Photo by robstephaustralia

Through the years, people have commented, “You are so organized! How do you do it all?” Unfortunately, this is another misconception about me, much like how I deal with balance as we discussed in yesterday’s post, Start with Balance. This is the fourth post in the series, You have to Start to Finish.

Organization is definitely one of my goals and I occasionally give the appearance that I am organized with my ever-present Day-Timer and my colored pen lists. I even write posts on topics such as how to keep track of your resume in Where did I put that resume? or how to make organized decisions as in A Little Decision-Making Tool. But right about when you think I have it all together, I admit to failing in posts such as Achoo! Allergic to Mail.

How am I going to start with organization in 2011?

What is my goal to get organized and at the same time keep my life in balance and make myself accountable in the area of finances?

1. Creating the colored pen list is key. My to-do list reads like a mini-resume with action statements like “write blog post” or “Process Mail” or “Update QuickBooks.” I have three standing reminders in black ink on the top of each list. Two of the 3 almost always happen: Read Bible and Exercise. The third is a specific reminder to ride the exercise bike with ____ Minutes ____ Miles ___ Calories Burned, but that one gets ignored — a lot! Red is for the urgent and important things, usually client-related. Purple is for my office projects like Process mail. Green is for financial related items: Update QuickBooks, Mail Check to…., or Pay mortgage. Blue is for household chores such as Vacuum living room or Sort laundry.
2. If I make the list wisely and then follow it, the client projects will get done, mail will get processed, my bills will get paid, I will stay on top of my financials and the household projects.
3. Kindergarten rules like put away what you take out are so simple but this concept is one many adults struggle to follow. You need to have a place for things to go first but assuming you do, putting things away when you are done with them will help you stay organized. In your office or workplace, when you work on a project and then file it in any easy to retrieve place or label your computer files in a way that lets you find things, then you make progress in this area. In your home, the same principle applies. If you take it out, put it away.

Here’s some projects I have on my list for the next few days:

1. Set up invoice files for 2011. I still keep paper files for invoices for tax purposes. I have a set of labels I print with the tax categories and year on them.
2. Organize client files and enter into database. I struggled with this one all year but now have a basic database that I can expand on to track clients and better manage them.
3. Clean closets. I have two large closets with office things in them. The former office downstairs really needs some organization and purging. Getting rid of things you don’t use any more makes you feel better and helps you stay organized.

More tools for organization:

1. Jason Alba’s JibberJobber is a great career management tool for job seekers and for lifelong career management. Jason is continually refining JJ and it only gets better.
2. Flylady has been a help to disorganized people everywhere. Marla Cilley with her many associates has motivated and led people to solutions for household cleaning, dinner planning, exercise, and overall organization. I have used many of her tools through the years and still find that her “You can do anything for 15 minutes” coaching coupled using her timer gets me moving through projects I procrastinate.
3. I’ve used my Daytimer since 1982 and still prefer writing those lists to Blackberry’s or PDAs or even Outlook. Something about the writing helps me get things done.
4. Oh, and those colored pens? I use Pilot G-2 gel pens from Staples.

Whatever you decide, I think you will find that if you Start with Organization, it will help you move forward!

]]> http://designresumes.com/2010/12/start-organization/feed/ 11 http://designresumes.com/2010/10/would-using-outlook-notes-help-you-remember/ http://designresumes.com/2010/10/would-using-outlook-notes-help-you-remember/#comments Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:59:26 +0000 Julie Walraven http://designresumes.com/?p=5116

Photo by slollo

Ever need to remember something and you are clueless? Here’s a quick tip.

I use Microsoft Outlook for managing e-mail, contacts, and my calendar. Maybe you do too. I started using the little Notes feature to keep track of information that I need but don’t use daily.

I don’t put passwords to banking websites or any places that could cause security issues but I do put information I will forget if I don’t write it down. For example, today, I found information about how to erase the e-mails on my phone on a forum. I created a note.

To start, go to File: New: Note. You will have a new post-it to cut and paste or type your information into the post-it space. It works just like the Post-It sticky notes you would write and stick it to your computer or refrigerator but it can’t fall down or get thrown away.

If you don’t like yellow, you can change the color, font style and size, as well as the size of the post-it itself in the options section of Outlook.

There are many organizational tools available but using Outlook Notes is easy and part of something I am already using. You can also categorize your note by right-clicking it so you know that it is a tip that belongs to a certain area or topic.

I know that being organized is a big part of your job search which is why I write posts like this one and ones like Where did I put that resume?

If you are looking for a career management tool that will do even more to organize your entire job search and contacts, I always recommend JibberJobber because Jason Alba packs it with much more functionality. However, this little tool works great for quick reminders.

Have you tried this?

Photo by J

Are you one of those people who are always misplacing things? I have a number of friends that keep every file on their desktop. Their objective is to easily find it. Guess what? With a desktop like the one above  — and I have seen much worse, you will not easily find anything. Windows or MAC doesn’t seem to matter. I have seen cluttered desktops for everyone.

As someone who struggles to keep the top of my physical desktop and other surfaces in the office clear of clutter, I be totally lost if I had no organizational system for my files in my computer.

When you need to start or carry out a job search, you don’t want to have to look all over for your important career-related documents.

My electronic resume filing system evolved for my clients and obviously I need more space than the average career changer or job seeker does. I have one folder that is called resumes, then it is separated into individual files, A-Z, then those files have an individual file folder for each client. Depending on the client, I may have subfolders in their individual files. I may label one resume, one cover letters, one with a different title for other career documents.

My suggestion to you is to create a file within your system. I only work in Windows so I will provide my suggestion for that operating system but the concept should carry over.

1. Create a file folder within Documents, label it Resumes – Your Name (in case you share the computer with other family members, they should have their own folder.)

2. In the file folder put your career search and career- related information:

• Your resume
• Additional versions of your resume
• Your cover letter
• Your references
• Your letters of recommendation
• Your assessment reports
• Your PowerPoint presentation
• Your networking contact list

3. After you get your new position, continue to add to the folder with accomplishments, achievements, and milestones so that the next time you need to create the resume, you don’t have to start from scratch.

4. If you are not using JibberJobber, you need to check out this career management tool to track your network, organize your job search and stay on track. Jason Alba added the easy button to your search with this great tool.

In the future, your job search will go much smoother and you won’t be asking where did I put that resume?

Photo by Rex Pe

Like many bloggers, I use Feedburner to manage my subscriptions. I am still learning to use all the features and I was commenting to my husband that I had x number of e-mail subscribers.

He said: “So people pay to read your blog?”

I laughed at him. He doesn’t do computers and if he wants to see something online, I search for him. I told him that no, that just lets people get my posts in their inbox whenever I write a new one. The advantage is that if someone don’t want to check my blog daily, they get an e-mail with a link that takes them to my latest post.

Currently, the subscription box looks like this:

Before this morning it didn’t have the “subscribe (Sign-Up) for FREE” words in it. I put those in today because after I talked to my husband, I mentioned the topic to my 24 year-old son who knows his way around the web. Even coming from much younger generation (Dad is 63), he said, “Mom, I think Dad’s right. To me, subscribe means pay.”

I looked at the Feedburner settings but I don’t change code and it doesn’t look like they have options. So I added that little phrase, “Subscribe (Sign-up) for FREE” to clarify things for people who might think like my husband or son.

Why would anyone want to get reminded by e-mail to read blogs anyway?

You could read it when you see the post on Twitter or Facebook or you could check the blog for new content. Twitter streams are great but content flies by so fast that you might miss the post of your favorite blogger. Same with Facebook. Yes, you could search the stream of the bloggers (writers) you love best and figure out if there is a new post. But it takes time.

I have “subscribed” to a number of blogs I started reading them regularly a few years ago, some I unsubscribed to when my inbox got too full. I think you can overdo it. But I like getting a reminder in my inbox that there is new content from my favorite writers.

Reasons you might chose to subscribe to a blog:

• If you are a job seeker or career changer, you might choose to subscribe to this blog or others on careers or work that you can find in my sidebar:
  • A Different Kind of Work by Christine Livingston
  • Career Trends by Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter
  • Executive Insider by Robyn Greenspan & others at ExecuNet
  • Hire Imaging by Barb Poole
  • HRMargo by Margo Rose
  • Interview Angel by Brent Peterson
  • JibberJobber or I’m on LinkedIn Now What by Jason Alba
  • Job-Hunt.org by Susan Joyce
  • Keppie Career by Miriam Salpeter
  • The Job Quest by Melissa Cooley
  • The Write Solution by Dawn Bugni
  • Tim’s Strategy by Tim Tyrell-Smith

• If you are interested in other things like marketing, public relations, personal development, stress management or Technology, there are other fascinating bloggers on my sidebar as well as throughout the blogosphere.
• I just updated the definition to many of my links after I published this and I found that Danny Brown wrote his own post on the same topic, E-mail or RSS – Feeding the InBox while I was working on mine. For his take, go read (and you could subscribe to him too!)
• Jim Connolly has written more than one post on the topic and since I gain much valuable marketing advice from him, I take heed when he explains why and how to do things like in this post, Increase your blog’s readership the easy way!

You can find great writers who write compelling, educational, or inspiring posts and you can subscribe. I know some people prefer to just go to the blog and that’s fine. Others like using Google Reader or other readers and subscribe to RSS feeds. I never look at my feeds that I signed up to read so that doesn’t work for me.

But if like my family, the words “Subscribe” made it sound like you were committing to payment or a lifelong relationships, you aren’t. My blog posts are free. When I charge for a service, I tell you.

We live in a world where at least two things are happening. Some people think that everything everyone does or promotes on the web should be free and some people are afraid of anything that might enter them into a commitment.

If you subscribe (sign-up) here, Thank YOU! I am grateful that you want to follow what I might say next. Note that Feedburner sends you an e-mail that you have to verify to make sure you are not a bot or spammer. If you get scared by the e-mail and skip it or you just let Feedburner’s verification e-mail sit idle in your inbox without finalizing, you will not get the posts by e-mail. Right now there are at least 7 people on my subscriber list that never finished signing up.

If you decide later that you want to unsubscribe, I get that too. Just know, it doesn’t mean Pay.

Just stay connected. I like that… let’s stay connected!