Time to plan out the next quarter of your work? Learn more about the Friday Workbox® Planning Day in this orientation replay.

Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

Time to your work? Learn more about the Friday Workbox® in this orientation replay.

Watch the video version and download the syllabus here: https://organize365.com/orientation

This week, we are continuing to look at the different kinds of work. Having labels for things like types of work allows us to see things differently and sometimes leads to better communication. 

Prior to founding Organize 365, my entire life was reactive. Everyone else got to tell me what to do - the economy, my family, my stuff. I just kept reacting to what was happening in my environment. In 2011, I drew a line in the sand. Sink or swim, I am in charge of my life from here on out. I started by taking care of my home and began proactively attacking my life. Unless you actively decide to do planned work and work to create a life where the majority of your work is planned, you will remain in firefighting mode and continue to be reactive.

Until I read The Phoenix Project, I did not even have a mindset for types of work like this. I did not realize the two other kinds of work we are talking about today were a thing that existed. Last week, we explored proactive and reactive types of work. Today, we add in maintenance and change orders. 

Work: Maintenance - maintenance is the repeating tasks that result in the care and upkeep of your home and life. Many people ask Organize 365 for a cleaning checklist or a home maintenance checklist. There are tons of them on Pinterest. However, if you are using the internet for a list consider how often you need to do the tasks. Are you sure everything you are doing on your checklist needs to be done (at all) or needs to be done as often as you are doing it? 

Your standard and comfort level is unique to you. Maintain at the level at which you want to maintain your home. Make a list of the tasks you want to be done - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly timeline. Make sure that the frequency you assign each task matches with the home you want to have. 

Work: Change Orders - anytime things change, it creates work. When a person, assignment, or locations changes, you need to think through the new situation, and you need to do the work to make the change happen. Change is part of life - try not to add a lot of drama. Pivot, adjust, and keep making progress. Often, these kinds of change orders are reactive.

Tip! With meetings, book 5-30 minutes after them for your change order work meeting. Follow up as immediately as possible - adjust the agenda (maintenance), and then get your to do items into your Sunday Basket or Friday Box, make decisions, give approvals, or adjust deadlines. At home, you may need to adjust to new dietary requirements or adjust for your energy level or adjust to someone else (sick kid, spouse stuck late at work, etc.). 

I have learned to proactively adjust my plans based on my energy levels. As I analyze my own patterns, I have learned that I need to have a certain kind of energy in order to be effective at content creation - writing books or recording podcasts. Other kinds of work I can do no matter what my energy level is at a given moment. I adjust my schedule each evening for the next day based on my energy level. 

I am giving you permission to make your own maintenance checklists and your own change orders. Just because we have work to do in our own homes, does not mean that we need to do it at a certain time or in a certain order or on a certain day. I give you permission to loosen the standards you have set for yourself that are so high. They may be robbing you of your joy. Do what is right for you. Try it without worrying. There is no failure, it is just an experiment.

I have recently been enjoying parable based books to learn new things and to gain confidence that my own analysis and plans are “right” in the world of business. Reading a fictionalized version of important information helps me to apply learning and see nuances rather than just read dry facts. Recently, I listened to The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim and learned how they describe four different kinds of work. 

In this podcast, I will introduce you to the first two kinds of work. I then also share my thinking about how these kinds of work are also present in our home and household lives. By thinking about these kinds of work, we can get better work patterns and be more effective in the work we do. 

Constraints - constraints are limits that are difficult or impossible to change - in this episode, I give examples of time, money, and space. When we do not have enough of these things, it can be a limit on our organization and productivity, and changing our situation can require a major effort.

Bottlenecks - are problems that can be analyzed and solved - in this episode, I give examples of time, money, and space. I explain how we are not using what we have effectively. It is vital to discern whether you are facing a constraint or a bottleneck - many times there are effective changes you can make.

Work: Firefighting - reactive work that has deadlines, stress, or feels like a crisis. This work shows up unexpectedly and causes us to pivot, iterate, and adapt rapidly. In the home, the Sunday Basket® contains and then puts out fires. Firefighting is reactive by its very nature.

Work: Planned Work - Planned work is proactive. When you plan your work, you use your time, money, and space more effectively. Organize 365 members accomplish large goals without stress, overwork, or being hurried. The 100 Day Home Organization Program focuses on planned work. Each day is planned out for you and you make progress in 15 minute chunks.

Try it! For the next 10 days, every evening I want you to write out your plan for the next day in the order you will accomplish your tasks on a notecard. Write down your appointments, any household tasks you need to accomplish (pick up a prescription or clean the oven or do laundry). When you write out a plan for your day in order, you can see if you days are smoother. Bonus: the evening before, also add to the index card what clothing you will wear and write down what you will eat. Spoiler alert - there are no perfect days and no perfect plans! The goal is to move from reactive to proactive. You can learn more about using notecards in Episode 310: Ditch Your To Do List with Notecards.

Listen in next week for the other two kinds of work!

Books mentioned in this episode (affiliate links):

Traction - Gino Wickman  Lisa’s YouTube Review

Get a Grip - Gino Wickman and Mike Paton 

The Phoenix Project - Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford

The Goal - Eliyahu Goldratt

In this podcast series, I will be diving into organizing the business of work. I will be taking you along with me for a workweek that I recorded in November 2021.

At Organize 365®, we divide our work into four categories. As a shortcut, we use the Friday Workbox® colors to categorize the different kinds of work. These colors are pink, purple, blue, and green. 

Creating a shared vocabulary and defining different kinds of work gets all of our team on the same page. Together, we move faster in the same direction and have fewer episodes of miscommunication. 

Today is Thursday - It is an all pink day for me.

It is important to both work in and on your business. Working on your business means taking time for your personal development, your growth, your mindset, your skillset, and thinking about where you’re headed in the future.

You need days like this when you can step back to work on yourself and dream for your business. 

On Thursdays, I usually focus on myself. I spend time raising my lid so I can lead Organize 365® and the dream team to the next level. I use these days for coaching programs, conferences, webinars, podcasts, and books. Instead of joining a coaching program right now, I’ve instead joined a couple of round tables for C-level executives and for business owners in the Cincinnati area. 

I have been spending my Thursday mornings meeting with other members of these round tables. On Thursday afternoons, I’ll often do things that I personally need to do like doctor’s appointments or clothes shopping. No one expects me in the office on Thursdays and I can do whatever I want!

In this podcast, I will take you along and talk to you at different times during my workday. I’ll share with you who I’m meeting with today, how I got a rare lunch with my husband, and how I handled some unexpected changes to my schedule.

What activities and resources are you using for your pink days to work on yourself and on your business?

In this podcast series, I will be diving into organizing the business of work. I will be taking you along with me for a workweek that I recorded in November 2021.

At Organize 365®, we divide our work into four categories. As a shortcut, we use the Friday Workbox® colors to categorize the different kinds of work. These colors are pink, purple, blue, and green. 

Creating a shared vocabulary and defining different kinds of work gets all of our team on the same page. Together, we move faster in the same direction and have fewer episodes of miscommunication. 

Today is Wednesday - it is a mix of purple and blue work.

Wednesday tends to have some departmental meetings and I use the rest of my time to focus on some purple work to meet end-of-year deadlines.

In this podcast, I will take you along and talk to you at different times during my workday. 

Part of what I share is some different productivity habits I have slowly added in over the past 30 years that help me to be more effective and get so much done. 

Listen in and I’ll share about my meetings with Amy, Mary, and Sue. I also share some of the details of how Organize 365® functions, how I make decisions, and how I go through my workday.

Sometimes, you need to do a whole bunch of different kinds of work on the same day. In many ways, Wednesday is a rainbow day for me. 

What systems or tools do you use to keep your work organized during a rainbow day?

Today is Tuesday, and this is a blue day. This is my most structured day of the workweek. It is meeting day.

Organize 365® is 10 years old, and we were a 2 million dollar company in 2021. We have 20 team members:14 in the office and several remote contractors. We also work with outside vendors and support companies.

I will be in meetings all day with the team. I’ll be working in the business.

How Organize 365® Keeps Meetings Productive

I have created the most productive way of communicating with the team with a weekly check-in to make sure we are on the same page. Communication is the number one obstacle to growth inside of a profitable company.

At Organize 365®, we have shared meeting agendas in Google Docs for every single scheduled meeting (and for some of our major projects). I put my own thoughts, questions, and ideas at the top. The team enters their questions for me in the next section for things that need approval, a budget, a signed contract, extra help, or other things to move forward. 

Within the document, there are topics for the team discussion. Each team member types in a different color, and often we are able to resolve questions or collect ideas in advance of the actual meeting. If we are able to resolve things outside of the meeting, the team can move forward in their work.

As an organization, we very rarely email other team members. All projects are in shared documents and can link out to other files if needed. No one needs to comb through an email thread or hunt for an email. 

I check all of the agendas a few times a week and add anything I can answer at the time. By keeping all our ideas and communication in one place, we make better and quicker decisions. 

Today’s Meetings

Listen in as I take you along on my meetings with Vanessa, Shona, Stephanie, Pat, Monique, and Erin. 

I used to fit my meetings into my calendar, but now I have dedicated a full day to the meeting necessary to keep the company running smoothly. I schedule every meeting to start at the top of the hour, and if we finish early, I fill in the time by making progress on other tasks. 

When my meetings are done for the day, I use any time left to complete administrative work, review meeting agendas to find my actionable items to add to my Friday Workbox®, and deep-diving into some projects.

What can you do to make your team days more productive?

In this podcast series, I will be diving into organizing the business of work. I will be taking you along with me for a workweek that I recorded in November 2021.

At Organize 365®, we divide our work into four categories. As a shortcut, we use the Friday Workbox® colors to categorize the different kinds of work. These colors are pink, purple, blue, and green. 

Creating a shared vocabulary and defining different kinds of work gets all of our team on the same page. Together, we move faster in the same direction and have fewer episodes of miscommunication. 

Today is Monday, and Mondays are pink days in my work.

Pink work is about ideas and possibilities—new projects, new ideas, new partners, possible process improvements, and other future ideas that might become a reality. 

Because I am the CEO and visionary of Organize 365®, I give myself two full workdays each week to focus on my pink work. I take time to think, to dream, to process, and to move forward about what might be in our future. I spend a lot of time and research exploring possibilities, and sometimes I put the ideas on hold, and sometimes I decide that we are never going to do a particular project. 

In this podcast, I will take you along and talk to you at different times during my workday. 

Part of what I share is some different productivity habits I have slowly added in over the past 30 years that help me to be more effective and get so much done.