Harmony At Last, LLC

Alphabet Soup Part 1… I achieved my Certified Professional Organizer® (CPO®) designation in January 2008 from the Board of Certification for Professional Organizers (BCPO^SM). This required me to have completed over 1,500 hours of paid work experience and pass a written exam. I was excited to be one of the first to receive certification in the organizing field.

Alphabet Soup Part 2… In April 2008, I achieved my Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization® (CPO-CD®) through the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD). This achievement culminated 80 hours of specialized study, training, and directed coaching in addition to passing a peer review board over an 18 month period of time.

Right about now you may be asking… so what?!?!?

I am now one of less than 10 individuals in the United States to have achieved both certifications (and I’m the only one in the state of Vermont). More importantly to my clients, though, is my continued desired to learn and develop myself professionally. I’m passionate about helping people say goodbye to chaos and hello to calm in their work, home, and life. Continuing to develop my skills adds value to my clients every day as I can share new learning and ways to approach challenges.

My clients are my inspiration and I’m thankful for each of you in allowing me to support you on your journey. Thanks!

Staples is now offering computer recycling at their retail store locations. For a $10 fee you can drop off your old monitors and computers during store hours. Details are highlighted in a recent Business Week article from May 21, 2007 titled “Staples Starts Computer Recycle Program“. During an organizing project, this is a great way to recycle your old equipment and keep the items out of our landfills. Staples will ship the items to a domestic recycling center, Amandi Services. Amandi follows federal regulations for electronic recycling and ensures that personal data stored on the equipment isn’t compromised.

The debate continues… Are multitaskers more effective at getting things done? Is there a limit to multitasking at which point one’s work becomes more slow, inaccurate, or sloppy? When is multitasking beneficial and when should one completely focus their attention on only one task?

For example, I would really want a brain surgeon to only focus on the brain surgery and not get sidetracked on calling in a lunch order. And yet, playing with a child while folding laundry seems to be part of the standard routine in my household.

A recent article in The New York Times titled “Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don’t Read This in Traffic” discusses the limits of multitasking as highlighted in several research reports. One expert, David E. Meyer, was quoted, “Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes.”

What do you think?

Are you one of those who sets reminders and alarms on your computer calendar, task list, and PDA to trigger you to do something or be somewhere? These reminders and alarms seem to be beneficial in concept although in implementation they can leave something to be desired.

Consider this situation… you may have great intentions when you are setting the reminder. “Yes, I need to get this done by Tuesday at 10am”, you say as you dutifully set your alarm. Then when Tuesday at 10am rolls around and you are focused on something more important, the reminder that pops up on your screen can become more of an irritation. In the best scenario, you may then read it before choosing to tell it to “snooze” or “dismiss”. In the worse case, you don’t even look at it before “dismissing” it and the task is left in electronic limbo land until you manually review it or remember to do it.

One of my clients (who happens to have a great sense or humor) was describing this problem to me as a game of “pop and bop” in his office. He went on to say it was kind of like playing “whack-a-mole” as a kid in the arcade. The reminders pop up and you bop them back down! I got a chuckle from the visualization he created in my mind and then we discussed how there is a better way…

I recommend being selective about using reminders. Make sure that it’s something that you really need and want a reminder for (this will probably be an activity that has time sensitively to it). For example, if you have a big meeting that you absolutely can’t be late for, a reminder may be just the right tool to facilitate you being on time. On the other hand, if you have a task that you want to get done and it really doesn’t matter if you do it today or tomorrow, you may opt not to set a reminder. The takeaway for you here is that ff you use a reminder, you need it to be effective for you and using it haphazardly will dilute it’s effectiveness.

The question now entering your mind is probably, “so how will I remember to do a task if I don’t set a reminder?” The short answer is to create a habit to look at your electronic calendar and task list frequently enough so that you can scan the horizon of upcoming activities and decide what to do next. With these small changes, you can reduce the irritation of playing pop and bop at the office and enjoy whack-a-mole exclusively at the arcade!

As you have have probably heard, daylight savings time (in the U.S) begins earlier and ends later than in years past. Just when you think you have a handle on your time, the government goes and changes it on you. So that you don’t end up being late for meetings, you’ll probably want to make sure that your computer understands the time change.

For Windows users, Microsoft has setup a website to update both your operating system as well as Outlook. For Mac users, Apple is providing instructions on it’s website. For Apple’s more recent operating systems, it’s part of the automatic update.

It used to be that clutter was something that could be seen (on our counters, in our closets, in the basement) and now it has become a staple in our electronic equipment as well. We have all dealt with email inboxes bursting with unread messages, filing systems that make it hard to retrieve Word, Excel, & Powerpoint files, and maybe even a PDA that is filled with to-dos we can’t seem to find time to finish. Gannett News Service contributor John Kiesewetter points out in a recent article how this type of overflow is making it’s way into Digital Video Recorders (DVRs).

DVRs are a wonderful piece of technology that can help free up our time to watch our favorite programs on our own schedule (as well as skip through commercials). As the article discusses, we defeat the purpose of the DVR if we let it fill up with programs we will never get to. Even worse (if it needs to make room), it may start deleting programs that you haven’t gotten to yet. If we let it get to this point, what was intended to be a helpful device, has now become a burden to manage all the programs we save. To be mindful we want to make the decisions about how the DVR manages our shows. For instance are you recording only the programs you care for most? How many episodes should you keep? Do you really need to record the re-runs?

Technology, like a DVR, can help support our goals. If it becomes a burden take the time to reflect on how you’re using it. What piece of technology do you invest a lot of time dealing with? How can you simplify it such that it supports you rather than the other way around?