With the first couple of school weeks under our belt – we start to see the weak points in our and our kid’s time management. I am a believer of nipping it in the butt early, so my kids start using a diary of sorts from year 3 onwards. I have drawn up our own A3 sized term planner: undated so I can photocopy the same template for every term for every child. They fill in the dates and colour in the weekends themselves. We then sit down and write in fixtures: like German lessons on Monday afternoons, or rowing on Sunday morning. As soon as homework starts we allocate days for the reappearing, every week tasks they have to do. For the older kids, we start back-calculating from assignment hand in day; to find a good way of project managing that task – which doesn’t mean me rushing to Officeworks on the morning it has to be in to have something spiral bound or laminated.
Again, different days of the week lend itself to different activities. If you know you don’t have internet access, what about creating a reading folder and take a highlighter to actually read through all the websites you found in your research. Try to do the physical acitve homework parts on the days they have extra curricular academic lessons like musik or language.
It works pretty well – although Mr. (almost) 9 prefers a little booklet he can carry with him and ignores the Term Planner – but that’s fine. Even kids have their own organising style and as adults, we just have to find a way of helping them find and use that style. It seems to work for him. He told me very proud in the car this morning, that, thanks to his diary, he didn’t forget his library bag!

P.S. If you want something to start with for your own term planner. I have a pdf version of ours I am happy to share. Just pop into the comments box and I’ll send it to you

Most people who ask me for help have tried to get organised before. It might have been through books, TV shows, courses or help from family and friends.
I personally I am not a great believer in ‘self-help books’. They are mostly from the US, and let’s face it, Americans have a completely different lifestyle to us. Or does anybody have a basement and a TV in the kitchen?
Books give good advice, but not tailored to your situation. TV shows would do the same, can sometimes get people going and motivated.
Friends and family – you love them too much to take their advice with the necessary distance and professionalism.
Here is what is different when you work with a professional

1. a PO studies systems for a living. We don’t know just one system or ‘our system’ – we know many. And we know the best situations to apply them.
2. We are not intimidated or overwhelmed by the volume of ‘stuff’, nor the size of the project. We have the tools and resources to get the job done, with your dignity well and truly intact.
3. We do not pass judgement. At all.
4. We are objective. This is a high value characteristic. We do not have the weight of emotion holding us down.
5. We are there for YOU. We have no hidden agendas. We are the client advocate first and foremost. We’re there with your wellbeing in mind and nothing else.
6. We organise people, not things. We deal with you and what’s going on in your life. The stuff gets organised as a result of that.

Our family cycled over the Harbour Bridge, participating in the Sydney Spring Cycle. With 10.000 others, we prepared the bikes and lunches the night before, got up early, took a train to North Sydney – up the first hill –“are we there yet?”
At the starting point we had to find the choir, because on top of cycling 55km we were registered to take part in a Guinness Book of records attempt to be the biggest choir on a bicycle. We rehearsed Waltzing Matilda with the Choir of the Opera House. (The lyrics are actually hard to learn; and explain to a 8 year old why someone wants to die rather than go to jail; and how he can drown in a puddle?!)
“are we starting yet?” when we waited for our choir section to get the go ahead. “can we have morning tea?” as we cycled through the Rocks. “how much further?” every 5 km.
Despite having participated in that event for 7 years, we are never sure of the route. They changed it considerably this year and because we don’t have (working) bike computers, nobody ever knew exactly where we were going and where we where up to.
So we focused on the ‘now’ time, on our instincts as how much further to go, on our knowledge about local bike paths to try to guess where we are heading.
We knew where the finish line was going to be – the kids knew they would get an ice cream, but apart from that, we just took our time and enjoyed the ride.
I think it’s a good analogy how I work with most of my clients: Be prepared. Have a end result in mind. Have a plan that doesn’t’ have to be followed by the letter. Embrace the unexpected.  Have a  clear idea about the reward at the end and willingness to enjoy the journey.
PS: despite the brilliant rehearsal, the singing on the bride was quite disputable – and we haven’t heard back from the organisers yet whether we are indeed the biggest choir on a bicycle.

Perfectionism is the very close friend of procrastination. The desire to have everything perfect and the reality of not being able to, or not having the time to, is so disproportionate, that a lot of people don’t even start.
But often a job doesn’t have to be perfect – good enough but still meeting needs, budget and delivery date.
I am not suggesting you start out delivering below quality work, but second guess your initial idea of ‘everything has to be perfect’. Not everything has to be perfect! Develop the skill of making these decisions – the skill of being able to judge whether a task needs perfection or not.
I like the attitude “good enough”. For me it started changing when I had my first child. There was so much to do and learn in the early years, that some things just couldn’t be done properly. I think it’s a great skill to realise, that a job is done – despite someone else or your inner self not think so. It’s better to do a quick sweep of the house, than nothing at all. It’s better to sort washing into piles according to household members, than leaving it on the dinner table. My husband is currently looking for a job and I had to convince him, that sending a good enough resume today is better than sending a perfect one tomorrow when the job might not be open any more.
Which sounds like I am an advocate for an untidy house – I am not, but I know there are times and situations that call for unruly solutions. And it doesn’t have to be forever – once the kids have all started school (some 10 years later) you’ll have more time to fold the washing and stick photos into albums (although, I personally will deal with the photos once the kids moved out of the house – in another 10 years!)

Sometime, I need inspiration.  Last week I was at the Women & Leadership Conference organised by Macquarie University. I went to get inspired and to actively network my newest Organising venture to potential clients: Corporate Workshops about organising your office, time management and e mail etiquette.
Lot’s of people were really interested, and I was thrilled when one of the speakers mentioned, that employees can spend up to 30% of their time in an office dealing with e mail – what a waste!!!!!
These are the things I want you to start thinking about. This is what these corporate workshops are all about. Start thinking so you find a solution that uses less time and space.
Apart from this, there were some brilliant (mostly female) speakers. Dr Fiona Wood, 2005 Australian of the year who has SIX children and answered the question about how she manages all that: ” something has to give you can’t have it all, but you can make a conscious decision of what you let go”.
I learnt about Mentoring from Amanda Phillips, Director of APA Training and will implement a Mentoring program for Professional Organisers into my business.
Dr. Suzy Green talked about the idea of identifying your strengths and using them to better yourself. Something I always do with my customers but will focus on even more.
And than, as a key note speaker for the gala dinner  Julia Morris. She wore the red shoes, in case you are wondering!

It’s been around for a while but just lately it seems to pop up in print media and on twitter. So I had a look what it actually was. First, don’t be distracted by the name, Pomodoro is Italian for tomato and it has to do with the one and only gadget you need for this productivity tool: a kitchen timer that ticks.
It basically is about putting the focus back in your workday 25 min at a time. You set the kitchen timer to 25 min and get going on a task – let’s say your in tray or to do list. Go from top to bottom, one after the other. Don’t order things first – you should have a good mix of easy and quick and hard and time consuming tasks. The ticking off the clock gets you adrenalin going, the hormone that is related to stress, but makes us more alert and concentrated. (It’s the hormone the body produces when you get hurt – to give you the energy to get out of the danger zone – when the levels drop, you start feeling the pain!)
Than go to the toilet or have a glass of water – a 5 min break. Start another pomodoro. Up to four in a row, the inventor of the Pomodoro Technique recons is enough before you need a bigger break. Lunch or go for a walk.
Familiarising myself with this I realised that’s how I have been working ever since I had kids – pretty much 11 years til child number three started school last year.
As a mum you hardly ever have more than half an hour in one go ever. So you take what you get, focus on the task at hand… and then go and change nappies or start on dinner.
And you know what; I was so much more efficient than without kids. Because I knew that if I don’t get it over and done with, the next 30 min might be not before next week.
So get these kitchen timers ticking (I have heard that there is an I Phone app. for this!!) and be amazed at your powers of concentration

1.       Why do people hire you? What leads them to decide they need the help of a professional organiser? Most of my clients have tried various self help methods through books, TV shows or seminars. But getting organised needs personalised solutions which are mostly not available through books. A solution that’s right for someone in America doesn’t necessarily work for a client in Australia.

2.       Do you de clutter just people’s homes, or do you de clutter businesses, too? I do de clutter both. Family homes, small offices and a lot of home based businesses.

3.       What are the main areas where people need help de cluttering? There is no common “worst area”. And it doesn’t really matter where you start; it has to fit the situation. The most important thing is to start and not to fret about where and when.

4.       What are some of the issues holding people back from de cluttering themselves? They don’t have the motivation to start and/ or they don’t have the know how.

5.       What are some ways that people can keep on top of clutter and not let it get out of hand? Accept that being organised takes time and commitment. Have a time plan and routine and stick to it. I tell my clients that they should do a 5 min organising job per day or ½ hour every three days! For the rest of their lives!!!

6.       What’s a tip that you give to people over and over again? Don’t walk through your house empty handed – there is always something to tidy away

7.       And finally, is your own home in need of de cluttering?  Yes, I believe everybody benefits from help, motivation and new solutions – including Professional Organiser

through my involvement with AAPO and in my role as Sydney Forum leader, I am  going to have the great pleasure to meet Peter Walsh, Oprah’s organising guru. Next week is National Organising Week (NOW) and he is hosting a breakfast for us Organisers here in Sydney.

A couple of years ago I worked with him on an before and after style TV segment and I really enjoyed that. So I am over the moon to see him in a more social environment – not just for work.

He is such an inspiration to us Organisers and to our customers. He is relentless in his mission to have  less clutter in  every body’s home through his TV shows. His message is that everybody has a choice and that you should be aware what you are missing out on when picking stuff over people.

Despite being a bit repetitive here – but every hero needs a mention:

these are the pictures of the amount of rubbish we moved out of a Storage unit here in Sydney last Friday.
And believe it or not, it took just 3 hours.
On top of this we decided on 7 boxes of books to be sold at the upcoming garage sale and took them from the storage unit back to the house to be ready to go.
The only things that were left are photo albums (which will come into the house after as much as possible has been sold at the sale) and Christmas decoration. For that we found space in the attic, so, by the end of the month, this storage unit will be empty and $ 55 a month saved.

Over the last three days I helped a client in Brisbane to get 5 m3 of rubbish out of her storage units at Kennard’s. That plus 3 m3 for charities and 2 m3 to actually take home and use.
We created a whole shelf for e bay items – including a box with packaging material and pre paid envelopes. There now is a “his” and “her” shelf a fold up table to work at and a shredder – ready to get rid of more paperwork.
She now has an inventory – which sounds more than it is: it’s a list of items they have in the store room, a description of the location and a  picture of the storeroom labeled with their items.
This morning before heading upstairs to the store cubicle I had a chat to the Kennard’s manager (who was getting increasingly suspicious of two females wheeling one trolley after the other into the loading zone – giggling and carrying on, taking photos of rubbish???!!!!!)
I told him of my opinion, that storage places shouldn’t be necessary at all – because I strongly believe, that once stuff gets into your offsite storage room, you might as well toss it straight away and save yourself some serious money. Wasn’t impressed, the manager, but my client agreed. So off we went to gather some more rubbish and do some more therapeutic shredding. Because it’s not just 3701, there is also 3704. But this client is on a roll, and I am positive I don’t have to fly to Brisbane to accomplish mission 3704