It’s June, and the frenetic run to the end of the school year - COVID or not - can be a bit exhausting. Summer is coming which brings later mornings, less structure, and that urgent sense that we should all be planning wonderful things to do to enjoy it... As a result, my motivation has waned a bit, and I’ve kind of been beating myself up about it.
Talkin' Bout My Generation...
When it comes to being productive, managing my time, and getting things done, I’m a proud Gen Xer, and I’m a digital / analog hybrid. Nothin’ wrong with it.
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April Newsletter - Hello Spring Cleaning!
The concept of spring cleaning never gets old and gives us all a chance to reset. Decluttering is often a big part of that. One of the biggest hurdles many face when doing this is first letting go of things, and then figuring out what to do with the things you decide to part with. Read on for some of my decluttering tips in this month's newsletter.
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Anne's Untitled Newsletter Project!
Nobody’s Perfect...
Like many of you I’m sure, the start of the year has me craving for a refresh. It should come as no surprise that for me, that usually involves organizing stuff. If you follow me on social media, you’ve seen some of my pictures. I’m a professional organizer, but I’m also a human being with a family and a life, and nothing stays fully organized. Yes, even I have to organize and periodically re-organize stuff. Life is fluid and so are your spaces.
In the kitchen, I re-organized the ‘tea and packet’ drawer to accommodate accessories for the new air fryer.
Read MoreExpert Organizing Tips for a Tidy Home in 2021
In 2020, many of us used our homes like we never had before. We converted them into home offices, schools for our children, gyms, and much more. Unfortunately, with all these activities going on inside one space, keeping our homes tidy may have become quite the challenge.
So while we continue to spend much of our time inside until things get back to normal, it’s important we declutter our homes and start the new year fresh.
Read More8 Things to Do the Last Week of the Year
The slightly slower week between Christmas and New Year’s offers an opportunity to do a few things we rarely take the time for while life is still moving a bit slower. Things to help you get organized, simplify, and get more productive.
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Step1Organizing's Clutter-Free Gift Ideas 2020
You want less clutter in your life. So do your friends and family! Here is a list of clutter-free gift ideas to help you all achieve that goal. A couple of them actually take clutter away…
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How Mindfulness Can Make You More Productive
Mindfulness is about being present in the present. The practical application of this concept can improve everything from a massive work project to getting the laundry done. Using this idea can allow you to harness your time, energy, and attention, which will allow you to get more done with less stress. Here are some of the ways that mindfulness and productivity techniques intersect and how you can apply them.
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Create Space & Systems, Increase Productivity
Your time, energy, and attention should be dedicated to your passion, to using your unique abilities to serve yourself, your clients, your family.
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You Need A Password Manager
I run three different businesses. Four, if you include my household, of which I am the CEO, CFO, procurement manager, head of human resources, janitorial staff manager, and head maintenance engineer. It means I wear a lot of hats. It also means I have nearly 700 logins & passwords to remember.
Let that sink in. 700 passwords. That said, the majority of them are long, with capitals, numerals, symbols and all those things we know make them secure. I must have incredible brain capacity, right? No, what I have is a password manager. Maybe you’ve got your passwords noted in a little book, a spreadsheet, or you simply use the same password everywhere. (DON’T. DO. THAT.) We all know this is flawed and unsafe, but our minds can’t handle all that info. And let’s not forget those rabbit holes you go down when you have to reset one. Click the link, check for a text, create a new password… and then try to figure out what you were trying to log into in the first place. A major blow to your productivity. A password manager solves this for you and more.
So...what’s a Password Manager?
A password manager is an encrypted vault where all your passwords are stored safely and can be retrieved easily. Logging into Instagram? Your kid’s school portal? Your company SAP account or that weird subscription service you did a free trial of three years ago and now want to cancel? Maybe you do have a nice long, secure and kooky one for Google, Facebook, or Paypal...how do you remember it? A password manager will eliminate the irritation of finding, remembering, or resetting passwords. Most do even more for you than that, and once you have one, you’ll wonder how you ever survived.
There are many on the market. You can see full reviews of them and their various features here. They are all comparable, but I’m a devotee of Dashlane, and the features I describe below all apply its features, some of which are premium features.
8 Reasons to Use a Password Manager
It will create complicated passwords for you.
It will automatically save any new passwords you make on a website.
Two Words: Auto-Fill. This will change your life. Any website you go to, it will auto-fill the login & password, and usually get you logged in. If you set it up, it will automatically fill in your address, credit card info, date of birth...all those things we are always having to find and put in.
It will sync your passwords across all your devices. So when your teenager texts you from the sleepover asking for the Netflix password, and you’re out on date night, you can call it up on your phone and send it to her in seconds. It works on all browsers and mobile devices.
If you still want that safe piece of paper, you can export the whole crazy list into a spreadsheet. I do this about once a year or so, and put it in the safe.
It protects you with friendly alerts about weak, re-used or compromised passwords.
Alerts you to data breaches at websites you use, and encourages you to change the password.
When you set up the app, it imports existing passwords that you may have saved into your browser etc. And as you login to different sites, it will ask you if you’d like it to save it. Boom. You can start forgetting passwords.
Dashlane has some additional premium features that make it an even more valuable tool.
Dark web monitoring of your email addresses for breaches.
Share passwords securely with others
VPN for Wifi Protection for when you are at the coffee shop on unsecured networks)
Credit monitoring
Identity restoration support
Identity Theft Insurance
I know what you’re saying. Hello, identity theft! Why would I put all my passwords in one place? A fair question. Nothing is 100% secure. As these companies' entire business is about security, they have taken all the right steps to ensure your information is safe. There are numerous features that make password managers extremely secure. First of all, you create a master password to access the vault, and it is recorded nowhere. You are the only one who knows it, it cannot be retrieved in any way. On your mobile devices, the app is secured with the password or biometrics (fingerprint/face ID)
According to Cybernews.com,
“Both free and premium password managers use military-grade encryption and zero-knowledge architecture. This means that there’s no way to decipher your database even if someone breaks into it. The provider also doesn’t have a key to unlock your data. That’s why it all comes down to using a proper master password, 2FA, and keeping your devices malware-free.”
The above referenced article goes into great detail -- I highly recommend it if you are super concerned. They also have detailed reviews of various managers here. But if it’s good enough encryption for the military, it’s good enough for me.
So the next time you are waiting for that password reset email, download a password manager app and save yourself a lot of time. Or just keep using Password1234 and hope for the best.
How a Puzzle Can Help You with Your Pantry
…Step-by-step, you take the chaos that was that box of cut-up cardboard, and create a work of art.
Read MoreWhat Should I Do With This...?
It bothers her because it’s taking up space. It bothers her because it’s probably getting dirty and dinged up by garage stuff. It bothers her because it’s a useful item not being used. So out comes the question “What should I do with it?”
Read MoreHe Noticed!
As the manager of a family of four, a house, a yard, two businesses and a labradoodle, I create order for my own sanity…But one rarely gets feedback.
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Go Small in February - Week 3- Tupperware Party!
Here is a fact that I’d wager money on: You have too many storage containers. You have round ones, square ones, plastic ones, glass ones, tiny ones, take-out ones, reused cold cut ones. Maybe some of you are even saving you old butter tubs and yogurt cups. It’s ok, I understand. It’s important to reuse & recycle, but not if you are struggling to store them and their cursed mismatched lids. Trust me, you have too many. Let's work on this.
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Go Small in February – This Week: The Junk Drawer
Last week we embarked on a mission to help you get organized by starting small. With your new year’s resolutions in some state of success or failure already, I want to help you get some small wins. Organizing can happen in small bits over time – just like the best weight programs.
Here’s this week’s project: The Junk Drawer. Everybody has one, and that’s perfectly fine. Here’s how to make it functional in just a few minutes:
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It's February - Let's go Small!
January is behind you now, and February launches with Groundhog Day. When it comes to organizing, if you feel like you keep doing the same thing over and over again, let’s make this the month to change that... Let’s try something new this month. Let’s not go big. Let’s go small.
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Where will you put if for the rest of the year???
But it's Not Even Halloween Yet!
During this season, your time is so precious - the world is making demands on you to embrace all the joys of Christmas. But a lot of us are quietly wishing 12/25 would get here quick so you can have a day off. With nothing left to go to, nothing left to shop for, nothing but time with your family -- the thing most of us really love about the holidays.
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Paper Clutter Part 3 - Rethinking Your Long-Term Filing
You may not realize that there are a lot of different ways to file paper... If your files are bursting and you find that once a year or so you have to spend hours cleaning it out, maybe it’s time to re-think your system.
Read MorePaper Clutter Part 2 - Creating an 'Action Station'
Paper comes in through the mailbox, from your kids backpack, from work, the HOA, all kinds of places. Create an action station to help you stay on top of it. That location – be it the kitchen, the foyer, or your home office, should be a place it is both convenient to ‘dump’ stuff, and also a place where it
won’t get forgotten. Sorting that file will help you stay on top of your business.
Read MorePaper Clutter Part 1 - Bar the Gate!
Even in this digital age, paper has an incredible way of taking over our lives. Without proper maintenance your paper and digital stuff will overwhelm you. So let’s work on this this month.
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