Challenge:
This bookstore and coffee shop is run almost entirely by the owner of the shop.  She is a one-woman show running the shop and serving food and drinks during the day, and then doing all the “behind the scenes” work at night.  She was overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork involved with running a business, and it was starting to take over.  She didn’t have any system for managing her incoming mail.

Solution:
We sorted through the mail that covered the counters, determining what should stay and what could be shredded.  Because she runs a business, a lot of the paper did need to be saved, which meant setting up an easy-to-use filing system for this busy professional.  We also sorted through all the paperwork in the filing cabinet in the back room.  In the few years that the shop had been in business, she had acquired drawers of paperwork but didn’t have a system for storing it.

Result:
After we sorted all the paperwork and supplies, our client now has an easy-to-use incoming mail center.  She also knows how to process the paper and where it should go because there is a clear flow to the paperwork.  Also, all the supply areas behind the counters are organized and have purpose.  She can now find what she needs right when she needs it, and isn’t surrounded by clutter and chaos.

View more Before and After photos on our Facebook Fan Page!

You’ll love it for:
•  Families with constant piles of dirty clothes
•  Kids learning to do laundry
•  Saving time while running loads

Cost:
Kids’ Clothes Sorting Hamper: $44.99
Whitmor Double Hamper: $28.10
Household Essentials Triple Laundry Sorter: $78.52

Available at: our Amazon store

We are so excited to begin working with Donna to help transform that clutter into a functional, organized workspace.  Make sure to continue checking our blog in the next couple of weeks to watch the organization transformation!

We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped with the Messiest Desk Contest!  We are so grateful to all of our sponsors: Getting Organized Magazine for offering Donna a one-year subscription; Storables for generously providing a $50 gift certificate; tiniCling for the packages of adhesives they provided; F.C. Document Destruction for shredding old files; and InterConnection for computer recycling services!  With your help and generosity, we are going to help Donna find her desk again, feel less stressed, and work more efficiently in her classroom!  We also want to thank again all of you for submitting nominations and voting each day for your favorite desk!  We had so much fun finding the messiest desk with you!

What are your thoughts?

1. Add tasks on the go with Dial2Do.  Never again forget an idea, task or other reminder while driving or on the road.  Program Dial2Do into your cell phone and it will record your task, translate it to text, and email it to you to handle later.  Just three bucks a month.
2. Carry a Moleskine and pen with you at all times.  I keep them in my jacket pocket every day.  It’s a great place to take notes on the run, in a meeting, and anywhere you’re without a computer or larger note pad.
3. Have a sales call list with you at all times.  If you’re delayed at the airport, sitting in traffic or just have an hour to waste between meetings, make that time productive by knowing in advance which prospects you need to catch up with.  Use your CRM system to build this list, and print it out before you leave the office if necessary.
4. Carry a list of inactive, past or lost accounts for follow-up.  Same idea but focused on the accounts you are no longer actively pursuing.  Maybe you lost the account but the incumbent is fumbling the ball.  Maybe that next phone call will catch an inactive customer at the right time to drum up new business.  Focus this call time to increase your conversion rates.
5. Check in with channel and referral partners.  Find out what they’ve been up to, discuss new project and promotional ideas, etc.  There’s a theme in these last three recommendations, of course.  There are always people to call you just need to know which are the right calls to accelerate business forward.
6. Use a CRM system with full-feature apps.  This has become a standard feature for most CRM systems, but make sure you can easily and quickly access all of your pertinent contact information, pipeline details, etc. from the road.  Updating your pipeline and contacts from your smart phone should be equally fast and easy.
7. Have a system for quickly capturing to-do items for later.  This can be as simple as creating boxes next to to-do items in your notes, and capturing those to-do’s in a separate task management system when you’re back at the office.  The trick, no matter how you do it, is to capture more of your action items and follow-up tasks quickly, and increase your completion rate afterward.
8. Have a consistent system for carrying and accessing your “essentials”.  Think of the handful of “tools” you consistently need when working away from the office.  Smart phone, notepad, pen, business cards, Bluetooth headset.  Create a consistent system for where to store and access them in your jacket, your purse or briefcase.  The faster you can get to them, the more often you’ll use them.
9. Wear a watch, and set it five minutes early.  Not only will this help you stay on time more often, but it makes checking the time in the middle of appointments far more subtle (which is a good thing).
10. Keep a USB charger in your car.  Makes it easy to plug in your smart phone while traveling so it’s always charged and left with the most battery life possible.

Challenge:
This client is a busy orthodontics practice and the challenges of keeping a business running smoothly had started to pile up.  Additionally, the client also ran a property management business and needed to keep their paperwork straight.  There just wasn’t enough time in the day to accomplish all that was required and as a result, papers had piled up and our client felt overwhelmed with her to-do list.

Solution:
We worked with this client on time management by going through a time map exercise to see where her time was going.  We then helped her take control of her day by setting up a shared Google calendar system for the office, starting an online to-do list with Toodledo, and working on delegation techniques to share responsibilities with the administrative staff in the office.
 
Next, we worked on implementing an electronic file structure with standard naming conventions.  We set up an Evernote system for tracking notes and thoughts, and developed a system to scan papers or enter them into Evernote to eliminate paper clutter in the back office.
 
We ordered monitor risers with drawers to add to the free desk-space and cleaned out both our client and her husband’s desk drawers, implementing an outbox for items traveling from the office to home.  As a way to eliminate paper clutter, we also mounted eight inboxes on the wall so that every employee has a place to find papers, mail, and tasks.
 
Lastly, we helped sort and purge the paper files in the back office and create an efficient and organized system for filing financial papers and reference materials.

Result:
With a synced system to communicate office schedules, an organized supply system to keep employees from unnecessarily creating distractions in the back office, and a simple inbox system to distribute mail and tasks, the office is now running more smoothly. Paper piles are diminished and drawers are organized, leaving a calmer mentality around the office.

View more Before and After photos on our Facebook Fan Page!

• 16 hours of paper related organizing services with at least one organizing consultant
• One year subscription to the new Getting Organized Magazine
• $50 gift certificate to Storables to cover expenses for desk organizing products
• 2 packages of adhesive labels from tiniClings
• 3 months free registration to the Advanced Webinar Series from Innovatively Organized
• Copy of the book, “The One-Minute Organizer: Plain & Simple”
• Confidential document pick-up and shredding of old files by F.C. Document Destruction
• All computers recycled at InterConnection

Here are some tips they recommend:

• Value Your Time: Calculate estimated tax savings from the FSA and then estimate the time needed to manage it (number of claims and time to file and manage).  Understand the ROI.
• Hidden Gems: Many companies allow a grace period, up to 2.5 months after the year ends to purchase against your FSA.  If you have a baby (called a life event), you can change your contribution amount at that time.  You can spend the entire allotment on the first day of the program, even if you haven’t had it taken out of your paycheck.
• Spend Your Money: Submit your claims regularly and find out what’s eligible (e.g., acupuncture, chiropractic massage with referral, smoking cessation, contact lens solution, etc.).  Don’t lose any money at the end of the year.
• Be Organized: Set up a system for organizing the paperwork and then regularly submit FSA claims.

FlexMinder manages your Flexible Spending Account by eliminating paperwork; submitting FSA claims for you, and helping you spend your money wisely. Receive FlexMinder free for one year when you sign up before February 14, 2012.