Yesterday, I was presenting a webinar for The Monticello Company, demonstrating how to use The Paper Tiger.  Someone followed up with me as they related to a story that I told and I thought if it helped one person on the call, maybe one of my readers here would appreciate the story as well.

Years ago, I had a jewelry company.  I used to go to New Mexico and buy American Indian made jewelry right from the Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi Indian tribes.  I loved working with the artists and then going to all the retail stores throughout the country to peddle my collection.

One day I was in a “mom and pop” touristy type store in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  It was a cute little place and a little old man came out and welcomed me.  I looked around the store and it was quaint with old jewelry cases, jewelry displayed in no specific order, and trinkets randomly displayed throughout the store.

As I looked through the jewelry, I noticed there were no sterling silver hoops and I had some simple basic ones in my inventory in the car, so it was a perfect lead to ask him if he needed to purchase any.  He seemingly agreed based on what he could also see in the case, so he agreed to look at what he had and purchased not only some silver hoop earrings, but also a nice selection of other shiny new pieces.  I was appreciative and went on my way.

a couple of months later, I returned and he had an abundance of silver hoop earrings.  I thought, darn, someone else must of been in to see him and he purchased more from that wholesaler.  He welcomed me and had a funny grin on him as he told me a story.  He told me that after he purchased all the silver hoops from him, his wife told him that they had plenty of silver hoops, as they were in another case in another location of his store and there were even more in the back room safe.  I asked him about how he was tracking his inventory and he laughed and said, he didn’t bother with an inventory, he knew what he had.  Well , you know i didn’t respond, because as the story shows, he spent money on something he really didn’t need because he didn’t know he had it.

I tell this story to my clients often because this is true also for our business and personal files.  If we don’t know what we have, it can cost us money.  Recently while I’m spending time in Scottsdale, Arizona, I needed to go to the motor vehicle division.  One of the records I needed was my title to my car.  Now that could have been quite a deal as I have files both in Denver, Colorado, and in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Fortunately, all of my files are inventoried in The Paper Tiger, and I was able to look it up off my web-based version from my smart phone and know exactly where to find my title.

Knowing where to find my title so quickly and easily, gave me instant relief knowing that I didn’t have to pursue the project, taking more time and spending extra moey to order a copy of my title.  I was able to get my hands on it right away.  Naturally, it makes sense that when you want to take care of business, you don’t want to have delays.

If you are like the jewelry store owner and don’t have an inventory of your stuff, whether it’s files  or supplies, obviously you may be wasting time and money repurchasing things you already have or recreating documents you already have.    Are you ready now to get to work and inventory your files?  Here’s a link to get you started.

If you want some additional help, I work with clients over the phone or in person and coach them to complete setting up their system.

Another gorgeous morning in the Arizona sun, I had already enjoyed my breakfast, enjoying my Kahlua blend coffee from the Kuerig coffee pot and was preparing for my day. My first coaching client of the day was scheduled for 7:30. My phone was still on the charger when it vibrated off of my desk. Although startled when the phone rang, I was prepared and looking forward to hear the progress of my client. You just never know where it’s going to go, as personal productivity is exactly that – personal. One of the exercises that I use with clients is using a worksheet to plan their goals for the week. Usually on Friday we review the progress for the week. Today was unusual as she is taking tomorrow off from work.

Earlier in the week when my client sent in her goals and a quick email to let me know her mid week progress, I had asked her to think about the lessons learned through out the week. Naturally it makes sense if you are going to work to improve yourself; you want to measure your progress. I find that identifying the lessons learned and writing them down gives clients’ tangible results.

Today during our coaching session, she told me that after going through her week, one of her goals for next week was to ask her boss to meet with her on a weekly basis to review her goals. She wanted to start having a meeting to be accountable in her job and make sure that they are both on the same page. I jumped in with excitement as she told me her plans. The idea of initiating the meeting with her boss was huge! Talk about accountability.  When we had our initial consultation, she had expressed how she was so overwhelmed with job responsibilities and lacked focus of priorities. Well, both of us got the chills. What a huge accomplishment after only 2-3 weeks of writing her goals. How quick and easy were those results! For her to now in a position to be proactive with her boss by initiating huddles to discuss progress and goals was a huge satisfaction for both of us.

I share this story with you because it obviously works when you allow yourself to be accountable to someone. Whether it’s a coach or your boss, making the commitment to write out your weekly goals and discussing how they are aligned to your mission, will help you to be focused as you wok on your tasks.

Sure there is more to my coaching with this client, we are dealing with paper files, introducing The Paper Tiger, and setting up a tickler system, among other issues of time management and planning. Naturally, it makes sense to get the emotional clutter out of her mind and focus in on her goals. When we understand why she is moving forward, then we can start looking at the priorities of the piles on her desk. I’ll close with this quote from my book, Lost in Your Own Office, “things don’t clutter, we clutter, and when we understand why, we can make simple changes to improve the quality of our life.”

It’s not only simple, it is achievable. If you would like a free 30 minute phone consultation to see if I could be the right coach for you, email me now or call me now at 303-881-0174 – PST.

Here I am these days enjoying the beautiful warmth, breezes and sunshine of Arizona.  I ventured off to Arizona in January to work with some new clients and have found that I am really enjoying the climate, the people, and the gorgeous evenings.  For years, I’ve longed for quiet nights on a patio enjoying the outdoors.  Today, I woke up to a gorgeous breeze and my favorite Greek yogurt and berries for breakfast on the porch off the kitchen enjoying the view as well as the breeze.  It inspires me.  This picture is my gorgeous view.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to an event and a perky woman sat next to me.  She introduced herself as Elizabeth.  I told her that I was new to the area and she promptly asked me what I did for a living.  I told her about my consulting and shared with her how it was intriguing to me that although the weather seems to slow you down, the business pace is very quick.  I like the quick pace as it’s a great space for clearing the clutter, keeping things moving.

Elizabeth had a very interesting analogy, whether it’s true or not doesn’t really matter.  It sure made sense though.  She told me that she was from California and like me , Colorado, people are used to the grounding of the trees, the grass, things settling.  Liz said that life different in the desert, it can be hard, as the surface is hard.  Every now and then, there will be a big gust of  wind and it blows the dust away — it clears anything that has been stagnant on the ground.  I got to thinking that if only we all could let the clutter bounce off the ground and have something quickly blow it away.

As I help people to get organized and be more efficient, I am always looking for new ways to help them to relate and make the process easier.  So today if you find that you want a clear desk, clear kitchen counter, or a clear calendar, think about what you can do to blow away the dust and start out of with a fresh slate.

Clear the clutter and get organized with this foolproof plan.

If you’ve been putting off closet cleaning because you don’t know where to start or think it will cost too much, it’s time to kick the task to the top of your to-do list. This step-by-step plan, culled from top closet cleaning pros, will help you clear out clutter with a minimum of anxiety and cash. And who knows, your newly tamed closet just may become your favorite spot in the house.

Optimize Your Shoe Storage

Where you decide to house footwear depends on your closet space, but you should be able to quickly put your hands on the pair you want, which means they have to be easily identifiable. We recommend using either a clear 24-pocket over-the-door shoe bag ($15; spacesavers.com); Shoe St√∂r clear, stackable shoe boxes, which come in three sizes (from $40 for 10; clear-shoe-boxes.com); or an aluminum stacking shoe rack($20; containerstore.com).

http://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/relaxing-101-expert-tips-reduce-stress-and-anxiety

(redirected to you from www.residentialorganizing.com – call us now at 303-881-0174 to organize your closets in the Scottsdale, AZ or Denver, CO area)

As I was going through my morning routine, getting ready to run out the door today , I was reminded it’s recycling day!   It made me think of an item that I recently saw at The Container Store for sorting recycling was a really great idea. Based on so much awareness in the media today, I know I am much more conscious of the environment.  In my neighborhood, it’s Thursday – which means the recycling bins needed to go out this morning.

I used to stumble through the house and collect everything from all my rooms and would always seem to forget something somewhere and kick myself and say, oh well next week.  Then it registered in my mind that if I created a storage recycling area that was functional and attractive in each room, it wouldn’t be such a daunting task.

By sorting your recycling even in the smallest way you will have a head start to getting it out the door for your weekly pickup.  If you’re in an area where you have to cart your own recycling, being organized from the beginning will make the task a lot less daunting.

Using recycling bins in each room can help sort out newspapers or magazines where you read in the kitchen, living room or other rooms.  Your glass and plastic bins can go in your kitchen area or in the family room if you use a lot of beverage plastic and cans still.

The key is to look at what you’re doing and set up a system in the area where you find you are using stuff and make it easier for yourself and your environment to have a handy recycling bin station strategically placed.

Remember things don’t clutter, people clutter.  When we make simple changes, we can improve the quality of our life at work and at home!  Happy recycling!

Based on what I’ve seen in working with many of my clients, often times they don’t get things done because they don’t give deadlines for projects they want to accomplish.

It seems that many people these days have lots on their plate and have “issues” getting things completed. For the entrepreneur who is more of a solopreneur, they may not see the cost of in-completion so some projects seem to get pushed aside for the next “more interesting” project.

How do you develop a sense of urgency? It’s the old story of setting goals. If you don’t set goals, chances are you’re going to just keep doing the same thing day after day and wake up one day realizing you still haven’t accomplished anything.

I think about goals here on this Ash Wednesday, as it reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago. The joke was something like, “Ash Wednesday is the Catholc’s chance to redo their new year’s resolutions.” Being Catholic, I know that it’s a time to reassess some spiritual goals.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, only 40 short days for the time of sacrifice. To me it’s a spiritual goal. The interesting thing is that with the limited time of 40 days, it tends to be much easier to maintain the goals.

Let’s take that smaller time period with your business or personal goals. I’ve heard that you should throw away “annual” goals and make them quarterly, 90 days. It’s a lot easier to chunk it down and be realistic about what you can accomplish.

It actually works too. In November I was at a conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. The funny thing was that I was in a hotel for three days and on Sunday morning when I got to the airport to return home, I had made a mistake with my flight and didn’t have a reservation until the following week. I had to re-book and spend an extra 36 hours in Scottsdale. Long story short, I loved this Phoenix suburb. So much so, that I got back to Denver and made a plan to find more work and create a way to start enjoying more time in Scottsdale.

Having written down my goal and having it fairly short term (I knew I wanted to be there before the end of the April, 2012), it started to fall in place.

So this evening as I was in church listening to the sermon of sacrifice, I thought about how turning my back on temptations to let things slide was like not setting goals. My message is that when you value your life, no matter what your spiritual path may be, setting goals allows you to not only create a path to avoid what’s not helpful, but to also create space for a better life.

Anne McGurty recently presented “Lost in Your Own Office – Part 2” in Castle Rock, CO to the Professional Women Heathcare.

After the great success of the “Part 1” session Anne spoke about an individual personal assessment tool called DiSC™ that measures you personality and behavioral style that will help you to:

• Develop into an effective leader
• Improve customer service
• Enhance communications
• Increase productivity
• Organize your work load
• Facilitate better teamwork and minimize team conflict
• Cultivate your social skills

Comments from the Women in Healthcare participants included:

• Now I’m looking at co-workers and figuring out where they might fall in the DISC scale – and how to work with them better.
• Loved the interaction with others and learning something about myself!
• Informative, concise and useful..
• I now know how to interact with different personalities better.
• Anne brings a great knowledge through her real-life examples and warm personality.
• Excellent discussion of our personality types and how we can relate to others and improve ourselves at work.

Look for information coming soon on 3rd part of this amazing series to take place in early January 2012!

Last week I had the opportunity to speak to the National Association of Purchasing Managers (NAPM), here in Denver, CO. The interesting thing is that I had been a member of this organization years ago when I was in the corporate purchasing world. I knew a lot of the faces and it felt great to share my experience with them as I know exactly what their worlds are like.

When the meeting planner asked me to speak, she asked about what topics I had in my portfolio and naturally it made sense to talk about organization and productivity. But here’s the interesting thing, she told me that the group wanted to learn about networking. Great topic!

When I was in purchasing part of my job was to continue to learn more by participating in the monthly NAPM meetings. Yet I never really got much personal connection, except for a few contacts here and there. Based on my experience and the meeting planner’s topic request, I prepared a presentation from a chapter in my book, Lost in Your Own Office, titled Who are all these people?

The interesting thing is that most people go to events and think they are being proactive by stepping out and getting business cards, having conversations, and then never really do anything with this information.

In my presentation, I asked the audience to raise their hands to my question, “How many people met someone new last month at the NAPM meeting”?  I’d say about a dozen people raised their hands. I then asked them to keep their hands up if they have connected with that person since the last meeting. Every hand went down. I got chills.

So how can you be more productive in your life and maximize the value of your time spent at networking events? The system I recommend to maximize the connections you make are these few steps:

1. Bring business cards and collect cards of those you meet.
2. Immediately input those contact names into a database when you get back to your office, ie., Outlook, iContact , Gmail, etc.  If you hate typing, purchase a scanner or delegate the task to an assistant.
   • Organize the contacts using categories on where your met them.
   • Note personal interests.
   • Schedule follow up opportunities, ie., holiday cards. Use programs such as SendOutCards or Constant Contact.

3. Follow up with an email or send a card and invite them to meet for coffee.
4. Invite them to be your connection on social media platforms like Facebook and Linked In.

I promise you that taking these simple steps to stay connected and paying more attention to the people you meet will be an incredible value in building relationships in your life both professionally and personally.

Developing relationships with business contacts may turn into the friendships that save you in a time of crisis. I share my story of how my business relationships helped me in Sharing Your Truth, Volume II.

Even though building business is what most of us are striving for every day, it’s important to have the awareness to see beyond the dollar signs of individuals and value the humanness of everyone — which can have a tendency to be lost in our day to day business world.

Recently when we had The Paper Tiger webinar, I mentioned to the attendees that this webinar was just an introductory to what they could do with organizing files and any other “stuff” that you or others want to find. Participation on this call was a great step towards getting organized, naturally, it make sense to keep the momentum moving forward and take action now.

I’m excited so many of the participants have taken the next step on their journey by signing up for my Introductory Coaching Program. I look forward to watching their continued growth.

If you missed the last webinar, we have another one coming soon! Join us for our next Live Webinar scheduled for November 17th at 1:00 EDT.

REMEMBER if you fear it, do it!! Fear will challenge you and allow you to grow. Once you step forward and face your fear, you will truly come alive.

“Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.” ~ Mark Twain

SPECIAL!

Forward this to your friends and family!

Personal Productivity Development Coaching For ONLY $297 Receive a 30 day coaching program to:

• Assess your organization,
• Create the right plan customized for the way you work,
• Identify the right tools, and
• Create a plan for maintenance
• PLUS, receive a free copy of my book, “Lost In Your Own Office, Tips for Getting Organized”

All this for ONLY $297! Click here for the details and to get started.

The $297 program includes a one-hour weekly one-on-one phone call (total of four) and unlimited email quick questions. This package is regularly $1,500 for a three-month program.

If you or anyone you know is looking for the most effective cutting edge tools, strategies and techniques for long-lasting change in your business and personal life, call me at 303 881-0174 or email at amcgurty@strategizeandorganize.com today to schedule your time with me and take advantage of this special offer! Or refer to my website at www.strategizeandorganize.com.

Check your email in the coming weeks – I’ll be sending messages to stay connected with you and checking in on your progress! (If you want to unsubscribe, please refer to directions at the bottom of this newsletter.)

September is almost over and I’m always tending to review my fall checklist.  See for me September/fall is almost a time for renewal.  My birthday is August 30 (this year was a big one, I turned 50!).  It was fabulous.  I had about 30 friends come to visit for the celebration.  Some friends I’ve know for a long time, and some friends, Lisa and Jim Jimenez came in from Orange County, and my former boss from the corporate days at Encoda Systems, Dave Johnson, cut his work week in Las Vegas short to be part of the celebration as well.  When was the last time you gathered your friends to celebrate your friendships?

I’m incredibly lucky to have such a committed group of friends.  These events are good reminders of how good life is and can be — which makes me think of values.  How do values work into organization?  How do you value friendships?  Do you have tons of friends and you keep making more?  Are you running around trying to please everyone you meet? Friends and family can bring chaos as well – I’ve gotten to the point that I like to think about how much certain people bring into my life.  What about the people in your life?

As I was at my party I went around the room at one point acknowledging everyone and took a few minutes to talk to each person about the value they brought into my life. My family is all over the country and it’s not that they didn’t want to be there … well that’s a whole other blog posting. The point being that I value my friends as a family.  They have been with me over the last 30 years that I’ve been in Denver and supported me through business ventures, jobs, holidays, and most recently breast cancer.  It’s no wonder I value this group of friends.  Think about your life, would it be time well-spent to think about the people in your life that have made an impact in your life and invite them to a special celebration to celebrate them?

So as I think about the rest of the fall, I’m reminded of how I want to spend my time.  It’s like the Pareto Principle, that 80% of the results are from 20% of the effort.  So if I were to spend time with the 30 people who are active in my life, then I could dare to guess that I could have a fairly abundant life.  Who are the 20% in your life who are making a difference?

Could it be that simple?  I’m thinking so.  We don’t have to overcomplicate our lives.  People will come and go… and come back.  Acknowledge those who are showing up and spend valuable time with them, rather than always wanting more, or putting needless demands on yourself to please everyone.  Enjoy the friendships and support right in front of you, like a favorite coffee or tea mug, it’s absolutely perfect, enjoy it everyday and simplify your life.