Is getting organized your top new year resolution? Here is the easiest way ever to get started!

Offered under the leadership of my colleague Allison Carter, there is a wide array of classes offered by the top professionals in our field.
Join us for this amazing event!

Leslie McKee and Ellen Delap are both Certified Professional Organizers® and Family Manager Coaches. Together they will address the challenges and causes of procrastination and how to overcome it. Remember, procrastination is a habit not a flaw and Leslie and Ellen will teach you will address the challenges and causes of procrastination and how to overcome it. So if you are putting something off that is getting in your way join their call and be on your way to a more productive 2010!

http://theprofessionalorganizer.com/organizingclasses/wednesday/

Link to all the classes:

http://organizingclasses.com

Jan 25-29, 2010

It’s an organizing fiesta!

Learn from the comfort of your own couch.

Strategies for getting organized and for professional organizers

PS
Don’t procrastinate on this offer! Use the code word clutter for 10% off!

ADD clients are often prolific thinkers who are creative, who struggle with focus, impulse control, prioritization and time among other things. The key to change is awareness and setting up distraction free, reminder rich environments. Because these clients have so many ideas they are prone to be big starters and poor finishers. We often see these clients being “productive procrastinators”. They are busy with low priority tasks, for example they will be pruning the hedges instead of working on their presentation that is due the next day! Helping clients prioritize is the first step to helping them be more effective day to day. Part of prioritizing is making manageable lists. Agree on a “do-able number” to ensure success and then “A/B” that list. Assign an “A” to the most important items and a “B” to the rest to make sure they are focused on what is most important daily. Commit to what is important by slotting tasks on a calendar. This sounds simple but this exercise cements the task in your client’s mind which is important when they struggle with focus and time. When competing goals are screened out now it is time to engineer the environment to reduce distraction and keep them on track with reminders. Set “mini deadlines” and add rewards to keep them moving toward their goals by delaying gratification until completion.

Awareness of the “triggers” that throw them off track is important and then strategies to overcome. For example if email distracts your client then set timers for that activity so they don’t get lost in that “now” moment. Transitioning is once your ADD client is hyper-focusing on a task is very difficult so setting a timer that requires them to actually move away from the current task begins that transition for them so it is easier to get on to the next task. One important thing to be aware of is “productive procrastination”. This is when our clients are constantly busy but not doing what is most important.

If you are trying to change any habit-set your self up for success by taking less on during that time.  We have been focusing on lateness and procrastination lately but this can help with any behavior change from smoking to getting exercise!  Reducing stress at that time increases your will power to succeed.  Stress often makes you resort to those old ways of dealing with things instead of trying new ways. 

So clear the decks and plan successful change by giving yourself a little break to do so.

Free Tele Class to Teach You How to Be on Time

Do you feel the need to squeeze as much activity as you can into each day?
Do you view “unproductive time” as time wasted?
Are you pleased when the day goes by quickly?
Do you regularly under estimate everyday tasks like getting ready for in the morning or driving to work?

If you answered “yes” to 2-3 of these questions, you would be labeled a “producer” in Diane DeLonzer’s book, Never Be Late Again. I must admit that I clearly fit this label! A producer’s battle cry is ” If I hurry, I can…”. Producers are optimists/gamblers. Their thinking is, checking these last two things off me list is more important that being a 100% certain that they will be on time. The rationalization is that they can cross those items off and if EVERYTHING else goes perfectly…they could still be on time. Well, we all know what happens. Producers schedule things tightly to avoid the dreaded down time. We grumble about how BUSY we are and forget that WE are the ones who over-committed! We live daily with this driving desire to GET IT ALL DONE! Here is a little secret…you are NEVER going to get it ALL DONE! So take a deep breath and try some of DeLonzor’s techniques to make a change:

When you feel your self saying, “If I hurry….” replace that with “I am being realistic or optimistic….”
Practice saying “NO” so that you are comfortable doing only things that are important.
Prepare to wait. If you don’t like waiting have something to do!
Practice transitions. Use alarms that make you stop what your doing to turn them off–and you have just started a timely transition!

You are not alone! Many of us are so overwhelmed with to-do’s and commitments and distracted by multiple media streams competing for our attention that I think it is like “Self Inflicted ADD”. There are so many things competing for our attention that we lose track. The first line of defense is to slow down and unload some of the things that distract you.

If this doesn’t help and you find that this is a life-long problem it is time to face it and use tools to set yourself up for success. I often recommend electronic calendars/organizers to clients who suffer with these time challenges. Having these features incorporated into a smartphone really helps. First of all, it is a fact that people learn to use their phones! The more features that are integrated into a phone the more these tools can help. They also sync with your computer, so that if you lose the handheld phone, the data is protected.

Using alarms to keep you on track really helps.  It may feel silly at first, but if it works do it!  When transitions are the problem set alarms that require you to actually get up to turn them off.  Moving out of your space is a big component to get you up and able to transition to the next step.  Setting up a reminder rich environment with minimal distractions is the key.  Accepting this trait to be part of how your brain works and putting systems in place will empower you to start making the changes you need to succeed.

People ask me how they can STAY organized after we work together. I was thinking about what determines which clients STAY organized and it occurred to me that the client who are ready to do less and have less get better results. Clients who are “getting organized” so they can squeeze more into their day or their space often find themselves struggling again. This is probably because they have not decided what “enough” is in their life and their systems have not stabilized and are still hard manage. They continue to add and add without ever subtracting! People get the best results when they are ready for change and start to see that less is more.

If you are feeling overwhelmed-try doing a brain dump of everything on your mind. Just start writing down all this things that are nagging at you and won’t let your mind be fully present. These thought/worries/projects just spin around and don’t let you think straight. Downloading them to paper lets you then prioritize and calendarize! You will be more effective everyday!