Best Results Organizing

Happy New Year. Now, GO!

Wait, wait, come back! I wasn’t saying to go away. January is National Get Organized Month!

What, you didn’t know that was a thing? According to research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, organizing is the second-most popular New Year’s resolution, just after losing weight. And, if you think about it, losing weight involves organizing your body and your health. And if you think some more, organizing your tangible resources, your time and your thoughts are keys to reaching all of your other resolutions, too.

Readers, I’m so excited to be starting another year with you, improving skills, finding tools and creating strategies to make your lives more organized! To ease into this new year, let’s start with 15 tips for 2015!

1) Update your address “book” whether it’s a Snoopy spiral-bound book or the contacts app in the snazzy new smart phone you got for the holidays.

Did you get holiday cards? Check the return addresses on the envelopes and update the information in your own personal database. Consider penciling in “As of 1/15”, or marking an extra field with that date, so you have a sense of how up-to-date your information is. And, if you haven’t done it already, set the cards (and their envelopes) free, as we discussed in Hallmark Holidays and American Greetings: Card Clutter.

Need a little help from your friends? Post a Facebook message to ask people to send you a (private) note if they’ve moved in the last two years and need to update you on their vital info.

2) Forge a commitment — to your planner.

Are you still writing appointments on that extra, orphan “January” page at the back of your 2014 planner? No more! Last week, we covered the basics for selecting the right planner in Pick Your Planner 2015: Paper Doll Rounds Up the (Un)Usual Suspects, so get thee to it!

Do you have an embarrassment of riches, perhaps too many calendars and none which guarantees a full view of your life? Take a peek at our classic post, Lost Time, Dinner With the King of Norway and The Curse of Multiple Calendars.

Commit to whatever system and process you pick. Having a great calendaring system is like having Jeeves as your butler. If you pay Jeeves poorly (i.e., buy a cheap system or kluge together elements that don’t really work) or don’t feed him (and forsake updating your appointments), such neglect will yield one insolent, neglectful butler (or a calendar of conflicts, illegible notes and missing appointments). Plus, the Downton Abbey Butler’s Union will be (politely) pounding at your door!

Finally, before you let go of 2014, take your planner or digital calendar in hand and enjoy a backwards glance through the year with Paper Doll Takes One Last Flip Through the Calendar.

3) Nurture your commitment to your planning system…every day.

If there’s so much going on in your life that you forget to mark appointments in the first place or fail check your planner until it’s too late, upgrade your accountability:

• Set an alarm on your phone to ring at the end of every day, around 5 p.m., to remind you to check your calendar and tickler file for the next day and the coming week.
• If you have an assistant at the office (or a virtual assistant), schedule time each day to meet and review newly-added appointments and obligations.
• Ask loved ones to prompt you by asking, “What’s on your schedule for tomorrow?” at dinnertime.
• Block family time weekly, perhaps on Sundays, to jointly review the coming week. Make sure you’ve cordoned off time for anything important to all of them, individually, or for the family as a whole.
• Schedule your next appointments before leaving anyplace you visit intermittently (doctor, dentist, massage therapist, hair or nail salon, etc.) — but only if you have your calendar with you.  If you aren’t traveling with your calendar, ask them to call you the next day (at a time you know you will be available) to set up your next appointment. Never agree to any date without your planner nearby.

4) Get your vital documents in order.

Make 2015 the year you find (or replace) your Social Security Card, renew your dusty passport and finally get a will, a Power of Attorney for financial matters and a health care proxy. Start small, handling one item at a time, and get a handle on what you need by reviewing:

Top 10 Vital Documents–Do You Know Where Your VIPs Are? 

More VIPs–Very Important Papers Beyond the Top 10 

Are you feeling a little iffy on the basics of VIPs and important documents? You can go back to the classic Paper Doll post, I Fought the Law…And the Paperwork Won!

And once you find everything you need, log where you’ve put them after reading The Ultimate Treasure Map: Creating A Document Inventory.

5) Create a Tax Prep folder.

Tax time is just around the corner, and whether you manage it all with a two-minute EZ form or have a flock of accountants, you’ll need to be ready, so read:

Taxing Conversations: Organizing the Essentials & a New Tax Tool

Taxing Conversations (Part 2): Organizing Fun With Forms

(Actually, what WOULD you call a flock of accountants? Animal group names are so festive. A pride of lions, a kettle of vultures, a crèche of penguins. If you employed a whole mess of accountants, what would they be? A file of CPAs? A form of bookkeepers? Share suggestions below.)

6) Settle your money, honey!

Make a list of all of your credit cards, loans and other debts, as well as their balances and interest rates. Seeing it in black and white in one place is the first step towards taking control of your future. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from a Certified Financial Planner or a Daily Money Manager to figure out the strategies for keeping your bills paid, on time, every time.

Use a good financial dashboard, like Mint or You Need A Budget.

Let 2015 be the year that your money works for you! And watch this space in the coming days for a post on getting your financial basics organized.

7) Give yourself a present.

No, not a holiday present. Give yourself a gift of THE present by letting go of paper from the past that doesn’t fit your life or your needs. You probably have a smart phone or a tablet or a GPS, so let go of crumbling maps cluttering the door pockets of your car. Toss those recipes you’ve been collecting for 20 years and have never once tried. Junk your notes and papers from high school and college unless there’s a senior thesis or lovingly-written comment from a favorite professor. (Even then, consider scanning.)

8) Start thinking about paperless options.

Yes, I’m your Paper Doll, but part of being organized is knowing when digital options work as well, or better, than paper. Love letters? Paper! Operating manuals? Perhaps digital.

Search Paper Doll for the word “paperless” and you’ll be reading until 2016, but at least start with Paperless vs. Less Paper: 6 Ways to Reduce Paper Consumption.

The Tools and Toys blog just published Setting Up and Maintaining a Paperless Home and Office, and last year, the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival had a great, collaborative post on going paperless.

9) Make 2015 the year you safeguard and preserve your photos.

Digital photos mean we can have multiple forms of inexpensive backup without taking up more space in our homes. But what about all the old Kodak snapshots, fading away a bit more every day, even as you read this?

In 2015, Paper Doll will have an ongoing series on organizing photos. We’ll look at how to weed the prints you have and create an organized system for maintaining them. We’ll also look at the options for going forward, whether you choose to scan photos yourself or use a photo scanning service. Either way, find a NAPO member specializing in organizing photos, and visit the Association of Personal Photo Organizers to find professional organizers trained to organize and care for your family’s photographic history.

10) Stop hanging out with floozies.

I stand behind the advice I gave you wayyyyyyy back in October 2007, in one of the first Paper Doll posts ever. Stay Far From Floozies:  Avoiding the Loose Paper Trap wasn’t just an admonishment to stop scribbling on every loose piece of paper you find. It’s a whole philosophy about the importance of having a system of behaviors and tools to help you keep your sanity. Use the blog sidebar to search for posts tagged with “notes and notebooks,” including:

5 Key Points for Organizing With Notebooks

Notions on Notebooks: Organize Your Paper Picks

Commit to making this one change and you will be more organized, more productive, and so much happier.

11) Make friends with some great organizing and productivity bloggers.

A million years ago (well, in blogging time), I wrote a post called, Paper Doll Invites You To A Party:  Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?. Almost all of those bloggers are still blogging, though if not at those links, they’ve left forwarding URLs so you can keep up with them in their new spaces.

Soon, however, I’ll be sharing an updated post with experts who will help you keep your paper and information (as well as the rest of your life) organized.

12) Let go of subscriptions for magazines and newspapers you don’t read.

Why? Well, because you’re just building mountains of paper clutter. But why else? Mountains of reminders to renew magazines — in your mailbox, in your inbox, and probably in your nightmares. We’ve been talking about magazine clutter for a long time, but even with magazine apps for your phone and tablet, the paper piles keep coming. So, the advice in these posts is still valid:

Mountains of Magazines (And Renewal Cards)

More Mountains of Magazines: Information Clutter Cures

13) Get in the mood!

Remember what I said above, about this being Get Organized Month? That means that there are organizing events all over the country  — workshops, presentations, webinars, teleclasses, and more. You are not alone in your experiences with clutter, and you’re not alone in your wish to get and stay more organized and productive.

14) Hire a professional organizer.

I have to admit it: it’s not always about paper. Whether you need to reinvigorate a closet or get your productivity zipping along or downsize Grandma’s house so she can move to Boca, professional organizers can show you the way. We’re not just experts in organizing, but experts in helping you figure out how best to organize for your ways of thinking and living.

Start with the National Association of Professional Organizers (or, for those of you in the land of Hockey Night and Coffee Crisp, Professional Organizers in Canada) to find skilled, caring professional organizers. Specialties range from client types (students, seniors, people with ADHD, attorney’s or doctor’s offices, etc.) to service needs (small business organizing, productivity and time management training, hoarding services) to specific areas (paperwork, computer data, kitchens, closets, attics, etc.). You may also want to consult with our colleagues in the Institute for Challenging Disorganization.

As a Certified Professional Organizer since 2007, and a professional organizer since 2002, I can tell you with pride that my profession is filled with empathetic individuals who will bend over backward (sometimes literally) to help you achieve your organizing and productivity goals and show you how to maintain your progress long-term. Just ask.

15) Cut yourself some slack.

Being organized isn’t a contest. It’s not about whose home looks better, whose papers are more easily accessible or who has the lowest clutter-to-house (or office) ratio. Being organized is about things being easier. More functional. More fun. It’s about having time and space serve you, rather than the other way around.

Happy New Year and Happy Get Organized Month! It’s going to be a great year!