At the end of each month, I select five posts at My Organized Biz that I’ve enjoyed writing and/or readers have responded to.  Here are five for October:

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Organize Your Online Time for More Efficiency

Organize Your Branding for Best Promotional Results

Organizing My Addresses for Postal Mail

10 Tips for Organizing Your Web Presence with a Blog

Organizing Your Writing into Binders, Guest Post by Christina Hale

Did you find a favorite post at My Organized Biz this month?

With all the concern about environmental safety, greenhouse effect, overloading the earth with disposable stuff, more and more businesses are looking into being more “green.”  Have you organized a green office?

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What are procedures you can do to be ”green?”

Paint the office green, I guess, to remind yourself.

Use green stationery, sticky notes, pens, pencils and organizers.

Then… recycle, reuse, and refuse to be wasteful. 

• Separate out the recyclable items.  We have a wastebasket for all the paper goods that we can dispose of in the paper waste at our recycling center.
• We separate cardboard for that bin at the center.
• Some of our paper goods are made from recycled materials.
• We use the back side of waste paper for printing and photocopying when we don’t need a clean copy.  We use these for taking notes, too.
• Any plastic containers with the numbers 1 or 2 are separated out for the recycling center.
• Metal, glass, colored bottles, aluminum cans…all are separated accordingly for the center.  (This separating has become automatic, so isn’t a chore anymore.)
• We use light bulbs that save electricity in office and home.

That is a starter…but they’re many of the practices we utilized in the home and on the farm when I was growing up.  We called it being economical.  Perhaps it also was a carryover from my parents having grown up during the Depression years.

What are you doing in your office that’s “green?”  You don’t have to go to the extreme or become involved in anything expensive.  Just institute simple, commonsense measures.

In Which Type of Calendar?, I discussed the various types of calendars and planners business people use or could utilize.  I wondered what system you found effective.

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I haven’t progressed to the electronic ones because I don’t like having to turn on a computer to find out what I’m to do for the day.  I’m wary yet of having my life displayed on my cell phone. 

We have a system that seems to work well for our family and business at this point, although I’m always open to ways to improve.

• We have a wall calendar with fairly large spaces around the numerals.  There the five of us write appointments, my substitute teaching dates, and family events since they all involves us to some degree.
• There’s a bulletin board nearby where my daughter, son-in-law and I post our weekly work schedules for the local supermarket.  Thus we all know when everyone is working and how to coordinate rides.
• For my blog writing, I have a notebook for each blog with deadlines posted there.  These are kept in a box with current writing notes.
• Business and financial dates pertaining only to my husband and me are kept on a calendar in our office.

This may seem cumbersome to some people, but it has worked for our families for years and seems to be a system that keeps us on track.  Some day, we probably will do more electronically.  However, the one time we put data on an electronic planner, it crashed, so dates, addresses and phone numbers all were lost.

What are your calendar successes?

Which type of calendar or planner do you find most effective?  There are many types and many ways to organize.  Some people use just one type; others combine print and electronic.  Nowadays, there are even systems you can download to your cell phone or iphone.

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• Franklin Planner or similar
• Simple notebook
• Address book with yearly calendar
• Schedule book with calendar
• Wall calendar combined with one in your pocket or purse
• Calendars for different businesses or types of activities
• Calendars for business and family
• Calendars on the computer

What do you prefer?

Whether your business involves writing or not, if you’ve become online and social media saavy, you may be spending too much time involved in these activities, thus be less productive in your business.

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• Writers use the Internet to research, contact writers and editors, and to touch bases with customers/clients.  However, they often become involved in answering e-mails and spending time unrelated to their business on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.  (Just a quick look can evolve into an hour or more!)
• Quilters and other artists may browse around related sites and groups looking for particular information and find themselves two hours later still there.
• You’re writing a blog for your walk-in store that has an online presence, too.  Then you take a “quick”  look at e-mail and Facebook. 

These are just some of the scenerios that may take longer than they should.  I find myself doing this, too.

Since reading Dr. Jean Murray’s guest post for my Small Business Boomers blog, I’ve resolved to be more efficient.  After surgery, Jean had to manage her time better to use her little energy to keep her business going. 

When I started back to work at home, it was for only an hour or so a day. I gave up Twittering, reading emails, and spending time wandering around the web. It was amazing to me how much time I had been wasting on that stuff. Letting it go has now been a permanent habit for me. I scan through emails quickly and select only those that must be answered, ignoring the rest. I don’t do social media until the end of the week, and only if I have time. Maybe I’m losing a little business, but keeping my clients and editors happy, and myself healthy, is much better than a few connections on Twitter or Facebook.

Another friend, who is a writer/editor/book author, homeschools four children and teaches a class for a homeschooling group, has had to strictly monitor her e-mail time and answer only so many per day. 

I’ve resolved to get my blogging work done before I deal with e-mail or check out Facebook and Twitter, unless I’m using them for necessary business promotion and research.

How do you organize your online time?

In today’s business world, it’s all about “branding,” giving yourself and your business an image that’s attention getting, one that will stick in the public’s mind and bring you to mind when they hear it.

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  Have you been organizing your business so that you fit an image or brand?  Do you have an image that will linger over time?

• Make a list of words that describe you or your business. 
• What are the best ones that bring vivid images of what you want people to think of you?
• Find or take photos that describe you/your business? 
• How can you develop promotional material that will reflect this idea to your public?

Study other businesses.  What do you think of when you hear their name?  Does their name create an image?  How have they achieved this effect?

At a business conference I attended recently, the idea of branding came up as a strategy the parent company is using to become a household word with the public.  So…how can you organize your marketing to do this, too?

Instead of cold, black containers for pencils, pens, folders, sticky notes and such, why not personalize them? 

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Yes, it depends on the look you want to achieve.  Some offices may give a more professional message if you use the efficient office supply items.

However, home offices and those with less formal appearance may benefit from personalized containers.  Also, your attitude may be affected positively with these items around you.

Take cans or jars and personalize with artistic designs.  Use mixed media techniques or simply cover with paper, photos or art work.  Some of this might reflect work that you do in your business.  Personalize the files for books, folders, and note pads the same way.

In your home office, you might even have containers decorated by your children.  This also might help them feel part of your business and life and not shut out from it and you when you have to close your office or production room door.

I have an old pencil holder made years ago by my daughter in one of our 4-H Club arts and crafts projects.  We covered with glue and glitter and decoupaged flowers to it. 

Perhaps the youngsters have made something at school.  Use it for your desk and add a bit of cheer to your life and work.

Do you personalize your organizers?

While substitute teaching today, I saw another interesting organizer on the teacher’s desk.  This one had an adjustable desk lamp attached, actually coming from the back. 

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Then surrounding it on the organizer was a round container for pen, pencils and markers.  Various slots enabled you to place note pads and sticky notes within reach.  Other depressions were for paper clips and similar items.

This got me thinking about other types of desk lamps, not necessarily attached to an organizer.  They might be simply serviceable.  Or they could be colorful, antique, or modernistic. 

My granddaughter purchased a small desk lamp for her desk at college because she decided the one she had at home would be too large.  The one for college also was more streamlined.

I was delighted to receive helpful comments for my post, Organizing My Addresses for Postal Mail. 

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As I relate there, I don’t have my addresses organized in one place, so I’m continually wasting time hunting for them.

You may want to check out the above post and read what Christina and Jessica have to say.  Each one describes how she organizes her addresses.  Each has a different method.  I’m studying the replies to see how I can apply their suggestions to a method that suits me.

What about you?

I often don’t get my postal mail sent out in a timely fashion because I don’t have addresses handy.  I get the letters and cards written, often when I’m traveling, away from home, and in various spare moments. 

Then they will sit in my tote bag, on my desk, or my stationery box waiting to be addressed.  I have some addresses in a file folders, others in an old address book, more in a schedule book I carry in my purse, others on business cards, and still more in my husband’s computer.

Why can’t I take the time and get them all together? 

I don’t want them all stored on the computer or an electronic address book.  My husband did that once in a handy dandy electronic gadget for this purpose.  Then when the address gadget went “kaput,” we lost all the addresses.

So I must start little by little (possibly part of my 20 minutes per day of organization) and pull them together, along with phone numbers.

How do you organize your addresses for postal mailing.