Personal productivity has a broader meaning than “just” time management. However, managing the time spent on specific projects is an important component of personal productivity. There are many pieces to the puzzle including: mental control, decision making, delegation, process management, etc. That said, personal productivity is all about getting more done with the same time and resources.

As a professional organizer / efficiency trainer I help my clients, both business and residential, get more done with the same time and resources.

I help them better organize their :

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At ORGANIZING Mind over Matter we believe that business productivity and office efficiency is essential for business growth. I am Vicki Winterton, a business productivity consultant and efficiency coach. I was recently invited to speak to a local Chamber of Commerce group. I shared with those in attendance a few of my  business client’s success stories in becoming more efficient and productive in their business environment. I promised meeting attendees some valuable downloads and office efficiency tips. Those helps are located below, but before you take a look ask yourself these 4 important questions:

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This is a collection of productivity tools I’ve either become familiar with or developed myself since I began my business in 2006. You’ll find that they address a number of different needs. Pick the one that seems to best fit your needs and give it a try for a couple of weeks. Who knows, you may find just what you have been looking for:
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Organizing a home office will help you become more effective and useful.  As an student intern for Vicki Winterton, Utah’s professional organizer, I have learned that organizing a home office takes time, but is totally worth it when completed.  Everything in your home office will have a place and you will be able to find the items you need.  You will also have the work spaces you need and they will be clear of other items so you can work there.  As you begin organizing a home office, follow Vicki’s ACT and SPARK organizing formulas.

3 Steps to Begin: Read more…

The reason my home based business clients are in business is because they plan to make money. You are here, because you want some money making tips for your home based business.

I am Vicki Winterton, a Utah based productivity coach, business strategist and home office space design specialist. I’m glad you found me. Here are a few money making tips I share with my home based business clients and small business clients to help them increase their online sales.

Gil Carlson, an online word expert, shares his best practices for online selling:

1. Money making tips include words to draw in your prospective buyers: free, you, new and how to
2. Money making tips include words that add power to your message: confidence, happiness, success, achievement, energy, intelligence, purpose and strength
3. Money making tips include words that grab the readers attention include: announcing, easy, important, discount, improved, practical, bargain, and plus

YOU are here because you are interested in getting more done in less time so you can find the time to impliment these and other money making tips  and increase your business profits. Contact Vicki at Organizing Mind over Matter if I can help.

Photo Organizing in my own home is a project that I save for 3 years at a time and then tackle all at once. I recently worked with Linda in Cedar City, Utah and helped her with her photo organizing. She had decades of photos and needed to know how to go about working her way through them. These were the 6 steps I shared with Linda. These steps apply to digital or printed images.

1. Photo organizing with the end result in mind: You need to know what your goal is. Decide how you would like your photos to be stored and displayed:

• In scrapbooks with sheet protectors?
• In a hardcover book of memories?
• In CD or flash-drive form?
• Online for all to see? or
• Cute photo boxes lined up on a shelf?

2. Anything is easier with the right tools: Invest the time and money to obtain the right editing and storage option for your photos. If you are working with digital photos, you may want to invest in a good photo storage and editing program.On my PC I love Picasa’s free option. Make sure anything you invest in for your printed pages is archival quality so your photos are safe forever. If you want to store all your MOST important photos digitally, any photo scanner should do the trick for you.We are all more motivated to organize when we have a cute package to organize in.

3. Tackle the project: Remember your photo organizing goal is unattainable without a start date. Schedule time to work on one box or  folder at a time. Don’t get overwhelmed by the mass, focus on a small bit and work through it one hour at a time two times per week.

4. Purge: Every photographer can eliminate a large percentage of the photo organizing process by purging bad photographs. Initially begin by purging all pictures that are:

• blurry
• have bad composition
• are duplicates OR
• are meaningless.

When deciding whether a photo is purge worthy ask yourself,  ”Will I or anyone else get real value from seeing this picture?” If the answer is yes, then do what I do and keep the one in which YOU look your best.

5. Develop a photo organizing system by sorting and categorizing: Start with your current kept photos and work backwards. (Those older photos are not going to go anywhere.) As you take new photos, organize and label them immediately so they don’t add to your unorganized pile. Decide which of these options is best for you:

• photo organizing by year (begin a decade at a time)
• photo organizing by child (each by name)
• photo organizing by event (vacations or holidays)

The great news is…these are YOUR photos, so there are no hard rules to live by. Determine what you prefer and apply it to ALL your pictures. ** It is important to distinguish between storage and organization. Remember that storage is the container. Organization is what you put in it and why. Whatever photo organizing system you choose, create a labeling technique that coordinates. Once photos are organized, labeling will make finding what you need a breeze.

6. Create a back-up: Be sure that once you have organized your photos, you create a back-up for them. CD’s or jump drives work great as well as the new ipod. Remember to label disks so that it is easy to find what you are looking for. The other option for back up is to use free “cloud” internet storage.

When it comes to storing and displaying your photos, select an option that is right for you, and go for it!  A great picture is priceless. Photo organizing allows you to remember the greatest of your memories! For additional photo organizing ideas, listen to my WIN network podcast, show #058 Organizing Photos.

Take Command!   Create a Paperwork Landing Pad

Do you need a go-to spot for paper  management of papers that are incoming? As a professional organizer servicing the Utah County area, I find the organizing service most often requested by my residential clients is a workable paper management center. A place for them to stay atop incoming and outgoing family centered information. Papers and memorabilia come into our homes daily and need a place to “land” so they can be easily retrieved and dealt with.

Here in Utah we have larger families with many of our children involved in after-school clubs, sports, and other activities. The amount of “stuff” brought home and needing an organized “rest stop” is often doubled.. If YOUR kitchen counter is cluttered with family schedules, school papers, mail, or invitations; I suggest you assign a small file box as the “family file” to help clean up that chaos. The family management center is a place for everything to “live” until completed. This works ideally for busy families needing to organize life’s activities. Here’s how to get started:

1st Divide and Conquer your Incoming Papers

Sort the paper that commonly clutters up your kitchen counter. Think of paper processing as a runway where there is room for landing and take-off but no room for parking! When I work with clients, I have a list of forty possible file categories (sorting options) of which they choose up to 12 that best fit their family’s paper needs. Without my master list, I would suggest you gather your stacks and sort with my RAFT formula. Paper management is easier if you will actually touch each paper in your current paper piles and decide what the next action is for the paper you are holding in your hand. The RAFT formula is:

Read

Act (this includes actions such as bills pay, errands, discuss, etc. but for now do not subdivide. That comes after the first sort.)

File

Toss (These go right into the shredder or trash.)

A supplemental paper collection option for families with school aged children includes capturing incoming paper in separate “in-box” trays OR a wall  system that has pockets labeled for each family member. This allows each child to oversee the management of their own incoming papers. This is a great way to initiate the habit of accountability in your children.

Paper Management includes Home Office Organization

Paper Management includes Organizing your MOST Important Papers

Desk Organization for Paper Management

Filing Cabinet Tips for Paper Management

Incoming Paper Management includes Family Management Centers

Family disorder costs us in terms of our time, energy, money, relationships, and effectiveness. Pay attention to the traffic patterns and current habits of your family members and find a place in YOUR home for a center that can truly be central to what is happening. In most homes this is the kitchen area or an entry space. Plan on half a day to get your family’s incoming papers requiring further action whipped into shape. Once you have completed the paper management part with a family management center, you will feel you are once again in command.

If you would like to talk with Vicki about her spending a few hours helping you set up the necessary systems for a Family Management Center, call the number below or click here.

    A well balanced family schedule and life is hard to achieve. Many of my clients feel like they are juggling life with way to many balls in the air. Some questions each of us have asked include these:

1. How do I live a balanced life in this busy world?
2. Is time for myself selfish?

These are good questions. A few years back I asked myself these very questions. I needed techniques that worked! Luckily, you can benefit from my years of research and work to design the best tools and techniques for “finding” time.

I appreciate you visiting my website.  As a “thank you” you may download all 5 options below. In addition, I have compiled many great forms, tips and techniques in my Household Manager Binder Kit:

• Five pre-labeled binder category dividers to easily organize your binder.

• Instructions for putting together a small ”file box” for easy containing and follow up of those dreaded kitchen counter paper piles.

• 30 pages of forms and 10 instruction sheets for better management of your family, schedules, contacts, meals, time, and papers.

• Many of my “best tips & techniques” for organizing specific home trouble spots (this in-and-of-itself is a $60 value.)

This Binder Kit for YOUR household contains the best of what I offer my paying clients. Over 40 pages of forms, techniques and tips to better manage:

1. Your life

2. Your family

3. Your time

4. Your home and papers

Here are the Freebies I promised:

• My balanced family schedule worksheet to see how balanced you currently live.
• The Julie Beck family schedule prioritizer. (She is the current president of one of the largest women’s organizations in the world.)
• The family schedule weekly template I designed to implement President Julie Beck’s suggestions.

For more information on time management click the page links below:

Changing behavior the easy way.

Time management tips I shared with a TV audience last year.

Contact me by email or call 801-623-8411 to Order your own Family Manager Binder Kit so you can live a more relaxed life.  Aren’t YOU ready for a family schedule and personal life that allows you more time for yourself and the people and things that really matter to you?

Do you want to get on with the business of organizing your home by downsizing your stuff, but you’re scared you might someday need the items you are currently holding on to? The “what to keep” process begins with two BIG questions, 1) “How do I decide what I should keep?” 2) “How do I know I won’t need that item in the future?”Well, it’s your lucky day! I am a Utah based professional organizer who services clients through out the state of Utah and I am here to answer those questions for you. Please begin by watching the TV segment I recorded recently. It has some great info for you, THEN read on to learn even more!

• WHAT TO LET GO when organizing your home: If it’s not meaningful, OR you haven’t used it in a year, let it go. How will you know you won’t need it in the future? You don’t! You only know that you don’t need it right now AND you haven’t used it recently therefore you probably won’t need it in the future.
• WHAT TO KEEP when organizing your home: Most meaningful or most useful items should be kept. Simply said, that is the key!
• WHERE TO GET STARTED when organizing your home: Look over the ‘What to Keep List’ below and begin with YOUR #1 concern. Use the questions next to the links to clarify what you should keep:

1. Kitchen gadgets – Ask, “Where exactly is this going to go?”
2. Clothing items – Ask, “Do I really need more than ___ of this item?”
3. Children’s school keepsakes – Ask, “Is this a true favorite?”
4. Garage sports equipment – Ask, “Have I used this in the past year?”
5. Important Papers Retention Guide – Ask, “What is the worst that can happen if I let this go?”
6. Things of sentimental value – Ask, “Does this item best represent my memory?”

Each of the above links will give you some great information on organizing your home and will begin the forward movement you have been longing for. PLEASE, leave a comment and share with us which of the 6 home areas is easiest for you to keep organized and why. Others can learn from your experience!

(The 2 free downloads mentioned in the video have expired. I do still offer them to my clients.)  IF you get stuck on what to keep OR if you’ve tried organizing on your own and just can’t do it, contact me, Vicki, at Organizing Mind over Matter. I am trained and experienced to help you with organizing your home spaces quickly and easily.

Organized Clutter?

These two words have very opposite meanings. At dictionary.com we get the definition of both words:
n. clut·ter
1. A confused or disordered state or collection; a jumble.
v. or·gan·ized
2. To put together into an orderly, functional, structured whole.
a. To arrange in a coherent form; to systematize.

At the conclusion of a seminar I taught recently in Mapleton, Utah many people come forward to visit with me and some used this term, organized clutter, to describe their living conditions. I believe there is no such thing. Either there is Order OR there is Clutter.
_____________________________________
Tips to Prevent Clutter
Here are three simple questions to ask yourself before you bring
something new into your space:
1) Am I going to use it often?
2) Am I going to use it now, or in the very near future?
3) Where is it going to go?
REMEMBER THAT:
• everything must have a place and space is limited
• clutter can not be disinfected or sterilized…only reduced
• possessions are never as important as people

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Problems can not be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them. — Albert Einstein   THINK ABOUT IT!
One of the best ways to prevent clutter, is to stop it before it starts.
The best way to stop it before it starts is to set up systems that meet your needs.  Remember that there is no such thing as organized clutter. Happy Organizing!

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