she very infamously told me that her husband said the Holiday Blitz (which is FREE) is worth the entire price of The Productive Home Solution™. Janet was notorious for overcomplicating and creating stress around the holiday season. The Holiday Blitz allowed her to simplify and plan ahead for less stress around the holidays.  Janet also talks about how she and her husband now use multiple Sunday Baskets® and we discuss recommended intervals for processing different Sunday Baskets® used for specific purposes. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Paper Organizing Retreats The Productive Home Solution™ The Paper Solution® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

The Back to School Blitz starts NOW! This Back To School Blitz is for YOU…ok, and your kids if you have them. :) Sign-up now to download the amazing workbook we created to help you get ready for fall productivity - whether that includes sending your kids (or yourself) back to school is optional! Plus, you’ll get exclusive free access to our Organize 365® App. The best gift by far that you will get from the Back to School Blitz is the gift of time and peace of mind this fall. This year we are giving you the ENTIRE Back to School Blitz (5 days worth of actionable videos) to do on-demand! It doesn’t matter if you actually have kids going back to school or not - this is a great time to refresh and plan ahead for a successful and enjoyable next season. Here’s a sneak peek at what we will cover each day of the Blitz: Monday, July 10th: Clothing (yes - it’s time get rid of the socks with holes in them) Tuesday, July 11th: Command Center (checklists, calendar, schedules, appointments - all in one place) Wednesday, July 12th: School & Home Office Supplies (replenish supplies and take advantage of back-to-school sales) Thursday, July 13th: Personal Grooming (A fresh haircut, new makeup, and a manicure? Yes, please!) Friday 14th: Getting out the Door (My tried and true approach to being on time and frustration free in the mornings) Here's how it works this year: Register for the Back to School Blitz. It's free. You'll get your printable workbook automatically upon registration. If you are already a customer - use your Organize 365® login information to get your Dashboard. If you are new to Organize 365® you can set-up free access to the Dashboard by selecting Login and "Reset Password" to set-up your new password. *Note: You must register first then you will receive an email to set-up your login. In the Dashboard, select Organize 365® Blitzes then, select Back to School Blitz. Inside the slash pocket for the Back to School Blitz you will find 5 videos and easy access to the workbook if you still need to print it! Feel free to do the blitz at your own pace! It will be available on-demand through Monday, September 4, 2023.

This episode is the second part of a two part series. Rhonda and Casey are back and today we are discussing how Rhonda’s organizational journey led her to become more organized at home, with paper, homeschooling and has allowed her and her husband to expand their work! They have BOTH started new businesses since Rhonda’s organizational transformation. One of the things that initially surprised me when I became a professional organizer was how much a lack of organization was holding people back. Rhonda’s story shows how learning the skill of organization will unlock your time and allow you to do more of what you were uniquely created to do. Rhonda is now an Organize 365® Certified Organizer and provides organizing services to clients in Springfield, MO! Rhonda now understands that organization is not a one size fits all systematic approach. It is about learning the skill of organizing and creating organization that works for you and your family.  Now she shares her passion of organizing to help others move from reactive to proactive. How did she go from an overwhelmed and self-described disorganized homeschool mom to being able to juggle homeschool, home, sports and starting her own business? The Business Friday Workbox® with Work Planning Day comes in full view during this episode! Oh my goodness - hearing Casey’s perspective on the Work Planning Day is a must-listen! Casey is a civil engineer who has spent his entire adult life working for large companies. One day he was eavesdropping on Rhonda’s Work Planning Day and suddenly was completely enthralled with it. You have to hear why he kept making Rhonda pause the replay! Casey was able to take my philosophy on meetings back to his company to help re-evaluate the amount of meetings taking place (there were A LOT)!  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Friday Workbox® Friday Workbox® Planning Day Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! This episode is part one of a two part series! I’m so excited to welcome Rhonda H. back to the podcast. She recently shared her transformation story with me and today we are going to hear about Rhonda’s organizational journey from her husband’s perspective! When you are on a transformational journey it impacts those around you. We all hope that as you make positive changes in your life - become more organized, more productive, more positive - it will have a positive impact on those around you, also. And perhaps, it will even inspire and motivate those people to join in. But sometimes it can be intimidating to others, sometimes they aren’t ready for you to make changes or it can even make them feel bad about themselves. Listen in as we explore how Rhonda’s organizational journey impacted her husband and her family.  Rhonda and Casey have been married for 18 years. Rhonda has homeschooled (and still is) all four of their children. In this episode, they very candidly and accurately share how they have divided up the invisible work at home over the years and throughout different phases of their life together. Casey is happy to report how Rhonda’s transformation through the Organize 365® courses has led to a new level of confidence that has had a positive trickle down effect on their entire family. Join me for the second part of this interview where we segway from discussing the home and housework to how Rhonda has organized her paper, work and homeschool! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution Planning Day Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s special Back to School Summit episode, I’m talking with Steph Fowler from Austin Fowler. Steph has four kids and became a business owner after having her kids and finding an unmet need in the marketplace. Today’s episode focuses on a question I love to ask other successful entrepreneurs who are balancing home and work - how do you do it? How does Steph Fowler do it? Planning and organization! Steph offers so many amazing insights into balancing a big family with lots of extracurriculars and growing a business. We discuss the importance of making the invisible work visible. She writes it all down! As do I. I’ve been telling you for years - WRITE IT DOWN. Start now - grab some notecards or a piece of paper and start writing down any errant thoughts or to-dos that pop into your head as you listen to this podcast!  The best part of this podcast is that you get to hear about everything that’s in my wallet! If you are one of those people like me that’s always curious about how others’ organize their things, you’ll love the detailed conversation we have about how I personally use the Austin Fowler products for organization and productivity on-the-go! Episode Resources: Register for the FREE Back to School Blitz Austin Fowler - Free printable packing checklists Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s special Back to School Summit episode, I’m pleased to welcome Angela Watson back to the Organize 365® podcast! Angela has been on the podcast multiple times now. Angela spent 11 years as a classroom teacher and then created a truly life-changing course for Teachers called the 40-Hour Teacher Workweek. She’s also the host of her own podcast, Truth for Teachers. We hope all the teachers out there will listen to this episode as it is a hug from Angela and I to you! We understand better than most that teachers LOVE to teach. It’s a calling as much as it is a profession. Even if you’re not a teacher, this episode is for you! Angela and I dive into planning and have lots of inspiration and tips to share about how to make the most of your days. We discuss how a really good plan actually frees you up to be more creative. Planning doesn’t box you in. It helps you maximize your time, but you have to find a planning system that works for you. Planning isn’t one-size fits all. Angela and I encourage you through this podcast to listen and learn from many people when it comes to creating a planning system for yourself. Take what works for you and adapt it to your own planning system. Then maintain your planning. Angela has a great analogy for how planning is like gardening. You don’t just plant your seeds then you’re done. You have to keep checking them, watering them, figure out what’s not working and make adjustments. I guess it’s true that life’s a garden! Listen in and learn how you can plan in the most worthwhile way for you. Learn to plan this summer so you will be ready to run when the most productive 10 weeks of the year come around this fall (from Labor Day until the second week of November). What can you do this summer that will help you run farther faster this fall? Episode Resources: Register for the FREE Back to School Blitz Truth for Teachers - Angela Watson’s website Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s special Back to School Summit episode, I’m talking with Cas Aarsen from Clutterbug! Cas has three children and is also growing a company! As we enjoy our summers, we also want to take advantage of this time to set ourselves and our family up for success this fall.  Cas and I agree that the more you LEARN to be organized and productive, the more you’re able to show up in all areas of your life. Part of that learning process is discovering what type of organization works best for you and your family. Cas offers a free quiz that allows you to find out what kinds of organizational systems and approaches would work best for you! She calls them her Clutterbugs! I love it! We discuss how important it is to find out what your Clutterbug type is and also how much time, capacity and where you are in the organizing cycle. Organize 365® offers a free quiz that is very complimentary to the Clutterbug quiz. Once you find out your Clutterbug type, the Organize 365® quiz can empower you to pinpoint why you are ready to get organized, how much time you have to commit to getting organized in a sustainable way and where you are in the organizing cycle. There are SO many great tips in this podcast! Enjoy and I hope it empowers you to think forward toward how you want your fall and/or school year to be organized, productive and less stressful this year! Episode Resources: Register for the FREE Back to School Blitz Take the free Clutterbug Quiz Take the free Organize 365® Quiz Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s special Back to School Summit episode, I’m talking with Sarah Hart-Unger about PLANNING. I love planning and so does Sarah. We both attribute planning to our success. There’s so much value in thinking about your time in a concrete way and that is what planning allows you. Sarah is the host of the Best Laid Plans Podcast, co-host of the podcast Best of Both Worlds with Laura Vanderkam, mother of three children, and a pediatric endocrinologist. So needless to say, she has a lot on her plate. Organization and planning are a big part of her ability to do so much! In this episode, we dive into how to use planning as a tool in your arsenal as you head into fall and back to school. We also discuss planning as it pertains to your kids! Kids like to know and have a plan also. Episode Resources: Register for the FREE Back to School Blitz Sarah Hart-Unger- Best of Both Worlds & Best Laid Plans Home Planning Day with Lisa Work Planning Day with Lisa Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Have you ever been looking for something so hard that you miss it? Of course you have. That’s why we have so many idioms for this exact situation, like “If it’d been a snake it would have bit you.” You tear your house apart looking for the glasses that are literally on your head (guilty). You get frustrated at everyone in your house for losing your car keys that are still in the car.  Often what we are searching for is right under our nose. Perhaps it’s been there longer than we realize. Today on the podcast, I reflect on my personal history and how it has uniquely shaped who I am and where I am today. I love sharing my story with all of you and I reflect on this not because I want to tell my story. I want you to see that my unique gift and passion for being the CEO of Organize 365® runs deep. Just like I know there’s something that runs deep in you, too. Picture yourself from the 50,000 foot point of view, then take inventory of your life and your story. You’ll quickly realize that your “something” has been right under your nose the entire time.  Sometimes we can’t see the forest through the trees. We are so focused on the details of our life that we don’t see the bigger picture. In my business and my life, I give myself permission all the time to dream. I literally schedule this time into my schedule. When you listen to today’s podcast, I am giving you permission to dream. Think back to your upbringing, your life, the experiences you have sought out - everything is so close to you that you may not even see it. Think, dream, and take inventory of your unique personal history. Your story isn’t done yet. Neither is mine. I’m pursuing a PhD and learning that Organize 365® is growing in different ways than I ever imagined. I’m paving my own paths and writing my own story. Your story is also still in the making. In this podcast I encourage you to look at all the puzzle pieces of your life up until now and let’s start to put them together to help you discover your unique purpose. What are the things that you understand better than anyone? What is the thing you would sit down on the internet and research for hours? What is keeping you from taking the next step in pursuing your unique purpose? Whatever you’re dreaming about, I'm here to encourage you to take the next step. Whatever it is…do it. Believe you can do it - because believing in yourself is NOT optional. Give yourself permission to dream it and do it! This is such a fun episode. I hope during this episode you free up your mind for your own story. In order to save you some time googling - here’s the link to the infamous Longaberger Basket Building! Listen in to find out how this ties in! If you’ve forgotten how to dream or you’re not even sure where to begin, I’ve created the Embrace experience for you.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Embrace Self-Guided Retreat Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Katelyn S. In this can’t miss interview, you will get to hear how Katelyn went from a self-described borderline hoarder to being ready to move with just two suitcases (one dedicated to her Organize 365® products) halfway around the world!  Katelyn’s transformation brings tears to my eyes. She absolutely embodies the Organize 365® mission, visions and values. When I started Organize 365®, I wanted to have a positive impact on helping people become organized so they can do what they are uniquely created to do and when you hear Katelyn’s story - you will hear how organization freed up her time and mind to do exactly that.  Listen in to find out where Katelyn is headed and why! She has some exciting adventures ahead of her. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Education Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution™ Embrace Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

What motivates you? Where do you get stuck in your organization? How can Organize 365® support you MORE in your journey? These are all questions that have led me to create a new offering for you! This summer we will be piloting new classes designed to help you achieve your organizational transformation faster. I know from the Wednesday podcasts that once you implement the Organize 365® solutions, whether it’s the Sunday Basket®, a binder or The Productive Home Solution™, a weight is lifted off your shoulders. You have freed up your mind and most often your time. Then you are able to dream again and do what you are uniquely created to do. The problem is once we become even slightly disorganized, we are starved for the time we need to even implement these solutions. I know that many of you who are going through a challenging life stage or unexpected event are already missing work. And I also know that if you have an appointment or meeting scheduled - you attend and participate. So I’ve created classes for you to help you hold yourself accountable and get your Organize 365® solutions implemented as quickly as possible! These classes will be 3 hours long and you can literally start with your products in the box. The goal of the class is that you will go from having a brand new (or never implemented) Organize 365® solution and have it implemented and ready for use by the end of the three hours. The classes are the PERFECT compliment to your Organize 365® products and I’ve got the absolute BEST teachers lined up for you. The Education Team at Organize 365® has a robust roster of experienced professional organizers who specialize in different areas to provide you the most amazing and informed experience in setting up your organizational systems. This is a great opportunity for you to receive one-on-one support from the dream team! Meet the teachers: Monique Horb will be teaching The Sunday Basket® and The Warrior Mama Classes Stefanie Ardoin will be teaching The Friday Workbox® and The Medical Binder Tanya Blackburn will be teaching The Financial Binder and the Income & Expense Binder How to sign-up: I’ll be doing a free introductory webinar 3 weeks before each class. The webinars are FREE. Join the webinars by registering here. Classes will be $250, but are currently being offered (for this summer only) at the introductory price of $179. Classes can be purchased here Want more professional assistance from Organize 365®? Do you want someone to create your Sunday Basket®, Friday Workbox® or Binders for you? We will be opening up a full-service option as well. This will start at $2,500 per solution. If you want this option, please email customer service at customerservice@organize365.com. Do you want to talk to the Education Team about your situation, needs or what would work best for you? Reach out to us at customerservice@organize365.com to set-up a one-on-one call - completely free. Episode Resources: CustomerService@organize365.com Sign-up for the free webinars Register for classes Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In past years I’ve proclaimed, “I don’t know what Embrace is. Just do it.”  Today on the podcast, I’m coming clean. I DO know what Embrace is. I’ve just been scared to say it. But I need to. I want to help you unpack what you are uniquely created to do. It’s an evolution, but the sooner you leave fear in the rearview mirror and you take that first step, the sooner you’ll be closer to what you are uniquely created to do. This podcast episode takes me out of my comfort zone. I am coming out of hiding and I’m here to tell you - I do know what Embrace is. I know exactly what it is. I created it and I have carefully orchestrated every aspect of it. Embrace is an embodiment of my unique gift. My ability to tell the story of your life and help you get lost in dreaming of what could be so you can make it happen. Let’s look at it this way: if you are getting ready to list your house for sale, a realtor will tell you to take down all the photos and tchotchkes so that other people can picture themselves living in the house. When you are listening to my podcast, I try to create a conversation where you are able to get lost in your own life. You are able to apply whatever I am talking about to your situation - yourself, your home, your family, your work. For as long as I can remember, I have been putting together the puzzle pieces of what it is to be a female head of household in today’s society. My lifelong pursuit is to figure out who I am and who you are and how that relates to the many other roles we have. When I created Embrace (it was an evolution as well - hear the complete history of Embrace in today’s episode), I wanted to create a completely unique two-day experience to immerse women in the musical of their life. And that’s what Embrace is. It is the musical of your life. It is about you and it is a uniquely “Lisa” experience designed to help you understand and create a vision for how you can get to self-actualization with the life that you have. YES! Your life. Your current life. Not someone on social media’s life. Not your life if you didn’t have kids or weren’t caretaking for a loved one. Not your life if you had more money or more time. Your life. Today. As it is. Ahhh. It feels SO good to finally speak this into my beloved podcast microphone. I DO know what Embrace is and you still should just do it!  Learn more about Embrace. I created Embrace for you. I’m cheering you on as you embark on this journey to what you are uniquely created to do. EPISODE RESOURCES: Embrace Self-Guided Virtual Retreat The Productive Home Solution™ with Home Planning Day Sign-up to get the FREE Back to School Blitz in July! The Midlife Unraveling by Brene Brown Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Rhonda H. Her Organize 365® journey began when her cousin (who is like a sister to her) sent her the Sunday Basket® Podcast Playlist. She binged the podcast and tried to DIY her own Sunday Basket®, but quickly realized (like so many others) there’s no substitute for the real deal. As a homeschool mom to four children, she didn’t stop at The Sunday Basket®; she took her organizational journey through all the available resources at Organize 365®. She had tried many things to get organized and some of them worked as quick fixes, but the Organize 365® approach is where she finally found her organizational transformation. By learning the skill of organizing, she was able to maintain the organization for the first time ever. Why do we pretend we can get organized in a weekend? You can’t get into better health in a weekend. You can’t get out of debt in a weekend. And you can’t get organized in a weekend either. It’s a journey and I’m so excited to have Rhonda joining me on the podcast today to share her journey. Listen to the end to hear how she is now sharing her unique gift with others through Organize 365®! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ Education Friday Workbox® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This episode is all about organizing your finances. What I’ve found is that organizing your finances isn’t just about money. The Paper Solution® Financial Binder will guide you through your files, computer and the information inside your head needed to create a complete financial binder and estate plan. As difficult as it is to think about and even talk about - you are most likely going to settle an estate someday (you may have already).Your estate will also need to be settled. The Financial Binder was created out of my own experience with settling my dad’s estate. Your life is different after you’ve settled an estate. This binder makes it as painless as possible for you to get your own financial records in place and you can also use this to help your loved ones. Listen in as I outline the four things you need to organize your finances. There is so much invisible work that needs to be made visible when it comes to our finances and estate planning. Every The Paper Solution® Binder includes a fully curated workbook. The Financial Binder’s workbook includes: Financial prep sheet Family information sheets Personal documents and contacts Financial advisor information Insurance policy information Safe deposit box inventory Financial account inventory Debts and loans record Credit card inventory Bill payment records Gift cards and reward tracking Travel rewards Retirement benefits Household inventory EPISODE RESOURCES: The Paper Solution® - get all four essential binders with training courses and a virtual paper organizing retreat! The Financial Binder The Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I’m delighted to introduce you to Jennifer L. She's a substitute teacher, caregiver to her grandmother and living with ADHD. As you’ll hear in this interview, she’s balancing A LOT of things. She’s implemented the Sunday Basket® and I have some additional suggestions for her to help her lighten her mental load..  How to process through screenshots on your phone as part of your Sunday Basket® routine  Organizational solutions that work well for those with ADHD Caregiving Finding your unique purpose Listen to end to hear how Jennifer L. has started to dream bigger for herself and embrace her unique purpose. It’s truly inspirational. EPISODE RESOURCES: Embrace Self-Guided Retreat The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Education Friday Workbox® Jennifer L’s favorite podcast episodes: Six Figure Time and The 4 Kinds of Housework Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Why do we put off organizing our medical records? Medical emergencies happen. The more prepared and organized you are, the better care you will receive. The Paper Solution® Medical Binder will allow your loved ones to advocate on your behalf with ease and decisions will be made faster. In this episode we do a deep dive into: What it means to organize your medical records and health What health & medical information do you need to have and where do you find it How to organize medical information for others - loved ones and children Best practices for managing medical records Viewing your medical history from a macro and micro level How to support yourself when you are in the caregiving role Every The Paper Solution® Binder includes a fully curated workbook. The Medical Binder’s workbook includes: Family information sheet Medical information summary Medical & health history Family medical history Doctor information Diagnosis tracker Allergy tracker Medication tracker Lab results Hospitalization & surgery history Doctor appointment tracker Milestone checklist Immunization record EPISODE RESOURCES: The Paper Solution® - get all four essential binders with training courses and a virtual paper organizing retreat! The Medical Binder The Warrior Mama Binder Parent’s perspectives of the pathway to diagnosis of childhood cancer: a matter of diagnostic triage The Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Don’t wait to organize your medical and health records. Our health is something we often take for granted when we have it and wish we had it back when we don’t have it. Be prepared. Make the binder for you and your loved ones. This is the best way to support your future self! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! This is a highly motivational podcast. I’m so excited to introduce you to Jack Brendamour, co-owner of Junk King Cincinnati. Listen in as Jack and I discuss: Junk King Cincinnati’s success Honoring the legacy of Pete McCreary, Junk King Cincinnati’s original founder How to handle junk in your home The benefits of using a green and ethical junk company like Junk King What to do with styrofoam The best ways to stay on top of junk piling up in your home How Junk King has saved over 860,000 pounds from going to the landfill EPISODE RESOURCES: Junk King Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity Matthew 25 Ministries The Process of Organizing a Storage Space with Michelle Paradice 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This is the second of a four part series featuring The Paper Solution® Binders. Today I want to introduce you to the Household Reference Binder.  The Household Reference Binder is for anything related to your house. Think of it as a little file cabinet for your house. In this episode, we discuss how to implement The Household Reference Binder for: Your home Second home, rental properties, multiple properties, etc. If you are getting ready to sell your home, move or buying a new home If you are a realtor The Household Reference Binder is a powerful tool that you should have to help you protect your biggest asset - your home! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Paper Solution® The Household Reference Binder Sign up for the Organize 365® Newsletter  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Jake Nordmark. Jake has been part of our Organize 365® Dream Team for the last 2 years. We are talking about how things changed for him during the pandemic, things he learned with his diagnosis, and a sneak peek into the Launch Program when Jake and several of the other young team members went to school together at Organize 365® to learn and experience Launch.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Launch Program The Paper Solution®  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This is the first of a four part series featuring The Paper Solution® Binders. Today I want to introduce you to the Household Operations Binder. This binder gives you or someone else everything needed to be the COO of your household! The Household Operations Binder is fun. This binder is all about you, your uniqueness, your family, how you celebrate life and the things and traditions that make your family unique and special. This binder will not only allow you to create a “lesson plan” for how you run your household, but also how to do it more effectively and efficiently. During my active parenting years, the Household Operations Binder was part of my Sunday Basket® routine. I would flip through the binder and create my schedule for the week. Every The Paper Solution® Binder includes a fully curated workbook. The Household Operations Binder’s workbook includes: Cleaning Schedules Meal Planning Master Grocery Lists Family Information Emergency Information Babysitter Information Important Dates Rarely Used Items Tracker (genius!) Electronics Inventory Holiday and Event Planning Vacation and Travel Planning and Checklists Pet Records And more! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Paper Solution® The Household Operations Binder The Sunday Basket® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Ginger H., and we get to talk about the Sunday Basket® and the habits that Ginger has established. Ginger is an empty nester with her husband and enjoys using her Sunday Basket® and participating in Planning Day.  Listen in as we discuss the necessity of planning and creating habits. As we talk you can see where attending Planning Day is optional, but planning for the next 120 days is not optional. Ginger is on her second post retirement career as a real estate agent and talks about how her The Paper Solution® Household Reference Binder has been the best tool for her and her clients. She also explains how the The Paper Solution® Medical Binder was such a delight for her physician and The Paper Solution® Financial Binder has been great for the diversity in documents between her and her husband.  Ginger advice is, “Do your husband a favor, do your kids a favor and get yourself organized, use the Sunday Basket®, use The Productive Home Solution™, use the The Paper Solution® Binders so that you know where everything is”  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution Planning Day The Paper Solution® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In honor of Mother’s Day, I want to focus on the feminine touches that make a house a home. What are the things you remember growing up from your mother, grandmother or mother figure in your home that you want to add to your home? YOU make your house a home.  In this episode, I encourage you to take a minute and reflect on: The great things that the women in your family have given to your family. How have these women helped make your house a home? What are the things you want to replicate?  How can you purposefully add in those little traditions, holiday memories and feminine touches to your home? EPISODE RESOURCES: Mimi’s Cookie Recipe Embrace - Self-Guide Retreat - now available on-demand Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Dawn F. and we get to talk about books! All the books! Dawn is an educator who has been a K-2 reading specialist for the past 17 years. Reading is her true passion which means she has a lot of books. Which means we get to talk about organizing books, which books to keep, how many books should you keep and how to store and display books.  Dawn’s favorite quote is, “I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.” I absolutely love this quote. Dawn describes herself as “organizationally challenged.” She has found that the Organize 365® approach works for her. During the pandemic, she found the time and energy she needed to start getting truly organized. Her Sunday Basket® is running smoothly, takes little time to do each week and she feels amazing when she’s able to find all her paperwork at a moment’s notice. She moved and downsized recently and is implementing functional organizing throughout her new home.  Listen until the end to hear how I have been using common school supply organizing tools for simple bathroom organization! EPISODE RESOURCES: The 24 Hour Rule The Sunday Basket® The Education Friday Workbox® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I want to end this series by talking about how I’m planning for the next trimester and beyond and what is different now than what I was living with before I started this journey.  The beginning of this journey started with trying to get naps in, still working a bit on days that I planned to do school, but it has moved to no naps and no work on Mondays and Thursdays. Looking at my past trimester will help me to better plan my next trimester.  This has been such a joy being able to verbally process this change with you. Whenever you take on something new, you are changing your identity, adding to the person you already are and the person you are going to become. I have recently gotten to the point where I identify as a PhD student and that I am thinking what it will be like when I am actually Dr. Woodruff. That was the first time I said that out loud! Join me thinking about what it is going to be like when I finish this PhD journey. What journey are you on that you can imagine where you will be at the completion of that journey? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

There are times when getting organized is going to be easier. I call these Golden Windows.  Some Golden Windows are given to all of us - like January (new year), spring and fall. The new year is all about starting the year off with a fresh start and achieving new goals. Spring and fall are both times of the year when there are big season shifts and you get a burst of energy. The spring energy lends itself well to planning and the fall energy lends itself well to productivity. Common Golden Windows include: Expecting a child Moving or selling your home When your youngest child starts school When your youngest child starts middle school When your youngest child starts driving Milestone birthdays If you want to hear a more in depth definition of Golden Windows, listen to this podcast. Today’s episode is going to focus on a question I get a lot - how long do Golden Windows last? This depends on the type of Golden Window you’re experiencing. There are long and short Golden Windows. A long Golden Window is something you can anticipate. A short Golden Window is one where you don’t realize you’re in a Golden Window until you’re already in it. In a short Golden Window, you don’t get to plan ahead so the energy fizzles out fast. An example of a long Golden Window could be pregnancy. You know you are going to have a baby so you have months and months to plan, re-organize, nest and prepare. An example of a short Golden Window could be adoption. When we adopted Joey, we got a call at 5 pm and by 7 pm we had a baby! Each Golden Window, no matter whether it is short or long, is an opportunity not to be overlooked! And while the length of time that Golden Window will be open for you depends on a lot of factors (outside of your control) there are certain things you can do to get the most out of it. Here are my three recommendations for making the most of a Golden Window: Anticipate Optimize Extend Understanding your Golden Windows allows you to get so much more out of these amazing bursts of energy. Listen in to find out how to anticipate, optimize and extend your Golden Windows for maximum impact. EPISODE RESOURCES: Golden Windows Podcast The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ Course + Planning Day Home ALL IN Bundle Embrace - Self-Guide Retreat - now available on-demand Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! In this episode, I introduce you to Pamela A. to discuss her organizing journey and transformation. Pamela spent many years looking for her solutions to get herself and her home organized. With two small boys and a husband, she was on an endless search for organizing solutions.  She found the Organize 365® Podcast through a Google search. She was hooked and binged all the old episodes while driving to and from work. That’s SO many episodes. If you are also new around here - I highly recommend using our Organize 365® Podcast Playlists to find what you’re looking for. Flash forward to today - Pamela’s boys are now 27 and 33 years old. Pamela works full-time at a hospital. She has been living in the same house for the past 29 years (similar to me). There are upsides and downsides of staying in the same house for so long. When you move, it forces you to make decisions about your stuff. Pamela and I discuss that over the years she has accumulated a lot of stuff - that’s not hers.  Pamela’s house is home to all her sons’ stuff, her grandparents’ stuff and now her own mother’s belongings as well. It’s a lot. Pamela watched the video I made where I show the process of organizing a storage room and she said she’s going to need a dumpster like we used in this video. Watch it for free. Listen in to this interview to hear our in-depth conversation about: Why do we keep all of this stuff? How much should we realistically be keeping of things like children’s artwork, books, American Girls, Legos, etc? How to organize a storage room and how long will it stay organized? Why we use our basements and storage rooms for delayed decision making and how to avoid this in the future. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Process of Organizing Your Storage Space Movie The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution™ 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I’m excited to announce that the Education Friday Workbox® now includes Education Camp! Today’s Coffee Chat will help you understand what this new inclusion means for educators and how you can get your own Education Friday Workbox with Education Camp this summer. What is the difference between the Business and the Education Friday Workbox®?  The Business Friday Workbox® is to support you in a financial endeavor in business, whether you are the employer, the manager, or the employee. Education is completely different. People come into education with the skills needed for the students/teachers they support or in the administration they serve to support the students and teachers.  The Education Friday Workbox® doesn’t teach you to be a better teacher, it helps you with all of the other work that is required to be in an institution. We have identified seven kinds of work in this Workbox, none of it your lesson plans; it is the administrative work and red tape you need to do so that you can do all of the things you love.  The Education Friday Workbox® now includes your first year’s Education Camp. Education Camp is held each year in July.  Note: Current Education Friday Workbox® customers will get  Education Camp at no charge this July. Join us for Education Camp July 10-14, 2023 by purchasing your Education Friday Workbox®!  Organize 365® makes visible the invisible tasks that are weighing you down and keeping you from the amazing instruction that you are qualified and capable of providing. The Education Friday Workbox® is your partner in success for organizing all of those extra administrative tasks, papers, checklists, and the thing that you need in order to hit the ground running and save time so that you have more time for yourself and your family or to invest in more education. If you like teaching, you love learning. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week and thank you for all you do! Episode Resources: CustomerService@organize365.com Education Friday Workbox Education Camp Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Proactive versus Reactive Listen in to how I map out someone going from a completely reactive life to a proactive one. Since I don’t have a lot of margin in my life right now, there are things I used to do regularly that I’m unable to do. I now have a 2-week break from school and I will be sharing how I plan to continue my proactive living without the additional margin in my life. At first I thought I would take the additional time off from school and put it to working more, but SURPRISE, I have decided to take some additional time off from work to do more personal and family related things. I want to have the flexibility to do whatever my energy is in allowing myself the freedom to do all these things in whatever order and be even better prepared for my next school semester. Here are some of the things I plan to take care of during my break: Reorganize the storage rooms Clean out the family room and toys Move into outside living Personal organizing - closet, bathroom, purse, car, supplements, and personal care Stock the house for the next 4 months Deep cleaning Catching up on podcasts Listen to audiobooks Sunday Basket® deep dive Binder updates Photo printing Puzzles and TV watching with Greg Fun family outings I am in a season where I am running really fast and I love it! What season are you in and how are you planning for these areas of your life? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This episode answers a question I get a lot. How do you know when you are organized? What does it mean to be fully organized? Does anyone ever feel finished? Is there an organization finish line? Let’s get into it!  First, you’re going to want to follow along with the Organize 365® Research - get a FREE copy of our newly released research magazine here. Our most recent research study aimed to answer these questions about what it means to be organized and where the finish line might be. In order to do this, we broke organization up into the four categories we defined - personal, storage, family & communal spaces and paper. This allowed us to zero in on different areas and give people an opportunity to rank if they felt organized in any of these areas of their lives.  15% of respondents felt they were personally organized 14% of respondents felt that their storage rooms were organized 18% of respondents felt that their paper was organized 13% of respondents felt that their family & communal spaces were organized This is a huge problem because our research has already revealed that 87% of Americans believe organization is a learnable skill. So the majority of people believe this to be learnable, but yet they have not achieved it. My concern is that people start to think they are the problem. When in fact, the real problem is that we don’t have a good way to learn the skill of organization or know when you’ve accomplished it.  Listen in to hear more about how Swiss Cheese Organizing is only exacerbating the problem. Which leads to one of the most important points of this podcast: The order in which you attack organizing your home is MORE important than the amount you get done in any one area. Learning to be organized and becoming organized is a commitment. Just like any other new skill or lifestyle choice you may make - getting healthier, getting out of debt, getting a degree. It’s going to take time. Probably eighteen months to three years. Once you understand that it is going to take time - there’s a relief in that. A release of pressure. Let go of the idea that you can get this done in a weekend. That if you don’t instantly start feeling and operating more organized, you’ve failed. You cannot get a transformation overnight or in the nooks and crannies of your everyday life. This is a commitment. But here’s the really important thing to remember - in three of the four areas of organization we have defined (personal, storage and paper), once you get these areas organized they will stay organized for a long time. Today’s episode includes approximate timelines for each area and tips for maintaining them once they are organized. There is so much organization goodness in this podcast and I want you to take from this that there is no one finish line for organization. There really are four finish lines, but also we are going for excellence not perfection. Create your own benchmarks and allow yourself the time you need to make this transformation and learn this skill. EPISODE RESOURCES: The State of Home Organization Research Magazine - my free gift to you! Watch me organize Michelle’s Storage Room Excellence vs. Perfection in Home Mangement The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ Course + Planning Day Home ALL IN Bundle Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Today I’m interviewing Lindsey S. She’s a high school special education teacher that found me through my podcast with Angela Watson. What’s so interesting about this interview is that Lindsey S. was already living an organized life when she found Organize 365®. But her life was speeding up and she had the wherewithal to know she had to implement some new organizational systems and skills if she was going to keep up. She lives with her husband, twin 5 year old daughters, and 9 year old daughter. Lindsey holds nothing back in the hopes that her story will help others. One of her daughters has a learning disability and one has autism. Her openness in sharing her journey advocating for her children is admirable. Even as a special education teacher of 12 years (knowing the ins and outs of the systems in place), she still needed a system for organizing and presenting her documentation for each of her daughters. She uses the Warrior MAMA Binder!  We talk about parent intuition and observation which is something I’ve always known (anecdotally) is a thing. But I’m learning more and more about it in my PhD program. Lindsey has thoughts on this also! Switching topics to how Lindsey organizes herself and her household - you have to hear how Lindsey is “chunking” out her Sunday Basket® time! If you are in a busy season of life and can’t seem to find the time to do your Sunday Basket®, this podcast is for you!  I am floored to find out Lindsey also has Sunday Baskets® for each of her girls! She walks me through how these are set up and it is absolutely genius! She gave me some ideas to implement in my own life with my daughter. Then, she walks us through her Friday Workbox® which has been amazing for her since she has so much administrative work that she’s been able to make visible (and pretty) with a Friday Workbox®. The Friday Workbox® helps her easily glide through her day. It’s given her more capacity and time. How is Lindsey using the time she’s unlocked through implementing Organize 365® systems and courses? Listen in to find out! EPISODE RESOURCES: Organize 365® Warrior Mama Binder The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution™ 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

We are getting very close to the spring Home Planning Conference on May 6th which means that enrollment in this spring term of The Productive Home Solution™ will be closing, too! Let the Organize 365® Dream Team help you figure if now is the right time for you to get started and which courses to take! We’d love to hear where you are in your journey and recommend next steps. Send an email to customer service at customerservice@organize365.com or schedule a call here. Episode Resources: CustomerService@organize365.com Schedule a call The Productive Home Solution™ The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Sunday Basket® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

We are nearing the end of my first trimester and I am now in the mindset to be successful in this 4 year journey. In this podcast, I’m talking to you about planning. Processing this journey, I am a whole to part learner, looking at the end of the journey to understand what I will need to move through this journey. I am spending time attending webinars and meetings finding out more about the field I am studying and what else I may want to focus on to further the impact I could have. Once you make a decision, it is not set in stone; you can re-decide, modify, and make changes. As I move forward, I will continue to re-evaluate and plan my PhD experience. Planning for me is the key to not slip back into a reactive life, but to continually be looking at how I am using my days, weeks, months, trimesters, and the next 4 years, for the most impact possible; for myself personally, for my company, and for the people I am doing the research for. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I used to think that once my kids got older that summer wouldn’t be so much of a challenge. Wrong. Adults get summers, too.  Have you heard motivation coaches say “you only have so many summers left” OR “you only have so many summers left with your kids?” It may sound cliche, but it’s true! When you put it in this context, it becomes very clear that you should absolutely prioritize your summer experiences! In today’s podcast, I have some questions for you about your summer plans! We break it all down and I’m giving you my tips for planning your summer! It can be whatever you want it to be! Questions to ask yourself: What are your summer traditions? When you think about summer, what do you think about? What are things you do in the summer season exclusively? What have you done in the past that you want to repeat this summer? What is something new you want to do this summer? Are there any big milestones or birthdays or events that will be happening over summer? You MUST plan your seasons. There are natural points throughout the year to do this. Listen to this podcast about what I call Golden Windows to learn more. Here’s why this is important - it’s natural to be reactive at home. The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day trains you how to plan and proactively prepare for all the foreseeable stuff. It’s not enough to just think about or want it - you have to make a plan for it or it won’t happen. Planning Day helps you understand the cycles and seasons. You learn to create plans for how you will use your home, what your schedule and capacity will look like during that season and how to tap into energy for optimum success. Planning Day is part of the Organize 365® courses that make the invisible work visible so you aren’t in reactive mode and you can unlock your time for yourself, your family and community! What do you want your summer to look like? Join me on Planning Day and let’s put thought and planning into making your summer amazing. It’s your turn to plan and I’m so excited to be your teacher! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ Course + Planning Day Home ALL IN Bundle Embrace - Self-Guide Retreat - now available on-demand Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! You are in for a treat because in this episode we meet Deanne. She found Organize 365® through the book “How ADHD Affects Home Organization.” She’s a mental health professional who was seeking resources for her clients, but also found the book to be helpful for her and she wanted to learn more about functional organization! Deanne lives with her husband, her 15 year old son and an 18 year old exchange student from Norway! She also has two older sons that have launched.  Since Deanne is a mental health professional, we jump right into the connection between organization and mental health. How does organization impact our mental health? We speak anecdotally about the physiological and emotional distress that organization can cause. Deanne started her own functional organizing journey with The Sunday Basket®. It’s a great place to start! She now has a Sunday Basket® she manages on her mom’s behalf, a Friday Workbox® for her business and has gotten her oldest son using his own Sunday Basket®. Deanne plays many roles in life - she is a wife, mother, business owner, caregiver for her mother and I’m sure many other things. We get into what functional organization and systems like The Paper Solution® Binders can do for you as you are balancing these roles and having to advocate for others.  As Deanne took on caregiving for her mom, she became the power of healthcare and power of attorney. She set up a Sunday Basket® for her and had to sort through a room’s worth of paper on her mom’s behalf. She has made it a point to set up her own binders. We discuss how doing our binders is (1) a gift we give to those that will one day have to advocate for us or settle our estates and (2) a project that doesn’t need to be perfect. If you are using The Paper Solution® Binders and they are at 80%, that is absolutely an A+ and will save you and your family time in the future. We discuss the process of implementing the Sunday Basket® and our learning styles. How did you implement your Sunday Basket®? Did you do it all at once or one step at a time? Deanne waited until she had a big chunk of time and could get it all set up the way she wanted.  She’s now well on her way. This interview covers so many topics, tips and positive organizing affirmations! EPISODE RESOURCES: How ADHD Affects Home Organization The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Paper Solution® Binders Additional Resources for Getting Organized with 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Why is it that when we decide to undertake something that’s going to make a difference in our lives, we still try to cut corners? When I decided to go back to school in pursuit of a PhD, my mindset was initially to make the supplies and things I already had work for my school venture. But when I’ve needed something, I’ve found it’s just better to go ahead and get it. Some of these supplies help me move forward faster, be more productive and/or just be able to get my assignments and reading done in different places. Do you have the supplies or tools you need where you need them? It makes all the difference. Listen to my story about scissors to find out why. Here are some of my favorite supplies mentioned in today’s podcast: Fiskars scissors Shokz Wireless Open-Ear Bluetooth Headset Organize 365® 2.0 Highlighters Organize 365® 2.0 Productivity Tabs Organize 365® Slash Pockets Jergens Cherry Almond Lotion Don’t live in frustration over not having what you need where you need it. The time and sanity savings will offset the investment. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s podcast, we will discuss how you can get your home organized when you are never home. There are different seasons in our lives in which we will need to change our organization. How does your home change for different seasons of your life? The seasons I’ve identified that require the most functional organizing changes are: Children 0-5 years old Children in middle and high school Empty nesting Caregiving for a loved one Settling an estate Welcoming another generation of your family into your home - listen to this podcast on multigenerational living There will be seasons of life when you will not be home much.  When I started podcasting in 2012, I was going through a season of life where I was never home. My children were in two different schools that both required me to drive for hours a day.  Looking back now, I can safely say it’s a season. So if you are in a season where you are never home, just know that this is a season. Some seasons feel never ending, but all of these seasons do end. I encourage you to take from these seasons the best that they have to offer knowing that one day you will be on the other side. Why do we want to get our home organized when we are never home anyway? Organizing gives us a sense of control. In a season where you are already pressed for time and feeling a loss of control, you may be wanting to feel organized, proactive and productive when you are at home. Where to begin? At Organize 365®, we’ve identified four areas in every home that need to be organized in different ways and at different times and intervals. These are personal, family and communal, storage and paper. During a season where you aren’t home very much, I’m going to recommend you focus on personal organization. Start with your car. I’ve always defined personal organization as your closet, bathroom, bedroom and car! You need to think about your car completely differently during this season. It’s now an extension of your home.  In 2012, I turned my car into my portable house! The trunk was my “car closet” and the front area was my personal cockpit. I set up my car to serve my changing needs. Your secondary focus should be just your personal spaces (as time permits at home). Focus on your bathroom, closet and your side of the bedroom. Do quick tasks that you can complete in 15-20 minutes. Write everything down. If you are away from home as you are listening to this podcast, something you can start doing today, from anywhere, is to start writing everything down. Everywhere you have a thought, you should have a notepad to write it down.  Take your Sunday Basket® with you. You need your Sunday Basket® more than ever during this season, but you may want your portable Sunday Basket® to be your primary Sunday Basket®. When you are out and about throughout the day, you will get 15 minute breaks in the action. Look at your portable Sunday Basket® and think “what’s one thing I can get done in this 15 minute pocket of time?” I processed through my Sunday Basket® in waiting rooms, in my car while waiting for my kids and so many other places.  It won’t be perfect. Focus on the moments. Build the future life and future person as you go. Support yourself along the way with personal organization that works for you. And bring your Sunday Basket® along for the ride. EPISODE RESOURCES: Portable Sunday Basket® with Pencil Pouch The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Organizing Personal Spaces Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Meet Marie. This podcast has been a long time in the making. Marie started listening to the Organize 365® podcast back in 2015! She’s had all the versions of The Sunday Basket®.  Marie lives with her husband of 23 years, 18 year old daughter and 15 year old twin daughters. She also has a 20 year old son who lives in an apartment nearby. Marie is experiencing the teenage years with her children and is wondering why she still doesn’t feel as organized as she would like and where all of her time is going. This is an all too common theme. I’ve seen it time and time again. You think because your kids are now teenagers that you should be organized. Your kids are much more independent than they were so surely you should be getting your time back. Not so fast. This is a transitional time period where your kids may act and speak as though they are independent - they have independent thoughts, make decisions and it’s a really fun season of parenting. But you are still very much in active parenting.  Whenever you’re in a transitional period of time, there’s a push and pull between the now and the soon-to-be. You are still very much in the current season, but starting to wonder what you are going to do next and wanting to get into the next season. You’re in the inbetween. Embrace it. What’s one more experience you want to have during this season? What’s one more memory you want to make? If you’ve ever wanted to hear what goes on during a virtual organizing session - this is it! This interview quickly turns into a session similar to what I used to have with my clients when I did professional organizing.  Want to try it for yourself? Ask yourself: What lights you up? What don’t you like to do? What are your family/household members into? How organized do you want to be? What really needs to happen in the next 12-18 months or in the season you’re in? When you think about having your home organized, what does that look like for you? Have you implemented The Sunday Basket® and how is that working for you? Tune in as we also discuss what it truly means to save five hours with The Sunday Basket® and leadership versus management! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Paper Solution® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

When someone tells you what to do and they have experience - you should probably listen to them. I was told by someone in the know to get my eyes checked before I started my PhD. I didn’t. I felt confident that my over-the-counter readers were just fine. Well, here I am in Week 11 with new glasses!  In this episode, I share two things I learned this week through my PhD journey: You need to have the right tools when you are doing anything. A PhD is so reading intensive that you do need to get your eyes checked!  Speed reading allows you to take in a lot of information, but details matter in the PhD program. I started using a ruler to read and highlight! EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This podcast episode will give you tactical and functional organizing tips for multigenerational living. If you are in a multigenerational home or considering this option - this is for you! Multigenerational living is near and dear to my heart these days. I am cherishing this life phase that I’m currently in - sharing my home with Abby (my daughter) and Grayson (my grandson). I know many members of the Organize 365® team and community are also living in multi-generational homes.  I realize that there are different circumstances that may lead you to be in a multigenerational home. The three main situations that I’ve seen for multigenerational living are: Caregiving. If you are currently living the “sandwich” generation lifestyle - taking care of your parents while also trying to keep up with your adult children - I have a BIG HUG for you! Being a caregiver can be extremely isolating. I’ve been there and it can be a long road.  Consciously merging households. This seems to be a more recent phenomenon (in the United States at least). Families consciously decide to live together because they enjoy each other, it makes economic sense and they can share in the work and experience running the household together. Life circumstances. Sometimes it’s not a conscious decision but life circumstances create a situation where multigenerational living is necessary. Regardless of how you ended up in a multigenerational home, here are my top organizational tips for making the most of the situation: Be purposeful about transitioning the home to support a multigenerational home. Ensure that everyone (INCLUDING YOU) have your own space. Everyone needs their own space. In my home, this means that Abby and Grayson have the basement apartment to themselves. They get to decide what they want down there, what it looks like and they are responsible for everything in this space. I also have my own spaces in the house that are just mine. Create rules for communal spaces, but be willing to renegotiate and evolve those rules as the situation changes. For example, the communal spaces in our home are the living room, kitchen, laundry room and garage. These areas get to be cleaned and organized to my standards. There are rules for how we all operate and take care of these areas. Laundry Days - This one has been great in our household. We have designated laundry days to ensure that we can get laundry done for ourselves on the days that our most convenient for all of us in the household. Don’t feel guilty to say what you want in terms of the communal spaces. Organizing the kitchen and food in a multigenerational home - start by considering the stages of life each of you are in. In my household we have the toddler phase, Greg and I are working away from home and Abby is a stay at home mom. Our kitchen is supporting three very different phases of life. We have created dedicated space for everyone’s food and Grayson’s adorable toddler eating utensils, plates and sippy cups. How I’ve maintained my cleanliness standards in communal spaces: Baby Gates - Living Room, Dining Room and Laundry - Grayson doesn’t go in those areas so they stay picked up. Weekly Cleaning - We have a weekly cleaner come and every Thursday we know the house is being cleaned and everything needs to be picked up. Minimalized toys in the family room - Constantly decluttering and rotating the toys in the family room - not minimalist but definitely minimized. When you live in a multigenerational home, there will be some frustrations. If you are feeling frustrated (and I’ve been there), try to do a mindset swap and remember the many blessings that come with this experience.  Your home needs to be organized differently and you need to establish different rules for yourself for all the phases of life you go through and different people or peoples living in your home with you. Top 2 takeaways for living in a multigenerational home: Pick your battles. Create rules. See the episode resources below for your supply list to help keep each member of the family and the entire household running smoothly. You’ll be sharing a lot, but you don’t need to share your own brain! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® - one for each adult in your home Household Reference Binder - one per house Medical Binder - each family member needs their own Financial Binder - each family unit or couple has their own Household Operations Binder - you would have this for each family unit - like teachers at a school - they would each have their own lessons.  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! This week, I am sharing my interview with Christine M. She lives with her husband and well loved cat in Ontario, Canada! When Christine M. experienced three moves in a short period of time, she learned the skill of organization through Organize 365®. Christine is a former teacher turned grad student so we had a lot to talk about. Christine found her way to Organize 365® through my friend and fellow podcaster, Angela Watson. She was going through teacher burn-out, something we have been hearing all about. I cannot tell you enough how much I appreciate teachers. If you are a teacher, this podcast is a hug from me to you - thank you for all that you do!  Christine’s interest in Organize 365® started through her Teacher Friday Workbox® which is now the Education Friday Workbox®. She wanted to implement systems into her teacher role to help her be more productive and purposeful with her time. Her organizational journey went into overdrive when she found that she and her husband would be moving across Canada to Ontario. She utilized Organize 365® Ten Steps to an Organized Move (which is available inside The Productive Home Solution™) to pull off the most organized move imaginable. Getting organized BEFORE you move is key. In the years that followed her move, she transformed into an even more organized person. We discuss the key principles and learning that she did to fully transform herself into a positive, productive and proactive person. She loves the idea that items in her home are auditioning for their place.  Listen in to hear all about her journey and how she is now using her Education Friday Workbox® to organize her grad school journey! I love to hear how the Organize 365® products and courses evolve with your life. EPISODE RESOURCES: Education Friday Workbox® - organizational system designed for teachers The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® The Portable Sunday Sunday Basket® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

How can we make the invisible work visible? How can we streamline or eliminate it? How much time do you have for your organizational transformation at your current life stage? Where are you on your journey? What’s the next best step for you? Did you know Organize 365® has an amazing (AND FREE) quiz to help figure out how much time you have and where you are in the organizing cycle? Take the Organize 365® quiz to help you determine: Your “why” How much time you have to commit Where you are in the organizing cycle (Decluttering, Organizing and Increasing Productivity) I invite you to take the quiz and use the customized results to help you determine the next best step for the upcoming trimester. You can take this quiz as many times as you like throughout your journey!  Episode Resources: Organize 365® Quiz Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I gave myself the gift of a mid-semester review and reset my PhD organization. It was the BEST gift. I’ve hit the halfway mark in my semester. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything and make sure I’m on target.  Here’s how I hit the reset button: Re-read the syllabus for each class (HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS) Compiled and organized all my notes for all my classes into a notebook by class Planned ahead for the second half of the semester by looking ahead and doing anything I could do to organize my remaining assignments and classes Our brain’s desire organizational planning time. Are you giving yourself time to plan and organize your work, home and life? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Slash pockets The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Have you ever thought about how much your home is a business?  Our homes are businesses. The entire US economy runs on the economy of your house. If the American family is doing well, the American economy is doing well. When I talk about our homes as businesses, I don’t mean that you should be just going through the motions and checking boxes or anything even similar to that. In this episode, I share how you can use tools and systems (similar to what you would do at work) to gain a bigger impact and less stress at home. A business usually has a CEO and COO. Your home most likely does, too. Sometimes you may be acting as the CEO and COO, sometimes you may just have one of those roles. The CEO creates the strategy of the company, manages the capacity and resources, and plans for execution. Some of the things you may do as the CEO of your home are: During your weekly Sunday Basket® routine, you look at what constraints you have in the upcoming week, what needs to get done Planning your week and trimester in advance The COO plays a critical role in running the day-to-day actionables that will accomplish the strategy the CEO has created for the team.  The key to success is that the CEO and COO are both operating proactively and strategically. Making choices about what to work on, how to spend time and money, and what experiences and impact they want to create within their household. In this episode, I deep dive into how The Friday Workbox® operates for your business and apply this to how the Sunday Basket® helps you run the business of home and family.  I’d love to hear your feedback on this one! Do you see the parallels between running your home as a business? Come learn how to plan like the CEO of your home! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Today I’m excited to talk with fellow podcaster, Sarah Hart-Unger.  Sarah hosts the podcast Best Laid Plans, co-hosts the podcast Best of Both Worlds with Laura Vanderkam, is the mother of three children, married to a surgeon, and works as pediatric endocrinologist! So, needless to say, she stays busy! Organization and planning are a big part of her ability to do so much and we will be talking about the systems she has in place. First things first, we talk about parenting! Sarah is experiencing a golden window because her youngest child just turned 5! For parents of children younger than 5, things are just changing so frequently every 6-8 weeks that it is hard to catch your breath in terms of getting organized. We discuss how when you go through different stages and phases of life, you learn how to use your organization and time management skills in different ways. Sarah is a big believer in functional organization. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it needs to work for you! She shares how she is ruthless about getting rid of things and enjoys knowing where things are.  Organizing her time is one of her favorite things to do. Mine, too! We dig deep into how planning your home life by quarters just does not work. It creates weird cut-offs like July. Who wants to start a new plan in the middle of summer? You need to have your entire summer planned out. The quarters of the year aren’t actually new energies. The Organize 365® approach to planning is by trimesters. Planning allows you to make room for your own explosive growth! We both discuss how during busy seasons of life, our respective calendars and planners bring us a sense of peace and allow us to have more capacity. Do you have a plan that you love to look at? That gives you peace, not stress? That creates calm in chaos? Do you have a plan for the upcoming trimester and summer season?  Sarah also shares how she has organized her children. We discuss a very hot topic - how to organize kids’ artwork! Check out the episode resources if you want to share the Kids Movie Sarah references with your kids as well! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® Lattice Binder for kid’s artwork Organize 365® Kids Movie Learn more about Golden Windows and Season of Organizing Watch the video on YouTube to see the sneak peek of Lisa’s Weekly Planning Sheet 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

There is administration time related to getting your PhD. The Sunday Basket® and the Business Friday Workbox® teaches you there are invisible tasks you do at home and work. Once these tasks are made visible, you can eliminate as many as possible.  Mid-semester, I realized I need PhD administrative time. Listen in as I review what types of administrative tasks I have while working on my PhD. Planning my work  Organizing my email Signing up for teacher office hours  Cleaning up Zotero files Next week, I will share with you how I took a pause and reoriented myself. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Zotero Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are you playing Checkers or Chess? Of course, you are playing Checkers. We all are. But, some of us are playing (and winning) Chess, too! In today’s episode, I breakdown how you can “play” the game of life better with an emphasis on strategy.  As I breakdown the “game of life” in this episode, we discuss: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Marie Kondo’s life with three kids Generational norms The strategy of living life with a planned approach Which leads us to the free Organize 365® blitzes. These blitzes were designed to help you get ahead. They may seem like “small wins” but they have a huge impact on how we look at our time in a more strategic (chess-like) way. These blitzes teach us how to incorporate forward planning into our game of life. In the next four months, you are going to experience Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, tax day and the summer season. These things are coming whether you plan ahead or not. But, if you do join our blitzes and planning day, you’ll be able to approach the next four months with a planned and strategic approach. This will allow you to enjoy summer experiences with your family, sign your kids up for their favorite camps, purchase plane tickets before they sell out and look forward to your summer. Playing Chess allows you to get out of the reactiveness of the Checkers game. Organize 365® Planning Days allow you to do the mental work ahead of time so you can enjoy the upcoming season. I hope you’ll join me! EPISODE RESOURCES: Routine Reset Blitz Organize 365® Home Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! During this month we have been talking to women about how women in their 30s are getting it done. Stephanie represents women that are not working from home. She began her career as a corporate executive before she left to continue to grow the company she founded with her husband, Vince. She and Vince have 4 kids, 11, 9 (twins), and 6. She worked from home for the last couple of years, but got physical space last Spring and she is back working in an office. She enjoyed her time working from home, but realized she needed more thinking and planning time and has since moved into a physical office space. She moved to a condensed schedule, Monday to Thursday available for meetings and in the office with Fridays off, to give her the ability to have some parts of a stay-at-home mom. Never being able to fully work on just Austin Fowler, she has found time saving activities. Her time is very full with her own business and a family of 6 so it is important to her to plan and prepare for her weeks and weekends. She is very disciplined and uses her Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox® to plan while using her bags to pack and prepare. Listen in to find out what things work well for Stephanie and her family during this season of growing children and a growing business. EPISODE RESOURCES: AustinFowler.com Instagram @austinandfowler 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are we really talking about clothing again? What does this really have to do with getting a PhD anyway?! Organization unlocks our time and productivity unlocks our capacity. I’m using my PhD as the example for these stories, but everything I’m sharing with you is how I am taking past organizational strengths, learning, or habits that I have had or am developing now and how I’m refining those in order to get more time and have more capacity. The way in which we free up our time in order to be able to do the next thing, that’s organization. As we organize, we create a habit. A habit is just doing the thing you’ve already organized without consciously thinking about it. In order to really get more time, you have to over analyze some basic habits to figure out if there is a more efficient way to do these things and somehow create this new habit and put it on autopilot so we don’t have to even think about it. This brings us back to clothing! Listen in as we talk about how creating a uniform for the different hats you wear will help you to transition into the role that you're playing and mentally enter into that space.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!  

There is no such thing as perfection. There just isn’t. Don’t let social media fool you. What about those pictures you see as you're scrolling your phone? Those aren’t real. Perfection isn’t real. But how do we get our brain and subconscious mind to understand this?  When you see me, you are getting the 100% real me. I don’t use filters. As a matter of fact, I don’t even know how to use filters. It’s important for me to show you the real me. What you see is what you get. I am not a perfectionist. I am a woman of excellence. This episode is going to help you understand how you are also a person of excellence and what that means. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do..therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit.” The habits taught through the Organize 365® systems and courses lead us to be people of excellence. These same habits help us free our brains and time to do what we are uniquely created to do. Habits are so purposeful. Negative habits tend to happen naturally. But positive habits rarely happen naturally. I want you to think about your habits - are they helping you be a person of excellence? Are they allowing you the time you need to do what you are uniquely created to do? I want you to choose a life of excellence over perfectionism. Don’t expect perfectionism from yourself or others. A person of excellence is able to focus on substance, richer conversations, better solutions and live a more productive life. A word of the wise, choosing not to be a perfectionist is not an excuse to be lazy. You still need to strive for excellence. This will look different depending on your phase of life and priorities.  I want to leave you with three things in this episode: Perfectionism is not a thing. Excellence is a great middle ground for you to strive for. You will never be done working on yourself, learning, growing and creating the person you want to be. It’s a journey. As you think about your journey, I want you to also think about your home and the three seasons per year within your home. You need different things in those seasons. A person of excellence is continually improving and evolving the way they organize and use their home and time. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ The Paper Solution® The Friday Workbox® Aristotle Quotes Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Welcome back Andrea to the podcast. Andrea, 37, is married to her husband, age 41 and together they have 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys ages 11, 8, 7, and 5. Listen in as we talk about how she stays organized in her 30’s with a young family. Andrea discusses her focus of functional organizing for a family of six. We also get to hear how interesting her time and scheduling works, and what she does to make the different seasons of her life work within a schedule.  We all know feeding a family can be challenging and the desire to make the right food choices is a priority. Andrea shows us her process of making food changes in her family when change doesn’t come easy for anyone. Andrea mentions the quote “Build a life you don’t need to escape from” and how she and her family have built that life where she feels energized and isn’t looking for a vacation to bring her rest.  She doesn’t feel the need to take days off to recharge her batteries, because it seems to work itself into each and every day. EPISODE RESOURCES: AndreaDekker.com  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Have you wondered why you don’t seem to have enough time in your day?  I use my Google calendar to organize my time, everything that would naturally occur in my life gets a time block on my calendar, including commute time. Then when I look at my week, I can play with those time blocks. Am I spending enough time in certain areas or too much time?  I’ve been able to see all this time in my calendar and I’ve gotten better at estimating my time for my classes and assignments. This allows me to figure out where I have extra time and where I don’t have enough time. Have you asked yourself, why don’t I get everything done? Or do I have the capacity to take on something new? Start looking at the pockets of time on your calendar that do not have anything associated with. Document how you use that time for a week or two and then you know if you have time you can actually give to something new and maximize your productivity. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Google Calendar Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Let’s break down one of the fastest spreading organizational news stories I’ve ever seen - Marie Kondo is admitting that her home is no longer tidy and she’s embracing it! The news of Marie Kondo’s house being no longer organized spread like wildfire. This was not an accident. Marie Kondo is a worldwide sensation. She did an amazing job marketing her book and herself. She’s a renowned organizer and businesswoman. Here are some past episodes I’ve done on Marie Kondo: Why the Magic Art of Tidying Up Doesn’t Work for American Women What Do You Do with Items that Don’t Spark Joy? How Marie Kondo is the Atkins Diet of Organizing We all can feel better knowing that Marie Kondo is saying perfection does not exist. Although, if you have been following my podcast all this time, you know that I have always valued progress over perfection. In this episode, I take the conversation in the media about organization a step further. What does it mean to feel organized? Can you recognize and observe organization or is it a feeling? Is organization the ability to quickly take action? How do we know when we are organized or when we are no longer organized? Your home and your organizational systems should be a representation of YOU. What’s important to you? What works for you? What doesn’t work for you?  I LOVE my home. I love how I decorated it. I love how I organized it. I love what I’ve saved over the years. And I want you to love your home also. I want you to love the stuff you are maintaining, dusting and living with. I want you to look forward to being at home, walking around your own home and loving the things you see on the walls, shelves, even inside your storage room. Organization and being organized is SO much more than minimalism.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ The Paper Solution® The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Meet Jamie and Jason Balmet in Oklahoma running a small business, raising 7 children, and homeschooling: 10 year old twin boys 7 year old twin boys 5 year old girl 2 year old boy 3 month old boy Jamie and Jason are currently in the accumulation phase and we talk today about how they handle this phase of life with home and work. We discussed how their housework is divided, they’ve got a great mix going on, and how the kids are involved in this. They have some great tips on how to get the kids involved at home. One of the tips for this was to talk a lot about their family vision and how that plays into giving responsibility to everyone in the family. Listen in as they tell us how their family began traveling full time to now putting down roots in Oklahoma. We also get to hear about how they organize things at work and home and how different their systems are; Jamie loves her paper and Jason is all about the digital side of things. Because their business blends with work deadlines plus having family time, the communication aspect is key for the two of them. Being honest with each other about their needs and their  mental space is important to keeping things running smoothly. How have they gotten to this place in their lives? They are very clear on what their goals are. Working in the business and on the business and being purposeful and intentional with planning plays a large part in how they have been able to succeed. Tips from Jamie: Be clear on your vision  What are your family values What are you saying yes to and what are you saying no to Planning meetings annually and quarterly about Business Homeschool Family Be realistic with your time EPISODE RESOURCES: eMyth by Michael E. Gerber The Productive Home Solution™ and Planning Day Finding Joy in Your Home    Finding Joy in Your Home Podcast  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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This week I am talking about how I organize my assignments. Some of the things I use are Organize 365® Slash Pockets that are colored red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. These slash pockets help you organize the basic tasks you do at home and at work inside of a Sunday Basket® or a Friday Workbox®. These organize the everyday events, not the projects. I am using colored slash pockets, productivity tabs, and highlighted documents to keep track of everything within my courses. Red: Research Lab Orange: Wednesday Class - Psych 501 Yellow: Thursday Class - Psych 502 The game changer for me was creating the excel spreadsheet with all assignments and reading ordered by due date and color coded. I cannot explain how much more grounded I felt when I could see in totality everything I needed to do inside of a 2-page spread. This gives me the extra buffer I need by allowing me to stay ahead. If you have different moving deadlines, moving pieces, or moving parts that need to be done over a period of time, it may be helpful to put all of those into one big document in order of when things need to happen, versus keeping things separate in separate categories of your life. What would happen if in very busy seasons of your life you would use this one big document to go by what is due next versus what role you are playing in your life? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Slash Pockets 1.0 Sunday Basket®  Business Friday Workbox®  Kolbe Organize 365® Productivity Tabs Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

When I started this podcast series looking at how I’ve used the Sunday Basket® over the years, I thought I’d be sharing with you the tactical details of how I use the Sunday Basket®. What I realized is that the Sunday Basket® is a habit. Like brushing your teeth, making the bed, getting ready in the morning. Things we didn’t do at one point and eventually they become part of your everyday life and routines. And that’s what the Sunday Basket® has become. It’s part of my everyday routine. In this episode we are back in my present day life. My kids are now adulting. Their day to day needs are off my plate. I’ve outsourced a lot of the tasks that have to do with my home and I have a whole team at Organize 365®.  Presently, my Sunday Basket® is running like a well-oiled machine. And it’s serving its purpose for Grayson, my grandson, as well. I end up with lots of toys that need batteries on Sunday. I drop those in there throughout the week and all the incoming mail. My Portable Sunday Basket® goes back and forth between my home and my office. I have a slash pocket for calls that need to be made during business hours and things that can’t be dealt with on Sundays. What has really increased over the years, and if you listened to the previous episodes in this series, you have probably noticed the evolution of my Friday Workbox®. I have multiple Friday Workboxes® and pretty much always have. I used to have Friday Workboxes® set-up for different income streams. Now I have Friday Workboxes® for departments, teams and initiatives within Organize 365®. But the biggest shift in my life right now is the transition I just made to becoming a student again. This was a big decision for me. And as I was trying to make the decision to take this leap, I asked myself “what if?” What if I do get my PhD? How will I feel? What if I don’t do this? And I decided, definitively, that if I didn’t say yes to this at this point in my life I would be disappointed. I would still want it four years from now. And this is the time to do it. To jump in with both feet and go for my dream of becoming a PhD. So now I want to ask you, what if? What if you had the real Sunday Basket® with the playbook, the properly color coded slash pockets? What if you had access to the Sunday Basket® Club every Sunday as your accountability and success partner? What if you came to Planning Days with me and truly planned out your goals, assessed your routines and created a plan for your upcoming trimester? What if you took the courses inside The Productive Home Solution™ and learned to be organized while getting your entire home organized? What if everything in your home had a place and you had more time? What if you had a Friday Workbox® and Friday Workbox® Planning Day to help structure your work and deliver on your projects with ease? What if you knew what you were uniquely created to do? Keep moving forward and keep making progress and thinking about what is possible. I can’t wait to continue this series in five years. I’m excited about what’s to come for me and Organize 365®! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Friday Workbox® Portable Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ Home Planning Day Work Planning Day Embrace - Discover what you are uniquely created to do. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Listen in as Emily and I come back together for the final episode of our podcast series. The things we are talking about we regularly talk about privately, but we feel that what we are sharing is meant for more than just ourselves.  People really don’t talk about this: how you stay organized at home, how you survive hard things, how you transition through unexpected events. I am such a forward motion focused person, I’m always thinking about what is next. And this is what excites me and lights me up. We talk about what you are uniquely created to do. It is not necessarily ONE thing, it is always evolving, changing, and growing. The Organize 365® mission is to help you get organized so that you have more time so you can do what you are uniquely created to do. My only goal is to show you the invisible work that you’re doing and you can decide if you want to continue doing it or not, organize it, habitualize it, or declutter it, so that you can get time to do what you are uniquely created to do.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Victim’s Assistance in Akron 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

During week 4, we talked about how I think in color and how it helps me to learn things faster. When focusing on learning something new, being able to chunk the information into at least 4 color categories as I am learning is really helpful. I’ve learned how to add colors into writing my papers to help me remember which journals I am citing, which information is mine, and which information is from different authors. As I am going through this PhD podcast, I hope that learning how you organize in one phase of life can inform and help you in the next phase of life. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Zotero Organize 365® Research Podcast Organize 365® Research Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are you ready for the positive, productive and proactive Lisa to make her debut? Welcome to 2017! In this podcast, we explore the paradigm of personal and professional growth. By 2017, I was running my in-home professional organizing business. It was BOOMING. But I had this gut feeling that it wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing. I was noticing that a lot of the women I was organizing were diagnosed or self-diagnosed with ADHD. I enjoyed what I was doing so much that I wanted to reach more people. I wanted to make a strategic pivot in my business so I could have a larger impact. During this period of my life, my Friday Workbox® took center stage. I went to an office supply store to get more slash pockets and found that they were no longer offering packs of solid colors - only the multi-colored packs. That’s when I realized that I needed to manufacture these slash pockets and bring this all together so people could master these systems and save time. Talking through my ideas with my mom helped me think even beyond just manufacturing the slash pockets. She had me walk her through exactly how I would create a Sunday Basket® or Friday Workbox® if I were to create my own. And then she got to work with her sewing machine and the first Sunday Basket® prototype was born. Looking back, it was such an exciting time of growth for me - both personally and professionally. I knew I needed to become a different kind of company (beyond in-home professional organizing). I needed a team. For the first time ever I was starting to trust my own intuition as a business owner. This is when I started to make the leap into the business owner and CEO you see today. I hired my first coach. I needed to invest in myself to grow as a business owner. I knew that the cap to my business growth was me. I had to (and still do) grow for my business to grow. All those things that I did gave me the investment in myself that I needed to understand my worth and grow into the role I wanted for myself. It’s okay for not every single thing I do in my business to be direct income generating. I wanted to create systems and processes that anyone in the world could get a Sunday Basket® to save 5 hours per week to use for The Productive Home Solution™ to unlock their time for what they were uniquely created to do. And that’s what I’ve done. All of these organizing solutions and courses are available to you today because 2017 Lisa had a bigger vision for herself and for YOU! How do you want to change your future? Learning to be organized can get you there. The time I spent as a professional organizer was what helped me create the courses we now offer at Organize 365®. I saw how much organization had a larger impact on people’s ability to achieve results. I share stories of this in this episode. What impact could living an organized life have on you? EPISODE RESOURCES: FREE Sunday Basket® Mini Course The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution™ 1.0 Slash Pockets 2.0 Slash Pockets Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! I’m excited to welcome back my sister, Emily Kelly, to the podcast for part 2 of 3 in this series. This has been much anticipated by the Organize 365® community and I was waiting for the perfect time for her to tell her story. In part one of this podcast series, Emily Kelly shares her experience for the last year. Today she is sharing how she has organized her personal and work life during this time. Listen to Emily as she describes how she is using her Sunday Basket®, Friday Workbox®, and her slash pockets to sync her bills, goals, and her calendar. Emily and I share what we looked like before slash pockets and binders while working together to settle our Dad’s estate. I share my CliffsNotes™ on how we handled this important time in our lives. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Athena International 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

The way I see the world in color is helping me organize my PhD studies and the work I am doing in school. Being able to use color allows me to chunk the information I am learning and help me remember it better. Pink: For home it is anything related to your uniqueness and for work it is your ideas and marketing. Purple: For home it is anything related to household work and projects and for work it is the visible work and projects. Blue: For home it is anything related to your family and pets and for work it is your team and people. Green: For home and work it is anything related to money and your invisible work. I was able to learn how to do a literature review, how to do an annotated bibliography, and how to write a proposal for a conference using color for each of these key components. Whenever we talk about introductions it will be pink, whenever we talk about methods it will be blue, and whenever we talk about results it will be purple. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Research Podcast Organize 365® Research Organize 365® Business Friday Workbox® Organize 365® Sunday Basket® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

When we left off in the previous episode, I was in the pit of despair. I wish I could say I was out of it by 2012. Spoiler alert - not quite. But 2012 is when a monumental shift began to happen. I was 39 years old by this point. I quit my job. Our family was sinking into debt. Our kids medical needs were still high. I didn’t even recognize my own house (it was a wreck). And my marriage was feeling the strain. My inherent organization ability had gotten me this far in life but now everything I knew about organization was not enough. I didn’t have a playbook or framework for being the person I needed to be - hosting the holidays, having kids with busy schedules (and going to two different schools), and all the other positions I found myself filling. Which leads me to explore how we become disorganized. I think part of it is that we get to a point in our lives where we no longer have a story we are working towards. This episode is really important because when you find Organize 365®, you're likely a pretty organized person and looking for more tips and tricks to be even more productive. But more of us stumble across Organize 365® when they realize “I can no longer continue this way for the rest of my life, there has to be another way.” And the good news is that if you have had this thought - there is another way. Change can be uncomfortable. But it is through this discomfort that you transform. I’ve seen it time and time again in the Organize 365® community. What you may not be expecting is that when you need to learn the skill of organization the most is usually at a point in your life where you don’t have the time and money to do so. But by not budgeting the resources to get organized, you won’t be able to easily get out of re-living the same story you are trying to get out of. This is where I found myself in 2012. I was in the wrong story. Tune in and find out how I began to turn it around in 2012. Also in this episode: The Friday Workbox® takes center stage Tips and Rules for Organizing Passion Projects & Hobbies Want to hear more about my 2012 story and my 5 tips for organizing with depression? Listen to this podcast. What is the organized story of me going forward? Stay tuned next week to find out! What is the organized story of you? EPISODE RESOURCES: FREE Sunday Basket® Mini Course Organization is a Learnable Skill The Friday Workbox® The Sunday Basket® Saving Your Story Photo Organization Program Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!  

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! I’m excited to welcome back my sister, Emily Kelly, to the podcast. This has been much anticipated by the Organize 365® community. And I was waiting for the perfect time for her to tell her story. Emily Kelly worked for Organize 365® for about 5 years. When I last interviewed her on the podcast, she was embarking on a new adventure. She had found, what she believed to be, her DREAM JOB. This is a three part series where we are going to get all the details on Emily’s journey since she left Organize 365®, but you are also going to get an in depth look at the relationship between Emily and me. Sibling relationships are unique because this is likely the longest relationship you will have in your life. Longer than your parents, your spouse, your children and your friends. You and your sibling(s) are in a unique position and have experienced things together that will forever just be an experience shared between you and them. Emily experienced some very unexpected life events. And one of the lessons that she had learned during her time at Organize 365® kept her going in the right direction. Grace. Give it freely. To yourself and others.  Flash forward to today and we find Emily, a new version of herself, ready to share the broken road that led her to exactly where she needs to be. But you will hear more about that in Part 3. EPISODE RESOURCES: Jesus Calling Book The Sunday Basket® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Starting the PhD, I was as planned as you could possibly be. I even took care of all the possible health visits I could have before starting school just so I didn’t have to take away any time to do that once I started; now that is planning! This journey is not easy, but I prefer to be positive and upbeat, not sharing everything that’s not working. I don’t pay attention to the things that I don’t have control over, but I am going to tell you the things that have gone wrong in the first 3 weeks just so I can point back to this episode and be like, “remember week 3”, not everything is perfect. In preparing, I began by pretending, since I’m a pretty productive person, I could add in this extra 30 hours of work and nothing else would really be sacrificed. That’s not a thing because there aren’t 186 hours in a week, there are only 168 hours in a week. I’m hoping that the learnings that I take from this can be beneficial to you and whatever it is that you are adding to your plate and whatever you are striving to be as well. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Laura Vanderkam - 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think Oura Ring Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!  

The year was 2007. And I was ROADKILL. Unexpected life events had run me over. Divorce had unexpectedly hit my family. My father was in poor health. I was raising young children with medical diagnosis. I had attended one HUNDRED and ten doctors appointments. I came unglued. I reached my breaking point. There I was standing in my kitchen. Not making sense. Tapping on a cabinet. Greg swooped in and got the kids out of the house. As I stood there pleading with myself, “You’ve got to get it together, Lisa!”  I went upstairs to my room to figure out why I felt like I was falling apart. At the time, I had a physical planner. I flipped backwards through my planner and realized a pattern. I was spending so much time at doctor’s appointments. I started to tally it up and found that in the past year, I had gone to 110 doctor’s appointments. Doctor’s appointments are not only time consuming, but they are expensive. So at the same time, I had become a “jill of all trades.” I was running my Creative Memories business, cleaning houses, organizing, tutoring, working for Scholastic book fairs and several other direct sales related jobs.  No wonder I was falling behind and apart. When it rains, it pours. My Sunday Basket® became my umbrella. I was overwhelmed. And I was being pushed to new limits. But I wasn’t disorganized. I cannot even imagine what this phase of my life would have looked like if I had not already had my Sunday Basket® system and routine in place. I was not home much at all during this phase of life, but I always had my Sunday Basket® with me. Which meant I was able to still be productive while waiting at the doctor’s office or in the car pick-up line. This helped me keep up when life started moving way too fast. EPISODE RESOURCES: Free Sunday Basket® 5 Day Mini Course The Sunday Basket® The Warrior MAMA Binder The Paper Solution® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!  

show notes

I’m so excited to introduce you to The Paper Solution® Binder & Course Bundle. When I wrote the The Paper Solution® book, I knew I wanted to provide this offering. And we have finally been able to do it. The Paper Solution® provides a complete solution to the unseen but impactful organization that allows you to have confidence and peace of mind during life's unexpected events. Learning to become an organized person is both an outer and inner game. It doesn't always look perfect but it provides calm in the storm, order in the midst of chaos, breathing room and clarity for you to think and make a plan as life continually pivots. Life is a dance. A dance between the known and unknown. The necessary and unnecessary. How you want to spend your time and how you need to spend your time. Along the way we have different levels of organization. Often when we talk about getting organized, we talk about our storage room, closet, kitchen or car. Places we can see with our eyes. Mental organization and unexpected life event organization is often invisible. But oh so impactful when done properly. If you have experienced one of these events: Moved houses/apartments Gotten married Had a baby Experienced a medical event for yourself or loved one Lost a loved one The invisible work that goes into navigating these life events is very stressful, and organization is your life raft. The Organize 365® Binders were created out of all the unexpected events that I have lived through. I was looking for a solution. A solution to organize the invisible work I was doing and provide a playbook for what needed to be done. The Paper Solution® provides you with everything you need: The Medical Binder The Financial Binder The Household Operations Binder The Household Reference Binder Lifetime Access to The Paper Solution® Course Dashboard Which includes: Editable downloads, lessons for each binder, tips from Certified Organizers Organize 365® Virtual Paper Organizing Retreat on Demand Access to the Organize 365® Community App and The Paper Solution® Community Group   Ready to learn more? Visit The Paper Solution® Course page.

There is a difference between perfectionism and setting up a system. My first writing assignment should have taken me just an hour or two but instead it took me eight hours. I shared my new adventure on Instagram stories and many of you told me to take a page from my own book and embrace progress over perfection. YES! I hear you but let me explain… I wasn’t trying to be perfect. I was trying to spend some time now to set-up my systems and create a template for myself to save me time in the future. Does this sound familiar to you? This is EXACTLY what organizing does. Organizing is an investment in time today for a future exponential return on time. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Research Podcast Organize 365® Research Zotero Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! 

This podcast is the first in a series of five that will walk you through different life phases and stages I’ve experienced, and how The Sunday Basket® has been my partner in productivity along the way! Join me in my time machine as we take a glimpse into what my life looked like in 2002 and how The Sunday Basket® was created to support me during this phase of life. In 2002, I had two babies, a successful career in direct sales, the same house I still live in today and of course, Greg! I also had a paper pile problem. And everyday I was playing “the paper pile game”. I would leave my ever-growing pile of papers (bills, mail, to-do lists, calls to make, checks to be deposited and everything in between) on one side of my kitchen island. Each day I would have the best of intentions to tackle that paper pile; but often I would have just enough time to shuffle the papers around before one of the babies needed me and then right back on the counter it would go. That process was repeated day in and day out. How could I make this paper pile more actionable?  One night as my family slept, I finally laid out all the papers in front of me. I began to sort the paper piles into categories. By the end of that evening, I had 40 separate “piles” that were now categorized. The next day I was able to grab just one of those categories (I had separated them all into binder dividers I had on hand) and take immediate action. Oh my goodness! What a profound impact this had on me. It felt so good to finally be taking action and little by little I watched the paper pile shrink.  I put all the binder dividers in a Longaberger basket (remember those?) and I began to add any new mail, paper, notes, to-dos, etc. into the basket. Then each Sunday, I would sit down and go through it. This is where I learned how to prioritize things that needed to be done before the next Sunday and plan my week ahead as a mother and direct sales leader.  The impact of breaking down my paper piles into actionable chunks was HUGE. This is how The Sunday Basket® was born! Want to have your own The Sunday Basket® experience like I did?  We have a FREE 5 Day Sunday Basket® Mini Course that you can join now. This course will walk you through gathering your paper piles and how to sort them in 5 daily tasks.  Join me next episode as my journey takes a stark turn from babies and bliss to chaotic and unexpected.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Mini Course The Sunday Basket® Organize 365® Paper Organizing Retreat See photos from 2002 on Instagram Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Today I’m so excited to introduce you to Laura L. During the pandemic she found me via the Organize 365  podcast.  Laura started her Organize 365® journey with The Sunday Basket® and the binders.  She also created binders for her parents. The day she got the MS diagnosis, the Medical Binder and the Sunday Basket® became monumental to her daily success. Laura got into the habit of taking her Medical Binder with her to doctor’s appointments. She loves having everything at her fingertips.  She has noticed that she gets a poor cellular signal in the medical buildings; so it’s nice to have the paper copy to reference.  Laura was already a fan of all things Organize 365®; but she felt compelled to share her success story with others.  Laura launched her business and is The Paper Solution® Certified. She is thankful for the peace of mind that comes from the organization offered by the Sunday Basket®.    Recently at her daughter’s wedding the portable Sunday Basket® was called “The Bag with All the Nuclear Codes.” She was organized and had all the information with her in her portable Sunday Basket ®. Then again the very next day it held the information needed for her mother because she had a doctor’s appointment to take her to. Her advice if you are just getting started: “Just carve out the time to do it!” EPISODE RESOURCES: The Paper Solution® Binders Paper Organizing Retreats The Sunday Basket® The Organize 365® Medical Binder The Friday Workbox® The Portable Sunday Basket® The Paper Solution® Certification 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Episode 1 - Over Prepared Even though I am the CEO of Organize 365® I am not exempt from life events that can throw a person off track. I only got a 48 hour honeymoon phase of balancing life, work and school until life showed up! But we are in it now - I’m juggling home and school and family! As I pondered the week I have concluded to only try to be seven days ahead, not four years! I was so over prepared I didn’t know what to do with myself and then it dawned on me that I could work ahead. I learned I could even test ahead if I’m prepared. And I just may do that because who knows when life is going to show up again! Listen in to hear how my family has handled the transition! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I am not a CPA and neither am I on my way to becoming one…but I have learned so much about how to get organized for optimal results when it comes to doing or getting your taxes done. And I’d love to share some ideas on how to organize the paperwork you need for your taxes and make the tax season easier for you. Whether you do your taxes yourself or have someone do them for you - it is in your best interest to have organized documentation. Documentation is key! The Organize 365® Income and Expense Binder holds all your substantiating documentation for your business.  Did you know you need 7 years of substantiating documentation?  Now there is a way to effortlessly keep track of everything.  This binder will give you peace of mind at tax time.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Free Organize 365® Tax Organizer Worksheet Organize 365® Income and Expense Binder Green Slash Pockets Mimi’s Cookie Recipe (as mentioned in the mailbag) Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share their challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too! I have spoken about life events and how they derail us from time to time.  Rosa E. came to the paper workshop and was energized to get her home organized.  Little did she know that shortly thereafter her mother would be moving in with her permanently. A life event was about to derail her.   Now that her mother has moved in, her family is finding a new normal.  I offered some ways she could spend some special and intentional time with her mother. I speculate that this model of multigenerational homes may become popular due to the economy and all the demands on two parents in the workforce. I also shared how this works in my house with Abby and Grayson living there.  Each family’s space is considered mini condos or apartments. And I teach this starting in the Organize 365® Kids Program. It’s easier to divide common spaces up and identify personal spaces. Everyone needs a “safe space” to decompress and do what they want to do without answering to anyone.  I also pointed out that we all like the Sunday Basket® because it speaks to us, we’re all just 12 year olds at heart.  And now she’s implementing a Sunday Basket® for her mother too. To top it all off, Rosa is also starting a new career.  She’s home organizing and The Paper Solution® Certified.  She has been using the Friday Workbox® as her partner in success as she’s starting her business.  She attributes the Friday Workbox® to helping her schedule her week, think ahead to marketing and networking, and grow her organizational business in Arizona. EPISODE RESOURCES: Organize 365® Paper Organizing Retreats The Paper Solution® Certification The Business Friday Workbox® The Sunday Basket® 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I just experienced a Golden Window and I want to share with you how I got organized to embark on my back-to-school journey! When I shared with you all that I’m going back to school to earn a PhD, I got a lot of suggestions. So many amazing suggestions that I literally started a pink slash pocket so I wouldn’t lose any of these valuable ideas. And, of course, I want to share everything with you. Here’s why - this journey is super helpful if you are also going back to school (whether you’re working towards a PhD or a different degree). And it’s also helpful to apply my journey and my experiences to any and all of life’s changes. The type of organizing I’m doing to get ready for my PhD experience is no different than the type of organizing and preparation I would recommend for any life change or transition - having a baby, moving, starting a new job, getting ready to retire, getting ready to welcome grandchildren. When you are getting ready to make a change (especially one that will impact your daily schedules and routines) it’s important to look around your home and at your organizational systems to make them as functional, organized and efficient as possible for what life is going to look like for the foreseeable future. This is a whole new life transition.  Remember recently when I explained the difference between Ready…Set…Go? I have completed all household projects, put systems in place, reorganized my schedule, and I am in “Go” mode. This has been a major transition for me and I really evaluated how I spend my time, my habits, my routines, and looked for 30 hours I could devote to my post-baccalaureate first, and then my PhD.  I will be taking you all on this journey with me.  I could not be more excited and in four short years I will have earned my General PhD in Psychology from Fielding University! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® Happy Doc Student Podcast How to PhD Podcast The PhD Life Raft Podcast PhD Pending A PhD Rollercoaster: A Diary of Ups and Downs of Being a Doctoral Student Stay connected with me and see behind the scenes on Instagram. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share their challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too! Kristen K. had a demanding full time job and a demanding two year old.  When she “broke”, she found herself searching for productivity podcasts. Lucky me, Organize 365® came up and Kristen was listening so she could gain control over her boxes of mail. Kristen was taking vacation days just to address these boxes of mail; and she knew there had to be a more productive way. Paper can easily get the better of anyone. After listening to multiple episodes, she knew the next step was the Sunday Basket. You guys, she still has her original Sunday Basket and uses it faithfully! She’s even gone further to become a certified organizer so she can help others. She knows the struggle and doesn’t want others to go through the same struggle. Kristen made an interesting side comment during this episode. She said, “I mean I had to do it, I knew my husband wasn’t going to help.” Too often we think our family is going to join us in this organization endeavor. No, they may not - and that’s ok. You have to go into it knowing this is a “you” thing. We also discussed productivity vs. priority! Being productive is NOT prioritizing your tasks. Pick your priority, and that priority is ONE. You can prioritize ONE section of your life or ONE room in your house. We go over all the ins and outs of this topic in the episode.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ The Paper Solution® Certification 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Is it possible? Can you put enough systems in place to correct or manage ADHD? After diving into ADHD and running all the tests, the ADHD expert was convinced I did not have ADHD. However, when we took a deeper dive into my childhood and who I was before Organize 365®; it was a clear picture of a person with ADHD.  The expert explained that all the systems I have put in place, combined with hiring out the tasks that I struggle with…I have masked the fact that I have ADHD! I didn’t always believe in an ADHD diagnosis.  When I was young and thought I knew everything, I was convinced children just needed a little more discipline and manners.  Some children just had a lot of energy is how I explained it.  But then I had one student who put me in my place.  I thought it was crazy for mom and dad to try medication for the little girl during the VERY last week of school.  But much to my surprise; she was a very bright student and the medication helped ADHD get out of her way! I realized I knew nothing about anything.  Isn’t it funny how the more you know, the more you realize that you know very little? Once we adopted children, I loved to play preschool with them.  It wasn’t until a routine doctor visit that it was brought to my attention that I would be raising a child with ADHD. At this point, I craved information to help my children to succeed. I was lucky enough to attend seminars in Cincinnati with all the best doctors and learn about ADHD!   Now I’m embarking on my PhD journey, where I’ll be focusing on the brain and the eight executive functions. That’s right! I’m a lifelong learner and am confident that I have the systems in place that I need to be organized and succeed. It has come full circle – and I’m here to share it with all of you! EPISODE RESOURCES: ADHD Podcast Playlist ADHD Resources Page ADHD Online Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!  

What does it mean to be organized? How do you know when you’re done organizing? No one has ever officially defined "organized." I decided I would define it. We started by conducting academic-level research using our surveys. You can read more about Organize 365® Research and the finding on our Research page. For most Americans, organization happens as Swiss cheese organizing. You’re a little organized here and a little organized there. You can’t confidently say, “I AM organized,” because you think that being organized means perfection while not being organized is hoarding. You don’t have language for what happens in the middle of these two! We need to consider the idea of done rather than perfect. In this episode, I share many statistics and findings from our research, which is all leading us to change the way we present and teach the material in The Productive Home Solution™.  If you just get through the first 42 days of the 100 Day Home Organization Program, you will have 80% of the spaces you use on a daily basis organized. You CAN call yourself organized. But many of you don’t FEEL organized. It doesn’t fully check off any single category of organizing as complete for you. It just marks a couple more spaces in your Swiss cheese organizing. I want to see you get to the point where you can say that you are personally organized or storage organized or paper organized, etc. You get to pick and choose which areas you want to tackle and master and declare organized in your life. Coming in the fall in The Productive Home Solution™, you will be able to pick an area, focus on it for 5 or 6 weeks, and then declare that area of your life organized. You’ll work in baby steps to mark a full area as done so you can move on to the next area you want to organize.  But what does it mean to be organized? Both men and women declare their home organized when… You’ll have to listen in to find out the answer! Learn more about and join The Productive Home Solution™ here.   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

For 2022, we are adding to the Lisa glossary. This week, we are talking about the Organize 365® Research projects.  No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about the ideas and beliefs that are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing. Several years ago, as I was writing the Organize 365® vision, I knew that I wanted to conduct research to bring to light the organizational needs of Americans. I want to be the go-to resource for knowledge about home and paper organization. I legitimately had no idea how to do research surveys and data analysis. Recently, I have been learning about the difference between market research and academic research. Organize 365® is now sponsoring academic-level study and third-party data collection backed by Harrisburg University.  Research always starts with a hypothesis — what you think the result will be. I wanted research results that showed that women are doing the majority of the work at home. But, that’s now what we found. We have started to share our initial research findings. As I learn more about research, we really end up with more questions. One of the steps in research is to define every term used in study surveys. For example, you cannot ask a participant about “mental health” because that term is too broad and open to interpretation. However, you can ask about anxiety or depression.  When we developed the first survey, I needed to figure out how to define “housework.” The research questions ended up focusing on four different types of housework. Cleaning - Cleaning is related to the dwelling and covers any task a cleaning company would do. Learn more back in Podcast 422.  Tasks of Daily Living - These are tasks related to the person regardless of where they live. These are the tasks defined by Social Security Disability and include things like preparing food, consuming food, running errands, planning meals, and washing laundry. Learn more back in Podcast 424. Maintenance - is an optional housework activity where the property owner makes an additional infusion of money into their investment (property) to maintain and improve their property. In the long run, maintenance expenses increase the value of the initial investment. Learn more back in Podcast 428.  Organizing - is an optional housework activity where a person makes an investment of current time for a future return of time. This is completely optional and customizable. Time spent today organizing results in an exponential time in the future. Often this involves setting up systems of organization and can be applied to renters and owners. Learn more back in Podcast 426.    Literature Review  As part of academic research, researchers look at other studies done on similar topics. The Organize 365® review looked at the role of women in the 21st century home. As I mentioned above, I thought women were doing all of the housework. It turns out that everyone thinks they are doing the majority of the work at home. There is so much work to be done. Defining housework and recognizing these four areas makes housework feel overwhelming and never-ending. As women become more effective at articulating their role in housework, families will be able to better understand how much work is being done and proactively decide if the work should continue to be done at all.  Our next study survey has been completed and we are busy analyzing the results. Learn more back in Podcast 430. #myextra5  The Sunday Basket® consistently saves people at least five hours a week by getting organized and being proactive. Through organization, you get extra time, and we all need more time. Follow or tag Organize365® on Instagram and share how you are spending your extra time once you get organized! — #myextra5   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

For 2022, we are adding to the Lisa glossary. This week, we are talking about ditching the file cabinet and establishing essential household binders. I also want to be your teacher to help you get your home and work paper organized and functional.  No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about the ideas and beliefs that are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing. As a professional organizer, I used to teach people how to build (and hopefully maintain) a color-coded file cabinet at home. But, in 2017, I had a sickening revelation that what I was teaching was not working. In a short time, I heard from two audience members who needed to emergently evacuate. No matter how organized their files were, their paper was not portable. I am a functional organizer, and I learned that our paper needs to be portable and limited to a reasonable amount of space. It was time to ditch the file cabinets and organize reference papers into essential household binders. File cabinets are typically not well-maintained and they are certainly not portable. America needs a better solution for reference paperwork.  After some ongoing analysis, I realized that household paper generally fits into four categories. I look at my own life experience caring for my ill father and settling his estate. I look at my life as a homeowner. I thought about all of the information it took to keep my household organized and my family functioning.  There were no ready-made systems for being a caregiver and executor when my father passed away. I have worked with the members of the team who have gone through similar life challenges to try and make our binders as broad and effective as possible. But, because they are binders, they can also be adapted to handle any life situation you encounter. I created a reference binder for each of the four areas of essential household paperwork. Tax forms and kid's memories live outside of this system, but everything else that needs to be saved can typically be fit into one of the four essential binders.  The Four Essential Household Binders Organize 365® sells physical binders to help with your household paper organization. The contents for each binder are also detailed in The Paper Solution book. However, our physical binders have multiple pages of worksheets that help get the information from the many places it lives organized into one location.  Setting up the binders will make your life more organized and easier. But, it is also a gift for your family. If anyone else ever needs to take over any portion of your #adulting, they will have what they need at their fingertips.  Financial Organizing Binder This binder details your current and future financial information. It includes retirement accounts, vehicles, insurance, home inventory, estate planning, and funeral plans.  This binder was originally designed for someone to be able to take over your financial life and close your estate. It can help with tracking bills, setting a house, or cancelling a lease.  I estimate that in order to have a comprehensive financial binder, you will get 30% from your file cabinet, 30-40% digital information, and 30-40% in your memory or on random papers in your home. Medical Reference Binder This binder is designed to be used mainly by a caregiver. You can set one up if you are caring for someone else, or you can set one up to make it easier for a friend or family member to care for you.  Although medical records are electronic, they are siloed in each medical practice. Many of the software systems do not effectively share information. Pharmacy, doctors, dentists, specialists, and insurance companies all have their own record systems in America.  I estimate that 5-10% of this information lives in your file cabinet right now. 40-50% is online in some kind of medical record system. The other 40-55% is not recorded anywhere (yet!).  Your medical binder is also a perfect place to keep a list of questions for your next appointment, write down observations, record behavior changes, and communicate with other caregivers. This binder has a comprehensive workbook that includes a health history, childhood milestone tracker, symptom recorder, and place to record what you have already attempted.  Life is short and the unexpected happens. We will either need caregivers or be caregivers. Having a portable, concise medical reference binder will help you to get the best care. Household Reference Binder This binder is the one I use most frequently. It is designed for people who are homeowners but can be used if you rent too.  This binder is designed to have all the reference information you would keep organized if your house was a person. If you were selling your house tomorrow, you could hand over the binder to the new owners. The binder contains home improvement information, paint colors, appliance information, and landscaping details.  Typically, 80% of the contents of this binder are already in your file cabinet. Manuals, make and model numbers, serial numbers, and similar information can be stored in the binder. I also recommend keeping receipts for purchases here too so you know when it was purchased and how much it cost.  Household Operations The Household Operations binder is all of the paperwork and information you need to run your household. No matter what kind of dwelling you have, you need a place to track meal planning, cleaning schedules, events, holidays, vacations, and pet information. As a teacher, I think of this binder as my lesson plan book for my family.  Why binders? Papers that live in your file cabinet are not enough for someone to come in and manage your life. Some of the information on the pages in the binder lives in your computer, in your head, and in physical places like your wallet.  File cabinets are not portable. Most of our emergencies involve leaving the house. We evacuate or lose our homes to a fire or flood. Someone gets hospitalized and we need the paperwork available for the healthcare team.  In true emergency situations, it is rare to need reference papers at home. Usually, you need them where you need to go. Papers need to be taken to the family member, a doctor, a lawyer, or a school meeting.  File cabinets hold far more information and physical paper than most of us can effectively manage. When I helped professional organization clients clean out their paperwork, most can declutter at least 80%. What about tax paperwork? Keep it in a file cabinet or file box. These items are bulky and rarely referenced. In a true emergency, you could replace them.  What about kid-related papers? Kid’s School Memory Binder Kids enjoy their own memories most when they are young and can see their own growth and progress. When your kids are in the midst of their accumulation phase or survival phase of life, they probably will not have time to sit down and look through their old math tests and spelling lists.  But, when your kids are young, you might be amazed at how much joy they get from looking at their artwork, stories, and projects. They will sit down with their binders and tell stories about school that you might not otherwise get to hear.  Have your kids help to make their own memory binder and then use them. Sit down together and see what they have to say about certificates, awards, and their own creations.  Warrior Mama Binder For kids who have an IEP or 504, we have the Warrior Mama binder. This is a combination of medical and educational information that will help you to keep your child’s paperwork organized and help you to advocate for his or her best education.  Walk Softly and Carry a Big Binder My children are adopted and both needed additional support in their educational journey. I found that when I was going to advocate for my kids, I needed the medical and educational papers together for both doctor’s appointments and school meetings. I needed medical tests, health records, and learning assessments all in one place. Your binder will hold essential details and can cut down on the time you need to spend to get your support professionals up to speed. This gives you more effective time during appointments. In my own experience, having paper documentation raises your expertise level with professionals and gives you immediate credibility.  Why Not Digital? In all the times I have advocated for the people I love, paper has worked best. No one has ever asked me for a digital file. Often, systems are incompatible with one another. Records from the doctor are not easily accessible by the school record-keeping system.  Paper is immediate. Sending a digital file after a meeting has not gotten the same results as passing around a physical paper during a meeting when all of the decision-makers are gathered together.   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

For 2022, we are adding to the Lisa glossary. This week, we are talking about The Paper Solution. In 2020, I published a book called The Paper Solution. I also want to be your teacher to help you get your home and work paper organized and functional.  No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about the ideas and beliefs that are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing. Paper is my thing. I love writing on paper, I love organizing paper, I love everything about paper. But, as a professional organizer, I realized there is very little information available about how to organize paper, the categories of paper we deal with in our lives, and how to actually use paper in everyday life.  Less Paper, not Paperless. Although we have been promised a “paperless” society, the reality is that the US is a paper-based society. We are able to handle more things digitally than ever before, but we still need physical paper for many things in life.  In America, our vaccine cards, birth certificates, vehicle titles, and medical records are all physical paper. Other parts of the world have digital systems for these things, but because of the uniqueness of our government and our focus on freedoms, we do not have universal, digital records for these things. In my own life, physical paper has saved me over and over. Paper means that I can avoid expensive professional fees, and it gives me authority with lawyers, doctors, and school principles. In America, paper is the way I (and you) can substantiate claims and provide proof of what you know. Paper is useful in settling estates, advocating for children during IEP meetings, and for communicating vital health information during a medical emergency.  The Paper Solution The Sunday Basket® is the foundation of an organized home. The Sunday Basket® starts as a physical basket that holds actionable papers. But, really, it is so much more. It is a weekly habit of processing and looking proactively at the upcoming week that keeps the household running more smoothly.  In 2020, I published The Paper Solution as a physical book. It is written to change your mindset about papers, and to give you the practical tools to get your household papers organized.  The Big Purge As a professional organizer working in people’s homes, I saw over and over that file cabinets allow us to save much more paper than we ever in. Surprisingly, most Americans can get rid of 80% of their filed papers and will never need them again.  You can declutter your papers in as little as 15 minutes a day. Take a few file folders out and review them. Make piles for papers to recycle, shred, and save. Put the “save” papers back in the file cabinet.  If you have ever taken care of a loved one’s papers, you know how vital it is to have important papers organized and easy to find. Take care of the people you love by clearing out all the old papers that no longer need to be stored or saved. Types of Paper - Actionable and Reference Of the papers that should be kept, there are two main categories.  Actionable papers are papers that require you to take some action — bills to pay, grocery lists to buy, or a note to book that vacation hotel.  Reference papers are all of the other papers we save — bank account numbers, retirement statements, wedding cards, and love letters. These we may look at again sometime in the future, but they mostly need to be kept safe. Ditch the File Cabinet After years of helping people get their files color-coded and organized in a file cabinet, I had several clients who were facing emergency evacuations. The reality was that they did not have time to pull out important documents during their emergency.  That is when I realized that our reference papers need to be portable and there must be a constraint on how much paper we keep. It’s not realistic to load up an entire file cabinet when trying to get away from a forest fire or a hurricane.  For several years, I have been teaching people to ditch the file cabinet and replace it with several essential reference binders. (More on this in the next podcast).  Certified Organizers America is going to need a team of trained professionals who understand the skill of organizing to teach it to others. The Organize 365® system offers different levels of assistance for learners depending on their personal needs.  Certified Organizers are trained by Organize 365® to provide 1:1 or small group coaching, assistance, and support. I want you to have what you need to get organized and to be successful.  We all need to have our paperwork organized. You can do it now, or you can do it after an emergency. It is a blessing to do it now — it is a gift to yourself and those who love you. Organize 365® offers The Paper Solution for any type of paper you have. Actionable, household, reference, or work. Learn more at organize365.com!   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the full blog post at organize365.com/special-circumstances-organize-365-story-part8 This is part eight of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about some special circumstances that impact your organizational journey. As always, I start with helping you to get the right mindset about home organization. I want to give you the ability to look at your life circumstances and understand the ways in which they are impacting your organization. Getting your thoughts and mindset ordered is vital to ordering your physical spaces. I want to share with you some life circumstances and talk about how they affect your thinking and your organizing work. This week, I want to share some special circumstances you may face in order to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I special circumstances and their impact on organization. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization in order to progress along your transformational journey.  See all eight parts of this series at organize365.com/glossary   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.  

See the show notes at organize365.com/redefining-work-organize-365-story-part7 This is part seven of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about how you define "work." As always, I want to share my mindset and thinking with you. I also want to share how owning a home or running a household can also be your work. In this podcast, I also share many of the words I use surrounding the concept of work that help me to be more efficient, productive, and effective. This week, I want to share my perspectives on work to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I think about work. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization.   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the blog post at organize365.com/redefining-time-organize-365-story-part6 This is part six of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about how you look at time affects your organization and productivity. As always, I focus on helping you get the right mindset about how you spend your time. Time is the most abstract concept that will have the longest impact on how you spend the rest of your life. I want to share with you some of the ways you can change your mindset and how I think about time has changed over time and has helped me to grow in productivity. This week, I want to share my perspectives on time to help the Organize 365 community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I think about time. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization.   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the full blog post at: organize365.com/home-organization-perspective-organize-365-story-part5 This is part five of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. I want to talk with you about getting your home organized. As always, I start with helping you to get the right mindset about home organization. I want to give you the ability to figure out how to organize your home for yourself. Getting your thoughts and mindset ordered is much more effective than ordering your physical spaces. I want to share with you some of the ways you can change your mindset and the way you name the spaces in your home. This week, I want to share my home organization perspectives to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I think about how we get our homes organized. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization.   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the full blog post at: organize365.com/renaming-home-spaces-organize-365-story-part4   This is part four of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to share how you rename the spaces in your home to make them more functional as part of your transformational journey to an organized life. I define and explain things like a hot mess room and a drink station. I share how the names you give different spaces in your home can dramatically affect how you think about them. This podcast and our new glossary will help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language.   No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about different ways I organize homes to make them functional.   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

See the full blog post at: overwhelm-to-plan-organize-365-story-part3 This is part three of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to talk with you about what happens as we move from one phase to the next. Typically, we get overwhelmed, feel like we are living in chaos, and struggle to have a plan. We struggle to keep pace with the new change while we are trying to learn a new level of organization, and the transition takes longer than we expect. As things get moving faster and you begin to feel overwhelmed, the way to regain clarity and be able to adjust from being reactive to productivity is the Sunday Basket®. This week, I want to share the details of the Sunday Basket® to help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about how I think about how we get our homes organized. These ideas are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing and will help you take those first steps towards learning the skills of organization.   This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Check out the blog post at organize365.com/cycles-seasons-organize-365-story-part2 This is part two of a series sharing the Organize 365® Story. This week, I want to share the cycles and seasons you will experience along your transformational journey to an organized life. This podcast and our new glossary will help the Organize 365® community to have a shared vocabulary and foundational language. No matter when you begin your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. Listen in as I teach you about the cycles and seasons that influence your organizing journey and that are at the core of everything I teach and how I approach organizing. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Check out the blog post and more details here:  organize365.com/organizing-foundation-organize-365-story-part1 This week on the blog, I am starting a series sharing the foundation of Organize 365®. I share the five foundational principles that are the bedrock of everything I teach inside of Organize 365®. I want to ensure that we have a common vocabulary and you know what the foundational principles are. No matter when you being your transformational journey (or when you need to reset or restart), this information will be here as a reference for you. This episode is a part of the Organize 365® Glossary Playlist. Listen to other episodes on the Glossary Playlist here.

Has your New Year’s energy kicked in yet? It’s time to capitalize on that energy! We know you have goals and we have the tools you need to get you there! One of the things that I have learned over the last decade is that life is work. There’s unpaid work at home and paid work at work and sometimes there’s unpaid work at work and sometimes there’s paid work at home. It’s all work. In order for me to be the best me I can be I need to plan for both the unpaid and the paid work that is my privilege and responsibility as a contributing member of society. We have heard from many of you that you are trying to decide or pick what your focus will be in 2023 and I say we should just have it all. An organized person unlocks their time, allowing them to pursue what they are uniquely created to do! The start of the new year feels like the turning of a page, a clean slate to make lasting organizational change in our lives - at home and at work. Organization is a learnable skill. One that will take you wherever you want to go. Follow your renewed energy that the new year brings and use it to maximize your progress! Half the battle in learning the skill of organization is deciding what to do next. The “Organization Is For ME 2023” Bundle can make those decisions for you. This bundle will assist you with getting organized and making consistent progress towards your goals at HOME and at WORK. Why can’t we have it all? Why can’t you be organized with your paid work and your unpaid (but oh so fulfilling) unpaid work?  That’s why we’ve put together the Organization is for Me in 2023 Bundle - to help you do just that. You don’t have to choose between work and home. This bundle is going to give you the courses and tools you need to excel at both.  In this bundle you’ll get The Productive Home Solution™ with Planning Day. As well as The Friday Workbox® system with the Goal Planner and Planning Day for your work. Imagine how amazing it will feel to unlock your time in 2023?! How it would feel to come home to an organized house and create a system and routine for managing your work, passion projects or business? This is your YEAR! Be all you can be with the Organization is for Me 2023 Bundle! Episode Resources: Watch the video Organization is for Me 2023 Bundle The Productive Home Solution™

Last week I shared with you that one of my weaknesses has been overcoming the fact that I usually "ready, fire, aim" as opposed to "ready, set, go." Learning to do the SET step in Ready, Set, Go has been my weakness. What I have found from nearly 11 years of working with the Organize 365® community is that GO is the area that tends to trip you up. Being able to GO - actually getting started or keep moving on your goals and overcome your self-limiting doubt - can paralyze us. I used to be where you are. I used to worry about what others would think of me. Will Greg (my husband) judge me? Can I meet or exceed my own goals? What if I can't do what I want to do? What if I can't live up to my own expectations? What if I invest time or money and fail? The what ifs would paralyze me and keep me from starting. It allowed me to stay stuck. Stuck in my reactive and negative life. I would start a cycle of getting ready and set but never going.  Ready, Set, repeat. There was no risk with ready and set. I didn't have to step too far out on a limb or too far out of my comfort zone. Then one day I asked myself - what if everything happened for me? What if everything was easy? What if I did achieve these goals? What if I was able to achieve a bigger impact on my family, community and ultimately the world? And I ask you - What if I had never started Organize 365®? What if I stopped podcasting tomorrow because I worry about looking silly or foolish? What if all of the Organize 365® products went away and were no longer resources to you? How did that make you feel? I don't know what it is that you have to offer the world. I don't know what a more organized life with less stress and more time will do for your family, your community and your work - but I bet it is more than you even realize now. And ultimately the only way we will know is if you GO. If you actually get started. Stop holding onto that branch of self-limiting beliefs and negative what-ifs. It's time to take the next step in your organizing journey - it's time for you to go. What great timing! We are headed into a new year - clear out your house, clear out the cobwebs in your mind. Get ready, set, and let's GOOOOO. I believe in you. You can do this, you have what it takes, and the time is now. Please join me. We are going to do this together. If your goal is to reclaim your home and your time - I have the solution for you. The Productive Home Solution™ is a new way of thinking about your space and time! Half of the battle with anything we are ready and set to do is deciding what the next step is (and then the next step after that). Avoid decision fatigue and use The Productive Home Solution™ as your roadmap to guide you through the journey of getting organized. Organization will carry you through so many of your goals; and was the first step for me getting to where I am today. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Organize 365® Year End Bundle The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day - December 31, 2022 Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Today I will be giving you a full orientation on the Organize 365® Kids Program. Children want to be helpful. They love to learn and want to please adults! And in a perfect world, we would all have plenty of time to work together to keep a home clean and tidy. But we often don’t have the time or energy. Our time and patience gets consumed by after-school activities, homework, housework, and adult work. Teaching your children the skill of organization is an absolute must. These skills will serve them well while they're living in your household and, one day, their own. The Organize 365® Kids Program is your solution. This is your “get organized'' class for kids.” Taught directly to them by me! EPISODE RESOURCES: Download the Kids Program Syllabus Watch the video Get the Kids Program Get the Year End Bundle that includes The Productive Home Solution™ & The Kids Program

Meet Michelle. She’s the voice behind the mailbag introductions on the podcast and the Customer Service Team lead here at Organize 365®. Michelle is SO loved by the Organize 365® team and customers! She got quite the surprise when I asked if I could come and organize her storage area and video it for The Productive Home Solution™!  You guys…my home is already SO organized, including my storage area.  I’ve already shown everyone in The Productive Home Solution™ my storage area too many times. It was time for me to tackle someone else’s storage room. The progress we made in ONE DAY may seem unbelievable; but it is all very doable when you know the order of the tasks you need to complete to get organized!  Michelle picked me up at the airport and we got to work. Thank goodness we had a dumpster. We started by focusing on what could go in that dumpster.  We were able to tackle a tucked away storage area with old shelving and her garage.   Michelle, who described the experience as “humbling”, almost had us pass on that tucked away storage area. But looking back, that was the most rewarding space to get organized. We really forced Michelle to focus on what we could get rid of first by repeatedly saying “You have the dumpster, we are here, what can go?”. Then we focused on cleaning and reloading the storage area by zones.  Michelle said it felt like a 40 year old weight had been lifted off her shoulders at the end of the day. Her mom (who also lives in the home) was so pleased at what we accomplished in one day.   When you listen to this episode, I want you to be inspired and know that you too can learn how to get an organized storage area and then go do it. Once you have it organized properly, it should stay organized for a very long time…if not forever.  EPISODE RESOURCES: Limited Time - watch the video of Lisa Organizing Michelle’s Storage Room (only available through 12/31/22). Shelving Units Bins The Productive Home Solution™ Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Wow, a lot can happen in a year! As you reflect on this year, go over your planner, see how much you did, what new things you tried, and how much you have grown and changed! Let’s talk about how you want to grow in your business, in your unique gifting and in the impact you can have on others. Imagine if you could help them to get results faster?   As you think about 2023 I want you to consider helping your clients even more than you do already!   Listen in to hear about The Paper Solution® Certification. If this is something that has been on your mind or in your heart to do next year - schedule a call with Monique Horb (MHorb@organize365.com) to learn more! EPISODE RESOURCES: Year End Business Checklist The Paper Solution® Certification The Paper Solution® Certification Orientation Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In part two of this three part Ready, Set, Go series, we are going to discuss the middle child of the Ready, Set, Go family - SET. What does it mean to get SET and to be SET? The running joke for visionary entrepreneurs like myself is the quote, “Ready, Fire, Aim!” And boy have I lived that quote in the past! At first, in my 20s, it was because I didn’t know what I was doing - at home, at work, or as a parent. I learned the hard way - every time! But later in my 30s, it wasn’t really my fault anymore. There wasn’t enough time to prepare or aim. Life was moving so fast that I was missing important things while running at Mach 1 speed! It wasn’t my fault. And it’s not yours either. The last time we had “preparation time” in our calendars was in grade school where our teachers carefully planned our assignments and workload so we had time to complete things. By the time high school arrived: extra-curricular activities, part-time jobs and sleep filled in all the cracks and then some. No one has enough time. And no one is going to give us more time. #truth Work colleagues, parents, children, partners, neighbors and friends all want our time. Some demand, some plead, some expect it without question. And we give it…gladly, lovingly, freely. We get up earlier, stay up later, eliminate hobbies and rearrange our days. Eve Rodsky compares our time this way, “Men’s time is worth diamonds, and women’s time is like sand.” Ouch. You can’t unhear that. But, it’s true for me. Greg has a golf night. He goes on fishing and golf trips. I haven’t had a hobby night or gone on a trip with friends since having children (22 years ago)! After work, Greg makes dinner and then watches TV. Now, I do the dishes (sometimes), take a bath and do a puzzle. But I feel weird about it. Until a few years ago, my after-work activities involved driving kids, cleaning the kitchen, laundry, straightening up, etc. until I felt it was an acceptable time for me to stop “working” and take my bath. When are we going to give ourselves the permission to take back a little of our time? Last week we talked about being ready. The truth is you and I are OVER ready. We have been for decades. But we don’t make the plan and run the race to a different end. Why is this? SET is all about saying your time is not more important, but AS important as everyone else’s. For me, in this season, it means I am going to start my Ph.D program and travel - A LOT. For work, for pleasure, and for me. Let me be clear. My family is not happy about it. They intellectually support it, but in words and actions, they are not pleased with the change. Am I being selfish? Maybe. Would I want it for every single one of them? Absolutely! When one of my family members wants to…further their education, move out, have a baby, take a trip, find a new doctor, pursue a new passion…I facilitate the how, when, where, and payments. I am happy for the sacrifices of time and self-focus I have devoted to my family over the last 25 years, and for the ability to grow Organize 365® around my family. But now I want to pour more of my time and talent into my unique gifting. So, how do we get SET to do the things we want and need to do in life? We know how to help others in our lives get set. We set our kids up for school, set-up their school supplies, bookbags, dorm rooms, etc. We set our partners up for their endeavors and trips. We know how to get set-up; we just don't often look at doing it for ourselves the way we do for others. How do we SET ourselves up for success? Getting SET comes after getting ready because when you are getting SET you are already ready. You are doing the final steps before you GO (more on that next week). What do you need to GO? Get that together now. How can you get SET for a productive and proactive new year? If your goal is to reclaim your home and your time - I have the solution for you. The Productive Home Solution™ is a new way of thinking about your space and time! Half of the battle with anything we are ready and set to do is deciding what the next step is (and then the next step after that). Avoid decision fatigue and use The Productive Home Solution™ as your roadmap to guide you through the journey of getting organized. Organization will carry you through so many of your goals and was the first step for me getting to where I am today. EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Organize 365® Year End Bundle The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day - December 31, 2022 Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! Amber N. shared her transformation with me! She’s the mom of two children who are a senior in high school and 14 years old, and she has a Greg of her own! Amber had always been inspired to be organized; but at some point life just got in her way.  She was no longer organized but desperately wanted to be. Amber had tried other organization systems, including hiring a professional organizer.  The funny part is, once she got through some of the Organize 365® resources, she no longer needed that professional organizer to come back in for a “refresh”.  She had learned the skill of organization and now she can do it on her own! I keep telling you, organization is a learnable skill people! Amber had to come to terms with what “being organized” actually means.  Did it mean mimicking the pictures from Pinterest; or was it more important for it to be done? Picture vs. Reality. Cute vs. Organized. We put so much pressure on ourselves to give our children these picture perfect parties or bedrooms. Honestly, our kids aren’t on social media and do not see the pictures we see. They are not on Pinterest. They are not looking for these tiny details. They are just happy to spend time with us, and to celebrate their birthday. Give yourself some grace.  Amber had to start with baby steps…but ultimately she ended in a sprint.  She started with her mail and the Sunday Basket® despite all the paper in her house.  She was so excited with the results that she wanted more and wanted it more quickly. Now she’s The Paper Solution Certified and can help people on their own organizational journeys! I encourage everyone to evaluate what your energy level is during each season, and what area you want to focus on - such as the house, school & work, or maybe it’s being a more intentional mom. Then set the expectation at the beginning that ‘something is better than nothing’ when it comes to getting organized.  Amber has learned so much from Organize 365®.  Her major takeaway is to extend herself grace. Her other biggest takeaways are:  If you put a process in place, you can move through it Good is good enough and focus on macro not micro Don’t get bogged down Now that she is organized, she has time to spend with her family and on her business too. She also has more money because she isn’t paying late fees and more grace that she gives to herself! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Paper Solution® Certification 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Are you READY to think differently? Are you READY to evaluate your past new years goals and productivity? Are you READY to put in the work and reap the rewards of your focus & labor? Are you physically READY? Mentally READY? Emotionally READY?   Today’s episode is about readiness. And I’m so excited to share my ideas for what it means to be READY.   My favorite activity is to think about my thinking. It is a habit that I have cultivated into an art form and can no longer do without. It’s my habit.   And that is the thing about habits. Bad ones are easy to fall into and hard to break. Good ones take thought, planning, discipline and determination to establish.   Yet, habits are the ONE thing that separates the life you have today and the future you envision for yourself.   You cannot fall into productivity (it doesn't just happen) Your house will not magically clean and organize itself   As I get ready for the new year, I want to share with you how I think about this coming season. As the December days quickly pass by, I look forward to the new year. This is the official day I start running my race for a productive 2023 - when new opportunities like starting college for my Ph.D program begin.   I am getting ahead of myself. Today. Today is about being READY.   Readiness is a state of being.   You will never be 100% ready. And that's 100% okay! You don't have to be 100% ready in order to start!   Readiness is an understanding of the strengths and limitations you are experiencing in THIS phase of your life.   What unique seasons are you experiencing right now that you can leverage to move forward in your home organization goals?   Are you in a season where you are home more? Do you have more energy at a certain time of day, or day of the week? Is there a big event coming up that will motivate you to work faster? Do you have a companion who is motivated to pace with you? Is this a season where you have money in the budget to add to your efforts? Would selling unused past purchases help you fund your new years goals?    You may not be in a season where you are READY to devote more time and energy to your personal home. And that is OK.   However, what I have found to be true more often is that there is always a seed of readiness in each season, but we miss it.   I mentioned that I think about my thinking - constantly. I love sharing my unique thinking with you - to motivate you to do the same! Think about where you are right now and what you are ready for!   Change is normal. Most people spend their whole life trying to avoid change.   But change is where transformation comes from. Change unlocks the future. And it starts with READINESS. READINESS is fragile READINESS is fleeting READINESS holds all the potential for the future   Next week I will share with you my thoughts on SET, but this week focus on your READINESS. READINESS is the first step in your new year. Don't miss it!   EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Organize 365® Year End Bundle The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day - December 31, 2022   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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! Today I am so excited for you to meet Maura. Over the summer I put out a social media post requesting a family that would allow me to get their kid’s rooms organized and FILM IT ALL for a movie about Kids Organization. Maura was jumping up and down saying “pick me”! Maura is a mom of four - Bode (12), Lucy Belle (10), Finley (7) and Blaise (4). She runs a bakery out of her house (oh my goodness - she makes the BEST cookies) and her husband also works from home.  As Maura put it, “the spigot never stops.” Which leads us to talking about OVERWHELM as a parent. The overwhelm is beautiful and messy all at the same time. And I’m so glad I was welcomed into Maura’s house to put into action the principles of Organize 365®’s Kids Program. I LOVE ORGANIZING CHILDREN. I LOVE IT. I was able to come one day early, meet these kiddos, and look at the task ahead of me.  I spent a total of 2-3 hours with each child individually and we focused on the oldest three.  We are all looking for ways to connect with and spend quality time with our children. Did you know that time spent teaching kids the skills of organization while organizing their room with them can be the BEST quality time?  Get the kids involved! Working with your kid to organize their room is quality time you can spend with them. They love the one on one time. They love talking about their stuff. They love getting to make decisions. They love the result and the process. You are teaching them the valuable skill of organizing while spending time with them. Make it an enjoyable process for both of you! Listen to their stories. Everything in their room has a story for them. These are their little treasures! Now when Maura tucks her kids in at night, she can actually go into their rooms and not get filled with so much frustration over the mess. Listen for the update since my visit.  I can’t come to everyone’s house but trust me - you can do this!  The Organize 365® Kids Program is like I am there with you and we go through all the areas.  Harness your kids excitement to your benefit NOW is just as good a time as any.  Since the kids are out of school and there’s anticipation building for the holidays…declutter and organize.  Make room for all the new stuff that will be coming into your home. I also shared some tips you may want to use for other ideal times that you want to declutter and organize. EPISODE RESOURCES: Watch the Kids Organization Movie featuring Maura’s lovely family LIVE this Friday with me at 7 pm ET. Want to get organized as a family? The Limited Time Year Bundle is the perfect resource to get yourself and kids organized in 2023. Sign-up for the Kids Program Orientation on December 27 at 11 am ET The Kids Program The Launch Program Maura’s Cookies Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media! I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

“In today’s podcast, I’m channeling my 30-something self.  Once school let out for the holiday break, any shred of productivity or sanity that I was going to have for the last 10 days of the year were out the window and I was back to being camp counselor again. If you are in your active parenting years, this podcast is a HUGE HUG from me. It’s all going to be alright. You’re going to be fine. Everyone is going to love everything that they get, everyone is going to appreciate the work that you are doing, all the invisible tasks are going to be well-rewarded. YOU ARE DOING A GREAT! If your primary role and responsibility right now is raising humans…that is not a job. It’s a life’s calling. It is your legacy. It is your life. It is all consuming. I’ve been there. I’ve done it.  I know you feel like you never have any time. And you may tell yourself that you will get organized when you have more time. But, the truth is...people in their 30’s are the BEST at getting organized. Because you need it SO much more.    Learning the skill of organizing is not optional. If you opt-out, meaning you don’t want to learn the skill of organizing, then everything is going to be harder for you. Organization skills is where ease, capacity, time and sanity comes from! It is an essential skill. The Organize 365® Year End Bundle includes the three essential things you are going to need in order to get optimally organized in 2023. This will ensure your whole entire life is organized so you can move even faster. I know what you want… More impact More capacity Do more. Be more places You really don’t have to pick and choose. You need to be everywhere and doing everything in your 20s-40s. You need to learn the skill of organizing AND your children need to learn the skill of organizing. So here’s what we’ve put together for you: The Productive Home Solution™ The Kids Program - like The Productive Home Solution™ for your kids The Sunday Basket® System If you are wanting to get your WHOLE family organized; from the dog all the way to mom and dad, then listen to the end because we have a big event planned to help you AND your family

show notes

On the Wednesday podcast, 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 learn the skill of organization, too! This week, I am sharing my interview with Ashley C. She lives with husband, three children and some fun pets! She shares her struggle with living up to the Pinterest perfect bar she set for herself when she had her first baby.   Ashley has been a dedicated podcast listener for years.  The Organize 365® podcast gave her the permission to forgo the Pinterest perfect nursery rooms and scrapbooks and get things done a little less than perfect.   We discuss how we have all these long to-do lists and so much pressure on ourselves but the funny thing is, no one is checking that list.  No one is disappointed that we didn’t accomplish something or accomplish it in the way we planned.   Ashley is somewhat of a reformed perfectionist now.  In her business, she uses the phrase “experiments in imperfection.”  She joined The Productive Home Solution™ and got her new home organized. Only recently did she purchase the Sunday Basket®.  Why now?  Lisa helped her to unveil feelings of fear of failure. Ashley knew about all the resources Organize 365® has to offer but she subconsciously felt that maybe she wouldn’t do them justice.  I encourage everyone to not sit on the sidelines due to fear of failure. Is it time for you to get off the sidelines and make the commitment with the Sunday Basket® system?  I am happy to say Ashley is organized and on her way to the next chapter of life. Her transformation story is ongoing as she is now working her way into business and just got started with the Friday Workbox®.  EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Productive Home Solution™ 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. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Great News!  We have two new locations for 2023!!  I hope to see you there!   Learn more and sign-up for a live, in-person Paper Organizing Retreat.   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s episode as we wrap up our series on my ADHD journey and exploration of executive functions, I am excited to introduce you to Keith Boswell, Vice President of Marketing at ADHD Online. ADHD Online is transforming the diagnosis and treatment of people dealing with neurodiversity. Organize 365® and ADHD Online have partnered several times over the past year to present organizational solutions that I have found to work for others struggling with ADHD. Keith brings a new level to this conversation we’ve been having - he is open about his diagnosis of ADHD and his own organization challenges and triumphs. We talk about his familys’ problem areas, the progression of aging children, and roles that will come with the organization of their house. Find out how we met and how our partnership is evolving. Keith and ADHD Online are doing some important work for awareness and helping people function with ADHD. They are helping people to get a faster diagnosis and move on to finding solutions.  ADHD Online has medical professionals providing the diagnosis and from there you can choose to work with them or your primary doctors and pharmacies. And, they are proud to say that the solution is not always medicine!  They really work with their clients to help them succeed. Organize 365® is  excited to work with them to provide solutions that work for helping their clients live a more organized and proactive life. EPISODE RESOURCES: ADHD Online ADHD Awareness Resources Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s episode we wrap up our four part series on exploring the executive functions and the role they play in our ability to be organized. I’ve always believed that you won’t just “be organized.” Organization is a learnable skill. This means that it’s not something you have to be born with. If you’re currently not organized, that's okay too! You can absolutely learn how to be organized. I have always had a strong belief that organization is a learnable skill. So, I wasn’t surprised to learn that 87% of Americans also believe that organization is a learnable skill. However, I was surprised to find that of those same Americans - only 18% believed that they are organized. Organize 365® courses and programs teach you how to be organized. If you struggle with initiating and task monitoring, then you need community. That’s why adding the Organize 365® Community App was important to me. Initiation is simply the “start” factor. Task Monitoring is the ability to look at how far you have come and understand how much still needs to be accomplished. EPISODE RESOURCES: Organize 365® Blitz (Free) Organize 365® Community The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan Listen to today’s episode to learn how community and grace play a huge role in helping you learn a new skill (like organizing). Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

As we continue our series exploring executive functions today we get to talk about planning. Can you hear it in my voice? Planning is my FAVORITE-IST thing! Planning is so much more than filling in a planner or checking boxes. Planning is purposefully setting aside time and deciding how you want to show up in the next season. Decide what rules you want to make for your next season so you can be as proactive as you want to be. It’s time to dream about what is possible, about what you want to change, and about what you don’t want to change.  At Organize 365®, I offer LIVE Planning Days for home and work where I teach you how to proactively plan. They are conveniently scheduled around natural Golden Windows. Golden windows is a phrase I created to help articulate different times that are optimal for getting started on your transformational journey to organizing. Learn more about golden windows in podcast 242 - Golden Windows of Organizing Opportunity. You do realize, without knowing it, there are about three times a year we shift in life?  These are what I like to call Golden Windows.  This is a time to organize and plan.  Effective planning going into these golden windows can have a profound impact on your organizational transformation because your organizing energy is naturally higher than normal. And with a plan in hand you can really capitalize on that energy.  Planning is everything! Planning will help you make the invisible work visible. See how I’ve applied this to so many seemingly “invisible” tasks in life such as putting up and taking down my Christmas tree. There are a lot of layers to this conversation - listen to the full episode and join me for the next part of this executive function series where we will be talking about initiation & task monitoring. EPISODE RESOURCES: Organize 365® Blitz Business Friday Workbox® Starter Bundle with Planning Day Friday Workbox® Planning Day Bundle The Productive Home Solution® with first Planning Day included Home Planning Day Bundle - Essentials Home Planning Day Bundle - Deluxe ALL IN Work & Home Planning Day Bundle Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Today’s coffee chat is a special Holiday Blitz Edition. Every year I host my annual FREE Holiday Blitz. The goal of the Holiday Blitz is to help you strategically plan for your holiday season by making the invisible work of the holidays visible. The Holiday Blitz includes 13 free downloadable planning pages and 5 course videos where I walk you through planning the holiday season. We talk about how you can simplify your holidays, embrace your uniqueness and be present, proactive and productive throughout the season.   Listen in as I interview busy CEO and mom Jessica Evans of Ultimate Bundles. Jessica shares with us how she used the Holiday Blitz to plan out her holiday traditions. Find out what traditions she loves, which ones she doesn’t enjoy as much and how she is setting herself up for success this holiday season. Jessica also shares some really fun holiday ideas!   Do you want to plan your holiday season with The Holiday Blitz? There’s still time! Join the Holiday Blitz On Demand now.   EPISODE RESOURCES: The Holiday Blitz On Demand The Holiday Blitz Bundle   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Does it ever feel like you have a two year old in your brain talking to you all day reminding you of things you need to do and demanding what to do next?  Do you feel like you are playing an adult version of Memory or Go Fish when it comes to your paperwork?  Now that I've learned that I have ADHD, I'm ready to dive deeper into this topic of executive function and organization with formal research. Lots of times ADHD can be diagnosed when the person’s executive functions are analyzed. In this episode I explain the Executive Function of the Organization of Materials. Did you know most people organize their closets and kitchens first?  Why do you think that is? Listen to the full episode to understand. At Organize 365®, I have designed systems with enough structure to get the job done and with a little wiggle room for customization, because we’re all unique. Here are the rules to keep you on track… Everything should have a place. True - but you (not Pinterest, not society - you) get to pick that place. We tend to reorganize about every twenty years due to stages of life and unexpected life events. This is totally NORMAL! Maintain what is working for you. You only need to implement systems for what is unorganized. Organization of Materials has an order (think stages of life) Organization of Materials is about personal rules you create to maintain sustainable organization.  Through learning the skill of functional organization; you will literally unlock your time and be able to spend it doing what you are uniquely created to do. EPISODE RESOURCES: Lisa School Binder Organize 365® Lattice Binders Organize 365® 1.0 Slash Pockets Learn more about “zones” and functional organizing in The Productive Home Solution™ Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

What's next for research at Organize 365®? Now that I've learned that I have ADHD, I'm ready to dive deeper into this topic of executive function and organization with formal research. Lots of times ADHD can be diagnosed when the person’s executive functions are analyzed.  In this episode, I shared three examples of me relying on my working memory.  I analyze if my working memory helped or hindered the situation and explore explanations as to why I responded, the way I did, in each situation.   The executive function of working memory holds information in your head for a short amount of time so you can manipulate that information and do something.  Example: A math problem.  You take in the information of the numbers and functions that are being requested. When you do the problem in your head you are using your working memory to solve the problem. All hope is not lost - yes we can improve our executive functions according to Psychology today.  They suggest to identify which executive function you want to improve and then pick a strategy to help you improve. Strategies to improve your executive functions include: Chunk things into smaller tasks Externalize information using notepads, to do lists, or reminders  (had you completed the math problem, mentioned earlier, on paper, you would be helping your working memory by reducing demand upon your working memory so it is available for other items you need to remember) Buddy up with a peer to foster accountability Blocking access to distractions such as your phone in a drawer while focusing on a task Use rewards to motivate periods of consistent effort EPISODE RESOURCES: Psychology Today Strategies for improving executive function The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® The Holiday Blitz Planning Day for Home Planning Day for Work Notepads and Notecards Find me on Instagram @Organize365 Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

What's next for research at Organize 365®? Now that I've learned that I have ADHD, I'm ready to dive deeper into this topic of executive function and organization with formal research. There are five areas of executive function that involve organization: Initiating - getting started Working Memory - holding information Planning - planning ahead Monitoring - knowing what needs to be done next Organizing Materials - organizing your home I believe that you can impact and change your executive functioning by learning the skill of organization so you can have more time to do what you're uniquely created to do. At Organize 365® we have programs, systems, and products to help you in each of these areas. In this episode, I explain where I am going next and the massive decision that I have made in order to take the next step. I've talked about doing it for years, but finally, in January of 2023, I will begin a one-year program that will lead me into a Ph.D. program. No one else will do this research for me. If we are going to take on this project as a company, I want to be the one not just leading the team, but leading the research. To do that, I have to have a Ph.D. I've already been rearranging my schedule and preparing myself, my family, and my team for what this will look like. I'm dividing my week into three parts so my family, my company, and my studies all get the attention they need. Come along with me on the journey!   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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 want to let you know that there will not be any Wednesday Transformations in November. I had some scheduling conflicts and was not able to record any new interviews for you. Wednesday Transformations will return on December 7. 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! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Do I have ADHD or not? This has become so confusing! According to ADHD Online, I have a medical diagnosis of ADHD. According to Barbara Hunter's analysis of my BRIEF-A assessment, my executive functioning indicates that I do NOT have ADHD. Who is right? I took my questions to a psychologist in Cincinnati for a final answer. Why? Well, first, I want to give good recommendations to the Organize 365® community. If ADHD Online is not a good resource, I don't want to refer you to them. Second, I want to continue to do executive function research related to ADHD and organization, so I want to know if I actually have ADHD or not as I go into that project. Organization is a learnable skill. If we learn the skill of organizing, can we mitigate or eliminate the effects of ADHD? In this episode, I share with you my story of gathering supporting information from my childhood, taking additional assessments, and speaking with the psychologist to get the final answer. I explain the criteria for an ADHD diagnosis. I also share how in the process, we determined first that I do NOT have dyslexia as I have always been told. Two interesting things were the clinchers for my final answer. One was speeding tickets, and the other was how I handle money and debt. Listen to this episode to hear how in the beginning, the psychologist believed there was no way that I could have ADHD and how this all came together to finally find out if I do have ADHD. More Resources Book: How ADHD Affects Home Organization Organize 365® ADHD Playlist   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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 Carrie F. She lives with her husband and they have two teens at home and one away at college. She's a retired veterinarian. Paper was her greatest organizational struggle at home, especially after closing her practice. We talk about how she overcame her piles of paper by pressing through, starting with the current paper, and then working her way back through the rest of the paper. Is paper your nemesis? The Sunday Basket® System is the first step to getting your paper organized! 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! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This month I've been exploring the topic of ADHD and more specifically, discovering if I have ADHD. Last week, I shared my journey to reach the point of deciding to be tested for ADHD. First I took the assessment from ADHD Online and was told that I DO have a medical ADHD diagnosis. In this episode, I'm talking with my friend Barbara Hunter about whether she thinks I have ADHD... or not. She gave me The BRIEF-A to make her determination. This is the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function® Adult Version. The BRIEF-A is given in three parts: I took the assessment. Then both my husband, Greg, and my chief of staff, Stephanie, took the assessment to give their perspective on me. Barbara walked through the sections of the test with me to explain what the various sections mean and my results compared to Greg and Stephanie's opinions of me, as well as ways to improve my executive functioning in some areas. The final result? According to The BRIEF-A, Barbara says that this current assessment of my executive function says that I do NOT have ADHD. So, where do I go from here? I contacted a doctor in the Cincinnati area to do more testing so I can definitively find out if I have ADHD or not. More to come! Looking for more information on ADHD and Organization? Start with my book, How ADHD Affects Home Organization. It's available for free as an audiobook on the ADHD Playlist! Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: How ADHD Affects Home Organization ADHD Online Springer School and Center Barbara Hunter and Integrated Learning Designs The BRIEF-A Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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 Kat S. She lives with her husband and together they run her music studio out of their home. Kat feels like she learned to be organized at a young age because her mom had hoarding tendencies, but she has learned so much more since implementing Organize 365® systems. She and her husband trend to the minimalist side and have great systems in place for living and working together. Kat was able to bring her husband home to work in her business in part because she was able to show him using her Business Friday Workbox® and her stack of pink slash pockets all of the ideas that she had for her business that she needed help to bring to life. What's in your pink slash pockets? Visit Kat's website at KatStarrMusic.com. 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™ Friday Workbox® I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Do I have ADHD? My mom doesn't think I have ADHD. I didn't think I had ADHD. At one point, I adamantly opposed people who suggested I had ADHD. But, in more recent years, I have thought: Maybe I do have ADHD? When I would organize women in the Cincinnati area, many would start their appointments by telling me that they had or thought they had ADHD. My kids received their ADHD diagnoses when they were children and attended Springer School and Center for many years. I was a teacher and I saw many kids receive their ADHD diagnosis and the support put in place for them. My book How ADHD Affects Home Organization came out of this time of discovery and research about ADHD and research about organization. (By the way, you can now get the audiobook for free on our new Organize 365® ADHD Playlist!) People who have ADHD need more structure and support. It's not an issue of intellect. It's an issue of executive functioning. Everyone learns at a different pace and organization is a learnable skill. It's just that people who have ADHD tend to need a person to help put structure in place for them to learn the skill of organizing. In this episode, I fill you in on my journey of learning about ADHD and then coming to the point of deciding to find out if I actually have ADHD... or not. Many things came together recently for me to reach this point personally. I have done some biohacking with my Oura Ring and Apple Watch. I began a partnership and series of webinars with ADHD Online and learned more about their services. But, it was my recent meeting with Barbara Hunter that pushed me over the edge. She was at Springer School and Center for over 20 years. I took any class they offered as my kids were students there. They often bring in top-notch experts in conjunction with Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Barbara is now doing executive function coaching through her company Integrated Learning Designs. In this meeting, we were discussing how there are many resources for students and employees with ADHD, but no one is really addressing how ADHD affects your home life. So, then, I pondered out loud whether I actually have ADHD or not. Do I really want to know? What would it change if I knew? I wouldn't medicate for ADHD at this point in my life if I have a diagnosis because I have skills and systems already in place to make my life run smoothly. What would knowing that I have or do not have ADHD do for me? What I really want to know is my level of executive functioning and how to optimize that, whether I have ADHD or not! Barbara tells me there's a test for that! It's called The BRIEF-A. I was in! Just in our casual conversation, Barbara saw signs in me that pointed towards an ADHD diagnosis. And I saw more signs. I always had a floating "C" in school, I'm a talker, I interrupt people, I'm a busybody who doesn't vacation well, and I can't sit to watch TV without a puzzle to work on or laundry to fold. So, I made arrangements to take the test with Barbara. Before that, still unsure of if I really wanted to know the answer, I decided with some trepidation and some encouragement from Joey to first take the test from ADHD Online to see what they had to say. The results? According to ADHD Online and their assessment, I have ADHD. Next week, I talk about my results from The BRIEF-A and my meeting with Barbara Hunter. What does Barbara have to say about my executive functioning based on The BRIEF-A? Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: How ADHD Affects Home Organization ADHD Online Springer School and Center Barbara Hunter and Integrated Learning Designs The BRIEF-A Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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 Jennifer S. She lives with her husband and three kids, two of whom are off to college. Jennifer is an attorney and has always worked full-time outside of the home. We have a great discussion about wills, trusts, power of attorney for your adult children, inventories, caring for aging parents, and so much more. Jennifer shares how the Sunday Basket® kept her life running in a hard season while caring for her grandmother at the end of her life and her own aging parents. Jennifer loves Planning Days for both home and business but needed a little extra help. She gives a thank you to Stefanie at Island Organizing for her services related to the Business Friday Workbox® organization and the community she's found there. Jennifer, like many of us, tends to be a perfectionist. She's learning to say, "I am a person of excellence!" How are you pursuing excellence? 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™ Friday Workbox® Home Planning Day Business Planning Day Stefanie at Island Organizing I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In over a decade of studying female heads of households in their homes and researching what it takes to get them organized, I've thought a lot about time and the invisible work we are doing. The big thing when I started my business was hitting six figures. Everyone wanted to hit $100,000 in yearly income. Back then, I had just quit my teaching job in a private school making $24,000 a year in take-home pay. I couldn't even wrap my mind around ever being a six-figure income earner! Over the years, as I've looked at how women use their time, I've come to this conclusion: You can have six-figure time without the six-figure income. It's all about mindset and how you choose to spend your time. In this episode, I share my observations of six-figure income earners and my suggestions for developing a six-figure time mindset. How Six-Figure Income Earners Spend Their Time As a professional organizer, I went into the homes of many six-figure earners with million-dollar homes. These were often doctors, lawyers, business owners, and C-Suite executives. I had the opportunity to see how they run their lives and the type of help they hired. Having a six-figure income gave these women and their families a choice in how they spend their time. Can you have this six-figure time mindset without the six-figure income? I think you can! Many millionaires are time-poor while many who have no income at all are time rich. What's the difference between time poverty and being rich in time? Time Passing vs Making a Difference Most people see time in terms of how much time is passing and what they can get done. Truly productive people see a third dimension: If I spend my time doing this today, will it make a difference in the future? Will it make a difference a month, a year, 5 years, or 10 years from now? People who are time multipliers always make their time decisions based on the significance factor. If you could get the to-do list done, what would you do with your free time? Too many of us just add more to-do items to the list.  I think we most want time freedom. To reach that goal, you must be proactive and not reactive. I talk about this all the time at Organize 365®. This is not a new concept. But, this is more than just planning out the big projects. You have to develop the habit muscle of proactivity in every area of your life. It means not doing every little thing when you have the thought. You write the thought on the index card, drop it into the Sunday Basket®, and do those little things all batched together to save time. Six-figure time takes being proactive a step further. Instead of waiting to have the thought about the dog's medicine or the bills that need to be paid, you put it on a schedule with a plan for how to get it done or create other automations for the task like using bill pay. You purposely plan ahead for how the task will be done. What in your life can be systematized, scheduled, and automated to save you time and mental space? Forward Thinking and Planning Days Everyone is a forward thinker according to Ben Hardy. The difference is how far ahead into the future you think. It's great to have 15 minutes of free time and do something that your future self will appreciate like emptying the dishwasher or starting the laundry, but this is reactive productivity. How do you move to the next step and think farther into the future? The answer is planning days. Planning days for your home and your work give you the focused time to get more done and have more impact. The goal isn't a longer to-do list. The goal is more time to do what you're uniquely created to do so you can have more impact. I'll be honest: It's more comfortable to add to the to-do list and check off the low-level tasks because it makes me feel productive. It takes time to wrestle with the question of what you're uniquely created to do and to try things out to see if that's the right thing for you. It takes time to develop skills and practice those skills. Six-figure income earners spend a lot of time growing their skills.  Six-figure income earners also spend a lot of time networking and making connections with like-minded people. Surround yourself with people who are investing their time and resources into being more productive so they can have an impact on the world. They also change their role as they grow. Six-figure income earners do the things that are the highest use of their time. You have to focus on working your way out of jobs. This might mean delegating jobs to other people or services that can do the work for you. This might be other family members. Consider meal planning services or hire a house cleaner. It might also mean changing the standard at which you do a task in your home. Can you lengthen the time between dusting or changing your sheets? Building Relationships I think that the true freedom of six-figure time comes when you can start to think about not just the work that needs to be done at home or in the office, but how you can impact relationships in your family, friends, and work. This is harder to prioritize because no one is holding us accountable.  Using the Sunday Basket® for Six-Figure Time The Sunday Basket® System is the first step in developing a six-figure time mindset. It helps you think about and systematize your personal life, household, family, and finances. I teach you how to move from being reactive to proactive. Now, based on this podcast you can take your thinking to the next level. When you focus on your Sunday Basket® color of the week, consider the chess level next steps. What can you do for yourself, your household, your family, or your finances that would save you time and give you time freedom for the future? I encourage you to pay special attention to how you invest your time with your family because these are the types of things that never make the to-do list and we fail to think about them until it's too late. I've shared many times about how I spent purposeful time with my kids in their teens to develop the close relationships that I have with them now.  Here's a simple way to be productive in your home instead of reactive and make time for family and relationship-building this holiday season: Join our holiday blitz! Get on the wait list for the 2022 Holiday Blitz now! Being a six-figure time person means seeing how valuable your time is and how valuable you are. Invest your time wisely! Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: I Know How She Does It by Laura Vanderkam Book: 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think Book: Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanny Book: Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden Book: Who Not How by Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan Join the waitlist for the 2022 Holiday Blitz The Sunday Basket® System Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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. For the rest of this month, I have a treat for you on the Wednesday Transformation episodes I want to share with you some of the extraordinary breakthroughs from women just like you who attended Embrace 2022. Listen in for Part 3 of the transformations! Embrace is now available on demand! You can learn more about the Embrace Self-Guided Retreat here. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

There are four types of work that we all do at home. In this episode, I go through these four types of work in detail and discuss how to reduce the amount of time spent on the first three so you can do more unique purpose work. Housework We've talked a lot over the last couple of years about housework. As a part of our Organize 365® Research, I have honed in on and defined this type of work. There are three main types of housework: cleaning, tasks of daily living, and organization. You must clean your home to some standard you set, do all the tasks that make you a human, like showering and brushing your teeth, plus the things in your house must have a home. Housework is like a part-time job of 18-25 hours each week for the average household without children! Listen to these episodes for more about how I define housework: #422 - Defining Housework Part 1 - Cleaning #424 - Defining Housework Part 2 - Tasks of Daily Living #426 - Defining Housework Part 3 - Organization #428 - Defining Housework Part 4 - Maintenance #495 - The Process of Equitably Dividing Housework #497 - Housework: The Hot Mess Theory Part 1 with Jacqui Ioli #498 - Housework: The Hot Mess Theory Part 2 with Jacqui Ioli #499 - Effort: The 80/20 of Housework - Not All Housework is Equal Invisible Work This is the work that happens in your Sunday Basket®. I talked about this with Eve Rodsky. Invisible work is the mental load and related tasks to running a household. These are things like paying the bills and planning for holidays. This type of work doesn't fit into the housework category and we have a hard time labeling and quantifying it. The Sunday Basket® System helps with invisible work. The first six weeks of setup and habit-building can take a lot of time because you're setting up systems and processes. You have a set time to handle all these little one-off or recurring tasks. It might take you 90 minutes to 3 hours in the beginning, but then something magical happens. The time savings (and lightened mental load) that you experience during the week is exponential. The average Sunday Basket® user saves 5 hours each week! There is a second type of invisible work: emergency invisible work. Illnesses, scheduled changes, and childcare/adult care fall into this category. When you or someone else gets sick in your family, the world around you doesn't stop and wait for you. The regular work doesn't go away and the emergency itself often creates more work. There are also schedule changes that are really just a part of life and we have to just roll with them. Not everyone has the final category, but childcare and caregiving for adults is a full-time 24/7 job all on its own.  Hobby Work Angela Watson and I talked a lot about hobby work earlier this summer in relation to teachers. We naturally fill our time with work, but it's not all essential work. Sometimes, we do extra work to make ourselves feel better or make something look the way we want. That's hobby work. This often involves trying to be perfect or redoing work. When I talked to Jacqui, she called this overwork. Whatever you call it, it is robbing you of your free time! This is refolding the clothes in the drawer, matching the socks, folding the underwear, micro-organizing the toys, and over-cleaning. Unique Purpose Work The female head of household struggles the most to prioritize unique purpose work over all other work. Unique purpose work is the work that you're uniquely created to do. No one else can do this work except you. But, too many of us feel that we must have an "A" in the first three areas before we can move into unique purpose work. Your family will push back. Your internal thoughts will push back. It's easier to search the internet for a fun printable about cleaning and press into hobby work. The reality is this: The pain of not doing what you're uniquely created to do must become greater than the pain of continuing to prioritize housework, invisible work, and hobby work for you to choose to prioritize your unique purpose work.  How Do I Find What I'm Uniquely Created to Do? I'm asked all of the time: How do I find what I'm uniquely created to do? First, I suggest that you go through the Embrace Self-Guided Retreat. We've set it up as an on-demand experience that you can do alone or make a weekend of it with friends. The sessions will help you focus on yourself and show you how to begin to dream again.  Second, you need to understand that finding your unique purpose takes time. I told you when we talked about passive organizing that it takes 12-18 months of research before you get started on organizing. It's natural then that it will take just as much time and research to find what you're uniquely created to do. You need focused thinking time. At Organize 365®, our mission is to help you get organized so you have the free time to do what you're uniquely created to do. Take your time back through organization! Find what you're uniquely created to do and press into it! Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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. For the rest of this month, I have a treat for you on the Wednesday Transformation episodes I want to share with you some of the extraordinary breakthroughs from women just like you who attended Embrace 2022. Listen in for Part 2 of the transformations! Embrace is now available on demand! You can learn more about the Embrace Self-Guided Retreat here. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Marie Kondo is like the Atkins Diet of organizing. Yes, it's true. Let me explain. Please understand that this is NOT an anti-Marie Kondo episode! I think Marie Kondo is awesome in so many ways. She's done so much to raise awareness for organizing and decluttering in the media and the general public. There are benefits to her method, but I do feel that the Marie Kondo method is not the best long-term solution for the average American woman or home. Last week I kicked off this podcast series by talking about passive organizing. When you're in this information-gathering stage, your interest and initial motivation can be sparked by things like Marie Kondo's book or TV show.  In this episode, I explain why Marie Kondo's organizational method is like the Atkins Diet of organizing.  First, ultra-low-carb diets like the Atkins Diet can give you quick results. You can get really, really quick results using the Marie Kondo method. That quick win can give you the motivation that is needed to keep going in the beginning. The problem is that you have to get rid of nearly everything to get those results! Americans (and Australians) in particular tend to have larger homes and more stuff in those homes. Japanese homes are usually much smaller and rooms are more often multifunctional. When an American woman uses the Marie Kondo method of organizing, there's a lot of pain and chaos that goes along with pulling everything out of a particular space. It's like the headache you get when you go through carb withdrawal. Second, the Atkins Diet is very one-size-fits-all, as is the Marie Kondo Method. There are strict rules to follow without deviation to get those results. Marie Kondo's Method is very prescriptive, telling you exactly how you should have each area of your home. Do you have paper? She says get rid of it all except a tiny folder. This doesn't work for the typical American because so many important documents must be kept and presented in paper format. My grandson, Grayson, is a toddler and he already has two pieces of paper that must be kept track of for the rest of his life: his birth certificate and his social security card. We are not and cannot be paperless in the United States at this point in time. There are too many variables in the American household, especially in terms of paper, making a one-size-fits-all approach difficult to follow. Don't even get me started on books. Marie Kondo says to get rid of all of your books. I did it. I got rid of all of my books. And I regret it! I love books and bookshelves. I have a couple of custom bookshelves in my home and I want more. I have hundreds of books on Audible and I'm in the process of buying many of those again in paper format so I can highlight them and write in them.  (Side note: I'm so used to thinking in terms of pink, purple, blue, and green work that I'm starting to highlight information in my books this way using our Organize 365® highlighters.) Third, the Atkins Diet is very restrictive and not as filling. The Marie Kondo Method is very restrictive and not as fun. There is one way to follow her program. If you don't follow the program to the detail, you don't get an A. But, I want an A in organizing. The problem is, I like stuff. I'm organized, but I like stuff. I don't have a ridiculous amount of stuff, like clothes, but my closet is far from being a capsule wardrobe.  These types of prescriptive systems tell you exactly what the end should look like to be considered organized. Minimal. Rainbow ordered. What if you have 35 pieces in your wardrobe instead of 33? What if you kept your books instead of getting rid of them all? Then you didn't follow the method and you don't get an A. You're not organized.  Lastly, most people cannot maintain the Atkins Diet for the rest of their lives. In a similar way, it is difficult to maintain organization like Marie Kondo. As soon as you stop following the prescriptive directions, the organization falls apart. It doesn't last. The Marie Kondo method of organizing gets you started, but it's not a sustainable way for most Americans to live. Organization is a skill that must be learned. You must know how and why you want to get organized. Your phase of life and the type of order that you want play a part. You need to practice making decisions that become rules and then habits for your life and home so that in the long term, you deal with less decision fatigue.  Marie Kondo's method of tidying is a wonderful place to start your journey. You can make some great visible progress with her system, but if you are not naturally a minimalist, it is not a sustainable lifestyle.  If you're like me and you like stuff (and are a bit of a rebel), it's time instead to focus on learning the skill of organization. Use the momentum of these quick-start methods to propel yourself into lifelong organization rather than endless cycles of decluttering and feelings of lack. Here at Organize 365®, we're not about Pinterest-perfect organizing. Our focus is functional organizing. Learning the skill of organizing is a lifestyle change, not a quick-fix project. It requires a mental shift. It's about having what you need, those things having a home, and regularly putting everything back where it belongs. The Productive Home Solution™ teaches you the skill of organization, guides you in developing systems, and learning to make decisions that become habits. I help you do the mental and the physical work. I show you how to make the invisible work visible.  Are you ready to move from passive organizing and short-term solutions to actively learning the skill of organization? Resources Mentioned in This Episode Organize 365® Highlighters The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® System The Friday Workbox® Related Episodes #501 - Passive Organizing #138 - Why The Magic Art of Tidying Up Doesn't Work For American Women   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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. For the rest of this month, I have a treat for you on the Wednesday Transformation episodes I want to share with you some of the extraordinary breakthroughs from women just like you who attended Embrace 2022. Listen in for Part 1 of the transformations! Embrace is now available on demand! You can learn more about the Embrace Self-Guided Retreat here. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

It's time to add a new term to our organizing glossary: passive organizing.  I've said for years that it really takes three years to get organized, but the first 12-18 months are not easily recognized in that process. The reason is that this first chunk of time is spent in passive organizing. What is passive organizing? Passive organizing is the time period during which you're becoming aware that maybe organization could help you become more productive. Maybe organization could help you get back your time. You're thinking, you're researching, and you're listening. This is passive organization. The change is happening in your mind, in your emotions, in your heart, and in your beliefs. Passive organizing is the "pink" work of organizing. This is the time frame when you're working on yourself. You haven't committed to organizing, but you're gathering information and working on your mindset. You're thinking about the when, the how, and the order. You're deciding who you want your teacher to be.  In passive organizing, you're consuming exorbitant amounts of information. Sometimes, this can cause information overload and paralysis. You might struggle to take action because you see the best in all the options.  Let's take a little rabbit trail. The Kolbe Assessment is a quantitative test that helps you determine how you think. Among other things, it tells you how you leverage these three areas of thinking and processing in order to complete a project: How much do you need to research something before you can do it? How much structure do you need before you can take action? How much do you need to talk before taking action? I am a "quick start." I spend the majority of my time talking about a project and then the active work portion of the project comes out really quickly at the end. I verbally process everything and I change my mind a lot. My team on the other hand tends to be much higher in research and/or structure. An example of this is how I wrote the book How ADHD Affects Home Organization. I completed the writing of the book in a weekend, but I spent two years preparing to write the book and talking about it first! How much research, structure, and talking do YOU need before you can take action on getting organized?  The other obstacle to deciding to get started with organing is having a tipping point. You have to reach a point when the pain of continuing to live in the current state of life is greater than the pain of change and learning a new skill to get the result you want. You have to realize that organization is a learnable skill.  Another tipping point is a golden window. These are big life events: a milestone birthday, a new baby, a new house, a new job, a loss, a health diagnosis, etc. Many times, multiple big events happen at the same time. These are seasons of opportunity. Disorganization leads to more disorganization, but when you seize the opportunity, these are major turning points. I want to remind you that I was once where you are. Back in 2012, I quit my teaching job, I was overweight, I was depressed, and everything was falling apart around me. You can read my story in Organization is a Learnable Skill and listen to my depression story in episode #69. I was negative and pessimistic. You would not have wanted to be my friend back then. What you see of me now is the after picture! You must also believe that you can get organized. You must make a decision that you are now going to live proactively instead of reactively. This is where you draw a line in the sand and step over it. And one day, you will find yourself listening to an Organize 365® Podcast episode and you just get up and start organizing while you listen instead of just gathering information! Are you ready to draw your line and get started on your organizing journey? Resources Mentioned in This Episode The Kolbe Assessment Book: How ADHD Affects Home Organization Book: Organization is a Learnable Skill Get Started: The Sunday Basket® System Get Started: The Productive Home Solution™ Related Episodes #69 - My Depression Story #242 - Golden Windows of Organizing Opportunity   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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 Loren S. She lives with her boyfriend and her 10 houseplants. Loren describes herself as a natural "piler" but implementing the Sunday Basket® System means that she now has fewer piles around her home. She and her boyfriend participated in the Adult Spring Break Blitz by cleaning out and reorganizing their linen closet together. Loren also introduced me to The Conqueror Challenge, which is an app that gamifies exercise. I do some teaching in my conversation with Loren about how to manage her Sunday Basket®. We talk about having only 5 slash pockets in each color and how to manage an ideas slash pocket for each color. Loren shares how she tried to DIY a Sunday Basket® for herself before committing and purchasing the Sunday Basket® System. She found the extra teaching you get with the Sunday Basket® System precisely what she needed to mentally grasp the system and be successful. Is it time for you to make the commitment and purchase the Sunday Basket® System? 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™ Related Episodes Swiss Cheese Organizing - Organize 365® Research Findings - #481 I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

One of the most impactful books I've ever read is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. This book taught me so much about consistency, well before Organize 365® was even an idea. We've reached a major milestone with this episode here at Organize 365®. This episode is our 500th Friday podcast episode. This doesn't count the extra episodes we've done over the years with Wednesday Transformations, Coffee Chats, and more. Counting those would bring us to well over 700 episodes in total and you've downloaded these episodes over 16 million times as of July 2022. Those numbers and that amount of content creation only come with consistency. In all these years, I've NEVER missed publishing a Friday episode! I was in my late 20s or early 30s when first read The Slight Edge and it stuck with me. I didn't fully understand back then the impact of a habit over time. You don't see that until you look back later. I knew I had to find ways to unlock more time in my life. I dived deep into how organization could unlock more time for me. Now, with the creation and implementation of the Sunday Basket® System, YOU have collectively unlocked 3 million hours and counting in YOUR lives! Wow! In this episode, I'm sharing quotes from The Slight Edge and things I learned from the book. Here are some of my takeaways: I had to see things in life not as being "to" me, but rather "for" me. Consistency beats talent. Most businesses take 10 years to really get started. Things will take longer than you want, but you need to look at time differently.  Stop looking for permission! Podcasts that take breaks don't last. I have higher self-standards now, but there are no "shoulds" and much more "grace" in my life. Focus on what you can change. Visionaries make people uncomfortable. I'm odd. You probably are too. There are fewer people to talk to as you move up. You have to live more in your mind than in reality to see the next big thing happen. It's time to stop filling your days with to-do lists and household tasks. Quit doing things that don't matter in the long term. Focus instead on being consistent in what WILL make a difference over time. Consistency beats talent, money, and pedigree every time. I'd love to hear how you're using your extra time to do what you're uniquely created to do! Join me on a Wednesday Transformation episode, tag me on Instagram (@Organize365), or share your story in our community app. Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson The Sunday Basket System® The Productive Home Solution™   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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 Laurie R. She lives with her husband and three kids, including one with special needs. When Laurie lost her job in 2015, she looked for organizing podcasts to listen to and found Organize 365®. At the time she was frustrated because her 1800s-era home had no closets and everything felt cluttered. You might be surprised to learn that she actually tackled her paper management first! We talk about Swiss cheese organizing, how hiring a house cleaner is a form of accountability, and permission to let go of things. Laurie also gave a great tip for creating a "jobs binder" to hold copies of professional licensure paperwork, performance reviews, and portfolio samples.  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™ Friday Workbox® The Paper Solution® Warrior MAMA Binder Related Episodes Swiss Cheese Organizing - Organize 365® Research Findings - #481 I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Time to plan out the next quarter of your work? Learn more about the Friday Workbox® Planning Day in this orientation replay. Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

Time to your work? Learn more about the Friday Workbox® in this orientation replay. Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

The Pareto Principle says that 80% of the fruit comes from 20% of the labor. I first learned about this principle when reading 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More by Perry Marshall. This is not just a sales thing. It can be seen in nature, road traffic, and math. So, I started thinking about how this 80/20 principle applies to our homes and housework. I know that perfection is not attainable. Instead, I've resolved to strive for excellence. What does it look like to be an excellent homemaker? We tend to equate cleanliness with organization. We are looking for order but "cleaning" your house doesn't bring that order.  In this episode, I share with you how I have employed the 80/20 principle in my house to bring it to excellence but not perfection while also giving me time to do what I'm uniquely created to do. (Spoiler alert: We're going to talk more next week about using that extra time!) What do 80% and excellence look like for my floors, counters/flat surfaces, laundry, and straightening/tidying in my home? What does it mean to get to 80% in your Sunday Basket® routine and The Productive Home Solution™?  Read the full show notes here: https://organize365.com/podcast/effort-the-80-20-of-housework-not-all-housework-is-equal  Resources Mentioned in This Episode Book: 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More by Perry Marshall The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ Organize 365® Research Paper Organizing Retreats Related Episodes Swiss Cheese Organizing - Organize 365® Research Findings - #481 Organizing Personal Spaces - #482 Organizing Family & Communal Spaces - #483 Organizing Storage Spaces - #484 Organizing Paper Management - #485 Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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, Holly P. is joining me again to update us on her transformation. You can listen to her previous transformation story here. Holly is back to talk about the Friday Workbox®, quick moves, self-care, and more. I love how Holly put together a Workbox® just for her pink slash pockets and how her dreaming and rising self-confidence brought her a promotion to management in her company. Way to go Holly! Holly's story is a great example of what happens when you use those pink slash pockets and start dreaming. What is in your pink slash pockets? 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 Friday Workbox® Book: Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo Transformation with Katherine Z. The Paper Solution® Certification Program I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Time to get your paper organized? Learn more about our paper organizing retreat in this orientation replay. Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

Jacqui Ioli is back with me on the podcast to finish the conversation that we started last week. Be sure to listen to her Wednesday Transformation to hear more about who she is and her story. Before you listen to this episode, go back and listen to the first part of our conversation about Jacqui's Hot Mess Theory of work and the concepts of overwork, underwork, rework, and workarounds. In this episode, Jacqui and I get into real-world examples of how you can eliminate overwork, underwork, rework, and workarounds, especially in terms of creating correct paths using the Sunday Basket® System. Many people have gotten organized using Marie Kondo's system of pulling everything out and going through it all until it's done. Unfortunately, this doesn't work well for the average woman, especially moms. It causes more chaos because you don't have big blocks of time to work with. The Organize 365® method gets you organized in 15-minute, bite-sized chunks of time that you can expand into larger blocks when the time and energy are available. You will still have some of the hot mess chaos between the stages of decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity, but it will not be catastrophic to you personally and your life in general. The Sunday Basket® specifically helps you eliminate the four types of work that Jacqui discusses and gives you back time. Our research says you can get back on average 5 hours a week by developing a Sunday Basket® routine! Having a place to gather the actionable paper but also a time to sit down and process those papers and random thoughts gives you the space to develop procedures and eliminate the problem of no correct path.  Jacqui describes how she has a procedure for when she finds a pair of work pants that don’t meet her needs. She has a correct path for removing those pants from her closet and home. Could you create your own Sunday Basket® System? Could you create your own curriculum like The Productive Home Solution™ to organize your home? Sure, but as Jacqui describes, it's faster and easier to buy the programs and modify anything to fit your specific needs rather than to create it from scratch. Eliminate the overwork! Jacqui also talks about signs and systems for taking care of an aging parent. If you're caregiving for an aging parent or another relative, you need to hear how Jacqui talks about vital signs for determining their capacity for caring for themselves. She also gives this great tip about creating a duplicate binder of their paperwork to keep at your home. What about paper versus digital? Yes, we went there too in this conversation! By all means, keep digital copies, and feel free to create complimentary digital systems. But, paper is powerful! When you walk into doctor's appointments or IEP meetings, you will save time, get more accomplished, and be taken more seriously if you can hand over a physical piece of paper. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Jacqui. I loved hearing about her research and examples of how and why the Sunday Basket® system works to eliminate the hot mess chaos in your life! Be sure to visit the post for this episode because you can download Jacqui’s slides from her presentation as well as some medical forms that she graciously shared with us and links to other things we discussed.

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 Lisa J. She lives with her husband on a farm in a remote area of Western Australia. They also have two teens who go to boarding school because of their remote location. Their 17,000-acre crop-oriented farm and they have employees who live onsite. Lisa found Organize 365® when she was searching for a better way to organize their business. We had a great conversation about Australia, the Friday Workbox®, Lisa's partial digital system with her Friday Workbox®, anxiety, and community involvement. I even snuck in a little business coaching about hiring and training new employees. Lisa's story is a great example of what happens when you get your work life organized. If you're looking to get your business or work life organized, you need the Friday Workbox®! 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® Workboxes I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave us a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. See this post and coffee chat episode for help setting up a podcast app as well as how to leave a rating and a review. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Have you been considering becoming a certifed organizer? Learn more about The Paper Solution® Certification program in this orientation replay. Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation 

Are you ready to tackle the piles of actionable paper in your home and misc to-dos that you're keeping in your head? Learn more about The Sunday Basket® System in this orientation replay. Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

Jacqui Ioli is my guest today on the podcast. If you're not familiar with Jacqui's story, be sure to go back and listen to her Wednesday Transformation episode. I asked Jacqui to join me to talk in-depth about why the Sunday Basket® works and how the concepts spill over into your work with the Friday Workbox®. Jacqui has been a registered nurse for 40 years and a nurse practitioner for 25 years. She went back to school in her 50s to get her Ph.D. in nursing education and research. She's brilliant! (And talking with her makes me want to get a Ph.D. even more!) I know you're going to love hearing how she explains these concepts. Jacqui got into research because she wanted to figure out why work was such a mess for the outpatient nurses she was supervising. She found grounded theory research, which is simply the basic way people solve day-to-day problems in a particular setting. She applies her knowledge of grounded theory to my theory of organizing: Declutter, organize, and increase productivity. After some insight into how a medical practice operates, we dive into types of work as well as the concept of invisible work. Invisible work is everywhere at home and at work! Making the invisible work visible allows you to reduce it, systematize it, and talk about it. Next, we dig into Jacqui's Hot Mess Theory of work. The Hot Mess Theory consists of four different types of work that are happening simultaneously. These are: Overwork Underwork Rework Workarounds In this episode, Jacqui fabulously explains these four types of work in detail and how they relate to the Sunday Basket® and your work life.  Overwork is too much work or too many steps. Jacqui explains this in terms of dusting. You could dust daily, but is that necessary? Could you stretch out dusting to my standard of six weeks or maybe every four weeks works between at your house? In this area it is important to ask two questions: Where am I doing too much? Where can I delegate? If you are overworking, you are also underworking. Underwork is working below your level of skill and training. If you say that it is just easier to do it yourself rather than delegate a task, you are both underworking and overworking yourself at the same time. This brings us to rework. This is work that wasn't done right the first time and must be done again. At home, this can be related to looking for something that you lost. The Sunday Basket® rescues you here because you can use it as the holding place for those important and actionable items. In terms of paperwork, where can a task be automated that has to be done over and over again? In housework, why are you refolding clothes or reloading the dishwasher? Let good enough, be good enough! Doing rework leads back to overwork. Workarounds happen when you don't follow the process or there is no correct path. You don't have time to think when you're in the midst of overwork, underwork, and rework. You then end up taking the workarounds because there's no correct path. The Sunday Basket® System and Friday Workbox® routines give you the opportunity to process the work, iterate, and create the correct path. These systems help you reduce barriers to your work and you make forward progress!  Jacqui and I just kept talking and talking so we split this conversation into two parts. she will be back next week to talk more about her Hot Mess Theory. Be sure to check out the full show notes on the website for this episode to get the download of Jacqui's slides from her presentation.

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!

We're bringing back in-person Paper Organizing Retreats! I'm so ready to start traveling again to see you and help you get your paper organized!   I would love for you to join me at one of these upcoming corporate Paper Organizing Retreats:   10/1-2: Phoenix, AZ 10/8-9: Orlando, FL 12/10-11: Cincinnati, OH   Gather up and fill your car with all of your paper to join me at one of these Paper Organizing Retreats. We will start Saturday morning by bringing in all of your paper and pairing 1-2 retreat attendees with a certified organizer who will personally guide you through the weekend. Until lunchtime, you will declutter and prepare for shredding. Then we have lunch and a shredding company will come to do all of the shredding on-site. The rest of Saturday and most of Sunday will be spent separating your paper into projects. We will end our time on Sunday with a Sunday Basket® time.   You can expect me to be on-site on Saturdays at these retreats. We plan to have time to take pictures together, do a book signing, and have a mini Organize 365® store open for you.   Please note that there are a limited number of seats available at the Paper Organizing Retreats. Start planning now! You can learn more and register for the retreat near you at https://organize365.com/paperorganizingretreat.   Our certification program is changing too! On the Fridays before these Paper Organizing Retreats, Monique will guide new certified organizers through their training so they will be ready to assist attendees. I'll be there to get a picture with you for our website and have lunch with you. If you're interested in certification, learn more at https://www.thepapersolutioncertification.com/.   If an in-person Paper Organization Retreat isn't a good fit for you at this time, check out the virtual Paper Organizing Retreats that our certified organizers are hosting here: https://organize365.com/paper-organizing-retreats.

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!

I'm going to get a little meta on you today. This is a podcast about podcasts. Stick with me! Take a journey with me and learn about some of the changes to podcasting over the years. I'm not a fan of asking you in every episode to rate and review and follow the podcast, but rating, reviewing, following, and sharing a podcast is what helps the podcast directories know that you find our content valuable. In turn, those directories like Apple and Spotify are more likely to put the Organize 365® podcast in searches and on charts where new people can find us. When you share on social media, I'd love it if you'd take a screenshot of the episode you're listening to and tag me in your post. It's not about the numbers themselves or the charts. Those are vanity metrics in many ways. The podcast crossed 16 million downloads last week (and that's amazing!), but more people need to hear our message! This is about reaching more people with the message that organization is a learnable skill, the invisible work needs to be made visible, and being organized gives you time back to do what you were uniquely created to do.  

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!

Welcome to the Organize 365® Podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Woodruff, CEO and Founder of Organize 365®   87% of Americans believe that organization is a learnable skill but they only give themselves a 1 in 6 chance of being organized in any particular area.    As a former educator, I'm taking on the challenge of uncovering how to make the invisible work at home visible, how to eliminate as much as possible, and to get our home from being in the process of being organized to finished being organized.   Join me for client success stories on Wednesdays and my latest thoughts on the state of the American home on Fridays, plus some bonus episodes from time to time.   Welcome to the Organize 365® Podcast. I'm so glad you're here!   Learn more about Organize 365® and our programs: Organize 365® Organize 365® Research The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ The Friday Workbox®   Visit the Organize 365® podcast channel to see all of our podcasts and playlists.  

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.

The final Embrace experience is right around the corner! I've put together a playlist on Spotify of all of the music we will be playing over the course of the weekend.  In this Coffee Chat episode, I share with you why I'm sharing this playlist and why I think it is important for you to hear the music before the Embrace experience.  Find the playlist on Spotify by searching for Organize 365® Embrace 2022 or use this link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ZTrssdhbwGJPtsIPK4YUx?si=ifJnWlyPQqGsvbCpz8ffxQ  It's not too late to join the Embrace experience virtually. Go here to learn more and sign up to join us: https://organize365.com/embrace2022 

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.

Teacher Camp is coming the week of July 11 - 15, 2022! Sheri MacGregor and I are going to walk you as a teacher or education administrator through the Education Friday Workbox® to get you ready for the coming school year. We will add a new Slash pocket color each day with 30 minutes of teaching and training to give you ideas for how to organize your administrative work. Then for the next 90 minutes, you will have the opportunity to co-work with other educators to work out and plan your system of organization. Listen to this episode for all of the details! To join Teacher Camp, go to: http://organize365.com/teachercamp

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

I am so excited to share with you our updated Education Friday Workbox®! Sheri MacGregor is joining me in this episode to help me tell you about all of the changes. Sheri MacGregor is a former teacher with a Master's in Elementary Education, a certified organizer, and is now in charge of our teacher support at Organize 365®. You can listen to these previous podcast episodes to learn more about Sheri: Friday Workbox with Sheri MacGregor Transformation with Sheri M. Sheri was a part of the mastermind group that helped us revamp the Education Friday Workbox® and Playbook. You'll be seeing a lot more of her because she did all of the videos in the Education Friday Workbox® dashboard, will be joining me for Teacher Camp, and will be your host and guide for the weekly co-working time for teachers. The new Education Friday Workbox® has an updated Playbook to help you set up your organizational system. We also included not only the 2.0 Slash pockets but 3 additional colors of Slash pockets -  because we know that teachers are juggling extra categories of work that need to be organized! In this episode, Sheri and I talk about these changes and so much more! We share with you some practical ideas for organizing your Education Friday Workbox®, Teacher Camp coming this summer, and how to approach your administrator for reimbursement and continuing education units. Get the presale Education Friday Workbox® with special bonus here while supplies last.

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!

I want to stop by quickly and let you know about some upcoming Organize 365® events.  For all the details, check out https://organize365.com/mastermind-with-lisa-upcoming-events

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!!!

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 morning 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! It's time to dive into the workweek. Before I go any further, I just want to remind you that here at Organize 365®, we view your “work” as “whatever you spend the majority of your Monday - Friday doing during the day.”  Why is it important to define our workday as “work”?! It was so powerful for me to redefine “work” for myself and view my seasons of parenting, homeschooling, and being the family medical liaison as “work” because then I could embrace and apply better routines & productive habits to my day. I share one week of my morning routines recorded in November in this week's podcast. While recording this week, I realized that I actually have two different morning routines.   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 on to this podcast episode my morning routine when my kids were in high school.  Hands down, one of the best habits I embraced for my mental health was establishing daily routines.  Why? Because it gave my “never-ending to do list days” structure and broke my day into buckets of time.  We all need structure, routines, and transitions in our days. 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 morning routine has continued to change and evolve over the years and will continue to do so in the future. Do you have a morning routine? Is it time to add or take something away from your morning 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!!!

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 Sunday Routine. 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! As I shared in the last podcast episode, Saturdays are fundays around here, which means Sunday afternoons are my domestic workday.  We started watching church from home sometime in late 2018/early 2019, and Greg’s mother has been coming to our house on Sundays for the past few years. My Sundays are now spent entirely at home. I decided for this season to add all housework tasks in and around my Sunday Basket® time on Sundays from 12-4. I fit my housework into a four-hour time block. Each weekend, I give my home and family a four-hour block of time. Some weeks I am running to check all the to-dos off my list, and other weeks I am looking into my Sunday Basket® to find projects to fill that time.  I have always found that getting my machines and people started first, before I dive into the work only I can do, has improved my productivity. I do the same thing on Sundays during this work time. I go through my emails and make decisions. I review my meeting agendas for the week. I get myself organized. I clear out papers, plan my outfits, and update my calendar so that I have time to get my most important work done.  In my 20s, 30s, and 40s, four hours would not have been enough time for all of this. This podcast series is not for you to compare your schedule with mine, but to open your thoughts and explore the possibilities of what your everyday life could look like. How much time do you need to spend on housework each weekend? Which day or days will you do so, and for how long?

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!!!

Today marks the start of a podcast series I have wanted to produce for years! I love sharing the “behind the scenes” of my daily life on Instagram. For a long time, I have been thinking about how I could share my day-to-day life on the podcast. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing how my habits, routines, and the different ways I think about time. I did not get to these mindsets and behaviors overnight. It was a transformation that happened over a decade. I want to share the information that would have helped me make these changes faster and more effectively.  Now, I do not “have all the answers.”  I am on the journey of life, just like you, working to have more control over how and where I spend my time and energy. The easiest way to understand where someone's time and energy goes is to hear their story. So, I’ll be sharing my days in lots of detail. I ask that you just consider these as possibilities and inspiration. Dream a little bit and explore how you might make some changes to your everyday life.  Saturdays Let's start with my Saturday routine. Saturday is a “free day” in the Woodruff household.  On Saturdays, everyone picks their meals, sleeps as late as they want, and chooses their entertainment. It is a great way to transition from the hustle and bustle of our Monday - Friday into the more relaxed pace of the weekend.  Saturday is my new Sunday. Until we made this transition as a family, Saturdays were full of chores and work.  Now that I work full-time in an office, I can’t even imagine having the energy to stay in full-on work mode on my Saturdays at home.  Many of you make Sundays your “free day.” Either way, I think the important thing is that each person in the house gets to have a day, or a part of a day, to “do their thing.” Do you have a day to rest and enjoy your passion projects?  I am not sure I could have had this kind of a day in my 20s, 30s, and 40s, but I wish I had at least considered the option. One of my passion projects is taking care of my family and our shared home. Listen in as I take you along on my “domestic day” and the rewards I choose when my time and energy run out. I don’t get it all done either! But, I do rest and rejuvenate when I hit my limits.

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!!!

There are 4 main categories of reasons why people decide to get organized. In this episode, I walk you through the main reasons to help you find YOUR why. Unpacking your why will help you stay motivated and keep your eye on the prize when you get stuck in the day-to-day of your organizing.  Which of these four reasons for getting organized resonates most with you? I got caught up in the hype of New Year's resolution or the Marie Kondo Netflix series. I'm tired of feeling behind and reactionary. I'm looking for my home to be a restful haven. I want to break a family cycle of disorganization. Every reason has its trouble spots to overcome. If you jumped in spontaneously, the beginning is fun and easy, but then you find an area that requires more thought or doesn't fit the model, and you get stuck. Dig into another reason to continue organizing. If you're reactionary, there will be a period of time in which you feel like you're going backward. If you didn't have a model of organization growing up, it's probably going to take a little longer to learn the skill of organization.  Be sure to take (and print) pictures of your progress too! It's hard to see your progress when you're so close to your home. Taking a step back and comparing before and after photos will help you see the progress.  I don't want to see you give up! Figure out your why and hang onto it when you feel discouraged. What will getting organized allow you to do or be? Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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 have an extra special treat for you! By popular request, today’s transformation is featuring Lorie and her dad JB. So many of you have enjoyed watching Lorie help her 92-year-old dad declutter his home and get started with his Sunday Basket® habit. They are both great storytellers and have so many life lessons to share. I hope you enjoy their story as much as I do!  Lorie has been a previous guest when she shared her own Wednesday Transformation and she also shared how she adapted to teaching from home during the pandemic. 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!

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 Charlotte S. She shares her very unique journey. She has worked as an international disaster relief nurse and lived both overseas and in the US. Her family size and shape have changed dramatically over the years. Listen as she goes from overcrowded and overstressed to having more time and an empty nest. 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

Happy New Year’s Eve! It’s hard to believe, but ten years ago, I started along this journey to create and share Organize 365®. I share the details of this story in my memoir Organization is a Learnable Skill. I was in a place where my world was spinning out of control, I had quit my job. I could never have in my wildest dreams imagined that so many good things would happen. A podcast, physical Sunday Basket® system, and published books were not even in the realm of possibility in my future.  But, I had written down my biggest possible goal for Organize 365®. I have all of my dreams recorded in my special pink notebook. I went back and looked at it. That year I took to focus on my home and family changed my life. I changed my mindset from overwhelmed and reactive, to productive and proactive. I knew that my zone of genius was organizing. I set some goals for growing my business, but I have pivoted and exceeded my wildest dreams! Sometimes it’s hard to dream forward ten years. Instead, take a little bit of time and look backward ten years.  What have you accomplished in the last decade?  What life experiences have you added to your journey?  Who are you today that you weren’t ten years ago? Over the last few months, Organize 365® has been making a lot of changes. We are planning to be settled into our new normal by January 2022. We are working to make the transformational journey easier to start (and to finish) for everyone! We have been busy bees at the office getting everything decluttered and organized to better support your journey. You can learn more about: The Complete Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ (formerly known as All Access) The Kids Program The Friday Workbox™  Organization is an inside job. But, it is also a learnable skill. It’s not as simple as tying your shoes. It’s more like learning a foreign language. It typically takes about 365 days. You can start anytime you want. The sooner you start, the faster you will transform your life. Join us! I look forward to helping you get organized! Thank you for being on this journey with me! Thank you for listening, downloading, sharing, and rating the podcast. We are going to celebrate ten years next week, and I cannot wait!

If you and I were at a family holiday gathering together this week, the podcast today is the conversation I would start.  I have always been inquisitive. Asking big questions and researching new interests is something I have always done. I see it in my husband, Greg, and our kids too. Whenever we wonder about something, we grab our phones and start to Google. It’s a great thing really, the ability to question and get answers to your questions right away. Access to information has become a great equalizer and I find more and more of my friends have caught the questioning and researching bug that I have always had. The last two years have brought an unprecedented amount of change in every single area of our lives, and it is the pace of that change that is hard to comprehend.   I do not have a big revelation, actionable plan, or solution to share. These are partly mindset shifts, and some observations, thoughts, and musings.  Listen in and have a mental conversation with me this weekend. YOU are the person I would most like to talk to at the party. 

Be My Guest! Read more and apply here: https://organize365.com/wednesday

What do you think of when you think of productivity? Remember last week when I said that when I am organized I feel like I can make forward progress on my goals and projects. For me productivity means doing MORE usually in LESS time or with less resistance.  If you break down the 3 steps to getting organized:  Decluttering = Removing. Organizing = Rearranging. Increasing Productivity = Moving forward faster. Let's look specifically at Increasing Productivity. Productivity comes from thinking and planning. Every minute you spend planning SAVES 4-5 minutes in executing your plan. Planning = TIME SAVED. While it may be hard to find time to plan your day, your meals or your vacation, you KNOW that when you do - everything goes easier and faster. Once again I have one caution... to be most effective, you need to have decluttered and organized the area you want to increase productivity in. These steps do need to be done in order. 5 Steps to Increased Productivity. Use the organized system. Plan. Refine and reorder. Evaluate / maintain. Execute. Get your FREE printable of the 3 stages of decluttering 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 interview with Sarah H. She is a physician and a single mom. She shares how she has worked to become more proactive even during an unpredictable phase of life. 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

Get your FREE printable of the 3 stages of decluttering here! FINALLY! Don't you just want to jump right to the step where you get to go buy cute matching containers when you are organizing a space? ME TOO! BUT every time I do that... it influences what I keep and how I store things instead of my THINGS influencing those decisions. (In the podcast I share how I figured that out as a professional organizer.) First, let's talk about what being organized means. For me it means: Everything has a place. I know where to find things. I do not spend time LOOKING for things.  I FEEL organized and put together. I can have friends over and feel great. My house looks good - not perfect - but good. I feel confident in my abilities. I don't have too little or too much. I have choices of how to spend my time. I am able to make forward progress on my goals and projects. Before I dive into the 5 steps to organizing I want to give you one caution... You will not get it 100% right the first time.  Yep, no matter what you are organizing, your goal is to get 80-90% better. The last 10% comes in step 3. Which I will cover next week. Ok, so you know how you will feel and are not going for perfection, let's dive in! 5 Steps to Organizing Get a big picture plan for the space. Combine like items. Match your items to the space. Buy organizers. Clean and finish. Organizing feels amazing! But after a while... you realize something is missing. The last 10% is Step 3 of organizing — Increased Productivity. Links to things mentioned in the podcast: Try one FREE week of the 100 Day Home Organization Program - now available inside The Productive Home Solution.

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 Kerensa P. She lives with her spouse and young daughter. She shares her story of how a medical binder helped in her infertility journey and helped her to grow her family. She also shares how much she has benefited from working with a Sunday Basket® Certified Organizer. 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!

 5 Steps to Decluttering  Eliminate all trash, food and broken items. Sell or consign anything of value you want to sell.  Bag up any donatable items and deliver them to the donation center. (Including consignment items they wouldn't take) Collect everything that goes in another room and locate it in that room. Make a list of any spaces that need organizers, or items that need to be replaced.  Decluttering feels good, but not finished. Step 2 of organizing needs to follow quickly to bring order into your newly emptied space.  Try the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge free at https://organize365.com/try100/ Get your FREE printable of the 3 stages of decluttering 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 interview with AJ C. She lives with her spouse, two kids, and a pandemic puppy. AJ shares how she has made progress in her storage room, kids rooms, and how she has increased her capacity to handle more projects with less stress. 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

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the US. It’s a time my family uses to catch up with family and friends. Thanksgiving kicks off the busy memory making, holiday filled end of the year. Today, I want to share how thankful I am that I have been able to connect with you through this podcast for the last seven years. Even more mind-boggling, Organize 365® will turn ten years old in January 2022.  Now that we are nearly a decade in, I am thinking about what Organize 365® will look like in another ten years. What do we want to take along as we move forward? What do we want to refine? The podcast is not going anywhere. The Organize 365® team is here to help you with your life transformation, and we want to be sure the podcasts we share align with helping you to achieve your goal. I am deeply exploring the question: Are the quantity and quality of the podcasts we share actually helping you transform? So much of our foundational teaching about the skills of organizing are buried back in the beginning of the podcast. The skills of organization are built on decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. I want to really create some foundational podcasts that you can listen to on Fridays. They are concepts from older podcasts, but they will be refreshed for our new normal. There are a limited number of skills you need to learn to be able to get organized. Once you learn, then you need to apply the skills to actually create change! I am super excited about these curated podcasts we are putting together. I am looking forward to seeing their impact.   What have you been running hard and holding your breath to get through over the last eighteen months? Where do you need to refine your own life to make it more sustainable going forward?

Monique Horb is back, and today is the day!!! Our community app is now live and available for download!!! Our old app with access to some of your dashboard has been removed from the App Store and Google Play Store, but we have a brand new online community ready for you.  Today, we are launching our Organize  365® online community app. This will function similarly to Facebook, but it is private and less distracting. We have simplified everything to make this app more productive. There is nothing there to take you away from your organizational interactions. When you are in the app, you can enjoy the other members and a supportive community, but the distractions have been eliminated. You will have as much community as you desire, but you will also be able to stay focused on your own transformation and make progress along your own organizational journey. The app is directly connected to our website, so all of your specialized online communities will open automatically when you log in. We have been working behind the scenes for months to get ready to host this community. We built this specifically for you. We want to have one place where it is easy for you to find what you need, and where it is easier for us to get you news, information, updates, and encouragement. This new community will save you time, help you be more productive, and give you encouragement.  We have organized the community app to match your organizational journey. There are only six groups in the app. News & Updates - will have all the current news about Blitzes, Masterclasses, and whatever Lisa dreams up The Sunday Basket® Club - everything from the Facebook group has moved here including the weekly Sunday Basket® Club live and the replays 100 Day Program - motivation, encouragement, and interaction for completing the 100 Day Home Organization Program tasks All Access Program - content related to the extra step of All Access including the Tuesday Binder tips, photos, planning day, and the new All Access Podcast by Lisa Friday Workbox™ Club - all the support and encouragement you need for maximizing your Friday Workbox™ including the Friday Workbox™ sessions and replays Certified Organizer Group - community support and interaction for all of our Sunday Basket® Certified Organizers, our The Paper Solution® Certified Organizers, and Friday Workbox™ Certified Organizers We hope that you jump in, make connections with the rest of the Organize 365® community, and continue to move along your journey! We are still learning about the amazing ways we can support and encourage you using this technology - please give us grace as we continue to increase the value for you. Things we do know the new app offers - badges to show what groups people belong to (including the Dream Team and Certified Organizers), direct messaging capabilities, and direct access to many of the printables.  We are so excited about having a new community app. We would love for you to download it and come check it out! Please download the official mobile app through the iOS App Store  or Google Play Store. You can also access the community on your desktop.  When you create your account, please use the email address that is associated with your Organize 365® dashboard access. Once logged in, check out “Start Here" to learn about this new platform. Have questions? Please click here for app FAQs

In the current podcast series, I am sharing my conversations with members of the Dream Team while we are in the messy middle of some of our current transitions. In this four part series we will be unpacking the most commonly asked FAQs for different parts of the Organize 365® transformational journey. I want to keep you updated on changes and improvements as we declutter and organize before our 10th Anniversary in January 2022. We are not eliminating anything, or raising our prices on any existing products. We are simply doing some decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. This week, I am sharing my conversation with Monique Horb. Monique is the Organize 365® Director of Business Development. We have spent most of the last year taking the Friday Workboxes to 110%. We have upgraded our Friday Workboxes into two overarching categories - Business and Education.  We look at work differently here at Organize 365®. For us, work includes anything you do for the majority of your hours from Monday to Friday. We want to help you organize the different kinds of work that you do so that you can get more life and spend time in your unique purpose. Friday Workbox FAQ What is the Friday Workbox™ and why might I want one? At home, we are used to thinking about having paper. However, at work, it feels like we are always on a computer. The Business Friday Workbox™ is a physical representation of your work inside of a box. Our brain is not digital.This system will hold all of your ideas and actionable to-do in a single place where you can quantitatively see it. Printing your emails and other digitials items helps you and others see the quantity of work you are handling. What is the difference between a Sunday Basket® and a Friday Workbox™? The physical components are the exact same physical tools as the Sunday Basket®. But, it goes deep because business is more complex and nuanced. For most of us, our brains make connections better when we are not in front of digital screens.  The Sunday Basket® is for anything related to your home, and the Friday Workbox™ is for anything related to work. Both help to eliminate your to-do list, and hold your ideas for future possibilities. Both help you to prioritize how you will spend your time and energy over the upcoming week. I understand how the Friday Workbox ™ can hold ideas, but what other things go in there? As a leader of a company, it is easy to spend a lot of time talking about ideas. If you have a more traditional job, the systematic approach of the Friday Workbox™ will still work for you. It works for anyone in any kind of business.Every job has four core components. Once you identify the components that relate to your job, you can optimize them and make your approach more productive.  What colors are used in the Friday Workbox™? Pink - anything that is only done by youPurple - your assignment or job descriptionBlue - the team that helps you get your work done (direct reports and supervisors)Green - financial OR administrative and repetitive tasks If I get a Friday Workbox™, how long will it take to work? What do I have to do for this to be useful? This is not a one and done system. The Sunday Basket® takes four to six weeks to build the habit. The Workbox takes a bit longer to set up and build the habit. We ask you to give it a full quarter of the year; give it a full 13 weeks. You keep talking about planning. I don’t feel like I have the time or authority to stop my work and plan for my next quarter. How does your planning system work? When I think about my planning, I realize that I am a teacher, and teachers always spend so much time planning. I’ve always been a salaried employee, not an hourly one. When I tried to limit my hours in the past, I had to plan a lot to be a really good teacher. As the owner of Organize 365®, I am spending at least 20 hours a week thinking and planning. The more prepared I am, the faster and easier the work is for the rest of the team.For you, start with five minutes after each meeting. Go through what you have been asked to do, and add it to your actionable to-do list. See how much your productivity improved. Next, add on five minutes before meetings and review the notes from the previous meeting, write down any questions you have for the meeting, and then do your five minute post review. I know that a Friday Workbox ™ is the place to store the actionable to-dos and the Friday Workbox ™ Planner is the place to plan. What makes the Organize 365® planner different from others? I was an unusual child and I have had a planner since the fourth grade. I love planners. Most planners sold are really more of a date book or calendar; they record dates. Our planners have actual education for how to plan your time. The front of the planner has pages to guide you in thinking about your goals in all four kinds of work. I then guide you through an audit of how you actually spent your time. Then, we realign your time decisions so you can create what you are trying to create. The calendar keeps track of your appointments, and the planner gives you the vision of what you are going to accomplish.Planning and purposeful thought makes everything happen. Every single person is busy, but the goal in life is not to do more. The goal is to organize your time, thoughts, and energy so that you can make the biggest impact in the world. This system will increase your impact. Using a common language improves your communication tools. Improving your communication tools helps more people collaborate effectively without requiring more complexity. I have a lot of paper for my job. Does it all live in the Friday Workbox™? Each slash pocket represents and holds the paper for a single idea or project. Lisa has multiple boxes of slash pockets — one at work and one at home. The most active ones live in an active workbox or portable bag for this quarter, and the rest tend to stay in one place. Frequently accessed reference papers are printed and kept physically in binders, and they are also kept digitally. The binders are color coded to match the workbox and hold the reference materials for easy access when needed. The contents of each binder is reviewed quarterly to ensure they are up to date and to identify any decisions that need to be made on the contents. I have heard about a Friday Workbox™ Club. What is that and how can I join? As a teacher, I know there are many different kinds of students and learners. They need different levels of support and tutoring to be successful. Organize 365® provides three different ways to help you be successful in implementing the Friday Workbox™ system. On demand dashboard training videos Friday Workbox™ Club  - 90 minute virtual sessions in an online community for co-working and accountability Friday Workbox™ Certified Organizers - individuals who partner with Organize 365® and can provide 1:1 or small group assistance I have purchased other programs and not followed through. What support or access is there for the Friday Workbox™? Organize 365® is an education company. When you invest in our programs, I want you to have access to the teachers, the community, and the support you need to achieve organization. There is a lot included in your initial purchase — we want you to succeed!This is your professional development and an investment in yoru time management and productivity. It will multiply your time going forward, and we are not going to take it away from you. Is there a way to try this before I make a purchase? Absolutely! Please go to organize365.com/workboxes and read all about the workboxes. A Masterclass is coming soon! And, there is a free five day mini course available to 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 interview with Holan S. Holan lives with her husband and young son. She is a rebel dealing with family medical emergencies, and shares how she has been successful despite not following directions for the 100 Day Program. 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® ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get 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 interview with Jessica E. Jessica has a very unique living situation. She has her son at home, her husband works out of the country, and her mom lives with them part -time. As a full time college instructor who will soon be moving overseas, she shares all about how now that she is organized she has more free time and more increased capacity to meet her goals.  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® ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am super excited to welcome you to the next Organize 365® Podcast series. I am sharing my conversations with members of the Dream Team while we are in the messy middle of some of our current transitions. In this 4 part series we will be unpacking the most commonly asked FAQs for different parts of the Organize 365® transformational journey. I want to keep you updated on changes and improvements as we declutter and organize before our 10th Anniversary in January 2022. We are not eliminating anything, or raising our prices on any existing products. We are simply doing some decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. This podcast is all treats --  no tricks! This week, Emily Kelly and I go back to the foundation of home organization and talk about the Sunday Basket®. Emily is our Director of Customer Success and my sister. Emily has been making phone calls to  many of you and has gotten to connect with you on a personal level, just like I did during the summer book tour. We are hearing about how you found Organize 365®, where you live, and what your transformational journey looks like so far. We are taking what we learn in those conversations to make our programs even better! During our opportunity to interact with all the members of this community, the same questions came up over and over. Change is nerve-wracking, especially after the out of control experiences so many of us faced during the pandemic. As your organizing teacher, I want to give you the lesson plan for how to get started and make progress getting your home and paper organized.  Today, Emily and I share the top ten questions we have been getting about the Complete Sunday Basket® System. Listen in and let me know what you learn from our discussion! Top 10 Sunday Basket® FAQ: 1. What is the Sunday Basket®?  At the most basic level, it is a box that sits on your counter and acts as a place to hold all your ideas, actionable to-dos, kitchen counter papers, and mail. It is also a cadence to check those items and prioritize them for maximum efficiency throughout the week. It is your brain in a box! This clears up your brain for higher level thinking, problem solving, or even to rest. Although the “brain in a box” started as a joke, the Sunday Basket® actually does externalize your executive functioning part of your brain. Anyone can find success using this system, but it is especially effective for people diagnosed with ADHD.  2. What does the Complete Sunday Basket® System include? As a teacher, I wanted to ensure that any kind of learner could use and be successful with this system. For that reason, the training materials and support cover a variety of learning styles. The physical products include all the supplies you will need to use your Sunday Basket®: a collapsible box in your choice of color, 25 slash pockets to organize your actionable paper, and a training booklet. There is an online dashboard with training videos. And, every purchase includes access to the online community with a weekly Sunday Basket® Club - an online co-working and accountability session. As with all Organize 365® products, this includes lifetime access. 3. How long does it take to know if this system will work for me?  Some people catch on quickly, and have it down in two weeks. For the majority of people, it takes four to six weeks to develop the Sunday Basket® habit. It takes some time for you to change your habits, and learn a new way of keeping track of your to-dos and making good decisions about how and when to do them. You are moving from living in a reactive mode to a proactive mode.  The to-do list isn’t going away; finishing your to-do list faster is not the answer. It takes your brain at least a month to trust yourself and the new system. Initially, your brain will pester you, but if you consistently use the Sunday Basket® your brain will learn to calm down and trust that the Sunday Basket® works! 4. What if Sunday at 5 pm doesn’t work for me to do the Sunday Basket® Club live? Do it every week when it works for you. Watch the Sunday Basket® replay! The day and time you do your Sunday Basket® does not matter as long as you are consistent and develop the habit. Make a rule for yourself, and stick to the time that works in your life 5. I don’t have enough paper to do my Sunday Basket® every week. What should I do? It’s ok to adjust to what you need. If you are just getting started, still develop a routine habit of working in your Sunday Basket®. You can start with once a month or every two weeks to get in the habit, and then increase to every week. If you have been doing your Sunday Basket® for a long time, you may be more proactive and you likely have cleared out a lot of your previous backlog. It’s ok to do it less frequently just don’t stop entirely! You can try every other week, or the first two weeks of each month, or a different cadence. Whenever you feel stressed or anxious, consider going through your Sunday Basket® to get back on track. Chaotic times of year like May, August, and the last six weeks of the year benefit from weekly attention. 6. I have the opposite problem. I can’t wait a whole week without going into my Sunday Basket® again, there’s too much going on. Can I do it twice in the same week? This situation is more typical, especially as people are learning the skills of organization or in a transition time of life. When going through my Sunday Basket®, I (Lisa) typically only plan through Thursday. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are too far away to plan effectively. I front load my week to get as much as I can done on Monday and Tuesday, and then I adjust as the week goes on. Of course, if needed, you can do your Sunday Basket® twice!  7. You say to do the Sunday Basket® first when getting organized. Can I do the Sunday Basket® and the 100 Day Home Organization Program at the same time? If so, how would you recommend I do them together? Yes! Emily recommends picking one day to do your Sunday Basket® and make that your only organizing task that day. Then, the rest of the week, do as much of the 100 Days as you reasonably can - focusing on progress over perfection and giving yourself grace for what is not done. Lisa recommends - reframe your sense of time. “Most people underestimate what taking a full 365 days to focus on getting organized will do to transform the next ten years of your life” ~ Lisa Woodruff. Take a deep breath. You are on a journey moving toward proactivity and organization. You have everything that you need. What do you want to do first?Start with your most pressing need or what you are most excited to do. Make it work for you. You have made an investment, so keep working towards your goals.  8. I am drowning!! What if I don’t have the time to dedicate to my Sunday Basket® in order to get my five hours a week back? Is there a way to “start smaller” on the Sunday Basket® concept? If you literally have no time or energy to get started, this can feel overwhelming. We know that spending about 90 minutes per week going through your Sunday Basket® gives you five hours of free time later in the week once you establish the habit. The Sunday Basket® moves you into proactive anticipation, and that results in more efficiency and effectiveness. The net result is you have more free time.If you are listening to the podcast, you are taking the first step. You are mentally becoming a more organized and proactive person. It can take 9-18 months for your mindset to change enough that you are ready to take physical action. You are doing it right, and you are already saving yourself time just by the learning you do when listening to the podcast!Unfortunately, there is ultimately no smaller step to getting organized than the Sunday Basket®. In order to pivot from reactive to proactive living, you need a system. The Sunday Basket® is the system you need to create change. You need to refocus your time and priorities to make changes in your life. Find one whole day before the end of the year and use it to stop and completely change direction. Set up your Sunday Basket® and see how your life changes.   9. Talk to me about the lifetime access part of Organize 365® programs. I have purchased programs from other companies and I haven’t done them. I don’t trust myself to follow through with this either. Can you convince me? I don’t follow the most common online selling practices. I don’t want people to feel pressured or anxious about purchasing or participating. I want to offer a transformational experience that I know is going to work and will be available for you as you go through life. Financial situations change. Emotional and physical demands change. Unexpected events are part of every single life. Organize 365® is here for you when you are making progress, and when you step away and come back. Making a purchase can take things to the next level. It tells your brain you are serious and that you are investing in making a change. The membership aspect to our paid programs also helps to build community, gives you support, and strengthens your commitment. When you are in the Sunday Basket® Club, you have a membership in a group of people who focus on prioritizing what they are accomplishing for the upcoming week. With lifetime access, you can start today. Some progress is always better than NO progress. Start now and take the first step. Join and start making progress. And, with the Sunday Basket® Club, you have weekly educational courses from certified organizers. Slowly improving over time can lead to big changes. 10. Does the Sunday Basket® organize ALL my papers? No! The Sunday Basket® is only for your actionable to-do related papers. When you start your Sunday Basket® we have you collect the loose papers from everywhere in your home. You then divide them into actionable and reference/archive. Any papers that do not require action should live outside of your Sunday Basket®. Organize 365® recommends storing your archival papers in portable, space-limited binders. Listen to podcast 456 next week for more information about that.  BONUS: OK I think it might work, Is there a way for me to try it out before I buy it?  We have a seven day mini course where you get more information on the Sunday Basket® delivered by email. Sign up at organize365.com/minicourse

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 Mary G. She lives with her husband and two daughters. She shares about her journey with anxiety and helping her kids deal with their ADHD. Mary shares how getting (more) organized and learning to think proactively helped her family survive some very challenging unexpected events. 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® ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

We have a big announcement for you! We wanted our amazing community to be the first to know. We are leaving Facebook! I have wanted to leave Facebook for three years. The Organize 365® mission, vision, and values includes building life in community. In the past, some people who purchased a Sunday Basket®, the 100 Day Program, or All Access were unable to participate in the community aspect of our programs. Some did not have an account, and others chose not to have one. That limitation has always bothered me. The community that goes along with the Organize 365® transformation should be available to everyone who wants to participate. We have been upgrading our technology and support for your transformation for several years already. The online community was especially difficult because it took us a long time to find the right way to create it. I wanted an app for our community that was truly independent of any other platform or company.  We finally found our solution. We are creating our own custom Organize 365® community app. Now, everyone can be in community on this app specifically with other people who have invested in their transformational journey with Organize 365®. I wanted a way to host a community that was positive, productive, and purposeful. Everything in the new community app will help grow your mindset, increase your positivity, and help you organize your home to live a positive, proactive, purposeful life.  Here’s what it will look like: Organize 365® app for people who have purchased Organize 365® products The app is free to download, but participation is limited to those who have purchased specified products It will provide the same community groups we currently have on Facebook The Dream Team and Certified Organizers will be there to help you along your journey All Access members will have a curated, private podcast starting December 5th, available only in the app The current Organize 365® app is going away once the new app is ready The website is optimized for mobile and you have access to your dashboard directly on your smartphone Near the end of 2021, we will archive all of the Facebook groups associated with our purchased products The free Facebook groups will continue including my lives and the Blitzes We are giving you information to help you be proactive about this transition. The app is not launching today. We’re hoping to have it live in the next 2-6 weeks - ideally sometime in November 2021. You will get an email inviting you to join once the app is ready. We have been working on this transition for three years already. It’s the right time for us to make this happen. We are looking forward to seeing you in our new community as soon as everything is in place.

Welcome to our new Wednesday series of transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements! 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.  Today, I am sharing my conversation with Jennifer Butler. Jennifer is one of our newest Friday Workbox Certified Organizers. Jennifer brings experience as a parent of a child with a serious medical illness, and as an entrepreneur. She also has experience with autism, ADHD, and living internationally with her family. She brings all of this life experience and knowledge to her services. You can find Jennifer at House of Order, on Instagram, and Facebook. 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 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® All AccessCCESS Friday Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats Organize 365® Certified Organizers

Four years ago, on a plane from Los Angeles to New York, I wrote out the Organize 365® mission, vision, and values. Today, we are a much larger team making a bigger impact in the world, but our values have stayed true.  What is truly amazing is that these five values are not just held by the Dream Team, but these are the values that the Organize 365 community has as well. When we focus on these values, we arrive at the “after” feel of organization and productivity I shared with you last week. (Don’t forget to tag us in your after photos of what you are doing now that you have increased your capacity by getting organized!) Organize 365® guides you along a transformational journey that organizes both your heart and your mind. Our values are: Power of Positivity  Building Community Life in Abundance  Transformational Freedom Proactive Anticipation Let me know what value you think is the strongest for you and how you are seeing it in your transformational journey!

Welcome to our new Wednesday series of transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements! 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.  Today, I am sharing my conversation with Jenn Dickel. Jenn shared about finding a Mastermind back in early 2020. She is back today to share her experience in our newest Mastermind to improve the Friday Workbox and become a Friday Workbox Certified Organizer. Jenn is a businesswoman and entrepreneur who loves to help others focus on improving their productivity.  You can find Jenn at Seasonal Navigation Organizing, on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.  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 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® All AccessCCESS Friday Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats Organize 365® Certified Organizers

Most professional organization companies like Organize 365® want to show before and after photos. We all love to see a big change - we love makeover shows, decluttering shows, and even dating shows. Magazine pictures and Pinterest show some drool-worthy before and after photos, and many of us are striving to achieve that “after” look of perfectly aligned shelves, and color coded produce bins in the refrigerator. But, those pictures aren’t reflective of real life. Those photo-worthy moments don't last when life is lived and stuff is used.  The real change that comes from getting organized is hard to put into words, impossible to quantify, and can’t be demonstrated on social media. The photos we can take in our homes can sometimes show a partial improvement or a sample of the transformation. When you get organized, how you feel changes dramatically!  Listening to this podcast starts to shift your mindset toward living an organized and proactive life. You incrementally get better at using your time to achieve your own priorities. When you add on our courses and products, you add rocket fuel to your transformation.  Getting organized enough to feel different can happen in a weekend or a month, but your home (your outer reflection) will not look perfect. It’s actually not about your stuff. Before We have all had at least one season of life where our feelings were the “before” of living an organized life. When you live reactively, feeling stressed, depressed, overwhelmed, and anxious is typical. When your life is driven by someone else’s agenda and the obligations others place upon  you, all you can do is react.  As I share in Organization is a Learnable Skill, during my most reactive times, I was afraid of letting other people down and not meeting external expectations. My emotions were just like a before picture of a disorganized kitchen. Thoughts were everywhere. I couldn’t focus and I knew I was not keeping up. Even worse, I was unbelievably stressed and I wasn’t meeting my own expectations. I didn’t have capacity for anything more. My house, brain, and heart were all disorganized. After As I developed the Sunday Basket®, I got a grip on my life again. Taking 60-90 minutes a week to look ahead and plan, gave me much more mental capacity and less stress. As I have continued to be more proactive in my own life, I have more time for myself, for self-care, for my passions, and for building relationships. I also have more capacity to pour into Organize 365® so that I can help you get organized so that you can live out your unique purpose.  As you get organized and learn to live proactively, the way you feel inside changes. You are more calm and less overwhelmed. When unexpected events occur, you can adjust what is on your calendar, defer and delete the things that are no longer important, and handle what is actually happening. Your capacity increases - in almost every area of your life. You have more time for yourself, your relationships, your passion projects, and your life.  Show us your afters! We want to see your after photos. Not the cluttered and then empty kitchen counter, though that is great too! The after is you, living the life you are uniquely created to live!   What is the essence of you? What do you love doing? Maybe it’s being with your family, reading a great book, hiking in nature, starting a business, writing a book, spending time supporting a charity, or something we haven’t even thought about yet.  The more you increase your organization and proactivity, the more capacity you have for what you want to do. The possibilities are limitless. Each of us has a story that keeps expanding. So, on Saturdays, we want to see your afters on Instagram! We’ll be sharing some from the Dream Team, and we want you to share with us.

Welcome to our new Wednesday series of transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements! 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.  Today, I am sharing my conversation with Sheri MacGregor. Sheri was a Wednesday Transformation guest in 2020 and is back today as a Friday Workbox Certified Organizer. She has experience as a teacher, running a construction business, dealing with medical paperwork, has worked on IEP’s, and has settled an estate. We talk about how she has adapted her professional organizing business in COVID and while moving. There’s so much to learn here! You can find Sheri at Peaceful Paper Peaceful Spaces, on Instagram and on Facebook.  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 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® All AccessCCESS Friday Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats Organize 365® Certified Organizers I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

For our final podcast in the Friday Workbox series, I want to teach you how I am able to get so much done, so that you can use the same tools to transform your life. I am a naturally productive person. My productivity is the result of my ability to plan. One of my gifts is my orientation to time. I have always been good at assigning an accurate amount of time to a task. As I moved from my to-do list to my Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox™, I began to schedule time to complete tasks directly on my calendar. Every week, I take time to work through my Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox™. As I do so, I pull out the tasks that must be done in the upcoming week, determine how long it will take, and schedule when I will do them. I can immediately see if there are conflicts between what I need to do and the time available so that I can prioritize and make decisions proactively.    Every seven days, I make new decisions about what I will take action on. The reason a Sunday Basket® and Friday Workbox™ are so effective is because all of my dreams, ideas, research materials and goals are safely captured in my boxes. I may not get to those dreams as soon as I would like, but nothing is ever forgotten.  My secret sauce to productivity and success is the act of planning. I want to share with you how I use Planning Day and Workbox Planning Day with every new season as the ultimate task stacking habit.  Home At home, Planning Day occurs just prior to the new cycle of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. During that week, I look at how I will use my time in the upcoming 17 weeks, set new goals, and deep review through any 2.0 slash pockets that have been on hold.   Work At the end of each calendar quarter, I deep dive into my plan for my business. On the 13th week of the quarter, just before my new quarter starts, I use the last week to reconcile expenses, set new goals, update the social media agenda, and do a deep review of every business slash pocket I have created. Then, I execute that plan for the next 12 weeks. Win By being realistic about what I can complete in the upcoming quarter, I am able to actually achieve my goals and finish my projects. Anything that I will not have the time, money, motivation, or energy to address goes back into holding. Those ideas and projects are ready and waiting for their right time to shine. I know all of those slash pockets will be reviewed at the next planning day, and I can take action on them then if the time is right.  The better you get at planning and improving your productivity, the more capacity and impact you will create. You will win at home, work, relationships, and in your community. You will learn to live with excellence, ease, and enjoyment. Planning is the key to unlocking your ability to achieve your goals!

Welcome to our new Wednesday series of transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements! 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.  Today, I am sharing my conversation with Tanya Blackburn. Tanya is a professional organizer in Winston-Salem, NC. She is a Friday Workbox Certified Organizer who has experience in both corporate settings and as a small business owner. We talk about setting and meeting goals, finances, business operations, and the new slash pocket colors.  You can find Tanya at Prime Organizing, on Facebook, and on Instagram.  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 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® All Access Friday Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats Organize 365® Certified Organizers I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This week, I want to teach you all about the green slash pockets in the Friday Workbox System. Green slash pockets are for financial responsibilities and repetitive administrative tasks. At first, I thought green slash pockets were optional. I worked in direct sales for a long time, and I realized that most direct sellers did not look at the financial side of the business. We had a passion for the products and companies we were representing, but did not pay attention to the money. Unfortunately, many of us were not making enough sales to be profitable, and it was also easy to spend money faster than it came in on new samples and gifts. Creative Memories introduced me to the idea of looking at my business finances on a monthly basis. By keeping my sales and purchases organized, I was able to know every month if I was making a profit or experiencing a loss. This simple financial organization was the inspiration for the Organize 365® Annual Income & Expense Binder.  Money in the door is not profit, and it is vital to update the financial situation of a business at least monthly to ensure your financial picture is realistic.  Not everyone owns a small business or deals with financial tasks as a part of their work. When not used for finances, the green slash pockets are repetitive administrative tasks that need attention on a regular basis. Tasks repeat at different intervals in different work settings, but consider what tasks you do over and over every day, week, month, quarter, and year. Creating checklists and systems for ensuring these repeating tasks are handled will improve your efficiency and productivity.  As you begin to reach your maximum capacity at work, I recommend hiring an administrative assistant or an executive assistant. These staff members can begin to take over these repetitive administrative tasks, especially those that are easy to explain and delegate. Training someone to handle your email, calendar, correspondence, and errands is an investment in leveling up your own capacity for your most important work. Having your checklists established helps ensure your assistant is cost-effective.  Despite having over twenty team members at Organize 365®, there are administrative tasks I must do every single week. I share more detail in the podcast, but I still need to ensure that every week I make time for email, errands and orders, checklists, and my Friday Workbox.  My Friday Workbox time is not optional. This is the time when I review all of my slash pockets and active projects, update my calendar, plan time to work on each slash pocket in the upcoming week, and update all of my meeting agendas. I need to ensure I move projects forward so our company stays healthy.  Effective and productive work is the result of good habits and systems. If you want to succeed at work, your green (administrative) work is not optional. 

Welcome to our new Wednesday series of transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements! 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.  Today, I am sharing my conversation with Adriane McGraw. Adriane is a professional organizer in Fostoria, OH. She has experience in HR for a Fortune 500 manufacturing operation. Her business Paper & Progress is dedicated to helping small businesses and working professionals streamline their operations and systematize their success. We also share about how the Business Friday Workboxes have been made even better by the certified organizers mastermind team. You can find Adriane at Paper and Progress. She is also on Facebook and Instagram.  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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats Organize 365® Certified Organizers I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, I want to teach you how I think about the blue slash pocket topics in my Friday Workbox. At first, blue is for you. Then, as your business or role grows, blue becomes the color for your team. In the Friday Workbox, the slash pockets build upon one another, and need to evolve in order, especially if you are the owner of a business. Pink possibilities become purple projects. Purple projects then inspire you to grow a team to help you meet your business goals.  When you first begin working, blue slash pockets are for your professional development, meetings, and your human resources records. You need to know and understand yourself first, before you can lead a team. After you know yourself, you can learn more and better understand your family members and work team members.  Learning and developing yourself and your team can only make your work better and more effective. As you better understand who you naturally attract and how you best deliver your message, your impact will grow. As you reach more people, you will need to add people to your team.  If you are a female head of household, it is best and easiest to add housework assistance to your team first. This can be a housecleaner, laundry assistance, child care, pet care, or car care. Freeing yourself from household tasks gives you more capacity for your work. In Organization is a Learnable Skill, I tell my own story of growing a team at home and at work.  Growing your team at work, especially if you are directly hiring people, is a new skill set that you will need to develop. If you are a business owner, when you hire employees or contractors, you will have to generate pink and purple work for those people and you will want to ensure their efforts are worth the financial expense. Blue slash pockets will help you keep your team organized, and will provide reminders to learn about your worker’s styles for learning, feedback, and motivation.  As your team grows, your personal development should focus on growing your own skills in communication, overseeing workloads, and running meetings. Organize 365® also has some unique approaches to meetings. I share how we use one-to-one, daily huddles, department, and team meetings in the podcast - be sure to listen in to hear the details!

On the last podcast, I taught you about how to create a plan for your work. In this next series of podcasts, I will be taking you behind the scenes and sharing how the Friday Workbox system was organically developed from my own experiences. Today, I want to teach you how I think about the pink and purple slash pocket topics in my Friday Workbox.  I am the daughter of a salesman father and an entrepreneur mother. I also have been a classroom teacher, so when I look back on my own work history, I can see the ways I am different from other business owners. I am also highly analytical about how I work, and I am extremely productivity minded. My earliest work included over twenty direct sales businesses. In observing successful direct sales leaders, they were good at selling their products, providing VIP customer service, and creating a  team who also had these skills.  Because of my interest in productivity, I not only adopted these skills, but I focused my efforts on my most profitable customers. I had the same earnings and success with a team that was only 25% as large as the other industry leaders, and with only 20% of the typical customer base. I don't like to waste time, materials, or effort.  Throughout my working years, I am able to educate, sell, and support my customers. Over time, I have realized that I am successful in these things because I think of my business as having a total of four pillars. In this and upcoming podcasts, I will share with you how pink, purple, blue, and green colors correlate with different parts of your work and how they build upon each other.   PINK = POTENTIAL When I turn to my Friday Workbox, all of the different ideas, dreams, possibilities, and potential goes into pink slash pockets. These are not commitments or goals, they are dreams and ideas. Sometimes, they become active right away, other times they take years to materialize. They are truly about potential; things that may happen in the future. Because the possibilities are endless, collect as many pink slash pockets as inspire you. By keeping my possibilities in pink slash pockets, I physically review them quarterly and update, add, dream, and rethink how they may apply to my business.   PURPLE = PROJECTS In the Friday Workbox system, purple are the actionable, goal-oriented, deadline-driven, dollars-committed, projects. Once your pink item becomes an actionable project with a deadline, and other people become involved, it moves to a purple slash pocket. Most people can only take action and make progress on one to five slash pockets at any one time. As your team grows, you can increase your capacity by having other people complete purple projects at the same time and increase your impact.  Any kind of business or work requires both pink and purple working together. In some workplaces this is potential leads being upgraded to actual customers. In other jobs, this is article ideas turned into publications. Both together are required to sustain your business. Once you have a cycle of both, you can move onto the next step of work - blue. Check back next week for more on that!

We are back from our 2021 summer break, and I am so excited to let you know that we have some exciting new episodes! Starting today, I will be sharing transformational stories from our new Friday Workbox Certified Organizers! Organize 365® recently upgraded all of the Business Friday Workbox Systems and we are so excited to share the stories of the certified organizers who helped us make these improvements! 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! Today, I am sharing my conversation with Stefanie Ardoin. Stefanie is a professional organizer in Hilton Head, SC. She is a registered Health Information Administrator with over thirty years in the medical field. She is also an expert in both paper and digital organizing. She has so much to share with us about her own journey and the many ways she is already helping the Organize 365® community. We also share about how the Business Friday Workboxes have been made even better by the certified organizers mastermind team. You can find Stefanie at Island Organizing. Her digital community is Paper & Digital Simplified. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats Organize 365® Certified Organizers I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Throughout September, I will be teaching you how to proactively plan your work, control your work situations, and make decisions about what your work is going to look like, now and in the future. It is time to plan our work. I have always been a non-traditional worker, so we use a very broad definition of work at Organize 365®. I want you to make a plan for your work and make thoughtful decisions about how to manage this part of your life.  No one will ever get everything on their to-do list done. Getting a system in place to manage your to-dos will allow you to optimize your work and have more time for your life.    What is work? Work is whatever you are doing for the majority of your Monday to Friday hours. Your priority for the majority of the week in this season of life is your work. It can be volunteering, caregiving, working a traditional job, or being an entrepreneur. It can also include being a stay at home parent, or a homeschooling parent.  There are many different kinds of work. Work is a mindset about how you approach your activities, and may or may not be related to what you do to earn an income.    Where do you work? The COVID-19 pandemic has changed where we work. Because of our new experiences, now we all can discuss in-person work, remote work, and hybrid work. Where each of us works will likely continue to change over the coming months and years. I started Organize 365® at my kitchen table, moved into a corner of my bedroom, briefly used a spare bedroom, had an office in a loft space at home, and then finally moved to the Organize 365® office.  No matter what kind of work you do, you need to consciously decide where you will do your work. Many homes do not have a dedicated home office. Some work requires working in different locations on different days. However, establishing where you work is vital to effectively getting your work done.  No matter where you do your work, you need a consistent place to capture your work papers, ideas, and to-do items. For your household, the Sunday Basket® handles all of your home paperwork. At work, the solution is the Friday Workbox.    What hours do you work? I love working. I love creating impact through my work. I have never been successful setting work hours for myself, but I have learned to set non-work hours so that I have time and energy for my home and family. I set aside Sunday as a  day when I do not do work, and I lavish my attention on my family. This is my approach, but yours may be different. You may be in a season where your focus and priorities are on parts of your life outside of work. In those times, you may need to fit your work hours into firm boundaries. In this situation, determine when you will start and stop your work day. Be clear about what can be flexible and what cannot change. Try different approaches to your work hours and determine what is best for you at this time.   Where will your work supplies be put away? No matter what your work situation is, you need to have a place where you can put all the parts of your work away. This is especially important if you are working from home or working from multiple mobile locations. Just like in kindergarten, at the end of the day, your workspace needs to be clean. The Friday Workbox is designed to hold all of your active work papers, and to keep them organized so that you make consistent progress towards your work goals. When you have your Friday Workbox, a computer, and a phone, you can work anywhere. This is a system that is easy to grab, ready for you to easily access your work and take action, and safe for storing your work when you are done for the day.  As more people are working and schooling from home, it can be hard to be done working for the day especially if our work is out in the open. Putting everything into the Friday Workbox (including the laptop) and putting it away, allows your work space to return to the other functional purpose. Putting away things we are not actively using improves the family enjoyment of our spaces.  I am a multi-faceted, multi-passionate person. I know many of you are too. Over time, I have found that having a separate box to store the pieces of a project or job helps me to organize my brain. Prior to using boxes to store my projects, I had multiple unfinished projects in the open around my home. It was overwhelming, and I did not make as much progress as I thought I would by keeping these things visible.  At the end of each work session, develop a transition routine. Check your email one last time. Close your computer. Drop any notes for action items or reminders in your Friday Workbox. Put your papers back in the Friday Workbox. Put your Friday Workbox away and enjoy your non-working time with the others in your home.  If you need more help getting your Friday Workbox system started or optimized, we now have Certified Organizers who are specialists in the Friday Workbox System. They are specially trained to help you as an individual, or can help you get the Friday Workbox installed in your workplace. For more information, please check out our directory.

It’s time to decide and make a plan. Last week, we talked about what is in your control. Control is about the decisions you make, how often you decide, and the impact of the decisions you make. These things matter much more than how many decisions you make. Today, we will talk about different aspects of decision making. Deciding seems so final. It’s really not. I will teach you about making deliberate decisions today, and then reassessing them when the information you have changes.  Almost a decade ago, I decided what to have for breakfast, and I haven’t needed to decide again. I just grab the same breakfast and coffee and I’m ready to go. Who thinks this much about breakfast? We all do! We just don’t realize how much effort we put into decision making if we aren’t actively paying attention to our decisions. When choosing my breakfast, I thought about calories, energy level, hunger, and how different food choices affect my energy level. I weighed all these factors and made a decision about what I will eat every single day.  I have shared about ways that other leaders make decisions once to avoid decision fatigue in podcast 271. Anyone can learn to make decisions about the little things like simple meals, clothing uniforms, or putting items into a Sunday Basket®. Deciding once spends more energy up front, but it reduces decision fatigue and exhaustion over things that do not really matter in the long run. Another important factor in making good decisions is controlling how many decisions you need to make in a given day. In the past, I used to think it was a sign of success that I made all of the decisions in the company; everyone answered to me! Now almost all of the decisions at home and work are happening without me - this is growth and success that can scale and be sustained! Organize 365® uses a decision making ladder similar to Michael Hyatt’s Delegation Levels and the Phoenix Project Levels of Decision Making.  We all have a finite capacity for making decisions. It’s a physical reality. You can only make so many decisions. If you want to make more impact, you must empower and teach people how to make decisions the way you would make them. This means they can make decisions without you. Freeing up your own capacity and investing in your team furthers your mission and vision so much more than you can do alone.  One important lesson I’ve learned about decision making is that you can only make decisions about your own home, work, and life. Decisions become easier once you truly embrace that you only control yourself. Other people will make their own decisions. I can see the beauty in all of the decisions that people make. The decisions that others make don’t bother me. I love to learn how other people come to the conclusions and decisions that they make. You can’t make a decision to control another person. You can only decide how you want to work, live, or do life.  Very few decisions we make are permanent or irreversible. At certain times in life, and certain seasons of our lives, we will need to re-make our decisions. Whenever you get more information, you should reflect and reconsider your decision. Ask yourself: Does it still work in this season of life? What has changed and how should my decision adapt?  I now look at what decisions may need to change at the start of each of my mini new years (January, May, and September). I make my decisions at the beginning of each 4 month stretch, and then I see how it goes. I don’t mind taking 120 days to research and try new decisions, and the final decision tends to last five to ten years. I work on one or two big decisions each trimester; this system doesn’t work with 30 new decisions.  September is the most productive planning time of the year. Every year, I set aside a Planning Day for my home and set goals for myself, home, family, and finances for the next 120 days. I also set aside a day every quarter for myself and my team to do a Workbox Planning Day. I’d love to have you join me and make progress on your own decision making and goals! 

Here’s the thing, you don’t have very much control over almost anything. But, you have so much control over a few things. I recorded a bunch of podcasts before I left for the book tour, but I like my podcasts to be as relevant as possible. I want it to feel like we are talking on the phone together in real time. But, I can’t see the future. COVID keeps changing our lives. It is one of the things that we cannot control. We all desire a sense of control. But, when you focus on things outside of your control, it causes stress, anxiety, and worry.  If you choose to focus on what you do control, you can reduce or eliminate the stress, anxiety, and worry. We have control over our mind, our home, our media inputs, and our impact in the world. COVID is extremely important, but it is not urgent. It is distracting most of us from our purpose and our impact on the world.  Today, I want to talk with you about making decisions about the things you actually can control. You set the tone and cadence in your home. You control the decision making. Identify what you can control. Then, make decisions so that you can get some of your time back. I want you to be able to control what you can, and free up your time to do what you want to do. For me, stress and anxiety come from the unknowns in life. The more I focus on what I do control, the less I worry. I want this for you too. 

In August, I start planning and thinking about the next mini new year - the school year. During July, I like to reflect and review the past year and begin to dream and plan for the future. No matter the season, I spent a lot of time thinking about and pondering how I invest the minutes of my life. I have always valued every minute and think through how to optimize, prioritize, and maximize each one.  Time management is the process of evaluating where you are in all the areas of your life, determining your priorities, allocating the resources available to you, and making a plan to achieve your goals.  In this podcast, I recap some podcasts on time management. In episode 134, I share how I plan my life in mini years (trimesters). In episode 426, I share how organizing is an optional investment of time today for a potential increase in your time in the future. The Sunday Basket® is an organizational system that will take 60-90 minutes of planning time to free up an extra 5 hours of time each week. More importantly, when you are organized, your brain is free to think and dream, instead of just trying to keep track of to-dos.  Episode 366 is about organizational math. I share how I apply the same benefits of basic math skills to your transformational journey into organization. For any of you who are math phobic, I promise we only talk about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In episode 269 I discuss how we make decisions to prioritize either time, money, or motivation. Understanding what is most important in our current situation helps us to decide what approach will result in the most effective outcomes.  I no longer measure value strictly in terms of time or money. Instead, I look for the tangible outcomes of my daily actions. The 100 Day Home Organization Program is priced at 10% of the cost of in-home professional organizers helping to declutter and organize an entire home. However, most of us do not value our time as much as we do our money. Committing financial resources to getting organized helps to motivate people to engage in the 15 minute a day tasks of the 100 Day Program, and actually achieve a transformation of their homes and lives.  Which of your goals are worth an investment of your time, money, and motivation in the next four months?

Today, I am bringing back the Organize 365 lead researcher, Sarah Dyson. We are sharing about our soon to be published literature review scheduled to be in the The Journal of the Arkansas Psychological Association.  We share how we needed to define a shared language in order to collect data and discuss solutions. The submitted article is titled The Role Women play in the 21st Century Home and Gender Equality- A State of the Art Literature Review. As soon as it is available, we will share a copy of the publication on our research page at organize365.com/research. My initial hypothesis was that women were doing more work at home than men. Interestingly, those are not the results of our research! Members of younger generations share housework far more equitably than we expected. Gender roles have changed and we need solutions for all genders, all age groups, and all types of households. Organize 365® is adjusting based on this information.  The literature review covers four major topics in the home: cueing and goal attainment, gender roles, female entrepreneurship, and future research. Listen in for a sneak preview of all these topics.

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 Adrienne W. She lives with her husband and 2 kids under 5 years old and she works as a teacher. She shares about getting her home organized has given her control over the whole household. She also shares her tip for using her Sunday Basket® to improve communication with her husband. 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Learn more at organize365.com/podcast/defining-housework-maintenance In November of 2020, I did a two part podcast on the four kinds of work in business (361 & 362). It turns out, there are also four kinds of housework, and I introduced these in Podcast 418. There are many of these business concepts that also equate to our homes, we just don’t think of running our household like it is a business. We hear a lot about work/life balance as though these are two separate ways of getting things done. There are so many parallels between your day job and your home job.  A few podcasts ago, I shared that Organize 365 is pursuing research about organization. One of the first challenges we faced is that we do not have a common vocabulary around work inside the house like we have for work in the workplace. As part of our research, we needed to define the words we were using in the survey questions. That meant, we needed to define housework. This is the final episode of a four part series that defines and explains the different kinds of work we all do inside of our homes.  Today, I am sharing some details about the fourth kind of housework - maintenance. Home maintenance tasks are the tasks that the owner of the property is responsible for in order to increase the value of the home. This includes things like painting, updating flooring, replacing HVAC units, and purchasing a new roof. It is technically optional, but it is in the best interest of the property owner to keep the maintenance up to date. It is an investment the owner makes to protect the value of the property. Maintenance can be done directly by the owner, or it can be done indirectly by hired help. Renters have very little, if any, maintenance expenses and responsibilities.  In the most recent research, Organize 365® discovered two important things. Home maintenance is the kind of housework where external help is most often hired by the homeowner. Home maintenance is also the only category of housework that is most often completed by men.  When Greg and I first purchased our home, my dad taught me a very important lesson. His advice was to make any desired improvements to our home as soon as possible, so we would get the most enjoyment from our purchase. He was so right! I also remember my aunt recommending an annual home maintenance budget of 5% of the value of the home. That is a lot of money. You may not spend the whole amount every year, but larger expenses can use up several years worth of the budget.  If you own your home, I want you to think about being the landlord of your home. This will help you determine what maintenance tasks are most important. The Organize 365® Household Reference Binder is helpful in keeping track of your maintenance needs and documentation that the necessary tasks have been completed. Having an organized system for my documents and information has helped me to make decisions about when to replace and when to fix certain appliances. I can also better predict my maintenance expenses because all of my papers are easily accessible and organized.  I hope that you find these descriptions of housework helpful and I want you to think about how you can become more efficient with your housework to do the work you are uniquely created to do!

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 Lisa F. She lives with her husband, three kids, and a whole bunch of animals. She shares so much about how she has slowly increased her organization over the last few years. Lisa found Lisa from podcasts, and has consistently worked to transform her home, her family, and her life!  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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get 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 interview with Sheila M. She has been through the 100 Day Program nine times already! She lives with her husband and two sons. Listen in to hear how she has gotten control of her paper and is ready to take on her newest life event - retirement! 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

In November of 2020, I did a two part podcast on the four kinds of work in business (361 & 362). It turns out, there are also four kinds of housework, and I introduced these in Podcast 418. There are many of these business concepts that also equate to our homes, we just don’t think of running our household like it is a business. We hear a lot about work/life balance as though these are two separate ways of getting things done. There are so many parallels between your day job and your home job.  A few podcasts ago, I shared that Organize 365 is pursuing research about organization. One of the first challenges we faced is that we do not have a common vocabulary around work inside the house like we have for work in the workplace. As part of our research, we needed to define the words we were using in the survey questions. That meant, we needed to define housework. This is the second of a four part series that defines and explains the different kinds of work we all have to do inside of our homes.  Today, I am sharing some details about a second kind of housework, tasks of daily living. This type of housework is a set of skills we all need to do or have done for us for our survival. Tasks of daily living are related to the Social Security Disability definition of disability and include things like grooming, grocery shopping and meal preparation, transportation, and paying bills. Some transitional high schools offer training in these skills through Project search and other programs.  Tasks of daily living follow the individual. In college, as a new parent, and as a grandparent, you will always have to feed yourself and do laundry. Conversely, the amount of cleaning likely went up and down depending on your stage of life. However, once you share a home with another person, you begin to negotiate to divide and conquer the tasks for convenience and productivity. Generally, these tasks become consolidated as the responsibility for the person who is home more often.  Tasks of daily living are the hardest and most expensive to delegate. Some small portions of them can be outsourced, but it is not convenient to have help with these items. Most of those surveyed reported they did their own tasks of daily living. In the study, we also asked what the major barriers to doing these tasks were, and most of the general population reported a lack of motivation or being too tired. See more about the research at organize365.com/research. The major solution to keeping your tasks of daily living organized and getting them completed proactively is the Sunday Basket®. You need to create better systems, better habits, and reduce your expectations!  

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 Lori W. She lives alone with her rescue chihuahua and does not have any children. She shares how she is downsizing her paper and clutter collections while caregiving for family members. Lori also shares how The Paper Solution has been helpful in her journey. 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

In November of 2020, I did a two part podcast on the four kinds of work in business (361 & 362). It turns out, there are also four kinds of housework, and I introduced these in Podcast 418. There are many of these business concepts that also equate to our homes, we just don’t think of running our household like it is a business. We hear a lot about work/life balance as though these are two separate ways of getting things done. There are so many parallels between your day job and your home job.  A few podcasts ago, I shared that Organize 365 is pursuing research about organization. One of the first challenges we faced is that we do not have a common vocabulary around work inside the house like we have for work in the workplace. As part of our research, we needed to define the words we were using in the survey questions. That meant, we needed to define housework. This is the first of a four part series that defines and explains the different kinds of work we all have to do inside of our homes.  Today, I want to explain the first kind of housework - cleaning. This is a type of housework that we all think about when we consider housework. But, we rarely agree on exactly what “clean” looks like. I define cleaning as anything that a cleaning company would do inside your house. There is a level of cleanliness that is necessary for health. Cleaning will always cost you time, and sometimes it can cost you money. Regardless, someone is responsible for the level of cleanliness and the frequency of cleaning in your home. Setting rules for cleaning, determining an action plan, and establishing habits of actually cleaning will help you ensure this kind of housework gets done.  Remember to find more at organize365.com/research

I want to talk with you about the Weight of Paper in American Households. I began talking about paper in 2012, when I shared a DIY version of the Sunday Basket® that transformed my paper organization at home. At that point, I had been using my own Sunday Basket® for ten years. I began using this paper organization system when I had two kids under two years old, and I needed a way to get my actionable to-do’s actually accomplished. I needed a way to manage the mail, the kitchen counter piles, and the kids paperwork. Looking at random papers all over the house kept me reactive, and I wanted to be more proactive and effective when managing my home.  I learned to delay the things that initially seemed urgent and important to one day a week. By developing the system of giving these things regular attention on Sunday, I was able to have more weekday time to run my direct sales business, be a stay at home mom, and manage our house too.  This system results in an immediate change, and over time (usually about six weeks) the habit of addressing all of your paper weekly will give you back five hours every week. There was a long time when people believed they didn’t have or need paper, and there has been an expectation of a paperless society.  In early 2021, Organize 365 sponsored research about the State of the Household in the 21st Century. As part of that survey, I wanted to learn more about how different generations were dealing with their paper. In today’s podcast, I share the outcomes of the research we did on the weight of paper in the American home. For the purpose of this study, the Sunday Basket® refers to a safe holding place for all of your actionable papers, ongoing household projects, kitchen counter piles, and to-do items.  Here are the main findings I want to share with you today:  Both men and women agreed the Sunday Basket® would be a useful solution for five different kinds of paper clutter: mental piles, kitchen counter piles, unfinished project papers, unorganized reference papers, and important papers.  The same research subjects also agreed that the four main binders offered by Organize 365 would be a useful solution for finding their important reference papers.    84% of Americans believe that organization is a learnable skill!   It is so exciting to have the statistical, quantitative research done to back what I have known for years. As a result of this research, I have more information to give you better resources to help YOU get 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 interview with Beth Guckenberger. I shared this interview as part of Embrace last weekend. Beth and her husband have 11 children (biological, foster, and adopted). Together, they are the executive directors of Back2Back Ministries. During the interview, she shares how she uses note cards to stay organized and dream. 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, I am excited to announce our very special guest, Sarah Dyson, PhD. I want to introduce you to Sarah who is our new lead researcher here at Organize 365. She is the reason we have been able to launch our research efforts. Sarah has been a listener since 2014 and she has done the 100 Day Program and uses several Friday Workboxes.  Sarah is passionate about research because, as she explains, it can be used to find evidence and data to solve almost any problem. After Episode 365, she reached out to Lisa to offer her services and experience to assist Organize 365 to conduct empirical research to prove that the Organize 365 systems work. She has helped us pivot from business research to real, rigorous, significant, academic research. As Lisa explains, Organize 365 has a great foundation and is building the systems to support what is coming, but we definitely need the help of our audience and supporters to bring our mission and vision to life. Sarah is one of many people who have stepped up to join us - and there’s always room for more! Sarah and Lisa share about the IRB, literature review, survey construction, and some specific definitions we used in the research. One of the most mind blowing things is that there are no standard definitions of “housework” in the US. Sarah and I talk about four major kinds of housework that we focused on in this first research study - cleaning, maintenance, tasks of daily living, and organization were all defined and studied separately. We also talk quite a bit about how gender roles, depression, and anxiety all play into how we deal with housework. For more information on the Organize 365 research - check out organize365.com/research

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 speaking with Lizzie D. She lives with her husband, their 4 year old son, 2 year old daughter, and a dog. Her husband works at home, and she works full time outside of their home. She felt like a “bad adult” for a long time, but found success with the Sunday Basket® and was able to gain capacity to tackle the 100 Days. She’s a recovering perfectionist and doing such a good job!  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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, I want to share with you about my new CEO home office. I’ll be sharing the video of this process in the 100 Day Home Organization Program Facebook Group.  I share my dream home office, command center, launch pad - a place where everything I want is readily accessible in one space. I want a place to run my household - a dedicated space separate from the planning desk typically found in the kitchen. I have always wanted a place to have to plan and direct everything that happens in my household - a place for my Sunday Basket®, bill paying, processing paper, planning meals, crafting, and mending not related to income producing work.  I’m definitely not moving to a new home, and our family is changing. But, I’ve been dreaming about changes we can make to our home right now. In the podcast, I tell you about some changes I want to make to our storage spaces and how I’ll move those things into our actual living spaces to enjoy. I also will share how I am planning to update some other rooms to make them more functional. I am planning for about the next three years or so. I share my thoughts about how I am analyzing how we use our space, the way our family and home is changing, and how I can adapt to the life we are living. In this season of life, becoming a grandma, owning a business, traveling for the book tour, and simplifying, I want you to understand how I think about adapting our living space, so you can figure out how to best use your home. Be sure to check out the video if you’re a member of the 100 Day Facebook Group!

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 speaking with Annie S. She lives with her husband and 3 of her 4 sons. She’s gone from stress and anxiety to joy and confidence. She shares how she left Marie Kondo for Lisa’s message of grace and letting go of perfection. 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, I want to spend some time reflecting on the COVID -19 pandemic and share some thoughts that a member of this community shared with me. In many ways, getting through the pandemic of the last year and a half is mirrored in the four life phases I teach you about in The Mindset of Organization. Although we each had unique experiences over the last 18 months, we all experienced the pandemic together, and looking at how these phases of life are applicable to life events can help us to figure out how to get organized when we face unexpected events. The four phases of life each require different organizational needs. This means, you may be organized in one phase, but struggle in another. There are different kinds of organization you’ll learn throughout your life, and organization is a learnable skill - you can figure out how to be organized in any phase or unexpected event in your life.  Childhood - birth to 21 Children learn organizational skills on a micro level during childhood. Everything is in one location, they are generally responsible for only a small area like a mini-apartment, and there is a weekly rhythm that helps instill the skills of getting and maintaining organization. Pandemic - In the first few weeks of the pandemic, we were safe at home for a short term (at least that was the expectation), we had a focus on fun, learning new things, and having a dedicated time to make progress. However, this time passed very quickly, and often whole families were home together and had to rapidly figure out how to balance work, school, and continuously sharing a space.  Accumulation - moving out of your childhood home until 39 years old As soon as you leave your parents’ home, you begin acquiring the “stuff” of adulthood and have responsibilities for the whole home. There is also mental, emotional, and educational accumulations of relationships, schooling, and career paths. Pandemic - Generations continue to be cyclical, and the minimalism peak of 2000 has reversed course and we are headed back towards maximizing. The toilet paper shortages, need for cleaners and disinfectants, and supply chain issues will likely continue to remind people they are no longer able to have what they want as soon as they want it. One solution is to set up storage areas in the home to maintain a little bit more supply or stock on hand.  Survival - Generally 40-55 years old As women approach their 40th birthday, there is a mindset shift when they are more comfortable in their own skin and stop caring about what others think. There is also a general acceptance of what and who we are, so people begin to declutter stuff, aspirational expectations, and jobs. By 40, you are truly a “grown up” and feel the responsibility of being an adult. For many of us, our time is not our own and we are sandwiched between elders, children, and our community and work commitments.  Pandemic - First, I know we did not all survive the pandemic intact. There have been losses of businesses, income, jobs, homes, health and even lives. Those of us who are surviving have been impacted by this difficult, scary, and exhausting time. The greater world is not done with the pandemic, and the results of this worldwide event will be felt for years to come.  Legacy & Downsizing - 55 and over Although this generally occurs around the age of 55, moving into a focus on legacy and downsizing is greatly impacted by our life events. I’m becoming a grandma! I have also lost a parent. The lessons we learn about how short life can be, the burdens of leaving too much stuff for others to deal with, and a fatigue that encourages us to minimize our responsibilities are all part of this phase. There can also be an element of wanting to enjoy the reminders of our success and achievements. Pandemic - For those of us who have survived the pandemic and are beginning to look to the future, we need to look clearly at what our lives will look like going forward. Some people are downsizing habits and routines for a simpler life. Others are making time and space to do more of what has been missed over the last year.  Tomorrow has never been guaranteed, but the pandemic has given us a renewed appreciation for our opportunities. Give grace, accept grace, and spend time with the people you love when you can!

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 speaking with Jennifer V. She lives at home with her husband and daughter. She shares about how Lisa is helping her in the survival phase of the sandwich generation, and how she benefitted from upgrading to a real Sunday Basket®. 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am excited to have Milana back on the podcast today as our guest. She was our summer intern in 2020, and she’s back to talk with me today about #adulting. She was able to go through our Launch Program (a part of the Organize 365 Kids’ Program) to give us feedback. Today, we are talking about the Launching Life Skills Bundle - now available in the Organize 365 Shop! Launch is aimed at helping older kids and young adults from 16-25 transition from living at home with parents to launching into independence. The Launching Life Skills Bundle includes The Videos from the Launch portion of the Kids’ Program  A starter Sunday Basket® - just the 1.0 weekly folders The Launch Binder - a simplified personal reference binder with slash pockets and printables covering green (money), red (medical), and blue (housing, cleaning, and wardrobe) Lisa and Milana share how this course gives you everything you need to be an adult and teaches life skills for independent living. These are resources and references for 16-25 year olds to learn the skills of adult living including meal planning, cleaning, basic budgeting, paper management and reference information, and more!   If you have a young adult in your life you’d like to gift lessons in the skills of organization and empowerment towards becoming an adult, consider this complete system!

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 share my conversation with Ami W. She lives with her husband, daughter (8) and son (5) who joined their family via foster to adopt in 2018. Ami was diagnosed with ADHD about a year ago at the age of 44. She’s also caring for her father in hospice care and has been helping him to downsize and declutter. 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

You guys, it’s finally here! My newest book - Organization is a Learnable Skill is available for pre-order on Amazon. It officially publishes on June 25, 2021. Listen in to hear about purchase and pre-order bonuses! Today, I want to share Chapter 1 from the book as a podcast. Remember, if you preorder, you can listen to the audio version of this book on a website up until the book launch.  This chapter reveals just how reactive and disorganized my life had become, and how much I was struggling in my own life. It is not a matter of if you will experience unorganized periods in your life, it is a matter of when. My relatable story will have you laughing out loud and emotionally releasing the clutter that you have in your life and in your home. Unlike my previously actionable and tactical books, this book is my story. This is my personal memoir. I share my raw and unfiltered thoughts and I take you along on my transformational journey as I transitioned from a reactive person who moved with the ebbs and flows of life to the proactive person I am today. I share the mindsets and emotional challenges that I experienced during the year that I reclaimed my home. And, I hope to see you on the book tour in July and August!!! All of the details can be found at organize365.com/booktour (please note tickets MUST be purchased in advance and are limited). 

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 share my conversation with Leslie S. She has a husband and five children. Today, she’s sharing about her #decluttering2021 journey and progress! I hope you find her story as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get 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 share my conversation with Mickela M. She lives at home with her (almost) high school aged daughter and her college aged son. She recently moved, has a family business, and has had both kids at home during the pandemic. Mickela shares her growth using the Friday Workbox (and Lisa shares a secret Workbox update!). I hope you find her story as inspiring as I do!  Bonus - Hat tip to Mickela for the Stress vs. Chaos podcast topic last week! 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, I want to process through some observations for you about what I am expecting for the Summer of 2021. The pandemic continues to change, and we are starting to have updated recommendations and increasing freedom to do more once again. Almost all of us have something that the pandemic took from us, but getting back to our old “normal” brings up feelings of both stress and chaos. I actually expect that we will have at least two more years of life disruptions as a result of the pandemic.  Stress is a constraint, but is also a force that causes change. Stress makes coal into diamonds. In our lives, stress can be what helps us prioritize the most important thing and eliminate everything else.  Chaos, on the other hand, is a threat to our survival or resources. Chaos affects our needs, not our wants. It is panic inducing and fear provoking. Think back to the toilet paper shortages of the early lockdowns - that was chaos.  I want to talk with you about how to apply these definitions to your upcoming summer so that you can use stress to maximize the good, and avoid chaos.

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 share my conversation with Amanda P. Amanda has been the podcast editor since the beginning of the Organize 365 Podcast. She also lives full time (and homeschools) in an RV with her husband, and 4 boys (14, 10, 7, and 5). She also has experienced some health challenges during her time with Organize 365. Amanda is sharing her lesson “that less stuff would make life feel lighter and more agile.” I hope you find her story as inspiring as I do!  Amanda is currently taking new audio clients, and you can find her at https://thepelsersmedia.com/ 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This is going to be a bit of a coffee chat style episode. I want to share about an unexpected event that is ushering in my next life stage. I’m going to be a grandma! Abby is expecting her baby at the end of September. We are super excited about adding a little baby blessing to our lives!!! I am still processing how this will affect all of us, but I am SO excited to be a grandma! Abby and the baby will be living with us. As many of you know, I have never been pregnant. And, I have never been a grandma before. I am saying yes to this whole new phase of all of our lives - I want to experience all of it and be there for everything.  I have always seen Greg and myself as a mentor and coach for our kids. I want to be as present and supportive as possible as I help my kids reach adulthood, and beyond. We work together on critical thinking about why we do things, and this transition is no exception.  So, in addition to sharing this amazing news today, I want to talk through how our family is planning for this change in our lives - especially with a little baby in the house. I am adapting the book tour. I am thinking through how we will support Abby and the baby as they transition to their next phases of life. And, we are reorganizing our house as we will now have three generations living under the same roof.  Listen in and you can hear my thoughts about this exciting unexpected event!

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 share my conversation with Amy M. She lives with her Husband, four children, and her aging father-in-law. Amy has this to share about her journey “Organizing your life really is the secret to making your dreams come true - you just have to plan and execute every single day with baby steps. It's playing the long game.” I hope you find her story as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I have always wanted to record a podcast about what I am saying “Yes!” to and what I am saying “No!” to. Today, I am sharing my YES! list.  What I realized people are doing when they share these kinds of lists are actually different ways of thinking about how you are using your time. For me, the “no list” is about decluttering my decision making stress and setting boundaries. On the other hand, my “yes” list is about supporting my priorities. This week, I will be sharing my “yes” list for the next of my New Year’s - the Summer (May to August). The things on my “yes” list will not get my complete focus, but I will be finding extra pockets of time to use for these things. This Summer, I am saying YES! to: Traveling safely in the US! I have been home for the entire pandemic, and I am ready to travel. I’m fully vaccinated. I will be following the most current CDC recommendations during my travel. But, my big news is that I am preparing for a book tour! I’ll be touring my newest book Organization is a Learnable Skill from July 8 to August 10th. My kids’ requests for my time! As I said last week, I will be focusing on getting my kids to do more of their own #adulting responsibilities. However, any requests to just spend time together will be met with a YES! from me.  Makeup, fun hair, beauty routines, and enjoying a corporate casual look! I have been having a lot of fun trying out new makeup, a new curling iron, playing with my hair and makeup, and working on my wardrobe. I don’t own yoga pants or sweatpants. We have the freedom to choose what looks good on our bodies and works best for our current life stage.  Making our home a place we love to be! Greg and I are doubling down on optimizing our home. We want it to be a place we love to be, function well for us, upgrade anything we can, and to make it work for everyone who lives there. I encourage you to do the same for your home - no matter what budget you are working with. I hope that my “yes” and “no” lists help you to figure out if there are any things for your Summer that you want to firmly establish as a yes or a no for you right now.

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/   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 share my conversation with Cailla M. She lives with her husband, daughter, and a cat. She shares her story of facing some very difficult events in 2020, both as a teacher and in some health challenges for her husband. Despite all she went through, Cailla shares how she has been able to change her mindset, her self-talk, and her home to better care for her family and herself. I hope you find her story as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I have always wanted to record a podcast about what I am saying “Yes!” to and what I am saying “No!” to. Today, I am sharing my no list.  What I realized people are doing when they share these kinds of lists are actually different ways of thinking about how you are using your time. It’s not necessarily calling different things good and bad. It’s about prioritizing (what things get your yes) and decluttering and setting better boundaries (what things get your no). Over the next 100 Day cycle, I will be saying no to four main things. Different times of year call for attention to different kinds of tasks and areas of focus. When you make a yes or no list, you are creating a rule that helps you spend less energy making decisions. These rules can be for your next of the Lisa’s New Years, or it can be permanent. You get to choose.  Listen in and I’ll explain why I am saying no to these things. This list helps me declutter activities that are taking time on my mind and in my schedule. These are either things on my calendar or a mindset I am letting go. I am decluttering these things - at least for now.  Perfectionism Diet ideas Working in the evening Doing things for my kids

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 share my conversation with Jordan B. She lives with her husband and two teenage sons. Jordan started with her Sunday Basket®. After doing the 100 Day Program, she finds it much easier to have guests over without stress. I hope you find her story as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I am super excited today to introduce you to Jay Papasan. He is the co-author of The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results with Gary Keller. Jay is a best selling author and executive at Keller Williams Realty.  I quote the ONE Thing mantra regularly - What’s the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”  Clarifying our number one priority ensures that we make great decisions. We know what to say yes to; and then say no to everything else.  Jay and I explore the origins of the ONE Thing question, and how I have applied it to my life and business. My understanding of the ONE Thing has grown over time and can be applied in any arena at different levels at different times in our lives. Jay shares how you can use this ONE Thing question to figure out what to do today, and in life. He graciously explains what his own lifetime ONE Thing is in his own life.  There are limitless possibilities for how we can use our time, so the ONE Thing question can break down your choices so you can clarify what makes the biggest impact for you. Making decisions proactively ensures a better investment of your hours and your minutes so that you have fewer regrets. Time is not renewable. It is a precious resource and who you give it to matters greatly.  Jay also gives some great guidance on how our habits decide our futures. He shares his ideas about making rules for how you choose to spend your time. Listen in for his amazing advice! He explains how he balances openness to new people with those he already has decided are the most important.  Jay also teaches us about how to best set goals and the secret to improving our chances of achieving them. He talks about accountability and how to set the steps to stay on track to reach our goals. Systematically working backwards from the goal helps to create a straight line of actions that will move the needle and he shares how to set up a system. This is a proven process that naturally narrows our focus on key goals.  Perfection is overrated. Let’s make progress. Follow Jay and learn more at the1thing.com . 

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 share my conversation with Amber Z. She lives with her husband and four kids. She’s been working on the 100 Day Program since 2018 and shares about her progress (but not perfection!).I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This is part four of a four part podcast series on discovering YOU. This week, I will be talking with you about how to curate your life with Gail Golden. Gail is a management psychologist who helps businesses build better leaders. She helps to create powerful interventions and boost the bottom line.  So far, you have learned how you think and get something done. You now also know how to follow your energy and trust your intuition. Then, we covered how to create and trust your plan - for a day, a week, or a season.  I invited Gail to the podcast this week to share knowledge from her new book Curating Your Life: Ending the Struggle for Work-Life Balance. I want to introduce her to the Organize 365 audience. We are all on a journey from a reactive to a productive life. Everything we organize gives us more time, and some women now have 12-15 hours a week and are wondering “now what?” Gail shares how she has figured out what she is doing next, and how she is curating her next season of life.  Gail recommends The Power of Full Engagement. She shares how instead of asking “Do I have time for that?” she asks herself “Do I want to spend energy on that?” For Gail, the management of energy is how she makes decisions about how to spend her time and her life.  Gail shares how many of her clients feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and inadequate most of the time. She also noticed that people never seemed to develop a work life balance - at least until they curated their life. There are things that matter, but are not important, so we can just do them good enough. This leaves energy left over for the things you want to be great at.  Lisa and Gail talk about how to increase your energy, and even your energy capacity. Organizing your space means you don’t waste energy looking for things. Knowing yourself and awareness of your energy means you can manage your energy by selecting environments that give us energy. Also - sleep, water, healthy diet, and regular breaks can all contribute to our optimum energy levels. No matter what we do - our energy capacity is finite. This means, we still need to make decisions about how to spend our energy.  They also talk about mid-life re-curating. Sometimes life happens to you and something changes (divorce, COVID, job loss). Other times, we have changed and we recognize that we need something different in our lives and we elect to re-curate and make choices about our next steps in life. The theme of re-curating honors that our earlier choices were right for us at the time, but do not have to be followed forever.  Gail also gifts us by exposing the “obnoxious roommate” in our heads that speaks against every decision we make. You know that voice! If you stay home with your family, the voice asks why you are not at work. If you stay home, the voice asks why you “wasted” college or are not contributing more to the world. Gail calls that roommate out, and gives advice for talking back to that cruel voice and ensuring that our decisions about what to curate reflect what is best for us.  Gail also shares some incredible insights on how we live out our curation as social creatures. When we curate our lives, we do so in the context of many relationships. Listen in for her amazing explanation of how to balance individual needs with those you love.  We finish up by talking about how to manage our energy as we begin to re-enter the world after COVID. Gail gives some great questions for each of us to consider as we figure out what things to reincorporate into our lives, and what things are no longer best for us and can be left in the past. Listen in and see what you are called to curate in your life. 

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 share my conversation with Kristin B. She lives with her spouse and her daughter. Her transformational journey has had some major ups and downs! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!  

This is part three of a four part podcast series on discovering YOU. This week, I will be talking with you about how to create and trust your plan. I want to help you discover how you might be able to change your future.  So far, you have learned how you think and get something done. You now also know how to follow your energy and trust your intuition. Now, I want you to see how to create and trust your plan - for a day, a week, or a season. These plans are not for the rest of your life, they are to make specific progress on a goal, right now.  Planning is the antidote to decision fatigue. The thing that drains my energy faster than anything else is to make a bunch of decisions. The more rules you can create, the less decisions you will have to make, so the more brain power and energy you have to do what is more important. Think about something you have to decide all of the time (like what’s for dinner) - make a rule! Taco Tuesday is a classic for a reason. It’s a easy rule. It might be boring, but it saves me time, energy, and frustration to make this a rule. This is a proactive solution to decisions and helps to reduce decision fatigue.  Decision fatigue is only combated when you take responsibility and ownership of the questions and decisions that are being requested of you. Create rules, and eliminate the questions.  In this season, it is easier for me to make a set plan and know what it is going to be rather than arguing about whether or not I should be in charge of these decisions. Planning allows you more energy, more bandwidth, more time for the things you want to do more of in your life.  Think about one thing you want to achieve. Identify one goal. What is the sprint? What is the timeframe for that goal? Start thinking about making a plan for that goal. Are there any rules related to that plan that will make it easier for you to create a habit? What time of day will you have energy to pursue this goal?  Setting and achieving goals is the way you change your future. Creating an action plan and then trusting (and following) your plan is how you make progress. When you set aside the time, you will get to your goal, and see your new life.  I hope you discover something about yourself in this podcast, and I’d love to hear all about it on Facebook or Instagram!

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 share my conversation with Deborah I. She lives with her significant other and their cat. She graciously shares her transformation while dealing with mental health issues. Deborah shares how giving herself grace was more powerful than focusing on perfection. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This is part two of a four part podcast series on discovering you. This week, I will be talking with you about how to follow your energy and intuition. I want to help you discover how you might be able to follow your energy and intuition to get things done - more so than you could ever do with just a todo list.  As I pay attention to thought leaders, I see a major paradigm shift towards following your energy and intuition. This is the latest evolution in productivity. Over time, we can see how new ideas have progressed through our society, with people in different places on the acceptance curve, so I want to bring you along if these are new mindsets for you.  Intuition is hearing your inner voice, and trusting that knowing feeling in your gut. As you pay attention to your intuition, I think you will find that we have more knowledge inside of us than we believe.  I also want to share some stories with you about energy and intuition, to start you thinking about your intuition and energy. There are multiple kinds of energy to consider - mental, physical, spiritual, and relational to start.  In exploring these ideas, I recommend The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. They share paradigm shifts about energy that you may want to consider. I share my experience with changing from a detailed weekly schedule made in advance to building a schedule and making choices to follow your energy. I hope you discover something about yourself in this podcast, and I’d love to hear all about it on Facebook or Instagram!

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 share my conversation with Melissa G. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two dogs. She started her organizational journey by tackling her paperwork! That’s jumping in with both feet. She also shares some of her challenges facing unexpected events. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get 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 share my conversation with Debbye C. Debbye has been married for 44 years to her high school sweetheart, and she has a son with high functioning Asperger's Syndrome who lives in a basement apartment. Today, she shares about her transition from the survival to legacy phase of life. She is now growing her career as a professional organizer. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Happy Birthday Sunday Basket® The physical Sunday Basket® is THREE years old today. Today, I want to invite you to celebrate the Sunday Basket® with me! I am re-sharing and re-airing The Sunday Basket® podcast. I share where the Sunday Basket came from, how it starts at the introductory level, how we sell it, what support is available to you, and where to learn more.  You can learn more at sundaybasket.com

How to Multiply Time with Rory Vaden I love the way Rory Vaden looks at time and prioritization. I first learned about him when I was getting started in multiple direct sales companies. He is an expert in the principles of success - time management, goals, and positive attitudes. I reviewed two of his books - Take the Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose on the Organize 365 YouTube channel in 2020. I even have an older podcast about what I learned from his books - Episode 152.  I am delighted to share our conversation about time with you today. We talk about leadership, motivating others, achieving goals, and multiplying time. Rory shares some amazing thoughts about how to achieve your dreams - he says:   It’s not that people struggle from a lack of discipline, as they do from a lack of vision.  The amount of our endurance is directly proportionate to the clarity of our vision. The number one cause of all procrastination is self-criticism [perfectionism].    We also talk about how to make steady, consistent progress towards any kind of goals (work, home organization, or anything else). He explains how he makes decisions about prioritizing his to do items. And, then he drops his bomb, he teaches me how to multiply time by changing how I think about the items on my list. You multiply time by giving yourself the emotional permission to spend time on things today that create more time tomorrow.  As Rory talks about how getting organized is a way you can multiply time, we share how my own lessons for you are helping you to multiply time in your own lives. Things like the Sunday Basket® and the 100 Day Home Organization Program can lead you to freeing up ten to fifteen hours a week once you set up the systems. Automation of your organizing can lead to exponentially more time as you continue to build and refine systems. Any time you create a process today, it saves you time tomorrow, and then saves you time every day moving forward. Invest in good habits, invest in your self-discipline, and invest in how you think about and use your time - you will get exponential rewards in the future. If you want to systematize and grow your business, I recommend you consider working with Rory Vaden and Brand Builders. We help people monetize and build their personal brand. Organize 365 is partnering with them and you can get a free call at freebrandcall.com/organize365

Organizing Holiday Decorations Why do we keep the decorations we keep, and what is the best way to store them? As we go through life stages and unexpected events, our holiday items take on new meaning and sometimes add to our guilt or depression. That was true in my case. This week, your challenge is to organize your holiday decorations. Visit http://organize365.com/40-weeks-1-whole-house-week-19-organizing-holiday-decorations  for the full blog post. Find all the blog posts, podcasts and more right at your fingertips! Get the APP: http://organize365.com/app/ If you are old school like me, or use your email inbox as your to-do list, you might want the challenge delivered to your inbox instead.  Sign up for emails here: http://organize365.com/40-weeks-email/ This episode is brought to you by Onnit the makers of Alpha Brain Click here to save 10% off your first order: getonnit.com/365

Blog post available at organize365.com/word-of-the-year-2021 Last week, I reviewed my 2021 first quarter pink slash pocket projects with you. I shared what has been going well, and what projects I have deferred (or even abandoned without guilt!). The one project I did not deep dive into with you yet is my health slash pocket. In 2021, I am focusing on my health. I started out by using my 100 Day Home Organization Program planner to track habits and metrics. Knowing where I start means I can see how I am changing inside of my life.  Transformational Freedom: As you let go of one thing, you are open to receiving the next. We strive to unlock your life’s purpose through the process of decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity.  I am tracking and analyzing multiple aspects of my health including sleep, food, steps, and supplements. For 2021, my word of the year is health. I am focusing on my physical, emotional, spiritual, relationship health, and the health of Organize 365.  In the podcast, I also talk about the Organize 365 focus word for 2021: impact. We are working to make our mission, vision, and values come to life for the growing team.  If you don’t already have a word for 2021, take some time and reflect on what your word might be. You are not bound to your choice - but let it serve as a reminder of the goals we have for ourselves and our intentions for who we want to become.  I hope you choose a word you can grow into and want to be reminded of this year. I hope to see you progress on your transformational journey and unlock the potential you have inside of yourself. 

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 2020. You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

For the very first podcast of 2021, I shared what my pink slash pockets will be for the first New Year of 2021. Now that we are halfway through that first quarter, I want to share what I have completed, what I have completely let go, and why this has been the best experiment I have ever done inside of my Sunday Basket®. My Sunday Basket® is my habit and weekly system that keeps my actionable to dos, my ideas, my mail, keeps my family running smoothly, and allows me to focus on work during the week without worrying about household tasks.  Consistent use of the Sunday Basket® helps your brain move from reactive to proactive. After about six weeks, most users find they have capacity for the Sunday Basket® 2.0 slash pockets. These slash pockets hold the papers and ideas related to larger projects that require a consistent infusion of time, money, and/or motivation to be completed. The 2.0 slash pockets focus on four major life areas: home, family, money, and self.  In today’s podcast, I am sharing what I’ve been doing so far in my personal pink slash pockets so far in 2021. I was focusing on launching my kids into #adulting, family photo memories, creating an Organize 365 scrapbook, systematizing beauty, and my to be read list.  Listen in as I share what projects I have completed, what projects I called “good enough to be done,” and which things I have decided to abandon or ignore. And, I’d love to hear about YOUR pink slash pockets in 2021 on Facebook or Instagram!  Also mentioned in this episode: Organize 365 Kids Program Organize 365 Launch Bundle Organize 365 Memorabilia Binder

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 2020. You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

The older you get and the more #adulting you do, the more you realize there are taxes for everything. There are almost as many kinds of taxes as there are kinds of insurance. When I was younger, and taxes seemed easier, I used to do our taxes myself using TurboTax. Now, our finances are much more complicated, and we use an accountant to file our taxes. However, I have a process that lets me get my paperwork ready in three to four hours total! When I was an in home professional organizer, I saw many people request extension on their personal income tax filings. Not because they didn’t know how to do their taxes. Not because they didn’t have the money to pay the taxes. All because they did not have their tax documentation in order.They have to get their paperwork under control in order to complete their taxes. I want to help you become proactive instead of reactive in approaching your taxes, so today I am sharing some of my own processes for making taxes easy. I always work on my taxes in February (usually during the Super Bowl). Back when I was a Creative Memories consultant, I learned to organize my business taxes using the IRS Schedule C categories.  First, every January 1, I add a green slash pocket to my Sunday Basket® labeled “Taxes” to keep all of my incoming paperwork together and organized.  As I have shared before, I recommend you make your decisions in advance whenever possible. Establish habits and routines to reduce decision fatigue. Here are my lessons to make tax time easier. If you have a business, figure out how you will categorize expenses related to Schedule C categories. A few years ago, I made a cheatsheet of my categories and how I group expenses to keep my categories uniform from year to year. I also recommend making checklists for yourself of annual tasks (writing down mileage for vehicles) and for the papers you are expecting in the mail (income, mortgage, bank, investment statements).  Keep up with recording your expenses monthly. I recommend the Organize 365 Income and Expense Binder as your one place to keep your receipts, documentation, and to track your expenses. This way you will know how your expenses are affecting your profitability every month and can adjust as needed. Record your income monthly. This will help you to recognize the many ways you are generating income in your business and you can adjust where you spend your energy so that you are focusing on the most effective parts of your business.  If you spend a few hours each month, then at the end of the year you can do your inventory counts and be ready for tax time.  The Organize 365 Income and Expense Binder is what I have used in all of my businesses to keep track of income, expenses, and mileage. If you do not have a similar system set up for your business finances already, you can purchase this from our shop at https://organize365.com/product/annual-income-expense-binder  I am excited to share my simple system for income taxes with you. However, I am not a tax advisor or accountant, so these are my personal thoughts. Please do not use them as tax advice and consult your own professional for information about your specific situation.

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 2020. You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience at organize365.com/embrace

Today, I want to talk with you about diversity and inclusion at Organize 365. I have always been intentional and purposeful about creating an inclusive and diverse company over the last nine years.   Organize 365 is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I get to see the great work that Procter & Gamble does to actively work towards diversity and inclusion. I have learned so much from their approach to building intentional depth and breath of their employees. As we grow and expand, we will continue to strive to represent the beautiful colors, thought patterns, races, and religions of the world.   While race is one important facet of diversity and inclusion, I also want to share some other ways that Organize 365 strives to build a team of people who represent all different kinds of diversity. In the podcast, I share many of the ways we are already diverse some of which include generation, family structure, and awareness and empathy for people with special needs. I am also delighted that the Organize 365 community is wonderfully diverse and so inclusive of all who join us on the journey.

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 2020.   You can learn more about the 2021 Embrace experience on our website. 

As we get ready to celebrate February as Black History Month in the United States, I want to share some of the history I have learned about the differences between Black and White Americans owning houses in the US. I am doing my best to use preferred terms and inclusive language, so I am asking for grace as you listen. I am always open to learning new things, but I also want to use this platform to share information about the US history with people who may not have learned these things in school and who have not yet added this topic to their learning journey.  During the Summer of 2020, I dove into reading and learning about the historical differences between the experiences of Black and White Americans. I am a lifelong learner. I love history. I love to learn about different cultures. I love to learn about all people all over the world. I am learning about myself, my home, and broadening my horizons by learning about the experiences of others in the world.  As a White woman celebrating Black History month, I want to be respectful, and I want to share information that would be relevant to my primary topic of organizing your home. I also want to acknowledge that my experience is different than that of African Americans, and I thought back to all the things I have been reading and learning about home ownership. I believe that the more we understand the differences that shape our lives, the better we are together and the more empathetic we are towards one another.  In my history studies last summer, I began to learn how many White people were able to gain college educations and grow their wealth because of home ownership. I was initially shocked to learn about some of the differences I describe on the podcast. My family of origin had very different experiences, and by learning about the history of US housing, my eyes were opened to the reality of the differences in the US. I want to share some of the fascinating, eye-opening information I researched last summer. Links to several of these resources are below: Black Wall Street - Podcast The Color of Law - book by Richard Rothstein NPR interview with The Color of Law author Richard Rothstein  The Banker - Movie  In the podcast, I share some of my own learning, insights, and a raising awareness of my own biases and assumptions. I offer you some resources to do your own research and learning. Knowing each other’s stories will bring us better understanding, and better conversations. I want all of us to leave more educated. What unites us is far greater than what divides us.

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 week, I share my conversation with Zetty M. She lives with her husband and three daughters (9, 11, and 14). They have been a nomadic sailing family for the last five years, but are now settled down in Wisconsin for the next nine years while the kids finish school. She shares how she has transformed her home and life along her organizing journey. And, she started her own business! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring as I do! You can find Zetty at https://zippypt.com     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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

This is a special Coffee Chat episode, available only in your podcast player. Coffee Chats are time sensitive, so this episode will disappear once the content is no longer relevant. Listen in for all of the new Organize 365 products available in our brand new Merch Store!

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you.  My evening routine is the shortest of all of my routines, and it is my least consistent routine. I like to use this time to focus on my hygiene and care of my body. I take a hot bath, do some skin care, and take my vitamins. Before the pandemic, I used to do something productive before doing these getting ready for bed activities. During the pandemic, I spent that time on my phone - on social media, reading about news events, reading hundreds of emails, and following different internet rabbit holes that were not particularly productive.  For the next 120 days, I am focusing on incorporating habits of planning my outfits for the week on Sundays. I want to plan my food for the next day in advance. I also want to get back to reading physical books. Projects from my updated slash pockets are also things I may include in this time. I am focusing on writing out my notecard with the next day’s schedule and plan each evening.  Think about what would make the biggest impact for you in the next 120 days. You cannot do it all. But, when you pick what you want to do, you can focus on doing those things with excellence. Do not take on too much - pick small easy things. Find ways to remind yourself about these changes, and see how it goes.

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 week, I share my conversation with Anna D. She lives with her husband of 25 years and shares two dogs with her adult daughter. She found Lisa from the ADDitude webcast. Anna began her transformational journey during some major unexpected life events. She settled her sister’s estate, remodeled her mom’s house, and was dealing with her own ADD. She shares her story of learning to thrive despite chaos. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you. When I consider daily routines, I look at the morning, afternoon, and evening time periods. I am going to discuss each of these and share what I was doing pre-pandemic, how 2020 dramatically changed these times of day, and what I want these routines to look like in 2021.  I actually think afternoon routines are one of the most important and often overlooked transition periods, especially for women. I first introduced my 2017 afternoon routine in Podcast Episode 193. You can listen to that if you want more information about my morning routine before the pandemic of 2020. As you adjust and adapt your routines, I really recommend small changes. Small changes over time are more successful and create more lasting change than big sweeping changes that are difficult to sustain. Afternoon routines are the transition from work or school back to home and family time. It is the bridge from your daytime activity to the dinner hour. The afternoon routine is one you have to be conscious about setting up, especially if you want to be deliberate about what you do during this time.  Depending on your phase of life, the afternoon routine can include dinner preparation, cleaning up the house, checking kids homework, and sometimes driving to and from activities. But, it is the change over from work to house life.  For many years, I did not actually stop working at a typical time, so my afternoon routine was a pause to just get my family on track. However, as Organize 365 has grown, I worked to develop the habit of stopping work at a reasonable time to give my family my full attention. I delighted in my habit of spending time with Greg every day.  During the Pandemic, Greg and I both began to work later everyday. We both worked a lot more and did not end at our normal times anymore. I did run to Culvers almost every day to give myself a commute and some alone time. Over the summer, I began to spend more time at the warehouse and continued to work more than my basic 40 hours a week. In the Fall, I began to work more at the warehouse and office. I still need a transition from work to home and some private, quiet, alone time for my thoughts. I want to keep the transition, but I no longer enjoy eating all this fast food.  Updating my pink slash pockets has already given me more motivation and desire to work on my own projects after my work hours. This is a more desirable way to use my time than driving to get fast food. And, we are spending more time sharing meals together as a family. Of the three routines, this one is the most nebulous for me, and the one that is still in process. I am not fully sure how I am going to achieve these changes to my routine, but I am giving myself grace as I figure this out.  So, as you figure out what you want to adjust in your afternoon routine, be patient and observe what is working and not working right now. Do you want to spend time with family? Is this a helpful time to tackle your 100 Day Home Organization Program task of the day? Do you need to focus on your food and nutrition? Do you have hobbies or personal projects you will focus on?  I would love if you can share your afternoon routine ideas in the Facebook group or on Instagram and tag me!

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 week, I share my conversation with Melinda K. She lives with her retired husband, college age step-daughter, and 2 dogs. In our conversation, Melinda shares how she was inspired to clean up her office (and how she started her 100 Day Home Organization Program doing double time and following her energy. She’s also a bit of rebel, so she can encourage others who don’t want to be told what to do, even by me! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!  

As we head into 2021, I want to talk with you about moving from a reactive life to a proactive one by resetting your daily routines. In 2020, many of us picked up some bad habits and time wasting activities that snuck into our schedules. I am working on recapturing my time for purposeful activity, and I want to share my thoughts and strategies with you. When I consider daily routines, I look at the morning, afternoon, and evening time periods. I am going to discuss each of these and share what I was doing pre-pandemic, how 2020 dramatically changed these times of day, and what I want these routines to look like in 2021.  I first shared my thoughts about a morning routine back in Episode 192. You can listen to that if you want more information about my morning routine before the pandemic of 2020.  We are going to start with the morning routine, because that is when our day first starts. Traditionally, morning routine strategies are written by men without children who take over an hour to get their day started - even without showering, hair or makeup. My reality is that my mornings have almost always been dictated by what my family needs.  My basic morning routine takes me about 45 minutes just to get prepared to leave the house and start my day. When I get up, I get ready for the day and then leave my bedroom. I do not lounge around the house in the morning. I get ready for the most dressy event of the day and stay dressed all day long. I do not ever go back and change my clothes.  With the pandemic, my morning routine faced several disruptions. I had all this content that I felt like I had to consume before I could get out of bed and start my day. My spouse and whole family were home too, which changed how I was working. Around this time, my mental mindset was changing and the podcasts I listened to completely changed. We had to quarantine several times as a family due to COVID exposures (everyone was thankfully safe and negative). Joey totaled his car, which meant he needed more rides. Honestly, I just abdicated my morning routine in so many ways, and became reactive to the changes happening in my life.  As you build your morning routine for 2021, ask yourself: What do you want? When do you want to get up? When do you want to start your work day or tasks? What things do you want in your morning routine? What do you want done early in the day? Do you want to change what media you are consuming in the morning? Please feel free to share your morning routine ideas in the Organize 365 Facebook Group!

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 week, I share my conversation with Jamie J. She lives with her husband, and two twin daughters. Her daughters were born prematurely and have overcome some challenges (including extra paperwork!). Jamie says “I just thought I was born to be unorganized and that was the way it would always be.” But she found the Sunday Basket® and has gotten her papers under control. Next up, IEP and homeschooling binders! I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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   You can find the Mini Medical Binder downloads mentioned today at organize365.com/emergency

There's a new Organize 365 pop up podcast! I'll be doing some Coffee Chat episodes on Tuesdays - but they'll only be available in your favorite podcast player. These are time sensitive episodes about products, events, or specific information. And, they will self-destruct (disappear) when they are no longer relevant. So, make sure you are subscribed to the podcast and you will never miss an episode!

Happy New Year 2021! We did it! We made it through 2020! When I look back on 2020, there is of course the pandemic, and all of the things that were unexpected, not desirable, and even terrible. But, there were also great things that happened in 2020. In 2020, we did a lot of pivoting, adjusting, and adapting. Organize 365 moved to a bigger warehouse and hired more full time staff members. As a family, we had family members home at different times, and came out ok. As I look forward to 2021, it feels really hard to plan and set goals. The first quarter of 2021, is not going to be the best time of (most) of our lives. But, once we are safe at home, we are mostly in control of what happens inside of our home, our mindset, and our planning for that. When I reflect on 2020, my core personality and gifts did not change, but my habits changed drastically.  When the pandemic first arrived, I filled my days with work. As the year went on, I was able to return to the rhythm of working mostly during work hours, but I filled my free time with habits that were not serving me. Those habits were wasting two to four hours of my day (and I’ll tell you all about them in the next three podcasts). But, you need a proactive plan when removing less useful habits from your life. My Pink slash pockets remind me to make time for hobbies and relationships that are important to me.  When I looked at my Pink slash pockets in my Sunday Basket® the other day, I realized I had not changed them at all during the pandemic. I had pockets for travel and restaurant dates with Greg. I did not want the pandemic to interfere with these dreams and goals, so I kept them throughout all of 2020.  As I look at the next 120 days (the first of my 3 new years in a calendar year), I will likely not be traveling or eating in a restaurant. My heart goes out to those industries and the very hard season they are still experiencing.  I was resistant to changing my pink slash pockets, and that meant that I limited my own hobbies and interests to just jigsaw puzzles. I definitely enjoyed doing lots of puzzles, and do not plan to stop enjoying them in 2021. But, I do want to incorporate new pink slash pockets for myself. I am saving my former Pink slash pockets for now, but I am starting some new projects in the next 120 days. Listen in and I will share my new possibilities for my free time and self improvement projects for January through April of 2021.  What do you want your first 120 days of 2021 to look like? Start to dream about the different ways you can possibly use your time, and when the time presents itself, you can jump into one of your possible projects!   Mentioned in the episode: Launch Bundle with Binder

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/   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 week, I am sharing an audio copy of a recent Sunday Basket® webinar that I taught. I walk you through setting up a Sunday Basket® and teach you all about the different slash pockets you will want to set up. I walk you through setting up and using a Sunday Basket® step by step in this podcast.   Are you ready to create a lasting system for the paperwork and to-do’s that clutter your kitchen counter tops and your mind? Listen in and then get started with your own Sunday Basket®.   You can learn more at sundaybasket.com or you can purchase today in our shop.

Blog post at organize365.com/podcast/content-consumption-teddy-roosevelt  I am constantly consuming books, podcasts, webinars, and social media. These sources allow me to connect with people, ideas, and passions that I have, but to do so on my own time when I am ready for it. I love to learn and have an insatiable capacity for knowledge and learning. Because I follow my interests and seek out new things to learn, I constantly change what I am listening to.   During the holidays this year, I am making an effort to provide lots of content for those in the audience who may be lonely or looking for a friend during this difficult year of the pandemic and social distancing. I will take you along with me, and I remember years that the holidays were difficult in my own life. I want to be there for you as much as I can this year. I often view Instagram stories as a virtual reality show with my own personal friends (even if the people I am following do not know me!).  So many of you ask me about what books, podcasts, Netflix series, webinar, and social media I am reading and watching. The reason I do not answer is because it would take over half an hour each week just to explain what I am consuming this week. It is constantly changing, and a lot of it builds on things I have already learned and consumed. Also, I consume a lot of content.  This week, I am sharing some of the tips from an article about President Teddy Roosevelt - another productivity nut! In 2019, Erin McCarthy published 13 Reading Tips from Theodore Roosevelt, and today I am sharing some of them with you, along with a few of my own thoughts about them.  Listen in, and I will share what I listen, watch, and do around the house, and how I choose what to consume next!

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 share my conversation with Jennifer B. She lives with her husband, daughter, 2 cats, and 2 dogs. She also has a son who recently moved out and lives nearby. Jennifer says she decided to get organized when “autoimmune illness and spinal arthritis forced me to quit working as a veterinarian and left me with little to no energy and a lot of pain/depression. I could no longer keep up with the management of all the stuff and the people and the pets and the events. I felt like a failure. I needed less stuff, less stress and better systems to manage it all so I could stop being a victim of this disease and disorder.” She started with listening to the podcast and slowly getting rid of the excess stuff in her home. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today, I want to encourage you to embrace organizational math. With organization, you can move your life from reactive to proactive, but doing so takes focus and determination. First, we change your mental model, and then you layer on the practical and physical skills.  I was a middle school math teacher, and I share how I apply the same benefits of basic math skills to your transformational journey into organization. For any of you who are math phobic, I promise we will only talk about addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.    Addition When you decide to get organized, the first thing you will want to do is to add a new habit into your life routine. Habits require focused efforts to ensure their successful adoption. When we want to improve our lives, we often try to add many new habits all at one. However, being able to cement a new habit into your routine usually requires about 120 days, but if you tackle fewer goals more effectively you will ensure achieving a lasting change. Spoiler alert: the first habit to add when working towards organization is the Sunday Basket®.   Subtraction When you think about applying subtraction to organization, it is the first step we take in the 100 Day Home Organization Program - decluttering. Decluttering naturally starts with removing excess physical objects from your home - things you no longer need, want, use, or have space for. After that, you can gain further space from subtracting obligations, negative people, negative thoughts, and inefficiencies from your life.   Multiplication This is where organizational math begins to gain major power. Organization always gives you more time. When you start with gaining extra time planning your week and task stacking by using your Sunday Basket® each week, you will gain time to work through the 100 Day Home Organization Program. Then, as you gain control of your home and paper, you can tackle your paper binders, kids rooms, and photos. Moving through decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity helps you to make space for what you are uniquely created to do.    Division This is the most powerful part of organizational math. With your increased ability to focus as the result of your organizing, you can now divide time into fewer but more powerful roles in your life. When you get to this stage of your transformational journey - you will divide your time into three major baskets: your Friday Workbox for the work you are uniquely created to do, your Sunday Basket® to manage all of your household obligations and to-dos, and your passion projects (hobbies and personal satisfaction). This is when Planning Day and time blocking your calendar powers up your life and your capacity. As you move along Maslow’s Hierarchy, keep working on learning your organizational math skills and adding on new ones as you continue along your transformational journey!

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 share my conversation with Sara P. She lives with her husband of 9 years, son who is 6.5. and daughter who just turned 5. She started with the Sunday Basket® and said: “I was sick of getting irritated and cranky when I got home from traveling to see papers everywhere. I needed a paper system before the next traveling contract started.” She’s had great success in changing so many of her mindsets and household systems. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

The Organize 365 Mission, Vision, and Values. I will also be sharing our Vivid Vision for the next 3 years! Our Mission Organize 365® helps busy women, in all phases of life, learn the skill of home and paper organization in one year with functional organizing systems that work. By acquiring these skills, women are free to pursue their passions and gift the world with their unique, God-given talent. Back in Spring 2017, I started to realize that Organize 365 was becoming bigger than me. I needed to build a team to see my vision for the future of the company materialize. I hired 7 people in 7 weeks, and we began to work towards the 3 year goals I set back then. In those three years, we have created and sold a physical Sunday Basket®, binders, and a traditionally published book The Paper Solution.  The mission statement I wrote back in 2017 is still the foundation of the service we provide today, though it has been expanded a bit over the years. In the podcast, I share my mission, vision, and values with you directly.  We have achieved all of the practical, actionable goals I set back in 2017, and today I am sharing where I see Organize 365 going over the next three years. I want you to know exactly how we will be improving the customer journey, how we will continue to refine and add value to the lifetime programs you have already purchased, and the new content we will be creating to continue to help you achieve home and paper organization.  I have always envisioned Organize 365 as an educational and transformational company. You come to Organize 365 when you need to learn how to get organized. As your teacher, I can ensure that you can really truly learn the skill of getting organized, reduce the number of hours it takes to organize and maintain your home, and have your house be a haven that does not talk back to you, so you are free to get out there and do what you are uniquely created to do. I look forward to helping YOU get 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 talk with Stephanie S. She lives with her husband, her mother, and 5 kids. She shares how her husband now is working on projects that have been on hold for over 3 years! Together they balance a family, a kinship placement, homeschooling, and the rest of family life. I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Take Control of Your Thoughts Today, I want to talk with you about metacognition (thinking about your thinking) and how that helps you to take control of your thoughts. It really is a cognitive choice to see the positive in every situation. I start by sharing a letter from a member of the Organize 365 community who is struggling with her negative thoughts about the could have, should have, and would have things that she missed out on before having a functioning Sunday Basket®. From the many of you who have reached out, I know she is not alone in struggling with giving herself grace and celebrating progress (not demanding perfection). In the podcast, I will share with you some experiences in my own home and family that could definitely have been seen through a negative light. However, I share with you how I practice thinking about the good even in these challenges and sometimes even disappointing events. I am giving you concrete examples of how I choose to see the positive side of whatever life brings my way. Shifting your mindset in this way requires practice and you will not always get it right. I even share how I had some (brief) tantrums when things did not go as planned, but how I was able to practice taking control of my thoughts and reframing what was happening in my life. I want to help you learn to become a more positive, proactive person. I want you to move towards the future you dream of for yourself and your family. The future that will have will be the result of your design. Adjust your mindset so you can see what you want for your own future, and then we will work together to transform your life and make it happen.

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 talk with Sarah T about how her life has been transformed and how she is learning to identify as an organized person. Sarah has a full house with her husband, 10 year old daughter, 8 year old son, 5 year old son, 2 dogs, and some other small animals. We talk about how she has adopted multiple systems to stay organized while working and schooling from home and getting a new dog in 2020! Listen in to hear how she organizes her clothing in a way that works perfectly for her! (#permissiongranted to do what works in your home and family!!!)  I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

This episode, Understanding Inventory at Home, is directly related to Episodes 361 and 362 on the different kinds of work. I am sharing some of my thoughts about analyzing how we use the principles we use to run a business and relate them to how we run our households. I think this is super useful because it allows us to take the emotion out of our thinking, and to realize that there is work to be done.  Our work will never be done - at work or at home. Once we recognize that, it reduces our stress. We can then conscientiously pace ourselves to prioritize what is truly important and urgent. Because of the COVID pandemic, we are home more and we are using our homes differently than before. This means that the nature of our work and our homes is changing.  We are now keeping a larger stockpile of many home goods (toilet paper anyone?). My previous productivity advice to outsource, hire help, or automate things is not always available or economically feasible anymore. Let’s start over and look at the home through a different lens. I want us to think about our household inventory in terms of time, money, and physical items inside our homes. In the podcast, I share with you some business terms, and then apply them to our homes and lives. Bottom line: The goal of living an organized and productive life is to achieve as many goals as possible using the least amount of time and energy. Then, you can use the remaining time, energy, and money to do what you are uniquely created to do.  Right now, I am looking at the inventory we keep in our house. Is it the right amount? Is it in the right location? And, I think the key question is: how many of those to do list items and goals are even necessary at all? Listen in and I’ll explain how our inventory continues to change (and what I predict will happen after the pandemic is finally gone). I even include some of the ways I am thinking about inventory inside my own home and family. Vocabulary Lesson (based on The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford): Throughput Business - the rate at which the systems generate money through sales Household - the number of to do and goal items you can accomplish (per day) Inventory Business - all the money the system has invested in things it intends to sell Household - all of the items the home has that it intends to turn into to do items or goals Operational Expenses   Business - all the money the system spends on turning inventory into throughput Household - all the time and energy we spend turning inventory into finished to dos or goals

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/   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, our transformation will focus on being able to see the positive and the good that is happening in every single situation. 2020 has been a challenge in so many ways. I definitely do not want to repeat 2020 in any way. However, I would love to give you a perspective shift and help you to see all of the wonderful things and blessings we have had in 2020. Today, I want to share some of the blessings that have been experienced by the Organize 365 community in this crazy, unprecedented, extraordinary year.

This week, we are continuing to look at the different kinds of work. Having labels for things like types of work allows us to see things differently and sometimes leads to better communication.  Prior to founding Organize 365, my entire life was reactive. Everyone else got to tell me what to do - the economy, my family, my stuff. I just kept reacting to what was happening in my environment. In 2011, I drew a line in the sand. Sink or swim, I am in charge of my life from here on out. I started by taking care of my home and began proactively attacking my life. Unless you actively decide to do planned work and work to create a life where the majority of your work is planned, you will remain in firefighting mode and continue to be reactive. Until I read The Phoenix Project, I did not even have a mindset for types of work like this. I did not realize the two other kinds of work we are talking about today were a thing that existed. Last week, we explored proactive and reactive types of work. Today, we add in maintenance and change orders.  Work: Maintenance - maintenance is the repeating tasks that result in the care and upkeep of your home and life. Many people ask Organize 365 for a cleaning checklist or a home maintenance checklist. There are tons of them on Pinterest. However, if you are using the internet for a list consider how often you need to do the tasks. Are you sure everything you are doing on your checklist needs to be done (at all) or needs to be done as often as you are doing it?  Your standard and comfort level is unique to you. Maintain at the level at which you want to maintain your home. Make a list of the tasks you want to be done - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly timeline. Make sure that the frequency you assign each task matches with the home you want to have.  Work: Change Orders - anytime things change, it creates work. When a person, assignment, or locations changes, you need to think through the new situation, and you need to do the work to make the change happen. Change is part of life - try not to add a lot of drama. Pivot, adjust, and keep making progress. Often, these kinds of change orders are reactive. Tip! With meetings, book 5-30 minutes after them for your change order work meeting. Follow up as immediately as possible - adjust the agenda (maintenance), and then get your to do items into your Sunday Basket or Friday Box, make decisions, give approvals, or adjust deadlines. At home, you may need to adjust to new dietary requirements or adjust for your energy level or adjust to someone else (sick kid, spouse stuck late at work, etc.).  I have learned to proactively adjust my plans based on my energy levels. As I analyze my own patterns, I have learned that I need to have a certain kind of energy in order to be effective at content creation - writing books or recording podcasts. Other kinds of work I can do no matter what my energy level is at a given moment. I adjust my schedule each evening for the next day based on my energy level.  I am giving you permission to make your own maintenance checklists and your own change orders. Just because we have work to do in our own homes, does not mean that we need to do it at a certain time or in a certain order or on a certain day. I give you permission to loosen the standards you have set for yourself that are so high. They may be robbing you of your joy. Do what is right for you. Try it without worrying. There is no failure, it is just an experiment.

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 answering a listener request to do a virtual organizing session on the podcast. Betsy reached out and requested my assistance to help her tackle the 100 Day Home Organization Program. She had already purchased a membership, but is trying to balance kids at home, multiple part time jobs, and ADHD in the midst of our current global pandemic. Together, we rethink how she can participate in the 100 Days in this challenging season.  I hope you find this conversation as inspiring 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 ® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

I have recently been enjoying parable based books to learn new things and to gain confidence that my own analysis and plans are “right” in the world of business.Reading a fictionalized version of important information helps me to apply learning and see nuances rather than just read dry facts. Recently, I listened to The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim and learned how they describe four different kinds of work.  In this podcast, I will introduce you to the first two kinds of work. I then also share my thinking about how these kinds of work are also present in our home and household lives. By thinking about these kinds of work, we can get better work patterns and be more effective in the work we do.  Constraints - constraints are limits that are difficult or impossible to change - in this episode, I give examples of time, money, and space. When we do not have enough of these things, it can be a limit on our organization and productivity, and changing our situation can require a major effort. Bottlenecks - are problems that can be analyzed and solved - in this episode, I give examples of time, money, and space. I explain how we are not using what we have effectively. It is vital to discern whether you are facing a constraint or a bottleneck - many times there are effective changes you can make. Work: Firefighting - reactive work that has deadlines, stress, or feels like a crisis. This work shows up unexpectedly and causes us to pivot, iterate, and adapt rapidly. In the home, the Sunday Basket® contains and then puts out fires. Firefighting is reactive by its very nature. Work: Planned Work - Planned work is proactive. When you plan your work, you use your time, money, and space more effectively. Organize 365 members accomplish large goals without stress, overwork, or being hurried. The 100 Day Home Organization Program focuses on planned work. Each day is planned out for you and you make progress in 15 minute chunks. Try it! For the next 10 days, every evening I want you to write out your plan for the next day in the order you will accomplish your tasks on a notecard. Write down your appointments, any household tasks you need to accomplish (pick up a prescription or clean the oven or do laundry). When you write out a plan for your day in order, you can see if you days are smoother. Bonus: the evening before, also add to the index card what clothing you will wear and write down what you will eat. Spoiler alert - there are no perfect days and no perfect plans! The goal is to move from reactive to proactive. You can learn more about using notecards in Episode 310: Ditch Your To Do List with Notecards. Listen in next week for the other two kinds of work!   Books mentioned in this episode (affiliate links): Traction - Gino Wickman  Lisa’s YouTube Review Get a Grip - Gino Wickman and Mike Paton  The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford The Goal - Eliyahu Goldratt

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/ 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! Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Stephanie Fowler of Austin|Fowler: Chic Bags That Simplify Your Life on the Go. We talk about how she has progressed in her own organizing transformational journey and now has time to create and run her own company. I know many of you are either ready to take this next step, or are dreaming of the day when you can do what you are uniquely created to do, and I want to share this conversation with you. She and her husband have 4 kids at home and she runs her business! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

These weeks between October 1st and Thanksgiving are typically the most productive weeks of the year. I want to help you make October super productive by helping you declutter. I want to give you tasks you can complete in 15 minutes a day so you can declutter some different areas of your life. I am focusing on decluttering only, not on organizing or productivity. Have you been listening, or have you been taking action this month? We’ve talked about files, hot spots, and hot mess rooms. Today, we are going to talk about decluttering entertainment.  This pandemic has taught me that Americans are entertainment hoarders. We have long lists of things we pursue for the sake of entertainment like kids’ activities, restaurants, shopping, TV shows, sporting events, and even travel. We have become so used to consuming entertainment that the pause in novelty during the pandemic has led to boredom. There was even a meme that said: “I finished Netflix today, what’s next?” Today, I want to share my thoughts about decluttering the entertainment we have inside of our homes. Those games, puzzles, and hobby materials that you were keeping just in case - have you used them? Can you plan to use them this winter? If you have entertainment you no longer wish to keep, clear out your house and make more space for the things your family does use.  Listen to the podcast as I talk with you about board games, video electronics, that mega box of cords, and even analog entertainment (waffle makers, for example).  I want you to use the entertainment you do have and enjoy to make memories with your family. And, for the things you no longer need, can you pass them on and bless some other family? I bought a bunch of puzzles when we first started staying safe at home. I have passed them along to people who passed them along to others - the puzzle train means that many families get to enjoy spending time together working on a puzzle, but do not have to keep storing a puzzle they have already used. I’d love to hear what things you have passed along to others on Facebook or Instagram! 

  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’s Transformational Podcast features Renee. She and her husband have 2 daughters, and a dog. She also works as a speech language pathologist. She shares how she has gotten her home and kids organized, and how the Mini Medical Binder helped her family during COVID (get yours at organize365.com/emergency)! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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.

These weeks between October 1st and Thanksgiving are typically the most productive weeks of the year. I want to help you make October super productive by helping you declutter. I want to give you tasks you can complete in 15 minutes a day so you can declutter some different areas of your life. I am focusing on decluttering only, not on organizing or productivity. Today, I want to talk with you about decluttering your hot mess room. A hot mess room (HMR) is where we lovingly place (shove?) things we don’t know what to do with, can’t part with right now, are not sure about, or want to keep “just in case.” Depending on your home, a HMR can be a garage, shed, storage room, basement, attic, shed, or sometimes even a whole house. If you are working through the rest of your home (like with the 100 Day Home Organization Program or All Access Membership), you declutter your main living areas, and end up dumping your extra stuff into an area that becomes a HMR. This area becomes overwhelmed as you put things into the space “for now” while you delay making a decision to actually get rid of the stuff. This is perfectly normal - it’s a rest stop for your clutter on the way out the door. All Access members have a deep dive course to help clear out a HMR, but for today, I want to help you to make progress simply decluttering this space. Unlike a kitchen or a living room, HMR can be hard to clear out because they accumulate stuff from everywhere in the house. Today, I want to help you make progress decluttering this area so that it is more useful to you. First - be realistic about any item you are considering continuing to keep just in case you need it. Remember that you have just lived through the ultimate just in case scenario - you were safe at home (sometimes for months) during a global pandemic. If you didn’t use the item (food, clothing, or hobby) during that time, you probably never will. Let it go. If you do keep just in case items, you should know what you have and how to find it when you need it. Second - clear out the things you don’t need that will make the biggest difference in the space - empty boxes, broken items, orphan pieces of furniture, and household items you no longer want or do not use (vases & holiday decorations that do not fit your taste or style anymore). See if you can reduce the stuff by 25-30%. Send things to trash, recycling, or donation centers and reclaim your storage space for the things you do want to keep in storage. 

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’s Transformational Podcast features Melissa F. She and her husband have 13 year old twins, a dog, and a business. She shares how she has organized her home and her paper - and we celebrate her progress!  I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! Melissa's kids Allie and Brady have an Etsy shop. Feel free to check it out! 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 ®  100 Day Home Organization Program All Access Friday Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

In today’s podcast, I want to inspire you to take quick action to address the clutter hotspots in your home. A hotspot is anywhere that paper or physical stuff accumulates. As our lives change, we often use our homes in ways that are different from the organizational systems we have already set up. This leads to stuff sitting out and making hotspots. There are three major reasons a clutter hotspot develops: You have not made a decision about an item. You have a project you are deferring (not taking action on right now). You have brought new items into your living space that need to be given a home. In the podcast, I will walk you through several different hotspots that have popped up in my own home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how I was able to declutter them. I bought some food items but did not have a plan to actually prepare them for a specific meal, so they were left out. Some hotspots were from aspirational purchases where I purchased things I thought I wanted to do (breaking my own 24-hour rule), and left the items out in our living space. Another hotspot was from purchasing new kinds of supplies for the pandemic (gloves, masks, hand sanitizer) without a place to store them or a sense of how many we needed to store in our home. I want you to take some time and look around your home for your hotspots. Which of the reasons above are these items sitting out randomly around the house? What can you do with your items? What can you donate? What can you work on right away? What can you finish up? As you look for solutions, think about the Sunday Basket® has helped to eliminate your paper clutter hotspots from your kitchen counter. You know where to put items while you make a decision, you have a place to store your paper that is supporting deferred projects, and you have a home for every piece of paper that enters your home! Make your home function for the way you use it every day, the way your family lives right now in the present moment. I want you to know that if you need it, you have #permissiongranted to choose functional organizing for your actual daily life.

Listen to all of the transformational interviews at organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts 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! Today, I am sharing my conversation with Jill M. She lives in IL with her husband and 2 kids. She recently completed her Master's Degree and is now starting her own business. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

These weeks between October 1st and Thanksgiving are typically the most productive weeks of the year. I want to help you make October super productive by helping you declutter. I want to give you tasks you can complete in 15 minutes a day so you can declutter some different areas of your life. I am focusing on decluttering only, not on organizing or productivity. When decluttering, the way to make it easier, faster, and more effective is to create rules for your items. Rules free us! With rules, you will make quicker decisions and reduce your decision fatigue. You don’t need to stop and consider each item’s value or importance, you will refer to your rule and rapidly decide to keep or toss.  This week, we are focusing on decluttering the file cabinet. The Paper Solution launched in August of 2020, and I am hearing from many of you how helpful that book is in getting your paper under control. For the fall, I want to help you declutter and reduce the amount of paper you are managing (and will later organize).  When it comes to paper, you need rules. There are different kinds of papers - I think of papers as being parts of different categories. First, all actionable paper belongs in your Sunday Basket®. For the podcast today, I am focusing on decluttering your archive (sometimes called reference) papers.  When you make your rules, you need to answer two questions: What will I save? (or what will I toss/not save)? How long will I keep this category of paper? In the podcast, I share examples of the rules I use in my own life for my own paper for several different categories: Manuals & warranties Phone books Kids’ school papers Pets Home decor paperwork Automobiles I do not always keep papers, and I’ll explain why I now discard many papers in these categories. If you sort through 3-5 folders from your file cabinet each day, it will typically take around 15 minutes. Focus on identifying what you want or need to keep, and toss the rest (of course, shred sensitive private information). Most people are able to reduce their saved paper by 50-80% when decluttering this way.

Listen to all of the Transformational Podcasts at organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts This week, we are back to our traditional transformational 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! Today, I am sharing my conversation with Audrey N. She just started her 2nd round of the 100 Day Program. She is married, works part time outside the home, and is a parent. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! Audrey recommends the meal planning app Plan to Eat (no affiliate).  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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

These weeks between October 1st and Thanksgiving are typically the most productive weeks of the year. You will get to see your productivity skyrocket and your 2020 goals come to fruition. Once the holidays come, you will turn your focus to social events and making memories, so I want to talk with you about how COVID may be a Golden Window for you. Some of you have been barely surviving this pandemic. And, that’s perfectly reasonable. I am not asking you to do more, but I want to share some short, actionable podcasts that can help you cultivate a mindset so you are prepared for when you can deep dive into organization and productivity.  A Golden Window is a time in your life where you have an unusual period of energy, drive, and focus to take back your life and get organized. Are you in a period of your life where you are reevaluating your life? Have you stopped to think about how you use your time, where you live, your job situation, or your home? Everything has changed - for all of us. For a Golden Window, you are ready for the change. If you are merely reacting and surviving, you may not have the extra time, energy, and motivation that a Golden Window brings.  If you are not in a Golden Window, do not worry. Keep going and give yourself grace. Your turn will come. If you are in a Golden Window (Podcast 242), I want to help you analyze and plan for this opportunity.  If you are entering a Golden Window, I want to help you end 2020 strong, and to start thinking about how you can use this opportunity to look ahead 5-10 years and begin making the changes towards that future. Listen in as I help you figure out what you want to start and how to take the first step.

This week, we are back to our traditional transformational 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! Today, I am sharing my conversation with Kerstin H. She lives in Germany with her husband and foster daughter. She started with a Sunday Basket® and has found much more peace in life and control of her time. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

As we continue to explore our interim normal from COVID-19, I want to share some insights on the economy and how we are changing the way we use our homes. I am not an economist or a real estate expert, but I am a questioner and I want to share my own personal thoughts about how we continue to adapt to these extraordinary (unprecedented) times we are in. We are in the middle of a transition in technology, working from home, social media, and how we are living in our current reality. As I have shared before, my study of different generations has shown that history is cyclical and we move from one end of a particular pendulum to the other, and then we come back again.  The Stuff We Keep In the 1980’s we were at the height of consumerism and stuff. Near 2020, many people were very minimalist. In the next few years, I expect that people are not going to declutter as much. We have now faced supply chain issues, shortages, and have learned we cannot always go shopping for (or even order delivery) of the things we want right now.  Our families are also changing. More people are living at home, indefinitely. While young adults used to go out and begin living independently, the health and economic issues are meaning more are living at home for longer periods. This also changes the amount and type of stuff we are keeping in our homes.  Economic Changes Retail stores are going bankrupt. The economy was shifting prior to the pandemic, but COVID creased a condensed timeline. While businesses usually change at a much slower pace than individuals or families, they are now being forced to adapt more quickly, and not all will be successful.  Supply chain issues are also a real thing, and will likely continue for a while. For people who traditionally stockpiled things, you may not have access to the same quantity as before. You may not have space to store extras while you are also housing additional people in your home. Your ability to afford to shop and plan ahead may also be altered.  Living at Home If you decluttered something and are regretting letting it go, because your “just in case” actually came true, give yourself grace. There is no benefit to blame or anger at this unpredictable global health crisis. If you have not used something in the last 6 months, I want you to really consider letting it go and allowing it to bless someone else. As we head into our first Fall and Winter seasons in this pandemic, I want you to think about what you will need to get through this season. What items do you want to be sure you have for this season? What do you need to change or adapt in how your physical home is functioning? What do you want to have at home? What can you afford? What do you have space to store? How will you adapt your holiday plans for social distancing and public health? How will you make your home feel like home for all who are living there? IDS At Organize 365, we use the Traction model for our business operating system. One component is that we IDS problems and issues. We identify, discuss, and solve challenges as a team. I share some fun examples in the podcast - so be sure to listen in for an insider peek at some recent decisions we made.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has taken away our ability to go with the flow. We are living in a snow globe where our city, job, government, and public health are continually shaken up and we are chasing around. So many people are sharing that life feels so hard right now. There is no flow. The pandemic has stopped our hustle, bustle, and flow.  Most of us have lived through hard times like this before, and humanity has definitely survived times of uncertainty and upheaval similar to what we are facing now. In the podcast, I share about how we have survived and have the lessons from other times in history when our lives were similarly out of control.  However, catastrophic events do not impact everyone equally. Depending on your location, family, job, and other factors, you may be experiencing a lot or a little bit of life disruption. Today, I want to talk with you about how to find your flow again - even though it will be different than it was before COVID-19. First, if you are not a natural flow generator, find and follow good leaders. Second, get started. Let go of perfection. Release the need to do it all. But, actually taking action and moving your body will produce much better results than thinking about what you want to do. Third, I really want you to work on your schedules and routines. These basic steps will get you moving in the morning and can keep you moving throughout the day. When you clean up - you know the drill - pick up trash, clothes, and food in that order. Start simple, and just get started. I also share how my morning, afternoon, and evening routines have helped me to continue to be engaged in my life and make progress during the pandemic. It is typical to be less productive than you were before the stay at home events, but using routines will help you to transition to the next part of the day and keep the momentum going. I share suggestions for setting up your routines and share my own inside the podcast.  For links to the items Lisa is using, please go to the show notes page on the website. 

This week our Wednesday podcast is my conversation with my absolute, most favorite author - Laura Vanderkam! We discuss many things she writes about in her new book, The New Corner Office. We talk about all things working from home - how to manage time, organize your workday, still be productive, and get energized to get things done. Laura is also analytical so we talk about different ways to apply routines, rituals, transition time, separation, and habits so we can find success in this interim normal as many continue to stay safe at home.

Listen here: organize365.com/podcast/interim-normal   We are living in the middle of a global health pandemic during COVID-19. The middle of any kind of change or transition is messy!!! As we go through the middle, we can end up feel trapped - we cannot go back, but we are not yet to the place we want to be.    I want to help you make sense of this pandemic and disruption we are all facing. I want to share my analysis of what is going on in society, our homes, and our responses to this uncertainty we have all been living with since at least March of 2020. I am hearing from many of you that you are facing anxiety, depression, and feelings of loss. Every single person on Earth has had plans derailed this year.   So - what do we do about the messy middle? We are certainly not yet to the "new normal" that will come someday, but we do have to begin to function more effectively and make some progress in life. We are all struggling to make sense of our current reality and to figure out how to function in a new world. We cannot live our pajama day, Netflix, and quarantine cocktail life while we wait for the end. We must work our way through this messy middle.   I want to walk with you, provide inspiration, and help you to survive (and maybe thrive) in this unexpected life event. I cannot fix everything going on, but I can help you to find your bearings so you can get some traction while we all stumble through this middle place together.    Listen in as I talk to you about how to analyze and adapt for:   School (in person or from home) Vacations & Fun Work Adult Children Thinking Time Schedules & Routines Cash Flow & Money   Just as getting organized begins with your mindset, so does getting yourself and your loved ones through this time. I am here as your teacher, your coach, and your friend. You are not alone in this journey, and I will walk along side you and continue to share and inspire.   Furthermore, if you are struggling with mental health during this time, that is a true, real, and vital medical need. Please seek medical attention for your medical needs. Please reach out to your health care team and ask for help. If you want to hear more about the time I struggled with depression, you can listen to that podcast here. However, I am not a medical professional, and I cannot provide medical assistance. 

  I am so excited to share with you a short excerpt from The Paper Solution audiobook! My publisher has allowed me to share this reading from the book with you all. I hope that you are making progress on your home papers and getting them organized, but if you find this helpful, be sure to pick up your own copy of The Paper Solution.   Order your copy here!

The Paper Solution - Kid's School Memory Binder In The Paper Solution, I teach you how to ditch your file cabinet and replace it with portable, functional binders for reference papers. The Paper Solution will tell you how to set up your binders, gives you access to sample printables, and gives you a list of what to include in each of the binders I recommend you create.  The Kid's School Memory Binder Binders have so many benefits - they are easy to update, they help limit how much we save, and they are far more portable than a file cabinet. This is one place to keep art work, stories, awards, certificates, and those adorable school photos.  I have even made these binders for Greg and myself. We had some great times reading each other's school papers, sharing stories, and just being surprised by each other. One binder for each person in the house is really fun and a great way to keep a reasonable amount of school memories in an organized way. The Kid's School Memory Binder helps to keep your child's school papers, memories, and certificates in easy to enjoy (and space limiting) binders. When you use page protectors, it is easy to add and remove papers over time. I am always astounded by how much kids enjoy looking back at their own work and sharing the stories. For details on what to include in your binder, listen to the podcast and then check out Chapter 14 of The Paper Solution.  In the podcast, I also share about the Warrior Mama IEP Binder - a way to help you get and keep your paperwork organized if you are dealing with special needs or individualized education plans.

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! Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Melissa S. Missy lives with her husband and 3 girls. This is the second part of our conversation. Today we talk about work, motherhood, and other organizational parts of life. Missy works in a family business with 180 employees that focuses on media and trade publications. She and Lisa share about how Missy uses a Workbox and Binders to keep all of her papers organized so she can be an organized business owner. They also share how the Workbox and Sunday Basket® help Missy plan her week and stay proactive rather than reactive! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Enjoy the podcast: organize365.com/podcast/organize-fun-paper   In The Paper Solution, I teach you how to ditch your file cabinet and replace it with portable, functional binders for reference papers. The Paper Solution will tell you how to set up your binders, gives you access to sample printables, and gives you a list of what to include in each of the binders I recommend you create.    The Household Operations Binder   The idea for this binder grew from my career as a teacher. I think of this binder as a lesson plan for my home and family - I want to keep track of and grow the traditions that are meaningful to the people in my family and I want to reduce the things that do not bring joy or value to my family.    I created this binder to help keep track of ideas for celebrating and decorating for different holidays. I also keep childcare information, pet information, and meal plan information in this binder. I want it to be a single place someone could go to step in and help with our family routines and care. This is a place to keep the things you want to remember from our three times a year Blitz - like summer ideas or winter holiday plans.    The Household Operations Binder allows you to hand off care of your home, children, or pets to another person. It keeps all of the details and information in a single place. It also helps you to keep your ideas together in one place so that it is easy to transition into fun. For details on what to include in your binder, listen to the podcast and then check out page 218 of The Paper Solution. 

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/   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!   Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Melissa S. Missy lives with her husband and 3 girls. She shares how she has used the skills she has learned from her Sunday Basket® and the 100 Day Program to transform her paper and home. She shares how she makes time for her 15 minute a day task, has helped settle her mom's estate, and how the Warrior Mama binder has helped with her kid's education. Missy shares her own challenges with ADHD and how she has gone from living a reactive to a proactive life (and how that is so much easier on her brain!).   I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

In The Paper Solution, I teach you how to ditch your file cabinet and replace it with portable, functional binders for reference papers. The Paper Solution will tell you how to set up your binders, gives you access to sample printables, and gives you a list of what to include in each of the binders I recommend you create.  The Financial Organizing Binder In full honesty, this is last binder I made for myself, but it was probably the most important binder I made. Money can be a tricky and emotional topic, so give yourself grace if you are new to this topic. I help as the executor of both my grandmother and my father, and I saw what a blessing it is to the people you love to have your financial papers in order and organized.  The Financial Organizing Binder is meant to keep track of past purchases and closed loans, current bill pay checklists and active accounts, and dreams for the future with retirement accounts and some celebration of life (funeral) information. It is meant to be a help to your family, or you can use it when you need to settle someone else's estate.  The Financial Organizing Binder allows you to keep your past, present, and future finances together in a portable and organized system. For details on what to include in your binder, listen to the podcast and then check out page 196 of The Paper Solution. 

In The Paper Solution, I teach you how to ditch your file cabinet and replace it with portable, functional binders for reference papers. The Paper Solution will tell you how to set up your binders, gives you access to sample printables, and gives you a list of what to include in each of the binders I recommend you create.  The Medical Organizing Binder Before my father passed away, I was his power of attorney for health care. I was doing my best, but I did not know his medical history, diagnosis, or even his medications. I started out writing down information on scraps of paper, but I was traveling several hours between my home and his, and it was hard to keep it organized. Having test and lab results recorded in an organized way helps me to feel less anxious and more informed.   The Medical Organizing Binder keeps track of your diagnosis, family history, and what is normal for you (or for the person you care for). Everything I and the medical team could want to know about my children is organized in one place. And, in the US, digital medical records are not kept indefinitely and they do not always transfer between providers. The Medical Organizing Binder allows you to keep a complete personal medical history in a portable and organized system. For details on what to include in your binder, listen to the podcast and then check out page 209 of The Paper Solution.  Try out a sample FREE mini Emergency Medical Binder printable at organize365.com/emergency - Feel free to share this link with family, friends, and co-workers!

In The Paper Solution, I teach you how to ditch your file cabinet and replace it with portable, functional binders for reference papers. The Paper Solution will tell you how to set up your binders, gives you access to sample printables, and gives you a list of what to include in each of the binders I recommend you create.  The Household Reference Binder The Household Reference Binder is the first binder I ever made, and it is one of the easiest to assemble. The Household Reference Binder is all of the papers about your home that you would pass on to a new person moving into the home. It works for homeowners and for renters. The Household Reference Binder is one complete inventory of your appliances, repair information, service providers, and decoration choices like paint colors.  My Household Reference Binder repeatedly saves me time, headaches, and money. Everything I could want to know about my home is organized in one place. For details on what to include in your binder, listen to the podcast and then check out page 188 of The Paper Solution available at organize365.com/book

On the Wednesday Podcast this week, I share my conversation with Angela Watson. Angela is the creator and teacher of the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club. Her program helps teachers become more prepared and organized so they can spend less time at work and have a sustainable career. We talk about the many choices we have made to pivot during the safe at home experience. Angela and I deep dive into some of the challenges teachers are facing while teaching remotely. We also talk deeply about the challenges parents have faced with remote learning and an unpredictable school year in the fall. We talk about how to balance the administrative tasks for teachers too. We talk about how to balance professional AND personal development. We both want you to show up as the best version of yourself - and that means time away from work to rest and recharge. I think this will be fascinating as a parent, teacher, or just someone working on self-care. Learn more about the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club and how you can join now as a friend of Lisa (even though it's closed to the public!) - organize365.com/angela

We hope you can join us for this non-traditional book launch!!! The Paper Solution book is launching August 4, 2020 and I want to share some details with you! While it is disappointing that I cannot safely travel and hug each and every one of you in person, I still want to share the celebration as The Paper Solution launches. Today, I am sharing my plan with you! I want you to have The Paper Solution - I don't want to just sell you a book, I want you to have a paper reference guide in your hands - so you can finally get your household papers under control. We all know that we are still having supply chain issues, and books are no exception. Please consider preordering so you can be sure you get a copy! You can order your copy at organize365.com/book

This week, my Wednesday conversation is with Lorie G. She was on a previous Transformational Podcast and she is back with an update and some super helpful information this week. Lorie started the 100 Day Program after some damage to her house and after losing nearly 100 pounds. In our conversation, she shares how she adapted to schooling from home in the spring, and how is doing her best to make ideas and plans for the uncertain fall school year. She is honest about how she has been challenged to be consistent with her Sunday Basket®. At the same time, she customized her Friday Teacher Workbox to help her adapt to teaching during the pandemic. She is frank about how she has make important choices and rearranged priorities. Listen in to hear grace in action, and to be inspired to face whatever comes next year. Lorie has been super generous, so we are sharing two bonus items. Her sign in document is available here, and you can watch a special video here. 

As we enter July 2020, I want to talk with you about time. I want to talk about how time is passing during this global pandemic. You either have so much time you do not know what to do with it, or so little time you do not know how you will get it all done. In my life, I have vacillated between those two thoughts, but it is different now.  We will probably be living with the virus for a while yet to come. It is going to take time to sort out all things that have been disrupted or changed by the pandemic. During our Ready For the School Year Blitz, I kept reminding you to focus on what you can control. What are you in control of? How can you take control of your time (knowing "pandemic time" is different)? No matter how productively we had been living prior to the pandemic, now most of us are living reactively. To move towards proactive living and productivity once again, we need systems, routines, and habits. But, July is not the time to do any of those things. I am working on how I can best support you in September when your productive energy and focus will increase.  As you enjoy the rest of summer, I want you to let your brain noodle on a few ideas before we head into the fall. I answer two reader questions and share my own mindset about some concepts around time. Listen in as I talk about these questions:  How do you know when you have done enough? How do you balance the concepts of planned neglect and Laura Vanderkam's idea of 168 Hours - You Have More Time Than You Think?  Do you have to be doing everything that you are doing related to the care and maintenance of the house and the people that live inside of it? With everyone living inside of your house 24/7, the workload related to caring for your home and people needs to be divided more fairly among the people who share your home. For this, I recommend going back to the podcast or book review of Eve Rodsky's Fair Play.

Listen here: organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts   “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” - Charlie "Tremendous" Jones   This week, my Wednesday Podcast is a conversation with children's author and my virtual friend Maria Dismondy. We pack so much into this quick interview. Listen in to hear how we talk about living a life with healthy balance and discuss virtual book tours.   We also talk about how to change the conversations we are having inside of our homes. We talk about how to build a library of books that represent all of the children and how our books should reflect the world around us. Maria has written books with the goal of making sure there are children's books that celebrate our differences so that any kid can open a book and see themselves in the pages.   You can find her books or learn more about Maria Dismondy at https://mariadismondy.com/   You can still preorder your copy of The Paper Solution - launching August 4, 2020.

Brace yourself - I want you to think about your house in way unlike you have ever thought about your house before. I want to challenge all of us to change from how we think we should live in our homes, and embrace how we are actually living in our homes. I am hoping we will not be forced to stay safe at home again, but I want us to be prepared. As women, we often feel like when people come into our homes that we are being judged and graded. Most women I have spoken with have felt this way at some point in their lives. We take pride in having a clean and hospitable home, but we are often short in time and money to make that a reality. I want to help you make some mindset shifts for living in this pandemic. Walk through your house with index cards or a note pad. Stop in each zone and make notes about what worked and what did not. I share with you some of the thinking I did about my own house and family.  Walk through your house with index cards or a note pad. Stop in each zone and make notes about what worked and what did not. I share with you some of the thinking I did about my own house and family. For example, everyone in the home needs a place to work, alone space, passion projects, and adequate technology. I also share some changes you can consider making to the spaces in your home. You can make new rules. You can change how you are using your spaces. I'd love to hear from you in our Facebook community if you are using spaces in new or unusual ways.  Mentioned in the podcast: Kids Program & Planner Getting Ready for the New School Year Blitz

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/   This week for our Wednesday podcast, Monique Horb and I deep dive into the Professional Organizer's Think Tank (POTT). We have both worked as in home professional organizers, and I share some of the history of how Organize 365 has transitioned along the way.   The POTT is the largest FREE Facebook group for professional organizers. It is a blend of seasoned professional organizers and people just exploring professional organizing as a career path. We share how the group is a great place to learn about this as a potential job.   We also share about the POTT podcasts (Lisa shares details about setting prices and policies in that podcast) and we share about the Sunday Basket® Certification Program that you can add on to your professional organization business. The conversation also shares some information about the SALES part of running your own professional organization business.

As we try to plan for the fall, I want you to be more thoughtful about your home. We are processing a massive amount of change every single day. It is also impossible to make an effective plan for even the near future in our current world. It is very hard to live with the constant unknown we are facing right now. I am recommending that you spend some time this summer focusing on ruthless decluttering. I want you to embrace your current phase of life, and get rid of anything you no longer want or need. Ruthless decluttering is a physical activity that makes you feel great. You will create physical, energetic, and emotional space in your home. Get the stuff out! Focus on the life you are actually living right now. If you haven't used something you had been saving "just in case" during the pandemic and all the supply chain shortages - let them go!

Listen here: organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts Welcome to week two of our updates with Monique Horb. This week we talk all about the Paper Organizing Retreats. We talk about where they come from and why people find them so helpful in finally getting their paper organized and ditching their filing cabinets. One of the real gifts of a Paper Organizing Retreat is a chance to focus on your papers without interruption in a dedicated space - it allows you to really make progress! They are also way more affordable than hiring an in home professional organizer. We also talk about how we converted these in person Paper Organizing Retreats to virtual in the COVID pandemic hosted by our All Paper Certified Organizers. Some are even offering deep dives into specific binders. Remember, if you preorder 5 copies of The Paper Solution and submit your receipts by July 17th, you can join our virtual POR as a preorder bonus. You can place your preorder at organize365.com/book We also share how the Sunday Basket® Certified Workshop Organizer program can add to your business. Monique also shares some of her paper organizing packages and workshops. If you are looking for a local or virtual Paper Organizing Retreat, please check our directory.

Blog post: organzie365.com/creating-a-massive-possibilities-list This year has been challenging, unpredictable, unplannable, unusual, and unprecedented. We have had to pivot and adjust more than ever before in our lives (at least for many of us). Our brains are processing so much change all the time. Everything needs to be thought about all the time. Our habits and routines have been completely disrupted. We are using our decision making power so much more often and are getting exhausted so much more easily than before. I want to help you create a massive possibilities list, and not using a to do list. I want to help you to change how you think to focus on chunking and orienting your thinking to bigger priorities. All month, we will be talking about how to adjust our thinking, homes, and lives to take more control of our homes as we continue to move forward during the pandemic. Listen in and hear how I have transitioned from a to do list to a possibilities list. Learn more about The Sunday Basket®.

Listen to all the Wednesday Transformations.   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’s Transformational Podcast features Eva C. She has a full house! She lives with her husband and three teen aged sons. Her oldest child, a daughter, moved out last year. And, her in-laws live in the basement suite! Listen in as she describes the transformation after 20 years of marriage, four kids, 15 years of homeschooling, and 8 moves. She also shares her most important lesson: "I found out that I would be okay if I gave things away." I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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   To learn more about the programs and products described here, please go to Organize 365.

See all of the Wednesday Transformations at https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/ This week, we return to our regularly scheduled Wednesday Transformational Podcasts. This week I am speaking with Verna R. She has had several unexpected events in her life and is busy doing international humanitarian work. She finished her first round of the 100 Day Home Organization in just 35 days. 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 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

In light of current events, this week I am sharing a special podcast conversation with the newest Dream Team member - our summer intern Milana. She was open hearted and willing to speak with me about about racism and what I have learned about my part in it. I have learned so much and WILL BE part of the discussion and the solution. I hope you can listen and open your mind, even if these ideas are uncomfortable. I am working to be better and do better. I hope you will join me by listening in.

Listen to all of the Wednesday Podcasts here: organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts This week, we are continuing a mini-series during our Wednesday Transformational Podcast. I will be sharing conversations with a few members of the Organize 365 Dream Team. I ask them about how they have been staying safe at home during our exceptional (unprecedented!) circumstances. This week, I speak with Amy our Graphic Goddess who has been safe at home with her husband and young kids. She shares some of her challenges and triumphs during the past few weeks including homeschooling younger kids. We also share some of the ways Organize 365 has been adapting to the changing circumstances in our current world. I hope you enjoy this conversation as we share how we are #inthistogether as we #staysafeathome. I would love to hear about how the Organize 365 experience has been transformational in your life. Please reach out to us at organize365.com/wednesday and let us know your story.

Listen here: organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts   This week, we are continuing a mini-series during our Wednesday Transformational Podcast. I will be sharing conversations with a few members of the Organize 365 Dream Team. I ask them about how they have been staying safe at home during our exceptional (unprecedented!) circumstances.   This week, I speak with Vanessa our Director of Operations who has been safe at home with her husband and kids. She shares some of her challenges and triumphs during the past few weeks. We also share some of the ways Organize 365 has been adapting to the changing circumstances in our current world.   I hope you enjoy this conversation as we share how we are #inthistogether as we #staysafeathome.   I would love to hear about how the Organize 365 experience has been transformational in your life. Please reach out to us at organize365.com/wednesday and let us know your story.

Listen to all of the Wednesday Podcasts here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/ 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’s Transformational Podcast features Lorraine M. She shares her home with her husband and their two adult children. She has transformed from having an unorganized home to being a professional organizer and becoming All Paper Certified. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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.

Listen to all of the Wednesday Transformational Podcasts at https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/   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’s Transformational Podcast features our first sisters - Lori and Julie! They both live in Canada and share how they have been working along their transformational journey together! Each woman has two kids. They have each faced some real challenges and they are very funny! Don't miss the part where they share: When you know the purpose of something, you won’t misuse it. And when you know YOUR purpose you won’t misuse yourself I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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.

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’s Transformational Podcast features Sheri M. Sheri is a teacher and shares her home with her two college age sons. She shares how she started using Lisa's materials after having a procedure to repair a brain aneurysm caused by a car accident and how getting organized made life easier. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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.

This is a bonus episode recorded as a Facebook and Instagram LIVE on Friday March 24th, 2020. Today, I want to share with you some thoughts on where we are in the midst of the COVID health crisis and our sheltering in place. I share some of the things I am finding inspiring, and I also share some inspiration for continuing to stay safe at home and finding our new normal. Please forgive any sound abnormalities, but I wanted to be able to share this important message with you! Learn more about the 100 Day Organization Program or try a FREE WEEK. 

For the April podcast episodes, I want to talk to you about how to plan a big project or work towards a big goal. Full disclosure, I generally record podcasts 6-8 weeks in advance. I recorded these in February and March, and I used the examples I was planning at the time. Today, the world looks very different, and many of my examples are not things we can do right now. I know many of these kinds of big projects, celebrations, and plans are all up in the air right now. We are all missing out on direct physical connection to keep our communities safe. I made the decision to air these episodes anyway, because how you plan a big project did not change. How we are living right now has changed dramatically. But, the principles of organizing never change. You can still learn the skill of organizing. It takes learning and skill to develop organization and productivity.  I am sharing my system for completing big projects. I break it down into smaller steps, and I am going to teach you these skills so you can follow along, and maybe even plan a project of your own. I am trying to provide as much encouragement, motivation, perspective, and love as possible during this time of uncertainty. We are in this together! After you have been doing your Sunday Basket® for 6-8 weeks, you will find you have 2.0 slash pockets with projects that still need your attention. Today on the podcast, I want to share with you how to move beyond your Sunday Basket® to dos and weekly focus to actually completing big projects. I want to show you how I create bigger goals and accomplish bigger projects. I do this by using a consistent system for approaching my big projects and I want to teach you how to apply these same skills.  For this podcast series, I am talking about three different example projects: a large party or celebration, summer planning for kids, and moving to a new home. This system is for a project that requires more than a single weekend to complete. Much of the time, you will collect ideas and papers for your project in a 2.0 slash pocket. When you are committed to taking action and completing the project, you will follow the steps in the podcasts. Listen to Step 1 here.  Listen to Step 2 here. Listen to step 3 here. Step 4 - Work Your Plan & Get it Done! I put my slash pockets in the order they need to happen. For example, invitations need to go out before I can order food, so I put the pockets in that order. I also recommend putting “must do” items before “nice to do items.” Look at your calendar carefully, and schedule time to get these tasks done. As you make your schedule, you may find out that you do not have enough time to do it all. That is normal - deferring or deleting portions of your project helps you to get to the goal without burning up all of your resources (time, money, energy).  I always start by planning for what I need from other people - quotes for work I need done, outside help, information about what the kids want for summer, etc. I have also learned that I can work effectively for 90 minutes, but cannot typically sustain my focus for 4 hours, so I plan accordingly. Allow more margin or buffer to your plan if you are feeling stressed or pressed for time. It’s better to have too much time than too little. Each evening, make an index card with the schedule for the next day. Do not make a vague to do list, but actually make a schedule of what will be done and when. Then, follow the schedule and do the things you have scheduled. The unexpected will happen so be sure to allow yourself margin, be flexible, and reduce your goal. Work ahead as much as you possibly can (ideally in order of priority), to reduce your stress when unexpected things show up.  Click here to download these printables! :) 

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’s Tranformational Podcast features Katherine Z. She lives with her husband, 2 kids, and (soon to be) 2 dogs. Katherine has worked with a professional organizer, but found success with All Access and choosing functional organization over perfection. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 ®  100 Day Home Organization Program All Access Friday Workboxes

For the April podcast episodes, I want to talk to you about how to plan a big project or work towards a big goal. Full disclosure, I generally record podcasts 6-8 weeks in advance. I recorded these in February and March, and I used the examples I was planning at the time. Today, the world looks very different, and many of my examples are not things we can do right now. I know many of these kinds of big projects, celebrations, and plans are all up in the air right now. We are all missing out on direct physical connection to keep our communities safe. I made the decision to air these episodes anyway, because how you plan a big project did not change. How we are living right now has changed dramatically. But, the principles of organizing never change. You can still learn the skill of organizing. It takes learning and skill to develop organization and productivity.  I am sharing my system for completing big projects. I break it down into smaller steps, and I am going to teach you these skills so you can follow along, and maybe even plan a project of your own. I am trying to provide as much encouragement, motivation, perspective, and love as possible during this time of uncertainty. We are in this together! After you have been doing your Sunday Basket® for 6-8 weeks, you will find you have 2.0 slash pockets with projects that still need your attention. Today on the podcast, I want to share with you how to move beyond your Sunday Basket® to dos and weekly focus to actually completing big projects. I want to show you how I create bigger goals and accomplish bigger projects. I do this by using a consistent system for approaching my big projects and I want to teach you how to apply these same skills.  For this podcast series, I am talking about three different example projects: a large party or celebration, summer planning for kids, and moving to a new home. This system is for a project that requires more than a single weekend to complete. Much of the time, you will collect ideas and papers for your project in a 2.0 slash pocket. When you are committed to taking action and completing the project, you will follow the steps in the podcasts. Listen to Step 1 here.  Listen to Step 2 here. Step 3 - Plan - Be on Target, on Time, & on Budget The biggest gift you can give your brain is time. The more time you have, the better you will capture all of your ideas, refine them, and prioritize. Allow yourself to work on this project in several chunks over several weeks.  Use your slash pockets to help you decide what to do. Time block and add to do items to your calendar. As you decide on your plan, work on the most important or time sensitive items first. Keep asking the question: What is the one thing you could do - that makes everything else easier or unnecessary? As you develop your plan, set your goal, and adjust as necessary. Consider your: Budget Time Available Scope (maybe you will paint, but not build a deck) Outside expertise or help available Energy Having your plan laid out and working on your project over time is typically much more effective than trying to get these big projects done in one major chunk of work time. Building your slash pockets and plan over days to weeks gives your brain time to evaluate your choices and helps you be better, stronger, and more efficient.  Click here to download these printables! :)

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’s Tranformational Podcast features Sara B. She is a single mom of 3 kids from 5-19. She works full time and is in school part time. Her inspiration for getting organized was tackling her paper piles. She started with the Sunday Basket ® and has transformed her home and life. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 ®  100 Day Home Organization Program All Access Friday Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

  Today, I am sharing ANOTHER bonus podcast from Organize 365. This is my frank conversation with fellow business owner Tara. We sat down to talk about what it is like being a business CEO in the midst of our current world events and economic climate. Although this is not highly organization related, I know that some of you enjoy hearing about what it is like to be a business owner and how I make those decisions. Listen in and enjoy!   Please rate and review the podcast!

For the April podcast episodes, I want to talk to you about how to plan a big project or work towards a big goal. Full disclosure, I generally record podcasts 6-8 weeks in advance. I recorded these in February and March, and I used the examples I was planning at the time. Today, the world looks very different, and many of my examples are not things we can do right now. I know many of these kinds of big projects, celebrations, and plans are all up in the air right now. We are all missing out on direct physical connection to keep our communities safe. I made the decision to air these episodes anyway, because how you plan a big project did not change. How we are living right now has changed dramatically. But, the principles of organizing never change. You can still learn the skill of organizing. It takes learning and skill to develop organization and productivity.  I am sharing my system for completing big projects. I break it down into smaller steps, and I am going to teach you these skills so you can follow along, and maybe even plan a project of your own. I am trying to provide as much encouragement, motivation, perspective, and love as possible during this time of uncertainty. We are in this together! After you have been doing your Sunday Basket® for 6-8 weeks, you will find you have 2.0 slash pockets with projects that still need your attention. Today on the podcast, I want to share with you how to move beyond your Sunday Basket® to dos and weekly focus to actually completing big projects. I want to show you how I create bigger goals and accomplish bigger projects. I do this by using a consistent system for approaching my big projects and I want to teach you how to apply these same skills.  For this podcast series, I am talking about three different example projects: a large party or celebration, summer planning for kids, and moving to a new home. This system is for a project that requires more than a single weekend to complete. Much of the time, you will collect ideas and papers for your project in a 2.0 slash pocket. When you are committed to taking action and completing the project, you will follow the steps in the podcasts. Listen to Step 1 here.  Step 2 - Chunk Tasks and Create Slash Pockets Separate tasks into different topics, piles, and groups. Use slash pockets to hold different parts of the project together. For big projects like this, I do not worry about color coding, I just use what I have available. In order to help, I’m including a few typical slash pocket ideas for the different projects. I am giving you 5 slash pocket ideas, but use as many as makes sense for your project. Party Planning Summer Planning Moving Invite/Guest List Ideas Old House  House Prep Kid #1 New House Food Kid #2 Contracts Party Items/Decorations All Kids Together (shared camps) Moving Checklists Memory/Photo Project Family Activities Mortgage Paperwork Reminder: ***For more assistance, ALL ACCESS members can consult the Household Operations Binder for summer and party planning and the 10 Steps to an Organized Move (Dashboard) for moving.*** Click here to download these printables! :)

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’s Tranformational Podcast features Suzanne G. She is a minimalist, married to a maximalist. They got married in their 40’s and they share their home with her adult stepson. They have combined houses twice and she had to make space just to hang up her coat in the entryway.  I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 ®  100 Day Home Organization Program All Access Friday Workboxes

FREE Mini Medical Information Binder Download There is nothing more frustrating than nervously watching a tragedy unfold before your eyes and feel like there is nothing you can do to help. The hours I have spent the last month reading articles, watching video clips, and following friends on social media is mind blowing. This nervous energy eats me alive. I want to DO something. In general, emergencies are a guarantee in life. Someday you will need to have your medical and financial ducks in a row to facilitate your care or the care of a loved one. You can download your FREE Mini Medical Information Binder Printables. These are selected pages from the full Medical Organizing Binder from Organize 365. I want to help you get organized now, so you can tackle what comes knowing your important papers are ready to go. Make time and get your medical information organized NOW. 

For the April podcast episodes, I want to talk to you about how to plan a big project or work towards a big goal. Full disclosure, I generally record podcasts 6-8 weeks in advance. I recorded these in February and March, and I used the examples I was planning at the time. Today, the world looks very different, and many of my examples are not things we can do right now. I know many of these kinds of big projects, celebrations, and plans are all up in the air right now. We are all missing out on direct physical connection to keep our communities safe. I made the decision to air these episodes anyway, because how you plan a big project did not change. How we are living right now has changed dramatically. But, the principles of organizing never change. You can still learn the skill of organizing. It takes learning and skill to develop organization and productivity.  I am sharing my system for completing big projects. I break it down into smaller steps, and I am going to teach you these skills so you can follow along, and maybe even plan a project of your own. I am trying to provide as much encouragement, motivation, perspective, and love as possible during this time of uncertainty. We are in this together! After you have been doing your Sunday Basket® for 6-8 weeks, you will find you have 2.0 slash pockets with projects that still need your attention. Today on the podcast, I want to share with you how to move beyond your Sunday Basket® to dos and weekly focus to actually completing big projects. I want to show you how I create bigger goals and accomplish bigger projects. I do this by using a consistent system for approaching my big projects and I want to teach you how to apply these same skills.  For this podcast series, I am talking about three different example projects: a large party or celebration, summer planning for kids, and moving to a new home. This system is for a project that requires more than a single weekend to complete. Much of the time, you will collect ideas and papers for your project in a 2.0 slash pocket. When you are committed to taking action and completing the project, you will follow the steps in the podcasts. Step 1 - Identify your Project and Dedicate a Sunday Basket® or Workbox to the Project  Once you have committed to your project or goal, dedicate a separate Sunday Basket®, portable Sunday Basket®, or Workbox to your project. You can purchase a plain Sunday Basket (no slash pockets) in the Organize 365 Shop. Having a separate box physically represents your resolve to reaching the goal, and helps your brain to focus on completing the project. The separate box is a temporary focal point - at the end of the project you will reuse the box for something else. Then, empty your brain into the box. Write down every thought, idea, or plan you have about your project. Make sure you capture every thought your brain has, even if you end up with duplicates. Getting everything out of your head will resolve the feeling of overwhelm that you initially face. Drop physical items (invitations, photos, receipts, etc.) directly into the box. Click here to download these printables! :)

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! On today's Transformational Podcast Elizabeth P and I talk about her organizing journey. Elizabeth is firmly in the sandwich generation. She initially was living in and traveling between two cities. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 ®  100 Day Home Organization Program All Access Friday Workboxes

In February, the Organize 365 Podcasts were designed to help you to discover YOU. I want you to have some tools and frameworks to learn more about yourself and how you see the world. (Don’t forget to take your FREE personality tests from Cloverleaf!) In March, I want to share with you four different points of view that affect how I see the world. We all start out seeing the world from our own experience and our own life. We adopt a cognitive bias that shapes how we understand everything around us. These points of view shape your organizational decisions and how you view the world. And, as you explore your own point of view, you can better understand your own mental models. I will be sharing some of my own mental models and points of view this month. This week, I share about how the decisions you make about who is in your family and the size of your family changes your perspective. Some people want children, some want them but do not have them, and some choose not to have them. Depending on your identify as a parent or not, you will likely see the world differently than others who have a different family structure. I talk about those ideas today, but I would love to hear what you think about these kinds of points of view have shaped your perspective on the world.  I am consciously trying to grow Organize 365 into a community that will reach all kinds of women, many who will be different than me. Organization is a LEARNABLE skill that we can all acquire together. I want you to be able to learn these skills, get your home and paper organized, and then be able to use the extra time for what you were uniquely created to do.

Listen to all the Wednesday Podcasts!    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!   On today's Transformational Podcast I get to talk with Michelle S. (This is a different Michelle S). Michelle went from zero to All Access in a few weeks, and has gone full steam ahead! Her family is her husband and their cat Harrison. She shares her story of going from busy and out of control to getting her life together over 3-4 rounds of the 100 Days. She and I get to discuss how dreams change over time, and we can change our homes too! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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®  100 Day Home Organization Program All Access Friday Workboxes

In February, the Organize 365 Podcasts were designed to help you to discover YOU. I want you to have some tools and frameworks to learn more about yourself and how you see the world. (Don’t forget to take your FREE personality tests from Cloverleaf!) In March, I want to share with you four different points of view that affect how I see the world. We all start out seeing the world from our own experience and our own life. We adopt a cognitive bias that shapes how we understand everything around us. These points of view shape your organizational decisions and how you view the world. And, as you explore your own point of view, you can better understand your own mental models. I will be sharing some of my own mental models and points of view this month. This week I share how religion has played a role in my life. It is a cornerstone of my identity, so I share some of the different experiences I have had. I talk about my own beliefs and personal growth, but I hope you can see how I think deeply about the ways my mindset has changed throughout my life. I want to give you the skills to analyze your own mindset, and change it if needed. I am consciously trying to grow Organize 365 into a community that will reach all kinds of women, many who will be different than me. Organization is a LEARNABLE skill that we can all acquire together. I want you to be able to learn these skills, get your home and paper organized, and then be able to use the extra time for what you were uniquely created to do.

You can hear all of the Wednesday Transformational podcasts 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! On today's Transformational Podcast I get to talk with Lauren P. She lives with her husband (a physician), 3 young girls under 6, and has a baby on the way. Lauren has become organized enough to work in her real estate development company, help her husband's business, raise her kids, AND work on a novel! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program All Access Friday Workboxes

In February, the Organize 365 Podcasts were designed to help you to discover YOU. I want you to have some tools and frameworks to learn more about yourself and how you see the world. (Don’t forget to take your FREE personality tests from Cloverleaf!) In March, I want to share with you four different points of view that affect how I see the world. We are all born into our very own specific circumstances. We all start out seeing the world from our own experience and our own life. We adopt a cognitive bias that shapes how we understand everything around us. These points of view shape your organizational decisions and how you view the world. And, as you explore your own point of view, you can better understand your own mental models. As part of my teaching you about your own mindset of organization, I will be sharing some of my own mental models and points of view this month. Today on the podcast, I delve into how our lives are affected by the generation we are born into. In the podcast this week, I talk about the different generations in the world today, and I share how both Greg and I were shaped by the generational influence on the elders of our families. If you want to hear still more about how we are influenced by our generation, I recommend Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 and you can see my book review of that video on the Organize 365 YouTube channel. I am consciously trying to grow Organize 365 into a community that will reach all kinds of women (and eventually men too!). Over 100 Sunday Basket® Certified Organizers are part of the Organize 365 team and they all look different than me. Organization is a LEARNABLE skill that we can all acquire together. I want you to be able to learn these skills, get your home and paper organized, and then be able to use the extra time for what you were uniquely created to do.

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! On today's Transformational Podcast I get to talk with Maggie H. She is married with three children (one still in diapers) and works as a chiropractor and training people to ride horses. Maggie shares how she has gone from being an ostrich and ignoring her mess to finally tackling it and making real change in her home. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

In February, the Organize 365 Podcasts were designed to help you to discover YOU. I want you to have some tools and frameworks to learn more about yourself and how you see the world. (Don't forget to take your FREE personality tests from Cloverleaf!) In March, I want to share with you four different points of view that affect how I see the world. We are all born into a certain body in a certain time in history. We all start out seeing the world from our own experience and our own life. We adopt a cognitive bias that shapes how we understand everything around us. These points of view shape your organizational decisions and how you view the world. And, as you explore your own point of view, you can better understand your own mental models. As part of my teaching you about your own mindset of organization, I will be sharing some of my own mental models and points of view this month. I start out by talking about my culture of origin.  I am consciously trying to grow Organize 365 into a community that will reach all kinds of women (and eventually men too!). Over 100 Sunday Basket® Certified Organizers are part of the Organize 365 team and they all look different than me. Organization is a LEARNABLE skill that we can all acquire together. I want you to be able to learn these skills, get your home and paper organized, and then be able to use the extra time for what you were uniquely created to do. Learn more about the Sunday Basket®.  

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! Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Michelle S. Michelle was heading into a Golden Window and shares how she started with a podcast binge. She and her husband share the Scheidler Ranch where they enjoy hobbies like maple syrup making, beekeeping, photography, food preservation, and dog racing. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Self Publishing School: self-publishingschool.com/friend and enter "Lisa Woodruff" as your referral source. 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! Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Alison D. She lives at home with her husband of 22 years and two teenagers. Since getting organized, she has written and self-published a book, created a website, and opened an LLC. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, I get to share my conversation with members of the Organize 365 community as they talk about the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumphs along their organizing journeys. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Christine F. Christine Fogh Music is married with three biological children and one foster baby. The children are homeschooled, AND Christine runs her own business as a vocal coach and piano instructor. You can find Christine at https://www.christinefoghmusic.com. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats 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.

As I shared on the Discovering YOU podcast last week, all this month I will be diving deep into different personality tests, models, and ways of thinking about yourself and how you move through the world. This week, I am excited to share my conversation with Cas of Clutterbug. Listen in as we talk about the four different ClutterBug types that Cas has identified. She shares how she discovered four different organizing styles. In her model, she identifies a preference for organization at a macro or micro level. She also talks about how people prefer their items to be hidden or out in the open. During our conversation, Cas and I both chat about what our personal ClutterBug types are. I also share how my daughter is a completely different style, and we do some brainstorming about how to adapt teaching our children the skills of organizing when they are different from us. We also talk about how to adapt the Sunday Basket® to each of the different organizing styles. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.  If you can, go take her "What ClutterBug Are You?" Quiz on her website before you listen so you can follow along for your own style.

Listen here: https://organize365.com/wednesday-podcasts/ 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! Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Jamie S. Jamie lives with her husband, their 13 year old son and a 10 year old German Shephard/Collie mix. They adopted their son as a nearly teenager, and have had an abrupt transition to parenting. She and Lisa discuss how that has affected her transformational journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats  

In 2019, we decided that in 2020, Organize 365 would not offer any new products. Instead of focusing on teaching our community about new products and how to use them, we are focusing on making improvements and adding value for what you have already purchased. Because we have some open space and time to do something new and different, I want to take you on a journey with me. I promise you that once you get your home and paper organized, you will have more time and you will be able to share your unique gifts with the world. I know that once you are no longer trapped in clutter and your home is a sanctuary and a rest from the world, you will have so much to share with others. I am starting to hear from some of you that you are reaching that place. You can hear the open futures on our Wednesday Transformation Podcasts. But, I am also hearing that you do not know where to start figuring out what comes next. Today on the podcast, we are going to start discovering YOU! Over the next weeks and months, I am going to share the experts, books, assessments, and personal growth journey I have been on. I will share my resources and my own critical analysis of my own life and thinking. I want to help you get organized and then to go out into the world to get, do, be, and give back to live out your unique purpose. Listen in and you will hear what I have planned for the next part of our journey. If you are not fully organized yet, I still think you should listen in and let your heart and mind start working on what might come next. Understanding your why and your goal can give you additional fuel and motivation to keep working on decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity.

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!   The Transformational Podcast this week is with Jennifer H. She lives at home with her husband and 2 dogs. They are empty nesters and getting ready to sell their family home and live with her mother who needs more support. Listen in as Lisa and Jennifer discuss some items that have been difficult to declutter and how they are changing their mindsets to create more space!   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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

This week on the podcast, Jenn Dickel and I share our experience starting and growing our own small businesses. We discuss starting a part-time business, making the leap to full time self-employment, and learning to network. As women who own businesses, we talk through how we can explore our differences and then come together and support each other as business women. Women do not all have the same gifts, work in the same niche, or offer the same services. Anytime we take on a new dream, we benefit from walking alongside others on similar journeys.  We discuss the Facebook group the Professional Organizer’s Think Tank (POTT). Lisa started (and has supported) this group as a free resource for professional organizers who start their own businesses. They also share information about the POTT podcast where Lisa shares some of the real details and decision making in the early years of her former in-home professional organizing business. No matter what business or adventure you are considering, women can benefit from finding a mastermind of like-minded and similarly focused friends. When we work together, we have a bigger impact, AND we have more fun! You can have this same experience in your personal life by attending Embrace in West Chester, Ohio June 26-28, 2020. EARLY BIRD PRICING THROUGH FEBRUARY 2020!!! Register at organize365.com/events One way you can get extra support as a professional organizer is by becoming an Organize 365 Sunday Basket ® Certified Workshop Organizer. Lisa is offering a FREE Masterclass for people interested in learning about becoming certified on Tuesday February 4, 2020 at 1 PM EST. This is an informational class on what certification offers your own professional organization business. Organize 365 wants to support those of you who want to start your own small business helping others get organized. Because of Lisa’s upcoming Book Tour, this is the last time the Certification Program will be open in 2020!

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! Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Denae V. She is married with three children and one on the way. Denae shares how she started with the Sunday Basket and has freed up lots of extra time for her family. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

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! The Transformational Podcast this week is with Lisa W. She has a full house with her husband, three kids under 18 and an adult kid, and 4 dogs. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Today on the podcast, my sister Emily and I share more of our family history. Our mom was conscious and proactive about creating memories and capturing them in photos. We share how the Organize 365 Photo Program came to be. We review our family history with photos and reminisce about our favorite albums. Because of all of these things, we worked together to create our new Saving Your Story Photo Program for physical photos. For a while, we were both involved in Creative Memories. For the Photo Program, we are partnering with Creative Memories once again. We share how you can benefit from the photo program and make your own albums to share your memories with those you love.

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! Today’s Transformational Podcast features my conversation with Elise T. She and her husband are in their mid-60s and retired, now with 7 grandchildren in 3 different states. Listen in to hear how they have managed being blessed with two homes worth of stuff! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Welcome 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! Today, you get to hear from Holy P. She lives with her husband, son, and cat. She took on the challenge of professional organizing in addition to her full time job. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

When you are first getting organized, I teach you that there are actually 3 steps you need to take to get your schedule, your home, and your papers in order. First, you declutter. Second, you organize. Third, you improve your productivity. I teach you how to start getting organized each week by using a Sunday Basket® . I help you to get your home organized in the 100 Day Home Organization Program. Once you have these areas under control, you will be amazed at how you get more done in less time than you ever have before. Women tell me all the time in the Wednesday Transformational Podcasts how much more free time they have.  Today on the podcast, I want to share with you how I use these very same organizational skills to tackle other problem areas in my life. I wanted to solve several problems for good. I was tired of the time and mental energy I was spending on each of these areas of my life. To be honest, I could not have solved these problems prior to getting my home and paper organized first, but I have now permanently fixed these life issues. Listen in today to hear how I solved several of the issues in my life for good. I will tell you about my hair, my makeup, my schedule, my food, and my clothing. I also teach you the skills, the thinking, and the steps to finding the same solutions in your own life.  Share with me on Instagram or Facebook and tell me what problem you are able to solve for good! PS - If you want to have me visit your city in person during the book tour for The Paper Solution: What to Shred, What to Save, and How to Stop It From Taking Over Your Life launching August 4, 2020, please fill out your information and connections 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! Today, you will get to hear from a member of the Organize 365 Dream Team. Vanessa has been hired and is currently learning (and doing) #allthethings. Vanessa is running our Organize 365 Gives Back Program, helps with shipping, is learning all the back end stuff Pat does, and more! Vanessa lives at home with her husband and 3 children. She started with the Free Week and the laundry room and has been working on getting more organized. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Today on the podcast, I want to help you with the skills it takes to change your thinking. In the eight years of Organize 365, I have learned so much about the MINDSET of organization. The transformation from disorganization to organization happens first in your mind. The way you actually become organized is to change your thoughts.  First, you have to believe you are capable of becoming organized. Spoiler: organization is a learnable skill, and anyone can learn to become organized (it just takes longer for some of us!). Every single person listening to this podcast is capable of having an organized life. But, the skills needed can be different depending on your phase of life and generation. I want you to have new thoughts and see just how capable of being organized you truly are.  Second, you need confidence in your skills and your organizational journey. This podcast is designed to give you confidence each and every week. I am a motivational teacher, I want to inspire you to action. From listening to the podcast, your thoughts become organized and your physical reality follows - you will see the changes in your home and that will build your confidence. Finally - action is the outcome. Once you have the capability and confidence to pursue organization, you will take the action necessary to manifest an organized life. In the podcast today, I explain all of this in more detail, and then give you several examples of how you develop capability and grow your confidence and move into action in all different kinds of life experiences. I hope this podcast continues to provide the instruction you need to keep moving along your transformational journey.  PS - Are you ready to take the first step? Everyone needs to start with the Sunday Basket ®. That will give you the foundation you need to manage your most basic organization needs and starts your mind on learning the skills of being organized.  If you have your Sunday Basket ® system in place (and you are using it!), join us for the next round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. We begin again on Monday January 6th. It’s not too late and we’d love to have you join us in this lifetime membership program!

Welcome to our newest Wednesday Transformational Journey Podcast. I wanted to give each of you a gift this week to celebrate the Christmas holiday. My special little Christmas gift to you is my conversation with my younger sister Emily. Emily is our Director of Marketing and has been a huge asset to our Dream Team. In today’s conversation, Emily shares her 10 year challenge. We are going to look at the last 10 years, and 10 years ago with the last Christmas we got to share with our Dad before he passed away. Emily still lives in our hometown, and is 10 minutes from our childhood home. Our parents divorced later in life, and along with the 2008/2009 economy definitely left her with some challenges. Emily lost her job, is a single woman with a mortgage, and almost lost her 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! 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!  

Today on the podcast, I want to talk to you about why you are not as disorganized as you think you are. There are three things going on: You are overwhelmed. You don’t know where to start.  You don’t recognize the progress you are making. I break down each of these and help you analyze them. I walk you through your thoughts and to find solutions for these issues. I want you to see where you are having success being organized, and I give you ways to get better at the other parts. Listen in to see how you can keep working on your organizational journey. PS - If you want to try the 100 Day Home Organization Program before you buy, we have a FREE WEEK you can do as a trial. We give you access to the Laundry Room week videos, website pages, and printables from the planner.

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! Today, you will get to hear from a member of the Organize 365 Dream Team. Michelle P is our customer service specialist. She is the person who answers your emails, helps you find the right place to start getting organized, and manages our Organize 365 Facebook Group. Michelle is single, and lives with her mother in Boston. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!  

Today on the podcast, I ask an important question, and I share my answers. What are you tolerating? What are all the things in your life that are broken or need maintenance? What have you been meaning to fix or address that just has not made it to your priority list to get done? Listen in as I share about four major life areas where you may be tolerating things that you can address. I share my own experiences and stories, and I provide some of the solutions I have found that work.  -What are you tolerating in your physical space (your home)? -What are you tolerating in your family dynamics? -What are you tolerating in your emotional well being and relationships? -What are you tolerating in your free time? As we head into 2020, think about these areas of your life. If you find that you want to make changes, make a plan. Figure out what you want to be different, and begin to change your life. I am here to help, and would love to hear from 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!   Today, Nancy A shares her journey of getting organized. Nancy and I go off script and skip most of the questions I usually ask the guests who share their transformations. Nancy was a client of mine back when I did in home professional organizing. We know each other well, so she has a very different perspective on the Lisa experience! I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

On the podcast today, I have the most interesting conversation with Eve Rodsky. We talk about the different tasks involved in running a home and keeping a family functioning. Eve spent several months capturing many of the tasks that people (women especially) take on in their families, and she focused on the ones that are especially invisible or “unnecessary.”  Eve Rodsky has recently written a book (with a card game) that captures 100 tasks involved in running a home. Her book is called Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live). She helps the adults in the house identify their values and to make sure that the division of labor works for them (and EVERY family needs to find their unique balance).  When dividing up the tasks, Eve explains the different parts of “owning” the task from start to finish: conception, planning, and execution. Spoiler: this explains why your husband brings home the “wrong” mustard and feels like he “can’t get anything right.” There is a system to help build trust and skills to support the home and family.  As part of these concepts, Eve also explains different models that women use to understand their roles and which tasks they should have ownership of in order to have a fair division of labor at home, especially when considering gender. Women can be Intentional Traditionalists, New Superwoman, Accidental Traditionalist, and The Collaborator. Make sure you listen in so you can evaluate where you are today, and where you would like to go.  We also get to talk about how getting your home organized gives you more time, and how you then need to figure out what to do with your time. Having a disorganized home can really function as a buffer or form of procrastination to avoid facing the hard questions about what you are called to do in life. Eve talks about how our culture shows us how to get to and through our first child’s baby shower, but then leaves us to figure out the rest of life without signposts or milestones. We talk about how to stay interested in our own lives. We share our perspectives to figure out how to still have a passion and choose things that interest us and are interesting.  I cannot do the work for you in understanding all the tasks of your home, or in having the difficult conversations with the people you love. However, I do want you to know that you have choices about how to divide the labor of your home. I want you to figure out your unique gift and contribution to the world. For extra fun, make sure you stick around to the end to hear about Eve’s thinking on unicorn space and how to find it with the help of their spiritual friends.

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! Today, Maggie L shares her journey of getting organized. Maggie is the primary breadwinner while her husband stays at home with their two children (ages 9 and 4). Maggie shares how it took a long time to finally get started on her organizing journey. However, when her golden window showed up (after being let go from her job), she jumped in with both feet. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

So… have you heard I have a traditionally published book scheduled to come out in August of 2020? I am planning a book tour to come see as many of you as possible. I want to go everywhere you are, and share hugs. I get to plan every day of this book tour, and I want to reach out to ask you to join in, help me, and celebrate with me.  The book tour will kick off at Embrace (June 26-28, 2020, in West Chester, Ohio). I am already planning all kinds of surprises for you!  I need your help in planning a year long Lisa Book Tour - September 2020 to May 2021 in the US. (For my international friends, the book is currently also scheduled to be published in Canada and the United Kingdom with details to come later. I am also hoping to come visit you!) I want to learn about you and your hometown. If you are willing to help with ideas and connections for the book tour, here is my wish list: Location - what is the best way to get to and around your hometown? Book Signings - where can we get together to do a book signing? Media Connections - please share any connections or recommendations for media (TV, radio, or print) Speaking Events - please share any connections for conventions, events, or other opportunities where the Organize 365 message would be helpful Corporate or Brand Connections - if there is a product or service that is headquartered in your hometown, I love to meet people in person and build community YouTubers or Podcasters that share your home city  Any other person, business, or community connection where the Organize 365 message would benefit the audience.  Especially if you can introduce or connect us One of the things I am looking forward to about this trip is getting to see so many different parts of the United States. Every town and city will be different and I am excited to meet all of you and learning about the places you call home. I also want to keep making connections. No matter how far you have (or have not yet) gotten in your organizing journey, I’d love for you to connect me with other people where I can add value.  Anytime you take on a big project like this or take action toward a dream, you do not have to know every step. You just have to know the first step. I have the book written and a publisher, so now the next step is to see how together we can share steps along our organizing journey.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! I love sharing these transformations women experience during their organizing journeys!   Today, Jessica E shares her journey of getting organized. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. Jessica is married with 4 kids and navigating the journey of getting educational needs diagnosed and addressed. She has been able to transform her home and family. She now has more time and energy to help her family heal and thrive. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!   On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   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 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 ® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Today on the podcast, I want to teach you how I ditched my long to do lists and every single thing I ever want to do ends up on index cards (notecards). I have shared bits and pieces of my system in Instastories and on some of my Facebook lives before, but today I want to share the WHOLE system with you.     Listen in to hear: How I used to make long to do lists on legal pads and filled up notebooks, and why that that NEVER worked for me. The DETAILS of the process I use to record each to do or thought I have on an index card. I’ll tell you what to write, where to put the index card, and how it is SO much more effective to make a non to do list to do list. (Say that 3 times fast!) How I go from all of those individual thoughts and index cards to a single index card with my daily plan.   If you are struggling to keep track of your many different to dos, if you keep finding old to do lists that never got done, or if you just want to improve your planning and productivity, this episode is for you! I have been able to make such incredible improvements in my productivity since I have switched to this system, and I want you to be able to do the same.    And, if you STILL have unanswered questions after today, please send me an email and I might do a follow up episode. As a teacher, I know if one person ASKS a question, probably several of you had the same question!    PS - I hope you were able to join me the week of November 11th for the Holiday Blitz. We looked at the memory filled time from Thanksgiving through New Years and identified our priorities. We planned ahead for where to spend our valuable time, money, and energy to best take care of ourselves and our families during this busiest time of the year. It’s not too late to join us and have your best holiday season yet. You can register to get your free printables. And, the Holiday Blitz videos are now available on the Organize 365 YouTube channel for FREE! PPS - You can also follow me on Instagram to see how I use my index cards!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! Today, Diane A shares her journey of getting organized. Diane lives with her husband and three children (and two guinea pigs). Diane grew up with parents who saved EVERYTHING and shares how she was able to get her home organized in time to host a family reunion. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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 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 ® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Today on the podcast, I want to answer questions that have been submitted about how to get organized with ADHD for both adults and children. I do start with a review of different executive functions. I want to be sure you hear me clearly - no one has perfect executive functioning. So, I want to share different ways you can adjust your mindset and behaviors to make progress on your organization journey. Here is my best hint: consistency beats everything. Simple things done consistently over time will result in real, lasting changes in your life, home, and organization. If you fall off the wagon, or break your streak, just start again. Keep going.  I start with telling you about different medications, supplements, over the counter, and support techniques I use for myself and my children. One that was Joey’s favorites was Alpha Brain Supplements.  Listen in as I answer the following questions: How do you get a routine going when you can’t stay consistent?  How do I not get so overwhelmed so that I do nothing? How do I stay focused? How do you overcome out of sight is out of mind? I have a 14 year old girl who never sticks with a system. Everything is always disorganized! How do you maintain everything in its place? That’s so boring! How do you get started when you do not want to do it, and the project looks overwhelming? I am consistently inconsistent. Help! How would you organize a student with ADHD? How do you stay on task?  Where do you start when getting organized? Kids’ spaces are always disorganized. What should I do? I’m overwhelmed because I have a very messy space. How do you move forward when your brain shuts down? How do I learn to delegate? I teach some different ways to deal with these issues and help you along your organizational journey! I love to answer your questions. If you have another topic or questions you would like to have me answer, please email me - lisa [at] organize365 [dot] com.  Did you miss the Holiday Blitz? You are not too late! Head over to the Organize 365 Facebook group or IGTV to watch the videos from this week and download the printable workbook at organize365.com/blitz.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast as women just like you share their transformations along their organizing journey. Today, Ryan L shares her journey of getting organized. Ryan has been following Organize 365 for a while. She shares her home with a husband (who travels a lot), 2 sons in high school (and occasionally sees the son in college), and 2 cats. Ryan is passionate about protecting the earth and shares quite a bit about her preference for buying used and ensuring her discards find appropriate homes. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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 organize365.com/wednesday.

Recently, I’ve been talking about how learning to get organized is based in meeting different levels of needs and by being exposed to different teaching techniques. This week on the podcast, I want to move from theory to practice. I want to talk to you about some specific ways to fit organizational behaviors into your schedule. I want to move you beyond a certain way to fold shirts and, instead, help you to change your behavioral habits. These habits make up 80% of our actions everyday, and we must PLAN and WORK to create change. Big change over time comes from changing little habits on a regular basis. When I teach, I think hearing about real people in real situations is super helpful in applying information. So, I answer your question about irregular, unpredictable schedules. I also answer a listener question about being in the accumulation and survival stages at the same time (and I talk about both time and your space for this question). A third question addresses being organized when working two jobs and going to school. I will also send you back to some of my prior podcasts where I explore these changes in detail and give you much more information. Here are some other podcasts I have recorded that also help answer these questions and you can apply to working towards changing your habits and behaviors: I write out my schedule each week when I do my Sunday Basket®. You can find a weekly schedule printable here so you can try the same technique.  Podcast 197 - You Need a Schedule Podcast 254 - Find More Planning Time Podcast 227 - Having an Adult Spring Break Podcast 192 - Morning Routines for the Modern Day Woman Podcast 193 - Creating Afternoon & Evening Routines Podcast 128 - How to Hire Household Help I hope this helps kick off some new habits for you! I would love to hear from you on Instagram or on Facebook.  PS - If you are enjoying the Organize 365 Podcast, I'd appreciate it if you can leave a rating or review. It helps other people find us. 

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! Stacy is the mom of 2 teenagers and AND 2 under 5 years old. She and her husband downsized from 2300 to 1400 square feet AND cleaned out 2 storage units. With little kids, she explains how she benefits from cycling through the 100 Day Program as her little kids keep growing and changing. She also shares how she was able to combine two households full of furniture and stuff by working through the 100 Day Program. AND, she shares about how she and her husband worked on getting organized together. She also shares her experience with the Kids Program if you want to hear some more about that! I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Last week, we talked about the ways in which you need to take care of your physical and safety needs before you can get organized. Today on the podcast, we will talk about how you actually learn the skills of organization.  Edgar Dale was an educator who studied the different methods teachers used to deliver a lesson, and he quantified how much a student could be expected to recall based on the approach the teacher used. The way you get information directly affects how much you retain. The retention does vary by individual learner as well, so it is helpful to learn how YOU best learn.  Lessons can be delivered as reading, hearing, seeing, video (hearing and seeing), saying (teaching back), and saying while doing (experiential learning). I share with you how I analyzed this information and applied it to different places I have taught - as a classroom teacher, as the Sunday Basket ® instructor, and as the owner of Organize 365 while onboarding new staff members. Organization is a learnable skill. The only way you cannot get organized, is if I fail to teach you. My job is to figure out how to correctly teach the skills of organization. I am continually working to learn better ways to teach, motivate, inspire, and help you meet your goal of getting organized.    I offer 3 different levels of courses in getting organized. You can start with the Sunday Basket ®. Then you can join the 100 Day Home Organization Program. Finally, you can get your whole life organized in All Access.  I continue to make improvements, enhancements, and additions to help you get organized. These programs work because we have included every single learning strategy that Edgar Dale recommended. And, if you need even more personalized help, you can find a Sunday Basket ® Certified Workshop Organizer near you.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! Today, Amelia L shares her journey of getting organized.  Amelia has been married for 17 years and has five kids. She helped to care for her mother after she had an injury and is also beginning to homeschool one of her children. Amelia stays at home full time and shares many twists and turns along her journey towards getting organized. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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 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 ® 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get organized!

As you go deeper into your organizing journey, you will find that things are empty. You may find empty shelves, empty cabinets, and empty space on your calendar. As you look for something to fill these spaces, you should consider the different kinds of human needs that benefit from being addressed. Maslow’s theory looks at these different kinds of needs as a pyramid, and I have found benefit from spending extra time and energy on each level at different times.  I love to learn new things and apply them to the process of getting organized. Today, I want to introduce you to Abraham Maslow and his theory about the hierarchy of needs. In the podcast, I explain and apply the 5 levels of human needs to different phases of the year and unexpected events. I explain how these different kinds of needs change as our lives cycle through different seasons. I want to help you spend more time in the highest levels so that you can live out your unique gift and share it with the world.    Finally, I share how Planning Day before each new round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program helps you to review and revise how you will meet each level of need during the upcoming trimester. I want to help you move to a mindset where you can pursue your personal esteem and self-actualization needs without guilt.    Understanding where you are in your organizational journey will help you take the next right step for you. Tag me in your Instagram post and tell me what your next step is!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! Today, Anna G shares her story of getting organized. She lost her mom to cancer in 2013, right when her first child is born. She grew up with lots of stuff, and it took a while for her to find her organizing groove. As her kids grow up, she is regularly evaluating and re-organizing the house. We celebrate her progress, not perfection today. She also shares her experience with the Kids Program if you want to hear some more about that! I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats

Today on the podcast, I want to share with you how I stay calm in chaos. I recently experienced two major unexpected events. One was an emergency, the other was not. However, they both happened at the same time and required me to completely rearrange my schedule. When the unexpected happens, your priorities often shift quickly. Being organized and having time to think through how to deal with unexpected events has helped me change how I approach chaotic situations. Not every unexpected event or situation is fixable, but being organized means there is more margin to think and decide before reacting. When I was disorganized, I had many tasks and projects crying out for my attention. I also often felt sorry for myself and I looked for more attention by complaining. As I got organized, I learned how to be a better problem solver. I also was able to shift my focus so I work deeper and faster on fewer active projects.  This podcast will show you how I changed my mindset, and will give you some ideas for changing yours. I hope I can help you move from reactive to proactive and to find the margin that comes from a more organized life.

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! Today, Rachel M shares her journey of getting organized. Rachel M was widowed 3 years ago and continues to raise her 2 teenagers. She’s a rebel  updating her home to reflect her current family arrangement. She’s in school working on her paralegal training and figuring out life as a single mom. She also shares her meal planning ideas for visually focused people. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do! On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! 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 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!   Jennifer B is a woman who has worked outside the home and then stayed home with her children. She is moving towards an empty next and redesigning an updated home for her next phase of life. She has recently lost her father and dealt with his lifetime of accumulated research. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!   On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   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 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

For today’s podcast, I want to bring you a new way of looking at personal growth. I believe strongly in helping all women find what they are uniquely created to do. I am not about pursuing a vision of perfection, but I DO want you to look at your habits, decisions, and goals. I want you to get your home and paper organized so you have the capacity to pursue your own unique purpose. This podcast looks at the evolution of my desk and office as a way to share how I have experienced growth and change in my own life. I have had many different roles as a woman, and the different desks that I have used as I run the business of Organize 365 have changed with me.  I share the practical and tactical decisions and changes I have made in my desks as my life has changed. As a business woman, I think sharing the real story of how I have grown this business can be helpful to you as you face changes in your own life. Listen in as I share where I have been, where I am going, and how YOU can take the next steps to change your own life. Just for fun, if you want to see a VERY OLD post and pictures about how my desk has grown and changed, you can find it here. 

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!   Today, Michele V shares her journey of getting organized. She is a high school teacher in Wisconsin. She lives alone in a house, and has customized the 100 Day Home Organization Program to her life and schedule. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!   On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   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 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

We have spent the last 2 months talking about how to get more done, and how to free up time to focus on your life goals. But, as productive as I am, I cannot work all of the time. Today, I want to help you understand how I make time to rejuvenate so that I can keep working hard on my business. Social media shows us self care as girls’ weekends, spa days, or expensive salon days. So often, self care is shown as “getting away” from all of the people and places we work so hard to care for. For me, I focus on the things that fill me up, leave me feeling cared for, and energize me.  Today, I want to teach you about how I select self-care activities. Most of the self-care ideas I share cost $5 or less. I know how hard it can be to take care of yourself when you are pulled in many directions (especially with children) or don’t have tons of extra money to splurge. Spoiler alert - if you have been following me for even one week, you know I take a bath nearly every evening. The bath helps me to unwind, get away, and decompress. But, I also share several other simple, inexpensive, and relatively easy ways to focus on restoring yourself.  Self care can be anything that you do for you. Things that make you feel good about yourself and how you present yourself. They are the things that fill you up. Please share your own self care tips and ideas (especially frugal ones) with our community.  I'd love to hear what YOU do for your self care. Please share with me online. Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/Organize365/ Instagram - @organize365

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking! Today, Bridget W shares her journey of getting organized. She is the mom of 2 boys and the owner of several goats. She went from disorganized to all in and has joined us as a Sunday Basket Certified Workshop Organizer. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey.  For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

It’s time to FINISH! This week, I want to talk about FINISHING. In our current, crazy lives, we often struggle to accomplish the things we start. Having so many open projects increases the clutter in our homes and our brains. As we head towards the end of the calendar year, I want you to direct your effort into finishing what you have started.  In order to finish, I want to encourage you to keep working on your current organizing project until it is done. This is not a chance to beat yourself up for failing at perfection, but I do want you to feel like your project or area is finished. I definitely do want you to feel like you have accomplished your task with a sense of excellence.  I want to give you permission to take the time you need to follow all the way through and complete your project. I want you to keep working and do the things that make your house into a home for you and your family. You do not need to keep up with anyone else’s timeline. Just keep working on YOUR area. Small, consistent steps will add up over time. As long as you keep moving towards your vision, you are making progress, and that is enough to celebrate. If you want to work on your laundry room organization for this, we offer a FREE trial week of the 100 Day Home Organization Program.  As you have the tools to get organized and actually see your progress, you will get more motivated. This will lead to a desire to spend more time getting your home organized. I recommend that you follow your organization energy and keep working on your selected area to finish your decluttering and organizing. The 100 Day Program is a lifetime membership and will be available as you can work on it. You cannot be behind when you are organizing!  I also include important information about identifying your own organizing energy and preferred style for approaching organizing. I help you figure out how to make bigger time blocks to spend getting organized if that is something you desire. And, I give you blatant permission to plan to neglect some of the tasks that are currently filling up your schedule. Finally, I help you to see how finishing one project can lead to getting your next thing done faster, and how the final result is growing your productivity for your whole life. Episode 243 - How to Get Organized Faster Episode 244 - How to Get Organized with a Chronic Illness: The Spoon Theory (How to Get Organized Slower) Episode 277 - Decluttering Jobs & Obligations What is ONE project you could FINISH this week?

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast!   On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action.   Today, Vicky G shares her journey of getting organized. She is an empty nester who loves crafts and has moved three times in five years. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!   I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   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 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Welcome to Episode 300! Thank you for all of your support over the 5 years of the podcast. If you are enjoying following me, please share with someone else and go rate and review the podcast on your favorite listening platform. On to the show! For this week’s podcast, I really want to talk about one thing that has made all the difference in being able to be as productive as I am. It’s the way I look at time. I am running a company, renovating my house, homeschooling my daughter, visiting my son at college, sustaining my marriage, and I still have time left over. An organized life gives you time. I want to teach you about how I came to view time in a unique way and share the way I currently understand time. For many people, time is an abstract concept and can be a struggle for many people to understand the passage of time. Understanding time ensures that you know how long different kinds of tasks take to complete. It helps you understand how time passes and how to schedule time for your life. When you understand time, you have time for pre-task preparation, clean up afterwards, and transportation to and from your events.  When you follow my method for understanding time, you will improve your focus. This will mean that you can finally get your home organized, or move your business into profitability, or have rooms for your other dreams and priorities. Changing your mindset about time will mean that you can schedule your time, improve your organization, and increase your productivity.  After I learned how to manage my own schedule via time blocking, I also learned how to manage other people to have them take some of my house tasks off of my plate. And then, I used those same skills to grow my team here at Organize 365. Adding on other people allowed me to increase my capacity. I could give directions and oversee them, but I was freed up from physically doing tasks. Here are some prior episodes where I share my own learning about how to delegate tasks to others. I like to say that I get my machines and people working first thing in the morning, and then, I do my tasks for the day. I have also included some episodes that help you batch your tasks into time blocks to make your work more productive. Episode 65 - How to Outsource Your Household Tasks Episode 89 - 10 Working Mom Hacks for a More Productive Week Episode 128 - How to Hire Household Help Episode 210 - Changing Your Focus From Money to Time Episode 246 - Maximizing Your Time: Dividing Your Week in Half Episode 261 - My Personal 7 Year Transformation

On Wednesdays, I will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action.   Today, Kimberlie P shares her journey of getting organized. She has a blended family and an encore career after time as a military family. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. I hope you enjoy her story and find her as inspiring as I do!   I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!   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 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 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I have been talking with you about setting goals and planning. I want to see you succeed and reach your goals. But, I hear from many of you, and you share that you have some real challenges. It is not a lack of time. It is not a lack of goal setting. It is not a lack of knowledge. Distraction is keeping you from achieving your goals and dreams. Distraction is stealing your ability to focus. The ability to FOCUS is what will actually change your life. Today on the podcast, I want to share with you my own teachers for learning how to concentrate, focus, and improve your productivity. Keys to achieving your goals: Plan your goals (and shorten your timeline) Go PRO Focus. Eliminate distractions. I am multi-passionate and I think I can successfully multitask. I am the queen of distraction and procrastination. I have been working on my focusing skills for YEARS. Consistency in your behavior builds your trust in yourself and your capabilities. I want to show you how you can practice focusing over a long time so that you can build up your endurance. I will tell you how you too can learn to focus and transform your life.  PS - If you want to listen to me on the Entrepreneurs On Fire Podcast, I am sharing the link.

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking! Today, Monique H shares her journey of getting organized and progressing to a career as a professional organizer. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey.  For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

Going PRO as the Home CEO Let's talk about how you can optimize your efforts as the CEO of your home in order to be more PRO: Productive  Proactive Profitable Positive  I have studied organization and productivity strategies for years, but many of them are directed at men working in business, and do not cross over to running a home. I want to give you actual tools you can use to make your home life productive. I know you are in charge of all of the household tasks, even if you do not personally do them. Some of you have outsourced things like house cleaning, laundry, and meal preparation. Regardless of the number or kinds of tasks you are juggling, I can help you optimize the effort you put into your home. Professionals practice and that is how they get better. Practice will help you to learn new skills, hone your craft, condition your mind to stay on task, and to do more faster and with less effort. Going PRO allows you to optimize the time, effort, and resources you spend in your life to complete the projects in your life and home. Listen in and see how you can gain productivity in your life in any role right now. Share in the Organize 365 Facebook group or tag me on Instagram @organize365 and tell us about your #ONEgoal2019 and share your success! PS I would love to guide you as you go PRO in your house this fall in the next round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. We start on MONDAY! Join us!

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking! Today, Samantha R shares her journey of getting organized. She has transformed her home while homeschooling SEVEN children. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey.  For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats   I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

I want to help you how to have your most productive Fall ever. Make sure you listen in for the KEY concept to ensure you successfully  increase YOUR productivity! In the last week weeks, we have reviewed how you can work on decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. If you need more information on the basics of these three steps, I cover them in detail in Podcast number 144, 145, and 147.  Fall can be the MOST productive time of the year, if you are prepared to take advantage of the September and October energy. On the podcast today, I explain how I have increased my productivity over the last seven years. I have analyzed how I have improved my skills over the years and I give you the steps to help you improve your productivity. I will show you how to gain control of your life and achieve your goals, especially in the areas of Family Finances Home Self I want you to improve your productivity so you can get traction on your goals. I want you to succeed at transforming your life so you can focus on your unique purpose. Let’s start TODAY!

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking! Today, Lorie G shares her journey of getting organized after a flood. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey.  For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365 The Sunday Basket 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

As I tell you all the time, getting organized has 3 steps - decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. Today on the Podcast, I deep dive into productivity. If you don’t move forward into organization and productivity, you can end up stuck on decluttering and get rid of too much. Increasing Productivity  Today, I answer your questions about productivity including: How do I maintain an organized home? How do I maintain an organized closet? How do I keep up with daily tasks? How do I keep my car cleaned out and ready to go? How do I keep the kitchen clean during the week? How do I keep up with home maintenance tasks? Increasing organization and productivity give you more time. Time to follow your dreams and try new things! What do you want to have time for in your life? If you have been around here for more than a few days, you know I love teaching you how to be more productive! Thank you for submitting your questions. Keep making progress! If you are ready to share your story of success with Organize 365, you can apply here to be my special podcast guest.

I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365 community. On Wednesdays, we will be sharing the challenges, progress, missteps, and triumph of women just like you who are progressing along their organizing journey. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply here. I promise, I’m not scary and it’s just us talking! Today, Sandy O shares her journey of getting organized. I am humbled and honored to have been part of her journey. For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links Organize 365 The Sunday Basket 100 Day Home Organization Program ALL ACCESS Workboxes Paper Organizing Retreats I look forward to helping YOU get Organized!

As I tell you all the time, getting organized has 3 steps - decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. Today on the Podcast, I deep dive into organizing. Sometimes, people get stuck in decluttering mode and get rid of too much instead of moving forward in the cycle. Organizing is matching like with like and then ensuring everything has a home. Today, I answer your questions about organizing including: How do I get organized when I don’t have enough space to sort, group, and categorize my stuff? How do I get organized if I don’t have a traditional storage area like an attic, garage, or basement? If I am in the 100 Day Home Organization Program, and I am “falling behind” (PS - there is NO falling behind when you are getting organized!), how do I know if I should keep working in an area or move along? How do I handle items if I’m on the fence about keeping vs discarding? How do I make sure I get the most important areas of my home organized efficiently? If you have been around here for more than a few days, you know I love teaching you how to get your home and paper organized! Thank you for submitting your questions. Keep making progress! If you are ready to share your story of success with Organize 365, you can apply here to be my special podcast guest.

As I tell you all the time, getting organized has 3 steps - decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. Today, I deep dive into changing your mindset to get better at decluttering so you can move towards a more organized home and life. I teach you how to adapt your thinking in order to be more successful in your decluttering. I answer your decluttering questions including:  How do I stop bringing things I don’t actually need (like those pesky just in case items) into my home? How do I get rid of the clutter associated with all the projects on my to do list?  How do I keep book clutter under control without having to eliminate my entire TBR pile? How do I follow through with my decluttering plans and actually get stuff out of my house? What is the thing that is holding me back from getting rid of things I no longer want or need? And, at the root of all of this, how do I move from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset? I am here to help you get your home and paper organized in one year with functional systems that work. I help you figure out what questions to ask yourself to get some of your most difficult clutter out of your home and move towards a more organized life.  I share some of my own challenges in clearing out my house. I also teach you how I was able to adapt my thinking to move me towards the organized and productive life I am living today.  I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! :)Lisa

So many of you asked me to create a virtual Embrace experience. I carried you in my heart the whole time Embrace was going on. And I kept thinking ... How could I do that? I thought and puzzled and then puzzled some more. And then I did it! Listen in to the podcast this week to hear the Embrace attendees telling you about THEIR experience at Embrace and THEIR transformations. Including: Doing what you need to do to make your family better Overcoming fear and guilt Repairing a broken marriage Depression happens, but you will get through it A mindset shift from feeling like you are drowning to learning how to relax and let the next thing come How to create a life purposefully and want the best for YOU - not just everyone else We are all more alike than we are different Dumping the guilt and not looking back It's ok to be single Grieving the loss of what you thought your life was going to look like You are not broken You are WORTH IT! It is ok to accept the love you are given without trying to "pay it back" And then consider experiencing Embrace for yourself in our new "Embrace the Journey Bundle". We even created a custom Organize 365 puzzle just for you to work as you puzzle through your own organizational transformation. You can check out the whole bundle here.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about both the present and future of Organize 365. I wanted to fill you in on everything that’s been going on here at Organize 365. That’s right, we’ve got lots of exciting things happening including an awesome book tour following the release of my new book that’s hitting the market in August 2020! So, if you’re dying to hear more, tune into this podcast episode to discover everything you need to know about the big things that are coming to Organize 365 very soon! The Evolution Of Organize 365 Sometimes, I have to really give myself a pinch when I look back at what we’ve accomplished to date with Organize 365. Setting out with the goal of helping people to organize their lives has inspired me in so many ways as I’ve moved forward on this journey. Visions happen when you take the right steps to make them work. You’ve probably heard me say that before, but it’s so true! Hiring a team gave me time to launch this podcast as a free learning resource followed by lots of amazing products that I’m extremely proud of including the Sunday Basket, 100 Day All Home Program, Paper Organizing Binders, Workboxes and lots of great Masterclasses, too! Along the way, we partnered with other professional organizers all over the United States in our Certified Sunday Basket Workshop Organizer Program. Most recently, we came out with the Kids Program, which is a digital course designed to walk your kids through all sorts of skills they need for organizing their bedrooms, clothes, backpacks, and whatever else they manage to bring into the house! With such a great choice of products and resources available, I feel like this leg of the journey has come to an end. We have all the basics needed to help you organize your home, develop your organizational muscles, and keep it going. So, it’s time to move onto the next thing! NEW Book Coming Soon! Did you hear? The Paper Solution will be published by Putnam Books next summer! Since launching my business back in 2012, my vision of what I wanted Organize 365 to become has developed into something more than I could ever have imagined. My ideas continue to be crazy exciting, not just for me, but hopefully for you guys, too. One of my biggest visions I have had was to become a traditionally published author and have a national book tour. My main vision with this new book is to take the message of paper organization NATIONAL. In America, so many people are fooling themselves into thinking we’re a paperless society and we’re not. You can have less paper, but you’re probably not paperless. The Paper Solution will help people from all over the country get their paper organized. My Dream For The Book Tour You might not know this about me, but I’ve always wanted to have a book tour. I don’t know how it’s going to go or where I’m going to go just yet, but I can promise you this – I am going to have the book tour to end all book tours! If I could have my dream book tour, I would spend 12-14 days in a different part of the country every month for eight months. I know it might sound a little crazy, but that would be my dream. In the first leg of the tour, I’d hit the West Coast and do morning TV, book signings at Barnes & Noble, and attend a few paper organizing retreats hosted by the certified organizers. Tune into the podcast to hear about all my dreams! Are You Dreaming? I bet you are! As you take back the organization of your home, you start to realize how much control you have over your space, your energy, and your time. The next step – to dream about the next thing you want to design and put your time and energy into... Are you ready to take back your home? Registration just opened for the fall round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. We would love to have you join us! Have you been *thinking* about becoming a Certified Sunday Basket Workshop Organizer? Registration is OPEN today through July 28! Already IN the 100 Day Program? The new Fall Planners and Planning Day are ready for you in the Shop! Sign up for one of the last Paper Organizing Retreats Lisa is doing in Cincinnati. September, January, and April are all open for registration. Enjoy the last full week of July! View the full post here: https://organize365.com/certification-update/

Learn more about the Organize 365 Kid's Program here. 

Have you ever wanted to make a behavior change to your personal or professional life? Maybe you want to start eating healthy, pick up a new hobby, or live a more organized life. Whatever your "big change" is, there are five simple steps you can take to help conceptualize lasting and impactful changes to your behavior. All these steps are outlined in the Transtheoretical Model, a biopsychosocial model that incorporates five sequential stages to help you modify your behavior long-term. If you’re anything like me, you probably freaked out a little bit with the mention of the Transtheoretical Model. I mean, it sounds so serious. Thankfully, I know just the person who can help break it down for you into bite-sized chunks that you can follow and apply to your own life. Meet Rachel Miller Kroouze, a Health Communication and Education professional with experience in health and prevention programming. Rachel has always been interested in health communication and helping others make positive health behavioral changes. She’s also an organizer at heart and has a lot to say about the Transtheoretical Model and how it can fuel positive behavior changes in just about anyone. So, if you want to make some impactful changes to your personal or professional life using a tried and tested method with a proven track record of life-changing results, dig in!   Stage 1 – Precontemplation The precontemplation stage is when you don’t have any foreseeable intentions to change within the next six months. This is the very first stage of the Transtheoretical Model and you might not even notice you’re in it or have been in it in the past. You might have a few habits that aren’t doing you any favors. You continue to do them because you aren’t aware of the consequences. You’re probably not even aware that a problem exists and if you do, you’re ignoring it. Or, you might have even tried to put a stop to them in the past but failed and continued along the same path. Thinking the classic “failure is inevitable, so why try?” is a common thought to have when you’re at this stage of the process.   Stage 2 – Contemplation Ah, contemplation… an inner epiphany in which you finally start to think about change. This is when you know you need to make a change to your behavior and fully intend to do so within the next six months or so. To move from precontemplation to contemplation means something sparked you to put this goal to change on your radar. Maybe your doctor told you that you needed to make lifestyle changes for your health. Or, perhaps your home has run out of storage space and you realize it’s time to declutter and get organized. A wake-up call has happened and now you’re asking yourself what you should do next to address the problem. You begin thinking about what action you need to take, and you may spend weeks or even months hanging out in this contemplation stage, which is totally normal.   Stage 3 – Preparation When you move out of contemplation and into preparation, you’re ready to make a change. You know that you’ve reached a crossroads and you can’t linger in the middle forever. You need to move forward. The only thing stopping you is figuring out how you’re going to do it and what action you’re going to take. So, it’s time to make a plan of action. If you’re trying to organize your paper or get fit and healthy, for example, this is when you prepare and get yourself ready. You may want to learn how to get organized across the board, in which case the All Access Membership may be for you because it gives you EVERYTHING you need to get your home and paper organized in 365 days. But, if you want to focus on something more specific and keep most of your organizing to one day of the week, the Complete Sunday Basket System may be more to your liking. Take your time and have a look through our different offers to find what works for you. What’s going to help you make the behavioral changes in your life that you desire? Once you can answer that question, it makes the preparation stage so much easier. Rachel and I are both huge fans of the Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Quiz, where you’ll discover whether you’re more of an upholder, questioner, obliger, or rebel. Understanding your tendency and how to leverage it to your advantage is a great way to help you find ways to plan for action, make better decisions, and meet your own expectations.   Stage 4 – Action The action stage of the Transtheoretical Model is when you’re in the process of making behavioral changes with your actions. You’ve made different modifications to your lifestyle and are trying to turn these into habits that will soon become second nature. The strength of action comes from the preparation stage. So, if you’ve prepared well enough, you’ll be more than ready to take some action and make the necessary changes in your life that you know you need to make. Action is when you’ve convinced yourself why this is something you need to change and act on. You've prepared yourself, done the research, got all the approvals, everything is in line, and you’re ready to do the thing! Remember that action includes making modifications as you go. Nothing is set in stone. If you find that something isn’t working for you and you want to change it, do it.   Stage 5 – Maintenance Once you reach the final stage, you’re maintaining the changes for a prolonged period of time. You’ve been working hard to sustain the behavior change and as the months go by, you’re working to prevent a relapse. The more you do something, the easier it becomes. As you develop new behaviors, the initial resistance you felt at the beginning gets lower. You start to see the benefits of what you’re doing, and you’ll be even happier with the decision you’ve made. Maintenance is the stage we all aim for when we set out to make a positive behavior change in our personal or professional lives. If you find that you make your way through these steps, only to find something that didn’t work for you or maybe you’ve “fallen off the wagon” and are right back at the first step again, don’t be too hard on yourself. Each time you climb up the staircase, you build upon it. You’ve been there before, and you know where the squeaky step is. You know what not to do and you know what you need to change in order to make it this time. And you WILL make it! Rachel is a member of the Organize 365 Facebook group and we expect a lot of interesting conversations to come from this episode of the podcast (and blog post) so if you want to talk to her more and get involved with the discussion, join the Facebook group – we’d love to hear from you! View the full post here: https://organize365.com//transtheoretical

Learn more about the Organize 365 Kid's Program here. 

Do you have a big project looming over your head? Maybe you’ve been procrastinating on it for a while and now you’re ready to get things in order. Or, maybe you woke up this morning with an amazing idea to start a big project in your home or office. This is a great weekend to tackle those BIG projects! Here’s a little-known fact about me – I love projects. The bigger the project, the better. I love everything about big projects from the planning stage right through to completion. So in this episode of the podcast, I’m going to reveal how I tackle really big projects in hopes that it might help or inspire you to organize a big project of your own. The Basement to Bedroom Project It all began with a basement… last spring. Abby had outgrown her bedroom and we’ve talked about the idea of her moving down to the basement for some time. Did you know she has a pet ferret living in her bedroom with her? Yeah, those things need a big cage and they take up a lot of room. So, we decided she could move to the basement and have the space she needs for her and Willow (the ferret). Plus, it worked out pretty well for me because I’ve been working from a home office in my bedroom for years and I knew Abby’s old bedroom would make a great office. So, it’s a win-win situation for both of us. The only problem is that moving Abby’s bedroom to the basement is a mammoth task. One thing to remember about doing a big project in your house is that it doesn’t just affect one person. One room is like an octopus with tentacles that trickle out to other areas of the house and, before you know it, you’ve got the entire house involved. To make the process go as smoothly as possible, I needed a plan. And before I knew it, project basement was underway! In the podcast, I recount how I tackled that project: Step 1 – The Planning Phase Step 2 – Budgeting Step 3 – Getting to Work! Last weekend, I started... The Master Bedroom & Lisa's New Home Office Project. I have been sharing my progress on all three of these projects in my highlights on Instagram. :) What about you? Do you like to tackle really big projects? Do you have a project scheduled for this holiday weekend? Tag me online so I can see! View the full post here: https://organize365.com/big-projects//

Learn more about the Organize 365 Kid's Program here. 

I’ve got some exciting news to share with you on the podcast as we launch lots of exciting NEW products here at Organize 365! I’m going to walk you through everything going on including a deep dive into our brand new and highly anticipated Kids Program! If you’ve always wanted to get your kids organized and even encourage them to jump on this organizational train ride with you, this is your chance! But that’s not all! (Yes, there’s more… a lot more!) We’re also launching our new Lattice Binder, Kids Clips, and Volunteer Workbox! I’m beyond excited to finally share this news with you! If you want to find out more about all these new products and all the amazing things happening here at Organize 365, tune in! Inside The Volunteer Workbox Let’s kick things off with the Volunteer Workbox! It’s the eighth edition in our line of workboxes that are carefully designed to help organize your work both at home and you know, actual work. You can visit the Organize 365 Shop to browse through our collection of workboxes if you’re interested. The Volunteer Workbox was the one thing we were missing in our collection. We wanted to launch a special workbox for all the different volunteer things you do. This could be anything from helping out at your church, hosting the local book club meetings, or participating in a volunteer organization. The Volunteer Workbox will work if you have a support role in a Volunteer organization or you are the leader. :) Exploring The Lattice Binder We have added a new Lattice Binder to our office supplies. This deluxe 2" D-ring, one-touch heavy duty binder with an extended back will protect your slash pockets and help you containerize projects. The Lattice Binder is a white on white basket weave that’s similar to the Sunday Baskets with an Organize 365 logo on the back. Because it’s white, you can use it for anything you want. The Kid Clips Next up… we’re bringing back the Kids Clips! (Hooray!) If you’ve been around for a while, you may remember I used to sell little Kid Clips that were basically super strong magnets for your refrigerator. I called them the ONE Clip back then because you just needed one for each of your kids. This time around, the Kid Clips are CUSTOMIZABLE. Grab your sharpies and color each clip to match your child's personality. The Kids Program Okay and now for the big reveal… the one you’ve all been waiting for – The Kids Program! This program is designed to help organize kids of all ages 0-23. The current program supports kids 0-17 and the LAUNCH program will be added next year (at no additional cost) supporting kids 18-23. What You Can Expect From The Kids Program When you buy the Kids Program, you’ll get access to the dashboard. This is where you’ll find all the cute slash pockets and when you click on them, you’ll be taken to a new course, video, or download. You’ll find five slash pockets inside the Kids Program. Each one is independent of the others, so you don’t have to do anything in order if you don’t want to. These slash pockets are organized into the following categories: Parents, Littles, Learn, Saturday, and Sunday. Here’s a little more information about each of the slash pockets: Parents – This one is for all the parents out there who need help getting their kids organized. I help you assess your home and your life and reveal what exactly you need to do to teach your kids to declutter and organize. Each lesson comes with a video and additional resources to help you along the way. Littles – This part of the program is aimed at kids from birth through to age five. Trying to organize your home with kids under the age of five is like shoveling snow in a snowstorm. Almost impossible. But with this program, I help you with everything from organizing feeding zones, playing zones, sleeping zones, moving from one size clothing to the next, and so much more. Learn – If you have older kids who happen to be organizationally inclined, you’re in luck. The Learn Program is where most of the videos are and it seriously takes you through everything, such as cleaning a bedroom and making it more like a mini apartment that’s divided into zones. With this program, I teach the skill of thinking like an organized person. And those skills will carry your kids into adulthood. Saturday & Sunday – The slash pockets inside of the Saturday and Sunday slash pockets are all about creating habits and routines. Saturdays are the days when you clean and organize your bedroom. On Sundays, the slash pockets will walk you through how you’re going to plan your week using six simple steps. You can read all about the Kids Program, watch a video showing you inside the program, and watch the replay of our Kids Program Masterclass all over at organize365.com/kids. I hope you have a great weekend and 4th of July week! Snap a few pictures of your kid's cleaning their rooms and tag me on Instagram or Facebook! I can't wait to see! View the full post here: https://organize365.com/new-products-summer-2019/

I’ve been talking about health and fitness on the podcast a lot lately. In Episode 283, I shared my own wellness and weight loss journey. Then in Episode 284, I had my Director of Operations, Kelly Leardon, on the show to discuss weight loss and developing healthy eating and wellness habits. What each of those episodes had in common was Amanda Tress’ FASTer Way to Fat Loss program, which Kelly and I both love. I’ve been following the program for the best part of a year and have seen amazing changes in both my physical and mental health. I’m very excited that I got the chance to sit down with Amanda herself to discuss the FASTer Way to Fat Loss program and to share her story of how she became one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the country. Meet Amanda Amanda is the founder of FASTer Way to Fat Loss, the premier virtual intermittent fasting fitness and nutrition program. She’s not only a fitness fanatic, but an inspiring business woman who I’ve been following for years (her Instagram profile keeps me motivated!). Before she launched FASTer Way to Fat Loss, Amanda spent years training people in the gym. She experimented with different nutrition strategies and, remarkably, her clients began to see an epic change. She spent a lot of time fine-tuning the strategies until she came up with the best way to bring them together for optimal results. Since then, she’s worked with over 100,000 clients, helping them to achieve their health and fitness goals. Helping others improve their health and wellness came very naturally to Amanda, who always says, “I didn’t choose the fitness industry, the fitness industry chose me.” Amanda and I dive into: How to work from home When is it the right time to hire people for your business? Why do women put their health last on their to do list? In these last 3 episodes, I have pulled back the curtain on how I am tackling and progressing through adding a new habit and mindset to my life. I hope it has been helpful for you to see how I have approached this new lifestyle and can relate that back to your organizational journey. Watching other women chase and embrace their dreams is inspiring to me. Would you like to hear more interview podcasts like this on Organize 365? Let me know! Next week, we will be diving into the NEW Organize 365 Kids Program. I can't wait to share with you the program we have been building for the last year. Sign up for the Kids Program Masterclass being held Tuesday, June 25th to learn all about it! View the full post here: https://organize365.com/Amanda-Tress/

Every weight loss and wellness journey is different. Everyone has their own unique story to tell and I don’t know about you, but when I hear how someone made a drastic change to their health and well being, it motivates me to do the same! So, I wanted to invite Kelly Leardon onto the podcast to talk about her wellness journey because not only is it inspiring, but she actually used a lot of the same methods we talked about in the previous episode of the podcast – “Lisa’s Wellness & Weight Loss Journey.” In this episode, we dive deep into what Kelly did to boost her nutrition, lose weight, and get her "mojo" back. It’s a great story and you’ll discover a few great resources along the way in case you wanted to try any of these things out for yourself! Meet Kelly As you may know, Kelly joined the Organize 365 team at the beginning of 2019. She keeps me on my feet for sure and I’ve never met anyone as good at setting goals and smashing them, too! Kelly is an experienced Director of Operations with a history of working in the Executive Office industry. Welcoming Kelly onto the team as the Director of Operations means that I am leaving the management role of Organize 365. I have so much more free time and I am so grateful to have Kelly on the team. When you hire someone onto your team, it does two things. First, it takes tasks off your list. Second, it forces you to level up your skills because you have to be more productive, proactive, and profitable. Interestingly, when she first joined, we were both in a very similar stage of our lives where we wanted to prioritize our wellness and weight loss. My main reasoning to do so was because, hey, I want to live to be 100 years old… you know, like one of those ancient tortoises. Kelly wanted to slim down because she has a fabulous wardrobe and wants to keep it! In this podcast, we dive into: Establishing New Monthly Habits How We Track What We Eat And Other Habits A Closer Look At The “FASTer Way to Fat Loss” Are you on your own weight loss and wellness journey? If so, I’d love to hear all about it! Head over to our Facebook group and join to take part in the discussions. And here’s a fun idea... if you have any before and after photos of your weight loss journey, please share them with me on Instagram and tag me @organize365, I’d love to see how far you’ve come and plus, it’ll motivate me to keep going with my own wellness journey, too!   View the full post here: https://organize365.com/weightloss/

Most of us like to form our own opinions about what maintenance means to us. On the podcast, we talk a lot about the cycle of getting organized and increasing productivity. But what about the maintenance stage of your organizational journey? What does it really mean to maintain something? According to the good old dictionary, maintenance is the process of maintaining or preserving a condition or situation or the state of being preserved. While this gives us more clarity on the meaning of maintenance, it doesn’t dive into the details or tell us how it equates to the maintenance of our homes. As we go through the 100 Day Home Organization Program and declutter and organize each space in our homes for the third or even fourth time, we enter a phase of maintenance which I want to unpack with you in this episode of the podcast. What Maintenance Looks Like In The Physical Areas Of Your Home If you asked me what stage of the organizational journey I’m currently in, I would say I’m living in maintenance. I don’t do much. Everything in my house is decluttered and organized (I am a professional organizer, after all). But that doesn’t mean I don’t do the dishes or laundry. I still have non-organizational, cleaning related tasks to do just like anyone else. I still have to put things away at the end of the day. However, once you’ve decluttered and organized your entire house, it usually stays organized. One reason why your house might not stay organized is because of the kids. I don’t mean just the toddlers either. No matter what age they are, kids are like little chaos creators. They tumble through the house like mini tornadoes and just have a way of messing things up. But if your kids tend to mess up their own rooms and the joint family rooms but stay out of your storage room and master bedroom, etc., the work you’ve done to get the majority of your home organized is probably well maintained. To me, living an organized life that’s maintained is when you reach the end of the day and you don’t have to start decluttering and organizing everything. All you have to do is pick things up and put them back to where they go. It’s simple. In the podcast, I dive deeper into... Maintenance In Different Seasons Of Life Maintenance In Everyday Home Life What Does Maintenance Mean With Your Paper? One thing that you need to come to grips with when it comes to organizing is that your home will never be perfect. Perfect is not the end goal here. The end goal is to live a more organized and functional life and being able to maintain it as a result. View the full post here: https://organize365.com/what-is-maintenance/  

Your inner thoughts can have a serious impact on your state of mind. If you see the world through a darkened lens, that negative way of thinking can quickly become a way of life. When I tell people that I used to be the queen of negativity, they find it hard to believe. I’ve since adopted a more positive outlook on life which I talk about in episode 261 of the podcast, My Personal Seven-Year Transformation. Nowadays, thinking positively comes easy to me. I like to think about negative thoughts as weeds in our mind. Weeds that need to be pulled out from the roots. If the garden of your mind has become overgrown with persistent weeds that you can’t clear, it’s time to tackle the root of the problem. When I gave myself the quest to declutter my negative thoughts, I did three things. First, I realized how negative I was. Second, I replaced anything negative in my life with a positive difference. And finally, I eliminated all the ways that negativity was coming into my life. In this episode, I reveal the steps you can take to overcome your negative mindset and start living a more positive and happy life. Ready to say goodbye to negative thoughts? In this week's podcast, I cover these 3 points: 1. Be honest with yourself 2. Replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts 3. Eliminate the negativity I hope that these tips help you to declutter your negative thoughts so that you can start living a happier life with a positive outlook. The more I press into this, the more I truly believe that we are in control of our thoughts and feelings. You can literally design any future you can imagine. Have you ever cut something negative out of your life and replaced it with something positive? Let me know over on Instagram or Facebook, I’d love to hear from you! View the full post here: https://organize365.com/negative-thoughts/

Whenever spring hits, do you feel like you’re in a mad rush to get everything organized? I know I do. I’ve often talked about the fact that I like to divide my year into three trimesters. Each one is carefully planned and, although it starts out completely organized, it ends in a chaotic whirlwind. If you feel like you’re caught in an enormous tornado of tasks, not unlike the one from The Wizard of Oz, I want to help you step out of the chaos. Focusing on what’s important and finding more planning time to eliminate some of the to-dos from your list will help you lead a more peaceful life. In this episode, I reveal why you need an admin day. An entire day where you can go through your Sunday Basket and knock tasks off your list in one epic swoop. Why You Need An Admin Or Errand Day If you’re anything like me, you’ll discover a lot of administrative tasks when you go through your Sunday Basket. Things like forms that need to be scanned, scheduling doctor’s appointments, emails that need your attention, and so on. The only problem is that a lot of these things can’t be done on a Sunday. The doctor’s office is closed, so you can’t call up to make an appointment. Before you know it, you’ve got a stack of administrative tasks or errands you need to do on a different day other than Sunday. This is why you need to assign an administrative or errand day (or both!). An errand day is when you take a full day to do your errands. You’re probably in the car going from one place to the next. An administrative day is when you’re at home (probably in front of the computer) and you’re plowing through things that can’t be done on Sunday. If you’re new to Organize 365, you’re likely wondering why I talk about Sunday’s so much. Well, it’s because I have this thing called The Sunday Basket System. This is where you can defer all your ideas, mail, paper, forms, and to-dos into a pretty box that sits on your kitchen counter. Each Sunday, you systematically go through the basket. To find out more about the Sunday Basket and how it can help corral all your kitchen counter papers and to-dos, click here. Getting Organized In Each Trimester On the Sunday before the start of each trimester, I go through my Sunday Basket as normal. I pay the bills, update my calendar, and all the rest. But there will also be an exorbitant list of things that I can’t get done on Sunday. I need a full workday for these things. And you might, too. If you work nine to five for somebody else, finding the time during the week for these things can be tricky. But, it’s totally worth it to take a vacation day to do this. You can get a lot done with just one day off work. So, the next time you do your Sunday Basket at the busiest times of the year, I want you to do something slightly different. Instead of putting everything that can wait until next Sunday, keep everything in front of you in a pile. You’ll probably have a lot of index cards and papers you’ve repeatedly put back into the Sunday Basket and that’s okay. In previous podcasts, we talked about eliminating such pockets altogether in what I like to call Sunday Basket 3.0. We also talked about decluttering obligations out of your Sunday Basket, and now we’re going to get into clearing all of the things you’ve been putting off time and time again. Creating Your "Brain Dump" List To help organize your time, I suggest making two lists. One for all the errands you need to get done and another for all the administrative tasks list. Or, you can combine the two. So over on the errand list, you might have things like buy the end of year teacher gift, post that parcel to your mother in law, and things like that. The administrative list will be home to tasks like changing your passwords, replying to emails, making phone calls, and so on. Make the biggest list you possibly can. Next, start crossing things off that you really don’t want or need to do. Then, grab a pencil (yes, we’re going old school for this one) and write down how long each task is going to take to complete. When you’ve got that done, add up all that time to figure out how long you’ll need to complete the entire list. If it’s going to take you five hours, you’ll need to set five hours aside during the week to get those things done. You might find that some things will take time and money that you just don’t have or want to invest in right now. That’s okay. Just cross it off your list. Now that you have your lists cut down, it’s time to prioritize the tasks on the list in order. That way, you know what’s the most important things that need to get done compared to the things at the bottom of the list that you can probably do later. You’ll end up with a concrete list or plan that you can follow on your admin or errand day. Give it a try! Go through your Sunday Basket, do a big brain dump, and make a list of everything you want to get done. Then, set an admin or errand day and work like a trooper to get everything on that list done. If you decide to have your own errand or administrative day, I’d love to hear how you got on! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips. Don’t forget to share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Full the full post here: https://organize365.com/adminday/

When our life gets unorganized, we tend to blame outside sources such as our spouse, our lack of money, not having enough time, and so on. But the truth is that your cluttered life (and home) has nothing to do with any of that. Those are just the things we like to think are holding us back. What’s really holding us back from living a more organized life is having a plan to achieve that life. If you’ve tried to get organized in the past and failed time and time again, you’re in the right place. Today's podcast is designed to help get you organized and decluttered once and for all. Before we dig into the good stuff, I need you to download this fun worksheet to follow along with the podcast. We have ALL been unorganized at some point in our lives... even me. Before I turned 40 back in 2012, I reached the most unorganized stage of my life. My home was so cluttered, it was tearing at the seams. My "epiphany" moment hit me on a random afternoon when I came home with a few bags of groceries and realized I had nowhere to put anything that I bought. The fridge was packed and some of the things in there were way past their expiration dates. The cupboards were the same. But the madness wasn’t confined to my kitchen. Oh no. The clutter rampage had spread throughout my entire home. Every drawer was a junk drawer. So, I sat down and made a list of every single space that needed to be organized and I spent the next 100 days organizing. I needed to regain control of my house and my life. It wasn’t easy, but I got there, and now I want to help you do the same. Sometimes life just gets moving too fast and we literally get run over. Unfortunately, it is not a matter of if this will happen, it is a matter of WHEN. And when it does, it takes a herculean effort to get back up and get organized again. Many of you ask me... "How do you know what I am thinking or what my house looks like?" Well, because we have all been there. I know you feel like no one has ever ended up with their house as disorganized as yours, but we ALL have. And after analyzing when and why this happens, I have actually determined that there are some key seasons in your life where almost everyone will feel like you do today... In the podcast today, I unpack... 1. What’s your why. 2. What season of life are you in. 3. Understanding the Cycle of Organization. And why we can get organized in one phase of life and everything seems to fall apart as you move from one phase to the next. Now is The Best Time to Get Organized :) Don't roll your eyes at me! You know you are itching to clean out the garage, wash everything in sight, and declutter! And you will... for a weekend. And then you will fall back into your daily routines and stop your organizational efforts. It is not you. It is totally normal! But do you want ordinary? Or are you ready for EXTRAORDINARY? Living an organized and productive life is extraordinary! The 100 Day Home Organization Program is your plan to move from an ordinary reactive life to an extraordinarily productive life. Sign up! We start on Monday! View the full post here: http://organize365.com/3reasons/

I received an email the other day and it honestly had me in tears. It was from a listener of the podcast who reached out to thank me for being so open and honest about the struggles of motherhood in episode 261, "My Personal Seven-Year Transformation." She also talked about her own challenges that she faces on a daily basis as a mother of three boys, one of whom was born with a very rare, life-threatening disease. As you can imagine, she is not your everyday mother. What many of you find normal, she does not. You ARE The Mother That Your Children Need The subject line of this email read, “All I ever wanted to be was a mom.” When I first read that, I was immediately hooked. As many of you know if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, I shared the same dream when I was younger. I always wanted to be a mother and I knew I could relate to the sender almost immediately. We all have an idea of who we will be as a mother. But, more often than not, that vision never comes into view. I am keenly aware many of you have never been able to birth a child... like me. Which makes posts like these about parenting, or announcements about our Mother's Day coupons, hard to hear. It is also why the 100 Day Home Organization Program doesn't organize kids, it organizes YOU... any woman in any size dwelling. For me, when I found out I couldn’t get pregnant, I hit a roadblock and it almost floored me. But, I steered off that path and made a new path to motherhood. My own path. Adoption turned out to be my road to motherhood and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Motherhood Is Never What We Anticipate... Easy Or Hard Let me share a few lines from her email: “Our boys are not typical. Our oldest was born with a very rare disease and will most likely not make it to 18. Each time he gets a cold or any type of illness, it can cause brain damage. He has spent a good portion of his life in the hospital as we fight to give him the best chance he has.” As you can imagine, not many mothers prepare themselves for such a heart-breaking and difficult roadblock. How can you prepare for something like that? You can’t. It’s so easy to doubt your ability as a mother, but you ARE the mother your child needs you to be. Motherhood might not look or feel the way you thought it would. But it doesn’t matter. This is your story as a mother, and you are the mother that your children need. Parenting A Child With Additional Needs Whether your child has learning or physical disabilities, your role as a mother becomes so much harder when faced with more than the everyday parenting challenges. For me, the hardest part of mothering was stepping into and owning the mother my children needed me to be and not the mother that I thought I would be. If you are struggling with the weight of your mothering right now, listen to this week's podcast. Don't let society's expectation and what everyone else is doing change how you view your child, your relationship with your child, and what your child needs. You’ve got this and I'm right there behind you. Happy Early Mother's Day! Still looking for a gift for your mom or what to ask for yourself? We created Mother's Day coupons you and your family can use to give the perfect Organize 365 gift! View the full post here: https://organize365.com/not-normal-parenting/

Do you ever feel like you’ve got too much on your plate? Sometimes, we can be so focused on making things more organized, efficient, and productive that we forget to pull the brakes. Do we really need to do all the jobs we’re doing? If you’ve been listening to the last few episodes of the podcast, you’ll notice that I’ve talked about shifting mindsets and changing habits a lot lately. We revealed how you can eliminate your to-do list, and what an organized life feels like. We also uncovered the Sunday Basket 3.0, which isn’t a new product, but a new way of tackling your Sunday Basket when you’re a seasoned pro. Now we’ve reached the fourth episode of this mini four-part series, where I talk about decluttering jobs and obligations. You know, the things that have loomed over our heads for weeks and we really don’t want to do. You might feel like you don’t have a good enough reason to get rid of them, which is why they’ve stuck around for so long. But, I’m here to help you kick the guilt monster out and shut the door on some of those jobs that you just don’t care about anymore. So, if you want to finally declutter those jobs and obligations that have gathered dust at the back of your mind, tune into this episode and find out how to: Take a step back and evaluate your current obligations Identify your unique vs. competent abilities Eliminate tasks from your calendar And the controversial one... How to break away from a direct sales company. I received a question about how to quit direct sales. It was a loaded question, but I could really relate to it because as many of you know, I used to work in direct sales. I loved it at the time. But I reached a point in my life and business where I knew I had to break away from direct sales. Even though you work for a direct sales company, it doesn’t mean you’re obligated to stay until you’re old and gray. You’re a unique person with a unique gift and ability. Don’t sell your soul to any company. You don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors. A company, no matter what size it is, will always put their best interests first. So, you should do the same and put yourself first, too. I talk about all this in more detail in the podcast, but what I will say is that if you think now is the time to leave your direct sales gig, or any job for that matter, you’re probably right. Ask yourself if you were asked to re-join the same company all over again, would you say yes? If not, it’s time to pack your bags and move on. It’s Okay To Say No It’s time to eliminate jobs and obligations from your calendar that you just don’t want to do anymore. Remember – it’s okay to say NO. No can be a complete sentence if you want and need it to be. If you decide to eliminate things from your calendar using any of my suggestions, I’d love to know how it went for you and how many things you managed to eliminate?   Follow me on Instagram to follow our adventures at the Cincinnati Homeschool Convention this weekend! Registration for the next round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program is OPEN!! And.. we now have PAYMENT PLANS! I'd love for you to join us! View the full post here: https://organize365.com/decluttering-jobs-obligations/

A few weeks ago in my regular Facebook LIVE on Tuesday mornings for the women in the 100 Day Home Organization Program, I started to expound on and articulate how I have moved into a new level of using my Sunday Basket. The first thing you need to know about Sunday Basket 3.0 is that it is not a physical product. Lisa, what do you mean it’s not an actual product? You got me pumped up for nothing! Hold on! I say it’s not a physical product because it’s an evolution of the original Sunday Basket System you already have. If you’re not familiar with the Sunday Basket Club or the Sunday Basket System, let me explain real quick… A Mini Lesson On Sunday Baskets The Sunday Basket is a system for processing ongoing household projects and developing a weekly routine of collecting, processing, and maintaining it all in one place. You start with a basket. Well, it’s more of a box but kind of looks and operates like a basket, hence the name. You can buy the Complete Sunday Basket System for $97.00 and receive all the necessary workshop materials you need. This includes two sets of slash pockets called the 1.0 and 2.0 slash pockets. With the 1.0 slash pockets, you get red, orange, yellow, green, and blue slash pockets. Everything you put into these slash pockets are things that need to get done this week. So, any errands, events or bills, etc. that need to be completed this week will go inside the 1.0 slash pockets. The 2.0 slash pockets are monochromatic and include five pink, five blue, five green, and five purple slash pockets. With the 2.0 slash pockets, each color represents a category. So, purple is for anything household related, blue is for family members, green is for financial, and pink is for your own hopes, dreams, projects, and goals. When Sunday rolls around, you take everything out of the basket and sort through what you’ll do this Sunday and what can wait until next Sunday. Eliminating Things From Your Sunday Basket When your home is organized, you’ll generally have a lot less to do in terms of organizing. Another gift that leading a more organized life will give you is TIME. Time to do a puzzle in the evening, give the dog a second walk around the block, and time for yourself. But, when you have all this free time, many of you talk about feeling guilty. It’s like if you’re not doing something "proactive" and productive, you’re lazy or even selfish (which is crazy!). One rule of the Sunday Basket System is if it can wait until next Sunday, it must wait until next Sunday. But, what if something in the basket can always wait until next Sunday? Do you keep it moving onto the following week for months or even years? Well… you can if you want to. But if you want to get it out of the way, I suggest picking a time during the day or week to work on it and do it then. The more you live an organized life, the fewer things you’ll have in your Sunday Basket. If you become a seasoned pro like me, you might not even need all the slash pockets in the Sunday Basket anymore. But getting to that stage of eliminating things from your basket will take time. And, as each task is completed and each week you’re organizing more and more, you’ll receive an extra gift of time each week. So, what does all of this have to do with the Sunday Basket 3.0? The Sunday Basket 3.0 is about eliminating things out of your Sunday Basket that are no longer serving you or that you just don’t want to do anymore (or ever). Deciding What To Do With Your Free Time When you are in the process of eliminating your to-do list and moving to the Sunday Basket, you develop the habit of writing down every idea that you have in your head onto index cards. You’re also continuing to defer those things until the following Sunday when you can. This process helps you to make the decision if you're going to do it at all, and if so, when. For the most part though, you can knock out a lot of your index cards on Sunday. You may have to set time aside to do some of the things during the week and then anything that can be put off until later goes into your 2.0 slash pockets, which are for projects. If you’re in a stage similar to me where your kids are grown up and everything’s pretty much taken care of, you’ll have all this time you don’t know what to do with. Can you relate? If so, here’s a little challenge for you… Think back to when you were a teenager. What did you like doing? How did you spend your free time? I hope you can come up with something because let me tell you, I can’t. I always wanted to be a mom. I got a teaching degree because I knew it would help me when I did have kids. But, after I got married, we realized we couldn’t have kids. So, we adopted. My entire life has been about wanting kids and being a mom. And, I did it all. But now the kids are grown up and my "mommying" is kind of over. So, now what should I do with my free time? I have no idea. Well, that’s not totally true. I like doing puzzles. Yes, I’m like a retired old lady, but you know what? Those guys in the retirement homes are up to their eyeballs in puzzles. They have a library, and they get their dinner made for them each day. Plus, they’re surrounded by their friends, and they don’t even have to go outside if they don’t want to. To me (a.k.a someone that doesn’t like nature all that much), that sounds like a dream. So, yeah… I guess when “I grow up,” I want to be retired and doing all the puzzles in the world. The Sunday Basket 3.0 So, when you reach the stage where your house is organized, and you’ve entered the Sunday Basket 3.0 era, it’s okay to have projects in there that you have no intention of doing. Just get rid of them. You don’t have to stick to the same projects you wanted to do before you got organized. Heck, you don’t have to pick up the same projects you wanted to do yesterday! It’s OKAY. Just because you had a passion for something before, it doesn’t mean it has to be your passion for the rest of your life. Passions aren’t always forever. Sometimes, a passion hangs around for a season and then it transitions into something new. And, that’s okay! So, the next time you go through your Sunday Basket, and you sort through your 2.0 slash pockets, ask yourself if you still have the passion and desire to do that thing at all. If not, it’s time to say goodbye and move on! No guilt necessary! Are you in the Sunday Basket 3.0 stage yet? Let me know over on Instagram or Facebook and tell me, what are some of the things you like to do just for the fun of it? Any puzzle fans out there? View the full post here: https://organize365.com/sunday-basket-3-0/

I talk about organizing a lot on the podcast (it’s called Organize 365 after all!). I’ve covered everything from discovering your why to the Psychology of the Sunday Basket and how to know Which Workbox is Right for You? But surprisingly, I’ve never addressed what living an organized life actually feels like... until now! In this episode, I reveal what an organized life really looks like. No unrealistic expectations. No idealistic dreams. None of that. Just an honest look behind the curtain of an everyday, organized life. Setting Realistic Expectations I’ll be honest with you. There was a rather delusional time in my life when I pictured a perfectly organized life to mirror Martha Stewart’s. You know, with everything neatly packed into pretty containers, angelic children floating around the house, and waking up to an adorable puppy licking my nose as he waits for his morning walk. Like I said, delusional. Once I started to declutter and really focus on living a more organized life, my previous expectations were, for lack of a better phrase, shot to hell. I realized that you’re never going to have everything you want just perfect. You can drive yourself crazy trying, but it’s like trying to reach the end of the rainbow. It’s never going to happen. The sooner you get rid of unrealistic expectations and focus on the achievable, the sooner you can start living not only a more organized life, but a happier one, too. In the podcast I explore... How an Organized Life Looks Different in Each Stage of Life How an Organized Life is Being "Company Ready" How Living an Organized Life is Having More TIME So, what does an organized life feel like? An organized life feels like all your basic needs are met and all of the things in your house are done. And then the real work of stepping up to who you were uniquely created to be takes center stage. THAT is what I want to see. WHO were YOU uniquely created to be and give to this world? It sounds so Oprah like, but it is for YOU, too. It is my greatest fulfillment in life to have found the time to create a curated program for you to get your home organized to free up your time so I can see what your unique gift is to the world. Thanks for letting me be a part of your journey! PS - If you are stuck in your organizing and are not sure why, I'd love for you to join me in my masterclass this month: 3 Reasons You Can't Get Organized And What To Do About It. View the full post here: https://organize365.com/what-living-an-organized-life-feels-like/

Last week, we talked about why it’s impossible to be behind when you’re organizing. We covered how organizing will always pay you in time and finished with a discussion about why you should aim for progress, not perfection. Shifting your mindset to focus on progress rather than perfection takes practice. We become so obsessed with ticking off every task on our to-do lists that we lose sight of the progress we’ve made. A few of you recently messaged me and asked me to talk about how you can change the way you structure and plan your time. It’s easy to let your to-do list control your time and how you spend it, which is only part of the reason why I think it is time to eliminate your to-do list. Yes, you read that right. Eliminate your to-do list. Don’t re-prioritize it. Don’t take tasks off and move them onto next week’s to-do list. I want you to take your to-do list, hold it up and set a flame to it (you know, hypothetically). You might not know this about me, but it’s been 18 months since I wrote out and completed my last to-do list. I just don’t need it anymore. If you want to join me over here in the (almost) stress-free zone with more free time than you know what to do with and no to-do lists to worry about, this is the podcast episode you’ve been waiting for! How I Got Rid of My To-Do List There was a time in my life when I lived for my to-do list. Or rather, I lived through my to-do list. I would list everything I needed to get done that day and, like most of you, ticked them off one by one as I completed each task. When a task was left unfinished, I carried it onto my to-do list for the next day. It helped me to get things done, most of the time. But I found myself constantly referring to my list throughout the day, so much so that it honestly felt like I couldn’t live without it. To go from that level of dedication to a to-do list to not having one at all is quite the turnaround, don’t you think? The funny thing is, I didn’t even realize I didn’t have a to-do list anymore until people started asking me for advice on what to do with theirs. As someone who had an answer for every question about organizing, I was stumped. Then, of course, I had the "a-ha!" moment when I suddenly realized I was living my life without a to-do list. And, you know what? The world didn’t stop spinning. I didn’t lose focus, and my productivity levels were better than ever. At some point over the last seven years, I went from being depressed, overweight and in debt to feeling much happier, thinner and debt-free. But it didn’t happen overnight. It took a lot of small steps, and one of those steps was ditching the to-do lists. I can't wait for you to email me and let me know that you too have ditched your to-do list! PS - Do you feel stuck in your organizing? Sign up for the April FREE Masterclass, 3 Reasons You Can't Get Organized & What to do about it Masterclass here. PPS - We just made our BIGGEST announcement of 2019... You can now buy the 100 Day Home Organization Program and ALL ACCESS with PAYMENT PLANS! View the full post here: https://organize365.com/stop-to-do-list/

Do you ever feel like you’re behind in your organizing routine? Maybe you went on a sunny vacation and came back with a stack of mail to sort? Or, perhaps you skipped a few days in the 100 Day All Home Program? You might feel anxious, worried, or even a little guilty. But, here’s the truth… After you start, it’s physically impossible for you to be behind in organizing. Don’t believe me? Listen to this episode of the Organize 365 podcast to find out why your organizing journey is more like an endless escalator than a staircase with an infinitive first and last step. The Organizational Journey To put all of this into perspective, I want you to think about organizing in a similar way to how a baby learns to crawl, walk, and run. In the beginning, a baby will learn how to crawl on the floor. In organization land, this is basically you when you’re decluttering your house. Next, the baby might stand up and take a few steps while holding onto furniture for support. This is when you’ve reached out for help and taken the first steps in organizing (congratulations, by the way!). Maybe you signed up for the 100 Day All Home Program, or perhaps you hired a professional organizer to help you out. It’s all going well because you’ve got that extra support and encouragement. Eventually, the baby lets go of the coffee table and starts taking its first steps on its own. Granted, they’re wobbly steps, and the baby looks a little like a duckling with its bottom stuck out and arms flying everywhere. But, at least they’re finally walking unaided, right? Sure, they might fall a lot but they’re making progress, just like you. When you “go it alone,” you might stumble and even feel like giving up at times. But you’ll get there. Soon, you’ll organize all the main areas of your life so well that when you return to re-organize them the following year, it won’t take you half as long. As you go through your organizational journey, your skills, or "organizational muscles" as I like to call them, will continue to develop and grow. And, like the baby in this analogy, eventually you’ll start running. Organizing is Hard. Productivity is Fun! In Episode 251, I talked about the fact that decluttering is easy. Organizing is hard. And, productivity is fun! Once you’ve got the hang of things and you start building your organizational muscles, you’ll become so much more productive. Remember that organization is a learned skill. You can’t learn it overnight. When you first start decluttering like a mad woman, you’ll be left with things that you’re not sure if you want to keep or not. The things that you do want to keep will need to go into containers. At this stage of your organizing journey, you’ve swapped your declutter hat for a productive one instead. When you go through the 100 Day Home Organization Program for the first time, it can be a bit overwhelming. You’ll get a lot done in your first round. You’ll declutter the house, and by the time you’re done, you’ll think, well, that should do it for another five or 10 years! The truth is that you’ll never be done organizing! In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it’s not until the second or even third time through the 100 Day Home Organization Program that you start having those big "ah-ha!" moments. You’ll discover that organizing your kitchen for the second time with the program is so much easier and fluent than the first time. You’ll have productive formulas and routines in place for your paper. And, because your processes are more streamlined, you’ll be able to get a lot more done in that 100-day time frame. Snap Photos of your Progress When you’re in the middle of organizing everything, it’s tough for your mind to see the progress you’re making. So, grab your camera and snap a few before and after shots. Give yourself that instant gratification of seeing what things looked like before your inner organizing ninja got to work. You don’t need to show anybody the photos if you don’t want to. They can be there for you to look back at on those terrible days when you feel like you’re never going to be organized. Whenever you feel that way, you can look back at the photos and see how far you’ve come. You’ll know that you have made real progress, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. Be proud of yourself. You’ve decided to start living a more organized life. You’ve put the gears in motion, and you’re building organizational muscles. That is something to be proud of. On a side note… If you do decide to share your before and after photos, I’d love to see them on Instagram! Please remember to tag me @organize365! Organizing Pays You In Time In Episode 269, I talked about the time, money, motivation trifecta that’s necessary for change. Organization always gives you more time. It doesn’t pay in cash, but it does give you the time you need to balance other areas in your life. When you’ve got more time because you don’t need to spend hours organizing paper, you can put that time to better use. The 100 Day All Home Program is designed to give you the freedom to live your best life without worrying about organizing your home 24/7. It gives you the tools you need to make a lasting, incremental organizational change in your home throughout the seasons. Once you complete the program, you’ll find that the areas in your home where you spend most of your time are all better organized. But, when you’re in the heart of the action all the time, it’s easy to look around and think about all the areas lacking the standard of organized heaven that you were reaching for. But, if you take a closer look, you’ll realize that you’ve come a long way since taking those first baby steps. Your organizational muscles are growing. By the time you do the 100 Day Organization Program for the second or third time, you’ll find areas that you perhaps didn’t address the first time. And, you’ll realize that organizing comes a lot more naturally to you now. Don’t aim for perfection, aim for progress! Realize that reaching the perfect organized life takes time. It’s not instantaneous. But, even by taking that first baby step, you’re already ahead of the game. You’re one step closer to living a more organized life that gives you the time you need to live your best life.

Let’s be real. Not every item in your home will spark joy as soon as you see it or pick it up. And, it doesn’t have to. In this episode of the podcast, I explore what we should do with the items that don’t give us any real joy in our lives. But first, I’ve got a question for you… Have you ever read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo? It’s a great book that encourages readers to transform their homes into a clutter-free zone using the KonMari Method. As an organizing nut, I’ve read this book from cover to cover. Although I enjoyed it, I don’t think its paper organizing solutions work for American women. The KonMari Method challenges you to keep the things you really love and get rid of the rest. Literally. While this method might work for some, it doesn’t work for people like me who have a lot of stuff and no time to stop and think if an item sparks true joy. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for keeping items that have real meaning and decluttering the things that don’t have much of a purpose. But, what about paper? In her book, Marie’s key principle for sorting papers is to throw them all away (I know, I had to hold myself up after reading that, too). There’s no way we can get rid of ALL our paper. I can’t function as an American woman, business owner, homeowner, wife, and mother without paper. I just can’t. So, we’re going to dive into this further and figure out just how much paper we can get rid of and how much we can keep. Let’s jump in! Sorting Your Papers 85% of the papers you have in your house are shreddable. That leaves you with 15% that you’ve deemed important or necessary enough to keep. So, let’s take that 15% and start a complete paper organization overhaul, shall we? Unless you’re a passionate organizer like me, sorting your papers probably doesn’t fill you with feelings of joy and happiness. Instead of picking up a paper and asking yourself if it sparks joy, ask whether it is useful. If you don’t have any use for it, it’ll meet its grim fate in the shredder. If it does have use, it can be organized into binders. Should You “Go Paperless”? Is going 100% paperless a good idea? And, is it even possible? The short answer is no. Yes, you can go digital with lots of different things in your personal life and/or business. But, paper is never going to stop. It’ll always find a way to slip back into your life, whether that’s in the form of a letter, tax return documentation, or your kid’s art pieces! Although it seems like the world is taking everything digital, there will always be a place for paper. You can try to go digital. But sooner or later, you’ll need somewhere to organize your papers. Take a young couple as an example. Yes, they’re all into technology and the "Cloud." But, when they have their first child and he/she returns home from school with a backpack filled with drawings, they want to keep them all forever. Three kids down the line, they’ve got stacks of old drawings and no storage space for all the paper they’ve accumulated! If you’re in a similar situation, have a binder for each child. Then, choose 100 of your favorite drawings and keep those. You don’t need to keep every little thing your child creates. Sure, your kid might be the next Picasso, but how many pumpkin pictures does one family need? Save the ones that are the most useful. They’re the ones that make you feel good and are laced with happy memories. If you need help sorting your kid’s school papers and art, check out our Kid’s School Memory Binder. Organizing Your Reference Paper Actionable papers and reference papers have different usefulness, profitability, and portability, which means you’ve got to organize them differently, too. I recommend that every family have four specific binders: 1. Financial Binder 2. Medical Binder (for each family member) 3. Household Reference Binder 4. Household Operations Binder (Each of these binders is also available for International use. You can find the International versions over in our Shop.) All your reference papers can go into one of these binders, where you can access them easily and update as and when required. You can’t haul a filing cabinet around with you. But, with all your papers neatly organized in binders, you can literally just grab and go. Organizing Your Actionable Paper Actionable papers are things like bills, receipts, forms, and things that require some form of action. Reminders like changing air filters, giving your dog flea and tick medicine, and so on all come under this same category of "actionable paper." The problem with this type of paper is that it just gets everywhere. You’ll find them on your nightstand, on the kitchen table, and even tucked away in your car’s glove compartment. So, how can you organize all your actionable papers? The answer is with the Sunday Basket System. Keeping all your actionable to-do lists, bills, reminders, and so on inside your Sunday Basket gives you complete control over those papers and helps you develop a more organized way of thinking. Don’t Let Paper Control You! I honestly can’t imagine a world without paper. Technology is great, but there’s nothing like writing things down and having a physical copy of the things that are important to you. Remember that paper doesn’t have to control you, you control paper. If you’ve tried any of my suggestions for paper organization, I’d love to hear from you! Share your stories or snaps with me on Instagram and don’t forget to join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips! Tag me in your posts @organize365 or use the hashtag #organize365!

Decision Fatigue Do you suffer from decision fatigue? When you’re bombarded with too many decisions, your brain works in overdrive. And, you end up mentally and physically exhausted. So many of you have asked me to talk about this issue on the podcast, so…here it is! But, before you jump into this episode, it’s worth checking out the Time, Money, Motivation podcast (ep.269). The trifecta I talk about in that episode will help change your mindset. When you learn to look at things differently, you’ll have the willpower to make real transformational change. To help you out, we offer a FREE week trial of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. It won’t work miracles. But, it will bring you leaps and bounds closer to living a stress-free and more organized life (minus decision fatigue!). The truth is that you don’t need to run a marathon or get a PhD to experience a transformation. You can achieve a very BIG change from a very tiny shift to your mindset and daily habits….and, I’m going to show you how! What is Decision Making Fatigue? When you’re lost in decision fatigue, you usually lack time, money or motivation (or all three). When you wake up in the morning and go about your day, you’ll have X amount of decisions to make. Your decision-making ability only goes so far. If you’re faced with decision after decision, you’ll burn-out. That’s what decision fatigue is. A nasty little thing, isn’t it? How can you beat decision fatigue? Want to know how you can kick decision fatigue’s hypothetical butt? Grab a hammer, lift your little decision fatigue monster up by the scruff of its neck and…. ah, I’m just messing with you! To overcome decision-making fatigue, you’ve got to create rules and habits. Habits take up to 100 days to form and cross the barrier from something you do now and then, to something you do ALL the time. My entire life is an outpouring of habit stacking. You wouldn’t believe the number of habits I’ve accumulated over the years. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way because they’ve helped me live a super productive life. And, supplied me with lots of energy. However, habits take a long time to cultivate and develop. I’d be lying if I said it's easy. It’s not. My advice is to start small. Create no more than three habits per year and make them stick. Next up, you need to have rules. Rules are instantaneous, and they can adapt. The $50 Decision-Making Challenge Everyone has a decision-making limit. An infinitive decision-making capability isn’t a thing. You only get a limited amount of decisions each day. You’ve got to decide whether the decisions you’re making every day are worth your time. Is stopping to decide what shoes to wear to the gym worth sacrificing a decision slot? Probably not. So, here’s my challenge for you…. When you go through your week, imagine that every decision you make costs $50. Deciding what to eat for lunch? $50. But, if you’ve already got your lunch prepared and you know what you’re having, you can put that $50 back in your pocket. If you start looking at each decision as having the same worth, you’ll build your organizational muscles as you begin to see which choices are worth it and which ones are not. Thinking about the where, why & what The reward of organization is time. When you’re organized, you get to decide how you use your time. The fewer decisions you make, the higher quality decisions you can make. To beat decision fatigue, you’ve got to consider the where, why and what. Where? Where does an item go when you don’t want it? Will it go in the trash or to goodwill? When thinking about the where, make a decision for each physical item that you no longer want or need in your home. It could be as simple as picking up an item and asking yourself if you want to keep it. If you do, put it where it needs to go. If you don’t, ask yourself if it’s trash. If it is, it goes in the trashcan. If not, it goes to goodwill. The same can be said for shredding. If you’re faced with a stack of paper that needs shredding, you’ve got to decide where and when you’ll shred it. Don’t bombard yourself with questions. Keep it simple. Will you shred it, or will you hire someone else to do it? When will you shred it? The goal is to try to make your decision tree as small as possible. You can do this by creating rules that help reduce the amount of decisions you need to make before reaching an outcome. Why? Next, think about your ‘why.’ Why are you making all these decisions? Pick up your nearest item. Mine happens to be a cup. So, if you were me, you’d ask yourself whether you want to keep this cup. If not, decide if it has any value. If it does, it’s good enough for goodwill. If not, (maybe it’s got a chip or crack) then toss it in the trash. During this thought process, you’ll have an entire conversation in your head about why you will or will not keep the item in your hand. But you’ve got to be ruthless. Quiet the chatter in your mind, take control of your decisions, and move on! The Sunday Basket is the physical way of learning how to detach your self-worth from what your brain is going on and on about. What? Decision fatigue is partly about what you’re going to do with the object you don't want. But, perhaps even more than that, it’s about what you’re going to do about all the thoughts that you have about the object that you don't want anymore. Don’t let your brain get in the way. That little inside voice you’ve got chatting your ear off 24/7 needs to be silenced. Get in the habit of making tactical decisions. Create rules that you feel good about. If you feel good donating to goodwill, make that a rule. The key takeaway I want you to go away with is to make your decision of where, turn off your brain about the why, and then you'll have more time and focus for the what! That’s how you’re going to overcome decision fatigue. View the full post here: https://organize365.com/decision-fatigue/

I don’t have enough money to … If I have more time I would … I’m just not motivated. These are the top 3 things holding you back from the change you crave and I finally figured out how they are RELATED! Did you know what the most common New Year’s Resolutions are? To get fit/lose weight Pay off debt/get money in order Get organized Did you also know that when you start on one of these goals, the others fall in line, too? It takes time, but it will happen. I promise. And by time I mean … years. I was an EXTREMELY productive child, working 40 hours a week babysitting because I could easily sell the moms I worked for into hiring me for more time if I told them I was available. (Suckers!) ;) Time, Money and Motivation all go hand-in-hand. TIME Organization always gives you more TIME. ALWAYS. If you decide to be a minimalist, you are, hands down, going to have more time. Part of organization is decluttering. But decluttering involves more that just your physical objects. You will declutter items from your calendar, out of your email inbox, organize your paper, and occasionally declutter past relationships that are no longer mutually beneficial. Personally, I started my journey in the “getting organized” category. It took me about 18 months. Organizing is proactively choosing how you are going to use your time. If you are a reactionary, others choose how you spend your time. Productivity is the outpouring of living an organized life. MONEY Your money is your resource. Money comes from constraining yourself so that you can budget yourself and get out of that resource what you want. No one has unlimited money. NO ONE. Money is a constraint that makes you CHOOSE what you invest in. My money journey has been life long and it was not until about 2 years ago that Greg and I finally got consumer debt free. And then we slipped. We are still working on this area together. MOTIVATION Your energy and your motivation come from your health and wellness. With a great set of genes and not too much vanity, I haven’t minded a “few” extra pounds and unhealthy food choices. Recently, I have started prioritizing my future health by being more responsible now. I could never have the time and money to focus on this in the past. Listen in as I deep dive into my 7 year journey of health and wellness, from fast food and fountain cokes to salads and zone bars. I haven’t “arrived,” but I HAVE improved. Habits change slowly, consistently, over time as you will see from my health and wellness story. Listen to the podcast to hear the 3 steps I took in each area to make improvements. It has been a 7 year journey from drowning in reactionary mode to the thriving productive woman you see today. And I wouldn’t change any of it! As I said last week, making major changes, one step at a time, is hard. And I can see in our FREE Facebook group Organize 365 and on Instagram, when people share their photos of the inner struggles they are facing as they make progress in their organizational journey and I honestly cheer OUT LOUD to see the progress and I think to myself, look how far they have come! :) Organize 365 is here to support you on your organizational journey. What is your number one priority in the new year? I’d love to hear it. I’m cheering for you! The Self Coaching School - Brooke Castillo episodes mentioned in this podcast (32, 71, 76, 77, 85, 104, 105, 129, 243) If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

In this episode, Lisa invites Monique Horb back onto the podcast. Monique is a Sunday Basket Certified Workshop Organizer and runs her own professional organizing business, Organizing Your Chaos. In today’s episode, Lisa and Monique tackle the nuanced and difficult conversations surrounding parenting children with special needs. Speaking from experience, both moms discuss the challenges and joys of parenting their unique kids and the documentation needed to do it well. Organize 365 introduces the Warrior Mama Binder, a workbook and documentation powerhouse designed for moms by moms of children with unique learning needs. Be sure to check out www.organize365.com/warrior-mamas for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

The past year in the life of the Sunday Basket  has been a whirlwind! I wanted to pause and clarify the differences between the Sunday Basket Workshops, the Sunday Basket Club and the Paper Organizing Retreats. Why do we need a Sunday Basket anyway?! What do you do with your mail when it comes in your door? What about the ideas that flood your head while you’re driving your kids to school? How about prescriptions, coupons, “to do lists”? I promise you are spending more time managing these things than you think. The Sunday Basket System is the answer to eliminating that to do list and freeing your mind from constantly trying to keep up with the hamster wheel of ideas that flood it daily. If you haven’t started your Sunday Basket yet, you can purchase the Complete Sunday Basket System here. The purchase of the Complete Sunday Basket comes with a virtual “on demand” training you can access on Organize 365 in your dashboard. I just updated those training videos last week. Additionally you can listen to the Sunday Basket podcast here to learn more about the Sunday Basket and follow along as you set yours up. Where did the IN PERSON workshops come from? The Sunday Basket Workshop was designed after my passion for Creative Memories workshops, where women would come from all over Cincinnati (and in my backyard) to laugh, drink wine or lattes, listen to 80s music and put photos into albums on the last Friday of the month in my home. It is my vision that we will have Certified Sunday Basket Workshop Organizers in every major city in America teaching and helping women organize their paper and be freed from the guilt and burden that piles of unorganized paper brings. If you are looking for a Sunday Basket Workshop Organizer in your city or town to help you get organized, please check out our Certified Organizer Directory! How about the Sunday Basket Club? Because the Sunday Basket became so popular, and because I love community so much, when the demand came to have a “Sunday Basket Club” on Sundays where I would go through your Sunday Basket with you, I wanted to say yes, but I was overwhelmed with the prospect of having to teach that EVERY SUNDAY. However, two of our all star Sunday Basket Workshop Organizers volunteered to run it … so I said yes!   The Sunday Basket Club has a 90 minute Facebook Live time where you can go through your Sunday Basket with Monique Horb and Ryan Lanier EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY. The Sunday Basket Club is a virtual weekly workshop kind of like “co working” as you go through your Sunday Basket. But it is more than just your Sunday Basket papers. Everyone in the Club also has the basic 4 binders I use to ditch their filing cabinet. To gain access to the Sunday Basket Club, you can sign up for the Complete Paper Program or All Access. You can learn more about and/or purchase the Complete Paper Program here. You can learn more about and/or purchase All Access here. Last but not least, Paper Organizing Retreats. Lastly, let’s come full circle. The Sunday Basket Workshops started because of the good ol’ Creative Memories days. And even though you can learn about the Sunday Basket System and Workshops from our Certified Organizers, or participate virtually by buying it on demand from Organize 365, and you can go through your Sunday Basket weekly in the Sunday Basket Club; like I said, I like community. And I LOVED hosting Creative Memories workshops and my famous “Winter Wonderland Retreat”. So naturally, Paper Organizing Retreats were born and I am LOVING hosting them and so excited about all the progress I have seen women make in this weekend away to really focus on and tackle those paper organizing projects. So join me, my team and our Certified Organizers at an upcoming Paper Organizing Retreat in April! You can learn more and/or register here! We would LOVE to help you get your paper organized and most importantly, give you a BIG HUG! PS Have you thought about becoming a Sunday Basket Workshop Organizer? The program is OPEN! But only until February 10th! Hop on over to Sundaybasketcertification.com to learn more and/or sign up! We would love to have you on the team. :) If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! View the complete post here.

In this episode, we get an update on Molly, who you first heard about in Episode 239. As an almost-40 mother of three, Molly was living in a state of overwhelm. She found Organize 365, and her whole life transformed. This is the second six months of that transformation. Lisa walks us through Molly’s year not as a perfect model to measure ourselves against, but to reassure us that an imperfect path to organization still leads to organization. Resources from Molly’s journey: The 100 Day Home Organization Program Paper Organizing Retreats The Sunday Basket Friday Workboxes Embrace: You are Enough National Conference Be sure to check out www.organize365.com/a-year-to-get-organized-molly-update for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

Come peek at a year in the life of Molly, a woman who has decided that she has had enough; it’s time to take back her life. In order to do so, she needs to get organized, and that means organizing her paper, organizing her house, and becoming more productive. She wants to free herself from the everyday responsibilities that she thought were solely hers to open herself up to her unique talent. Lisa walks us through the first two rounds of the 100 Day Home Organization Program that is part of All Access, as well as a few of the bonuses offered with the program. If you’ve ever wondered what these systems are and how they can transform your home, listen in! Check out the new web site (and the All Access Program)! Binge the top 7 podcasts Lisa recommends to start. Be sure to check out organize365.com/239 for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook Group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

In this episode, Lisa chats with Virginia Deane, the daughter of Holly Knill, and a productivity expert in her own right. Lisa and Virginia examine the way that the Friday Workboxes, specifically the Corporate Workbox, can help a team of individuals cut through the paper piles, skyrocket their productivity, and truly enjoy their jobs. Interested? Grab your spot at one of our free Master Classes and start tackling your scattered to do lists. That Boot Camp Virginia mentions in the episode? It’s now the Grow Your Business Focus Day at our Paper Organizing Retreat! Be sure to check out organize365.com/piles-to-productivity for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! Are you interested in joining us for one of our live events? View the upcoming events and come make progress (not perfection) on your organizational goals! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you!

If you’ve ever wondered how Lisa finds “balance,” how she manages to grow a six-figure business while managing her home, you’ll want to listen to this episode. In a heaping dose of vulnerability, Lisa shares how she has transformed over the past seven years professionally and personally after enduring a dark valley in 2012. This episode is all about grace, and is a triumphant story about following a dream while still being Mom. Be sure to check out organize365.com/my-transformation for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Join us for the Embrace: You Are Enough Conference this summer and start (or continue) your own personal transformation. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Are you ready to make this YOUR YEAR? Sign up for a FREE Masterclass to learn more about the 100 Day Home Organization Program here! If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you!

This episode does not follow the usual format you may be used to. In this episode, the words aren’t Lisa’s; they’re yours! Lisa is combing through stories, anecdotes, and testimonials from the Organize 365 audience. She is celebrating big wins and little victories alike, and finding that we’re all in this together. Many of these come from the Organize 365 Facebook group--if you’re not a member of the group, join us! The Out with the Old Decluttering Challenge begins on December 26th. There’s still time to join! Be sure to check out organize365.com/2018-blessings for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

In the last episode of this interview series, Lisa sits down with Angela Watson of The Cornerstone for Teachers and Truth for Teachers Podcast. Angela is a veteran elementary school teacher turned instructional coach who helps overwhelmed teachers prioritize their obligations and reduce their working hours without reducing their impact. Follow Angela’s blog, learn more about her online course, and subscribe to her podcast, where Lisa will be a guest in early 2019. In addition to Angela’s strategies, the Organize 365 Teacher Friday Workbox and Homeschool Friday Workbox are great tools to use if you are an educator. Be sure to check out organize365.com/angela for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! This year, celebrate Boxing Day with the Out with the Old Decluttering Challenge! Tackle your home room by room in this free blitz starting December 26th. If you’re ready to use my strategies to finally take back your home, jump right in to the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge. You can try a week free to see if it’s right for you!  

In the next installment of our interview series, Lisa sits down with Holly Knill, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Maryland, to discuss the science behind why The Sunday Basket™ works for just about anyone. Based on actual brain science and universal human nature, Holly explains the five ways that The Sunday Basket™, both the routine and the physical tool, are helpful in changing habits to lead a more proactive life. Lisa’s depression story can be found in Episode 69, and more information about the work that Holly does can be found at The Expanding Heart Center. You can learn more about The Sunday Basket here, and you can purchase the complete Sunday Basket Workshop or just the box in our shop. The entire Sunday Basket system also comes as a part of The Complete Paper Organization Program. Be sure to check out organize365.com/sunday-basket-psychology for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!  

In this episode, Lisa chats with Julie Morgenstern, a force in the field of personal and home organization. Between her books, including Organizing from the Inside Out and Time to Parent, to her informative podcast, Julie has positioned herself as an expert on the effects of true organization on the entire family. You’ll hear familiar refrains, like “it’s not about the containers!” and “You don’t have to throw everything out!” You’ll get practical tips for organizing a family. You’ll leave with an understanding about the one thing every woman needs in her life. Enjoy this insightful episode! Be sure to check out organize365.com/julie-morgenstern for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Try the 100 Day Home Organization Program for free, and see if it’s right for you! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!  

In this episode, Lisa chats about those coveted pockets of time she finds throughout the day. So often, we set aside time to do a task, only to spend the first half (or more!) thinking about what approach we should take. Since our brains are always with us, Lisa shows us how to use humble office supplies to skyrocket your productivity. You may not be able to create time, but you can take full advantage of the time you do have, using the tips in this episode. Grab your index cards! Be sure to check out organize365.com/more-planning-time for notes, links, and photos from this episode. This episode, on linen closets, is mentioned in the episode. You can tackle your linen closet, and all of the other spaces in your home, using the 100 Day Home Organization Program (now offering one week free!). Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

Are you ready for a rebirth? In this episode, Lisa explains her new perspective on generations and how when we were born affects how we use our home. Since we are living longer, we have “extra” time to live a vibrant life and use our gifts. What’s holding us back? Our homes. What can we do about that? And what will Lisa do with her extra years? It’s all in this episode. Both Generations and The Mindset of Organization are available on Amazon. Be sure to check out organize365.com/60-is-the-new-40 for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!  

How do I get so much done? Find out in this episode as I talk about what endurance means to me and how I manage to live a productive live without a running to do list. But basically? Endurance means not stopping. Doing one more (small) thing after you complete a task is like getting a two-for-one bonus. Once you get rolling in your organizing, it’s so much easier to keep going. Starting is the hard part, and you’re already doing that! Just keep going! Sign up here for the FREE sneak peek of the 100 Day Home Organization Program. Like it? Join the entire program or dive into All Access. The 2018 Holiday Blitz starts on November 12th and ends with a free webinar on the best way to organize your holidays. You won’t want to miss that webinar, because in it I’ll be releasing a super secret Black Friday special! Want these show notes delivered to your inbox? Sign up for my newsletter and get everything from the podcast episodes, plus a few extra bonuses! Be sure to check out organize365.com/endurance for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

In this episode, Lisa is talking about why, when taking control over your home and paper, the organization stage feels like the hardest. It’s why the cute container systems don’t work, why we don’t see true organization in photos on Pinterest, and why we need to go through the 100 Day Home Organization Program three times a year. In her simple, logical way, Lisa breaks down the common reasons why organization feels difficult and what we can do to overcome that hurdle. Turn your memories into tangible treasures at Once Upon a Time. Learn more about the Paper Organizing Retreats in Cincinnati, and all our other upcoming events, here. Be sure to check out organize365.com/organizing-is-hard for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!  

In this episode, Lisa discusses how your mindset and visualization of your goals can actually help you achieve them. By righting your mind and fulling believing in that progress, your goals are dust. By using how Organize 365 has changed in one calendar year, Lisa talks about putting your energy in the right places in order to visualize and realize your goals. Full disclosure: She gets a little woo woo! Hang in until the end--you’ll be glad you did! Bummed you missed the fall Paper Organizing Retreat? No worries! One is coming up in January--you can sign up now! The Medical, Financial, Household Reference, and Household Operations Binders are available in our shop. Workboxes for professional organizers, those in corporate jobs, teachers, homeschoolers, entrepreneurs, and direct sellers are also now available! Be sure to check out organize365.com/manifesting for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

In this episode, Lisa describes the seasonal energies throughout the year and how to take advantage of these high and low tides. She’s structured the 100 Day Home Organization Program around this concept, and is carving out space during the fall to dig deep into how she’s spending her time. The Deep Dive calls for each task and responsibility to defend itself and its place on the to do list. Instead of asking, “Can this wait until next Sunday?” she is asking, “Can this wait until January? For more details on how to do a Sunday Basket deep dive, you won’t want to miss this episode of The Sunday Basket Podcast. Be sure to check out organize365.com/yearly-deep-dive for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

In this episode, Lisa opens up about why she feels that women have so many responsibilities in the home, and how she’s tackling them by thinking about her week differently. We are used to thinking of the week as Monday morning through Friday afternoon, and the weekend as Friday night through Sunday night. But what if the balance shifted, and our week was divided in true halves between our “work” life and “home” life? Would that create the sense of work-life balance we all seem to be craving? Visit Laura Vanderkam’s website and check out her interview with Lisa to learn all about reframing the way you think about time. To get Lisa’s Productive Home CEO Planner, join the 100 Day Home Organization Program or get everything with All Access. Be sure to check out organize365.com/dividing-week for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

Episode 245 is the audio of a Facebook Live, where Lisa chats about all the fun and productive things we’ll be doing, and the delicious food we’ll be eating, at our very first Paper Organizing Retreat. Many people are able to organize their home and paper using our Complete Paper Organizing system or the 100 Day Home Organization Program (now available as an All Access bundle), but many of us thrive on community. The Organize 365 Paper Organizing Retreats will give you just that! In this episode, Lisa goes over the weekend’s agenda and answers frequently asked questions about the event. If you’re missing this one but want to join us for the next Paper Organizing Retreat, check out the live events page to get upcoming dates. We are proud to have Shred-it, the world leader in information security, sponsor our very first Paper Organizing Retreat. Be sure to check out organize365.com/paper-retreat-2018 for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

Christine Miserandino’s Spoon Theory pivots around the fact that some people, especially those with chronic illnesses, start with less energy than others. In this episode, Lisa breaks down this theory and how it applies to home organization. Lisa shares actionable steps for anyone to make progress in their homes--because having a chronic illness does not mean you can’t live an organized, productive life. My two books, How ADHD Affects Home Organization and The Mindset of Organization address aspects of this issue as well. You can also listen to this episode of the Organize 365 podcast to hear my experience with ADHD. If you’d like to hire a professional organizer, in-person or virtually, find the list of Certified Organizers here. Be sure to check out organize365.com/spoon-theory for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

We tell ourselves all kinds of reasons why we can’t get organized. Some of them are legitimate, others others are thinly veiled iterations of “It’s hard” or “I don’t want to.” In this episode, Lisa strips down two of the most common legitimate excuses--chronic illness and young children--and uncovers a new way to tackle the 100 Day Home Organization program that doesn’t involve small bits each day. If you’ve got one of these barriers, or if you’re just a project-oriented person, you’ll want to listen to this episode to find out how to modify the program to fit your needs. Be sure to check out organize365.com/get-organized-faster for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

In this episode, Lisa outlines what she calls “Golden Windows” of opportunity, life phases that bring with them circumstances that are prime for organization. Some Golden Windows happen just once in a lifetime, others happen several times a year. When these Golden Windows come along (or better yet, more than one at a time), we can capitalize on them and target that energy toward resetting and reorganizing our home. The directory of Organize 365™ Certified Professional Organizers can be found here. Listen to the podcast about Lisa's three new years for details on how she divides her calendar year, and learn about the 100 Day Home Organization Program and All Access, both of which follow those new years. Be sure to check out organize365.com/golden-windows for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

When we use our planner as our datebook, we may have an idea of the times of our appointments and commitments, but we don’t align our weekly focus with the goals we actually want to accomplish in our lives. In this episode, Lisa explains her purposeful decision to not do laundry, and the deeper reason why she chooses intentionality over obligation. Lisa shares the problem with the readily available planners in today’s market, and why the Home CEO Planner is different. If you are looking for permission to let go of the guilt and start intentionally focusing your time toward the things that matter to you, this episode will speak to you. Listen to Podcast 134 to get the full details on how Lisa divides the year into three planning seasons. If you want to get your hands on your own Home CEO Planner, join the 100 Day Home Organization Program. Be sure to check out organize365.com/planner-productivity/ for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

Grab the tissues! This episode was recorded live at the Organize 365 RISE: You Are Enough National Convention, held in June 2018. Lisa interviewed Dawn Carlson, a wife, mother of four, business owner, and new Certified Sunday Basket Workshop Organizer. In this interview, Dawn shares her story of transformation from depressed, struggling, frazzled woman to a confident, productive CEO with Organize 365. Using the 100 Day Home Organization Program and virtual organizing, Dawn took back her home and freed herself to do what she is uniquely created to do. Dawn gives us a glimpse of the real-life ups and downs of home organization, and brings us the inspiring message that YOU can do it. Dawn is a member of our All Access, a program designed to help you transform your home in one year. Interested in a live event with Organize 365? Check out the upcoming events! Be sure to check out organize365.com/240 for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook Group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program!

In this episode, Lisa talks us through the story of Angela, a wannabe professional organizer who finds encouragement and motivation through Organize 365. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a profitable, confident, productive professional organizer, this episode is for you. Organize 365 has launched programs to help you START your business, MARKET your business, and GROW your business. With the Sunday Basket Certified Workshop Organizer program, Angela transforms her business from a small hobby business to a money-making profession she loves. Snag that free checklist here! Want more information on launching your professional organization business? The Professional Organizer’s Think Tank is for you. Want more information on adding the Sunday Basket Certification to your current business? We’d love for you to join us in the Certification Program! Be sure to check out organize365.com/238 for notes, links, and photos from this episode. Like the show? Leave a review! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram and join the Facebook group for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365 or using #organize365!

We’ve reached the final episode of the Kid’s Organization Series. I hope you’ve all enjoyed this mini-series so far and found the advice useful when it comes to organizing your bedroom – or mini apartment as I like to call them! In previous episodes, I’ve talked about organizing your clothes, closets, and rearranging the furniture in your bedroom. But now I want to talk about organizing your toys, collections, and how to save space if you’re sharing a bedroom with someone else. Eliminate Your Nightstand If you share a bedroom with a sibling or a friend at college, every space counts. With two beds in the room, it’s unlikely you’ll have a lot of space to work with unless you’re lucky and have a massive room for you both. If you’ve been keeping up with the podcast, you’ll know that my son is preparing for college and we’ve been shopping for his new apartment. During one of my many Walmart visits, I came across storage headboards. Well actually, there were more like mini bookcases with shelving suitable for things like an alarm clock, picture frames, ornaments, books, and other small items. A storage headboard eliminates your need for a nightstand, giving you more floor space to work with. If you want to have a lamp near your bed, you can use a clip-on dorm lamp that can clamp onto your headboard. They are adjustable and you can angle it so that you can read at night without shining a stream of light in your roommate’s face – phew! Cube Units For Bunk Beds If you have bunk beds in your room, a storage headboard is probably out of the question. But don’t worry, I’ve got the perfect solution! IKEA are the masters of storage units! Their KALLAX shelving units are my favorite. They are available in a range of different sizes, but if you’re looking for the perfect bookshelf for bunk beds, I suggest going for the 1 x 5 unit. It takes up very little space and you can easily attach it to the wall with a standard L bracket. You’ll need to think about functionality over appearance. Most people will immediately assume that the unit should be facing outwards, but this isn’t how I do it. I recommend connecting the unit to the wall sideways so that the kids can reach into the shelves from their beds. Reducing The Bedroom Clutter If you share a room, you MUST reduce the number of collections and toys that you keep because there just isn’t enough room to spare. If your family has additional storage space or a family bookshelf, etc., then you might be able to keep some of your possessions there if you don’t want to donate or throw them out. Cube units are easier to work with for organizing your bedroom because they’re functional, long-lasting, and you can easily separate them if you like. A 2 x 8 unit, for example, can be stacked on top of each other with your TV on top. My daughter took a slightly different approach to her shelving units and, instead of putting a TV on top of her 2 x 8 unit, she put her hamster cage on top of it. It’s not a regular hamster cage either – it’s a hamster mansion! Organizing Books Is it just me or is every home overflowing with books? I was a preschool teacher and when my kids were young, we literally had EVERY picture book ever published. The house was covered in them until I finally decided to do something about it. My kids were never big readers. They preferred to play with toys rather than sit and read for hours. So, I took all the picture books and stored them in the loft. I then put their toys in their bedrooms and they were so much happier. If you’ve got a lot of books, you should think about donating some of them or moving them to where everyone else in the family keeps their books. I suggest assigning one of your cubes in your shelving unit for books – and that’s it! Organizing Your Toys & Collections Everyone has a passion project. Your passion project is the type of toys that you’re currently into. Whether it’s PS4 games, Monster High Dolls or Lego, your passion project will probably take up at least four of the cubes in your unit. Toys are different from collections because toys are the things that you play with while collections are more personal and private. Your collection is special because it has a memory connected to it and, even though the rest of the family sees it as junk, you don’t see it that way. There’s just one thing to remember – your entire collection HAS to fit into one cube. You can store them in a bin, but once that container fills up – it’s time to go through it! You should spread everything out on the floor and go through it piece by piece. Prioritize your collections and only keep the items that you still love. Everything else should be donated or thrown out because they’re just taking up space that you don’t have. Find A Display Area For Your Collections Once you’ve gone through the bin, you need to find a flat surface in your room where you can display your favorite pieces from your collections. I suggest putting them on a ledge or “floating shelf” that you can hang up on the wall with a nail or L bracket. This type of shelf comes in a range of sizes and is relatively inexpensive. You can find them anywhere, including IKEA, Target, and even Walmart. You can attach it to your wall and use it as a collection shelf. If you share a room with a sibling, get two shelves for your collections and stack them on top of each other. I hope you enjoyed this special Kid’s Organization Series as much as I enjoyed making it! I’ve organized plenty of kid’s rooms in the past. It’s one of my favorite things to do because each child is different and their bedrooms reflect their personalities – I think that's fantastic! If you tried any of my suggestions, I’d love to see them! Follow me on Instagram for more great organizing tips, then share your photos with me by tagging me @organize365! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/237

We’re continuing our Kids Organization Series and following up last week’s topic of redesigning your bedroom with an episode all about cleaning out your closets and organizing your clothes – it’s exciting stuff, I know. But don’t worry, a closet clean out doesn’t take as long as you might think. As you continue to improve your organizing skills and return to a space you’ve previously organized, the process becomes much easier and quicker. If you haven’t listened to my previous podcasts offering clothing organization tips, you can go back through podcast episodes 103 to 107 to listen. Have you caught up? Great! Let's get stuck into organizing your closet! Donating Unwanted Clothes Donations should happen on a regular basis. In fact, I would go as far as saying it should be a part of your everyday life. I go through my closet and reorganize the clothes quite often. So when I began going through everything recently, I didn’t have much to do. There weren’t many clothes that I needed to donate, but that wasn’t the case when it came to organizing my kid's closets. I’ve always taught my kids the value of donating to those in need. When they were really young, like around six or seven years old, we would reorganize their room together and they would give me the things that they wanted to donate. Now that they’re much older, they take the things they want to donate and put it in the donation area. So when it came to organizing their closets, a lot of the clothes were set aside to donate. This is not only a great way to get rid of all the clothes you don’t want anymore, but it also frees up closet space and gives those clothes to someone in need. Organizing Hangers When I told my kids I was going to help them clean their closets, they were pretty excited about it. I started in my son’s room first, and if there’s one thing you need to know about his closet set-up, it’s the fact that everything he owns (except for socks and underwear, etc.) is hung up in the closet. However, a large part of his closet consisted of empty hangers that took up way too much space. So, the very first thing I did was take all of the empty hangers and put them in a laundry basket. I made sure that all of the hangers faced the same direction because as you know, hangers love to get tangled together. Putting your empty hangers in a laundry basket is great because it gives you more free space on the rod and you can just grab a hanger whenever you need one. Keep Vs. Donate To keep or not to keep? – that is the question! One of the biggest decisions you’ll make when you clean out your closet is deciding which clothes you want to keep and which you wish to donate. When I help my kids go through their closets, I hold each item of clothing up high for them to evaluate. They look at it and decide its fate with a simple “yes” or “no” response. It’s a quick process of elimination and I go through the clothes super-fast for two reasons: I don’t want this to take forever I know kids can get bored All of the clothes that they want to keep are hung up in the closet and all of the clothes they want to get rid of are put into trash bags for donation. Instead of carrying all the bags downstairs and into the car, I tie a tight knot at the top and take them to the top of the stairs and I roll them down! It saves a lot of time and energy because I don’t have to keep running up and down the stairs – plus, it’s just fun to roll things down the stairs! Sorting The Clean Laundry The next step is to go through all of the clean laundry items and sort out the pieces of clothing in the same way as we did before. This is where you’ll look at each piece of clothing and decide if you want to keep it or donate it to Goodwill. While you organize your closet, you should keep in mind whether or not you plan on buying any new clothes soon. For example, my son needs new white long sleeve t-shirts for college, so we ended up donating his old ones because we knew that we were going to add a bunch of new t-shirts to his closet very soon. As we organized the clean laundry, I held up each piece and again, my kids answered either “yes” or “no.” Anything that they wanted to keep went back into the closet. And anything they wanted to donate went into the donation bags – and yes, we rolled them down the stairs again! Organizing Closet Shelves My daughter's closet has multiple shelves that I built for her when she was much younger. Back then, she would use them to store her toys, but now she uses them to store her clothes. So when we were in the process of organizing her closet, we used the shelves to store other pieces of clothing that she didn’t want to hang up including her leggings, workout clothes, soft shorts, etc. We hung everything else up in the closet and put the winter clothes on one rod and the spring/summer clothes on the other rod. We then took small bins or storage boxes and used them to store things like socks, underwear, swimwear, and things that she can grab whenever she needs them. And there you have it, the easy (and speedy) way of organizing your closet! I hope you have fun going through your clothes. And if you have a dresser drawer in your room, you can arrange it in the same way. But instead of hanging the clothes you want to keep in the closet, you fold them up and put them into your dresser – simple! Next week, I will be talking about collections, toys, and sharing your bedroom. :) Remember to sign up for the Back To School Blitz! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/236

On this week’s podcast, I kick start the 3-week Kid’s Organization Series. It’s for kids between the ages of 7 and 21 – so whether you’re still in school or preparing to graduate from college – this series is for you! I tried something a little different this week and recorded my podcast on video, too. If you would prefer to watch this episode, you can do that here... https://youtu.be/2Q9JWKBOFVc Organizing Your School Art & Memories But before we get started, I want to reach out to all the kids out there who are bored out of their minds this summer. If you can relate, I’ve got your back! One of the things you could do is go through all of your old artwork and school papers and sort out the things that you love and want to save to look back on in years to come. Sort everything into two piles – a keep pile and a recycle pile. Once you have gathered all of the papers and artwork you want to keep, you can store it all in a plastic tub and keep it in your closet, or you can put everything inside a binder using sheet protectors. You can create your own binder OR you can ask your parents (as nicely as possible) to let you order the Organize 365 School Art & Memory Binder where you can safely store and protect all of your papers and artwork so that they will last a lifetime. Organizing your artwork is something you could do while you’re in the process of redesigning your bedroom, which is something that I did A LOT when I was a kid because I loved switching things around and making my room feel “brand new” again. So, if you want to redesign your bedroom this summer and change things up for yourself, follow these easy redesign tips! Planning On Graph Paper I don’t know about you, but I find it easier to envision a redesign when I’ve drawn up a quick plan on paper first. Measure your bedroom and notice where the windows, doors and outlets are. In my case, I’m redesigning my son’s bedroom which measures 10' x 10'. So, I’ve drawn out my plan on the graph paper to fit 30 squares across and 30 squares from top to bottom. [So, three squares of the paper is equal to one foot and one square of the paper is equal to four inches.] Marking Doors, Windows & Outlets Before we can get to the fun part of moving furniture around and getting creative with your bedroom, there are a few things you will want to mark on your plans such as doors, windows, electrical outlets, and vents. Leave enough space for any door openings in your room, whether it’s the main door to your bedroom, a closet door, or the door to a bathroom, etc. Figure out how much space you need to leave free and mark this on your graph paper as a semi-circle. You can watch how I do this in this week's video... https://youtu.be/2Q9JWKBOFVc Also mark the placement of all of the windows in your bedroom. I also like to label each of the electrical outlets and the vent to allow heat and air conditioning to enter the room without any obstruction. Using Post-It Notes As Furniture Now that you have all the boring stuff marked on your plan, you can start redesigning your bedroom with Post-It Notes. Create a Post-It Note for each piece of movable furniture in your room. Many of you will have a desk, a dresser, or a bedside table. Measure it and cut a Post-It Note in the same shape and size that corresponds with your plan. Remember, three squares on the graph paper is equal to one foot. So if your bed measures 6' x 3', you’ll need to convert that measurement to fit the dimensions of the squares of your plan. You can liven things up by using multi-colored Post-Its and labeling each one as you go. When I was a kid, I would do this ALL THE TIME. I would plan my new bedroom design over and over again. And when I was done with that, I made a plan for future homes – I just loved it. What can I say? Some kids played sports and some kids planned their future homes in excruciating detail and precision! Moving Big Pieces Of Furniture When it comes to redesigning your room and moving big pieces of furniture around, you need to think of the process as a huge jigsaw puzzle. Make sure you leave enough space in your room to move things around in the most efficient way possible and try not to limit your own walking space. You’ve got to be able to walk around your room without climbing over furniture to get to the other side! In this week's video, I show you (using my Post-It Note furniture) how to move your bed and desk and not get stuck in the room!... https://youtu.be/2Q9JWKBOFVc If you have too many things that can’t fit in your bedroom or your college dorm room, I suggest renting an outside storage unit. This is especially useful if you’ve recently moved back home with your parents and there’s not enough space to keep all of the things you accumulated throughout college. Just put it all in a storage facility – out of sight, out of mind! The Kids Organization Series I hope you enjoyed this first episode of the Kids Organization Series and found some useful tips and ideas for organizing and redesigning your own bedroom or apartment. In this series, I’m going to be focusing on all the things that you don’t have time for during the school year that you could finally do in the summer. If you’d like to catch up with the podcast’s I recorded last year for organizing your bedroom and collections, go to organize365.com/kids. Don’t forget to take photos of your newly organized bedroom and tag me @organize365 on Instagram – I’d love to see how you're organizing your rooms and share it with my followers! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/235

Living through renovations, natural disasters, and moving can be a very stressful and disorganized time. Your house is turned upside down in the blink of an eye and before you know it, you’re stepping over stacks of books on your way to the bathroom and the dog is snoozing on top of a box labeled, “The GOOD China” – just thinking about it gives me a headache! Instead of gritting your teeth and living through the chaos, you can follow these three easy steps that will help to not only organize your home during transitional times (such as moving or renovating the kitchen), but they’ll also help to keep you sane. 1. The Hot Mess Room Challenge The first step is to do the Hot Mess Room Challenge well in advance. The challenge is different for everyone because no two “hot mess rooms” are the same. Your hot mess room could be your basement, the guest bedroom, or your garage. It’s the room in the house that has collected a mass of random items that don’t have a place anywhere else in the home. If you’re thinking of a room like that in your house, it’s your hot mess room! So, what is the Hot Mess Room Challenge? The Hot Mess Room Challenge takes 28 days to complete and it takes you through the progress of getting your hot mess room organized. You can think of the hot mess room like a jigsaw puzzle. The challenge will help you to separate each piece, organize each one and, in the end, put them together into an organized storage unit. The Hot Mess Room Challenge can be download it right here. It’s delivered directly to your inbox, ready to download! At the end of the 28-day challenge, instead of a hot mess room, you’ll have an organized storage room with shelving, bins with color-coded labels, and a complete inventory of everything you have stored in that room. When disaster strikes and you need to find something such as a flashlight or a photograph of a family member, you can’t waste time looking through boxes upon boxes. Having an inventory gives you peace of mind knowing that if you ever needed something in a rush, you'll know exactly where to find it. 2. The Sunday Basket® Once you have completed the Hot Mess Room Challenge, you’re ready to move onto stage two – organizing your Sunday Basket® System! You need to make sure that your Sunday Basket® is ALWAYS accessible to you 100% of the time. In fact, you should think of your Sunday Basket® as your lifeline during these stressful transitional times. Your Sunday Basket® is where you will keep your color-coded lists of everything that is in your storage room and an inventory of the things you have packed into boxes. If you are renovating your kitchen, for example, you would label boxes with things such as “Utensils,” “Dishes,” “Pots and Pans,” etc. So when you need to find something inside one of the kitchen renovation boxes, you can check the Sunday Basket® checklist and it will tell you exactly where you can find that item. Another reason why you need your Sunday Basket® up and running when you’re moving or renovating your home is that, in both of these cases, you’ll have paperwork coming in such as household bills, invoices, etc. and you can keep all of these papers organized in your SundayBasket®. 3. The Organize 365 Binders Before you move or renovate your home, you need to make each of the four Organize 365 Binders to eliminate your filing cabinet and organize all of your paperwork. Once you have all of your binders arranged, you can move to your new house without trailing a bunch of unsightly and disorganized filing cabinets with you – how awesome does that sound? It takes time to organize each binder, so I would suggest tackling one at a time. If you’d like to find out how I organized my binders, you can head over to the Sunday Basket® Podcast to hear more about that and each of the four binders I mention below: Medical Binder: You should think of the Medical Organizing Binder as a caregiver binder and store information regarding your family’s medical and health history, doctor information, diagnosis tracker, immunization record, hospitalization and surgery history, and so on. Financial Binder: The Financial Organizing Binder is for all of your finances, which includes everything you need to keep your finances in order during a home renovation, a move, or when a natural disaster strikes. Inside, you should keep your insurance policy information, financial prep sheet, credit card inventory, bill payment records, debts and loans, and any other finances that you need to keep track of. Household Reference Binder: Every homeowner needs a Household Reference Binder. It’s where you should store everything that you want the new homeowner to know (if you’re selling your house), including home exterior and interior information, home appliances, and details of things such as when you last checked the hot water heater, etc. Household Operations Binder: The Household Operations Binder is the key to maintaining your home and running the household. Inside this binder, you should keep all of the basic household information, important dates, trackers, meal planning, and your plan in the event of an emergency. Whenever you’re moving to a new house, renovating, or in the aftermath of a natural disaster, you’ll need to know where you keep your four binders. I suggest keeping them in the same place where you store your SundayBasket® so you can just grab it all and go! I hope you found these three steps useful when it comes to living through renovations, moving to a new home, or recovering from a natural disaster. Purchase your Sunday Basket® and Binders in my shop today! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/234

Friday Workboxes will increase your productivity in your "work" just like the Sunday Basket® does for your home.  This podcast was originally a Facebook LIVE. You can watch the video here.  Check out all the Organize 365 Friday Workboxes here. Join the Organize 365 Newsletter to stay on top of new products as they launch. And follow Lisa on Instagram to see behind the scenes of her everyday life and watch new products as they are developed. 

Just because you live in a small home doesn’t mean your storage space has to be limited. Over the years, I’ve received A LOT of emails on the subject of maximizing storage space in small living spaces such as studio apartments, condos, and tiny houses. In fact, I received this email from an Organize 365 fan named Amy just the other day and wanted to share it with you: “Since having a baby, it’s been so hard to keep on top of things at home, but listening to your podcasts in the afternoons usually gives me a little push. Do you have experience with organizing small homes and apartments? Our apartment constantly feels cluttered, but in reality, there are very few things we can get rid of, it’s just a small space. Any advice for those of us who don’t have basements, garages, spare rooms or even a hall closet and also don’t have a lot of money for complex storage systems that fancy tiny homes all seem to utilize?” Amy is in a situation that I know many of you can relate to. Living in a small space with a baby usually means that there is going to be a lot of “stuff” – it’s just the way it is. The issue lies with the fact that you genuinely NEED all of that extra baby stuff because you never know when you’ll need it again, especially if you’re planning on expanding your family in the future. The Baby Issue I’m not saying that having a baby in a small space is an “issue,” but it’s important to realize that children come with a lot of clutter. Expecting to add more kids to your family without expanding the amount of space taken up in the home is an unrealistic expectation. Now that I’ve given you that little reality check, we can dive into the good stuff! If you’re fortunate enough to have a nursery in your home, it’s a good idea to try and keep most of the baby related items in there as much as possible. And if you want to maximize your space WITHOUT decluttering, I have four space-saving suggestions for you! 1. Create More Space Before you say anything – Yes, I understand that you can’t just click your fingers together and magically increase the size of your home to create more space. That’s not what I’m saying, but it is essential to start looking at your house with “new eyes.” Try and see your home’s potential. It may be difficult at first, but trust me – there’s always a way to create more space! A great tip I have for you is to use shoe holders over every door in your house. You can avoid using hooks (which can damage the door frame) by using 3M Command Hooks instead. With Command Hooks, you can just pop the shoe holder over the top and it’ll hold the rack in place without causing any damage to the door – phew! So, what can you store inside these fantastic shoe organizers? I’m glad you asked! You can literally store all of the little things in your house inside the shoe holders. For example, on the back of the bathroom door, you can put your shampoo, soaps, and items that you would typically put in your medicine cabinet, etc. On the back of the nursery door, you can store cute little baby things like hair accessories, tiny socks, diaper rash cream. and baby wipes, etc. 2. Increase Storage Space With Bed Risers & Space Saver Bags A bed riser is cheap. You can pick one up from somewhere like Walmart for just $10. Bed risers can lift your bed a few inches or even a few feet above the floor, giving you additional storage space. I’m a huge fan of bed risers. Our master bed has not one, but TWO bed risers underneath it because… well, I couldn’t see the TV screen over the bed frame! We also ended up putting our dog’s bed underneath our bed. So, every night our dog Hunter sleeps underneath our bed. If you have a dog and he’s a part of the family like ours is, then this news probably won’t surprise you in the slightest. It’s definitely a unique storage solution to store your dog’s bed (and your dog!). You can use one bed riser or double it up for even more storage space. Another great way to maximize space in the home is to use a Space Saver Bag. You can put your big fluffy blankets in there over the summer and other out-of-season clothes to help save yourself more space. Use a vacuum to suck all the air out of the bag and watch in awe as the fluffy blanket that kept you warm all winter gets flattened into a very thin pancake. Store the bag underneath your bed and don’t think about it until next winter! 3. Go ‘Vertical’ If you really want to make the most out of the small space that you DO have, you’ve got to start thinking vertically. Take a trip to Ikea and get yourself one of those cube storage units and stack them on top of each other against the wall. Build it all the way up to the ceiling if you can and store different items in each cube so you can have less clutter around the house – sorted! 4. Use An Outside Storage Facility I understand that not everyone can afford to invest in an outdoor storage facility, but if you can save up just a little bit of money each month, you can have enough to rent a small storage unit to help declutter your home. Choose a size that’s right for you and use it to store all the extra things in your house that you won’t need for a while such as holiday decorations, memorabilia, and baby equipment that your child no longer needs but you may come back to in the future for the next little one. There’s ALWAYS storage solutions if you’re willing to think outside the box. Don’t let yourself be limited by the physical amount of space that you do have and try to look at it from a new perspective and, who knows, you might even come up with a few of your own creative storage ideas along the way!   My entire company is run from my small home office in my bedroom. A small space forces you to constantly prioritize your space and your to-do's. Check out the NEW Friday Workboxes and get your homeschool, teaching, direct sales and entrepreneur businesses organized in a box. :) View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/233

Summer is meant to be a relaxing time of the year filled with fun activities, holidays, and warm afternoons spent soaking up the sun on the beach. However, summer is my least productive season (and I’m a productivity NUT, so that’s saying a lot!). Things just don’t get done and, before you know it, the summer has ended and all you have to show for it is a great tan but not much else. When we go head first into summer without a second thought about routines or schedules, we often end up feeling bored because we don’t know what to do with our time. I’m not saying you should have a structured plan and organize every little detail of your summer, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a few routine days that you can use sparingly throughout the summer. I have five different routine days for the summer that I’d like to share with you: 1. Help & Support Day If you have kids, you need a day off. It’s as simple as that. Yes, we love our children, and we’d do anything for them, but sometimes we need some time for ourselves – a bit of ME time is good for you! I’m a full-time working mom with two teenagers and just last summer, I hired a nanny. I know what you’re thinking, “Why on earth did you hire a nanny for two teenagers?” Well, here’s why: Reason 1: There was a lot of random driving that needed doing last summer and I didn’t have the time to drive my kids around. So, the person I hired to help me out would drive my kids to wherever they wanted to go and I was able to concentrate on work without any interruptions – success! Reason 2: I had a lot of household chores and projects I wanted to be done, but had no time to get to. She was able to scan all of my scrapbooks, do the dishes, clean the kitchen, and do the laundry – and it was fantastic! If you’re not a mom, this probably sounds ridiculous. But if you ARE a mom, you might be thinking… “brilliant – I NEED THIS!” When I was a teenager, I worked as a babysitter. Before the summer kicked off, I would approach the parents I worked for and ask them if they wanted a day to themselves. I would be happy to look after their kids while they got their hair done (because it was the 80’s and hair was literally everythingback then) and when the mom’s heard this, they thought it was a genius idea. I created a desire in them that they didn’t even know existed! Not to boast, but I was basically an entrepreneur from birth. So, when I became a mom, I was looking for someone who would sell the same services as I did – and I found them! 2. Pool Day Who doesn’t love a pool day? Whether you’re practicing your backstroke or soaking up the sunshine, everyone loves a good pool day in the summer. Most pools open between 10 am and noon, so you have most of the morning to do whatever you like, and the kids can have their own independent time, too. When it’s time to go to the pool, pack your swimwear, towels, and whatever else you need to bring with you and go out and enjoy the day as a family! Remember, the pool tends to zap up all of your energy and brain power, so you probably won’t have the energy to get much done when you get home. Take it easy and order some pizza to finish the day off in style! 3. Errand Day You can eliminate a lot of time from an errand day by just buying things online like I do. You can shop for groceries online as well, so this might be a good option for you if you don’t feel like pushing a cart through a store. You’ll probably need at least one or two errand days over the summer. Some of you may need an errand day each week, while others will need just one errand day per month. The best way to prepare for errand day is to create a list of what needs to be done and check off each task as you go. 4. Home Day This is my favorite kind of day where you can stay home and do whatever you like with your time – it’s paradise! I usually like to focus on one of my larger projects on a home day because I’ve got plenty of time to get it done. However, there’s nothing worse than enjoying your home day and having someone tell you that you need to get up and leave the house. That’s the worst, isn’t it? Avoid this scenario by telling everybody it’s a home day. Make sure they know that you have no intention of driving them around the country or to McDonald’s for some fast food (unless you change your mind, in which case, that’s perfectly fine!). One of the best ways to make a home day super successful is to introduce your kids to a new activity. This can be anything from a new subscription box to a science kit or homemade play dough. I love play dough, and I often make homemade play dough that kids of all ages (including me) like to play with. It’s a creative pastime and it doesn’t cost a lot of money, which makes it perfect for a low-key day at home! Visit the blog post to get my homemade play dough recipe to try for yourself! 5. Big Event Day A big event day is basically a day spent outside of the house doing something BIG. This can be anything from the amusement park to the zoo. It’s always a good idea to plan for the big event day the night before it actually happens. If you’re going to be traveling, make sure to fill your car with gas in advance. You should also pack and plan everything you’ll need for the big event day, such as snacks, food, etc. Each of these summer routine days is designed to give you some inspiration and guidance if you’re struggling to be productive over the summer months. I hope you found it helpful and you can use some (if not all) of these routine days this summer! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/231

Before I get into this week’s topic, I have TWO very exciting announcements for you! First, this is your LAST chance to register for the Organize 365 National Convention! That’s right, tickets are almost sold out, and registration for the event closes at midnight on May 29th – so make sure to click here to learn more and sign up! The second announcement is for all the teachers out there and anyone who feels like once the school year starts, their head starts spinning! If this sounds like you, the 100 Day Home Organization Double Time is EXACTLY what you’ve been looking for. It cuts the time of the 100 Day Program in half, which means you can get it done TWICE as fast! Don’t miss out on this one time offer! There are just 120 slots available! So, if you miss out this time, you’ll have to wait until August to sign up. If you manage to get your hands on one of these treasures, you’ll receive the current planner AND the brand-new planner that we’re launching in August – now that’s what I call a real VIP experience! Registration for the 100 Day Home Organization Double Time opens Friday May 25th and ends on May 29th at midnight or until the 120 slots have been claimed. Once they are gone, they are gone! If you want to be one of the first people to try the 100 Day Home Organization Double Time Program, click here to sign up! Now, onto setting your summer goals! Summer Is Coming! Summer is just around the corner and most of you are probably busy packing your suitcases and planning your summer vacation. It’s an exciting time of the year. I know I’m really looking forward to planning my summer and spending more time with my family. Is it just me or does anyone else feel like summer is the dreamiest season of the year? Do you know what I mean? Things just seem to merge together and before you know it, you’re right back at the start of the school year again and you’ve no idea where the time went. Weird, right? Well, I think I’ve gotten to the bottom of it. Let me share how you can reach your summer goals without fail – I promise. Try Not To Have Too Many Goals This Summer When you think ahead to the summer, it’s tempting to overestimate just how much you can get done. I’ve always thought of July as the “Bermuda Triangle” of months. Nothing happens in July. It’s almost impossible to get any work done and I can’t explain why. Instead of giving yourself a hard time because you “failed” to reach all of your summer goals, take a step back and realize that it’s okay! It’s okay that you didn’t get the kitchen painted this summer or that you didn’t have time to declutter your closet – give yourself a break, it’s summer after all! I think one of the main issues we all run into over the summer is the mistake of setting too many goals for ourselves in such a short space of time. Summer is very short, and it’s very spontaneous. One minute you could be focused on organizing your kitchen and the next thing you know, you’re running down the street in your flip-flops trying to sniff out where that delicious smell of BBQ'd ribs is coming from – unplanned things just happen. Give yourself the grace from the beginning and know that you’re not going to get a ton of goals accomplished in the summer – and learn to be okay with it. Set Yourself One Or Two Goals MAX I always try and focus on one specific area of my life over the summer. Sometimes, I might go as far as assigning myself two goals for the entire summer, but it’s okay to have just the one. Here is a glimpse into a few of my previous summer goals throughout the years: In 2015, I decided to focus my summer on improving my personal health and working on my marriage. I walked 10,000 steps per day and invested in having more one-on-one time with my husband. We spent summer nights talking outside on the patio, and that was the same summer we discovered (and binge-watched) the TV show “24.” It was an easy-going summer and one that I really enjoyed. In 2016, I redesigned my websites because we had just launched the 100 Day Home Organization Program. A lot of my free time was spent in front of my computer screen. I decluttered my desktop, posts, and Pinterest boards, which helped me to have a real work-focused year with limited distractions and clutter. In 2017, I focused on decluttering the house and began to work on redoing different spaces, such as the kid's bedrooms and our landscaping. This summer project grew more momentum and ran into the beginning of 2018 – we recently had our windows and doors replaced! So now that you’ve heard all about my previous summer goals, I bet you’re thinking, “Great Lisa, but what are you focusing on this summer?” Well, this summer, I’m going to focus on my kids. My son is preparing to leave for college and will be moving into his own apartment, so we have to help him get ready and prepare his living quarters before he begins his studies. My daughter also got her temporary license, so I’ll spend a lot of time driving with her and taking a few road trips to help her gain more confidence as a new driver. What Is Your ‘BIG Summer Win?’ You’ve heard all about my summer goals, but now it’s time to start thinking about what YOU want to accomplish this summer. What “BIG WIN” do you want to achieve over the next few months? The key here is to get as specific as possible with your big summer win. The more you can narrow it down to just one specific goal, the more likely you are to succeed. I would love to hear your big goal for the summer so please share it with us in the Organize 365 Facebook Group or go over to Instagram and tag me on what your big summer priority is going to be – I can’t wait to see what you guys will be up to this summer! Oh and don't forget... if you are ready to jumpstart your home organization journey, I would LOVE for you to join me in 100 Day Home Organization DOUBLE TIME. Registration is only open until Tuesday IF the planner supply lasts that long! Join Here. Happy Memorial Day Weekend! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/230

Before we get into the main topic of this week’s podcast episode, I have two time-sensitive subjects I want to share with you. First, the Organize 365 National Convention will be held in Dallas from June 7th to June 9th. Ticket sales end at midnight on May 29th, so make sure you get yours while you still can! The tickets are selling FAST, so click here to get your ticket today!! The second thing I’d like to discuss is the 100 Day Home Organization Program. Although it can be completed within 100 days, some of you may not be able to complete the program within the recommended time slot, and that’s okay. So, keeping this in mind, I’ve decided to reveal how you can do the 100 Day Home Organization Program in double time on next week’s podcast episode! Now with that out of the way, let’s get into the meat of this week’s podcast episode! This one is a little different from my usual podcasts because I’ll be focusing on the seasons of parenthood and how each one brings new changes to our organization routine. My Mini Epiphany The other day seemed ordinary enough, nothing that remarkable or exciting happened. I pulled into my driveway with my daughter, and at the same time, my husband Greg arrived home with the dog from daycare. Then, my son pulled up to the house. At that moment, we all arrived home together as a family – and I had an epiphany. Okay, so it wasn’t like a mind-blowing ordeal where I discovered the true meaning of life or anything. But still, it made me realize something very important. I’m happy. It may seem like a throwaway thing to say but if you think about it, how often in our busy lives do we take a moment and appreciate what we have? How many times have you stopped to ask yourself, "Am I happy?" It’s not as easy as it seems, right? And yet, that’s how I felt. Happy. Seasons of Parenting I’m the type of person who enjoys every season of parenting. I live in the moment. My son Joey is leaving for college soon, and many people have told me that I’m going to be sad when he leaves. But I don’t think I will be that sad. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll miss him when he goes. But at the same time, I love seeing him grow up and going off to college is just another step in his journey. If you’re a new parent, you’ll face many obstacles throughout your child’s life, and with each stage that passes, another will take its place. When you overcome these obstacles, your organizational strength will grow, and you’ll have the tools you need to prepare for the next challenge in life. So, let’s take a look at each season from babyhood all the way through to your child graduating from high school (you may want to grab a tissue!) The Early Years of Parenting New parents face a great deal of change in the early years, especially in the baby, toddler, and pre-school stages. Babies are a handful, and they can quickly go from one diaper size to the next. You always need to change your stockpile of diapers and then you need to organize what your kids will eat and drink. As you continue to expand your family, you’ll also develop your mental bandwidth to include not just yourself, but each additional little human that you’re responsible for. Grade School: The Game Changer Year When you have younger kids, your house can suddenly become overloaded with toys, clothes, and apparatus such as strollers and car seats, etc. But as the kids grow up, you can start to move the toys into their bedrooms and put the strollers and things into storage or give them to another family member if you don’t plan on using them yourself. And once the kids go to all-day school, your home and organizational routine will change drastically. This is a time that I like to call "The Game Changer Year." It’s dramatic, I know. But seriously, when the kids are in school for most of the day, you’ll not only have more time for yourself, but you’ll also have more time to organize your home. Everything seems to flow a lot easier, and you can treat yourself to some quiet time now that the kids are off to school. Even those of you at work while your kids are at school will notice a distinct difference in function of your home and the organizational progress you make will STAY! FYI - I highly recommend taking a day or 2 off work while your children are at school to reclaim your home. :) Middle School: Gaining Independence Oh, middle school – how I’ve missed you! If you didn’t know, I used to be a 7th and 8th-grade school math and science teacher, so forgive me if I get a little nostalgic thinking back to the good old days. What I love about this age group is their ability to form their own opinions, and being able to witness their brains process change and develop as they progress through the school year. Middle school is a time when kids are starting to become more independent in their actions. High School: Graduation & College Whether you love it or loathe it, high school is one of the most memorable times of a child’s life. Their independence starts to take shape, and they begin to think about driving and colleges. I don’t know about you, but I love helping my kids take their beliefs, ideas, and unique talents and figuring out what it is that they want to do with their lives. It’s up to us as parents to launch our kids into adulthood with the tools and strategies they need to make decisions that will help them succeed and live a fulfilling, happy life. Eventually, my kids will be done with college, and maybe someday they’ll get married, or they’ll travel around the world with their friends – and I’m really excited for all of it. I have enjoyed each season of parenting and the organization that goes along with it and I hope you do, too!   As I am typing this, I just received the final workbook for the Organize 365 National Convention in Dallas from June 7th to June 9th. Oh my goodness, is it chock full of productivity, goal setting, and personal development! It brings tears to my eyes as I envision those of us attending being transformed and connected in ways only a live event can. I know many of you have immovable plans, but if you are still thinking... maybe I should. You SHOULD! You will not regret it! Come see me! Register at www.organize365.com/Dallas. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/229

Spring break isn’t just for kids. Adults need a breath of fresh air every so often to recharge their batteries and diminish work-related stress and anxiety. Taking a spontaneous break isn’t something I do very often, but the more I live a truly organized life, the clearer I can see the patterns of how to breed more productivity in organization and a large part of this is taking the time to relax, unwind, and de-stress. My impromptu adult spring break adventure began a few weeks ago without me even realizing it until I was mid-way through the week! I share my story on this week’s podcast episode and it begins with replacing the windows in my home. I know what you’re thinking, what does something as mundane as windows have to do with spring break? As it turns out, deciding to upgrade my windows kick-started a week of relaxation and organizing because it gave me the opportunity to take some time off work. Upgrading Our Windows Greg and I had been thinking about moving for some time, but we finally decided against it and focused on renovating and upgrading our current home instead. Our old wooden windows were once the envy of the neighborhood back in 1986. But that was over three decades ago and they are no longer functioning. The entire process took three days. Although this didn’t bother us much, our dog Hunter wasn’t pleased since he had to get shipped to doggy daycare until the workers were done. Even though all of this work would be going on in the house, I knew I couldn’t take a break from my work schedule. However, I also knew that the workers would be replacing the windows in both of my kid’s bedrooms and trying to walk through the room to reach those windows would be almost impossible! There was one clear solution – I had to take a break from work (if only for a few hours) and clean my kids' rooms so the workers could cross the threshold to reach the windows. Cleaning & Organizing The Kids' Rooms Since both of my kids are teenagers and their rooms are more like mini apartments than bedrooms, let’s just say that I don’t go in there very often! But on this occasion, I didn’t have a choice. I took the morning off work and assigned myself an hour and a half to clean each room. I stuck to my schedule and finished both rooms on time, but when I finished cleaning, I didn’t feel like working. If you know me, you’ll know that I always feel like working. However, Monday passed, and then Tuesday came and went, and I still didn’t feel like working. My Adult Spring Break By the time Wednesday arrived, it hit me. I had scheduled my own spring break! Granted, most of you probably would prefer to go on a sunny vacation for spring break, and the idea of cleaning your kid’s rooms and organizing the inventory sounds like work. But for me, it’s heaven! I spent a large part of my spring break creating and organizing my Household Reference, Household Operations, Financial and Medical Binders. I even revealed how I arranged them and I also recorded a podcast series that you can listen to on The Sunday Basket Podcast. When I wasn’t organizing my binders, I was out shopping with my family and getting things done that I usually didn’t have time to do. Finding The Time To Organize We all live such busy lives that it can be challenging to find the time to organize anything. The more I started to think about a week-long adult spring break, the more I was convinced that this is something I’m going to do every year. My Sunday Basket and 100 Day Home Organization Program with 100 Day Productive Home Planner saves me a minimum of five hours per week. It helps me to organize and plan by season – which is much more practical than planning for the entire year in advance because life always gets in the way of our plans. By planning your schedule every 100 days, you can carve out pockets of time for yourself so you can spend your time wisely and get more done. Find out how you can live a more organized and happy life by joining us at the Organize 365 National Convention. It’s going to be an awesome experience and I would love to have you there. Grab your tickets here before they sell out! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/227

I took Gretchen Ruben’s Four Tendencies quiz and discovered that I’m a Questioner. I say "discovered," but I guess it’s not that much of a surprise at all. Did you take the Four Tendencies quiz and find out what you are? A couple of weeks ago here in Cincinnati, Ohio, I had the Sunday Basket® Workshop Certified Organizers in town for a boot camp. I told them that I had recorded the podcast with Gretchen Ruben and so they took the Four Tendencies quiz. We found out that the majority of them are Obligers. We also had a few Questioners in the mix, though I don’t think we had any Rebels or Upholders. So I think the majority of people who listen to my podcast are probably Obligers or Questioners. And as a Questioner myself, I know that being a Questioner is not an easy road. Questioners are analytical. I’m going to tell you about my questioning tendencies and how it relates to the Organize 365 products I develop. Instead of using the term Questioner, I’ve always said that I’m very analytical. So I think people who are very analytical are probably a Questioner on Gretchen Ruben’s scale. Also, I think your personality comes into play, because you can be a contrary Questioner or you can be a productive Questioner. I’m a productive Questioner. I question and I analyze so that I can get an end result or so that I can help others get an end result. That is my overarching questioning–ness. I question something to figure out how to solve a problem. My ultimate goal as a teacher, educator, coach, motivator, parent, and human being is to solve problems and help people achieve the end result that they have for themselves. So I am a Questioner, an analyzer, in order to get you to the end result that you desire. Obligers & Questioners I think the majority of you up to this point have been Obligers, but in March I think I had some Questioners on the 100 Day Home Organization Program wait list! I got a couple of emails that asked, "Why are you making me wait? This is ridiculous. Here is my money, let me in please. Can I have the program? I don’t want to wait a month." I literally got three of those emails in one week! I do not promote the 100 Day Home Organization Program every day of the year. I promote it for ten days, three different times of the year, when I know you will have the best end result of jumping into it. Now, I analyzed this quite a bit. I do not need the external motivation that an Obliger needs. My goal for Organize 365 is to get you to your desired end result which is an organized home. And as an educator, and a teacher, and an analyzer, I know that your best chance for success is to start in September, in January, and in April. You’ll get as far as you possibly can because you’ll be going with the natural energy of the year. However, I know that doesn’t work for everyone. And so in the future on the wait list page at the bottom, there’ll be a button that says, “Can’t wait, click here.” If you just took that quiz and you’re an Obliger, you wait until September and you start with everybody else. You will have so much more success with the 100 Day Home Organization Program if you’re doing the weekly Facebook Lives and if you’re in the Facebook Group because everybody is doing the same thing which will help you get to your end result of organizing your house. The next round of the 100 Day Home Organization Program starts on MONDAY! And... I have opened registration for those of you who keep emailing trying to get in. :) You can sign up through the new store here... https://organize-365.myshopify.com/ (Your planner will get there by FRIDAY.) An Update On The Sunday Basket® Club We started the Sunday Basket® Club because a bunch of you Obligers came to me and said that you needed to pay a monthly fee so you would do your Sunday Basket®. And you said you wanted a Sunday Basket® class. I want you to have excellent value when you put money into Organize 365. When you pay for something at Organize 365, I want you to say at the end, “Oh, my gosh, it was worth so much more than that!” So, I price accordingly. I price for the value that is in the product, but I also price so that when you’re done, you realize you got even more than you expected. With the Sunday Basket® Club, I was going to do twice-a-month training sessions on how to organize your paper, which I started doing in January. But I quickly realized that people were joining in February and not getting January’s "how to get started with organizing your paper." There’s an order to it that was missing. So… introducing the new Sunday Basket® Club! It’s $99 a year. You can do the Sunday Basket® on Sundays with Monique and Ryan, and then every other Monday night, is a Facebook Live Q & A, just like in the 100 Day Home Organization Program. It’s an opportunity for you to tell me what you want to hear by telling me what questions you have about your paper. For Questioners, simplicity comes at the end when you’ve decided what the answers to your questions are. That’s how we get simplicity. So go ahead, ask me all the questions you want in the Sunday Basket® Club! I Want To Get You Results We are constantly analyzing and tweaking. Part of why I say, “Progress, not perfection” is because as a Questioner, I know there’s no perfect. If you give me something that’s perfect, I’m going to question it. I want you to get the best end result and that is why I do everything that I do. I want to give you all of the options so you can get the end result of getting your house organized. And sometimes, you see too many choices so you can’t make a decision in order to get to your end result. I am trying to tailor my products to what you need. So that’s a sneak peek into how a Questioner thinks and why I make changes. Every change I make is to benefit you. The 100 Day Home Organization Program hasn’t changed in years. I am going to make it available on demand in the future, but I’m still going to do the launch model because that’s what works for the majority of my audience. Next week, we’re going to dive into physical products and the highs and lows of creating them! And there’s still time to join me in Dallas, Texas for the Organize 365 National Convention on June 7-9, 2018! I can’t wait to meet you and give you a BIG hug! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/224

You asked and I listened. This week on the podcast, I’m thrilled to welcome author Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen is one of the most influential writers in the world on human nature. She hosts an award-winning podcast and her best-selling books have been published in 30 countries and sold over 3 million copies! On the podcast, we talked about Gretchen’s most recent book, The Four Tendencies, and how your personality type relates to getting your home organized. Which Personality Type Are You? Gretchen explained that the The Four Tendencies are four different personality types: Upholder Questioner Obliger Rebel You can probably tell which one you are just from the name! But if you want to take the survey for free, visit gretchenrubin.com. Gretchen explained that these personality types vary depending on what motivates you. We’re all motivated by two main kinds of expectations: Outer Expectations: such as a work deadline or request from a friend Inner Expectations: our own desire to do things Upholders readily meet both types of expectations. Questioners question all expectations, so they'll only do something if they're convinced it makes sense. They make everything an inner expectation and object to anything they see as inefficient or irrational. Then there are Obligers, those who readily meet outer expectations (things other people want), but struggle to meet inner ones (the things they want). I think there are a lot of you out there! Finally, there are Rebels, those who resist all expectations, both outer and inner. Obliger is the most common type of tendency, with Rebel and Upholder being least common. Listen to the podcast to find out which tendency I have. Hint: No one guessed it correctly on Facebook! Making The Sunday Basket® Work For Your Personality Type I enjoyed telling Gretchen about the Sunday Basket® and it was interesting to unravel that it’s my Obliger audience who were saying, "We need you to go through the Sunday Basket® with us on Sunday." I’m so pleased that I created the Sunday Basket® Club to give people the outer accountability that they need. How Does Personality Type Affect Home Organization? I think we have all of the tendencies in our family of 4! So how does this help us to get our homes organized, especially when dealing with the variety of tendencies in our family? I listened with great interest to Gretchen’s advice on how to get the home organized when taking personality types into account. Gretchen explained that a big problem for Obligers is that they often struggle to delegate tasks. Do you recognize this tendency in yourself? This is where it helps to have people hold you accountable. Another great tip that Gretchen gave is one that I’ve heard myself say before… if you want to clean out the spare room, invite guests. That may well be the only thing that you need to do! Your Habits = Your Identity Like Dr Phil always used to say – You have an identity from being cluttered, but then you get organized and you have a new identity. So you have to really focus on that. Once you become organized, you ARE living a different kind of life. We don't realize how much of our life is habitual. This is why both mine and Gretchen’s podcasts ask so many questions. It's to help people think about making choices and changing habits. I LOVED talking to Gretchen. She concluded on the show that if we have habits that work for us, we're much more likely to be healthier, happier, and more creative.   Hey, have you signed up to join me in Dallas, Texas for the Organize 365 National Convention? I can’t wait to meet you and give you a BIG hug! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/223

I want to share with you three reasons that I am an ultra-productive person. Productivity is definitely a mindset and a way that I was just inherently hard-wired for, but it is something you can learn. #1 Productive People Don't Waste Any Time You might be thinking, “Well, duh. I don’t waste time either.” But it’s more than just not wasting time. I see time as my friend and I am in complete control of my time. This mindset shift alone will take a while for you to cultivate, especially if you’re thinking it can’t work for your circumstances. It is a mindset. Along with not wasting time, I reorganize my time - all the time. I see my day as blocks of time, but because I’m in control of all of my time, I move things around. #2 Productive People Are Results Oriented I didn’t realize until recently how I do a to-do list and how an unproductive person does a to-do list. If you watched both of us doing our to-do lists, we would both look equally busy and look like we were getting the same amount done. But at the end of the day, my to-do list is done and you feel like you never got started on your to-do list. Here’s the difference. I measure my success each day in finished products, not actionable work. Busyness gets me nowhere. Productive people are not busy, they are producing. That is the big distinguisher. You have to stop some of your busyness in order to get an end result, which means you have to know where you’re going. When you look at the whole day at the end of the day, what did you actually get finished? What did you get done? What have you produced? Productive people are measuring what we are finishing and producing, not how we are spending our time. #3 Productive People Follow Tried And True Action Plans The biggest secret about productivity is that it is all about experimenting and creating habits. That is what productive people do. They try, they analyze, they look at their results and then they tweak and tweak. Productive people follow tried and true action plans. Whenever I have something new in business that I have never done before, I try to find somebody who has done that and I ask them what people they use, what system do they use, what is their process? I may tweak that for my own business, or I may tweak that for my own productivity or where it fits best in my schedule, but I don’t start everything from scratch. The 100 Day Home Organization Program was developed by a professional organizer (me!) who took all of the spaces in your house, divided them into an organized chart, and then created the order in which you organize them according to the areas where you spend the most time and the areas of the house you have the most control. The 100 Day Home Organization Program WORKS! If you are looking to PRODUCE an ORGANIZE home, follow this system. ;) Being A Productive Person The things that I do that make me a very productive person are I don’t waste any time and I feel that my time is in my control. I am results oriented, not busyness focused, and I follow tried and true action plans to get the results I want. If you are looking for a way to end up feeling 100 days from now that your house is more organized, I really do think that the 100 Day Home Organization Program is the solution for you. We would love to have you join us. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/222

This week’s podcast episode is about the 100 Day Home Organization Program which is now open for registration! Many of you listen to my podcast for a solid six months or more before you believe that you can become organized. Eventually you try the Sunday Basket® and attend a Sunday Basket® Workshop. After 6-8 weeks of using the Sunday Basket®, you wonder why you waited so long. Then, the intrigue sets in – would the 100 Day Home Organization Program work for me? Yes, IF you aknowledge these two things... First, it will take you a full calendar year, three times through the 100 Day Home Organization Program, to become fully organized… you can do it… and it works! Second, you have to be willing to make an investment. An investment of your time, money and motivation. A big part of the transformation starts with the transaction. What you pay for, you value and you take it more seriously. I Liken The Program To Montessori Learning On the podcast, I share an email that I received from Marcy who likened my methods to the classical model for education (the grammar, dialectic and rhetoric stage). Marcy made so many great points and this intrigued me as it’s not something I was aware I was doing. This got me thinking about Montessori teaching methods, something that I’m very familiar with having worked as a Montessori teacher. In a Montessori classroom, students are grouped by three year age groupings and not by grade. Over the course of three years in the same classroom, children interact with students 3 years older and 3 years younger than themselves. All teachers in the classroom teach all age groups. You get a real depth of education because you are with different age groups throughout your education. You learn how to be mentored and how to be a mentor. Another key aspect of Montessori is it repeats the curriculum over and over at a different level. The same presentations are delivered to children, but expectations are different based on their age. Kids move at their own pace, as long as the work gets done. They can deep dive into the topics they love the most and there is no limit – peers do not hold individuals back. When I worked as a middle school Montessori teacher, I always made sure that I incorporated what was going on in the real world into the classroom. This is very similar to how I teach in the podcast. I am very thoughtful about what I teach and when. I want to meet you where you are. I teach three steps to getting organized. Declutter Organize Increase productivity Click on the links above to listen to my popular podcast episodes on each. By repeating the 100 Day Home Organization Program over and over agian, the amount of time you spend on each stage will change. The first time you do the program, you’ll spend most of your time decluttering. Give yourself grace. You must take pressure off yourself. The expectation is that you’re going to start taking some action. You may not get through the full 100 days your first time (not many people do!). If you start the program now, your second time through will begin in September. The organizing energy in September is really strong! You will spend more time on organizing from September to December the second time you go through the 100 Day Home Organization Program. Newsflash, you will not believe what you didn’t get rid of the first time! You can never get rid of as much as you need to because your mind won’t let you. But when you get to the point where you have empty space, this will rock your world! Empty spaces can feel strange. In round two, you will learn to start living with a few empty spaces. January 1, 2019, you’ll start your third time through the program – this is when you’ll be doing 50% organizing and 50% productivity. People LOVE productivity. But in order to get productive, you have to declutter and organize first. Join The 100 Day Home Organization Program! Registration for the 100 Day Home Organization Program is open now until April 3rd. I can't wait to help you GET organized! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/221

Hold on tight folks – it’s about to get emotional! This week on the podcast, I talk about how to manage items related to your hopes, dreams, and memories that are still in storage. The Hot Mess Room Challenge As my podcast episodes related to the Hot Mess Room Challenge series draws to a conclusion, I’m still in the middle of organizing all of my crafts! Organize 365 is my passion now so I no longer need to keep all of my crafts. It is time for them to go. If you’re in the Hot Mess Room Challenge, you’ve already been watching a lot of videos in my storage room. If you’re not and you would like to be, click here. It’s a free 28-day program with printables, an ebook, and all of the videos. In an ideal world, I would love for my storage room to look like it should at the end of the Hot Mess Room Challenge. Guess what, though? It doesn’t look great yet and it probably won’t look like that ...ever. The reason? It’s often because it takes us up to 3 times or more to go through a space to get it to a point where you’d want to share the finished result with anyone, let alone announce it on Pinterest! Tackling Difficult Memories Our storage room is full of memories. There are many items in my storage room that remind me of the future that I thought I’d be living. They represent an unusual kind of loss because the items aren’t attached to the loss of people or money. Instead, they represent a future that I thought I would have, but haven’t yet, or that I know will never happen. We all have hopes, dreams, ambitions, and pictures of our future that don’t materialize in the ways we thought they would. It doesn’t make it bad. It doesn’t make it good. It is just the reality of our current situation. Are there items in your storage that remind you of… The mom or woman you thought you’d be? The person you thought you’d marry? The lifestyle you thought you’d have? The career you thought you’d have? The free time you thought you’d have? These are difficult, but important questions. Often, we’re not holding onto things for financial reasons. Instead, we feel that if we keep them, then one day that dream or ambition may come true. Flip Your Mindset Instead of focusing on what may have been, focus on what you have. For me, I never thought I’d have a dog, but here I am with Hunter and I couldn’t imagine a world without him. What do you have that you didn’t think you would? I never imagined that I could talk to people from my bedroom and inspire others to change their life based on their goals, hopes, and dreams to get organized. I’m teaching and using my gifts in ways that I never imagined I would. However, it was extremely hard to get rid of all my teaching supplies. Giving up on my dream of owning a day-care center was a process. It took me years to let my teaching license lapse and let my supplies go. A Yard Sale, Charity Event & Party All In One! It’s wonderful to receive your emails and see the successes that you’re achieving when you’re getting your homes in order. On the podcast this week, I had to share Lynn’s story because I LOVE it! She was debating over what to do with all of the things that she no longer needed and she finally settled on a yard sale in her basement. Everything was free, but people were asked to make donations to charity. She was partying with her friends in the kitchen while people were taking things away and at the same time donating to help others. After 2 hours, most of the items were gone and she’d made over $800 to donate to a local charity. She told me how good it felt on all levels. Supply & Demand Steph emailed me to share that smaller families may be the reason why people don’t want to inherit so much stuff anymore. With parents tending to have fewer children these days, we often don’t battle with siblings for nostalgic mementos like we may have done in the past. Mind blown! She’s absolutely right. It’s certainly true for when my sister and I were going through the family home as there was so many things and only the two of us to sort and acquire them. Take A Deep Breath & Start I really want you to look at the things you are storing and ask yourself whether you really need it... BUT at the same time, give yourself more grace if required. Maybe it’s time to get rid of things, but equally, maybe it’s not. It could be that you just needed to hear the words this time and then the next time we talk about it, that’ll be the time to take action. We know that intellectually we need to get rid of things, but it’s the physical and emotional ties that hold us back from getting rid of things until the third or fourth time. Previous Podcast Episodes The main podcast episodes that I recommend you listen to, where I talk about my own childhood memories and how to deal with items when someone passes away, are: 3 Things To Consider When You Are Saving Childhood Memories What to Save When A Loved One Passes 10 Things I Am Decluttering After 30 Years! Next week, I am sharing how the 100 Day Home Organization Program is like Montessori Education. Which is appropriate as I am here in Texas this weekend at the Home School Convention. Education is on my mind. :) I will also be stopping by the Hotel for the Organize 365 National Convention on June 7-9, 2018. All the party plans are humming along. AND... I'm visiting the 1000+ Sunday Baskets that just arrived this week. I have to go see all my basket babies! Thanks so much for following along on my journey and supporting the new Organize 365 Store!   You may have noticed that I’m not on Facebook as much these days. It’s become so complicated! While I still have a business page and a personal account, please know that everything that I record goes into the Organize 365 Facebook Group - it’s a great free resource. If you’re not in this group, why not?! Head on over and sign up. What I really enjoy about the Facebook Group is the shared conversations you all have with each other. It’s great when you post questions and success stories as the whole Organize 365 team LOVE's to see what you’re doing and share it with our wonderful community. I really like Instagram and, in particular, I love Instastories! Click here to follow me on Instagram. You’ll often see me posting quick snippets of my life and they’re only available for 24 hours. If Instagram isn't your thing, you can also see my Instastories on Facebook Stories, as well. Speaking of Sunday Basket®s, if you love the system and are looking for a way to make a little money on the side, or to drive clients to your existing professional organizing business, please consider coming alongside the already 50 strong team of Sunday Basket® Workshop Organizers! Why now? You can join between now and April 1, 2018 for a $500 one time fee and a yearly renewal of $250. Starting April 1, the one time fee goes up to $745, so get in now and save! 50% of the professional organizers on the Organize 365 Sunday Basket® Workshop Organizer Team say they have received a new professional organizing client at their FIRST WORKSHOP. You can learn more about becoming a Sunday Basket® Workshop Organizer and/or sign up here: https://organize365.com/become-licensed-sunday-basket-workshop-provider/ View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/220

Does your home ever feel like a craft store?! This week on the podcast, I talk all about how to get your crafts in order so you can create space and have more time to enjoy doing the things you love. One of the reasons I’ve not tackled the hot mess room on the podcast so far is precisely because it’s a hot mess room and it’s overwhelming! When there’s so much in there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and not really know where to begin, especially when you’re listening to my podcast episodes but then can’t physically see the things you should be sorting. Because of this, I’m here to try and teleport myself into your space and give us the chance to tackle this together in the most logical way possible. Start With The End In Mind Imagine for a moment that we could stop time and you could have seven full days to dedicate solely to working on your craft. Obviously, it’s not practical in the real world, but it’s a great starting point to look at all of your crafts and work out exactly what you could and would want to use in that time. This will form the basis for everything we do to organize your crafts. It’s most likely that you’ll have enough crafts to keep you going for seven years rather than seven days. Therefore, it’s going to take you more than seven days just to organize it, let alone start enjoying it! You need to have this reality check. Otherwise, you’re setting up for unrealistic expectations – and we all know I’m the queen of those! My Scrapbook Downsizing I have always loved scrapbooking and making photo albums. As a result, I’ve accumulated LOTS of supplies over many years. I came the realize that I didn’t need all of those supplies anymore. I simply don’t scrapbook as much as I used to. It this week’s podcast episode, I explain how I managed to reduce my craft supplies from taking up two very large closets in the basement to one armoire in the loft. Why am I telling you this? It’s so you can clearly see how I went from having supplies for a full-time business to supplies that will support me making one or two albums a year. Letting Go Of The Stamping & Counted Cross Stitch Similar to my scrapbooking supplies, I used to have A LOT of stamping supplies which I have now condensed to hardly any at all (just a small shoe box versus the whole bookcase that I used to have). My mother is an artist and makes wonderful rubber stamp cards. Because mom did it, I bought hundreds of rubber stamps and ALL the associated supplies. I was decluttering last summer when I realized that I hadn’t stamped in 15 years. I was only keeping them because: I’d spent a lot of money on them The looked super cute They sat on the gorgeous piece of furniture that my late grandfather had made I did two things. First, I chose 20 stamps to keep for future projects and I sent the rest to my mom to use and give to others. Second, I took the stamp holder off the wall and offered it to my sister. She was delighted to accept it as she now got something that grandpa had made and she had a use for it. I did the same with counted cross stitch. I used to LOVE counted cross stitch, but I came to realize that I haven’t done a project in 17 years. I can’t imagine a time when I’m going to do one again any time soon, but I CAN see a time in the distant future when I will pick this hobby back up. So I’ve kept a couple of hoops and all my flosses are in order for when this time comes, but it’s in a small box that’s easy to store. Allow Yourself To Let Go Scrapbooking , stamping, and counted cross stitch are examples of crafts that I used to be really into, but am less so now. Similar to what I did, ask yourself if you’re still really into something and if not, adjust the amount of supplies that you hold onto. As you’re looking at your craft and reliving the memories of the interest in that craft, ask yourself: What is your current need, desire, and excitement for this craft? What is your future need, excitement, and desire for this craft? Only keep the things you really need and give 90% away! It may not be exactly 90%, but I guarantee you it will be around that amount. You do not need to keep a lot. Sometimes an advancement in technology makes your craft redundant. My stamps are a great example of this. They’re wooden, but modern ones are clear and much easier to use. If you want to revisit a hobby later, invest a bit of money in new things. Don’t be held back by the old things that you’re storing. Just because you’ve held onto them doesn’t mean you have to use them forever. Speaking of projects... OH MY GOODNESS! We have so many new products and opportunities coming out THIS WEEKEND I can't even stand it!! If you are following me on Instagram or Facebook be ready for LOTS of videos. :) I can't even decide what I am the most excited about!! First, I am so happy to announce that the BINDERS ARE IN! That's right! They are finally ready! There are five binders currently available - Financial, Medical, Household Reference, Household Operations, and Kids School Memories. You are going to LOVE THEM! and... the Official Sunday Baskets® are IN! I can't even believe my dream is coming true! If you have already participated in the Sunday Basket® Workshop, you will want to get your Official Organize 365 Sunday Basket® to accompany your slash pockets! If you haven't yet, we are now offering a special Sunday Basket® Kit for only $97 which includes the virtual Sunday Basket® Bundle 1.0 & 2.0 AND your very own Sunday Basket®! SHOP HERE As always, thank you for all you do as the heartbeat of Organize 365. I love hearing from all of you and am always cheering you on from the sidelines as you take control of your life - one room, one pile of paper at a time. Happy Organizing!   ... Still reading?! Then you are a SUPER fan! Have you signed up to join me in Dallas, Texas for the Organize 365 National Convention? I can’t wait to meet you and give you a BIG hug! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/219

Welcome to the Hot Mess Room Series - Week 2! It’s time to sort through all of those items that you’ve been hanging onto without ever knowing where they’re likely to eventually end up. Storage is essential, but it can quickly get out of control. It’s time to ask yourself two simple questions… Will I use this item 1-4 times a year? Is this item saved for a specific person, for a specific date in the future? If you can answer yes, the item can stay. If it’s a no, it’s time for it to go. Storing things that you need is fine, and the more organized you get, the more you’ll appreciate a well-functioning storage room. My free 28-day organizational program on this topic goes into much more detail. Listen to my previous podcast for more information and you can sign up for it here. The number one goal for storage is to ask yourself if an item is something that you’re ever going to use. This applies to your items and the items that you are storing for others. I covered so many different things in this podcast including gifts, wrapping, furniture, home repair items, sports & entertainment equipment, cleaning supplies, kitchen supplies, toys, home decor, children's storage, making money, and clothing. You can read all about it in the blog post here. The Series I know that organizing a hot mess room doesn’t happen overnight so I’m creating this 4-episode podcast series to tackle things. This is Part Two. Last week, we laid the foundation and over the next two weeks we will cover: Craft organization Sorting memories and dreams for the future If you’re not already doing the 28-day challenge, then WHY NOT?! It’s a completely free program and you can start at any time. Sign up to start your journey here. Join me in Dallas, Texas for the Organize 365 National Convention on June 7-9, 2018! I can’t wait to meet you and give you a BIG hug! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/218

Take a deep breath – it’s time to get your hot mess room in order! This is one of the most requested podcast topics fro me to cover. If it helps, it was equally overwhelming for me to think about how I was going to inspire and motivate you to sort it out. What I finally realized was, you needed a 28 day course. And I didn't want money to be the reason you didn't tackle this already overwhelming space. So I created a FULL 28 day course complete with a 25 page eBook, 9 full color printables, and 28 daily emails with actionable tasks and daily videos or podcasts to keep you going.You can get the WHOLE course FREE here. Over the next 4 podcasts, I’m going to tackle your out of control storage area head on. Buckle up and get ready for the ride! Whether it’s the storage room, garage, spare bedroom, or even your entire house, there’s always going to be things that you just don’t know what to do with. As things build up in one space, they become a jigsaw puzzle. It’s your job to try and work out what items should go where. To move forward, you need to realize what’s actually in there and then once you’ve achieved that, you can sort it out. There’s two reasons why you have a hot mess room… You have a lack of time (and decision-making capabilities) You have a lack of space Lack Of Time There’s always something that will be more important to distract you from addressing the hot mess room. The reason that things are in there in the first place is because you don’t know what you want to do with them. They’re all there because you don’t want to deal with them. If you did want to deal with them, you would have! Lack Of Space Your goal is to have a functioning and organized storage area. The logistics of this will depend on your individual situation. If you have a garage and basement and lots of available space to fill, you may need to make tough decisions to reduce the amount of possessions you are storing. If you live in a smaller space, the reason that you may have a hot mess room is because you literally don’t have a storage area at all. When we pick houses, we often don’t make our purchasing decisions based on storage even though it’s something that we all need. Storage is a natural by-product of life. We all need a certain amount of stuff and that is absolutely fine. Depending on your circumstances, you may need an off-site storage facility. There’s nothing wrong with this. Here are 3 good examples of when this may be necessary… When two families blend together, especially if children are involved When you downsize, but the kids are still using the house as a storage facility If you move to an area where you don’t have a garage or basement Make Storage Work For You Since I started offering physical products, I’ve really had to think about the organizational logistics for myself and the wider team. Initially, we used the Home Depot shelving in the garage to store everything and this very quickly expanded to include an off-site storage facility. This worked, but it wasn’t ideal. As it got colder, we realized that a physical office with a door would be more appropriate for our needs. In all of these spaces, we used the Home Depot shelving – there were lots of trips to the store! The key to organization is to ensure that it works for your needs. If it doesn’t, change it, find a better solution, and move on. The System Whatever your system, start from an empty space for the optimum organization. The more uniform, the better. Your shelving and storage need to be neat, tidy, and clearly accessible. I personally use the HDX ventilated 24” deep shelving from Home Depot. I love that it is heavy duty yet very flexible and lightweight. (How to set up your storage room and the exact products I use are in the the WHOLE course FREE here.) It works for basements, storage facilities, garages, and even attics because it is so adaptable in height. It’s the system I LOVE for setting up a storage room. If space is limited, you can place folding tables on the top of the shelving to make a countertop to work on. It’s a great money-saving tip. The beauty of this system is that you can find anything at any time. Color-coded bins will hold your items and the contents will all be indexed in a home reference binder. You will keep this in the house for when you need to use it. Sign Up! I’m offering you the opportunity to enroll in a special 28-day program just for the hot mess room. It’s completely FREE! I’m super, super excited about how much this will help you. Sign up for this 28 day daily organizational challenge and you’ll get… Daily actionable work that will yield real results A 2-minute video each day An eBook and a comprehensive shopping list of how to set up a storage room 9 colorful printables to track what you have stored in your storage area Imagine getting organized in just 28 days! It’s a reality and it’s my FREE gift to you! Click here to start your 28-day organizational hot mess room journey. Hey, have you signed up to join me in Dallas, Texas for the Organize 365 National Convention? I can't wait to meet you and give you a BIG hug! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/217

It’s the big one guys! Over the last few weeks, I’ve been super excited to introduce you to some of the people that have really helped shape who I am over the last decade. So I couldn’t think of a better way to finish the series than by inviting my very own sister, Emily Kelly, onto the podcast! Emily takes you on the journey of some of our life experiences and shows you how I’ve become the person and businesswoman I am today... and to dish the dirt on everything about me that only a sister can know! We’re very lucky to be in such a special relationship. I’m also super excited to let you know that Emily is now part of the Organize 365 Team. She is running the Sunday Basket® Workshop Organizer Certification Program.   Entrepreneurship Runs In Our Family We grew up in a 100% entrepreneurial family so the idea of working for someone else was just never entertained. For us, we were taught that you either owned the company or you started one from scratch. On the podcast, Emily takes us back to when she was 3 years old to the story of her first friend whose mom owned a home goods shop in the valley and our Mom who was running her business from our basement. Every day, they’d play "shops" with the little guest checks or receipts lying around from both homes. It was that or trading stickers. It’s all we’d ever known. Everywhere we went, we were pretending we were in business. It was so much fun! By contrast, since I was 4 years older, I was often out babysitting and dreaming of the day I’d become a mom! To picture the scene, we grew up in a neighborhood in Akron with no traffic (or sidewalks!) and there were very few children. It meant that we had to make our own fun. I’ll never forget the day Emily and her friend set up a lemonade stand outside the house. Entrepreneurism was everywhere for us, but it’s lovely to reflect on the fact that we learned business from different perspectives because of our ages. Our Mom’s Business Emily loves that we’re both true to form with the women on mom’s side of the family when it comes to business minds. We have inherited the attitude of "I have an idea and it’s going to sell." Our grandma mailed fabric all over the world so people could make their own clothes. Grandma Green had a flower shop, and our mom’s idea grew while working for a clothing business. Emily and I have such fun recalling the stories of mom and grandma taking clothes for a huge end-of-season event to Cleveland to maximize sales in the 1970’s/80’s. Everyone helped with it. Mom saw potential right away. Many people were being successful with the trunk parties, but no one had the undergarments. Cue mom! She literally got on a plane to New York, went to a show, and started buying lingerie. She had slips coming out of her ears! It was an old-school direct sales business that she’d created on her own. Emily says that just blows her away! It reminds me of when I got on the plane to Dallas and asked the manufacturer to produce my Sunday Basket® for me. Mom grew the business to where she had women working for her in 26 states when she sold it just a few years later. It was an amazing achievement with lots of reinvestment. We are both so similar in the way we approach business today because of how she was. White Gloves, Party Manners & Favorite Games Emily and I recall how when we were young, we took etiquette classes to learn all about silverware and to get our slips out for formal dinners (slips feature heavily in our childhood!). We also learned how to get out of a car in a skirt. I often wondered, would any of this help me see the royal family? We’re both BIG royals. I would have put being Queen on my list of jobs to be when I grew up if I could. I can’t wait for the royal wedding and new royal baby this year! We did love to play lots and lots of games when we were growing up, too. We came up with all sorts of games. By far, our favorite was one we made up called "big friend." Visit the blog post here to view a short video of Emily and I sharing our memories of the game. Entrepreneurism Ran In Our Dad’s Family, Too Our dad was no exception to entrepreneurism. Sales was his strength and Dad’s company had over 100 employees. His father and grandfather had a coffee company. Our father’s company in Akron that he eventually became co-owner of was called Alcon Tool. Dad’s enthusiasm for manufacturing made us fall in love with the industry. Dad’s ethos on work is something that stays with us both today. It doesn’t matter what role you play in the team, everyone is equally important. That’s what I’m trying to grow at Organize 365. Dad’s Passing Our father passed away 10 years ago just before he was 61. On the podcast episode, Emily and I reflect on this most upsetting time in our lives. We talk about how it was kind to put us both as executors, but not practical. We found our own roles and formed a strong team at a difficult time. Growing Independently It’s true that we had a privileged upbringing in both education and financial support, but in every single generation, the businesses that our families grew started from scratch. There was no inheritance, but just a great idea and the determination to succeed. Dad started life as a salesman and left as a partner. When I reflect back, my best advice would be to take a look at what you have and not what everyone else has. I’m successful and I’m very blessed, but I work really hard. I want to give back as much as possible, but I create zero excuses for myself. Having my husband Greg working allowed me to start Organize 365, but Emily is a very successful single woman. So it’s not your spouse that makes or breaks you. Think about the "something" you were uniquely created to do and give it to the world. Every reason why you’re not pursuing it is an excuse. Take what’s in your way and get rid of excuses to move forward. This podcast is about our family highlights because it’s all about encouraging and inspiring you. When you focus on the positives, opportunities become bigger and brighter and you can chase them. If you focus on what could have been, things look darker and it’s harder to chase your goals. Creative Memories The time when Emily and I worked for Creative Memories was a super exciting time in both our lives. Replacing my teaching salary with direct sales so I could stay at home with my family was my dream and I was going to do everything I could to get there. My dad helped me decide on Creative Memories. We both felt it had a big reach... it turns out we were right! As Emily says, I joined and went straight to the top! Emily was one of my great customers and after turning me down initially, I finally managed to get her to sign up, too. She went straight to the top as well! We built teams and were in the top 6% performers of the company. We take a lot of what we learned in those days with us now to run a fun community workshop feel. Emily & I As A Team Again This brings us to today and where Emily and I find ourselves in the organizational realm. Although it’s not the most profitable, I’m staying with the home and paper organization, as it’s the area where I feel I can recreate the community buzz of Creative Memories. I’m constantly pivoting and moving forward to create this feeling in your house and at our workshops. It’s awesome to have Emily on board to run the Sunday Basket® Workshop Organizer Certification Program. Prices go up on April 1st so get in touch with Emily to talk about the next steps as soon as you can. We’d love to have you on the team! Emily and I see the vision of bringing people together all over the world. It’s a space where you can share experiences and move forward from them. No one should feel alone and that’s why the workshop model works so well. Emily is so excited to be on board and she feels just like she did when we worked together at Creative Memories. For her, we’ve never been better than then as a team. I love Emily and so will you, I am sure! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/216

I am so excited to introduce you to Melanie Moore on this week’s Organize 365 podcast! As many of you know, I’m running a series of the top 5 people who have helped shape and define me over the last decade and Melanie definitely qualifies. Melanie is the Director of Training & Development at CinchShare, a social media scheduling software that helps entrepreneurs, business owners, and anyone using social media to spend more time doing what they love rather than being tied to a computer. We use CinchShare at Organize 365 and I’m delighted that CinchShare is sponsoring the Organize 365 National Convention on June 7-9, 2018 in Texas. Melanie is going to be the Master of Ceremonies! How I Met Melanie The first time we spoke, I was in Walmart when my cell phone rang. The lady on the end of the phone sounded so enthusiastic that I pretended to know exactly who she was (even though at that stage I didn’t!). At the time, Melanie organized events where companies would come together, share ideas, and take them back to their own teams to grow their businesses. She asked if I would be a speaker and I couldn’t wait to jump in and say yes. I’d always wanted to be a national direct sales speaker and this was the perfect opportunity to learn and develop. She couldn’t pay me, but asked if I had a book I’d like to sell at the end. I said, "Yes." The speaking opportunity was in 2 weeks so I had 2 weeks to write a book... which, of course, I did!! :) Be An Action Taker After several meet-ups, we realized that we were both action takers. Being an action taker is a lot of fun. It opens up time to spend on things you enjoy rather than deliberating over things that don’t hold so much significance. For example, when something breaks, I’ll buy a new one right away. I won’t take hours pondering it. If the new one doesn’t work out, we’ll try again. Why Melanie Is An Inspiration To Me Melanie’s enthusiasm and expertise is infectious. And we both talk as fast as each other! I love that we both see the bigger picture in life. We’re able to both draw on our direct sales experience and see what’s working and what isn’t. The opportunities for both of us that arise from this are just super exciting. Organize 365 National Convention in Dallas Tickets are available NOW!  Describing this convention is something I am having a hard time articulating. It’s a convention that meets a retreat with a splash of the group activities you did on school field trips. Think of it as a chance to meet and hug me (I’m a big hugger!). It’s all about getting like-minded people in a room together and learning so much from each other. Prepare to meet new friends, enjoy new experiences, and open your mind to a world of possibilities that you never thought possible. Give yourself the time to take a step out of the real world and purposefully plan your next year. I promise you, you’ll walk out of the convention as a new person. As Melanie says, “You’ll be a new person on a new mission. You’ll see clarity like you’ve never experienced. Clarity alone will bring you back every single year.” Rise – YOU Are Enough I want you to leave the conference believing in YOU. The convention will give you the resources you need to continue on your organizational journey and open up time in your calendar and space in your life for the future you want to happen. The more organized you are, the better your personal and professional life can be. I have a burning desire to see people thriving and living a relaxed life where they can live out their free time. The Organize 365 community is super awesome. We all learn from each other, including me! For example, thanks to a suggestion from someone in the group (thank you!), I now peg my jeans instead of hanging them so I have a designated space for each TYPE of jeans I wear. The peg is a brilliant idea! Supporting each other also brings us to synergy and the idea that 1 + 1 = 3 (or for me and Melanie, 8 million!). It’s important to get off technology and see people face-to-face. Melanie is such a wonderful example of this and I’m so happy that our paths crossed. There’s so much value in speaking to people. If you dream it and believe it, you can achieve it. As Melanie says, she can’t wait to see my dream of running a national convention actually come to fruition… and neither can I! We’re super excited to meet you all. There are only 160 tickets available. Once they’re gone, they’re GONE! Join us for some big surprises, be ready to be inspired, and take action. Come to Dallas and rise with us.  View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/215

I’m super excited to introduce Laura Vanderkam to the podcast. I’m a HUGE fan and I’ve wanted to get her on the show since I started out. Laura is the talented author of several time management and productivity books – I’ve read them all! She is here to guide us through life by saying, "Hey! It can be tough, but there’s so many different ways to manage our time and make things easier." I feel like I already know so much about Laura from her inspirational podcast, "The Best of Both Worlds." I’m always searching for podcasts about successful women and how they do it (aren’t we all?) and this is where I discovered Laura. The podcast is all about loving our families and our jobs as one, a concept that’s often presented as oppositional, but this one aims to prove it doesn’t have to be that way. Laura and her co-host Sarah Hart-Unger have taught me so much, not only about organizing my life for the better, but also giving me the confidence to speak up and stand my ground on the things that are important to me. Can You Have It All? Well, according to Laura – yes, you can. Not only that, she tells you how to hit it out of the park. My personal light bulb moment was coming across, "What Most Successful Women Do Before Breakfast," one of Laura’s books. To me, the content really makes sense. It’s about loving harmonizing your family and career, helping out, being flexible, and organizing your time to allow you to feel fulfilled in every part of your life. Grab Those Goalposts Use goals to manage your time. I’m a big believer that you can pretty much do whatever you want if you pick a goal and set steps to make it work. I definitely look at my time differently now thanks to Laura. Unfortunately, good things don’t just appear like magic. You need to think about how you’re realistically going to get to where you want to be. Set manageable targets within achievable timeframes and the goal setting process will start to flow. The book "I Know How She Does It" is really good for this. Prioritizing Family Time – Anytime Talking about looking at time differently, I love the concept of shaking things up. A simple change can affect your life dramatically. For example, if you feel like you’re missing out on quality time with your family, why not try making your meal time together at the beginning of the day. There’s so much pressure for family meals to be in the evening, but this can happen at any other time. How about breakfast? Breakfast food is fun and often people, especially children, are in a better mood in the morning. So it really can be a great option for busy families to have that time to sit together. Work out what works best for you and your family and shake it up. Looking At Your Time Differently Who knew the middle of the week was Thursday evening? I know, right?! This is a game changer. Laura explains that if you start from Monday morning, the midpoint of the week is really Thursday evening, even though it feels like the end of the week. For Laura, managing time is about balance. What does balance mean to you and how can you achieve it? Don’t be leisurely about your leisure time. It’s not about scheduling things you have to do – it’s about scheduling things you WANT to do! While she doesn’t suggest planning every part of your life, sometimes we do need to schedule our free time. If you want to go for a run, factor in that 20 minutes somewhere. Laura also says it’s important not to blame anyone else. You are in control. Don’t use the kids as an excuse for not being able to do things. I pick 1-3 things I want to accomplish and look at how that fits in with the family – at least then I’m in the equation. We need to think about ourselves. The Great Sleep Debate – Are We Getting Enough? I was inspired by Laura tracking her sleep over a couple of years and had every intention of tracking my sleep for 2 weeks – I ended up doing 2 nights! I’ve always said I need 6/7 hours, but the issue is I love sleeping in on the weekends. The purpose of Laura’s study was to see, in actual numbers, what the life of a professional woman looks like. It turns out, we have a lot more free time than we think. It’s how we use that time that’s key. Outsource The Things That Actually Take Up Your Time We need to ask ourselves, where are we actually spending most of our time? It’s likely to be picking up laundry or doing the daily house chores, but we definitely need to look beyond the obvious if we want to save time. Many of you know that I used to organize people professionally. I’d get constant calls from women asking me why they suddenly felt overwhelmed by the housework, despite work not changing and their kids being older. The reason was mostly because they’d gotten rid of the nanny who had been looking after the kids AND the housework. Often, they’d just need a part-time housekeeper to fill the gap and they’d be back on track. Laura points out that those little jobs we often multitask are actually taking up tons of valuable hours that we could be spending elsewhere. She says to set aside a time and, if it’s not done in that time, it’s probably not that important. We definitely underestimate the hours it takes to sort the home, but give yourself credit for doing that activity, whether you outsource it or not. Putting You In Control If something’s not done, I feel like it’s my problem. I know that I often put that on myself. I’m sure many of you can relate, but Laura says there’s always a choice and I think that is so important to remember. Sometimes you are doing this to yourself and you can take back control. Balancing family, free time, and chores can be overwhelming. What I LOVE about Laura is that not only does she have great ideas for managing your time effectively, she’s able to make me see that I can’t do it all. I’m WORKING And best of all – that’s ok! Looking Forward The next book from Laura is called "Off The Clock" and it comes out on May 29th. It’s a time study about tracking time and how people look at their lives. How do people spend their time differently? Laura found that people who felt like they had a lot of time had done something different or memorable. They felt like they had more time because they were doing something with their time that they actually remembered. The conclusion was that when you do this, your time actually expands. I LOVE it! The date is already on my calendar to get it. To find out more about Laura Vanderkam, click here. Follow me on Facebook and on Instagram – I’m currently addicted to Instagram Stories! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/213

I have mentioned on the podcast many times before that there is one blog that I read every single day... it is Andrea Dekker's. There is so much great material on her blog andreadekker.com. Andrea has four children under the age of six and she explains how she manages all their very different requirements, and her own, with a simple "be prepared" mantra. She also shares with us some great advice on selling your unwanted items on Craigslist, something she does often with success. How We Both Got Started Both Andrea and I started out with very different blogs. For me, I remember I was going to be this "guru" to help when your kids had food allergies and other things. But then I realized that dealing with that and dealing with everything my kids needed me to do was just too much! That is when in 2012, I launched Organize365.com. Though for Andrea, it was a little different. Andrea explains on the podcast that she just fell into doing what she does. After finishing college, starting work, and getting married, she realized she hated her job. Her father gave her some great advice when he told her to find out what she enjoyed doing and figure out a way to get paid for doing it. In doing that, she would be successful even if she didn't make a lot of money. So, a job she really disliked ended up being the springboard to starting her own organizing business, which was essentially her dream job. This was back in 2006. She didn't even have internet in her own house. But eventually she began to write her own blog, and she took some work as a virtual assistant. One of many things I love about Andrea's blog is her level of consistency. She would post every day at 8am and, just like reading a newspaper, I would sit down to read her blog every morning. I even copied this routine when I started blogging. My posts went up at 8am because Andrea's posts did! Andrea is good at routine. She takes the normal, everyday tasks and makes them more efficient and functional. She explains during the episode that she doesn't have creative, cool things to share. She just focuses on functionality and frugal solutions. If It Doesn't Work, Change It I was delighted that Andrea was willing to share a couple tips for my Organize 365 listeners. And I can certainly relate to the first tip about constantly evaluating what works and what doesn't work. Take the kids' toys for example... if the toys no longer fit in their space, then something has to go. Don't continue to just accumulate without purging as you go along. I am a self-confessed consumer, but the kids' toys change as they get older. I find that spreading them out into different rooms, or making them responsible for their own toys in their own space, makes it less overwhelming for you to clean them up again afterwards. Making the house work for you and your children is key. Andrea makes her house work for her. It’s almost like a preschool room... the kids can help themselves. I remember when my children were born, I kept the socks upstairs because that's where you keep socks, right? But we always put socks and shoes on in the family room. So when I moved the socks downstairs, it was like the heavens opened and the angels started singing because I didn't have to go searching for socks anymore. Make your house function for you and your family. It works until it doesn't work. And then when it doesn't work, change it. How To Sell On Craigslist The thing about purging and reorganizing is that you end up with a bunch of stuff that I tell you to load in the car, take to Goodwill, drop it all off, and move on. This is where Andrea gives us some great advice as she is so good at selling on Craigslist. On her website, she has some great articles on this topic where she goes into great detail about how to write the advertisement and what things are most important when selling via Craigslist. Click here to see her "Craigslist 101" posts. And she even has one on how she sold her house on Craigslist – click here to see it. She really is that good at this! Her best piece of advice is to be honest with yourself. Is it worth your time to take pictures, post the ad, respond to emails, and to sell the item? If not – donate it! If you are going to sell, make sure you take high-quality pictures and list the measurements. The more information you can give, the fewer emails you will get with questions about your item. Also with pricing, Andrea gives a great tip... Take a look at similar items in your area and price your item a little bit less. Even at just a couple dollars less, people will subconsciously be drawn to your item. This is where I am so different from Andrea. I have literally given things away that are worth hundreds of dollars just to have them out of the house. In fact, I did that with my daughter's guinea pigs. I gave them away and paid my daughter one hundred dollars before she changed her mind. I'm just not good at selling things. ;) - No guilt here if you too are in the survival phase of life and just want the clutter gone! Lighten Your Load Having been fully through the accumulation stage, (20s and 30s) I am working my way through survival (40-55). I am so pleased to direct those of you struggling with young children and mountains of toys over to Andrea's blog to see how she is thriving during the accumultaion years with 4 children under 6. In this week's blog post, I have lots of links to my favorite posts on Andrea's blog. If you want to see the crazy antics I am up to, follow me on Instagram and watch my daily Instagram Stories to see a peek into my life. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/212

You are probably confused right now. Lisa Woodruff, muscles? Well, the muscles I'm talking about are your organizational muscles! Are you ready to build your organizational muscles? Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not very good at physical exertion at all. In fact, I think sweating is a sin! I prefer to exercise my mental and organizational skills. Really, I am pathetic when it comes to exercise. I can literally go days when my step counter on my phone reads less than a thousand. There was a time a few years ago when I was able to walk 10,000 steps, but I just don't have the time now. And I don't want to make the time to do it, but I am making an effort. My goal this year is 5,000 steps and so far I'm doing pretty good. Bear in mind, this is my whole exercise program. I'm just trying to move more. I'm not trying to lose weight, just maintain it. Organization is similar to exercise in that regard. You have to match your organizational goals to the organizational outcome you want. Only compete with yourself! Hitting A Roadblock A lot of you will hit a roadblock this week. Isn't it freaky how I know that. Well, here's what happens... Over the Christmas break, you had time off and decluttered like a mad woman. The first step to getting organized is to declutter so you can see what you have left to organize. You got rid of everything that didn't move. Even the dog and children were afraid to sit too still in your house! You followed my advice and bought the bookshelves and bins from Home Depot. You've taken down Christmas and your holiday decoration area looks amazing. You feel like a boss, you're on a roll. You go from room to room, decluttering, taking out the trash, making donations. It looks better, but it doesn't feel organized and you don't know what to do next. Maybe I haven't recorded a podcast for that particular room and you're stuck, but decided not to buy the 100 Day Home Organization Program. You're saving money and it's expensive. Maybe you'll buy it later. And you're right, it is a little expensive and it should be. It was designed by a professional organizer and it works! It's OK, you don't need to buy the 100 Day Home Organization Program. I'm going to tell you how to grow your organizational muscles on your own. I am going to show you step-by-step how to tackle two areas in your home, the master bathroom and your linen closet. Organizing The Master Bathroom In just 15 minutes a day, you can organize the bathroom that you use every day to get ready to the point you feel like I came in and did it for you. Day One - Take a look at your towels. Do you need all of them? Remove the ones you don't need. Wash the ones you need out on display and freshen them up. Then, you're done with towels. Day Two – Make-up. Get rid of old samples and colors you don't wear and perfume that gives you migraines. Consolidate them into one space. It might help to take a look at the blog I wrote about Organizing Make-Up. You could also add in some organizational tools like the Make-up Manager I use like this one on Amazon (affiliate link). Over the next few days, assess your nail polish, your jewelry, your underwear and socks (yes, I keep all of these in my bathroom). Then look around you at the walls, do you like what you see? Continue until you have organized every single cabinet, drawer, and shelf, and then do it again. This is how you get organized, by spending 15 minutes a day in the same space every single day until you can go into that space for two 15 minute sessions in a row and there is literally nothing to do. It takes repetitive action, but your master bathroom will be amazing. Organizing Your Linen Closet Back in 2006, it took me about 4 months to organize my laundry room. Every 2 or 3 days, I would spend half an hour trying different things until I was happy... new shelving, new cabinets, new countertops. I had a blast doing it. Nobody cared. No one goes in there, no one messed it up. I could do what I wanted. I would run the washer and dryer at the same time. It was like white noise. I couldn't hear the rest of the family. It was amazing! But in the podcast, I focus on the linen closet. First of all, you need to empty it all over the floor and check out the bulky items (towels, blankets, comforters). Be honest with yourself here as these take up space. Do you need so many? Why do you still have towels from the 1980's? It is a cycle... we buy new and store the old ones in the linen closet. It's the same with bedding, get rid of them. If you think you don't have this stuff, just wait until you empty everything onto the floor. You'll see that I'm right. I had four sets of 20 year-old flannel sheets that I loved as a child, but my children didn't want them on their beds! Get rid of old towels and donate others that don't match your color scheme anymore to a homeless shelter along with any old single sheets. Be ruthless, what's the worst that could happen? That is how you organize your linen closet. But if you're thinking, "Wait, wait. There's still more stuff in here." I know you'll figure it out. And if you don't know how to take the next step, then you need a professional organizer to guide you. The Beauty of the 100 Day Home Organization Program You can organize your house like we did in these two scenarios, going back in day after day. But, if like me, it takes you 4 months to organize your laundry room, you can see how long it would take to do your whole house this way. You will get the same result room by room, but with the 100 Day Home Organization Program we go through the entire house in 100 days, take a break, and then do it again. Each time, your whole house is more organized, not perfect, but better. But in addition to the 15 minute daily actionable tasks, the real beauty of the 100 Day Home Organization Program is that it comes with a lifetime membership. There are no renewal fees. Once you're in, you're in. Am I Too Late To Join? I launched the 100 Day Home Organization Program in December in order to capitalize on the momentum of January 1st. You're all fired up and ready to go as we hit the kitchen. Perhaps you didn't sign up because you just didn't have the money at the time. Or you had done the kitchen a couple of times already and didn't want to do it again. Or maybe you thought you could just do it on your own. Maybe now you're starting to realize how beneficial it would be to have a professional organizer, one that has organized 100's of homes, just to tell you what to do each day and you can go do it. Well, if like those that have emailed me asking when the 100 Day Home Organization Program opens again, you thought you'd missed out... surprise! I am opening the doors again this weekend only. If you join between now and Monday, you can start the program on January 22nd when everyone who started on the 1st is done with the kitchen and moving onto the master suite (bedroom, bathroom and closet). Don't try to go back to day one, jump in with everyone else in the master bedroom! You can join us mid-stream, not have to do your kitchen, and get both the Winter and Summer 2018 planners at no extra cost. To find out more and sign-up, just click here. I am SO excited to be able to offer you this opportunity and I hope you will join us as I know this program works. It looks like it's going to be a long winter. You're going to be inside a lot, so let's get organized while we're there. Join us! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/211

In 2018, I want you to start valuing and looking at your time differently. Who you spend your time with, what you spend you time on, and how you want to spend your time in the future. In today's podcast, I am answering the question, "How did I purposefully create the Organize 365 business and organized life that I am living right now?" It is true. I am fulfilled, satisfied, and debt free, but it hasn't always been like this. It has been a journey. For me, the change came when I hit 40. I think milestone birthdays are like a window of opportunity to think about how we spend our time and money, and to make shifts to propel us through the next decade. In this podcast, I share a few key transitions in my thought process, and how I spent my time and money in the last 6 years that really were the catalyst for this change. I shifted my focus from thinking about our income needs to how I wanted to spend my time. I focused on hiring help both at home and in my business. I expanded my thoughts beyond how to be a great professional organizer to how to change the organization industry. Finally, this past fall I reflected on all of these changes and created the...  Organize 365 Mission, Vision & Values Mission: To inspire, motivate, and teach busy women to take back their home and paper with practical and doable organizing systems and programs that work. Vision: Through research, targeted surveys, and data analysis, Organize 365 will bring to light the organizational needs of the homeowner to shape and develop the discussion about the "stuff" in American homes through podcast conversation and book-thought leadership. As a trusted leader in home and paper organization, Organize 365 will be the "go-to" resource for busy women, future professional organizers and home-organizational brands, and the media. Organize 365 will help the homeowner finally get organized with home and paper organization courses, products that combine teaching and application of practical organization principles. Values: We value the power of positivity. Our words, mindset, and actions shape our reality. Organize 365 uses empowering words to shape personal change. We build community. In community, everyone can learn to be organized, action is easier and happens exponentially. Organize 365 believes organization is a learnable skill. We live life in abundance. Resources are not limited, but limitless. Through collaboration, Organize 365 connects the right people and resources for maximum benefit and sustainability. We believe in transformational freedom. As you let go of one thing, you are open to receiving the next. We strive to unlock your life's purpose through the process of decluttering, organizing, and increased productivity. I hope you have enjoyed learning a little about the roots of Organize 365! Ask yourself this... If I could do, be, and have anything in the world and I didn’t have to worry about all the things that I’m worrying about, what would that look like?   Follow me on Facebook and on Instagram – I’m currently addicted to Instagram Stories! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/210

Have you ever played Candy Crush? It is so ridiculously simple and mindless… but addictive. In this week’s podcast episode, I compare organizing your house to playing this fun, addictive, and ultimately endless game of Candy Crush. It was around three summers ago that I played this game obsessively. I would find any excuse to play Candy Crush. I would even make extra time to play it, and play it for way too long trying to get through a level. Finally, I had to take it completely off my phone because I just have no will power. A couple of years later, I put it back on my phone and found I wasn't quite so addicted as I was the first time. A word of warning – if you have never played Candy Crush, don't take this podcast as permission to go and download it! When I first started playing it, I thought you could "win," that you could finish the game, but there are literally millions of levels. You can never win. I don’t recommend wasting your time on it! What does Candy Crush have to do with home organization? As the new year approaches, we all start to set goals to get organized, lose weight, and put our finances in order, all at the same time. These are the top three New Year's resolutions that we all want to achieve. On January 1st, when people ask you what you're going to do, you say, "I'm going to lose 10 pounds, I'm going to get out of debt, and I'm going to get organized," because that is what everybody plans to do every single January! When it comes to home organization, at the end of the year you may say, "I'm going to get my house in order." What you mean is you're going to declutter, donate, sell, and basically get rid of things. That's what you mean by getting organized in the last week of the year. That's like the first 20 levels of Candy Crush. You go in, you play it, you go to the next level. Or, when organizing your home, you go in the room, you fill a trash bag, you take it out to the car, or you donate it and you continue like this… donating, trash, donating, trash. You feel good and you're also getting a bit of exercise while doing it! Another example – you're clearing the house, taking down decorations, and you feel like you're doing a great job, then suddenly you return to a room you have already done, checking for any other clutter, and you get a little stuck. You start to look for more help to make decisions about what you need or don't need. It's not as easy to get through the room. This is like Candy Crush – often they don't let you through the level on the first shot so you have to play it again until you finally get through it. What happens when you get stuck? Let’s say you make great progress until you realize there are no more "quick wins." So where do we go from there? Maybe you buy some little containers and organize some drawers, maybe tweaking and maintaining things you've done before. By about the middle of January, there is still 80% that has not been organized successfully and you don't know where to start to resolving this. You wonder if there are organizers you can buy. This usually doesn't work, it costs a lot of money, and there aren't organizers you can buy for the space you need to organize... don't you hate that? This is because 99% of organization has nothing to do with the cute containers. It’s like you are stuck on Candy Crush level 56 and you're asking yourself, what do I have to do to get through this level?! There are two things you can do when playing Candy Crush when you get stuck: Pay for help You can pay for more moves when you run out of your lives, plus other pay options. Head online – I go to YouTube Just search for “how to beat level 57 in Candy Crush” and watch a video of some genius who knows how to beat that level. Either you go spend the time watching someone who knows how to do it or you pay the money to take you to the next level. Guess what, it's the same with organizing. You start to get wins and you are flying through your house. You will want to spend more time organizing your house because you are having such success. Equally, when you get frustrated and your laundry room is driving you bananas, you are going to start figuring out how to beat that laundry room. Someone has to win the battle and you want it to be you. You get so determined that once it is complete, you have a sense of satisfaction and can give yourself permission to go and do something else with your time. When you're in the middle of January and you’re going to tackle the front hall closet or the laundry room, for example, just like in Candy Crush, you have two choices: Go online You can go online and find many resources and people that can help you. For example, on Pinterest or YouTube, you can see spaces that have been organized by others and watch how they do it. Hire help You can get a professional organizer or you could do my 100 Day Home Organization Program. How I can help you? To help you get organized, I have two things to offer you that I am so excited about. The Sunday Basket® Podcast I’m so excited to let you know that on Sunday, December 31st, I’m launching the Sunday Basket® Podcast. It is available now on iTunes. Please go check it out and subscribe. Starting tomorrow, on the Organize 365 podcast I will be posting a podcast to listen to EVERY DAY through December 31st. I am calling this the Organize 365 BINGE. These are previous podcasts that I have pulled out and put in the exact order I would have you listen to them if you were brand new to Organize 365. They will help you with the mental mindset you are going to need going forward. So whether you are new to Organize 365 (welcome!) or you are a regular, take a moment to subscribe, listen, and share this podcast with your friends and family. Help lighten the load for everyone! Then from December 31st to January 7th, I will have 8 brand new episodes on the SundayBasket® Podcast. You have to subscribe to The Sunday Basket® Podcast, though, so be sure to do that so you get my daily tips and motivation! The 100 Day Home Organization Program Registration to my 100 Day Home Organization Program is now open – click here to join. The program gives you 100 actionable, 15 minute a day activities starting on Monday, January 1st. Every day by email, you will receive a 15-minute activity with a short video, an actionable step, and any links to material that I talk about in the email or video. It is designed to systematically organize your entire house in 100 days. Don't worry, it comes with a lifetime membership so you don't have to commit to do all 100 days IN 100 days. You can skip days and go back to them and do this over and over again. We do the program 3 times a year. Also with the 100 Day Home Organization Program, you get my amazing planner! On January 1st, I will go live in the private Facebook Group and take you through the first part of this planner to set your goals and productivity. I also do a weekly live Q&A in the group which I also post online. So even if you aren’t on Facebook, you won't miss out. This is the game changer from waking up on January 1st, 2018 saying, "I'm going to lose some weight, get out of debt, and get organized" to waking up on January 1st, 2019 saying, "I got organized." My goal is to help increase your productivity to allow you to do whatever you were uniquely created to do. We as women are being taken out by the everyday and this is stopping us from being the unique individuals we are meant to be. I really want to be your coach, motivate you, and help you reduce the time spent on everyday tasks, to become more organized, purposeful, and productive through 2018. If you would like to join the 100 Day Home Organization Program, just click here. I hope to see you on the inside! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/208

On the podcast this week, I ask you the question – who is in your top five? Let me explain! A few years ago, a cell phone company had a benefit for their customers where you could select the top five people that you talk to the most on the phone and those calls would be free. They would run advertisements where they talked about you having a "top five." My husband, Greg, and I used to find the whole "top five" thing amusing, and I recall it was often the source of jokes with comedians! Then I heard a quote and it really had an impact on me. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” by the late Jim Rohn. You’re the average of the five people that you spend the most time with in terms of income, positivity, taking action, etc. The five people you spend the most time with are who you’ll be the most like. I remember when I first heard this quote, it really caused me to think about who the five people are that I spend the most time with. At the time, I was thinking how true the quote was. My income was the average of the five people I spent the most time with. My gossip level was the average of the five people I spent the most time with! (I don’t gossip anymore, but I used to gossip a lot!). I changed how I spend my time It was a conscious decision that I made to change how I spend my time. Hearing that quote over and over again and thinking, well, who do I want to be like? What income do I want to have? What kind of free time do I want to have? How do I want to spend my free time? What do I want to talk about in conversations? I don’t listen to the news anymore, but at the time I was watching CNBC every day and I was freaking about the stock market… our money… every day. I lived in a very moment-to-moment life. Now I live a much more peaceful, purposeful, proactive, cultivated life. I have cultivated the life that I am living. I let the media and the people in that I want and I don’t let in the rest. My life is not directed based on what comes across my desk or comes across my TV. Even in my free time, I am choosing not to be marketed to through commercials, and I’m choosing not to get my news fed to me through a regular network news program. Who are your five top people? Now when you hear this, you may think about the five people you spend the most time with. They may all be under three feet tall! You’re not going to change that. You’re not going to change your spouse, your kids, your parents, your parish, your church, your whatever. The people you spend the most time with are somewhat static and somewhat flexible. So, who you spend the most physical time with may not be as easy to change as who you spend your intellectual time with. Ask yourself, who do I want to learn from? Who do I want to be like? If I could hang out with them tomorrow, and we lived in the same city, who would I hang out with? I changed my top 5 through podcasts. I picked two or three podcasters I really liked at the time and I listened to every one of their episodes. And I would sometimes listen to their episodes over and over again so I would mentally be with them all the time. When I find someone I like, I listen to their podcasts and (virtually) I become their "best friend" and get to know a lot about them. You probably know a lot about me. You may listen to me every day. You may be interacting with me in social media. I like to think that I might be one of the top five people that you spend the most time with! Great characteristics of your top five people I want you to think about the average of the five people you spend the most time with, and who are the five people you most want to spend 2018 with? Listen to the podcast to hear about four characteristics of people that I think would be most helpful for you to have in your top five going forward in 2018. Change your mindset A year from now at the end of 2018, what do you want your life to look like? Who do you want to be associating with? How much money do you want to be making? Who are those people that are living the life you want to be living 12 months from now? Your top five don’t have to be the physical people you see every day. So really, consciously, think about who is going to be in your top five going into 2018. Then follow me on Facebook or on Instagram. I would love to be in your top 5 in 2018... and beyond! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/207

It’s the beginning of December, the time of year when we reflect back on the past 11 months. We set goals to accomplish the things we said we were going to get done this year before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st. This is a podcast that has been brewing in my mind for a while. I’ve often said “progress over perfection” and “done is better than perfect.”   But perfection is a good thing, not a bad thing, right? Should we strive for perfection? I don’t think perfection is something to be idolized. I’m very goal orientated but I’m not a perfectionist, although I have lots of goals that I want to accomplish. I first realized I wasn’t a perfectionist in 8th Grade. I couldn’t get to that ideal of straight A’s. I always had a floating C on my report card. I remember failing a test because I wasn’t getting the information clearly. I was seeing it differently. Later, I found out I had dyslexia which made a lot of sense! We all see the world in a different way. There is no one exactly like you. When we strive for perfection, what is the outside marker that deems we are doing a good job?  Who is the judge of what perfection is? Perfect to one person may not be perfect to another. I want to change our vocabulary from perfectionism to excellence I’m definitely a woman of excellence. I try to be excellent in everything I do, but I don’t strive for perfection. The definition of perfection is “the condition, state or quality of being free or as free as possible of all flaws or defects” or “the action or process of improving something until it is faultless or as faultless as possible.” The definition of excellence is “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good” and “an outstanding feature or quality.” They sound pretty similar and, in some cases, the words can be used interchangeably. The difference is the intent behind the words and the way they make you feel. When you are going for the perfect room, the perfect picture, the perfect goal weight, you are fixated on what the outcome is going to look like. Is it your level of perfect or someone else’s level of perfect? Expectations of others In the past, when I’ve thought I could get something perfect, the problem was that it never was. My husband has perfectionistic tendencies. When we were newly married and I would paint a room or complete an organizing project, my husband would come in, inspect it, and find the flaws... which I can tell you, I was not very happy about! I’m a good enough painter. I saved us a lot of money painting the rooms. They’re not perfect, but they’re beautiful. I did the best that I could with the resources I had and I finished the job. I did it with excellence. But when I tried to meet the expectations of other people, I felt judged. Am I ever going to be good enough? When you strive for perfection, the definition alone tells you “the condition, state or quality of being free or as free as possible of all flaws or defects.” Free of all flaws and defects? Are you kidding? We’re in a fallen world. We can’t be free of flaws because we’re human. Excellence IS achievable I am so much happier now that I’m striving for excellence. But I was 30 years old before I decided to be a woman of excellence. For example, I spent years watching my best friend do everything... parenting, being hospitable, and being a friend... with excellence. One day, I just started doing what she did. I used to spend a lot of time bemoaning the fact that I had chores to do, or waiting until the chores filled up a block of time, or resenting that I had to do the chores. Now, if I’m walking by and I see something that needs doing... laundry to put away, something to pick up... I do it right away. I’ve become a person of action and excellence. How does this relate to you? When you are looking to get your house organized or become a more productive person, there is a tendency for us to dream about what it’s going to be like when everything is perfectly organized. It’s not going to happen. I want to change your mindset here. If you’re striving for perfection, your days are going to end in frustration and defeat. You are not going to get there. The thing I found out when striving for excellence is that “done is better than perfect.” Excellence in action So, this is how excellence plays out for me. Everyday, I set out to do one to three big tasks, things I want to knock off my to-do list. Often, I’ve done most of them by noon and I add more. And everyday I am amazed at what I get done, but I don’t set myself up for failure trying to be perfect at things. Excellence is taking the next step. It’s not about having a perfect outcome. It’s just looking at the next step that needs to be done, taking the action, then figuring out what the next step is. There’s none of the inner dialogue. Whenever I am trying to do something to be perfect, I spend so much time thinking about it, talking to myself about it, and preparing to do it instead of just doing it. When I act as a person of excellence, I just want to have this house well-run and everyone have what they need. How do you feel about excellence? There’s no real action to take, but I just want you to start thinking about the different feelings you have when acting in a perfect way or acting in excellence. How much time do you spend internally dialoguing with yourself over your own expectations? How your house looks How organized different spaces are How perfectly you do something How much of your time is wasted on the thinking and not the doing Sometimes in the doing, in the action, the perfect answer will come to you. A more excellent way will be revealed. If you have a couple of things on your list that you want to get done in the morning, just go ahead and attack those things with excellence, doing the next thing you know how to do. You will get so much more done than if you try to do one thing perfectly everyday. I would love to hear your feedback on this. You can talk to me on Facebook or on Instagram (I'm having lots of fun on Instagram Stories right now!) View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/206

'Tis the season to get overwhelmed with stress and give yourself a migraine and cold sweats just thinking about decorating your house for the holidays! We all love how our house looks when it is all decorated, but the task itself seems like climbing Mount Everest. We can get ourselves so worked up about how arduous the task appears. I know it feels like the biggest task of my life at times. How can we change our mindset on this? Recently, I held a "Holiday Blitz" challenge on Facebook Live, a free 5-day "get ready guide" for the holidays. To those of you who took part, I hope you found it super useful. The printables are available here and the videos are still on Facebook. During the challenge, I discussed how women have many roles that they play, and how we have different things to do all the time that leave us feeling like we are always working. The holidays are a time where there is a lot of pressure on the female head of the home. She needs to produce great food, decorations, and gift ideas, and be the host for guests, just to name a few. When it comes to decorating, we tend to put up every decoration we have because everybody loves them, right? Well, yes, but would they even notice if we didn’t use EVERY decoration? Well, most likely, they wouldn't! Where to start? It was around 10 years ago that decorating my house took on this momentous feeling. I used to love it, but so many things led to a change for me. I've tried various approaches over the years to get back into the swing and take joy from festive decorating, and the approach that has worked best is a giant purge. We all have that box of decorations sitting in the basement that we no longer use. You collect all these decorations and wish you had a space, but really they are just guilt in boxes and it is okay to get rid of them. Yes, go ahead and donate them. You will not need them in the future. And you will not miss them either! That doesn’t mean you can't ever add new things, just as long as they make sense to you. We bought a Christmas tree (ours have to be fake as I am allergic to real trees) around 10 years ago and, at the time, I loved it. Then Christmas tree technology really moved on and I got pre-lit tree envy, but for years couldn’t justify the cost. This year though – I bought it! Or rather, them. I got a few… but they were a great addition for us, as I’ll explain shortly. What next? This year, I decorated my entire house in 3-1/2 hours and I’m going to share my secrets with you. I break it down into 4 steps. Clean I always decorate on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The kids are on holiday and I’m off work, but my husband isn’t. So he gets the gift of leaving the house looking normal and returning to it fully decorated. This year, it fell perfectly that our housecleaner was coming that same day, too. Block out time I started optimistically by blocking out the whole day, but life happened and I couldn’t get started until 12:30 pm, rather than 10 am as I had originally planned. I already knew I had to be done by 6:30 pm. We had family coming in from out of state, and it was likely that my husband would finish work early. I was a little stressed at losing a couple of hours in the morning, but knew that I had to get it all squeezed in somehow. Start with the hardest part For me, the hardest part was always setting up the old tree. So I started with the smallest of the new trees. It took me no time! I was amazed. Then, I moved onto the bigger tree and assumed that would be simple, too. I shifted the furniture around and "ta-da," in 20 minutes I was done and had a beautiful big tree. Getting the new tree(s) saved me so much time and so much stress. It will alleviate so much worry for me next year. Keep going until you’re done At 2-1/2 hours into it, and with the Fall decorations down, nativity scenes set up, wreaths hanging, and baby Jesus in his wooden manger, I was done. But I wasn’t done. Those tree ornaments weren’t going to hang themselves! I made excuses. I even hid the ornaments on the other side of the room. I so desperately wanted it to be over already. But I didn’t quit. Our ornaments are separated into boxes by which tree they go on. I put the living room tree ornaments on and it was so fast and easy. By this point, I realized I had been so close to giving up and had been moaning about something so simple. I looked at what I had left and made a plan. I changed some things up and put things in new locations. Yes, I gave myself permission to change my own rule! We get so locked into tradition sometimes that we lose the sense of things. By the end, I was exhausted. So I had a coffee and took a nap in the time that I had to spare. My husband was thrilled when he got home and I was so pleased with myself that I actually got it done. Remember… You are in control. You can ask family which are their favorite decorations (do this before you put anything up so you know they actually remember it) and you can take away the pressure of having to put up all the other things that they don’t mention and won’t notice aren’t there anyway. Ease the pressure on yourself where you can and bring back the joy of holiday decorating. To see more about my holiday decorating and whatever else I'm up to, follow me on Instagram. Happy Holidays! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/205

I am delighted to welcome Dr. Carmen Landrau to this week's podcast episode. Carmen is a cardiologist, a professional speaker, a mom of 3 kids, and is from Puerto Rico. How Carmen balances work and home life is fascinating and her method of getting help to those in need in Puerto Rico is amazing. Those of you who listen regularly will know that I become obsessed when there is a natural disaster so I was thrilled to have Carmen on the show. Carmen and I met in California at a conference for entrepreneurs. With the help of her coach, she has developed a keynote speech helping professional women get to the next step in their careers and life. Women are multi-everything. We are busy being wives, mothers, daughters, friends, and career women. We all have the same problem and, if we want to have it all, we need to figure out how to do that. Our way of thinking is different to men and the expectations are different. Carmen helps women figure it out. The link to Puerto Rico I brought up my desperation about Puerto Rico to Carmen when we met in California. It was then that I learned Carmen’s family lives in Puerto Rico and that she has given to the cause in a very tangible way. I just knew I wanted to share her story with you. Carmen and I agree that nobody will save you in life. As women, we need to get more bold with our solutions and not wait to be asked to fix something. Carmen’s mom, sister, and extended family are still in Puerto Rico. They are one of the lucky few that have power, water, and food while 90% or so of the island still does not, nearly two months since the hurricane. I was incredibly naive and ignorant about Puerto Rico. I thought it was tiny like St. John Island and figured we could just move the people off the island. It is a significant population (they would have 5 electoral college votes if they were a state) and they don’t want to leave. At the time we recorded the podcast episode, the official death toll was 50. However, the true statistic is more like 500 as people are dying from "natural causes" brought on by the lack of resources. Carmen is part of an amazing movement helping the people of Puerto Rico Carmen worked around the system and got medical supplies there. It all started on a Facebook group set up by a doctor in Florida who is also from Puerto Rico. Initially, it was set up for female Puerto Rican doctors to see how they could help. It has evolved to include both sexes and other professions who want to help. Word of mouth from those within the group meant that a day or so later the Baton Rouge Emergency Aid Coalition (BREAC) got in touch. They are a group of volunteer medical professionals who have stocks of medication that they have collected from other shelters used in previous natural disasters. The equipment and medication can be used elsewhere, as long as they are obtained by licensed professionals in order to maintain chain of custody. But how to get them to Puerto Rico? Amazingly, through word of mouth and social media, people offered their planes to transport it, including United Airlines. Nine planes have gone out from Houston, 20 or 30 more nationwide. All of this happened because of volunteers and people making donations. It is almost too simple... doctors in Puerto Rico send out requests to doctors in Houston, then they source it and send it. Doctors in Puerto Rico then meet the plane and distribute it to those in need. No politics or red tape makes for a smooth and efficient system. The aftermath and legacy Carmen believes that when you find yourself in the aftermath of something like a natural disaster, or something else unexpected, you need to act and get over it or your whole life goes downhill. She acknowledges that people are still trying to figure out what happened and how to cope, but that’s why she is doing this. She is from Puerto Rico so she has a clear motive, but she is amazed by how many others want to help. When she asks why they do it, nobody has a specific answer. It is just the genuine goodness of their heart. That brings with it so much meaning and it is more appreciated than anything. Carmen knows it will take years to mend the damage done in Puerto Rico, but hang in there. Puerto Ricans know what they are doing and can fix this with you. They have survived this and the sky is the limit, keep moving forward. See this as an opportunity to re-invent yourself and try to make the best of it. There are many obstacles to helping in Puerto Rico, not least that it is an island nation. When the power goes out in Florida, there are trucks flooding in from other states to get things up and running. That cannot be done in this case. It is commendable that if you put a woman at the helm, things happen. When somebody is hurting, we go in there and fix it. The impact of this will be around for years, just as it will be in Texas and California and all those other sites of recent disasters. We are getting so used to the tragedy. It almost becomes a recurring news item with the lead up to it being more fully covered than the devastation and the impact itself. That is when they need us most and we need to know that they need us. Thank goodness for social media... it can be really useful. People affected can ask for exactly what they require. There is an opportunity for business owners to help There is an opportunity for business owners to help each other here. If only the effort big business put into the Olympics in Rio was put into helping Puerto Rico, right? They don’t apply that to charity and they most likely won’t, but smaller businesses can step up. We can also use newer technologies and update the island. We do not need to try to rebuild exactly what was there. It can be seen as a blank canvas, full of opportunities for those who seek them and take advantage of this situation to improve lives. Big business should pause for thought, too. They spend so much of their money on advertising, but the world is evolving and we don’t watch TV anymore. When will they realize they would do better to find a problem, like the situation in Puerto Rico, and solve it? We, as the public, would see and appreciate that. Surely there can be no better form of advertising. So, what can you do? Get out there and ask the questions. Figure out what people need and provide it if you can. Look at your resources and connect differently. Use that to help people. It is the day after Thanksgiving here in the United States and that significance is not lost on Carmen. There is always a reason behind what happens in our lives and perhaps the reason she and I met was so I could offer this help. What goes around, comes around. So if you can help, you should. It may be you one day. Related to this, I plan to set up an initiative for 2018. As we are decluttering, think about what makes us uniquely us and how we can impact the community around us. When we did the fundraiser for Houston, it was fun and we were able to surprise people. That feels good. (We are over $8,000 – THANK YOU so much to all who have contributed!) On the podcast, Carmen encourages everyone to go to the website www.BREAC225.org. There are ways that you can donate to fundraisers and so many links to stories like Carmen’s. They also have a cool way of doing things so you don’t have to wonder how to help – they have an Amazon Wishlist! If you would like to find out more about Carmen, click here. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/204

In this week’s podcast episode, I talk to you about organizational energy. At the beginning of 2017, I recorded three podcast episodes in a row after I had come to the conclusion that there is a cycle to getting organized. The first step is decluttering. The second step is organization. The third step is increased productivity. I want to take some time to "unpack" what each of these steps are and understand the energy behind decluttering, getting organized, and becoming more productive. What do you tend to focus on? If you’re a homeowner, you most likely tend to focus on one of these five: decluttering, organizing, being productive, cleaning, or decorating. And you’ll likely subscribe to and follow people (podcasters, bloggers, authors, etc.) who have the same focus as you. For example, I’m focused primarily on organization and on having a home that is organized in a functional way. To become organized, you first need to declutter. When you have worked on organization, you then tend to start working on productivity. I focus on all three steps as I see them as interconnected, but you’ll rarely hear me talk about cleaning or decorating! Let’s look at what I mean by these steps… Decluttering Decluttering is the act of reviewing a space and removing what no longer needs to be there. Quite often, decluttering needs to be completed as a group/family activity. At the very least, you need input from your family members when it comes to deciding what to do with their items. Decluttering is 70-90% physical and 10-30% mental. It becomes more of a mental exercise when you are dealing with items that are of emotional significance. Organization Organization is 50% physical and 50% mental. The mental aspect of getting started. Then the physical emptying out the space. Then comes the mental decision making on what to do with items. Back to physically buying and filling containers to use. And ending in mentally evaluating and reevaluating if the organization methods you chose is the BEST for you. Back and forth between mental and physical at a rate of 50/50. Increase Productivity Productivity is 10% physical and 90% mental. Being productive is largely a decision-making activity. For example, if you decided that you wanted a new capsule wardrobe, you would spend 90% of your time working out the when, what, and how of it all. Then, the actual act of going out and buying what you want, after all the decisions have been made, would take just 10% of the overall time. Cleaning Cleaning is 100% physical. There is very little thought process involved. You know what needs to be cleaned and you, or someone else, needs to take action. The only mental aspect is often us trying to justify or avoid doing a task that just needs to be done! That is why it is the easiest item to delegate! Decorating is something that I have so little experience with, I’m not even going to attempt to explain that one! How this relates to energy cycles In today's podcast and post, I explain how energy cycles throughout the year ebb and flow and how they relate to home organization. (This post is a long one and this email is long enough! Read the whole post here.) but I will post the energy you are feeling right now... October - December At this time of year, we start planning for the holidays. Thanks to those of you who took part in my holiday blitz this past week! Your focus is back to cleaning again. You want to clean before Thanksgiving and before you start putting those Christmas decorations up. The energy that is coming in the last 6-7 weeks of the year will come in waves. The energy will not be constant. The waves will come and you should ride them and not push them off. It’s harder to resist than to actually go and do what you want to do. For example, you’ll get an urge to go clean a room, declutter the kids’ rooms, decorate, etc. Whatever it may be, you will find you have these urges. I recommend just acting on them. December 22nd It seems funny for me to be so specific with a date, but on December 22nd my blog traffic will double (like it has done for the past few years)! I’ve realized that most of us start organizing on December 22nd. It’s when the kids are home for the holidays. Extended family start to arrive, if you are at home on the holidays. You are done with your holiday shopping, wrapping, etc. Most of the cleaning is done. You have time off work (with most jobs). It’s winter so you don’t want to be spending too much time outside. You will start to think about a home organization project that you could undertake. Family are around to help with decluttering. The focus is more decluttering than organizing at this time. From December 22nd to January 1st, the decluttering energy turns into an organizational energy. The 100 Day Home Organization Program I open enrollment for my 100 Day Home Organization Program at certain times of the year for a reason. The timing is well thought through and I base it on the cycles and energies that I’ve discussed in this week’s podcast episode. I’m pleased to let you know that the 100 Day Home Organization Program has just opened again (November 10-14). Click here to register. If you join now, you’ll start receiving the daily emails right away and you'll get the new and improved planner. Remember, the 100 Day Home Organization Program is not just for Christmas, it’s a lifetime membership! You can do the program again and again until your life has transformed. My goal is for you to live an organized life so you can spend your time doing what you love and pursuing your life purpose. What a great gift that would be, at Christmas or any time of year! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/202

This week’s podcast episode is number 200. 200 episodes. Can you believe it?! As if that wasn’t exciting enough, last week the Organize 365 podcast surpassed 2 million downloads! Thanks to each and every one of you who have listened to my podcast and who have supported me with Organize 365. I thought a lot about what to cover on my 200th episode and decided that I wanted to talk about paper, one of my favorite topics. Also, this week I have a few special announcements to make… all of them related to paper! I’m launching a second podcast – The Sunday Basket® Podcast In January 2018, I’m going to launch a second podcast called The Sunday Basket® Podcast. Recently, I’ve been wanting to talk more and more about paper organizing, but I know that not everyone wants to hear about it. So I decided to create a separate podcast where I can talk about paper organizing to my heart’s content for anyone who wants to listen. By having a separate podcast all about paper organization, I can focus the Organize 365 Podcast on my philosophy for home organization, mindset, other fun organizational predicaments, and productivity. Every generation handles paper differently Every generation looks at organization differently, and as such, they handle their paper differently. When we understand our generation, we develop an understanding of how we handle paper. Here’s an example of how we handle paper differently. The majority of people today do not use checkbooks anymore. However, I spend 30-40 minutes a week balancing my checkbook and reconciling our household transactions. I can’t comprehend how other people don’t do this! As a Gen X person, I was brought up with paper. On the other hand, Millennials will tell me that they do not have any paper. It is not a "thing" for them at all. What is a checkbook?! The paper tsunami is coming The majority of paper is with the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers. These generations set up filing cabinets. They did not have computers so paper ruled. Today, we tend to continue with the filing cabinets, but our habits have changed... rather, our filing cabinets have become a habit and not a resource. We have all sorts of paper that we file away, but if we want to look something up, we don’t go to our paper files, we look things up online! Realistically, 80% of the paper in our filing cabinets right now should be recycled or shredded. The issue is that none of us want to shred all of that paper. But neither do Baby Boomers or the Silent Generation. One of these days someone is going to have to go through all of this paper. Even if you don’t do this with your own files, you may end up doing it for your parents and your grandparents. All of these files need to be sorted through, because while 80% of it most likely can be shredded, the other 20% is very important. For example, it could be an important part of your family history, or even lead to cold, hard cash. I have found both when sorting through my family paperwork! I helped a client with her paperwork when her husband passed away and there were multiple 6-figure investments hidden in the piles of paperwork that, thankfully, we discovered. This happens more than you can imagine. Almost always, when circumstances lead to you having to sell your parents’ home, paper is the one thing that gets boxed up to deal with "later." Your parents' generation has likely lived in their home for decades, and therefore, there is SO much to sort through. Paper always seems to be the thing that can be boxed up. The issue is that "later" can become decades. This can result in generations of paperwork boxed up in people’s basements. After all, who has time to sort through it all? I’m writing a new book about paper organization! I’m so excited to share with you that I’m writing a book on paper organization. My book will help you handle the paper tsunami that is is coming – the tsunami consists of your own paperwork, plus your parents’ paperwork, and your grandparents’ paperwork. We don’t need filing cabinets anymore. I call files little paper graveyards! We need all of our information digital and scanned. My book will take you from the Sunday Basket® to online digital scanning. My goal is to provide the road map that people need to help them tackle their paper and NOT keep it out of sight and out of mind in the basement anymore! With all the natural disasters that have been happening lately, I am more inspired than ever to help people get their paper digitalized so that it’s always available to them. There is a paper tsunami coming… and we need to be ready! Please take the household paper survey I would like to find out more about the paper in your house. I would love it if you would take my household paper survey. It will only take you 5 minutes to complete. The link to it is on the Organize365.com homepage. Sunday Basket® Workshops If you want to get started with sorting your paper, please consider signing up for a virtual SundayBasket® Workshop with me. I love delivering the virtual workshops. They are so much fun and I guarantee you will find it really helpful. Learn more here. Or maybe you would prefer an in-person Sunday Basket® Workshop delivered by a SundayBasket® Workshop Licensee. That would be amazing! Click here to find your nearest in-person workshop provider. Or maybe you’re interested in becoming a Sunday Basket® Workshop Licensed Provider! Registration is always open. Click here to learn more. Creating a Schedule Printable Finally, for the past couple of months, I have focused on productivity, looking at goal setting and routines. Many of you downloaded my Creating A Schedule printables. I hope you found them useful. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, what are you waiting for?! One final note... In the podcast, you'll hear me mention adding a new front page to the printable that lists the 5 podcasts related to it... why you need a morning routine, afternoon and evening routine, how to plan your week, and how to set goals. Well, I didn't do that after all so I've just linked to them here. Now that's productive! Have a great week, and don't forget to take the paper organizing survey! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/200

Did you know that I have a condo? In this podcast episode, I share all about how I have preserved my sanity in my teenage years, 20s, 30s, and 40s by having my own condo. Putting yourself first I hope that by sharing how I use my condo, and how it’s evolved over time, will help give you the permission that you need to put yourself first. I tend to talk about productivity in the fall because it’s a naturally productive time. It’s often a time when people set their goals and intentions for the next 12 months – certainly, I do. Many people have been in touch with me regarding my recent podcast episodes on time management and productivity, and they have told me that they struggle with applying many of the concepts themselves because they are people pleasers (and with this, I can’t help but feel a little like that must mean that I appear not to be). The funny thing is, I’ve ALWAYS been a people pleaser. It’s something that has been with me my whole life. It's only in recent years that I’ve started to learn how to put myself first. It has been really hard to do and has taken a lot of careful thought and proactivity on my behalf. I have often thought that if I put myself first and share this with people, they will think that I am selfish, that I don’t care about others, or that I’m spoiled. I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking this. A little history about my condo When I was young, I lived in a neighborhood without many children to play with my own age. I was not athletic so that ruled me out of pretty much all extra-curricular activities. So I spent my time playing "teacher" with my younger sister and "training" how to be a babysitter. I also helped my mom with her business, a direct sales clothing company. I created a game to play with my sister called "Big Friend." My sister and I pretended to be 16, our bikes were cars, our kitchen was a café, and our bedrooms were our apartments. I LOVED my bedroom! When I got punished by my parents, I’d get sent to my room – which was never a punishment in my eyes! I would spend lots of time in there, and would love to reorganize and redecorate it. My love of the private space and sanctuary of my bedroom continued into college in my dorm room, then on to when I lived in a shared house. Even when Greg and I moved to the spacious house that we still live in today, I’ve always spent most of my time in one part of the house. When my children developed separation anxiety at night, I stayed upstairs because they wanted me on the same floor as them. Since I’m always looking at ways to be productive, I worked in my bedroom until they fell asleep. Because of this, I had started spending the whole evening upstairs – especially when Tivo was invented! So when the kids go to bed, I stay upstairs, hang out in my bedroom, watch TV, take a bath…. I just spend a lot of time in there. It’s cozy and warm. I have a TV, my office, and food in my bedroom. I break all of the bedroom rules. In fact, I have a fully functioning office in my bedroom – it's the Organize 365 headquarters! Even though my kids are teenagers now, one of them still prefers that we’re on the same level in the house. Therefore, I still spend most of my evenings upstairs in my bedroom. It’s nice to have a private space just for you The whole point of getting organized is to help you find the time to do the things in life that you want to do. When you do the 100 Day Home Organization Program, you will find that there is a clear method to the organizational approach that you’re taken through. It starts in the kitchen, which is where the majority of people spend their time in the home. The kitchen is most important for your family. Next is the master bedroom and closet. They are most important for your soul! This is where you get dressed, where you sleep, where you regenerate yourself. It’s all about you (and a little about your spouse, of course!). The rest of the house is for your family, but the bedroom is about you. It’s your condo! My house is an apartment building I like that our house is like our own apartment building. Downstairs, the kitchen is like the café which is where we socialize and catch up. Upstairs, we all have the privacy of our own apartments. Our apartments are decorated to our own taste and style. So in the same way that I encourage my kids to think of their bedroom as a mini-apartment, I treat my bedroom just the same. The key is to have a space that is all yours I know your bedroom isn’t all yours, but honestly, 99% of the time your spouse really doesn’t care what you do with the bedroom (if your spouse is anything like mine). If they do, focus on your half of the bedroom! Use an imaginary piece of tape to divide it, if need be. Do you put yourself first? If you are feeling like you have to take care of your kids, your job, your spouse, your house, and you are at the end of the list... I want you to move yourself up to the top of the list. I’m not suggesting you do this all the time or even every day. But how about for just an hour a week? I would love for you to pencil in an hour that is just for you on your calendar. In addition, why not do an organizational task this week just on your stuff, on your area and no one else’s. When you get yourself organized, your family follows suit. There is an energy that comes from that positive place. For me, when I want to have "me time," I take great comfort hanging out in my condo! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/199

On the podcast this week, I talk about goal setting. Goal setting is one of my favorite things. I may even like it more than organizing! The kind of goals that I love to set are BHAG – which stands for big, hairy, audacious goals. To put this into context, when I was 16 my goals were: to be a stay-at-home mom, home-school my kids, and grow all my own food, own a business AND be the President of the United States! I have always had really high expectations for myself and others around me. When I was graduating from college, I was told I had "unrealistic expectations." I think it’s fair to say that I do often have unrealistic expectations. I usually don’t achieve my goals in the time frame that I originally set. But that is because they are so big that they require extra time, resources, and personal development in order to achieve them. But I DO achieve them! Examples Of Big Goals That I Have Achieved In summer 2016, one of my big goals was to create an Amazon number 1 bestseller by the fall… and I did! (The Mindset of Organization). Then in the spring, I published my second book, How ADHD Affects Home Organization , within 90 days. It also became an Amazon number 1 bestseller, sold over 5,000 copies and is currently featured as an Amazon book of the month. I exceeded my own big, hairy, audacious goal! I remember when I announced in May 2016 that I wanted to get published by August 2016, some concerned Organized 365 readers thought that I was setting myself up for a fall. I received emails saying “Do you think you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?,” and “Are you sure you can publish a quality book that fast?” The fact is, we’re not used to people setting and achieving really, really big goals. Entrepreneurs are well known for chasing the elusive goal. And as soon as they get close to the goal, they extend it and make it bigger. I sure can relate to that! Introducing Good, Better, And Best Goals I was listening to James Wedmore’s podcast recently and he discussed this idea of good, better, and best goals. The basic idea is that the goal you want to achieve has 3 levels – a good goal, a better goal, and a best goal. Good, Better, And Best Goals In Home Organization I think this concept of good, better, and best goals relates to home organization as well. I’m a functional organizer and not a "picture-perfect, Pinterest home" organizer. What I’ll be teaching you is to set expectations that reach a good and better goal, but not necessarily a best goal. Let me explain. You could say that to declutter a space would be a good goal. A better goal is to functionally organize that space after it is decluttered. The best goal would be for the room to be really well designed, have been designed by an interior designer, and have brand new containers that all match! A laundry example would be as follows – Good... clean laundry. Better... clean and put away. Best... clean, put away, and organized. In my 100 Day Home Organization Program, I have often said that it takes 3 times going through a space to really get it organized. Really, what we are doing there is getting to good, to better, then to best. I talk through some more examples of good, better, and best goals on the podcast, ranging from organizing paper, to setting weight goals, to how far you got with creating a plan from last week’s podcast episode. Don’t Get Too Attached To The Outcome Of Goals Sometimes when we set goals, we get very attached to what an outcome will look like. This may be based on what has happened in the past, the results of others, or just an ideal that we carry around. I would urge you not to get too attached to exactly what the outcome will look like. Because it may well be that you achieve a goal without even really realizing it. I would love for you to consider the following in goal setting: 1. When you are setting a goal, think of what would be a good, better, or best goal. Good means this has to happen. If this doesn't happen, then I didn’t meet this goal. Better is what I really want to happen, what I’m striving for. Best is if the sun, moon, and stars aligned and all your big goals are met! 2. Do not get attached to the outcome of the goal. Sometimes, our goals can be achieved in ways that we didn’t envision. Good luck at setting your good, better, and best goals! I’d love to hear how far you get with them over in my Facebook Group. If you’d like to join, click here. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/198

On the podcast this week, I talk about time management and productivity. I’ve finally figured out what is missing for women on this topic! Everyone needs a schedule. You need a plan and you need to proactively tell yourself what you should be doing. Because if you don’t, you will just end up sidetracked and distracted. I haven’t talked about time management and productivity very much in the past. That is because I think that you need to get physically organized first before you can get mentally organized. This is a little different from what you’re used to hearing me say. I do think that change happens in your mind first and then in your physical reality – as far as getting physically organized and decluttered. But when it comes to productivity and time management, we’re at a whole new level. Now we are visualizing what change will look like and mentally making the changes. That is why I want to make this physical for you. I have created some AMAZING printables that I’m so happy to share with you. You can download them here and they go with this week’s podcast episode and next week’s episode as well. They also go with episodes 192 and 193 on routines. Making changes to our time management and how we manage our schedule does not happen overnight. I have devised 4 steps for creating a plan for time management. Steps 1 & 2: Morning and Afternoon & Evening Routines I recently created two podcast episodes on my morning routine and my afternoon and evening routines. Thank you for all the feedback that I’ve received on these episodes – I loved recording them and they’ve been really well received. Many people talk about morning and evening routines, but for me my afternoon routine is my most important routine right now (between 2-5pm – after my productive work) . In this week’s podcast episode, I talk you through exactly what I want you to do to creat your routines and my worksheet will help you formulate one – just add ONE new thing into your morning, afternoon and evening routine. Step 3: Work out all of the roles that you are responsible for in the household This step is going to overwhelm you! I take you through the task of working out how many roles you are responsible for when it comes to running your household. There are A LOT of roles and you will be surprised how many relate to you. For example, healthcare coordinator, taxi driver, vacation planner, etc. On the worksheet, you are then asked to work out all of your ‘to-dos’ for each role. You may find this difficult, but give it your best shot! To put this into context – a couple years ago, I completed a time study for me and Greg. We discovered we were spending 36 hours a week on household and childcare related tasks. Step 4: Planning your time and creating a schedule In this final step on my worksheet, you actually plan your time. You create a schedule. The focus is on being PRODUCTIVE. When you plan your time in advance (right down to the minutes), you will find that you have more minutes. Yes, you get more time back in your day! I can work with you on this task, if you'd like. I love helping people plan their schedules in order to be more productive. Just click here to book a coaching call with me. You NEED a schedule – especially if you work from home. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a work-from-home employee, a stay-at-home mom, or you have any other role that requires you to work from home, you NEED to have a schedule. I consider "work" as your life purpose. That is how I define work. This could be paid or unpaid (i.e., stay-at-home mom). Whatever your work is, it’s your life purpose. Time is so valuable and you can never get it back so you need to work out a schedule that ensures you do not fritter away your time. Share your new schedules in the Organize 365 Facebook Group! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/197

On the podcast this week, I introduce you to a rule that I impose upon myself that I call the “24 Hour Rule." The 24 Hour Rule is going to free you up from all the things that you might do, should do, could do, or want to do someday. Instead, it’ll teach you to focus on today. Warning: Please listen to the full podcast episode! You may think at first that the 24 hour rule is a little crazy, but by the end I hope I’ve convinced you to give it a try. A Bit Of Background The 24 Hour Rule is something that I developed for myself after I’d been doing the SundayBasket™ for a few years. Why? Well, I found that a couple of items in my Sunday Basket™ stayed every week! This goes against the rule of the Sunday Basket™, that you empty the Sunday Basket™ completely on Sunday. Then you hold up every single item – every piece of paper, mail, slash pocket – and you ask yourself, “Can this wait until next Sunday?” If it can, then it goes right back into the Sunday Basket™. At the end of your time working on your Sunday Basket™, you have identified the items that need to be acted on before next Sunday. All the rest can wait. I Started To Drown In My WOW Ideas I’m an ideas person. Ideas come to me all the time and I get so excited. I’m a WOW person and not a HOW person – I usually leave the details to someone else. I love to write down my ideas or print them off and then put them in my Sunday Basket™. I realized that all of these WOW ideas were the items in my Sunday Basket™ that were staying each week. I was just accumulating a lot of ideas, but not necessarily implementing them. In other words, I was drowning in my own ideas and becoming overwhelmed. I had to stop stockpiling all of my should/could/someday ideas in a physical location because it was wasting my time instead of inspiring me. To overcome this problem, I created the 24 Hour Rule. The 24 Hour Rule Explained My 24-hour rule is pretty simple. When I find a great idea, I ask myself, “Can I do this within 24 hours?” Now, of course, there are many things that you can’t implement fully in 24 hours, but here’s another way to look at this… We all have times when we come up with a juicy idea that we dive right into and end up spending 2 hours (sometimes even more!) on the internet researching our idea. Do you agree? Most likely, you didn’t have those 2 hours when you first got your idea, but you made time within 24 hours to flesh it out. Then you decided if it was worth pursuing now, later, or not at all. My point is that, if an idea is that good and it moves you that much, then you will take immediate action on it. All of the other someday ideas can be disregarded right now. Don’t write them down or print them off. Just let them be. As soon as I adapted the 24 Hour Rule, I found that if I really wanted to do something awesome for my business, my home, or my family, I could almost always start to take action within 24 hours. A Recent Example Where I Applied The 24 Hour Rule A recent example of my coming up with an idea and applying it within 24 hours is the fundraising appeal that I am currently running for Avondale House in Houston, Texas. I was completely glued to the news on Hurricane Harvey – reading and watching everything about it on my phone. I felt so bad for those affected that I thought there must something I can do to help. That’s when I came up with the idea of fundraising for Avondale House. You can read all about it and contribute here. Great news, we’ve raised over $2,000 at the time of recording this podcast! Thank you so much to everyone for contributing. Now you see that the idea of helping out with Hurricane Harvey relief was so important to me that if I had waited, I would never have taken action. Your To-Do List Is Never-Ending The reality is that as soon as you knock things off your to-do list, other things come onto it. That is why it’s a to-do list, and not a to-done list – it’s never going to end! As soon as you come to terms with your to-do list, it will give you greater perspective on organizing your to-dos, prioritizing, and a more realistic view of life. There is only so much you can do in your day and I really, really want you to be able to use some of your free time for whatever you want to do. This is why a key piece of advice that I have for you is to only have 3 big things – or what I callrocks – that you want to accomplish each day. Keep things realistic and don’t constantly chase the impossible. I’m going to cover this concept in more detail in future podcast episodes so stay tuned. The Sunday Basket™ Most things come back to the Sunday Basket™ because I truly love the Sunday Basket™. The Sunday Basket™ takes time to set up and get used to using. But when you’ve been implementing the Sunday Basket™ for 2 months, I’m going to bet that you find you have a lot more time back in your week. That time comes from no longer looking for paper items and trying to remember things, and from being more organized. It’s amazing how much time you spend just with switching tasks. Did you know you can spend up to 20 minutes switching tasks and recovering from getting distracted? That’s a lot of time! And that’s why, I always encourage you to put your big ideas in your Sunday Basket™. But let’s take it a step further and always apply the 24 Hour Rule to each and every one of those ideas. I suggest that when you review your ideas every week, you should assess whether you will act on it in 24 hours. If not, throw it away or review it again in 100 days. I challenge you today… What is something that you have on your someday list that you can eliminate? I challenge you to get rid of it – go ahead and lighten your load! Now, is that big idea you have right now actionable within 24 hours? Then, I encourage you to start pursuing it now! Are you interested in knowing more about the Sunday Basket™? You can join attend a virtual class here or join the Sunday Basket™ Workshop Licensing Program by clicking here! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/196

On the podcast this week, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Wendy Zanders. Wendy is a successful professional organizer and her story fascinates me. She has done things in almost the exact opposite order to how I’d normally recommend, but it has worked well and I couldn’t be happier for her. Her story just goes to show that there are many different routes to success and we must all follow the path that feels right for us. Wendy discovered me when she was suffering from depression Wendy found me and the Organize 365 blog and podcast during the most depressing time of her life. Her family had suffered the loss of a dear family member and she was really struggling. She actually connected with me when she heard me share my depression story, as her experiences felt so similar to mine. Wendy shares on the podcast how she joined my Jumpstart Professional Organizer Program (a one-time offering this past summer). The program was for people wanting to start a professional organizer business. She then joined my Sunday Basket™ Workshop Licensing Program, and later she joined my 100 Day Home Organization Program. This is pretty much the exact opposite order that you would expect! A little more about Wendy Wendy is 35, lives in Frederick, Maryland, and she has a husband, a 4 year old daughter, a 10 year old son, and a new business. She is in between the accumulation and survival phases of life. Her life is pretty busy, with non-stop family commitments, business commitments, and church commitments. Wendy and her husband both work full-time, and they very much divide and conquer when it comes to running the family and household. Earlier this year, Wendy decided that she wanted to get a part-time job on the weekend to help build up the family emergency fund. She was given the advice to find something she loves to do and then do it as a business. Like me, Wendy LOVES being organized and helping others get organized. Becoming a professional organizer seemed like the perfect choice! Wendy and I first spoke in May of this year. After asking me plenty of great questions, she decided to join my Jumpstart Professional Organizer Program. Thankfully, her husband was behind her 100%, something that is always a huge help for the women who take my program. Wendy is also a member of my Professional Organizers Think Tank Facebook Group. She explains on the podcast how being a member of the group really took things to another level for her, being able to connect with other like-minded professional organizers on the same journey as her has been invaluable. She works on her professional organization business on Friday nights and Saturday. Wendy had a goal to earn back the program fee within 7 months and she did so within 3 months! Becoming a professional organizer despite having ADD Wendy shares on the podcast that she has attention deficit disorder, something that you wouldn’t always associate with a professional organizer. Wendy was not diagnosed with ADD until later in life. It was actually the point at which her son was being tested for ADHD that she realized she had many of the symptoms herself. Wendy becoming a successful professional organizer... with ADD... really does mean that if you have a passion to do something, then go out there and do it! Marketing can be the biggest challenge One of Wendy’s key strengths is marketing her business. Being a professional organizer means meeting and connecting with many people. Therefore, marketing efforts that lead to the most results are often those conducted in person. Wendy is a superstar when it comes to marketing her business and on the podcast she shares the many ways that she’s doing this. Become a Sunday Basket™ Workshop Licensed Provider Would you like to become a Sunday Basket™ Workshop licensee like Wendy? Would you like to help people in your local area get their paperwork organized? This is a first step before joining my mentoring program for professional organizers. My Sunday Basket™ Workshop Licensing Program is now open and I’d love for you to join. Registration closes next Tuesday, September 26th. Please click here to find out more. If you want to join the licensing program, but it’s not right for you at this time, you can put yourself on the (no obligation) wait list for next time. Finally (because I’m so excited about it!), I want to share that Wendy and I are both going toBizChix Live in October which is going to be AMAZING. If you want to learn more about the event please, click here. Happy Paper Organizing! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/195

There is nothing more frustrating than nervously watching a tragedy unfold before your eyes and feel like there is nothing you can do to help. The hours I have spent the last month reading articles, watching video clips, and following friends on social media who are going through natural disasters is mind blowing. This nervous energy eats me alive. I want to DO something. Ironically in Cincinnati, Ohio, we have very few natural disasters. A stray tornado or big snow storm, but nothing like the fires, earthquakes, and hurricanes I 've watched in the last month. Even so, emergencies in general are a guarantee in life. Someday you will need to have your medical and financial ducks in a row to facilitate your care or the care of a loved one. This week in the podcast, Betsy shares her Houston Hurricane story, and I share how you can organize your important documents and help the autistic community at the Avondale House School in Houston, Texas. The Avondale House is a resource for the special needs community in Houston and a school for children with autism. For the rest of 2017, when you purchase the medical and financial organizers through this link, 100% of the sale will go to the Avondale House School. The financial and medical organizers are editable PDFs so you can store your information digitally or they can be printed and put in a binder – it's your choice! These organizers collect all your important information so you don't have to hunt through your filing cabinet or wish you could take the whole thing with you if you have to evacuate. This will really help you in an emergency situation, whatever that situation may be. 100% of the proceeds from sales of my medical and financial planners will go to Avondale House. This is a "win-win" situation as you get these two great organizers AND you get to donate to such a great cause. If you would prefer to not purchase the planners, but would rather donate directly to Avondale House, you can do so here. One thing you will never hear me say is, "It 's just stuff." I know better. Physical items can be replaced, but it does not minimize the pain and inconvenience of doing so. I hope you are reading this in a house with running water, a working sewage system, and electricity Like I said in the podcast, my own medical and financial organizers were not filled out, but I am doing it now. I don't want to, and I don 't "have the time," but I know... one day I will be glad I did. Prayers to everyone in the path of these natural disasters. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/194

When is the last time you took a hard look at your afternoon and evening routines? We hear A LOT of people talk about their morning routines. (I shared details about my morning routine last week.) It’s also quite common to hear about evening routines. But, I’ve hardly ever heard anyone talk about afternoon routines. For me, my afternoon routine... or rather, my after-school/after-work routine... is really key to my productivity. In this week’s podcast, I dive into my afternoon and my evening routine. Afternoon Routine When I talk about an afternoon routine, I am referring to the time of day when we are transitioning from work responsibilities back to our family responsibilities. Personally, my afternoon routine is currently going through changes as my children are getting older and are no longer relying on me for rides home from school and to their various activities. As such, I find myself with more time to work in the afternoon. For quite some time, my work day ended at 2pm when I left to pick up the kids. If I’d done my work for the day by 2pm, that was a good day. Any work that I got completed after 2pm was what I called "bonus" work! As the kids have gotten older and more self-reliant, I have been able to carry on with work, if needed, from 3:15pm (when I get home from picking them up) until 5:30pm. Yes, I do work a lot! If I don’t have work to do at this time, I sometimes take a nap. This year, I have help with my kids' school pick up and my son will be driving, which means my work day will be 8am to 5pm. Whether your work day ends at 2pm, at 5pm, or whenever, here is one daily routine I recommend you follow during the last 20 minutes of your work day: Tidy Up – Take a few minutes to organize your work space. Coming in the next day to a tidy area will get you into the right mindset. Calendar – Look at your calendar for the next day and get an idea of what you currently have scheduled. To-Do List – Go over the list of goals you have set for the week and figure out which items need to be completed the next day. Write It Down – On either an index card or a legal pad, write down your tasks for the next day in the order you need to complete them. Remember to always TRUST the schedule you made the day before! The impromptu coffee run sounds good in the moment, but your rational mind says otherwise. Following this afternoon routine today will set you up for a successful tomorrow. Then, 5:30pm to 7:30pm is the time I have set aside to spend with my husband and kids, but I also have time set aside to do other important things for myself. Here are some of the things that I like to do as part of my afternoon routine after I've spent valuable time with my family: Clean the Kitchen – I like to ensure everything is clean and put away in the kitchen. (This is a new addition for me this year.) Plan Dinners – Take a few minutes and decide what to make for dinner the next day. This saves you from scrambling to figure it out the next afternoon. Pack the Car – Look at the schedule you made for the next day and place anything you need for tomorrow in the car. For example, dry cleaning that needs to be dropped off. That is my afternoon routine and I think it’s the key to my productivity. Evening Routine From 7:30pm to 9pm, everyone in my family likes to enjoy some alone time. I tend to head upstairs to my office and continue working. But, the work that I do at this time is work that I really enjoy doing and nothing too heavy. At 9pm, I start my bath and pick my clothes out for the next day. I try to keep my wardrobe pretty simple. Capsule wardrobes really interest me and I’m going to dive deeper into that idea in the fall. Around 9:30pm, Greg and I watch a TV show. (You’ll need to listen to the podcast if you want to hear me run through my favorite programs right now!) No matter which small tasks you add to your evening routine to help the next day run smoother, make sure to take time to RELAX. Remember, at the end of the day, it isn’t about what you didn’t accomplish that day, it’s about what you DID accomplish and how you impacted the people around you. It’s all in the routine! Don't miss Lisa and Joey's bear, rope, and toaster Walmart trip in this episode! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/podcast/routines 

In this week’s podcast episode, I talk all about productivity and morning routines. You’ll discover why my morning routine is different than everyone else’s and why I make no apologies for that! Two years ago, I recorded a podcast episode where I talked all about my morning and evening routines at that time. If you would like to hear it, click here. In that episode, I focused on decision fatigue and how setting up routines that you can run on auto-pilot will minimize the number of decisions you need to make. It's amazing the difference a well-planned morning routine can make! This week’s episode continues to build on that topic with a focus on productivity. I love productivity. I’m a productivity nut. If there is any way that I can save 5 seconds a day, I’ll figure it out and I’ll save those 5 seconds, whether I put them to good use or not! Wasting time is one of my biggest pet peeves. So, I love to study how to be more productive. However, just recently I noticed that the majority of the productivity gurus that I have been following – those with podcasts, books, blogs, etc. on productivity – are all men. I’ve tried to change this and seek out female leaders in the productivity field, but they are hard to find. Even though I am a very productive person, it’s hard not to feel like I’m not as productive as I could be when comparing myself to someone so different than me. There are many differences between the productivity schedule of a man and a woman. There are also key differences between the schedule of a Gen X and Gen Y person. There are HUGE differences between the productivity schedule of people with and without kids! Many of the male gurus I have been listening to want you to get up early (before 5am), have an ice cold shower, exercise, meditate… this is not for me. I've tried aspects of it. I even found myself in the gym at 6am…it DID NOT work out well for me! I realized, I was comparing myself to people with such different lives, goals, and challenges than mine. We all strive for balance. As women, we are always trying to seek balance in our lives. But you know what… balance is boring! We can’t perfectly balance everything and if we do – if there is complete balance and not one single thing that gets more of you because you’re so passionate about it – where is the fun in that?! Think of it like a cookie. First, we all like/need different ingredients in our cookies. The base ingredients are often similar, but the rest varies, whether that’s chocolate, raisins, gluten free, soy free, etc., just like we all have different things going on in our life. Second, whatever those ingredients are, they are not required in equal proportions. That would not make for a good cookie! Third, there is no perfect cookie for all. We are all different and unique! You need to know WHO you are taking productivity and morning routine advice from. The productivity routine of the modern woman covers 7 items: Household Cleaning Shopping Work - paid or unpaid Self Care Spouse (optional) Kids (optional) They may not all be applicable to everyone. For example, I know not everyone has a spouse or kids. Personally, I opted out of number 2 and have a housekeeper! My point is that you need to know who you are, what phase of life you’re in, when you like to wake up, what your expectations are for yourself and work. When you are clear on all of that, you can work out the best morning routine for you. My morning routine. I define my morning routine as from the time I wake up until when I start the productive part of my day. For me that is a 5:45-6am wake-up until around 9-10am when I get to work. I wake up with enough time to get up, get ready, and get in the car to take my kids to school. I’m on auto-pilot with my routine so much so that I don’t need to think about it. Refer to this episode and also this one to learn about my make-up caddy. It’s almost impossible for me to forget anything with the way that I’ve organized this. In this week’s episode, I talk you through in detail exactly what I do, what I eat, etc. There are 4 steps to establishing a morning routine. Step 1 – Habitualize your regular daily morning routine for getting up/ready Step 2 – Determine your best work time for doing your household tasks and work Step 3 – Create a flex day – this is a day where you don’t have any big work demands and can blitz smaller tasks and be responsive to new things that come up Step 4 – Create a focus for each day – this doesn’t mean you can’t do other things, but always have a focus/priority for each day There is no perfect. I’ve spent so much time trying to find the perfect morning routine and the perfect way to be productive. I realize now that there is no such thing as perfect. I would love for you to look at your own morning routine. Are you a morning person or not? Do you like to dive into creative work early or not? Is exercise something that really helps you first thing? Get to know yourself and build the routine that suits you. What fuels you? How long does it take? How do you work best? Let me know in my Facebook group. Next week, I’m going to talk about afternoon and evening routines. View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/192

Every year I tweak my morning & evening routines when summer ends and the kids go back to school. Here are 5 steps to create your own morning & evening routines. http://organize365.com/how-to-create-morning-and-evening-routines/

In this week’s podcast, I take a look at the cost of clutter and disorganization in our lives. I think we all know that there is a cost benefit to leading a more organized life, but did you know that it’s not just a financial benefit? A disorganized and chaotic life can bear many costs… let's look at the different costs that disorganization causes in our lives and the steps that you can take to make a difference. 1. Financial Cost Buying twice, losing things, items getting ruined, misplacing coupons that eventually expire… I don’t think anyone would argue that there is a not a financial cost benefit to being more organized. 2. Mental Cost It can be mentally draining trying to remember all of the things that we are responsible for… getting the laundry started, doing the dishes, getting the kids ready for various activities, etc. We are constantly trying to remember and stay on top of things. The Sunday Basket™ is a HUGE help here. Personally, I like to make notes and jot down ideas all through the week and then go through them all together on a Sunday. I find 50% of the items in my SundayBasket™ are notes to myself. 3. Time Cost When disorganization creeps into your life, you lose time. You lose time looking for things. You lose time doing things on a whim. You lose time just trying to escape from your cluttered and disorganized situation by watching TV and playing on your phone. The funny thing is that while you know you are losing time, you don’t have time to figure out where you’re losing it. There is NO TIME! If you had the time, you could do a time study and really get to the bottom of how you can save time, but again… who has time for that?! I have done a time study twice and it was very depressing seeing the true reality of how much time I spent driving in my car and watching TV. We have a lot of demands on our time and, if you’re not proactive in how you manage your time, you end up doing things on a whim and putting out fires. 4. Emotional Cost There was a study that concluded a direct link between families who have more clutter, disorganization, and unfinished projects in their homes with mood and cortisol levels. Basically, the conclusion is that there are health benefits to being more organized in the household, and the risks of not doing so include depression and a less satisfied marriage.Here is a link to the study. It’s important to note that there’s no right or wrong when it comes to home organization. Just like there is no perfect weight for a woman, or no perfect way to feed a baby, everyone has a different level of home organization that is right for them and makes them happy. Irronically, the more progress you make in some areas of organization, the more frustrated you get in other areas. This is completely normal and it just signifies a new level of organization that you expect. You have raised the bar and you now need to stay above that bar for your own peice of mind. So how do we make the change we want to see? YOU need to take action! It’s really important to understand that you are in the driver’s seat and the change that you require will not just happen to you, but rather by you. You need to make it happen . Don’t wait for someone to come rescue you because, believe me (I’ve been there), that will not happen! There are two things that you need to do to help bring about the change that you want: 1. Change your mindset – Bring about the mental transformation to live a clutter-free, organized life. You are already doing this right now by reading this newsletter and listening to my podcast. 2. Physical change – For this, I have an exercise for you to do! To do the exercise, you need to listen to the podcast episode and hear me talk you through it. Trust me. All I will say is listen to the podcast episode when you are at home and have a piece of chalk handy!   P.S. Registration is now open for my 100 Day Home Organization Program where I am with you every step of the journey to help you get your home and your life organized. Every week, I am there to encourage and motivate you, share stories, and help you reach your goals. You will make fast and lasting progress because of the way the program has been organized. You will also be with a group of like-minded ladies who are all on the same journey as you, taking action at the same time as one another in the same living spaces. Let me teach you how to expand your mind. I will show you how to be more productive,more proactive, and how to plan. You will take back your home and have time to live the life that you are supposed to live. The 100 Day Home Organization Program is an investment, but it’s an investment in yourself. It will make home organization your new priority. You will start to see a reduction in all of the other costs associated with disorganization and clutter. Register now! Registration ends on August 28th for the next session starting September 4th. And for those of you already registered... Congratulations! Please pass this on to ONE person you would love to do the 100 Day Home Organization Program with you! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/190

On last week’s podcast episode, I introduced you to Holly, Monique, and Emily, the virtual organization teachers for my 100 Day Home Organization Program. ( This week, I thought it would be a great idea to introduce you to one of the 100 Day Home Organization Program members.  Wait until you meet Dawn! We had so much fun recording the episode and giggling like school girls. Dawn first noticed me in 2015 when she was searching online for help with keeping her house clean. I would LOVE for you to tell me how YOU met me! Dawn has been using a Sunday Basket™ for about a year, having participated in the Sunday Basket™ virtual workshops, and she joined the 100 Day Home Organization Program in January, 2017. With 4 school-age kids with ages ranging from 6 to 15, Dawn is definitely in the survival phase of life. :) I was embarrassed to admit on air that I thought THAT was enough responsibility - the kids & house - and was SHOCKED when I found out she owned an electrical contracting business which she has been running with her husband for 14 years!! Dawn is responsible for the business bookkeeping and office staff, but her focus, productivity, and ability to even get to the office was derailed when she had her fourth child and couldn't keep up. Similar to myself, Dawn spends A LOT of time in her car. During the school year, she spends 3.5 hours per day in her car doing the school run for her 4 kids who are at 4 different schools. Dawn got my attention in the 100 Day Home Organization Program Facebook group for two reasons. First, her regular use of smiley face emojis. Second, she has goats. Lots of goats. I initially thought maybe one or two. Little did I know,she has over 35 goats?!?! With all this going on in Dawn’s life, is there any wonder she looked for some help with getting her home organized? Dawn started the 100 Day Home Organization Program in January, 2017. First time around, Dawn admits she got distracted and didn’t follow along. When she posted about this in the Facebook group, I swiftly moved her to the front of the class and helped her out. For anyone considering joining, know that the 100 Day Home Organization Program is not passive and I WILL make sure you do the work! Under my guidance and watch, Dawn organized her whole kitchen within 3 days. It went from a disorganized mess to super-organized. She went on to do her master bedroom, making a huge improvement to her house. The 100 Day Home Organization Program is something that you have access to for life and it is not designed to be done once. No one, myself included, could get through the whole program in one go at it. That is why it’s a lifetime membership. When Dawn started the 100 day program for the second time, she signed up for the virtual organization package. In her first call with me, we decided to turn her dining room into her office... and she has never looked back. Dawn also shares how we worked together to fix her messy breakfast situation in the kitchen and how we sorted out her garage. If you sign up for the virtual organization package for the upcoming 100 Day Home Organization Program, you will get to work with Monique, Holly, or Emily, who I introduced you to last week. If you would like to sign up for the 100 Day Home Organization Program, registration for the September 2017 session opened TODAY! Click here. Check out my Facebook LIVE Friday afternoon to see my new garage shipping station I put together this week to mail out planners to those of you who register! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/189

In this week’s podcast episode, I discuss how best to declutter and organize your closet. I discuss capsule wardrobes, how you can purge too much, and how you can have a variety in your everyday clothing while loving and wearing everything in your closet! I started this year with three episodes about the importance of decluttering, organizing, and increasing productivity. In those episodes, I explained that when you reduce the amount of "stuff" you own and get it all organized, your productivity will increase.  This will give you LOTS of extra time to focus on what you were meant to do in life. Productivity is a result of living an organized life.  This week's episode builds upon those topics. So if you missed those episodes and would like to listen to them first, they are #144 – Declutter!, #145 – Organize, and #147 – Increase Productivity. What to buy? When I was in high school, my mother taught me some important lessons on how and what to buy when it came to clothes. Here are the tips she shared with me that I still find helpful today: "Cost Per Wearing" Analysis – Evaluate the cost of your clothing by how many times you think you will wear it. A $150 coat is worth the investment if you wear it 100 times, bringing the cost of the coat down to $1.50 per wear.  Compared to a $15 "bargain" top that you only actually wore once, meaning the cost per wear is $15. The $150 coat was a far more economical investment. Buy In Outfits – Focus on purchasing items that are interchangeable. By focusing on a specific color scheme or style in mind, it will save you time and stress because everything will match. What to keep? Now that you have some ideas for how to shop for new clothes, what should you do with all of your existing clothes that are sitting in your closet? It’s time for you to decide what needs to stay and what needs to go. Just recently, I went through my own closet to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. Here are the rules that helped me when decluttering my own clothes. Keep clothes that fit you – We all have that one item of clothing we are keeping until we can lose 5 pounds and it will fit once again. It NEEDS to go!  You should only keep clothes that fit you and make you feel great. Don’t keep clothes that make you feel like you should change to be able to wear them. Keep items that match each other – If it doesn’t match anything else in your wardrobe so you have nothing to wear it with, it needs to go. It doesn’t matter how cute or comfortable those shoes are if you are never going to wear them. No extra purses – Most women do the same with purses… we usually stick to one primary purse yet hold onto our old purses, telling ourselves we might one day need them. This ALMOST NEVER happens! Try to keep your everyday purse, as well as a particular favorite, and get rid of the rest. You really DON’T need them all. Types of wardrobes to consider... If you’re looking to try something entirely new when it comes to organizing your wardrobe, there are a couple different options out there for minimizing your closet. Capsule wardrobe – This type of wardrobe limits you to a certain number of items per capsule (not including your under garments). You set the number to what you would like and you limit your wardrobe capsule to that number.  Have capsules for work, seasons, or specific occasions, it’s up to you.  You can keep the rest of your clothes, but it takes the stress out of planning your day-to-day outfits. Uniform wardrobe – Many successful executives such as Steve Jobs, Barrack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg have utilized the uniform wardrobe. Clothes in this kind of wardrobe are all similar and interchangeable.  For example, my wardrobe consists of mostly jeans, sweaters, and tops.  Jeans match pretty much everything so it is easy for me to buy a large variety of tops to interchange with them. As parents, our wardrobes often fall to the wayside as we spend all of our time and money making sure that our kids (who are constantly growing) are getting the clothes that they need. I’m here to tell you that it’s IMPORTANT to update your wardrobe, too.  Instead of buying the occasional, random item for yourself on a whim, make a point of finding yourself something nice that matches your wardrobe. It’s essential for you to look and feel good about yourself, too. Now that I have shared my ideas for decluttering your wardrobe, I challenge ALL of you to walk into your closet and come out with 15 items that you no longer need or want. This is a great first step towards getting your closet decluttered. By following my tips and getting your closet organized, you’ll be able to get dressed quicker, feel better, and get on with living your best life. Now go declutter! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/186

I’m excited to announce that next week I’m running a Back To School Blitz. It’s a 5-day challenge designed to help get you ready for a really productive fall and fully prepared for the new school year. So in this week’s podcast,  I talk all about the Back To School Blitz. Why run a Back To School Blitz? For me, the start of the school year signifies the start of my 12-month year.  I discussed this in podcast 134 where I explained that I have 3 different "mini new years" in my year. It starts in September... the beginning of the school year, then January... the beginning of the calendar year, and finally June... the beginning of summer. Each has a different set of possibilities, but September has the most possibilities for me. It's when I set the BIG goals for my year ahead. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter if you’re not going to school, the beginning of the school year is when we should all get everything in order and set our goals for success. Productivity starts with being prepared. There are plenty of little things that we could do now to set ourselves up for a productive school year. So, my 5-day Back To School Blitz is designed to help set everyone up for a productive school year... whether you go to school or not! I’m more excited about doing it for myself than for my kids. What is the Back To School Blitz? It’s a 5-day challenge that you need to sign-up for here. It’s delivered to you by email. Every day at 5am EST, you will receive checklists via email. You should print a copy for everyone in your house who is taking part in the blitz.  For example,  I’ll print off three... one for me and one for each of my two children. Since my kids are teenagers, I’ll try and convince them to do the checklist themselves. Don’t worry, the checklists are not lists of things to buy. In fact, my Back To School Blitz does not involve buying anything at all! Instead, it’s all about decluttering, culling, and making inventories of what we have in our house so that in August we can go ahead and buy exactly what we need.  This will stop you from over or under buying things. So here’s what it involves: Monday: Clothing – Going through your closet and figuring out what you need, what needs altered, etc. Tuesday: Set up a command center – A back to school Sunday Basket™ that you will set up next week and continue to use thereafter. It will help you take note of the various things that need to be done before going back to school (i.e., supply lists, school uniform, car pool arrangements, etc.). Wednesday: Supplies – A supply list for your home or your home-based business. It’s the best time of the year to stock up on things like pens, binders, highlighters, etc. Thursday: Personal grooming – Look at what you have and what you need. Schedule manicures, haircuts, other treatments, etc. Friday: What does it take to get this family out the door? – Backpacks, lunches, purses, car, etc. Since everything is delivered by email, you need to sign up. In addition, every day I will go live on Facebook at 10:30am EST to provide support and share additional tips and advice. Together, we are going to get our kids and ourselves ready for a really productive fall and new school year. Are you with me? View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/185

It’s a rite of passage almost no one will escape: the difficult, emotional journey of downsizing your or your aging parents' home. Here, nationally syndicated home columnist Marni Jameson sensitively guides readers through the process, from opening that first closet, to sorting through a lifetime's worth of possessions, to selling the homestead itself. Using her own personal journey as a basis, she helps you figure out a strategy and create a mindset to accomplish the task quickly, respectfully, rewardingly—and, in the best of situations, even memorably. Throughout, she combines her been-there experience with insights from national experts—antiques appraisers, garage-sale gurus, professional organizers, and psychologists—to offer practical wisdom and heartwarming advice so you know with certainty what to keep, toss or sell. Downsizing The Family Home: What to Save, What to Let Go

Doing laundry always seems like it takes a lifetime, doesn’t it? But how long does it really take? For this week’s podcast episode, I timed how long it took me to complete ALL of my laundry. Over the course of a weekend, I used a stopwatch and I timed from when I began a laundry task to when I completed it. By doing this, I was able to get an accurate idea of how long completing all of my household laundry really took. My Findings The truth is, the actual tasks involved in doing laundry didn’t take up too much time. Every time I went into the laundry room to complete a task, I was usually only in there for about 5-8 minutes.  So it really wasn’t taking me very long. I discovered I was able to do 9 loads of laundry in only 61 minutes. BUT... and this is a big but... the 61 minutes were spread over 3 days. So I pretty much felt like I spent 3 days in my laundry room! So what I came to learn is that, while the tasks don’t take very long, laundry can seem so much more time consuming than it really is because it occupies so many of our thoughts as we are doing it. I found I was always thinking about things like when the current load will be complete, whether I have gathered everything for the next load, where are the hangers, and so on. My Laundry Tips Fortunately, there are ways to save yourself both time and stress when it comes to your laundry. Here are my top tips for making laundry easier: Sort by weight – Instead of separating your laundry into loads by color, try separating them by how much each item weighs. Heavier items take longer to dry and lighter items take less time to dry.  This will save you drying time on those little loads.  Difficult load first – We all have that load of laundry that is just more difficult than the rest. Do your most difficult load of laundry first and this will make the rest of your loads less stressful. Multiple days of laundry – By spreading your laundry time throughout the week and doing some of the easier loads on weekdays (towels for example), you will save yourself time and stress on the weekends. Set a timer – Every time you start a load of laundry, start a timer on your phone. By setting the timer for 45-50 minutes, it will help prevent you from forgetting about the laundry and losing track of time. Of course, hiring someone else to do the laundry would be the ultimate time saver!  This might not be an option for everyone, but it’s definitely something to consider. There may be no perfect solution to doing laundry, but I would LOVE to hear your suggestions for making laundry quicker and easier. Please share your ideas in my Organize 365 Facebook Group. A special thank you to this week’s podcast sponsor, TidyLiving! Use the promocode ORGANIZE365 to save 10% View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/183

In her latest book, Lisa Woodruff explores the executive functions of the mind that directly affect your ability to organize your home: flexible thinking, working memory, self-monitoring, task initiation, planning, and organization. Along the way, she provides tips and strategies for overcoming obstacles—tools you can use to get the organized house you’ve been dreaming of. Now available as an Audible Book. How ADHD Affects Home Organization

This week’s podcast is about the times when you find yourself in a tough phase of life. It’s about the times when you literally have no time to get organized no matter how much you want to. It may be that you’re SO busy you struggle to find even 15 minutes a day to get your home organized. Or you have the time, but what you want/need to do requires money and you literally don’t have a spare $15 right now. It may be both, you don’t have a spare 15 minutes AND a spare $15! They’re not phases that we want to find ourselves in, but nonetheless, it can happen to us all and probably will at least once in our life. I can easily draw upon my own personal experience with this topic. I’d LOVE to say that I was stuck in this phase of life for a week or a month, but it was more like 6 years! In the episode, I touch on how to get organized if you have a chronic condition (like fibromyalgia or a physical ailment). I’m afraid I have no magic answer ,but my main advice is to get someone to help you, either paid (if you can afford it) or unpaid (friends and family). When you have help in place, you then need to think about how you can incorporate help with home organization as well as physical care. People want to help you, and so, broaden your thinking on how you can use that help. If you’re a parent, a lot can depend upon the age of your children and what I like to call the "stage of parenting" that you find yourself in. I recorded a whole podcast episode on this very topic: #130 - The Three Stages of Parenting. Age 0-6 is when you’re doing EVERYTHING for your kids. You’re at home a lot. It can be exhausting. And there’s SO much to organize because the rate of change when it comes to clothes, toys, etc. is mind boggling! Age 6-12 is when you do things with your kids. You teach them how to start looking after themselves. 13+ is when they’re becoming a young adult. Then, it’s more about coaching and mentoring. So what do you do when you’re in the middle of a phase and you don’t have time or money to get your house organized? My answer is to work on changing your mindset. A lot goes on in your head before you see it in physical reality. I notice this with my business, my finances, my relationships… the world is more mental than it is physical. Positivity feeds and attracts more positivity, and negativity feeds and attracts more negativity. I reference in the podcast a documentary series on inventions that I watched and loved. If you’d like to check it out, it’s by National Geographic called American Genius. If you’re in a hard place and you feel stuck in a tough phase of life, this doesn’t mean that you should give up the desire to have an organized home in the future. If you think about having an organized home and you want it enough, you will manifest it. Having a Sunday Basket™ will really help you too. The Sunday Basket™ helps bring order, it develops the right skills, and brings about the discipline required for an organized house. Of course, please continue to listen to my podcast and other podcasts on home organization, too! Continue working on your mindset, even if you’re somewhat limited in the action that you can take right now. You will be amazed at the power of a mindset shift! View the complete post here: https://organize365.com/176

This week’s podcast episode is a special one for me as it's all about my new book, How ADHD Affects Home Organization, which launched June 1! In this week’s podcast episode, I share a lot about why I decided to write the book, what my goals are, and how I truly believe that this book is REALLY going to help people with ADHD feel empowered and able to take control of their home organization! If you’d told me years ago that I’d one day be the author of a book called How ADHD Affects Home Organization, I’d have found it hard to believe... I don't have a degree or PhD in the subject! However, it’s a topic that I’ve specialized in for almost 20 years in order to help my children. I’ve worked hard on overcoming every challenge that my children have faced, no matter how many attempts it took. We’ve tried a 100% natural approach with no medication at all, and we’ve tried various medications and alternative therapies, too. I’ve read medical journals, researched like crazy, and over the years I’ve developed an obsession with understanding how the mind works and how we can improve it. I’ve parented, taught, and professionally organized people who struggle with ADHD. I’ve helped people from all around the world get their homes organized and stay organized. My podcast series on ADHD last spring was very popular.  SO many people got in touch to say how much it had helped them and how I was able to explain things in a way that no one else had ever managed to before. Through all of the above, I came to accept that I am an expert and I can and should use my expertise to really help others.  It seemed about time to write a book and so I did... and that’s why I’m launching How ADHD Affects Home Organization. This book is for people who find themselves overwhelmed, even paralyzed, with home organization. Where you put effort in and don’t make progress, and you spend money on organizing solutions that just don’t work! My book is for people who know what to do, but just can’t get started! Organization is not easy. And if you have ADHD, it’s a lot harder, but it’s not impossible! It’s all about understanding how your brain works, then working with your brain and not against it. It’s about recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, using them to your advantage, and finding strategies that work for you. How ADHD Affects Home Organization explores the executive functions of the mind and how they affect your ability to organize your home. In particular, I take 6 executive functions (flexible thinking, working memory, self-monitoring, task initiation, planning, and organization) and explain for each one what it is, why it’s important when organizing your house, and I share solutions to problems that you may face. The kindle book is free from June 1st - 3rd. Then from June 4th, it’ll be 99 cents for the rest of the month. If you buy the Kindle version, you’ll also receive a discount when downloading the audio version from Audible. Please get a copy of the book and please, please review it, too. It really helps more people receive the message that they too can get organized! This book will help the loved ones of those who have ADHD, too. Once you understand how the brain of a loved one with ADHD works, you understand them as a person a little bit more than you did before. I truly believe it’s going to be a game changer and really help a lot of people. I’m so EXCITED! I want to remove the cloud over people who have ADHD and offer them hope, solutions, and empowerment. To get your copy, please click here!

Welcome to the final episode of my three-part series all about the different phases of life and how specific life experiences can cause them to overlap. In this week's episode, I talk about what happens when we lose a loved one. Specifically, I focus on losing a parent. It's rather poignant for me that when I recorded the episode, it was 8 years to the day that my father had passed away. Losing a loved one moves you into three phases of life Survival When your parent passes away, immediately you're thrust into the survival phase. You have a lot to do. You have to plan the funeral, speak to other family members, help organize the estate, and many other things at an incredibly stressful and emotional time of your life. You're in the survival phase. Accumulation You will accumulate a lot of belongings from your parents. At such an emotional time, you don't want to let go of things in haste. So I recommend finding an off-site storage unit for a certain period of time just so you can take time to decide what to keep and what to let go of. If you're anything like me, you may find yourself trading-up many items that are actually nicer than those you already have! Downsizing & Legacy After about a year, you enter the downsizing and legacy phase. The legacy phase comes first and it lasts for about 3-4 years. You start to think about what you'll keep longer term that once belonged to your parents. What do you want to be a part of their legacy? It's all about how you're going to take the essence of the person who passed away and put it to use in a meaningful way. I really recommend finding interesting and creative ways to keep the items that carry sentimental value to you. For example, I have a shadow box and every time I find little things that remind me of my Dad, I put them in the shadow box in the basement. About year 5, you're going to find yourself focusing more on downsizing. At this time, not only will you be thinking about what you want to keep that once belonged to your parents, but you start to think about yourself, too. You start to look at YOUR belongings and think about what will be YOUR legacy. You realize that someone has to get rid of it all someday! I could record podcasts for weeks about how different life events, in addition to our chronological age, impact what organizational phase of life we feel like we are most in at any one moment. My goal in recording these podcasts was not for you to be able to better categorize your phase of life, but to recognize that we are all floating between the phases at any one time and can learn and grow at our own pace and stage of life. A special thank you to this week's podcast sponsor, the National Association of Senior Move Managers!

Last week, I introduced you to the 4 phases of life and how when you have your babies can impact upon your phase of life. This week, I explore this topic even further and share with you how caring for family members can also affect your organizational phase of life. Having a baby, the topic of last week's podcast, is a welcome and joyous life event. When you have a baby, you're thrust into the accumulation phase. All of those toys...food...clothes...furniture...! This week's focus is on when you become a caretaker for a family member. Unfortunately, when you become a caretaker of a family member, that's not such a joyous life event. Sometimes we'll see it coming and have a gradual lead in, other times it rocks our world in an instant! Often this will be due to medical emergencies, like when a loved one falls and breaks their hip...which I've found in recent years is a real thing and it happens A LOT! I can share from first-hand experience that being a caretaker is EXTREMELY time consuming. You have an immediate prioritization shift in your life. You're thrust into having responsibility over two sets of everything...two households, two sets of bills, etc. Whatever stage of life you were previously in, when you become a caretaker, you're also now in the survival phase, too. In this podcast episode, I share with you some really useful ideas on how to cope if this happens to you. I also have two super useful products that are designed to help you keep track of, and ultimately share when needed, important personal information. One focuses on medical information (i.e., insurance, current and past prescriptions, medical history, etc.). The other focuses on financial information, mainly for spouses to keep a joint record (i.e., bank details, etc.). They are editable so you can fill one in for yourself, another for your parents, and I even fill the medical record out for my children. It's just so useful to keep all the information that you have in one simple record. Next week, I look at how losing a close family member can affect your phase of life. I'm sure you can guess what phase you find yourself in when that happens! Full blog post can be viewed at organize365.com/170 A special thank you to this week's podcast sponsor, the National Association of Senior Move Managers! 

I'm super excited to share with you my next series of 3 podcasts which are all about the different phases of life and how they overlap. Most people are living in overlapping phases of life. I really want to address this topic and explore what it means for you. This is something of a storytelling podcast - there's not a lot of direct action for you to take, but lots of learning! I've actually been wanting to record this podcast series for about 9 months, but it's a topic that is best approached when the timing is just right! January is all about organizational projects, March is about decluttering... May is the perfect time to reflect! It's all centered around what I consider to be the 4 phases of a woman's life. The Childhood Phase (birth to around 18 years old) - Limited organizational requirements and heavily influenced by parents. The Accumulation Phase (around 18-39 years old) - A period of learning and accumulating. You accumulate more and more belongings! Usually in this phase, you accumulate a spouse and family, too! The Survival Phase (around 40-54 years old) - A mindset shift takes place at this stage. Most people are working during this phase and, in addition to that, they're looking after their family and running the household. And if you're anything like me, you're in your car all the time! The Downsizing & Legacy Phase (age 55+) - The big clear out! Kids are moving out and you naturally start to reduce the amount of items in your house. You also begin to consider your legacy - what will you save and why? There are three big life events that affect these phases of life - having children, becoming a caretaker for someone, and when someone close to you passes away. This week's focus is on having children. When we have kids, we go into full blown accumulation mode. Even the most minimalist of people can't resist accumulation when it comes to babies! As more and more millennials are tending towards having children in their early 40's, what does this mean in terms of the stages in life? Having a baby in your 40's = an overlap of the accumulation and the survival stage. Next week, I look at how becoming a caretaker for someone can affect your phase of life. Have a great week!

This week on the podcast, I'm talking to you about all the different kinds of bags you have in your house. From backpacks to purses, I'm going through the different kinds of bags and how many we should have of each. And I am super excited about the next three podcasts. I'm creating a series of podcasts about what to do when the phases of life overlap. Thank you so much for being part of the Organize 365 community. My hope each day is that I can provide you with one new nugget of information that will help you make your home organization easier. Have a great week!

The book The Power of When will help you understand your body’s natural chronotype and how to use that information to achieve your personal goals in organizing your home and living a more productive life. I used the information in this book to understand how and why the members of our family choose to do daily routine tasks at different times of day and how to best support my kids as they become adults. The Power of When

Clean out and back up the cars - because we are going to FILL them! Designate one car for donations and one for items that need to be delivered, returned or consigned.   Next decide how long you have to work on this project at ONE time.  If you have 2 hours or more - EMPTY the garage. You know it's true. Once the items are OUT of the garage it is as easy to donate them as it is to put them back in the garage.  The garage houses all of the future projects we "think" we are going to do. The biggest work you are going to do is DECIDE if you really are going to do those ideas and projects.  In the podcast I talk about how I no longer have flower gardens, why I easily donate items we have purchased and never used and how we need better tools.  It's a funny listen. And will keep you going while you declutter guilt and expectations in the form of flower pots and old sporting equipment. Check your storage solutions. Now is the time to invest in a few plastic shelving units to organize what you have left and buy organizers specific to what YOU have in your garage. Keep going! You can do this! Keep decluttering all the way until March 31!! I want you to focus on decluttering and your Sunday Basket this month so… The 100 Day Home Organization Challenge registration is closed. Join the wait list here and you will be the first to be notified when it reopens.

No one wants to go down here. I know. If you haven't listened to the "How to Sort a Box" podcast. It is podcast #150 and goes along with today’s podcast #159 Ok. The basement. In this space you need a leader who will direct the family. - Usually mom. The leader goes down and starts sorting boxes and items into family members' piles. And then each family member (one at a time) will come down, make decisions and carry the donations up. -HINT- Preparation is KEY here! The more the leader prepares, the quicker the decisions go and the more gets donated.  There is no denying that basements, attics and storage rooms ZAP energy and are the HARDEST areas to organize! Everything is down there because you don't know what to do with it. ;) So pace yourself. Each bag and box donated is a HUGE win! Keep going. You can do this! Don't forget to download the family and individual brackets to play along. View the get started post for "rules". :) This is the LAST day to register for the Sunday Basket workshops. Start tackling that storage room… one box at a time. For the full show notes go to organize365.com/159

The first step in organizing the family room is to stop and think about what you really do in this space.    Do you still watch DVDs or do you stream your entertainment?   If your youngest child is in 2nd grade it is OK to move all the toys out of the family room.   If your youngest child is in middle school all their toys can be in their room.   For the full show notes go to organize365.com/157

Here are the 7 steps to decluttering your bedroom at any age.   1. Pick up all trash 2. Collect all food, dishes and dirty laundry. 3. Scan the room and fill a bag of any easily donateable items. 4. Go through ALL your clothes. Try on all your pants and tops. 5. Look at the items on your floor (including furniture) and make decisions about what can go. 6. Go through the books in your bedroom. 7. Stand and look at each wall of your room.   For the full show notes go to organize365.com/156

Step 1 - Get ALL your photos in ONE place. Step 2 - Decide what you want. Step 3 - SORT by person and Project. Here are my favorite albums to make. Click here for my photo services and see videos of the most popular albums I make. Step 4 - Print your photos. :) TimeShel is the Apple App I am using to print 30 photos each month from my phone. Look at these beautiful pictures! TimeShel is super easy to use. Remember to use the code: ORG365 to get a free month 10 prints or 40% off your 30 monthly print subscription. Era is the Apple app I mentioned for having larger prints printed from your phone. Again, use the code ORG365 and get free shipping on your first order. :) Click here for all the links and show notes. Click here to join the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge.

The Procrastinate on Purpose By Rory Vaden is the book that explains how I am so ridiculously productive and it has NOTHING to do with time management. I had so much fun sharing about the significance calculation, the rule of 30 and how all this relates to getting your home organized! Rory's Focus Funnel: Can it be eliminated? Can it be automated? Can it be delegated? No? Then do it now or procrastinate it on purpose. Links mentioned in the podcast: 100 Day Home Organization Challenge My Weekly, Monthly and Yearly checklists. Rory's book on Kindle The audio book version of The Mindset of Organization is finally here!! I hope you enjoy the sample chapters in podcast 140. You can get a free audible copy of The Mindset of Organization and start a free 30 day trial of audible at Organize365.com/audible

I talk a LOT about saving your memories. And while I tell you to save your memories in blankets and photo albums, I have not given you a resource to do so. Until today. I am SO excited to introduce you to Once Upon A Time Creation. Jen Anderson has created a beautiful line of keepsakes that can be created from your storage room treasures. Check out my favorites in this week’s blog post. What treasures will you create? Check out Once Upon a Time Creation here. Click here to join the 100 Day Home Organization Challenge.

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan is the book that has helped me the most in achieving increased productivity. Using the focus question, “What is the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will become easier and unnecessary?” I prioritize my day on a continual basis. In this podcast you will hear: Why I prioritized a nay over recording this podcast. How extraordinary success is sequential. About the domino effect. How to apply the ONE thing to organizing your home. The audio book version of The Mindset of Organization is finally here!! I hope you enjoy the sample chapters in podcast 140. You can get a free audible copy of The Mindset of Organization and start a free 30 day trial of audible at Organize365.com/audible