Who else loves a good sale?

We're having a clearance sale of some products to make space for the babies :)

Check it out

Where do you store your memories?

This is a picture of my memory box.

It's slightly bigger than A4 (printer paper size). I have an A4 folder in there with my goals from every year since 1998 (nerdy, I know, but that's me!), which is when I started setting goals properly.

I have some birthday, Christmas, and anniversary cards, notes from people, etc. in there. Of course I don't keep everything and when the box starts getting too full, I go through it and see what I can let go of.

This works for me because I'm restricting my memories to a container and creating a physical boundary.

How do you store your memories?

Are you signed up for Earth Hour?

So who of you participated in the Earth Hour project?

We did.

I lit candles all around the house and we had supper and some lovely conversation by candlelight.

What did you do?

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

Join me on Saturday 28th March for Earth Hour.

The idea is to switch off your lights for just one hour (and we can all do one hour, right?) at 8:30 pm, local time, no matter where in the world you are

Here's the link to sign up if you live in South Africa.

So are you in?

Friday Declutter Challenge - documents and folders on your computer

Today we're decluttering files and document folders.

I have three tips for you today:

1. Keep it simple

Make folders in your My Documents folder.

BUT please don't make too many folders so that you have to click through lots of layers to get to your documents.

2. One in, one out

Declutter regularly. If you know you download documents like PDFs and audios on a weekly basis, then you need to declutter those (or others) on a weekly basis.

Just this weekend I listened to a 60-minute audio while I decluttered some files in my study. When I was done, I deleted the audio. There didn't happen to be anything that I needed to action but if there had been, I'd make a note in my spiral-bound notebook and then still delete the audio.

3. Make your system work for you

My filing system may not work for you and yours may not work for me.

Ask yourself, "where would I look for this document if I had to find it in the future?" That's how you name your files.

I have household forms and business forms. You might file them together but the way my brain works, I think of business forms with business, and so on.

This week, your challenge is to

go through at least 5 folders in your My Documents and declutter ...

• any duplicate documents
• documents you no longer use or need
• audios you've already listened to and actioned
• PDFs that no longer serve you (forms you're not using, etc, etc.)

To get you inspired, read how Anne organised her document folders when she did the Office Organising Makeover.

Share in the comments how you did!

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

Everything you EVER wanted to know about organising your computer

On this 75-minute teleclass, you’ll learn:

• Where to start organising your computer
• My DREAM method of organising your computer
• How to keep control of all the audios, PDFs and ebooks you get for free off the internet and how NOT to let it clutter up your hard drive
• Exactly how to label and store your documents and files so you can find them
• How to organise your contacts and all those business cards
• How to cut your computer time in half
• How to organise tasks and projects
• How and when to do a proper, thorough back up of your files and how to know when to do it so you don’t lose your work
• And much, much more

Check out Everything you EVER wanted to know about organising your computer :)

Tomorrow we're decluttering...

files and document folders

Get ready because I want you to post your intentions... and then how many documents you manage to declutter tomorrow.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

On this 75-minute teleclass, you’ll learn:

• Where to start organising your computer
• My DREAM method of organising your computer
• How to keep control of all the audios, PDFs and ebooks you get for free off the internet and how NOT to let it clutter up your hard drive
• Exactly how to label and store your documents and files so you can find them
• How to organise your contacts and all those business cards
• How to cut your computer time in half
• How to organise tasks and projects
• How and when to do a proper, thorough back up of your files and how to know when to do it so you don’t lose your work
• And much, much more

Check out Everything you EVER wanted to know about organising your computer :)

Can you be a minimalist with babies?

I'm fast realising that not everybody thinks like me.

Well, I've known that for a long, long time :) but this baby business has made the whole thing glaringly obvious once again.

Let me tell you what's been going on...

1. There's a baby expo happening in Jhb soon (I think it's within the next week or two) ... and the ladies at work have been very keen for me to go because "you get all this FREE STUFF" LOL

I'm really not into getting stuff just because it's free. If I need it and don't have to pay, great. But I don't just take things because they're free.

They looked at me like I was cuckoo :)

Please tell me there are more of us out there!


2. Then my sister (who is so excited) wants to know what we've bought.

Um, nothing.

"but you do know what you want?"

Um, no. Not at all.

"Okay, have a look at all these websites"

No, thanks, that's not our style.

You see, I believe that when you look at too many things, you (1) get overwhelmed and (2) start thinking that you need all those things.

But they're not needs, they're desires.

So my thinking is to first consider carefully what we actually need, and then make a list and go shopping.

Am I crazy, or is there method in my madness?

P.S. We received a baby bag from our medical aid (insurance) and some more free stuff from a Multiples Seminar we attended which is why we have a few things.

P.P.S. We have bought them matching "what happens at Granny's house stays at Granny's house" babygrows (onesies) in green because they were cute and not expensive!

Oh, by the way, am 16 weeks now and at the doctor's on Wed, one baby showed us what we wanted to see ...and one didn't ... so we wait for the 20-week scan. If that one is naughty again, I'm going to "cheat" on my doctor and go see others until I know!

Break out of overwhelm

Why this teleclass?

If you're a small business owner, you're probably inundated with messages from all over the internet.

And all the social media's not helping either - should you facebook, should you twitter, what should you do?

You're overwhelmed with everybody telling you what to do and and which system is the Next Best Thing to follow to make a gazillion dollars in a month :)

Instead of moving forward though, you feel so overwhelmed that you become totally paralysed with indecision.

On this teleclass you'll learn...

• how to recognise the symptoms of overwhelm
• what type of organising personality you are...and how to work with your style to get your focus back
  
• some of my favourite tools (practically free) that help me focus
  
• how to break out of overwhelm (when all the noise in your head gets too loud) by doing the absolute minimum you need to do to get you moving forward again
  
• how to eliminate info product overwhelm... so you know which ones to follow to get the results you want
  
• how to get your mojo back (in other words, get the confidence to quickly get you back on track)
  
• how to go from just a lovely idea to a project actually done and off that eternal to-do list

“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 sons 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 24 March

Time: 12pm EST/ 6pm South African Time (GMT+2)

Your time: click here for your time zone

What do you need: Pen and the handout I'll be sending you

Format: Simulcast - both by webcast and telephone - so if you have a computer and internet, you can participate.

Investment: $37

I loved the clarity of your teaching and you have given me confidence that I can do more. You helped me realise my potential and the timing and ease of use worked very well.

The info you suggested was new to me as before, I’d only picked things up from others as I needed.

Tina Hodges
Sheffield, England
http://creatingwholeness.org

So how does this work?

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


• On the day, either call in on the phone (it's a US number) or wait and download the link afterwards.
  


• If the time doesn't suit you, register anyway because I'll send you the recording within an hour or you can listen in via the replay link.

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

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


• LIVE group coaching


• Handout


• MP3 audio download after the live call


• this is part of your Gold VIP Inner Circle membership. Try it for a month and if you don't like it, you can always cancel
  

All this for only $37

Here's what people (just like you) are saying ...

Your system helped me realize those places where I could streamline my processes even further to help increase my productivity and give me more time.

Thanks, Marcia!

Sincerely,
Teresa Morrow
Online Promoter for Authors, Speakers & Writers
www.keybusinesspartners.com

Friday Declutter Challenge - email!

Today we're decluttering email.

I'm going to give you just one tip today - make decisions. Don't just read your email and close it again without making a decision as to what to do.

Here are some previous posts that deal with email:

• An empty inbox is like...
• Anne's post on dealing with her e-clutter
• 5 ways I deal with email

This week, your challenge is to

1. find out your email comfort number
2. declutter your inbox until you're there
3. build in daily maintenance time to keep to that number

Share in the comments how many you decluttered!

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

Next week (27th) we're decluttering documents & computer folders

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

If your email is out of control, Conquer your email will get your email organised and under control. Someone went from about 3000 mails to less than 100 in just days.

This is a comprehensive handout plus an hour-long audio. I teach you every single secret and tip that I use to help me manage my email in only 15 minutes a day.

Tomorrow we're decluttering...

email

Get ready because I want you to post the number of emails you start with, and how many you manage to declutter tomorrow.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

If your email is out of control, Conquer your email will get your email organised and under control. Someone went from about 3000 mails to less than 100 in just days.

This is a comprehensive handout plus an hour-long audio. I teach you every single secret and tip that I use to help me manage my email in only 15 minutes a day.

Organising for babies

Today I'm 16 weeks pregnant with twins :)

We are very excited about the babies but with that, we had a bit of an EEEK moment when we realised we'd have to find space in the house not only for the babies, but for all the baby stuff.

We plan to convert the guest bedroom so we need to find space elsewhere for all the guest stuff, extra blankets, etc.

All of these shelves had things on them before I started moving things around (I forgot to take a proper before picture).

The aim is twofold:

1. eventually move all the guest things to our second bedroom/ study
2. have only baby things in this bedroom
   

A tall order!

Things I've realised:

1. I have too many guest items considering we only have guests a couple of times a year
2. We have absolutely no clothes for the babies - will have to do the gift registry thing soon
3. I need to seriously declutter my study and get rid of all my workshop stuff

What I did

• I moved everything baby from other places in the house to this room. Basically there were books, toiletries and some towels.
• Then I started categorising - toiletries and other baby stuff, and baby vs parenting books

Here is part 1 of the organising project

on the left, baby books and on the right, parents' books

starting to sort the toiletries...

Will keep you informed!

In the meanwhile, which baby accessories should I absolutely not get and will be a waste of money? :)

E.g. at a multiples seminar we attended, one of the mothers said you can use a rolled-up towel instead of buying a cot wedge.

10-minute organising project - the fridge

Since I was about 6 - 7 weeks' pregnant, I have had NO energy whatsoever.

Which is bad because I'm used to being really productive but it's also good because I know that when I do have a sudden burst of energy, I need to focus and get whatever done.

I decided to sort out the fridge on one of those occasions and thought I'd time myself to see exactly how long it took, so you'd see it's not that overwhelming.

Main section - before

Main section - after

- grotty carrots were thrown away
- everything was put back in its section
- I also moved some things to smaller containers
- I moved food that we have to eat so that it's clearly visible

Fridge door - before

Fridge door - after

- threw away expired medicine
- moved all the spreads to the correct shelf
- moved bigger bottles of water to the door


By the way, the whole organising project took me just 8 minutes.

How often do you have to organise your fridge?

Friday Declutter Challenge - blogs & bookmarks

Today we're decluttering blogs and bookmarks.

Before I discovered my beloved Google Reader, I used to find a blog I liked and once on the page, press Ctrl + D to bookmark it.

I then had to click on each link every day to see who'd updated - a HUGE schlep!

Until I discovered Google Reader...

can you hear the harps and violins?

Because it's so easy to add blogs, it can get out of hand very quickly and you could find yourself spending HOURS each day reading other people's blogs instead of living your own life.

Now for the tough questions:

1. How many blogs are you following in your Google Reader, Bloglines or other feed reader?
2. Do you know how long you take to read all of those blogs every day?

Take some time to go through and declutter those you tend to skim over, especially if you do this ALL the time.

Get to know your comfort number. Mine is around 42 – 45 and I know when I start adding more and more blogs without deleting any, I start feeling more and more overwhelmed at the sight of all those unread items!

Here are some posts I wrote about this before:

• Blogging smarter
• Decluttering is not a four-letter word
• Decluttering electronically
  
  

This week, your challenge is to

1. find out your comfort number and
2. declutter your feed reader or bookmarked blogs until you get back to that number.

Share in the comments how many you decluttered!

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

Here are the schedule of challenges for the rest of March

20 - email

27 - documents & computer folders

Are you joining in with this week's challenge?

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

If you want to reduce your time on the computer, check out the Everything you ever wanted to know about organising your Computer MP3 and handout, and get your entire computer organised quickly and easily

Tomorrow we're decluttering...

1. blogs from your feed reader and
2. bookmarked links you don't use

Get ready because I'd love you to post the number of links you manage to declutter in tomorrow's comments!

F-r-e-e Teleseminar - How to organise ANY space

Only one week left to register for...

F-r-e-e Teleseminar
How to organise ANY space
Thurs 19th March 11am - 12pm EST/ 6 - 7pm South African time

When you sign up for this teleseminar, you'll learn...

1. about an organising myth that we will IMMEDIATELY dispel
2. my DREAM method for organising ANY space
3. the most important organising step EVER
4. what you should NEVER do first when you organise
5. how you can save mo-ney off my newest organising programme

You need EITHER a normal telephone line or Skype, or a computer with internet access to download the file afterwards.

Sign up now - it's free

If you're not sure how teleseminars work, read my FAQ page here

Office Organising Makeover - final roundup of posts

If you've been reading since January, you'll know the whole story behind Anne's office organising makeover.

I want to publicly say that (I've already told her so privately) I honestly think God set this thing up because I could not have asked for a better guest blogger.

Anne has been so open and honest with her struggles and triumphs, but more than that, she's been really open-minded in letting me challenge some of the old ways she had of doing things through my 7 easy steps to organise your office system.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

So, here's a final round-up of all Anne's posts.

I'm also putting them over there ---->>> on the sidebar if ever you want to reference a particular post again.

1. Before pics & problem areas
2. Sorting out the zones
3. Decluttering
4. Paper clutter
5. Electronic clutter
6. Overcoming organising obstacles
7. Setting up systems

Organising medication in the bathroom

We recently had a situation where a pipe leading to our geyser burst.

Can you imagine the damage?!

The diningroom was flooded and so was our bathroom, which resulted in a messed-up bathroom vanity.

The guys finally came to replace the vanity and because of all the unpacking and repacking, I decided to reorganise the cupboard.

I had our medicines in two cooler bags like these and now they're all organised in one of my favourite organising tools, Ziploc bags, like this:



My categories are in the order - most used to least used

• painkillers
• cold and flu - I swear by Degoran and it goes EVERYWHERE with us :)
  
• Marcia's stuff
  
• Dion's stuff
• skin (sunburn - remember we live in Africa, other burn (I have a tendency to burn my arms when I'm too quick removing things from the oven) and mosquito repellant)

Here you can see them peeking out of one of the drawer's.


Where and how do you store your medication?

Friday Declutter Challenge - photos!

Today we're decluttering photos.

Now that we’ve all gone digital, it’s become very easy to take hundreds of pics and not have to deal with the e-clutter.

Download your pictures regularly, delete the bad ones there and then, and save the good ones to CD or DVD regularly.

I only print really gorgeous shots (because printing is so expensive here in South Africa - in fact, when we travel, I like to print some overseas because it's soooo much cheaper) so if I wouldn’t want to print it, I don’t keep it on my computer.

If I want to use pictures on the blog, I compress them immediately so that they take up 50KB as opposed to 1MB.

Here's how to compress photos

• Open the picture in Microsoft Picture Manager (Start, Programs, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office Tools, Microsoft Office Picture Manager).
• Click on Edit Pictures and then on compress.
• I usually compress to “web pages"
• Click OK

As easy as that, you're done!

Knysna waterfront - May 2007

Organising your photos

Photos are one of those things that can quickly overwhelm you if you don’t have a system. Before you know it, you have thousands of photos on your computer and no idea where to start.

If this is you, make one folder titled Before _____ (today’s date) and start working backwards, just 15 minutes a day. Once you start, the momentum will easily carry you forward.

Then, from now onwards, do the following 6 steps and you’ll never be behind again.

1. Download after every major photo-taking session
It’s far easier to sort through 50 rather than 500 photos. However, if you take photos daily, you might want to do this once a week.

Read the other 5 steps here

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

Here are the schedule of challenges for the rest of March

13 - blogs and bookmarked links

20 - email

27 - documents & computer folders

Are you joining in with this week's challenge?

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

If you want to reduce your time on the computer, check out the Everything you ever wanted to know about organising your Computer MP3 and handout, and get your entire computer organised quickly and easily

Do you do monthly reviews?

Part of my goal-setting process involves a monthly review.

I like to look back at the goals I'd set, see how I did, and more importantly, see what I need to change to make the new month an even better month.

Do you do monthly reviews?

Anyway, I had noticed that nobody's been participating (okay, I'm stretching it a bit - one or two people have) in the weekly declutter challenge, at least not by linking up so I'd know.

But then Shirley commented and said something like, "where's everybody? It's been 200 days since the August Declutter Challenge".

My word, she's right! It has been more than half a year. I didn't realise so much time had passed but that comment kicked my butt (thanks again!) and I started thinking that I need to do something differently.

So what I've decided to do, at least for this month, is to drop the Mr Linky and simply just post on the four areas.

No pressure - do the challenges, don't do the challenges, whatever.

Seriously, no pressure. (If I were coaching you however, I would kick your butt because you'd be paying me for results :))

• If you participate, please comment.
• If you have an additional tip, please comment.
• If you disagree with my method, please comment.

You get the picture :)

So here's the schedule of challenges for March - which are also on the sidebar over there if you forget to write them down like I do ---->>

6 - photos

13 - blogs and bookmarked links

20 - email

27 - documents & computer folders

Are you in?

Don't forget to come back tomorrow - we're going to talk about decluttering and organising photos.

I need your help

I've done a short survey to help you get more organised that I'd love you to take if you haven't already done so through my weekly organising newsletter.

Here you go - this is the link
http://tinyurl.com/Feb09survey

Thanks very much - and there's a gift waiting for you right at the end.

Office Organising Makeover - Week 7 - putting the whole system together

Hello, Hello!



My office is finished! Or at least the office area that I use daily... we will talk about my storage closet later.


Step 6 is to set up a filing system for the paper you need to keep. After all that sorting a few weeks ago, this is what I did with what was left:

One thing I did -over and above- *that I really like* I replaced all the file folders (at least until I ran out of folders) with no tab folders.

Geez Anne! No tab folders cost sooooo much more than regular folders. Was that really a wise financial choice??

Actually, a year and a half ago I bought a box of 100 file folders for $3.75. Tabs and all. But to me, the tabs are visual clutter when the drawer is open and really started to bother me. So I sat down with my trusty CM cutting mat, a razor knife and a metal straight edge and I sliced off all the tabs!

The only folders that still have tabs are the pretty ones on my desktop.

And you have to see this! This is 2 plastic file totes FULL of empty hanging folders! No joke! Can you believe that when I started this journey... all those hanging files were FULL!

Oh My Goodness!!!

Now, just to show that I have really been working my butt off on this... here are shots of my closet...

Before: full of scrapbook supplies with no hope of finding anything. (The bottom of the closet is 2 deep of boxes and totes and stuff... 2 deep!)






and After: One well-organized walk-in closet for hubby and me.



You will notice that I dragged up and old dresser from the basement. It now houses things that had no home, piles that had been taking up floor space... my jeans, my hubby's hats, etc.

I also got a terrific deal on a labeler:($15 for a $40 labeler) and went to work making everything uniform and cleanly labeled.

Ok, so I am a little OCD... I admit it!

ANYWAY.... the point is that it looks good and I like it.

But let's talk about the nitty gritty... Step 6: make a system for YOUR papers. That would be a personalized way to file your papers. FOR EXAMPLE: No sence in filing alphabetically when you think in themes or time. Me? I just hate filing at all. I hardly ever reference anything again. It takes forever to file and then just becomes a forgotten set of papers. That seems like a real waste of time!

So what I did is to get rid of the things that do not get referenced and to highlight the ones that do get used.

Out went:

• receipts from the last 5 years.


• extra papers such as registration cards


• assembly sheets for Barbie dolls


• magazine pages for crafts I like the looks of but will never actually make

In went:

• tax files


• Creditor contact information


• Appliance Manuals

Then I made monthly files in my action drawer. Almost everything that I would file will go in there. So I no longer file statements by company ... I stick them in the folder for the month they were paid. Easy.

I filed my warranties and manuals by room. I made a hanging file for each area of the house and stuck in the appropriate stuff. Now it will be much easier to find the manual for the TV in my daughter's room... I will just pull the file for her room and it is the only TV manual in there.

*GRIN* Easy works for me!

Now to Step 7. The last step. This step was a "D'oh" moment for me. Simply stated... step 7 says Make your tools work for you. The suggestion Marcia made was that if you are using organizing tools that give you more work rather than less... perhaps it is better to switch to something else.

That really got me thinking. I have been using my Frankin Planner since 1995. I started using it because it was the only planner/calendar on the market that listed evening hours. I was working 12 hour shifts, working 6 days a week... and the traditional 5 day work week, 9 to 5 calendar did not cover what I needed. PLUS I needed to be able to keep personal information and my family calendar together with work so that I didnt double schedule myself. And that happened often... 60 hours a week wasnt enough for a customer and I would end up coming in on my time off to meet with them on their schedule... completely forgetting about family plans. So the Franklin worked for me.

And now I am a Stay at Home Mom. If I do work, it doesnt involve appointments outside of business hours.

But I do like having all my personal information in one place... no more searching for notes or reference materials. It is all in my planner.

I looked back over months of planner pages.

• I never use the appointment section. That is half a page wasted.
• And on the notes section I always note the same things... menu selections, medications I take, what I ate, how much I weigh and what the weather is. Hmmmm.
• I even noticed that in the last month or so I have gotten to the point that I write my TO DOs right over the appointment section. I have more TO DOs than anything else.

I need to personalize my planner to make it work for me. I drew out what I thought would work and formatted new planner pages.

Well.... I tried. I used Word. I used Excel. I used Publisher. I even downloaded Open Office. No matter what, I just could NOT get it to look the way I wanted. I mean it has to be cute and easy on the eyes or I will just quit using it no matter how efficient it is.

My solution? My 16 year old daughter!

I gave her the drawing and she set to work. Within a matter of hours she sent me a doc file with EXACLTY what I wanted in it! Thank God for technically savvy kids!

In fact, she did such a great job on it that I had her make my monthly financial planning form too!

Whoo hoo! I love my new planner pages! LOVE LOVE LOVE

That is it! I have completed all 7 steps! REALLY! I did it! And it feels amazing! Now it is your turn!

~Anne

P.S. Remember Anne's cute file folders? She did a file folder tutorial so we can all learn how to do them here.

And Anne's also sharing her daily planner and monthly financial pages with all of us.