Duplication of Efforts

One of my biggest pet peeves is having someone ask me to do something and then either do it themselves or have someone else do it. I HATE THAT! Not only because it's rude, but nine out of ten I have already done the necessary plotting aka put it on my list of To Do's.

It's a total time waster, it's an unnecessary duplication of efforts, and it's flat out annoying!

So, how can you eliminate these sanity robbing misfits from your life? Well, you could super glue their finger tips to the key board and then duct tape their mouths shut. The visual alone is enough to make me smile with glee! Of course, it very well could get me into trouble. =( Bummer!

Instead it may be wiser to either just strictly tell the person, "I have this task please do NOT have someone else work on it." OR you can nod your head, "yes" and then completely ignore them because you know that they will end up doing it themselves. This makes me sigh with relief.

Although it may look like you don't follow through, you could back it up by logging in every time the Dipstick of Duplication asks you do something and then does it him/herself. Why waste your time on something pointless when you have a hell of a lot better things to do?

Unfortunately there are always exceptions to every rule, (I still like the idea of using duct tape and glue!). During a previous "life", the department I was in was NOTORIOUS for doing this. It would drive me absolutely batty until one day during a meeting I exploded. (Did I ever mention I used to bring a wooden spoon with me to work?) A report needed compiled, graphs presented, and it took 4 days to put the whole thing together. What I did not know is that the lady who asked me to compile it had done it as well and she didn't "need" my report. Her excuse? She wasn't sure if I was going to have time to do it so she just took it upon herself to do it instead.

A couple of things made itself perfectly clear during my little outburst, 1) "What's her face" did this to EVERYONE. 2) Communication between projects could be a lot better. 3) Suzanne doesn't ALWAYS laugh.

The end result was, "Numb-Nuts" needed to knock it off and our team started utilizing Outlook Tasks to keep everyone in the loop as to where we all were with certain projects. It worked out PERFECTLY! No more duplications of effort and no more Suzy Outbursts...well, almost! :o)

Regardless of whether or not you are Dipstick Duplicator or the Duplicatee, try figuring out another way to do things as to not waste your time or the time of your co-workers. You will all be a heck of a lot more effective and less stressed!

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne

Living Up to the Expectation

Imagine you are driving to your favorite Irish pub and you are craving fish and chips and an Irish tune or two. You have this wonderful warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing that when you get there you are going to be transported to another place. A place where locals gather after a hard days work, stories are told under poor lighting, and a lively tune is playing on the radio or maybe even a live sesion. Talk about melting your stress away!

Now you walk into your favorite establishment only to find rap music blaring over the radio, not a fish and chip meal to be found and they serve Pepsi. (Ok, fine there are only two real choices, but STILL!) Not only was I extremely disappointed, but so were my kids. We were expecting our usual fun atmosphere with Raul style wings, grilled salmon sandwiches, Tim Finnegan playing on the radio, and the "regulars". What we got was far from anything Irish. We ate our meal in silence...with no Raul style wings and no grilled salmon sandwiches, and listening to music that even made ME blush! (And that takes A LOT!) Needless to say, a dinner we were anxiously anticipating turned into a virtual nightmare.

So is true with anything in your little life. Since this is an organizing blog we will apply it to the art of organizing. You buy a book full of promise of tranforming you into an organizing diva, you watch a TV show that makes decluttering 25 years of shit seem like a 60-minute walk in the park, you hire a kitchen organizer to help you stabilize your office. Expectations are EVERYTHING! Especially if you have an end result in mind.

Now, what I was expecting to get this evening was simple. I was going to an Irish Pub, I was expecting Irish music, Irish food, and I was hoping for Coke. I would have been content with two out of the three, but what I got was shiit! ;o) Now, if it had been Joe's Bar and Grill, well then, I wouldn't have been disappointed it would have been unsuspecting and it would have been ok. I would have had no expectations.

When you hire an office organizer please let it be to organize your office and not your kitchen. If you have specific expectations of what your end result SHOULD be, then be sure and tell the organizer what it is. Kind of like Joe's Bar and Grill, your organizer may not KNOW what you expect of her or him. If you tout yourself at being a Classroom organizer than by golly, be a damn good one!

Whatever the case, be what you say you are and do what you say you do. Live up to the expectation of what other people perceive. Or change the perception you want others to think of you as. And for goodness sake, play Irish music at an Irish pub! ;o)

How Many Emails in Your Inbox?

Next month I am going to be speaking at a technology conference in Anaheim on Taking Control of Your Inbox. A couple of months ago I asked for your email pet peeves and the feedback was wonderful! The book accompaniment for the show will be finished next week and for those of you who participated, you will be receiving your complimentary copy!

Now I have ANOTHER request for you and I need some "email" help. I would like to know just how many emails you have in your inbox. I don't care if you have 2, 200, 2000. I would just like to get an idea of what the average person has living inside their computer. :o) Next Friday, August 22, I will go ahead and pull from the magic hat one person who will also receive a copy of the ebook, "Taking Control of Your Inbox".

Thanks so much for baring your inbox soul to the world and can't wait to see just how many you all have!!

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne

What am I going to do with ANOTHER coffee mug?

I don't even drink coffee and it never fails that someone always buys me a mug. (not this mug, I just thought it was cool and it's from Scotland!)

So the pretty mugs that I end up getting I use as a pen holder in my office, the kitchen, at work, laundry room. (Do you know how many times I have rescued pens from going in the wash?!)

So I have the coffee mug dilemma and I also have this horrible receipt debacle going on right now! I have receipts that I need to hang on to for expense reports. Sometimes they are office supplies, plane tickets, cab receipts, meals, yadda yadda yadda. I have them for work and I have them for client specific projects. I was just using nifty poly envelopes and putting them inside and life was wonderful. Now, however, I have decided that I have gotten substantially more lazy this summer and opening an envelope is way too much work for me. But I have all of these frikken mugs lying around!

So I took tweedle dilemma and tweedle debacle and put them together! I didn't get a scrumptious cheesecake, but I did get a solution to my problem! Now I have a set of wonderfully beautiful mugs that I just stuff the receipts into them depending on the client or account. :o) Then when it's full or when I need to do an expense report I just grab my Coke and coffee mug and get to work. It's WONDERFUL!

Who knew coffee mugs for a Coke drinker could come in so handy?

Here are a few other suggestions for those pesky mugs.

• Loose change
• Pens
• Receipts
• Loose screws, nuts, & bolts
• Post it flags
• Binder clips
• Chopsticks
• Kitchen utensils
• Make up brushes
• Cell phone
• MP3 players
• Bluetooth
• Charging station for the above

What other things do you use coffee mugs for?

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne

The Road Less Traveled: Top 100 Simple Living Blogs

It's quite amazing what goes on in life when you have been unplugged for a couple of weeks! I received an email while my computer was contemplating death from Kelly, letting me know that I was included in a list for Top 100 Simple Living Blogs along with some of my other blogging buddies. I probably should have read through it before I started my mass clean up over the weekend!!!

The list goes through several topics of interest:

General simple living blogs
Organizing and Clutter
Frugality and Finance
Family
Green Living
Productivity and Work
Personal Growth
Health
Miscellaneous

If you need some Simple Living, definitly take a look at some of the blogs. I am loving them!!! Looks like I will be adding a few to my Google Reader!!

Thanks again, Kelly!

What is Your Soul Type?

My girlfriend Allison and fellow blogging buddy did a post on finding your Soul Type. Typically I am not really "into" the whole Secret, Soul Seeking Mumbo Jumbo, but this seemed fun and I love taking little quizzes. Hmm, who knows, maybe I'll learn something. This is one of those times! Allison has a great blog where she gives wonderful insight to people and when I need to vent or just have someone tell me I'm not going crazy, she is the one I call. Tonight, I didn't need to call her I just had to take the test to find out my Soul Type!

Wow! I ended up being a performer...who would have known?!

What's your Soul Type? I am just dying of curiosity to know and it just may help you determine what organizing style you are!

Performer
Performers are outgoing, charming people with a strong sense of fun. Because of their desire to communicate, they tend to be more talkative than many other soul types. If you are a Performer type, you’ll tend to be good with words and perhaps even show a dramatic flair when it comes to expressing yourself. You will generally feel comfortable being the focus of attention and may dress or behave in a way that attracts attention to you.
Your passionate nature and tendency to express strong emotions may make you appear a little volatile to more down-to-earth types. A caricature of this type would be an entertainer like Jim Carrey or Joan Rivers—both of whom share the Performer’s love of hamming it up.

More than any other type, the Performer needs the approval of others. You need to be told when you’ve done a good job. Speaking of jobs, you may find it unbearable to spend eight hours a day in a solitary cubicle—your need to connect with others is too strong. You may go out of the way to make your job fun or to entertain those around you just to keep things amusing.

You can learn more about your soul type and how it influences your soul’s age, mission, talents, and challenges in Ainslie MacLeod’s book, The Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended.

Pulling it Together

The last few weeks have been absolute chaos for me. I have been sick as a dog, spent several days camped out in the guest room at my moms, the kids went on a week long vacation, my computer crashed, laundry got backed up or just thrown on the floor, broke up with a boyfriend, my vacuum cleaner blew up, the printer took a dump, the kids started school, I forgot about bills and I just got plain lazy! Of course, when all of those things happened I went into major turmoil! I couldn't think, I felt overwhelmed, the littlest things stressed me out, and it was awful! I couldn't get motivated to do a damn thing and that is just plain scary! I'm an organizer for crying out loud. My life shouldn't be like this! What happened to the organizing fairy that comes in the middle of the night while I sleep? Oh that's right! I wasn't sleeping because I was a complete basket case! Silly Suzy!

So now that I look like a dirty hag, my house is a living dump and even the cockroaches are moving out (just kidding!) I felt that I needed to get my shit together and get my life back in order!

Can you believe it only took me 5 hours to get everything done? Except for the load of laundry in the dryer right now, but still!

For me, the most disturbing part of my house is the carpet. If the floor isn't clean I can't function. So bright and early this morning I went to my mom's, she made me an omelet (I am so spoiled) and I borrowed her vacuum cleaner. I came back home and swept the living room, dining room and hallways. Oh my dear Lord, I felt SO MUCH BETTER!

Next, I tackled the laundry. UGH! I HATE laundry! But it needed to be done so I sorted the clothes, I grabbed all of the clean clothes that I threw on the floor and rewashed them too. I probably could have hung them up, but I wasn't in the mood and who knows what critters were living in them! Better safe than sorry!

As clothes were washing and drying, I brought out the shredder and started decluttering my desk and work area. I had a ton of shit! The pile that I had to shred or throw away was enormous! The little piddly poop stack I had left over was miniscule! Damn I felt better!

Once that was finished I figured it would be a good time to clean the bathroom. I grabbed out my Magic Eraser and went to work on the tub, put all of the "beauty" products away, found my hair tie, and even mopped the floor! Who knew I had one!?!

I don't mind folding towels, so I always throw towels in first. By the time the other projects were done the towels were ready to be folded. So I quickly did those up and then off to tidy up the living room. That wasn't too bad. Kids video games, PS2's, blankets, nothing too terribly exciting.

Since I had been working my fanny off I took a break and decided to clean out my inbox now that I had my computer back!

The important part about actually taking back my life was doing everything in stages. At first I tried to do everything at once and I was bouncing around like a pinball game. You can't do that. You have to do ONE THING! Start it and finish it. Don't suddenly remember to clean out the frig if you are taking out the trash. Take it out the moldy Chinese food from last winter will still be there when you are done!

Next on my list is to get through my Google Reader. I am pretty much going to declutter my reader in the same manner as my house. I'll start by 'marking all as read' on the blogs that I don't necessarily read. After I skim through the titles of course. :) Next it will be to read the ones that I enjoy, and then peruse through those that I are interesting, but not fascinating.

I should be through the 129 posts in no time!

If you are completely overwhelmed, I totally understand! TRUST ME! Just take a deep breath, put on some great music, and tackle one area at a time!

Happy Organizing!
Suzanne

Brilliant Weblog - Premio 2008 Award

Well isn't this nice! My computer crashes, I have been out of the loop of so many things and when I get back to the "real world" I have a nice little award waiting for me! Who would have known?

Ms. Krys, graciously said nice things about me and chose me as one of her favorite blogs!

Now all I have to do is chose 7 of my own favorite blogs and pass on the love! Woo hoo!

In total random order, because my brain still isn't to full capacity, here are my top 7 blogs.

Pam at Escape from Cubicle Nation - I miss you, Slim Family!!! Pam is a dear friend of mine, an old client and a genius when it comes to breaking out of "Cubicle Nation" and following your hearts desire. If you haven't found Pam yet, you are missing out on a whole other world! Plus her kids are adorable, her husband is amazing, and Pam is an absolute angel!

Ms. Marcia and her realm of blogs! Organising Tips and Take Charge Blog ooh and her silent partner on her Travel Blog. I had the absolute joy of spending several days running around Stirling with Marcia and her husband Dion and it was such a treat!!! We had a blast, they made me eat weird food, and we dragged Marcia to old buildings! :)

Allison at Not Just a Mom. Another of my favorite friends and colleague, plus she is my PFF! She always has some great things to inspire us poor, frazzle minded moms that keeps us going. Encouraging us to not bang our heads profusely on the cement. Ok, that's what she does for me!

What is a Bloggy Award list without the Organizing Junkie! Laura takes organizing and blogging to a whole new level and she is most definitely a blogging hero in my little book. One day I want to grow up and be just like Laura!

From the Desk of Janet Barclay. Holy cow! Janet is the Virtuoso of Virtual Assistants! She is a whiz at Microsoft applications, she can organize your email in her sleep, and she has this great Month Wrap Up where she links you to her eZine articles, blog posts and other fun stuff from the past month. Love it!!

Aby at Creative Organizing. OMG! Not only does she have some great ideas her solutions are GORGEOUS! I am completely envious at all of the great things she comes up with!!!

Kelly at Modern June. Again, I do not have a creative bone in my body, but I love people who are and Kelly makes the BEST aprons ever! I have the Santa one and it's so damn cute, plus Kelly is quirky, witty, and down right funny! I can always head over to her blog to drool over her flowers, her aprons and laugh with her family!

So there are my little favorites and now I am late for dinner at my mom's and they are having steak tonight! Woo hoo!!! Because I ruined my lunch today...oops!

Happy Organizing!

Organizing Goodies for $1

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I ran up to Michael's to buy a new cake pan and on the scenic route around the store we ran into a section with goodies for $1. Very similar to Target's $1 section. As we were perusing through the mouse pads and pencils, we came across a slew of wonderful organizing goodies for the refrigerator!

Weekly Menu Planning

Family Planners

Babysitter Info

Call log

General To Do's

Talk about wonderful!!! PLUS they were all $1 Great colors, fun information, and great big magnets that don't fall off when you open the freezer door!

I am really enjoying the Weekly Family Planner, with the kids starting school last week, a daughter in high school, guitar lessons, bowling, and all of the other social activities going on this works out great! Especially for my daughter. She is in high school now and she can either check and see if I have something going on later in the week or she can write her own activities on the calendar and I don't have to worry about it.

So, if you have a Michael's anywhere close to you, you are going to have to check it out!

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne