Shownotes
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- When things are chaotic, it's comforting to be able to take control of your life. An easy way to start is organizing your physical environment.
- Organizing can be overwhelming. Break things down into smaller parts.
- Closet Organizing: Arrange things that are similar together. This could be types of clothing (shirts, dresses, etc.) and by color.
- Organizing is not an event. It’s an ongoing process.
- To-do-lists are about what you need to do. To actually get things done, you need to think more about the when.
- Set time aside for tasks you do on an ongoing basis. Put them on a calendar or else they’ll never happen.
- Organize your life. Organize your schedule. Organize your days. The way you spend your day is the way you spend your life.
- It's best to put everything on one calendar versus having separate calendars for personal and business.
- Plan ahead. Lowering stress levels is a priority. Don't wait for the last minute to do things.
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You're listening to gift biz unwrapped,
Speaker:episode 264 you're looking for something to organize,
Speaker:organize your life.
Speaker:Where can I see your schedule?
Speaker:Organize your days,
Speaker:Attention. Gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters,
Speaker:and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one
Speaker:now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there Sue,
Speaker:and thanks for joining me.
Speaker:I have a confession for you right off the bat today,
Speaker:but I also have a valid excuse.
Speaker:At least I feel that it's valid so you can be
Speaker:the judge.
Speaker:So here it is.
Speaker:I have not done what a lot of you have.
Speaker:While we've been social distancing and I'm a little embarrassed about
Speaker:it once we were all sent home,
Speaker:I've heard from unseen,
Speaker:the majority of you start organizing your closet,
Speaker:kitchen, garage,
Speaker:and work rooms.
Speaker:I get it.
Speaker:You're surrounded by all of your things and cleaning them out
Speaker:and rearranging makes your environment nicer for sure,
Speaker:and it also gives you a sense of control.
Speaker:I'm actually really jealous of you.
Speaker:You see,
Speaker:I haven't been organizing because of my broken wrist,
Speaker:an accident from earlier this year.
Speaker:I'm getting my mobility back,
Speaker:but it's not quite there,
Speaker:so feel bad for me.
Speaker:I missed out on the great organizational crusade that is now
Speaker:come and is almost gone,
Speaker:but I'll catch up with you this summer.
Speaker:That's a pinky promise because in truth,
Speaker:I do like my life organized.
Speaker:Anyway, this whole concept of organizing got me to thinking about
Speaker:how to take it to a deeper level,
Speaker:so I called in a professional to help us learn more
Speaker:about organization.
Speaker:Complete with tips you might not have already incorporated and how
Speaker:to get yourself in order in your business over and above
Speaker:your physical surroundings.
Speaker:As we all eventually open the doors and enter back out
Speaker:into the world,
Speaker:here's a conversation on organizing that leads to advanced skills you'll
Speaker:definitely want to know about for your business for the future.
Speaker:We get to that at the end of our conversation,
Speaker:so make sure to listen all the way through.
Speaker:Today. I am thrilled to introduce you to Elaine Quinn.
Speaker:Elaine is the solo preneur specialist,
Speaker:a consultant,
Speaker:coach, author and speaker in Chicago who works with solo preneurs.
Speaker:These are small business owners who create and grow a business
Speaker:that they run themselves.
Speaker:Solopreneurs have unique challenges since they usually work from home.
Speaker:When work where you live,
Speaker:you need to manage your business and personal matters separately,
Speaker:but simultaneously Elaine's work focuses on helping clients become more effective,
Speaker:meaning doing the right things and at the same time become
Speaker:more efficient,
Speaker:meaning doing them in a way that doesn't waste time.
Speaker:She's authored two popular books.
Speaker:There's no place like working from home,
Speaker:which addresses the work from home challenges we're all familiar with
Speaker:and escape the to do list trap,
Speaker:which lays out an easy way to finally tame your,
Speaker:to do lists.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Elaine, we need you so much.
Speaker:Welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So it's great to be with you today.
Speaker:I am so excited to hear you.
Speaker:I know you're going to just share some gems with us,
Speaker:but before we get started,
Speaker:I do want you to join in on a tradition we
Speaker:have here on the show and that is just describe yourself
Speaker:by way of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to share with us what a candle
Speaker:would look like that resonates with you by coloring quote,
Speaker:what would your candle look like?
Speaker:Well, there's something about candles isn't there?
Speaker:I see mine being red probably,
Speaker:and maybe a nice long taper and I would want it
Speaker:to have markings by our intervals to remind me the time
Speaker:is passing because I tend to drift off and daydream when
Speaker:even when I'm working,
Speaker:my mind is other places too.
Speaker:So maybe even I would have this candle infused with some
Speaker:essential oils to keep me energized.
Speaker:And the quote that I think of would be that actually
Speaker:it's a quote by Benjamin Franklin,
Speaker:Franklin as in Franklin planner.
Speaker:So this is right on topic and he says lost time
Speaker:is never found again.
Speaker:And that's so true.
Speaker:When it's gone,
Speaker:there's just no getting it back.
Speaker:It's so true.
Speaker:And I think we unconsciously just let time slip by thinking
Speaker:we have more of it and more of it and more
Speaker:of it,
Speaker:and then when we encounter the reality that we don't,
Speaker:then we recognize how precious it is so much better to
Speaker:recognize it earlier.
Speaker:So I think a candle would keep me focused on that
Speaker:and as I see it going down,
Speaker:marking the hours going by what keeps me focused.
Speaker:Right. Not in a stressful way,
Speaker:but just in a productive or like a more conscious way
Speaker:I'd guess I'd say.
Speaker:Right. Gives me a visual reminder.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay.
Speaker:We'll share with us before we dive into all the goods
Speaker:here, share with us how you got interested in organizing and
Speaker:structuring as you do Since many of your listeners are working
Speaker:from home.
Speaker:That's kind of my story.
Speaker:Probably a lot of them used to do something else before
Speaker:they started doing what they're doing now and that's also my
Speaker:story. I spent my life in corporate America and unexpectedly got
Speaker:downsized and found myself probably too old for someone else to
Speaker:hire me and not very clear on what it is.
Speaker:I would do exactly,
Speaker:but one of the things I realized is that working from
Speaker:home is totally different from a traditional work experience.
Speaker:And as I found my way through what worked for me
Speaker:and also found myself talking with other people who had the
Speaker:same situation occurred to them.
Speaker:This was,
Speaker:this started about 2008 29 I guess.
Speaker:Well not a lot of people were losing jobs or just
Speaker:out of work for one reason or another.
Speaker:I realized we all had these common problems about how to
Speaker:structure your day,
Speaker:how to get things done,
Speaker:how to have that balance between feeling committed to your work,
Speaker:whatever that was going to be.
Speaker:And also wanting to have some off time downtime too.
Speaker:So all these things coalesced into time management.
Speaker:So I started really focusing on that.
Speaker:And also just in general,
Speaker:all the problems that solo preneurs have,
Speaker:people who are working by themselves for themselves at home,
Speaker:maybe they have a virtual assistant,
Speaker:but usually not employees.
Speaker:And so they're doing everything themselves and I need to figure
Speaker:out how to do that.
Speaker:So needed.
Speaker:I will tell you that one of my groups that I
Speaker:have, it's a maker's MBA VIP group.
Speaker:We were trying to tackle this whole issue,
Speaker:ah, the end of last year,
Speaker:so December early January,
Speaker:2020 and we came up with some great ideas,
Speaker:but I'm really looking at adding to our information here so
Speaker:I'm thrilled to do that and I just want to share
Speaker:with everybody.
Speaker:One of the reasons I reached out to Elaine is that
Speaker:I'm noticing we're all still hunkered at home,
Speaker:hopefully shortly coming out like opening the doors and breathing fresh
Speaker:air and walking back out into our communities again shortly.
Speaker:But one of the things that everyone is talking about doing
Speaker:is now that they're sequestered at home is cleaning and organizing,
Speaker:emptying cabinets,
Speaker:dusting off shelves,
Speaker:cleaning out their closets,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:And I find it so interesting,
Speaker:I guess because we're around it all the time,
Speaker:we were deciding that it needs to be cleaned up,
Speaker:but I think it's also healing.
Speaker:Yeah, I would agree.
Speaker:When you're busy with a life that's a little bit more
Speaker:varied than the one we're all living now.
Speaker:It's easy to overlook things you make do with the way
Speaker:things are.
Speaker:They may not be the most functional,
Speaker:but they work well enough to keep going.
Speaker:But now that we're sitting around looking at things,
Speaker:we notice,
Speaker:no, this never has work.
Speaker:Exactly right.
Speaker:Or every time I look for something it's I have to
Speaker:move this and that.
Speaker:And so he finally decided I'm going to fix this once
Speaker:and for all.
Speaker:So when your life,
Speaker:when the world is chaotic,
Speaker:you want to take some control of your own life and
Speaker:then easy way to start that is to doing the things
Speaker:that you physically can see.
Speaker:And that is very healing.
Speaker:It gives some sense of order.
Speaker:I may not be able to control everything,
Speaker:but I can surely control my classes.
Speaker:I can finally get rid of the things that I don't
Speaker:wear, don't love,
Speaker:don't fit,
Speaker:and move the things that I really like that make me
Speaker:feel good,
Speaker:move them to the forefront and get rid of those things
Speaker:that are kind of weighing me down and whether that's your
Speaker:closet or your kitchen or the basement that you've put off
Speaker:for a long time.
Speaker:All those things are very,
Speaker:I think they're very logical things to do and very self-affirming
Speaker:things to do.
Speaker:Yes, I can make things better And we are all looking
Speaker:for a little bit of control right now and what do
Speaker:we have that normally we never have time.
Speaker:Time? Yeah.
Speaker:Some of us more than others.
Speaker:I ruined situation like it's a little bit different because if
Speaker:people, maybe they're furloughed so they don't have a job right
Speaker:now, but they know they'll be able to go back to
Speaker:it. They have time.
Speaker:They have lot of time.
Speaker:Some of us who have always been working at home,
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I've been busier now than ever because I've been trying to
Speaker:support everybody.
Speaker:I'm trying to do the podcast in a little bit of
Speaker:a different way.
Speaker:So everyone is a little bit different in terms of the
Speaker:amount of time they have.
Speaker:But what I'm really hoping we all do with this,
Speaker:this control and this activity of rearranging and organizing is that
Speaker:as we look out four to six months,
Speaker:the activities that we've done now will serve us well.
Speaker:We'll be more productive.
Speaker:We'll have focused on topics that have already been challenging and
Speaker:learned a better way of doing things so that it's not
Speaker:just for the moment in time when we're learning or cleaning,
Speaker:it's to set us up for a better,
Speaker:easier, more efficient life in the future.
Speaker:Well, I think that's true and particularly for people who are
Speaker:creative, there's a subliminal distraction when your surroundings are disorderly and
Speaker:not functioning well,
Speaker:and I find that especially creative people,
Speaker:they don't function very well in a environment that's not cleared
Speaker:out, that doesn't free them.
Speaker:If they're quite things on their mind,
Speaker:if they're concerned about things,
Speaker:they feel like they should be doing something else,
Speaker:they're just not at their best.
Speaker:And so if those things are all taken care of now
Speaker:when things ease up again,
Speaker:everybody will really be free of all those distractions and kind
Speaker:of nagging thoughts about what they should be doing.
Speaker:That'll all be done.
Speaker:And then they really go back to being the creative person
Speaker:they are.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:And I'm thinking that's what we're wanting to do here with
Speaker:all of this.
Speaker:So I think Elaine,
Speaker:you and I talked before the show about exactly how we'd
Speaker:approach the topic.
Speaker:Maybe you can give us some tips of the actual house
Speaker:organizing, physical organizing,
Speaker:but then we're going to dive into also business organizing time
Speaker:management, which I guess is business and personal.
Speaker:Right? And as you said in the intro,
Speaker:they run into each other quite a bit.
Speaker:And then also customer information management.
Speaker:So those are things give biz listeners we're going to be
Speaker:getting to,
Speaker:but staying with the physical organization of your environment.
Speaker:Just for a moment,
Speaker:I always feel like when I've rearranged something cleaned out the
Speaker:garage, maybe it's my closet,
Speaker:whatever. I feel lighter,
Speaker:like I feel physically lighter and I know that doesn't correlate,
Speaker:but it's just a psychological sense.
Speaker:So I'm just thinking,
Speaker:I'm wondering if you have any tips for us,
Speaker:if people are still in that phase where they're doing some
Speaker:of the physical organizing now,
Speaker:how do you get started?
Speaker:Cause I think a lot of people want to try or
Speaker:do it,
Speaker:but the overwhelming like they look at a closet that is
Speaker:heaping with clothes.
Speaker:How do you ever begin whether it's a closet or garage
Speaker:or basement,
Speaker:whatever. Well anytime you're thinking about a big project,
Speaker:that's often what keeps people from starting is cause they don't
Speaker:know where to start.
Speaker:The task seems overwhelming.
Speaker:So it's good to try and break things down if there's
Speaker:some way to do that.
Speaker:So let's say that it's a closet because everybody has one
Speaker:And most everybody has things in that class that they don't
Speaker:need. Don't want,
Speaker:don't love,
Speaker:Can't fit.
Speaker:Yeah, unfortunately.
Speaker:And so I would say what the classic organizers will tell
Speaker:you, take everything out of your closet,
Speaker:lay it on the bed,
Speaker:and only put back those things that you love,
Speaker:that you wear,
Speaker:that make you feel great,
Speaker:that make you look great.
Speaker:No, that's an all day project at least.
Speaker:So if you've got an all day,
Speaker:that's fine.
Speaker:If you've got a bed that nobody's jumping on,
Speaker:that's fine,
Speaker:but you may to go at it in a different way.
Speaker:When you can start moving things around in your closet that
Speaker:are the same color and then you've discovered that you have
Speaker:10 black t-shirts and then you say,
Speaker:well, all right,
Speaker:I don't need 10 which are the ones that the best
Speaker:look the best.
Speaker:Don't look like they've been washed forever.
Speaker:Or you can arrange things by the type of clothing.
Speaker:You can talk about things you would only wear at home,
Speaker:things you would wear in a casual setting,
Speaker:things that you would wear and a little bit of a
Speaker:dress casual.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you were meeting some people at a nice restaurant but
Speaker:not fancy,
Speaker:then you can go to the next level up.
Speaker:If there's something that you would wear in a business orientation
Speaker:or somethings that are just playing sort of on the,
Speaker:on the really dress up plam side.
Speaker:So there's a lot of different ways you can do that.
Speaker:You can also put all the things that you absolutely love
Speaker:near the front and then push all the ones that you
Speaker:don't live in the back and deal with them some other
Speaker:time. I find that,
Speaker:in fact I went through this fairly recently because I moved
Speaker:and there's nothing like a move to make you realize what
Speaker:you have that you don't need and what is not organized
Speaker:that you need to organize.
Speaker:So I think it's good if you're going to work in
Speaker:your closet or actually any place where you are willing to
Speaker:get rid of some things is to have a couple of
Speaker:large bags handy.
Speaker:And all the donation places that I've found don't expect you
Speaker:to have things on hangers.
Speaker:They don't expect them to be folded neatly.
Speaker:So I think one of those contractors bags that are huge,
Speaker:they work just fine.
Speaker:And what I do is I fold it down around the
Speaker:edges and just start piling things in there.
Speaker:I do tend to fold things simply because I feel bad
Speaker:about just taking a heap of clothes to places I like
Speaker:them to look like I've taken some care.
Speaker:But it's a visual place to put things so that you
Speaker:can get some space to do some of these other things,
Speaker:to move things around and to decide what goes and what
Speaker:stays. So that's one way of kind of breaking it down
Speaker:into smaller blocks.
Speaker:We'll give you a place to start.
Speaker:I think about my closet and when I have organized,
Speaker:once we were painting and I had the great idea that
Speaker:I wanted to paint the insides of the closet as well
Speaker:as the bedroom walls.
Speaker:And luckily my husband was out of town so I had
Speaker:to do that dump of all the clothes out.
Speaker:And as I was putting them back,
Speaker:perfect time,
Speaker:right to organize everything.
Speaker:And I noticed exactly what you said like just with the
Speaker:white tee shirts for example,
Speaker:that I had so many.
Speaker:But before I did my organizing I had this whole closet
Speaker:and I felt like I had nothing to wear but it's
Speaker:cause I couldn't find anything.
Speaker:And then I would find things and I know everybody's been
Speaker:this, the price tag is still on.
Speaker:You totally forgot you had it because you bought it for
Speaker:some occasion you'd knew you'd need in the future and then
Speaker:you forget you have it,
Speaker:the tags still on and you love it and it's beautiful.
Speaker:But it was hidden wave in the back of the closet
Speaker:cause it got pushed aside,
Speaker:pushed aside,
Speaker:pushed aside.
Speaker:So I almost feel like when you do a project like
Speaker:that, you end up having more versus less cause you can
Speaker:see it and use everything.
Speaker:Well that's true.
Speaker:And same thing is true in the kitchen,
Speaker:right? How many times have we bought something and like we
Speaker:didn't use it right away and it got pushed in the
Speaker:back of some cabinet and let me rediscover it later and
Speaker:Oh, I meant to use that and now I will.
Speaker:Yeah, so I meant to wear that and now I will.
Speaker:Yeah, and unfortunately what happens in some both of those cases
Speaker:is I thought I would use this,
Speaker:but my goodness,
Speaker:it's way too much trouble.
Speaker:It'll never fit.
Speaker:I don't really like it anyway.
Speaker:What was I thinking of?
Speaker:And so the output goes to somebody else who will enjoy
Speaker:it. You're not using it.
Speaker:Why keep it,
Speaker:give it to somebody who will use it and needs it
Speaker:and wants it and will love it.
Speaker:Agreed. Any other organizing tips or should we move on and
Speaker:get into some of our other topics?
Speaker:Well, the classic organizing formula,
Speaker:your listeners may already know this,
Speaker:is that you group things because it like with like,
Speaker:right. Do group things that are alike and they could be
Speaker:alike in all the different ways we've been discussing.
Speaker:Good for them together.
Speaker:Sort through the ones that are,
Speaker:how many are reasonable to have,
Speaker:choose the best of those,
Speaker:organize them in some way that you can be reminded of
Speaker:which ones you like and for what reasons.
Speaker:Get rid of the rest and then be prepared to turn
Speaker:up because sometimes what occurs to you one day when you
Speaker:do something you realize that's not quite right either.
Speaker:I'm going to do it a little bit differently.
Speaker:So it's true that organizing your belongings is kind of an
Speaker:ongoing project.
Speaker:There's always something that needs to be fine tuned and so
Speaker:that's the way to look at it.
Speaker:At organizing,
Speaker:it's not an event.
Speaker:It's kind of an ongoing process.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker:You kind of just by nature of working in your closet,
Speaker:your kitchen,
Speaker:whatever, you start to mess things up anyway a little bit.
Speaker:So you got to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I heard something and boy I want to say this was
Speaker:on Oprah,
Speaker:but I'm not sure they were talking about,
Speaker:I'm going back to the closet just for one more second.
Speaker:They were saying,
Speaker:the big fear is,
Speaker:and this is so true,
Speaker:is you have an outfit,
Speaker:you love it,
Speaker:you've never worn it,
Speaker:but you think it's so cute.
Speaker:You're either going to lose the weight or someday heaven and
Speaker:for it or you know,
Speaker:like whatever.
Speaker:And you can't part with it because it's just,
Speaker:you just can't in your heart,
Speaker:you can't part with it.
Speaker:So they said on Oprah,
Speaker:they said any of those types of things,
Speaker:you haven't worn them for the last two years,
Speaker:maybe even a year.
Speaker:It's something that that doesn't fit like whatever the reason,
Speaker:but you're not ready to give them away again.
Speaker:Put them in a bag,
Speaker:put the bag in your basement,
Speaker:and if you've never gone and reached for them in another
Speaker:year, don't even open that bag.
Speaker:Just pass it on.
Speaker:That's a really good advice.
Speaker:And sometimes you think you can't live without it,
Speaker:but then you put it out of sight and you never
Speaker:think of it again.
Speaker:And that's good to know.
Speaker:I can live without this.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:I'm not even thinking about it.
Speaker:Yeah. And then it's out of mine.
Speaker:But the trick is not opening that bag later.
Speaker:Right. Cause then you're back.
Speaker:Yeah. Although I'm willing to forgive myself if there's something I
Speaker:absolutely must keep hoping that I'm going to turn into an
Speaker:entirely different person and that will fit in someday in the
Speaker:future. I have a few of those in the back of
Speaker:my closet.
Speaker:I have a jacket that I won't even tell you what
Speaker:decade. I probably bought it in.
Speaker:I have let it go now,
Speaker:but it sat in my closet for ever.
Speaker:I just loved the pattern,
Speaker:but it was very patterny like very florally,
Speaker:very patterny,
Speaker:bright pastel colors.
Speaker:I don't wear those types of things.
Speaker:I just love that fabric.
Speaker:So I love to looking at it and so I just
Speaker:gave myself permission.
Speaker:Like this is never something I'm actually going to wear,
Speaker:but it makes me happy when I look at it.
Speaker:So it gets to stay.
Speaker:Yeah, You're allowed to make irrational decisions from time to time.
Speaker:Okay. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker:Okay, so let's move on to a big challenge for all
Speaker:of us time.
Speaker:We kind of have a lot of time now,
Speaker:but we may or may not be doing well with it.
Speaker:But as we get back into,
Speaker:I'm going to call it real life.
Speaker:Well, we've got family,
Speaker:we've got work,
Speaker:we've got clients.
Speaker:Feels like you do business 24 seven now,
Speaker:right? People feel like they can access you any time.
Speaker:How do we manage all of this?
Speaker:That's a challenge that everyone has because everybody has the same
Speaker:amount of time.
Speaker:And that's actually one of the things that I like to
Speaker:work with people about because it is such a universal problem
Speaker:and I like to try and find simpler ways to handle
Speaker:time. So where do you begin with something like this?
Speaker:The classic way that people tend to approach time management is
Speaker:they make a to do list,
Speaker:right? We all have one,
Speaker:but we've all had them in the past because even as
Speaker:a child,
Speaker:your parents may have had to make some kind of a
Speaker:to do list of what you were going to do,
Speaker:what do you want to do?
Speaker:Whatever. So we're used to list and that becomes a part
Speaker:of everybody's pattern is to create,
Speaker:to do lists.
Speaker:The problem with to do lists,
Speaker:one of the many problems with to do lists is that
Speaker:they tend to never to get done right and why is
Speaker:that? So we're writing things on our list but not getting
Speaker:to them and that's where the time management comes in because
Speaker:lists are all about what you need to do,
Speaker:but they don't help you figure out when you're going to
Speaker:do that.
Speaker:And the fact is that just because it's on the list
Speaker:doesn't really move the ball forward.
Speaker:It's still not done.
Speaker:Sooner or later you have to figure out a way to
Speaker:get things done.
Speaker:And what I like to suggest is that people start thinking
Speaker:more about the when,
Speaker:and I have a way that has worked for many of
Speaker:my clients and let me just throw this out.
Speaker:Maybe some of you are already doing this.
Speaker:Maybe this won't work for you,
Speaker:but it does work for a lot of people.
Speaker:Take all the items on your to do list and transfer
Speaker:them into time slots on your calendar.
Speaker:How does that strike you too?
Speaker:I, in fact,
Speaker:I have a planner and a whole system that I use
Speaker:and I'm actually pretty good at this.
Speaker:I have to say I'm a big doer,
Speaker:but I agree with you.
Speaker:The funny thing though is to me like those lists,
Speaker:a lot of times we make the list and transfer them
Speaker:to the calendar and they're already done.
Speaker:We just do that cause then we get to check them
Speaker:off. Well I'm talking about,
Speaker:yeah, actually planning your life this way.
Speaker:So all of us have kind of ongoing events,
Speaker:whether it's a show or a meeting or a phone call
Speaker:or an event that you do on a regular basis.
Speaker:Maybe you're part of a group that meets,
Speaker:maybe there's obligations that you have,
Speaker:bills to pay,
Speaker:everything that happens,
Speaker:ongoing basis.
Speaker:Those things tend to get put on a calendar because we
Speaker:know we're going to do them.
Speaker:We've got to,
Speaker:we have set time aside.
Speaker:We've reserved time in the calendar to do those things.
Speaker:If you've got a meeting that you know is going to
Speaker:last a couple of hours,
Speaker:you don't schedule something else.
Speaker:It's all those little things that we need to get to
Speaker:organize the closet or let's see what else could,
Speaker:well, it could be anything.
Speaker:Those things never get put on a calendar.
Speaker:And we sort of say,
Speaker:well, when everything else is done,
Speaker:I'll turn to those.
Speaker:But when does that ever happen?
Speaker:So you need to actually put those things on the calendar
Speaker:or they will never happen.
Speaker:So what I recommend is that you first,
Speaker:and this is a bit of a commitment,
Speaker:if you're looking for something to organize,
Speaker:I'd say organize your life.
Speaker:Or can I see your schedule?
Speaker:Organize your days.
Speaker:Because the way you spend your days is the way you
Speaker:spend your life.
Speaker:And who was to have nagging things,
Speaker:hanging over them all the time that they haven't done.
Speaker:And every time you look at that list of things to
Speaker:do, you just feel bad because it reminds you of all
Speaker:the things you haven't done.
Speaker:So what I say is a process like this.
Speaker:So go through your calendar and you can do this with
Speaker:a digital calendar or a paper calendar.
Speaker:There are pros and cons of both.
Speaker:I actually use both in slightly different ways,
Speaker:but in terms of planning what's going on,
Speaker:You might be surprised,
Speaker:Elaine, here in our community because people make and they use
Speaker:their hands.
Speaker:I did a little bit of a study way back,
Speaker:I guess sometime last year.
Speaker:Most people use paper calendars here.
Speaker:I'm not surprised.
Speaker:So, well let me address that because I don't want to
Speaker:forget it.
Speaker:I found a solution to this because I've run into this
Speaker:before and I personally use a digital calendar for this kind
Speaker:of thing that I'm talking about simply because it's so easy
Speaker:to move tasks around.
Speaker:If you didn't get to it today and it's not all
Speaker:that important.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:I'll move that digitally from one day to the next.
Speaker:But if you're using a paper calendar,
Speaker:you don't want to be writing things over and over and
Speaker:over every day.
Speaker:Why? I didn't do it yesterday.
Speaker:I'm going to write it again on today's calendar and not
Speaker:do it today.
Speaker:And I will do it tomorrow.
Speaker:Oh, I didn't do it then.
Speaker:I'm rewriting it again.
Speaker:What I have run across,
Speaker:because I hang out in the office products stores and probably
Speaker:everyone has seen those translucent post-it flags that they have.
Speaker:You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker:So they come in different colors and they're translucent and they
Speaker:come in different.
Speaker:So what I like to recommend for my clients who actually
Speaker:prefer paper,
Speaker:there are a lot of people who do find a flag
Speaker:that fits your paper calendar or the hour slots in your
Speaker:paper calendar and write your intended task that you're going to
Speaker:do on that flag and stick it in the calendar.
Speaker:And if you don't get to it today,
Speaker:you can unstick it from today and move it wherever you
Speaker:need to and you can do that as often as you
Speaker:need to without wasting time.
Speaker:That's a great idea.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:What I thought you were going to say was you get
Speaker:so tired of rewriting it,
Speaker:you just end up doing it so you don't have to
Speaker:write. That would work too.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:what happens when you,
Speaker:because this requires prioritizing,
Speaker:right? Because there are certain things you've got to do today
Speaker:because something's due.
Speaker:Somebody who's expecting the delivery.
Speaker:It's just not to be done today,
Speaker:but then there's those other things that,
Speaker:yeah, they could be done sometime and they just keep getting
Speaker:moved further and further into the future.
Speaker:I know in my own pace,
Speaker:I finally acknowledged,
Speaker:you know what?
Speaker:This has been moved so many times.
Speaker:I'm clearly never going to do it.
Speaker:I'm just going to cross this off the list.
Speaker:I'm never going to worry about it again.
Speaker:Well, and it might now not even be necessary if it
Speaker:was something that needed to have been done and now that
Speaker:time has passed.
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:What I find is that the things that really need to
Speaker:be done that are time dependent,
Speaker:those things I tend to get done this way.
Speaker:It does those things when you look at your day and
Speaker:see, all right,
Speaker:here's my new day.
Speaker:Here's the things that I intended to do.
Speaker:The key of this is to estimate how long each of
Speaker:these tests will take to do so that you only plan
Speaker:in a day as much to do as you can fit
Speaker:physically on that page.
Speaker:Right? Or wouldn't you also say that you can fit on
Speaker:the page but also leaving some buffer time because inevitably other
Speaker:things come up in your day,
Speaker:like you can't fully plan hour to hour your whole day
Speaker:because that just can't work day after day.
Speaker:No. In real life.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:I say plant about 60 75% of the day and some
Speaker:of those things that you have planned are not that critical.
Speaker:Yes, you plan to do it if you can,
Speaker:if you get the time,
Speaker:but if you can't,
Speaker:that's fine.
Speaker:You just want it to another day further out.
Speaker:But I do find for me it's motivational to try and
Speaker:clear out that day and so I will do the things
Speaker:that I can do.
Speaker:Let's say I have four or five big things that are
Speaker:going to take an hour each,
Speaker:but there's a lot of little things that are going to
Speaker:take maybe 15 minutes,
Speaker:20 minutes,
Speaker:whatever, group those together and put them in one of those
Speaker:hour slots,
Speaker:and when you discover you have a free hour,
Speaker:it may not be at the time you originally thought you
Speaker:would do it,
Speaker:but if you're coming the rest of the day and you're,
Speaker:Oh, you realize you have a little time,
Speaker:maybe whatever else you plan to do didn't take quite as
Speaker:long or meeting was canceled.
Speaker:All of a sudden you have some free time.
Speaker:Then you can do those things.
Speaker:You're always free to move them,
Speaker:but the fact that they're there,
Speaker:especially if you've moved them,
Speaker:like you said several times,
Speaker:you feel right.
Speaker:I'm just going to do this and be done with it.
Speaker:Yeah, that's motivational.
Speaker:So I try and clear out the calendar each day.
Speaker:I try to clear out everything that was on that day.
Speaker:I either did it or I moved it to sometime.
Speaker:That's acceptable.
Speaker:Now, if it's a deadline that you're willing to let pass,
Speaker:you don't really care about it anyway.
Speaker:Okay, that's fine.
Speaker:But I don't put things on the calendar that need to
Speaker:be done on that day unless they need to be done
Speaker:on that day.
Speaker:I do a lot of time for things that take longer
Speaker:than I that they're going to take,
Speaker:but I pretty much fill up the day with doing something.
Speaker:Some of those things are not chores,
Speaker:they're just things I want to do.
Speaker:Yeah, no,
Speaker:the one I was thinking of specifically,
Speaker:like the time has passed,
Speaker:there were a pair of pants that I needed to have
Speaker:them for a certain event and I didn't get to it,
Speaker:so I had to just wear a different outfit,
Speaker:so now I don't need them.
Speaker:Am those pants.
Speaker:That's one of those things that yes,
Speaker:you realize,
Speaker:yeah, I didn't really intend to do that.
Speaker:People tend to do what is important to them and obviously
Speaker:something else was more important and we lived through that day
Speaker:without those pants.
Speaker:Yeah. But I really like them.
Speaker:So I keep a little parking lot list of things because
Speaker:I'll be working through my day.
Speaker:And to your point,
Speaker:you know when things are scheduled that have to get done,
Speaker:like all the steps to a podcast have to get done
Speaker:or an episode isn't going to go.
Speaker:Right. So there's like no option,
Speaker:no choice.
Speaker:I don't like all the steps.
Speaker:I don't do all the steps,
Speaker:but I also don't like some of my steps,
Speaker:but they just have to get done.
Speaker:Right. But so then other things,
Speaker:while you're going through the course of the day,
Speaker:other things come up and you think,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:this is something I really want to do sometime.
Speaker:So I have like a little parking lot list on the
Speaker:side that has a whole bunch of things that are different
Speaker:types of things that I want to do eventually.
Speaker:But I captured the idea.
Speaker:I don't necessarily slot it into a time yet,
Speaker:but I've got the list of all the ideas.
Speaker:That's a great idea.
Speaker:You can either just make a list or you can write
Speaker:those on those little flags like I'm talking about and stick
Speaker:them in the back of your planner so that when you
Speaker:do have time,
Speaker:you know where they are and you can find them.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm really liking those flags.
Speaker:Elaine, that's a great idea.
Speaker:It was a like one of those aha moments when I
Speaker:looked at that,
Speaker:I thought,
Speaker:Oh, you know what?
Speaker:Because it comes up a lot that people like a paper
Speaker:planner. It depends on the environment you're working in.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:a lot of us that are out all the time.
Speaker:I like the convenience and the size of having everything in
Speaker:your phone and the fact is that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a phone will be back to you and remind you to
Speaker:go do things,
Speaker:which I personally need,
Speaker:but that doesn't work for everybody.
Speaker:And so I was actually searching for what kind of solution
Speaker:would sort of be a compromise to be written but easily
Speaker:movable. Yeah,
Speaker:I actually,
Speaker:I guess I really use both because I put a lot
Speaker:of my meetings in my digital calendar.
Speaker:You know Google,
Speaker:but then my two dues are in hard copy but also
Speaker:I'm writing down.
Speaker:I am doubling but it works for me.
Speaker:I'm doubling.
Speaker:Then if I have like our interview is both places,
Speaker:it's on my Google calendar but it's also on my paper
Speaker:planner calendar.
Speaker:You know my hard copy calendar and that works for me
Speaker:and I think what's so funny and I'm wondering what you'll
Speaker:about this and what you think the hurdle is here is
Speaker:I feel like everybody looks for a new planner,
Speaker:whether it's an app on your phone or you're at the
Speaker:bookstore, the time management aisle,
Speaker:because you find this new beautiful planner and they think that
Speaker:the planner is the means to them getting organized,
Speaker:but then a couple months in it's still not happening,
Speaker:so I'm feeling like it's the system.
Speaker:It's not what you use.
Speaker:I see that all the time and especially when you mentioned
Speaker:apps, because there are people who think that there's something magic
Speaker:about where you put these tasks.
Speaker:Bullet journals have gotten very popular and people think,
Speaker:Oh well here's what I need to do.
Speaker:I need to use a bullet journal.
Speaker:I need to use a new app,
Speaker:I need to do.
Speaker:At some point you actually have to do the thing if
Speaker:you can like the feel of writing the list and looking
Speaker:at the list and looking at the planner,
Speaker:but if you don't do the task,
Speaker:it doesn't work.
Speaker:However, I will say that I haven't yet found anything that
Speaker:works for everybody so everybody of course has the instinct about
Speaker:what's going to work for them and it's often true that
Speaker:there's multiple ways of addressing it.
Speaker:Like you described,
Speaker:you do some things digitally and somethings paper.
Speaker:I do too.
Speaker:I put everything in my calendar including every little task including
Speaker:travel time.
Speaker:If I'm going to need to go someplace,
Speaker:I do everything in my digital calendar,
Speaker:on my phone.
Speaker:However, I also have a paper calendar that I write everything
Speaker:that I'm going to have to go someplace else and meet
Speaker:with somebody because I use that one.
Speaker:What I need to figure out what my mileage is or
Speaker:something or when I need to refer back to when was
Speaker:that meeting because I discovered that if I kept everything I
Speaker:put in my phone,
Speaker:I kept it there.
Speaker:Not so much now,
Speaker:but in the past my phone would run out of space
Speaker:and I couldn't put anything in it,
Speaker:so I started deleting everything.
Speaker:Once I accomplished it,
Speaker:I deleted it and that made for,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a nice clean page of whatever had been accomplished that day.
Speaker:But then I couldn't really refer back to it.
Speaker:So that's when I started doing this paper thing.
Speaker:But it's a very minimal calendar.
Speaker:It's one of those 30 day paper calendars where all I
Speaker:need is just a few things.
Speaker:I don't have 20 things in a day that are like
Speaker:that. I have maybe one or two that are like that
Speaker:where I'm meeting with somebody or have to be someplace for
Speaker:a certain reason.
Speaker:Those are the only things that go on that and that's
Speaker:easy because I can scan that and say,
Speaker:now when was that?
Speaker:And I can look at a month,
Speaker:two or three months ago and instantly spot,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:that was the day I did that.
Speaker:Yeah. You know,
Speaker:and it's coming to mind.
Speaker:To me as you're talking,
Speaker:it's having a process and sticking with the process because you
Speaker:have, when you were describing it,
Speaker:you have very specific things that you put in very specific
Speaker:places and if it's a similar event,
Speaker:like you're saying,
Speaker:you're face to face meetings,
Speaker:it always goes in the same place regardless of what that
Speaker:place is.
Speaker:So it's the process and then actually following the process that
Speaker:you've created,
Speaker:You brought up a good point because the only way that
Speaker:any of these chore lists or task lists will work is
Speaker:if you trust them to remind you of the things that
Speaker:you need to do and want to do.
Speaker:And that brings up an issue that I've run across and
Speaker:I'd be interested in your take on this.
Speaker:Some people keep a full business calendar and a personal calendar
Speaker:that are separate.
Speaker:That scares me to death because I just know that if
Speaker:I didn't have everything in one calendar,
Speaker:I would either double book myself someplace or would totally forget
Speaker:someplace. I wouldn't look at it.
Speaker:I completely agree with you.
Speaker:There's not a chance my brain could handle that.
Speaker:Not a chance.
Speaker:And if people insist on doing that,
Speaker:and I think that's just asking for trouble,
Speaker:I think whatever you do,
Speaker:do it all in one calendar.
Speaker:Now maybe you want to use different color ink or whatever,
Speaker:if that's important to you to be able to separate or
Speaker:maybe you can put those little colored dots next to it
Speaker:or use a different color flags like I'm talking about.
Speaker:For some reason you need to make a distinction.
Speaker:I personally haven't found that's important,
Speaker:but people with families where kids are doing things and spouses
Speaker:are doing things and maybe that's important to be able to
Speaker:look at an instant one glance picture of who's doing what
Speaker:and when.
Speaker:And then I could see having different colored flags if you
Speaker:want to do that Well,
Speaker:and then maybe you have a shared online calendar that everybody
Speaker:can access and see.
Speaker:But let's say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're in charge of carpooling to soccer and so then you
Speaker:also put that on your calendar so you've blocked off that
Speaker:time for that and you know,
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:But I think it goes back to having a system and
Speaker:having a plan and then doing it.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Oh, and I was going to say something else about this,
Speaker:like I think for me,
Speaker:I'm glad that I'm pretty good at this,
Speaker:but it's because of some of the work that I do.
Speaker:Like I was mentioning the podcast,
Speaker:right? But let's say there's another project I'm doing,
Speaker:I've decided I'm writing a blog article or something that maybe
Speaker:isn't necessarily timely.
Speaker:Like if I didn't do it today,
Speaker:I could do it tomorrow,
Speaker:but I really don't like to write,
Speaker:so maybe I'll do it the next day.
Speaker:No, you keep going like that.
Speaker:Right. That was the way,
Speaker:well nevermind,
Speaker:I'm not going to go there.
Speaker:But if you put it in that you say,
Speaker:okay, I am reserving one to three next Wednesday afternoon to
Speaker:finish this article period.
Speaker:I've put it in a time restraint and I've put it
Speaker:in my calendar and I'm not allowing anything else to be
Speaker:in that time.
Speaker:Well then it takes,
Speaker:I don't know whether you call it willpower or determination or
Speaker:what, but when it comes to that time,
Speaker:you got to sit down and do it.
Speaker:Yeah. So ideally you don't wait till the last minute in
Speaker:case something does come up that's unexpected,
Speaker:but one thing you can do is reward yourself for doing
Speaker:that. You can say,
Speaker:Oh, I know I'm going to do that on time,
Speaker:and just to make sure I do that on time,
Speaker:I'm going to do X afterwards,
Speaker:or I will finish early so that I can have dinner
Speaker:with my friends,
Speaker:or whatever you're going to do.
Speaker:You can build in a reward to encourage yourself to do
Speaker:that, But you only get the reward if you actually do
Speaker:it. Oh yeah.
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:There's a point at which some self discipline,
Speaker:I know my audience lane,
Speaker:We're all like that,
Speaker:right? I mean this is what I do.
Speaker:I do this all the time and I do the same
Speaker:thing everybody does.
Speaker:I put things off.
Speaker:But what I don't do anymore,
Speaker:what I used to do is I really do not wait
Speaker:till the last minute to do things because it's just too
Speaker:stressful. I have decided that lowering stress level is a priority
Speaker:in my life.
Speaker:And so if there's two things I don't want to do
Speaker:and one of them is gonna raise my stress level,
Speaker:that's the one I don't do.
Speaker:The one that's going to lower my stress level is the
Speaker:one I will do.
Speaker:And usually that means planning ahead.
Speaker:And when you're talking about projects like writing a blog or
Speaker:something that maybe multi-step,
Speaker:maybe you need to do a little thinking first,
Speaker:a little research first,
Speaker:you wouldn't write a first draft and then you want to
Speaker:let it sit for a day or two and look at
Speaker:it again.
Speaker:So I will build in those separate steps,
Speaker:Break it into steps and put it in the calendar.
Speaker:Absolutely. I know from my own habits and we all get
Speaker:to know ourselves pretty well,
Speaker:but at the time we were adults,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:Well, if you're paying attention and I know that my first
Speaker:draft is not going to be as good as it could
Speaker:be and so I no longer just sit down and write
Speaker:it and send it.
Speaker:I absolutely build in time to look at it again in
Speaker:a couple of days.
Speaker:Right. Okay,
Speaker:so let's move now from time management to customer information management,
Speaker:and I love the words
It's all about management,
Speaker:which means you're creating control and structure.
Speaker:That's what management means.
Speaker:You're making a plan and then you're doing it.
Speaker:Let's continue on with this conversation right after a quick break
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Speaker:It really,
Speaker:for almost all of these things mentioned,
Speaker:implies a certain orderliness so that you can find what you're
Speaker:looking for in the future.
Speaker:I'm not necessarily being an organizing for organizing sake,
Speaker:but if I need to be able to refer to information
Speaker:which you would want to do on a customer,
Speaker:especially if they're likely to be a repeat customer already,
Speaker:our repeat customer,
Speaker:I want to know that information and I want to know
Speaker:how to find it and I want to find it all
Speaker:and I want to find it easily.
Speaker:It's important to me to be able to find whatever it
Speaker:is I'm looking for easily and that means it's all in
Speaker:the same place.
Speaker:So Even though my business is not quite as complicated,
Speaker:probably as some of your community because they're dealing with physical
Speaker:things. No,
Speaker:I'm thinking of just my days and also because I have
Speaker:a physical product and the coaching business,
Speaker:the coaching and training business,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:For me,
Speaker:I just find such a challenge in the fact that in
Speaker:this day and age,
Speaker:technology and all communication,
Speaker:I guess I would say is tough because I'm getting information
Speaker:from everywhere,
Speaker:like people email.
Speaker:Then I've got Facebook messages and someone will include a link
Speaker:from there.
Speaker:Maybe it's an Instagram message.
Speaker:People will,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:like it feels like it's coming from everywhere and it's hard
Speaker:to capture everything.
Speaker:So it's very stressful.
Speaker:Well, and I do find just for that reason,
Speaker:I know I've either written something and I can't remember if
Speaker:that was in an email or if I wrote it in
Speaker:a blog or what happened or I heard something and I
Speaker:captured it and put it somewhere,
Speaker:but I don't know whether it's in my computer,
Speaker:in our driver,
Speaker:did I?
Speaker:Where is it now?
Speaker:How can I find it?
Speaker:Do you have a solution for this?
Speaker:I found something that works for me and like time management,
Speaker:not the same thing as going to work for everybody,
Speaker:but personally I have discovered that Evernote works for me and
Speaker:I don't know if some people have tried it and never
Speaker:really found how it fit in their business.
Speaker:Actually, that was my experience.
Speaker:So we had told me about Evernote a long time ago
Speaker:and I could never really figure out how to use it.
Speaker:But now I use it all the time.
Speaker:So this is what you use and you find that it
Speaker:works really well,
Speaker:right? I do.
Speaker:The reason it works well for me is because it's easy.
Speaker:That's a big selling point for me.
Speaker:If it's something easy.
Speaker:So the thing that I like about Evernote,
Speaker:one of the many things I like about Evernote is that
Speaker:it will accept any kind of input that you want to
Speaker:put in there and it will keep it in one place
Speaker:where you can find it again.
Speaker:So let's say that you wanted to keep track of all
Speaker:your customers and all your suppliers and everything related to each
Speaker:of them.
Speaker:What are you going to do that you've got texts,
Speaker:you've got emails,
Speaker:maybe there's photos involved,
Speaker:there's product that you used here or there,
Speaker:there's a supplier that you used here or there.
Speaker:Maybe there's a backup supplier.
Speaker:Maybe there's certain components of whatever you've done that you think
Speaker:about using in the future or want to do something slightly
Speaker:different. How do you keep track of all that?
Speaker:That's why I like Evernote.
Speaker:You can put emails,
Speaker:texts, photos,
Speaker:if you want to take a picture of everything that you
Speaker:have created and sent to you so that you can either
Speaker:duplicate it or not duplicated.
Speaker:If it's for the same client,
Speaker:you can therefore keep track of the colors and exactly what
Speaker:is in each creation that you've put together.
Speaker:If you see a new idea on someplace like Pinterest or
Speaker:in a website,
Speaker:you can clip that off the internet and send it directly
Speaker:to Evernote and it will keep it for you.
Speaker:And if you have created notebooks for each client and each
Speaker:supplier, then it automatically gives you a list of all the
Speaker:notebooks you've created.
Speaker:So you can just with one place,
Speaker:one thing to capture it in one flip to put it
Speaker:where you want in Evernote,
Speaker:and you can have the same item in several different notebooks
Speaker:so that if you have created a gift for some client,
Speaker:but there are different components you might want to use.
Speaker:Again, you can either tag those in two different notebooks of
Speaker:supplier note within a customer notebook you can search by key
Speaker:words that might actually be in the item because Evernote will
Speaker:take an image and can OCR recognize the text in that
Speaker:image. So even if you take a picture of something and
Speaker:it has writing Evernote,
Speaker:we'll find it.
Speaker:If you put the writing that you saw,
Speaker:it will find it in there.
Speaker:If you write a handwritten note,
Speaker:it can read the text in that note and you can
Speaker:find that by writing a keyword.
Speaker:Just typing in one of the key words that was in
Speaker:that note.
Speaker:So quick question on Evernote.
Speaker:So I tried using it three or four years ago and
Speaker:I had a huge struggle trying to find anything that I
Speaker:put in there because is it true or did I just
Speaker:not know how to use it?
Speaker:All I understood you could do is find things by tagging.
Speaker:Like each little thing is its own individual piece and I
Speaker:don't recall there being folders before.
Speaker:Is that new?
Speaker:I don't think it's any more recent than several years ago.
Speaker:I've been using Evernote regularly for at least five years I
Speaker:would say.
Speaker:But the terminology is a little different and it was a
Speaker:little off putting to me when I first started trying to
Speaker:figure it out.
Speaker:And that might be what happened with you.
Speaker:It's the same structure as your file tree.
Speaker:On your computer there's folders and there's files,
Speaker:but in Evernote there are notebooks and there's notes.
Speaker:So if you have random notebook,
Speaker:let's say for every customer it will automatically arrange them alphabetically
Speaker:in a list.
Speaker:So if you clip something,
Speaker:let's say there's some new thing you've seen on Pinterest and
Speaker:you think,
Speaker:Oh, I might like to do something like that.
Speaker:And I have a particular customer who would like that.
Speaker:You can with one click on the Pinterest image,
Speaker:you can save it to Evernote and Evernote will then present
Speaker:you all those notebooks and you could just click on the
Speaker:customer you have in mind.
Speaker:And there it is and it stays there.
Speaker:So later on when that customer calls and says,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I want to do something,
Speaker:but I'm not sure what,
Speaker:you can go right to that notebook and say,
Speaker:Oh well you know,
Speaker:I've thought about something like this that you might like,
Speaker:Can you put notebooks into notebooks?
Speaker:Yes, you can have some notebooks so that you can have
Speaker:broad categories.
Speaker:So that would be like folders,
Speaker:files and documents.
Speaker:Okay. So you'd have notebooks,
Speaker:sub notebooks and notes,
Speaker:and you can put an,
Speaker:all the notes just flow one after the other.
Speaker:They all stack up.
Speaker:So let's say that there's an extra thing that you can
Speaker:do with Evernote.
Speaker:Like you said,
Speaker:you can tag it so that if you thought of let's
Speaker:say anniversaries.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:so maybe wedding anniversaries as a topic.
Speaker:You can also write that once and when you are capturing
Speaker:a note and you're getting the list of notebooks from Evernote,
Speaker:it will also show you all the tax breaks that you
Speaker:could apply across the top.
Speaker:It'll be a banner and you can click,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:this might be good for this.
Speaker:So it's automatically in one click here.
Speaker:And there and it'll put it in all these different notebooks.
Speaker:So if you have not only a notebook for a customer,
Speaker:but also a notebook for events,
Speaker:let's say wedding adverse should have a notebook.
Speaker:Then when you go to,
Speaker:I wonder what I have collected for wedding anniversaries.
Speaker:You go to that notebook and that will show you all
Speaker:the things that you may have used for all those different
Speaker:customers that were for wedding anniversary.
Speaker:So it'll cross reference based on your notebooks or how you
Speaker:tag both.
Speaker:Okay. I think the notebook is the easiest.
Speaker:That's the biggest,
Speaker:broadest category.
Speaker:The most comfortable actually.
Speaker:Yeah, and that's what I do too.
Speaker:Not only will it put it in a notebook,
Speaker:but it also puts it in a running list of every
Speaker:note you've ever created.
Speaker:You can,
Speaker:if you want to go through the notes you've done in
Speaker:the last day or two and make sure that they've all
Speaker:got the right tags on.
Speaker:The more you want to add something to that.
Speaker:Maybe at the time you didn't think about,
Speaker:Oh you know,
Speaker:I need to go to that supplier if I want that
Speaker:kind of look.
Speaker:And then you could add that supplier's name to one of
Speaker:the tags and the next time you're thinking of placing an
Speaker:order you can go,
Speaker:what were all those things I wanted to order from them.
Speaker:Okay, here's the question.
Speaker:I understand this by theory.
Speaker:Let's go to email since that's,
Speaker:I know a big challenge for a lot of people and
Speaker:you know how they say go get to inbox zero and
Speaker:all that.
Speaker:And the way you do it,
Speaker:kind of like the old fashioned way of tackling paper on
Speaker:your desk.
Speaker:Touch a piece of paper once that whole concept.
Speaker:But in an email like let's say I get an email
Speaker:and I need to keep it because it's a trade show
Speaker:I'm going to,
Speaker:okay, so my first let's follow through with this.
Speaker:Okay, so my first question is how do I get that
Speaker:email into Evernote?
Speaker:Evernote will give you a personal email address in Evernote so
Speaker:that when you get your email from wherever in Gmail you
Speaker:can say it'll gives you an option send to Evernote.
Speaker:Now some of these features are not available at the most
Speaker:basic level in Evernote,
Speaker:which is free,
Speaker:but the most expensive level is only $15 a month and
Speaker:that's the one I have and it lets you do that
Speaker:kind of thing to just send emails and to do all
Speaker:kinds of other little fancy things.
Speaker:Is it unlimited storage at that point too?
Speaker:I think it's pretty generous,
Speaker:although I couldn't swear to it,
Speaker:but I've never been told I'm out of space.
Speaker:I use all the time.
Speaker:I used it a lot when I was writing my books,
Speaker:so I would come across an article that I kind of
Speaker:liked the point that they made,
Speaker:but I realized that there was something in there that they
Speaker:missed and I would put that in Evernote.
Speaker:Just important one click and then I would add a little
Speaker:but they didn't mention such and such.
Speaker:And then when I went back to write on that particular
Speaker:topic, all the notes I collected from everywhere,
Speaker:whether it was from a newspaper article or something off the
Speaker:internet or a thought I had or previous blow that I
Speaker:had written,
Speaker:all of that was in that one notebook on that topic
Speaker:and I was reminded,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:I forgot.
Speaker:Totally forgotten about that.
Speaker:So that's a good point,
Speaker:But I need to mention that if you do this then
Speaker:you need to do that.
Speaker:So that's the way I wrote my books.
Speaker:And so were you able to put that note right on
Speaker:the same document of the article or was that then a
Speaker:separate note?
Speaker:As I recall,
Speaker:I was able to just add a little comment.
Speaker:Ooh, you can also highlight things And you can do photos,
Speaker:You can do everything.
Speaker:It sounds like something to play around with an investigate while
Speaker:we have some time.
Speaker:That's not a bad way to spend your time.
Speaker:I really think a lot of Evernote,
Speaker:some people use one note,
Speaker:which they say is similar.
Speaker:I am not as familiar with that.
Speaker:I know that there are articles,
Speaker:if you go online and say Evernote versus one note,
Speaker:Microsoft product,
Speaker:you'll get a really good analysis of which benefits each of
Speaker:them offers,
Speaker:what the pros and cons are of each.
Speaker:But like anything,
Speaker:the one you become most familiar with is the one that
Speaker:will work best for you.
Speaker:Right? And you have to,
Speaker:it's going to feel awkward in the beginning until you get
Speaker:down to the system and get comfortable with it.
Speaker:It did.
Speaker:And I'm sure that there are still features of Evernote I
Speaker:don't use,
Speaker:but everything that I have discovered that I need,
Speaker:I can find in Evernote.
Speaker:Okay. So I've got asked this question or I will forget.
Speaker:So let's go back to the email.
Speaker:So I sent a copy of the email to Evernote and
Speaker:this whole idea of keeping your emails clean,
Speaker:your inbox.
Speaker:So I delete that email.
Speaker:Now I decide I need to reply to it,
Speaker:then what do I do?
Speaker:So what I do is I have Gmail and when I
Speaker:finished with a note,
Speaker:I automatically archive everything.
Speaker:I never delete anything because you never know what you might
Speaker:need So you're not saving then into a whole hierarchy of
Speaker:folders in Gmail.
Speaker:Cause when you want to save it,
Speaker:you put it into Evernote and if it's an email you
Speaker:just archive it so you know it's there somewhere but you
Speaker:don't need it in your inbox forever.
Speaker:The reason I don't spend time filing that in a series
Speaker:of email folders is that first of all,
Speaker:that seems like a lot of work.
Speaker:And second,
Speaker:I can always find it in the archives file by simply
Speaker:typing in a key word or two or better yet a
Speaker:phrase that's going to be pretty unique to that email.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Or by the name personnel,
Speaker:bring up all the emails from that person.
Speaker:So there's a lot of ways that I can get what
Speaker:I need without spending a second on worrying about how to
Speaker:file it in an email.
Speaker:Our practice file,
Speaker:I just automatically,
Speaker:in fact in Gmail is tendon archive and that's what I
Speaker:do. I send it and it automatically gets out of my
Speaker:list and into the archives and I can always find it
Speaker:there. Well I say always,
Speaker:I mean I can go back years.
Speaker:I suppose there's a limit to how long they would keep
Speaker:them. But every so often somebody says no,
Speaker:that's different from what I remember.
Speaker:And I can go back and see exactly what was said.
Speaker:I can really see this as coming to light to me
Speaker:about why Evernote could be so valuable.
Speaker:Because I'm thinking like all the different types of things that
Speaker:I have stored that I access and use all the time.
Speaker:Right? Like I use images,
Speaker:like photo shoots and all of that.
Speaker:Well that stored in a file on my computer or maybe
Speaker:it's over in a Dropbox or something.
Speaker:And then I also have emails.
Speaker:So those are in my Google archive and then I have
Speaker:invoices. So those will be in QuickBooks or Shopify.
Speaker:Then what else?
Speaker:Like, I have so many things and I'm not even saving
Speaker:any text messages unless I'm screen capturing and emailing it to
Speaker:myself for,
Speaker:I don't know what reason cause I will lose it.
Speaker:Well, if you screen capture and put it in Evernote,
Speaker:it will read the content.
Speaker:It's optical character recognition.
Speaker:It'll recognize the content.
Speaker:You don't even have to remember what notebook you put it
Speaker:in. It'll find it.
Speaker:Yeah. So I'm getting really excited about this.
Speaker:I'm also thinking like when I'm out at conferences,
Speaker:I'm not one who opens my computer and is typing in
Speaker:the notes.
Speaker:I like that handwriting.
Speaker:I retained information I follow along better than I could just
Speaker:take a picture of that and put it into Evernote.
Speaker:Yes. Now I'm not entirely sure how well it reads handwriting.
Speaker:They say it does.
Speaker:I suppose it's gotta be legible to some degree,
Speaker:but I don't use it in that particular way.
Speaker:But I know it's supposed to do that.
Speaker:What I have done is when I'm at a conference,
Speaker:I will take a photo of an entire slide of information
Speaker:that I'm looking at and it'll read the content.
Speaker:It'll read the content of that slide and find it for
Speaker:me. Yeah.
Speaker:Like if I had a,
Speaker:what do you call them again?
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:notebook. So if I had a notebook that just was the
Speaker:title of the conference,
Speaker:then it could be a mixture of my notes,
Speaker:pictures of slides and,
Speaker:gosh, all the selfies you take with people.
Speaker:Yes, yes.
Speaker:And some of those selfies that you take at the event
Speaker:could be in the event folder and also in a customer
Speaker:folder or a supplier folder or whatever.
Speaker:And they'd be in both places at once.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:yes. Yes.
Speaker:That's what I'm saying about Evernote.
Speaker:Yeah. I get excited about it too.
Speaker:So happy to share this with you because I know a
Speaker:lot of people have heard of Evernote.
Speaker:Maybe they've even tried it a little bit,
Speaker:but I know from my own experience,
Speaker:I didn't get it right away,
Speaker:but once you start using it,
Speaker:you start realizing how convenient and easy it is.
Speaker:Yeah. You know,
Speaker:I had someone on a while ago,
Speaker:Steve Dotto of Datto tech and he covered Evernote entirely and
Speaker:maybe I just missed it at the time,
Speaker:but I did not understand about the notebooks at all.
Speaker:We were talking about a lot of the tags and that's
Speaker:why I was asking you if notebooks were a newer thing
Speaker:and I tried using Evernote really,
Speaker:really hard after that because Steve's adorable and he's just a
Speaker:fun guy and he knows his stuff,
Speaker:but it just wasn't working for me,
Speaker:so I gave up on it.
Speaker:But now I'm going to look at it again.
Speaker:Yeah. What'd you discover?
Speaker:There's a whole community of Evernote users.
Speaker:So if you get in the middle of something and aren't
Speaker:sure how to do it or can't seem to figure out
Speaker:what the purpose of this or that is,
Speaker:you can go online and say,
Speaker:how do you do such and such in Evernote and Oh,
Speaker:it's amazing what you can find.
Speaker:Yeah. I'm so sure that that's true.
Speaker:So virtually,
Speaker:and I love this,
Speaker:your single source solution for customer information management is Evernote period.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:I haven't found anything that I needed to keep of that
Speaker:I couldn't put in there.
Speaker:Okay. I'm really excited.
Speaker:I love new things.
Speaker:And this is not new,
Speaker:but it is.
Speaker:I like simple things.
Speaker:I like simple things.
Speaker:I like them to be easy.
Speaker:Now I also believe there's a Chrome tool that you can
Speaker:put it in your toolbar that is Evernote,
Speaker:so that if you're on a screen you can just click
Speaker:it and it captures the page for you right there.
Speaker:Exactly. They call it the Evernote web clipper.
Speaker:Okay. And what's nice about that is that when you see
Speaker:something on a website,
Speaker:it's going to have ads interspersed in there and a sidebar
Speaker:and all that stuff.
Speaker:Evernote gives you the opportunity to either capture it exactly as
Speaker:is or to get what they call it,
Speaker:modify or clean up or whatever,
Speaker:but it removes all that extraneous stuff.
Speaker:So all you have is stuff in text.
Speaker:Yeah, it just strips out all that stuff that you don't
Speaker:want. Nice.
Speaker:And can you download from Evernote and print if you need
Speaker:to and things like that?
Speaker:Yes. Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Okay. And one final question on Evernote.
Speaker:I'm trying to remember from the past.
Speaker:Is there a desktop version and a cloud version or do
Speaker:you use them together or what's that about?
Speaker:I remember being confused about this in the beginning.
Speaker:What you want is the web version.
Speaker:They do have a desktop version.
Speaker:If you're doing something that's super highly confidential,
Speaker:you might want something that just resides on your own computer.
Speaker:But we're all living lives.
Speaker:There's some risk involved in living.
Speaker:Right. So I think the desktop is the way to go.
Speaker:It has more functions.
Speaker:And you mean the web?
Speaker:Yes. Sorry.
Speaker:I mean the web version,
Speaker:it will automatically sync to all your other devices so that
Speaker:even if you entered it in your laptop at home,
Speaker:it's there on your phone.
Speaker:Yeah. And I think the other advantage is you're not using
Speaker:up all the storage on your computer.
Speaker:Cause I could imagine over time that gets pretty big.
Speaker:Yeah, it seems like it would.
Speaker:And like I said,
Speaker:I've never run into a stop sign that says you're full
Speaker:nobody. I mean if you were on your desktop,
Speaker:well it might.
Speaker:Yeah, it might.
Speaker:I don't know either these days.
Speaker:Even the smallest laptops have huge storage these days.
Speaker:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker:Alright, this is so exciting.
Speaker:And the final word on Evernote,
Speaker:before we close up here with this,
Speaker:I would just say give it a try and if somebody
Speaker:has some trouble,
Speaker:I would actually go online and just tutorials.
Speaker:That'll take you through all this.
Speaker:The one thing that I finally got over was this terminology.
Speaker:It was the notebooks,
Speaker:some notebooks,
Speaker:notes versus folders.
Speaker:So folders,
Speaker:documents. Yeah,
Speaker:that's good.
Speaker:That's really valuable.
Speaker:And there's a free version so you can just play around
Speaker:and see what you think of it.
Speaker:And then if you decide that you like it,
Speaker:$15 a month isn't a bad investment for sanity.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:No. The hours you take looking for a job,
Speaker:you've already paid yourself back for the one month.
Speaker:Not only the time you save,
Speaker:but the better equipped you are to do what you want
Speaker:to do because you can get all the information that you
Speaker:want to have when you make a decision.
Speaker:True. At the snap of a finger.
Speaker:It's so easy and on your phone for having sex on
Speaker:your phone so you can always have it with you.
Speaker:Even if you don't have your computer or your,
Speaker:it'll do a tablet or whatever,
Speaker:however many devices you have,
Speaker:it will sync to all of them.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:So great.
Speaker:So I know what I'm going to be doing when I,
Speaker:I'm going to have to pencil in.
Speaker:No, I'm not even penciling in.
Speaker:I'm heading in some time to look at this and review
Speaker:it and it doesn't get to get bumped from it to
Speaker:a different page and it won't cause I'm really excited about
Speaker:it now.
Speaker:I'm glad that I was able to tell you about Evernote.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm really excited about it.
Speaker:So we have covered tips on organizing your physical space.
Speaker:We've talked about time management and how to coordinate in a
Speaker:calendar and lots of good examples there.
Speaker:And then we've talked about customer information management and Evernote.
Speaker:So awesome stuff here,
Speaker:Elaine. I am so thrilled.
Speaker:Thank you so much for joining me and sharing with the
Speaker:community. I so appreciate it.
Speaker:Where would you have people go to learn more about your
Speaker:books and other things that you have to offer?
Speaker:Well my website is solo preneur,
Speaker:specialist.com and my email is Elaine at solo preneur specialist.
Speaker:Wonderful. And give biz listeners,
Speaker:you know that all this information will be attached with links
Speaker:on the show notes page so you can go and access
Speaker:that anytime.
Speaker:And just as a final kind of projection for the future,
Speaker:where do you see all of organizing and time management going
Speaker:in the future?
Speaker:I think that these are skills that everybody needs to learn
Speaker:because the pace of life has gotten to the point where
Speaker:you just can't afford to waste time and time is too
Speaker:valuable to waste.
Speaker:Do you want to get things done and have some time
Speaker:left over for yourself?
Speaker:So getting organized,
Speaker:whether it's physical or mental,
Speaker:mentally organized or business organized.
Speaker:Yeah. You want to be organized.
Speaker:I agree with you cause it seems to me it's only
Speaker:getting faster.
Speaker:Yes. This is not slowing down.
Speaker:We have to be more efficient and not make it be
Speaker:a stressor in our life,
Speaker:but use it to our advantages.
Speaker:I'm just my thinking so.
Speaker:Right. Absolutely.
Speaker:Wonderful. Okay,
Speaker:well Elaine,
Speaker:thank you so,
Speaker:so much for being here.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:I appreciate your sharing how your using these tools.
Speaker:You've given me some great tips personally and I know our
Speaker:audience has picked up a lot of value from this as
Speaker:well, so appreciate your time today.
Speaker:So it was my pleasure.
Speaker:Thanks very much.
Speaker:Okay, I'm committing to try Evernote again.
Speaker:How about you?
Speaker:Do you already use it?
Speaker:Are you motivated to check it out?
Speaker:I'm actually really excited to give it another go.
Speaker:On another note,
Speaker:if you're listening to this,
Speaker:right as the show is released,
Speaker:so this is the week of May 4th,
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Speaker:If you're interested.
Speaker:After a few days,
Speaker:all the information gets locked down and you'll have to pay
Speaker:for the information.
Speaker:But for now as my gift to you,
Speaker:you can gain access at no charge.
Speaker:Just go to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash expand online for more details and access.
Speaker:That's a wrap.
Speaker:Give biz listeners be safe.
Speaker:Stay well and I'll catch you next week.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
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Speaker:I've got a really fun post in there.
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Speaker:to get reaction from other people and just for fun because
Speaker:we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in
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Speaker:My favorite post every single week without doubt,
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