No more ink cartridges

The end is in sight!
No more $50 ink cartridges.
No more plastic wasteful leftover cartridges to recycle.
Check out Zink - and zink paper - all the color is embedded IN the paper!
http://www.zink.com/how-ZINK-works

The price will no doubt be incredibly high to begin.
But I spend at least $600 a year on ink!!!
This is sooooo awesome.
I love technology.

Read more about the soon-to-be portable printer that is wireless and uses Zink.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/09/29/dell.ultra.small.printer/

-- Allison

Do Organizing Tips Work?

My favorite procrastination expert writes a blog for Psychology Today. Tim Pychyl's recent entry gave me a full buffet of food for thought about whether organizing tips are really what people need.

He says yes, and...
Tips are only good if they are put into action
and
The type of tip counts. It has got to be a tip worth following to make a difference.

Read more about it

http://tinyurl.com/42wcsr

Pink - It's the little things in life

Sometimes it's the little splashes of color that make organizing fun.

Now you can add some brightness to ordinary filing and help a cause. Pink folders and boxes and hanging files are available now at your local office supply store. (I got mine at Office Max - new NAPO Associate Member). It cheers me up to see pink and know I'm helping out.

Thank you Pendaflex for the nice design and adding the bonus: pink paper clip thingies.

Creativity & ADD

During my radio interview today with Laura West of Joyful Business, we were discussing the similarities in positive traits for creative entrepreneurs and people with ADD. I think I love working so much with ADD people because ADDers tend to have the same natural tendencies as creative people and may in fact BE creative people.

Some of the traits are:
highly enthusiastic
energetic
goal oriented
good at trouble-shooting
thrive on experiencing a greater variety of what life has to offer
good when directions aren't included
intuitive
exceptional with computers because computers don't come with instructions and the results are immediate.
They are creative and they are explorers.
(From borntoexplore.com)

With all these positive traits, how did ADD come to be called a disorder?
It should be a benefit, right??

Creative people and ADDers both know that for all the positive, there are also some traits that make it difficult to march to the beat of everyone else's drummer.

impulsiveness
restlessness
daydreaming
losing things
talking excessively
often interrupting others
often shifting activity from one uncompleted activity to another

There is and has been some research around ADD as an evolutionary phenomenon.
"Modern theories of evolution embrace the concept of selective pressures on populations rather than individuals. A trait that may be bad for an individual might be good for the population overall. For example, some individuals who are ADD will become criminals, but if a few brilliant ADD inventors change the course of history and increase the fitness of the population, the ADD genes will be favored."
-- From Borntoexplore.com

- So are we producing a population with more ADDers so that our population can be more innovative in the long run?

Whether this is true or not, i like to think of creatives and ADDers as super-abled like a superhero who has special powers to think and link and explore, to do "other stuff' than the rest of the average population. What stuff may come is to be seen.

Read more about the evolutionary theory and more about the positive side of ADD at http://www.borntoexplore.com

Hanger mess

Hanger mess
Originally uploaded by gaorganizer

Got a crazy hanger mess?
Get it together without spending a ton of money.
BE CREATIVE!
Try this DIY project using a simple box and box cutters.
Keep the box in your closet to store unused hangers.

This means more room in your closet so clothes don't get squashed.

100 LESS THINGS - Sept 22

Monday September 22 begins the countdown - 100 days until the new year.
How is your de-cluttering goal coming along so far?

If you aren't where you want to be or just want more motivation to clear out some debris and sludge from your life, try this playful exercise.

Delete one item from your life every day through December 31.

It can be a slip of paper or an old vase you haven't used in years.
Toss, recycle, or donate one thing every day.
And in 100 days, you will have 100 less things.

As you de-clutter - you can leave comments here to tell us all what you have purged.
You can even take photos and send them and I'll post them.
Send to organizer@theprofessionalorganizer.com
-- Allison

Stuck

Do you have so many ideas you don't know where to start?
Or are you staring at a blank page having trouble getting the first words on paper?

The trick to getting un-stuck is to start.
Start with anything.
Start writing about something you don't even intend to write about. Write about your cup of coffee.
Start painting anything. Paint your cup of coffee.
Start organizing something. Organize your coffee mugs.
When you take action, any action, it leads to inspiration.

Action comes before inspiration. (Thank you SARK for that juicy tidbit).

So if you're staring at a blank computer screen or a stack of papers to sift through, just start doing anything and the inspiration will begin to flow after a few minutes.
You'll see.
You know you're creative. It's just a matter of getting the juices flowing and the bubbles percolating again.

If you're worried about doing "it" right, forget perfect. There is no such thing and you know it.
But that is for another post.