One of the best ways to achieve this is through your blog navigation. You want to make it as easy as possible for readers to find the type of information they were looking for in the first place.

Let’s take a closer look.

Depending on your score, you might have the urge to do a little housekeeping on your blog. Before you jump into that, here’s a bit more information about the various blog features I mentioned in the quiz.

Categories

Categories act as a Table of Contents to your blog. Unlike a book, where related information is organized into chapters, you might blog about a certain topic several times over the span of many years. Organizing your posts into clearly defined categories will help readers find those posts with little effort.

I’ve worked with a couple of clients who hadn’t categorized their posts from the start. One was quite new and only had a few posts, but the other had more than1000 published posts over a 10-year period. In both cases we were able to break their current and future content into a few distinct categories. Now their readers can find the information they want, quickly and easily.

In other words, categories are good. Going overboard is not so good.

When I started blogging back in 2006, I wrote about anything that crossed my mind, creating new categories on the fly. I discovered that instead of being a helpful guide, a long list of categories makes it difficult for readers to figure out where to go next.

Before starting this blog three years later, I developed a list of the categories I would blog about. Taking this step has kept me focused on those topics, and helped keep my content organized for my readers at the same time.

Categories should be broad enough to contain multiple posts, with minimal overlapping. If one post fits under three or more different categories, you probably have too many.

Even though one of my clients had previously pruned her blog categories list, she felt it could be even more streamlined. After reviewing her categories, we were able to eliminate five without leaving any posts uncategorized.

Your categories should be clearly named so they’re meaningful to your audience.

Tags

Don’t make the common mistake of confusing tags with keywords. Tags are not the same as keyword metatags (which no longer have any SEO value anyway). They are a navigational aid for your readers, so don’t overwhelm them by offering multiple options for the same concept.

If tags are already part of your system, keep them useful and consistent. If you’ve never used them, don’t feel like you need to go back and add hundreds.

If you’ve been using tags for a while, you may need to do a little clean-up. Here are a few ways you can do that.

1. Delete any tags with no posts associated with them.
2. Look for tags that are basically the same, e.g. blogging help, blogging tips, blogging advice. Choose the best one and delete the others.
3. Delete tags with very few posts associated with them. If your reader loves a post and clicks on the tag, but the only post that comes up is the one they’ve just read, you’ve just lost them.

In most cases, each post will have a list of its tags at the beginning or end, linked to other posts with those tags.

Related Posts

Linking to related content within your blog is a great way to keep readers on your site.

As you write a new post, include a link to one of your earlier posts when it’s appropriate. You’ll see an example of this later in this post. Leave a comment to let me know if you find it!

WordPress and other popular blogging platforms offer a number of options for automatically displaying posts which are similar to the current one, but selecting your own “You might also like” links tend to get more attention.

Search

If you’ve been blogging for a year or longer, a search box could be the most important feature of all. People today are very busy and have short attention spans. If someone is looking for specific information, they don’t want to scroll through pages of your archives just to find out whether you’ve ever covered that topic in your blog. A search box will let them locate wherever you’ve used a specific word or phrase, regardless of how you’ve categorized or tagged your posts.

Search functions aren’t all created equal! Make sure the search experience on your blog is actually useful.

Relevanssi is a useful WordPress plugin that allows you to give your readers better results.

Archives by Date

By the way, the Blog Archives one was a trick question, with no points either way.

On most business blogs, archives by date have very little value to readers. How likely is it that someone will go to your blog specifically looking for a post you published last May? Unless it’s connected to a particular event, it’s not likely at all. Do you even remember when you wrote your own posts?

Resource Pages (also called topic hubs or resource libraries)

A category page simply shows all posts in that category, usually in chronological order. A resource page takes things a step further by creating a guided path through your best content.

Think of it like a curated bookshelf. Instead of asking visitors to browse through dozens of posts and figure out where to start, you hand-pick the resources that will help them most.

For example, a blog about organizing or productivity might have resource pages such as:

• Start Here
• Organizing Paperwork
• Time Management Strategies
• Home Office Organization
• Creating Systems and Routines

Each page might include a brief introduction, your most helpful posts on that topic, and links to any tools, downloads, or other resources you recommend.

Resource pages are especially useful for older blogs with years of content. They give your best posts a “second life” and help new readers discover information they may have missed.

You don’t need to create dozens of them. Start with the topics that are most important to your readers and your business.

Enjoyed these tips?

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Best Practices

Here are a few of the strategies that have worked for me.

• Choose your categories up front.
• Display your category list prominently, in a sidebar, in your footer, or even in its own menu.
• Stick to your chosen categories as closely as possible, unless your business or blogging strategy changes.
• Keep one category sufficiently broad that you can go off-topic from time to time. Just don’t call it Uncategorized. That looks like you either forgot or couldn’t be bothered to “put it away.”
• Use your category list to organize your blogging ideas.
• If you delete tags or categories, redirect them to the new ones to avoid breaking any links.
• Make sure your Search box won’t display content you don’t want anyone to find, such as a Thank You page. The Search Exclude plugin for WordPress is great for this.
• If you’ve been blogging for a really long time, you’re probably proud of that, and you should be! But there’s no need to have a list of dates as long as your arm taking up valuable screen space. Simply mention in your bio that you’ve been blogging since XXX. Or, if you really want to keep your Archives by Date, display them as a dropdown list.

This is a newer strategy that I haven’t implemented on my own site yet, but it’s definitely on my radar:

• Create resource pages for your most important topics, especially if you have a lot of older content that is still valuable.

How did you do on the quiz? Feel free to share your results in the Comments.

Photo by Dmitry Rukhlenko / depositphotos. Quiz created with Gravity Forms.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Your Blog Has Great Content. Can Readers Find It? and join the conversation.

Students often ask me what CRM (client relationship management) application I recommend for a professional organizing business and do they need one. Let’s talk about CRMs.

When I started my organizing business in 2003, the CRMs available were geared for medium size businesses or larger ones. If the CRMs available today that focus on single-owner businesses or businesses with a few employees were available in 2003, I would have set my business up on one.

Instead, I mostly automated my business workflow without a CRM using the following applications:

• Website (client intake and engagement)
• Mailchimp (build a leads/client list and stay in touch)
• Acuity Scheduling (schedule client sessions)
• Square (invoice and collect payments)
• Quickbooks (client database and business accounting)
• Zoom (client assessment and virtual sessions)
• Google (email and client information sharing–Docs, Sheets, Forms)

How I have automated my client process without a CRM:

Client Inquiry

I receive 99% of my leads/inquiries on my website, where a viewer is easily directed to my Get Started page, which begins the client intake process where they:

• Are prompted to select a date and time for a 15-minute discovery call (Acuity Scheduling integrated with Zoom)
• Read and sign my client agreement (a form created in Acuity Scheduling with embedded code on the Get Started page)
• Complete my needs assessment form (created in Acuity Scheduling with embedded code on the Get Started page)
• Upload project photos
• When I worked on site during the pandemic, I required proof of Covid-19 vaccination uploaded
• Schedule discovery call

Client Books Session

• After the discovery call, I email the client (not automated) to schedule a session, including a link to book client project sessions (the link is generated from Acuity Scheduling)
• The client books their organizing session
  • Confirmation emailed (automated email generated from Acuity Scheduling after scheduled)
  • Reminders are emailed automatically from Acuity Scheduling

Client Pays Invoice

• The client pays the invoice for the session (linked with Square), which is triggered when they book their session
• I manually enter the invoice and payment in Quickbooks

Client Session

• Conducted virtually in Zoom
• Information sharing is done by email with links to Google Docs

Project Completion

I email my client after project completion (not automated), including

• a note of thanks
• request a 5-star Google review (provide link)
• link to book future projects, and
• request they complete a satisfaction survey (Google form)

I think the most significant component I am missing is the automation of tracking leads and converting them to clients.

However, Mailchimp does a good job with auto-responder emails after someone requests the free offer on my website.

So, let’s talk about CRMs, and you can decide if one is right for your business.

What is CRM?

Quite simply, CRM is Client Relationship Management. From Wikipedia, Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.^[1]

Why do you need a CRM?

A CRM gathers customer interactions across all channels in one place. Managing centralized data helps your business improve customer experience, satisfaction, retention, and service.

Having your client information in one place improves workflow seamlessly, and task automation eliminates repetitive work. Let’s look at how your workflow could flow in a CRM:

Client inquiry (website contact us page, a form created in CRM templates). The client information is captured from the contact us page and stored in the CRM, which can be populated into scheduling, form templates, and invoicing.

• The client books a discovery call (integrated with an online scheduling tool or part of the CRM app)
• An email is sent to the client to complete a needs assessment questionnaire-an online form created in CRM templates (automated in CRM)
• An email is sent to the client after the discovery call to schedule a session (automated in CRM to be sent X minutes after the discovery call)
• An email is sent to the client confirming the project session (automated in CRM to be sent after booking)
• An email is sent to the client reminding them of the project session date/time (automated in CRM to be sent X hours in advance of the session)
• Invoice client (automated in CRM to be sent after booking or after completion of session)
• A thank you email is sent to the client after project completion (automated in CRM to be sent after the final session)

Other Features and Benefits of a CRM

Integration

CRMs can integrate with other applications such as Quickbooks, Zoom, Zapier, Calendars, eMail, Square, Paypal, Mailchimp, etc., avoiding duplicate data entry.

Client Portal

You can exchange information with your clients in a CRM. Organize your client’s forms, emails, invoices, and tasks in one place. Clients can access their portal on your website with a password.

Custom Triggers

Customize workflow actions to be triggered by specific conditions or at certain times.

Task Reminders

Create task reminders within a workflow for you and your team to stay on track with each project.

Tags & Statuses

Use workflows to tag projects and change statuses for quick and easy organizing.

Autopay

Set up recurring invoices that automatically collect payments.  For example, 50% at booking and 50% at project completion.

Client Reminders

Send automatic reminders to notify your clients about incomplete forms or upcoming payments.

Reusable Templates

Create templates for workflows, forms, proposal packages, canned emails, and more.

How do I find a CRM?

Google! Here are a few to start with:

Dubsado – best for small businesses and solopreneurs, attractive templates, focus on workflow automation. Their website was the easiest to navigate and locate customer support.  $35-$55/month or $335-$525 per year. You will receive a discount code if you attend a short webinar; mine was 50%.35

Hubspot – best for any business. Their website is also very easy to navigate. Free products or premium products start at $20/month for 1,000 contacts.

Jobber – best for scheduling and dispatching teams, time tracking, and expense tracking.  $49-$149/month

Honeybook – best for small businesses and solopreneurs. $29 – $109/month

SMMware – professional organizing and move management industry specific. Their website feels a bit clunky to navigate.  Starts at $30/month.

How do I choose a CRM?

Price

The price of CRM software can vary widely based on the number of users, the extent of the software’s functionality, and the company’s specific needs. And ask for a discount code! Many CRMs offer trial software periods to let you try out their CRM features and functionalities.

Easy to set up and use

Many CRMs put a strong emphasis on ease of use. Find a tool with good data visualization that provides streamlined apps.

Customer service

Look for a customer support team in your business’s time zone with good support and a large user community to quickly resolve setup difficulties.

The Bottom Line

CRMs are about increasing sales, saving you time and money, and giving customers a seamless process for interacting with your business. Only you can decide if one is suitable for your business or not.

Want to ask your colleagues about which CRM or other software they recommend?

Join the POPS Circle, where organizing and productivity professionals share ideas, resources, and support.

Photo by denisismagilov / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Let’s Talk About CRMs and join the conversation.

One reason may be personality. We all approach time, space, routines, and decision-making differently, and understanding those differences can make it easier to create organizing systems that feel natural and sustainable.

One framework that can help us explore these differences is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), a personality assessment designed to identify preferences in how people take in information, make decisions, and interact with the world.

While personality type doesn’t determine how organized someone is, it can influence organizing preferences and habits. That’s one of the reasons I became fascinated by the connection between personality type and organizing, and eventually developed organizing profiles for each of the 16 personality types.

What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and how does it work?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, or MBTI®, is a self-report questionnaire designed to help people determine their personality type. Here’s how it works.

Your responses to the assessment questions indicate your preferences in the following four areas:

• Direction of focus and source of energy
• Taking in information
• Making decisions
• Dealing with the outer world

Let’s look at each of those areas closely.

Direction of Focus and Source of Energy

People who prefer Extraversion direct their energy and attention outward. They receive energy from interacting with people and from taking action. People who prefer Introversion like to focus on their own inner world of ideas and experiences. They receive energy from reflecting on their thoughts.

If you prefer Extraversion, you are likely to:

• Act or speak before thinking
• Think best when talking to other people
• Take the initiative in making contact with other people
• Have broad friendships with many people
• Prefer spoken communication
• Tolerate noise and crowds
• Get restless without involvement with other people or activities
• Be equally at ease in a group or one-on-one
• Share personal information easily
• Become impatient and bored when your work is slow and unchanging

If you prefer Introversion, you are likely to:

• Think before acting or speaking
• Think best when alone
• Usually let other people initiate contact
• Have a few deep friendships
• Prefer written communication
• Avoid crowds and seek quiet
• Get agitated without enough alone time
• Prefer communicating one-on-one
• Share personal information only after trust has been established
• Become impatient and annoyed when your work is interrupted and rushed

Ways of Taking in Information

People who prefer Sensing like to take in information that is real and tangible – what is actually happening. They are observant about the specifics of what is going on around them and are especially tuned into practical realities. People who prefer Intuition like to take in information by seeing the big picture, focusing on the relationships and connections between facts. They want to grasp patterns and are especially tuned into seeing new possibilities.

If you prefer Sensing, you are likely to:

• Gather information through your senses: sight, sound, feel, taste and smell
• Look at specific details
• Deal with known facts
• Live in the present or past, enjoying what is or what was
• Learn step-by-step through observation and imitation
• Trust experience more than inspiration
• Prefer precise and exact information
• Appreciate and enjoy traditional and familiar ground
• Communicate by presenting the facts and details first
• See predictability as vital to your relationships
• Prefer to use existing skills rather than to take the time to learn new ones

If you prefer Intuition, you are likely to:

• Gather information by way of a “sixth sense” or a hunch
• Look at patterns and relationships
• Deal with possibilities
• Live in the future, anticipating what might be
• Learn by seeing connections and through general concepts
• Trust inspiration more than experience
• Prefer approximations and generalizations
• Appreciate and enjoy new and different experiences
• Communicate by presenting insights and ideas first
• See change as vital to your relationships
• Enjoy learning new skills for the challenge and novelty involved

Ways of Making Decisions

People who prefer Thinking like to look at the pros and cons of a situation and base their decisions on logical reasons and consequences. Their goal is to find a standard or principle that will apply in all similar situations. People who prefer Feeling like to base their decisions on personal values. Their goal is to create harmony and to treat each person as unique.

If you prefer Thinking, you are likely to:

• Decide with your head
• Base your decisions on logic
• Consider all the pros and cons
• Value fairness and reasonableness
• Analyze information
• Tend to question other people’s findings
• Notice ineffective reasoning
• Choose truthfulness over tactfulness
• Prefer brief and concise communication
• Show caring more impersonally
• Be task-oriented in the workplace

If you prefer Feeling, you are likely to:

• Decide with your heart
• Base your decisions on personal values – what you like or don’t like
• Consider the impact of your decisions on other people
• Value harmony and compassion
• Understand people
• Tend to agree with other people’s findings
• Notice when people need support
• Choose tactfulness over truthfulness
• Prefer social, friendly and even time-consuming communication
• Show caring through personalized words and actions
• Be relationship-oriented in the workplace

Ways of Dealing with the Outer World

People who prefer Judging like to live in a planned, orderly way, seeking to regulate and manage their lives. Sticking to a plan and schedule is important to them, and they are energized by getting things done. People who prefer Perceiving like to live in a flexible, spontaneous way, seeking to experience life rather than control it. Detailed plans and final decisions feel confining to them – they prefer to stay open to new information and last-minute options.

If you prefer Judging, you are likely to:

• Have a decisive, planned and orderly lifestyle
• Like a definite order and structure
• Prefer to reach conclusions
• Enjoy finishing things
• Desire to do the right thing
• Dislike surprises and last minute changes
• Work before play
• Respect and feel comfortable with traditional relationships
• Work best with a plan
• Like checking things off a “to do” list

If you prefer Perceiving, you are likely to:

• Have a flexible, adaptable and spontaneous lifestyle
• Like going with the flow
• Prefer to keep things open
• Enjoy starting things
• Desire to have many experiences
• Like surprises and last minute changes
• Seek opportunities to combine work and play
• Feel hemmed in and restricted by traditional relationships
• Work best when you can deal with issues as they come up
• Ignore your “to do” list, if you even make one

Your preferences in these four areas combine to form YOUR personality type! As there are 16 possible combinations, there are 16 personality types, each with its unique organizing profile.

My Work with Personality Type and Organizing

After completing the MBTI® Qualifying Program in 1999, I became fascinated by the relationship between personality type and organizing style. Over time, I gathered information through online surveys, workshop participants, individual clients, and extensive reading on personality type and organizing.

I used what I learned to create organizing profiles for each of the 16 personality types, highlighting common organizing strengths, challenges, and tendencies. These profiles reflect patterns I observed in my research and experience, not hard rules – every person is unique, and factors like lifestyle, habits, family responsibilities, work demands, and technology also influence how we organize.

You can check them out here:

While my organizing profiles were developed through MBTI training, research, surveys, and experience, personality-based organizing has evolved over the years. Today, there are many approaches that recognize an important truth: organizing is not one-size-fits-all.

Resources about Personality Type and Organizing

There’s no shortage of resources about personality type and organizing style!

In addition to my own surveys and experience, I incorporated information from some of the following books into my organizing profiles. If you’re eager to learn more about personality type and organizing style, I encourage you to add them to your reading list.

• Lifetypes, by Sandra Krebs Hirsh & Jean M. Kummerow
• Out of Time: How the Sixteen Types Manage Their Time and Work, by Larry Demarest
• Looking at Type in the Workplace, by Larry Demarest
• Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Love, and Work, by Otto Kroeger & Janet M. Thuesen
• Work Types, by Jean M. Kummerow, Nancy J. Barger & Linda K. Kirby
• Procrastination: Using Psychological Type Concepts to Help Students, by Judith A. Provost
• Type and Time Management, by Sharon Fitzsimmons
• Type Talk at Work: How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job, by Otto Kroeger, Janet M. Thuesen & Hile Rutledge

Since then, Productivity Leadership Coach Ellen Faye has published Productivity for How You’re Wired: Better Work. Better Life., a guide to help you develop strategies that work for you, which is based on the MBTI framework.

Want to talk about personality type – or anything else?

Join the POPS Circle, where organizing and productivity pros share ideas, experiences, and encouragement.

More Recent Thinking About Organizing Style

Although the organizing profiles on this site are based on Myers-Briggs personality type, newer books and frameworks explore the idea that organizing systems should be adapted to individual preferences, habits, energy, and ways of thinking. If you enjoy exploring why certain systems work for some people but not others, you may find these resources interesting.

• The Clutter Connection: How Your Personality Type Determines Why You Organize the Way You Do by Cassandra Aarssen describes organizing styles and habits, with a practical, non-one-size-fits-all approach.
• Organizing for Your Brain Type: Finding Your Own Solution to Managing Time, Paper, and Stuff by Lanna Nakone and Arlene Taylor suggests ways to adapt organizing methods to an individual’s cognitive preferences.
• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear is not not personality-based, but contains useful insights for understanding why systems stick (or don’t).

Learning about personality type and the way it influences our relationship with time and space was one of the reasons I decided to become a professional organizer in the first place, and I’m sure you’ll find it fascinating too.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Organizing for Personality Types and join the conversation.

For the July edition of the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, we’re exploring Organizing for Creativity. How do you keep track of ideas? What systems help you move projects from inspiration to completion? How do you organize your workspace, supplies, schedule, or digital files to support your creative pursuits?

Share your tips, strategies, experiences, challenges, and/or successes. Whether you’ve found a system that sparks your creativity or learned lessons from one that didn’t, we’d love to hear your perspective.

How it Works

1. Write a blog post about the monthly topic – in this case, Organizing for Creativity. If you’ve written one in the past, most of your work is already done!
2. Submit your post using the form at the end of this post no later than 11:59pm EDT on Wednesday, July 15.
3. You’ll receive an email once the Blog Carnival is published so you can come back and read some or all of the posts contributed by the other bloggers. They’ll be reading yours too, so get ready for lots of comments and social media shares!

Participating in the Blog Carnival is a great way to generate traffic to your blog and it only takes a minute. Many contributors return month after month, earning special ranks like Star, Superstar, Megastar, or even Ultimate Star Blogger.

To see how it works, take a look at some past editions.

Do you offer a product or service that would interest professional organizers, productivity consultants, or their clients?

Why not sponsor an upcoming edition of the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival?

Submission Guidelines

1. You may submit an article you’ve written and posted on your own blog, a post you’ve written for someone else’s blog, or a guest post on your blog.
2. Multiple entries are allowed if you publish posts by multiple bloggers or guest bloggers on your site, and each entry is by a different author.
3. All submissions must fit into the theme Organizing for Creativity.
4. Submission deadline is 11:59 pm EDT on Wednesday, July 15, 2026.

The Blog Carnival will be published on Thursday, July 16, 2026.

Please use this form to submit your post. I’m looking forward to reading it, and to helping you get free exposure for your blog!

By participating in the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, you agree to receive Your Organizing Business once per week and From the Desk of Janet Barclay no more than once per month. You’ll be able to unsubscribe at any time.

Photo © Janet Barclay

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Call for Submissions: Organizing for Creativity and join the conversation.

Productivity and organizing aren’t always about doing more, faster. Sometimes, they’re about making life feel a little less bumpy, and my readers have shared posts describing what helps life run more smoothly for their clients and themselves.

They’ve written about mindset shifts, creating better habits, organizing spaces that support daily routines, staying on track when life feels chaotic, and more.

As you read the posts listed below, please connect with the bloggers on social media, leave comments, and share your favorites with your own network.

Thanks to everyone who contributed this month!

I’m now accepting submissions for the next Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, when our topic will be Organizing for Creativity. Submit your post as soon as you’re ready – any time before 11:59 PM EDT on July 15th.

If you offer a product or service that would interest professional organizers, productivity consultants, or their clients, maximize your exposure by sponsoring an upcoming edition of the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival.

Photo © Janet Barclay

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Life in Flow – Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival and join the conversation.

Client Background

Angela discovered and communicated to me that when her son was diagnosed with ADHD, she too was diagnosed with ADHD. When a child has ADHD, one or both of the parents have ADHD. Angela was relieved to find out there is a reason why she is the way she is, and now with medication, she was eager to clear her clutter and set up systems to keep her home organized. Angela contacted me in 2003, my first year in business, and I had no clue how ADHD affects a person’s ability to organize.

Condition of the Environment

Level 1 on the Clutter-Hoarding Scale. A beautiful home. Most spaces cluttered. Paper (years of it) was kept in beautiful baskets and bags. Every time the cleaning service came to clean the home, all surfaces were swept of paper into these baskets and bags and then never looked at again.

Techniques Used to Work with Angela

We spent several days sorting those years of bags and baskets of paper. Then I set up a prepackaged file system for her and taught her how to use it by filing the papers she kept into the system. Once we completed that process, I had apparently gained her trust, because Angela said to me, “Anne, I have a room I would like to show you that I think I want you to help me with.” I said, “Great, where is this room?” She said, “Upstairs. It’s the bonus room.” For those who are not familiar with a bonus room, for the past two decades or more, American homebuilders have expanded homes from having one- or two-car garages to three or four. Above the garage, they build a vast space and call it the bonus room, meaning the homeowner can use the area however they want. And therein lies the problem; it is an undefined, un-purposed space.

I asked Angela what she wanted to do in this space. She gave my question some thought and replied, “Well, I like to decorate the house for the different seasons, so I want to store home décor here. And I like to create memory books and other craft projects. Maybe play the guitar and hang out.” Angela defined her space as her “creativity center” to give it purpose to help us determine the criteria for what would stay in the creativity center and what didn’t belong there. The technique is defining the purpose of the space and what activities will take place in the space to determine what remains and what is jettisoned.

The next week, we sorted and purged her bonus room based on those activities.

Other Techniques For Working with Clients With ADHD

Find out how and where clients work the best. ADHD individuals are sometimes distracted by sounds that may not distract others. And others with ADHD do better with music playing while they organize and complete tasks.

• Timers or an alarm clock help ADD clients to stay on schedule. Timers also help teach clients how to estimate time—how long tasks take.
• Visuals are usually a must for ADHD clients. Calendars, wipe-and-write boards, Post-It notes, or pictures are a few visuals that create reminders for the client.
• Assist clients in making homes for things where they use them. This way, they won’t get distracted looking for lost things.
• A key technique I use is to have the client ask questions out loud. Hearing what one needs to do can move the decision-making process along.
• Teach your clients to do one task at a time—no multitasking! Examples of this include collecting trash from all over the house at the same time or putting all dishes in the dishwasher at one time.

Any Resistance

Not great resistance. Angela wanted to keep more than I recommended—mostly paper, because of fear. But overall, she was highly motivated to clear out the clutter. Once she was on medication for her ADHD, everything became three-dimensional, where before the clutter was wallpaper to her, and she didn’t see it.

Results

Angela has maintained the space since August 2003, she lost fifty pounds as a result of our work together, and she has taught friends how to set up a paper management system.

More magazine interviewed Angela about the best investment she ever made in her life, which was hiring a professional organizer. A few quotes from the article I would like to highlight are:

“‘Give me a pile of mail, and you might as well strangle me,’ Angela Coel says. At least, that was the old Coel. For years, although she managed to stay ahead of the curve at work, Coel always felt as if her ‘tail were on fire.’ And when she quit her job to stay at home with her kids, her chronic level of disorganization overwhelmed her.”

“Then, in 2002, Coel was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, began taking Ritalin, and started looking at things differently. Rather than seeing her problems as a moral failing, she began to view them as practical issues to be fixed. She decided to get help from someone whose skills complemented her own—a professional organizer.”

What I Know Now That I Wish I Had Known Then

• How difficult it is for a person with ADHD to get anything done—the daily struggles they have.
• The ADHD client feels tremendous shame because they often hear that they are “lazy,” “don’t care,” and “are slobs.” They constantly feel judged.
• The value of coaching, either integrated with the organizing, or one person working with her as an ADHD coach and another as the side-by-side organizer. Clients with ADHD benefit greatly from coaching to be accountable, stay focused, and receive positive affirmations about their progress.
• An understanding of how to reduce distractions and keep clients focused and activated during the organizing process.
• Medication helps tremendously to “activate” someone with ADHD; otherwise, they know they need to be doing something but can’t get started.

Want to talk to colleagues about working with neurodivergent clients?

Join the POPS Circle, where organizing and productivity professionals share ideas, experiences, and encouragement.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Working With Clients Who Have ADHD – A Case Study and join the conversation.

Wanting to better understand what does work today, I attended a webinar presented by Chelsea Lockwood, Social Strategist, and Ryan Bast, Senior Product Marketing Manager, both from LinkedIn.

My main takeaway from the session was to share useful insights that reflect your own experiences and thoughts instead of offering generic advice. The more specific you are, the easier it is to form meaningful connections. These insights may come from many places, including:

• mistakes you’ve made and lessons you’ve learned
• how you’ve responded to unexpected events
• approaches you rely on
• patterns you notice in your work
• ideas you’re currently exploring
• why you made certain decisions
• shifts you’ve made over time

As someone who’s been blogging and participating in online communities for years, this resonated with me. The posts I remember most, and the ones people tend to respond to, are usually rooted in real experiences rather than broad advice.

Here’s a great example from a recent post by Virtual Home Organizer Pam Holland:

“As a recovering perfectionist, I can say with confidence that perfectionism doesn’t usually make things better. It makes things later.”

Your posts will be most engaging when they are authentically you, so don’t worry about waiting until you have all the answers. Content grounded in actual experience tends to be more memorable and reveals more of your personality more clearly than generic advice ever could. Sharing what you’re learning can often be more engaging than sounding certain about everything.

I’ve noticed this with my own posts. In the past, I’d have avoided sharing anything remotely personal, focusing instead on business tips or links to blog posts, whether my own or others. Over the last few months, I’ve stepped outside my comfort zone and started sharing my own photos and thoughts. After enjoying others’ posts of that nature and noticing the level of engagement they received, I decided to try it myself, and it really works!

This is equally important when you comment on others’ posts. Try not to sound overly polished or too broad in scope. Instead, share your point of view and explain why it matters.

It’s essential to focus on what your audience wants to hear about. Are you familiar with the acronym WII-FM? It stands for “What’s in it for me?” and is what people are most interested in when deciding whether something is worth their attention.

This requires a good understanding of your target audience as well as what you’re uniquely qualified to talk about.

Want to connect with others who are sharing ideas, building businesses, and creating content?

POPS Circle is a great place to continue the conversation!

Although this was a LinkedIn event, many of the ideas apply just as well to other social platforms, and even to blogging. Whether you’re writing a post, sharing an update, or commenting on someone else’s content, your own experiences and perspective are often what make people pay attention.

If you’re interested in learning more, watch the recording of Turning Your Expertise into Content.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Sharing What You Know: Turning Experience into Content and join the conversation.

But wanting the leap and being ready for it are different things. This guide covers both: the practical groundwork you need before you quit, and the emotional reality that waits on the other side.

The Honest Emotional Terrain

Nobody talks enough about the identity piece. When you work a corporate job — even one you’re ready to leave — you have a title, a team, a calendar full of meetings that signal your place in the world. You’re someone who does X at a recognizable institution. The moment you leave, that “someone who” disappears before the new identity has arrived.

Research published in 2025 in SAGE Journals on career transitions found that people navigate career change through two parallel processes: mourning the lost professional identity while simultaneously exploring what comes next. Those who struggle tend to stay anchored in the grief phase, fixated on who they used to be. Those who move forward construct a new narrative that accounts for both what they’ve left and who they’re becoming.

For organizers, this is particularly concrete. If you spent years in HR at a hospital or overseeing operations at a company, your professional identity was woven into that institution. “I work at [Company]” is social shorthand that solopreneurs lose overnight. Replacing it with “I run an organizing business” takes time, and the gap between the two can feel disorienting in ways you won’t fully anticipate before you’re in it.

Isolation compounds the shift. Your former colleagues are still in the building, living the rhythms you used to share. Your new peers (other organizers, other solopreneurs) are people you haven’t met yet. Building that community is part of the work, not a luxury you tack on later. The transition is much harder without it, which is why the mental-health section below comes back to it.

Don’t Quit Yet: Build Your Runway First

The most dangerous version of this leap is the dramatic one: a resignation letter, a big announcement, and three weeks later, quiet panic about money. The financial unprepared exit is how reasonable people end up undercutting their prices, taking clients who aren’t a good fit, or retreating back to employment before their business had a real chance.

U.S. Bank’s guidance for aspiring small business owners recommends saving 12 to 18 months of personal living expenses before leaving employment, and that figure is separate from any money your business needs to operate. For a service business like professional organizing, startup costs are lower than for product companies, but you still need cash for marketing, liability insurance, software, and the months before your client roster is consistent.

A simple framework for building your runway:

1. Calculate your real monthly personal expenses: rent, food, utilities, insurance, debt payments. Be honest; this isn’t a time to round down.
2. Multiply by 12 to 18 to get your personal runway target.
3. Add 3 to 6 months of projected business costs on top of that.
4. Open a dedicated savings account for this fund and treat it as untouchable until you’re ready to use it.
5. Set a specific launch threshold (a savings milestone or a recurring revenue number) and commit to it before you start counting down to your last day.

The runway buys you something more important than time. It buys the freedom to set your prices honestly, turn down clients who aren’t a fit, and let your business find its real shape instead of a desperate one.

Validate Before You Leap

The SBA’s Office of Advocacy found that only about 27% of high-propensity business applications actually became employer firms in 2021. The gap between intending to start a business and actually building one is real and wide. Most people who file that application, who feel the pull and buy the domain name, don’t make it through validation.

The research is clear on what helps: test your idea with paying customers before you quit. Neri Karra Sillaman, writing in Harvard Business Review, argues that validating with actual customers while still employed is the most important thing an aspiring entrepreneur can do. Not a business plan. Not a logo or a website. Paying customers.

For organizers, this means taking clients on evenings and weekends while still employed. Charge something. Free work doesn’t validate a market. What you’re trying to answer is simple: will people pay for this, and will they come back or send referrals?

This period also teaches you things you can’t learn from planning: how to describe your work to a stranger, what your ideal client looks like, where they find you. A 2014 study by Joseph Raffiee and Jie Feng found that entrepreneurs who keep their primary job while launching reduce their business failure hazard by 33.3% compared to those who quit immediately. Treat the side-hustle bridge as evidence you’re taking the business seriously, not as evidence you’re hesitating.

Building Visibility on a Solo Budget

You don’t have a marketing team. You have a phone, a few focused hours each week, and the work itself. Here’s how to use what you have.

For professional organizers, visual platforms are your strongest asset. Before-and-after photos of spaces you’ve transformed do more for your credibility than any brochure. Post them consistently on Instagram or Facebook. Ask clients for short testimonials and share them. Let people see exactly what working with you produces.

Short-form video is increasingly how new clients discover local service providers. A 30-second walkthrough of an organized pantry, a 60-second tour of a closet transformation, a brief introduction to who you are and what you do. These hold attention in ways that static posts don’t. Short-form video is one of the most cost-effective visibility tools available to solo founders, and you don’t need professional equipment or a production team to start.

If video production feels out of reach, AI tools have lowered the barrier considerably. Adobe Firefly’s AI video generator lets you create polished short-form content from text prompts or images, which makes it practical for a solo organizer who wants to show up on video before she has the bandwidth or budget for a full production setup.

The strategy is straightforward: show up consistently, show your actual work, and make it easy for the right people to understand what you do and how to reach you.

Protecting Your Mental Health Through the Transition

This section is not a nice-to-have. Dr. Michael Freeman’s UCSF research found that entrepreneurs are roughly twice as likely as the general population to experience depression. The conditions of solo work — financial uncertainty, isolation, the absence of external structure, the constant blurring of personal identity and business performance — create real psychological risk.

Three things help significantly:

Build a peer community before you need it. Joining a group of fellow organizers or solopreneurs before you exit corporate life means you’ll have people to talk to when things are hard. Don’t wait until you’re struggling to find your people.

Separate your self-worth from your monthly revenue. A slow month does not mean your business is failing. A difficult client does not mean you’re bad at this. New solopreneurs often treat business outcomes as personal verdicts, and that habit is corrosive. Learning to hold the two things separately, the business and the person, is one of the more important skills you’ll develop.

Keep something in your life that has nothing to do with work. Exercise, a friendship, a hobby. Anything that gives you structure and satisfaction that isn’t contingent on a client saying yes. The loss of enforced separation between work and the rest of life is something corporate jobs provide automatically. Solopreneurs have to build it on purpose.

Quick Q&A

Do I need a formal business plan before I start? You need a clear picture of your target client, how you’ll reach them, and what you’ll charge. A formal document is optional. A spreadsheet showing how you’ll cover your costs for the first six months is not.

How many clients do I need before I can quit my job? A reasonable threshold for a service business is enough recurring or repeat revenue to cover your monthly personal expenses, not your future goals but your actual costs right now. If you can hit that mark consistently for two to three months while still employed, you’ve validated something real.

What if my employer finds out I’m running a side business? Review your employment contract for non-compete or conflict-of-interest clauses. Most organizing businesses don’t overlap with an employer’s operations in ways that create legal issues, but you should know what you’ve agreed to. When in doubt, ask an employment attorney before you start marketing.

How do I handle the identity shift when I meet new people? Practice saying “I run a professional organizing business” out loud before you’re doing it full time. The awkwardness of the new identity fades faster when you start using it regularly, not just internally but in conversation.

The people who navigate this transition well share a common pattern: they built their financial runway before they quit, they got paying clients before they bet everything on the idea, and they built the support structures to sustain them through the emotional reality of going it alone. You can do this in that order, and you’ll be better positioned because of it.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Making the Leap: How to Transition from a Corporate Career to Running Your Own Business and join the conversation.

What does this mean for you?

• Twice as many meetings to choose from (or attend them all, if you like!)
• A chance to connect with a wider network of professionals and expand your circle beyond the organizing and productivity community

Our meetings focus on conversation and relationship-building in both small and large groups. Last month, we talked about summer and what it looks like for our businesses, and the answers were different for everyone.

If you help people with organization and/or productivity, you’re very welcome to participate.

Upcoming Virtual Networking Sessions​

• Thursday, June 11, 2026: 1:00 to 2:00 PM EDT
• Thursday, June 25, 2026: 2:00 to 3:30 PM EDT

Summer meetings will be held twice a month:

• 2nd Thursday, 1:00 to 2:00 pm Eastern (the usual GHVA time)
• 4th Thursday, 2:00 to 3:30 pm Eastern (the usual POPS meeting time)

There will be a new meeting link for these meetings, so be sure to register, even if you’ve joined us before.

Members consistently share that the greatest benefit they receive is the information, support, and connections they gain through these meetings, so I hope you’ll join us this summer and see what the buzz is all about!

Visit Your Organizing Business to read More Summer Networking Opportunities with POPS Circle and join the conversation.

You probably don’t need to know that, but if you have a business and/or a website, there are facts about domain names that you should know. In this post, I share answers to some of the questions I’m asked most often.

What is a domain name and why do I need one?

A domain name is the name that identifies a website, e.g. yourorganizingbusiness.com. Without a domain name, your website address will look something like 209.34.78.419/~yourname, which is ugly and next to impossible to remember, or yourname.wordpress.com, which is only slightly better.

Having your own domain name is important for branding and helps your business look established and professional.

How can I get a domain name?

To register a domain name, you need to go through a domain registrar such as Namecheap or Hover.

Please note that your domain name and your website hosting are two separate services. The domain is your website address, while hosting is where your website files live.

Many domain registrars also offer website hosting, but you don’t need to purchase both services from the same company. There are both advantages and disadvantages to keeping them together, but that’s a topic for another day.

How much do domain names cost?

Domain name registration usually costs between $15.00 and $30.00 and must be renewed annually.

Watch out for hosting companies who tempt you with free domain registration when you host with them. One of my clients wanted to move her site to a faster hosting service, but learned that her domain name belonged to her web host, not her! Domain registration is relatively inexpensive, so don’t cheap out!

What happens if I don’t renew my domain name?

It’s important that your domain registrar has your current contact information so you receive your renewal notice on a timely basis. I recommend that you use an email address that’s not connected to your domain, because if it does expire, they won’t be able to contact you.

To be on the safe side, I recommend enabling auto-renewal and keeping your payment information up to date.

If you don’t pay your renewal fee, your domain registration will expire, which can be expensive or even impossible to reverse. Most registrars offer a grace period after expiration, but the exact timeline varies. If your domain isn’t renewed, it may eventually become available for someone else to register — or even be purchased by a domain reseller.

Be cautious about domain renewal notices that arrive by mail or email. Some companies send official-looking notices designed to look like invoices, even though they’re actually trying to get you to transfer your domain to them at a higher price. Make sure you know the name of the company that handles your domain registration and renewal and always log into your account to check for billing information if something seems off.

How should I choose a domain name?

A domain name which corresponds to your business name will make it easy for people who already know about your business to find your website, but only if it’s easy to spell and remember. It’s quite a mouthful to say, “my website is at annmariewilsonclothing4children.com” — and just try and fit that on your business card!

If you’re a solopreneur, I recommend registering your personal name, even if you also have a business name. For starters, people are more likely to remember you than the name of your business. Secondly, I can’t even count the number of people I know who have changed their business name or direction since they started (myself included). Using your own name right from the beginning makes that type of transition much easier.

If your ideal domain name isn’t available, think hard about what else might be effective. Using hyphens to separate words is one option, but keep in mind that you’ll have to mention those hyphens every time you tell someone your website address.

Ideally, your domain name should also align reasonably well with your social media usernames, so your branding is consistent across platforms.

Do some brainstorming with your business coach, accountability partner, or a colleague.

Want to talk to colleagues about branding your business – or anything else?

Join the POPS Circle, where organizing and productivity professionals share ideas, experiences, and encouragement.

Should I get a .com domain, or something else?

The most common extension is .com, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to secure a good .com domain. Many Canadians use .ca, either because .com with their preferred name was already taken, or to make it clear that they are a Canadian business. Other countries have similar domain extensions, but .us has not caught on nearly as well.

There are over 1000 other TLDs (top level domains), and new ones are introduced every year. Read Domain Extensions: Types, Uses & How to Choose the Right TLD to help you decide which one is best for you.

How many variations do I need?

Because domain names are so inexpensive, many business owners register several variations to ensure that they’re not available to competitors. You can also register several options and only renew the one(s) you end up using.

What is Domain Privacy and do I need it?

Information about registered domain names is listed in the WHOIS database. Depending on the type of domain and the registrar you use, some of your contact information may be publicly visible.

In the past, this often included your name, address, phone number, and email address, which could lead to spam emails, phone calls, and privacy concerns.

Today, many domain registrars include Domain Privacy protection at no extra charge, and privacy regulations have reduced the amount of information that is publicly accessible. However, the level of privacy varies depending on the domain extension and registrar, so it’s still important to check what information is being displayed.

If you run your business from home, Domain Privacy can provide an added layer of protection by helping to keep your personal contact information private.

Unfortunately, registering a domain name is still a bit like putting up a tiny “spam welcome” sign on the internet!

What’s the oldest domain name?

The first domain registered was symbolics.com, on March 15, 1985. The Symbolics Computer Corporation is no longer operating, but the website has some interesting historical information.

Did I miss anything?

If you have any other questions about domain names, please let me know.

Photo © NiroDesign / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Domain Names: What You Need to Know and join the conversation.