I recently recorded this Q&A session with my good friend (and “Fit Rocker Chick”), Erin Mullins Sanderson. Erin brings questions from her community that you might have as well: what do to with stuff (including papers!) and how to get organized.
Find out where to start, what a Next Actions List will do for you, and even how to reconsider your approach to tackling the never-ending laundry.
The podcast player at the top of this page will play the audio, or you can find us on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, etc…. Plus, a video version of the interview is below–as well as time stamps and related links.
We are doing everything we can to take GREAT care of you!! 🙂
Time Stamps
- 6:20 – What do I do with my daughter’s art? These are things that you want to keep off the brain. Use Sneaky Sorter for short-term storage, Bankers boxes for long-term, Incubation & Someday.
- 12:30 – My counter is always covered in mail and bills. I want to make it a place of creativity. What do I do? Use 2-minute rule, Inbox with Weekly Review, Tickler and process right away for things that must be done before Weekly Review. Watch for our processing videos coming soon on social media!
- 23:15 – What do I do with my notes from calls, conferences, and just ideas that I jot down during the week? Notes will reside in a filing cabinet (physical or digital). But before filing them, create a 1-page Executive Summary of your notes: things to do as soon as possible, things I will do someday soon, other key ideas to review sometime this month. Use a Current Projects List. We have a couple of great resources that go into more depth on this linked below!
- 30:45 – I keep a list of new hires (names, titles, background) on my desk all the time, to use during team meetings. What do I do with something like that? Use a team meeting agenda in Asana, using the description field to link to Evernote, Google Sheet, or other needed resources.
- 33:20 – What do I do about laundry? I wash it, dry it, and then the pile just keeps accumulating. Use routines to manage tasks and projects that repeat regularly. Maybe a project or two might come first, to get ready for those routines. (Ex: “Declutter and reduce the number of clothes” or “Create a system for laundry”)
- 37:30 – What if something is out of control? Clear a space, pulling just the things you’ll need in the next week or two. Set everything else aside. Once you build your Command Central, you can process the rest.
Related Resources
Get to know Erin Sanderson:
Her website | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook
More on the Sneaky Sorter:
- How to Organize School Papers – with Alia and April If your counters are overrun with kids projects and papers, our sister website, Power of Moms, has a podcast that will help!
- Organizing the End-Of-School Papers Here’s a two-minute Power of Moms video featuring five tips for organizing the papers that tend to inundate our homes at the end of the school year.
More on notes:
- Using Evernote to Track Everything You Learn There is more knowledge available to us today than ever before. But what do we DO with everything we learn so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle? Here’s one simple way to track (and easily find!) all the wonderful things we learn that we never want to forget.
- Three Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Conference Notes When you attend a conference, do you want to go home with 50 pages of notes and hundreds of good intentions? Or would you like a simple way to make sure your notes have an impact on your life?
More on routines:
- Clean Laundry and a Stocked Fridge: Our Family’s Routines Have you ever wondered how laundry and meals happen in our home? (It isn’t fancy, but it works…) Watch this segment of our “Run Solid Routines on Autopilot” resource to find out!
Join our free class, How to Stop Drowning in Piles for more!
In this class, we teach four simple steps you can take today to reduce the overwhelm and get rid of the piles–mental and physical. Come learn about using Next Actions and a Current Projects List to move forward on the things that matter most! And then we’ll give you more information on our full Steps to Everyday Productivity (STEP) Program, where you learn how to build your own Command Central. Click the link above to sign up!
Have you checked out STEP for Students?
The perfect companion to our Steps to Everyday Productivity program, STEP for Students will prepare your children with the organization needed to manage school, extracurriculars, and home life! It’s not always easy to help our students live organized lives, but if you want to know what we do in our family, and what has worked really well for us, this is it.
How do I watch podcast? It says radio, but you act as if people are watching.
Thanks
Thanks for asking, Linda! This particular podcast was first recorded as a video on Facebook. The video version is included here on this page right above the time stamps. You can also see it on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LearnDoBecome/videos/818602058558619. Enjoy!
I have been a master member for years and it has helped me so so much. This is such a good overall recap of your STEP system. I love STEP!
Thanks for your kind words, Rene! We’re thrilled to have you with us and we look forward to hearing your success stories!
Thank you for sending an email today. It came at a good time. I’m up to my waist in paper clutter and disorganization. Control Corner is getting cleaned out today and tomorrow to get the mess done.
Taxes, medical records, birth and death record? How long do we need to keep your parent will after they pass? Organized?
Great questions, Lisa! We love the Freedom Filer for helping with all of our paperwork. You can learn more about them here https://www.freedomfiler.com. And if you’re a member of STEP, you can find for more information about Freedom Filer inside your membership. Thanks for being with us!
This really helped fill in the blanks that I didn’t catch very well going through the steps
Once again an awesome Podcast. I look so forward to listening to each one you do. I am enjoying setting up my command center and making my life a little less stressful by being organized.
Thank you April
God Bless you and your family. You are doing an amazing thing đź’—đź‘Ť
Thanks for your kind words, Christy! We are so glad you’re here. Please let us know what we can do for you moving forward!
Wow! You GOT me toward the end…I’m 78 and I do NOT want to leave piles for my sons and grandkids! I will be checking into your system! Blessings, Lyn
Lyn, thanks so much for your comment! Your sons and grandkids will always love you. We would love to have you join us for a class! Our hour-long class focuses on four simple steps anyone can use to get a better handle on life, home, goals, projects, and tasks. We look forward to meeting you in the class, if it’s a fit for you, and please feel free to share with your friends who might enjoy the class as well! http://www.LearnDoBecome.com/STEP
Oh my gosh, this one is GOLD. I was literally about to email you guys asking to answer some of these questions!!
I am enrolled in STEP and I love it, but i haven’t fully finished my command central. When i do, I am planning to send you befores and afters!!!!
Thanks for your comment, Christina! We’re glad you enjoyed this podcast. We’re thrilled to have you with us and we look forward to hearing your success stories!
Ive been coming back to your information time and time again without totally commiting to anything cause I have fear that I won’t stick to it, however when you mentioned that someone made a list of how to tackle it according to time that we wanted to invest it made more sense to me. I seem to work in spurts so knowing what I need to do next by an expert’s list rather than my own made perfect sense. When I’m overwhelmed I don’t even know where to start and then at times Im in the mood for organizing, so being able to learn or prepare for when the inspirations hits seems great!
Thanks for your comment, Jessica. Working according to context, time, and energy is a game changer! We’d love to share more with you about it in our free class! New class times are consistently added through this link: www.LearnDoBecome.com/STEP. If you click this evening, you’ll receive times in the very near future, as well as a few times in the next day or two. We look forward to having you jump in the class and know this will be time well spent. Enjoy! Please let us know if you have any questions at all.
Hello. I am interested in the google sheet that your staff put together that shows you how many steps you need to do each day to get through the basics in the timeframe that you choose. Where can I find those google sheets? You mentioned in at the very last few minutes of this podcast. I am a STEP program participant. Thanks.!
Thanks for asking, Karolina! The timelines mentioned in this podcast can be found in the Getting Started section of your membership. We’re thrilled to have you with us and we look forward to hearing your success stories!
Your program has helped me so much. I was sitting fown at the computer to begin typing all the notes from all the notebooks when i decided to listen to one of your podcasts for inspiration. Photographong your notes for Evernote is a game changer. Thank you for sharing your brillance to help the rest of us learn to become.
You could easily take that technique and expand on the steps involved to create projects, next action steps etc. Some of us need to see step by step processes. Hint hint
OMGOODNESS!!!! YOU COMPLETE ME TOO!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH-I AM LOVING YOUR PODCAST!!!