Organomics Productivity Solutions, Consulting, Professional Organizing, Training & Speaking

Color Me Organized

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 14:19:00 -0800

Letting Color Bring Life to Your Workday

Color tells a story. The use of color can eliminate the stress of finding things in a file drawer or simply seeing what you have coming up on your calendar. If the color triggers an association, then it can shorten the time to find things easily.

Specific colors can be implemented in your calendar, your notebook, or your email categories to quickly alert you to your next action or the type of activity coming up. For a filing or piling system, colors can be utilized in the choice of a folder, label, and even a dot or pen color used on the label. Here is how I have seen and heard color implemented through the years.

Red is a powerful color, easily recognizable. It stands out. It is one of the most popular colors to represent an actionable item. It is the most common color to alert clients that something is of upmost importance and needs immediate attention.

Orange is a warm color, creating a sense of welcome. Halfway between red and yellow, it is often chosen to represent pending, waiting, or ‘on hold’. Some people use it as a secondary color to red indicating that this is a second priority level item. It can also be used to symbolize the fall season, or holidays like Halloween.

Yellow is a bright and cheerful color. Think of it as a highlighter. Or because of its use in traffic lights, consider it as a warning. It can be utilized as a secondary color coding for pending and waiting items. If you like to use a yellow highlighter, think of your yellow file in the same way. You can fill it with must-read files or important items waiting to be filed for reference.

Green is the growth color. Depending on your profession, it can represent anything from money to nature. If seeing green means finances to you, then use it for everything financial including investments, information, and transactions. Green can also represent health and beauty for some clients. It can be a...Read More

Productivity Insights from a Tech Giant

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 15:40:19 -0700

Disruptive Musings from Elon Musk

Elon Musk is one of the most prolific innovators of the 21^st century. His list of inventions includes an electric car, a rocket, a hyper-speed train, an electronic payment system, solar powered roof shingles and more. Underneath his Herculean efforts in innovation lies an equally monumental accomplishment in productivity. What he dreams he does.

This balance of new ideas and excellent execution leads to ongoing disruption. So, when Elon Musk released an internal memo, obtained by Electrek on April 17, 2018, the business world was listening. While the memo focused on the doubling of production for the Tesla Model 3, it contained some great insight on what it takes to stay productive in a corporate environment.

Here are six points that Musk called “a few productivity recommendations.”

1. Cancel large meetings

"Excessive meetings are the blight of big companies and almost always get worse over time. Please get [out] of all large meetings, unless you're certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short."

2. Get rid of frequent meetings

"Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved."

3. Walk out of meetings

"Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren't adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time."

4. Stop using meaningless words or acronyms

"Don't use acronyms or nonsense words for objects, software or processes at Tesla. In general, anything that requires an explanation inhibits communication. We don't want people to have to...Read More

From Tax Clutter to Clarity

Sun, 22 Apr 2018 22:27:41 -0700

Like many during this time of year, you may have found certain documentation painful to retrieve and scattered in several locations. Maybe a life event added to the strain of pulling all this documentation together. But there’s good news: you can create a system to quickly file and find anything you need financially. Let’s look at the steps you can take to retrieve things quickly.

Flow of paper/documents into your life
When you receive documentation don’t think about what it is (a cell phone bill, a greeting card, etc.), but think about what you are going to do with it. I encourage my clients to ask what is the ‘next’ action required as it relates to this piece of documentation.
Here are four ways you can approach your documentation:

Act on it
Refer to it
Wait on it
Keep it

Track Action Items
Get a system for tracking your action items. These need to get incorporated into a ‘to-do’ list that you review every day. Ideally this list travels with you throughout the day. This way you can add to it or take care of items in between appointments. This can be a digital or a hard copy list.

Set Up Quick Reference
Reference items contain information that you will refer to in the future. There are two types of reference items, those that require quick access and those that require longer terms access. Create a quick reference for items that need to be accessed on a weekly or monthly basis. Contact information and monthly statements go into a quick reference. The ‘longer term’ reference are those items that are kept for tax purposes or financial planning. Other items might be kept if they would be too difficult to track down or too time consuming to recreate. Investment summaries are an example of this type of longer term reference.File Long Term Reference
These ‘longer term’ items can be incorporated into a file system. In creating...Read More

Two Ways to Track + Execute Anything

Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:12:50 -0700

“When I am doing one thing, I’m really focused on that one thing. I have no to-do list. I put everything on a calendar, [which helps me] know that this call is going to take 15 minutes or that this is a 25-minute project.” *

When I read this quote by Andrew Ross Sorkin, co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box, I was reminded of a common principle I teach to my clients. There are two very different schools of thought surrounding execution in the productivity realm: force dates onto a calendar for all you have to do OR make a to-do list and block time in your calendar.

If you decide to take the route of Andrew Ross Sorkin, you will need to estimate the projected time of your project and make commitments on your calendar by scheduling an appointment with yourself to get it done. Then you can be assured what you must remember is in one place [the calendar]. It is even better if you can search your actionable items in the calendar tool you have chosen. Yet for many of my clients, this method leaves them feeling boxed in which makes them want to rebel. Or if a day goes awry for them, then they are forced to move things around and adjust their projections.

If you decide to adopt the to-do list habit, be aware that your list can grow and grow if you do not allot time slots for what I call ‘focus time’ to address these actionable items. You may spend your day simply getting the easy things done, and the temptation can be to wait until co-workers go home or come in early to address what you have to get done. However, with this system you can be flexible with your time and figure out when you are in meetings and then simply tuck in the ‘focus time’. Yet, I find many folks are challenged with this ‘focus time’ as a true appointment with themselves.

You may find one of these options suits you best. Be assured that there are multiple differences, even amidst the organizing and productivity gurus. The solution they think...Read More

Time to Take a Stand

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 21:07:59 -0800

In the last few years, there has been a buzz around the importance of changing your position throughout the day in order to avoid sitting for 8 hours. Remember those friendly graphics and stretching exercises you could mimic when waiting by the company copier? Now many of us have all our accessories at arms-length and could easily stay seated for hours. Several of my clients have recently made the switch to standing desks and love the variety they offer. If you have been curious about the craze, then here are some things you should consider when looking at stand-up desks:

Desk Space Limitations – Many of my clients have had to figure out where all their desk accessories will go when they make the switch. Everything from the pens in your coffee mug to your favorite stapler may need to be housed just to the right or the left of the desk. Pedestals are a good option for storing these items near your standing desk. They typically have two drawers along with one file drawer and come with casters so they can roll.

Features of the Electric Stand-Up Desk – Most reviews agree that the noise of the raising and lowering of the desk is a top consideration in this category. The customer service reviews of each product are critical and the variation of shaking or wobbling while raising and lowering the desk should be considered. Many electric desks even offer automatic reset settings to the ergonomic heights that are optimal. (NOTE: The Wirecutter states that proper standing posture should allow for elbows to be at or near a 90-degree angle, your eyes should be about 20 to 28 inches from a mark about two inches below the top of the monitor, and a roughly 20-degree top monitor tilt.) The stand-up desk that seemed to be a top pick again and again was the Jarvis Bamboo desk made by a company called Fully (formerly Ergo Depot).

Features of the Non-Electric/Hand Crank Stand-Up...Read More

Tackling the Mile-Long To-Do List

Wed, 22 Nov 2017 21:20:03 -0800

Do you have a to-do list that is a mile long? Do you find it to be a laundry list of things you need to do both personally and professionally? How do you get a long to-do list under control? I have found that probing a bit more about what is on the list may help you wrangle it in. You could try to recategorize the items you have listed under these categories:
Priorities
What are truly the priority items that are on your list? They could be those items that are part of your job description or business objectives, they could be goals you have set that relate directly back to what you value. The priorities need to be delineated from the rest of your actionable items.
Reminders
What are the things on your list that are simply reminders? These are the items like updating the shot records for your pet, changing the oil, or changing house filters. If these items are triggered by a season of the year (e.g. house filters), then a calendar could be used for these reminders. I like to put the maintenance schedule on the machine itself if I can. I go so far as making labels for the inside of my windshield for a needed oil change or a sticker on the water filter.
Shoulds
What are the things on your list that you feel you should do? Is there an item on your list because you want to repay someone? They did something nice for you and you want to reciprocate. These are the things that would be ‘nice’ to do, but you may or may not get to them. These things might represent obligations. If you have postponed them for some time, it may mean that you need to give yourself permission to let them drop off the list.
Delegated Opportunities
What are the things on the list that could be delegated? There may be some items that would be better to outsource because someone else has the tools and expertise to accomplish them quickly. Are there items that could be delegated to a...Read More

One Thing That Could Change Everything

Sat, 07 Oct 2017 21:31:14 -0700

I recently read the book The ONE Thing by Gary Keller, co-founder of Keller Williams Realty, and Jay Papasan. In it, Keller shares the key principle to his success – focus on the ONE Thing. He noticed he had huge success when he narrowed his concentration to one thing.
What is the ONE Thing? He describes it as a focusing question to keep you mindful of your most leveraged priority (Pg. 112). The focusing question he asks is: What is the one thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary? (Pg. 112). This question can be applied to different areas of life: work life, spiritual life, health, relationships, etc. This question must be asked in light of what your true purpose is – and the answer you give should tie back to that purpose. He defines purpose as “what you want your life to be about more than any other [thing].” (Pg. 145)
I have begun to ask myself this question as I start my day. It helps me hone in on what is truly the most important thing I must be doing. Sometimes that may be the very thing easiest to postpone. Other times it is the phone call that must be made in which bad news must be delivered. It may even be the content development I’ve been putting off for weeks that needs to be created.
In order to actually focus on the ONE Thing you’ve determined and to be successful at it (in your work day or in your personal life), it takes practice in a few principles. Here are a few of them that resonated with me:
Willpower has its peaks and flows. Keller argues it is not that we lack willpower to get things done, instead we have limited willpower. We should use willpower when we have the greatest amount of energy to exert it. Do you have more energy to stay focused in the morning, early afternoon? Or later in the day?
Habits are formed in 66 days, not 21 days. According to research from the...Read More

Time Blocking 101

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 14:20:42 -0700

You know that task on your to-do list that you keep brushing aside? The one that lingers when everything else has been crossed off. The one that requires your full attention, no distractions, but that you always find a reason to put off until tomorrow. These are the tasks that often take you to the next level and also require some intention on your end. These are the tasks that require time blocking.
What is time blocking?
Time blocking is when you intentionally set aside time to put your head down so you can work on what moves you forward professionally and affects the bottom line of your business.
How do you guard it?
Put the music on (if this helps to focus attention)
Turn off email notifications
Choose to let incoming phone calls go to voicemail or silence your phone
Choose to say no to the easy interruptions that bombard you
Choose to postpone the requests and questions others think you should answer
Communicate with team members that you have your head down and give them a time frame of when you are available
Stay Accountable
So you have your space set but how do you make sure you stay on task? Call a friend before going into your “heads down” work and tell them you will call in an hour. Tell them when you talk to them again after the hour is up, you will have accomplished “such and such.”
You could also ask an admin or a co-worker to be with you in the same physical space. They can work on their task while you work on yours. Before you begin working, tell each other what you are trying to get done in the next hour. When your time is up, share your progress.
You may also want to consider calling your colleague, friend or coach on Sunday night to talk through the week ahead. Share with them about the upcoming week and go over what your goals and priorities are.
Use Props for...Read More

Clearing Clutter Leads to Relationship Clarity

Wed, 24 May 2017 14:27:30 -0700

In my work, I have seen that when clients get organized, it can often lead to greater empowerment in other areas of their life – taking control in one area breeds the desire to take control of other areas of life. The previous president of the NAPO Association (The National Association of Professional Organizers), Mary Dykstra Novess, concisely stated what we as professional organizers do for people: We give them a decision-making process. We help them in clarifying what they might bring into their lives, where they might put it when they let it in, and when they are ready to let it go – how to responsibly release items to the greater humanity.
Getting clear on possessions involves several criteria – keeping what is useful and beautiful. Additionally, if something does not serve a purpose then it needs to be released. Now there are, of course, mementos and memorabilia that simply do not fit these categories and some things to be kept for posterity. Yet, I always encourage my clients to keep this in perspective.
As possessions are evaluated, ‘shoulds’ emerge, becoming a collection of reasons by which possessions are accumulated. Sometimes, the item was ‘gifted’ from a relative or friend. That friend or relative may have traveled and found something to capture the moment of their trip, but often times, it holds no special meaning to the receiver. Other times, there are possessions that are gifted because other friends and relatives don’t have the guts to let it go. Every time the possession is passed around, the letting-go decision is postponed by the giver.
How does clarity of possessions relate to clarity in relationships?
Many times the same ‘shoulds’ exist in the relationships we maintain. Sometimes people try to manipulate us by using guilt, anger or fear. When we know what we want and how to ask for what we want, we are getting a clearer sense of our...Read More

Getting Organized & Staying Organized

Sat, 28 Jan 2017 14:36:14 -0800

A cluttered desk can breed a cluttered mind. But imagine an organized workspace where you can find what you need and feel free to do your work without distraction. Even better yet, consider what it would be like to stay organized no matter what comes your way. Organomics creates a system that works for you; based on your personality, preferences, and work style.
Picture Your Organized World – What will your office look like and how will you function in it?
Decide what you want your space to look like when you’re done.
Where do you want space and where do you want your work?
Describe what it will “feel” like when you walk into the organized room.
What words or phrases will you use to describe how you feel in your organized space?
Get Equipped – What will you need to perform the tasks you perform in your space?
Identify the function of the space.
Make a list of what you will be doing in your space. What functions will you perform?
Identify the tools you need to perform the function.
Make a list of the tools and accessories you’ll need to perform you functions. Locate them nearby to make work easy.
Sort and Purge – What do you need to do your work and what can be discarded?
Sort your needed items into categories.
Group the items categorically or topically that you have deemed as useful and beautiful. Stage these items in the room.
Purge any items that are unnecessary.
Place the unnecessary items into boxes titled “Goes Elsewhere”, “Give Away”, “Overflow Office Supplies”, and “Trash”.
Plan Placement and Containerize – Designate a “home” for the items you have decided to keep.
Place items that you use frequently in close proximity.
Placement is all about easy access based on use. Think about what you use daily, weekly, and monthly.
Contain like items in a single place.
Filers can...Read More