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I have a habit of jotting down ideas on whatever pieces of paper I have handy and putting them all in a folder, on a pad of paper, or on my desk.

This had become unmanageable chaos until I began separating and categorizing.  Why didn’t I do this before?  Because I was working at only one or two blogs and one column.  I was able to keep them compartmentalized in my mind.

Suddenly the situation esculated…in a good way because now I am writing many blogs.  So I needed to get myself organized to be more efficient and productive.  Also, to avoid sitting at the computer, staring blankly at the screen and wondering where my notes are.

I’ve set up a file folder for each plog and put notes, clippings, drafts and photos into it.  Then these are at my fingertips when I need to write online or at my word processor.

How do you organize your blog, magazine, and book writing?

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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?

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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 in a new direction, but it did get some much needed organizing done.  It’s great to look inside and know what’s there instead of it being a collector of the unknown.

Your office can become the same way…your sewing room…your shop…your home.   Take charge of your clutter before it takes charge of you! 

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Today, my organized day gets off track for a bit.

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 do we do?

• Look at our top priorities.  Determine what absolutely needs to be done and fit it into the reorganized schedule.  I must meet my deadlines today, send some business e-mails, place an order and make some calls.
• How can we postpone or rearrange the other items on our list?
• Can we get someone to help us?  In other words, is there anything we can delegate?
• Is there something we don’t need to do at all?’

How do you reorganize or repriortize when plans change?

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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 be imperative to schedule or organize your time for the youngsters.  This can be especially true if a boomer has a home business, whereby children and others often don’t think grandparents have a schedule to keep or deadlines to meet.

One grandmother, who has a home business and grandchildren living nearby, does schedule time with them.  There are days she’s available for babysitting, but she makes it clear she’s not a “built in” babysitter.  She has commitments involving her business.  Specific days, or parts of days, are set aside for the grandkids.  She’s flexible, but when she’s busy with her business, she’s not available for babysitting.

How do you organize your grandparenting time if you have a small business or home business?  Do you drop everything at your children’s or grandchildren’s whims?  Or do you make it clear that there are business commitments, just as there would be if you had an outside-the-home job or worked for someone else at a small business?

What techniques do you use for establishing business time and grandparenting time?

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What about back-to-school promotions?  No, this isn’t a holiday.  You won’t find it on a calendar.  But this is a special time in students’ lives and for some a big milestone.

For instance, in our multigenerational household, our granddaughter is starting college and our grandson is beginning high school.  So in addition to getting them ready for back-topschool, we’re having a festive family dinner.

Do you have something in your businss (product or service) that ties in with the bac-to-school theme?  

Then look at other events in your customers and potential customers’ lives that can tie in with your business and promotions.  Develop a calendar of events and holidays.  Design promotions around them.

However, you can’t do most of these on the spur of the moment.  You must look ahead and organize so that you’re getting the word out ahead of time.  Perhaps you’ll plan something on the day or week, but you must be organizing beforehand.

How do you incorporate special events into your promotions and organize for them?

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I sort of puttered at my organizing, but I’d broken the flow.  However, instead of simply letting everything fall by the wayside, like I have in the past, when I got distracted, I’m determined to get back into the act.  Last night I selected a pile of papers (once tossed into a box for further decisions) and have spent time this morning tossing or filing.

Amazingly, some of these papers have provided good resources for my writing topics since I write blogs on many diverse subjects.  So, my organization is getting back on track…and my creativity is receiving a boost.

(And hubby is even sorting through papers this morning, getting his office into better order.)

Have you continued with your 20 minutes per day?

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One lady been decluttering this way.  She has gotten rid of some of her accumulation, tried a weekend at a flea market, has given some to a community thrift shop, moved stuff from room to room in her house and now is moving it to a rented storage unit so she can bring it home box by box to sort.  This has gone on for more than five years.

Do some people continually organize so they have an excuse for not going on with productive venues and business in their lives?  Is this the way to avoid tasks they don’t like or fear?

Organization is an ongoing procedure.  If you have to start a program or get rid of clutter, it won’t be an instant process.  Also, you may combine a couple of programs.  However, if you constantly flit from one aspect to another, you may not accomplish as much as if you simply kept going…for instance, 20 minutes per day, even when you don’t see to much progress.

What about you?  Are you continually organizing or reorganizing so that you can use that as an excuse? 

What have you found in organizational tactics that work well for you?

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I’d written my blogs ahead, so I was covered there.  I’d taken care of matters in my husband’s and my home business.  But once I returned home, after four days away, I had all I could do to maintain deadlines, catch up on e-mail and phone messages, and get back to my away-from-home job.  Last week was sort of a lost one as far as my organizing was concerned.

So…this week, since I’m not so pressured by my other tasks, although I still have to do them, I hope to accomplish my 20 minutes per day.

Here is where I might have gone astray in the past, feeling it didn’t pay to make the extra effort to do my organizational tasks.  Sometimes the feeling of being behind is so overwhelming, that we ignore the tasks at hand.

What have you done to get back on track?

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A yard sale is one possibility.  But you may not have the time nor facilities for organizing one.  You may be restricted by zoning where you live to hold a yard sale.

What do yo do?  Explore the possibilities with Freecycle. 

Here people give away, for free, items they no longer need.  Those who join the Freecycle group in their area, all operated by e-mail, also can ask for items they’re looking for.

If you go to the main Freecycle web site, follow links to one in your area.  There you can sign up on the Freecycle group.

I haven’t used it yet to get rid of household or office type items.  But I did list three used tires my husband doesn’t need.  (It costs $5 each to recycle them at our local town recycling facility.) 

By using Freecycle, you’re doing your part in helping the environment by recycling, helping others who need items you no longer use, and clearing the clutter in your home, office, and garage.

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