We’ve been on a mission this year to evangelize how IGEL is making the home workspace both a cool place to work as well as a productive one.

To spread the word, we’ve given away bundles of cool home workspace technology from some of the world’s hottest brands – worth $5,000 each. We’ve also presented the winner of our customer testimonial contest with a complete home workspace makeover, worth $20,000. But don’t worry, you still have more chances to win. See the details here.

For those of you that may have missed watching the customer testimonial contest webinar, where we showcased three finalists, how their company uses IGEL and why their home office needs a makeover, you can view that here.

In summary, here are some of the great ways these finalists are using IGEL to help overcome the massive work from home migration in their company due to the COVID-19 pandemic:

Jaimie Bean, VP, IT Applications & EAS at Continuum shared how IGEL helped them resolve the security issues of their existing VPN solution. Continuum is a business process outsourcer with expertise in managing call centers and has 15,000 employees around the world. Having recently been spun off from a larger organization, Continuum had to stand up its entire IT infrastructure in just 18 months. Then the pandemic hit. As a result, Continuum had to send 9,000 employees to work from home in the span of just two weeks in March. Having been on a VPN solution at the time the company realized it wasn’t as secure as was needed. They quickly began deploying IGEL OS on home-based systems in the U.S. to improve security and manageability. Now with 3,000 users already implemented on IGEL OS the company has been able avoid overburdening its VPN while giving users the high-performance access they need from home.

Jeffrey de Krou, Systems Engineer, Cloud Specialist at Detailresult Groep provided details on how IGEL OS systems could be rapidly deployed. For the grocery holding company with over 250 supermarkets in the Netherlands, this was a lifesaver during the Coronavirus pandemic. With around 20,000 employees, the company already had 1,500 IGEL thin clients before COVID-19 hit. But the pandemic caused a new urgent need to support home workers. Within two weeks the company deployed another 1,500 laptops with IGEL OS running through the IGEL Cloud Gateway. The quick turnaround took just one hour. Using the IGEL OS creator, they were able to have the laptops running in just three minutes, compared to as much as an hour for Windows laptops using the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit which also required manual configurations. Now Detailresult Groep has 80-90% of their home-working employee fleet using IGEL. The result has been significant time and cost savings!

Bill Jenkins, MTS1 Systems Engineer at eBay detailed how IGEL improved security and manageability for eBay’s call center and corporate workers as they moved to a work-from-home model. With 10,000 call center agents that “follow the sun” to provide support for eBay customers, the company has long been using Citrix. Recently they switched to IGEL-based systems from their Dell Wyse Windows-based thin clients to improve security and manageability. But when the Coronavirus hit their success with IGEL delivered a new benefit. Thousands of corporate eBay workers needed to move to a work-from-home model quickly to begin accessing Citrix workspaces for the first time. They were able to spin up 4,000 corporate employees using Citrix and the IGEL OS, using IGEL UD Pockets in no time. This relieved their VPN which was beginning to crumble under pressure. Instead, IGEL rescued these users by enabling secure and productive access to Citrix workspaces on any device their users had on hand.

Each of these customer testimonials, and their workspaces, were part of our community vote. And the winner was Bill Jenkins from eBay – congratulations Bill! Stay tuned for more on his office makeover provided by home makeover expert Vicki Norris.

Ready for your office makeover? Don’t worry, the chance to win – whether you are an IGEL customer or prospect – isn’t over yet! Enter today for our final $5,000 home workspace technology bundle and the final sweepstakes drawing for your home office makeover worth $20,000. The drawing will be held December 10, so don’t delay (winners do not need to be present to win).

It may just be the holiday surprise you’ve been waiting for this year! Good luck!

The post Making Home Workspaces Cool, and Productive, Places appeared first on IGEL.

Whether we are buried under old paper from our hard copy days or new documents that keep coming in, we need a strategy for identifying and keeping the important stuff.

If you’re like me, you love the PRINT BUTTON. I confess: I’m a hard copy girl. I’ll opt for a print copy over an electronic copy when I’m reading something.  I like to highlight, use my clicker pen, and write on documents. Something about the kinesthetic touchability of paper works for my brain. But I do realize that this penchant for paper causes pile-up of documents.

Over the recent years, I’ve thinned out the volume of my files as they have “aged out.” But, for me, a business owner and administrator, certain essential permanent paper is here to stay. I don’t plan on scanning key reference documents like medical records and financial paperwork. That means a good, simple, and expandable filing system is needed.

If you’re like me, and you like the comfort of records-at-your-fingertips, you, too, need a reliable filing system.

In this blog, I’m going to help you tame those piles; the permanent paper that you need to keep.

Ingather All Paper & Files

The first step is to ingather all files and paperwork.

Most people have multiple files and piles stashed all over the house. I want you to ingather them from everywhere. It could be in innumerable locations:

• Stagnating on your desk
• Dumped on the floor of your home office
• Packed into your file cabinet(s)
• Landed on the kitchen counter
• Taking up territory on the dining table
• Stashed in boxes in the garage
• Piled up on your nightstand or dresser
• Laying on the couch

This list makes me chuckle because it’s all-too-real! Can you tell I’ve been working with paper lovers as a career?

Paper has a way of traveling throughout the home. It likes to “land” and “set up camp” on surfaces, crowding out usable space.

In your ingathering process, you are corralling all this paper into ONE room and ONE sort. You’re trying to ensure that no-paper-is-left-behind!

(The only exception to your permanent paper file sort is ARCHIVAL PAPER – like past tax year’s supporting documentation or family memorabilia.)

What you’re looking for is PERMANENT paper. Paper that should be filed is completed; it’s done, it no longer requires action and it now serves as REFERENCE. You’ve determined that you, in fact, need it and that accessing the same information online or through an institution is either not possible or convenient.

Because you’re ingathering only permanent paper into your file sort, you are NOT looking for:

1. Quick-turn over, hot actionable paper
2. Short-term, active projects that you’re working on now

Each of these two other types of paper require their own unique systems. If you struggle with incoming, hot paper, see my blog “How to Process Paper – Tackling Your To Dos & Tasks with an Action Center.” If you need a hand with projects, read my blog “Handling Projects: Action Files for Managing Pending Work.”

Most people have stuffed file cabinets plus a ton of permanent paper that really should be filed, spread out all over the place. Ingathering all this completed paper into one sort is critical to creating a complete, organized system so the “paper creep” won’t come back!

Categorize

As you’re ingathering, you’re not just going to haul the piles and boxes into one room. You’re going to macro-sort, or categorize your paper into like-item groups. You’re taking the time to touch it; so you might as well limit the times you have to deal with that old, completed paper.

Set up a 4-6 banker’s boxes and add hanging folders to each. Common household filing systems include the following categories:

1. Household
2. Financial
3. Medical/Health
4. Personal Interests
5. Professional (if you have kept a lot of old resumes, work samples, career info)

Drop ingathered paperwork into one of the categorized boxes right into a hanging file folder (if it is already in a file). If it’s a loose paper, affix a temporary sticky note label onto the file label section on a manila file folder to identify that paper that you’ve found (ie: Health Insurance Plan”).

You can employ old, used file folders for this sorting process if you like – don’t worry about the color or condition of the file; you’re simply identifying the paper at this stage.

I call this phase of macro-sorting into categories “bucketizing,” because you are simply trying to get each paper or file into the correct “bucket.” You’re not worried about whether you need the paper, whether it’s outdated, or even the perfect file name. You’re only concentrating on routing each item into the correct category.

In addition to using hanging files, I like using 1/3 cut file folders, which allow enough space for a useful label. Once you’ve correctly identified the file with a good name, you can drop that file into a hanging file folder. I like using one file folder per hanging file; this allows plenty of room to move the hanging files around.

Here are a few essential categorizing tips to keep in mind:

• Don’t set up more than 6 category boxes; avoid over-creating. Simple is best.
• Assign a color to each category (ie: Medical= red; Financial: green, etc.) for easy reference. (You won’t employ these colored files until you are completely done with categorizing and sub-categorizing and making your permanent files.)

Sub-Categorize

After you’ve got all paper in the right bucket, or category, then you can subcategorize.

This is your micro-sort phase wherein you are whittling down the larger category into sub-categories.

Sub-categorizing your files allows you to create subdivisions within each major category to break it down a bit.

For example, in your Financial category, our professional organizers usually find the following sub-categories:

• Banking
• Credit
• Expenses
• Investments
• Insurance
• Taxes

By subdividing each category further, you will make the category SO much easier to navigate. Categorizing and sub-categorizing is a deductive system. This system allows you to determine a file’s appropriate “bucket,” and then peer into that category, find the appropriate subcategory, and then file appropriately. A sub-categorized file drawer also makes retrieval easier when you want to locate a file.

Each major category can be sub-categorized into various smaller “neighborhoods,” as above. Thus, the category is the city, and the sub-categories are the neighborhoods.

After you get all files and loose paperwork into a category, move the files around in the banker’s box, grouping like-items together. Then, label each subcategory with an upside-down sticky note denoting its subcategory (like “Banking”).

Now that you have each category subcategorized, it’s time to thin out your paperwork, not before. Once you can see all similar paperwork together, it’s pretty easy to “prune” out old, unnecessary paperwork, remembering that the majority of what we keep we never look at again.

If you try to thin out your paperwork before you can see it all together, you will derail the process with too much decision-making. (It’s kind of like closet organizing: get all your t-shirts together before you force yourself to decide which to donate!)

Beware of several filing mistakes people make at this sub-categorizing stage:

• After getting paper into one general category, they give up, leaving a messy category that is still hard to navigate.
• They try to alphabetize each category’s individual files instead of sub-categorizing. This makes it difficult to find paperwork in the future, because an alphabetical system relies on what the user was thinking the moment they filed it. Simple sub-categories within a greater category makes more sense and is an easier, deductive system.
• They label files individually rather than as a part of a subcategory. Unfortunately, this way each file is independent, instead of belonging to a neat little subdivision.

Now that your files are subcategorized and unnecessary, old paperwork is removed, you can formalize these neighborhoods by assigning a tab position (left, center, right) to each subcategory. For example, your Banking subcategory might be denoted by using all left tab position file folders:

• Banking: Business Checking
• Banking: Personal Checking
• Banking: Personal Savings

Your Credit files might then be in the center tab position. Then, your Expenses files might be in the right tab position. In this way, each subcategory is alphabetically assigned a tab position to set off each “neighborhood” of related files.

If you don’t want to use colored file folders, using a color strip label (as in the above picture) on the file folder label is another way to identify the broader category. All your health files might be red, and the subcategories would be indicated by tab position (as above.)

The subcategorizing phase is critical to the filing process. It forces you to really think about the content of each category BEFORE you file it. But this mental work upfront will pay off in easy retrieval later. Without subcategorizing, you’ve made your permanent paper only somewhat easier to find. You can get to the right drawer, but finding the individual file is still a mystery. When you subcategorize, you make identification and retrieval a breeze.

Finalize your subcategories with matching labels. I like to denote BOTH the subcategory name AND the file name in a label. Example: Health Records: Vicki; Health Records: Trevor, etc.

Clear, consistent labels following a naming convention makes file identification easy and easy-on-the-eye.

Filing Tips

Filing has got to be one of the most intimidating of all organizing projects. People delay and resist learning how to file precisely because it is complex. I hope I’ve eliminated the intimidation that can come with the filing project in front of you with these simple macro and micro steps.

The biggest obstacle to filing is categorizing, but hopefully you now feel confident in “bucketizing.”

Once you’ve categorized, sub-categorizing is simply creating mini-buckets within the bigger bucket.

Be sure to set aside enough time to complete the filing project. As a professional organizer, I’ve found that most of my file projects take between 10-16 hours if there are a lot of files. I’ve completed a file system in as little as 4 hours, and I have taken on some epic file systems taking upwards of 24 hours. The time you should dedicate depends on the volume of files you have.

Don’t forget to create a separate filing system for business and personal. In this blog, I’ve covered your personal files, since we all have personal paperwork. Use this same process to macro and micro sort your business paperwork as well. As you add each file to a box, label the macro category on the front of the box. Let your business categories emerge as you discover the kinds of files you have on hadn.

Common professional categories include: Administration, Corporate, Financial, Legal, Marketing, Operations, Professional Development, Sales, and more! Your business categories will be as unique as your business. Some businesses don’t even have many paper records even more.

An orderly filing system puts you in control of your personal and professional life. Going through the filing process is also very clarifying: it helps you to visually “see” your life records in living color. A streamlined file system also puts at your fingertips key records like titles to personal and real property, critical health records, and your financial history – empowering you to be a good steward. This is why I love filing: it “restores order” and puts you back in the driver’s seat of your life!

Here’s to reclaiming your paper and reclaiming your life!

~Vicki Norris

The post Turning Piles into Files appeared first on IGEL.

A workspace layered with archaeology is not only ugly to look at, but it stymies our productivity before we even get started.

Junky surfaces are ugly and embarrassing. They usually represent that:

• We have too much on our plate; our stuff is outpacing our bandwidth, or:
• We haven’t taken the time to prioritize a functional workspace, or, worse:
• Our internal world (a hot mess) is manifesting in our external world

Whatever your reason(s) may be for clutter to call your workspace “home,” this blog will help you analyze how-you-got-here and what to do about it!

Mistake #1 – Office Supply Abuse

Office products were of course invented to help us corral our clutter on our desks, credenzas, and work surfaces, but many of us over-or-under apply them, and generally mis-use them!

I call this phenomenon “office supply abuse” – and it’s the first mistake that leads to workspace messes.

Office supply abuse happens when we believe that buying and throwing organizing products at our problem is the answer.

Let’s face it: most of us don’t want to dedicate several hours to getting to the root of our organizing problems. We “awfulize” how long that would take. We don’t want to expose ourselves to the self-scrutiny, and bring our own habits under the magnifying glass. It’s painful and yucky.

It’s SO much easier to be enticed by a cute-sy tray system or file sorter or implement organizer, and just drop some money on accessories and throw those at the mess. We pay money instead of the piper because we want to avoid the process and just get to the finish line faster.

However, after 21 years as a professional organizer, I can tell you that I’ve seen thousands of households with a huge range of products, and they’re STILL disorganized!

It’s not products alone that solve our problems; it’s the organizing PROCESS we go through! Products may likely be part of the solution; but it’s the questions we ask of ourselves, the discovery process itself, that rids us of clutter and creates ordered systems.

Office supply abuse happens when we short-circuit the organizing process and replace it with organizing “tools” that don’t last or fit your needs.

Instead, here’s how to ensure you get the right organizing tools and avoid office supply abuse for good:

• Don’t buy junk. It may be hard to spend good money on lasting accessories, but you will pay the price in aesthetics if you just grab the cheap plastic stuff. Leave the cheap-o products on the shelf, and take the time to find the right products in quality materials that suit your actual needs.
• Don’t buy too soon in the process. It’s too easy to be enticed by trendy or sparkly products, especially ones with cute labels or features. We grab the product off the shelf, and bring it back to our workspace, and then try to retro-fit it to our needs. This is the opposite of what we should be doing. Instead, we should clear out the “deadwood” off our surfaces and walls, organize the paper and “stuff” that remains by type, and custom-fit our products to our daily-use items. Let the PROCESS guide your organizing efforts; not the PRODUCTS!
• Determine inventory first. As you go through the sorting process, you will be making decisions about what gets to live on your surfaces, based on frequency-of-use. Instead of buying a sorter for specific files or certain supplies, in the end, you may put those items in a drawer after you’ve prioritized your workspace real estate. This is why the sorting process is so important: during the sort, you will take visual “inventory” of all your stuff and the resulting decisions should guide the products you acquire. This is key to avoiding office supply abuse.
• Don’t buy without measuring. This may seem obvious, but again, we get enticed by a multi-drawer caddy or a sleek bleachered file system, and we too often buy it before we measure our workspace and the items we want to store. Measure first, then buy.

Now that you’ve learned how to buy the right products at the right time, you are on your way to decluttering your workspace systems.

But what about the walls that surround us? Many of us have let our clutter creep upward and pretty soon we are enveloped by it…

Mistake #2 –Visual Clutter

In an attempt to get organized or even beautify our space we often mindlessly tack space-cluttering “organizers” or elements to our walls.

From bulletin boards to white boards, to a random scattering of wall art, we often begin with good intentions.

We want to encircle ourselves with inspiration, so we begin taping, tacking, and displaying everything from vision boards to memorabilia to reminders. Pretty soon, our walls become just as visually “noisy” as our desktops.

Step back and take a fresh look at your wall space and see if you’re committing the second mistake of cluttered offices: visual clutter.

In our passion to “personalize” our space, we display:

• Family pictures
• Holiday and greeting cards
• Knick knacks that remind of us of events or funny memories
• Reminders
• Inspiration
• Décor items that haven’t been planned or don’t coordinate

In the above photo, we see a metal grid “organizer” that is sold in many varieties today, both in stores and online. But what are you supposed to hang on this grid system? Pictures? These grids are clutter-catchers! They are artfully designed in the advertisement, but are rarely executed that way in real life.

Also pictured are hexagon bulletin boards. Many stores sell “collections” of these kind of corkboards or mirrors, etc. The idea – I suppose – is to make your display items into a gallery. However, these mini boards simply add to the chaos and hem in the space visually.

If you don’t want your home office to look like the inside of a teenage locker, quit buying space-cluttering stuff that doesn’t have a useful purpose.

Instead, give your walls a makeover in the same way you would your desktop and surfaces:

• Take a fresh designer look at your walls
• Empty everything off them if you’re a victim of visual wall clutter
• Put only the items back that enhance the space
• Acquire attractive pieces that optimize the space
• Consider less, larger statement pieces to visually expand your space

For those who love to display memorabilia, clutter often follows. But, with a little forethought, you can find ways to do it elegantly and without visual noise:

• Photograph awards and put them in an album
• Remove photo frames scattered on walls and surfaces, and instead display them in a slideshow on your computer monitor or a wall-mounted screen
• Blow up special quotes littered around your space and create a canvas wall art, or have a vinyl saying made for your walls

Now that you’ve reigned in your office supply systems and decluttered your walls, let’s streamline the “stuff” that helps us work: our staplers, pens, sticky notes, and related paraphernalia.

Mistake #3 – Surface Yard Sale

Can we talk about SURFACE abuse? Anything and everything hits our surfaces, and without careful planning, our work surface starts looking like a disorganized yard sale.

The third and final mistake that clutters up our workspace is allowing a “surface yard sale” to occur.

Sometimes this mistake is hard to “see” in our own workspace, because we become so used to our familiar items being “on hand,” that we allow this junky little stuff to take over.

My advice to prevent the proliferation of junk is to take an “aerial view” of your space. Literally get on a chair and look down at your desk. Or, take a photo of it and analyze it. The idea is to get fresh eyes on your work surfaces and evaluate attractiveness and efficiency.

Sticky note dispensers, three-hole punches, calculators, and other desktop equipment litters our space if we aren’t careful.

Even if we use these items fairly frequently, not all of them need to be on our desk.

• Some could be relocated to an “assembly station” on a counter or credenza, like a stapler and hole punch.
• Specific items could be placed in a top desk drawer, to keep often-used items close at hand, but not in view
• Some items are hardly used at all, and can be placed in a supply closet or cabinet for infrequent use. Tape, for example, is not used very often in most workflows. So, no matter how attractive your dispenser is, you really don’t need to leave it on your work surface!

The remedy for surface abuse is to zoom out and view your space with fresh eyes. Ask yourself how often you use each item and whether it needs to live on the surfaces.

Here are two common surface clutterers:

Mug full of pens – instead, consider a divided pencil station on your desktop to organize your writing instruments by type: markers, pens, pencils, and highlighters – or use a drawer organizer and put these out of sight.

“Everything” caddy – ill-sized organizers that catch odds-and-ends because they’re not big enough for a file or normal size paper, and it’s unclear what should go inside them. Instead, follow the instructions to remedy “office supply abuse” above.

It may be time to evaluate the mish-mash parking lot of your desk and take back your visual aesthetic. You will uplevel your workspace when you reclaim your surfaces!

Declutter to Improve Focus

Dejunking your walls and surfaces improves the aesthetic as well as your focus.

A clear, open surface invites you to tackle your work unobstructed. It’s easy on the eye and feels manageable.

If it’s time to declutter your workspace, here’s your prescription:

1. Clear off your surfaces – both vertical and horizontal and revisit your “look”
2. Simplify the STUFF, put little things out of sight
3. Invest in fewer, quality, attractive products

Decumulating and streamlining your workspace will pay dividends in how it looks and feels. As a bonus, you’ll be empowered to get after your work like never before, resulting in improved productivity and satisfaction.

Here’s to reclaiming your surfaces and enjoying your workspace once more!

~Vicki Norris

The post Declutter Your Workspace appeared first on IGEL.

Room Arrangement

Let’s start optimizing your workspace with the arrangement of your home office.

Well-chosen and placed furniture is key to optimizing and enjoying your space. But all too often, we toss in a desk (or two) that we got on sale, and resume the rat race without expanding our efforts.

A perfect example of a poorly furnished and arranged office is seen below on the left. These his-and-hers desks were acquired by the client at a local office supply store and they just weren’t working:

• Additional file cabinet space was needed since the desks didn’t offer sufficient storage
• The surfaces were piled high with equipment, leaving little workspace
• The desks were awkwardly positioned in the room, leaving the client’s back to the window

Central vs. Perimeter Workspace

When designing a home office workstation, we all too-often ignore the mess and “work with what we’ve got.” Yet, your home office is the hub of professional and personal life and deserves some time, attention, and resources.

To remedy this haphazard home office, we took the time to measure the space and really zoom in on the client’s priorities. Her priorities included ordering and beautifying the space for use by multiple family members. We reimagined the room arrangement accordingly as you will see in the “after” picture on the right.

• We moved the workspace to the perimeter of the room instead of the center of the space to improve usability and aesthetic. In this arrangement, the line of sight from the office door provides an unobstructed view to the bay window with natural light flooding into the office.
• Instead of continuing with the existing desks, we acquired more modern, narrower, conjoining desks to create an elongated workspace. Using the walls to anchor workspace can actually make a room seem larger while in fact offering more workspace.
• Each workstation was outfitted with the supplies and systems needed for that user
• We inventoried the supplies and files, pared down, and matched the customizable under-desk storage compartments to inventory. This is so much smarter than forcing your “stuff” to fit inside a few standard drawers offered by most storage cabinets and desks!

When re-designing your workspace, zoom out and take an aerial view of the room, list what’s not working, and imagine new possibilities.

Desk Facing Back Wall

I’d like to note that while the perimeter workspace arrangement generally works on SIDE walls, I do NOT recommend facing a desk to a BACK wall – it’s isolating and austere, as you can see in this photo above.

Others will naturally feel they’re interrupting you if you’re facing away from everyone.

While a “holed-up” workstation like this may help you focus; it lacks the light and variety of central or perimeter arrangements.

Floating Desk

Another room arrangement is to float a desk in the middle of the room. This is popular in executive offices. I only recommend this plan if your work is mostly electronic and you don’t have mounds of paper and stuff you frequently access. If you’re a minimalist, the floating desk arrangement can make you the captain of your office ship.

This strategy can help you

• Get the best view
• Keep a sweeping 360 degree eye on things
• Upgrade the aesthetic of a space

However, some things to consider include:

• Acquiring a beautiful desk that will be the central focus
• Considering a modesty panel for your desk (hiding wastebaskets, etc.) and cord management
• Losing surface space for spreading out work
• Feeling the “fishbowl” experience and need to keep your desk-on-display clear (which can be a good thing!)

There are so many home office design “best practices,” but instead of getting too caught up in that, let your room lead the process. The secret is to apply the design principles that work best for your unique space.

Mentally (or actually) empty the space and start fresh when you reimagine your home office room arrangement. List your priorities, like:

• Tons of workspace
• Extra storage for gobs of office supplies
• Tons of file space needed
• Perfectly clear surfaces
• Room must double as guest space
• Fantastic backdrop and lighting for video calls

These priorities, along with your floorplan, will guide you into optimal room arrangement.

Home Office Desk

Your desk – your primary work surface – is of critical importance to your workspace. We’ve talked about where to place it, but now we need to discuss its features.

Get Real About #FakeDesks

First, let’s clear something up – the desks you see in magazines and in photo sites are NOT real desks. They’re curated images taken for marketing purposes. You’ll also notice that most of these “desks” are in fact tables (which make for better pictures!) Tables have zero storage and zero work is happening on these photo opp surfaces. So, don’t judge your desk against these #fakedesks!

Real Messy Desk

To make you feel better, the photo above is a real client desk. This is how most of the world lives – under piles of paper and disheveled systems that may never have worked for them.

Real desks are command centers and they take daily abuse. They host supplies, projects, and the incoming assault of paper. Our desks are the hub of our personal and professional life and deserve some TLC.

If you can relate to this picture, you will love my blog “How to Unbury Your Desk”.

Optimizing Desk Surface Space

The best feature of any desk is actual work surface to spread out your projects and get to work.

Deep work surfaces like this desk tend to catch everything, like this “before” picture on the left above. This working mom’s home office desk was littered with work, personal, household, and school paperwork and clutter.

To remedy this cluttered desk, I “purposed” the back third of the work surface for paper management systems and the front 2/3 for spreading out work. Think of it like this: the back 1/3 of your desk can be for “parking,” and your front 2/3 can be for “moving traffic.”

Dedicating zones on a deep or long desk surface for both systems and clear workspace will keep your desk working for you and avoid creeping clutter. After a long day in work “traffic,” each of your projects and notepads should find a parking spot.

Table vs. Storage Space

The reason I prefer actual desks (with storage) over tables is simple: most people don’t have tons of drawer space elsewhere. So, with a table as a workspace, you’re likely to create office supply clutter on your surface. Staplers, tape dispensers, clips, sticky notes, notepads, and all kinds of pens, markers, and highlighters need to go somewhere! If all you’ve got for a desk is a table, these supplies will pile up and create visual and mental clutter on your work surface.

Unless you don’t use pens and staplers and sticky notes, for the love of supplies, get a desk with storage drawers not just a table!

Be sure to inventory and pare down your supplies first so you will know how many drawer you’ll require. You can always use an auxiliary storage cabinet for overflow supplies and keep the most-used ones within your desk.

Chair – Your Workstation Throne

You rule and reign from your throne – your workstation chair! If you haven’t already, it may be time to upgrade.

In my experience, most of us sit on a crummy chair to work all day and this wreaks havoc on our bodies. From back pain to leg nerve pinching, our endless sitting sessions cause

Upgrading the Office Chair to the Ergonomic Chair

Even if you have an “office chair,” most of us sit on the edge of it, like one of my organizing clients (in the left photo above.)

To avoid back trouble, consider investing in a good ergonomic like we did for this marketing maven (right photo above) that offers the back support you need.

Reference Center

Finally, every office needs a reference center. This includes your filing reference and your books and materials reference.

I helped this executive client transform their dining room-turned-home office space into an elegant and aesthetically pleasing workspace.

The workspace includes carefully chosen storage furniture, including a lateral filing cabinet offering space on top for equipment and drawers for files. My advice is to acquire at least a 4 drawer file cabinet; most home filing systems need household, medical, personal, and financial categories of files. If you produce a lot of permanent paperwork for your professional job, be sure to get enough file drawers for that as well.

Also included in this office is an adjacent open bookshelf for journals, conference material, and professional books. In many cases, I prefer a shelving unit that is closed so that the myriad of reference material is not on display. However, the client liked this open bookshelf that matched the other furniture. If you are going to use open shelves, be sure to arrange the books artfully with accessories like clocks, globes, framed photos, candles, or other décor that brings interest and order to the space. If you can’t or don’t want to take the time for that, then simply arrange the open bookshelf out of the line-of-sight when you look into the room.

Also, before you choose a bookshelf for reference material – inventory your books and materials to ensure it’s all essential. Often, this material can be pared down since we can find most info online.

I hope you feel empowered with some fresh ideas to optimize your workspace. Congratulations, you’ve passed Home Office 101 with flying colors!

For more on successful “home officing,” be sure to check out my YouTube playlist “Home Office Organizing Strategies.”

The post Home Office 101: Key Workspace Elements appeared first on IGEL.

IGEL is here to help! We’re giving away another amazing home office bundle, valued at $5,000 this month. So, if you haven’t completed the survey to enter yet, do it today!

What’s in the bundle? Some of the coolest office gear you could imagine, to help you work more productively, efficiently and comfortably, sitting or standing:

• A 34-inch LG Curved Ultrawide Monitor
• A LG Gram Notebook computer
• A Herman Miller Mirra 2 Ergonomic desk chair
• A Nespresso Vertuo Coffee and Espresso Machine by Breville
• A Sennheiser MB Pro Series 1 Bluetooth® Headset
• An Avari Air Purifier
• A Cherry DW 900 Slim Keyboard and Mouse
• Uplift Sit-Stand desk converter

Be sure to enter for your chance to win. These amazing $5,000 prize packs of cool home workspace technology are given away quarterly. We’ll be announcing this quarter’s winner during our DISRUPT 2020 EMEA virtual event on September 17.

IGEL Customer Testimonial Contest

Ready for more? Share your testimonial story in the IGEL Customer Testimonial Contest where IGEL customers can qualify to participate for a chance to win a $20,000 home office makeover.

The home makeover will be designed and created by Vicki Norris, a nationally recognized organizing and home makeover expert who will most certainly make your home office the coolest place around. If you haven’t seen her valuable tips and tricks for a more efficient home office, view her blog and video series.

To be entered to win the $20,000 home office makeover, submit your testimonial story for the IGEL Customer Testimonial Contest by September 24.

We all deserve a workspace that’s not just cool, but happy, smart and safe. Enter the IGEL sweepstakes and contest program today.

The post Make Your Workspace a Coolplace: Enter for Your Chance to Win Today appeared first on IGEL.

To get going each morning, my husband Trevor requires stiff coffee – or as he calls it: “the elixir of LIFE.” Around here, we call his coffee “Personality Improvement” or “P.I.” because he’s happier and more productive when his veins course with coffee.

My morning liftoff isn’t complete without a cup – okay, a HUGE mug – of my favorite fancy tea from France. I admit: I’m a tea snob and I like to launch in fancy Frenchy style.

However you like to start your day, I think we can all relate to a morning ritual that helps us face the order-of-business for the day.

While tackling To Dos may not be the most glamorous part of organizing, it is definitely the bedrock of a productive day.

Let’s explore tackling tasks by starting with the to-do FAILS I’ve observed in years of professional organizing…..

What Not to Do

There are some common mistakes people make when they are trying to keep up with the constant onslaught of task management. Let’s review what to avoid when you are capturing your to-do:

1. Don’t use sticky notes.

If you are in the habit of jotting down key tasks on sticky notes, just STOP. Quit doing that! This bad habit results in “traveling to dos” where in your all-important reminders to get stuff done unwittingly travel into the trash, or another room or briefcase, with the paper it was stuck to. Or, they lose their stickiness and fall to the floor, only to be trampled and forgotten. Using these kinds of notes for tasks also creates clutter because they are affixed to computers, desks, fridges, and other lists. They create visual “noise” instead of empowering action.

2. Don’t use file folders. For the love of all that is good, STOP using file folders for quickie hot action items. That is a fast way to bury them forever. Instead, just add the item to your to-do list. If there is correlating paperwork that goes with your action item, just leave it next to your computer until you knock if off your list, and then recycle or file that paperwork. If you stuff your to-dos into file folders, say sayonara to them – they’ll be out of sight, out of mind.

3. Don’t use bulletin boards.

You are (probably) not an archaeologist, so quit creating vertical dig sites! Bulletin boards layered with your to-do reminders quickly become archeological wall piles. With every task you add (along with your favorite pictures and memorabilia), you are creating more visual clutter on an upright “surface”. Instead, assign bulletin boards the purpose of displaying your favorite photos of family and friends or the purpose of inspirational quotes, cards, etc. In my experience in organizing, “purposing” a bulletin board allow you to keep it clear, useful, and attractive.

Now that you know what to avoid in your task management efforts, let’s start with the bedrock of all productivity: creating an action list that works for you….

Dial in Your to Do List

Lists help us get stuff done

Lists provide a way to “brain dump.” There’s all kinds of lists we can make: grocery, packing, ideas, project details, and more.

The one all-important list that is largely responsible for our productivity is the TO DO list – the storehouse of everything we need to tackle. Take the time to dial in your to-do list to really work for you.

Most people use some combination of paper and electronic lists.

As a professional organizer, I have experimented with all kinds of lists– both in hard and soft edition. Even when I use an electronic to-do list or app, I also find I need a paper edition for especially hot items.  No matter what electronic system I’ve used, I always come back to the paper list because it’s right in front of me.

If electronic list-making works for you – awesome; I think you should use what makes sense to you. My only caution is to ensure your tasks don’t get buried out of sight and thus forgotten.

Here are 3 ideas for to-do lists:

Master list notepad – Create a master list of everything you need to do, both short and long-term. This will serve as the primary clearinghouse for all tasks; the one place you will add new items and cross off completed items.

I use a master list because I don’t want to have to consult several lists for different kinds of tasks; I’ve tried that, and I start forgetting whole lists! I use a marking to indicate really hot items and I use gel highlighters to indicate the completed items.

Here’s some finer points of a successful master list:

• Re-write it occasionally once most items are crossed-off. This always gives you a fresh start and new momentum.
• Use a notepad that is bound on the side, not bound on the top. Flipping pages off to the side allows for new pages to be easily made, even if you are keeping your current list. In contrast, the top bound notepads leaves lots of extra pages bulging out the top and having to be weighted down.
• Try a tabbed notepad if you like different categories of to-do lists.

Use color to your advantage

Since I hand-write my to-do items, this also serves as a kinesthetic reminder.

Here’s an old-fashioned tasking tip I love: use a multi-color “clicker pen” to use color to categorize your master list by type. You could use different colors for different kinds of to-dos:

• Blue: personal tasks
• Black: work tasks
• Green: family tasks
• Red: hot items

Daily tear-off to do sheets – I’ve recently started creating a daily punch-list of to-dos from my master to do list. I simply harvest the hottest items and add them to this list. I have found that I get a lot more thins done each day since I have started this habit. (Since I know that endorphins are released whenever we cross things off our list, I also add items that weren’t on my list, just so I can cross them off!). It feels great to recycle a whole sheet of completed daily to-dos each day!

Custom-created list – Another great solution for your to-do list is to create your own custom version! Just go through your current list(s) and note what types of tasks you commonly add. Then, on your customized document, create categories, or boxes, or color-coded sections to your liking. You can print out copies of this list whenever you need a new one. I love that this method allows total personalization and unlimited tweaking for improvement. Some of my clients have done this, and then had this personalized list bound as a notepad. Brilliant!

Calendarize Tasks

A To Do list is only as good as your discipline to take action!

Add Tasks to Planner

Whether you use a device or a paper planner, calendarizing TASKS (as well as events and commitments) is a smart way to ensure you get your to-dos done!

To ACTIVATE your tasks, dedicate time to them on the calendar. Get your to-dos out of your head, off a list, and onto a DATE in your calendar. This act creates time-sensitivity and skyrockets your chance of completing the task.

Another alternative is to add certain kinds of tasks to a visual calendar, like a paper calendar or white board. If you use a visual calendar for tasks, ensure that those tasks stand out from events and other calendar items. You could color code tasks to set them apart, or just dedicate the entire wall calendar to activating tasks.

Use a Weekly White Board – A Sunday-Saturday white board can help you activate the key to-dos for that week. Here are some ways you could use a weekly task system:

• Upcoming work tasks needing completion that week
• Recurrent household tasks, like weekly grocery shopping, laundry, and yard tasks
• A single type of to-dos for that week, like your child’s expected tasks/chores

Employ a Monthly White Board – While month-in-view calendars, are used mostly for planning, appointments, and events, you can use a monthly white board calendar to activate your tasks as well. I’m a context person, so my favorite calendar view is to see the entire month. This allows me to assign space to easy and harder tasks

Automate Recurrent Tasks

One of my favorite things to do for my workplace clients is to learn about their job description and find out what they do on a recurring basis. I get out my figurative magnifying glass and go into detective mode!

One’s recurring tasks are the to-do items they need to perform over-and-over.

When we find ways to automate those tasks, we simplify life.

Automating recurrent tasks could be as simple as setting recurring reminders, if that works for you. Personally, I get annoyed by task and event reminders and constantly dismiss them. (This illustrates how organizing systems should be customized to each user.)

Another way you can systematize recurrent to-dos is to create checklists for frequently performed tasks. These are best created electronically. I like printing them out for use because I’m so visual and kinesthetic.

To give you ideas for checklists of your own, here are some of my personal checklists:

• Content creation checklist – I use this for every video/blog/social asset package I create. This checklist ensures that the hundreds of micro-tasks I am doing come together in one bigger picture. It also ensures I don’t miss any steps!
• Speaking checklist – When I am booked at an event as a professional speaker, I start a new event checklist. This helps me move through each micro-to-towards the greater goal of a slam-dunk event.

As you can see, I have automated my own common to-dos that happen week-in-and-week-out. These checklists provide the task architecture I need to complete my to-dos!

Tasking Best Practices

Finally, I want to give you some insider tips from years of organizing experience that I hope will encourage you….

1. Understand that successful tasking is usually comprised of a constellation of systems – not a single to do list. You may end up with a variety of methods that help you capture and activate your tasks:

a) A master to do list

b) A daily to do sheet

c) An electronic list of future to-dos

d) A white board for family tasks

2. Be sure treat separately To Do items from other related actions:

a) Ideas

b) Tasks to delegate to someone else

c) Short or long-term projects (to learn more about those, see my blog Handling Projects)

3. If you’re constantly tweaking your task system, it doesn’t mean you’re failing – it means you’re adapting to changing life. Good job! Being self-observant about what’s working and what’s not is the key to working systems. (Of course, don’t abandon a system before you give it a chance. A month is a good test-drive.)

4. Be patient to customize: Everyone needs a to-do-system that works for how they are uniquely wired. Give yourself time to overhaul what you’re doing now (if it’s not working), and ongoing time to course-correct until you feel dialed-in. Giving yourself grace will actually open the door to new ideas for tasking.

5. Consider an integrated to-do list. Ensure you’re advancing tasks in each area of life. Because I love my work so much, I admit that I have a tendency to advance work tasks (like writing this blog!) before personal tasks (like making the next acupuncture/dental/naturopath appointment). I have found that the Daily Task List has helped me to be more integrated as I am adding more personal tasks to it than I did the Master Task List.

I am currently experimenting with my own custom task list that includes quadrants for my household, work, health, and spirit so that I actually tackle items in all 4 categories each day, helping me to live a more integrated life. If you find you lean toward workaholism, or – on the other hand – isolation at home, consider an integrated to do list that encourages you to move tasks ahead in every area of life!

Since our macro progress is only moved forward by our micro initiatives, I hope these practical TO DO tips have given you some fresh ideas and helped to take control over your tasks.

Yours in friendship,

Vicki Norris

The post A Pro Organizer’s Favorite Ways to Manage Tasks appeared first on IGEL.

Do you struggle with completing projects? Where and how do you store them while they’re in various stages? I am going to teach you the art of organizing and activating projects. Read on to learn how to effectively handle your projects…that pesky type of paper that hangs around (covering your surfaces) until you complete it.

Projects: Organizing and Managing Pending Work

If you’re like me, you might have a lot of “irons in the fire.” I’ve got a never-ending supply of projects galore! Whether it’s for work or personal life, I’m constantly initiating projects. (I guess that just means I’m never bored!)

• In my professional life, I’m fueled by creative ideas for building up people and businesses. I love to organize and deliver ideas, as well as organizing spaces for usability and enjoyment.
• In my personal life, I’m motivated by projects to enrich my children, beautify my home, and strengthen my community.

All these projects come with many documents, notes, and checklists. Each project may have timelines, samples, or background information associated with it. All this related paperwork needs to be corralled into organized files and stowed (while remaining in view) until I am ready to advance the next step of each project.

As you can see, projects are a short-term type of paperwork that need their own special system. Let’s start by understanding how projects are different from every other kind of paperwork….

Identifying Project Paper

So what exactly are projects? What is the difference between them and other kinds of paper?

If you haven’t already, I recommend you read my blog on processing paper to understand the nature of “hot,” immediate paperwork and how to move it along.

Paper with a Term

Unlike quick-turnover processing paper, projects have a shelf life. Some projects might only take a few days to complete, but some projects may last months – or even years!

Projects cannot be tackled in one step, unlike a phone call, payment, or other simple processing action.

Most projects require multiple actions. Projects are typically comprised of:

• Multiple steps
• Multiple pieces of paper

THIS is the reason that paper is hanging around forever on your desk: it’s probably not a one-shot action item; it’s probably a project that will take a period of time to complete!

Examples of Projects

Some examples of personal projects are: home improvement projects, travel ideas, scheduled vacations, and personal interest research.

Some examples of professional projects are: active admin files, client projects, current initiatives, or ongoing dashboards.

One Type of Project: The Recurring Meeting

I also like to keep a few project files on hand for all recurrent meetings.

One of these such files is “Team Meeting.” Throughout each month, I collect paperwork that I want to show to my professional organizing team at our next employee meeting.

If our marketing team has developed a new tool, checklist, or ebook, I save a copy in this file. If I have copies of a report I’d like us all to review together, I slip it in this file till meeting time.

This type of project folder is a storehouse of revolving, short-term information. Unlike most projects that have a term and then they are completed and retired, recurrent meeting files are perpetually held files. Because this type

Format of Projects

Projects have a term during which they must be stored and accessed.  Since projects are stored together, accessed for a short while, and then exit, I call this system “short term parking.”

Projects don’t stick around forever. They are moved along, and then discarded or relocated somehow. They’re are used for a while, and upon completion, several things may happen:

• The contents are recycled or shredded
• The file with completed paperwork is filed into the permanent filing system
• The file is passed onto the next person who must take action on it
• If it’s a bookkeeping project, the completed paperwork may be filed in the annual financial filing system

How to Store Projects

Now you need a “short term parking garage!”

Because projects represent ACTIVE paper (vs. completed paper you may store in a filing system), I recommend storing your projects “above ground” on a desktop in an organized system where you can see them.

When selecting a desktop accessory to house projects, I prefer a bleachered incline sorter so you can see everything you need to do at-a-glance. Remember, your projects are active files that you will be getting in and out of quite often, so you will want to keep them in view and within reach.

Let’s be real: if you file active projects into a drawer, you’re likely to forget about them because they’re “out of sight, and out of mind.”

Since project files contain multiple pieces of paper, I like using labeled file folders instead of trays to keep related project paperwork together.

Differentiating Types of Projects

Now that you understand what projects are (and are not) and how to store them on your desk in a dedicated system, you’re going to need to organize your projects in a way that makes sense.

First, let’s talk about sheer volume of projects. I’ve got a LOT of projects, so I have to use several project centers to adequately store all of them.

You can use multiple sorters to separate different types of projects:

1. Work projects
2. Personal projects
3. Household projects
4. Bookkeeping, financial projects
5. Projects for each person

You can also use file features to differentiate between projects:

• Color: Use the file folder color to indicate the kind of file: household (yellow), work (blue), etc. I use pattern instead of color because I get tired of the standard file folder colors and pattern is more “me.”
• Tab position: Create linear groups of related files. If you don’t have that many projects and you’re storing them all in one sorter, your home projects could be in left tab position, personal in center tab position, and work projects in right tab position. This creates “neighborhoods” for files-of-like type

If you have multiple sorters, you could use all manila file folders because it would be clear that your work folders are professionally-related because they’re stowed in the work project center.

However, if you only have one sorter, using color and tab position become more important to create sub-categories within the greater project arena.

Practical Project Tips

You’re honing in on successful project management now that you understand the nature of projects and how to store and organize them.

Now I want to share some “insider tips” from a professional organizer to keep your project system working optimally.

1. Keep extra file folders in each tab position at the back of all of your project centers. This way it is easy to grab an empty file and create a new project folder.
2. Use clear sleeves to cover frequently-used files to avoid the breakdown of those folders
3. Use a several tabbed file to create custom folders for recurrent work where the sub-categories are the same. Example: a travel folder (with tabs for air, hotel, transport, itinerary, etc) that you can re-use for each trip.
4. Pay attention to bulky projects that come in different formats than file folders (like binders, cases, and accordion files). They’re projects, too, just a little more robust than a file folder! Store these near your project center(s) on your desk to train your brain that all projects “live together.”

Labeling Project Files

I want to emphasize the importance of labeling your projects. It seems obvious, but labeling is a step that is too-often skipped.

I’ve been in lots of workspaces where important projects have been stuffed in files, and that’s where the “organization” ended. The person was in a hurry, gathered up related paperwork, managed to find a file, jammed the pile within it, and stuck it somewhere.

Without labeling your projects, you short-circuit all your hard work! Be sure to take the extra step to affix a nice label to each project.

I recommend hat you label in a consistent manner for ease of reference. I offer my clients options for labeling their project files BEFORE we start labeling, so that everything comes out in a streamlined manner.

Here are your options for labeling your projects:

• Handwritten – fastest option, but can look shoddy. Good penmanship helps.
• Handwritten on a file label – step up from handwritten, and sticker offers color-coding
• Label-maker label – most-consistent appearance in little time
• Computer-generated label: most time consumptive

If you need multiple project centers to store several categories of projects, be sure to label the front of each sorter for added clarity.

Activating Projects

Congratulations, by now you have a distinctive (and organized!) place to store your projects.

Now, the rubber meets the road and you need to make the time to handle them!

This is where your physical organizing system must be paired with your time organizing system.

I recommend scheduling time in your calendar to work on projects, or else they will sit in the file folders and stagnate.

I block out time in my calendar to work on pending projects. Dedicating time is the only way projects get advanced. By chunking down a big, multiple-step project into manageable work sessions, you can move toward completion.

Since I am a very collaborative person, I like to schedule meetings with people related to my current projects so that we can co-work together. If I’m left alone with my projects, I tend to high-center or take longer to complete a project than if I had synergy with others. Knowing yourself and how you’re wired to work is the key to fruitful project management.

I hope you’ve learned a lot about handling projects and creating active files for your pending work.

For more on paper management, be sure to check out my YouTube playlist “Reclaim Your Paper.” Here’s to eliminating piles of pending work and enjoying elegant, effective project management!

The post Handling Projects appeared first on IGEL.

In 21 years as a consultant, I’ve had a close-up view into people’s personal and professional lives. I’ve learned that nearly everyone needs help reclaiming not only their space, but their HEALTH as well. I’m going to show you how to create new habits and improve your environment to enjoy a healthier space and life.

To lead a healthy, productive life at home and work, we need to intentionally invest in ourselves.

I know: that sounds lovely, but most all of us are taxed with the collision of home and work life, and most people are stressed out.

Taking the time to make changes to improve our health can feel overwhelming. We feel time-strapped enough as it is. Reclaiming our health seems like an unreachable goal that will take time we can’t spare.

But, take heart – it doesn’t have to be complicated! I’ve written this blog to help you make some VERY EASY adjustments to your daily life to incrementally shift unhealthy patterns.

I’ve personally implemented every one of these wellness tips. I can testify that they’re simple and make a big impact in your physical and mental health!

Let’s start with taking care of our body throughout the day….

Interrupt Sitting

Let’s start with saving your life!!

With so many of our organizing clients working from home now, I did some simple online research and it’s widely recommended in many articles that standing up from sitting and moving every 30 minutes cuts your risk of DEATH! Yikes! It’s not just nice to move around, it’s critical.

So apparently you can save your life while saving your backside by simply standing up from your desk!

If you’re ready to go all-in and address habitual sitting, buying a sit-stand desk is a great way to mix it up and adjust your position frequently. (Please be advised, however, that you must actually change the desk height to vary your position.) In my experience as a workplace organizing consultant, many people OWN a sit-stand desk, but only use it in the standing position. If you plan on doing that, just get a standing desk. There are health recommendations against constantly standing as well (think about checkers in grocery stores)….so the point is to vary your position and make a wise investment if you’re going to acquire furniture to improve your health.

But there is also a simple solution to interrupt constant sitting: set a timer, or use an app, to remind you to get up and “move about the cabin.”

For an 8 hour day, taking a brief break every 30 minutes breaks adds up to about 14-16 breaks (depending on whether you count the first and last half hour of your day). Think about that for a minute. Those breaks offer a lot of opportunity to build healthy mini-habits.

Here are some ideas for your healthy mini-breaks:

• Refill your water bottle
• Take your vitamins
• Stretch out your top half
• Stretch out your bottom half
• Go outside to get some fresh air
• Hug your family
• Make some herbal tea
• Pray or meditate
• Stroll around your yard or garden
• Rub your feet or hands
• Tap on some essential oil
• Blend up a smoothie
• Throw a ball for your dog
• Pick a bouquet of flowers from the yard
• Engage in real socialization vs. social media
• Change workstations

If you’re getting up anyway, instead of just making a phone call, use your mini-breaks to build enjoyable, healthy new habits.

One of my favorite strategies to interrupt sitting is to get outside and put my feet in the grass. Sometimes I walk around and sometimes I just stand and breathe in deeply the country air.

Practice Grounding

Several years ago, I had some DNA testing done, and found out I was massively “geopathically stressed.” I didn’t even know what this meant, and I had to do some research.

This is a big topic, and I’m not an expert, but I will try to give you the highlights in Vicki-terms. I recommend researching this fascinating topic.

So, the earth has a frequency (7.83 hertz); and – as it turns out – it’s a healing frequency for humans. Earlier and nomadic cultures have understood this, but in our modern, concrete world, we have all but forgotten the importance of humans being connected to the earth. People whose way of life intrinsically relied on the earth for sustenance knew that even the wearing of shoes separated us from the “grounding” effect of connecting to the earth in bare feet.

Since we are electrical beings, simply connecting with the earth’s frequency can “ground” us.

Today, we are mostly separated from the healing the earth has to offer. This causes geopathic stress on our bodies.

To further the problem, the electromagnetic forces, equipment, and technologies we humans have introduced have magnified our stress and illness. Just consider how much time we sit in front of screens and daze out on devices. We get up from our electronic web and use the microwave and phone. We constantly have man-made rays and frequencies passing through us ALL THE TIME. Easily accessible research shows we are actually getting mentally and physically worn down by these jarring, disabling frequencies.

Let’s remember that much of this technology is helping us remain connected, build and serve. So, we don’t have to abandon these modern conveniences; but we can mindfully connect to the earth to bring “balance to the force.”

Since we’ve learned all this, our whole family practices “grounding” – where we put our bare feet on the earth on a frequent basis. I should do it daily, but I usually find myself grounding when I’m stressed or have been glued to the screen and chair too long.

It’s amazing how fast I feel the stress melt away and restore my electrical system by grounding. Be sure to add grounding to your daily mini-habits.

This is a great, broad topic to research, because there are a lot of other things you can do to reduce your geopathic stress in your home and workspace.

Breathe Clean Air

While you’re grounding, you’re outside getting fresh air – which is critical to your wellness. We have to breathe clean air!

Yet, most of us spend our lives INSIDE our homes with compromised indoor air. We are surrounded by chemicals leeching from the carpet, paint, and furniture. Add to that toxic load the vapors and mists from the cleaning products we are using, and it’s just not good for us!

We help our organizing clients reclaim their health by simply going through their home and detoxifying it, including their household and personal products.

You, too, can go through your kitchen, office, bathroom, and personal care products and consider their contribution (or degradation) to your health.

• Allocate Time. Set aside a half hour at a time and just go through ONE type of products (first aid, cleaning, bathroom, etc.)
• Research. Read the ingredients and look up their purpose and effects on the human body. Pay special attention to the ingredients that you can’t pronounce!
• Evaluate. An app called Think Dirty and another one by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) called Healthy Living have databases of common products in which you can look up the toxicity of tons of daily-use products. Both apps also have barcode scanners. Ongoingly, I use the Think Dirty app when I’m shopping for hand soap, shampoo, laundry detergent and more.

Detoxing your products goes a long way to fixing toxic indoor air. For those of us working from home, as well as living there, cleaner air is literally a lifesaver.

Using an air purifier in the spaces you’re in all the time helps a LOT. I also like the white noise many air purifiers offer.

Rest Your Eyes

Now that we’ve given our lungs what they need, let’s help our eyes, too!

The other day I had a four hour video call and ended up with a blazing headache. Eye strain is a real thing and it causes dry eye, blurred vision and headaches.

Resting your eyes is a healthy habit that we often forget.

I use blue light glasses to help relieve my eyes for those marathon computer days.

Getting a pair of lenses to save your eyes is a simple and easy way to look after your health.

Fuel with Nutrients

We all feel better when we eat healthy.

A simple way to get the nutrients to fuel productive work and home life is by making daily juices or smoothies. Living people need living food!

We give our blender a workout with daily smoothies with the kale from our garden, ginger, basil, and fruit.

One superfood-packed liquid drink a day will boost your mental acuity and productivity, too!

This tip to fuel yourself with good nutrients may seem obvious, but too few of us are doing it because it takes a little pre-planning to execute.

To pull off a daily infusion of nutrients, start by drilling back to your grocery list.

List all the smoothie and juice ingredients you love, and keep your fridge and freezer stocked. I’ve been doing more online grocery shopping which allows me to purchase frozen fruit, for example, in bulk so I’m never out of smoothie ingredients.

As you become a smoothie aficionado, you can try adding seeds like chia, sunflower, flax to add dimension, protein, and nutrition to your daily power-up.

If “eating healthy” has been a goal of yours, just start with nutrifying daily juices or smoothies. There’s no time like the present to leverage more at-home time to USE those corded appliances and rev up your health!

If you want a baby step, there are now online subscriptions for smoothie delivery! A little research can help you test drive this concept.

APPly Yourself to Health

If you are a pro at using your phone and its many apps, consider downloading some apps to enhance your health!

An organizing principle I love is to model after what IS working for you…so if leveraging tech works for you, go grab some health apps to boost your workspace wellness, increase productivity, and reduce stress.

Here are some fun apps to improve health:

• Break Time or Stand Up – apps to remind you to stand and move
• SunDial – gives you quick glance at your remote team’s timezones and work hours
• Lux – for re-making your screen brightness/color schemes to save your eyes
• Headspace – clearing your mind during breaks
• Waterlogged – helping you track your water intake
• Coffitvity – background noise generator

A quick online search will help you match an app to the healthy habit you want to adopt. Pencil in a few minutes to research an app that would help you. Compare it to similar options. Only adopt one new habit at a time; give each new habit a month to adopt and you’ll be on your way to a healthier workspace and life!

I hope you’ve enjoyed these easy-to-adopt wellness ideas.

If you’re looking to “restore order” to your health, I have a couple of free resources that may help:

1. Enjoy my health-related blog articles on my Reclaim Your Health blog channel at RestoringOrder.com
2. Visit my YouTube Reclaim Your Health playlist for practical ideas

Here’s to reclaiming your work and your health!

Your friend,

Vicki Norris

The post Workspace Wellness appeared first on IGEL.

Do you have paper and “to dos” piling up around you? Is your hot paperwork buried under layers of archaeology? Paper is the number one issue for most workplaces and households; it is an ongoing challenge fueled by the sheer incoming volume. Read on to learn how to process paper by setting up an ACTION CENTER.

If you’ve followed Restoring Order for any length of time, you know that I teach a LOT about paper. Why? Because our paper is the “breadcrumb trail” of our lives and it tells the story of our financial, household, medical, and personal lives. It is a mirror of what we have done and are doing. It’s a record of our lives.

To complicate matters – there are many different types of paper and a unique system needed for each type.

In this blog, I am helping you deal with the hot, current paper that requires action.

(If you need help with other kinds of paper, be sure to see my Paper Organizing playlist on my YouTube channel!)

Actionable paper is different from other kinds of paper due to its immediacy. We can’t ignore it or bury it without negative consequences. It’s vying for our attention and pestering us with its outstanding demands. We need to take some kind of action on it…soon!

We need a simple, visual system to capture this hot paperwork and move each piece into action through resolution.

The first step is to capture this incoming paper.

Capture Incoming Paper

When paper comes into your workspace, it needs a designated place to land.

In my experience as a professional organizer, paper tends to land all over the workplace and home. It lands on the kitchen counter, the stairway, the dresser, and every work surface possible. It stacks up and gets layered with other documents and items of varying importance.

To undo the habit of paper landing helter-skelter, you’ve got to collect it intentionally, especially the HOT paper requiring your immediate attention.

A good processing system captures incoming paper and queues it for action.

Think of your incoming paper processing system as your “runway”. Just like an airport runway, paper should land and take back off in your action system; it shouldn’t land and park. Your action center should move paper along in an organized and clear fashion.

In order to correctly capture the hottest paper for action, you first need to learn to differentiate hot, actionable paper from other kinds of paper.

Identify Actionable Paper

OK, now that we know we are going to capture paper with our processing system, the question is what kind of paper?

For your action center, we are looking for paper that is active, immediate or hot. These are your pressing tasks and to dos. They are usually pretty quick turn-over items. In other words, you can do it and forget it.

Action paper is different from:

• Projects, which are comprised of multiple pieces of paper or multiple steps. Examples of projects include work initiatives, trips, home improvement projects, etc.
• Projects are short-term whereas hot, incoming actionable paper is immediate-term. Projects will hang around for a little while, but action paper will be done and then disappear. Projects require that you visit the folder again and again, and typically multiple reference items are included in that packet/file folder.
• Permanent Reference, which is completed paperwork that needs to be filed. Examples of permanent files include: employee files, investments, checking account paperwork, equipment files, etc. Permanent reference files are kept at least annually, if not in perpetuity, whereas hot, actionable paper is only around for a short while.

Hopefully, you can see that your pressing paperwork has a more immediate currency than projects or permanent files.

It’s this hot paperwork that you will identify, capture, and queue for ACTION.

Choosing an Action Center Format

Now that you know what kind of paper you’re keeping an eye out for, you’ll need to store it temporarily until you can get to it.

There’s a few common styles of keeping this type of paper:

• Spread it all around your surfaces (and we know that doesn’t work!)
• Pile it up in your workstation (which requires constant digging and sorting)
• Organize it in some type of desktop accessory (you can tell where this is headed, right?)

When it comes to using paper sorters, I’ve seen a lot of people using files for their action items, typically stored in an incline sorter like the one pictured here.

However, there are 2 problems with storing hot, actionable paper in file folders:

1. It muddies the water between that which is a project and that which is current, hot action items. In other words, if both very hot AND short-term paperwork is stored in the same type of system (ie: file folders), it can become unclear which you should do FIRST.
2. Storing fairly urgent items inside file folders is counter-productive to action. Actionable paper hidden inside file folders silently moves OUT of our radar and INTO a visual and mental holding pattern. Simply put: if we can’t see it, we forget we have to do it!

I prefer using trays for an action center, like the system pictured here.

Storing your actionable paper in open trays allows you to see everything that needs to be done. For instance, if your tray of payables is full, you will know you have to pay some bills!

In my experience as an Order Restorer, it seems like 5 is about the right number of trays. Most of us need some delineation between types of hot paperwork, but we don’t need endless trays, or we simply won’t remember them all!

Just use as few trays as your paper dictates…I’ll explain below….

Sort Paper by Action Needed

Now it’s time to sort through all paper on your desktop and sort it into type of action needed. These will inform your tray labels. You can see in this picture that one of our professional organizers is using banker’s box lids for this process.

We like to sort hot paper into box lids because it contains each type of action-needed together.

Our organizing consultants use sticky notes turned-upside-down to label each lid as we progress through this sorting process.

As soon as we identify a paper that needs to be done, we put it in a box lid and make a sticky note labeled “To Do.”

The next paper we might find might need to be read, so we will put it in a new lid, and make a stick note labeled “To Read.”

As we go through this organic sorting process, the sticky notes will denote what-kind-of-action is needed for each type of paper.

If we find related items, we will use clips and staples or clear plastic page sleeves to join those items together so they don’t get separated.

If we need to remember something about an action item, we will write a note-to-self on a different colored sticky note and stick it on the page. While you’re taking the time to sort your hot paperwork and revisiting all these to-dos is a great time to make notes-to-self.

TIP: I will sometimes also jot down how long that item will take to complete (5 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, etc). This is a great reference point when you actually set aside time to complete your tasks. Then, when you pull out your To Do tray, you will quickly be able to tell how long each task will take and can be most efficient with your time!

After all your action paper has been sorted into box lids, you’re ready to transfer it to your final tray system.

Label with Verbs

One of the final steps to ensuring your TO DO paper gets DONE is to label your trays with action-oriented directives!

Since this is actionable paper, I like to label with imperative verbs, like the following common trays:

• To do
• To call
• To pay
• To read
• To file

Each one of these imperative verbs is self-explanatory and helps the system user immediately discern what action to take.

Some less common, but very useful action types include:

• To enter – this tray can house all the data entry bits, like business cards, phone numbers jotted onto a sticky note, and information written on envelopes. This tray will give you a way to queue floating data into electronic form.
• To decide or discuss – this tray is a place to temporarily store items for discussion, most often with your spouse or assistant. If this kind of hot paper lands on your surfaces but doesn’t get moved along, it’s a good indicator that you’d benefit from a To Discuss tray!
• To review – this tray offers a separate place to temporarily store & take action on hotter readables than magazines and catalogs, like your new healthcare plan (before you file it), and newsletters and documents you’ve promised to “look over.” To Review trays give you a place to put readable items that require your close attention and quick turn-over.

A few practical tips:

• If you find that you have a HUGE To Do pile, you might be overwhelmed and paralyzed with what to tackle first. In these cases, I help my organizing clients by creating a To Do A and a To Do B tray. This will allow you to take a quick critical look at all your tasks and at least identify the most urgent matters. Then, once you get through the A’s, you can move onto the B’s.
• While I like to use consistent imperative verb forms for labeling, it’s just a suggestion, not a dictate. Good paper management is all about what works for you! Don’t get caught up in imperatives, use what makes most sense to you. Instead of “To Do,” you might like the words “Hot” or “Immediate” better. Label your trays based on what YOU need to see in order to incentivize action!

Schedule Processing Time

The most overlooked, but most important part of processing paper is ridiculously simple: making the time to ACTUALLY TAKE ACTION ON THE PAPER after you’ve neatly sorted it!

Years ago, I helped a business owner set up her action center for processing hot paper, of which she had mountains. Months later, I came back to visit and everything in her trays was exactly as I had left it, collecting dust! I realized then that she had not correlated her physical tasks with her time management habits.

In order for your action center to work; you’ve got to take action. You’ve got to get your-dos done!

I recommend setting aside daily time on your calendar to process through your pressing, actionable paper in your action center. If you want until you have a “free moment,” you’ll likely miss deadlines and fail to follow through in a timely manner on those aging, hot items.

I hope this blog has de-mystified what to do with your hot paperwork and how to process it like a pro organizer! For more on successful paper management, check out the home office chapter in my book “Restoring Order to Your Home” and that paper organizing playlist on my YouTube channel!

Here’s to reclaiming your paper and your surfaces!

Your friend in organizing and life reclamation,

Vicki Norris

The post How to Process Paper appeared first on IGEL.

With so many of us working and cyber-connecting from home, I want to help you create an awesome virtual space for video conferencing. From choosing the location, to necessary elements, to backdrop options, this blog will help you set up a cool virtual place where you can look and feel great in your space.

Most everyone working from home these days is now engaging in ongoing video calls and meetings. In lieu of in-person workplace connection, we are all trying to connect professionally from home.

We need an intentional place within the home for this purpose.

The trouble is: most homes are cluttered and video-conferencing amidst the mess of life can be a major challenge.

The answer is to carve out a sane, uncluttered, appropriate space within your home to conduct your business world online.

Due to space and practicality constraints, your virtual space may or may not be the same as your home office….

Choosing the Location in Your Home

There are really two options for a virtual space in the home: a dedicated space or using a section of one of your rooms.

Let’s talk first about carving out a nook in one of your rooms for video conferencing, because many of us don’t have a whole room we can allocate for this purpose.

A Carved-Out Room Section

I use this seating area in my master bedroom when I need to remove myself from household activity and guarantee extreme quiet and privacy.

I have two wing chairs set up here, and a pretty little end table between them. I intentionally use this small table that has room only for a light and laptop, rather than a desk because I don’t want this to serve as true workspace. I don’t want projects and desk accessories ending up here. I want my bedroom to remain a peaceful respite.

Keep this in mind when you are carving out a virtual space: if you are not going to actually work there, keep the space elements to a minimum.

This nook is a framed by a beautiful gallery wall (which we will discuss later in the backdrops section) and features nice light from several windows. For these reasons, I have chosen this as my alternate virtual space.

A Dedicated Room

If you are able to use your home office or another dedicated room for video conferencing, you’ll have a door you can close and a space you can make your own.

In my former guest room, I have set up a studio for video conferencing and production. I utilize this entire room for my conference space.

A space that is set apart for the purpose of virtual meetings and professional communication is becoming increasingly important in our interconnected world.

If you use your home office for video conferencing, you may need to take a more careful look at the environment. When you were the only inhabitant of the room, and others never came to visit, set-up, clutter and lighting didn’t matter as much.

Now that lots of people are visiting your office virtually, it may be time for a home office organizing overhaul. If you need help with overhauling your office, check out my Reclaim Your Work playlist on You Tube!

Once your office is ordered, you will be more comfortable (and appear more credible) in your space. A visually-appealing space goes a long way to communicate your professionalism.

As you’re setting up (or upleveling) a space for the purpose of video calls, there’s some elements you’ll want to consider to ensure crisp and attractive communication.

Key Features of Your Virtual Space

Your virtual space needs two key features: great lighting and sound management. If you attend to these elements, you will:

• Feature yourself to your best advantage
• Showcase a hospitable, ordered environment
• Boost your professional image

Taking the time to optimize your virtual space is rewarding because a little effort on the front end will pay off with better usability and professional credibility.

Great Lighting

It’s ideal if you can conduct your calls in front of a window because the natural light will make you look best on camera.

If your space doesn’t afford ample natural light, I recommend investing in standing light or two.

One of my friends handed-down her ring light (featured here) to me and I love it.

I place it right in front of my desk and laptop, and it evens out skin tone and helps me look alive when I haven’t fully caffeinated! A ring light offers an amazing improvement from normal room lighting. When I am filming for a video, we place the ring light outside the camera, so it is a versatile piece.

Another lighting element to consider is lighting the background.

Do NOT sit in front of a window, or you will be “backlit” and your facial features will be darkened. It looks unprofessional and even sometimes creepy!

Instead, ensure that the background behind you is well lit. This will remove shadowing as well.

I use a few simple floor lights to light the walls in my virtual space.

As a side note, I’ve found that the further away I sit from the wall, the less shadowing I get.

Sound Management

It might be obvious – or not – but choose a space for your video calls that’s not near the dishwasher or washing machine. Household appliances can create annoying background noise. Do your part to cancel or remove yourself from the noises within the home that would distract from the professionalism of your calls.

In addition to being mindful of what your online audience will be picking up, you will want to be mindful your own family’s experience of your constant video calls. A good headset will shut out your colleague’s voices and help you concentrate. A door will help lower your voice to the benefit of your family.

Noise dampening is also critical to remove that “tinny” or “echoing” sound in your virtual space. Rugs go a long way to dampening noise. If that is not sufficient to improve sound, hanging some moving blankets or sound dampening panels on the surrounding walls is helpful

Once you’ve got your visual and audio dialed in, let’s talk about your backdrop.

Virtual Conference Backdrop

There are several options for backdrops that are fun and easy to create.

Gallery Wall

I chose my master bedroom virtual nook because of the privacy, but also because it offered great light and a beautiful backdrop of a photo gallery.

My gallery includes black and white family photos in silver, gold, and white frames, sprinkled with architectural pieces and mirrors. This gallery of family photos is grounding, communicates what’s most important in my life, and is beautiful to behold.

You can create your own gallery backdrop with architectural pieces, photos, posters, mirrors, empty frames, or even music instruments. Taking the time to create a focus wall is so much more interesting and attractive than a plain background.

My studio is my dedicated virtual room. In it, I’ve created an “office” themed gallery wall since I’m a professional organizer.

We added distressed, slate-colored shiplap to the sheetrock walls. While I love a white-and-bright palette, I personally don’t look that great against it as a background. We chose a darker backdrop wall because I needed contrast. Your virtual space should reflect YOU!

Bookshelves or Cubbies

Another great backdrop to use is a set of bookshelves or cubbies.

Bookshelves are a tried-and-true backdrop for videography. They connotate an educated, expert status. However, that is only true if the books are ordered! If you are going to use bookshelves as your backdrop, consider organizing your books by genre, or size, or color. Add in attractive bookends or a globe or other recognizable elements.

This well-lit space in my gathering room is framed by a set of cubbies. I can sit here with my laptop in front of me if I need to make a quick video call.

These cubbies are decorated with office supplies and décor in silver, black, white and brown tones – an intentionally neutral color palette that appeals to both men and women. This intentional display features a combination vintage, retro, and new items for interest. Creating an artful display with cubbies forms an attractive video conference background.

Fabric Background

If budget is an issue, or you just don’t want to fuss with a gallery wall, bookshelf, cubbies, etc, buy a fabric background. You can hang it from the ceiling or seam of the wall/ceiling and cover a plain wall.

These can be obtained online and come in solid colors, patterns, textures, landscapes, cityscapes, faux architectural elements, and more.

You can acquire several fabric backgrounds and occasionally change them out. I have a faux brick fabric that is a nice choice if I’m looking to create a more industrial or vintage setting.

Whatever background you choose for your virtual space, make it suit your visual and practical needs.

Create a Mobile Virtual Bag

Finally, what happens when you need to take your virtual space on the road?

You create a virtual space tote!

I like bags that stand up on their own if they’re going to travel and be set on the floor in coffee shops.

Here are the items I take with me on-the-go for my virtual needs:

• Laptop
• Phone
• Webcam
• Chargers
• Travel light
• Water bottle

Keeping a dedicated virtual bag ready to roll is a great strategy to keep your work life nimble.

Here’s to organizing and optimizing your virtual space!

The post Creating a Virtual Space for Video Conferencing appeared first on IGEL.