The Closet is Clean - Less Than 2 Hours

In less than two hours my closet is done! The crap thrown out, my stuff reorganized, shit up off the floor, my shoes where they belong, money was found, and I didn't have one glass of Coke! Woo hoo!

If you are planning on cleaning out your own closet or your own Pit of Doom, let's go ahead and start with the easy steps.

First, go ahead and clean push out all of the crap from on the floor of your closet. Don't worry about putting things away just shove it all out of the closet and pile it on the floor in your bedroom. Just make sure you leave yourself some room to get out of the closet.

Here is my lovely little pile in my bedroom.

Next, I put all of my shoes and purses away. It's simple, it's easy, it's quick. It also makes me feel like I got something accomplished right away.

Then I tackled each shelf one by one. I went through everything, threw away the trash, put like things with each other. All of my computer programs and cords are on one shelf, all of the paper, labels, notebooks are on another. This was definitely the longest part of the process, but the whole closet only took me 2 hours so it wasn't all that bad. I didn't get one paper cut and I didn't find any bugs! Yeah!

I did one little thing with some of my "bags" that I am just loving. I have a ton of hangers that are for skirts. You know, the ones with the clips on them? Well, some of my bags were too big to put in my purse organizer, so I thought I would try clipping them and see if that would solve my little dilemma. Sure as shittin' it did!

I was quite excited about the whole thing.

As far as the rest of the crap, can you believe I only went through one trash bag and one little tiny box that wasn't even worth taking a picture of? It didn't have to do with all of the junk as much as it had to do with putting things where they belong and tidying things up a bit. Everything had a place, I just wasn't putting it where it belonged. I was the definitive culprit.

But I am now a happy camper with a clean closet and I am going to reward myself with a nice cold cup of Coke in my styrophome cup and my crunchable ice!

Happy Organizing!

The Pit of Doom aka The Closet (not for the feint of heart)

How scary is this?! If you want to scare the crap out of little kids at Halloween just bring them by my closet. Yep, that is MY closet. Talk about totally feeling violated that I have just shown the world what a frikken disaster my closet is at the moment. Oh well, it's good for the soul, yes? (That's a frikken lie is what that is!)

So here is what is going to happen and if your closet looks this bad, you had better be getting your shit together today and do this with me. (If you don't hear from me in the next 24 hours please come looking for me!)

1. I am going to go and brush my teeth. (Yuck!)
2. Irish Drinking Songs play list is going to be blaring. (Take that Hungry Hippos who live upstairs.)
3. Trash bags will be employed for all of the trash that will be removed.
4. Shoes will be put in their proper drawer.
5. Suit case will be put back.
6. The shit on the shelving unit is going to get a good decluttering.
7. The crap I don't need is going to be packed away. (Did I mention I am moving again in 3 months? Suzy the Gypsy is what I am.)
8. The Coke will be freely flowing because I deserve it!

I will be sure and take pictures along the way just so that I can revalidate to myself that I did a damn good job! Plus, I'll need the moments of distraction. You know what else, I just may order myself a pizza today for lunch. I am so worth it!

Wish me luck!

Suzanne Babb

What Do You Do With All of the Business Cards?

Marcia tagged me in a blog post and asked what do I do with all of the business cards?

More specifically she asked me three questions:

Where do you put them?

What do you do with them when you get back to the office?

Do you have a plan to process them, or do you hoard them as my colleague does?

IF I take a business card at trade shows, networking events, or random people that I meet I immediately put them into my handy dandy business card organizer. (OK, it's really an index card organizer you can get at Target for $.99)

I label each section with:

People who are interested

People I'm interested in

Random People

Avoid at all costs

Seriously, there are always those people you DON'T want to talk to again. So I make sure that I label them so I don't have to deal with them again.

As soon as I get back to the office I enter the ones that I am interested in or are interested in me and I put them in my Outlook. After I am finished I put them back into their respective sections in the business card organizer and then I label the organizer with the date and the function and store it away. You never know when you may need to dig through the Random People cards to check something out.

For other suggestions on what I did with them during my life as an Admin, be sure and read more!

Happy Organizing!

Business Tools Obituary

We have all lost computers, printers, our favorite pens, the mouse that perfectly fit our hands, and other such tools that kept our companies running. I know I recently mourned the loss of my favorite computer. The computer that started out this company with me, the one that stayed up until all hours of the night so I can finish a presentation, an eBook, a workshop. We have all had our "moments of silence" for one of our "partners", but how many of us write an obituary?

Well, Denise aka Mom, sent out a cry for a moment of silence yesterday for her trusty Singer Sewing Machine. She has been working night and day getting her new business started and yesterday her "best friend" couldn't take it any more. So her living and breathing best friend aka Laura, wrote this touching obituary for Singer.

We bowed our heads and shed a tear
For Singer had passed, this was our fear
Just when we thought he lost the will
A spark of life was present still

So drill in hand Denise went in
To let him die would be a sin
Her battle cry, to do or die,
Tame those feed dogs, make them try
To push the cloth that’s all we ask
And off she went to perform the task

Now Singer’s fate is still unknown
The future we have not been shown
We can only hope that he will stay
To stitch us up another day.

I know most of us turn to unladylike words of disgust (ME!) and swear like a drunken sailor (ME!) and yet there are other ways to handle difficult situations. I remember the time where Kelly found the same pain as my mom with her sewing machine. Thank goodness she had a back up!

How do you handle "partner" meltdowns in your business? What do you do if your computer commits suicide? You drop your phone in the pool with ALL OF YOUR CONTACTS? Your main tool to your BUSINESS craps out on you?

Do you have a back up? What if you don't have the money to go and buy a brand new computer? What if your digital camera is forever "borrowed"?

What do you suggest?

Your Small Business Dashboard

He brought you the Chicken Wing Guide to Small Business, he put up with my insane laughter on our weekly radio show (a really one...on the radio), and he created this nifty little concept of the MyBusiness Dashboard for your company. That's right, Stuart Preston from MyBusiness Advisors is here! He compares the MyBusiness Dashboard to the actual dashboard in your car; you have your gas gauge, speedometer, the little doo-hickey that I don't know what it really does, the engine temperature gauge and slew of other gadgets to help warn you if your car is about to blow up on the freeway during rush hour traffic. Like the gauges on your car, the Small Business Dashboard helps you determine where you are with your company. Primarily the financial side.

Now, I failed Math in school. If I didn't have a calculator or Excel I would be a total and complete nightmare and I still have a hard time remembering the damn 8's multiplication facts. Bad, bad, bad. So me doing or keeping up with my bookkeeping is a nightmare in itself, but I have to do it. (Yuck) I need to know how my business is doing...if I could really figure out what I am looking at. (Double Yuck)

Being an organizer, I enjoy very simple solutions. I am also very visual. I am also extremely lazy. I don't REALLY want to open up QuickBooks, type in my password, find the right icon to click for my report, type in the dates for the current month, and try and remember if I entered in all of my invoices. Helloooooooo, do you see why I don't look all the time?

BUT Stuart's, MyBusiness Dashboard is a thing of amazing beauty! I have this great 5' whiteboard on my wall, I have my "gauges" for income, # ebooks sold, # of workshop attendees, # of new clients, and a small list of business goals for the coming year. AND I get to use dry erase markers! It is a very clean, organized, and simple solution to keep me up to date on my business. Something we all need to be aware of every single day. It is also something that anyone can use.

Imagine using a Dashboard to gauge your blog. Now, Laura at I'm An Organizing Junkie is a blogging Queen! She does Menu Plan Monday, she does product reviews, she has a slew of goodies all over her site. Let's say she wants to have a goal of 500 participants on her Menu Plan Monday by the end of the year. She can use the Dashboard to chart her way to her 500 people goal, maybe her goal is to have 5000 subscribers to her blog by the time she rings in the new year, she can track that information on her DashBoard.

Ariane is writing a new book, she can use the DashBoard to track books sales, revenue, new subscribers due to her book. She will be able to see INSTANT success!

The DashBoard, although fun and informative, is more than just a tool. It is also a way to help you validate your business, your hard work, and the blood-sweat-and-tears. I know when I am having a particularly crummy day, I can just look at my DashBoard and feel good again. It's only half way through the month and I have already hit my goal for eBook sales. Woo hoo!

Of course, we all don't have room for giant white boards on our walls, so I have blogged about other solutions.

Jot It
Flip File


While I was blogging and gazing lovingly at my Dashboard, Stuart was off working with designers and has now designed the MyBusiness Dashboard for the computer! Oh my dear Lord! I thought I was smitten before, now I am positively head over heels!

He is still in the beta stage and it is completely free to sign up for your own Dashboard and I HIGHLY encourage you to go out, sign up, customize it to fit your business, give him all of the feedback you can possibly come up with, and with one click of the mouse view how YOUR business is doing.

I signed up for my own MyBusiness Dashboard on Stuart's site and I am LOVING IT! My little temperature gauge is nicely going up and I feel like I have this wonderful sense of accomplishment! Plus it made me think about what I really want out of my business and what I am willing to do to get to the end result!

Great job, Stuart!

For more information about Stuart, be sure and visit his blog and be sure and check out his Chicken Wing Post! It's my ultimate favorite!

If you do end up signing up for the MyBusiness Dashboard, be sure and leave a comment about what YOU are gauging!

I am gauging:

$ Sales
# of eBooks Sold
# of Virtual Workshops
# of Speaking Engagements

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne Babb

Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Workshop

It's Here!

Although I have been diligently working on trying to be everywhere at the same time, it just hasn't been working out too well for me, much to my dismay! Instead, I figured I would just psyche myself out and figure out a "work around". Which I did!!

Eight years ago, I created my own email system to work in conjunction with Outlook and the VP I supported. Not only was the system extremely successful, it followed me and it followed the VP I first implemented it with. For eight years I have been training assistants, vice presidents, presidents, directors and managers all how to use and successfully implement the Colored Flag System into their daily routine.

Not only do they stay on top of their massive amounts of emails, it works while they travel, while they are out on vacation, and it creates a sense of control when it comes to their emails. It truly is a wonderful system that any one can use successfully.

Typically I go in-office or do training workshops for this system, but again I can not be in all places at one time. Which is why I have put together my first Virtual Workshop! Not only will you have the eBook and shopping lists you get to have me and my annoyingly sweet voice walking you through every single step of the way. The audio files, the PowerPoint, eBook, shopping lists and worksheets come in one handy dandy CD so that you are able to customize your most effective learning style.

Take a listen to the preview to our audio segment for the "Managing Your Emails with the Colored Flag System" Virtual Workshop.

If you would like to order your "Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System" Virtual Workshop, please click on the link below.


ORDER NOW!

Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Virtual Workshop - $39.95
Shipping - $4.95

Included in your Virtual Workshop:


Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Audio Presentation
Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System MP3 Downloads
Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System eBook
Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Worksheets
Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Shopping List


Just so that you know, this system is not for the feint of heart. It is an easy system, but it requires diligence, paper, and a lot of printing. It is also NOT just for Outlook. Anyone with any type of email system can use it.


I hope you absolutely love your new email system and be sure and let us know how you used it!

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne Babb

The Power of Perception

I just had to share this! Earlier today I did a blog post on The Power of Perception on my Admin Answers blog. Just moments ago I read this hysterical post on Smart Shirts on "perception". Ok, hers is down right funny! Funnier so because I live in Arizona and I have never had the "joy" of trying to figure out what not to wear due to ice on the ground, but I know that I have a slew of friends out there who do!

So for a cute little funny and a nice little chuckle you will have to go and read it. It's definitely a nice little distraction for your day.

Happy Organizing!
Suzanne

Time to Get to Jazzing

A couple of weeks ago Karl and I did a podcast on Jazzing Up Your Contacts by including pictures in your Outlook contacts. Since then I have been having a ball putting pictures inside my contacts. It's so nice to see Marcia and Dion's smiling faces in front of the Stirling Jail every time she emails me. So, now I think it's YOUR turn to add pictures to your emails!


So here you go! You can 'Right Click' on my picture, select 'Save As', file it away and label it 'Crazy Organizing Girl' and then go into your Outlook contacts, open up my contact card...which you should have! :) Click on the empty photo spot and add my lovely picture. :)

Every time you get an email from me you will see me smiling up at you. Isn't that nice?!

Then I want you to come back and tell me how many of your contacts now have been jazzed up with photos! Of course, I am going to do the same.

I'm going to do another lovely tag to some of my favorite people and invite them to do the same and let us know how many picture contacts they now have!

Marcia
Vicki at Dinky Baby
Krys

What I Found in My Self Audit?

Well, here is my VERY colorful uCreate notebook in all of its highlighter glory! I wish I could report that I was extremely proud of myself, but alas I cannot. I am quite the slacker!!! Or the poor planner, not sure which one I like better yet!

What I did is actually get a new notebook and start writing the list of all of the To Do's I hadn't finished in my last notebook. There were things in there from APRIL that I hadn't done yet...oh ya, BAD.

What you see on the Left is page two of the monster list. The page on the Right was the first day I did this exercise. Not too bad. The purple highlighter is for Day 1, the orange was Day 2, the blue Day 3, and the violet color is Day 4....hmmmm. Of course, we won't talk about the ones that haven't been crossed out yet.

However! What I have figured out in all of this madness is that I have a tendency to write down everything that needs to be done that I HEAR on a specific day. For example, I will write down "Go grocery shopping" on today's date. When in all actuality, I am not planning on going until Friday...maybe Saturday morning. So when I look through my folder, I have this feeling of self doom because my grocery shopping to do is not in the color it should be in.

One question...why in the hell am I putting myself through this self degradation?

I will tell you why, because I am a jack ass. What I need to start doing is putting the actual "Go grocery shopping" to do on SATURDAY so that way it's on the day of the week that it needs to be done and not on the day of the week I THOUGHT about doing it.

My ego is much to precious to let this foul behavior last much longer. So when in doubt...change it!

How is your self audit doing?

Technology Bitch List

I love technology AND I hate it! There is nothing more wonderful then when it works and nothing more irritating then when it doesn't. For example; my stupid website wasn't popping up this morning and I couldn't get my emails and it was TERRIBLE! I had no clue what to do or how to fix it and it pissed me off to no end.

Apparently, something to do with my DNS server and I needed to "reboot". I HATE that. Something so simple as turning things off and unplugging cords. Sheeesh.

Then Marcia commented how she can only open some pages in IE and not Firefox. I have have had the same issues only in reverse. I couldn't open pdf files in IE, but I could in Firefox. The great mysteries of the universe.

Well, I figured since I have at my disposal the Great Oz of Technology, I would take the key and open up the box to the Mysteries of the Technology Universe. I am sacrificing him for the good of the technology challenged. That's right the Westside Gadget Guy, unbeknownst to him, is going to answer all of your most frustrating and annoying technology questions. (He's actually pretty darn good, too!)

Even if it's something as simple as not knowing which headset to buy to record podcasts, Karl D. Susman is your guy. Ask that man some questions! He is a fountain of information and needs to be tapped into.

Can't remember what you named a file and you can't for the life of you find it? Ask Karl. He can tell you how to find it.

Starting up a podcast of your own, but don't know where to start, how to do it, what you need? Ask Karl. He tells me all the time what I'm doing wrong! :)

Leave your questions in the comments and I'll have Karl do a blog post, record a podcast, or send you the answers telepathically. :) Well, it's worth a shot!

Happy Organizing!

Using Google Reader Stars

Do you know what I absolutely hate, other than big bugs and onions? I hate knowing that I read a great blog post that I want to link to and reference in my blog and I can't remember what it was or who wrote it. You have no idea how many times I do that and then I have to go through and try and remember who wrote it and what it was that I liked! 95% of the time I just give up and forget about it. It isn't worth the search.

Now, I'm not sure what you all do, but what I have started doing is using the Star feature in my Google Reader. Every time I read a post that I want to link to, I put a little star next to it and then as soon as I link the post in my blog I clear the Star!

This way it's not cluttering up my Star Section and it also reminds me that I have something to blog about!

How do you keep track of the blog posts you want to link in your blogs?

This time I am tagging Marcia! Along with Janet, Allison and Ariane. :) I just love you too much not to pick your brain.

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne

To Twit or Not to Twit

Do you know when I was 13 I had a boyfriend who broke up with me because I called him a Twit? Chad Palmer, you are such a twit! :) Nooo, I am not bitter about the whole thing in the least bit! Well, this isn't about my eighth grade boyfriend but it is about a "twit" or Twitter to be precise.

I have known about Twitter, I have friends who Twitter, I know the idea behind Twitter, but I haven't become a Twitter Twit until today. (Well, I did last year, but I can't remember who I was so it doesn't count!) I can't really have much of an opinion, because I just started but I do have a little thought. Not an opinion, but a thought and I would LOVE some feedback from some of you who Twitter.

I like the little Facebook updates and I do update that quite a bit, but I feel a bit more comfortable being silly with my updates on Facebook because I know almost everyone in my friend list. A few unknowns have made it on there, but not enough for me to actually CARE about they think of my crazy shinanigans.

Sooo, my question for those of you who do both or just one, do you post your crazy shinanigans for the world to see or do you hold back to just professional tidbits?

Of course, if you want to add me on either go ahead, but if you are a Facebook junkie, be sure and tell me how you know me, because I will probably decline you if I don't. :o) Ya, not a friend whore like some people I know...MIKE!!!! Mr. 647 Friends

Seriously though, what are your thoughts?

What's Been Going On This Week?

Holy Cow, Suzanne has been busy this week! For a girl who enjoys being lazy I sure have kicked into high gear over the past few days. Of course, during this little "Sue-Nami" (Thanks, mom) I have completely forgotten WHAT it is I have done!

So I figured I would do a little update on all of the new blogs and podcasts we have been working on outside of the Let's Talk Organizing spectrum. Besides, you may find something useful when you cross pollinate in blogs!

Admin Answers Blog Posts

Ask Devyn: Contact Quick Add (Have you met Devyn yet?)
The RED Binder (Fun and silliness!)
Dress for Success (Humiliating ancedotes on Suzanne)
Professional Ways to End a Letter (Could use some help on this one!)
Ask Devyn: Making Things Accessible
Office Supplies I Can't Live Without - Label Maker (Not your hand held one, either!)


Let's Talk Organizing & Admin Answers Podcasts

What Is An Admin? (AKA Warm Fuzzies!)
Effective Meeting Minutes (How to manage all of those annoying meeting notes!)
Measuring Your Time (How much do you spend on a specific project or client?)
Look, No Hands! (This is a PERFECT solution for all of those driving down the road thoughts!)
More Than a Signature

What have you been up to this week?

Check and see what some of my other favorite bloggers have been doing this week!

Ariane - Oooh, she has fun goodies to give a way!! She just needs a new name!
Marcia & Janet the Wonder Twins! - They have been collaborating to save the world from evil!
Ms. Kelly - So frikken CUTE!!!! Makes me want to bake.
Pam - Finish that book, woman! I want to come play with the babies soon!

When Was Your Last Self Audit?

We all have days, weeks, months, years that feel like you have gotten NOTHING accomplished, you don't remember if you even put on deodorant this morning let alone if you sent out the latest proposal or not. Although taking a step back and letting yourself breathe is a good thing, but what about an actual audit on yourself? What HAVE you been doing? When do you actually get things accomplished? How long is it taking you to do what needs to be done?

I have been having "one of those months" and yes, I went out yesterday and I think I forgot to put on the old deodorant. (Sorry if I was stinky yesterday!) So, after that little embarrassing debacle and having my sons teacher calling me and accusing me of being an "unfit" mother (he meant it nicely, of course) I decided I needed to have my own little self audit and figure out what the hell was going on!

Now, I already use my pretty uCreate notebook to write down all of my To Do's and I LOVING this system so I am going to continue to use it with one little change for my self audit. Here's my thought, I like color. Color makes me happy. I am already in a pissy mood so I don't want to do something that won't make me happy. Instead I need to psyche myself out and pretend what I am doing is fun! Shh, don't tell myself that though. So I used this little self audit as an excuse to head down to Staples and buy some more of my favorite highlighters in the cool carrying case. :)

The Sharpie Liquid Accent highlighters are my FAVORITE! The colors are vibrant, the barrel is comfortable to hold on to and they have a ton of colors! Which is where the fun part starts!

I am going to check myself for the next two weeks and see how long it takes me to do everything on my list, how much I procrastinate, and see what I actually accomplish in a day. And I am going to use my new highlighters to help me out!

The Sharpie pack comes with 10 colors and my two week work week audit has 10 days. I am going to designate one Sharpie color for each day of the two week period. I'll keep a legend in the front of the book so I know what color goes with which date.

Red will be for 9/29
Pink will be for 9/30
Salmon will be for 10/1
etc.
etc.
etc.

Everything that I get done on 9/29 I will use the Red highlighter to mark through the To Do. On Tuesday, I will only use the Pink highlighter.

What this is essentially doing for me is:

1. Telling me when I get things done
2. How long it is taking me to do them
3. Where the majority of my time is being spent
4. Pushing me to get the items that are over due done
5. Hopefully put my day and time into perspective so I don't leave the house smelling like a sewer again.
6. And it makes my notebook pretty!

In two weeks, I will definitely do up another post to see where I am in my little Self Audit! Since I don't like doing these things all by myself, I think it would be a nice idea if you guys did it with me! Although I am tempted to challenge my dear buddy Marcia, I figure I'll be nice and we'll see who volunteers to join me!

Be sure and let me know and I will be more than happy to share your own little Self Audit stories!

Happy Auditing!

Stinky Suzy