Video Titled "Productivity: How to Organize with Checklists | Katie Mazzocco Entrepreneur Productivity Coach"

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Video Titled "Organizing Photos {The Hampton Roads Show}"

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Ask a Productivity Expert: When Precious Memories Become a Burden

By Erica Duran

Question: Hello! I really enjoyed our phone session last week! I am seeing shifts already in how I go about my projects!

What I want to ask is what do I do with all my old paper photos and movie tapes? I love being able to search and share photos digitally in my computer, but I have so many old photos in boxes and I really don't want to be a scanner jockey for the next five years converting them over.

Productivity Expert's Answer: Hi! Glad you are seeing results from the call! I think the Critical Path Timeline we created is going to transform your marketing process. As for the photos and movies, I have a confession to make... this is the one area in my own life that I have the most trouble de-cluttering. I am very fond of past experiences that make up my memories and love to capture everything in photos. But, finally last year I was able to put a process in place to get these memories digitized, protected, and shareable. Not-to-mention I got back about a 6 foot by 3 foot closet space that was storing all the photo boxes. And, remember, digital photos can become clutter to in your computer files.

Here is what I would suggest for all the different mediums of photos:

Paper Photos:

One of the phrases we often hear from people is "I really need to figure out how to organize photos... I have SO many photos that I've been meaning to organize for YEARS!"

And they're seriously stressed about it.

Let's get rid of that stress right now. Sound good?

Repeat after me: "Photos are not sacred."Go ahead, it's really OK to say it. "Photos are not sacred."

You are not creating the National Archives. You CAN throw some of your photos away if you don't like them, and you can (gasp!) save them without putting them in photo albums or creating fancy scrapbooks if you want to. Scrapbooks and albums are great... but not at the cost of your peace of mind. Also, all the supplies can be quite costly, the photos are not as protected and they are harder to share, and just think of all that space you will clear up clearing out all those scrapbooking tools and freeing yourself from those guilt-inducing projects! You can store them very simply. Or you can be elaborate. Just don't be stressed about it.

They are just photos.

Enjoy them, let them make you happy, and have fun with them. Let's look at how to organize photos in a way that really works for you.

First of all, keep only the photos that you really love, with people you enjoy and memories that make you smile.

Get Rid of Photos:

• That are blurry, have people with red eyes, or with half the person cut off
• That remind you of unhappy times or unhappy relationships
• That you can't remember the people, the place, etc.
• Too many of a similar shot (keep the best, toss the rest)
• Where you don't like how you look
• That make you feel bad or upset or fat or whatever

It is also much better to learn how to organize photos very simply (and actually DO it) than not at all.

After you get rid of all the photos with the above criteria, almost all photos now-a-days are digital and can be easily backed up. Why are you holding onto paper photos that fade, deteriorate and can be lost or destroyed?

The first thing you need to do is get these old paper photos scanned as soon as possible! Worry about organizing them later! The only photos that should be kept in the paper format are the ones you will frame and display around your home or office. Even then you must make the commitment to frame and hang them soon! Do not hold on to paper photos and empty frames that you have been meaning to frame and display!

There are companies out there that transform shoeboxes of photos and movies into digital formats that make it easier to organize, share, and enjoy. Remember when we said you need to get rid of some photos? Well, here is another good reason why you should toss the ones you don't like - these services will be a bigger investment if you scan every photo you have - good or bad.

Here's how to organize photos the easy way:

Round up your photos in one place. You've probably got them stashed in drawers, some in albums, some in the basement, get them all in one place so you can see what you've got.

1. Sort them: Sort by category (whatever makes sense to you - keep this simple). Toss as many as you can as you go, sorting by person, year, event, or location. For speedy sorting, sort into piles, large envelopes, a plastic bin or recipe box with tabs that you can label, or in manila folders.
2. Choose a system to EASILY store and protect your photos while they are in the process of being scanned. Now that you can see what you've got, you can decide what organizers you'll need. Choose a VERY simple way to keep your photos. The easiest, fastest way to sort, store, and keep up with your photos while they are in the process of being scanned, is to use acid-free photo storage boxes or envelopes. You use tabs to label each category within the storage box or envelope. It's also a good idea to label the photos with the date, name, event, and/or location while you can still remember it.
3. Now celebrate, because you've organized your photos!
4. Then, LATER, if you decide to scan all your old photos or you want to create scrapbooks or albums at your leisure, feel free. Give yourself a break if you think you should be making scrapbook albums but don't have the time just now. Organize and protect your photos first, and give yourself permission to save the option to create scrapbooks later (if ever).
5. Maintain your new system. Whenever you process a new roll of film (if you will ever take paper photos again), get in the habit of labeling and storing photos in your photo box right away or sending them off to be scanned.

Digital Photos:

Learning how to organize digital photos is becoming more and more important; it is so easy to take them that we can end up with literally thousands of photos!

Too many photos end up being clutter and too hard to sift through when you are looking for that one special photo. We're going to go through the simplest, lowest possible technical way (and extremely effective) to sort and organize your digital photos on your computer. There are a lot of software, tools, etc. available as well, so if you want to explore them, a couple of good ones are Picasa free from Google and iPhoto for Mac (you can do basic editing and organizing on both). My suggestion is do the easy sort first, and then if you want to get fancy, go right ahead.

Here's how to organize digital photos the easy way:

1. Your best tool for handling your digital photos is your delete key. Be liberal in your use of the delete key.
2. Gather your digital photos together. Transfer photos from all of your cameras to your computer into one program or folder on your computer to start.
3. Decide how you want to sort your photos. Create a folder structure, organizing the pictures first by year and month, then by event or person. For large events, such as weddings, you may need subfolders (example: 2008 June - Mary's Wedding for the main folder, Reception, Wedding, Opening Gifts, etc. for subfolders). Keep it really simple, so it will be easy to find the photos you're looking for.
4. On a Mac the photos will automatically get organized by date and event by iPhoto when you hook up your camera or iPhone to your Mac.
5. Sort photos and move into the appropriate folders. For example, you would move all of the photos related to "2009 Thanksgiving" to that folder. Do this sort step fairly quickly. Don't stop to label each individual photo (leave this until later), or reminisce. And remember to delete as many photos as you can. Once you have completed this step, celebrate. Your digital photos are all sorted and organized!!
6. Once you have sorted all of the photos into folders (deleting as many as you can), you can go back and label individual photos if you want (it's a good idea). Give each photo a descriptive label, and use the same format each time. For example: 2008 June 23 Mary's Wedding Dress.
7. Back up your photos regularly to an external hard drive and/or virtual cloud.

Home Movies:

Basically, the same concepts and rules apply for home movies as photos. Except home movies are usually viewed even less often than photographs! This is a real shame since home movies have not only the sights, but sounds and voices to really bring back the memories.

If you have any old 8mm, VHS, Slides, Digital 8, Betamax, hi8, MiniDV, VHS-C, Super 8, 16mm in a shoebox somewhere get them converted into a digital format NOW!!!!

If you have to squeeze reformatting all your memories into your busy schedule we are afraid it just won't get done. Better to use a professional service for transferring your movies to a digital format too.

After you movies are converted to a digital format it will be even easier to edit them using the iMovie software on your Mac or the online editing software that ScanDigital provides. Use the same criteria when editing a home movie as you did when you "edited" your paper and digital photos:

Editing Home Movies:

• That are blurry or the film is not steady enough
• That remind you of unhappy times or unhappy relationships
• That you can't remember the people, the place, etc.
• Too many of a similar shot (keep the best, toss the rest)
• Where you don't like how you look
• That make you feel bad or upset or fat or whatever
• That are just plain boring and you and/or your friends would not enjoy watching them

Editing movies is a bit of a project, you will have to make a point to carve out some free time in your schedule. Maybe over a weekend? Maybe work at it for an hour on those days that you don't go to the gym? Maybe on a holiday where there is not much going on like Presidents' day? Just know that you will have to make an appointment with yourself to get each movie or event done.

Now that you have all your movies converted and edited they will be MUCH easier to enjoy and share!

But, what about the endless amount of film coming in?

Now that most people have digital video recorders even on their smart phones there is more film than ever to go through because it is so easy and inexpensive (no developing costs).

The next time you think you will want to film an event or vacation or anything else, give it some thought. Sometimes it is just better enjoying the moment than fussing with a camera.

But, if you do decide that this is a film worthy activity - be sure to get the movie off your camera and into your computer to edit as soon as possible!!! When you get home from vacation or the event is when this activity will be the most fun and you will be able to make the best movie because it is still fresh in your mind. Later, when you return to reality, editing the film often becomes a chore.

Lastly, remember that life is happening constantly and you don't want to cause yourself stress or miss what is happening today while you are archiving the past.

Erica Duran is a Productivity Expert and Certified Professional Organizer (CPO®). At Erica Duran International (http://www.ericaduran.co), she provides both virtual and in-person coaching around the globe through her programs, courses, and products. Erica mostly attracts women entrepreneurs and business owners. She helps them to clear the clutter in their lives at ALL levels, gets them out of just being "busy" and "overwhelmed" and into a calm, flowing, and balanced lifestyle.
Want to ask Erica a Question and be featured in her electronic magazine, blog, and other articles. Submit your question here: http://ericaduran.co/ask-erica/#

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Ask a Professional Organizer: To Delegate or Not to Delegate

By Erica Duran

Question: "I know I should get a VA (virtual assistant), a housekeeper and help with bookkeeping but I don't know if I am ready yet? I still don't have a full coaching practice and can't justify spending the money on these luxuries. And, honestly... I am worried that the tasks won't be done correctly or on time and that will tarnish the reputation I've been working so hard to build. What is the best way to dip my toe in the delegating pool?"

Professional Organizer's Answer: Hello! Nice to hear from you! Thank you so much for your honest question. I am sure many new entrepreneurs are feeling torn as well between their current financial status verses what they know they need to move their business and life forward in a big way.

First off, I must mention this quote that I am paraphrasing that is over-used but so true:

"You will never reach the level of success or income you desire by doing $10 hour tasks"

Here is an exercise that shifted my own thinking on this subject: Keep track for a week or two of all the time you are spending on these little "nonprofit" tasks that someone else could do as well (usually someone else can do these tasks even better than you). Then, figure out your average hourly rate that you would earn in your business and multiply it by the amount of hours you tracked doing mundane tasks. If you had these hours back to yourself so that you could work on revenue generating activities and bill out your hours or use the hours to create and market a new product how would your income grow and lifestyle grow?

I know that this is hard to do when you are starting out and on a budget, so you don't always have to delegate the task, you may also find that they can be automated or better yet deleted! More often than not delete tasks off your list is the best way to getting more done ironically. But, we all know that there are just some things that can't possibly be deleted, like bookkeeping.

We have an extensive delegating checklist in my Time Management and Productivity Course but here are examples of tasks you can delete, delegate or automate:

• Housekeeping
• Errands (post office, bank, pet vet & groomers, dry cleaning, auto repair, etc.)
• Bookkeeping
• Shopping
• Social Media
• Food Preparation
• Routine emails and letters
• Bill Paying
• Appointment Setting

Most of these tasks take very little time to set up automatically or get someone else to do them. Just the fact that you are asking for help in these areas tells the universe that you are taking your business seriously and you will even start to shift the way you are working with your clients.

There is something else that happens when you start delegating "nonprofit" tasks to an assistant or virtual assistant. For example, let's say you used to input all your business cards from networking meetings into your database no matter who the person was that you met and if you thought there was a useful connection made. Not all contacts are useful - you know that right? Now, when you make the leap to actually pay someone else to do the task it automatically doesn't seem worth their time. So, then why was it ever worth your time at your higher rate per hour? Shifting all the non-revenue generating tasks to someone else really shows you how much time you really weren't spending on the big important pieces of your business.

If you are on a budget, you will want to get the biggest bang for your delegating buck. So, choose the tasks that are essential to do (can't be deleted), take the most time, tasks that you may not like to do, and the tasks that may be the least expensive to outsource. For example, house cleaning will probably be first on this list for most people. It must be done, it takes a long time to do yourself, and it is relatively the cheapest thing to delegate. You can start with this task and while the house cleaners are there vow to yourself to only work on revenue generating activities to obtain an instant ROI (return on investment) from the money spent on the house cleaners.

Now we must take a look at the other part of your question. You were worried that the tasks won't be done correctly or on time if you delegate them and this will damage your hard-earned reputation. Here are some tips to lessen the grip you have on these tasks.

1. Take great time and care up-front to hire the right person. And, don't feel guilty if you have to let them go if it doesn't work out. You are doing yourself and them a favor in ending the arrangement if it isn't working.
2. Prescribe the deadline for the task. For example, "I need this opt-in report in my email inbox by noon every Friday, Pacific time" rather than "I need this report next week".
3. Explain to your assistant or help exactly how you want the task done and why you want it done this way. People have all different frames of references and your assistant or VA may think they know a better, cheaper, or faster way of doing things. You need to explain up-front why you would like it done the way you are telling them. This takes a little more time at the beginning but saves a lot of mistakes later.
4. Don't micro-manage. After you've prescribed a deadline and explained how and why you would like the task done there should be no need to micro manage. Gracefully, give your team the confidence and space to get the job done for you.

Lastly, try not to use all your new found free time towards your business. Fill some of the newly regained hours to achieve those fun or personal things you say you never have time for like reading a novel, donating time to charity, escaping to a spa for an afternoon, taking a sushi preparation class, or dancing to that Zumba DVD you received for Christmas three years ago!

Erica Duran is a Certified Professional Organizer CPO® and Productivity Coach. At Erica Duran International (http://www.ericaduran.co), she provides both virtual and in-person coaching around the globe through her programs, courses, and products. Erica mostly attracts women entrepreneurs and business owners. She helps them to clear the clutter in their lives at ALL levels, gets them out of just being "busy" and "overwhelmed" and into a calm, flowing, and balanced lifestyle.

Want to ask Erica a Question and be featured in her electronic magazine, blog, and other articles. Submit your question here: http://ericaduran.co/ask-erica/#

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Erica_Duran