Linked Learning Workshop

Today I am going to discuss what may seem like an unrelated topic to organizing but in fact is very related to my little company: social media and profiles. About two years ago I started on my quest to reach out to the virtual ' universe'. Whether through my blog, Facebook (personal and business pages), LinkedIn (business network) or Twitter, I found that I needed to keep connecting to people. Why? So they would learn more about me and my little company. I have really enjoyed blogging (although I do not do this nearly enough), I enjoy updating my status on Facebook and LinkedIn and I am now mastering the art of tweeting. All of these new talents have taken me months to master (I would not go so far at to say perfect). The learning curve can be consider steeped when you are new to these sites. So when I found myself in a mentoring group with a social media and website designer, I told him I had spent months learning the ins and outs of these 'self-promotion' and search engine optimization tools. "I would have paid anyone to help me with the initial set up of the profiles." I said. " Funny," he said, "I've been thinking about putting together a workshop for that reason alone: helping people get started." An that, my friends, was the genesis of LinkedLearning.ca. Stuart Budden of inaZooma and I have teamed up to provide novice social media network users with a workshop that will help them get started: building your personal (or business) profile on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Fifty percent of social media users have either one and sometimes two of these accounts but they rarely have all three. Even more rare are those that actually have them linked together so you can update your profiles at a single point of contact. Far more discouraging: even fewer have a customized social media strategy to make it all work! So on Friday, November 27 at the TrisanOne Business Centre in London, ON, you can pick from either a morning or an afternoon session to learn and then do exactly that: build your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles and then, link them all together! This hands-on workshop will explain the basics about social media networking and search engine optimization and then, we will sit down at individual workstations and start building your presence on the world wide web. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.linkedlearning.ca/ or call me directly at 519-472-9585 to start getting your profiles up, running and organized!

4M - Manic Monday Minute - School Files and Daily planners

I am giddy with my new organizing toys..I mean tools

So this weekend I found myself with two girlfriends in Boston, MA for a Girl's Weekend Reunion! We did the usual things: sightsee, go to museums, eat in good restaurants and shop! My shopping inevitably has to involve finding products that help me (and ultimately my clients) get organized. So imagine my surprise when I found a store

dedicated to Franklin Covey materials. In Canada we do not have Franklin Covey STORES just different distributors. So

when I walked into this store and saw all the planners, calendars, purses, desk sets, magazine holders etc...I was in heaven.

As I took in the plethora of choices: should I get a leather or cloth binder? Classic or compact? Which calendar system to use? Well, you can imagine how hard it was and with only 10 minutes of shopping time before the store closed. No need to panic, I tend to make good purchasing decisions when I am under pressure. I did what any self-respecting female would do: I choose

my favourite colour and went from there...I decided on the Green Tea, leather, compact folder with the Julie Morgenstern Organizing System...all of this and on sale too! Choosing the calendar layout was a no-brainder - Julie Morgenstern is a GURU in my industry. I like the two booklet system with two day view for each separate month and then a monthly view with goal trackers and notes in the opposite booklet.

But wait, I haven't even told you about the best part of my shopping excursion... as I am ready to pay, I see on the counter beside the cash register the file folders I have been pining for (and didn't even know it until I saw it on the counter)... Franklin Covey School.files™ from Buttoned Up.

Here is the product description:

Homework, class trips, extracurricular activities- staying on top of all the things your children participate in at school is a big job. Get some help with the Franklin Covey School.files™ from Buttoned Up. It is the perfect container for keeping all the information about their scholastic life at your fingertips. By Buttoned Up™.

Key Functional Features:

• Durable file folder with compartments for three children
• Each compartment contains five folders: stuff to do, stuff to keep, stuff to return, fun stuff, and calendars
• Lightweight construction and notebook size make it ultra-portable

Seriously, was someone looking at the pile I had just made, before my trip, of all the papers, forms, permission slips, trip information, contact information that I had for my three kids? Did someone know that I had three binders already neatly organized but need something else that would just sit on my desk to pick up the slack?

Franklin Covey School.files™ from Buttoned Up is the answer to my prayers. It is an accordion file folder with sections for all that STUFF. You can go through it periodically and purge the outdated information but keep the important information at your fingertips.

Three weeks into school and I already have a handle on all the stuff that they bring home. Do you?

It's a good thing...

Good morning class...for today's art lesson, I would like you to pull out your paint brushes...Then from their desks your kids pull out this: a customized pocket/carrying case for your art supplies.

I found this on the Marth Stewart website and have enclosed the link . The website provides detailed instructions on how to sew a carrying case.

Just thought I would share this very cool organizing idea.

4M - Margarita's Manic Monday Minutes - My Little Black Book

My Little Black Book Can you remember your passwords? Do you have more than one email account and a password for that account? How many passwords do you have? One to check the balance on your bank account? Another to check the balance on your Airmiles card? Maybe you have one for Paypal, Amazon or to check-out when you purchase something on-line from Target or Staples? Do you know your husband's Aeroplan number (that is Air Canada's frequent flyer number for you non-Canadians)? I do... Do you know your library card number without having to find the actual card in your wallet? I do... Do you know what email address you used to sign up for the last contest you entered on-line? I do... How do I keep track of all these meaningless yet somehow significant numbers and passwords? I write them down in my Little Black Book. I use a Blueline A565 Memo book that I have tabbed with letters (see photo). My little black book contains all the information that I need at my finger tips. The reason I keep my little black book up to to date is so I don't have a million post-it notes all over my computer screen! In one book I keep all those passwords, pin number, codes and serial numbers that I need. It looks so innocuous on my desk and has no label on it that it is not likely to draw attention. Nothing fancy, just functional.

I am not sure what kind of memory you have but I know mine falters and it is a good way to keep these tidbits of information out of my head, off my computer - god forbid that it crashes one day - and away from hackers.

Another, amusing, yet simple solution to keep these passwords together is by using Knock, Knock's My Top-Secret PASSWORDS note pads available in Canada at Chapters or through Knock, Knock on their website.

This pad has space for 4 passwords page. It lets you list the URL, username, password, secret question and secret answer. Although it may seem counter-intuitive to write this down, it is actually better than placing your passwords on your computer. I think this is a great gift for those absentminded professor types or better yet your parents. They are always forgetting something! A note of caution: It should be obvious that you should be keeping this information in a safe secure place. Using common sense will let you see the benefits of having these passwords close by.

At the very bottom of the page of My Top-Secret PASSWORDS note pad it asks: "Why try to remember what you could just write down?" Good question, don't you think?

4M - Margarita's Manic Monday Minutes - Magazines

I have to admit it, I love getting magazines in the mail. I only subscribe to two publications and I use them for 'work' purposes...o.k...I also like the lovely pictures. I like to have magazines around for a quick break, to get inspired or to decorate a space.

As a professional organizer, I always get the same question: what do I do with all my magazines? There are a few things to consider: (1) are they a quick read - current events (People or Time) (2) are they informative (The Economist, a professional publication); (3) are they eye-candy (House Beautiful, Architectural Digest); (4) are they informative (Real Simple, Parent)?

Some good questions to ask are: do you need to keep them or do you want to keep them? and; are they available on-line?

If you need to keep them, then use a magazine holder to keep current (within a year) issues. I

like an acrylic holder that you can purchase at Solutions - the Organized Living store. It is clean and holds a lot of issues. It is sleek, modern and can be decorative without having to stick to a particular 'colour pallet'.

If you don't want to keep the whole publication but want to refer back to an article, tear it out and place it in a plastic folder. Why, you ask? Because you can then keep the folder in your car. So, when you have a few minutes of down time (waiting for the soccer practice to finish, waiting in a doctor/dentist's office, waiting for your husband's train to pull in), you will read what you want to read and not just the emails on your

Blackberry.

My favourite plastic envelopes are these Globe-Weis ones that you can find at Staples. They are large, see-through and you can zip them up so all the articles don't fall out.

The last thing that you can do with magazines is to recycle them. Always the best alternative. So either put them out on the curb or share them with friends and family. You can trade publications. My mom gets Style at Home and I get Canadian House and Home. After we are done, we switch. So we get two publications for the price of one! Happy Reading!