Organizing Creative Professionals: Sorted

The spring semester: How I did it

Like I said on Thursday, 18 credit hours in a high-level MBA program is kind of a lot. A lot of reading, a lot of note-taking, a lot of project coordination, a lot of deadlines. (And a lot of driving. Thank God for satellite radio.)

So you might suspect that as an organizational type, I had some magic trick up my sleeve for keeping all my classes and projects organized. Well, I did have an essential tool for managing everything. And there it is, on the right.

Yeah. It's a paper calendar I made in Excel. 

The one at the right covers the half of the semester after Spring Break (on the other side is the pre-Break portion). Basically, I copied all of my assignments—reading, deliverables, meetings, etc.—onto the calendar, made little checks next to every completed task, then marked through the day after it was done. (It was that kind of a semester, I assure you.)

This spectacularly low-tech tool worked so well for me for a number of reasons. For one thing, my schedule didn't vary much from week to week, so I could just note what was due in the general area of a particular class's time, and not have to note what class it was due for.

For another, this calendar was supplemented by a daily to-do list that captured the smaller stuff and outlined the best order in which to do all my tasks. That way, I could keep the overall calendar relatively uncluttered and focused on school obligations.

The main reason I'm showing you my little calendar is to reinforce one of the maxims of Sorted: it doesn't matter what you use, as long as it works for you and you use it consistently. I could've used any number of online, computer-based or professionally designed paper tools to keep track of my semester. But what worked for me was a basic calendar and a bunch of scratch paper.

What humble tools have worked for you in the past? Let me know in the comments!

Coming up for air

Whew!

Well, that turned out to be a much longer break than I had thought. Turns out, 18 hours of graduate-level business courses is kind of a lot at once. My apologies for being absent so long.

I've been so focused on my studies since January that I feel a little lost re-entering the world of productivity and organization. I've been writing my columns for Inside Business throughout the semester, so I haven't been completely MIA, but I haven't exactly been swimming in the waters of Lake Sorted either.

For the rest of the month, I'm going to post about stuff I've learned in on my journey to an MBA. But that'll only take a post or two ;-). So I'd like to throw open the floor for any requests you might have about what you'd like me to write about. Post your requests in the comments and I'll do my best to grant them.

And thanks for your patience!

Changes to Sorted in 2010

Welcome to the new year, everyone! This looks to be one of the most... interesting years in my life, at least for the first few months. In the spring of this year, I'll be completing the remaining 18 credit hours of my MBA from the College of William and Mary in one semester. 

To accomplish that, I'm going to have to start practicing what I've been preaching. I'll have to pare down my other activities and not try to do everything at once.

So until June of this year, the following changes will apply to life at Sorted:

• I will be available for consultations and organizing work on Fridays only.
• I will be blogging once a week, at most.
• I will not be on Twitter. (Honestly, I haven't been on Twitter since mid-October, and I have to say, I don't really miss it.)
• While I appreciate all the new subscriptions to Sussed & Sorted, I discontinued that newsletter in the fall, and there will be no new issues.

There's still plenty of things to read on this site, and I will be adding new content, just not as rapidly as I have in the past. I'm looking forward to working with new clients this spring, just on Fridays.

What about you? Have any of you made any substantial changes to your work parameters to meet a major goal this year or last? Let me know in the comments!

Scrapping "Sussed & Sorted"

I've been thinking a lot about simplicity and streamlining lately. As a productivity coach, I counsel people to make sure that what they're doing is what will deliver the results that they want without diluting their mission or focus. I'm now applying that rule to myself, and as a result, I'm discontinuing the Sorted newsletter, "Sussed & Sorted."

I'm grateful to everyone who subscribed, but I believe that all the information in the newsletter can be found just as easily in the blog and in my Twitter feed. And without Sussed & Sorted, that's one less thing to open in your inbox, so I'm helping you clear out the clutter, too. :-)

Thanks for your support.

Listen to me talk about organizing!

...and hit my "R"s like they owe me money. (Memo to self: try less diction.) Bonnie Marcus, the founder of Women's Success Coaching, interviewed me last Friday, and the podcast is now up at her site!

Bonnie had a great idea earlier this year: to encourage more female business owners to talk up their accomplishments, she started a series of podcasts called "Bragcasts." There have been some great interviews with other women from a variety of fields. Bonnie is a great interviewer, and I'm truly honored to have been part of the series. Thanks, Bonnie!

What does it mean to get Sorted?

"So, business organizing..." my friend said. "What is that?"

"You know how when a professional organizer comes to someone's home, the homeowner can't find anything in the closet, the kitchen cabinets are overflowing and there are boxes in the attic that haven't been opened since they moved in?"

"Ahh," he said, grasping the concept immediately.

Many creative enterprises have the same issues as those homes: you can't find information you need when you need it, the piles on your desk are taking over and nobody's opened that file cabinet since you moved into that space. (Truth be told, that filing cabinet is starting to scare you.) And while the home situation is no picnic, there are very real, very tangible costs to having an un-Sorted creative business.

You know the costs already: The opportunities you've missed because you couldn't find contact or submission info before the deadline. That uneasy feeling that you're not doing your best work because of your physical environment. The times you were in your creative groove but had to stop and spend half an hour looking for something -- and when you finally found it, the groove had left the building.

What if you had a physical environment that didn't just inspire creativity but nurtured it as well? A Sorted environment provides the space and the systems to support your work and lets you keep the personal touches that spur your best ideas.

Better still, getting Sorted will transform your thinking about yourself and your own organizing abilities. Not only can creative people get organized (it's a filthy lie that we can't), organization leaves creative types free to do their best work without worrying about the state of their desk.

If your office or studio reminds you of a "before" room on an organization show, give Sorted a call. We'll create a space that brings out your best, and we'll do it using one of the Sorted mottos: "No shame, no blame... let's see if we can make it a game." Put the past behind you; it's time to get Sorted.