Organize 365 Podcast

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, 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 get Organized! This week I am sharing my conversation with Sarah K. She lives with her husband and two of her adult children. Sarah shares how she tamed the paper monster! She used to dread her husband asking for a receipt or important paper, but not anymore. She went from 13 (yes, 13!) file cabinets down to 1/2 a desk file drawer and organized binders. Now she can find the papers she needs for her family, her home, and her rental properties quickly and easily in her Sunday Basket®, Business Workbox®, and The Paper Solution® Binders. I also love how organizing became a family project for this tight-knit former homeschooling family. What resonates with YOU about Sarah's story? Are you dealing with medical issues in your family or drowning in paper? 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

Angela Watson is here again! If you're a teacher and you don't know Angela, you need to meet her! She was a classroom teacher for 11 years and has spent over a decade as an instructional coach. She has a podcast called Truth for Teachers and created the 40 hour Teacher Workweek program to help teachers take back control of their time. In this episode, Angela and I dive into what's going on in education and the classroom post-pandemic. A survey from the NEA says that 55% of teachers are looking to retire sooner than they had the previous fall. That's a scary number when the typical attrition rate for teachers is 8%. Education Week says that teachers work an average of 54 hours a week and half of that time is spent on non-teaching time work. Angela's surveys have found that the average in her audience is 62 hours per week. Teachers know when they go into this profession that work doesn't end at 3pm, but at the same time, teachers are being taken advantage of because of their deep care for their work. What's the solution? How can teachers work fewer hours and be more productive? Angela and I have both spent a lot of time working on different angles of this issue so we chat about ways to fix this problem! It comes back to boundaries and organization. Angela's contribution to the solution is the 40 hour Teacher Workweek program. One of the things she does in this program is help teachers understand the difference between hobby work and required work. We have a long discussion about what hobby work is and how to cut back your work hours by reducing this type of work. Using Angela's program, most members have been able to cut 5 hours off of their work week in the first month in the same way that Sunday Basket® users are able to save 5 hours a week after using the system for 6 weeks! My contribution to the solution is the Education Friday Workbox®. This system compliments Angela's solution by helping you organize the administrative and paperwork side of teaching. Instead of missing deadlines and spending time looking for important papers, you have more time to focus on the lesson planning and the teaching that you love. I love talking with Angela! I hope you teachers out there find help and hope in these solutions!

For the final episode in this series about the Education Friday Workbox®, I'm talking with Kate McDonnell. Kate is single and lives with her cat in Colorado. She has been a teacher for over 15 years. Her career started with teaching science but her background is in computer programming. She now teaches many different technology-related courses in different formats with a schedule that changes every week. Kate is also a certified organizer. You can find out more about working with her here. In this episode, Kate and I discuss the challenges of teaching and organizing so many different classes and then the administrative work that goes along with that. Kate loves using the portable Sunday Basket® to carry her Slash pockets and papers with her to her various schools. We also talk a little about managing email. You know that I'm not your digital organizer, but I do have some tips for organizing email. (I share even more about email organization in the email course inside of The Productive Home Solution™.) Learn more about the Education Friday Workbox® here. Registration for Teacher Camp is now open. Click here to learn more and sign up.

In this final week of the series on spaces to organize, I'm talking about the second optional space to organize: memories and photos. Now, I don't personally believe that this is an optional space to organize for me and my family. It's kind of a passion of mine! After you have sorted through the four essential areas of paper -- medical, financial, household reference, and household operations -- you're still left with a lot of paper that I categorize as memories and photos. What do you do with all of these things? In this episode, I explain that there are different levels of final organization of memories and photos that you could choose to end at from simple boxes of collated photos to photo albums and binders. I love creating topic-based albums: holidays, vacations, birthdays, etc. I also personally love creating binders and albums because my family is more likely to pull them off the shelf and look at them over items kept in a box. Organizing your memories and photos can be such a source of joy for your family as they look back at the family history you've gathered and fun memories from their lives. In our Saving Your Story Photo Organization Program, I walk you through sorting all of your photos, eliminating duplicates, and creating final albums with those photos. Is organizing memories and photos optional for you? What is keeping you from organing this space?

Over the last few weeks, we've been talking about the updated Education Friday Workbox®. This week, I'm talking with Michele Vinje. She's been an educator for over 28 years in the same school and the same building for her entire career. She has taught various history and economics courses to sophomores, juniors, and seniors over the years. You can hear more of Michele's personal story in her transformation episode. Michele is also a certified organizer. You can find out more about working with her here. In this episode, Michele and I discuss how the education system has changed since the pandemic. We talk about how the Education Friday Workbox® is a place to hold all of those administrative tasks that are important but not urgent so you can get to them once a week and before something is due. Michelle describes how the Education Friday Workbox® frees up your brain and that it is a system that is inclusive for all educators and administrators but customizable for anyone in the education world. And don't forget about the colors! The colored Slash pockets make it easy to find a category of information quickly. Learn more about the Education Friday Workbox® here. Registration for Teacher Camp is now open. Click here to learn more and sign up.

We've been talking about essential organizing for the last several podcast episodes. Listen to the rest of the episodes in this series: Organizing Personal Spaces Organizing Family & Communal Spaces Organizing Storage Spaces Organizing Paper Management This week, we are transitioning to the first of two optional spaces to organize. The first space is kids. Organizing anything related to kids is optional! But, if you have kids, I really think you do need to organize the things and spaces related to them. I've tried to organize my kids in a way that is Pinterest-worthy but let me tell you, it just doesn't work. It's not functional. I have three mindset shifts for you when it comes to organizing kids: It's good enough. Establish how long it takes to achieve good enough. Remember that organization is a learnable skill, even for your kids. In this episode, I go deeper into these three thoughts. I also break down the ages and stages of organizing kids and give you tips for each of those stages. Whether you have 0-5-year-olds, 6-12-year-olds, or teens, I have suggestions for not only organizing your kids but also teaching them how to organize themselves! What do you find hardest about organizing your kids? How are you teaching them to organize for themselves? Take the next step in organizing your kids with our Kids Program. For your teens and young adults heading out into the world, take a look at our Launching Life Skills Bundle or Launch Bundle. Also talked about in this episode: Kids One Clip

Educator Annie Sisemore shares insights on using her Education Friday Workbox®, including tips for college students and training new teachers. The podcast also discusses the philosophy behind the Workbox® and changes made to enhance its effectiveness.

In this podcast series, we've been talking about essential organizing. You can catch up on this series by listening to these episodes: Organizing Personal Spaces Organizing Family & Communal Spaces Organizing Storage Spaces This week, we are moving to organizing your paper management in our quest for functional organization in your home. You know how much I love to talk about paper organization! People are FINALLY coming around to the fact that paper is not going away, and it needs to be organized. You could organize your paper first or last, and you could also choose to only organize portions of your paper. We found in our research study that 54% of people have piles of paper everywhere. Only 18% of people have a system in place for organizing that paper. In addition, 70% of Millenials perceive a reduction in stress when their paper is organized. You see, we all have paper. You could have less paper, but you're never going to be paperless. Paper is different than other areas of your home. It's different because 85% of what you store in your filing cabinet you will NEVER need again. The remaining 15% is paper that you do need and you need to be able to find it when you go looking for it. You only go looking for these important papers when there's a problem. Binders are the solution! Trust me, your future self in crisis will thank you when you have your paper organized and can find what you need. But here's the other problem you will run into with paper: Only about 20% of what I suggest that you put into your binders is actually in your filing cabinet or it is actually paper at all. The other 80% of what needs to be in your binders is either on the computer where only you know how to find it or it is stored in your brain. If something happens to you, how does anyone else take care of anything in your home or for your family? In this episode, you'll find encouragement for why and how to get your paper organized. Are your papers organized? What is keeping you from organizing your paper? Mentioned in this episode: Podcast #420 - The Weight of Paper Paper Organizing Retreats The Paper Solution® Binders

In this podcast series, I have talked with you about organizing your personal spaces and then about organizing your family and communal spaces. Now, we're ready to move into your storage spaces. Storage spaces are not easy to organize, but once you set your mind to it, they can be maintained for the rest of your life! Really, they can! Whether it is your attic, basement, or an off-site storage unit, once you have a system in place, this storage space can stay organized for decades. With the exception of some transient storage spaces, your storage space is generally a hidden area of organization. People don't see these spaces so we tend to put off organizing them. What I want you to understand is the mindset of organizing a storage space. You must start thinking of it as a store. It is your on-demand, already paid-for store, where you're storing things for when you need them. In this episode, I share with you about creating a storage mindset, what kinds of things you might find in your storage space, and how to group those items. I also talk about why you might consider tackling your storage space BEFORE the rest of your home. Ready to organize your storage space? You'll find more detailed guidance for organizing your storage space in The Productive Home Solution™. What do you keep in your storage spaces? What have you been holding onto in your storage space that really needs to go?

Welcome to the newest Wednesday Podcast! On Wednesdays, 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 get Organized! This week I am sharing my conversation with Krys H. She lives with her husband and their 21-year-old cat, but she is also mom to 11 grown children. Krys talks about the medical issues in her family and how having The Paper Solution® Medical Binder paperwork with her helped the first responders care for her during a recent accident. She also shares how she packed for a long-distance move that included downsizing from 3,000 sq ft to 1,400 sq ft. Krys is also a faithful keeper of her Sunday Basket®, which she does on Friday each week. There are so many fun nuggets of inspiration in this conversation! What resonates with YOU about Krys' story? Are you dealing with medical issues in your family or preparing for a move? 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 For more information about the programs and products mentioned in this podcast please check out these links: Organize 365® The Sunday Basket® System The Productive Home Solution™ (formerly All Access) The Paper Solution® Binders I look forward to helping YOU get Organized! PS - Be sure to share YOUR unique way of using #myextra5 and tag your post on Instagram so we can share your wins!