My Organized Biz

Each month, I present a round-up of five posts at My Organized Biz that have caught attention.  Here are those for August.  Did you have any favorites I’ve not mentioned?
Boomers Organize Grandparenting Time
Organizing Resources about Business Concerns, Such as Health Care
Organizing Your Messages
Organizing Family Life So You Can Work at Your Business
Are You Distracted By Too Many Newsletters?
Did you find any of these organizational tips or ideas helpful during August?
(Image at sxc.hu)

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Instead of waiting until you have time to complete an entire task, tackle small ones when you see them.  They may not seem like much, but they’re one less item on your “to do” list.

File mail as it comes in and toss out junk.
File even one piece that accumulates on your desk; for instance, my husband just opened his mail and handed me an insurance paper.  Instead of leaving it on my desk, I’ll stick it in the correct file. 
Haul a box/file/bag to the next room when you head in that direction.
Clear a counter
Take meal dishes to the sink when …read more

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Do you have favorite colors you use in your orginazional techniques?  Are these colors that you like?  Are they traditional colors for specific topics?  Do you designate categories with colors, groups of people with colors, different topics with colors, specific years with colors, etc.?  Or do you use the same color for everything?  Do certain people in your office/business have their own color?
Here are items that often come into play with color coding in organizing:

Paper clips
File folders
Hanging folders
Sticky notes
Notepaper
Memo sheets
3 x 5 and other file cards
Photocopy paper
In/out files
Filing cabinets

I like to organize with different colors.  Now just to get everything …read more

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Do you have favorite colors you use in your orginazional techniques?  Are these colors that you like?  Are they traditional colors for specific topics?  Do you designate categories with colors, groups of people with colors, different topics with colors, specific years with colors, etc.?  Or do you use the same color for everything?  Do certain people in your office/business have their own color?
Here are items that often come into play with color coding in organizing:

Paper clips
File folders
Hanging folders
Sticky notes
Notepaper
Memo sheets
3 x 5 and other file cards
Photocopy paper
In/out files
Filing cabinets

I like to organize with different colors.  Now just to get everything …read more

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“Mary, finish one task before starting another,” a co-worker remarked at my outside-the-home job.  “If we jump around too much we never finish anything.”
Good advice, I realized, as long as we don’t get interrupted.  I do have a habit of going from one task to another without finishing it and that may keep me from being as organized as I could be.  However, sometimes, life or family or another task interferes with my efforts to finish the first.
I am trying to do better, though, in keeping at a task until it’s finished, particularly if it’s not one that  requires several …read more

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We’re back on track with organizing and back to our various jobs.  The refrigerator is running again, is spic and span clean, and everything sorted and put back.  That’s one way to organize our two-family refrigerator…of necessity.
Do other things get organized in your life…by necessity?  You put it off and put it off until there is no option.  Or you may be forced to change course a bit, but find it’s in a good direction.
Look at challenges as ways to organize, change your plans, declutter, or head in a new and great direction.  I’m not sure the refrigerator set us …read more

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Today, my organized day gets off track for a bit.  Our ailing refrigerator must be emptied (freezer and cooling compartments) so my husband can work on it.  It’s a problem we’ve had before, so should be solvable, but requires emptying items into an ice chest and squeezing them into the downstairs freezer.  Also, we must run out for some ice.
Fortunately, I don’t have to work at my outside-the-home job and only have a business commitment this evening.  I can squeeze writing deadlines in between refrigerator unloadings.  But this is the way life (or refrigerators) can derail our carefully organized plans. 
What …read more

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How do you decide whether to add something new into your business or schedule?  Are you going off on a tangent, or will you add a new direction that contributes to productivity and profitability?  Do I send up a trial balloon?
It seems to me that adding art to my writing is called for at this time.  As I’ve organized my files, sorted through boxes of stored “stuff,” and tried to get more productive with my time, I’ve come across art work from years ago.  Currently I’m adding art to a picture book; I’ve reproduced some of my paintings as postcards for …read more

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Many boomers are grandparents.  Some live near their grandchildren; others are at a distance.  Some take on babysitting duties; others only visit occasionally, due to distance and time logistics.
What happens when you have a small business that consumes your time, too?  You must organize your business and grandparenting time.
“What!  Organize your grandparenting time! Schedule your grandchildren into your life!” some people may gasp in horror.
Boomers are entitled to their life and business.  Perhaps the business is enabling them to be independent, so they aren’t dependent upon their children.
However, to be part of their grandchildren’s lives…to help parents, too, it may …read more

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How do you organize or keep track of your promotions, so that you don’t forget or delay too long the events that you can utilize?

Some business people like to use the computer calendars that pop up when they open their screen.
Others find programs they where they can develop something like a spread sheet for the year, one which carries over into coming years.
Still others put these occasions into a Blackberry or iPhone type of planning program.  One friend has everything at her fingertips on her iPhone.
You also can utilize a notebook planner or schedule book, something like a  Franklin Planner.
Some …read more

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