Organizing Creative Professionals: Sorted

How I did it: My car

Throughout the spring semester, I am proud to say, I never once had that unnerving feeling of "Oh, crap, I left my book at home," or the even more unnerving "Dude, where's my parking permit?!" And that wasn't an accident.

Two days a week, I attended classes at a campus 50 miles from my house, and four nights a week, I attended classes at a campus 25 miles from home. (Fortunately, both were in the same direction.) I knew from the outset that I'd be driving a lot, and I recognized the crucial role my car would play in organization as well as good ol' transportation.

I decided that my books would "live" in my car to reduce the chance of leaving one of them at home. If I needed to take a book into the house (or coffee shop) to read and take notes from, I'd consider it a furlough and get the book back into the car as soon as possible. (Sorted principle: Stuff lives where you're likely to need it.)

To hold all seven courses worth of books, I got a backseat car organizer. The product seems geared toward kids, what with the water bottle holders and the rigid top to facilitate game playing. I ignored both those features and used it as a big box that a seat belt could go through. 

Of course, a milk-crate-type box will also work fine, as long as you can get the seat belt through it to hold it in place. If you drive like I do, the last thing you want is a big, heavy object sliding around the car.

I also did a kind of triage in deciding which books would get taken into the business school building from the car. For instance, the book for my Business Law class was one of the heaviest objects I have ever encountered. Seriously, I think they used an aqueous coating made of the remnants of a white dwarf star to coat all 1297 pages.

Therefore, the Business Law book did not get put into my actual bag to attend class. Instead, I read my assigned chapters and took organized notes on them at home, before class. This not only kept me informed and up-to-date; it saved significant wear and tear on my back muscles. (Sorted principle: consider the impact on your comfort and health when determining if you need something.)

Because I treated my car as a sort of backpack on wheels, I always had access to the books I needed when I needed them. Giving my books a designated home ensured that I'd return them to that home. Same thing with my hanging parking permit: it stayed in the little cubbyhole under my radio when it wasn't dangling from my rearview mirror. There was no reason to put it in a bag or even the glove compartment where it might be forgotten. 

Of course, I was fortunate in that I didn't have to share a car with anyone and could essentially use it as a rolling school locker. But hopefully you might find some tips in here to help you use your car as an organizational tool.

What has your experience been with cars and organization? Let me know in the comments!

8 business-trip organizing tips

As online meeting tools have become more robust, business travel has declined over the past 10 years or so. (Remember the '90s? Dude, everybody was traveling for business then.) But it's still sometimes necessary to hoof it in person to close a deal, pitch a sale or just touch base with the folks who help you do business. So here are a few suggestions to minimize the hassle of the business trip.

1. Confirm the day before, check the day of. This especially applies to flights, where the weather can make a huge difference. Just last week, my husband called me from the airport an hour after I had dropped him off with the news that his flight had been canceled due to high winds at LaGuardia. Confirm your reservations the day before (and print your boarding pass to save time), but remember to check the most current conditions before you leave the house (or your wife leaves the house in her jammies, as the case may be).

2. Check to see what your hotel already has. If there's an iron, hair dryer and/or alarm clock provided, that's some space and weight you've saved in your luggage.

3. Focus on packing your specifics. Remember, you're going to another work location, not Outer Mongolia. Chances are that if you forget to pack something generic (such as shampoo), you can get it there. However, if you forget something specific to you (such as prescription medication, your business cards, your USB drive with the files for that presentation on it), you're out of luck.

4. Keep a ready-packed toiletry kit on hand. If you travel more than once or twice a year, it's worth it to keep a one-quart plastic bag stocked with your toiletries in the same place you keep the rest of your luggage. That way, you can just grab it and throw it into any bag.

5. Consider getting one of those office-supply kits. You know, the kind that schools sometimes sell as a fundraiser. They're not that useful around the office itself, but when you've got to improvise in the field, having a tiny pair of scissors or a tape dispenser can save your bacon.

6. Plan to spend time waiting. Travel involves a fair amount of killing time, but you might not want to assume that you can kill that time while working. If you can bring along some mindless work that needs doing, that's great. But don't plan to read a lot of highly technical stuff while wondering if your flight will take off that night. Better to bring some music, books and/or games to pass the time in a leisurely fashion and hopefully alleviate some of the stress of waiting. (My iPod touch, which I love, carries music, games, books [thank you, Kindle app!], photos, plus Wi-Fi email and internet. And it's about half the size of a deck of cards.)

7. Let the people you work with know that you'll be only partially in touch. If you can, it's a good idea to check your email and voicemail about 3 times a day. But that's not always possible, especially if you've got a lot planned for your trip or you're going somewhere with shaky coverage. Before you go, tell everyone you think might want to contact you that you'll be checking in, but since you're on the road, you can't promise to get back to them in a normal not-on-the-road time.

8. Designate a folder for receipts and use it. This can be a paper folder, or an organizer folder in your planner, luggage or briefcase. Doesn't matter. All that matters is that you save your receipts in the same place, and write yourself a note to extract them the day after you get back.

What other business trip tips have you learned in your travels? Let me know in the comments!