By Jennifer Myers
The Globe and Mail, December 26, 2009

Heading into the new year may be just the time to look at order and disorder in the workplace.

Your desk is a mess. You can’t dig out your to-do list from the overflowing pile, never mind tick off any items on it. You have dozens of e-mails waiting to be read. And you keep getting distracted every time a co-worker stops to chat, your in-box signals another message has arrived or the phone rings.

Workers everywhere can identify with that. And it’s only getting worse.

Downsizing and layoffs have resulted in fewer workers but no reduction in the workload. Those who have kept their jobs are functioning in a state of semi-chaos, scrambling to bring order to their work lives. And far from helping us stay on top of things, technology has only made things worse, says Linda Chu, founder of Out of Chaos, a professional organizing firm in Vancouver. Business has moved to a 24/7 economy and workers are now always on. We try to multi-task and it’s not working, she says.

Disorganization in the workplace can range from merely annoying to nearly paralyzing, and it costs companies both time and money in lost productivity.

“Things pile up, people feel mentally defeated and exhausted, and the task of organizing seems impossible,” Ms. Chu says.

Heading into a new year may be just the time to look at order and disorder in the workplace.

You know you need help when
1 . You spend more than 15 minutes each day searching for misplaced items.

2. The pile of papers in your inbox is always more than eight inches high.

3. Your book shelves are used for storing items other than books.

4. You have more than 100 old e-mails stored in your computer’s inbox.

5. You are constantly asking people to resend their contact information to you.

Source: Professional Organizers in Canada website

Calculating the cost of chaos
Your messy desk or jammed e-mail box may not seem like a big deal, but it could be costing you, big time. Find out the real cost of chaos with Tennessee-based DME Consulting & Training’s “cost of disorganization” calculator (http://www.thegosystem.com/cod_start.asp)

Enter your company name, number of employees and average hourly wage to learn the amount of time lost each day to disorganization.

Three common saboteurs to workplace organization, and how to beat them
Clutter Control
PROBLEM: For many, the desktop has become a storage place. Next to the family photos, you might also find yesterday’s lunch leftovers and an Aspirin bottle, not to mention overflowing piles of paper. People are still more comfortable reading physical documents, so they print every e-mail, memo and report that comes their way. Without the time or a system to deal with the material, it, too, ends up in disarrayed piles.

SOLUTION: Make it a habit to always put things away. Toss the garbage and return useful items to drawers when you’re done. Create a system for dealing with paper by segmenting it into three categories: active files; archival materials, research or information on projects you might need; and reference materials, contact info, or items you may need for a future project. The only folder that should stay on your desk is the active file you need to get the job done today.

E-MAIL
PROBLEM: Besides the distraction of checking e-mail messages either immediately or shortly after they arrive, many people also neglect the delete button. These days it’s not uncommon to see 1,000 e-mails stored in an inbox, Ms. Chu says. “It’s a fear of out of sight, out of mind.” But the sheer volume of messages makes it overwhelming and mentally exhausting each time we go online.

SOLUTION: Check e-mail on a schedule and stick with it. For some, that could be three times a day, for others it could mean every couple of hours. “Then get rid of the crud,” Ms. Chu says. Use the functions available on your e-mail program to manage your mail. For example, set up folders and move mail you really need to keep into the appropriate location. Create a rule that sends subscriptions, such as newsletters or news alerts, directly to a folder. The key is to process as much mail as you can as it comes in.

PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY
PROBLEM: With the constant barrage of interruptions by managers and co-workers, the obsession to check e-mail and voice mail and the Web, and an overwhelming list of tasks to complete made only more onerous by belt-tightening and staff reductions, we’ve lost our ability to focus, Ms. Chu says. As a result, workers often reel from one task to the next without making any real progress.

SOLUTION: Develop a priority action plan each day. A to-do list is a useful way to declutter the mind and determine which items are a high priority. That means when a phone call, an e-mail or a co-worker interrupts, you can decide if the interruption is important enough to trump what you’re currently doing or can wait until you finish the task at hand.

Great containers are only half the battle. Linda Chu of Vancouver’s Out of Chaos offers a series of tips in the Fall issue of Western Living Condo Magazine.

Divide and Conquer
Split your clothes into two seasons, winter and summer. Store any items (like heavy skiing sweaters) that you would never wear out of season.

Birds of a Feather
Put pants in one pile, T-shirts in another and so on. Subdivide the piles into casual and dressy items. Take it one step further and sort by colour or sleeve length – a great way to discover a glut of items. Do you really need a dozen black camisoles?

Tough Calls
If you’re waffling on an item, put it in what Chu calls the “not-sure box.” List what’s in the box with the current date and the contact information of a charity and attach it to the box. Make a note in your calendar a year from now. If you haven’t missed anything in the box by then, you can donate it to charity without opening the box (and risking a trip down memory lane).

Two Questions
Question each item using two principles of purging: When was the last time you used it? Were you surprised to find it?

Air Time
Clothes need to breathe, so don’t store them in plastic boxes. Be sure to label the containers.

Call for Help
If you feel overwhelmed by your closet, Chu recommends having someone support you in the process. Make a deal with a friend to work on your closets together, or hire a professional organizer for help restoring order to your space.

View full magazine spread.

We’ve all gone through those moments when the idea of tearing out our hair has sounded oddly soothing, when the hundreds of lists in our heads collide and the only left is to sit in the corner and (gently) bang our heads against the wall. So how do you do it?

We thought we would ask a few experts—people whose job it is to help others stay on track, stay focused, and accomplish their goals, whether those goals are about career, health or just plain being organized. We hope their thoughts and advice will inspire you to pick up where you left off, and take charge of your life—in all areas. Because you can do this.

The Time Factor
Busy working mothers juggle a lot of hats these days. Even stay-at-home moms seem to have too much going on. How can they get rid of the mental clutter and help themselves focus and relax, exercise occasionally, and maybe even carve out some personal time? How do they juggle work and family without sacrificing one or the other?

Linda Chu:

Focus is the key. When the mind is cluttered, it’s like a kid in the candy story, not knowing what to pick first. The time honoured to-do list is key. The only problem is not the list itself, but our lack of focus, prioritization, and follow-through. Jotting down all your to-do’s only de-clutters the mind. Prioritizing what to do next and when, is critical in helping to keep you on track and in focus.

Using a priority action system will keep you on track. Note: this system can be modified to suit individual needs. When you have a priority action system in place, you are able to plan your highest priority items each and every day, but most importantly when emergencies come up (and with kids, the unexpected does happen), you are able to re-shuffle your priorities, as long as you know in advance what they are.

If you want to start your own business, a business plan is key, where you spend time to determine what your goals are and how you will achieve these goals, including monetary & time goals. Without a map, you have no sense of direction.

Obviously family life is important, so this needs to be factored into your ultimate daily schedule. Do you want to only work weekends? Are you only available after your drop off your children and before you pick them up from school? Find a line of work that will give you the time you need, the income you want. If it is important enough, you will schedule the time to make things happen. Just like all those competing weekend birthday parties & multiple kids’ activities.

Patti Bishop:

“Not enough time!” is definitely the biggest obstacle I hear from my busy moms. Notice I said “obstacle” and not “barrier”—there are ways around it! Instead of having a workout be an hour—you can split up the time throughout the day in smaller blocks; 15 minutes in the morning, half an hour at lunch and 15 minutes after dinner. It is the cumulative time that counts but you have to make the best use of your time.

Try incorporating exercises into your morning routine: pushups at the kitchen counter, balance on one leg while getting lunches ready, step-ups while brushing your teeth, triceps dips at the edge of the bathtub, crunches on the floor and squats while waiting for the shower to warm up.

Stroller Stride type classes are fantastic for new moms, but once a baby starts to walk and move, workouts need to change. If finances are an issue, moms can get together and create a babysitting co-op where one mom baby-sits while the other two workout. Sharing the cost of a babysitter is another option or tag-teaming the babysitting between partners. While one partner works out, swims or goes for a jog, the other partner watches their child and then they switch after an hour!

Many gyms offer babysitting between set hours. If you can make it to these times, the actual cost can be quite reasonable. Once your children are able to play safely on the playground equipment, the playground can be your gym too! There are so many fun ways to turn an hour at the park into a workout for you. Try decline crunches on the slide, walking lunges, hamstring curls and knee tucks with the swings and of course pushups—you can always find a space to do pushups!

Christopher Flett:

The first step to a woman getting past the guilt around family/work balance is understanding that she can “have it all.” Being a good parent doesn’t mean you can’t have a career, nor does focusing on your career make you a bad mother. The secret is having separation in your life. When you are with your family, be with your family. When you are at work, focus on your work. Unless you are a neurosurgeon on call, turn the cell phone/blackberry off when you get home and on weekends. Work will always be there.When you are at work, work diligently to increase your professional value and find joy in the work that you are doing. Having success in both parts of your life comes from having systems and backup plans. Don’t just have one babysitter, have three. That way if one isn’t available, you have a backup. When you are taking time off to be with your family, find someone you trust to cover you in the event of an emergency at work or in your business. Train this person how to handle situations that can come up, and then let it go. Kids don’t like it when mom is continuously checking her blackberry and work doesn’t like it when a woman misses a meeting because she has to get her kids from school. Find resources to cover your transitions between work and family and your stress will go down.

One local resource for women looking for multiple babysitters is Lullaby League. This service allow parents to meet 10-20 babysitters at a mixer in under an hour. Another well known service is Nannies on Call.

Set personal, professional, and financial goals for yourself. Make sure that every goal has a measurable plan associated with it. Find an ‘accountability’ partner to share your goals with and to keep you on track. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Women put their own goals behind those of their partners, their family, and their friends. Focus on yourself so that you can empower other women to do the same. It is women’s time to shine but you have to step out into the light.

The STUFF Factor

Children’s toys, books, homework, STUFF always seems to be a big issue for moms. How can they organize all the stuff and get their kids to maintain it? Is there a way to organize your

Linda Chu:

Less is more. In these economic times, gluttony is not a game to be playing. A serious purge session is in store for everyone. Get everyone involved. Start kids young by personally taking them down to transition homes & street youth centres, etc so that they can see for themselves those in need and less fortunate.

Create a box for each person of items that you know you have not used, but can not bear to let go of. List an inventory of items. Date the box. Identify the name & number of a charity for donation. Store the box away in your garage/ basement/storage locker. Mark a date on your calendar for 6 months or 1 year for this date (whatever is reasonable to you). If you have not touched these items in this period, your commitment will be to donate the contents of the box. Do not open the box, hence the inventory list. Touch/feel/smell will bring back memories & intentions making it harder to let go…

Regarding husbands…a family counsellor/therapist I am not! [laughing] I would recommend that communication is key. Just like when your got married and talked about children, your expectations and goals must be out in the open and talked about. Be clear in what each expects of each other. Who is responsible for what. Division of tasks is very important. Do not overlook that unpaid work (like being a stay-at-home mother) is still work, with all the emotional and physical demands of working outside for a paycheque.

If budget allows, you may want to look at leveraging off some tasks to auxiliary services like a housekeeper, lawn-mowing service, personal chef, professional organizer etc. What is your time worth? Is time better spent on family vs. the entire weekend on certain chores? You decide.

The Legal Factor

Most parents have RESPs and RRSPs in place, savings accounts and life insurance set up, all to protect their families. Is there anything else they should be doing?

Jacqueline Flett:

GET YOUR WILL DONE. This is item one, two and three on this list. In your Will, the following issues should be addressed:

1. Name a guardian. If either you or your spouse (who is your child’s biological parent or adoptive parent) pass away, the survivor would become the sole guardian. But if you both pass away, the court will appoint a guardian. The court will usually appoint the closest relative (next-of-kin). This is problematic if:

a. There are two equally related next-of-kin who both want to be guardian (i.e. your parents and your parents-in-law)

b. There are any relatives you do not want raising your children;

c. There are any relatives you expect may pursue a battle over guardianship;

d. There are no suitable relatives;

e. You want your child to remain with a step-parent.

2. Name one or more alternate guardians. If your named guardian is someone that you are close to, it is possible that you could be in a common disaster with that person. Have a back-up just in case.

3. Appoint an executor and an alternate executor of your Will. These people need to be capable of managing your children’s inheritances for the long-term. If your children are young, your executor will likely be handling their finances and dealing with the guardians until your children reach the age of majority.

If you are a single parent because of a breakdown in your relationship, your former spouse would likely be awarded guardianship of your children. If your children’s other biological parent is not in the picture at all, it is even more critical to have a guardian appointed in your Will because you do not have a second-parent safety net. If you are concerned about your children being returned to an unfit or abusive former spouse, you need to raise those issues with your lawyer to ensure that your reasons for wanting to exclude that person as a guardian are properly documented.

Some factors to consider when choosing a guardian are:

• Does the person like your kids?
• Do your kids like the person?
• Do you have similar parental values and parenting styles?
• Does the person have sufficient financial resources and, if not, do you have sufficient life insurance to provide that person with access to enough resources to care for your children until they reach adulthood?
• Is the person’s location satisfactory?
• Is the person young enough and in good health to take care of your kids until they reach adulthood?

The Work Factor

Women face a lot of choices in the workplace or when running their own business. How can they get ahead and stay on top? What should they avoid doing?

Christopher Flett:

Women give up their power and this can be challenging to get back. They need to be clear that business today is not gender specific. Their actions will either play into stereotypes, or will support them being seen as an exceptional professional. In the book, “What Men Don’t Tell Women About Business”, over 16 points are covered on how women inadvertently give up their power in business.

Here are some of the more common pitfalls:

• Make excuses
• Not getting to the point
• Taking things personally
• Declaring open war on others
• Gossiping
• Not understanding professional endorsement
• Accepting poor treatment
• Being selfless rather than selfish
• Not asking for what they want (instead asking for what they think they can get)
• Expecting that everyone will act fairly towards them
• Not having a Plan B (backup plan)
• Being too loyal

Get advice on how to build your business from other entrepreneurs who understand the challenges moms face. Beware of government resources online, most have been built by government employees, not business owners. Find someone who understands business and the dynamics of being a parent.

Know that women are leading the edge of self-employment based in the home. You aren’t alone in doing this. Find a good mentor who can help you through the challenging parts and you too can join the ranks of successful female entrepreneurs that can have it all.

The Health Factor

What’s the best way for busy moms to lose those post-baby pounds, get more energy and stay healthy and strong?

Patti Bishop:

When it comes to losing body fat, what you eat is number one! Getting back to or developing healthy eating habits are key to fat loss. Along with diet, comes strength training—they go hand in hand. If you dramatically change your diet but don’t start or maintain a strength training program, you can lose muscle mass. Your muscles are your fat burners. Thirdly, you want to add in cardio because you need to keep your heart and lungs strong too. Instead of doing steady state cardio for long periods of time, add in some high intensity bursts of speed to both challenge yourself and boost your metabolism.

The first year after birth is a challenging time for fat loss. You need to be kind to yourself—your body has gone through a lot—you just made a baby! Your body will hold onto body fat while you are breast feeding and if you are stressed out. Sleep deprivation is definitely a stress. Once your baby gets on a more regular sleep schedule and your sleep improves, your body will start to relax and let go of the extra pounds.

Watch out for the following common pitfalls that mothers are most prone to:

• Eating what their kids eat
• Eating their children’s leftovers
• Eating prepackaged food
• Not preparing ahead of time
• Skipping meals
• Eating late at night
• Waiting too long between meals
• Not drinking enough water
• Depending on coffee for “energy”

My favourite thing is to put a sticker on my kitchen calendar after I have completed a workout (walking, strength training, swimming, yoga, etc.) The more gold stars I see at the end of each week, the better I feel!

Download printable pdf

By Jennifer Fresher – WestCoast Families

By ALISON WOOD
The front hallway is the entry to your home, a place of welcoming. But this often-cramped space can be anything but. Without organization, shoes, coats, mail and accessories can take over, making arriving or departing a frustrating experience. To create a clutter-free path to your home, Linda Chu, president of Professional Organizers in Canada, offers these tips:

Read more

Not getting enough sleep? Take stock of room you’re sleeping in
By Jennifer Brown, Special to The Star

That can start with making sure your bedroom isn’t contributing to the reasons why you find yourself laying awake at night.
Read more

By SARAH BOESVELD

Enzo Calamo is a stacker. Or he was.

The Vancouver-based marketing director for AEGON Canada says so much paper came across his desk in a single day that by week’s end he was surrounded by a fortress of teetering piles.

It was overwhelming, and ate into his productivity and that of his employees, he says.

So he made a business decision and a career investment: He hired a professional organizer.

“She came in and helped me create a filing system, and she made different piles that were more manageable. It just became much more efficient,” Mr. Calamo says.

Read more

By SUSAN SCHWARTZ

A well-organized closet can mean not only more space but also more time. If every item has a place, then we’re not wasting time hunting down wayward shoes or blouses crushed somewhere in the recesses of the inadequate storage spaces, often featuring a single pole and shelf, that many of us call our closets. Something to consider.
Read more

It may still be summer outside, but indoors it’s all about autumn: new shoes, sharpened pencils and shiny lunchkits. So to help you keep track of all this fall paraphernalia (and save time, as well), we’ve asked some of Vancouver’s professional organizers to pass along some of their top tips for the season.

Heather Knittel and Susan Borax of Good Riddance Professional Organizing Solutions has ideas to cut the crazy-making clutter:
Read more

By Lisa Murphy

Tired of kids underfoot or over-involved – say, reaching for a knife – while you make dinner? We’ve got tips and tools to keep little hands safe and busy

Kitchen design tips

1. Watch where you work. Then reorganize the kitchen accordingly, says Linda Chu, owner of Out of Chaos, a professional organizing firm in Vancouver. Store baking ingredients in a cupboard near where you roll out dough and locate knives where you chop, for instance.
Read more

1. What’s wrong with clutter?
Clutter itself is not the problem. We all have information, resources, and possessions that we accumulate for some reason or another. In the workplace there are records relating to our administrative and operational needs and information that is permanent or for reference. It can be all consuming and never ending.

You know something is wrong when the volume of your information is inhibiting your ability to access what you need in a timely manner. Critical also, is recognizing that the emotional stress and anxiety around your clutter may be affecting your performance and bottom-line.
Read more

By Rick Spencer

The disorganized pay more. Whether you run a home business or a multinational, your ability to organize yourself is crucial. Problem is, being organized comes as naturally to entrepreneurs as centering the Montreal Canadiens’ power play.

“People throw away hundreds of dollars” by losing receipts and forgetting to record potential tax deductions, laments Linda Chu, a professional organizer in Vancouver. And that doesn’t include the time you waste sorting through messy desks and impenetrable filing systems.

Mandie Crawford, a former police officer turned small-business consultant in Calgary, says running your own business is much like police work: “The job may be fun, but the paperwork will kill you if you don’t do it right.”

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By STUART FOXMAN

Want to de-clutter but you just don’t know where to start? Professional organizers Linda Chu of Vancouver and Jane Woolsey of Toronto offer tips for three common problem areas – your drawers, the kitchen and, of course, the bedroom closets.

Drawers
Divide and conquer, says Chu. That means putting containers or dividers in your “junk” or desk drawers, so that everything has a place and is visible and accessible. You can get all sorts of organizational products at office supply shops, dollar stores and the like, but any plastic containers or baggies can do. As a bonus, sorting through your drawers may force you to toss some items.

For papers, Chu says, you don’t need a fancy system. Just get folders to keep papers in basic clusters, like invitations, projects, bills or receipts.

Read more