Latest Blog Posts

Manage Technology Before It Manages You

By Julie Stobbe / January 20, 2017 /

By Harold Taylor

One of my favourite newsletters is by Harold Taylor.  He is a Time Management Expert.  Sometimes I feel like I am old and live in the past.  This article so clearly states my views about technology that I see that my past helps me to manage my future.

An online poll of over 1000 Canadian adults (Angus Reid/Vision Critical Toronto Star, January 26, 2013) revealed that 90% of the respondents believed their smartphones made their lives more convenient. So convenient, evidently, that 30% of them went online before getting out of bed, 31% at the dinner table, 29% in the washroom and 42% before falling asleep at night,

Smartphones may be smart, but they lack intelligence. Why are we so willing to be at the beck and call of an idiot? The Internet leads anywhere, which for the undisciplined means nowhere. Why browse away the hours? Email, computer games and social media are endless, but our time is not. Why do we behave as though we will live forever?

Research shows that the Internet and digital technology can have a negative impact on our ability to learn, focus, pay attention, memorize and relate to others on a personal basis. It also gobbles up our time, encourages busyness and multitasking and stifles creativity.

The futures of our businesses, personal lives, and our nations do not depend on the development of technology, but on our ability to manage the technology we develop.

If you need help with time management routines please contact me. We can discuss different methods of time management during an in-person or virtual appointment.

Julie Stobbe, professional organizerJulie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, virtually using Zoom. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situation. She uses her love of teaching to reduce clutter, in your home, office, mind and time. She guides and supports you to be accountable for your time, to complete projects and reach your goals. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.

Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca

Click here to learn more about her online course Create an Organized Home.

 TwitterFacebook Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space

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ADD-Friendly ways to organize your Life

By Julie Stobbe / June 16, 2016 /

Reading time  – 3 minutes

This is the name of a book that can help people with ADD to get organized.  It can also help other people to understand how they can assist someone with ADD to get organized. The person without ADD acts as a coach.

ADD Friendly ways to Organize your Life

ADD Friendly ways to Organize your Life

The book mentions:

  • Stop coaches – help to determine when the task is finished
  • Decision Coaches – someone who can help to clarify thoughts and feelings by asking questions
  • Priority coaches – talk things over to help make things clearer

There are chapters on:

  • different approaches to organizing,
  • thing organizing,
  • time organizing and
  • paper organizing.

Each chapter suggests strategies and processes for a person with ADD to try.  Then the chapter continues and explains how a coach, friend or family member can assist.  The last part of the chapter explains how a Professional Organizer would work with the client.

Easy to Use

The book is written and formatted so it is easy for a person with ADD to use.  The sections are short.  There are circles and boxes, headings and bullet points and a review section at the end of each chapter. Judith Kolberg, a Professional Organizer and Kathleen Nadeau, a Psychologist have collaborated to create a book full of strategies that work.

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What has been a helpful resource for learning about organizing skills?

A blue and white striped tunnel in the background with Julie Stobbe in the foreground wearing a white blouse.Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, in person and virtually. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situation. She uses her love of physical activity to reduce clutter, in your home and office. She guides and supports you to manage your time. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.

Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca

Click here to learn more about her online course Create an Organized Home.

 TwitterFacebook Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space

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How can I become a better housekeeper?

By Julie Stobbe / November 17, 2015 /
Find the motivation and you can learn it.

Find the motivation and you can learn it.

How can some people learn to be better housekeepers? The optimal word is learning.  Keeping a house organized is a skill that can be learned like any other skill, reading, skiing, or social media.  There needs to be a motivation to want to learn this new skill. If you can decide that adding organization to your life will make you feel less anxious about your home, provide you with a system that allows you to get everything done and still have time for yourself or live in a space that you love and enjoy you can take on the task of being less messy. So here are 3 tips:

  1. Schedule everything. Decide when you will do each of the household tasks you are responsible for eg, laundry, grocery shopping, bill payments, meal preparation, driving children, cleaning, and doing the dishes. Look at your week and add it to your schedule and consider it an appointment with yourself and complete the task.
  2. Treat all task as an appointment with yourself

    Treat all tasks as an appointment with yourself

     

  3. Make the space look better than when you started working in it. The old saying “if you get it out put it away” works. Don’t set it down; put it back, in the desk drawer, in the dishwasher, in the laundry hamper, or in the refrigerator. In addition, put one more thing away too.  This helps you to slowly get rid of the “mess”.  You are not creating more mess and you are reducing any mess that has accumulated. Your space will continue to look better.
    If you take it out, put it away and one other thing as well

    If you take it out, put it away and one   other thing as well

     

  4. Get help to be successful. You may find you don’t have time to do it all yourself. Delegate it to other family members. At first, it may take longer to get things done as they learn how to do things.  Stick with it and soon it will no longer be your responsibility.  Hire help for the things that are the most difficult for you to complete.  You may want a cleaning service, lawn care service, share carpooling for your children or Professional Organizers.  Consider your budget; you may not be able to have them come every week but what if one service came each week?

    You may not be able to do it all yourself so get some help

    You may not be able to do it all yourself so get   some help

At the end of each month you would have most things under control with the help of your scheduling, putting things away as you use them and involving others in sharing the work.  Tell me how you become better at keeping your house in order.

If you need help establishing routines to keep your home organized and clean book a complimentary 30 minute chat with me. 

Julie Stobbe, professional organizerJulie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, virtually using Zoom. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situation. She uses her love of teaching to reduce clutter, in your home, office, mind and time. She guides and supports you to be accountable for your time, to complete projects and reach your goals. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.

Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca

Click here to learn more about her online course Create an Organized Home.

 TwitterFacebook Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space

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