Over the course of 3 full days, I attended10 sessions, 3 networking events and even ate and drank with other organizers.  It is always amazing to be with so many people from different states and countries that all do what I do.  What is even more amazing is that we all do things differently and have different areas that we specialize in.  I learn so many incredible tips and tips in those 3 days that it usually takes me weeks to process all the information.  I learned about some great new products that you will see in my e-zine or on my products page, but the tips that I want to share with you are the ah ha moments when a speaker says just the right thing that triggers you to realize great things.

Here were the two biggies for me:

1. The brain can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality.  Keep repeating something that you want to come true and eventually, your brain will believe it. (Dr. Jo)

You can call it the power of positive thinking or the downward spiral of negative thinking, but what I realized in this statement is how often people in my life are doing one or the other.  I find myself drawn to other people that, even if not yet achieving it, are thinking and moving toward their goals.  At the same time, I find myself shying away from people who constantly ‘down’ and complaining about people or situations.  With all of life’s stressors and pulls in different directions, I will choose the positive thinking person to spend my time with.  I want to be happy and recharged and surrounding myself with people who want the same, is halfway there.

2. We cannot achieve balance.  Even if we could, it is not sustainable. The reality is that in life you are perpetually off balance, invested in each moment with a bias toward achieving something meaningful or worthwhile. Being ‘off balance’ is how you will learn, grow and improve yourself.  (Dan Thurmon)

Everyone constantly talks about balance.  The big one we always hear about is work/life balance.  I am always trying to balance spending time with my kids and being a good mom with being a good business person and serving my clients.  Dan used juggling to illustrate is that we all have multiple ‘balls’ in the air.  If you have three balls in the air (which we all have many: work, relationships, health, spirituality, etc), you have to let go of one, to catch the incoming ball.  Therefore, if you are holding on to any one thing to tightly , you are leaving no space for the ‘catch’. AND, as you add more balls, you need to toss each one even higher to give yourself time to catch and throw the next one.

My goal is to now take these tidbits and use them to make my life and my clients’ lives a little better!  Hope you can use these in your world too.

If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

I am guilty of this too.  A friend called me on a Friday and when she hadn’t heard from me by Sunday, emailed to make sure that I was OK.  I am sure that you are either guilty of this offense or have been on the receiving end of the ‘no response’.

In this day of instant messaging and access to email and text messages from our phones which we carry with us everywhere, why is it that so many people don’t respond, don’t call back and don’t RSVP. Are we too busy? Are we just rude?  OR, are we not placing high enough priority on prompt responsiveness and our personal relationships.

If we waited several days to call our mothers back, we would probably find the cops or fire department banging down our front door.  Whether personal or for business, I think we should adopt the 24 hour rule.  If you are soooo busy that you can’t find the time to call someone, then shoot them an email and arrange a time for the call.  If you have an email that requires lots of time and thought, at least send an email back telling the sender that you need a little time and will respond by____ (fill in the blank). Responding promptly will let the people in your life know that you appreciate and respect them and their time.

If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

I hope that all of you have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

I can’t think of a better time of year to purge.  The holidays are fast approaching and that always means new gifts, clothes and toys coming in via piles of gifts.   It also means house guests who may actually need to put clothes in closets that you have used for storage.   It is always much easier to purge and make space for the new, by clearing out the old, broken, worn out or no-longer-used items, then it is to try to find space for them after the fact.  And, if you have kids, it is a great way to show them the “one in, one out” rule by practicing it yourself and leading by example.

If you aren’t sure how to start your own Great Purge of 2011, I will make it easy for you.  Give each family member a paper bag or trash bag and tell them to fill it up with toys or clothes that they no longer use, they don’t love or have outgrown.  Set up a central large trash bag for all toys or clothes that are broken, missing pieces or are ripped and cannot be donated and just need to be trashed or recycled.  If you are reading this and saying that there is no way YOUR kids would willingly give away their toys, you are wrong.  Help them understand that their old toys or clothes are going to be donated to poor kids who don’t have any and I can guarantee they will find some to put in their donation bag.  Even my 3 year old filled a bag to give to our friend’s 1 year old, but it really helped her to know WHERE her toys and clothes were going.

Good luck and happy purging!

If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.<p><a href=”http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=681″>Image: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>

I recommend that you take a couple of hours to create the following four documents.  These documents will speed up your care in a health emergency and save your loved ones a series of HUGE headaches in the event of your passing.

1. Create a Professional Service Provider List of all your major professional services providers that spouse or children may need in case of emergency (Accountant, Attorney, Financial Planner, Insurance Agent).  Also, include other service providers like lawn services, snow plowing, dog walking, etc.
2. Create an Estate Map to document the location of insurance policies (auto, homeowners, life insurance), stock certificates, savings bonds, titles (home, auto, land), jewelry or other valuables.
3. Create an Account List of all your investment and bank accounts with account numbers, phone numbers and locations.
4. Create a Personal Medical Directory containing all the information on your doctors with addresses and contact information, any medications that you take regularly, drug or food allergies and surgeries.  You should attach this to your medical power of attorney and advanced directives.

Consider giving copies of these documents to your children (if they are old enough) or the person that you have chosen to be your power of attorney or executor.  If you trust them enough to handle your estate or your medical decisions, you should be able to trust them enough with these documents.  Otherwise, give a copy to your attorney to file with your will.  Just make sure your executor, kids, etc know who your attorney is!

There are the passengers.  The people that are still really outgoing and like attending all the social events, but don’t like planning them.  They are always glad that you called to invite them.  They offer to bring food or just show up with a bottle of wine. These people even appear to be drivers during an event.  They will suggest plans for a future date, but often don’t follow through.

Then there is the third category, the bike riders.  They are the ones who are perfectly content to stay home.  They are often uncomfortable in social situations and having to host an event would cause them lots of anxiety.  They may not understand the social ‘rules’ that the rest of us are following.

Whatever category you fall into, it is important to understand the other people in your life and work with them or help them break out of their comfort zones.  For us drivers, we can sometimes feel unappreciated since we go through a lot of effort.  For the bike riders, they can feel left out.  The passengers and bike riders can end up losing friendships or being resented for not doing their ‘fair share’.

Here are a few social rules that I think everyone should follow:

1. Always RSVP to an invitation.  Even if you have to tell them that you are a last minute decision because of Jimmy’s baseball schedule or a work trip, please just let the host/hostess know where you stand.  Many are planning a menu or trying to get a head count for the venue or caterer.

2.  If this is a dinner party or family event, call (or email) the host/hostess and ask what you can bring.  Many times they will say that you don’t need to bring anything, but it is nice to offer.

3. If you are asked to bring something, please LISTEN to what the host/hostess tells you.  They may have 50 people coming to the event, but that doesn’t meant that you need to bring enough brownies for 50 people.  The host probably has 5 people bringing dessert and no one wants to throw food away. Along these same lines, if you volunteer to bring chardonnay to a party, don’t bring shiraz at the last minute because you forgot.  The host may be counting on a certain number of people bringing white wine and you could throw things off.

4. Always thank the host/hostess as you leave.  If it is a large party and you can’t do that, then send them an email, leave a voicemail or write them a handwritten note thanking them and telling them what a wonderful time you had.  EVERY host or hostess wants you to have a good time at their event.

5. If there are people that you LOVE to be around, invite them over or at least initiate plans to go out to dinner every now and again.  It doesn’t have to be an elaborate dinner party.  Most people would be happy if you invited them over for a glass of wine and take out chinese.  (Personally, I am totally happy if I don’t have to cook or clean up)

Good luck and happy partying!

If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

Photo courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=681″>Image: m_bartosch

What makes this even funnier is that I never put underwear on my list. I never put it on the list the same way I never put ‘contact lenses’ on my list….they were a no brainer! What I have learned in this adventure (had to find a mall and buy some new underwear, pronto), is that with my mommy-brain in full swing there is no such thing as a no-brainer. Here is the valuable nugget that I want to pass along to all of you: Don’t depend on your brain!

Lists exist so that you can idiot proof the packing process. They exist to take the stress out of remembering what you need to do. Here is a great basic site that you plug in a little information and it will give you a packing list: http://upl.codeq.info/. My recommendation to you is that you take this basic list and add or subtract anything that you notice is missing as you pack. Save that list and then you will have a template for your next trip. This will help you avoid the embarrassment of forgetting your underwear!

If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1. Contact your IT department or computer specialist!  Hackers could have gained access to your computer and you definitely want to make sure that your computer is protected and any spyware or malware is removed.

2. If you can still access your email, change your password.  You should also change any other accounts where you used that same password.  Hackers will start going through a list of sites and try your user name and password just to see if they can gain access, especially Facebook, Twitter, Ebay, PayPal, etc.

3. If you can access your email, check the settings in the account and make sure that the hackers didn’t set up your email account to forward all incoming email to a hacker controlled email account.

4. If you can’t access your email, contact your email service provider either by phone or through their automated forms on their website to report that your account has been hacked and that you no longer have access to the account.  Your email provider can shut the account down to ensure that the hackers can no longer send any spam.

5. Talk to someone that has received the hacker spam from your account (or have them forward the email to you) and have them double click on the ‘from’ section of the email to see what email address was used to send the mail.  It may say your name, but when you double click the name you may find that the hackers have set up a ‘new’ email account in your name that they are using to send the spam.  If they have, you will also need to contact that email service provider and report that email address as well.

This is a terribly frustrating situation to find yourself involved in.  Try to be patient and thorough and make sure that you shut down the hackers as quickly and completely as possible.  Then, do your best to set up your new accounts and your computer with as many safe guards as you can.  As technology continues to improve and make our lives faster and easier, there will always be some bad guys (or gals) out there figuring out a way to mess with us.  This is just an unfortunate fact of life in the technology age.  Good luck!

If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

There is no way to 100% protect yourself against hackers and cyber crime. It seems that hackers are increasingly targeting Facebook accounts and free email accounts because there is no direct customer service and it takes quite a bit of time to realize something has been hacked, submit the online forms to report the hack and have them shut down the accounts. This process gives the hackers plenty of time to do what they want with your contacts while posing as you.

Here are the tips that we learned this past week to improve your protection. You may already be doing many of these, but please double check my list and be sure.

• Do NOT have the same password for your email and Facebook accounts.
• Change your passwords often.
• Make your passwords a random combination of letter and numbers or use a phrase. Include symbols, capital letters and numbers to make it harder to duplicate.
• Make sure you have good anti-virus software on your computer and make sure it is set for regular scans and updates to that it will protect you from the latest threats.
• Hackers can also infect your computer with ‘key logger’ programs that will allow them to track your keystrokes and get your passwords. Consider downloading a malware detection program to check for key loggers.
• Don’t use real answers to your security questions. It is much easier for a hacker to find out your real answers.
• Back up your contacts in a physical file (like a .csv file saved on disk or elsewhere on your computer) so that if your online account gets hacked, you won’t have to rebuild your database.
• Make sure you empty your email trash and sent items folder often.

These criminals are constantly changing the ways in which they target victims, so we can all just help each other stay on top of the latest and greatest ways to protect ourselves.

If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com . Photo is courtesy of Keerati & www.freedigitalphotos.net