Serving Eastern Pennsylvania, Central and Southern New Jersey, and Delaware
Serving Eastern Pennsylvania, Central and Southern New Jersey, and Delaware
Well, guess what? I’m not. So when I goof up, I smile and say in a very poised and charming manner “I’m showing my humanity.” Then I’m over it.
As our businesses grow, our lives sometimes feel complicated and we feel conflicted because we are pulled in too many directions all at once. We stress about how we are going to manage to accomplish everything on our “To Do” lists that just keep getting longer and longer.
We sometimes struggle to keep our homes and home offices in order and to find enough time to rest and to spend with our families and our friends. We help our clients simplify their lives. Perhaps we need to follow our own advice and simplify our professional and our personal lives.
To follow through with your good intentions you need to:
To achieve your goal, you need to:
When our prospective clients are hesitant to commit to their first session or when our current clients become discouraged by the enormity of their project, we tell them to close their eyes and visualize how good it will feel when they have achieved their goal.
Let’s slow down and practice what we preach. Close your eyes and visualize how good it will feel after you have simplified one aspect of your life or one area of your home or home office.
Hello to all my Home Organizer friends!
Some people are intimidated about writing FaceBook posts and newsletters. I am not one of them. I find inspiration for FB posts and newsletters everywhere. For example, whenever one of my network friends posts something on FB or has an article in their newsletter that is relevant to my target market, I forward it to my Virtual Assistant and she posts it with a link their website. This helps build a rapport with my referral partners and gives me a wide variety of topics of interest to my current and prospective clients.
Home Organizers are all inspired by each other. Annette Reyman’s tag line “We get you moved in so you can move on . . . with life!” inspired my tagline “Let me help you catch up so you can keep up.”
I have attached a few photos that I plan to use as part of a future newsletter that will be tied in with my tag line. It will also be used as a FB post and a blog on my website.
The captions will read:
Problem: Samantha is a busy single mom who had never been able to carve out time to get her son’s playroom under control.
Solution: We purged the room of toys and books he had outgrown for four hours. Organizing was a breeze; it only took two hours.
Result: Cameron was thrilled to be able to play with his remote-control toys now that the controls are easy to find. He has taken ownership of his playroom and makes sure his friends and cousins help keep it tidy.
Testimonial: “I learned a different way of thinking. It’s OK to get rid of stuff and not be sad about it. Bobbie educated me with some valuable tips. For example, instead of putting all of my son’s small action figures in one big bucket, she suggested I buy an organizing unit where he can see all the figures and find the ones he wants. He has even categorized them himself!”
– Samantha, Langhorne PA
I also have fun with my FB posts and would like to share a draft for a future post. Perhaps it will inspire you to write something fun of your own.
How Loud is Your Clutter?
Does your clutter whisper, “Psst, I’m over here? I’m getting out of control.” Or does your clutter clear her throat and say “Ahem, over here bud. Pay me some attention.”
Ignore your clutter too long and it will scream out you, “Yo! You can’t ignore me any longer! I’m here, I’m out of control and you need to deal with me NOW!”
If your clutter is verbally abusing you, you need to call me! Let’s schedule a consult and quiet your clutter.
Ahhhh, can you hear it? Stop. Listen closely. Is that the sound of an empty house? Oh my goodness! Are you actually at home – alone? That’s right folks. The kids are back to school and that morning cup of coffee hasn’t tasted this good in almost longer than you can remember.
Thank you Fall for showing up – right in time to save us from completely losing any semblance of sanity! While you sit for an extra 5 minutes, enjoying the sound of silence and taking another sip-o’-joe, you may begin to look around.
What you are looking at is the aftermath of summer:
Amidst everyone else’s debris, there are some of your own items that need attention, yet it’s hard to know which and where they are. Here are 3 suggestions from a Professional Organizer and mom of three grown children:
Take these three small steps and enter Fall confidently prepared to harvest the rewards of the season.
One of my favorite productivity experts, Laura Vanderkam, published her summer fun list this week, and it spurred me to create my own list. She encourages us to make time for “effortful” fun, ie things that require a little planning. That way, we don’t whittle the summertime away, wishing we had done more when Fall comes around.
I also wanted to view our summer fun list through the lens of saving money. Using Julie Morgenstern’s 4D approach, I thought about how we could “diminish” something, ie find the minimum effective dose. For example, should we pay $150 to see fireworks at Longwood Gardens or watch them for free at the local high school? Do we need to do the Phillies or would a minor league Blue Rocks game be just as fun?
So, here goes … my summer fun list!
I’ve already done the work to schedule most of these things, so now I can just sit back and let the fun happen. Happy summer everyone!
My birthday is Ground Hog’s Eve (Feb 1st). That means I get a do-over for whatever New Year’s Resolutions I haven’t followed through with. I get to make new resolutions for what I want to change before my next birthday. But this year I decided not to make resolutions. I decided to set intentions instead.
Resolutions too often include words like “don’t, won’t or never.” Intentions are focused on the future and can be stated in the present tense every day. After my morning meditation, I frequently set an intention to be grounded and focused throughout my day.
Intentions can become habits. A habit is defined as “an addictive behavior that is hard to give up” but an addiction does not need to be viewed negatively. For example, I am addicted to my grandchildren. The more time I spend with them the more time I want to spend with them.
What would happen if I became addicted to new habits? To become addicted, the first thing I need to do is to explore how I will benefit from my new habit. In sales, we are taught that when we convey the benefit first, ask key questions that lead our prospect to reply “yes” or to nod their head affirmatively, the close will take care of itself.
In December I set an intention to allow more time to get places and not squeeze one more thing in before getting out the door. Then I decided I couldn’t wait until January to put this into action because rushing to get out the door was stressing me out and negatively affecting everyone around me.
It isn’t an intention anymore; it’s a new habit. The benefit of allowing myself more time to get places and get out the door on time is that I don’t feel stressed about forgetting something important or anxious about being late. I am more grounded and focused throughout my day.
Habits create different types of energy. Good habits create positive energy that flows. “Bad” habits create problems like clutter and disorganization; a stagnation of energy, productivity and efficiency.
As a Home Organizer I look for the cause of the clutter and chaos in a space and often I see it is because of “bad” habits like not processing junk mail or not breaking down cardboard boxes when they are empty. When I am finished with a client, I make recommendations to help them to create new habits that will keep the clutter from re-accumulating and will maintain the serenity that organization has created.
One of the biggest challenges in life is to walk your walk and talk your talk. I intend to do that starting now and not wait until New Year’s Eve or Ground Hog’s Eve.
As the year closes, I am inspired to note some of the TOP Productivity and Organizing Tips that I personally used throughout the year that made the most positive difference in my daily life:
1. Do the hardest task first thing in the morning, before opening emails.
2. Completely clear off your desk area at the end of the day, so that the work space is clean and clear for the start of a new day.
3. Be clear on priorities so that when you feel “pulled in many directions” you can quickly and methodically generate a numbered “to do” list that sets the mind at ease.
4. Compartmentalize: accept that time and energy is limited; define how many hours each category of your life gets and make peace with that.
5. Use a small zip pouch in your purse into which you put receipts and other scraps of paper.
6. Listen, don’t interrupt: so much can happen when you hold a silent space while speaking with a friend, relative, client, co-worker. Getting to understand more deeply can lead to better success/solutions.
7. Set aside tasks that don’t require huge amounts of brain activity (e.g. laundry, opening mail, putting stuff away) to those times of day when good quality mental prowess is at a minimum,
8. Plan the week the Thursday before.
9. Pad your schedule: things take longer than anticipated and the Unexpected always happens. Wiggle room is imperative.
10. And most important: schedule in, as an event in my calendar, time out for self-care! Yup, even purely FUN STUFF!
I’ve made this list, I’ll be checking it twice… and every week to make sure I stay on a productive and healthy path in 2019. Wishing the same and A Happy New Year to All!
