Archive for ‘Professional Organizing’ Category

Paper Doll’s 23 Ideas for a More Organized & Productive 2023

Posted on: January 2nd, 2023 by Julie Bestry | 14 Comments

Happy New Year! And welcome to GO (Get Organized) Month 2023, where we celebrate efforts to make our spaces more organized and make ourselves more productive.

We in the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO) love this opportunity to help you make this year your best. To that end, today’s post offers up 23 ideas for achieving what you want this year in your space, schedule, and life.

CREATE A FRESH MINDSET

1) Learn last year’s lessons to build next year’s success.

You were probably super-busy last week, but I encourage you to read the final Paper Doll post of 2022. (Trust me, it was a good one!)

Organize Your Annual Review & Mindset Blueprint for 2023 is full of questions and resources for figuring yourself (and your last year) out.

I often joke to clients that while I’m not a mental health professional, I am like a marriage counselor between you and your stuff. Well, last week’s post is like a cross between a therapy session and a deep dive with your BFF. It rejects the demoralizing proposition of resolutions in favor of creating a fresh, motivating mindset for the coming year, whether with a word, quote, or motto of the year, and uses signage, a vision board, or a music playlist to keep your eyes on the prize that is your new and improved life.

2) Don’t take my word for it. Listen to James Clear.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news in the “habit” realm at all in the last few years, you know that James Clear wrote Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, a book that takes the research of habit researchers (like Charles Duhigg in his The Power of Habit) and makes it all actionable. 

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Theory is good, but what most of us want is someone to tell us how to do it, and preferably in a way that doesn’t make us hungry, cranky, poor, or frustrated. Clear delivers.

But this year, he’s doing something special. Clear is offering a free email course called 30 Days to Better Habits: A simple step-by-step guide for forming habits that stick.

It’s not a bootcamp. Rather, as Clear explains, “Habits are not a finish line to be crossed, they’re a lifestyle to be lived.” Over eleven emails (after an introduction), one sent every three days, he’s going to gently teach principles to help cultivate a new lifestyle (and not merely a set of “tasks you can sprint through during a 30-day challenge.”)

There’s also an 18-page PDF workbook and a Google spreadsheet with more than 140 examples (!) of how to implement the strategies in the course and apply them to different habits.

The course is based on Atomic Habits, but he notes that you don’t need the book to successfully complete the course. However, because I originally read a library copy, I decided to buy my own, because he’s also got a nifty set of bonus packages for those who do buy the book. Basically, you email a copy of your receipt or other proof of purchase, and you get:

  • Bonus Guide: How to Apply Atomic Habits to Business
  • Bonus Guide: How to Apply Atomic Habits to Parenting
  • The Habits Cheat Sheet
  • Companion Reading Guide email series
  • Habit Tracker

For what it’s worth, I bought my copy New Year’s morning, and had received the bonuses by the time I had lunch!

3) Make strides towards delight, too!

One of my favorite sites is the UK-based Action for Happiness. Each month, they put out a stellar calendar of tiny (Clear might even call them atomic) actions you can take toward a better life. Each month is themed, and you can find daily reminders on their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. 

January 2023’s theme is Happiness, and on New Year’s Day, the assignment was to “Find three things to look forward to this year.” 

If you’re wondering what happiness has to do with organizing and productivity — hi, you must be new here!

But seriously. Clutter — all the excess stuff in our spaces, in our schedules, and in our brains — wears us down. It’s not at all uncommon for clients to be dealing with clinical depression or anxiety disorders, and disorganization and lack of productivity (and the stress of toxic productivity), only contribute to greater unhappiness. Think of these daily themes less as homework (“I have to”) and more as opportunities (“I get to”) on the path to organizing your mental health.

4) Collect good days — literally!

Each day, make a habit of writing down something great that happened. You can consider this part of (or instead of) a gratitude practice.

Our lives fill up with what we give our attention, so let’s pay attention to the good stuff. Next year, when you’re doing your annual review, you’ll have a tangible resource for looking back on the year and see the highlights, what you considered valuable at the time, and what might have been forgotten had you not made a notation.

Our lives fill up with what we give our attention, so let's pay attention to the good stuff. Share on X

Create a spreadsheet, an Evernote note, a pretty notebook, or — and this is my favorite idea — a Jar of Joy! (Someone else came up with the concept, but I came up with the name. Write a few words or a sentence about whatever great thing happened on a slip of paper. Fold or roll it up, and toss it in a jar or glass canister. Consider using colored slips of paper to make the contents look prettier, and keep your Jar of Joy visible, so you can be reminded each day that good things are happening!

5) Remember that tiny tasks count toward a more productive life.

There’s a reason why James Clear (and, ahem, Paper Doll) believes that those teeny, tiny steps lead to success. Whatever you want to achieve, whatever goals you have, I’d like to encourage you to figure out the teeniest, tiniest, itsy-bitsyist thing you can do to get yourself microscopically closer to the finish line…heck, to the starting line.

Adam Bulger at Fatherly.com came up with 27 Life-Changing Micro Habits That Require Only A Few Minutes. Many of the habits on this list take less than a full minute to accomplish. I liked item #23 on his list:

Always put one thing away before you leave whatever room you’re in. If you’re overwhelmed by clutter, you feel like you don’t have time to clean but habitually chipping away at the mess, one piece at a time, can make it more manageable.

START PLANNING YOUR YEAR

6) Select your planning system.

If you’re a digital person, your calendar is a continuous scroll of everything you’ve got planned. But if you’re a paper planner person (try saying THAT three times quickly!), you may have delayed getting a planner out of fear of buying the wrong one, or perhaps you’ve just not written in what you did buy, because you “don’t want to mess it up.” 

It’s your planner. You can fill it in with crayons and use scratch-&-sniff stickers, and it’ll be OK. Whatever inspires you to log your meetings and appointments, block your time, and work toward your deadlines is fine with me. (And if anyone gives you guff, send them to Paper Doll. I’ll set them straight!)

If you’re still struggling with how you’ll plan your 2023, go visit Paper Doll’s Guide to Picking the Right Paper Planner. It covers the features you need to consider in a planner (including whether you’re better off with digital or paper), as well as pointing out some of the best options.

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

The key to organizing your life is being able to visualize your time. So get everything out of your head and in front of your beautiful eyeballs.

7) Move into your new planner now.

Make a cup of cocoa, grab last year’s planner or pull up your digital calendar (using two screens, like your computer and your phone simultaneously) — compare apples-to-apples.

Go page-by-page through last year’s schedule and copy over everything that recurs on the same dates, like birthdays and anniversaries. Digital users can skip this step.

Next, add events that happened last year and are already scheduled to happen again, but not on the same dates (like conferences, work retreats, mammograms, dental appointments, etc.).

Use last year’s calendar to help prompt you to make a list of everything you need to schedule or add to your long-range tasks, like setting an appointment with your CPA to discuss tax issues. 

8) Don’t forget to plan time for your activities.

Appointments aren’t everything. Make time in your schedule for thinking, doing your creative work, attending to self-care, and so much more. Whenever clients complain to me that they don’t have time to accomplish something that they swear is important to them, I ask them to show me where they’ve put it on their schedules. [Insert cricket noises here.]

The truth is that if you don’t prioritize something by making time for it, it’s not really a priority to you. Treat yourself with the same respect you’d treat your boss or your best client or your Grandma, and make time for what matters:

Struggling To Get Things Done? Paper Doll’s Advice & The Task Management & Time Blocking Virtual Summit 2022 (I’ll have news about the 2023 summit coming soon!)

Playing With Blocks: Success Strategies for Time Blocking Productivity

Organize Your Writing Time for NaNoWriMo 2022 (Even though the post is ostensibly about making time to write, it’s applicable to make time for anything you value.)

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

If there’s so much going on in your life that you forget to check your planner or digital calendar and task system until it’s too late, upgrade your accountability support:

  • Set an alarm on your phone to ring at around 5 p.m. daily to remind you to check your calendar and tickler file for the next day and the coming week.

  • If you have an assistant (especially if you both work remotely) schedule time each day to review newly-added appointments and obligations.
  • Have a family meeting on the weekend to make sure every appointment and school pick-up is covered.
  • 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. Otherwise, ask them to call you. Never agree to any date without your planner nearby. In fact, if you tend to agree to too much, say that your professional organizer told you that you’ll have to wait to check your schedule before taking on any new obligations. (Blame me; I won’t tattle.)

10) Know where your time is going — before it gets away from you!

It really doesn’t help you schedule all of the things you’re supposed to be doing if you don’t have a handle on what you’re actually doing. To that end, Laura Vanderkam is doing something nifty.

You may know Laura from her podcasts, her blog, or her several books, including 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done, and the recently published Tranquility By Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters. 

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Laura is running the 168 Hours Time Tracking Challenge — and yes, I signed up for this one, too. I’ve always enjoyed Laura’s writing, but when we both participated in the 2022 Task Management and Time Blocking Summit, I really got to peek behind the curtain to see how she thinks about time and our use of it. She’s talking about time concepts and strategies that are too rarely discussed.

The 168 Hours Time Tracking Challenges doesn’t start until the middle of next week, January 9, 2023, so there’s still time to sign up. After signing up, you’ll get links to resources and suggestions for tracking your time on paper (via Laura’s time sheets) or digitally, as well as links to her other writings on the subject. 

Like tracking what you eat (which can be emotionally distressing), tracking what you do with your time can be uncomfortable. When you realize you’re spending 3 hours a day on social media — and your job is not as a social media influencer — you may be upset. But if you recognize that you’re spending 90 minutes (or more) of every day “making do” with software that keeps freezing or helping a co-worker who takes advantage of your kindness, you’ll become more aware of challenges you can then overcome!

BECOME YOUR OWN MONEY HONEY

11) Make a TAX PREP folder. Actually, make two.

Tax season has started. Within a matter of weeks, your mailbox will start filling up with W-2s and 1099s, and you’ll need to keep them safe. At the very least (if you haven’t done it already), create a folder with a simple name like 2022 Tax Prep.

Look around for all of your tax-deductible receipts and charitable donation paperwork, and pop those in; when forms start arriving in the mail, put those in, too. Some of your important tax forms may come by mail; others, like your investment accounts or health insurance annual summary, might live in your online accounts, requiring you to log in.

This one two-minute task will save you so much time down the road. And time is money, so whether you do your own taxes or hand things off to a CPA, you’ll be saving the Benjamins as well as the clock-hours.

You don’t have to get fancy. A manila folder set in the front of your financial files is fine; or get a dedicated accordion folder like the Smead All-in-One Income Tax Organizer.

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12) Stop hiding from your financial truths.

You have to answer mail call! Not looking at your bills when they come in the mail (or email) is like ignoring a pain that gets worse and refusing to go to the doctor because you’re afraid of bad news. Financial ills don’t go away on their own.

Not looking at your bills when they come in the mail (or email) is like ignoring a pain that gets worse and refusing to go to the doctor because you're afraid of bad news. Financial ills don't go away on their own. Share on X

Why not start bossing your money around instead of letting it bully you?

Over the course of the next few weeks, get in the habit of putting your bills and statements all in one place, like a folder next to your computer. If you normally just get a reminder to log in and pay a bill, make a point of downloading and/or printing out your monthly statement. 

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 is the first step toward taking control of your financial future.

13) Get a financial accountability partner!

Last year, I said, “If you don’t know the difference between an NFT and BBQ…” It turns out a lot of people were investing in NFTs and cryptocurrency when they would have been better off having a backyard barbecue and inviting their friendly neighborhood fee-only Certified Financial Planner.

I’m no expert in cryto-currency. (And your brother-in-law’s cousin almost assuredly isn’t!) But whether you want to know whether you invest more in your 401K or your IRA, a fee-only CFP can help you out when your eyes start to glaze over. You pay for their expertise, and they give you unbiased advice because fee-only CFPs don’t get any commissions on investments you make. 

Does thinking about investment vehicles feel like choosing between between becoming a rock star or an NBA star (because of their equal improbabilities)? If you need support and strategies for getting your bills paid on time, every time, there are NAPO members who are financial organizers; you can also find a Daily Money Manager through the American Association of Daily Money Managers (AADMM).

BECOME A VIP WITH YOUR VIPs

14) Get your vital documents in order.

It’s a sad fact of life that people get sick or incapacitated, and sometimes shuffle off this mortal coil far too soon. Whether it’s illness or natural disasters or some other kind of calamity we don’t want to think about, we need to get our affairs in order. And that means getting paperwork straight.

Check in with these posts for step-by-step guidance to making sure you’re covered with up-to-date vital documents and a way to keep them organized.

15) Put your foot on the brake before automatically renewing your car insurance.

If you haven’t shopped insurance to compare prices and coverage in recent years — or ever — this is really the time to do it.

This year, I updated an older post that explained all of the elements of auto insurance, as well as how and where to organize your paperwork.

Organize for an Accident: Don’t Crash Your Car Insurance Paperwork [UPDATED]

But the post also talks about the wisdom of comparison shopping. While you’re at it, shop around for homeowners’ or renters’ insurance, as well. Why not organize some discounts while you’re organizing your paperwork?

16) Clean out your wallet and make an inventory.

You’ve probably got too much in your wallet. If you keep it in your purse, it’s giving you shoulder pains; if it’s in your back pocket, you’re likely misaligning your spine. Why not take a lunch hour and declutter your wallet, and then put it all back so it makes sense to you?

While you’re at it, this is the perfect time to take an inventory of the licenses, insurance cards, and debit/credit cards you have in there and all the information contained on them.

Pull everything out of your wallet, make two columns of cards on the table, and take a photo with your smartphone. Then flip each card over in the same position, and photograph the back. Easy-peasy. (If you’ve got a home scanner/copier, it’s fine to use that, but I’ll discourage you from using a public copier; it’s too easy for someone to surreptitiously snap photos of your information over your shoulder.)

Remember to password-protect the document on your phone or in your cloud back-up.

EMBRACE PAPER DOLL‘S CLASSIC PRINCIPLES ABOUT ORGANIZING

17) Follow the Ice Cream Rule.

I tell my clients, “Don’t put things down, put them away.” The word “away” assumes you’ve already got a location in mind. But good organizing systems have two parts: the where & the how.

When you bring groceries home, you put the ice cream away in the freezer immediately to keep from having a melted, sticky mess. It’s pretty rare for someone to put away the toilet paper or breakfast cereal before the frozen foods. The freezer is the “where” but putting the ice cream away first is the “how.” It’s so innate, you don’t even think about. But for most of your stuff, including papers, you do have to think about it.

Whatever comes into your space, when you go shopping, or even when things are free, decide on a home before you bring it in.

Once it’s in your space, build fixed time into your schedule for how/when you’ll deal with maintaining it or getting it back to where it lives. When will you do laundry? When will you file financial papers? What will be your trigger — when the laundry basket or in-box is full, or will you put it on your calendar?

Remember: “Someday” is not a day on the calendar.

18) Everything should have a home, but not everything has to live with you.

Clients are often so focused on organizing what they already have that they ignore a key truth: not everything you own needs to stay with you forever.

If it’s broken and you’re not willing to spend the time or money to repair it, let it go. If you’re sentimentally attached to something that’s outdated or takes too much space or effort to keep, take a photo of you holding it or wearing it. Then set it free!

If you have piles and files full of clippings and articles you haven’t looked at in years, you’re not alone. 80% of what gets filed is never accessed again. Trust that the internet is a vast storehouse of everything you’d want to look up, and if the paper you’re holding has nothing to do with you, personally, or reflects information you’ve long since learned by heart, recycle it and give yourself space.

19) Don’t fight clutter with more clutter.

I love The Container Store and all the office supply stores as much as every other professional organizer. (Really!) 

But buying oodles of storage containers — bins, boxes, tubs, and shelves — can only help you organize if you pare down to what you need and want.

Photo by Lia Trevarthen on Unsplash

When you see a great outfit at the store but it’s not in your size, you shouldn’t say, “Hey, I’ll buy this now and then lose (or gain) 30 pounds to fit into it.” Even if you do declutter the personal poundage, you never know from where, exactly, that weight will disappear. It almost certainly won’t be a perfect fit.

I’m not saying never to acquire storage containers (adorable or otherwise), but do it last. Once you pare down, pick colorful, fun containers that suit your needs, space, and tastes.

20) Take baby steps. Declare small victories. Don’t feel like you have to do it all.

When it comes to clutter, it’s not the space it takes up in your house, it’s the dent it puts in your life! If you’re late every day because you can’t find your keys and your kids can’t find their homework, it’s a much bigger deal than a cluttered guest room closet or drawers of old birthday party pictures that haven’t been scrapbooked. 

Focus on your biggest daily stressors, break them down into small, actionable steps, and solve those first. You don’t need to do it all at once, but if you develop a habit of doing a little bit at a time, once your space is straightened up, maintenance will feel natural.

 

21) Declare bankruptcy on clutter debt. 

Give yourself permission to declare bankruptcy on the “debt” of unread magazines, charitable contribution requests that aren’t really your cause, unworn clothes three sizes too small, or email from last July. In the words of Elsa, LET IT GO!

Keeping something just because you spent money on it or because it was a gift doesn’t make it any more valuable or useful; it just ends of costing you time (dusting or caring for it), space (that you could use for more important things), or money (spent on dry-cleaning or storage rental).

Keeping something just because you spent money on it or because it was a gift doesn't make it any more valuable or useful; it just ends of costing you time, space, & money. Free up the mental energy! Share on X

22) Hire a professional organizer.

As a Certified Professional Organizer®, I see how much my clients get out from support to make difficult decisions and develop systems to surmount those challenges. Find a professional organizer near you (or a virtual organizer) by using NAPO’s search function. You may also want to consult with our colleagues in the Institute for Challenging Disorganization.

Whether you need to reinvigorate a closet, learn how to use Evernote to 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 stuff, but experts in helping you figure out how best to organize your ways of thinking and living.

23) Be gentle with yourself. 

Getting organized and being productive is a constant battle between your goals and other people’s expectations of you. Focus on what you need and want.

In the words of Mary Oliver poem The Summer Day, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

The purpose of organizing and being more productive is to make your life easier — so that you can spend it doing the things you like with the people you love. 

Happy New Year! Happy GO Month!

Paper Doll Responds When They Say “Be Our Guest”

Posted on: October 17th, 2022 by Julie Bestry | 16 Comments

The theme of this week’s post has become somewhat bittersweet since the I originally conceived it. On Tuesday, October 11, 2022, Dame Angela Lansbury passed away at the age of 96. Depending on your age and tastes, you may know Lansbury from various points in her eighty-year career.

If you’re a cinephile, you may know her from films from her earliest role in Gaslight and in the 1940s to The Manchurian Candidate in the 1960s and Bedknobs and Broomsticks in the 1970s, to Anastasia, Mary Poppins Returns and the Knives Out sequel, which hasn’t even been released yet!

If you’re a fan of Broadway, you could have caught her in anything from Stephen Sondheim’s early Anyone Can Whistle to the title role in Auntie Mame to the distasteful pie-baking Mrs. Lovett  in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. And, if you watched television in the 1980s, 1990s, or 2000s, then you probably knew her best as Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote.

However, if you’ve been a kid or a parent or a baby sitter any time since 1991, then you will recall Lansbury voicing Mrs. Potts (alongside Jerry Orbach’s Lumière) in the classic animated Disney production of Beauty and the Beast. And if you’re wondering what any of this has to do with organizing, here’s a hint:

Perhaps this post’s theme might seem less shoehorned in (if less palatable) if I could sing it to you. But recently, I was asked to serve as a guest and offer advice and information on three disparate topics: productivity, technology, and paper, and I’d like the opportunity to share this material with you.

THE CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS EDGE MAGAZINE

On October 20, 2002, almost twenty years ago, in Professional Organizers Are A Growing Trend, I was profiled in the Chattanooga Times Free Press for the first time. Over the years, I’ve been delighted to be interviewed, right up through March 2021, when I was profiled in the newspaper’s Edge, a business-themed magazine.

However, I was particularly giddy when Jennifer McNally, the new editor of Edge asked me to write the October Business Acumen column in an issue devoted to staying productive. While the issue is geared toward professionals and business owners in the Chattanooga region, I think you’ll find it informative and appealing, no matter where you reside or what you do.

You can read the entire October issue of the Edge — my column spans pages 24 and 25, but other columns range from How to Own Failure (and Still Preserve Your Reputation) to the Take It From the Top series with advice from Chattanooga leaders on issues ranging from tracking goals, focus, and discipline to allocating time strategically and anticipating challenges.


You can also head directly to my guest Business Acumen column, An Expert’s Secrets to Stress-Free Productivity on the newspaper’s site. To give you a taste, it starts with:

Do you feel like life is more demanding than ever, and that effective productivity is hard to achieve? Workdays (and too often, nights) are packed with back-to-back meetings and Zoom calls, Slack notifications and email alerts. Productivity can be elusive.

Maybe you feel like you’re doing more but accomplishing less that rewards you. Increasingly, we’re seeing toxic productivity, where pressure to meet unrealistic expectations zaps physical and mental energy, damaging motivation and self-esteem. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In the column, I share my strategies for conquering overwhelm by identifying your priorities, protecting your focus, creating flow, and conquering procrastination. I encourage you to take a peek and let me know what you think.

THE STREAMLINED CONNECTION 

A particularly charming guest experience was getting to be on my friend and colleague Miriam Ortiz Y Pino‘s video podcast, The Streamlined Connection.

Miriam is a Certified Professional Organizer and Money Breakthrough Business Coach. Her company is More Than Organized, and she’s a firecracker! Like me, she’s been at this for more than two decades, and Miriam’s got an amazing way of creating transformation.

Miriam offers one-on-one in-person and virtual services including organizing, business coaching, speaking, and training in a variety of areas (including the fascinating topic of Sacred Money Archetypes). Miriam also delivers Streamlined Solutions courses for tackling clutter, time troubles, and paper, and live and virtual group workshops for professionals. 

It’s an absolute trip to talk to Miriam, because every conversation yields insight. So, I was tickled to be the first guest on her show. 

As a Paper Doll reader, you will not be surprised that, when given the opportunity to talk about organizing, I chose my favorite topic, paper. However, unlike when I talked about the philosophical aspects of Why Paper Still Matters on the NAPO podcast earlier this summer, Miriam and I went in a different direction.

On Organizing Paper with Julie Bestry: Paper FEAR and Tickles, we explored the nitty gritty of the frustrations of different types of paper clutter, and how strategically considering both fear and tickles can help you dig out from under. 

Miriam has since had some organizing and productivity industry rock stars as guests, including Amy Payne, Regina Lark, Geralin Thomas, Mike Vardy, Leslie Josel, Robyn Reynolds, and Nietra Rose! (Seriously, check it out!)

ORGANIZED ASSISTANT

The amazing (and Canadian) Janet Barclay has graced Paper Doll‘s pages many times over the years. I’ve known Janet since the days before modern social media, when we were both getting the hang of things on Ryze.com. (Don’t go visit; it’s all spam now. Sigh.)

Although Janet started out as a professional organizer and productivity consultant, she eventually found and perfected her niche in supporting organizing professionals. She works her magic as a “website caregiver and designer,” which means she helps people keep their online identities afloat so we can focus on our own clients. She rocks that way.  

But Janet rocks another way, as one of the biggest cheerleaders of the organizing and productivity profession. Her Organized Assistant web site is home to blog posts and articles that provide a broad perspective for those of us who work in the field, but she also created the Productivity and Organizing Blog Carnival for the reading public, collecting monthly themed posts on categories ranging from organizing junk drawers to efficiency in the workplace to organizing when a member of the family is ill.

I’m proud to say that I’m one of Janet’s Megastar Blogggers, having contributed to more than 50 monthly carnivals, and am joined by my fancy-pants colleagues Hazel Thornton, Linda Samuels, Sabrina Quairoli, and Seana Turner. 

Productivity & Organizing Blog CarnivalIn the spring, I referenced having recertified as an Evernote Certified Expert. As I often talk about the reasons I love and use Evernote, Janet asked if I’d like to share the certification process with her readers, and I was only too excited to do so. 

As an Evernote user, it was easy to pull together my resources for the guest post. I had notes from my original certification as an Evernote Certified Business Consultant in 2015, then as an Evernote Certified Consultant a few years later, and now under the current program, an Evernote Certified Expert. Evernote’s so-powerful-it’s-spooky search capacity found everything I needed to write Adventures in Becoming an Evernote Certified Expert. (This also means I had no excuse for procrastinating on actually writing it!)

Hopefully, you’ll be entertained as you learn about my experience getting certified, and it may encourage you to get certified, use the skills and support of an Evernote Certified Expert, or just learn more about Evernote in its newest incarnation as so much more than just a note-taking app.

Writing this, I’m shocked to realize it’s been nine years since I’ve written an entire post about Evernote. It’s a completely different platform now, with so many more features and opportunities to organize your digital life. So, don’t be surprised to see more Paper Doll posts in the future regarding how you can use Evernote to be more organized and productive.

BE YOUR GUEST?

As much as I love working with my in-person and virtual clients, giving presentations, and writing this blog, it’s even more fun when I get to share a (digital) stage or blog space. As I’ve reported, throughout 2022 I’ve been on a variety of podcasts and have guested at various summits, about which you can read more:

Paper Doll on the NAPO Stand Out Podcast: Why Paper Still Matters 

Paper Doll Picks: Organizing and Productivity Podcasts

Paper Doll on Planning & Prioritizing for Leadership

Paper Doll Shares Secrets from the Task Management & Time Blocking Summit 2022

Not enough Paper Doll for you? You can also check out my Press Room page for more links to interviews and guest spots.

If you have a podcast, summit, or blog for which you might like to interview me on topics related to paper and information organizing or productivity, please feel free to use the Contact page on my site to let me know how we might work together.

ONE LAST LOOK AT MRS. POTTS & LUMIÈRE

Paper Doll cannot live by organizing alone, and I hope that as my guests, you take some delight in the pop culture cameos that have populated this blog since 2007.

Whether solving crimes as Jessica Fletcher or making the worst pies in London as Mrs. Lovett, or getting nominated for Academy Awards, Tony Awards, Golden Globes, or Emmy or Grammy Awards, Angela Lansbury was beloved. And as Lumière to her Mrs. Potts, Jerry Orbach (Law & Order‘s Lennie Briscoe, Baby’s father in Dirty Dancing, and in oodles of other roles on stage and screen) was no slouch, either. With that, I’d like to close today’s post with this behind-the-scenes view of how they put together “Be Our Guest.”

Thank you for being my guest at the Paper Doll blog, and thank you for letting me be a guest on your computer and mobile devices all these years.

Paper Doll Helps You Get By With a Little Help From Her (Brilliant) Friends

Posted on: October 3rd, 2022 by Julie Bestry | 16 Comments

I love sharing my expertise and research with you about a wide variety of topics, from getting more (of the right things) done to conquering toxic productivity to accessing and organizing vital documents.

Although I’m a generalist in my professional organizing practice, I specialize in blogging about organizing paper and information and boosting productivity. But that doesn’t mean that’s all you want to hear about. After all, man (and woman) cannot live by bread alone. We also need cheese. (In Paper Doll‘s case, lots and lots of cheese.)

As a Certified Professional Organizer®, member of NAPO, and Evernote Certified Expert, I get to hobnob with other likeminded specialists, learn from them, and share their knowledge with you. Today, I’ve got a cornucopia of resources for making your life, family, and world run a little more smoothly.

LATE, LOST & LAGGING: UNDERSTANDING ADHD & EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING

October is ADHD Awareness Month.

As recently as a few decades ago, people lacked a clear understanding of ADHD. If they thought about it at all, they considered it as something that only impacted little boys, that it was about being rambunctious and intentionally (or rebelliously) inattentive, and that it was something people grew out of. It was rarely acknowledged as something that impacted women and girls, and most people, if they considered it at all, thought it was something kids grew out of.

Now, we know more. We know that ADHD is a brain-based disorder, a neurological condition that affects people across all ages, genders, and socio-economic and cultural areas. (It’s diagnosed two-to-three times more often in boys than girls, but that may be because the expression of ADHD in girls can be less disruptive, which says more about socialization norms and pressures than it does about ADHD.)

ADHD impacts the lives people across all levels of education and intelligence. Willful ignorance about ADHD expresses itself in all levels of education and intelligence, as well.

I once worked with a client for whom her late-in-life diagnosed ADHD had caused distress throughout her life, and the emotional abuse inflicted on her by her physician spouse, who refused to “believe” in ADHD, was both eye-opening and frustrating as we tried to implement solutions. (Yes, Dr. Shouty-Dude, ADHD is real, and no, you can’t “conquer” it by having more “diligence” and “willpower.” Grrrr.)

If you or someone you know has ADHD or other challenges with executive functioning, ADHD Awareness Month is a great opportunity to learn more, and I’ve got a great webinar resource for you.

My NAPO colleague, ADHD Student Coach Leslie Josel of Order Out of Chaos, is one of my absolute go-to experts when I have a question about ADHD and executive function.

If Leslie’s name sounds familiar (and it should), it may be from the post Paper Doll Peeks Behind the Curtain with Superstar Coach, Author & Speaker Leslie Josel, where we talked about her multi-award-winning Academic Planner: A Tool for Time Management, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary,

and her book, How to Do It Now Because It’s Not Going Away: An Expert Guide to Getting Stuff Done, which helps middle school, high school, and college students overcome academic procrastination and better manage manage time and study skills.

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On Monday, October 24, 2022 at 7 p.m. EST, Leslie is going to be interviewed by another of my go-to NAPO colleagues, fellow Certified Evernote Expert Kimberly Purcell of Amethyst Productivity. Kimberly is an Evernote consultant and trainer for personal and business use, and is  stellar at knowing the right questions to achieve the best results. I can’t wait to see what she asks Leslie. 

Leslie and Kimberly will be talking about some of the pillars of executive function, including time management, memory, focus, and effort. Leslie will also be sharing the differences between ADHD and other obstacles to executive function.

The webinar, entitled Late, Lost & Lagging: Understanding ADHD & Executive Functioning, is free to attend, and is sponsored by

LESLIE JOSEL’S MASTER CLASS SERIES FOR PARENTS

Sometimes, the news isn’t just about my friends, but about friends of my friends. In fact, Leslie has two upcoming master class events that might be up your alley if you’re a parent (or grandparent) trying to create some order in your family or someone’s academic life.

In the first webinar, Leslie will be presenting the wisdom of Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart in Kids & Fibs: What to Do When Your Child Lies. Dr. Lockhart is a leading expert in pediatric psychology and a parenting coach. Here’s a bit of the description of the event from Leslie’s site:

All children lie. Especially those with weak Executive Functions and ADHD. Some lie because they are testing limits and boundaries, others because their “developing” brains lead to impulsive or inappropriate decision-making. And then there are those children who find lying easier than doing the task or chore they are being asked to do.

There are many reasons and theories behind lying behaviors.  But what we do know for sure is that parents feel very hurt or angry, and tend to take the lying personally. Or they are confused and want to correct the behavior immediately.   

In this 1-hour online master class, Dr. Ann-Louise Lockhart, pediatric psychologist, and a parenting coach, will discuss the three reasons why children fib. She’ll explain how the most important step to remedy dishonest behavior is to address the underlying reasons behind it. She’ll also show parents how they can dig deeper to discover what’s driving their child’s decision to lie and offer tools to promote future truth-telling. Practical strategies will be discussed along with real-life examples to help parents effectively manage their child’s behavior.

This webinar is Wednesday, October 12, 2022, at 7 p.m. EST. Register at: Kids & Fibs: What to Do When Your Child Lies; the master class, on its own, is $29.99.

I’m particularly excited about Leslie’s November virtual master class Motivating the Unmotivated Student: With ADHD or Otherwise with Dr. Ari Tuckman. Longtime readers of the blog have seen me buzz about the brilliant programs Dr. Tuckman has put on at NAPO conferences over the years. I can honestly say that the bulk of my true understanding of how to help my clients with ADHD and executive function disorders came from attending presentations by Dr. Tuckman. 

Topics covered in this virtual master class include:

  • Why many teens struggle with motivation — and especially those with ADHD and executive dysfunction.
  • Understanding how attention gets hijacked and why prevention is more effective than willpower.
  • How to “feel the future” more in order to increase motivation in the present so your student actually uses these strategies.

(As a side note to my Certified Professional Organizer colleagues, this seems like an ideal class for getting continuing education units toward our CPO® recertifications.)

Leslie’s master class with Dr. Ari Tuckman is November 7, 2022 at 7 p.m. EST. Sign up for Motivating the Unmotivated Student: With ADHD or Otherwise on its own for $29.99.

If both tickle your fancy, click here to register for Leslie’s master classes with both Drs. Lockhart and Tuckman, and you can save 10%.

It’s not necessary to join either webinar live, as Leslie will send links to the replay the following day, and you’ll have one week to watch. However, you’re urged to act quickly, as there are limited virtual seats available, and only the first 1000 participants are able to register. (FYI: Leslie’s master classes and webinars tend to sell out.)

HOW TO CONQUER CLUTTER WORKSHOP

Friend of the blog, NAPO colleague, and fellow lover-of-purple Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP® of Oh, So Organized also has a big event this month. Linda is a past president of the Institute for Challenging Disorganization, an expert in chronic disorganization, and a coach extraordinaire.

She also has amazing empathy, warmth, and insight into the human condition, as evidenced by her blog, The Other Side of Organized, which shares a title with her now-classic book, The Other Side of Organized: Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection.

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Later this month, Linda is delivering a workshop entitled How to Conquer Clutter: Understanding the Where, Why & What.

This lively virtual workshop is designed for those who are overwhelmed by clutter. Given that clutter can adversely affect levels of anxiety, as well as the quality of a person’s interpersonal relationships, sleep, and ability to focus, a little guidance can go a long way. A little buffer in your space is surprisingly effective in giving you room to breathe!

In Linda’s one-hour workshop, attendees will discover the truth about where clutter really comes from (and no, it’s not the Clutter Fairy), why it’s so hard to let go of possessions, and what you can do to reverse the clutter trend.

Linda says that you will come away from the workshop with at least one powerful and actionable strategy to use immediately to reduce your clutter. Attendees will have the opportunity ask questions and discuss their organizational and clutter-related challenges.

Linda’s How to Conquer Clutter: Understanding the Where, Why & What Workshop is scheduled for Thursday, October 20, 2022 at 7 p.m. EST and costs $59.

Be sure to register by Monday, October 17, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. to ensure your participation. This live workshop will be presented via Zoom; within 48 hours after registering, you will receive an email with the Zoom link and handout. I’m willing to bet something in that email will be purple.

MY LIST SIMPLIFIED JOURNAL

This last item is neither a webinar nor a master class nor a workshop. It’s something you can hold in your hands and make your own. 

My List Simplified is yet another brainchild from my NAPO colleagues and friends from my own NAPO-Georgia chapter, Diane Quintana, CPO®, CPO-CD® and Jonda Beattie, M. Ed.

I’ve previously blogged about their various ventures, like their stellar book, Filled Up and Overflowing: What to do When Life Events, Chronic Disorganization, or Hoarding Go Overboard,

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and their children’s books, Suzie’s Messy Room and Benji’s Messy Room. We discussed Diane and Jonda’s Organize Your Home 10 Minutes at a Time Deck of Cards in Paper Doll Models the Spring 2021 Organizing Products.

Their newest collaboration is a journal called My List Simplified.

As experienced professional organizers, Diane and Jonda recognize that people often have oodles of scribbled paper notes cluttering their desks, reminding them of phone calls to be returned, cards and emails to write, errands to run, and so on.

Clients inclined to rid themselves of little bits of paper by going digital might select an app or online platform to rid themselves of the mess. But Diane and Jonda (and I, and most organizers) know that there are still many, many people who are both comforted by, and more efficient with, paper solutions. For them, the business partners have created a journal to capture and corral all these lists, plans, and ideas in one place. 

My List Simplified is a spiral-bound, lay-flat, undated journal with solutions that work for those who best comprehend a paper environment. There are a number of features for simplifying information and making it easy to retrieve without bogging users down in a system that might be too complicated to maintain.

Use the left-side Check Your Calendar page to capture the various lists you’d otherwise keep on (too many) scraps of paper. This page starts with an inspirational quote and a place to specify the date (of which, more later), and includes small sections for:

  • 3 quick wins
  • Errands
  • Appointments
  • Household tasks
  • Calls to make
  • “Things I am thinking about”
  • Future plans/projects

Facing the Check Your Calendar page on the opposite (right) side is a Notes page for capturing information on the fly, such as when you’re on the phone and someone is giving you directions or instructions. You can also use it to capture context related to any of the lists on the reverse page.

This journal is not so much for the person who would normally use a Franklin Planner or Planner Pad to keep every 15-minute block of life scheduled and annotated. Rather, it’s for the person who wants to transition from lots of little sticky notes and fluttering pieces of paper to a centralized system they can trust, but which will not overwhelm them.

My List Simplified would be a great resource for anyone planning a move or home remodeling/renovation project. If you’re juggling to-do items for any sort of major ongoing project and prefer a paper approach, this gives you space to collect, collate, and keep it all in front of your eyes. And if you’re trying to keep track of which service providers were called, what they promised, and when materials were due to be back in stock, here’s your central location.

They key difference of this journal is that it’s a flexible planner for those who need a want or need a little support, but don’t wish to be locked into a system. The journal is undated, so you can determine the date and day for each Calendar page. As Jonda and Diane say, it is a “forever journal.”

You might use it during the school year but not during the summers. You might only use it when you’re starting to feel overwhelmed by everything going on during the holidays or for the run up to a vacation.

As professional organizers and productivity specialists, we can get caught up in presenting clients with complex systems to cover all possible eventualities and forget that that’s not what everyone needs (or wants). This journal offers a more relaxed, flexible approach to keeping all of “this week’s” essentials in front of you, even if you only need it one week a month (or a season, or a year).

My List Simplified has 114 pages measuring 8 1/2″ x 11″ and is made in the United States. It costs $25 at Diane and Jonda’s collaborative Release*Repurpose*Reorganize site.

If you have any questions about the webinar, master classes, workshop, or journal above, please contact my genius friends directly. In ease case, their names are linked to their own sites. Happy October!

How Professional Organizers (& Hair Stylists) Reverse Some Intolerable Problems

Posted on: September 19th, 2022 by Julie Bestry | 14 Comments

Kabarett der Komiker; Gisela Schlüter unter Friseurhaube by Willy Pragher (CC BY 3.0)

What’s annoying you today? What’s been annoying you so long that you almost don’t notice the annoyance until someone else mentions it?

Over Labor Day weekend, my air conditioner died. This was an acute problem, one that I noticed almost immediately (as the temperature was rising overnight instead of going down) and which led to much misery until the holiday weekend ended and the maintenance staff could address the problem fully.

(To be fair, they did bring a mobile A/C unit, which cooled my bedroom to a bearable temperature; unfortunately, it was so loud, I felt like I was sleeping adjacent to a jet engine. Sometimes, you trade one intolerable thing for another. That’s often what keeps you from seeking, or implementing a solution in the first place.)

That same weekend, I realized that my fridge was dying. Unlike the A/C unit, this was a less obvious thing to tolerate. The freezer was still working perfectly, and the contents of the fridge weren’t warm; they just weren’t entirely full-on chilly. Weeks earlier, the refrigerator had been making some moaning noises, but fiddling with the settings of the circa-1986 fridge seemed to stop the noise. And then I stopped noticing.

Two household problems, but one felt a lot more urgent than the other. But these weren’t the only problems.

Early in the pandemic, to ensure everyone’s safety, our complex had asked us to understand that they’d only be performing inside maintenance for emergencies. So, when we had torrential rains in the summer of 2020, the roof was repaired immediately; the ceiling, well, not so quickly.

When my hot water heater expired in the spring of 2021, I vacated my home and the nice gentlemen figured out the complexities of draining a water heater on the second floor to enable removal and installation of a new one. And later that summer, my smoke detector decided to start beeping in eight sequences of three loud bursts, every ten minutes, ALL.NIGHT.LONG. That was something I could not tolerate (and thankfully, the leasing office agreed).

However, there were other, smaller repairs where I managed DIY solutions or made do. It was easier to avoid contact during the pandemic for non-emergency issues. And then I just started tolerating some inconveniences.

WHAT YOU TOLERATE NEVER GOES AWAY

A few years ago, in Organize Away Frustration: Practice The Only Good Kind of “Intolerance,” we discussed how the first step to creating the kind of life you want is to start by identifying the unsatisfying things that you tolerate. Knowing what makes you unhappy helps you create a strategy for eliminating those “tolerations,” the obstacles to your happiness. (This is true with organizing tangible items, as well as dealing with things in your schedule, and even non-organizing things, like annoyances in our relationships and whether we live our true values.)

Knowing what makes you unhappy helps you create a strategy for eliminating those 'tolerations,' the obstacles to your happiness. Share on X

As I mentioned in that prior post, I see part of my role as a professional organizer and productivity expert as helping my clients identify the areas in which they’ve been tolerating inconveniences far too long. Recent client situations have included:

  • Carla* never could find gift certificates when she was ready to use them. They were always in drawers, or in the greeting cards with which they were given. We collected all of them and then separated restaurant gift certificates from shopping gift certificates. The former might be used on any given evening when she and her spouse were already out of the house and might drop in somewhere to eat, so we created a wallet for dining out cards. For the latter, given that Carla only shopped on Saturday, we clipped them together and put them in the Saturday slot of her tickler file. (Every new gift card or certificate went to one of those two places from then on.)
  • Joe always had trouble figuring out how to adjust the settings on his DVR. It didn’t help that his box of manuals included instructions for every gadget and device he’d owned since the early 1970s. We purged all of the manuals that applied to defunct gadgets, created folders in the “household” section of the Family Files with one folder for each type of technology (computers, entertainment, kitchen, etc.) But then we scanned the DVR instructions that plagued him as a PDF and put it in the Notes app on his phone so it was even easier to access (and enlarge).
  • Jenny’s pantry was crowded with ingredients, including a wide variety of items marked “gluten-free.” But nobody in Jenny’s household was avoiding gluten! It turns out that an occasional weekend houseguest cooked while visiting and she needed gluten-free ingredients. We rearranged the pantry so that the occasional guest had her own labeled shelf, and everyone was happier.
  • Patsy saw that when she’d click on a link, her browser would sometimes give her a “web kit error” or just a blank page. She’d been copying the link from one browser (Safari) to another (Chrome) where it would work just fine, but lately, she’d been having to do that more and more, increasing her frustration. Upgrading her operating system allowed her to upgrade her browser, and she no longer had to struggle.

* All names have been changed to protect client confidentiality.

Sometimes professional organizers are dealing with clutter, but all organizers end up dealing with obstacles to productivity. The problem is that we’re all more likely to ignore a problem that can’t be fixed immediately.

When we’re focused on the task at hand, whether that’s work or school or driving or parenting, the thing we’re doing is more likely to have a deadline or at least be time-based. We postpone removing the obstacle until such time as it becomes too large or problematic to withstand. This is what happens when people keep driving with the “Check engine” light glowing on their dash panel.

RECENT TOLERATIONS TACKLED

As I wrote about in Organize Away Frustration: Practice The Only Good Kind of “Intolerance,” many of the “intolerables” in our lives can be conquered with a little research and applying one of the following:

  • A product
  • A service
  • A change in behavior
  • A change in attitude

In that post, I shared how I was almost unrelievedly ecstatic to find a new kind of shower curtain hook that made changing out shower curtain liners much easier on my short-of-stature self. Today, I’d like to share just a few recent examples of how applying a combination of solutions have removed annoyances.

A Tale of Two TVs

Do you have any of those old, boxy CRT TVs in your home? I did. In fact, I had three, which is kind of ridiculous when you realize I’m a singleton. You see, I’d had a television in my living room and another in my bedroom. When the bedroom TV died (so long ago that I’m embarrassed to discuss the exact date), I moved the living room TV to the bedroom.

When I met a friend for lunch one day, she surprised me by having brought one of her old, boxy CRT TVs for my use! To this day, I’m flummoxed as to how she ever got it into her car, and though I recall basically rolling/sliding it up the carpeted stairs of my apartment, I’ve got no idea how I ever managed to get it from my car to my own front door. (Perhaps this is like how they claim women forget the pain of childbirth?)

Eventually, I got a modern flat-screen TV for my living room. But I also embraced the advice not to have screens in the bedroom (to avoid that sleep-stealing blue light) and got rid of cable in that room. Thus, I had a broken TV, a gifted (no longer used) TV, and an unused TV. All on the second floor of my home.

Did I mention these are big, heavy, boxy TVs?

Remember how I said I had my hot water heater replaced last year? Well, one of those TVs took up most of the empty space at the top of the staircase, and so even though our apartment complex had been pretty insistent that we were never to ask the maintenance men to carry or remove anything unrelated to their work, the guys decided that it would be to everyone’s benefit to get that one TV out. Yay! But that still left two.

To be fair, I wasn’t always just tolerating the annoyance of having two unused, dust-catching, space-hogging CRT TVs in my home. I had called the various junk haulers in town, but they wanted a frustratingly large fee for something that I could have done myself, had I only been stronger, had slightly longer arms to get fully around the TVs, and had been a bit taller (so I could have seen the stairs over the top of the TVs and not feared tumbling down).

Yes, even we professional organizers fall prey to those self-imposed obstacles. Had I thrown a little money at the problem, it would have been solved back then. 

I also called many non-profits, but nobody wanted donated CRTs.

Fast forward to late August, when I contacted Chattanooga’s Always Be Recycling. The owners, a couple who’d moved from Pennsylvania, opened their business here just at the start of the pandemic. I’d networked online with Leann Cinaglia to see how their services might dovetail with my clients’ needs. The last time we’d spoken, they weren’t able to handle CRTs because of the difficulty in recycling them, but on a day where the frustration had just gotten too high, I called to see if they might have any suggestions for other solutions. And that’s where the magic happened!

It turns out that annoyingly boxy 20″ CRT TVs have become popular with the retro gaming crowd! After one short phone call, Always Be Recycling’s co-owner Jamison Cinaglia and his associate Bret (pictured above) arrived on time the next day and quickly removed both TVs and oodles of old landline phones, cables, and cords as well — at no charge. (Had I lived significantly farther from their venue, there would have been a fee, but significantly less than the various junk haulers had quoted me.)

Throughout the entire interaction, they were professional, careful, friendly, and polite. This bodes well for knowing they’ll treat my clients, especially the elderly and/or delicate ones, with respect and compassion. 

So, this is a reminder that sometimes, the key is to continue to ask for input on solutions until the right one appears.

No Longer Hot Under the Collar

Not all intolerances are about excess or clutter. A major frustration in my life is heat. (And no, that’s not specific to the air conditioning and refrigerator woes.) I’m just always too hot. I hydrate. I wear temperature-appropriate clothing. But no matter what, even my head perspires and my hair frizzes and I end up looking like Art Garfunkel. (No offense, Art.)

And yes, I realize that a Buffalonian living in the Deep South might have found a more obvious solution to that problem over three-plus decades.

I’ve tried those evaporative cooling neck scarves and “chilly towels.”

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Honestly, they just end up feeling damp and heavy. 

However, in addition to my own research, I’ve made it a habit of telling everyone I know, particularly people who participate in outdoor activities, that heat is the non-clutter bane of my existence. So, friends are on the lookout for solutions on my behalf.

Recently, Paper Mommy was at the hair salon and saw a stylist wearing something that looked like headphones around her neck. When my mom casually asked, the stylist enthused about this life-changing product, a fan that you wear around your neck. Paper Mommy bought me one (in pink) that very day!

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Two days later, I received a Jisulife bladeless neck cooler. (Due to autocorrect, I accidentally praised it to my BFF as a “bloodless” neck cooler. Thankfully, it’s also that.)

You place it around your neck as if you’d just removed headphones, and the three-speed fan gently blows cooling air upward, along the neckline and up into your hairline (without causing any tangles or mess). I’ve used it several times to great effect at client locations where the combination of the kind of work we we’re doing and the actual temperature made the heat intolerable for me.

It’s battery operated and rechargeable via the included USB-C charging cable. The manufacturer notes that the 4000mAh large capacity batteries provide anywhere from 4-16 working hours of service, depending on which speed levels you use. 

There are a number of brands with similar styles, but this one ranges from $32-37 and comes in dark blue, dark green, grey, and pink. 

They Say Nothing Can Live in a Vacuum

Recently, my longtime hair stylist (hey, this continues a theme!) left the salon where I’ve been going for years and moved to her own location. In this new place, several providers (offering a wide variety of beauty services) have one collaborative location. All of them have their own private pods or units, about the size of a single or double dorm room. As I’m still wearing a mask whenever I’m inside anywhere, and trying to avoid being in close contact with strangers, I love this bright and cheery, but private space.

Terri Hart of RoseMary Beauty Company in a photo at her old salon

My fabulous stylist (shoutout, Terri!) has decorated her salon space to make it inviting. At my first visit, I applied my professional organizer curiosity (with her permission, of course) and marveled at all of the scaled-down storage and gadgets. There’s a cozy snack bar with a lovely little fridge and coffee maker, cabinets and cupboards, a tiny towel warmer, and all sorts of appealing products.

At one point, I looked toward the floor and saw what I jokingly guessed was a Doctor Who Dalek-adjacent gadget. OK, I assumed was either a Bluetooth speaker, humidifier, or some kind of air cleaner. But nope. 

It’s an EyeVac Home Touchless Vacuum. The prior salon had been designed with one of those in-wall central vacuum systems. When homes have central vacuum systems, you can usually plug a hose into the wall in any of a variety of spots and attach the appropriate devices. In the salon, it was a matter of sweeping hair clippings up to the edge of baseboard and shwooooop it would get sucked in and away to some mysterious central location. But that was a big salon specially built for the purpose.

Terri found her EyeVac Home Touchless Vacuum through a site for salon products. She simply sweeps clippings up to the front of this little robot-looking dude, and motion detectors sense the schmutz! (There are buttons on the top for manual control when you want it.) Debris is stored inside an environmentally-safe canister until you’re ready to empty it, at which point it’s much like emptying a shredder.

It comes in six colors (Designer White, Tuxedo Black, Matte Black, Silver, Rose Gold, and Sea Glass), measures 8″ long x 13″ wide by 18″ high, comes with a six-foot electrical cord, and uses dual HEPA filters. It’s available for $129 from EyeVac and Amazon, which is currently offering a $10 clickable coupon. 

Had Terri not found this nifty tool, I’m sure she would have figured out a sweeping/vacuuming, but by acquiring this up-front, she avoided having a frustrating, untenable “toleration.” She also never has to bend down or deal with a dustpan! The company doesn’t have a YouTube channel, but the late, lamented (and slightly resurrected) gadget site The Grommet shows it off to nice effect here:

Cooler still, in the days after seeing this EyeVac Home Touchless Vacuum in action, I’d been mentioning it (as well as the bladeless neck cooler) to clients. And with this, we have solved so many frustrations in household with babies and toddlers who drop food from their high chairs, cats who swoop bits of kitty litter all over the room, and crafters who drop bits of cuttings, sequins, and yarn-y bits, etc. 

Instead of schlepping out a full-size or handheld vacuum or having to bend or lug, a quick and simple swoop of a broom right up to the bottom edge of this little Dalek cousin and all of your schmutzy clutter will be exterminated!

HOW TO STOP TOLERATING THE INTOLERABLE

Nobody’s house or office or computer gets cluttered overnight. Ignoring or avoiding frustrations for weeks or months or years just allows those frustrations to be build. So, I leave you with an update of the advice I offered a little over two years ago:

  1. Google (or use your favorite search engine) to see who has created content about your problem, tweaking your search terms to find what you need. There are tricks to improve your searches on Google, on DuckDuckGo, and on Bing.
  2. Search on YouTube (which is ideal for solving “how to” problems, whether for plumbing repair, tying a tie, or fixing a stuck spacebar). A few years ago, someone stole my driver’s side mirror, yanking it from the electrical connections. (Who does that?!) A clear, concise YouTube video allowed me to purchase just the mirror and replace it myself, rather than having to take it to mechanic and pay for service.
  3. Search in an online forum like (the less dodgy parts of) Reddit, Facebook or community groups, or neighborhood groups. I’ve seen people ask for everything from how to get a car out of locked garage to how to get teenagers to respond to texts.
  4. Ask for suggestions on your social media pages. (I learned from TikTok that you’re not supposed to roll/fold modern sleeping bags before putting them in compression carrying bags; you’re supposed to smoosh them in. Who knew?)  
  5. Visit or call your local public library. Librarians are experts at finding information. (Let’s say your problem requires a tool, and you don’t want to buy a specialized tool. Did you know many cities have tool libraries?) You can also use the Library of Congress’ Ask A Librarian for general and specialized help solving those intolerable problems.
  6. Ask a professional organizer. We know stuff. (We professional organizers get asked all sorts of things. “How do I fold a fitted sheet?” “What’s the best label-maker?” “How do I pay off my mortgage faster?” “Where can I donate this random item that’s of no use to me but might make someone else’s life magical?” Ask your PO!

And, if we’ve learned anything this week, consider asking your hair stylist!

Paper Doll Picks: Organizing and Productivity Podcasts

Posted on: May 9th, 2022 by Julie Bestry | 21 Comments

FINDING THE RIGHT EXPERTS

I’m often the most tech-savvy person my clients know. One lovely client in her eighties often greets me at the door and just hands me her iPhone. “There’s a devil in it,” she half-jokes, and she’s happy to relinquish it to me for what is usually an easy fix.

Conversely, my college friends, mostly guys, laugh at the idea of me being technological. On the phone, I once fretted over having possibly failed to install memory in my computer because it didn’t “click.” After an hour of various difficulties culminating in the uncertainty over installing the memory, I groused, “Shouldn’t it click? Y’know, like how after I put on my lipstick, I close my compact and it makes a satisfying click?!” They’re still teasing me about that apparently “non-techy” description.

There’s an old expression: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Leaving aside the able-ist nature of the expression, I feel comfortable using this to explain that while some people feel that “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” I think that the more you know, the more you realize that you don’t know, and the more inspired you are to seek out experts.

As such, I’m starting a new feature, Paper Doll Picks, where I will occasionally provide links to bloggers, authors, and other experts to whom you can turn when you need a little extra help.

As a Certified Professional Organizer, I’m an organizing and productivity expert. As an Evernote Certified Expert (formerly Evernote Certified Consultant), I know more than your average user. And, as a former television executive and lifelong TV viewer, I can spot when an infinitesimally small clue (a cough, a camera shot resting an extra second on a wine glass, or a character’s lingering glance) means something and will be able to connect it with things that happen seven seasons later.

But in the kitchen, I’m a perpetual newbie and need to turn to Paper Mommy. (For a variety of life skills — cooking, addressing an invitation to an ambassador and spouse, medical stuff of all stripes, I turn to her. We call it Opening the Mommy Encyclopedia.) 

Nobody is expected to know and be able to do everything. Sometimes, that other old rubric is important: it’s not what you know, but whom you know!

Today, I want to introduce (or re-introduce you) to some excellent podcasts and podcasters.

THE APPEAL OF PODCASTS

If you don’t listen to podcasts, stick with me here. I admit, I don’t listen as often as many people seem to do. But when you’re walking or working out, when you’re stuck in a doctor’s office waiting room or waiting for a much-delayed flight (as Paper Mommy is doing, just as I’m writing this), podcasts have distinct advantages.

They’re as informative as blog posts and articles, but you can take it in while doing other tasks. Every try reading a blog post in the bath? You can’t read an article while driving, and if your commute is by train, subway, or car, audio is far less marred by bumps. (You won’t get carsick listening to an organizing podcast, but watching text bounce up and down may not be good for your equilibrium.)

Another nifty advantage to podcasts is that you can control the speed at which you listen to (or watch) podcasts! I listen to almost everything on 1.25x speed because I’m an impatient person. When a speaker talks at “normal” speed, I feel like I’m being held captive by Dory in Finding Nemo when she’s speaking Whale. Sooooooooo slowwwwwwww!

Conversely, when I’m trying to listen to podcasts in Italian, the language I’ve been diligently studying for 4 years, the organic speed of language just zips right past me, and I only get a handful of words. By the time I realize I understood anything, they’re onto the next topic. Listening at .75x helps me make out the words without going into Dory mode.

ORGANIZING AND PRODUCTIVITY PODCASTS

These are a few of my favorite podcasts in the realm of organizing and productivity.

NAPO Stand Out Podcast

The NAPO Stand Out Podcast — This official podcast of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals began in 2018 with an interview of its first guest, my stellar and stylish colleague Geralin Thomas of Metropolitan Organizing. Now, it’s just a few shows away from its 100th episode.

The NAPO Stand Out podcast offers up compelling interviews with NAPO members and subject matter experts (like author Gretchen Rubin, friend-of-the-blog Allison Task, whom I interviewed in Paper Doll Interviews Life Coach, Author, and Kid-Schlepper Allison Task, and Indistractable author Nir Eyal). 

For the first few years, the show was hosted by Sarah Karakaian of Nestrs. (You might know Sarah and her husband, a home improvement, design, staging, and short-term rental management team from HGTV, their Thanks for Visiting AirB&B podcast, or Instagram.) 

Now, the podcast is hosted by Canadian professional organizer and TV personality Clare Kumar, an all-around cool chick with a laugh that can draw in even the grinchiest of grinches. Clare specializes in helping Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) optimize their professional performance, and she has her own podcast, Happy Space with Clare Kumar, all about helping HSPs find their own happy spaces.

The NAPO Stand Out podcast invites organizers, productivity experts, and anyone interested in these fields to listen in as guests share their successes, challenges, best practices, proven strategies, industry developments, and fabulous anecdotes.

Take a peek at the most recent episode, Discover Your Organizing Style, where Clare interviews Cass Aarssen about how her own struggles with clutter led her to create the Clutterbug Organizing Styles.

Watch and listen to past episodes through the archives at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, and elsewhere.

Smead’s Keeping Your Organized Podcast

Smead’s Keeping You Organized — It still breaks my heart a bit that this magnificent video and audio podcast, hosted by John Hunt, is no longer being produced. It was an amazing podcast designed to provide all manner of practical and philosophical organizing and productivity information to viewers. 

John is a delightful interviewer — you can see him being interviewed for an early episode of the NAPO Stand Out podcast, here — and all sorts of North American professional organizers got to share their expertise.

Happily, all 278 episodes of the show are still available, including the eight times I was the guest. You can listen or watch those here, or at the episode page:

041: Secrets to Organizing a Small Business

108: Fears that Keep You from Getting Organized

153: Paper vs. Digital Organizing Part 1

154: Paper vs. Digital Organizing Part 2

203: How to Get Organized When You Have an Extended or Chronic Illness – Part 1

204: How to Get Organized When You Have an Extended or Chronic Illness – Part 2

263: Essential Lists for Organized Travel – Part 1

264: Essential Lists for Organized Travel – Part 2

Sadly, all of my appearances were from before I had a decent video podcast background or lighting, so you may want to listen rather than watch (or risk being distracted by weird shadows and my often–weird hair).

The Productivity Lovers Podcast

The Productivity Lovers Podcast is hosted by two of my friends and colleagues, Certified Professional Organizers Cris Sgrott of Organizing Maniacs and Deb Lee of D. Allison Lee.

Both are organizers and productivity specialists; Cris is also a coach and speaker who specializes in senior move management and helping people with chronic disorganization and ADHD. Deb is a digital productivity coach and possesses one of the greatest analytical minds of anyone I know. (Deb’s my go-to for solving online platform kerfuffles, but also for making sense out of things that seem incomprehensible.)

Launched one year into the pandemic, Cris and Deb’s podcast was a balm for any lonely organizer’s (and organizing client’s) soul. Listening along when I get my 10,000 daily Fitbit steps in or watching the video version as if I were Zooming with them, I often find myself talking back to these ladies, forgetting that I’m not really part of the conversation — because they are that warm, friendly, funny, and honest.

At least once an episode, I laugh at how they make one another laugh, with much of the humor coming from their mismatched productivity styles. Deb is all-digital; Cris is hybrid but leans into her love of paper planners. Cris calls herself a Hot Potato Productivity person, while Deb is super-focused.

Cris and Deb cover all sorts of productivity issues, from paper planners to Inbox Zero, the Pomodoro Technique to how organizing is portrayed in the media. Every episode is a lighthearted  conversation between two friends, but the audience is never forgotten, as they invite our responses on their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube pages.

Come for the conversation, stay for the detailed show notes and discussion points. Pick from the audio versions via your favorite podcast app or on the episode page; watch for the video version on YouTube a week or two later. Here’s a recent episode, to give you a taste.

Organize Your Stuff

Organize Your Stuff — My colleague, buddy, and fellow mastermind group member, Maria White of Enuff With the Stuff hosts this podcast, which invites people from all points along the organizing spectrum to help them see possibilities.

While Maria has been on hiatus for a bit, there are 37 episodes covering topics ranging from “Do You Trello?” (yes, dear readers, I do!) and “Organized Adulting” to “Finally Accomplish Goals Using the 48 Week Achievement Guide” (with our fellow masterminder, Karen Sprinkle) to “Drastic Downsizing for Tiny Living” (for folks eager to learn more about living in a tiny house). Maria accents self-compassion and realistic approaches as she interviews industry experts and provides her insights and tips on organizing.

Organize Your Stuff is audio-only, so feel free to take it with you wherever you go, whether via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or on the Organize Your Stuff episode page. Take a tiny taste of the show as we pull episode #14, Tickle Yourself Organized, out of the vault. As you may have guessed, she interviewed me, your own beloved Paper Doll!

Anything But Idle (and the Super-Friends)

Anything But Idle is hosted by Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud, and it would be one of my favorite podcasts even if these guys didn’t delight me by inviting me on the show on occasion.

Ray is the Ryan Seacrest of productivity podcasters; he’s everywhere! In addition to Anything But Idle, he currently hosts or has previously hosted oodles of productivity-adjacent podcasts, including:

  • The ProductivityCast with Augusto and regular contributors Francis Wade (about whom I’ve written several times, including at Paper Doll Shares Secrets from the Task Management and Time Blocking Summit), and Art Gelwicks. The show explores personal productivity and includes interviews with experts, reviews of both the scientific literature and mainstream media takes on productivity, and looks at technology’s role in, and effects upon, achieving what you set out to do.
  • Getting More Done with Evernote, where Ray talks about product updates, interviews Evernote experts (including staff of the big green elephant company), and answers submitted listener questions. The show has been on hiatus since last year, but Ray is re-launching soon, and I’m going to be a guest. Whoohoo!
  • Productivity Book Group — This is a quarterly book club and podcast rolled into one, and the archives include episodes dating back to 2013. You could create an entire productivity-themed reading list from the archives of this show, read the books, and then listen to the associated episodes to augment your understanding. The show isn’t limited to professional productivity; one recent episode focused on Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin’s The Home Edit.
  • ProdPod — Dating back to 2011, this might be the one that started Ray’s podcasting empire. In under two minutes, each podcast explores a productivity-related topic, like minimalism, procrastination, burnout, or indecision.

While I am a Certified Evernote Expert, Ray lives and breathes Evernote, and is one of two people (fellow organizer Stacey Harmon is the other) to whom I turn when an Evernote issue makes my hair hurt.

But back to Anything But Idle!

Ray partners with Augusto Pinaud, a bilingual productivity and technology sweetie pie of the highest order. His company, Productivity Voice, is the umbrella over Augusto’s coaching services, books, and podcasting work. In addition to co-hosting Anything But Idle and the ProductivityCast with Ray, Augusto has hosted Connecting Invisible Dots, a limited-run podcast focused on looking at the big issues, like personal definitions of time, achieving focus, and understanding priorities.

Wow, and all those shows don’t even include all of the podcasts represented by Anything But Idle’s regular guests. (Sometimes I think I may be the only guest they’ve ever had who doesn’t have a podcast!)

Anything But Idle bills itself as the “Productivity News Podcast.” Every week, Ray and Augusto introduce productivity and technology stories in the news and discuss their relevance. Guests are given the opportunity to read (and think about) the articles and editorials in advance, so listeners are treated to a lively, informed discussion. This opens up the floodgates for really wide-reaching, unexpected, extemporaneous chat; as a guest, I’ve felt supported, and as a viewer or listener, I always feel entertained and better informed.

Each week also includes a round-robin opportunity for each person to present a technology or productivity resource. There’s always at least one thing (and usually many) to make you go “hmmmmm.”

You can watch the podcast live or catch up on past video versions of the episodes at the show’s YouTube page; the show is live at 6 p.m. EST most Monday nights. (Click “Set a Reminder” on the show page to make sure you don’t forget.) If you prefer audio versions, you can peruse the Anything But Idle episodes archive, or subscribe and listen on your favorite podcast app at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, Spotify, or Stitcher.

The most recent episode is up in all locations, but you might find it fun to watch their 100th episode. I was a guest, and a REALLY fun time was had by all.

Frank Buck: Productivity for Total Control & Peace of Mind

Frank Buck: Productivity for Total Control & Peace of Mind — Dr. Frank Buck is a longtime educator and educational administrator, as well as a fellow Evernote Certified Expert. (He’s also another familiar face on Ray and Augusto’s podcasts!) Frank is the author of several books, including the most recent, Get Organized Digitally! The Educator’s Guide to Time Management.

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Frank’s podcast is full of warmth and patience, and you can see how his expertise as an educator  informs everything he discusses on his podcast, now starting its fifth year.

Whether you’re a novice in technology who bemoans the devil in your iPhone, or a more advanced user of technology and productivity methods, Frank will make you feel at ease. From email to notetaking, task management to creative procrastination, digital tools to financial oversight, Frank’s short podcasts are charming and wise. (I’m going to be a guest on one of his upcoming shows and we had such a great conversation planning it that I imagine his biggest podcasting challenge will be getting me to shut up!)

Listen to Dr. Frank Buck’s most recent podcast episode (below) and all shows at the episode page, on Spotify, or at any of your favorite podcast platforms.

 

 

  

 

 

A Plethora of Podcasts

The podcasts above are just some of my favorites for listening to and watching, and for sharing with my clients. Others I’ve shared in the past include:

Penny Zenker, Positive Productivity Podcast — Penny focuses on leadership and productivity, and has had an amazing array of guests over the past several years. You can see my two episodes with Penny here:

The Productivityist — Mike Vardy needs no introduction; he’s been featured on the pages of the Paper Doll blog many times. With 421 shows completed, Mike is a veteran podcast host (and a popular guest), and he never talks down to his audience. You could grab one of those episodes and find compelling interviews and insightful commentary. You might want to start off with episode 418, where Mike interviews minimalism expert Joshua Becker on “Things That Matter.”

The Productivity Show by Asian Efficiency — Thanh Pham and (longtime friend-of-the-blog) Brooks Duncan host this popular podcast. I often find the episode titles to be provocative and fun, like “Are You a Jerk If You Use Calendly?” (to schedule appointments) or “Are GTD Contexts Useless? Is Productivity Hurting Young People?”

And if my own favorites aren’t enough, you might want to check out Feedspot’s list of the 35 Best Organizing and Decluttering Podcasts to Listen to in 2022, and their 60 Best Productivity Podcasts to Listen to in 2022.

Are you a podcast person? Do you have a favorite among the shows listed above? What organizing and productivity podcasts do you never miss? Please share in the comments!

If you do listen to podcasts, please remember to like, subscribe, and share, just like you comment on and share blogs (like this one!) on your social media feeds. Showing the love helps podcasters and bloggers grow their audiences, help more people, and (in the case of those with sponsors or advertisers), afford to keep going.

Also, why don’t I have a podcast?

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