tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29051315984374299942024-09-05T22:58:46.383-04:00Strategies to organize your business for success!Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-40286332803068924682013-05-28T22:29:00.003-04:002013-05-29T00:34:27.659-04:00

Wellrich Organizers is now boasting a new website.  Our blog is now contained on the website and you can follow us there.  Click through for more information and tips on how to keep your office organized, yourself more productive and your world a little calmer.  Looking forward to seeing you there.

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-70490015988483760452012-01-31T07:00:00.002-05:002012-01-31T07:00:05.435-05:00

Many of us are planning for the holidays and looking forward to some downtime after a busy fall.  Great idea.  What's top of your list when you get back to the office in January?With a little forward planning, by the time you get to April, you'll be focussed on those new clients having signed off and sent off your annual tax return.  If you are still working on a paper-based system

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-9532883673743484662011-11-30T10:25:00.000-05:002011-11-30T10:25:14.651-05:00

With the new year looming, most people have already picked up their calendar for next year.  Some of you are die hard e-calendar types and just keep scrolling on down the screen while 2012 comes up to great you. The rest of us are not and still prefer the paper version.  It has been my experience that many individuals with a strong kinesthetic preference for learning and digesting

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-72846473551322945202011-01-19T17:35:00.000-05:002011-01-19T17:35:40.953-05:00

Are you staring at a shoe  box of receipts?  Here's a quick and inexpensive way to get those receipts tamed.  Pick up an accordion folder at the local office supply store with 12 sections, one for each month.  Label the sections.  Start by filing the receipts by date into the appropriate section. Some people prefer to file by category.  Date or category, it

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-46766802963716499432010-12-08T22:17:00.001-05:002010-12-08T22:18:00.194-05:00

Before working as a professional organizer, I spent several decades in a corporate environment.  Those of us who have ever worked for someone are familiar with the annual review process.  But have you ever considered applying this concept to the organization of your office?  If you were giving your office an annual review, how would it fare? Are the position description and

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-9076282136368731212010-11-23T23:45:00.000-05:002010-11-23T23:45:51.442-05:00

Do you think you could tell if you worked beside someone who is hoarding?  Would their work behaviour reflect hoarding behaviour at home? Probably not - people who hoard do not normally brag about their hoarding behaviour. In fact, most of them are very private and often have not let anyone in their home for many years.  Normally they can not be identified from anyone else walking down

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-89232738160269928462010-06-24T07:00:00.003-04:002010-06-24T07:00:00.394-04:00

As a professional organizer I am frequently asked how I recommend people stay on top of their email.  There are a variety of strategies for managing the actual email when you first open it.  Use folders to file information and flagging action items for example.  When it comes to the emails that have been left in your Inbox too long here is a process I call the 10 percent

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-84814814001824070612010-06-16T23:50:00.000-04:002010-06-16T23:50:25.090-04:00

If you travel frequently for business you know that staying organized while on the go can be a challenge.  There are three main issues to address: a) receipts b) staying productive and c) being prepared. Often one's entire trip involves keeping track of those darn receipts.  Whether you work for yourself or a large corporation, even with a friendly and fully loaded expense card, that

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-63678589780780627182010-05-31T10:14:00.000-04:002010-05-31T10:14:54.801-04:00

You organized your desk top, cleared out your files, set up your hot files and got your income tax in on time with a moderate "clean up this mess" bill from your accountant.  Congratulations! And now you sit dispondant staring at a piles of paper on the floor, an inbox full of unopened mail - both electronic and otherwise - and stuff all over your desk.  You've spent the last half hour

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-46570447888118750742009-09-16T06:51:00.004-04:002009-10-19T09:15:26.968-04:00

Third quarter is over and your heading into the final stretch of your financial year. How are you doing on those business goals for your (your choice) a) portfolio b) directorate c) division d) company e) small business?Getting things done, the old to do list, and making goals are all activities with which we are very familiar. Many of you have even been on courses to try and figure out how to

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-59387145182830094352009-06-01T11:45:00.003-04:002009-06-01T11:58:07.309-04:00

The electronic age was meant to speed up the way we work and computers promised to make life easier. They have, however, brought with them their own challenges as witnessed by the common frustrations of managing email. If email is soaking up too much of your day, try these tips:Turn off the email alert on your computer. You know emails arrive constantly. You don't need your computer to remind

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-43932496677440344302009-05-27T10:53:00.005-04:002009-05-27T11:11:20.445-04:00

So how is that desk going? The credenza? The floor? What about your New Year's Resolutions to keep a clutter free, high efficiency work space?Right about now, as second quarter comes to an end and tax time looms for many solo-preneurs and small business owners, the clutter is at an all time high and level of discouragement follows suite.So I thought now would be a good time to revisit an

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-23395494829398566252009-05-14T09:40:00.003-04:002009-05-14T09:49:06.541-04:00

Are you a "sticky note" person? You know what I mean; there are some of us who like to make notes on bits of paper to remind us of things. There are a few by the telephone to remind us to call someone, a few on the filing cabinet to remind us where to find something and a bunch all over our desk with numbers, names, notes and reminders that are so buried under the rest of the paper they are

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-74027693465950574322009-05-11T13:23:00.004-04:002009-05-11T13:36:36.487-04:00

The ten minute challenge is one of my favourite organizing techniques. When used regularly, is highly effective at keeping one's home or office organized.Find a bag - the new recycled shopping bags are great for this. Give yourself 10 minutes to fill the bag with items that do not belong in your office and need to return to wherever it/they belong. A common variation on this strategy is to fill

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-18641832972545795222009-04-20T10:16:00.002-04:002009-04-20T10:25:35.132-04:00

More and more I have noticed that most clients have a glue spot in their office or home. You know this place. Whenever something gets put there, it never moves. That specific spot has really good glue all over it and when an item gets put down, its stuck.Sometimes we just don't see the items in this spot once they've taken up residence there. Sometimes the location is hard to clear out

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-30005719001380923272009-04-01T09:55:00.003-04:002009-04-01T10:00:58.626-04:00

How it happened I hardly know but here we are at the beginning of April. That means first quarter is over. How are those goals coming?Have you checked your progress recently?Do you know where you filed them?Are they still valid?Are they still realistic?Did you implement the tools to measure them?Were they measurable to begin with?Are you happy with the progress?Are you ready to celebrate your

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-77228235318676728312009-03-25T09:29:00.003-04:002009-03-25T09:34:41.961-04:00

This post is going to make everyone else happy and give you some more work. "Oh great!", I can hear you say. But remember, when your organization makes everyone else happy, you look good.It's not about goals - its about agendas. Do you use them for your meetings? Do you send them out ahead of time? Are they clear and concise and related to the previous meeting's minutes (if there was one)?

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-5891619076933267892009-03-23T09:21:00.004-04:002009-03-23T09:33:17.112-04:00

You've heard it. I've heard it. We all know what it sounds like."Getting a little anal aren't you? Turning into the next Martha S. here at the office?"Here comes the criticism from those people, usually one person in particular, who can't stand to let you reach a higher level of organization in your work. It might even be your boss. Who knows, maybe that person is jealous, envious or afraid

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-42864389802774162262009-03-20T12:47:00.002-04:002009-03-20T12:52:54.362-04:00

To keep the organizing going, and the clutter at bay, every item in your office needs to go back to its home. In most organizing projects, next to purging, much of the work is in establishing a home for everything whether its paper, files, e-files or other objects. Once an item has a home, it needs to return there when you finish using it.Again, just a few minutes a day to scan your office and

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-4158402528427880022009-03-20T12:46:00.003-04:002009-03-20T12:56:12.425-04:00

"If I had time", you say, "I would be more organized!" I know, me too. Unfortunately since none of us have figured out how to put an extra couple of hours into each day, we will just have to work with the 24 hours that we have.Let's start with your calendar. Do you have one? Do you carry it with you all the time? If it is a paper calendar, can you put it into your purse, briefcase, computer bag?

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-4629869870903593042009-03-17T10:45:00.003-04:002009-03-17T10:50:19.432-04:00

Have you ever noticed the tendency to walk into your office and immediately put down on the first horizontal surface whatever is in your hands? It is such a common habit that we professional organizers find amongst our clients that if you are missing something, I would suggest you check the first flat surface you find in each of the rooms you have just visited.To maintain your sanity and stay

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-67862347668050525272009-03-16T14:05:00.003-04:002009-03-16T14:14:30.560-04:00

I am committed to education. I am committed to educating my clients with new behaviours and habits to keep their lives organized. I have heard it said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If my clients continue to do what they have always done - their lives will once again be full of the clutter that I help them control/purge/manage and they

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-64479748529532518822009-03-12T08:34:00.004-04:002009-03-12T08:37:47.212-04:00

Hop on over to my colleague Marcia Francois at Organizing Queen. Tomorrow she will walk you through an online decluttering exercise - like those feeds to which some of us are addicted but really never use. Sound familiar? Lean and clean to be productive and effective.

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-89323129560484740192009-03-11T10:43:00.003-04:002009-03-11T10:50:19.994-04:00

If you are working in a home office, you may have already identified that it is important for your work life balance to set up a form of boundary or border. Separation of work and home life is essential for good organization, good health and productivity. Here are a couple of ways to accomplish these borders:Use screens, room dividers or use a bookcase/filing cabinet or other furniture as a room

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905131598437429994.post-89262044894272333722009-03-10T09:35:00.004-04:002009-03-10T09:43:56.930-04:00

"Who has time to organize?" you ask. "My boss has just been let go and a dozen colleagues have been downsized. A neat office is not on my priority list."While a neat office may not be high on your priority list, A1 performance ought to be. In these difficult economic times, you want to be sure your high performance is facilitated by your organization level and not hampered or impeded by your

Carolyn Caldwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00740610449436292368noreply@blogger.com0