Do you share this goal with most people?

I've just been browsing 43 things. There are 99212 people who put "get organised" as a goal and 99764 that put "get organized" as a goal.

WOW!

I have heard before that "get organised" is one of the top 10 goals most people set every year.

I don't believe that getting organised happens instantaneously. You can get the principles instantly but it takes a while to build the habits to stay organised.

It's one thing to organise a space and another thing altogether to keep that space organised.

In fact, clients often say to me, "I can get my _________ organised but a week later, it looks like a tornado hit" :)

That's why I put together a simple, step-by-step system to get your home organised in just 12 weeks.

If this is something on your to-do list this year, then I want you to have that peace that being organised brings.

Read more about Organise your Home here



7 easy steps to organise your office here

and Organise your business here

Here's to an organised 2009!

Organising and storing my jewellery...and when it doesn't quite work

I don't have a lot of jewellery. My thing is watches!

So I really just use a couple of hooks on the inside of my wardrobe door. The problem happens when I just keep throwing necklaces onto the hooks and eventually, it drives me crazy.

Like this - now I know it doesn't look that bad but that's because a hook fell off and I put those necklaces on some of the other hooks.


What did I do? I

• removed everything from the door
• decluttered stuff I never wear
  
• separated them into categories - earrings, pink and white set (only pink stuff I have), work necklaces, bracelets and weekend necklaces
• decided where to put new hooks (somewhat limited by the shelves when you close the door)
• hung everything up again, this time in an organised fashion
  

Voila!

P.S. So they're not the prettiest pictures in the world but they are organised - just keeping it real :)

New format Friday Declutter Challenge for 2009

This is the last challenge for 2008. Wow!

I'm so proud of you, even if you only participated a couple of times.

I've been thinking about doing this challenge a little differently next year.

How about we have a "theme for the week" every week? It will be something small and manageable....what do you think?

(if you don't want to post on the theme, go right ahead :) It's mainly to help those who want more direction and guidance with their organising efforts)

So, some housekeeping...

We're decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS for the month of Jan

2 Jan - Tupperware in the kitchen
9 Jan - Mugs and glasses
16 Jan - Plates & bowls
23 Jan - Cutlery and utensils
30 Jan - Baking pans and cooking stuff

Get your entire home organised in 2009.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is what I decluttered this week - some old pyjamas I've outgrown :) - too much of these and these.

This is a great week to declutter some items, especially if you received new __________ for Christmas.

Why hang onto those old __________ ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for this week's challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about what you decluttered this week. If you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?



P.S.

Last chance to enter the disorganised office contest

So far I have 4 serious entrants to the competition and other "should I, shouldn't I?" emails.

This is just a courtesy reminder that the disorganised office contest closes at 12PM EST today.

Get your entries in!

**********************************

Okay, here's the deal
I'm looking for someone who could use my 7 easy steps to organise your office MP3 and ebook pack.

I will donate a copy to someone free of charge and in exchange, you will guest blog (one post a week for about 4 - 6 weeks, depends how quickly you work through it) as you work through the system and organise your office.

The system covers organising your actual office space, desk, email, computer, etc. so you should have a more organised office than you had when you started :)

It doesn't matter if one or two of your areas are already reasonably under control because even REALLY organised people have used just one or two tips and seen BIG results

This is how you enter

Send me an email to marcia AT organiseyourbusiness.com or leave a comment telling me

if you work at home, work full-time, etc.

which areas of your office need the most help

if you have your own blog (this is not a requirement)

why you want to do this

Entries close at midnight EST tonight (24 Dec).

I'll let the winner know sometime over the weekend and everybody else will get another gift for being brave enough to step up :)

Now this is a nifty little handbag tool

The great thing about loving handbags is that once people know that (which really doesn't take too long with me), they bring you all these cool things to have a look at.

And of course, I'm always ready to take a photo :)

Like this...

This little gadget is a corporate gift we gave to some of our female brokers. The silver bits fold up and the whole thing looks like a coin when not in use.

The bottom of the circular disc has a rubber base so it doesn't slide off the smooth surface of the table and then you hang your handbag off the edge.

I always think, "I hope my bag doesn't get dirty on this floor" when I'm in a restaurant so I really think this is a great idea!

Now I just have to get one.

Isn't it cute?

P.S. that isn't my bag in the photo - it is waaaayyyyy too small for me!

P.P.S. Get your home organised in 2009.

For all the procrastinators out there...a Christmas post :)

Photo credit - http://giftsoftheorient.co.uk

Here's a selection of some of my previous Christmas organising posts for you, especially if you're one of those last-minute people.

How to plan your Christmas without getting stressed

Frugal gift ideas - beaded bookmarks and jewellery organisers

Organising gift wrap and ribbons

And if you really want to save lots of money, go get some cheap Christmas cards and gift wrap (if you use Christmas gift wrap) in the days just after Christmas

Let's have some fun. If you could describe this year's Christmas in ONE WORD, what would that be?

My word is SIMPLE.

Over to you!

Mmmm, can you smell the lovely smell of paper. But out they must!

Entries are still open for the messy, disorganised office competition. Don't be shy - I want to help you :)


Books can be really, really hard to declutter, especially if you're a book lover like I am.

I've shared before about my book organising system but basically here's how it goes:

I only keep books that are 8, 9 or 10 out of 10 on my rating scale. I don't keep all of them but those I do have are either an 8, 9 or 10.

This week I decluttered these three books...to the secondhand bookstore. (If you're in Johannesburg, I like Bookdealers or Books Galore)

I usually take the credit they give me rather than the cash and when I run out of books from the library (when they just don't have any good ones), I'll use my credits for some secondhand books, like these.


Here are some more posts on decluttering and organising books - enjoy :)

Organising library books
Decluttering piles and piles of books

expectations
This week I've been feeling really lazy so I "broke loose" and didn't do a thing in my business except lead a call for my Gold VIP Inner Circle and get out my organising tips newsletter, so I suppose you can say I decluttered some of my own high-achieving expectations.

This might seem like nothing to some of you but it's huge for me to do nothing :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for this week's challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about what you decluttered this week. If you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

P.S. I've been thinking about doing this challenge a little differently next year. How about we have a specific area every week? It will be something small and manageable....what do you think?

I'm looking for someone with a messy, disorganised office. Is that you?

Okay, here's the deal
I'm looking for someone who could use my 7 easy steps to organise your office MP3 and ebook pack.

I will donate a copy to someone free of charge and in exchange, you will guest blog (one post a week for about 4 - 6 weeks, depends how quickly you work through it) as you work through the system and organise your office.

The system covers organising your actual office space, desk, email, computer, etc. so you should have a more organised office than you had when you started :)

It doesn't matter if one or two of your areas are already reasonably under control because even REALLY organised people have used just one or two tips and seen BIG results

This is how you enter

Send me an email or leave a comment telling me

if you work at home, work full-time, etc.

which areas of your office need the most help

if you have your own blog (this is not a requirement)

why you want to do this

Entries close at midnight on Christmas Eve (24 Dec).

My bedside table - before and after

Remember I told you how quickly my bedside table gets cluttered?

Here are the pictures to prove it, and my before shot.

There are tons of books - more than I can read in a month - and behind that pile bookmarks, tablets and hand creams galore.

Notice my empty glass - I love water with a slice of lemon. Yum!


Here is the after shot.

• My evening mug of decaf tea.
• I took 3 non-fiction books back to my study - when I finish one of the current non-fiction ones (When organizing isn't enough/ I don't know what I want but I know it's not this), I'll get one at a time.
• I returned the medication to the bathroom and the extra container to my container drawer.
  
• I tidied the telephone table too and put a pretty cloth underneath the phone and message pad.
• Current pile of books - one fiction, two non-fiction, a journal and two Bibles
• Candle holder keeping my rings while I sleep at night and a gold bracelet.
  

So tell me, what do you have on your bedside table?

P.S. Happy Birthday to one of the sweetest and most encouraging people I know, Megan Spears!

7 things you may not know about me

People, I'm feeling the pressure.

I don't like things on my to-do list and yet both Eva and Suzanne tagged me to share 7 things you may not know about me

As we say in South Africa, eish!

Okay, let's get to it!

1. I hate, hate, hate doing laundry! Drives me absolutely batty. I think it's because it's never DONE!
2. I have never had a traffic fine. Well, I have had one, but it was a mistake as it was not my car in the picture they sent me. You'll know what a miracle this is if you've ever driven with me LOL
3. My husband and I first met when he asked me to dance for him (ballet). Yes, I also thought he was a weirdo and of course said no! Which made me irresistible to him :)
4. For the first time in my entire working life, I'm at an absolute low, work-wise. All prayers very welcome!
   
5. I'm a BIG Michael Connelly fan and I've met him at an author reading/ signing. Very embarrassing moment for me.
6. I do NOT have it all together. In fact, the reason I'm a time management coach today is because I was so shockingly bad at managing my time, learnt the lessons through trial and error and now I'm out on the other side!
7. I am very lazy and love sleeping. If I could, I'd probably sleep in until 11 every day. Most weekends I do!

There you have it!

Now I'm tagging Debbie (we co-presented a call on blogging for business last night), Paula, Beth Dargis and Jenn Givler

Decluttering hotel toiletries

This week I decluttered a whole lot of hotel toiletries.

I always have good intentions to use them all, either for us or for guests, but when we get back home, I revert to my normal-sized bottles.

After I had a good sort through our guest bedroom, I decided that this is crazy. We really don't have people staying over that much and these things are piling up.

So I donated two bottles of body lotion because I like specific lotions :) and put the shower gels and some other shampoos in the shower.

And wouldn't you know it? I'm actually using them. It feels really good to throw away a bottle every two days.


What did you declutter this week?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Do you feel buried, smothered and overwhelmed by your to-do lists?

You're not alone!

• Do your to-do lists feel like they're smothering you?
  

• Do you feel like your head is full of noise and it's so distracting?


• Do you have bright ideas on your computer, on bits of paper, Post-It notes and in your Outlook tasks?


• Are you spending too much time looking for things and not enough time actually doing them?


• Is your disorganisation is holding you back and preventing you from doing your best work?


• Do you regularly have to take a day (or half-day) just to get things back in control?

You'll learn how to

• set strong boundaries and how to say no
  

• identify what's working and, more importantly, what's not working in your life


• overcome procrastination


• manage your internal distractions


• find out your time management style


• discover your values and why that ties into the way you manage your time


• effectively delegate, even if you don't have staff


• eliminate or, at the very least, reduce your stress levels


• and much, much more

Click this link to read more

P.S. The bonuses alone are worth more than the package :)

Well now, don't these uniforms rock?

This is Bongani's sleeve. I had to take this picture because look! They've built pen holders into their uniforms.

Fun and functional!

Have you bought your planner yet?

Remember this post from last year where I showed you my planner?

(Incidentally, I need to put a "most popular posts" thing on my blog because that post gets a huge amount of traffic)

Anyway, I started a series of blog posts on the other blog called choose the perfect planner. Read this one and keep checking back. I've planned out about 5 already.

Here is part 1 - paper or electronic?

So have you bought yours yet?

Tag - you're it

Calling all declutterers, especially if you participated in the August Declutter Challenge

Diana and I have decided to tag you to participate in the Friday Declutter Challenge THIS Friday 12 December.


I'm tagging three people and asking them to each tag 3 of their friends:

Marcia (the crafty one)
Diane
Ria


Let's start the movement again :)

So tell me, which is the area in your house that gets cluttered the quickest.

Mine is my bedside table because of all the books - I'm actually busy decluttering it now so I'll post pics next week.

He's still got it!

I was at Rod Stewart’s concert last night here in Johannesburg and…well… he’s still got it!

It was a FABULOUS concert – I swear he did ALL my favourites and it was SOOO great to sing along with an audience full of fans and not feel like you’re weird, you know?

Surprisingly (and I say so because usually things are a mess at gatherings of this magnitude) it was really well organised, everyone was orderly and we were able to get in and out of the venue with a minimum of fuss.

I was very impressed with him - his energy is unbelievable - and he really allows each of the band members and backup singers to shine. Of course, today Dion and I are still singing all the songs and reliving the experience :)

His 21-year-old daughter, Ruby, also sang a song. Wow - she's good - a real chip off the old block and his son (looked to me to be around 4 years old) came on to "introduce" his sister with a bit of coaching from his dad. He's such a proud father - it's gorgeous to see. Or am I just soppy?

I also (literally) ran into an old friend who I haven’t seen for about 3 – 4 years.

Driving on the highway to the concert

The one pic we took before the show started

Anyway, that's another item to cross off my life list! Now I still need to see Elton John and Billy Joel in concert.

Who do you want to see in concert?

Donation boxes, dedicated spaces and decluttering

Please encourage all your blog friends to join us in decluttering and choosing to live a simpler life by using the button on your sidebar. Christmas is less than 3 weeks away and you need to start taking action so that you don't just fill up all the spaces you've already decluttered.

Ideas for clutter-free giving

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week I was so eager to declutter that I forgot to take before pictures but I am showing you the tidy after space. This is our dedicated space for things we have to return to other people.


I had some dishes I had to return to a friend right there for nearly 3 months (!) as well as a surprise gift for her husband. I came second in a competition at work for doing a presentation and won a really beautiful barbeque set.

Well, Dion and I don't braai (South African word for barbeque) so this set was totally wasted on us and instead of just shoving it in the back of a cupboard, I thought, "who loves to braai?" and the answer was our friend, so I decided to give it to him.

Then I wanted to show you our donation box. We put anything we want to donate in this box, our cleaning lady sees if anything takes her fancy and I put the rest outside my gate. Remember in South Africa, things won't be there for very long, which is very useful.


There are some corporate gifts in there, an old poster and some dip (for chips/ crisps) that we're just not getting around to eating.

What did you declutter this week?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Clutter-free gifts - just in time

I've just stumbled upon the MOST fabulous idea.

Instead of giving gifts to clutter up somebody's home, why not donate a food parcel to a child-headed home in South Africa?

Make Christmas matter

P.S. I went to build relationships (have a chat) with a colleague and saw a card on her desk that went something like this.

"we've decided to forgo Christmas gifts this year and instead buy food parcels for child-headed homes"

What do you think? Good idea? Not?

Wordless Wednesday - neat stack of clothes

My colleague's desk - before and after pics

This is my colleague's desk. He sits directly behind me - you can see my desk is in exactly the same location.

Notice the piles on the floor. Every evening he moves the piles onto the desk so the cleaning ladies don't throw it all away.

Anyway, I try not to tease him too much about his messy desk but the other guys have no such qualms. In fact, his line manager regularly asks me to help him "sort it all out". To which I reply, "sorry, I only work with people who want to change" :)

So in typical guy fashion, they bet him that he wouldn't be able to sort it all out in a week. And in typical guy fashion, he rose to the occasion and did it.

It looks a MILLION times better and I'm so proud of him. It really made my heart proud and he did it within the deadline (I think my camera said 3.22 pm on a Friday afternoon). Just goes to show what you can do when you put your mind to it because he did it in about 2 hours.

The calm after the storm

Last week was so hectic I was absolutely exhausted by Thursday but somehow I persevered.

Usually I don't jam-pack my schedule so full but I had two end-of-year functions and I (mistakenly) thought, "oh, it's just one more thing". But one more thing in addition to my regular coaching appointments = hectic!

Thank God this week is back to normal.

I only have one free website/ blog teleseminar this week - yayy - besides normal commitments.

So what are you up to this week?

What did you declutter this week?

Edited to add decluttering pictures


Please encourage all your blog friends to join us in decluttering and choosing to live a simpler life by using the button on your sidebar. Christmas is just around the corner and you need to start taking action so that you don't just fill up all the spaces you've already decluttered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week I'm going to post my pictures late.

Honestly, this has been a very hectic week and I suppose I'm decluttering the expectation that the organising expert always has it together.

I also had an expectation that I'd be treated a certain way at work and I decluttered that expectation this week. Now I know to just take things as they come. That's not my natural style but as Dr Phil would say, that's not working for me!

So I'll declutter some clothes on Saturday and post the pictures, okay? When my cleaning lady and I were packing my clothes away last weekend, she told me I have too much and I agree.

2 pairs of track pants and 4 tops

By the way, we also "decluttered" a mouse this week. My word - I screamed like a girl when I found him on the carpet!

What did you declutter?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you got rid of this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Get ready for tomorrow...

Declutter your children's toys now

Now is the perfect time to declutter your children’s toys, just before Christmas.

You know how you get overwhelmed with too much stuff?

Your kids also get overwhelmed with too many toys.

Your kids have too many toys if…
1. There is not enough space in their rooms to store it. No, the answer is not to move to a bigger house or to buy more containers.
2. They don’t even notice when you remove some toys.
3. They forget the toys they do have because they’re buried so deep.

Now, here’s what I want you to do:

1. Sit down with your child and explain that there are other little girls and boys who don’t have any toys.
2. Ask them to choose some toys to give to those kids.
3. Warning – your children will probably pick things that YOU’d like to keep. Restrain yourself from putting those back in the toybox!
4. Make sure they’re in good working order and drop them off at your nearest orphanage or shelter.

Now you’ve made some space for the inevitable – more toys at Christmas!

I picked up a great tip when I was working with a client a few months ago.

She told me that whenever the kids have birthdays and they are inundated with toys, she lets them pick their 3 favourites and hides the rest away.

Every so often she’ll magically produce one of the new toys and the child is enthralled for a couple of weeks. In fact, this is exactly what she did so that her little darling would leave us in peace to organise her office!

If all else fails, do what my client did and hide their toys away.

Overwhelmed? Distracted? Own your own business?

I'll show you exactly how to:

• Do the one thing that will instantly get you more time


• Focus your time and get the right things done


• Design your business around what you're good at


• Stop feeling overwhelmed


• Say no to what's not good for your business


• Focus on your high-payoff activities


• Know when it's actually good to procrastinate


• Stop time-wasters from getting the best of you

Plus you’ll also get regular weekly tips and information to make your business more organised and highly productive so you can bring in more money.

1. Please enter your first name and primary email address below, and click submit.


2. Check your inbox for a special link to confirm your subscription.


3. As soon as you're confirmed, you'll get a second email from me with the download link to your first tip. You'll receive one tip every two days.

Get your FREE audio time tips now
Name:
Email:

*Your email address will NEVER be sold - that's my promise!

Love and time success

Favourite organising tools #13 - the best 89p I ever spent

I haven’t done one of these favourite organising tools posts for a looong time.

And every time I use this particular tool (every single day of my life) I think, “I really should post this” so I finally got my act together.

You all know how much I love plastic envelopes. Here in South Africa, I’ve only ever seen the bigger ones (A4 – for my overseas readers, that’s the size of printer paper) so imagine my delight when I found A5 ones (half the size of A4) on our visit to the UK in May.


If you’re interested, I got this one at Tesco’s for the grand sum of 89p ;) My cost per use is already less than a penny!

Why I love it

• The PERFECT size for carrying in your handbag or in your hand
• Nothing falls out
• I can see the contents because it’s transparent
• Pretty pink colour always helps

I always have stuff with me to read, to work on (business planning), blog notes, etc and I keep all that stuff in here because I like things contained.

Do you use these plastic folders? What do you use them for?

P.S. This one is called Snopake Polyfile A5

Today I'm decluttering...tasks and delegating them to my VA

Please encourage all your blog friends to join us in decluttering and choosing to live a simpler life by using the button on your sidebar. Christmas is just around the corner and you need to start taking action so that you don't just fill up all the spaces you've already decluttered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week I decluttered this vertical organiser on my desk and then... of much more importance...

I decluttered some tasks and delegated to my virtual assistant (VA).

I'm quite fussy about doing certain things my way (!) but I think I've been indoctrinated by Melanie Benson Strick because I'm delegating more and more, easier and easier.

I still cringe sometimes thinking, "I can't believe I'm doing this" but I'm following my own rules (if someone can do it at 70 - 80% as good as you can, then you should delegate) and I did it!

Which means I had time last night to have supper with an old friend - yes, thanks, we had a wonderful time catching up.

What do you need to let go of?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you got rid of this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What did you declutter this week?

Make it easy to recycle paper

I've always said that if you make something too complicated, it just won't work, no matter how well-intentioned you are.

That's why it's so important to make your systems easy, especially if you live with other people and you want them to live by your organising "rules".

That's true for designing a good flow for laundry in the home and also for recycling paper in the office.

And so this was born:



I used to have one wastepaper basket but found we were less inclined to separate the paper when we cleared the trash.

Who wants to fish around amongst apple cores and other bits of fruit? Certainly not me.

This works beautifully for us.

First of all, I don't generate that much paper to start with but what I do throw away, goes straight into the paper bin. It's much easier now to take the one basket and dump it as is into the paper recycling bag.

Do you recycle paper? If yes, do you use those fancy partitioned recycling bins, or how do you make it easy for your household?

Text or phone?

image from www.breakitdownblog.com

Do you prefer to text or phone?

Why?

Read this and weigh in here.

Last chance to get your office organised this year

Tuesday 18 November 2008

Listen to all the FAQ here (it's just 4 minutes long)

Get your home office organised by spending a half-day with Marcia, the Organising Queen, learning all the tips and tools of the trade

At the end of the seminar you will have...

• a well-ordered, organised desk and office plan with clear zones


• a system to reduce your email overload


• an easy, step-by-step plan to prioritise your work


• at least 3 clear ways to make your computer do your common business tasks, automatically


• a clear, simple way to deal with all the paper


• ideas on how to maximise your office and storage space


• and much, much more

and of course, you have 60 days' unlimited email support while you take action on your plan (this alone is worth $97)

“I used to spend my days always working on email and never getting anything done. Thanks to Marcia's suggestions, I now can’t believe everything I get done in one day!

It’s allowed me to have a very successful business while working only 15-20 hours per week. I love that her techniques have given me the freedom to spend time with my son and husband.

Thanks to her business organizing strategies I have doubled my productivity which has in turn doubled my business income. Thanks Marcia for all that you do!” Jennifer Haubein

www.BestBizWebsiteSolutions.com

The nitty gritty details

Date: Tuesday 18 November

Time: 11am - 3pm Eastern Standard Time/ 6 -10 pm South African Time (GMT+2)

What do you need: Telephone, pen and handbook

Format: Simulcast - both by webcast and telephone - so if you have a computer and internet, you can participate. This is GREAT news for all readers outside the US who don't want to pay long-distance charges :)

So how does this work?

Once you register and pay, I'll send you the access information and the 27-page handbook for the day.

On the day, at the top of every hour, I'll teach for 15 - 20 minutes and the rest of the hour, we (the entire class) will all action that section of our offices.

You can call the phone number, listen to me speak and chat back with questions or comments.

OR

You click the link I'll send you, and a webpage will open where you simply click a play button to listen in. You can even type questions and comments to me on your screen which I'll see after a few seconds. It's as easy as that!

Your choice!

What are the sections we'll tackle?

11am How to organise your desk for maximum functionality and efficiency

12pm Clear the paper clutter and create a system for the flow of paper in your office

1pm Conquer your email, set up folders and organise your inbox

2pm Prioritise all your projects and develop a system for planning your month, week and day.

2:50 - 3pm Wrap-up and how to maintain your organised office

The best thing about this seminar is that you're learning and doing so at the end of the session, you have a beautifully organised and functional office!

Your investment: only $77 (actual value $267)

Let's recap. What do you get ...

• LIVE teaching from Marcia Francois, time management and organising expert


• LIVE group coaching


• 60 days' unlimited email support


• 27-page handbook


• MP3 audio downloads of all the teaching


• 7 easy steps to organise your office e-book*

* This will be emailed to you straight after the seminar because I don't want you to get overwhelmed before the time!

Honour the memory, not the item

On Friday in the Declutter Challenge, I wrote about sentimentality, which is why a lot of us hang onto stuff.

Kristin wrote a beautiful comment on that post so I went over to read her story.

It's beautiful, beautiful and I ask that you go and read the story of her wedding dress here.

Friday Declutter Challenge 14 Nov - take a picture to honour your memories

Please encourage all your blog friends to join us in decluttering and choosing to live a simpler life by using the button on your sidebar. Christmas is just around the corner and you need to start taking action so that you don't just fill up all the spaces you've already decluttered.


The Declutter Tip for the week ...

If you're sentimental and you find it really, really hard to declutter, take a picture to honour your memories.

Here's some posts where I wrote about this some more:

• Are you sentimental?
• Declutter by taking pictures

Do you have some sentimental items to declutter? Get your camera out, honour the memories but still declutter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week I finally decluttered this salt cellar *sob*

My husband received this salt and pepper set from a client YEARS ago (probably 10 years ago) and it's so unusual that we always get lots of oohs and ahs from dinner guests. Aside from the fact that I just love using it because it's so pretty.

I LOVE this salt cellar (isn't it gorgeous?!) but the top's broken and it's come off a couple of times, without too much drama.

This week, the top came off and there was salt ALL over my kitchen. I hate mess (can you guess?) so that was the final straw.

Funny thing is I still had that feeling like maybe somehow it could be fixed. Then I realised I should take a picture, blog it and I'd never have to forget about it.

So here it is :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What did you declutter this week?

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures or talk about the declutter. Or if you don't have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you got rid of this week.

It can be anything - physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism! :)

What are you going to declutter next week?

Show me your desk

As promised, here are some pictures of my desk at work. Looking at the pictures it actually looks a lot more cluttered than it feels...

Anyway, some things I want to point out to you:

1. the wall of inspiration on the right under my name (pictures of my hubby, inspirational quotes, scriptures from the Bible, pictures of friends and some SARK cards - my favourite is "you are a delicious, succulent human bean", which fits into my Big, Juicy goals theme)
2. my glass of water
3. my office control journal (in that vertical organiser)
4. minimal paper - only have 3 files and I'm actually cheating because one of them contains my performance appraisals, certificates, etc.
   

Now let's look at my desk head-on:

• computer with picture of Wicklow, Ireland as a screensaver
• in the top left corner, I have my "only four things to do with paper and email" from Help! I need more time
  
• radio and mirror (essentials!)
• to the left of the computer, my "things to do today" papers
• right in front of the keyboard, my master to-do list of all my projects and where they're all at, on top of the notebook where I write my 6 (or less) Eat the Frog items every day, and other assorted notes

For the most part, the desk works for me (although that vertical organiser is taking up too much space - I think I'll "release" it) because it's empty of stuff while still being inspiring to me. I can't work in a cold work space so I like to be surrounded by things that are "me".

If you have any questions about some things in the pics or how I do certain things, put them in the comments so everyone else can also benefit when I answer them. Thanks.

Now for the fun part, show me your desk (please link to a post with a pic of your desk, not to your entire blog)