From the Desk of Janet Barclay

Maybe it’s the time of year, but professional organizers seem to be getting even more press than usual lately!

If you subscribe to my ezine, you already know that one of my articles, Why Can’t I Get Organized?, was published in the January issue of Hamilton Chamber of Commerce’s Panorama magazine, and my Personal Document Retention Guide appears in the March issue of Canadian House & Home.

My friend and colleague, Elinor Warkentin of Goodbye Clutter!, appeared on CBC Television’s Living Vancouver on February 1st, which can be viewed online, and Geralin Thomas of Metropolitan Organizing can be seen in a vidcast on Clever Parents.

You can find out about more organizers in the news by visiting the Professional Organizers in Canada website. What an exciting time to be involved in this growing field!

One of my ezine subscribers told me that Fabio offers advice on avoiding deadline disasters and other topics at The Kitchen of Love. Just click on the recipe card and select "Office Etiquette."

It had to happen sooner or later. We finally got a big snowstorm, our first of the season. In fact, we received more snow in the last 24 hours than we’ve had all winter. Needless to say, the city ground to a crashing halt. Schools, libraries, and many other places closed for the day, and city officials asked for as many people as possible to please stay home until they get the streets cleaned up. Here’s a picture taken from my office window this morning:

As a government employee, I hated these days, as we were expected to report to work as usual - except for those who lived in "outlying areas." Otherwise you would be counted as absent.

If I still worked in the school system, I would have had today off, but without pay.

Now that I work from home, the weather isn’t really an issue for me. Sure, my networking breakfast was cancelled, but that just gave me more time to get work done. No worries about going out in the snow, no loss of income… it doesn’t get much better than this!

I get spam, lots of it - who doesn’t? I use Outlook 2003, which has a fairly decent junk mail filter, but I always have to check the Junk Mail folder in case something went in there which shouldn’t have. I got one the other day which almost looked interesting, until I looked at it closely:

Subject: Affiliate Proposal Request for organizedassistant.com 

My name is XXXXX and I am the marketing director for the newly launched website XXXXX.  Our site is quickly becoming recognized as the premier internet destination for buying and selling established websites and domain names.

After reviewing your site I would like to personally invite you to join our newly developed affiliate program.  As a specially invited guest to our program we are offering a generous 25% commission on every referred sale.  Additionally we will also provide a 5% comission for any sub-affiliate sales that are generated through your referral.

It then went on to explain the details of the program in detail. I have to admit that the words which I’ve bolded actually managed to attract my attention. Then I had a closer look and noticed that the email was addressed to Info and started out Dear organizedassistant.com, and I rarely answer to either of those names.

So the lesson here, if you’re planning on sending any unsolicited offers like this, is to at least take the time to visit the website and get the name of the appropriate person! Could you make it any more obvious that you just scooped my email address off a website, maybe not even mine?

I’ve just learned about a really cool tool to help organize computer files. Called Folder Marker, it allows you to change your folder icons from standard yellow to your choice of a variety of dark or light colours. Even better, it lets you assign specific icons to indicate priority (high, normal, or low), project status (approved, pending, or rejected) and work progress (planned, half-done, done).

The program is available in three versions, including a free version for home use. I haven’t downloaded it, as I think I have a pretty good handle on my computer files, but I can see how it would be valuable for a lot of people.

I owe thanks to Pam Ivey of Visual Persuasions for letting me know about this software, and to Tana Woodward of Tana Woodward & Associates for posting the question on the Canadian Virtual Assistant Connection forum.