The Organising Guru from the Oprah show
Two weeks ago, AAPO (our industry association) celebrated N.O.W.  With workshops, stalls and a special breakfast with Peter Walsh, organised by Dymo, our major sponsor for that week.
Hugely enjoyable; I have never been at the Westin Hotel, which is a beautiful conversion of the old GPO on Martin Place in Sydney. The Architect in me was very impressed.
The cook in me was impressed with the service and absolutely delicious breakfast. There was a whole table of Organisers and Peter Walsh always makes a point to get the message out there that POs exist in Australia, too. He even recognised me from the last years, which made me feel very special indeed.
One of your questions and one in the room for Peter Walsh were: what’s your most important organising tip? “It’s not about the stuff! Leave the stuff for a moment and think about a vision. A vision for your live, a vision for work. Following from there you should be able to create a more concrete vision of your workplace. And that doesn’t mean what filing system you want or what colour pencil holder. Words like welcoming, productive and inspiring came up in the room. That’s your motivation to get it done, getting rid of everything that is in the way of that vision.
Another one was: “I never have time” And I completely agree with Peter Walsh here. “It’s not about time, it’s about importance. If it’s important enough you’ll find time. If you think, your employer doesn’t value a clutter free environment, it’s hard to maintain one.” As a leader you have to give your team permission to create a clutter free desk. “When you are organised, you function on a much higher level.”

A couple of other quotes, I thought worth mentioning here:
“Clutter is a decision delayed”
“Later is the best friend of clutter”
“The most important minutes in your workday are the last 10. Set up the workspace for tomorrow”

NOW 2010

Every year, the second week in September is National Organising Week. This year has been the 4^th, and for the last three years we (AAPO) had Dymo sponsoring our efforts.

There are competitions and free workshops all over the country – and Peter Walsh, Oprah’s Organising Guru comes “home” to give the event a bit of a celebrity shine.

In my role as Sydney Forum leader, I had the great pleasure to meet him yesterday for breakfast –me and 80 others.

A couple of years ago I worked with him on a before and after style TV segment, so it was nice to catch up. He gave a short talk, which ended up being mostly an answering questions thing, but he is very entertaining and clearly knows what he is talking about. He uses good analogies: finish the cycle- as you would never stop a washing machine mid cycle to leave it half washed in the drum for a week, you shouldn’t stop midway through any project.

Arrange your desk like a car is arranged for you. Have the things you use constantly at arm’s length – the stuff you use less frequently is in the glove box: you have to bend over to get to it. To fill the car up = get new paper or stationery, its fine to get off your seat and walk to a different end of the room.

And pay attention whether you are left or right handed. It’s good to pick up the phone with one hand and write with the other.