You know how I love notebooks, right?

I used to write in just any notebook before until I found these beauties…

They’re about 10 times what I normally pay for a notebook but they were just SO gorgeous – I couldn’t resist.

But you know what was weird? Actually putting pen to this lovely, smooth, thick paper.

I felt like I needed to have something worthy to write in there. Perfectionism rearing its ugly head.

And then I realised – I do. Whether it’s a new idea for a coaching programme or just a things to do list, it deserves to be in a gorgeous book.

Why?

Because they’re my ideas. And even though all my ideas might not be great, they are still worth writing down in a beautiful place.

Once you start, you get used to using nice things very quickly. I hardly broke a sweat when I started my 2nd gorgeous notebook this year. I chose one to match my gorgeous planner

The other weekend my husband finished his church notebook.

So he asks me, “do you have a notebook I can use?” Of course this is the House of Notebooks so I have stacks (after seeing the selection, he told me I have a sickness ) None of them was quite right so I said (about the blue one in the picture), “what about this one?”

And he went through the exact same feelings I’d been through!

• how can I write in something so nice?
• I feel like I need to write something more substantial in it.
• and so on…

So I told him, your thoughts are worth writing down and this weekend, he made me proud and broke in that beauty!

Your coaching questions

1. Do you value yourself?
2. Do you find yourself thinking you don’t deserve to use nice things?
3. Which ONE thing can you start doing today to treat yourself better?
   

Sometimes we keep on doing things simply because we’re in the HABIT of doing them and not because they actually serve us anymore.

Let me explain.

You go through a really busy period at work and work until 6pm every night. After that, it’s become a bad habit so you continue to do so even though there’s really no need. But it’s no longer serving you.

You could be enjoying the extra time at home with your family, exercising, taking up a new hobby, etc.

Or you might have a bookshelf full of books you don’t like or need to have. It’s no longer serving you.

One more…you have 5 sets of bed linen for your guest bedroom. You have guests twice a year and never even get past set 3 on the shelf. That’s no longer serving you.

When we first got internet at home years ago, we were happy enough with dial-up. But as my business got increasingly busy, it was definitely NOT serving me

I used to spend hours on the computer writing blog posts, newsletters, e-courses, and so on. And it should have been much less time than that.

I finally got my act together a couple of years ago and got us fast, wireless internet. Wow – the difference was amazing. I literally shaved hours off my computer time.

So my challenge to you is to jot down 3 – 5 things in your life that are no longer serving you. And let them go.

They can be anything from networking events to online forums to old, stale websites that haven’t been updated in months or years to service providers that hold you back. Anything.

Tell me what you’re going to let go of in the comments below.

Well, one of the things I always tell people is to write down their goals and stick it up somewhere. You do know that just writing it down takes you halfway there?!

Here is a picture of the inside of my wardrobe.

In the top left corner, I have my health chart. Here I write down my weight, fruit, veg, water, exercise minutes, etc. If you sign up for the free audio time tips (in the sidebar <—-), you’ll get a pack of organising forms with a free health chart in your welcome pack.

In the top right, I have a calendar and then directly below that is my Goals page. That particular one is from Goal-Setting Forms, a book I bought from Gary Ryan Blair. Here’s a free goals form for you to download.

Beneath the health chart is a yellow card with my success beliefs. Some things on here are “I believe in my ability to win every day”, “I’m ready for success” and “I let go of the small stuff to focus on what’s important”.

Beneath the goals list is something I’ve had for about 10 years and that I treasure very much. Dion and I used to run cell groups and I was always thinking up different icebreakers. With this one, each person gets a page with their name on the top. You pass the page around and all the other people write 1 thing about that person. People wrote such nice things about me (weird – almost all about how organised I am…freaky) and that’s why I treasure it.

Oh and of course, as a bonus, you can see how I organise my necklaces and bracelets. Yes, all it takes is a couple of hooks and it’s all done.

Now, tell me, are your goals up somewhere so that you can see them every day? If not, commit to do so in the comments.

Did you know that the average person wastes one hour a day looking for things?

That translates to over 6 weeks a year.

6 weeks!

That’s time you could have spent with your family, marketing your business, seeing more clients, making more money, going on holiday, etc, etc.

Don’t let disorganisation keep you from living your best life.

Join me on Tuesday 24th Feb from 11am – 3pm EST or 6 – 10pm South Africa time (GMT+2)

We’ll spend four hours together and I’ll teach you all the tips and tools of the trade as you organise your home office.

At the end of our time together you will have…

• a well-ordered, organised desk and office plan with clear zones
• a system to reduce your email overload
• an easy, step-by-step plan to prioritise all your projects
• at least 3 clear ways to make your computer do common tasks, automatically
• a clear, simple way to deal with all the paper in your life
• ideas on how to maximise your office and storage space
• and much, much more

I’m not going to leave you high and dry afterwards though.

I realise your office might need a lot more work than just four hours so I’m giving you free 60 days’ unlimited email support while you take action on your plan (I charge my coaching clients $97 for this kind of access to me).

You also get my 7 easy steps to organise your office ebook and MP3 system to support you long after the seminar has ended so that any time you need a recap, you can go directly to your challenging area and get help.

“I used to spend my days always working on email and never getting anything done. Thanks to Marcia’s suggestions, I now can’t believe everything I get done in one day!

It’s allowed me to have a very successful business while working only 15-20 hours per week. I love that her techniques have given me the freedom to spend time with my sons and husband.

Thanks to her business organizing strategies I have doubled my productivity which has in turn doubled my business income.
Jennifer Haubein

www.BestBizWebsiteSolutions.com

The nitty gritty details

Date: Tuesday 24 February 2009

Time: 11am – 3pm Eastern Standard Time/ 6 -10 pm South African Time (GMT+2)

What do you need: Telephone, pen and handbook which will be emailed to you

Format: By telephone – you can also dial in through your computer if you have Skype and just listen in (great option for readers outside the US)

So how does this work?

Once you register and pay, I’ll send you the access information and the 27-page handbook for the day.

You can call the phone number, listen to me speak and chat back with questions or comments.

On the day, at the top of every hour, I’ll teach for 15 – 20 minutes and the rest of the hour, we (the entire class) will all action that section of our offices.

What are the sections we’ll tackle?

11am How to organise your desk for maximum functionality and efficiency

12pm Clear the paper clutter and create a system for the flow of paper in your office

1pm Conquer your email, set up folders and organise your inbox

2pm Prioritise all your projects and develop a system for planning your month, week and day.

2:50 – 3pm Wrap-up and how to maintain your organised office

The best thing about this seminar is that you’re learning and doing so at the end of the session, you have a beautifully organised and functional office!

Your investment: only $97 (actual value $267)

Let’s recap. What do you get …

• LIVE teaching from Marcia Francois, time management and organising expert
• LIVE group coaching
• 60 days’ unlimited email support
• 27-page handbook
• MP3 audio downloads of all the teaching
• 7 easy steps to organise your office e-book and 3 X MP3 downloads*

* This will be emailed to you straight after the seminar because I don’t want you to get overwhelmed before the time!

You, too, can have an email box that looks like this

Tomorrow it will be 2009. Do you know what that means?

That’s right – it’s time for two of my favourite things – goals and planners

Today we’re tying up the series with how I personalise my own diary/ planner/ agenda.

First I want to talk about why I need to personalise my diary.

I have never ever found a perfect diary. I have come really, really close but what I do is this:

I decide what my non-negotiables are and then I adapt the rest.

You need to also decide if you need lots of name and address pages? Or note paper at the back?

My advice to you is decide on your non-negotiables and make peace with the rest. But above all, make sure you love your planner (like I do) so that you want to use it.


Okay, let’s get to the fun part.

Someone commented on one of the earlier posts that they like how grungy an old diary gets just before the new year. Mmmm, so do I! So here’s a pic of my grungy (well-loved) diary.

Part 1
I have some typed pages I print out once a year and stick into my planner:

• my goals for the year
• personal information
• important telephone numbers
• reference numbers (insurance policies, account numbers with various institutions, etc)
• birthday list

What happens when I have to add new numbers during the year?

I simply write them on the sheet. Yes, it looks a bit messy but messy is good

On the 2008 page, I only added 8 numbers. So for the 2009 page, I simply added some of those 8 and deleted the numbers I don’t need, and I reprint.

I do this page in Excel and in the footer, I make a note of the date the page was updated. Very useful especially for changing insurance providers, etc.

Part 2
I paste the top of the birthday list on top of this page so I can flip the page up to see my other events.

Part 3
I paste an envelope on the last page like this so I can keep any business cards (before I enter them in Outlook) and other bits of paper. I also like keeping a couple of sheets of the big Post-It note pad (about 10) so I can make lists that won’t get lost.

Oh, the page on the left is a write-up of my ideal coaching client to keep me focussed

That’s it for me.

Do you personalise your planner? If so, how? Did you get any good ideas today?

P.S. I’ve had some emails from people saying how they’ve enjoyed going through this process with me. Feel free to link to the posts from your blog – let’s spread the happiness

If you missed the previous posts, you can catch up here:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

This time we’re discussing monthly and other tools.

Do you need a monthly event calendar? Do you need a budget or a financial page? What about a monthly goals form?

You need to decide if these are “deal-breaker” issues for you or if you’ll be able to do without them.

This particular diary/ planner has an events page at the start of every month and it has one financial planning page spanning over two pages for the entire year.

I have to have a monthly page so that’s a deal breaker for me but I don’t have to have a page for financials since I typically do that in Excel.

If you haven’t been answering the questions, take a few minutes to do so now.

What kinds of tools are deal breakers for you?

Next time I’m going to show you how I personalise my planner.

This is part 3 in our choose the perfect planner series.

In our quest for the perfect planner, we’ve discussed…

Paper or electronic
Size of planner and of lines

Today we’re talking about space per day

Daily format

Do you like the week-at-a-glance over two pages or a page-a-day format?

My favourite is the weekly format because I do weekly planning. I find there’s just enough space to jot down my 3 – 5 Eat the Frog tasks every day. So it forces me to focus.

However, this beauty is a page a day.

That’s not a bad thing so I live with it.

Evening appointments

I also like a planner with plenty of space for evening activities. With many planners, I find that there’s such a small space for the evening and my evenings are hectic – gym, coaching, teleseminars, etc.

Other space requirements

I also like space for notes, not just appointments. So this planner has them both.

We’re almost there and by now you should have a really good idea of what works for you.

Which do you prefer – page a day or week-at-a-glance?

Keep reading for part 4 in our series.

Last time we discussed whether you’re a paper or an electronic gal.

This time let’s discuss size.

There are two parts to the size issue:

1. Planner size

Your planner has to be portable if you’re going to use it most effectively.

Decide on a comfortable size…FOR YOU… and stick to that. We all have different tolerance levels so play around with what works for you.

If your planner is HUGE, no matter how cute and functional it is, you’re not going to actually use it unless you have the muscles I wish I had!

I remember years ago I received a beautiful planner from a friend – leather bound, filofax-type thing. It had lots of cool sections for anything I could possibly want to organise and yet, it was just too big (nearly A4 size, which is the size of printer paper).

I think I used it for maybe two weeks max before I cracked. I just couldn’t lug that huge thing around.

This one fits into any of my gazillion handbags very easily because it is just smaller than A5 (half a printer page) but not as small as A6 (half of A5).

Size of lines (if the paper is lined)

I don’t have the biggest handwriting in the world but I do like the freedom of not having to squeeze my handwriting into tiny lines.

First of all, I don’t like to squint my eyes to read it, and secondly, I don’t want to have to focus attention on writing small – I just want to get it down on paper.

So don’t make the mistake of getting a small size if you have medium – big handwriting.

I also write with medium point gel pens and those just look better when you don’t have to squish up your handwriting.

Are you getting clearer on your vision for the perfect planner (for you)?

What size suits you best, and tell me about the size of your handwriting. Surely I’m not the only fussy one with medium handwriting?

It’s time to choose the perfect planner…for YOU. This is part 1 in a series on choosing the right planner/ diary/ agenda/ whatever you like to call it …for you.

I’ll be honest with you – the MINUTE I saw mine, I bought it. So it’s been patiently waiting for me about 2 months now.

This is the perfect planner for me – not because of its features but because I personalise my planner and make it EXACTLY how I like it. So many people (and I was one of them for many years) search high and low for the perfect planner. Well, it probably doesn’t exist.

But before we get to my personalisation, let me talk some more about how to choose a planner.

Are you a paper or electronic gal?

Why do you need to know this?

If you don’t, you might think you have to fall in love with a gadget like my organising buddy, Suzanne from Let’s Talk Organizing. Thank goodness she’s now embracing her paper side

Don’t feel pressured to use an electronic diary just to keep up with your friends or what people think you should use if you’re actually a paper gal.

I wish I’d had my camera at a meeting on Monday. Somebody asked a question and about half the people whipped out their fancy phones and started tapping away.

I love Outlook as much as the next person but I only use Outlook for time-based appointments like meetings and recurring appointments like gym (!).

I use a paper planner for the rest of my planning (about 95%). I like to physically write things down with a smooth-flowing gel pen and I love crossing things off and hearing that squish across the paper. Mmmm – lovely! It’s very satisfying for me because I’m such a tangible person.

That’s me. I embrace my paper-ness

Over to you. If you’re a techno-savvy, electronic gal, use your gadgets happily. Please just remember to back up your data regularly.

Please share – are you a paper or electronic person?