Quick Organizing Tip - The Goes Elsewhere Bin

In every home and office, no matter how large or small, there’s always stuff to be put away – you know, the things that somehow end up in rooms where they don’t really belong. These things end up becoming clutter, especially if they don’t get put away. One of the core principles of getting and staying organized is to make sure that all your stuff has a home – homeless stuff definitely becomes clutter. Sometimes, that home can be temporary, kind of like a way station for stuff while it’s waiting to be put away elsewhere. What I recommend creating in every room in your home or office where clutter collects is a “goes elsewhere” bin or box. Essentially, this is a place to put all those things that don’t belong in a given room, and collects the in one container. Having them all in one spot makes it easy to grab the bin, walk around your space, and put things in their proper homes.

Easy Ways to Backup Your Data

I can’t stress enough how important it is to back up any information you have on the computers that your family uses. If you’re backing up to a CD or a flash drive once in awhile, that’s a start – but there’s an easier way. What I recommend to my organizing clients now is that they sign up for an online backup service, which keeps your computer backed up all the time. How this works is this: when your computer is idle, little bits of data are sent securely over the internet to an offsite storage company. They keep your data safe, and in the event of a computer disaster, you can download all your data from their server. What’s great about this is that you don’t have to do anything – it works automatically in the background. The price is right too - the first 2GB are free, and then it's $5 per computer per month for unlimited data storage.


Mozy - http://bit.ly/At7sb

Syncing Your Data Across Multiple Computers

Like many of you, I have more than one computer - in my case, a laptop and a netbook. Copying files over my network or via USB to try to keep files I'm working on was starting to become a pain, so I started looking for other solutions. My new favorite services are ones where you can specify files that you want to be available to you everywhere - on all your computers, as well as via the web. What's great about this is that there's multiple backups of your data, which is always a great thing to have.

I've personally been using DropBox, which creates a folder on your computers where you simply drag and drop the files you want to stay synchronized across all your computers - it really couldn't be easier. I've been testing and using DropBox extensively with my currently active documents, and also things I just want to have handy on all my computers (frequently used documents, RoboForm password data, etc.). It's been AWESOME, and it's free for up to 2 gigs of data.

Check it out at: http://bit.ly/429EU

Customizing Firefox to Save Money

My browser of choice is Firefox - it's fast, open-source, and almost infinitely customizable. As with any of our tools, it's great when they can be customized to meet our needs, and Firefox definitely can be customized a zillion different ways. For instance, I use the Evernote Web Clipper extensively to take notes on sites that I want to visit but not bookmark, and that's just one of the many productivity extensions available for Firefox.

A more fun way to customize Firefox is to download one of the many extensions that can help you save money while shopping online. I use RetailMeNot, but there are many other extensions also designed to help you find discounts online. Check out this comprehensive list:

http://ping.fm/SzfRL

Can a Watch Give Me More Time?

This special watch, the SleepTracker, is supposed to monitor your sleep cycle, waking you at just the optimal time so you awake feeling rested. This might even be BEFORE your regular alarm goes off - giving you a few extra minutes of awake time. Pretty cool, I wonder if it works! check it out:

http://ping.fm/fgecg

Product Review: Rubbermaid Easy-Find Lids System

I love fresh produce, and frequently buy from my local farmers market. Of course, since most of the items there are organic, they can sometimes not last as long as the ones purchased in a typical supermarket. I’m always looking for ways to make my produce last as long as possible – I hate waste! In my quest to make my food fresh, I use a lot of food storage systems to try to make things last. I also use food storage containers for alternate uses in the office, such as storing supplies, cables, and small electronics.

I recently ran into the folks over at Rubbermaid at a NAPO conference, and they sent me a set of their new Easy-Find Lids food storage system to check out. What’s nice about this system is that even though the containers come in various sizes and styles, the lids are interchangeable, so you won’t have to spend time searching your drawers or cupboards trying to find the right lid, which is incredibly annoying. This particular system comes in a variety of styles, including ones that are designed to resist stains (Premier), and ones that have Fort Knox-style snap-on lids that are designed to snap on and stay in place (Lock-Its).

My favorite containers in the set I was sent are the Produce Savers, which are pretty smart. These include a small tray that goes in the bottom of each container, which is designed to raise up your produce and separate it from any moisture or liquid. Additionally, the lids have tiny holes that are designed to let air in. These two features can help keep your produce fresh longer, which in my experience, they did.

A couple of extra features that are part of the Easy-Find Lid system is that when you stack the containers, the bottom of each container snaps into the lid of the one below it, which can help keep them tidy. When you open a container, you can also snap it’s lid onto the bottom during use, which I thought was pretty clever.

I do have a couple of minor gripes with this system. Even though the empty containers are all stackable and fit together nicely, the lids don’t snap or stack together. It would have been nice for the lids to interlock in some way. Also, some of the lids are hard to snap onto the actual containers – some of them, specifically the Premier, I had to work to get on and off.

While the whole Easy-Find system is pretty cool and can definitely save time and frustration in the kitchen and elsewhere, the Produce Savers are the stars in my book.

http://bit.ly/omhV9

Save Time and Boost Productivity by Bypassing Phone Trees

Remember the days when you would call a company's 1-800 number for customer service, and on your first try you'd reach an actual human? Well, by and large those days are long over. Instead of reaching a person, you're far more likely to get stuck in a version of "press 1 for this, press 2 for that" phone tree hell. It's frustrating, and a major time waster!

I'm always looking for ways to save time for both my organizing clients and myself, and time spent on phone trees is not time well spent. There are several services that say they can help you skip directly to a human. Two favorites - www.gethuman.com and www.fonolo.com - give them a try and let me know what you think!

KangaRoom Storage - Big Warehouse Discount

If you're going to be in San Francisco, swing by the KangaRoom Storage store by the ballpark. They are offering 20% off their entire inventory of organizing supplies and solutions if you purchase at their store (instead of online). I've consulted with them on some of their product designs, and they have some pretty cool stuff. I especially like their line of cord/cable management solutions.

Location: 360 Langton Street, Suite 105, San Francisco, CA 94103

Check them out at www.kangaroomstorage.com

NAPO 2009 Conference Follow-up - The Neat Company

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.

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!

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

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

Thanks for all the organizing questions! Keep sending them in!

I'm currently writing some new productivity and organizing tips and articles. What topics or ideas would you like to learn more about?

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

Big savings on Univenture eco-friendly organizing binders and tools http://ping.fm/FZGj2 - use code APP559R - pls retweet!

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

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

Join my Linkedin network at http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel


Classes for new and experienced organizers: http://www.essentialsclasses.com/

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:

http://www.businesscreditcards.com/bootstrapper/no-more-filing-cabinet-25-online-filing-systems-for-web-workers/

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"

Web: http://www.customlivingsolutions.com/

Email: joshua@customlivingsolutions.com

Tel (415) 830-6345 Fax (360) 364-8728

http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel

Classes for new and experienced organizers:

http://www.essentialsclasses.com/

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"

Web: http://www.customlivingsolutions.com/

Email: joshua@customlivingsolutions.com

Tel (415) 830-6345 Fax (360) 364-8728

http://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuazerkel

Classes for new and experienced organizers:

http://www.essentialsclasses.com/