WOF: Marcia,
how did you get to be so organized?
MARCIA: I tell the story
in Simplify Your Life; I was a professional
and came from the working world at home with
three children under the age of 6. One Sunday
I was standing in my kitchen and exclaimed, “Somebody’s
got to get organized!” I looked
at my children and said, “I guess that
would be me.” That was 21 years
ago. I started to read everything on
organization and found that it was written
for men who sat at a desk all day. At that
point I started to write my own material to
get my own life in order. I’ve
been teaching it ever since.
WOF:
What does a professional organizer do, exactly?
MARCIA: Professional
organizers meet with clients either in their
home or office to create order and systems
that make life easy. I’m a member of
the National Association of Professional Organizers;
there are about 2,000 of us around country
doing this. It began in the mid-80s but it
has snowballed and skyrocketed since. You
can hire a professional organizer for anywhere
from 3 hours to a full day. They’ll
take look at your things and put together a
system to make it work for you.
WOF:
Have the ‘organizing shows’ on
television had an affect on
what you do?
MARCIA: That’s helped
people become aware of what’s normal
and what they can get improved. It’s
a need-based industry. I find that people are
really not disorganized; their lives just escalate
so that what worked before doesn’t work
now.
WOF: How
do you become a professional organizer?
MARCIA: There are three
parts to the business: 1/3 is organizing, 1/3
is running a business, and 1/3 is marketing
yourself. The best way to market is to take
before and after pictures of the organizing
you’ve done for different family members
and friends, enlarge them, and put them in
a portfolio and on the Web. And attend
national conferences. Right now there is not
a degree but in April there will be a certification
available.
WOF: What
do you find is the most common reason people
call you for help? Why ARE we all so
disorganized?
MARCIA: Too much to
do and too little time. It’s said that
we have 200 inputs a day and our brain can
only hold 7 at a time. We’re reeling
from email, phone calls, decisions, work load ― everything
bombards us from different areas all at once.
You just feel like your life is not your own.
The Internet and email have really contributed;
we feel like we have to answer email almost
immediately and it puts a lot of pressure on
people to get anything else finished. Turning
on the computer first thing in the morning
and turning it off last thing at night is getting
us distracted; it makes it hard to focus on
anything else.
The best time to make a change is when you’re
in crisis or feel you have a crisis and want
to change your life.
WOF: Really? That
seems like it would be a bad time to try to
change!
MARCIA: In a crisis people
sort out their priorities real fast – sometimes
that’s the best time because you suddenly
know what’s important. Those papers you
didn’t file ― suddenly you need
those papers. You need a paper system, an email
system . . . I’m all about setting up
systems to balance your daily life and live
your day with ease.
Here’s
a motto for you: Keep what is working,
change what is frustrating. That way
you don’t become a perfectionist but
instead work on things that are not working
well for you.
WOF: How
important is it, really, to be organized in
our lives?
What’s the payoff?
MARCIA: The
faster the pace of your life, the more you
need organization. It allows you to go faster
and move through life more rapidly. It helps
you accomplish so much more than you would
have disorganized.
I remember having my twin aunts come to visit
and I said, “You’ve both worked
in offices for 30 years, what can I do to help
this?” (I had mail and papers stacked
up on my kitchen counter.) They said ‘you
need to get rid of this, stack this, toss this…’ I
worked for three months to get it organized.
I thought, No one told me that it’s
easier to live organized than disorganized. People
think “Oh, I’m trying to look good
for other people, it doesn’t benefit
me.” It DOES benefit you.
WOF: What’s
the hardest part of getting organized?
MARCIA: Focusing on one
aspect. Let’s say I’m stressed
at work: I’m thinking, I’m
spending too much time on little things, I
have too much paperwork, I don’t ever
get to the larger projects. What do I do? Focus
on one aspect and you’ll multiply the
time you save. You can’t fix everything
at once. If you just take time, for example,
to set up a binder to fix disorganized staff
meetings, you’ll feel calm and like ‘whew,
I’ve found this part”.
Another important one is to set time boundaries. In
the book on Day 4 I talk about setting computer
boundaries. I even have a computer Sabbath
for 24 hours every weekend. I think everyone
should turn off their computer one day a week
and I think it should sleep 8 hours every night.
It’s a little thing but it gives you
boundaries so you’re not getting inundated.
Every victory counts toward your overall goal
of successfully getting organized. If you take
two minutes to clean your desk before you leave
for lunch and before you leave for the day,
cheer!
WOF: One
of your corporate clients is the US Navy? Can
you tell us what you do/did for them? (If you
tell us, will you have to kill us?)
MARCIA: I was in
a Bible study and one lady was in the Navy.
She said, “Can
you come speak to the Women’s Federal
Program.” Sure, I’ll try anything
once. I was amazed ― they were women
just like us; they needed to balance family,
home, work. In the last 10 months I’ve
even flown to Japan and Korea and spoken to
military wives. You’d think they’d
be organized since they move so much but you
can carry clutter with you anywhere in the
world.
WOF: You
don’t have to tell us everything on your
Five-Year Calendar, but what do you have planned
in the near future?
MARCIA: My
husband and I are moving to Dallas April 1.
In March I’m
taking my first trip to Israel. . .
WOF: Are
you going to organize the Middle East?
MARCIA: No, I’m
just taking a tour. My new book, Simplify Your
Space, comes out in September 2007. And
my Simplify Your Life Conferences begin in
the fall across the country.
WOF: What
are your top 3 tips for the hopelessly disorganized? Give
us something to start on while we’re
waiting for your book to arrive in the mail.
MARCIA: Here’s
one for the hopelessly disorganized: make
your bed and make your day. It takes 90 seconds
to make your bed and it makes your room 60%
clean. A minute and a half gets you 16 hours
of order.
Two: The
2-minute pickup: before you leave, turn around and put everything away
as fast as you can. That way you always come back to clean surfaces.
Three:
keep the front 2/3 of every countertop empty.
This gives you a clear line of sight when you
walk into the kitchen. In the office keep the
front 2/3 of your desk empty. It will help
you accomplish more in less time.
Time
Tips: Learn to live your half hour well.
On the hour and half hour ask yourself, What
one thing am I going to accomplish well in
the next half hour? I’ll live
a great life if I live my half hours well.
Write
three personal goals at the top of your monthly calendar. They can be anything ― buy
a new outfit, clean out old tax files, sign up for the gym, organize a file
folder for receipts ― if you do 3 things a month you’ll accomplish
36 goals a year. That will make your life easier. You’ll sail
through life ― it’s just wonderful.
WOF: We
see that one of your strategies is to “strive
for five” contacts with friends weekly. Did
a certain unnamed cell phone company get that “5” idea
from you?
MARCIA: No, but it’s
very similar! I visited my daughter at
Wheaton College and a professor there had the
education majors meeting with at-risk high
school students every week. They spent an hour
with them doing their home work and talking.
The professor told me that studies have shown
if at-risk teens (or woman) have five adults
regularly in their life they are more likely
to succeed. I think it is so important because
women have become so isolated with their jobs
and family – they have nobody to open
up to. Maybe the phone company also read that
study! I encourage women to write down the
five closest friends that they are in contact
with every week and treat those people well.
Stay in touch with them ― they are your
network that keeps you afloat.
WOF: How
do you write a book for people who don’t
have time to read a book?
MARCIA: I had to write really
short chapters so a person could read one short
chapter every day and get everything they need
to know to get more time in their life. I designed
each chapter to begin with a story, a quote,
and a time management principle that you could
apply so your life would feel less stressed
immediately. Also, there are 101 time-saving
tips scattered throughout the book. If you
can’t read a chapter you can at least
read the tips!
I have 30 days of timesavers that will change
your life. I get letters all the time from
women who say, Wow, I didn’t know
this! I‘m finding more time, I’m
getting this done, it feels wonderful.
To
sign up for Marcia’s monthly e-newsletter,
containing short tips to help you gain control
of your time (and “not let it slip out
to the next highest bidder”), visit her
Web site at organizingpro.com.
For more information about professional organizers,
see the National Association of Professional
Organizers at napo.net. |