From the Desk of Janet Barclay

I arrived home at 8:30 last night and was in my office bright and early this morning. At least the sun was bright, I am still a little slow, after two long days on the road. In the future I will need to remember to book one more day off at the end of a trip.

I decided to take my laptop, and was glad I did. One of my current projects is the redesign of a website for my favourite client, who happens to also be my sister, with whom I was vacationing. Having the computer allowed us to spend a morning going over and trying out some of our ideas in a way that would have been more complicated via email, telephone, or instant messenger. I’m happy to say this is the only work I did and I didn’t check my email, even on the two occasions when I was in a place with Internet access. However, bringing my laptop along also allowed me to download my digital photos from my camera every day or two and share them with my family members, and to keep a personal journal throughout the week.

While I was away, I was quoted in The Globe and Mail in an article entitled Too busy organizing to be productive.

This should be an interesting week, as I catch up on emails and work and prepare for a busy month ahead.

There was a good article in the Star Tribune this past weekend entitled A Clutter-Free Workplace. 

It’s not the first time I’ve been quoted in an article, but I always get a kick out of it. Not only is it a good ego boost and some free publicity, professional writers have a way of taking what I’ve said and making it sound so profound.

The other expert quoted in the article is Don Aslett, who has written a number of books about clutter and related topics for both home and work, which are available through his website as well as at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. He also offers a number of free resources through his site, including a Google group for packrats, so check it out!

I have known about this for quite a while, and finally I have the green light to share some big news with you!

OnlineOrganizing.com has selected ME as their expert on organizing with technology! After their new blog is launched on October 6th, I’ll be writing there every Thursday about either organizing electronic information, or using technology to organize some aspect of your business or personal life.

This means I’ll be writing for four blogs, including Introvert Retreat and my recently launched OrganizedArticles.com. By the way, I am always looking for articles for OrganizedArticles.com, so if you’ve written something related to productivity, time management or organization, please send it to me! (Don’t forget to check the submission guidelines.)

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember reading about the problems I was having with my Article Dashboard site. It has taken a while, but with the help of my assistant, Sylvie, I’m happy to announce that OrganizedArticles.com has now been converted to a blog. It will be easy for me to maintain and easier for you to find the information you’re looking for, because it’s no longer restricted to one category per article. Although you can no longer submit your articles online, I am still very happy to receive them by email, and will post any that meet the submission guidelines. In fact, the majority of articles on OrganizedArticles.com were written by other people, including well-known authors such as Barbara Hemphill, Donald Wetmore, and Maria Gracia.

I do make a practice of posting one of my own original articles each month, and subscribers to my ezine, The Organized Assistant Resource, have the benefit of reading those articles before they are published online. This month’s issue will be sent out on Wednesday, August 29th, so if you’re not yet a subscriber, this is an ideal time to sign up on my website.

Since OrganizedArticles.com is now my primary blog related to organizing, I’m moving other organizing blogs from my blogroll here to the new site. I will of course still be posting organizing tips here, along with other business tips and insights.

Last year I delivered a presentation to several groups called "Organizing Your Life, Your Way," which was an overview of personality type, how it affects the way you deal with time and space, and the importance of developing organizing and time management strategies that work in harmony with your personality type preferences. It must have been successful, because two of those groups have invited me to speak again this fall.

On October 10, 2007, I’ll be sharing tips on "Organizing and Your Computer" with the Society of Management Accountants of Ontario (CMA Ontario) at the Burlington Holiday Inn. This is a networking and dinner event. I assume that guests are welcome, as they were last year, but I don’t have specific details at this time. If you are interested in receiving more information, please leave me a note and I will be sure to find out what you need to know.

On November 15, 2007, I’ll be giving my popular presentation "Getting Organized… Once and for All!" to the Hamilton Branch of the Association of Administrative Assistants. Members get together every month at the Scottish Rite Club in Hamilton, where they network with their professional peers at 5:30, followed by an amazing dinner at 6:00, and a guest speaker. I was very impressed with the meeting I attended last year, and am looking forward to joining this group again. Guests are welcome, but must register in advance.