Winter image: sxc.hu

At the end of each month, I present a round-up of five posts that have been popular or have generated interest at My Organized Biz. 

Here are 5 for December:

Organizing Your Packaging for “Green” Products

Organizing a Studio in a Loft

Pearl Harbor Day – December 7

More Organizational Tips from a Reader

Reader’s Response to Internet Disfunction Post

Did you have a favorite post?

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Making a List image: sxc.hu

Organization of time, work, goals and work space often seem challenging.  Even when we have good intentions, we sometimes go astray.

From Business Know How, we have Getting Organized: 5 Secrets to Help You Get Started by Maria Garcia.  Here Maria gives you five organizational tips, but breaks them down even further for ease in getting yourself started.  This could be a good way to start the New Year in your business.

How are you organizing for the New Year?

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Christmas image: sxc.hu

As the hours wind down toward Christmas Day, are you stressed out trying to meet business commitments, finish orders and get deliveries made, along with family holiday plans?  Or are you well organized so that everything is running smoothly?

If you still have much to do:

• Prioritize and decide what really needs to be done and in what order.
• Is there anything you don’t need to do until after Christmas Day…or even the holiday season?
• Can you get someone to help you with these commitments?
• Is there something else you can put off that you thought you needed to accomplish?
• Take a few minutes, here and there, to relax over a cup of tea. 
•  Even a 15 minute power nap may help revive your energy and help you see possibilities.

How do you get everything organized and accomplished?

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Home Office Desk Image: sxc.hu

Ideally, I like an efficient office and work space with everything at my fingertips and space just for ME.  However, that  generally hasn’t been my lot since I began writing, was sewing, painting, or working at an Internet based business. 

• I’ve worked in apartments, duplex homes, a larger house with room for myself, a multigenerational home with everyone vying for space.
• I’ve written in motel rooms and airports when traveling.
• I often have to share office space with my husband.
• Sometimes our living quarters are small enough that I use the dining table. 
• Where I have work and office space in the summer sometimes has been unusable in the winter because of the heating situation.  So I’ve had to move to a corner of the living room.

I’ve discovered that you can get your work done, even when the locations aren’t the most ideal if you’re determined.  Yes, there are some places that aren’t condusive  to certain activities.  For instance, I can’t take my painting with me, although I can take sketching and planning when I travel.  My daughter can only carry along certain types of her fabric art.

But you often need to be creative when working on your projects and products and organizing your office/work space.

How have you organized when situations aren’t the most ideal?

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Library/Internet Cafe image: sxc.hu

Even if you don’t have a “real” word processor, your computer probably comes with a basic text editor that can save text files on your computer ahead of time (eg: look for Notepad on windows, TextEdit on Mac). You may have to go back and do the formatting online later when you get to the library, but if you already have the body text written that can save even more time sometimes! And if the library you go to doesn’t have wireless so you can use your own laptop, bringing a USB thumb-drive with your posts and pictures that you need to upload will make it go even faster. But then again, if you get everything done twice as fast when you’re working at the library (you know that’s why we all used to go to the library to study and write term papers back in college…) use that to your advantage!

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Image: sxc.hu

When organizing promotions for your business, consider what group you’re focusing on or targeting.  Perhaps you have different groups.  However, your promotions generally are more effictive if you focus on a particular group at a time.  The same type of techniques might be used, but let each group know how you can fill their needs.

For instance, at Home Biz Notes, I mentioned that online shopping appeals to those with health issues.  If someone with a home or small business has items or services that interest those shoppers (and this can be a wide category).  I also wrote at Small Business Boomers, about statistics that mention the growing appeal of online shopping for seniors and boomers.

How can you appeal to specific groups of shoppers if your business is an online one or can utlize online sales even if it’s a walk-in business?  Here are a few suggestions on your way to organizing:

•  
  • Develop an e-mail list from your customers and ask if you might send them notices of new products or updates on how to use what you’re selling.
  • Develop an e-newsletter and send this out periodically.
  • Notice methods other businesses are using to appeal to online shoppers.
  • Realize that more and more shoppers will be doing their purchasing online in the coming months and years.
  • Have customers fill out a questionnaire denoting their interests in products and services.

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Organizer image: sxc.hu

Some people try to find the time to do it themselves.  Others hire a professional organizer, someone who has developed a business of organizing others…their home, office, clothing, closets and life.

Do you need someone to give suggestions but not do the physical rearranging?  Or do you want someone to do everything?

I’m not sure I’d want someone to do all my rearranging because only I know what I need to keep, what I need now, what later and then other stuff “sometime” in the future, especially that connected with my writing and teaching.  Perhaps an organizer could give me suggestions and insight that would make it easier for me to keep organized.

Have you ever used a personal organizer?

Are you an organizer who would like to write a guest post and let us know how we’d all benefit from services like yours?

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Storage jars image: sxc.hu

For a lot of things see thru bins are great, I love how even if they aren’t really

labeled, you can pretty much tell at a glance what’s in them…for things like my

origami collection, having a see thru bin inspires me to make more.

but there’s also exceptions, stuff that looks so cluttery, that even containerized you

don’t want to see it…the toolkit and cleaning supplies and whatnot, that I prefer to

keep in opaque containers.

I agree with Jessica.  There are times when see-through containers, because of what’s stored in them, would detract from the appeal of your work area or shop.  So consider the overall attractiveness, as well as convenience, when organizing.

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They can be utilized in a work area to make the most use of wall space.  (Sometimes, rather than building shelves on a wall, we use shelving units.)

Fabric artists like to use shelves for their fabrics, often color coding them or organizing by type of material.  They also can place jars and other containers on shelves.

If you feel your shelves are too messy or can’t be arranged attractively, you might want to get units with doors on them, as my daughter did when she had to use part of the living room for her sewing area.

Do you utilize wall space in your office and/or work areas with shelves?  What do you find works best in organizing them?

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Magnetic paper clip holder image: sxc.hu

They’re one of those items you usually don’t think of mentioning when describing desk top or desk drawer organizers.

They’re small, they’re hardly noticed, they’re not decorative.  Yet they keep the clips at one’s fingertips so you don’t have to go searching around, under and over stuff in and on your desk.

I first discovered these on teachers’ desks when I was substitute teaching and found it so handy to have paper clips readily available when I had tests or homework to clip together, along with notes I left about the day’s activities.

They’re so nice to adapt for my office, too.

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