Organize 365 Podcast

Why is it that when we decide to undertake something that’s going to make a difference in our lives, we still try to cut corners? When I decided to go back to school in pursuit of a PhD, my mindset was initially to make the supplies and things I already had work for my school venture. But when I’ve needed something, I’ve found it’s just better to go ahead and get it. Some of these supplies help me move forward faster, be more productive and/or just be able to get my assignments and reading done in different places. Do you have the supplies or tools you need where you need them? It makes all the difference. Listen to my story about scissors to find out why. Here are some of my favorite supplies mentioned in today’s podcast: Fiskars scissors Shokz Wireless Open-Ear Bluetooth Headset Organize 365® 2.0 Highlighters Organize 365® 2.0 Productivity Tabs Organize 365® Slash Pockets Jergens Cherry Almond Lotion Don’t live in frustration over not having what you need where you need it. The time and sanity savings will offset the investment. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

In today’s podcast, we will discuss how you can get your home organized when you are never home. There are different seasons in our lives in which we will need to change our organization. How does your home change for different seasons of your life? The seasons I’ve identified that require the most functional organizing changes are: Children 0-5 years old Children in middle and high school Empty nesting Caregiving for a loved one Settling an estate Welcoming another generation of your family into your home - listen to this podcast on multigenerational living There will be seasons of life when you will not be home much.  When I started podcasting in 2012, I was going through a season of life where I was never home. My children were in two different schools that both required me to drive for hours a day.  Looking back now, I can safely say it’s a season. So if you are in a season where you are never home, just know that this is a season. Some seasons feel never ending, but all of these seasons do end. I encourage you to take from these seasons the best that they have to offer knowing that one day you will be on the other side. Why do we want to get our home organized when we are never home anyway? Organizing gives us a sense of control. In a season where you are already pressed for time and feeling a loss of control, you may be wanting to feel organized, proactive and productive when you are at home. Where to begin? At Organize 365®, we’ve identified four areas in every home that need to be organized in different ways and at different times and intervals. These are personal, family and communal, storage and paper. During a season where you aren’t home very much, I’m going to recommend you focus on personal organization. Start with your car. I’ve always defined personal organization as your closet, bathroom, bedroom and car! You need to think about your car completely differently during this season. It’s now an extension of your home.  In 2012, I turned my car into my portable house! The trunk was my “car closet” and the front area was my personal cockpit. I set up my car to serve my changing needs. Your secondary focus should be just your personal spaces (as time permits at home). Focus on your bathroom, closet and your side of the bedroom. Do quick tasks that you can complete in 15-20 minutes. Write everything down. If you are away from home as you are listening to this podcast, something you can start doing today, from anywhere, is to start writing everything down. Everywhere you have a thought, you should have a notepad to write it down.  Take your Sunday Basket® with you. You need your Sunday Basket® more than ever during this season, but you may want your portable Sunday Basket® to be your primary Sunday Basket®. When you are out and about throughout the day, you will get 15 minute breaks in the action. Look at your portable Sunday Basket® and think “what’s one thing I can get done in this 15 minute pocket of time?” I processed through my Sunday Basket® in waiting rooms, in my car while waiting for my kids and so many other places.  It won’t be perfect. Focus on the moments. Build the future life and future person as you go. Support yourself along the way with personal organization that works for you. And bring your Sunday Basket® along for the ride. EPISODE RESOURCES: Portable Sunday Basket® with Pencil Pouch The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution® Planning Day Organizing Personal Spaces Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too! Meet Marie. This podcast has been a long time in the making. Marie started listening to the Organize 365® podcast back in 2015! She’s had all the versions of The Sunday Basket®.  Marie lives with her husband of 23 years, 18 year old daughter and 15 year old twin daughters. She also has a 20 year old son who lives in an apartment nearby. Marie is experiencing the teenage years with her children and is wondering why she still doesn’t feel as organized as she would like and where all of her time is going. This is an all too common theme. I’ve seen it time and time again. You think because your kids are now teenagers that you should be organized. Your kids are much more independent than they were so surely you should be getting your time back. Not so fast. This is a transitional time period where your kids may act and speak as though they are independent - they have independent thoughts, make decisions and it’s a really fun season of parenting. But you are still very much in active parenting.  Whenever you’re in a transitional period of time, there’s a push and pull between the now and the soon-to-be. You are still very much in the current season, but starting to wonder what you are going to do next and wanting to get into the next season. You’re in the inbetween. Embrace it. What’s one more experience you want to have during this season? What’s one more memory you want to make? If you’ve ever wanted to hear what goes on during a virtual organizing session - this is it! This interview quickly turns into a session similar to what I used to have with my clients when I did professional organizing.  Want to try it for yourself? Ask yourself: What lights you up? What don’t you like to do? What are your family/household members into? How organized do you want to be? What really needs to happen in the next 12-18 months or in the season you’re in? When you think about having your home organized, what does that look like for you? Have you implemented The Sunday Basket® and how is that working for you? Tune in as we also discuss what it truly means to save five hours with The Sunday Basket® and leadership versus management! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Productive Home Solution™ The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Paper Solution® I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

When someone tells you what to do and they have experience - you should probably listen to them. I was told by someone in the know to get my eyes checked before I started my PhD. I didn’t. I felt confident that my over-the-counter readers were just fine. Well, here I am in Week 11 with new glasses!  In this episode, I share two things I learned this week through my PhD journey: You need to have the right tools when you are doing anything. A PhD is so reading intensive that you do need to get your eyes checked!  Speed reading allows you to take in a lot of information, but details matter in the PhD program. I started using a ruler to read and highlight! EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

This podcast episode will give you tactical and functional organizing tips for multigenerational living. If you are in a multigenerational home or considering this option - this is for you! Multigenerational living is near and dear to my heart these days. I am cherishing this life phase that I’m currently in - sharing my home with Abby (my daughter) and Grayson (my grandson). I know many members of the Organize 365® team and community are also living in multi-generational homes.  I realize that there are different circumstances that may lead you to be in a multigenerational home. The three main situations that I’ve seen for multigenerational living are: Caregiving. If you are currently living the “sandwich” generation lifestyle - taking care of your parents while also trying to keep up with your adult children - I have a BIG HUG for you! Being a caregiver can be extremely isolating. I’ve been there and it can be a long road.  Consciously merging households. This seems to be a more recent phenomenon (in the United States at least). Families consciously decide to live together because they enjoy each other, it makes economic sense and they can share in the work and experience running the household together. Life circumstances. Sometimes it’s not a conscious decision but life circumstances create a situation where multigenerational living is necessary. Regardless of how you ended up in a multigenerational home, here are my top organizational tips for making the most of the situation: Be purposeful about transitioning the home to support a multigenerational home. Ensure that everyone (INCLUDING YOU) have your own space. Everyone needs their own space. In my home, this means that Abby and Grayson have the basement apartment to themselves. They get to decide what they want down there, what it looks like and they are responsible for everything in this space. I also have my own spaces in the house that are just mine. Create rules for communal spaces, but be willing to renegotiate and evolve those rules as the situation changes. For example, the communal spaces in our home are the living room, kitchen, laundry room and garage. These areas get to be cleaned and organized to my standards. There are rules for how we all operate and take care of these areas. Laundry Days - This one has been great in our household. We have designated laundry days to ensure that we can get laundry done for ourselves on the days that our most convenient for all of us in the household. Don’t feel guilty to say what you want in terms of the communal spaces. Organizing the kitchen and food in a multigenerational home - start by considering the stages of life each of you are in. In my household we have the toddler phase, Greg and I are working away from home and Abby is a stay at home mom. Our kitchen is supporting three very different phases of life. We have created dedicated space for everyone’s food and Grayson’s adorable toddler eating utensils, plates and sippy cups. How I’ve maintained my cleanliness standards in communal spaces: Baby Gates - Living Room, Dining Room and Laundry - Grayson doesn’t go in those areas so they stay picked up. Weekly Cleaning - We have a weekly cleaner come and every Thursday we know the house is being cleaned and everything needs to be picked up. Minimalized toys in the family room - Constantly decluttering and rotating the toys in the family room - not minimalist but definitely minimized. When you live in a multigenerational home, there will be some frustrations. If you are feeling frustrated (and I’ve been there), try to do a mindset swap and remember the many blessings that come with this experience.  Your home needs to be organized differently and you need to establish different rules for yourself for all the phases of life you go through and different people or peoples living in your home with you. Top 2 takeaways for living in a multigenerational home: Pick your battles. Create rules. See the episode resources below for your supply list to help keep each member of the family and the entire household running smoothly. You’ll be sharing a lot, but you don’t need to share your own brain! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® - one for each adult in your home Household Reference Binder - one per house Medical Binder - each family member needs their own Financial Binder - each family unit or couple has their own Household Operations Binder - you would have this for each family unit - like teachers at a school - they would each have their own lessons.  Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too! This week, I am sharing my interview with Christine M. She lives with her husband and well loved cat in Ontario, Canada! When Christine M. experienced three moves in a short period of time, she learned the skill of organization through Organize 365®. Christine is a former teacher turned grad student so we had a lot to talk about. Christine found her way to Organize 365® through my friend and fellow podcaster, Angela Watson. She was going through teacher burn-out, something we have been hearing all about. I cannot tell you enough how much I appreciate teachers. If you are a teacher, this podcast is a hug from me to you - thank you for all that you do!  Christine’s interest in Organize 365® started through her Teacher Friday Workbox® which is now the Education Friday Workbox®. She wanted to implement systems into her teacher role to help her be more productive and purposeful with her time. Her organizational journey went into overdrive when she found that she and her husband would be moving across Canada to Ontario. She utilized Organize 365® Ten Steps to an Organized Move (which is available inside The Productive Home Solution™) to pull off the most organized move imaginable. Getting organized BEFORE you move is key. In the years that followed her move, she transformed into an even more organized person. We discuss the key principles and learning that she did to fully transform herself into a positive, productive and proactive person. She loves the idea that items in her home are auditioning for their place.  Listen in to hear all about her journey and how she is now using her Education Friday Workbox® to organize her grad school journey! I love to hear how the Organize 365® products and courses evolve with your life. EPISODE RESOURCES: Education Friday Workbox® - organizational system designed for teachers The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® The Portable Sunday Sunday Basket® I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

I gave myself the gift of a mid-semester review and reset my PhD organization. It was the BEST gift. I’ve hit the halfway mark in my semester. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything and make sure I’m on target.  Here’s how I hit the reset button: Re-read the syllabus for each class (HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS) Compiled and organized all my notes for all my classes into a notebook by class Planned ahead for the second half of the semester by looking ahead and doing anything I could do to organize my remaining assignments and classes Our brain’s desire organizational planning time. Are you giving yourself time to plan and organize your work, home and life? EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button Organize 365® Slash pockets The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

Have you ever thought about how much your home is a business?  Our homes are businesses. The entire US economy runs on the economy of your house. If the American family is doing well, the American economy is doing well. When I talk about our homes as businesses, I don’t mean that you should be just going through the motions and checking boxes or anything even similar to that. In this episode, I share how you can use tools and systems (similar to what you would do at work) to gain a bigger impact and less stress at home. A business usually has a CEO and COO. Your home most likely does, too. Sometimes you may be acting as the CEO and COO, sometimes you may just have one of those roles. The CEO creates the strategy of the company, manages the capacity and resources, and plans for execution. Some of the things you may do as the CEO of your home are: During your weekly Sunday Basket® routine, you look at what constraints you have in the upcoming week, what needs to get done Planning your week and trimester in advance The COO plays a critical role in running the day-to-day actionables that will accomplish the strategy the CEO has created for the team.  The key to success is that the CEO and COO are both operating proactively and strategically. Making choices about what to work on, how to spend time and money, and what experiences and impact they want to create within their household. In this episode, I deep dive into how The Friday Workbox® operates for your business and apply this to how the Sunday Basket® helps you run the business of home and family.  I’d love to hear your feedback on this one! Do you see the parallels between running your home as a business? Come learn how to plan like the CEO of your home! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. You can see and hear transformation in action. I look forward to helping YOU learn the skill of organization, too! Today I’m excited to talk with fellow podcaster, Sarah Hart-Unger.  Sarah hosts the podcast Best Laid Plans, co-hosts the podcast Best of Both Worlds with Laura Vanderkam, is the mother of three children, married to a surgeon, and works as pediatric endocrinologist! So, needless to say, she stays busy! Organization and planning are a big part of her ability to do so much and we will be talking about the systems she has in place. First things first, we talk about parenting! Sarah is experiencing a golden window because her youngest child just turned 5! For parents of children younger than 5, things are just changing so frequently every 6-8 weeks that it is hard to catch your breath in terms of getting organized. We discuss how when you go through different stages and phases of life, you learn how to use your organization and time management skills in different ways. Sarah is a big believer in functional organization. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it needs to work for you! She shares how she is ruthless about getting rid of things and enjoys knowing where things are.  Organizing her time is one of her favorite things to do. Mine, too! We dig deep into how planning your home life by quarters just does not work. It creates weird cut-offs like July. Who wants to start a new plan in the middle of summer? You need to have your entire summer planned out. The quarters of the year aren’t actually new energies. The Organize 365® approach to planning is by trimesters. Planning allows you to make room for your own explosive growth! We both discuss how during busy seasons of life, our respective calendars and planners bring us a sense of peace and allow us to have more capacity. Do you have a plan that you love to look at? That gives you peace, not stress? That creates calm in chaos? Do you have a plan for the upcoming trimester and summer season?  Sarah also shares how she has organized her children. We discuss a very hot topic - how to organize kids’ artwork! Check out the episode resources if you want to share the Kids Movie Sarah references with your kids as well! EPISODE RESOURCES: The Productive Home Solution™ Planning Day The Productive Home Solution™ The Sunday Basket® Lattice Binder for kid’s artwork Organize 365® Kids Movie Learn more about Golden Windows and Season of Organizing Watch the video on YouTube to see the sneak peek of Lisa’s Weekly Planning Sheet I am grateful that you are reaching out to share your stories and progress with me and with the Organize 365® community. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

There is administration time related to getting your PhD. The Sunday Basket® and the Business Friday Workbox® teaches you there are invisible tasks you do at home and work. Once these tasks are made visible, you can eliminate as many as possible.  Mid-semester, I realized I need PhD administrative time. Listen in as I review what types of administrative tasks I have while working on my PhD. Planning my work  Organizing my email Signing up for teacher office hours  Cleaning up Zotero files Next week, I will share with you how I took a pause and reoriented myself. EPISODE RESOURCES: Follow my journey on Instagram - Check out the PhD Highlight Button The Sunday Basket® The Friday Workbox® Zotero Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!