Archive for ‘General’ Category
Smead, Secrets for Organizing a Small Business, and the New TV Season
Long before Paper Doll became a professional organizer, I was a television character. No, not a character on television, but one whose personality and intellect was lovingly devoted to TV.
Not only was my first career as a television program director (for Fox, UPN and WB stations), but my life was guided by the broadcast schedule. (Yes, kids, in the olden days, all television was available only via broadcast, and you watched it while it was airing, not when it was convenient for you. Pretty disorganized, eh?)
– National Archives and Records Administration
In recent years, I’ve had some fun appearing on the modern version of television — online video — from short tips and product testimonials for Rubbermaid and Smead to longer video interviews, like this year’s Delegate Like a Boss. (I’ve even had some forays into audio, participating in various teleseminar series like Declutter Your Life, talking about eliminating paper clutter, and radio interviews like WGOW-FM’s Chewin’ the Chatt (start at about 3:15), on organizing strategies for senior citizens.
But this summer, I had an especially fun time talking with John Hunt on episode #41 of Smead’s Keeping You Organized podcast. We talked about the “secrets” to organizing a small business, focusing on paper management and information flow, and I even got to promote my recently published book, 57 Secrets for Organizing Your Small Business.
There was no fancy green room and no celebrities for me to make room for on the couch, but it was a lively discussion about a topic near and dear to my heart, organizing all that important stuff so you can think about that information contextually instead of just trying to think of it, so it doesn’t fall out of your head.
[There’s an audio-only option for those of you who — like I — get a bit distracted by the close-up editing and my humidity-inspired Art Garfunkel hair.]
I was thrilled to be part of the first season of the Keeping You Organized podcasts, but like any true television aficionado, I’m also excited about the new season. As a TV person, that means combing the TV Guide Fall 2014 Schedule to figure out what I’ll be watching each night. And as a professional organizer, it means I’ll be waiting for this week’s launch of the second season of Keeping You Organized.
Until then, I invite you all to catch up on the first season highlights with professional organizing All-Stars like Geralin Thomas, Ramona Creel, Leslie Josel, Ellen Delap, Deb Lee, and more.
Welcome to September! New school year, new TV season, new opportunities for Keeping You Organized. Happy new year, Paper Doll readers!
Paper Doll Post:
My “Delegate Like A Boss” Interview: Encore on Monday, 2/3/14
Paper Doll readers, are you still feeling overwhelmed?
A few weeks ago, I told you about the Delegate Like a Boss video summit in which I was participating.
At the time, I said:
Are you trying to do it all? (You know you are.) And are you completely overwhelmed by the idea that everything you’re asked to do, everything you’re supposed to do, and everything you want to do can’t quite fit into those measly 24 hours assigned to you? (Take note: we’ve all got the same 24 hours, so if it seems like someone else is rocking getting it all done, consider that maybe they’re not doing it all themselves!)
(Read the original post to learn more.)
It was so much fun working with Susan Brennan of Consider It Done Personally to be part of her Delegate Like a Boss video summit. So I was REALLY excited when Susan informed me that my interview was a top-three favorite and will have an encore this Monday, February 3, 2014. So, if you missed it the first time around (or didn’t realize it was free, fun and fabulous), here’s your second chance. Just sign up at the Delegate Like a Boss link and you’ll be able to watch the encore.
See you there!
Paper Doll Post:
Delegate Like a Boss (Even When You’re a Party of One)
Are you trying to do it all? (You know you are.) And are you completely overwhelmed by the idea that everything you’re asked to do, everything you’re supposed to do, and everything you want to do can’t quite fit into those measly 24 hours assigned to you? (Take note: we’ve all got the same 24 hours, so if it seems like someone else is rocking getting it all done, consider that maybe they’re not doing it all themselves!)
Although I usually talk to you about organizing tangible things, organizing time and tasks (and clarifying how we think about time and tasks) is also essential to a happy life. That’s why I am so excited to have partnered with Susan Brennan of Consider It Done Personally to be part of her upcoming Delegate Like a Boss video summit.
Success means being able to do what you want when you want (at least as much as is practical), and in order to do that, Susan has put together an exciting opportunity to help people, as she says, “achieve time freedom and be more productive than ever before!”
I have been given a special invitation to join Susan and her amazing band of experts (including my esteemed organizing colleague Donna Smallin Kuper and a variety of coaches and other professionals) to help create the change so many people are looking for. This summit is going to give you the tips and tools you need to achieve your own time freedom so you can do more of what you want, when you want! It is a privilege to join with these other experts to help make that happen!
You all know how frugal Paper Doll is, so I’m especially impressed with just how much information is going to be given out for free in this summit! And, in addition to the material presented in the video summits, many of the participants (including moi) are giving away special bonuses. You longtime readers know how rarely I (OK, practically never) promote events, but I have been so excited to talk about delegating (something at which I think we all need some extra help) that I want to encourage you all to sign up.
So, some info from Susan, our fearless leader:
Imagine being able to do what you want, when you want, without giving up productivity. What if you could begin experiencing that time freedom immediately, just like you’ve always dreamt!
Have you ever found yourself thinking these things?
• Why do other people seem to have so much more free time than me?
• How come I am feeling so behind all of the time?
• Why does my To Do list feel like it’s never-ending?
• Why does vacation never seem to fit into my chaotic schedule?
If any of those questions sound like ones you’ve asked yourself, keep reading.
I know that once you discover how to have time freedom, you’re going to begin enjoying life to the fullest without feeling guilty about it!
Wouldn’t you like to join the thousands of others who are experiencing this very thing? Here’s your chance! Please share this with the people in your life who could benefit from this summit.
The information you’re going to receive on this summit is easily worth thousands of dollars, but I’m giving you access for free, as a special gift!
So, this Delegate Like a Boss video summit is happening next week (if you still don’t have your 2014 calendar yet, that’s the week of January 20th!), and you can join in (again, at no cost) but you have to reserve your virtual seat soon. Begin experiencing the life you want, when you want, without compromising productivity or inviting overwhelm.
I invite you and anyone in your life who feels bogged down by their To Do list to join me and my fellow video summit presenters for “Delegate Like a Boss”. Just click through, sign up, and Susan will email you the essentials. None of the interviews will be long — most are 15-30 minutes (though you know Paper Doll is full of words and will take up every square micro-second).
But seriously, if you think of delegating as something only CEOs get to do, I think you’ll find this an eye-opening video summit for giving you a new way to look at getting things done…productively.
Paper Doll Post:
Seek (with Bluetooth) and Ye Shall Find: Tile and Stick-N-Find
Getting organized is about letting go of what you don’t need and arranging what you wish to keep so that you can find it when you want it. There are foolproof ways to keep from losing anything:
1) Designate a home for every item.
2) Don’t put things down; put them away. (In other words, follow step #1 and then use it.)
3) Practice mindfulness so that you can perfect your skills at step #2.
This process is all well and good unless:
- you live and/or work with other humans
- you have tiny humans who like to grab and hide your possessions
- you have tiny (and not so tiny) non-humans in your midst
- you aren’t always so good at mindfulness
- you are so busy corralling your fellow humans, tiny humans and non-humans that you don’t have the time or energy and OH MY LORD JUST FIND MY KEYS AND STOP PONTIFICATING!
Keeping track of small things, even when we’ve isolated homes for them, can be difficult. Years ago, we applauded (literally) a movement to attach little electronic doodads to keys, remote controls and other small devices. We’d clap, and a little alarm would beep to help us find the missing items. In theory, great. In practice, it made people feel like they’d woken up inside a commercial for The Clapper!
Technology has allowed for the development of more refined solutions like Bluetooth-supported tools to locate items with ease. Two options getting attention these days are Tile and Stick-N-Find.
The Basics: Tile is a small, white, flat-ish, plastic square with a hole carved in one corner. Thread key chains and zipper pulls (on purses, wallets, backpacks, or children’s jackets) through the hole, or use the enclosed double-backed adhesive on the reverse of a Tile to stick it to virtually anything. You can also just drop it in a pocket, your wallet’s change compartment or the bottom of a purse. Tile is waterproof, but even if your little ones lose their boots, I wouldn’t test the limits.
Tile is designed so that you never have to charge it or replace the battery. Instead, each lasts one year. Then poof, and you have to buy more. On the one hand, shopping for (and replacing) coin cell batteries is a pain. On the other, a new Tile is pricier than a new battery. Tile sends you an alert when it’s time to replace (and recycle) for a new year.
The Works: When you pull Tile out of the box, you depress the “e” on the face of it and then go to your mobile device. Once you’ve downloaded the free app, go to the Add a Tile screen and hold your new Tile up to your iPhone. The app then automatically adds the Tile to your account. Currently, Tile works with iOS products like iPhones (5c and 5s) and iPads (3rd and 4th generation, Mini and Air). Because it functions with Bluetooth 4.0, it’s not yet supported to work with Android, Blackberry or Windows devices. You can have up to ten Tiles on any one account, but it’s not clear to Paper Doll why there’s a limit since you’re paying for each individual Tile, anyway.
Can’t find your keys in your pile of clutter? Use the app to make your Tile’s teeny built-in speaker sound an alarm. Your kid left his backpack…somewhere…and it could be anywhere in the mall? The app will pinpoint the location on the map. And since the app uses Bluetooth, it remembers the last GPS location it “saw” your item, so if it hasn’t moved, the item can be found lickety-split! You can log into your account from any iOS device, meaning that if you misplaced your iPhone and never activated a service like Find My iPhone (silly you) you can use someone else’s phone to find yours.
The Range: Tile’s app isn’t going to know if your wallet just got on a plane to Barbados. But the app can locate your Tile anywhere up to 50 to 150 feet away, “depending on the environment.” (One assumes this means either mountains or steel girders may interrupt the signal.) Interestingly, however, if your Tile is farther away than that BUT another Tile user’s phone/device is within 50 to 150 feet of your Tile, the information will daisy-chain and you’ll get an update with the location of your own Tile, giving you a pin on the map view. The theory is that once zillions of people are using Tile, the eventual range would be practically limitless. Blue sky thinking? Perhaps.
The Cost: Tile is available for pre-order (to-be-delivered Summer 2014) at $19.95 each, or at package pricing of “Buy 3, get one free,” “Buy 6, get two free,” and “Buy 9, get 3 free.” But once Tile is widely available commercially, the price will go up to $25/each. Yikes!
The Basics: The round, discs (“trackers”) are available in six colors (well, five plus “clear”) in case you want a little designer panache with your private-eye tool.
Unlike Tile, the Stick-N-Find trackers use traditional CR2016 coin-style watch batteries, which last about a year. Stick-N-Find discs come with 3M-brand double-sided adhesive stickers. Each pack comes with two Stick-N-Find discs and two key fob mounting plates.
The Works: Pair a Stick-N-Find tracker with your (free) Radar app. Like Tile, Stick-N-Find’s app works via Bluetooth 4.0, but is supported on a broader range of devices, including iPhone 4s, iPhone 5c and 5s, newer iPads, including the Mini, and iPod Touch, as well as Samsung-branded Android devices, including Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 Mini, and Note 2, and any future devices using Bluetooth Low Energy.
The Range: Supporting materials for Stick-N-Find reference ranges of both 100 and 150 feet, and the Radar app should track up to 20 of your Stick-N-Find discs. It doesn’t exactly pin-point your tagged item; instead, the app gives you a visual of how far you are from the item, but doesn’t identify the direction. As they, themselves, note, it’s a bit like playing the old game “You’re getting warmer. You’re getting colder.” Paper Doll would find this annoying, but others might enjoy the adventure.
The Virtual Leash lets you set an audio alarm/alert if an item leaves a pre-set radius around you; the disc will also flash lights in case you’ve dropped your wallet at a dark, noisy party. The Find It function lets you know when an item has come in to range, within 300 feet. (You’re getting warmer…)
The Cost: Each 2-tracker pack costs $49.99 (or 4 for $89.99, 6 for $129.99, 10 for $199.99 and 20 for $389.99) from the Stick-N-Find store; Stick-N-Find is also sold under the Smead brand name and can be found at office supply stores and on Amazon.
Trackable Items
Practically anything can be tracked by Bluetooth tracking devices.
- Things you carry: luggage, wallets, backpacks, purses, phones, laptops, tablets, day planners, musical instruments, gym bags, medical devices, passports, travel document portfolios
- Things that wander off by themselves: pets (affix to their collars), tiny humans (attach to children’s shoelaces)
- Things you share, which wander off when someone else moves them: keys, remote controls, garage door openers, cameras, bicycles, skateboards
Would you use Tile or Stick-N-Find, or does the pricing put you off? What are you always losing and seeking? Please share below.
Paper Doll Post:
Going Paperless?
Going paperless? What?!! Has Paper Doll lost the faith with organizing paper?
Not at all. The truth is that keeping your paper organized sometimes means organizing it right out of dead-tree form and up into the ether. But the process by which you figure out how to take yourself from overwhelmed by paper to secure in your fluffy white cloud needs to be carefully considered.
A few months back, Paper Doll and my esteemed colleague Erin Doland of Unclutterer were interviewed for the January 2014 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine. It’s on newsstands now — check out page 77 for The Lowdown: What You Need to Know About Going Paperless.
The article covers some essential steps to taming the paper monster, including decreasing the influx of paper at the source. It also touches on the ins and outs of scanning, shredding (as we covered in Shredding the Documents: Finding Your Shredding Solution), backing up your electronic documents, and developing a plan for digital receipt management apps and tools.
Of course, you know that Paper Doll would never advise eschewing paper altogether, and so I talked about discernting the difference between what can be digitized and what you need safeguarded in paper form. (Because you loyal readers know there are lots of VIP documents and essential papers for which you need those raised, bumpy seals for everything to be kosher.)
If you’re buried under paper and snow, and can’t get out to buy your own copy of Kiplinger’s, the article was also picked up by the Chicago Tribune, under the title, Spending: What You Need To Know About Going Paperless. Check it out!
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