The ABSOLUTE BEST WAY to get ORGANIZED

I figured it out! All these years.. I tried so hard to be organized. I have software, I have methods, I have to do list, etc. But I was missing a huge key ingredient. NECESSITY!

Yes, Necessity! If you don't absolutely have to get organized, and you are a messy person like me.. you will probably always fall off the wagon. Until.. you HAVE to, or you will not survive!

What does that mean for me? Well.. After 40+ years of being an entrepeneur, or working at jobs where my time was flexible as long as I got the job done, I learnt my big lesson this year. I have 2 corporations I run, plus a Charitable organization, plus 2 kids, and a life (sometimes lol). Well even with all this.. I was disorganized. But in November.. out of the need for many things, such as excitement, motivation, human company, learning curve booster, and some steady cash.. I took a full time job!! Yes! So now, I took out 40+ hours a week out of my time to do all my own things, and suddenly.. I am more organized!

I have to be, or I can't do it all!! Not to mention much more productive! Time is suddenly at a shortage, and things need to be done!

I can't say I'm a totally organized person now. It's only been 2.5 months.. but I can tell you I am more organized than I've ever been in my life, and getting better every day. I am loving being crazy busy.. but also crazy productive!

Try it.. cut your time.. and see what happens when you know you absolutely have no other time to do things than the 1-2 hours a day, and watch how amazingly organized and productive you get! I'ts not the same thing when you work for yourself and are 'busy'. Trust me, it's not. I've been 'busy' for 40+ years.. but always had leisure time. or time to catch up 'later'. But these past 2.5 months.. I dont'! Absolutely no time at all. Barely time to sleep, let alone have an hour of just relax time! And suddenly, I am getting more done in a month than I did in 6 previously! And that is not cutting out any of my corporations/businesses, kids activities or anything else. In fact, I'm adding new business ventures to it, and other activities like 4X a week workouts! WOOT!

Life is GREAT and SO exciting!

Write and let me know your thoughts on this. Maybe I will burn out.. but I have not felt this energized and excited to do things in a very very long time! Share your stories with me!

In the beginning

So last year, I had decided to write a book about how I went from being disorganized to being organized. Unfortunately I wrote my 'blog' the old fashioned way, in a book.. with a pen! But after reading Mr. David Meerman Scott's excellent book 'New Rules of Marketing & PR', I realized I should have written it in a blog.. it would have been more fun to have other people's comments, input, incouragement, or critism. So I'm switching. Not to worry.. though I made an excellent attempt at writting in my journal often.. I lost it for a period of 4-5 months when I moved.. so there is a giant gap which I want to continue with now. I will add some of my pen writings in the blog for you guys to critic as well. I think some of my ideas were quiet good.. but I'm biased :)

So first, a little about me. I am a soon to be 40 year old single mother of 2 beautiful children, aged 7 and 9. I share them with my ex, so half the week I take them to school, soccer, hockey, lacross, riding, swimming, karate, gynmastics, playdate or whatever else they happen to be in. I run my own IT company, designing websites and hosting them (http://www.registerit.ca/), have about 85 clients and growing, a few of them large with constant updates needed, I have 4-6 contractors or more to manage at any one time. I also have my own income generating websites, and am a landlord. In my spare time, I also run a registered charitable organization about mental and emotional child abuse called Parental Alienation Awareness Organization, which I started after creating and Awareness Day. (http://www.paawarenessday.com/ , http://www.paawareness.org/). This org has thousands of volunteers located globally that need to be guided and directed. I also go to the gym when I can, and love to Salsa, so take lessons. I also own a house with lawns and gardens that need to be taken care of, as well as the usual inside things like laundry, dishes, dusting, etc. I'll put more about me in the About me section later.. but this should suffice for now I think...

To top it all off.. I cannot seem to say no to anything anyone says that sounds remotely fun as I really hate to miss out on anything! Like last week I flew to Mexico for 5 days to hang with my best friend with only a few weeks notice! I also hate to say no to most things that help others.... and seem to think the more I pile on my plate the better... So... therefore.. I need to get organized!

I cannot continue this kind of lifestyle in chaos.. although somehow I have managed it so far.

So you may ask, why write a book on top of it all! I'm not even a good writer. Well, the reason is, I decided last year that I needed help in organizing and efficiency. So I went to Chapters in search of a book about how to manage everything.. business, kids, home, personal. I found exactly ZERO books on the subject.. just lots of books on how to nicely put things in tupperware and stuff. So I thought I'd document my methods.. maybe it'll help some other parent/entrepeneurs!

I took some pictures of my house when I first started, to show the 'Before' photos.. of course.. I just searched 30 minutes in my files, and have no idea where I put them. I'll look for them again later and post them for you to see.

Until then.

Sarvy