Make Your Stuff Earn It's Keep by Lissanne Oliver

This is Lissanne's final blog hijack installment. Thank you so much for taking the time to offer us your useful tips to keep our studios and workrooms organised and clutter-free. - Peta


Did you know we use 20% of our stuff 80% of the time?

Think about the books, patterns, templates, tools and equipment you favour for your craft. Did you know that you use these supplies 80% of the time but they account for only 20% of what you own? It’s called the Pareto Rule, or 80/20 Rule.

Here’s some fresh ways you can use the 80/20 rule in your world:

*Ensure items are versatile. For example, a washing basket is almost only ever going to be a washing basket. Whereas a tub can also be a vessel that will hold water too. Suddenly, this item easily qualifies for your valuable 20%.


*Avoid multiples. Do you really need that cache of buttons, trims, stationery or stash of “collected” magazines? Be ruthless. I know you own multiples of things that you will never use again. Do you have multiples of items because the original was broken or lost? Time to pare down.

*Feeling cramped? Storage at capacity or overflowing? Try having your storage only 80% full. Having room to move is very liberating. If it’s tricky deciding what to let go of, remind yourself about what are you making space for- for example, all the homeless items you can’t put away!

*Choose just one day a week as your maintenance day. Only spend 20% of that day on your craft, and the remaining 80% dealing with paperwork, doing accounts, decluttering. I love Mondays for maintenance - it's an easy start to the week and allows for planning the coming days.

*There will be 2 things on your to do list that are more important than the other 8 (eg getting your tax done, so you can claim a lovely refund! Or making the call to the photographer who will shoot your next work, ready for sale). Identify the two and get cracking. The two that are most important are often the most overdue or the tasks we perceive to be unpleasant. Remember I said perceive!

*Are you not using a tool or piece of equipment to it’s full potential? I’ve been guilty of this. Make the time to read the manual so you can achieve a better end result. Do you only know how to use 20% of the features on your camera – what a shame!

Taking the time to make good decisions about the things you own is an investment. Through the process, you will find lost items, reconnect with valuable items and feel liberated physically and emotionally. Get to it!

Image sources: Vilfredo Pareto, Blue tub, Pink basket

Evernote Your Stuff by Lissanne Oliver

As a creative peep myself, I know it can be tricky to manage all the ideas, inspirations and references that are used to create. Collecting, storing and retrieving can be a challenge.

If you're anything like me you’ve used a random collection of sticky notes, scraps of paper, notebooks, browser bookmarks and bits and bobs torn from magazines and newspapers.

The old way of doing things:



Thanks to a tip from Joshua Zerkel of Custom Living Solutions I discovered a new way of doing things. It's called Evernote.

What makes evernote special? As they say, “Capture, organise, find.” Evernote is many things: a dumping ground, a search tool, an organising tool. It’s searchable, you can use tags, you can store snippets of text, URLs, photos, voice notes, sketches, literally anything you can think of. It will also recognize your handwriting so can search your (scanned or photographed) handwritten notes; amazing! I think it’s a great place for all those bits of info I *might* need or want to lay my hands on without thinking too hard about it.
It’s an app, a web based application, downloadable software from your computer. It automatically syncs across all mediums. Best of all, it’s free.


Here’s some ways I use evernote:

* I scribe creative ideas- say, an idea for a newsletter theme or blog post for time management and call the note “Next Newsletter”. I could also tag the note if I wanted say “time management" or "productivity" so I can easily retrieve multiple notes easily.

* I collect notes into notebooks - house renovations, Professional Organiser Training and recipes are just three of my notebooks, but you can have dozens of notebooks (or folders, if you like).

* I created a screen grab of my company web colours so I could be consistent with design across mediums. It’s safe in Evernote. And if it wasn’t in Evernote, where would I put it for goodness sakes?

* I dump images of decorating or design for inspiration.


Photo source: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/942134/

* Notes scribbled from a phone call are photographed on my webcam and uploaded so I can chuck the scrappy note and have a clutter free space. love it!

* I take a photo on my iphone of supplier opening hours can simply name the ‘note’ with the name of the store.

* I archive PDFs of my existing newsletters so I can know when I last mentioned a particular concept or tip.

Blowing your mind yet? Evernote really is “remember everything”. I don;t want to mess with your head, but the above are just the starting point... in the future, everyone will use Evernote. I swear I'm getting and Evernote tattoo.

There are so many ways you can use Evernote. Do you use is? Have you used it for task or project management? I’d love to hear!

Prioritizing Your Time by Lissanne Oliver

Steve Jobs said it:

“People are busy doing whatever they do best, and they want us to do what we do best. Their lives are crowded. They have other things to do than think about how to integrate their computers and devices.”

Wouldn't it be great if everything in life travelled smoothy and nothing ever went wrong? Things didn't break, emergencies didn't happen and unexpected tasks, projects and events didn't chew up our time?

Let me help you take better control. Let me help you manage your time. Here’s the best Steve like-advice I can give you.

First up: what’s your biggest time waster? Identify it, then moderate. Be honest with yourself: if it's screen time (eg the interwebs) limit phaffing to half what you normally do. Set a timer, then unplug your ethernet cable. If you're on wireless, shut down your browser and work interrupted.

*Allow for delays. They happen. 10% contingency is great. 20% contingency is genius. For example, if it takes you 10 minutes travel, allow 11 minutes. 11 minutes is great. 12 minutes is genius!


*Plan for the worst, hope for the best.


*Fortune favours the prepared mind. Kudos, Louis Pasteur.


*Have more time for the good stuff by focussing when you have to do and phaffing when you can. Don't mix 'em up.


*Email is a recipe for inaction. Pick up the frickin phone. Do it now.


*Don't "do it later." Not making decisions means clutter and it means you are having to revist, rethink, rehandle the thought or item.


*Are you doing too many things at once? Here's a wonderful poem to help with overwhelm:


Productivity in 11 words

One thing at a time.
Most important thing first.
Start now.

Or you can check out my series of comics to help with organising, decluttering, productivity: Luke Gets Lost is a familiar tale of laziness.

"A little work now for a lotta lazy later on."


Corinne Grant talks about "shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic". Agreed. I think procrastination is about as useful as drinking 3 bottles of wine in one sitting: there's no way you'll feel good about it the next day. Are you self sabotaging? Or just a tad lazy?


*Lissanne Oliver is a Snow dome collector, creative peep, business owner, collaborator,
TV presenter and as her dad says "The Bradman of Organising".

Top five Storage solutions by Lissanne Oliver

What the frick is a storage solution? It sounds like a crazy promise to me! Your storage problems are rarely about the storage you have, rather the content you own (too much) and where that content is located. Containerisation should always be second to dealing with your content.

1. Do a storage audit! Where is your most valuable storage and why? Are you storing little used items in your prime real estate?

2. Make sure your content marries the location. Don't be afraid to use containers from the kitchen for desktop storage; a pretty vintage tin marries function and form

3. Do you do mail order? A shipping station is a must!

4. Hang it up. Scissors, tapes, swatches, notepad, etc work beautifully on hooks. Making better use of horizontal space means you have space to plan and work.

5. Do you have a place for UFOs (unfinished objects)? If you don't have a 'home' for these items, designate one now. I like a shelf or secondary workbench for stacks, piles and groups of to dos. A clothes rail + bags + coathangers also works a treat for fashion / textiles on the go.
We love Multix Resealable Storage Bags (extra large for around $4 at Coles).

6. Clear containers are great if you want to view what you've got, but remember that with good labelling (can be visual as opposed to words) opaque containers will give you a more streamlines look.


TIPS:

* Remove lids from any container you have on a shelf - the box or tub will act more like a drawer and be easier to get to.

* Your desk top or workbench is for working not for storing.

* We love gigantun zip lock bags! they are great for soft, light materials or excesspackaging.

* Empty boxes are only useful when you put stuff in them.



All photos courtesy of Lissanne Oliver/SORTED! organising & decluttering and may not be used without permission.

Time to get SORTED! Lissanne Oliver is hijacking my blog for a week!

Ok, people this is an intervention! A hijack!

I'm Lissanne ... I am hijacking Peta Pledger's blog. I know you creative peeps struggle to get and stay organised. That clutter gets you down.

I help people get organised so they have more time for the good things. If you are cluttered, waste time looking for things, 'double buy' and struggle to stay (or get!) organised, the next five days are for YOU. Say no to overwhelm, and YES to being SORTED!

I'll give you a different task, direction or tips each day until Friday.

Today I want you to maximise your space. There are two ways to achieve this SUPER FAST.

1. PUT THINGS AWAY A great place to start getting organised is by putting away everything you've left out and about in your creative workspace.If it doens't have a home, assign it one now.
If you have no room to put away to, move onto step 2 immediately!

2. THROW OUT OBVIOUS RUBBISH
Excess packaging, empty boxes and containers (no, they really won't come in handy, look how many you have for goodness sakes!), old magazines (anything older than 3 months needs to go, let's start afresh for 2012). If you think you have no rubbish or recycling, move to the back of the drawer, cupboard, out in the shed or garage, and I guarantee you will find some. Bear in mind the rubbish can be quite large: old furniture you were going to repair, a piece of equipment that needs more TLC you can provide (Besides, it's been there for so long it's almost vintage now).

DO IT NOW! Take action. Stop phaffing. Start sorting.

So, stop reading and spend the next 15-60 minutes getting organised. Then report back. GO!

PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Wesley-Smith
http://www.paulwesleysmith.com.au/

Are you in Melbourne and need to get your home/office Sorted? Read on about a free pass to an organised you!

Ooh! Breaking News! Lissanne Oliver from SORTED! organising & decluttering has given me 2 single passes (valued at $499 each) to giveaway to my blog readersfor the 6 Steps Workshop she is a speaker at TOMORROW (Melbourne).

Be one of the first 2 people to email Lissanne at lissanne@sorted.net.au for your chance to win!!

Lissanne has organised both my home (not this one!) and my studio and I highly recommend her and her colleagues.

Link to tomorrow's 6 Steps event here.

BOOK GIVEAWAY for someone who needs to get SORTED!

Before I met Lissanne Oliver 9 years ago, I was a hoarder. From shoes to magazines, fabric that I would never use, to gifts that were given to me that did not suit me or my personality.

As a person who has a parent with OCD, I was very lucky to meet her as she has re-trained my brain to think twice before keeping something.

Lissanne's company, SORTED! specialises in Organising & Decluttering people's homes, offices and anywhere else that needs a 'spring clean'.

Her company do not encourage "chucking stuff in the bin", they encourage recycling, reusing and giving unwanted goods to charity.

As this year has been one of the busiest years of my life, I am finding that everywhere I go in my home and studio, I am surrounded by imbaratz (junk, in Maltese). So I am taking a few hours this weekend to refer to my personal saviour, Lissanne's book titled Sorted! The ultimate guide to organising your life - once and for all and getting organised before the harsh Summer heat wave hits us here in Australia.

I have one copy of Sorted! to give away to one lucky blog reader who signs up to the SORTED! mailing list and leaves a comment on my blog, outlining why you should win this book.

The SORTED! newsletter is not spammy and is filled with useful tips including eco-friendly ways to wrangle your clutter.