The Life Organizers Top 5 Organizing Tips

1. Use 1 calendar (Digital OR Paper)
   

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1. Appointments
2. To Do’s
3. Reminders

Does your calendar work for you? Do you use multiple calendars? It does not matter if you use digital or paper. Use what works best for you and use it consistently and religiously. In addition to appointments schedule some of your To Do’s in your calendar such as (drop items at Habitat for Humanity or the dry cleaners). You are more likely to accomplish your To Do items if they are scheduled. Having a list of To Do’s is highly recommended.

2.     Passcodes in 1 Place

1. System for passcodes
2. Last Pass or other password manager program recommended

Do you use the same password for every account? Do you struggle to create passwords and struggle more to find them when you need them? Stop the insanity and come up with a system. Experts advise not to use the same password for every account. When you use a password manager program you only have to remember 1 password and the program creates very strong passwords and stores all of your passwords in a secure online vault. Here is an article with additional tips on passwords by Connect Safely.org.

If you hate digital use a notebook or the back of an address book or Rolodex to keep track of them.

3..   Inventory Digital Files

1. Laptop Computer, I pad, phone, Google Drive, One Drive, I Cloud, Evernote, Dropbox and more….so many more.
2. Searching for a digital file folder only works if you are searching in the correct program
3. Make a Plan to Keep Specific Files in the Same Place

Do you store file folders in multiple places? Most people do. If you are searching for a file folder in Google Drive but it is saved in Dropbox you won’t be able to find it. Work on a plan to organize your digital file folders. I need to do this too. What program is working best for you? Use as few places as possible for storing files. Take the time to inventory what files or where. An Excel worksheet works great for this. Digital Clutter is a huge problem.  This is a good article on how to protect and organize digital files.

4.     Plan Ahead & Set Goals

Spend your time wisely, creating personal and business goals. Spending time evaluating what is going well, what can be improved upon, and what you should do in the future is vital. Some people spend their entire lives allowing life to dictate and navigate their future instead of personal intention and goals.    

5.     Just Do It! – Daily, Weekly, Quarterly and Annual Maintenance

Maintenance is not fun but it is necessary. What do I mean by maintenance? Putting things away in a designated place and creating places for things when they don’t exist. This procedure applies to file folders and practically everything else you use including tools, clothing…stuff! Just imagine if your digital files went to a To Be Filed box every time you used them. That is a very scary thought. Paper files often end up in a To Be Filed box, or even worse, they end up somewhere else entirely….the black hole.  They need to be filed as soon as possible to keep clutter at bay.    

Adele Gross
Life Organizer

Copyright All Rights Reserved
December 29 2016

More than half of this year is over. Have you checked in on your 2016 goals? Are you making progress on your goals, have you decided to abandon them, or have you changed them? They don’t have to be life changing to make a positive impact on your life. I have added goals to my list and I’m making headway.

One of my goals is to contact a relative or old friend that I have not seen in a while. Progress: My son, Connor, and his friend, Paco, visited one of my dear friends in Pensacola Beach over their spring break. We spent several days with my friend, Sharla, who is fortunate to live on the beach. Here is a photo of her beautiful home. We had dinner with several old friends, while we were there. My family used to live in Gulf Breeze, Florida for 5 years.​

On Fathers’ Day weekend my cousin, Cassia, had an informal wedding reception for her sister, and my cousin, Darby. I have not seen these cousins in about 25 years. I am grateful I had the opportunity to spend time with them and my son met a few of his cousins for the first time….priceless.

These personal goals are meaningful to me and my family. Life is about connections and the relationships we share. It is so gratifying to achieve goals – big or small. I will share one other small goal that I achieved a few days ago. I have photos on my fireplace mantle in frames that I look at every day. Some of the photos were so old… one photo of me and my husband was taken in 2005…I look a lot older now. Anyway, I have wanted to replace these old photos with recent ones. I ordered prints online of our 2016 vacation to Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, Canada and replaced my old photos. It may seem trivial to you but it means the world to me. Here is one of the photos that I have displayed in my home.​

I hope I have motivated you to act on a small goal that you have. Many of my clients have pictures sitting on the floor that they intend to hang up but never seem to get around to hanging. Projects piled high or projects started but never quite finished, adding guilt to your psyche. Just do it!

What will you accomplish this month? I would love to hear from you. Please share some of your goals with me. Let me know if I have inspired you to complete a goal or project. Let me know what organizing tips you are interested in.
Please share this newsletter/blog/post with friends and like my facebook business page if you are on facebook. Thank you!!
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Adele Tusson-Gross
Chief Executive Organizer

Have you ever heard someone say, "My Supper Club group is meeting this weekend" and thought...that sounds like so much fun. I wish I were in a Supper Club. I hear this a lot from friends and acquaintances.  

Supper Club is an important part of my family’s life. I have participated in various Supper Clubs for 19 years. The people, location, and “rules” have evolved but the sole purpose has never changed: spending quality time with friends on a regular basis. It all started when a good friend, Sharla, in Gulf Breeze, Florida suggested we start a girl’s and kids Thursday night get together at her home. Sharla had the nicest house of the bunch; it was very conducive to FUN!  She had a beautiful swimming pool connected to her living room via a wall of sliding glass doors. We socialized, with cocktails in hand, while our young kids burned off energy swimming and playing.  It was a welcome release for all of us. My friend’s and I talked about our week: the good, bad, and the ugly. Each week we rotated bringing an entrée and on occasion our husband’s would join us and other friends. We looked forward to it week after week. Lives change through the years and eventually our Supper Club fizzled out. We continued to get together sporadically; however, it was never quite as special. 

My family moved from Florida to Georgia in the summer of 2003. Some of our neighbors invited us into their Neighborhood Supper Club in Athens, Georgia.  Again, lives changed, people moved and eventually that Supper Club dissolved.  A few of the original families are still getting together, month after month. These families are so special to us. Our kids have grown up together through our Supper Club gatherings. Our kids attend different schools and live in different neighborhoods but they are very good friends.  Our kids look forward to Supper Club and often ask their parents, “When is Supper Club?” That really warms our hearts.  Our last Supper Club, to date, was October 2014 and my family hosted.  I had hurt my back in a Kick Box class the day before.  I was in a lot of pain and considered cancelling but my son, Connor (11 years old), begged me not to. I am so glad that we did not cancel it. It was one of the best parties ever and we started a new tradition: sharing old photos of yourself from High School or younger. Many of us laughed so hard we were crying and I think someone in the group may have experienced incontinence.   

Our Supper Club is unpretentious. We meet at people’s homes, parks, restaurants, bowling alleys, pumpkin patches, and any other venue that sounds inviting. The goal of our Supper Club is to meet and spend time together, the place and the food is really secondary. Two new families have recently joined our group. The decision to add new families was not decided lightly; it was given a lot of thought and discussion. Our group is pleased with our decision. Sure, there is more food to purchase and more kids running around but we are enjoying the companionship greatly.

Let’s talk about how to get started with a Supper Club:

• Someone has to Coordinate it
  
• Talk to potential members to see if they have an interest 
  
• Decide how many members or families you want in the group
  
• Decide how often your group will meet 
  
• Decide where your group will meet
  
• Decide what type of Supper Club your group wants
  

1. Gourmet
   
2. Themed
   
3. Informal
   
4. Kids or Adult Only (you may want kids at a different members home than the host with a sitter while your Supper Club meets)
   
5. Separate meals for adults and kids or do they have they share the same meal
   
6. Host makes all the food or just the entrée and other members bring side dishes
   

A Coordinator is vital to the success. Look for one that is ready, willing,and able, to jump in and handle the details.  One person has to be the planner and the communicator for the group. I send out a schedule for the year and families sign up for the month they want to host. This initial schedule may change but having a schedule helps our club stay committed. Here is a link to additional information about Supper Clubs The Daily Meal, Cooking Light Magazine, and they have an App for that. 

The fun times continue in our group; we look forward to many more gatherings for decades to come…I hope.

 

Adele Tusson-Gross

Supper Club Coordinator

Chief Executive Organizer

Simple Solution Organizing

www.simplesolutionorganizing.com