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Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for January 2011: Goal Setting

Janet — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:03:19 +0000

This is the time of year when many people are making resolutions or setting goals for the new year, whether it has to do with getting organized, starting or growing a business, or some other area of life. In this month's Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, you'll find lots of great advice for making and achieving your goals. We received a lot of excellent submissions this month, so here's a simple list for your reading pleasure: Audrey Cupo - MANAGING YOUR "TO DO" LIST Jacquie Ross - Setting SMART goals for New Year's resolution success Linda Samuels - Resolutions Revisited Jane Veldhoven - Finding a Theme for the New Year with Yoga! Michelle Panzlaff - End Procrastination Ellen Delap - Setting Your Goals One Step at a Time Stephanie LH Calahan - Make Your Resolutions/Goals from a Customer/Client Perspective & Grow Your Business Next Year (The 3 Ss) Ramona Creel - What Do You Want Most This Year? Lisa Montanaro - Repeat After Me: "I Resolve to Take Action on my New Year's Resolutions" Lelah Baker-Rabe - Goal setting: 30 minutes to greatness Anne Blumer - Eat Frogs and Reach your 2011 Goals Ann Acquaviva - Five Simple Steps to Achieve Your Goals Shelley Molitor - Goalsetting is a Hamster Wheel Elaine Shannon - Planning day for 2011 Jane Woolsey - Setting Goals – Keep it Simple and Achievable! Deb Lee - Resolutions Are a Waste of Time Clare Kumar - Starting Your New Year's Resolution Off On a Positive Note Thank you to everyone who submitted a post this month, and a warm welcome to those who participated for the first time. I encourage you to read your colleagues' posts, leave some comments, follow each other on Twitter, and grow your network. We're now accepting submissions for February, when our topic will be Motivation. If you've already blogged about motivation, feel free to submit your post now! If not, you have until Monday, February 7 to write something, add it to your blog, and take part in the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival. Photo source: iStockphoto

The Year-End Wrap-Up

Janet — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:20:15 +0000

Although December is the busiest month in the retail industry, as a professional organizer, you may find that business is slow at this time of year, as clients are busy with holiday shopping, parties, and preparations. Why not take advantage of this downtime to review your activities and achievements over the past year? If you have a formal business plan, hopefully you have been following it throughout the year, but if it's just been sitting in a file or on a shelf somewhere, take it out and dust it off. Even if you started the year with just a few goals or ideas scribbled on a piece of paper, dig them out, or at least try to remember what they were. Because each business and each individual is unique, there is no single standard of measurement of success, and the only way to assess your accomplishments during the year is to look at where you are now in comparison with where you had aspired to be at this time. Even if you didn't make any specific goals for the year, you can ask yourself the following questions. What have I achieved this year? Did you reach or surpass your goals? Did you accomplish something you didn't expect? What worked well? Who were your most profitable clients? How did they find you - or how did you find them? This information will help you determine where to focus your marketing efforts. What didn't work? What can be improved? If you fell short of your goals in certain areas, see if you can determine why. Was the goal unrealistic? Were there unforeseen circumstances? What would have had to be different for things to have gone the way you planned? What do I want to achieve by the end of next year? What is important to you? More clients? More speaking opportunities? More income? More free time? If you're a long range thinker, this exercise may be easy, but even if you're not, I strongly encourage you to take a pen and paper and write down your thoughts. According to the Law of Attraction, the simple act of writing down your goals actually sets things in motion. I've actually experienced this myself! One time when I was doing this exercise, I discovered that many of the things I'd been looking forward to at the beginning of the year had come about, even though I didn't consciously try to make them happen. How much more could you accomplish if you really set your mind to it? What do I need to help me reach my goals for next year? Do you have the skills and resources you need? Should you take any courses or read particular books? Would it help you to work with a business coach? It's important that you set aside time in your schedule for activities that will bring you closer to reaching your goals. Would partnering with a virtual assistant free up time for you to do so? By taking time to do this review before the end of the year, you will arm yourself with a plan and the motivation to carry it through, and increase your potential for success in the new year.

Professional Organizers Blog Carnival – January 2010 Edition, Part 1

Janet — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:26:20 +0000

Welcome to the first Professional Organizers Blog Carnival for 2010! We've had a record number of submissions this month, and I'm sure your reading time is limited, so I've decided to split this month's Carnival over two days. As you read today, I hope you'll get acquainted with your fellow organizers while picking up some great ideas for your clients or yourself.

Christmas may now be just a fond memory, but we know it will come again next year, so let's start off with a couple of Christmas-related posts. Terry (The Mommy Organizer) shares some tips for Christmas Storage, stating that:

Putting Christmas decorations away isn't so difficult with a little planning and a few organizing tools.

Cari Pemberton tells us about a unique and clutter-free gift that will last long after the decorations are put away, in Giving vs. Getting. Whether you think of it as New Year's Resolutions or simply making plans for the year ahead, in January most people are focused on making positive changes in their lives, either personally or professionally. Angela Esnouf describes a great goal-setting method in The most productive afternoon of my life, saying:

This technique has helped me and my clients time and again. It's a perfect way to kick off the year.

Ellen Delap identifies that most popular resolution and shares some ways to achieve it successfully in her post, Top New Year Resolution: Spend More Time with Your Family. Sarah Welch recommends a similar approach in 2010: The Year of Baby Steps. January represents not only a new calendar year but a new semester, and Jodi Granok tackles that subject in Students - Get Organized for the New Semester! For many people, a new year presents a chance to implement new time management strategies, and that was a very popular topic this month. Joan Kosmachuk shares an interesting approach to looking at how your time is spent in Organizing your Time - start with a pie chart, and Elaine Shannon helps you identify where you're wasting time in Are you a victim of the "Time Hijackers"?. Ramona Creel helps you to make the best use of your time in Learning To Delegate More Effectively. Ramona says,

Delegation can be a tricky business. You don't want to simply "dump" distasteful work on someone else -- but you need to make sure the job gets done, and it doesn't need to be done by you. Delegating can become a particularly sensitive issue when it is lateral -- asking a fellow colleague, freelance consultant, family member, or friend for help. But by approaching delegation in the right way, you can make the experience enjoyable for both parties.

For formal time management training, Anne Blumer is Introducing the GO System. That's it for today! Be sure to come back later this week for Part 2 of the January Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, and to find out what's in store for next month.

Professional Organizers Blog Carnival – December 2009 Edition

Janet — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:43:28 +0000

Here it is – the 7^th Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, and the last one for 2009. We have a record number of professional organizers participating this month, and I'd like to thank those who are joining us for the first time, as well as our regulars and everyone in between! Grab your favorite beverage and get ready to read and enjoy!

Since it's the festive season, it's no surprise that many of this month's entries are related to holiday preparations. In A Few Thoughts on the Holiday Season, Jane Veldhoven gets us thinking about what's really important to us at this time of year, and how we can maximize our enjoyment of it. Jacki Hollywood Brown has some great ideas for Clutter Free Gift Giving, and reminds us that:

The holidays can be one of the happiest times of the year as we enjoy the company of our family and friends. It is also one of the most clutter-generating times of the year. Take a look at these gift ideas to reduce clutter and save you time and money.

You can read additional clutter-free Christmas gift suggestions from Angela Esnouf in her special series, beginning with Angela's Advent, Day 1. Joan Kosmachuk tells us how to Simplify your Holiday Decorating with Live or Edible Decorations, and Lelah Baker-Rabe suggests a few simple things you can do to create a year-round gift wrap station to minimize stress and maximize efficiency, in her post Preparing for every day: Gift wrap station. If you're looking for a unique way to keep track of Christmas card lists for yourself or your clients, check out Jeri Dansky's Forget the Address Book: Use an Address BOX. Of course, this is also a good time for making plans for next year. Elaine Shannon tells us all about her own Planning Day, saying:

I love organizing so much that I have organized some planning around my 2010 goals. Yes the organizer is organizing herself. So many people wonder why they are not moving forward in their business but don't have a score card to compare it to. By failing to plan as we know you plan to fail. With a few strategies you can take charge of your new year and meet your goals..whatever they may be!

While you're making those plans, you might find it interesting to read about other organizers' success strategies. Anne Blumer tells us how she got to where she is today in her post, Ask the Organizer Panel, and Angie Weid shares The Story Behind Organized Solutions, saying:

This post is sharing a story of being kicked down, learning to stand back up and keep on working toward success. My hope is that it encourages fellow organizers to be strong and succeed.

Lisa Montanaro offers some eye-opening information in Coopetition: A Fantastic Way To Boost Your Business, a sneak peek of "Don't Go It Alone: It Takes a Village to Run A Successful Business," which she'll be presenting at the 2010 NAPO Conference in Columbus, OH. Looking for interesting organizing resources? Be sure to read My Brain Book from Hellen Buttigieg and PaperBackSwap.com from Michelle Deo. Janet Baker discusses the why's and how's of Indexing Your Document Management Filing System is Worth it When You're on the Road. If you're curious about hoarding from the client's point of view, you won't want to miss Geralin Thomas' Anatomy of a Client. Deb Lee tackles The Myth of Work/Family Balance, asking:

Is it realistic to think that work/family balance is possible? Can you be a great parent and a great employee (or entrepreneur) at the same time? Can a family where both parents work achieve this balance?

Janine Adams wraps up this month's Professional Organizers Blog Carnival with a look at her favorite social networking site in Why I Love Twitter. I hope you've enjoyed this month's edition. As you visit your colleagues' blogs, be sure to take a moment to leave a comment or two and get to know one another. As the Carnival continues to grow, I'd love to know what you'd like to see in the future. Specific topics for each month? Two separate carnivals, with one dedicated to organizing and the other to business ideas? Or just keep it the same?

Professional Organizers Blog Carnival – August 2009 Edition

Janet — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:57:36 +0000

Welcome to the August issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! This monthly feature is provided to allow you to grow your network and learn something new from some of the other organizing consultants who enjoy reading Your Organizing Business. There's lots of great information here, some to help you grow your business, and some to help you help your clients.

Home and Family Organization Jacki Hollywood Brown says "Back-to-school doesn't have to be a stressful time. Read my top 9 tips for making a smooth transition from summer to school!" Don't miss her Tips for the New School Year. Sarah Welch brings us Organizing 911, What To Do If Your Significant Other Is A Slob - a situation that probably comes up often if you work with residential organizing clients. Julie Bestry shares her post Top 10 Vital Documents--Do You Know Where Your VIPs Are? and its companion, More VIPs--Very Important Papers Beyond The Top 10. (Normally I only allow one submission per person, but since this is really Parts 1 and 2 of the same topic, I thought I'd make an exception!) Business and Office Organization Lauren Halagarda reveals how to Eliminate Email Clutter: Stop Using Email to Schedule Meetings. In Creativity and organization in the workplace: work space, Lelah Baker-Rabe discusses "three things that make up any workplace and how having those parts organized can increase productivity and creativity." Getting Things Done Because "sometimes even Professional Organisers need help getting things done," Angela Esnouf tells us how to Get It Finished. Alex Fayle describes The Positive Power of Peer Pressure, explaining that "peer pressure isn't always a bad thing - we can use it for motivation too!" Tips for Professional Organizers "Have some raving fans that want to share what you've done for them?" This month, Tammy Burke shares how to get a testimonial that helps prospects choose you, in her post What's in a Testimonial? Krista Colvin answers the question, "What's Twitter?" by defining Twitter and some of its lingo. Janine Adams confesses, "I'm Officially Hooked on Working with POs. I worked with fabulous PO Aby Garvey on my own pantry and shared the fun we had and the insights we gained. It was so nice to put myself in my clients' shoes!" Thanks for visiting the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! We'll do it again next month, so don't forget to get involved by submitting your post. Be sure to come back on September 10^th for the next edition.

Professional Organizers Blog Carnival – July 2009 Edition

Janet — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:54:57 +0000

Welcome to this month's issue of the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival, a monthly collection of blog posts submitted by some of the organizing consultants who enjoy reading Your Organizing Business. Please visit their blogs, read their posts, and leave a comment or two. It's an awesome way to learn something new and grow your network at the same time! Beginning this month, each contributor's name is linked to her (or his) Twitter profile, so you can get connected that way too!

Here's this month's line-up: Anne Blumer shares a powerful video about Communicating Your Value to your clients, rather than focusing on your price. Tammy Burke offers some additional marketing strategies in her post Do Organizers Market Systematically? Tammy says, "Using a system for marketing is crucial to business success. It's not only important to know what and when you are going to market, it's also important to know that you are attracting exactly what you want. By following this 5-step plan, you'll feel more confident about your marketing efforts." In Where do I begin? How to set goals that matter, Margaret Lukens reminds us that whether you're helping an organizing client or building your own business, the pieces go together faster when we keep the goal in view. Julie Bestry is back this month with A Culinary Model for Successful Mobile Offices, and to prepare the car for that mobile office, Geralin Thomas shares some tips to get rid of the Junk in the trunk. I'm sending out a special welcome to our first contributor from New Zealand, Wendy Davie who offers advice on how to cope When it all gets too much! and Angela Esnouf, our first contributor from Australia, who brings us 21 Ways to Get Organised in Just 5 Minutes. Angela hopes you'll enjoy not only the content of her post, but also the fun layout, and that it will motivate you and your clients alike. Wrapping up this month's carnival is Jodi Granok with some Weight Loss Tips You May Not Know About. Thanks for visiting the Professional Organizers Blog Carnival! We'll do it again next month, so don't forget to get involved by submitting your post. Be sure to come back on August 10^th for the next edition.