I’m not joking when I say I wish I’d written this book myself!

This is an awesome organising resource, both for the Super Organised and for those just struggling to hold it all together. It is beautifully written with lots of personal anecdotes and examples and when you’re done reading, you’ll definitely know what will work for you and what won’t.

There are lots of diagrams so you don’t have to guess what she means, and also some really good flowcharts for the visual people out there.

Angela addresses the many styles by having different sections for you, so if you only want the quick version, there’s a section of a chapter just for you, and if you like all the little details, she caters to you too.

For each section of organising, e.g. scheduling, Angela gives MANY different examples, each one tailored for a different organising style.

I know I’m the Organising Queen but even I got TONS of ideas from this book, two of which are already helping me organise my organised life, much, much better

Get this book now. You won’t regret it!

Click the tag at the bottom of this post to read the other parts in this series.

This is part 3. Click the tag at the bottom of this post to read the other parts in this series.

One of my favourite parts of this book was the workflow section. I love how Angela explains this and I’m going to be using it with my clients too because anyone can relate.

So!

If you think of your paper flow as a little car and your decision-making process is like coming to a traffic light…

RED means stop – throw those papers away

ORANGE means wait – file those papers

GREEN means either show (delegate to someone else) or go (do the work yourself)

Now that’s already really cool but then she breaks down the GO part further, and this part I LOVE!

1. Scheduled tasks go on your calendar
2. Unscheduled tasks go on your master to-do list
3. And the urgent tasks you just DO if they’ll only take 2 minutes
4. the parking lot is where we put things for future projects (I liked this term so much I immediately renamed my existing email folder)

The reason why I LOVE this part so much is because we all try and put unscheduled tasks in our calendar (on our daily to-do list) and that’s why we feel overwhelmed and unworthy when we don’t get those things done.

Of course, you add some tasks from your master list to your daily list once you have the scheduled stuff on your list. And of course, if I’m coaching you , we’ll always make sure at least 2 of those tasks move you towards your goals, so that you’re effective and not just busy!

(I deal with all this in MUCH more detail in Help! I need more time)

Is it just me or do you also think the whole paper flow is explained just beautifully with this easy-to-understand analogy?

P.S. If you’re on Facebook, you can check Angela’s profile under my friends. There is a lovely picture of her beautiful face

This is part 2. Read part 1 here on the 3 ingredients for organising success.

One of the best parts of this book is that Angela identifies the different types of people and then based on your type, she points you straight to the correct chapters to get you sorted.

Not only that, she also has the chapter organised so you can read just the Quick Start if you don’t have a lot of time to read the whole chapter. Yessss!

If you have a difficult time getting organised, Angela says there are 3 different sets of reasons:

psychological - this is procrastination, not being motivated, not making organising a priority, hoarding, having disempowering beliefs like “creative people can’t be organised”, etc.

systemic - this refers to a lack of systems, like there isn’t a system to keep the place organised so two days later, it’s a tip again or having the wrong systems like you design this complicated system that both your husband and kids can’t actually maintain, making you go stark raving mad!

To quote Dr Phil, “how’s that working for you?”

situational – this is when other circumstances like moving house or other people like spouses cause an organised state.

I actually get many questions where people ask how to get their spouses organised. Think I’ll write about that next week


If you find the process of getting organised challenging, what do you think is YOUR main reason?



You can get your own copy here – Angela is a really funny writer too so she gives gorgeous examples of her and her husband, draws cool flow charts to show the difference in their styles

It’s 10:48 pm, I’ve had a hectic day so please forgive me if I’m not as chatty as usual.

Plus I have another really hectic morning tomorrow (all prayers are very welcome) and I really need to get to bed to catch up on my zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz so I can actually write something coherent for my weekly ezine tomorrow night! Oy!

Monday
Was out tonight

Tuesday
Alfredo pasta

Wednesday
Apricot chicken, mashed potato and pumpkin

Thursday
Stirfried chicken, veggies and noodles

Friday
Burgers and weigh-less chips (from last week)

What’s on your menu this week?

P.S. have you read my I’m not neat but I’m organized post?!

I got this book in November and I’ve been poring over it, bit by bit.

It is SUCH a great book that I wish I’d written it. Angela is clearly passionate about organising, I also love the way

Anyway, I’m going to be reviewing it in little bits because I’ve been making some notes as I read.

Some of the nuggets so far:

Purpose of organizing
Getting organised helps you achieve results, be more effective,
reduce stress and ultimately be the wise steward of your time and resources that
God intended.

Angela also says that there’s a triad of organising – time, space and workflow (where time and space meet).

There’s a fun How organised are you? quiz and my score said that I should put down the book and stop reading because I’m an organisational rarity

Now this is what I want you to think about for today, so listen closely:

There are 3 ingredients for success: motivation, knowledge and tools.

If we only have one or two, we don’t get organised.

E.g. if you only have motivation, you get frustrated because you don’t know how to do it. These make the best organising clients

If you only have knowledge, you have a big head (Angela’s wise words), because you know how to organise but you don’t do anything about it. These people are frustrating to work with!

If you only have tools (and this ties into my clutter post the other day), you basically have clutter because there will be lots of stuff lying around. These are the people who buy things, hoping that it will get them organised. They can supply the stores

Now my question for you is this:

Do YOU have all three ingredients for organising success?

Buy your own copy here – BTW, Angela also made downloadable forms on her site so that you don’t have to write in your book. Now isn’t that cool?!

South African readers – my copy got to me in about a week!