The Neat Company had a strong presence at this year's NAPO annual conference, both as a presenting sponsor and with a large expo booth. I really like their products for scanning and managing paper, and I both use their products in my own office, and I frequently recommend them to clients as well. At the show, they debuted the Mac version of NeatDesk, a high-speed desktop scanner than can accept a variety of documents, including papers, receipts, and business cards, and can scan them directly to PDF or into the NeatWorks software (basically a database for your paper documents). I've been using the PC version of NeatDesk since it's beta last year, and I like it a lot. I'm glad I can start recommending it to my Mac clients now!
The quality and the design of Neat's hardware, such as the NeatReceipts and NeatDesk scanners, are really great - very sleek design and solidly built. I also like how well the optical character recognition works in the scanning software, which makes it easy to search for your documents later. The only thing missing is an online database, so you could access your scanned documents from anywhere - but I hear that may be in the works for the future... hopefully!
If you haven't seen their products before, check out The Neat Company at http://www.neatco.com.
They also won best technology of the show for Neat Desk.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
NAPO 2009 Annual Conference Recap
I spent last week in Orlando at the 2009 Annual Conference of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). This was my fourth NAPO national conference, and it was a good one for me. There were so many opportunities for learning and continuing my organizing education. I always like to add new tools to my toolbox! In particular, I attended workshops on assessing the needs of business clients and strategies for tracking their progress towards their organizing and productivity goals, new time management tools and strategies, email management, and more. I'll be able to serve my clients even better with these new skill sets.
A big milestone for me: I was a speaker on the very popular "Ask the Organizer" panel discussion, where veteran organizers field questions on a variety of topics from an audience of four or five hundred other (many newer) organizers. This panel is usually one of the best-attended at the conference. I had a great time with my fellow panelists, all of whom I respect very much, and the audience really gave us some meaty questions to respond to. I'd never spoken at any NAPO conference up until that point, and it was a real treat to be able to share what I've learned along with way with my colleagues.
In the expo hall, along with the various organizing doodads and gizmos, a big presence was felt by companies offering tools and services to manage paper via scanning. The heavy hitter The Neat Company (www.neatco.com) had organizers flocking to their booth for their high-quality scanner/software combinations, along with upstarts Pixily (http://ping.fm/iiZAY) and XamBox (www.xamance.com). I'll post more about each of these services, along with some other great expo finds, soon in a series of follow-ups.
One of the best outcomes of any NAPO conference is the great professional and personal connections. It's great to reconnect with old NAPO pals, and extra fun to make new ones. I had the pleasure of meeting organizers from all over the country, and across the world, from places as far-flung as Australia and Japan. I'm already looking forward to next year's conference in Columbus!
A big milestone for me: I was a speaker on the very popular "Ask the Organizer" panel discussion, where veteran organizers field questions on a variety of topics from an audience of four or five hundred other (many newer) organizers. This panel is usually one of the best-attended at the conference. I had a great time with my fellow panelists, all of whom I respect very much, and the audience really gave us some meaty questions to respond to. I'd never spoken at any NAPO conference up until that point, and it was a real treat to be able to share what I've learned along with way with my colleagues.
In the expo hall, along with the various organizing doodads and gizmos, a big presence was felt by companies offering tools and services to manage paper via scanning. The heavy hitter The Neat Company (www.neatco.com) had organizers flocking to their booth for their high-quality scanner/software combinations, along with upstarts Pixily (http://ping.fm/iiZAY) and XamBox (www.xamance.com). I'll post more about each of these services, along with some other great expo finds, soon in a series of follow-ups.
One of the best outcomes of any NAPO conference is the great professional and personal connections. It's great to reconnect with old NAPO pals, and extra fun to make new ones. I had the pleasure of meeting organizers from all over the country, and across the world, from places as far-flung as Australia and Japan. I'm already looking forward to next year's conference in Columbus!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Knoll Furniture Sale in San Francisco May 1-10
If you like your home or office not just organized, but also slick and stylish, the Knoll brand of mid-century modern furnishings is probably your friend. I love this stuff, but it can be quite pricey!
If you happen to be in San Francisco May 1-10, check out the Zinc Details store, where they will be having a 15% off sale on the entire Knoll line. Learn more at http://www.zincdetails.com/ht/events.htm
If you happen to be in San Francisco May 1-10, check out the Zinc Details store, where they will be having a 15% off sale on the entire Knoll line. Learn more at http://www.zincdetails.com/ht/events.htm
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
101 Quick Success Secrets
Some of you may have heard of www.selfgrowth.com, the internet’s foremost destination for self-improvement and generally living your best life. David Riklan, the founder of www.selfgrowth.com, has compiled 101 of today’s greatest success secrets of our time, and is offering them up in a $15 bundle, which includes all the tips and a bunch of bonuses.
If you’re a fan of quick organizing tips, you’d probably enjoy these quick, simple, and proven success secrets from experts in a variety of fields.
Check it out here:
http://tinyurl.com/cls-riklan
If you’re a fan of quick organizing tips, you’d probably enjoy these quick, simple, and proven success secrets from experts in a variety of fields.
Check it out here:
http://tinyurl.com/cls-riklan
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Friday, April 03, 2009
Super Handy Tool - Evernote Web Clipper
I'm a HUGE fan of Evernote, the note-taking tool that lets you collect and organize all sorts of information. I love it so much that I regularly recommend it to clients for a variety of purposes, from simple note-taking, to organizing medical records, storing collections of information, and more.
Evernote has a very handy add-on tool called the "Evernote Web Clipper" that I'm using more and more to keep track of sites I've visited or information I've found, but may not necessarily want to add as a bookmark or favorite in my web browser. The Web Clipper adds a button to your browser which lets you instantly take an entire web page and save it directly to your (free) Evernote account. One way I use is to prepare for travel. For instance, I can visit a bunch of web pages related to Las Vegas - restaurants, attractions, shows, etc. - and add them to a "Vegas, Baby" notebook in Evernote. That way, when I'm ready for my trip, all the information about my destination is in one place!
Check out the Evernote Web Clipper at http://evernote.com/about/download/#a-webclipper
__
Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer ®
President, National Association of Professional Organizers,
San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions
"...for the way you want to live"
Web: www.customlivingsolutions.com
Email: joshua@customlivingsolutions.com
Tel: (415) 830-6345 | Fax (360) 364-8728
Join my Linkedin network at http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel
Classes for new and experienced organizers: http://www.essentialsclasses.com
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Great Article on the Brains of Spenders vs. Savers
In my world as a Professional Organizer, I work with many clients who have what they feel is a lot of stuff - most of the time, they feel like what they have is too much.
Part of how people accumulate things is via shopping. For some, shopping is a chore, while for others, it's a competetive sport! In all seriousness, shopping - and compulsive shopping in particular -
can end up creating lots of clutter and land people in debt.
I just came across a very interesting article on the recently
discovered differences in brain activity between people who tend to
spend versus those who tend not to. You can read it at:
http://health.howstuffworks.com/brain-shopping.htm
--
Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer (R)
President, National Association of Professional Organizers, San
Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions
"...for the way you want to live"
Web: www.customlivingsolutions.com
Email: joshua@customlivingsolutions.com
Tel (415) 830-6345 | Fax (360) 364-8728
Join my Linkedin network at http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel
Classes for new and experienced organizers: http://www.essentialsclasses.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Would You Like Your Email Read to You?
Well, with the volume of email I read, sometimes I think it would be nice for someone to read my messages to me instead of staring at the computer screen. I was at Macworld recently, and came across a company called Voice on the Go, who sells a monthly service that does just that, and more.
Voice on the Go will read your email to you, then let you respond with your voice, which sounds pretty cool. I assumed that the service did some sort of voice recognition or transcription, but it doesn't -instead, it records your voice-based email reply and attaches it to your message as an attachment, so your recipient can listen to your response. Could be neat, or could be annoying, depending on your recipient's point of view, I suppose.
The monthly service is under $10, and has a bunch of features not listed here. Learn more at:
http://www.voiceonthego.com/
--Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer (R)President, National Association of Professional Organizers, SanFrancisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Web: http://www.customlivingsolutions.com/
Email: joshua@customlivingsolutions.com
Tel (415) 830-6345 Fax (360) 364-8728
Classes for new and experienced organizers: http://www.essentialsclasses.com/
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Comprehensive List of Online Storage Services
There are tons of services and sites out there that let you upload,store, and sometimes share your important documents. When you storethings online, it's easy to access your files from virtually anywhereyou have web access - no need to worry about carrying a flash drive ora cd. To get an idea of the various services available, check out thiscomprehensive list:
And of course, big players not on the list are Microsoft's Liveservice and Google Docs, which both provide some document upload andsharing features.
--Joshua ZerkelCertified Professional Organizer (R)President, National Association of Professional Organizers, SanFrancisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Tel (415) 830-6345 Fax (360) 364-8728
http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel
Classes for new and experienced organizers:
Monday, March 09, 2009
This is Your Brain on the Computer
I've often wished that I could get my computer to think the way I do,and organize information within my mind's own paradigm, but by andlarge computers force us to adapt our way of thinking to how they havebeen designed. Sure, there are many ways to customize your preferencesand get things more to your liking, but beyond that, the computer isessentially meant to be used a certain way.
While at Macworld, I found an interesting little application that wastucked away in one of the show's corners, called PersonalBrain. Thisprogram lets you create mind maps that are as large or small as youlike, and lets you attach files, images, web pages, and more to yourindividual "thoughts" - thus linking your files in a way that feelsnatural to how you'd think about them (a basic tenet of organizing).Pretty neat.
PersonalBrain comes in both paid and free versions.
Check it out at http://www.thebrain.com/
--Joshua ZerkelCertified Professional Organizer (R)President, National Association of Professional Organizers, SanFrancisco Bay Area Chapter Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Tel (415) 830-6345 Fax (360) 364-8728
Classes for new and experienced organizers:
Saturday, March 07, 2009
How Much Money are You Losing Because of Disorganization?
Imagine staring each week with an empty email inbox and a clear desk. How productive could you be if clutter wasn’t in your way?
Let Custom Living Solutions demonstrate how custom-tailored and functional working systems can help you achieve greater bottom line results. Register for a complimentary, 20-minute phone assessment today at www.customlivingsolutions.com/
- Discover your greatest work inefficiencies
- Identify opportunities to improve your work environment
- Develop ideas for strategies to keep you on track
In addition to the FREE assessment, we will include a one year subscription to the Custom Living Solutions newsletter delivered to your inbox and a downloadable audio file of my teleseminar, “Clear Your Clutter, Increase Your Revenue: The 5 Essential Systems Every Small Business Needs To Gain More Freedom and More Income in Less than 30 Days.”
Register today! Go to www.customlivingsolutions.com/
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Cutting Home-Office Expenses
It's always a good idea in any business - home-based or otherwise - to look at ways to improve your bottom line. One way is by analyzing and reducing expenses. Here's a great article on how to do just that:
http://www.tlmarketing.net/2008/04/03/cut-your-expenses-to-improve-your-home-business-bottom-line/
-- Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer ®President, National Association of Professional Organizers,San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Tel: (415) 830-6345
Monday, March 02, 2009
Great Resource for Getting Rid of Paperback Books
If you've got lots of books on your shelf that you're not likely to read again, I've found a great resource for getting rid of these books, and swapping them for ones you actually would like to read. It's called PaperBackSwap.com, and they will let you list the books you want to get rid of and trade them for ones on your to-read list.
Check it out at: http://www.paperbackswap.com/
-- Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer ®President, National Association of Professional Organizers,San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Tel: (415) 830-6345
Classes for new and experienced organizers: http://www.essentialsclasses.com/
Great Article on the Secret World of Professional Organizers
LA Weekly, a popular alternative weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, has posted a very entertaining and illuminating article about the lives of Professional Organizers, including a peek into the home of my friend Chris McKenry and interviews with some of my L.A. organizing colleagues. Check it out - it's a fun read.http://www.laweekly.com/2008-12-25/la-vida/true-life-tales-of-professional-organizers-in-the-land-of-the-happy-labelmakers
-- Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer ®President, National Association of Professional Organizers,San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Web: http://www.customlivingsolutions.com/
Email: joshua@customlivingsolutions.com
Tel: (415) 830-6345
Join my Linkedin network at http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel
Classes for new and experienced organizers: http://www.essentialsclasses.com/
Organizing Awards Follow-up This past month, I was in Los Angeles as a presenter at the L.A. Organizing Awards. Along with the Sacramento and San Diego NAPO Chapter Presidents, I presented two awards, one for Best Organizing Website or Blog, which went to OnlineOrganizing.com (you can check out some of my articles and tips there), and Best Organizing Technology, which went to Microsoft Outlook. You can read more about the Organizing Awards at:
http://www.napola.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=79267 http://www.organizingla.com/organizingla_blog/2009/01/celebrity-presenters-announced-for-organizing-awards-this-friday.html
Congrats to NAPO Los Angeles on a successful and fun event. I'll post photos soon!
--Joshua ZerkelCertified Professional Organizer (R)President, National Association of Professional Organizers, SanFrancisco Bay Area Chapter Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
--Joshua ZerkelCertified Professional Organizer (R)President, National Association of Professional Organizers, SanFrancisco Bay Area Chapter Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Tel (415) 830-6345 Fax (360) 364-8728
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
FREE E-Waste Recycling Event This Weekend (Bay Area)
If you have any electronic waste that you'd like to get rid of (old computers, VCRs, stereo components, and more), it's a good idea to dispose of that type of clutter responsibly. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, a local non-profit, the Montalvo Service Group (MSG), is sponsoring a free e-waste recycling event this coming weekend. More details can be found at:
Best,
Josh
Josh
-- Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer ®President, National Association of Professional Organizers,San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Are you, or someone in your network, interested in becoming a professional organizer for homes or offices?
I'm happy to announce that will we be holding a full weekend of Essentials classes – first, Becoming a Professional Organizer: The Essentials on Friday, March 27th, and then Paper Management: The Essentials on Saturday, March 28th, in downtown San Francisco. We'd love to have you join us at one or both of these fantastic seminars!
Becoming a Professional Organizer: The Essentials is a day-long interactive class providing a comprehensive, realistic, well-rounded look at what's involved in becoming a professional organizer, what it's like to work with clients, how to market yourself, and what pitfalls to avoid.
The class is scheduled for Friday, March 27th, from 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown San Francisco. The fee for this class is $275, which includes continental breakfast, lunch, snacks, class handouts, and a certificate of participation.
Paper Management: The Essentials is all about tackling paper management projects with organizing clients: the different types of papers you might encounter, how to assess the situation, helping clients sort and weed, and creating paper management systems that will work for each client. If you'd like to add paper management to the list of services you offer your clients, or if you'd like to hone your paper management skills to take your work with clients to the next level, this class is for you.
The class is scheduled for Saturday, March 28th, from 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown San Francisco. The fee for this class is $275, which includes continental breakfast, lunch, snacks, class handouts, and a certificate of participation.
Our classes are limited to 15 participants and are filling up quickly. As a bonus, if you sign up for both classes, you'll save $50!
For more information or to register, e-mail class@customlivingsolutions.com, call (415) 252-9779 or visit us online at http://www.essentialsclasses.com/.
-- Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer ®President, National Association of Professional Organizers,San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
-- Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer ®President, National Association of Professional Organizers,San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions"...for the way you want to live"
Tel: (415) 830-6345
Classes for new and experienced organizers: http://www.essentialsclasses.com/
Monday, February 16, 2009
Use Less Ink with the Ecofont
Virtually every home office I enter has a printer, and every printer
uses either ink or toner, which ounce for ounce is more expensive than
gasoline! Of course, printer manufacturers make a ton of money off of
ink sales, and most printers are automatically set to use the maximum
amount of ink to expedite your need to buy replacement cartridges.
There are ways to reduce the amount of ink your printer uses by
changing the settings in your printer's control panel, but what if
changing the font you print with could also save you some ink?
The design collective SPRANQ has developed a new font which they say
uses less ink, due to the fact that the font is essentially hollow -
it has an outline, and instead of the center being solid, it has
holes. These holes don't need ink, which thereby saves on the precious
liquid by a factor of 20%, according to SPRANQ.
The Ecofont is free to download and use. Learn more about it at this link:
http://www.ecofont.eu/english.html
--
Joshua Zerkel
Certified Professional Organizer (R)
President, National Association of Professional Organizers, San
Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Custom Living Solutions
"...for the way you want to live"
Web: www.customlivingsolutions.com
Email: joshua@customlivingsolutions.com
Tel (415) 830-6345 Fax (360) 364-8728
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
