I teach a business strategy class at my local Small Business Development Center. In that class we discuss the idea that the reason you are in business needs to be of value to yourself and your customers/clients. If what you do IS of value, then now is the time to optimize your space and time by organizing your home business office. My definition of living organized came from a mentor of mine Stephanie Calahan, “Easily finding WHAT you need WHEN you need it.”

Below are a few home business office organization ideas pulled from the NAPO website. I’ve added my own thoughts in red.

1. Organize your home business office with time management:

• Use a planner to track appointments and tasks. It can be a paper-based notebook, a computer software program, or an electronic handheld device.

• Create at least one hour of uninterrupted time each morning to tackle projects and action items.

• Allocate nearly 2 times the time for a task that you think it will take. This accommodates for interruptions, etc.

• Break large projects down into small, sequential steps. Schedule these steps into your week with your planner.

• Set priorities for tomorrow – The best way to determine priorities is to ask your self the following questions:

• “What is the best Income Generating Activity I could be doing right now?”
• “Who are the people or organizations that bring the most money into my business?”
• “Where could we cut costs in the business/organization that would allow us to yield more profits?”

2. Organize your home business office by organizing your desk

• Keep only the home business office supplies you need on a daily basis on your desktop or in your desk drawer.

• Create an Action File for your incoming papers and documents.

• Use your in box only for items that haven’t yet been reviewed. Once reviewed file them in your reference file or your action file.

3. Organize your home business office with a good paper file system. Contact me for my 10% discount code on any of the systems you see in the link listed above.

• Create a filing system for your electronic documents that mirrors the one you have for paper.

• Keep a file index (a master list of file names). Check the index before creating a new file to avoid making duplicates. Also use it when deciding where to put new documents.

• Refer to your company’s records retention plan for guidance on how long to keep documents. If you don’t have one in place, leave a comment by clicking here and I will email you the one I use with my clients. Be sure to check with your accountant for his ideas on my suggestions.

Listen to my online show dealing with this very topic. Read more about home business office organization here.

I specialize in home business office organizing and have learned through training and years of experience the strategies that make home business office organization easier to begin AND simpler to maintain. I organize in person for Utah located clients, and virtually with phone and photos for others throughout the USA. If you need help beginning this project, contact me for your FREE 20 minute phone analysis.

Home office organization is necessary in order for your mind to feel calm enough to function well in your home office.

“It was a pleasure working with Vicki. The most helpful thing I learned was organizing my home office paperwork. I can quickly file and find anything now. The ‘sticky notes’ and paper piles previously covering my desk have now been eliminated. The information she taught me has been very helpful.” –Linda in Highland, Utah

“Before I worked with Vicki it took me a great deal of time to find what I needed in my office. Now I know where everything is kept. I now have an attractive, organized space where I get many things accomplished. Order in my office has brought me peace and happiness. I’m now in control, not my things in control of me.” —Norma in Provo, Utah

For additional helps, here are some helpful links to pages and posts on my website and blog:

1. Home office productivity includes making sure your to-do list gets done
2. Home office organization should definately include organizing your MOST IMPORTANT papers – your vital documents
3. Home office organization includes organizing your desk
4. Home office organization includes organizing your paper clutter
5. Home office organization includes organizing the papers in your file cabinet

In the podcast, home office organizing,  which I recorded today. I talked you through the important parts of home office organization. Then in my show page blog I gave you some great information about how to fine tune those items I discussed generally in the podcast. Listen and look for even more great information.

Home office organization is key to peace and order in your life. Don’t give up if you have not yet succeeded! Click here to see before and after photos of home office spaces I have organized, click here. Contact me if you have tried and found you need professional organizing help. I organize by-your-side throughout Utah and by phone and transfered photos nationwide. Leave a comment at the top of this post and tell us your favorite home office organization tip!

Changing Behavior

I recently read the book ‘Getting Organized’ by Chris Crouch. He focuses on changing behavior and points out that anytime we encounter a new idea there are three possible outcomes:
1. Nothing will happen
2. We will alter our behavior in some minor ways
3. The idea will significantly change our behavior and our life forever

A year ago I worked with my client Susan in Alpine, Utah. She greeted me when I arrived with this statement, “I am just NOT an organized person!” “My mind does NOT work that way.” She and I worked side-by-side for a total of 10 hours. Susan learned, as we organized her kitchen, pantry, and family management center that, in fact she WAS an organized person…Her mind DID work that way. She went on, as can most of my clients after working on 3 spaces beside me, to organize the rest of her home so her home spaces “worked nicely” for her. (She had considered up-sizing so their family of 7 could be comfortable in their home. She found this was no longer needed.) Changing behavior through change to home and business spaces is my specialty.

At ORGANIZING Mind over Matter we teach you that when you learn a better way, you need to realize the benefit of it’s application in your life. To make that stretch, you need to move beyond the comfortable. Is better organization of YOUR time and space a better idea? If so, now is the time to begin changing behavior ! Take a look at my before and after photos to:

1. motivate you AND
2. get a few ideas of how to tackle your own spaces.

Listen to my podcasts or Email me at 801-623-8411 to talk about beginning your change!

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 use 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

—————————————-

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!

For organizing help

Home based business ideas and marketing strategies are something I have focused on for over 25 years. I am an entrepreneur at heart and have formed three very successful home based businesses over the past 23 years. I was invited recently to teach a class at the Orem Utah, Small Business Development Center and promised to share here some home based business ideas and marketing links.  I have found these helpful in the early stages of getting a home based business up and running:

• Concept Design Studios – A logo and branding design option that comes highly recommended.
• A list of THE best blog directories to which you should join: Technorati, Blog Catalog, and Google Blogs
• A book on writing your own press release by a woman I am a great fan of, Janet  Meiners Thalaer. Click here to find it on Amazon
• Submit your own press release announcing your website, blog, business, new products/services or important business happenings.
• MailChimp A simple way to email newsletters, manage your subscriber lists, and track marketing campaign performance. FREE if you have less than 500 email subscribers.
• Affiliate Marketing Partnership options found at: Commission Junction or Linkshare

As a side note, as a business strategist and a home based business ideas specialist, there are a few things you should avoid:

• Using your tight marketing budget on PR firms or major advertising campaigns
• Spending too much money  in the beginning
• Investing in expensive marketing materials that soon become outdated and/or obsolete due to business changes

If you have not yet designed your own business plan you should realize it is one of the first home based business ideas you should take on. I suggest you begin with my 1 pg business plan summary or click here for a very detailed business plan template.

Finally, working a home based business has some nice rewards. It also has some real obstacles. One of the very best home based business ideas I can offer is to make more money and find more time by learning to set boundaries with yourself and with those who share your life. You can learn to easily prioritize your day so you can make more money; then schedule your work priorities so you find more time for your business building projects. If you struggle with this and need some personalized help, I can help you simplify your life and better organize your home office systems including:  papers, computer data, time  and space. Contact me at ORGANIZING Mind over Matter by clicking here.

As a Utah based productivity coach and practicing professional organizer, Orem and all cities within the greater Wasatch front area serviced, I was invited to speak at the local business think tank, Orem’s SBDC, on the topic ‘Marketing Strategies for a Home Based Business’. I shared with the workshop attendees some important tips for marketing their business.

As a Utah orgainzer, Orem / Provo based, I feel honored to have been given the opportunity to address this group. I believe I was chosen to address this issue because my business has performed so well. Even in this tough economy, I tripled my client base and doubled my income in 2009. I am an experienced business strategist and my marketing campaigns have something to do with this, but the main reason my business has done so well is because I am very good at servicing a growing need. I replace disorder and stress with order and peace in my workplace based clients offices AND my home based business clients lives.

As a productivity coach and professional organizer, Orem / Provo based, I set up customized office systems for managing time, papers, data and office spaces that work immediately AND continue working as time goes on…plain and simple!

Below is the link for my promised business builders. Before you go any further, leave a tip for future blog visitors near the title of this post by clicking on comments and sharing a business building question OR a marketing tip that has worked well for you. If you just happened upon this post titled ‘Organizer Orem’ and did not attend my class, please share a tip with us before you read on. I am a firm believer in questions and answers. That is what a good business strategist does. Now that you have completed that request, click here to access the business building information I promised.

If you are interested in hiring Utah’s productivity coach/professional organizer, Orem / Provo based to help you simplify your life and better organize your office spaces, papers, computer data or time, OR if you would like to know more about marketing strategies for YOUR home based business, please contact me at ORGANIZING Mind over Matter.

How do you handle your important conversations? Do you plan and organize your difficult conversations BEFORE they take place?

I am a reader. I have always enjoyed reading books that help me better understand myself, those I care about, and the world around me. The last two books I read, ‘Crucial Conversations’ by leadership consultants Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler AND ‘Without Offense – The Art of Giving and Receiving Criticism’ by Dr. John Lund both taught me how to better handle important discussions in a way that is not offensive and can strengthen relationships.

Patterson and group defined difficult conversations as a discussion between two or more people where: (1) the stakes are high, (2) opinions vary, and (3) emotions run strong.

I learned from Patterson’s group that “when participants hold back (because they are afraid of the consequences, want to spare someone’s feelings or don’t want to escalate a conflict) a true dialogue CAN NOT take place.” When you organize your difficult conversations, both participants should be open and remain emotion free.

One of THE most important things I learned in reading Crucial Conversations was to STAY FOCUSED. When I organize my difficult conversations I should be sure I clearly understand WHAT I WANT, WHAT I WANT FOR THE OTHER PERSON and WHAT I WANT FOR THE RELATIONSHIP. I need to also understand before beginning what I DON’T WANT the outcome of the conversation to be. “The only person I can directly control is myself.”

When YOU organize your difficult conversations, the authors of CC suggest you might begin with a dialogue much like this: “I’d like to talk with you about something that is getting in the way of my working with you.  It is a little touchy, but I feel it will help if we can talk about it.  When would you be willing to meet with me and discuss _______?” Dr. John Lund suggests you should ALWAYS ask permission to discuss the issue before you begin the discussion.

Start your conversation with Patterson’s groups ABC’s.

• What you Agree with or on
• Build & add on elements you do not agree on THEN
• Compare the differences

WHEN your organized difficult conversation begins to go bad do these things:

• Apologize when appropriate “The last thing I wanted to do was ___________ (hurt your feelings, make you angry).  I do value you(r) ___________  (friendship, opinion, etc.
• Stay committed to the dialogue. Remember, you organized your difficult conversation so focus on how to move toward what you really hoped to accomplish. Then
• Explore THEIR perspective. Ask questions and mirror responses to guarantee you understand what they are meaning to say.

I do understand that many of these conversations surface when we least expect them. Just this evening I was sucked into one of these difficult conversations which I handled poorly. Medical studies now show that just a modest improvement in the ability to talk and connect with others corresponded to a two-thirds decrease in the death rate of those in later years.

Dr. Lund taught me in his book that when I hope for something that I have very little control over…that is a wish. When I hope, plan and organize something that I do have control over…that becomes a goal.  Let’s take control of our emotions. It is of GREAT value to all of us to learn how to organize our Difficult Conversations. You can do this.

Today is your turn to better someone’s life. Leave a comment telling us what your most difficult conversations have dealt with and what the outcome of that difficult conversation was. Thanks for sharing!

Listen to my online show numbered 032 Organize your Difficult Conversations to hear Laura and I discuss this important issue.

   As part of January 2010 National Get Organized Month I am pleased to offer you this FREE downloadable form focusing on balancing work and family. By investing 10 minutes each week YOU will become a life balance pro. Click here to download your quick and easy Life Balance Worksheet.

Balancing work and family is not an easy job. But if you want to feel you are investing your time and efforts in your priorities, this life balance worksheet is just what you need to begin. I wish you great success! Thanks for droping by.

Please share with other visitors your favorite life balance tip(s) by leaving a comment. You can do this by clicking on the green numeral next to the word “comments” above.

Home Organizing Workshops

Join Vicki for any or all of the 3 classes she will be teaching during the month of January 2010 in conjunction with National Get Organized Month. The class information is listed below. If you have any questions about the Utah professional orgainzer, Vicki Winterton, and her organizing classes please contact us.

“I just wanted to say thank you for your time in teaching me about time management. As you promised, the “Action File” has changed my life. I’m able to stay on top of the paper mess that comes into my home. I knew the importance of daily maintenance prior to your class (I only learned this in the last year!), but you’ve taught me how to perform daily maintenance on the paper mess, not just tidying the house. Wow! What a great thing!” –Diane, 2009 UVUcommunity education class